Though she was no longer traveling, Saya still often asked what had caused students' sounds. She was always like that, enjoying taking care of misfits more than herself. As she crouched over Serena, Blackburn's fog finished refilling her wounds. "She'll be alright, Swarm. She may be in a coma for a day or two while her body readjusts."
"Yeah, Mia-Mia." said Marisa, having transported Saya over. "You did everything right, right? It's- it's okay."
Mia flattened against the wall. Usually Marisa could smooth her emotions without much difficulty, but it only frustrated her now. They were too close to see the others' mistakes: she would've been telling Mia the same thing if Serena was dead. Feeling herself tilt back towards that summer with Julia, Marisa crouched down next to her & rubbed her shoulder.
"No beating yourself up, Miss Mentor." said Marisa, wagging her finger. "You saved her. That's why they make us mentors, right? This happens a lot."
"I know, but…" Mia looked off to the side. She frowned as she looked back to the wall where Serena had been writing a mangled 'Zeus'. She now realized that likely wouldn't have countered it either. "…I'm not sure if she needs a new Revenant."
"Huh?"
"She's having trouble with her handwriting. She's trying to improve it, but - I worry she'll be even more anxious in fights, or that she won't trust me, or-"
" - she'll trust you." said Marisa. "I'm sure she will."
"I'm still worried she may be better off with a different Revenant."
Marisa paused for a few seconds. "Um, if you think that's a good idea, I mean - that's between you and her, right? Like, you're already thinking way more about it than I did. Did she have it naturally?"
"It was transferred to her last week."
Mia looked over to Serena's body and felt embarrassed. Mulling through it in her head, she decided to take a new tack and mentor Serena more closely, giving her orders & sticking with her in fights.
"If I may, Swarm." said Saya, having overheard. "If you find one you and her both agree on, I'll ask Hirogane to perform the surgery. She should be able to swap for free."
They brought Serena back to the infirmary, and Mia kept by her until she woke up the next day. She put on an act like she hadn't been wounded at all, privately worrying that this reaction was what her mentor expected from her. Yet this hadn't been her first time near death, and she accepted yesterday as a necessary risk of being a student.
Hoping to find a Revenant better-suited, they visited a Revenant storage facility the next day, and little pricks of insecurity came up in Mia as they found no Revenants worth taking: even Styx, her father's former Revenant, which had allowed him to hide in shadows.
As they stepped up to Mia's home, she reminded Serena she would keep her safe until they found a better Revenant, hoping that she would feel like Matoi soon.
"Okay." said Serena. "Um, I'm kinda hungry, though. Do you know if that - I mean, I'm not injured, but - would that infirmary woman still make food? The one that made me oatmeal when I woke up?"
"Luna? Yes. There's some recipes she can't make, but..." Mia paused. "…infirmary. Er, we should go there, yes."
The two went to the infirmary. Mia waved down Hirogane as they came in, and Saya & Luna were playing a board-game off to the side. They never played anything competitive. Mia saw Saya showing Luna her cards as they came over.
"Hello, Swarm - Ms. Kunst." said Saya. "Did you need something?"
Worldwide's scarabs pulled over a few chairs, but Serena asked Luna for cookies before Mia could speak up. The freckled chef nodded and went to her office, Saya following behind & leaving the two sitting there.
Serena scratched her neck. "Um. Are they dating?"
Mia laughed. "I'm not sure, but they're very cute together."
Serena nodded, making no comment; she tried never to infantalize other women or make any comments that could be misconstrued as sexual. She still had these thoughts, of course, and she despised them.
A minute later, Luna & Saya came out with four platters of dark chocolate cookies. As Luna handed one to Serena, she took a bite, complimented Flashbulb's cooking, and Luna told Mia they had come from one of the vegan cookbooks she'd dropped off.
"Wait, these are vegan?" said Serena. (Luna nodded.) "…oh. I thought they tasted kinda off."
Mia shot her an odd look, but had her goal set to something more important. "Saya. I wanted to ask you something. Would you… Are you attached to Blackburn?"
Saya cocked her head as she sat down. "What do you mean?"
Mia sighed, caught between making her case while not insulting a protege she assumed was a little fragile. "Er, do you remember the conversation we had? Where I was concerned over the speed of Serena's Revenant?"
Saya seemed to realize it. "Are you asking me to swap Revenants with her?"
"Serena, can you show the medical side of your Revenant?"
"Oh- um, sure." she said, suddenly flustered. "Uh - so, this thing here -" - her tattoo needle formed in her hand - " - can write the names of Greek gods, and they each have a different effect. Um. Zeus is lightning, Hephaestus is lava, and uh… I figured this one out, recently."
She gestured vaguely to Mia, and Mia nodded, using a scarab to cut open her own palm. Serena wrote down 'Asclepius' and the wound started to close.
"Um, there's probably some nice stuff, too." chimed Serena. "Maybe there's some god that makes you feel happy. I can give you my books about it."
Mia suspected she was eager to give them away, but no matter. As she would later realize, Serena's laziness made her a good candidate for Blackburn: she solved every problem in the present-tense and rarely preferred looking backwards.
Saya slowly nodded. "I believe I can say yes, so long as… the staff will need to approve it. Serena, may you demonstrate your Revenant for Hirogane and I, later?"
"Sure." Serena whispered to Mia. "What's her Revenant, again?"
"Er, a fog that fills." murmured Mia. "Blackburn."
"She uses it to fu-fill people's wounds." said Luna.
"And I made you orange juice when you had the flu." said Saya and Mia smiled.
Serena nodded. "So if I had it, and someone got close, I could like, fill their throat with-"
"-I'll give you examples later tonight." said Mia quickly. "But, it would be very broad, quick, and strong."
For a moment, Saya's eyes seemed elsewhen as she put her hand on Luna's. "Was there anything else you wished to discuss?"
"Wait." said Serena. "Are you religious?"
"No."
"It would be odd to be religious in a world with superpowers." muttered Mia, relevantly.
"Sweet. Uh, 'cuz I think Odyssey changes names and abilities based on your religion. I'm not religious, so I guess that's how I got Greek."
"But I'm sure there are gods of healing in all pantheons." chimed Mia.
Serena blinked. "Panthy-what?"
++++++
By that Tuesday, the Revenants took, and Saya's non-religion ensured she had access to Ascelpius. With swap week next week, Mia took on accelerated training for Serena, and pretended that Worldwide hadn't given her spice resistance.
"Let's see if we'll be saved today." she winced.
"Okay." said Serena, glancing between the two bottles of hot sauce & two empty glasses. "M-Man, yesterday was rough. I'm pretty sure I burned a hole in our toilet."
"The milk."
"I- sure, but is porcelain flammable, or -"
" - the milk." winced Mia.
Serena's fog-shrouded hand tapped the two glasses, and Blackburn's fog filled each -
- with water. "Fuuuuck." she groaned.
"One - two - three!"
With the speed of light, the two took their respective hot sauce and started chugging it, tears in their eyes and nostrils clearing as they drank the horrific spices. A scarab of fire could barely withstand the heat, and again and yet again the two swallowed deep -
" - for our sakes - please get the milk right next time!" panted Mia, fanning her tongue at a ferocious, but fake pace.
"I'm t-t-trying my best!"
"You filled it with helium yesterday!"
"Y-y-yeah, but I just got it!"
"You can't fight someone by filling their mouth with water!"
"Maybe - maybe hot sauce. God, I think I might vomit, but you're gonna -"
" - I would make you drink a second bottle."
"… ugh. Gonna hurt coming out, too."
The two laughed and gagged. Eventually, Mia gave her a glass of milk, and Serena came back after spending some time in the bathroom.
"…g-god." she laughed as she sat down. "Y-You're harsh."
"I'm … trying to ensure you'll be ready for next week." nodded Mia. "Are you sure you don't need more time? I can ask Aimee for an exception."
"Um, I'm sure."
"Alright. Er, are you doing well in your classes?"
Serena nodded. "Um, they said they needed to rewrite all of my -- since I have Blackburn now, I mean."
"The lectures on uses for your Revenant?"
"Yeah. I'm doing okay otherwise, though."
Mia noted that she hadn't mentioned any names in that. Judging by how much time she spent online, most of Serena's socializing came from the internet. This vaguely worried Mia: her protege was continuing what she'd once been before Urasaria.
++++++
[Wednesday, August 28]
The two came in to a familiar private room in the infirmary. The bathtub and chef was at the other end.
"The chef is quite overworked." chimed Mia, the two walking over to the quite overworked chef. "Fill it with water, and I'll ensure she has a warm bath. Failure, and another bottle of hot sauce."
Serena crouched down, Blackburn's fog on her right hand. The cloud flew down, tapped the bottom of the tub, and as she expended her entire volley -
- the bathtub filled with barely a cup of water.
Serena blinked at it.
Mia blinked at it.
Luna blinked at it.
Mia walked out, and Serena with her.
++++++
[Thursday, August 29]
The two took a visit to the campus cafeteria, and as they came near the wall with the vending machines, Serena cocked her head. "Uh. Didn't there use to be a soda machine here?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." chimed Mia, stepping to the charred vending-machine shaped outline on the wall. "It is very odd, yes? Urasaria students need proper hydration, after all."
"… ah, fuck." Serena's eyes closed, and she took her place. "Today -"
" - you're the vending machine. Have fun."
++++++
[Friday, August 30]
The students liked her better than the machine, if only because she was free. The two came in to the infirmary, took a seat on a bed, and Mia braced herself. She closed her eyes, lips open. "Go ahead."
"I'm not gonna lie, I'd have felt bad about this before the hot sauce." chimed Serena, sticking Blackburn's fog down Mia's throat, and in the next instant -
- a pair of scissors formed in her throat; Mia threw her hands at it, yanking it out in a geyser of blood -
" - medic!" yelled Serena -
- and Saya was there, Odyssey's needle in hand as she wrote. Luna followed her, as was often the case.
"H-Hirogane -" gagged Mia, throat wound closing - " - is - he not here, today?"
"He is on the phone." said Saya, finishing up.
"B-brrring, brrring, rrring…" said Luna, and their bizarre adventure was done for the day.
++++++
[Saturday, August 31]
With only two days until swap week, Mia took desperate measures in a familiar private room.
"Wait, she actually does get nude -"
" - stop your staring, should-have-been-aborted!" shouted Mia in her ear, airhorn at the ready -
" - she should have left you dead, Serena!" shouted Matoi, familiarly in the tub, Blackburn's fog protecting her honor as it filled a bath. "Do you think you deserve to be her protégé?!"
"I, uh -"
- the airhorn's blare entered her ear, and she stumbled back just in time for Matoi's own -
" - you should crawl back in to the sack you came out of -"
" - perhaps you could live there instead!" shouted Mia, silently grateful to not be the target this time.
++++++
[Sunday, September 1]
Standing with Serena, Mia shouted to the beach's changing room, asking if Marisa was done yet. She was dressed appropriately; Serena was still in her jacket.
"Aaaand, done!"
Marisa stepped out with an empty bottle of sunscreen, the rainbow dress turned rainbow two-piece. Serena stifled panting as Marisa handed her the bottle.
"Go ahead and fill it, or we'll be sunburned for weeks." said Mia.
Marisa shot her an odd look. "Mia-Mia, are you sure you can even get sunburnt? I mean, you don't even feel anything when you drink hot sauce."
"She what?" said Serena.
"I- Serena, focus on the training." chimed Mia quickly. "Ignore her."
Streams of fog filled the bottle and Serena frowned as nothing squirted out. Shaking it to her ear, she turned it upside-down, and a gallon of razorblades fell out.
Marisa stared at it. "Really eager to get back to fighting, huh?"
Serena nervously laughed as a swarm of scarabs disintegrated the blades, and Mia ordered her to try again. She succeeded on her second try, feeling a little self-conscious as Mia & Marisa praised her. They applied each other's sunscreen and started walking out to the beach.
Marisa formed a Boudoir-umbrella & three towels, and looked to Serena, smiling. "Sure you don't wanna get changed?"
"Um, I just don't like the beach." shrugged Serena.
"She wants to get back to her videogames." chimed Mia and the three laughed.
As Mia & Marisa went out to the water, Serena sat underneath the umbrella and pulled up episodes of anime on her phone. A sense of unease came over her as she started watching, wondering if she, too, was a cartoon of a woman. She wasn't as sociable as Mia & Marisa, she was lonely, and she hated her appearance.
But it would take more than one coma to dissuade her.