Riley held the Stainless Pendant between her fingers, twirling it around until she saw the inscription that was written on the backside of it. The words which were in a cursive and loose, foreign inscription were immediately translated to something that she could recognize, it said, "let all who is ill find reprieve". A civilization for the sick, Riley thought as she played with the pendant.

"You almost died and now you've become religious" the doctor joked. When Riley looked at him, a screen appeared next to where he stood. The screen gave her details of the Doctor's name and age and where he was born. It also warned her that he is not to be called a doctor or even a nurse, as in this world those are names that are in line with nobility.

They were called healers instead. Which was also distinguished title in its own rights. 

"Where are my friends"? Riley asked the healer. The man gave her a questioned look. 

"I mean the people that were with me when you found me".

"Oh" replied the healer, "they're in the other room receiving treatment. One of them is receiving treatment in their home". Riley was going to ask him why they were separated but a notice had already appeared in the edge of her vision telling her that she was separated from the rest of the group because of the growth in her cells.

It didn't take Riley too long to realize that it meant that she had been segregated from the rest of the group.

The Healer led her to the room where her friends were rested. The room was open and less crowded, although coughing still rang across the space, there was more color and more life.

Her friends were awake, they seemed to have found themselves as they were crowded together in a conspiratorial circle at the edge of the room and talked with each other in a kind of familiarity that brought a puzzled look to the healers face.

When Riley was brought to them she almost couldn't recognize them if not for the Axis system pinging them as her allies. A blue point hovered on top of their heads so she knew that they were her folks.

One of them, Kayode but in this world he went by Listik sprung up in an abrupt manner and the attention of the rest of the group followed to where he was looking at. 

"Riley is that you" he called out but immediately censored himself when he noticed strange stares coming his way from the patients on his side of the ward. 

The gang had been talking among themselves ever since they woke up in this world and got the same text from the Axis system. Their reaction went from disbelief to avoidance to acknowledging the sheer reality that they were in some kind of Isekai deployment program and this meant that the first mode of operation was keeping their identity on the lowkey, especially since the bodies they seemed to have been inhabiting were completely estranged from one another. 

Thus Kayode in this world could not act like he was familiar with Riley and instead covertly brought up a conversation with her to lead her into the group by saying, "ah you must be the Zelion they told us about. Another survivor of the great battle. We were just talking amongst ourselves about you. Its good to see that you are in good spirits".

Riley got the hint and responded, "Ah...erm...same I guess. I too was interested in the unlikely survivors of the great raid. It is great to meet you all. Why what unlikely odds that we survived such an ordeal. Here, Here".

"You're doing too much" the person who seemed to have been Shen poked.

"Well, you folks have become something of a celebrated figure. No one knows yet that you're the survivors but when they do, they'll start coming for some blessings". said the Healer as he made his way out of the ward, "I would envy you lot but really that would be a lie. So in pity I would leave you all alone to become acquainted".

When the Healer had left the ward along with the team of assistants that trailed behind him, Riley let out a breath of relief. When her eyes drifted downwards, because she was at least two feet taller than all of them, she noticed that of her friend group, two of them were missing.

Consulting the Axis system she figured out that it was Dana and Hayazaki that was missing. She bent down to their level and asked Kayode were they were. 

"Were were you", Kayode responds, "and why is your skin red and why are you so freaking tall". His eyes kept darting across Riley's frame like she was a circus freak that walked into a crowded room. 

"I could ask you all the same thing. You all look so ashen and frail. But unlike you guys I actually know why". Riley responded. 

"Oh we know. Or at least I know. I kept telling these guys to look at their Axis terminals but they wont listen". Shen said. 

"Wait you call it Axis terminal" Riley quipped, "that's insane. That's what I call it too".

"Alright you guys stop flirting. The Axis terminal is what the system in our head told us to call it", said Suryat as he rolled his eyes , "the problem is the system wants us to defeat something called the Underkwin which is some kind of ghost"...

"A collection of spectrals" Shen corrected.

"...Right" said Suryat, "A collection of spectrals. But one problem, where the hell is Dana and Hayazaki. This place seems mad dangerous, they shouldn't be on their own". 

"The Healer told me that Dana's parents, or rather, the parents of the body that Dana inhabits picked her up" said Riley. "Apparently they're Nurses, which in this world is some kind of nobility. They're treating her in their home so she will be okay. Hayazaki though, he make me worry". 

"We gotta ask around" Kayode said. "We need to leave this hospital and find him and then we can have a proper meeting on what we can do here". 

On that they all agreed.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The first thing Hayazaki noticed about his surroundings was the smell of industrial alcohol and something rotten. Everything else was dark. It was dark because there was something covering his head. Although his vision swirled in a nauseating pattern that made it hard for him to properly discern where he was, he knew that his hands were tied and his feet were bound. 

The Axis message had popped up earlier in the corner of his vision so he was keenly aware that he was in another world. He was initially excited that he had been Isekaid into a strange a fantastical place, but the first thing he remembered in this world was being hustled from the hospital by a pair of thugs into a steel frame van. 

And now he was in a strange room with distant voices echoing in the far reaches.

A grating sound coming from his west pulled his attention. 

"Look here, Look here" the voice said. It was a shrill and sharp voice. A danger danced on its edge. It was the kind of voice that commanded respect but one that did not earn it. It was the kind of voice that came from weak people who liked to walk over others. 

The owner of the voice pulled the sack off of Hayazaki's face in a swift fashion, causing the thick fiber of the brown cloth to scratch against his skin. 

Hayazaki's eyes opened to see who it was that had brought him here. It was a man, no taller than he was, a couple inches and five foot, he wore a suit that was made not of thick cotton or polyester that was typically made for suits but rather something loose that was more fit to the softness of a nurse's scrub. 

His face was marked with purple splotches and scars, a particular scar stretched past on one end of his lip engraving on his face a permanent smirk.

"Look here, what the cat dragged in from the dead. A survivor of the great raid, Filis the fucking ratcatcher". he said in his voice. 

"I don't suppose we've met before" said Hayazaki, anxiously. 

"Oh we have" said the man. "You and I go way back. Ever since you crawled in here with you dead nan and begged me for money". The man grabbed Hayazaki from the shirt, "and how do you repay me? You steal from me and use my money to buy weapons for a raid. A raid that you barely survived. The gods spared you from death and yet they gave you to me on a silver platter"

"You know I was gonna dig your corpse, burn it to a crisp and smoke yer ash, but whoo, this is much better. You alive and I get to have my time". 

Hayazaki shook. Whoever owned this body must have pissed off some mean people. And now one of them had laid hands on him.