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.....
....Fukurou couldn't help but look up from her desk, turning to look over the room of the house. She even stood up from her chair while looking around, as though trying to find something in the room.
These actions, of course, were noticed by the other numa. "What's up?" Uie asked, though they didn't even look up or pause their work.
Fukurou continued to look around the area in a mildly confused manner. "...Uie-sama, is Marikin-san here...?"
"Eh? No, he's not." Uie continued drawing strokes across the paper of their sketchbook, though their hold on their pen seemed to loosen momentarily. "Why...?"
"I don't know, it feels like... I feel like I can sense his magic from somewhere...?" Fukurou sat back down, but still continued looking over the room instead of turning back to the book on her desk. "...maybe I'm just imagining things..." she sighed.
"....Hehh..." Uie suddenly put their pen down, leaning back in their chair and crossing their arms as they looked at Fukurou. "...You're a pretty big fan of 'Mr. Hero', aren't you~? Even yearning for him in his absence~☆"
"Don't tease me, you."
Time passed, and Fukurou had learned to ignore the feeling. Likely just some sort of magic residue somewhere that refused to fade, she reasoned with herself.
Alone in the house, book on her desk, Fukurou once again had to tell herself to ignore the weird feeling. The weird.... The odd feeling that she was detecting some form of Marikin's magic somewhere in the house. It just... didn't make any sense, it's not like she could find anything responsible for this weird phenomenon...
Well. It's easier to ignore it than to think about it at this point....
Silence as she continued to read through the book she had borrowed from the library. She's borrowed this one a few times before - It's one of the books on magic that was recommended by the magic academy she had studied at, back in the day. She wondered how everyone else from her old class was doing... Not that she was ever particularly close with any of them, but one can't help but reminisce sometimes...
...
.....A sudden bright flash from the ceiling of the room, and then a sustained glow of magic energy.
Obviously startled, Fukurou whipped around from her table, head looking up. The ceiling, that-- That's where the dang residue was, no one ever looks up--
...No, not-- Not "residue", that's...
The magic rune on the ceiling erupted in orange and then cyan energy, vibrations reverberating through the room as it began executing the spell. A blinding flash, and then there it was : The figure of a numa suspended in mid-air, where there previously was nothing.
His body was covered in gashes, injuries and blood.
The magic rune on the ceiling fizzled out, having finished its programmed action, and Marikin's damaged body haphazardly crashed down onto the floor. If he wasn't unconscious before, he was most certainly unconscious now.
....
"...M-- Ma-- Marikin-san!??" Fukurou yelled upon snapping out of her shock, rushing to the injured numa's side. "H-- Hey...!! Marikin-san...!?"
"...condition stablised...." Fukurou sighed in relief, the pink glow in the room dissipating as she finally allowed her healing magic to stop for now. She sat back down on the chair she had placed in front of her bed, trying to ease the tension from her own body.
Marikin now lay on the bed covered in bandages, asleep, wounds underneath the dressings stitched up with magic threads - condition stabilised, road to recovery established.
....
[....I have so many questions,] Fukurou thought to herself, hands reaching up to rub at her own face exhaustedly.
...She let one hand fall, looking over Marikin's bandaged body again. [...still unconscious, though, so i can't ask anything right now...]
.....
[...seriously, i have so many questions...!!!] she yelled internally, clutching at her own scalp in frustration.
[A teleportation-point magic rune on our ceiling!? When?? Why!? And how did Marikin-san even end up like this...!? How did he get this injured-- What the hell was he doing...!?]
......
...Fukurou grumbled, slouching in her chair and practically sliding down it. [...not like i can get any answers right now....]
....
[I'm pissed off because i'm confused!!!]
......
....?
...
[[WAKE UP]]
He jolted awake violently with a gasp, fists gripping at the ground beneath him, he-- The-- He had to--
...not-- not ground. Cloth. Fabric.... Bedsheet...?
Ceiling, walls... Room. He's in a room, he's... on a bed. He's... safe. It's safe here.
Marikin's heavy, sharp inhales began to ease, slowly slowing down to a steadier pace. He winced, only now becoming aware of the pain that resulted from his tensed arms gripping the surface beneath him so tightly. The pain, this pain.... It did still hurt, but it was dulled to some extent, certainly not as sharp as it could have been, or probably should have been... Some form of painkillers, perhaps...?
Marikin sighed quietly as he tried to relax back into the bed, but couldn't help looking over his own bandaged body to try and assess his current state. Obviously he had been healed and treated...
.....
...he should... move.
He eventually managed to sit up, glancing around the room he was currently in. He held his head in his hand as he exhaled slowly, methodically... It's safe here, he knows it is, he's just... a bit disoriented and out of sorts right now...
....
...he should move.
He grimaced a bit as he stood up, his legs obviously not liking having to support his weight again. Don't be such a damn baby, Marikin. It's fine. He's fine.
He heard the soft thrum of a kettle boiling water as he opened the door into the room outside. The desk had clearly had its books cleared away to the side, making space for the two cups and a teapot that now sat in the middle of the table surface. The teapot's lid was at its side, spoon poking out of the teapot's opening, before a tea bag joined it, dropped in by a numa quietly humming to herself.
...Fukurou turned around.
"....What the hell do you think you're doing, walking around in your current state!?" Fukurou yelled at him in a rage.
"Eh--!?"
"Go back!!" Fukurou hurried to usher him back into the room he was in. "Sit down on the bed, damn it!!"
"Alright, alright...!!"
...They sat there in the room, drinking the tea Fukurou had brewed, a bit of idle casual chatter between the two of them. Marikin heaved a sigh of relief, obviously appreciating the warmth of the tea, appearing more relaxed with every passing second.
She was just glad he looked better.
"...Now then..." Fukurou began as she placed her teacup down on the bedside table next to her chair. She looked up, gaze stiffening as she looked at the numa sitting on the bed. "...Please talk."
"Eh...?"
....
...Marikin just continued staring at her in a quizzical manner, tilting his head to one side. "....about... what...?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'ABOUT WHAT'!?" Fukurou's chair clattered to the floor upon her standing up so fast. "I have so many goddamn questions, so just answer them right now...!! Hurry up and tell me your answers!!"
"Wh-- How the hell am I supposed to answer your questions if I don't know what those questions are!??"
"It should be obvious what my questions are right now!! You should know what someone would ask in this kind of situation!! So just answer those questions before I set something on fire!!!"
.....
...Marikin's tone of voice abruptly became flat and calm. "Can we just communicate like normal people...?"
"...yeah you're right i'm sorry"
"me too"
"....When... did you place that magic rune marking this house's ceiling as a teleport destination?" Fukurou asked.
"When...?" Marikin thought over it for a while.
....
"...I don't remember," he replied blankly.
"I'm going to atomize you...!!" Fukurou shrieked, pinching and stretching Marikin's face as though it were taffy.
"Ow ow hey--!! Will you quit it!??" Marikin yelled, doing the same to Fukurou's face in retaliation.
"we need to stop fighting" marikin exhaled afterwards, "i'm in so much pain"
"i'm sorryyy" fukurou cried, redoing some of her healing magic spells on marikin.
They drank some more tea to calm down.
Fukurou sighed, putting her cup down again."....i guess the more important question is... why did you set that magic rune here..?"
"Eh, uh, well...." Marikin scratched the back of his head. "...i mean, it was more of, like... an emergency sorta thing...?"
"An emergency teleport point...? So the rune was pre-charged, then...?"
"Yeah, I had it registered to myself, and charged it with enough magic to perform the teleport itself. So in case of an emergency, I'd just have to send out a little activation signal for it to detect, and it would begin the warp without me having to use any more energy."
"Okay, but that still doesn't answer... why you set it here." Fukurou sat up straighter in her seat, evidently still a little puzzled. "Why... Why here? You could have set it inside the infirmary room at the Headquarters building here in Souhonzan."
"Uh, I-- I did consider that, but..." Marikin rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze. "...i mean, it's not like people are always in that room, y'know? There's not much reason to be in there other than if there's already a patient inside. Even if I got warped into that room, if there was no one there and I became unconscious, I'd just end up bleeding out on the floor anyway."
Marikin stared at a wall as an excuse to avoid eye contact. "....on the other hand, you're usually just hanging around in your home if you're not at the book store or library, and you're... good with all that healing stuff. If not you, then Uie - Uie tends to stay at home for long stretches of time, and they do have proficiency in making healing items. The chances of... one of you being here was... more reliable.
....i'd also.... trust you guys more with healing me than some.... random guy at HQ."
"...aw, marikin-san..." A soft smile formed on Fukurou's face, fond of her friend's trust in them. Her smile faltered after, though, as she pondered over the other things. "....hm... then, the next question is...
What happened to you? How did you get so injured in the first place...?"
....
...Marikin was visibly hesitant to answer. "....that, i, uh.... i mean, that... um..."
....
[...marikin-san is always like this...] Fukurou thought to herself, staring at the back of Marikin's head that continued to face away from her. [...he doesn't like to talk about these kinds of things.
things like... what happened to him.]
"....."
...Fukurou huffed out an exhale of air. "...you ended up in some sort of bad fight, didn't you?"
"....."
"Powerful enemy entities? Multiple dragons, maybe...? Or was it a group of bad people...?"
"......"
"...I could spend all day guessing, but I don't think that's going to get us anywhere, Marikin-san..."
"...."
......
...Fukurou sighed. "...but, you defeated them, right?"
Marikin looked up almost immediately. "Y-- Yeah, I-- Yes, but they.... I just... took some bad hits near the end of the whole... thing." His gaze was tired, fatigued. "...i'm sure you saw... how bad that stuff was."
"Yeah... N-- None of the stitches reopened just now, right...??"
"Not that I know of..."
...Fukurou continued to stare at him when he didn't follow up that statement with anything else. "....you're really just... not going to talk about it, huh...? About what actually happened...?"
Marikin averted his gaze again, only glancing back at her momentarily. "...it-- it's fine, it's just... nothing to worry about anymore. I'm fine now." He coughed, staring down at the surface of the mattress he sat on. "...well, thanks to your help, anyway. th-- thanks for healing me."
"Of course..."
.....Fukurou continued to ponder over the things Marikin had said, seemingly internally analysing his words in quiet thinking.
"....."
.....
"...Uh, in any case." Marikin scratched the back of his neck in an awkward manner. "This-- This is your bed, right? I feel like I should move off from this..."
"I-- I really wouldn't risk that right now..." Fukurou cautioned. "You're not in any state to be moving around at all, at least not until you've healed up a bit more... For now, you can just... stay here and use my bed."
"You sure? Where're you gonna sleep, then...?"
"Well, there's a spare futon I can pull out, so I can use that!" Fukurou said cheerfully.
"Hang on, if there's a spare futon, I should be the one using that," Marikin reasoned.
"No, you need to sleep in a proper bed! Imagine how difficult it would be to get in and out of a futon on the floor with your current injuries...!"
"It's fine, this-- It's your house and your bed, I shouldn't be--"
"I'm telling you that it's fine, just use the bed--"
"I'm telling you that I can and should just use that futon--"
"Just sleep in the bed, damn it!!"
"Hand over the goddamn futon!!!"
Their continued arguing was only interrupted by the sound of a stitch snapping, and then a fountain of blood spraying out from one of Marikin's arm wounds beneath the bandages - caused by Marikin tensing his arms far too much - causing both of them to scream incoherently.
After redoing the healing spells and magic-stitching the wound closed again, Fukurou bandaged it up once more - New bandages, since the previous ones that were on his arm were now soaked in blood...
And then Fukurou just.... sat there, still holding Marikin's arm, still looking over the treated wound in quiet concern.
"......"
"....fukurou?"
Fukurou faintly stiffened as she was brought out of her thoughts, looking up afterwards. "Y-- Yes?"
"You alright...?"
"....y-- yeah, i mean, yeah, i..."
...Fukurou just stared down at Marikin's bandaged arm again. "...i'm just, um...
....worried."
.....
...Marikin brought his hand over to one of Fukurou's hands holding his arm, covering it with his palm. "...listen, it-- it's fine now, so i'm... fine now," he spoke, quietly. "...i'm... sorry for making you worry."
....
...the pink glow of healing magic returned to Marikin's arm as Fukurou tried to resume--
"H-- Hey, you've done enough..." Marikin grabbed her hand and tugged it away from the wound beneath the bandages, coaxing her into halting her magic expenditure. "You're gonna exhaust yourself too much if you keep... doing that." He gave her hand a light squeeze. "You've done enough for me already. Thank you."
"....."
Fukurou just stared up at him, silent, concern and sorrow still evident in her facial expression, even as she tried to subdue it.
"...Hey, listen.... Uh, there was some... movie theater that opened at Gapanese City recently?" Marikin decided to mention. "We could... go and watch something there at some point, if you want. I'll pay, you can get any snacks you want too. Would that... make it up to you, for all of this? Is that... Would you like that?" he asked softly, placidly.
".....i... i would like that." Fukurou's face eased into a smile. "...i'd like that a lot."
Gentle gazing exchanged between them as they instinctively leaned towards each other, resting their foreheads together. Their hands remained as they were, a state of tranquil calm washing over them.
.....
"Did you just ask her out on a movie date?" Uie suddenly spoke up, having appeared at the door of the room at some point in time without either of them noticing. "That's bold, Marikin~"
Fukurou's surprised screaming could have been filed in a noise complaint by neighbours.