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Toge’s eyes opened slowly, wincing from the light that shone through his curtains. In his exhaustion from last night’s mission, he had forgotten to close them. The mission hadn’t been hard, just very lengthy. By the time he had gotten back, it was already 11 PM, and he was so tired that he had flopped onto his bed and was out like a light.
Wait. What’s the time?
Throwing the blankets off of his body, Toge jumped up to look at the clock at his bedside.
8:15 AM
His phone was still on Do Not Disturb from yesterday’s mission, which was why his alarm hadn’t gone off. He had to get ready in ten minutes, which was three times less than usual. Toge would have to skip breakfast.
Throwing on his uniform and his neck warmer, he sped out to the sparring oval where Maki, Panda, and Yuuta were already waiting for him.
“‘Bout damn time! We’ve been here for ages!” Maki says when she sees him walking towards them.
“Konbu,” he replies with a wave.
“Calm down, Maki, it’s literally only been like five minutes,” Panda says.
“That’s five minutes I could’ve spent sparring!” she shoots back.
A few minutes later, Yuuta and Maki are sparring, attacking each other with surprising speed. The sound of wooden swords hitting each other fills the air, one after another. Toge sits with Panda by the sidelines, watching the two of them fight. Man, I’m hungry. I should’ve grabbed a granola bar or something before I ran over, Toge thinks. His arms and legs are sore from yesterday’s mission, and he feels kinda…off. He can’t quite place the feeling, though.
“Hey, Toge, wanna spar real quick?” Maki calls across the field as Yuuta steps aside for a water break. Toge nods in response, standing up and walking over. He feels dizzy for a moment, but it passes within a second or two. Probably nothing.
Standing in front of him, Maki throws her weapon to the side. Since Maki does both hand-to-hand and weaponry, she trains with her spear against Yuuta’s sword and touches up on her martial arts with Toge.
Maki jumps into battle without warning, catching Toge off guard. He reacts just in time, dodging her punch by a millimetre. Usually he would’ve been faster, but he’s a bit slow today. After all, he’s just getting warmed up.
Ducking down to avoid a kick to his chest, his vision blurs for a bit when he jumps back up. He misses his window to throw a punch while Maki’s unguarded, but whatever, he’ll have another chance soon enough. Either way, she probably would’ve blocked him anyway.
Toge realises, for some reason, his heart is pounding. It felt like he had been running for hours, but they had been sparring for barely five minutes. It feels like it's beating out of his chest.
Just keep pushing Toge, you got this. Curses won’t wait for you.
Clenching his hands into a fist, he realised that his hands were clammy, damp with sweat. Just the exercise from the spar.
Before he realises it, Maki’s already coming at him with another strike, this time to his side. He tries to block with his arm that’s reinforced with cursed energy, but he doesn’t move in time, and he gets a clean punch to his ribs.
Toge is thrown back into the ground, but he absorbs the impact with a roll. He pushes himself back onto his feet, but when he stands up, his vision blacks out. There’s an odd pressure behind his eyes.
Weirdly, even after a few seconds, his vision doesn’t clear. It tunnels into a small hole, and he can’t see anything except what's in front of him. Attempting to take a step forward, but his legs aren’t moving. Ugh. Why do I feel sick? His stomach is doing backflips, turning in circles and twisting.
Somewhere far away, he sees Maki’s mouth move, but he can’t hear her. It’s like there are cotton balls stuffed into his ears–he can hear sound, but it’s all muffled. He feels himself swaying on his feet, but he can’t quite stabilise himself on the ground. It feels like the grass is spinning before his eyes, moving left, right, and centre.
His knees give out, and he tells himself to move, just move your arms, catch yourself before you hit the ground - but his arms don’t cooperate with his thoughts. His shoulder hits the ground, his eyes falling shut.
Woah. What’s going on?
Before he can form a full thought, he sees Maki running towards him.
I wonder what’s happening right now, he thinks.
—————
“Toge. Toge! Can you hear me?” he hears voices talking to him.
Was it always this tiring to open your eyes? I don’t remember it being this hard.
“Wait, no–don’t move him–!” he hears, as someone places their hands under him, but it’s too late. The moment he leaves the ground, all strength leaves his body, and he goes limp once again.
—————
“Seriously, what the hell were you thinking, Panda? He passes out, and your first thought is to pick him up the moment he wakes up? What the hell?!” Maki says, chastising Panda, probably because he carried him up the first time he had woken up.
Toge’s purple eyes open a sliver, just the smallest bit of colour appearing.
“Toge! Are you awake?” Yuuta asks, his eyes filled with worry.
It takes a few seconds for his mind to catch up, but he nods his head in response. Yuuta places his own hand in Toge’s, and holds onto him gently.
“Can you squeeze my hand?”
A second passes.
Then two.
And then two more.
Finally, finally, he squeezes back.
Well, tries to squeeze back.
His hand barely moves, not even a tap on Yuuta’s hand. The other two have shut up, looking over his shoulder as Toge is half asleep, eyes glazed over.
“...That’s bad,” Panda says.
Maki scoffs. “No shit, Sherlock.”
Despite the brash words, her voice trembles when she shoots back a retort.
“Toge, when was the last time you ate?” Yuuta asks.
His mind takes a few seconds to think over the question.
Last time I ate? What’s he asking? Food. Right, when was the last time I had food. When was the last time I ate? Did I eat this morning? I don’t think I did. I should answer him. When was the last time I ate? I don’t know. I should tell Yuuta that. I don’t know when the last time I ate was.
“I don’t know,” Toge signs with trembling hands. The motions are wobbly and barely decipherable, but all three of them could guess what the answer was even if Toge hadn’t answered Yuuta.
“I’ll go get something for him to eat,” Panda says before hurrying away.
“Maki, can you help me try to sit him up?” Yuuta says to her, who’s still towering above the two. Then, directed at Toge, “I can’t imagine the ground is comfortable when you just passed out.”
Maki crouches down on Toge’s right side to sit him up. They count down before they move him, but the wave of vertigo is still unbearable when they do.
Without the strength to hold himself up, he slumps forward before someone pulls him back. He’s too out of it to see who it is, but he doubts he could see if he tried. His vision is clouded with darkness, making it practically impossible to see the grass even though it’s right in front of him.
A wave of nausea suddenly falls over him; he gags aggressively, his stomach cramping painfully on his torso. Hands gently push his head to the side, probably to stop him from puking all over himself.
Toge expects disgusting, orange vomit to come up, but instead, it’s green-yellow bile that comes up. He should’ve expected it–he hadn’t eaten in a while.
When he’s finally done dry heaving, his vision goes dark once again, and he nearly collapses to the side if it weren’t for someone holding him up again. Toge pries his eyes open to see four pairs of eyes staring at him. He’s not sure if he passed out after he threw up, but he honestly didn’t care less.
Wait. Four pairs of eyes?
Now, not only are Yuuta, Maki, and Panda looking at him with worried eyes, but Ierie is also here. Panda had probably gotten her when he went away.
“Hey, Toge. Think you can stand up?” Ierie asks. Toge nods his head and tries to push himself up onto his feet. Maki and Yuuta hold him by his arms, pulling him into a standing position.
As soon as he’s standing upright, Toge realises that it probably wasn’t the best idea to answer yes when asked if he could stand up. His vision fades, and his legs give out underneath him. He thinks someone is yelling his name, but he can’t hear them over the ringing in his ears.
When his vision clears, Toge realises that he’s no longer being hoisted up by Maki and Yuuta, but instead being bridal-carried by Panda.
“Hey, Toge. You awake?” he asks.
What did he ask? Oh right, if I were awake.
Toge nods his head, and Panda hums in acknowledgment. Suddenly, he’s being lowered onto something, and Toge realises that they were in the infirmary.
“Toge, how many times did you pass out?” Ierie asks. Toge thinks about it for a second, but he has no idea. He lost count at some point.
“The one just then was the fourth one,” Yuuta answered.
Ierie nods her head and writes something down, probably a medical report. “Was it a full faint each time, or was he awake but not responsive?”
“Uh…I think it was a full faint the first and second time, but the third time he was just drowsy. The one just then was a full faint, though.
Ierie writes something down again and raises her head again. “Hey, Panda. You went to get some food earlier, right?”
Panda hands over an energy bar, and Ierie motions him to hand it to Toge. His shaky hands attempt to pull the wrapper open, but his hands don’t have enough strength to do it. In the end, Maki plucks it out of his hands and does it herself.
“Hurry up and eat before you pass out again. I don’t want to see you puke again. It was disgusting,” she says as she hands him back the snack.
Looking up at her, Toge smiles. It’s nice knowing that she cares, even if she doesn’t show it. Anyone who’s known her long enough can tell.
Pulling down the wrapper, Toge takes a bite of the food. It’s nice being surrounded by friends.