6-5 Questioning (1)

Date: September 9

Place: HQ's Clinic

[Noel]

    After that, everyone rushed her to the clinic while I'm following them, trying to process everything that had happened.

*     *     *     *     *

[Rei]

    I remember everything that had happened now. My head feels heavy and like it's splitting into two. I feel exhausted and I can't move some parts of my body. I can barely open my eyes and I see people. Ah, that's right, I collapsed again after I had my conscience back earlier. I see them, circling me, talking and looking so worried. Then a light caught my eye and I found myself staring at Noel. They don't seem to notice that I regained consciousness again until Noel shouted my name when we locked eyes.

"Rei!" He shouts. How mysterious, why am I smiling?

    After all the commotion and everyone's visit, I'm now alone in this room with Noel guarding me. He sits on the stool placed beside the bed, staring intensely at me while I eat my dinner. What's his problem? I can't eat peacefully...

    It was already nearing nighttime when I woke up. They told me everything that had happened and I understood everything easily. Because I saw everything. The demon that possessed me looks a lot like my ability. Although, I'm not entirely sure. This is the first time that it happened after all. And I don't even know my ability that well. All that I care about is that I have to take revenge on that twisted professor with the ability that he forcefully put inside of me. And somehow, that thing left my eyes and ears working and thanks to that, I kind of manage to do something about it killing someone, especially Noel. And I haven't told anyone about that.

    I just ignored Noel who looks like he has a lot to ask. And I tried to play dumb.

"What? Don't tell me you're hungry" I say when he won't stop intensely looking at me and he got confused. "Here you go," I sigh, trying to give him the plate and spoon.

"No, No! It's not that. I was just curious," he says, averting his gazes to me.

"About what?" I know deep down what he wanted to ask but I just played innocent.

"It's aboutー" he paused, probably having second thoughts of what he wanted to ask. "Are you really alright now?" I saw him shake his head before answering as if he tried to chase away his true intentions.

"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine now," I say with a wide smile. But he just sighed and stared at the floor. The atmosphere was getting awkward so I decided to strike with another conversation.

"And I want to apologize to you," I haven't even finished when he looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Apologize? What for?" he says like he's guilty about something as he stutters.

"About your first mission. We couldn't do it today because of me," I sincerely apologized as I partly bowed.

"It's not that big of the deal for you to apologize," he stutters again while looking all so worried that got me wondering why. "What's more important is for you to recover and gain your strength back," he calmed down. "I don't want to bother you any longer so I'll be going now," he stood up from where he was sitting and partly bowed before he started to walk away. I wanted to call him back but my voice doesn't seem to help me reach his ears. I want him to stay with me for a little while but when I was about to get out of my bed to chase after him, Yui came rushing in with Cedrick trying to stop her.

"Rei" she cries, hugging me.

"You have no time for this. Go back to your squadron!" Cedrick scolds.

"Shut up! You just want her for yourself!" Yui shouts which caught Cedrick off guard who turned into a tomato.

"WhatーJust get out!" He shouts back and drags her out of the room.

"I'll visit you later! Don't fall asleep! Wait for me!" She says while she's being dragged out away like a wheeled cart out of the room. It's finally just the two of us here. He sat where Noel was earlier, took a deep breath before he delivers the news.

"He's under tight surveillance by the Second Lieutenant behind bars. But he still hasn't admitted anything" I cut him.

"Has he been tortured yet?" I asked. I didn't even notice my fists crumpling from the thought of everything not being just an ordinary coincidence. He must have been just a puppet who was controlled and ordered by someone. And I know for sure that it'll be a good lead to find Professor Norby or anyone who connects me to him. I know that he's behind everything. The rage that was built up of me is because of knowing that even if I'm far away from him, he can still touch me and continue his experiment. He probably wants me to know that there is no escaping his grasps.

    Cedrick seems surprised by my sudden question that it took him quite some time to answer.

"Yes. At least that's what they said" he sighs. I raised an eyebrow at him, demanding an explanation. "When I visited him earlier, I couldn't see any scratch or blood anywhere," he says so confusedly that he looks like he's seeking an explanation from me even though he fully knows that I don't have an answer.