At the Medical Longue on the second floor, The Doctor was using a small scanner that helped him detect any abnormalities. He scanned his entire body as he saw his jaw was slightly fractured and his ribs were cracked, Korvos was taking deep breaths as the Doctor put the scanner away.
"Your ribs, your left side is cracked, and your jaw has microfractures…How hard of a punch did you take?"
"I took a very angry punch and a mean leaping knee…Anything to help repair it?"
"Yeah, but only a small dose."
"What is it?"
"It's called Kelp Marrow, who would have thought Kelp would be a suitable substitute for filling in cracks."
"No clue honestly…"
The Doctor gets up as he walks over to an overhang cabinet, opening it as he begins digging into the cabinet.
"Say, we never really got your name doc."
"You didn't pay attention to the orientation? It's Dr. Hendrik Tuft."
"Do you think anyone pays attention to the orientation in the first week…" Korvos explains to Dr. Tuft.
"…good point." Tuft responds.
After searching for a little while, Dr. Tuft pulls out a long and slender bottle that looks like a repurposed wine bottle. He looks at the label as it says Pure Kelp Marrow, leaving the cabinets open as he pours the slightly foggy liquid into a small plastic shot cup.
"Here, drink it." Dr. Tuft tells Korvos, handing him the cup of Kelp Marrow
"Drink? Isn't that dangerous?" Korvos responds concerned, looking at the cup then back up at Dr. Tuft.
"Ingesting Kelp Marrow isn't dangerous; it'll make you constipated once it's done but it'll help your bones repair those fractures and microfractures."
"A-Alright…" Korvos takes the cup of Kelp Marrow, taking a deep breath before he swallows and downs the shot cup.
The Kelp Marrow has a very bitter taste to it, almost too bitter to even ingest in the first place, however the aftertaste lessens very quickly almost like it wasn't there. Korvos just hopes that this wouldn't give him some kind of bacteria that'll make him sick.
Dr. Tuft then puts the cap on the bottle of Pure Kelp Marrow, putting it away in the cabinet and then closes the cabinet door. He then turns his attention to Kimura and Kumiko; Kumiko was laying on the medical bed as she was unconscious.
"I don't even want to know what the fuck happened to her."
"…Tell me about it, we got out to commotion and then she was going all AWOL on us…"
As Kimura was ranting, Dr. Tuft squinted his eyes at Kumiko's bruised face, taking out a latex glove and putting them on. This suddenly concerned both Korvos and Kimura as Kimura got up from his chair and got out of the way of Dr. Tuft, standing near Korvos.
"Something wrong doc…?"
"Yeah. Very wrong…" Dr. Tuft's sudden tone shift was alarming.
Dr. Tuft leaned towards Kumiko's face, keeping a safe distance as he grabbed a Q-Tip, dragging it across and underneath Kumiko's nose and above her lip. Dr. Tuft then quickly walked over to his desk as he grabbed an eye dropper out of a container filled with water. Without wasting time, Dr. Tuft dropped water onto the Q-Tip, dropping only two drops of water.
Within seconds small red dots begin to form on the Q-Tip as it reacts to being rehydrated by the water, as it sparkles almost on the Q-Tip.
"…These are Red Velvet Siphons…Where did she get her hands on these…" He turned to look at Kimura and Korvos with a serious look.
Before any of the two could answer honestly, the door slides open as Wei-Hu stands there looking over at Dr. Tuft.
"Asuka had brought them to the Academy."
"Huh? T-The girl I saved?" Kimura spoke up, remembering her soft and timidness from yesterday.
"How do you know of that?" Dr. Tuft questions Wei-Hu.
"Kumiko told me before she was blasted with a small balls worth of that thing…"
"So, this entire thing cycles back to Kyoushou Academy huh…" Korovs doesn't sound surprised nor happy.
"..."
"Where's the rest of it?" Dr. Tuft questions Wei-Hu.
"No fucking clue, I searched the area while Kumiko was dealing with Korvos and Kimura, not a damn trace was left." She responded to Dr. Tuft's question.
"However, we do need to know why a Kyoushou Academy student came all this way to Haven Academy with an illegal substance…" Wei-Hu ponders on that question.
"At this point…we might as well make an amateur IU (Investigations Unit)…" Korvos jokes.
"Well Wei-Hu, did you manage to figure out who the other person was? The one who Asuka was giving it to?" Kimura questioned her.
"No, it'll take more than just three of us." She responded.
"God…you guys are loud…" A feminine voice came out from behind a curtain.
Korvos, Wei-Hu and Kimura looked over as Suharu pushed the curtain to the side as she sat up, stretching a bit. Korvos sighed in relief as Kimura looked away slightly and Wei-Hu was just glad to see she's alright.
"Well, we might have to put that little scuffle on hold Korvos." Suharu tells Korvos.
"Why is that Suharu?" Korvos asks her.
"Don't you remember what's happening next week?" Suharu looks at Korvos with a raised eyebrow.
"Wha- ohh…oh right…" Korvos remembers now.
"What is it?"
"You've gone to the Middle Grounds before have you Kimura?"
Kimura remembers hearing the word but hasn't gone over to wherever this middle ground takes place.
"Uh…not really but I've heard of it." Kimura responds to Korvos.
"Think of it as a subliminal place in your brain when you sleep. Except there's land, grass, trees, air, the sun, all the essentials for life, but there is no life where that place is and it spans endlessly even beyond where the horizon line is."
"Huh…So somewhere in the void?" Kimura simplifies it.
"Pretty much but it's much livelier than that since we'll be there."
"Oh, so what's the deal with it?" Kimura questions again.
"Well…There's a tournament that's held once every Eclipse Cycle where all academies from all five archipelagoes go to fight and see which academy archipelago holds the title of the 'best in the world'."
"And it's next week?"
"More like…three days."
"Oh."
Korvos nods a bit sighing as he looks over at Suharu and gets up, walking over to her. Both began chatting between themselves as Kimura turned to look behind him, seeing Wei-Hu and Dr. Tuft chatting as well.