A Peculiar Recovery

“The young lady’s name is Chloe, isn’t it?” Lucas inquired, his hands moving deftly to sterilize her wounds.

Chloe, however, remained stubbornly silent, her lips tightly sealed, her gaze fixed unblinkingly on the bandage-wrapped wounds—marks of her recent, reluctant transformation into a full-fledged magical girl.

Observing her silence, Tia stepped in to answer for her.

“Yes.”

Lucas gave a soft nod, then resumed his meticulous work with the cotton swab. Next, he produced a pair of tweezers, his focus absolute as he painstakingly extracted tiny fragments of stone from the delicate lacerations.

The air grew thick with the acrid, unpleasant scent of disinfectant. Having harbored a fear of injections since childhood, Chloe felt an immediate, profound wave of discomfort as the smell permeated her senses, further solidifying her deep-seated aversion to hospitals and similar establishments, even acknowledging their life-saving purpose.

Tia, accompanying them by the bedside, observed the girl’s complexion, which had only just regained a hint of its natural flush, abruptly blanching once more. She surmised the disinfectant was causing an irritating pain.

“Lucas, could you be a little gentler?”

“Oh, my dear, it’s hardly a matter of gentleness,” Lucas replied, a slight exasperation in his tone. “Wounds invariably sting when they come into contact with these medications; there’s simply no avoiding it. But it won’t linger for long, so don’t fret… There we are. Now, just get some proper rest, and try not to overexert yourself…”

Lucas paused for a moment, his gaze turning thoughtful as he fixed it upon Chloe’s wounds, which, now disinfected, presented a rather alarming sight.

“But what?”

“I’ve tended to hundreds, if not a thousand, magical girls in my time, and I’ve yet to encounter such remarkably sluggish recovery capabilities.”

Lucas’s gaze sharpened, riveting on one particularly vivid, blood-red wound. For a fleeting, almost imperceptible instant, he witnessed a golden streak of light welling forth from its depths, only to be instantly devoured by an insidious surge of black mist.

Tia blinked, a flicker of surprise in her eyes, yet to her, everything seemed perfectly normal.

“Is there anything particularly unusual about her?” Lucas pressed Tia, his eyes still narrowed.

Tia hesitated, her gaze darting evasively around the room. “Well… no, not really,” she finally offered, “though her physical constitution is rather frail.”

“Really?” Lucas’s eyes narrowed to slits, scrutinizing her with the intensity of an interrogator trying to extract a confession. He sought any trace of deceit within her deep purple gaze.

“Really.”

“How peculiar, then.”

The two exchanged pointed glances for a few tense seconds. Caught between them, Chloe felt an inexplicable tension permeate the air. Reflecting on their preceding conversation, she cast a speechless, exasperated look at Tia.

It was precisely that pointed stare that made Tia involuntarily swallow, her throat suddenly dry.

“Hm, alright then,” Lucas hummed, a knowing glint in his eyes. “It seems Chloe’s magical energy might be somewhat depleted.

A little replenishment of her magic should expedite her recovery… And remember this, concealing a patient’s true condition is never a good idea, dear~”

With his pronouncements made, Lucas turned to exit the infirmary.

“W-where are you going?” Tia asked, perplexed.

“I’m going to find someone to repair the door. Patients, after all, require their privacy, don’t they?

For now, just pull the door shut, at least partially.”

“Oh…”

Tia scratched her cheek in mild embarrassment, managing an awkward, sheepish laugh.

Chloe’s injuries, in truth, were nothing more than superficial scrapes. Her impulsive act of bursting through the door had indeed been rather impulsive.

But who could fault her, when she simply could not bear the mere possibility of losing her ‘sister’ once more?

And who could have ever imagined that a simple fountain pen would become Teacher Rona’s final memento?

Chloe’s fingers traced the pen’s cold, metallic body, its frigid touch chilling her to the bone, much like Rona’s corpse.

‘Oh, with such a brutal impact, surely there would have been blood and gore scattered everywhere. Teacher Rona must have been utterly obliterated, her organs and blood reduced to a grotesque mass of rotting flesh draped over the jagged rubble, subsequently obscured by thick dust and smoke, leaving it grimy and discolored, as if consumed by mold.

But it must have been warm then, how could it feel so cold now? Mmm~’

Chloe almost managed a laugh, but her lips merely twitched, a fleeting contortion, before settling back into their usual grim line.

‘To die in such a state, so ugly… there wouldn’t even be a body left to collect, would there? Who, indeed, told her to be so utterly unlucky?

Who, indeed, told her to cross paths with Chloe?’

Her grip on the fountain pen tightened, clenching tighter and tighter, until the gauze bandages began to seep with a fresh bloom of crimson once more, and only then, in a sharp surge of pain, did she finally loosen her hold.

‘What kind of magical girl am I anyway? I clearly can’t protect anyone at all.

My very genesis came at the exorbitant cost of another’s life, and then I directly caused the death of an innocent soul, and now I’ve been forced to bear witness to Rona’s horrific demise.

I am nothing short of a malevolent spirit, perpetually entangled in calamity. Yet why, oh why, has this wretched creature not simply perished?’

“You’re the one who should have died.”

The words escaped her lips, an involuntary utterance. Yet, at this juncture, Chloe found it exceedingly difficult to conjure any lingering emotions of fear or apprehension; she simply observed the other’s reaction with an unsettlingly cold, detached gaze.

Upon hearing such a stark declaration, Tia’s immediate reaction was not one of anger. Rather, she was filled with a strange sense of bewilderment, even a fleeting urge to laugh. Imperceptibly, her tolerance for Chloe’s outbursts had expanded considerably, much like an elder sister who would never truly take her younger sibling’s petulant words to heart.

“What would you do if I died?”

“If you die, I’ll kill myself.”

“Oh, what a truly beautiful ending,” Tia murmured, seemingly unconcerned as she bent her head to resume the task of slicing pineapple. The unassuming fruit knife in Tia’s hand transformed into a veritable killing implement, its silver gleam flashing with deadly efficiency. In mere moments, a perfectly peeled and diced pineapple graced the plate.

Chloe frowned. “You know I can’t eat that, right?”

“I know,” Tia replied, a subtle smirk playing on her lips as she popped a succulent piece of pineapple into her own mouth. “This is merely for me to replenish my own vital nutrients.”

Observing Tia savoring the pineapple with such apparent relish, Chloe found herself utterly perplexed, unable to fathom the true intent behind the young woman’s peculiar words and actions.

As only the final piece remained, Tia carefully placed it on the table, then pivoted and walked towards the window, drawing the infirmary curtains shut with a single, decisive tug.

Likely intended to provide patients with optimal rest, the infirmary’s curtains boasted an exceptionally potent blackout capability. The instant they were drawn, an oppressive darkness instantly enveloped everything, not a single sliver of light managing to penetrate. Only the iron door, which had not been fully latched, swayed slightly back and forth in the faint breeze, allowing a small, pathetic sliver of faint light to surreptitiously slip into the room, affording a minuscule degree of visibility.

“I’m not tired yet,” Chloe stated, her voice laced with profound bewilderment at this unexpected action.

“I know.”

“Then why…”

To her surprise, Chloe discovered that her eyesight in the encompassing darkness appeared significantly sharper than it had ever been, yet the unfolding scene before her was one she would have infinitely preferred not to witness.

A soft, insistent rustling of fabric against skin began beside the sickbed. Chloe’s faintly glowing eyes, shimmering faintly in the gloom, discerned Tia seated on the edge of the bed, slowly, deliberately divesting herself of her clothes.

“You beast! You know I’m injured right now, don’t you!”

“How can a younger sister speak such harsh words to her elder sister?” Tia chided gently. “I am merely doing this to ensure my sister’s swifter recovery,” she added, a hint of playfulness in her tone.

“You… Mmph!”

Chloe’s gaze sharpened, distinctly perceiving that familiar, all too familiar object reappearing against the oppressive dark backdrop. Yet this time, it had noticeably thinned, now merely the approximate girth of a fingernail—a detail that, surprisingly, offered a small measure of relief.

“No… Mmph! You two have nothing to do with each other!”

‘Oh, this is terrible! With such immense chaos having just erupted, surely some inadvertently injured students will come seeking the infirmary! If we’re discovered then…’

“Shh… don’t be scared… it’ll be over soon…”

This time, Tia’s actions were certainly not driven by any ulterior motive. Swiftly, her tentacle extended into the girl’s warm, yielding oral cavity, injecting a substance rich in vital energy.

“Don’t talk! You’ll choke.”

“Mmph… Gulp…”

As her stomach slowly filled, Chloe felt her body suddenly surge with energy, though at the same time, she began to feel rather sleepy.

For some reason, the taste this time was much sweeter.

‘Mmph!’

Night Moon jolted awake from a nightmare where she was killed by a monster, her eyes snapping open only to be met with utter darkness.

‘What’s going on… Where am I…’

‘She was… saved by Senior Tia at the very end, wasn’t she?’

‘Then she fainted.’

‘My head hurts so much! My whole body feels as if it’s been run over by a steamroller. That monster was definitely no ordinary creature!’

“Mmm-hmm~”

A strange moan suddenly echoed in her ears, the timbre sounding somewhat familiar?

“Don’t talk! You’ll choke.”

‘Isn’t that… Senior Tia’s voice!’

Then the identity of the other girl was not difficult to deduce.

Her sensitive nose caught the pervasive scent of disinfectant in the air, clearly indicating a hospital-like setting, yet there seemed to be some other smell too?

A cloyingly sweet aroma…

As her consciousness gradually sharpened, Night Moon’s equally keen ears picked up more detailed sounds from nearby.

Her pretty face instantly flushed crimson.