Ch 1.54: Aftermath


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What do you mean the Stormshine’s?” ina said, abandoning any attempt to subtly push the conversation. She need to know what Myri was talking about, and now. But it was toote. Myri’s face of disgust was frozen, unmoving as thest bit of life had slipped from her. “Damnit…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina ran over to Tira. She wasying on the ground, wincing in pain as she clutched her side. “Fuck, those things are sharp, ina.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah,” ina said, pulling Tira’s hands away and looking at the wound beneath. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Thanks the gods.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> It was long, but not deep, bleeding, but not profusely. “We should probably tie this off just to be safe. Can you change back to your uniform?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Can I… Gods, I think I can.” Tira closed her eyes, and the crystal dust appeared once more, circling around her and recing her bodysuit with her uniform. It was still soaked of course, but someonepletely unmarred besides. “ina, what the fuck is going on?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s a long story… I’ll exin on the way back. Can I use part of your jacket to try and staunch the blood?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, of course. Whole thing’s gonna be ruined after this anyway. But are you okay?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh-huh. It hurts, but I’ll live; I can move.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina helped Tira get her jacket off and them ripped off one of the sleeves, tying it around Tira’s waist where the blood was seeping into her white shirt.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She also finally remembered she was naked.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Blushing, ina willed her own uniform back, or what was left of it at least. It was interesting, that the crystal dust spun around both her and the discarded dress on the ground before recing her shirt back onto her body.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So… you too, huh?” Tira asked.


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina nodded. “Yeah, me too.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How long?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uhm, the night we first met. Like, less than an hour before you caught me in the halls.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah… Uhm, can I wear your jacket again? I, uh, had another wardrobe mishap.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira chuckled a little, stifling it with her hand and then wincing before grabbing her side. “Sorry, not really the time to beughing at that sort of thing, I know. Go ahead.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina pulled the jacket over her body, grateful for at least a little bit more coverage, even if she knew she’d appear ridiculous having just torn of one of the sleeves. “How do I look?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira chuckled once more, clutching her side again. “Silly. Not quite as sexy asst night.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“ina,” the System said.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Gods,” Tira replied, staring at the orb on the ground. “You know that thing scared the shit out of me the first time it talked?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Go ahead, System,” ina said. Catching Tira up would be important, but the System usually only interrupted if it was something important.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“These crystals, the ones from Myri, are powerful and dangerous. All the Red Order crystals are, but hers are magnitudes more powerful. We must keep them safe.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina sighed. “I can’t exactly carry those things back into school without anyone noticing.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Perhaps it would be best to keep them in the cave with my main core then. That is already an inadvisably unprotected space, but there are not many things we can do about that as of now, and it is better than leaving them out in the open.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right, sounds good.” ina walked over to Myri’s body, stomach turning at the thought of moving the pieces around. To her surprise though the crystals didn’t seem to be attached anymore, each one having separated from the skin they were attached too and fallen off, and blood on them washed into the ground by the rain.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Thankful for small blessings, she started rounding them up, cing the small ones in her bag before dumping its contents into the cave and then tossing the two giant des down there as well. <i><span style="font-weight:400">We’ll need toe back and make sure they’re more properly hidden tomorrow, but Tira needs help right now.</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">She tossed the System into her bag and then walked over to her friend. “I’m gonna pick you up, alright?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uhm, sure, but are you sure you’re strong enough to— Whoah!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina couldn’t help but smirk a little as she lifted Tira up, and she thought Tira even had a slight blush, barely able to be seen in the weather. The sight almost distracted her from the pain across her shoulder, enough so that the primary sensation was now her arousal instead. “sses make us physically stronger too.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, right,” Tira said, looking away slightly. “I mean, I knew that, of course, from the stories, but I didn’t know if that part was literally true, you know?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mmhm.” <i><span style="font-weight:400">It’sing now, any second.</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So, like, what’s your ss?” <i><span style="font-weight:400">There it is.</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina sighed, shaking her head as she walked Tira through the forest. “Masochist Mage,” she muttered.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Another spurt ofughter from Tira as she tried to cover her mouth once more. “Sorry, sorry, I just… didn’t expect something so simr to mine. I’m a Sadist Striker, apparently.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, I know. I can see your ss information. I’m… Well, it’s called System Administrator, so I can see everyone’s sses.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira blinked. “Everyone’s?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, you and Carline, and my own. We’re the only three right now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, your roommate, right? She’s nice, came to me about your uniform.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, and helped you y that prank on me this morning too,” ina said, her smile returning once more. “Gods, do you know how scared I was?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It wasn’t a prank, I promise! I really wanted to give it to you this morning, but you were just so sound asleep…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I <i><span style="font-weight:400">really </i><span style="font-weight:400">thought I had no clothes. And then the underwear situation too… You know I had fencing ss, in the rain, with no bra?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira’s eyes went wide, mouth agape. “Okay, I don’t know your schedule, and I told you where your underwear was!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina chuckled. “I know… It was my choice. And kind of fun, to be honest.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira sighed, looking relieved. “d it was fun at least. I really would never do that to you, leave you stranded somewhere without talking to you about it first. Did Ranlit rake you over the coals for being braless?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina blushed, shaking her head. The storm was starting to clear now, so her face was probably visible. “No, but she made ament about it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Must’ve been in a good mood. She’s known for being quite a hardass at times.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Like you, ‘Iron Whip Tira?’”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tira’s head whipped up, looking genuinely offended. “Who the fuck is calling me that? Wait, is it that Stouth girl? I swear she’s—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“ina!” a voice called from up ahead, just outside the treeline, back on the school grounds proper. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Carline?</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m here!” ina shouted back. She wanted to run up, but she couldn’t do that with Tira in her arms, not wounded as she was.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Carline came running into the trees herself though, face panicked and eyes watering. “ina! Thank the stars; I was so worried.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m fine, really, I’m—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No you’re not,” Carline said, face suddenly determined. “And neither is she. Put her down.”


    <i><span style="font-weight:400">Right, she can sense these things. </i><span style="font-weight:400">ina obeyed, cing Tira on the ground as Carline ced her hands on Tira’s side.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh gods,” Tira said, inhaling deeply. “That’s so much better already.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m just stopping the pain while I fix it, but still don’t move around too much. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">It was strange, seeing the normally meek girl so confident andmanding. Maybe it was the pain that ina’s skill was transforming into other feelings doing the thinking for her, but ina couldn’t help but think she’d like to see that side of Carline more often.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Carline turned up towards ina, frown on her face and tears in her eyes as her hands remained on Tira. “And you! Don’t do that to me again! Don’t shut me out!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina recoiled, looking to the side. “I— I’m sorry, I just thought that—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I know what you thought! I just…” Carline shook her head. “I could’vee with you, or you could have stayed. Gods, what if you’d run into Myri?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“We did. She’s dead.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The words hung in the air as Carline furrowed her brow, looking back to Tira. “Does that mean… Is she?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sure am,” Tira said, grin forming on her face. “Newest ss bearer, Sadist Striker Tira Strask, at your service!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Carline blinked as she shook her head once more. “Stars, we really are the pervert party, aren’t we?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It is the nature of partypatibility,” the System said.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Okay,” Tira said, pointing to ina’s bag, “that thing still freaks me out every time it talks. Can someone exin to me what exactly it is?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Later,” Carline said, pursing her lips. “ina, there’s… there’s something important I need to tell you."