"E-Elena! E-Elena, I- I'm so sorry, I- I didn't-! I didn't mean to-!"
... oh-
Oh.
Uh.
Cherri here. I'm going to cut straight to the chase, Mr. California. Soleil and I awkwardly walked for, like, one minute, and then we started hearing screaming just like- down this one hallway.
Everyone's in their classrooms or at lunch, nobody around, no cameras- very, very lucky, y'know, for like... a random murder to happen, and uhm...
... yeah, okay, how do I put this?
The scream came from Elena, her sheep lungs screaming and echoing loudly in graphic fashion, and uhm... huh. The entire front of Elena's upper body is currently sizzling, burning, and disintegrating as we speak. Clothes are fine, nothing bad happening to the clothes- but Elena's arms, chest, stomach, and face are not spared from it.
"H-Holy... E-Elena! Elena, sp-speak to me! I-It's- it's going to be okay!" Soleil exclaims loudly, a strong panic in her voice. Horrified beyond belief as she aimlessly struggles to figure out what to do, what exactly someone could do in response to- well, seeing a classmate actively dying in front of her.
Elena's not going to die anytime soon, though, not while I have anything to say about it.
And I do. "... tch- Soleil, get her shoulders, I got her ankles," I order Soleil, having a plan to get her to safety.
Soleil looks to me for a brief moment in disbelief and confusion, an uncharacteristic panic on her face as some... cautious tears trail from her eyes. "W-What?! W-Why are-"
"Trust me. We're getting her to the bathroom, now!" I immediately tell her, running quickly to hold Elena by the shoulders. Taking a deep, deep breath and concentrating all I can in my hands, doing what I can in this moment.
See, we need to get Elena the HELL out of this hallway before people start showing up. Elena's screams were LOUD, like- really loud, "scream and call for help from the teachers" loud. I even hear some classes starting to be quiet, with some creaky doors opening out. Time was short, and we needed to go quickly.
Soleil, fortunately, goes along with me, hastily moving to grab Elena's ankles. With two people holding her like this, it makes it so- so much easier to carry a girl places, and thus- we were off. Quickly moving, trying to find the nearest bathroom and junk.
The reason why "bathroom" is just because bathrooms have a noticeable lack of teachers. No one questions a screaming girl in a bathroom. Obviously, if someone sees someone else hurt, best place is the nurse's office or to call 911 or whatever, but like... this is strictly a Kusuri related thing, something that a nurse probably wouldn't be able to fix, something that would just get worse after what happened with Makeup Weasel, and something that I'm the most suited to handle with enough time.
Now, we enter the bathroom - actually, it's a restroom, but I already said bathroom and I'm not going back and correcting my thoughts right now - and we put Elena down. It's a little gross, sure. All restrooms are. But beggars cannot be choosers, and Elena's definitely no chooser right now.
With that, I let out a sigh and press my hands against Elena's sheep face. Palms against the parts that were really close to Gumi, aiming to heal her face and possibly anything else that got damaged. "Tch..."
And since I'm actually... trying to heal, since I'm focusing really- REALLY hard on healing, Elena's whole face heals up. Regenerates completely, freshened and fixed back to how it was before. In fact, I actually think she looks a lot cleaner now. Kusuri healing magic at work, folks!
After the face is fixed, I look up and see that Soleil looks visibly, visibly confused at this, watching me just hold my hands against a girl's face. For a bit, she looks tense, but... looks- like she's smiling a bit more after pulling my hands away.
Cat's out of the bag, and in the bag of the literal Siamese cat now. I literally am showing Soleil and Elena, in the privacy of a restroom, that I can heal people with my hands and junk. She just has a knowing look on her face, seeing me perform this miracle, seeing that I can heal people.
"Ah- I guess that explains the first day..." Soleil quietly mumbles, her eyes narrowed. "When Brittany ended up having her hand burned..."
"Right..." I noise lightly, sighing. "... are you going to tell anyone?"
"Oh, no, not at all... not my secret to tell, darling..." Soleil answers, getting up for a moment to get a paper towel.
"Good. Good," I say, quietly focusing on Elena's chest to heal her heart and lungs. After this, her stomach is next, and then her arms, and she's good. "... ugh...."
The sound of running water echoes out. "... ugh? Is something wrong?"
"... healing makes me really hungry... takes a lot out of me to, y'know..." I answer honestly. Healing is a very, very hungry process, since- like, my blood gets all exhausted, burning through energy and stuff. So I need to eat more food to get it all back to normal, to replenish and get the circulation up and junk.
"Ah... does it... does it work the same way for you?"
Huh? Work the same way for-? "I guess it does, since-"
"Y-Yeah... uhm... y-yes..."
... oh. I, uh- I completely forgot... a-and forgot to tell you, Mr. California, Gumi is in the restroom with us. Standing at the restroom door, following us- backpacks in her hand and just keeping watch for anyone getting close. Soleil... Soleil asked Gumi if that's how her blood works too.
"I... I see. A fun duality, I suppose, but... I suppose now isn't the time for that," Soleil mumbles, just... sighing. Crouching down next to Elena, resting the wet paper towel on her cheek to cool her off.
And having her free paw just resting on her own cheek, where I slapped.
Egh...
I... I guess I'm still not over the fact I slapped Soleil across the face...
T-The whole thing about her confronting me about Gumi in the hallway, it... it's running fresh in my head. This whole "focus my efforts to save Elena's life" thing isn't really... making it any easier. But the important thing right now is to endure it, to heal and fix Elena up, and then eventually get back to everything else today.
And I'm not going through this alone. That's why I'm bringing you with me, Mr. California. You get to listen to each and every moment from this point on. You being here makes it so much easier to face Soleil and... and... and Gumi... so-
"I, uhm... I- I'm s-so sorry, I re-really didn't mean to..."
Ah... Gumi immediately started to apologize just now, a strong panic in her voice. Taking- credit for this, specifically saying sorry to Soleil and Elena in particular. I just- gather enough energy and focus to try and comfort Gumi by say-
"Tsk tsk tsk..." Soleil then- interrupts me, as she lets out a few 'tsks' at Gumi, shaking her head with narrowed eyes. "You have nothing to say sorry for, mon amie... it's... we're... we're just glad that she's okay, Gumi."
"... yeah... it's- this really isn't your fault," I tell Gumi... Soleil beating me to the punch in telling her that. Saying it first and being the first to be concerned about Gumi in this restroom.
"B-But- i-if I didn't- if I didn't s-start crying again, then E-Elena wouldn't have... s-she w-wouldn't have- I- uhm-"
"Look- Gumi, it's not your fault, it's-" I begin to speak, wanting to reassure her...
... but... suddenly, I just... started feeling myself just- hesitating a bit. My hands feeling a little bit weaker, just hesitating to say what I was about to. As if I just- I just couldn't say it.
And waiting for me to speak, uhm... I notice that Gumi also... goes quiet. Tongue tied as well. It's clear as day that both of us were just in an uneasy silence...
I... I think we're just tongue tied. The stress of the Elena situation has Gumi all shook, and my confrontation with Soleil has me struggling.
... eventually, Soleil is the one to break the silence, just clearing her throat to get our attentions. "So... Gumi, may we... talk about what happened between you and Elena?"
Gumi looks at us with slight unease, her eyes all narrowed with a scared and anxious frown. "I... I, uhm-"
I speak up, to... encourage Gumi to answer. "It's okay, Gumi... I'm healing Elena, and she's going to get out of this perfectly fine. Soleil and I just want to know what happened."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Although, it... it looks pretty obvious what happened to me. Just Gumi's magic at play. Magic that Soleil's now aware of, so- no harm in reciting it to Soleil.
... I then watch to see Gumi take a deep, deep breath as she takes an uncomfortable look on her face, and then... she explains.
"Okay... okay. S-So w... we were waiting for you, Soleil, a-after you left... a-and Elena asked me to text her brother, and then- a-and, uhm, I started to p-panic again after getting the phone out, and Elena hugged me while I was c-crying and she, she got hurt badly after, and I realized way too late and it's my fault and-"
Alright... now, Gumi's spiraling.
Starting to trail off into a long series of words broken up by run-on 'ands', panicking with a heavy, fast breath. Hyperventilating, as it's called. She started speaking a lot faster out of stress, rambling for quite a while until she devolves into impossible-to-understand babbling.
In the middle of it, Soleil looks at me. Looking as if she wanted to interrupt Gumi and calm her down, but- she was also observing what I was doing. How I was handling it. I just briefly glance over to Soleil to see this, then just... look back at Gumi, doing nothing about Gumi going "adbbudhdubdsddponsbsidpsssmspfhefmnhsffhfs" (or something similar to this) for an entire thirty seconds.
See, whenever something like this happens... as long as Gumi isn't in contact with anyone, it's fine to let her panic go unchecked. To let her emotions run rampant. It gets her emotions out, lets her... kind of tire her own panic out the more she goes. Gumi, essentially, knows that we're listening and that we want to listen to what she says and all. Every word she speaks, every thought she expresses- even every incoherent noise she babbles out.
...
Gumi stops, eventually, just going quiet. Having gotten her point across, honestly.
I then... subtly encourage and welcome Soleil to speak again. "So... Gumi," I say, then look to Soleil in silence.
Soleil takes the hint to continue, nodding lightly to me before: "Right... so, Gumi. Can you- tell your sister about, well... why you're upset?"
Immediately getting into it, hm? Oh, boy.
Well, Soleil's made it plenty clear that Gumi's upset about me not coming back to French class... I guess this is just a way to make sure I hear it from Gumi, while we have the time to talk and stuff...
... it doesn't feel the best to go through this, but- I guess we have to, now, after everything. So I look back to Gumi, just calmly watching as she- fidgets a bit, holding something to her chest. Something rectangular, black and...
...
Oh.
Gumi has my phone out.
She has my phone.
Putting two and two together, she... oh.
"... w-well- uhm..." Gumi then mumbles, before she... shows me my own phone, and the text message on it. Answering Soleil's question by showing both of us the texts.
"[give gumi's phone back. or i will nightmare you.]"
Going all out, huh...? Interesting.
... though that's certainly less eloquent than what I told you I said. Huh.
"... huh?"
Soleil squints her eyes, reading the message. Looking- confused while reading it? I just watch as Soleil takes a while to read- to reread the message even, all to understand what Gumi is showing her.
"Give Gumi's phone back, or... 'I will nightmare you'? What exactly does this... oh. Oh- Gumi, sweetie, your- your phone was taken...?"
Gumi nods slowly. "Y... Yeah..."
And so the truth comes out, as two and two are put together in Soleil's head. At least, I think so, as Soleil slowly looks to me with an uneasy gaze. "... Cherri, darling-"
"Right, right..." I sigh, continuing to heal Elena's injuries and stuff as they have me all red handed. "... you got me. I knew since last night that Gumi's phone was missing."
"Y... You didn't t-tell me?" Gumi asks, frowning at me in disappointment.
"You didn't tell me," I respond back...
"..."
"Ah, ça alors..." Soleil suddenly says out of nowhere, holding a paw to her forehead. "... this uncomfortable silence is absolutely maddening... and I'm starting to see why."
Judging from that whole response, uh... Soleil never knew in the slightest. Knew so much less than I thought she did. "So... Gumi never told you two about it either...?"
Soleil slowly shakes her head, side to side. "No... I never knew. As for Elena, I'm not certain, but-"
"I- I didn't, either..." Elena weakly mumbles out. The whole time, she's been staring up at me, having been quiet and speechless this whole time. Mostly healed up by now, with only the arms to take care of now...
"Right... right," I respond with a... sigh. A part of me's really upset about this, now that... Gumi's actually telling us now of all times. "... Gumi-"
"I- I'm sorry, i-it- I didn't-" Gumi starts to whimper and whine, shaking in place. "I- I didn't tell you guys and it- it caused all of this to happen and- and-"
"Gumi, sweetie... I'm- I'm not as concerned about that right now..." Soleil tells Gumi, a gentle and tender tone to her voice.
"Y... wh... what?" Gumi noises.
"It's already- happened, and we know about it now," Soleil calmly tells her. "I'm not upset, okay? We can figure out what to do later, a-and you can tell us about it all you want now."
"..." Gumi... faintly smiles at this, cheering up a little. As if a weight has been lifted off of her chest, as she holds her hands behind her back and just- smiles happily.
And... it's... it's nice to see her smile. I- I found myself smiling a little because of it, how- how nice it is to see Gumi all cheered up about this in particular...
"Besides... we have another pressing issue to talk about first."
Some sort of- caring one as she reassures Gumi, before- she shakes her head and looks back at me. Looking at me as I'm the pressing issue.
Which... sure.
I'll bite the bullet. No harm in answering honestly. So, I look at her, meeting her gaze as calmly as possible, and respond. "... just... ask it."
"... alright. So, when you left Gumi by herself after the principal called you..." Soleil asks, referring to that part of my plan. "You... were looking to find Gumi's phone?"
I nod. "Yeah... at first, I... I didn't go to French because I was looking for our classmate from Math," I tell Soleil, referring to Lizard Nerd. "The one that's been with Gumi the day the phone got taken. Wanted to speak with him before I run into you all..."
"And you... distanced yourself from Gumi, too, because you... wanted to find the phone without Gumi knowing?" Soleil asks, pretty much word-for-word reciting what my plan was. "Because she- didn't tell you about her missing phone?"
"That's... that's right..." I answer, hesitating a little.
"That... huh..." Soleil pauses for a moment to look right at me. "So when you went to lunch... also a part of this? That's why you were sitting at that table?"
"Yeah," I answer next. "I found someone possibly close to who did it, and sat with them in hopes of... finding the person who took it."
"Hm... that's... I don't have any words for that," Soleil tells me. "Your plan is- it's probably one of the most-"
Amazing? Genius? Well thought-out? One of those things to describe my plan? Go on, Soleil, go on!
"U-Uhm- if- if I can, uh, jump in, I..." Elena then speaks up again, interrupting me and Soleil with her faint sheep voice, having a tense look on her face. "... I want to... ask..."
"Yes, yes, of course, Elle..." Soleil answers. "Ask away."
"O... Okay..." Elena takes a deep breath before asking: "... so... w-what exactly d-did you get out of s-sitting randomly everywhere and just annoying t-the other classmates? I-If you just wanted to find Gumi's phone, then... w... why did you go through the extensive efforts to- y'know...?"
...
I hold up a finger, making that gesture to hold on a second...
... and let out a sigh.
"I... I can't say."
Elena noticeably frowns even worse. "W... Why can't you...?"
"I- I just- I can't..." The question's too- it's- it's something I can't just... say to these two, without feeling awful. It should just be knowledge I keep to myself, a- a sort of wretched thought, my- my vengeful quest and junk... all that nerd stuff the cool people on TV do.
And yet... I'm being forced to.
"Cherri... it's a safe place," Soleil repeats. "And we're not letting you out until you tell us everything."
Elena then sits up and looks at me, folding her hands on her lap and just staring at me. Joining in on Soleil's little backup.
... all three of them just looking at me, literally- literally cornering me in the restroom.
...
So I just...
I explain, then. Full honesty. Telling them what I told you, Mr. California.
"I... I don't like high school," I begin to speak, an uneasy look on my face. "It's a place that hurts me and hurts Gumi. A place where we're bullied by some random girl and her friends, made fun of by the whole school after, and... and people get to take Gumi's phone, and get away with it. I- I don't like that."
And blah blah blah, I just started with that, and continued on with the rest.
I'll spare you the trouble of having to hear my motivations all over again, Mr. California... I- I repeated my whole bit that I thought last night. The things about how I tried my best to be popular and liked by people and... now, since they think so badly of me, I now have a new motivation to... get everyone to hate me, to be tough, to be notorious and... uhm... to... to...
...
It... uhm...
It's all out in the open, now, and... uhm... uh... my... my plan doesn't sound so good now that I'm telling them about it. The more I speak about it, the more it sounds even worse now. I- I was right, it felt so much better to keep it in, to keep it between me and... and you, Mr. California. This feels awful.
I... I think what motivated me to do all of this was just... to do it all for Gumi. I felt an urge to do everything in my power to make sure Gumi's life is better, that Gumi gets to live the proper high school life, that Gumi gets her phone back and stuff.
I repeated it over and over in my head, that I was doing all of this for Gumi, and... yeah. I wanted people to not care about me, and for me to not care about them, but it's easier said than done. I'm just- now staring at Soleil and Elena and their shocked faces, their unsettled ones, looking at me as if I just said the most awful crap.
Soleil... had her eyes wide open, staring at me with- her cat ears just... drooping. Gazing at me all uneasily, with- angry eyebrows, as if... I... I don't know... she was really upset about it. "..."
Elena, meanwhile, just- looked conflicted. Her gaze noticeably worried, sad for me rather than upset. I still don't... know enough about her, about her thoughts, to make any guesses, but like... I did save her life, so... maybe... uhm... "..."
I... I have to remember, EFD Season. EFD Season... they're just- animal creatures trying to pretend to be people. It doesn't matter what they think of me, it- it really doesn't...
... b... but... I think the worst reaction of them all is Gumi.
Gumi, my human sister, the one person in my life that didn't die, the one person I would do anything for... she... she has her mouth covered, listening to all of this with complete and utter shock. Unable to- even say a single thing, looking down at the ground and hiding her face.
I... I didn't even realize until now how bad it all sounded until now... saying that I hated everyone, that they were just wild animals that wanted to tear me and Gumi apart. It actually sounds full blown psychotic now that I put it to actual speaking words. I was thinking it didn't matter if people knew I was like this, that I'd be tough enough to... get through it.
But if I'm upset by these three just... judging me, then... I... I don't know, it...
... well... Elena's all healed, and I get up, ready to just leave the restroom. No more reason to hang around, my job's all done, and... and...
...
Gumi's in my way...
As I'm leaving, Gumi just stands in front of the door, staring at my feet, preventing me from leaving, and I just... I just stand in front of her, staring at her for a long while. Standing right in front of each other, and yet- separated, still so far apart.
I just... tell her, tell her to her face, a bye for now. "I'll see you afterschool. Bye, Gumi.."
"... Cherri..."
"Excuse me," I then say, a hand on her shoulder, moving her out of the way, and leaving the restroom.
...
I leave the restroom.
I leave the-
Okay, I'm not leaving the restroom...
I- I tried to, but, uhm... Gumi's in my way.
Instead of pushing her aside, I...
She...
She pulled me into a hug. Arms wrapped around me, our backpacks on the restroom floor, locking me in place and preventing me from leaving.
"Don't... don't leave..."