Chapter 50: Spill the tea
Well she didn't take well the fact that she couldn't strangle Pandora because he as no neck…nor any lungs for what it matters.
The moment I responded to that, she screamed at me to get out, which I did.
Well she still promised me that she would come, so now I only need to convince Clair…wait, why limit myself to only the person in my dorm? I should invite all of my friends!
I immediately thought of Iono who would surely appreciate having fun, she could maybe even record herself having fun if she finds it even more fun!
No, I need to convince Clair first, she was my friend before her…and she also looks more distant recently, and even more unhappy than she usually was.
So I'm sure that she would like nothing more than to do something fun!
I left Cynthia's room just to see that both Mina and Allister were still in the same spot looking at me with worry. But for Mina, it changed to one of surprise.
"Did…did you manage to convince her to come? How? She was completely covered in a dark blue when she closed her door." Mina looked toward the door to see if she could see any shift in her colour, but I closed the door before she could get any good look. Even if I doubted she would have been able to get any in the first place.
"Why would that mean anything? I'm completely covered in white no, yet I still feel happy right now! Which means that she probably she felt like looking blue when you looked at her." I said with assurances.
But it seems my argument didn't convince her, as she rolled her head before looking at me with a tired eye. "That's not how it works."
Allister timidly raised his hand. "Well…not to say that Luciel is right…but he does have a point…it's not because someone is feeling a strong emotion recently that it can't change as easily."
Mina raised one of her brows before shaking her shoulder. "Well that makes sense, you're smarter than you look little ghost boy." She posed her hand on his head before petting him without a care in the world.
Allister looked up in embarrassment and even pushed some cute noise at this treatment, but he didn't stop her.
Satisfied with his cute submission, Mina looked back at me. "So, if Cynthia is coming, then I guess she should maybe watch something more serious, I doubt that this show is up to her taste."
"Oh…but I…I wanted to watch the rest…" Allister lowered his head in disappointment.
Mina simply petted him even harder. "Don't worry, we will watch the rest later. Just that I think it will be rare for Cynthia to join us, so I want her to see that it's worth her time doing nothing productive." Mina said a very bad lesson with a serene smile, but we still dug in nonetheless.
"But it won't only be Cynthia who is coming, I plan to call everyone of my friends."
Mina stopped her petting to look at me with surprise, but she simply nodded. "Well that's fine, it just means we should watch a movie instead, I wonder how many there are."
"A movie? Is there a reason why we can't watch a series anymore?"
"Well, yes, with only five people, assuming Clair accepted to join, it would still be possible to arrive at a consensus on what series to watch in a short time. With more than five forget it, it will take a long time even deciding what movie it would be, so after all the time we took to decide which one to watch, we would only have the time to watch one movie."
Allister and I looked at Mina in admiration for her profound wisdom, but as any wise person would, she didn't even notice the gleam in Allister's eye and simply started to look at the catalogue of movies we could watch.
Of course, I still had no idea what a movie or even a series one, but all I knew was that it was something that Mina considered a fun activity, so I trusted her.
Even Allister was completely captivated by the catalogue that he stopped looking at me. This allowed me to leave for Clair's room without interruption.
This one was also locked, and from my observation, Cynthia didn't take well that we destroyed her bathroom door, but made no comment about her main door, so I can only deduce that breaking the door isn't pleasant.
Sorry for doubting you Pandora.
"Kyu." Pandora stood proudly on my shoulder when he heard my compliments. I knew that presently, very few things could make him lower than his current ego.
But despite his state of overconfidence, he still placed a dark tendril under the door the unlock it.
This time, it was rather easy to find her…even if I was under the impression that she would rather that I didn't see her in her current state.
In the middle of her stair, Clair stood completely immobile as she looked at me as if I had just shut down the sun in front of her.
In her hand was a plain, blank cup that was filled with some brown liquid with some leaves in it.
All of this was rather normal, but what Clair probably didn't want me to see was her current outfit.
She was in what I remember as an onesie…they sell some in the clothes shop, and each of them depicted some cute pokemon and one really ugly one.
Strangely, it was the ugly one that had more articles, surely because they probably expected it to be bought in mass to make some fire during winter. That's the only reasonable explanation.
Anyways, what Clair was currently wearing was a horsea onesie, which combined rather well with her blue hair. But it was still rather comical as the onesie opened at the nose of the pokemon, which didn't allow anyone to take her seriously.
But all that mattered was that she looked extremely comfortable in it; she even allowed herself to let her hair down and even took down most of her accessories.
"Hello, Clair, want to watch a movie with us?" I waved at Clair, which finally made her come back to her senses. She was barely able to keep her calm as she dropped her cup in the air and covered herself with her esper power to change her current outfit to her usual suit.
But it wasn't only her outfit which changed, but her entire demeanour, as she grew serious and straightened her back."I know why you are here, Archon! But you shall know that I will not fall that easily…"
crash
The cup that she released in the air finally came crashing down on the floor, and it continued to spray on her leg. The area that was touched immediately turned red, which only showed how hot the liquid was.
"Aaah!" Clair could only scream in pain as she wasn't able to exert any amount of force on her leg anymore and lost her balance, bringing her to fall off the stairs.
The moment she fell, some of the remaining glass lodged itself inside the rest of her leg, which only made it more painful as she instinctively brought her arm up to her head to protect herself from the impact of the fall.
That was barely enough to protect her from the first step, as the second one followed and caused even more injury to her body.
Of course the noise did attract the attention of Mina and Allister who started to look in my direction.
But I only kept my gaze on Clair who was currently gasping for air, before holding her leg with gritted teeth. Her eyes wavered in pain even as she kept them closed.
But for a short moment, she opened them just to look at me from below, as she pushed a last grunt of pain before releasing her leg to try to look at me defiantly.
"Go…go do what you have to do. But you shall know that I am but an insignificant part of my lord's life, so my death shall have no effect on any of his plans! Even in death, I shall be happy knowing that his might will live on!"
I leaned my head toward my shoulder toward the weird way she described that I could invite her again to watch a movie. "Are you sure…you seem pretty hurt…wouldn't you want me to take away your pain first?"
Strangely, Clair flinched at my question, as even the pain she was suffering right now could compare to the dread she felt toward me right now.
"Wait…no please…don't kill me…I still need to…" Clair's eyes were shaking as she tried to ramp away from me. "No…no, I don't need to be scared of death, as I will still remain in the legacy of the dragon! My death shall only add to it might…" She said to herself with determination, but her shaken voice betrayed her own belief in the matter.
"Mmmh…well you didn't say no." I murmured to myself as I raised my arm to touch her leg. Her whole body trembled as she felt my touch, as she watched me in fright. But right before she could beg for mercy, I retracted my hand.
Clair's expression grew strange before she noticed she couldn't feel any of the pain in her leg. Yet instead of calming down, she looked even more panicked as she watched her leg as if she was expecting for it to be gone.
But of course it wasn't, I simply took away her pain, and if I had taken away her leg it would only have caused an even worse one.
Especially that I was already stumbling as I tried to take a step back away from her, as I was getting aware of the pain she had previously felt. Now, I had the sensation that the entirety of the side of my right leg was burned, while I still received the sensation of a small object penetrating my skin.
That was just the worst, as I still felt the rest of my body to be in a weakened state, as if it was bruised all over.
But that was what I expected from the way she fell, the one I didn't expect was for the discomfort I felt all around my leg, shoulder, chest and behind. The rest wasn't better either, as I felt extremely sore from how tight my skin felt to me right now.
This was in no way the worst sensation that taking her pain brought me, but it was the one that annoyed me the most.
Still, it was my decision, so I assumed the pain it brought me…which wasn't something I couldn't digest, so in a few instant, I was able to remain straight again. It wasn't that difficult, as all I needed to carry was the pain, not the injury itself.
"Say, can't you just recover like Lance did with his dragonite?" My question only invited her confusion, but she still tried to respond despite not being sure what was happening, especially why I took away her pain.
"No…my esper ability isn't nearly as strong as his, the best I can do is to go back to what I was wearing in the near past…the maximum being 24h, and just that is hard to do for me. And recovering back to a previous state of my body is just not possible, only alance can…wait, is that why you're keeping me alive? Because you wanted to gather information from me? Well I would rather die than be remembered as a traitor…but please…start with torture…you can keep delaying my death for later."
I shook my head at her comment. "No, I want to invite you to a movie…also, then could you just revert back to your onidi from earlier, I'm sure it would feel more comfortable around my waist."
Clair only sombered in despair at my request. "Please…if you're going to kill me…at least allow me to die in dignity." She let her head fall down on the floor as if resigned to her fate.
But it was at this moment that Mina entered the doorway to see what was going on. "Luciel, did something ha…oh by the tapu, what happened?!"
She exclaimed as she immediately kneeled to look down on Clair, but she stopped for a moment before looking at me in dread. "Were…were you the one who did this…"
The relief in Mina's eye when I shook my head was palpable, as she resumed her inspection. "Gosh… that's a huge burn…but at least the glass shards weren't put too deep…alright, we need to put some mild temperature water on her leg to stop it from getting worse. And I do have a cream that should help her not have too big a scar later on."
"A scar!" Clair screamed with even more fear than before at the mention of a simple scar on her body. "Nononono, I can't have a scar! If I have one, I will be considered as an abomination!"
Mina's eye twitched, but she still stood up to go to the bathroom to take out a wet towel. "Well, I'm sorry to tell you that…abomination, but it appears you dropped some hot water on yourself, and whether you want it or not, that will leave a deep scar on your leg."
"Nooo!"
Mina ignored her scream and applied the towel around her burn, which caused her to do a stifled scream from the new pain that appeared, but I immediately took it away.
Noticing that the commission was still not finished, Allister perked his head toward us to see what was happening. "What…what…is happe…AAAAH! BLOOD!" Allister jumped back in fright at the sight of Clair, even if I felt he was exaggerating a little too much in his reaction. Clair was indeed bleeding, but it was only from a very small wound created by the glass, nothing worth panicking over.
It was her burn that seemed the more severe…oh, that got me thinking…Joy did say that if I received any injury, I could just call her to deal with Clair's injury.
Seeing that Mina's care wasn't enough to prevent her other injury, I decided to go with my idea as I looked at my meltan that formed itself in a way that he could properly hear me. "Could you call…euh…Kanjo Joy?"
The pokemon looked a little stumped by the request, but it slowly got out of it to transform its body into a screen that showcased in big red letters the following sentence: Calling Emergency!
The screen was barely present for a second before it changed to one of Nurse Joy sitting on a desk with a serious expression. "Hello, what is the nature of your emergency?"
I was about to salute her back, until I stopped when I realized something. "Wait you're not Joy? Who are you?"
My question completely broke her serious attitude as she blinked rapidly, which only proved more that she wasn't Joy, as she would have recognized me by then.
"My apologies…but what made you think that? I can confirm that I am indeed Nurse Joy." She responded with a wry smile.
"No, Nurse Joy has pinker hair than yours, and her eyes are slightly bigger than yours, too. I think she's also taller than you, and has softer skin."
The fake joy clapped her hands together with an expression of understanding. "Oh, I see, you're referring to big sister, Kanjo."
I nodded my head at her deductions, which made her continue her explanation.
"Kanjo Joy is the head doctor of the Zenith Academy, so she's not the one responsible for the desk job. This responsibility falls on me, the twelve sisters, Joie Joy."
"Ooooh, I understand." I understood, she didn't steal Joy's skin, she's simply a little semblance to Nurse Joy because they are siblings.
"Good, now, do you want me to redirect your call to her? She's quite busy, but I'm sure she would mind talking to a polite child like you."
"Well… It's not really that I want to talk to her…it just she's the only one I know that can heal other people…wait, there's also that blonde girl…is she one of your sisters too?"
She got confused once more as she probed me for more. "Wait, are you saying there's an actual emergency…were you the one hurt?"
I shook my head before pointing at Clair's hurt body, which drew a gasp from the little Joy. "She fell down from her stairs because she dropped a glass of hot water filled with plant on herself."
"That might cause a serious burn indeed! Good thing you called us, we will be able to deal with the situation in haste! Is there anything that we should know? Maybe some people who are traumatized by the sights? We can also deal with this."
I looked back just to confirm Allister's situation, but except for being a little paler than he always was, he was appearing to deal with the situation calmly.
But there was one thing that was worth notifying her about. "We're watching a movie tonight."
The receptionist Joy blinked her eye in confusion, before nodding her head seriously. "Very well, we will make sure that she will be in a position to watch the movie with no pain to worry about."
With that, she closed the call, probably to reach the other nurse to come here.
"Why…why are you doing this?" I heard a weak murmuring below me that I immediately associated with Clair. And I was right, as despite staying on the floor, she still met my blindfold with a weak gaze that seemed like it could waver at any time.
It was obviously because despite my taking away her pain, the memory was still present, and her body was also taking all of her energy to try to fix itself. I also suffered that phase at the start, but she should be fine soon.
"I called nurse Joy because I know she will be able to fix you, I might be able to make the pain go aways from you, but if the injury stay untreated, then it might cause infection, and there's a limit your body can take before it simply refuse to move no matter how much electrical signal you send into it," I answered her question, yet despite her weakness, she still arrogantly shook her head.
"Please don't force yourself too much." Mina tried to persuade her, but she failed as Clair forced her to arm to at least raise her first half.
"Of course I know what you did, I'm asking why!"
"…because…that will be bad if you don't get better?" I responded unsure of myself, as I wasn't sure what was hard to understand.
"And why do you care!? Shouldn't you wish for my death for betraying you?"
"…you betrayed me? What do you mean…Mina…do you know what she means?"
"Beat me, I have no idea what she could possibly mean." She said as she changed the towel's side.
I looked toward Allister, but he shook his head before I could even ask him the question.
Our confusion seemed to be contagious, as even Clair caught it. "What…what do you mean? Don't you remember how I stayed on my table instead of going for your rescue?"
"…no?" Even my other friend didn't remember what she was referring to.
With gritted teeth, Clair explained. "Well I did! When you were running away because you wanted to spare the other the amplitude of your power, I stayed here instead of joining you because I thought that running behind you would destroy all of my chances to be with Lance! So I chose his side instead of yours! That's what I did!"
"…but, that's not betrayal…is it?" I looked at Mina just to be sure, but she immediately shook her head. "Yeah, that's what I thought…so why did you believe so?"
"…what do you mean? Of course it is! I chose the other camps despite you treating me as a close person to you! You should feel offended! Furious! Vengeful!"
"…but I'm not feeling any of that."
"Yeah, I think you were worrying over nothing. Luciel is way too awkward to consider anything like that as betrayal." Mina added as she eyed the shard of glass.
"But…but…HE'S AN ARCHON! WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP FORGETTING ABOUT THAT! He is god! Anything that doesn't kneel beside him is asking to be stepped on!"
"…I think…that's only Lance who acts like that."
"And Luciel…a god? He can't even smile. What would he know about being a mythical figure?"
…what does she mean that I'm too awkward?
"And I also think god should be taller…at least taller than me." Allister added as I looked at him offended.
What do you mean I'm not tall enough? I know I'm not god, but it isn't because everyone else is taller than me.
It's because if there is a god, then he must hate me.
…asking if I even love myself is off the point.
Yet, these arguments were still enough to put her in a daze. "But…even then…why do you care about me? Whether you care about my betrayal or not does not change the fact that I did nothing that warrants your worry about me!"
"It's called empathy you selfish deemwit." Mina lightly hit Clair on the head with a deadpan expression.
Clair flinched back in annoyance at the pitch that caused more harm to her pride than her body. But she dared to do nothing in retaliation as long as I had my gaze upon her. "Then why did you even enter my chamber? If you truly only care about me because of empathy, then you had no reason to enter it in the first place, except of course if it was to eliminate…"
"Luciel just wanted…to invite you to watch a movie with us." Allister answered her before she could finish her sentence.
"Yes, because apparently listening to a movie is fun, and you didn't look like you had a lot of fun today."
"That…that was because…I thought that I angered you."
I leaned my head to the side when I heard that. "I have no idea on what situation I am even supposed to feel anger, and each time I try they only hit me even harder…so what did I even do that gives you this impression, and I will make sure to stop expressing it."
"You…you gave me burnt toast this morning."
My entire body froze as I processed her words. "Is…is that bad…I…I thought you would like it better this way…is…is serving burnt toast considered as a sign of anger? Does that mean Cynthia was angry toward me? But she said it was to show her friendship?! Is a friendship supposed to be built in anger? Did I do everything wrong?"
I started to panic as I realized that my kind act of making sure Clair's toast would be burned was actually evil and reprehensible and deserved all of my nails to be slowly removed as a punishment!
"Luciel…calm down." Mina's worried voice pulled me back to reason, which allowed me to see that Clair seemed even weaker than before, and Allister was hiding behind the door in fright.
Only Mina appeared fine, but more because she was probably too nonchalant to even give a reaction to whatever just happened.
Happy memory, think of happy memory…
I stopped moving to fully dive back into what I considered my happy memory, only three appeared back into my mind, but they were still enough to calm me down.
"… Is burning toast really considered an act of anger?" I asked calmly.
Mina relaxed her expression as she tended to Clair's wound again. "No, usually it is more considered as a mistake than anything else. Well of course because of how easy it is to fix that mistake, if you still end up offering that burned toast, then it can be seen as an attack. But usually, it wouldn't be interpreted as anger…except if the person already thought you were angry at them, which I suppose Clair was in this scenario…what did you even put on the toast actually? Cause in my opinion, offering a blank toast is a worse crime than offering a burnt toast with some butter in it…Well I say crime, but I don't think it should be illegal or…hrmm, sorry." Mina apologies for explaining too much again.
"Well…I did prepare her some berry jelly…but I wasn't sure which one was her favourite, because the one she ate on her first breakfast didn't seem to be to her liking. So I just added everything that was black cause of her family name being black roots…I didn't find any root sadly, but I'm sure I can find some one day."
"I…I thought it was poison…so I didn't eat any of it." Clair responded clearly surprised that I was such a good cook…yep, totally. See, she was even salivating from her brow at how much she regretted not eating it!
However, I addressed Mina once again just to make sure of something. "So a burned toast isn't considered as yummy? But I tasted one just to make sure and it was delicious! So are you sure it isn't your taste buds who are wrong?"
"Well…I suppose it's more than your taste buds are just better than any of ours cause you do control them perfectly…or maybe you're just extremely bad with them, cause no one else even remotely tolerates this taste."
"Oh…sorry Clair…I would keep them for myself next time."
"Wait what? No, don't apologize lord aaaaaaah!" Clair screamed in pain before she could finish her sentence. A quick look behind her made her realize the nature of her pain as Mina tried to remove one of her boots.
"Hmm, oh, sorry about that, but I think some hot water was able to enter your boot, so it would be better to remove it to reduce the number of injuries…but it's rather tight around your injury…how do you even remove them usually?"
Clair gritted her teeth as she looked back at me, as if in an attempt to forget the pain.
Of course I was already in the process of taking it upon myself, so she wouldn't have to do it for long.
"…I…I usually use my power to change clothes." She said with difficulty.
"Oh…then could you use them please?" Mina responded as she released her grip on the boot, which gave Clair the illusion that the pain was gone, except that I was the one who took it upon myself.
"That…I can't…I only have two other modes available, and one of them is wearing no clothes at all." She said with a blush.
Phiole, people are really worried about their nudity that much here don't they? I wonder why, it's not like they have to be ashamed of any horrible scare like mine, so why do they care?
"If…if you want…me and Luciel can leave…" Allister proposed with a blush.
"And let this harlot see me in the form that only one can see? Never!"
Mina's eyes grew cold as she wanted to hit Clair again, but she refrained herself as she at least could understand the reasoning this time.
"Well fine, you just have to use your other mode then, I doubt it can be anything more embarrassing than the other option…and even less than the current one."
Clair closed her eyes as she considered her option, but just a memory of the pain she had from even attempting to remove her booth was enough to convince her. "Ghh, fine…but none of you better tell about it to anyone else! Especially not Lance! Nor this harlot Cynthia!"
"Did someone call my name?" Cynthia suddenly appeared in the doorway wearing an elegant one-piece made out of dark turquoise with some cyan in the border.
Her expression grew serious as she saw the injury to Clair, but the expression of the Blackroot member only grew horrified as it was already too late to stop her transformation into her onesie.
Everyone where free to look at her shameful appearance…well, according to her. I personally found it more cute.
A silence grew as the change was finally complete, and Clair only hid in shame inside her costume. "Go on! Laugh as much as you want! I don't care."
"Oh my Arceus…That's amazing!" Cynthia exclaimed with stars filling her eyes.
"Wait…what!?"