A fire crackled softly in the fireplace as the director of Spectrum Hospital, Umi was slowly drifting off to sleep. The crackle and the soft light of the fireplace was like a multi-sensational lullaby as Umi drifted off into sleep.
Inside her cozy room, there wasn't much to see. It was spartan with just a red rug for decoration. And that too was a gift, with its bare walls, the yellow light of the fireplace didn't have anything in particular to highlight except for the sleeping director, who was currently asleep in her chair at her desk.
Outside the door, two security guards stood at attention. Both of them were part of Director Umi's personal guard.
One of the two guards asked the other, "Hey, I've always wondered, why does the director need personal guards?"
"It's not our place to ask such questions," the other officer responded curtly.
To his co-worker's answer, the first officer just grunted. It wasn't like he was going to get anything out of him in the first place.
'It's like talking to a brick wall.' The officer thought to himself, not reacting to Seril who had just appeared in front of them.
Unhindered, Seril just walked past the guards and slipped inside the room as quietly as she could, all in front of the pair who seemed to be too preoccupied staring at the hallway.
'Using this ability is too difficult for my current power.' Seril thought grimly. At her current power, she couldn't use her evolved gift to the fullest extent. Just as Seril had regained her memories, her gift had also evolved corresponding to the memories, allowing her to use completely different abilities than what she thought she could use.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Seril stood in front of the director.
Narrowing her crimson eyes, Seril snapped her fingers, activating her gift to wake Umi up.
Eyes fluttering, Umi slowly looked around in confusion before freezing.
Umi's eyes dilated as she gazed at Seril towering over her in the dim flickering light from the fireplace.
"Ms. Seril," Umi greeted as she sat up slowly, trying to back away from Seril as much as possible without her noticing.
"What brings you here?" Umi said slowly.
Even though Seril had surprised her like this, Umi kept her voice level and even. Years of acting as the director of the Spectrum Hospital had, at the least, taught her to maintain her cool under stress.
While Umi talked her mind raced for answers.
'Why is the huntress here?'
'Why at this time?'
'What did she do to my personal guards?'
'Is this related to her sister?'
'But I thought it was sorted....'
'No. It clearly wasn't sorted out.'
'I just need to find out her intentions right now.'
"My sister," Seril started out, confirming Umi's guess for Seril's visit.
"Yes? I thought that everything was sorted out. She is healthy, yes?" Umi cut off Seril softly, trying to buy more time for her to think.
'It was about her sister!'
'How can I convince her that I really had nothing to do with her sister's coma?'
Along with the slew of thoughts running through her head, a sudden thought occurred to Umi.
'Is she here to kill me?'
Umi's heart skipped a beat. No amount of stressful conditions working at the hospital had prepared her for such a moment like this. Just like the thought entered her mind, the fear of death started to envelop Umi.
'Can I shout for my personal guards if she decides to make a move?'
Umi glanced at the door for an instant. She didn't know if the guards could even get to her in time even if she did call to them.
'Wait, if she is here, doesn't that mean my guards are dead or unconscious?' Umi thought bitterly looking into Seril's cold crimson eyes.
"I came here to discuss the cause of my sister's coma," Seril finally answered, just as leisurely as Umi.
At Seril's tone, Umi's heartbeat accelerated. Her body went cold as more unwanted thoughts about death invaded her mind. Forcefully pushing those thoughts away, Umi tried to focus on surviving.
'Can I take her in a fight?' The thought vanished just as fast as it arrived. Umi's gift "Antitoxin" was particularly useless in a direct fight.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Umi focussed her mind on the conversation.
"Please go ahead. I am prepared to answer any of your questions," Umi spoke loudly, just to try to see if her guards would hear her.
"I wouldn't speak so loudly. I don't think you want me to kill your personal guards just because you called for them foolishly right?" Seril warned Umi softly.
Umi gulped slowly.
'So they're alive...' Umi thought with a pang of relief. Umi nodded agreeing with Seril's words.
'I just need to convince her not to kill me.' Umi thought to herself bravely as Seril started her questioning.
"I want to know all the details related to my sister's case. The doctors supervising her and all the nurses and visitors that she's had," Seril demanded with a cold tone.
Umi just nodded. This was clearly a violation of many regulations and rules in the Spectrum Hospital, but if this was her ticket to live, then Umi would gladly lunge at it.
"Now, let's head out to the hospital, shall we?" Seril uttered coldly. While it was going to be a long trip, Seril would have to accompany Umi back to the hospital and then extract all the records from there.
"No need. I have all the necessary records right here," Umi replied quickly, trying to keep her voice stable throughout.
Surprised, Seril raised an eyebrow in questioning.
"I was just looking up at your sister's case files in case of any discrepancies," Umi smoothly said.
"Hand the files over," Seril responded in a flat voice, uninterested in any sort of lies that Umi would spew out to try to butter Seril up.
Umi nodded curtly and headed to the fireplace. Biting the end of her thumb, Umi smeared the blood over the front of the fireplace. Activating her gift, Umi's blood glistened under the flickering firelight, turning from the initial red color to a dull green. Seeping through the pores of the fireplace material, Umi accelerated the process by using her universal energy to push the green blood into the fireplace. With a subtle click, the front of the fireplace, just above the opening for the fire, opened up revealing a drawer.
Carefully taking out the contents of the drawer, Umi selected a folder and returned the rest. Activating her gift once again, the fireplace closed up once more, hiding its contents from any and all prying eyes.
"Here," Umi handed the documents to Seril.
'What a fire hazard,' Seril thought to herself as she received the files wordlessly. Leafing through the files, Seril memorized each and every face of the staff that had been in contact with or given any treatment to Mia.
Throughout all this, Umi just stood awkwardly, sweat flowing down from her back at the uncomfortable silence. The fear of death just seemed to loom in front of her, in the shape of a blond woman with piercing crimson eyes.
Taking in all the required information, Seril stored it all away in her memory and handed back the file to the director.
"That's it?" Umi couldn't stop herself from commenting. She had thought that Seril would take the files, not give them back after a brief glance through each page.
Seril glanced at Umi, silencing her from asking anything further.
'Now that I've gotten all the information I need....what should I do with her?' Seril thought to herself as her piercing gaze landed on Umi.
Receiving the gaze, Umi felt a chill spike through her. She started to sweat more profusely, slowly clutching the file in her hands for support. Fearing that she would tear or irreversibly damage the files, Umi returned them back to their proper place inside the drawer inside the fireplace. All the while thinking of a way to get out of this situation.
'I cooperated with her right?'
'She should let me go...I hope...'
'Is this how I die?'
Turning back around, Umi felt her heart stop. Despite all the situations and scenarios that she had been through, just looking into Seril's piercing crimson eyes seemed to strip all that away and make her seem like a child in front of them.
Reaching a decision in her head, Seril walked towards Umi. Instinctively, Umi took a step back which prompted Seril to raise an eyebrow.
Raising her hand, Seril wrapped her fingers with her universal energy. Placing her fingers on Umi's forehead, Seril ignored Umi's reactions.
'It's over!' was Umi's last thought to herself as she shut her eyes in expectation.
But without further ado, Seril activated her gift and Umi lost consciousness, almost collapsing to the ground if not for Seril.
Holding the director in her arms, Seril placed Umi back onto the chair where she had been sleeping previously.
'Alright, I've taken care of everything here.' Seril thought to herself looking at the sleeping face of the director.
'She doesn't have any connection to the person who put Emmia into a coma,' Seril mused as she reflected on what she had learned. When she used her gift on Umi, she also checked Umi's body for any traces of the same gift that had been infecting Emmia. Sadly, she hadn't found anything confirming Umi's innocence.
'No matter,' Seril's eyes flashed coldly as she left the director's office the same way she entered. Right in front of the guards without either of them noticing a single thing.
'It's time to continue my hunt.'
------
Waking up with a start, Umi yawned loudly.
'Such horrible dreams.' Umi thought to herself bitterly.
While asleep none of her had been pleasant in the slightest. In fact, in one of them, the huntress had come seeking to kill her for her sister's unexplained coma.
'Speaking of that..' Umi thought suddenly. Getting up, she went to lock the door to the room and rounded back to the fireplace.
Biting her marred thumb, Umi's heart skipped a beat.
'Did I bite my thumb recently? Or was it from yesterday night...' Umi tried to recall when she had last bit her thumb. But all she was drawing was a blank.
Shaking her head, Umi smeared the blood onto the top of the fireplace. Retrieving the documents, she found the files to Emmia's case just where she expected them to be, with not a single paper out of order.
"Haah," Umi sighed. 'I guess it was just a dream.'
Placing the files back, Umi wasn't able to notice the slight wrinkles and bend marks of her own doing on the paper. Or maybe her brain blotted that information out for her own sake.