"— re you sure he's actually gonna wake up?" A murky voice spoke
As I opened my eyes, dark spots clouded my vision. My mouth was dry, and my throat felt raspy
A sign that I had been out for quite awhile
"Of course he's gonna wake up, I have a 100% success rate you know" a voice I now recognized as Yamauchi said
"It's unfortunate I have to trust you with this" The earlier voice muttered
That was Horikita-senpai
It was an awkward situation, and I didn't exactly know what to do
Should I pretend to be asleep? Or do I say something to break the atmosphere?
I think I'm just gonna pretend-
"Wake up you fucking liar" Yamauchi shouted as he hit my stomach
It didn't really hurt, but it was surprising
"You can't hit a patient" Horikita stated, though his eyes stared directly at me in a blaming manner
"Sorry, It was just awkward" I cautiously spoke, my voice raspy
"You sound like your old man" Horikita grimaced
"Please don't compare us" I sat up
"You've been out for 4 days, you might want to take things slow"
4 days huh
Wait, then that means...
"You're fine, I asked your teacher to give you an extension for the exam. You were out cold after all" Horikita seemed to have seen the thoughts behind my eyes
"Well, he didn't really ask, more like forced his hand" Yamauchi shrugged
"In any case-" Horikita glared at him
"Do you feel any different?" He asked me
I tried to sense my body for any abnormalities, but I felt none
"I feel about the same" albeit weak from being bed-ridden for so long
"Hmm, so no changes to your physical state, what about your breathing technique?" He asked
This was, after all, the reason for everything that happened
I slowly started to concentrate on my breathing form, attempting to absorb as much as possible
As I did so, my chest began to burn up, and my lungs felt like they would explode. Yet, my breathing was stable, and uniform.
I gripped the metal side rail of the bed I was in, trying to withstand the pain
"Stop!" I heard Yamauchi scream through the palpitations in my head
Judging by the fact that only I was doing something, I stopped the technique and allowed for the pain to subside
"Fucking hell, you looked like you were gonna implode" Yamauchi looked shocked
Horikita didn't say a word, but seemed to be focused on me
Or rather, something I was doing
"Check your hand" he pointed at it
The pain was still there, but it was low enough for me to move physically now.
I slowly removed my hand from the railing, squinting at the throbbing muscle pain
I looked at my palm, it was reddened to the point that it appeared I had dumped it in boiling water
"Not your actual hand, but where you had it" Horikita said again
This time I looked over at the railing
The thick metal barring was completely crushed into a skinny pole
"This wasn't what I wanted" Horikita furrowed his eyebrows
"What the hell do you mean?! This is awesome!" Yamauchi exclaimed having seen what happened as well
"His strength is out of this world! He could probably be on par with some of the hashira disciples!" Yamauchi continued
"That's not the issue here..... with this inhuman strength, he's going to need to train even harder to control it"
"At the moment he could be the strongest person, but even with that, he has no control. It's very likely that he would kill himself exerting such a force without restraint"
"Can't you just teach him how to control it?" Yamauchi asked
"I can... but the difficulty of working backwards is much greater. At this point we can only rely on talent" Horikita looked at me as he spoke
"Talent..... unfortunately that's something I've always lacked" I spoke
"We'll see" he smiled
"What did you do to me?" I asked Yamauchi
I didn't want to ask before, but seeing the great changes to my body. It felt... uncomfortable not to know
"How should I say this.... I cleaned your body for you?.... No that sounds weird." He contemplated
"Do you know anything about Meridians?"
"Only the basics" I answered
"It's actually impressive you know anything at all" he shook his head
"For the most part, Chinese Medicine itself was already a lost practice before the demons took over, more so now"
"In essence, your Meridians are where your qi flows through within your body. Usually when a child is born, they have clean meridians, but they dirty throughout their life."
"The clearer they are, the more qi is able to flow freely. Doing this allows you to reach greater strengths and achieve a more stable mind..... or so I've heard" he scratched his head
"I simply cleaned yours to help you with your breathing technique, but your meridians were very clogged up, I'm surprised you managed to live so long."
"I guess cleaning them gave you a great boost"
"Though qi itself hasn't been confirmed to be.... Real. What I can confirm is that cleaning your meridians does help boost strength, though.... Not as much as it has you" he finished
As I digested this new information, Horikita ushered Yamauchi out of the room
"He talks too much... that information is supposed to be highly confidential. I trust you won't be relaying this conversation to anyone else" Horikita gazed at me
"I didn't plan on it" I answered
"That kid is part of a clan that specializes in Chinese Medicine. He's actually heir to the clan heads seat. Despite his personality, he's probably the greatest practitioner in a century" he explained
So he was such a great person, huh
Though something was bothering me
"If he had such status, why did he sign up for this school?" I asked
If he already had a future for himself, why risk it?
"He had been locked up from birth, he was forced to study under his father, and practice the field for his entire childhood."
"He simply grew tired of it, he had others decide his future growing up, so he set out to change that" Horikita answered me
So he left in order to escape his controlling family.... I can understand that
"Well, even though I said that, he's pretty used to being praised so he's rather prideful. That almost cost him on the first day..." Horikita sighed
"....wait was he that kid that-"
"Yeah, he was the one that angered Konada-sensei and almost got kicked out" he cut me off
"I had to convince Konada not to kick him out because of his abilities. The conditions were that I keep an eye on him, which is why he's with the student council"
"Why haven't I heard of him?" I asked
"Because..... we need to hide his abilities, after all, his knowledge, if given to the wrong people, would cause a lot of problems"
"Not to mention his family wouldn't let the government off easily"
So his family had such influence...
"If it was revealed he was in the Student Council people would question why, and since we can't exactly tell them about him, they would likely riot"
"Is... that really worth rioting over?"
"You might not care, but the Student Council is an elite group, we're comparable to the top demon slaying groups in the military. Joining is something they all dream about"
"Won't they riot when you announce me as the Vice President then?" I asked
"Not if you get that strength under control in time" he smiled
"Well, let's get you some rest, you have the rest of the day off to recuperate. Yamauchi left some food for you on the desk, said it was beneficial for you" he said as he walked out the door
So he left me with such a massive weight in my shoulder while telling me to get rest, which is it?
I reached over to the desk and opened the brown sack, inside where a bunch of marble shaped brown balls
They smelled very..... tea-like? Kind of like herbs
Yamauchi said they were good for me so... I put one in my mouth and chewed
..... I'm just gonna make something to eat myself
As I stood up, I finally looked at my surroundings.... I was in my own room this whole time
Though there was something different... this wasn't the bed I had before?
_______________________________________
Horikita POV:
I closed the door behind me, making sure it was completely shut
I briskly walked down the hallway, it was daytime now, so I couldn't exactly be seen in the first years hallway right now
I didn't want rumors to spread after all
Continuing pace, I could hear a much slower set of footsteps in front of me
I would've tried to avoid them, but I had a feeling I knew who they belonged to
I slowed down and faced the man in front of me
"I told you, you're going to need that steel railing" the man in front of me smirked behind that mask
"Hiruko..... who exactly are you?" I asked
"I wonder about that" he laughed as he walked past me
________________________________________
Authors Note: So apparently my school district took away 2 weeks of summer in order to give us more breaks. Now that's cool and all, but I didn't know that, so it was a bit of a shock when I was woken up early on Monday for school.
Not only that, they fucked up my schedule. Like dawg this is my senior year, why are my classes all wrong
They didn't give me my health science class, and instead of giving me on level classes like I asked, they put me in all advanced classes
Now I'm fighting for my life because I wasn't prepared for a hard senior year, I thought it would be smooth sailing
Anyway here's your chapter
"He came with that drip, and left with a toe-tag
I went to the mall, I walked out with more bags"
Cya.