[Fiore Castle, Emily's room - Morning]
Emily woke up staring at the ceiling. She blinked for a few times to make her vision clearer. She got up and found herself on the bed, "How did I get here?"
Just then, she saw a shirtless figure at a few metres away from her. She rubbed her eyes to see who it was. Gah! It was Beck. She immediately stuffed her face in a nearby pillow to cover her eyes. "WHAT?! The man is changing!"
Beck noticed Emily had just woke up. He quickly put on his shirt and apologised, "Sorry, I didn't know you're awake."
She looked up at him with her steaming face, to see that he had still not buttoned up his shirt. This time she noticed that he did not have a bandage on. She finally saw what was hiding under, it was a jagged wound.
Subconsciously, she stared at his wound for a few seconds as guilt stabbed her heart repeatedly. "There's no way that wouldn't hurt. All this time, he was smiling. Was he just hiding the pain? Why did he do that?"
Beck noticed that she was staring at his wound and quickly covered it with one of his hands. Since the wound had almost healed up, Mary gave him extra bandages so that he can change them himself. He wanted to do it just now but, Emily woke up. "Look, I'm fine already. Don't worry about it."
Emily did not respond. She just sat there with her head hung down.
"Shit. I hope she isn't blaming herself." Beck thought as he pat her head for a little bit, convincing her, "Emily, I'm fine, alright?"
Again, she remained silent.
Beck quickly but neatly wrapped the bandage around his torso, before putting on an appropriate outfit for a high school on Earth. He then walked towards Emily once more and gave her a reassuring smile, "It might look bad but it doesn't hurt as bad."
That was not entirely true but, it was partially true. Hey, at least the man was making progress.
Beck walked towards the door and said, "I'll be waiting outside while you get dressed. If something happens, just shout. I'll come in immediately, okay?"
This time she gave him a slight nod, while he closed the door behind him.
She got out of the bed and took a deep breath. Her chest hurts from all the guilt she was feeling. She felt sad yet angry at herself for causing someone to be THAT injured. She quickly changed and left the room to meet Beck.
The two walked in silence, not knowing what to say to each other.
After they had breakfast, the gang went to Earth through the portal, hidden in one of the many rooms. The room was dim and empty. At the centre stood, what she assumed to be, a door-like frame. The only difference was that there was a blue light emitting from it, which also made it look like a body mirror with blue tinted glass. It was her first time experiencing what it was like to enter this portal, she felt slightly scared, but she wanted to go back as soon as possible.
Mary placed her caring hand on Emily's shoulder, "It's just like walking through a door, it's not that scary."
Emily trusted Mary and walked through the portal. She placed her on the glowing light to see her hand fully submerged. It did not hurt, but it gave her a tingling sensation.
Yukiko sighed and walked towards her, "How long are you going to do that? Are you having a monologue in that tiny brain of yours? Just go in already." Just as she said that she gave Emily a push.
Emily fell on the hard marbled ground, with her whole body still fully attached, which was a good sign. She looked up and studied her surroundings. It was familiar.
Marbled floor, large windows and a large black limousine was parked outside.
Fortunately, she was back at the headquarters.
"See, not so bad, right?" Yukiko said as she helped Emily up.
"Emily! Are you okay?!" Mary asked with concern before turning to white haired girl, "Yukiko, what the hell was that?! What if she ended up injuring herself?!"
Yukiko ignored her, "You guys can go first, there're some things I need to do." Those words were coated with a hint of urgency, by Mary did not sense it.
"Hey! I'm not done! Can't y--" Ben placed his hand over her mouth and shook his head, "Come on, let's go. I don't think Emily wants to be late for school and if you want, we can find your lamb." The last part made her smacked him in his arm, as he laughed.
As they were having their 'conversation', Emily took out her phone and tried to turn on it. All this time, she could not switch on it when she was in Fiore. Her phone lit up, showing her the lock screen, where date was shown, followed by thirty-seven missed calls from Hailey. However, only the date caught her eye.
Only half a day had passed.
"How? It doesn't add up. I was in Fiore for almost three days. Is my phone broken? Or am I broken? Like, do I have early stages of dementia?"
"Is there something strange with the timing in both worlds? Or is it my phone is just broken?" Emily asked, while showing them her phone.
"Oh, about that... The timings are indeed different. Time pass faster in Fiore than on Earth. Five to seven days in Fiore is one day on Earth." Jai explained with his generic smile.
"Oh, I see."
She then shoved her phone in her pocket. She did not questioned anymore because what for? Things were just going crazy, little things like this was nothing surprising for her already.
"Anyways, you all can go on. Anna and I have some things to do too." Jai informed, retaining his smile.
"Got it." Emily replied while waving them goodbye, "I'll see you later then."
"Of course, have a great time learning in school." Jai said while both Anna and Jai gave her bow, which Emily responded with a groan.
She left the headquarters with the remaining group and headed out to her school, leaving Yukiko, Jai and Anna in the tall building.
"How many are they?" Anna asked as she got into her stance, keeping her guards up as a huge scythe was manifested in her hands.
"Thirty, maybe?" Yukiko replied while doing the same for her sword, "Didn't thought that they'll attack this quickly. Sadly, they don't know how to hide properly."
Jai smiled and corrected, "Actually, I think there's forty."
"Well, whatever it is, we just got to defeat all of them."