Chapter 11

A storm of debris kicked up from the impact, and it spread across the arena. When it settled, Ares was safe. She had landed outside the boulders path. The other girl was not as lucky. She was hardly able to contain screams of pain. Her right leg was caught.

 

Lisanna whimpered slightly as she tried to push the boulder off. Her body was covered in dirt, and her face was cracking from the mix of tears and dust. Ares came beside the girl. Steadying her katana, Ares covered it with flames and sent a powerful strike. The air itself split along with the large rock. The rock opened to reveal Lisanna’s leg. She had been fortune to have her leg land in a crevice. That saved it from being completely crushed.

 

Ares got under one of Lisanna’s arms, and helped her to stand. The phoenix helped her hop walk off the hillside and back to the crowd. She passed all the bewildered spectators. The commotion woke Hiro. When he saw the situation, he quickly went to help the girls.

 

Both Samakina and Kamishi were satisfied with the result, and turned their attention back to the fights.

 

The long walk to the medical ward was awkward. Aside from occasional grunts of pain from Lisanna, it was passed in silence. Their battles had already consumed most of the day, and the sun was retreating. When they reached the medical ward, Ares left the injured girl in Hiro’s hands. Lisanna looked back to say something to her, however, the flame princess brushed her off.

 

“I don’t like to owe people debts. Get better so I can kill you some other time bitc-“ She stopped herself. “Lisanna.” And then she left without another word.

 

Several hours later, Lisanna found herself in a plain white hospital room with a cast on her leg, and wrapping on a few minor scrapes and cuts. A man stood before her in his long white coat as he quickly wrote something on his clipboard.

 

The doctor adjusted his glasses before continuing his talk. “You have multiple fractures, but you should be okay again in a couple of months.”

 

“A couple months?! How am I supposed to train?!”

 

The doctor kept calm. “Ma’am, you are not supposed to train in your position. You need to heal. The fact that, given the circumstances, you get to keep your leg is a miracle. You should be thankful. Now do yourself a favor, and get plenty of rest. Also, if you increase your calcium intak-“

 

Shouts for help drew the doctor’s attention to the hallway. The room was flooded with hospital noise when he opened the door.

 

A nurse was frantically shouting. “We need a doctor for surgery right now!”

 

The doctor stepped out quickly. Hiro, who had been sitting in silence, went out with him.

 

Nurses were rapidly wheeling a boy on a stretcher towards the E.R. He had blood seeping out of his chest. A huge hole replaced where his sternum should have been. The color was gone from his face. He looked dead.

 

The doctor hurried over to the frantic group and went with them. “I will ready for surgery immediately, get my assistant and tell him to prepare for multiple transfusions! If we don’t get him stabilized, he won’t last much longer!”

 

Then the doors to the E.R. closed, and Hiro was left with a sick feeling in his stomach. The injury, and how it was inflicted, plagued his mind. The fights had been over for some time now, so it was not the result of a sparring match. Someone tried to kill him… He returned to the room.

 

Lisanna was anxiously waiting for him. She was sitting at the edge of her bed as if leaning would somehow grant her more knowledge of outside events. “What happened?! What’s going on out there?!”

 

Hiro held himself gently. “I’m not sure, they just brought in a guy with a hole in his chest.”

 

She nearly fell off the bed. “A hole in his chest!?!”

 

“I don’t know more than that. Just let the doctors deal with it.” Lisanna went to protest. Hiro’s tone made it clear he did not want to talk about it. “Look, there is nothing we can do about it right now, so just try and get some rest. Recovering should be your number one priority.”

 

“But-“

 

“How’s your leg doing now?”

 

She felt at her cast. “It’s not too bad. The chafing bothers me more than the pain.”

 

“Well, I guess that is a good thing. It’s not everyday someone has a boulder fall on their leg, and the worst they get out of it is a few fractures.”

 

“I got lucky. It’s like the doctor said; a miracle.”

 

“What even happened?”

 

Lisanna described the fight, how she had almost won, and Ares with her reckless last attack. “And then the boulder fell, and I kind of just acted on instinct… So here I am.”

 

Hiro suppressed his concern and smiled. “You really are incredible. You keep showing the real strength inside you. Your determination and heart; that’s what makes you strong.”

 

Her voice got lower, and her face showed slight embarrassment. “Even if you say that…”

 

Hiro placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled bigger. “You are strong. Did you see that doctor’s face when your first response was about wanting to train? It’s not everyday you see a fire like that.”

 

Her checks flushed a little more. “I just don’t want to fall behind you!”

 

Hiro sighed and shook his head. “Fall behind me? I think you have it wrong. With the way your fight sounded, I wouldn’t want to ever fight you. Two more months of training while your out wouldn’t change that.”

 

“Hey! I don’t plan on being out of it for two whole months. I’ll be out of here in two weeks!”

 

Hiro deadpanned. “That’s not how this works… you need to heal.”

 

She poked his chest with her finger. “That’s how your body worked after that incident with Kazuto. In fact, you always heal fast!”

 

“Well I can’t explain that, but your case is different!”

 

“And just how is it different?”

 

He dodged the question. “Meh…I need to go do something. I’ll see you tomorrow then!” He did a two-finger salute and then made for the door.

 

“W-wait!”

 

With the sound of the door being shut, Lisanna was left alone. “…Idiot.”

 

The last light of the day began to fade as Hiro made his way home after some training. He looked at some minor wounds on his body that had been opened just hours before. Why do I heal so fast?

 

That next morning Hiro returned to the medical ward. The doctor from the previous day was standing outside the main entrance. His face was sickly white, and his eyes revealed his sleep-deprived state. Shaky hands loosely held onto his coffee.

 

“Doctor?”

 

His voice sounded distant. “Their dead, all of them, I couldn’t do anything.”

 

“Doctor, who’s dead? What do you mean?!”

 

“Last night, three more bodies were discovered. They were far worse than the first. They were nothing but piles of gore. All I could do was identify them based on their medical records. Hikari. Jon. Kirai. All of them were freshman.” His shaking grew worse. “The boy you saw yesterday was a senior rollback. His name was Akada. He passed this morning.” He paused for a while and drank a sip of his coffee. “With Akada gone, the school has no leads to finding the murderer. The only witness is a freshman girl who happened to stumble by Akada’s encounter. All she saw was an indistinguishable figure dart off.” The school probably would not approve of the doctor sharing this information, but it was as if he needed to tell someone just to live. His words were filled with emotion, and they rolled off his tongue. “But even with the attacker being unable to finish Akada, I couldn’t save him! And as if that wasn’t enough! Those other three were killed too. They couldn’t protect themselves against whatever monster came after them. They didn’t even have powers to fight back with! I didn’t even get a chance to save them! What good am I if I cant even save one life?!?” The doctor didn’t even notice the hot coffee running down his hand and coat from the crushed cup in his grip.

 

“Wait! D-did you say they didn’t have powers?”

 

“That’s right! Not one of them had awakened! That b*****d took out some of our most defenseless students!”

 

Hiro stumbled towards Lisanna’s room in a daze, his mind wrapped in ideas and theories surrounding the incident with the seniors’ field training, and now this new development. There is too much happening too quickly... What the hell is going on?  When he opened the door, his mind was temporarily alleviated.

 

Before him was a girl stuffing her face with a smorgasbord of food. She had a plate full of okra, collards, soybeans, and salmon before her. A plethora of Spinach salad in a huge bowl sat beside the bed.

 

While continuing to eat her meal, she mumbled to the newcomer. “Herro Hiro! Howph ar-gh you this morn-phing?”

 

Hiro was dumbfounded. “What… are you… doing?”

 

She swallowed what was in her mouth. “I told you, I’m getting better in two weeks! These foods are all high in calcium, so they will make me heal faster!”

 

“I can understand them helping, but I don’t think they can cut a month and a half off your recovery time.”

 

“Shows what you know! Look I can already put weight on my leg!” She made to get off the bed and prove her point.

 

Hiro rushed over and blocked her. “That’s alright! No need to push it. Even if it doesn’t hurt, I don’t think the doctor would want you testing it like that.” He noticed some food on her face, and wiped it off.

 

Realizing the way she had just been eating, she blushed lightly. “T-thank you…”

 

Hiro stayed quiet for a moment, and then changed the subject. “Say Lisanna, have you heard anything about what happened yesterday yet?”

 

“Nothing more than what you told me.”

 

“His name was Akada. A rollback.”

 

She knew from the way he spoke, but asked anyway. “Was?”

 

“I ran into the doctor on the way in. He told me Akada died this morning… But that’s not all. Three others were brought in after him last night. They were pronounced dead on arrival. Not that it takes a doctor to determine that when they were, in the doctor’s words,  ‘Nothing but piles of gore’. Just like those ten seniors from the field training.”

 

“But what about Akada, wasn’t he-“

 

“His attack was interrupted by a student, and the suspect fled. I’d assume he would have been the same as the others if not for that. The only witness had no way of identifying the attacker at all. With Akada gone now, the school has nothing to go on.”

 

Lisanna asked herself more than to anyone else. “Who? Why?”

 

“I don’t have any idea who, and while it may not be the exact why, there is certainly a reason behind it. Every person targeted so far has not had a power. Not those ten seniors from the field training, not Akada, and not the other three last night.”

 

Lisanna’s voice was quiet. “I don’t understand.”

 

Something pricked at the back of Hiro’s mind. “Actually… I take back what I said at first. It’s someone in this school right now.” Lisanna’s form drew rigid. “Or at least someone with extensive knowledge of the school and its students.” Hiro took a seat beside the bed and rested his head on folded hands. “Somehow they knew each and every unawakened student. Furthermore, they had to have been around the seniors during their field training, and now they have to be around the school. These killings only just started, so I lean towards thinking that either a senior just went mad…” Hiro stopped and his features grew dark.

 

“Or?”

 

He went off on a tangent. “Hey Lisanna, don’t you think it’s odd how only certain children were forced into these schools? I mean, why not all of them?”

 

This made Lisanna scowl for some reason. “Tsh! “

 

Hiro made note of her response for later and continued. “Around eighty percent of the students awaken in our school. Yet it’s estimated that less than ten percent of our nation has dormant powers. Of those, only half awaken under normal circumstances. It’s as if someone knew who had dormant powers to begin with. Then they put them into these battle schools to further increase the odds of awakening. I think it stands to reason that if such a person exists that could know that, then would it not be possible that they not only know who has dormant powers, but who has active powers as well? Could they know the difference between the two?”

 

Lisanna’s face was puzzled. “But who could know that?”

 

“If there is someone who could know so much about the students here… Only one person comes to mind, and he isn’t a senior. Someone who might just have been around at the time the seniors were attacked. Someone who arrived conveniently after them.

 

“But there hasn’t been any new-“

 

“Someone who has taken particular interest in battle schools ever since he came to power.”

 

Her face got white. “K-Kamishi?!”

 

“Kamishi.”

 

“But what reason could he possibly have?“

 

“I have no idea. It’s just a theory; so don’t read too much into it. For now, I just have no one else to suspect. There are far too many missing pieces of information.” If it’s just a theory, then why can I accept it so easily?

 

She grabbed his hands in her own. “Hiro… if it is him… I don’t know your relation to that man, but since we don’t have powers… are we in danger?”

 

He could not look her in the eyes. “I-I don’t know.”

Author's Note

Please unleash your positive or negative criticisms on my story!