--- Wellston Private High School ---
Seraphina's POV
My next class is Trig, so if I go over this hall here I can avoid any unnecessary conflicts.
In the meantime, I was walking to get to class on time, I overheard some gossiping from some students that were close to the classroom I was going to.
Fortunately, it appears that they weren't talking about me this time.
But when I passed close to those students, they were commenting on something that caught up my attention.
- "Hey, did you see the news?"
- "Dude, I don't even have a TV in my room."
- "You should really stop living under a rock bro."
- "Whatever, just tell me what you saw."
- "Well, I see in the news that the author of Unordinary was attacked!"
- "Woah, really, the same one who gets his book banned?"
- "Yeah, well they said that they transferred him to Wellston's General Hospital because he is really injured, apparently the attack was in New Bostin."
- "But the authorities couldn't even do anything about him I believe. I never heard of any penalization from them."
- "So I think the guy is actually pretty powerful to not have any consequences about it."
- "It must have been a fierce fight then."
- "Yeah, I think so, but they didn't say any details about it, really."
- "So... who do you think is behind this? Maybe EMBER?"
- "I don't know man, but I don't think it could be EMBER, since they go after superheroes and vigilantes."
- "Also I couldn't care less about someone who made a book that turns people into superheroes."
- "Yeah, those people should really mind their own business."
- "Anyway, I also wanted to ask if you could lend me your homework? I forgot to do mine."
- "Dude what homework...?"
WHAT?!
William was attacked?!
But why?
Why would they attack William just like that?
This is pretty weird though...
Since nobody did anything to him in all this time, but suddenly, he gets attacked?
Something is fishy about this...
"Why don't you focus on helping yourself, instead of acting like a f*cking know-it-all?"
I honestly hate to admit it.
But I can't be thinking about those things as I am now.
I have enough on my plate as it is.
But... I hope that William is okay...
Also, I don't know how John is going to react to this...
After I face him for being Joker...
For hiding his power...
For tricking everybody to believe he was something he wasn't.
For lying to my face, even after what happened to me.
I was completely sure that he relapsed to his old days in New Bostin.
But the last time I saw him, that showed me that he has been improving a bit since the last time I saw him.
Ruthless yet composed.
Composed yet ruthless.
He is in the middle of changing...
But a hit like this with this timing...
I think that isn't going to be good.
Maybe I'll go visit him at the hospital after this class, at least I can go there to try to cheer him up or something.
--- Wellston General Hospital ---
Well... I'm here.
I wanted to see how is William since I heard that he was in this place.
I hope that those students were saying the truth...
So I get close to the reception counter.
- "Excuse me?" I asked to the lady who was at the counter.
- "Yes? Do you need anything?" She asked me.
- "Yeah, I wanted to visit someone. His name is William." I said what I came here for in the first place.
- "Okay... tell me your name first, please."
- "It's Seraphina." I said my name to the lady.
- "Okay, Seraphina... please fill this visitors form, while I search on our register in which room is he."
- "Hmm... William... what a weird name..." She said out loud when I was filling the visitor's form.
- "Oh! Here it is!" The lady exclaimed when she finds his profile.
- "Great, so where is he?" I asked.
But she started to look at his profile and then she starts to look at me again.
- "But... how do you know Mr. William?" She asked me, a bit suspicious since I had no apparent connection to him.
....
What do I say here?
That I'm a friend of him?
Of course not, they are never going to believe that I'm friends with a middle-aged man!
So maybe I say that he's the father of my friend...?
I don't want to lie, so I might as well tell her my situation, and hope that she let me pass.
- "It's a bit complicated because he is the father of a previous friend of mine and..." I started telling her about my situation.
After telling her a resumed version of the story, she finally talks.
- "Sorry to hear that." She said.
- "Yeah, don't worry about it." I said back.
- "Nono, but I understand, I also made myself friends with my ex's parents in a previous relationship I had before, it's complicated to explain but I get you." She said while winking and lifting her thumb to me.
- "But I honestly think you should move forward honey, it's not healthy to deny things like that." She added.
This is so embarrassing.
- "..." I remained silent.
- "No, you misunderstood. He wasn't my boyfriend, he was just a friend. That's it." I explained to the reception lady.
- "Suuure~ Okay, so Mr. William is in room 247, walk over that hall and you will get there soon." The lady said.
- "Thanks." I said with an indifferent tone because I was getting a bit annoyed.
And I didn't want to correct her anymore, so I just walked over there as soon as possible.
When I get to the room, I saw him with all kinds of injuries, that honestly, it hurts just from seeing them.
I also hoped that he would be conscious, so we could talk...
Maybe he would help me with John as he is now.
But that would be difficult right now.
So instead, I'll stay here for a while, and come back another day.
--- Wellston General Hospital's Entrance, 1 Hour Later ---
John's POV
When I came back to my room in the dorms, he wasn't answering on the app, and I don't know his phone number, since he always called me from his office phone, and those are private numbers.
But probably he is just too busy with his work, so I just need to check that he isn't here, that the news was lying, and go home.
There, problem solved.
But still, I decided to come here right after without Remi.
Just waiting any more time is making me feel horrible, so I skipped classes.
When I saw the reception counter is over there, I walked over and asked the lady who was attending.
- "Excuse me, there is a patient called William in this hospital?" I asked.
- "William, ah, you meant the one who came out of ER recently? I remembered him because of his weird name and they said that he was the author of Unordinary..."
- "Also a young lady visited him earlier..." After that, I couldn't really hear what the lady was saying.
But when the lady said that...
She simply confirmed the truth...
That I tried to deny.
But deep down, I knew that they were right, it was just that...
I didn't want to believe it.
- "HOW THE F*CK TOLD YOU THAT?!" I asked aggressively while I grabbed her uniform.
- "Look, it was in the news that he was transferred over here and that person was transferred from New Bostin a few hours ago! I just deduced it from that!" She explained herself, shuddered in fear.
Then, a few unpleasant memories came back to my mind when I was in New Bostin.
- "Whatever." I coldly said while letting her go.
- "Now. Where is he?!" I asked, with a menacing tone.
- "In a second, but first I need you to fill this visitor form with your-" She managed to say before I interrupted her.
- "I don't have all the time in the world to fill some useless forms just to see my father." I abruptly said while slamming the counter with my hand.
- "I'll ask again, where is he?" I said coldly.
- "Mr. William is in room 247, walk to the hall over there and you will find it." The lady said, with noticeable fear in her voice.
Then...
For some reason, I started to run over there.
It wasn't a long way to that room, but for me, it felt eternal.
And when I opened the door...
I saw him in that bed, still unconscious.
But...
It was simply a horrible sight.
And I could hardly bear to even see him in that state.
I saw his whole body covered in bandages, broken ribs, his left leg is cracked, since it's more swollen than the other one, stab wounds in one arm, and the other one is broken.
Then, the feeling of sadness was overwhelming my mind, and tears were coming out of my eyes.
I don't know how much time I remained like this, it really doesn't matter to me.
Until...
I noticed something.
This isn't something that furious families from fallen heroes would do.
No, it's the other way around, these injuries seemed quite calculated and cold-blooded.
With no hesitation, no mercy, and extremely vicious.
But he has a lot of injuries, so a single person couldn't have done this alone.
And I started to feel something different after I noticed this.
Rage.
With such intensity, which made me able to overcome my sadness.
But this rage was different from the one I was so used to feel.
Different from when I faced bullying.
Different from when I faced betrayal.
Is not like blind rage.
And is not clouding my thoughts either.
Instead, it gives me a new thing to focus on.
This rage is engraining in my mind just one thing.
Whoever made this, is going to pay.
Pay enough to wish not to have ever born.
But for now, I'll stay here, maybe dad will wake up soon and tell me more in detail what happened.
--- 1 Hour Later ---
This day has been so long.
And dad hasn't woken up yet, so I guess he has fallen asleep by now.
But it's better this way I think.
Maybe I will come back tomorrow, it would be for the best.
Then, when I was preparing myself to leave, I heard some voices that were close to the room.
- "Hey, did you hear? We have an infamous guest here on this hospital..."
- "Really? Who is it?"
- "It's the author of Unordinary, W.H. Doe..."
- "No way! And how he is like?"
- "But honestly, I'm a bit disappointed, especially since I was assigned to take care of him..."
- "Why?"
- "Well, he has black hair, which is something pretty unique in his own way... but I'm disappointed because I expected him to be a high-tier for sure."
- "So... he's an elite?"
- "Try to guess the answer."
- "Hmm... an elite then?"
- "Not even close."
- "So a mid-tier then."
- "Nope."
- "Come on Levani! Just tell me!"
- "Okay... so can you believe that he is a cripple?"
- "Really? I didn't expect that."
- "Yeah, so no wonder the authorities didn't do anything to him for his book, he wasn't even worth the trouble."
Then they started to laugh.
When I heard this, I immediately get up from the chair I was sitting on and ran where they were.
- "What the f*ck did you just said?" I asked the nurse who said that.
- "Uhh... we were just talking about the patient-" The nurse paused herself, after noticing that I also had black hair.
- "Oh, we're sorry, I didn't notice you were inside the room yet!" The other nurse immediately tried to defuse the situation.
- "You shut the f*ck up, you worthless trash." I immediately shut her up.
- "Really? Now you're asking for forgiveness?" I asked her.
- "When you trash-talked my dad just like that!" I said, furious by this.
- "You f*cking b*tch, do you think I was going to let that slide?!" I insulted her.
- "And what are you going to do you little brat?! Your father is a cripple so you have to be one as well! I won't fall in your bluff!" She said while getting furious.
- "Now get out unless you want to stay here as a patient too." She threatened me while activating her ability.
- "Yeah? And what are you going to do? Hit a little harder? Hit a little faster?" I taunted her.
- "When you threaten someone, you need to have the power to back up what you say." I said.
- "OH, I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT I CAN DO!" She said while she was condensing energy in her hand.
So her ability is to make condensed energy spheres, which will probably make an explosion when it connects with the target, but she can't make a lot of them, since she doesn't have a lot of aura left in her body and takes a lot of time to charge.
I see...
- "No... this time I'll show you what I can do." I said while activating my ability.
Then, I condensed up two big energy spheres in my hands in an instant.
Then, I aimed one energy sphere at her face.
She doesn't have any way to evade this.
She's doomed.
- "HEY! WAIT DON'T-" She managed to say.
*BOOM!*
...
...
...
- "Huh?" She said surprised when she opened her eyes.
- "I'm... alive?" She asked surprised.
- "Next time it won't be the wall." I said while I aimed the other energy sphere at her face.
Then, she looked at the huge hole at the destroyed wall behind her.
- "No! Please don't! Tell me what do you want from me!" She begged me.
- "I heard that you were assigned to take care of him, Levani, right?" I asked her.
- "Yes!" She answered.
- "Then, I want you to take care of my dad as if your life depends on it." I said with an intimidating tone.
- "If something bad happens to him when he's staying here..." I warned her.
- "I'm going to destroy this hospital to the ground. Starting with you." I stated with a menacing tone.
- "Yessir! I'll take care of him with everything I can!" Said Levani, scared of what happened just now.
Then, I walked out of the room.
This... isn't going to stay like this.
I have a new objective now.
This is just the beginning.
-- unOrdinary: Joker's Aftermath and Transition, Chapter #17 END --
Le Bonus:
Notes:
I hope you really liked this chapter!
You can vote and comment too, but it would make me really happy if you do!
Also, I publish the updates on Twitter and the subreddit r/unOrdinary!
Twitter: @sirtuskz
Subreddit: u/tuskz
I hope you have an excellent day (or night) and I see you in the next episode!
Peace :D