Chapter 89: Recovery Time

Chapter 89: Recovery Time

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Recovery Time

I followed Ozpin through the halls of the Hospital in silence, keeping my eyes and ears opened. It didn't seem like there had been many major injuries among those who'd survived the attackthough, I suppose it was more accurate to say that only those who hadn't suffered any injuries had been able to survive. No one I walked past gave me more than a glance unless I spotted something I felt noteworthy and stopped to heal it. It was easy enough and it wasn't like I particularly minded, so I allowed Ozpin to take the long road through the building and stopped to heal whenever I could.

But in time, we reached our first stop.

"Onyx," I greeted, stepping through the doorway after the headmaster.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

The one-legged hunter had looked up from his magazine the moment Ozpin had entered, but his gaze flickered to me at the sound of my voice.

"Hey, Jaune," He replied, trying for a smile before letting it fall away sadly. "I, uh. I heard about your father. I'm sorry; he was a good man. He'd have been proud of what you did out there."

I closed my eyes and bowed my head for a moment, because it seemed like what I should do. As I went through the motions, however, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what Ozpin had told Onyx to explain things. Unlike Ren and Nora, he hadn't seen me with the White Tiger of the West up and running, but Ozpin had probably needed to say something about how effective I'd been in the situation. Whatever it was, he hadn't bothered telling me about it, which was rather annoying.

After that moment of silence, I opened my eyes and looked up.

"Thank you, Onyx," I said. "Without your help, a lot of these people wouldn't be here today. Even witheverything that happened, at least we managed to save a few, right?"

He smiled at me bleakly, but nodded at the words.

"We did at that," He said. "Are you holding up okay?"

"Uh," I said. "As well as could be expected. Yourself?"

"Under the circumstances, I can't really complain," He said. "Which is pretty annoying, honestly. I mean, here I am, having torn off my own leg before working hard for another hour, and all I can really think is 'I got off light.'"

"You can complain," I said. "I don't mind."

"Well," He said demurely. "If you insist. The sheets inch, especially against my stump. Not being able to walk sucks ass. Needing help to go to the bathroom sucks even more ass. I'm not on the ground so I can't use my Semblance and it feels like I'm covering my eyes up, you know? So I'm missing my leg, missing a lot of my power, I feel helpless, and after that whole mess, my nerves are up and will be fore days. So I feel like I need to be prepared if anything happens, but the fact is, I'm unprepared for anything. I bet a freshman at the Academy could kick my ass right now; no offense."

I shrugged it off and smiled. He still seemed to be holding back, but I could tell from his emotions that being allowed to complain was a relief, even if it wasn't aboutwhatever was really bothering him. I supposed it wasn't my place to pry, but that didn't mean I couldn't help.

"Let's see if we can't do something about that, then, okay?" I said, moving to his bedside and sitting down in one of the guest chairs. "After, well, everything, I'm a little short on supplies, but I still have a little bit left, so why don't we take a look at your leg?"

He leaned against the backrest and nodded, probably remembering my words from before. Even now, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fix his leg with the skill I currently hadbut I couldn't then I'd just keep practicing until I could. For me, it shouldn't be impossible, especially with my new Wisdom skills, so I'd simply grind the skill until it was good enough or find something else that would work. For Onyx, Ren, and especially my own mother, I needed to find a way, so I would. It was as simple as that.

For the moment, however, I simply drew one of my final blue Dust crystals from my Inventory and used it to heal him. Independently of that, I cast a Regeneration of my own upon him and set up a Temple around him. With my present level of MP regeneration, stuff like this was trivial, so it shouldn't be a problem to just leave it up and running for a while. In factmaybe I could cover the whole hospital with Temples? It would require a fair number of castings, but the way I figured it probably wouldn't hurt if anyone who came here healed faster. I made a note to speak to Ozpin about it.

"Did you need anything else, sir?" Onyx asked Ozpin while I busied myself. "I didn't really see too much, down below."

"It's fine," Ozpin assured the wounded Hunter. "I have business in town later today and it's simply not worth it to fly back to Beacon only to return. As such, I thought I'd spend the rest of the day here, looking after friends. Mr. Arc even offered to escort me for a while."

I nodded without lifting my head. The stump had already healed over as if it had several weeks to heal, but I wasn't sure how much of an issue that would be. There was some activity near the stump itself, but none of it obvious enough to be visible to normal people's eyes; if the skills I'd used were going to have any effect, it would likely be over days or weeks, if not longer.

"I set a few things up, but they might take a while to show any effect," I said, partially to Onyx but mostly to Ozpin. "I even set up a healing barrier around here, to make things go faster. I might be able to cover the whole building, in fact, if that's okay. Might help the rest of the hospital."

"Yeah?" Onyx asked, lifting an eyebrow before looking around. There wasn't anything obvious so after a moment he just shrugged. "Cool."

As he did so, Ozpin looked contemplative.

"I'll have to speak to Paean, of course," He said. "If it's your power, I don't think it would cause any problems, but where the health of so many people is concernedwell, I'm sure you can understand. If you're willing to take the time to go through the proper channels, I doubt there would be any objections, but such things take time."

"Should I take this one down, then?"

"I don't mind it," Onyx stated. "The healer says it works, that's good enough for me. I know what he can do."

"Then I suppose we shall consider this a test case," Ozpin clapped his hands. "I'll try to remember to inform Paean about it, but I am a busy man. It may have to wait until after you're checked out, Onyx. Jaune?"

"I'm done," I nodded. "I'll check up on him regularly to renew it all, but he should be okay for now. I'll just maintain the barrier until he's clear."

"Then shall we"

"Sir," Onyx interrupted. "Could we have a moment?"

Ozpin tilted his head to the side and nodded.

"Ah, of course," He said. "Jaune, I assume you know where your mother's room is?"

"Yes, sir," I replied. "You go on ahead."

"Then I shall see you shortly," He said, inclining his head before leaving. "Good luck, Onyx. Be sure not to start any more fights with Paean's daughters, hm?"

"I'll be good," He promised. "I'm not one to start anything I can't run away from."

I waited a moment to track Ozpin out of sight and then lifted an eyebrow.

"Is there something else you need?" I asked.

He hesitated briefly before speaking.

"It's uhit's about your mother," Onyx said.

"Ah," I understood. "Ozpin told you?"

"No, I'm" He looked down and then tried to force a smile before giving up and shaking his head. "Well, it's just say I'm familiar with the procedure, yeah?"

"Oh."

"Yeah," He took a breath and then continued. "I figured I shouldyou know, help. Sincewell, since I did this, before joining your father's team. Might need to do it again, actually, butthis is the type of thing I feel like I should be an expert on, but all the shit they did and made me do? There's a lot of it that seemed pointless and stupid at the time and I can't say it makes sense to me now. Most of that stuff, I should probably let someone else explain, but I figured you should get a heads up, just in case."

"Okay," I nodded, confused but appreciative. "Thank you."

"No problem," He said before cracking his neck uncertainly. "I don't actually know if this will happen to you, because the brains behind all thisthe therapy thing, I meanI have no idea how they do this. They might decide what's best for us via voodoo magic for all I know, but the basics is there's about a one to three week period where they basically psychoanalyze the hell out of us and then they come up with some stuff they tell us or our family members and then we either continue to meet with them or they assign us to someone else. I assume your family's been called? Ozpin usually handles that stuff."

"Yeah," I replied. "Grandmother and sisters are one their way."

"Good, good. But, uh" Onyx raked a hand through his hair. "Well, like I was saying, they sort of customize this shit, but I went through the system and I know three other people did; for me and one of them, the same thing happened, so it might happen to you, too? Or not, depending on Isabelle, I guess. But after Ivoryafter my wife died, it wasI guess recommended that I move in with a family member, so my daughter and I lived with my old man for a while and then redecorate my house and some bullshit like that. I guess the idea is that, for some people, being surrounded bypictures, memories, that type of thingthat it doesn't always help. But it was still a big change for my daughter, you know? She was five at the time and between moving and her motherI mean, I think if you've proven anything it's that you're not a kid, Jaune, butstill, I thought you should know."

"Did it help?" I asked. "Being out of your house for a while, I mean."

I nodded and the smile became easier.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then?" I clapped my hands and stood.

"Of course," He nodded.

"Goodbye, Jaune!" Nora waved, seeming to have been cheered up by my words. I'm glad I accomplished that, at least.

"And you," I waved slightly before stepping out. "Oh, and, do you mind keeping this stuff between us? You can tell Ozpin, but"

"Got it," Ren replied, sounding sleepy. "Neither of us will say a word."

"Cool," I nodded. "Laters."

I shut the door and turned my head to the man I'd sensed standing there. I'd recognized him, so it wasn't a concern, but I had Levant arrange some privacy for us regardless.

"Well said, Jaune," Ozpin applauded. "Very well said."

"Sir," I tilted my head. "I thought you were going to check on my mother?"

"She has fallen asleep again," He stated. "I thought it best to leave her to her rest."

"Ah," I nodded. "I'll just pop in real quickly to heal her, then. I'll need to handle stuff at home and then buy more Dust crystals, so I'll head out afterwards and come back later. What about you, sir?"

He seemed to mull over that for a moment before nodding to himself.

"We have much to discuss, but nothing that cannot wait until tomorrow. I have business in town over the next few days, so shall we meet here again, Jaune?"

"Yes, sir," I agreed. "Once I restock, I'll just hang out here, so just stop by."

"Then I shall see you tomorrow, then," He said before pausing. "Considering the circumstances, might I suggest you take the rest of the day off? Most Dust shops are unlikely to be open this late, but I'll arrange to have an order delivered to you tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, sir," I nodded. "Have a nice day."

XxXXxX

True to Ozpin's words, my mother had been sleeping. I suppose losing three limbs, suffering extensive burns, being struck by lightning, and losing one's husband and team would do that, so I was careful not to wake her. I stayed beside her until I finally ran out of blue Dust and then left. It hadn't shown much effect, yet, but I'd make it work, whatever it took.

But for the moment, I followed Ozpin's advice. My mother and friends were safe, if not completely healthy, and I'd set up Temples around each of them. They'd be fine for now and I did had stuff I needed to do.

So before long, I found myself back home. But for my daughter and dog, it was empty, but our house wasn't unused to being that way, even if it seemed like a gloom had settled over it. Whatever the case, rooms needed to be cleaned out and prepared and I'd need to get food enough to feed an army while I was out tomorrow. I didn't want to do anything to my father's belongings yet, though, so I'd leave them untouched for now.

Better get to it then.

"I'm home," I said pointlessly as I opened the door and entered, knowing there'd be no reply.

Except there totally was.

"Welcome home," Gou said, scurrying to the front hall and looking up at me with big doggy eyes. Autumn was wrapped around him, as per usual. "Autumn was worried when everyone left and no one came back, but I knew you were okay."

I looked down at him. Since no one else was home, I didn't bother turning on the lights, because I sure as hell didn't need them, but I took a moment to consider my dog and daughter.

Celestial Dog

LV 52

Tiangou

"Yeah," I said. "A lot of stuff happened andit's a long story."

"Where are the others?" Gou looked around, as if expecting my mother and father to appear. "I can't smell them."

"It's" I sighed deeply. "It's a long story, Gou. Is it okay if I explain later?"

"Okay," Gou nodded. "Food?"

"Sure." I said before stepping by him and went into the kitchen to make him something to eat, fetching his dog bowl in silence. I made his food and then put it down to watch him eat, sitting in a chair by the table as I did. As he scarfed down his food, I reached out to pet him, touching Autumn's petals to let her know I was there. Her blossom twitched and opened at my touch.

That done, I addressed the elephant in the room.

"So," I drew out. "You can talk now. That's new."

"It kind of surprised me, too," Gou looked up at me. "But suddenly I could."

"I see," I lied. Well, he'd obviously gained a lot of experience from the fights I'd been in, sothat had probably been why. I guess. "So"

I kind of trailed off at that point, pursing my lips at the whole situation, but the ring of the doorbell saved me from needing to continue. I directed my attention towards the presence and lifted an eyebrow when I recognized it.

"Hold that thought," I said before lifting my voice. "Coming!"

I reached the door quickly and opened it to look at Adam.

"Hey," I greet.

"I heard about your parents," He said with his usual bluntness.

I leaned against the doorway and sighed slowly, nodding.

"Yeah."

He looked at me carefully from behind crimson shades and then spoke.

"I still owe you that drink," He said. "Now a good time?"

I felt something in me relax suddenly, in a way that was hard to describe even though it made me smile. Maybe it was because of who Adam wasa friendor who he wasn'tone of the people I'd let get hurtbut for the first time since I woke up I felt at ease.

"You know what?" I said. "Yeah. Gou, watch the house for me, okay? I'll be back in a bit."

"You can count on me," Gou said seriously, sticking his head out of the kitchen.

Adam turned his face and stared expressionlessly over my shoulder for a minute.

"Did that dog just talk?" He asked.