My body immediately seized up upon the sight of her.
'Why is this happening?'
My heart started beating faster as warm feelings wrapped themselves around my heart.
"No!"
Covering my mouth instantly, realizing my mistake, I watched in horror as Elvira looked up from whatever she was looking at and saw us.
"What's the problem?"
She was looking the other way right now, so she wasn't able to see Elvira.
"Do you know when the next poisoning is?"
"Yeah, in, like, 2 hours."
"We need to get away from here, asap!"
"Why? My body's still healing, so I can't move."
Seeing with my monocle that Elvira was trying to peer through the dust storm, and noticing her eyes widening as she made us out, I knew that there wasn't any time left as she started running towards us.
"Are you fine if I carry you?"
"Tell me why first!"
"There's no time!" I shouted through gritted teeth.
Picking her up without her permission, and bearing the searing pain as she slapped me in the face for it, I started running as hard as I could.
'Yep, definitely just made my internal bleeding worse with that.'
My face contorted every time my feet hit the ground, the jarring pain making my mind sharper and my thinking faster.
With the two sides of my brain thinking, this was almost detrimental.
'No! You can't think about her now! Keep moving, meeting her will only bring you more pain!'
I used the logical side of my brain to beat down the instinctive side of my brain.
'Fuck that damn Lich King. I knew this would happen!'
You see, when I had remade my body through the Lich King's procedure, I guess he forgot or something, because I had noticed changes in my body when I had seen Elvira at the admission ceremony.
"I specifically told him to recast that part of my brain, but that fucker just couldn't do it!"
"What are you mumbling about?"
"Nothing, just enjoy the ride."
"How can I? When you're clearly putting yourself through a lot of pain."
She now knew that I was running away for good reasons, as my face said it all.
Touching my mask with her hand, caressing the cheek part, she asked, "Do you need some healing magic?"
"No, that'll just make your condition worse, I can deal with this, after all, I am Rank 1 and your teacher." I said, before slapping her hand away.
"Now stop talking to me, I'm already horribly out of breath as it is."
Spitting these last few words out, we fell into silence, the dust and wind rushing past us being the only thing that we felt as we descended into our own thoughts.
...
Looking back, and only seeing the red, dusty landscape, I allowed myself to rest for a second.
"Can you put me down? I mean, staring at your sweaty face is hot and all, but, you know..."
"You can't even see my face, so don't call me hot, and I'm two years younger than you. I am by no means old enough to be thinking about that stuff."
"Hmph, you're no fun."
"Like you're any fun either."
"..."
"You wanna face reveal each other later?"
"And why the hell would I do that?"
"Cause I just want to see my teacher's face once?"
"That's a hard no."
"Pwetty pwease?"
"No, and what made you want to do that in the first place?"
"I don't know?"
"Yeah, not happening."
Realizing how weird the conversation had turned, I just started running again.
But, I stopped suddenly afterwards.
"You know what? Get on my back, this is getting too hard for me."
"Yeah, too HARD! Hahahahaha!"
"I'm fucking 13!" I shouted, almost whining at this point.
"And you curse like a sailor." She pointed out.
"So what? That doesn't... whatever, it's useless trying to reason with you."
Putting her down and then stepping in front of her, I squatted down so that she could get on my back easier.
After she situated herself on my back, I started running again.
But then, I felt her hands start moving, weirdly.
They started sensually groping, reaching under my shirt before exploring the area around my chest and abs.
Feeling my body heat up, I knew I had to stop this.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Just wondering why we had to change POSITIONS! Hahahahaha!"
"..."
"Your life as a sailor has seriously corrupted you."
Using my spiritual energy, I moved her hands until they were wrapped around my neck again before clamping them there.
"You're no fun!" She pouted.
"And you're sexually harassing a minor." I pointed out.
"But I'm also a minor."
"You're a minor that is already going through puberty, I'm one that hasn't yet, I mean, look, there's no bulge in my pants." I said, gesturing towards the bottom half of my body.
"Wow! Sensei, you really are a kid!"
"Have you heard anything that I've been saying these past few minutes?"
Taking advantage of the fact that her hands were wrapped tightly around my neck, she started squishing her upper body against me.
"You know that you have nothing there right?"
"WHAT?!!!! Did you just seriously say that to a girl? I might have to start teaching you some things sensei." Hearing the seductive tone of her voice, I knew that she was about to do another dumb thing.
"..."
'Hmm, maybe I was just being paranoid."
"I'll give you a lesson in... sex." She whispered, right into my ear.
I threw us both over a cliff.
Of course, this was only figuratively. Let's just say, she didn't have fun and almost threw up.
'Why did he run?'
At first, I had thought that the two figures I had seen in the distance were just two random students, but after seeing that the compass would always point to their backs as they ran from me, I knew that one of them was Avril.
'D-does he, not like me anymore? Even as a friend?'
'Did I push him too hard?'
'Or... Or did he find out?'
Several scenarios ran through my mind as I continued chasing after the two figures in the distance.
...
I lost them.
Somehow, somehow, he had outrun me.
I mean, I always knew that he was pretty strong physically, but he had never practiced a manual before, so he shouldn't have been faster than me.
Deciding that this was my only option left, I looked in the direction that I had last seen them, and then teleported, as far as I could.
Reappearing in the middle of nowhere, I looked around hurriedly, searching to see if my gamble had been the correct decision to take.
"W-what?!!"
Although the voice was unfamiliar, the presence was unmistakable. Feeling the aura that had comforted and warmed me for so many years, I smiled, before blacking out, as all strength left me.