Artificial 6: Exorcist Academy

Chapter 8: Fruits Of Labor

(Artwork is done by AI. It's Lord Shimura, Himiko's grandfather.)

Narration: The dawn of day 5,
Terra wakes up in a medical tent, surrounded by instructors eating their freshly cooked bacon,
eggs,
and grits.
His consciousness is barely alert but alert enough to see the bandages around his chest,
followed by a sharp pain that made him lay down flat again.
"Back to sleep with you!"
Elain stuffs an anthesia mask over Terra's face to quickly knock him out again so that he wouldn't wiggle around and injure his already broken ribs all while poor Azura could only watch her friend being monitored by a few instructors.

"You shouldn't have knocked him out like that! He at least deserved to be filled in on where he's at and why he's in pain!"
Elain slowly looks at Azura,
and rather bluntly tells her to shut up and let the professionals deal with her injured friend.

Azura goes to argue with Elain only for Himiko to strike for Azura's throat and only stop mere inches from her neck, causing Azura to tense up.
"Your friend was about to be in agony for a long time. You may see it as cruel to deny someone information or the right to roll over, but from our point of view, we gave him mercy by knocking him out."
Azura really looks like she has something to say,
but her survival instincts told her not to say anything.

Himiko continues to hold her katana at Azura's throat but relents after several seconds of eye contact and silence.
(This woman is a monster!)
She thought as she walked around Himiko to the other side of Terra's medical bed roll.
"Status report."
Himiko commands in a softer tone, taking a seat on a white plastic chair.

"X-rays show multiple broken ribs, we did a CT scan and found breaks that the X-ray didn't find. Kenneth did an MRI. The tissues and organs are fine, with no small breaks."
Elaine presents all the physical copies of everything she listed and provides it to Himiko on a clip board to which Himiko thoroughly studies each image and report,
giving Elaine back the clip board. "Excellent, keep me updated."
All the instructors leave the medical tent to go train their students,
Shimura hanging back in Himiko's place, and Selena is staying as well to make sure Azura doesn't act out of line.
Himiko meets up with Ventus and applies medicine for his first degree burns on his hands,
wrist,
and abbs,
praising him for his unbreakable spirit but just as quickly calling him foolish for letting someone get under his skin for simply insulting a friend.
"Miss Himiko, not to be rude, but why are you breaking your own rule to help me?"

Himiko doesn't even make eye contact as she just kept on rubbing.
"Because I see talent. Sure, you're not nearly as strong as Terra Woods or smart as Azura Aqua, but when you fought for your friends honor, it reminded me of a samurai's spirit. You set a goal for yourself that was byond the surface level of friendship, your pride was hurt. You may hide it, but I see the worldly desire to crush that man and make him apologize for insulting your friend. I want to nurture your sub goal and see what will happen to you in a rematch. Alright, your body is good now. Hands up."
Ventus takes a Kenpo stance,
and Himiko takes the same stance as well,
starting another week's worth of brutal, agonizing training.
With each passing day,
Ventus continued to picture Himiko as the bully he wanted to mess up for bad mouthing Terra and for beating him up.

With each day,
he got better at Kenpo,
and soon, he was able to instinctively do kenpo without thought,
a state of such hyper focus that the only thing that exists in Ventus's brain is him, Himiko,
the environment around him and the temperature of the forest.
In the final week of November 2016, everyone who had taken the survival exercise
including the instructors, had missed the Thanksgiving holiday and week by week,
leading up to it,
Ventus gradually stole food from the Bully and his friends,
slowly turning them against each other until they were no longer a team.