Chapter 一三: Start the Change

 

Neana may have been the nurse of a high school, but the interior of her office was much more reminiscent of those in primary schools.

The room was very long and wide, split into two main segments: the smaller section where patients were examined and treated and the larger one where four beds for the patients to rest on were laid out horizontally in pairs of two. The walls were the same shade of pink as the door of the nurse’s office, the floor – the same shade of purple as the metal letters on that door, while the ceiling was white.

Those pink walls served as the background for a symphony of different shades of blue, green, red, yellow and other colors represented by two mediums. One were tens of pictures that seemed like they were drawn by a child in kindergarten attached to the walls, the other – just as many adorable stuffed toys from the smallest to the largest size put in every conceivable place within the room.

The nurse’s white coat over a peach wool shirt and grape-colored pants matched the color tone and feel of the whole room perfectly, the only thing that stood out to a disturbing extent being her pale bony face and icy-blue eyes that appeared devoid of any emotion.

Still, Annabel had always liked coming here whenever she had had the chance and welcomed every opportunity to return. That was why the young medic was actually grateful to Yuki for getting so beat-up that her classmate’s deva was not sufficient to heal her.

After the two students came inside, Neana motioned Miss Iceflame to the couch next to the desk she sat behind and on the side of which Annabel leaned, that desk being covered with a wide variety of boxes and bottles of pills.

(Neana) ‘So, Yuki …’ – she clicked the ballpoint pen she held in her hand, getting ready to write on a form she was holding in the other – ‘… how do you feel?’

(Yuki) ‘Um, well … I feel fine, actually.’

(Neana) ‘Fine is the last thing you should be feeling with those wounds.’

(Annabel) ‘That’s exactly what I was thinking.’ – after looking at Sunbird’s deputy headmistress for a moment, she redirected her attention to the anomaly that was her newest classmate – ‘How did you get through that without collapsing, girl?’

Yuki was now shifting her eyes between the younger and older medic with a confused look on her face.

(Yuki) ‘I guess … I’m just good at taking a beating? Does that make sense?’

(Neana) ‘Moving on. How did you teleport with a static deva?’

(Yuki) ‘Does that have something to do with my examination?’

(Neana) ‘It’s for my personal reference, but it may also be related to your condition.’

(Yuki) ‘King told me something about using a static deva earlier, but I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now. Is it a problem that I teleported? I thought everyone can do that.’

Neana and Annabel glanced at the other, clearly thinking the same thing.

(Neana) ‘This one really doesn’t know a thing about devas, does she?’

(Annabel) ‘She’s suffering from amnesia and can’t remember her past or anything deva-related.’

A flicker of curiosity flashed across the nurse’s eyes when the junior healer said that. Which seemed strange to Annabel, because due to being the most knowledgeable person in all of Sunbird, Miss Ilre was never curious.

(Neana) ‘You may just be the most interesting patient to have walked through my door, Miss Iceflame.’ – her curiosity was replaced by a lack of emotion again – ‘Here’s an explanation as to why your teleportation was so baffling.

Devas are split in three big groups. There are the elemental ones, like the one you yourself have, then there are the transformational ones, like the one used by our headmaster. And since you’ve been to the canteen, I guess you’ve met our six-armed cook?’

(Yuki) ‘Yep. It’d be hard to miss him as he stands out with his behavior and his looks.’

While the white-haired beauty said that with a smile, the deputy headmistress’s face twitched a bit and she narrowed her eyes in response to her words.

(Neana) ‘Do you have a problem with people who stand out in appearance?’

Yuki had gone and entered dangerous waters without realizing it.

Although saying the cook stood out had nothing to do with what Neana looked like, Annabel knew her well enough to realize that could still strike a nerve. Which meant prompt action was necessary to save the ice maiden from her physician’s wrath.

Or so Miss Iceflame’s classmate had assumed until she pointed at her hair with an even more charming smile than before.

(Yuki) ‘Not at all! I love people like that, actually! After all, I count myself among that group with a hair color unlike that of anyone else I’ve seen!’

‘Nice save, Yuki!’ – Annabel thought with relief as her fellow medic’s face returned to its normal expressionless version.

(Neana) ‘Going back to our cook – he’s a representative of the third big group of deviants – those with somatic devas. As I said, these three groups are the main ones, but each of them is subdivided into smaller groups.

Elemental devas are active or static. Fire, air, lightning and such are examples of active elemental devas while earth, metal and ice devas like yours are examples of the static type.

Each of these groups has a set of three definitive traits, by which they differ from the other. Active devas are much better for offense, aren’t too useful for creating structures and can be used to teleport. Static devas are better suited for defense and creating structures, but can’t be used for teleportation. That’s the general rule.’

(Annabel) ‘So you shouldn’t have been able to use your ice to teleport.’

Yuki’s expression made it evident once again she had been through too much shock for one day. Seeing that made Annabel wonder if anyone had ever had a more mind-blowing first day at school. And more importantly, if anyone could survive such a day with their sanity intact. The only way the hot heads’ medic could think of to achieve that was to possess as great a mental stamina as the white-haired beauty’s physical one.

(Neana) ‘Alright, then. Enough with the questions. Time to treat you.’ – she got off her chair, going over to the couch her patient was lying on to take off Hikaru’s blazer Yuki was using to cover herself with, all the while looking at Annabel – ‘Are you going to stay while I treat her? You’ve given her first aid, so I don’t think you’ll be of any more use here.’

(Annabel) ‘I know. That’s not why I’m still here.’ – the healing beauty said that while taking the blazer from the nurse’s hands, her gaze being directed at the only bed of the four at the other end of the room that wasn’t  empty and the group of students from Ulura’s class gathered around it – ‘It’s just a precaution.’

Neana followed the junior medic’s gaze and noticed Ulura’s classmates were looking at her as well, which made her sigh.

(Neana) ‘I don’t tolerate that kind of stuff in here, Annabel. You know that. If you’re going to do something with those brats, take it outside.’

(Annabel) ‘The inner yard is ruined, so we can’t really take it outside anymore.’

(Neana) ‘I’d rather you destroy the yard even more than cause damage to the nurse’s office. People come here to have their wounds treated, not to suffer additional ones. You ought to appreciate that as a medic yourself.’

The members of Ulura’s class who had come to see their wounded classmate had anger written all over their faces as the opposing class’s chief medic took a few steps forward and clenched her fists that had started glowing.

(Annabel) ‘Don’t worry, I was kidding. I’ll deal with them somewhere else if they try something.’

Apart from healing, Annabel could also use a light deva and happened to be the strongest girl from her class up until Yuki’s arrival. Her enemies outnumbered her and she didn’t know what all their abilities were, but if they or Ulura tried to hurt her classmate in any way, the bastards were going to have one hell of a fight on their hands.

Miss Iceflame had made a miracle happen within a day from enrolling at Sunbird. She was something special. And something the school sorely needed. So there was no way in hell the healing beauty was going to just let Ulura’s thugs take such a treasure away.

(Neana) ‘Would you ease down, kid?’

(Annabel) ‘I will if they do.’

(Neana) ‘I restructured Ulura so she could fall asleep. Her classmates are like a diffused bomb without her – their presence is still unnerving, but they can’t cause any real damage. So you can relax.’

(Yuki) ‘Restructure? You don’t use a healing deva?’

The nurse turned back to the wounded amnesiac now, pointing at Annabel without displaying any emotion yet again.

(Neana) ‘Healing devas are for rookies like this one here.’ – she then placed her palm over the deep cut across the left side of her patient’s middle trapezius – ‘What I do takes a lot less time.’

(Annabel) ‘But it’s also more painful.’ – seeing the white-haired beauty had become worried after hearing that, her healing classmate tried to reassure her as quickly as possible – ‘It’s nothing compared to what Ulura did to you, Yuki, don’t worry. You’re just going to feel a little sting.’

(Neana) ‘I’ll make sure of that, Miss Iceflame. That way you’ll think twice before wrecking the yard again.’

(Yuki) ‘Technically, most of that was Ulu …’

Neana’s hand placed on the ice maiden’s body suddenly transformed into multiple small cubes that still looked like they were made of skin then. What happened next was those small cubes split up from each other and went inside Yuki’s wound, the area around the wound also splitting into a number of small cubes.

As the new student started screaming with a pain-ridden expression that made Annabel look away from her face and focus on the wound itself, the cubes started exchanging places in different formations again and again.

This lasted for about a minute before the left side of Miss Iceflame’s middle trapezius and Neana’s palm returned to normal. During that time, the amnesiac’s eyeballs had all but sprung from their sockets due to the surge of pain, but when the procedure ended, her eyes remained in that strained state.

Her classmate guessed the reason for that was being surprised, smiling as she was now looking at a face she had seen so many times. The same one someone had when they had been treated by Sunbird’s nurse for the first time.

(Neana) ‘You look like you want to say something, Yuki, but take a deep breath before you do. I just added quite a bit of stress to the one your body’s already gone through.’

Miss Ilre’s patient followed her advice, trying to look at the place where the deepest cut on her body had been. Not a mark was visible on the skin there now.

(Yuki) ‘H-how did that happen?’

(Neana) ‘It’s my ability. Restructuring of organic and inorganic matter.

Changing the structure of something includes not only replacing that structure with a different one, but also changing the structure to its original state or removing that shape as a whole.

The only problem is it takes a while to find the right sequence to fix the damaged area after coming in contact with it when I’m healing someone or repairing some kind of structure.’  

What Neana said at the end of the explanation of her abilities sparked an idea in the junior healer’s mind, who decided to share it without delay.

(Annabel) ‘That actually reminds me – why don’t you help us with fixing the damage done to the inner yard? We’ll finish up in no time with your deva.’

Annabel had a smirk on her face while saying that, countered by a stare of death from Miss Ilre as she looked at her, making the healing beauty freeze in fear. As the deputy headmistress’s target was temporarily paralyzed, it was easy to touch her. And that was all it took.

Restructuring waves were channeled through the younger medic’s body by the now furious older medic, her wrath making her face look as terrifying as it had ever been.

(Neana) ‘This is Sunbird, damn brat!! Everyone takes responsibility for their own actions around here!!!’

(Annabel) ‘Why aren’t Ulura and those other bastards taking responsibility for theirs, then?!’

Annabel wanted to ask more questions of the same type as she was quite outraged by the injustice of the high-school tyrant and her class being home-free after everything they had done to Sunbird. The pain from the restructuring waves took the breath along with the words out of her mouth before she could do that, however.

(Neana) ‘I’m sure Zoran explained to you why! If you start breaking the rules and looking for easy ways out of your punishment, you’ll be no better than the bullies you hate so much!!

Your class has a chance to make a real change happen and like it or not, this punishment is the first step toward that!’

(Yuki) ‘So … the headmaster’s not punishing us just to take it easy on the cleaning staff and to keep the Nightsongs at bay?’

Completely ignoring how Annabel was writhing in pain, Neana turned to Yuki again.

(Neana) ‘You still don’t understand how clever Zoran is, kid. He’s always planning a few things at the same time, trying to achieve the best outcome for every situation. And if he wasn’t as good at that as he is, he wouldn’t have lasted as this school’s headmaster for over ten years now.’

 (Yuki) ‘Could you continue that explanation after you’ve stopped restructuring Annabel? I’m sure she was just joking when she asked you about helping us with our punishment.’

Miss Ilre shrugged, patting the junior medic’s forehead without even looking at her, which led to all the restructuring cube-shaped particles being absorbed back in her body and Annabel returning to her normal appearance.

(Neana) ‘She’d better. We don’t tolerate slacking off around here. Especially when it concerns the students’ future, as it does in this case.’

(Yuki) ‘What does that mean exactly?’

As the school nurse gave a more detailed answer to Miss Iceflame’s question, she alternated between looking at her and her classmate she had bee restructuring until recently.

(Neana) ‘If Zoran were to punish Ulura’s class, they would probably take their punishment quietly, but would torment the students after that due to being angry for being punished in the first place. Something like that won’t be good for anyone.

Making you do that work instead, however, and you guys proving you can do it dutifully will show everyone that not only are you willing to stand up to those bullies, but you’re also a lot more responsible and concerned about the school’s well-being than they are. And maybe the students should rally behind you and stop doing whatever Ulura’s thugs want them to do.’

Annabel’s body and mind had finally calmed down enough after the short bit of torture to join the conversation, still rubbing her forehead while doing that, however.

(Annabel) ‘So the headmaster is trying to take the power Ulura and her class have without directly going against the Nightsongs who are protecting them?’

Neana now focused solely on the healer who had been enraged until recently.

(Neana) ‘If you understand that, swallow your pride and do whatever Zoran’s asked you to do along with the others. And do it well. That way we can make sure Ulura’s class won’t be a problem for anyone anymore.’