Emmia shouldered her brother's limp body with Sefir's help as the trio walked toward the nurse's office. Most of their classmates too were making their way ahead to the same destination, all of them scarred from just one class.
Emmia observed Icarth's body. It was still extremely red, giving Icarth a sunburnt look like no other.
His lips were cracked due to dehydration while his hair seemed like dry stalks.
'Why does he push himself so hard....' Emmia sighed internally at her brother's state. When she first saw him laying unconscious in the hall, all thoughts of her failure had gone out of her mind. The only thought that occupied her mind was her brother's wretched state and how to help him.
Without noticing, Emmia had started to bite her lip in worry.
'Should we be walking faster?'
'Should...'
Before she could spiral down into her thoughts, Sefir said, "Don't bite your lips. It's a bad habit."
"Oh, sorry," Emmia apologized reflexively as she stopped.
"Why apologize?" Sefir asked perplexed at her sudden apology.
Emmia was at a loss for words. "Because I...."
Even she didn't know why she reflexively said 'I'm sorry' to Sefir for absolutely no reason.
"Whatever. Also, don't worry too much about Icarth. He'll survive." Sefir reassured Emmia.
"Alright," Emmia replied feeling lighter already.
Entering the nurse's office, they found it busy with multiple nurses moving around to tend to their classmates.
"Looks like almost everyone came here," Emmia noted after seeing the bulk of their class in various beds.
"Yep," Sefir agreed. "Excuse me, our friend is injured."
Sefir called out to a passing nurse.
"Please wait in line-" she started before taking note of Icarth's condition.
"Oh, my goodness."
Swiftly coming to a decision, the nurse led the trio to a bed.
"Lay your friend down here, I'll go get a doctor," The nurse instructed before rushing off to find the doctor.
Just a minute after laying Icarth down, the nurse had returned with a doctor.
Long raven hair swayed behind her, as the doctor made her way to Icarth's bed.
"What did he do to get like this?" The doctor asked in a calm voice after a preliminary assessment of Icarth's condition.
"He, uh, pushed himself too hard in our class today.." Sefir answered.
"Whose class?" the doctor continued her questions. She was now taking Icarth's hand and observing his pulse.
"Mr. Melvin."
"Tch," she clicked her tongue on hearing the teacher's name. Finished with her observations, she activated her gift and started to help Icarth recover.
"I'll have to warn that lunatic next time to take it slower..." She mumbled under her breath while she was working on Icarth with her gift.
«Blood Control»
Her gift allowed her to control the blood inside anyone's body and manipulate it to her will. Currently, she was moving the blood inside Icarths body with her gift to aid in cooling it faster so that it doesn't sustain any damage.
"Ms. Sophia," Emmia beside her tentatively called out. "How is his situation."
"He'll be fine. Next time tell your brother not to push himself like this." Ms. Sophia told Emmia. This was not the first time that Icarth had come to the nurse's office and clearly not the first time that Sophia had tended to him.
"Oh and before I forget, Emmia I need to talk to you before you leave, so please wait in my room." Sophia requested Emmia.
"Ok?" Emmia agreed confused and left with Sefir.
"Any idea what's that about?" Sefir asked.
"Nope. I'll have no clue as well."
-----
Finishing up cooling Icarth's body, his skin had finally started to turn back to normal.
"Attach an IV with rehydrating salts into him," Sophia commanded the nurse next to her.
Standing and stretching, Sophia spotted a bright red mess of hair from the corner of her eye.
"Shui Vari," Sophia called out.
Flinching slightly, Shui made her way from behind the curtain where she was standing.
"Are you done checking up?" Sophia asked kindly.
"Yes ma'am," Shui nodded.
"Then do tell me why are you still here?"
"I was just checking up on a friend," Shui answered evenly. "I saw you treating Icarth and didn't want to disturb you so I stood back."
"Hmm," Sophia nodded, while Shui did look extremely calm on the outside, her heart rate told a different story. Even standing a good two to three feet away, Sophia could feel Shui's heightened heart rate.
Hiding a smile, "Well I'm done now, you can check up on him."
"Umm, I've already seen his condition, so I think I'll go," Shui tried to dodge the embarrassment by excusing herself.
'Nonono, how can you let go of this chance?' Sophia thought to herself.
"Seeing his condition, I think it's better for someone to be there next to him in case something happens when he wakes up." Sophia continued ignoring Shui's excuse.
"Since you're already here, you might as well stay here until he wakes up," Sophia proceeded to tell another few instructions and left an exasperated Shui behind to sit by Icarth.
-----
Entering her office, Sophia found Emmia already there, sitting on the chair in front of her desk. Taking a seat on her chair, Sophia opened the reports that she had gotten from a nurse yesterday.
Taking out a paper, Sophia laid it on the desk. Before breaking the news to Emmia, Sophia asked kindly, "Emmia, how have you been feeling lately?"
"Fine, I guess? Why do you ask?" Emmia questioned confused.
"Have you been feeling tired more often than not? Or more easily tired when you try to do physical activity?" Sophia changed the question.
"I've been doing fine, I think I'm doing better than before. I was able to run more than what I could've usually done," Emmia responded.
"Well, you see that was what I wanted to talk about. You ran yesterday and collapsed did you not?"
"I mean..yes," Emmia admitted.
"While you were unconscious the nurse was examining your condition with her gift and found some peculiarities.
"..what peculiarities?" Emmia asked nervously. Her heart rate started to increase.
Noticing this, Sophia eased her tone of voice. "Emmia it seems that new nerves are still growing throughout your body."
"What?" Emmia asked shocked.
"I too don't know the exact reason, but this excessive growth in nerves is preventing muscles from properly forming, hence your weak body."
"Have you ever had any times where you've noticed that you feel things such as pain more acutely than other people?" Sophia continued.
Emmia nodded without a word, confirming Sophia's suspicions.
"Now, I'll have to keep monitoring your growth to see where it leads you." Sophia finished in her same calm tone and soft smile.
"Is this a bad thing for me?" Emmia asked being reassured by Sophia's voice.
"I'll not lie, it could go either way. Again, this hasn't been seen before in anyone. It's most likely due to the fact that you aren't human." Sophia stated calmly. Neither of the two was surprised that Sophia knew that Emmia was nonhuman. While Emmia's internal structure resembled a human closely and could fool almost anyone, Sophia was harder to fool.
In fact, not taking any risks, the headmaster himself had informed her about the twin's situation.
Drinking in the information, Emmia thanked Sophia, "Thank you Ms. Sophia for telling me."
"It's my duty. You may leave," Sophia excused Emmia in a kind tone.
Emmia left the room, slightly shaken, a myriad of thoughts swirling in her mind.