Chapter 4 – Proximity Encounter

The infirmary was one of the places that I had been to familiar with. Let's just say that I'm an avid customer at this place because I get into fights almost always. The infirmary looked really neat and it smelled like someone had spread disinfectant all over the place. I was in the waiting room and I sat down on soft bench as I waited for a doctor to tend to my wounds. The doctors here are actually not that bad, but they tend to get irritating at times especially when they begin to start casual conversations. I had nothing to say to them most of the time, but it gets awkward because they force you to talk.

I had noticed a girl there who was arranging some supplies in a shelf; she looked about my age which was 16 years old she had silver hair which reached up to her shoulders and her eyes were brown in color. I had a feeling that she was looking at me because when I looked at her she turned away immediately. I looked away from her, but I still see her thanks to my peripheral vision and I was right. She was looking at me, probably wondering why I was wounded so much. It bothered me a little and I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. I then saw a doctor getting near to me; she looked at me now and said;

"Well, well look who we have here."

"I just want to get treated." I replied to her. She was Dr. Lett and she was mostly the one who fixed me up after fights so that's why she knows me well. She and I now went to the clinic in which she had asked me to take off the top portion of my school uniform and I did then I sat on the high chair in the middle of the room.

"Always the cold shoulder huh? Seiryu you gotta stop getting hurt like this." She had said as she wiped disinfectant on my shoulder wound and then she did the same to the cut on the upper section of my right eye. I winced a little in pain and discomfort but I got over it afterwards.

"This is your 5th time coming in my clinic this week." I had heard her say to me. I did not reply to her as I kept an expressionless face. Suddenly someone had entered the clinic, it was the girl that was looking at me earlier, and she had extra medical supplies with her such as cotton balls, bandages and a bottle of disinfectant.

"Um doctor, here are some extra supplies if you need some more." She had said shyly. I looked at her briefly and she saw me look at her and that made her turn away afterwards. I could've sworn that I saw her cheeks turn a bright red when I looked at her, but whatever.

"Thank you Rhea." Dr. Lett had said with a smile to her as she now returned to me and started wrapping my shoulder with the bandages that the girl had brought. I can feel the pressure and the tightness of the bandages on my left shoulder and there was a little pain on it. Thank god that the wound did not swell up because if it did, it would really be uncomfortable for me.

"I think Rhea likes you." Dr. Lett teased me.

"Whatever." I replied coldly to her.

"Do you always have to be so blunt about everything?" she had asked me. I really didn't care what other people thought about me whether positive or negative. All I cared about was myself and carrying my own weight in this world. I just want to be stronger and nothing else and to be honest, other people just drag me down and that's the last thing that I want to happen to me right now.

"Yes." I replied to her in a cold manner again.

"Don't you ever feel lonely?" The doctor had asked me again. See? This is one of the reasons why I really do not like the doctors here in the infirmary especially her. I hate it when people butt in my own business.

"I don't really care." I replied to her. She was already done with putting the bandage on my shoulder and now she moved on to the cut above my right eye. She wiped the blood out of it and put some disinfectant on it again. The doctor then took a small bandage on top of the table where Rhea had laid down most of the supplies. She went near me again and put the bandage on the wound.

"Alright, everything's done." Dr. Lett had said as I got down from the high chair. I took my school uniform jacket which I had placed on the side and wore it back on. The area on the left shoulder was ripped so I knew I had to change again. This was the second time I was going to change uniforms. I checked the wall clock on the top of the door in which I was treated; it was already 2:00pm which meant that I have 45 minutes to go back to my dorm and change until my next class. I walked out of the clinic and went to the exit door of the clinic, but before I could exit the infirmary I had heard a voice behind me.

"E-excuse m-me, but you almost left this…"

I turned around and I saw it was Rhea. She was holding my katana with her small slender arms. I had forgotten that I had placed my katana on the floor when I went in Dr. Lett's clinic. I took my weapon from her and turned my back on her afterwards.

"Thanks." I said to Rhea coldly as I got out of the infirmary.

…

…

…

General POV

Seiryu had gotten out of the clinic and Rhea was looking through the glass door that had separated her from him. Dr. Lett went closer to her now and said;

"He really is a cold person."

"Maybe something happened to him…something tragic.." Rhea had replied to her as they both now went back to doing their job in the infirmary.

Seiryu made his way towards his dormitory now that he had learned that he only had 45 minutes left in his break time. He had been preoccupied most of his break time in fighting Resshin and staying in the infirmary which never really gave him a time to do what he wanted in his break time which was sleep in his dormitory. He carried his katana on his left hand as he walked slowly on the hallways of the battle academy. After a while he had made it in his dormitory again and he went inside. Putting down his katana, he ruffled his hair and then opened his closet. There were still 4 sets of uniforms available for him to use so he immediately took off the uniform he was wearing and put on a new one.

"Second time I've already changed. I should really stop fighting unnecessary battles." Seiryu thought to himself.

He sat down on his bed for a while after he had changed in order to regain some of his energy lost in the two battles he had fought today.

"But I couldn't really stop can I? Because I want to be the strongest..." He thought again.

He took his katana which was on the ground and he unsheathed it. He ran his fingers on the blade of the katana. The blade was stainless and really sharp as it glinted when the light hit it. The handle was wrapped with a lanyard like cloth and at the end of the handle there was a chain that was attached to it. It had looked like a part of a necklace. Seiryu ran his fingers now on the handle and eventually he touched the chain that was attached to it.

"Yeah, it was because of him. He is the reason why I want to be stronger. My older brother..." Seiryu had thought to himself as he let out a sigh. In some way he always looked up to his older brother, for he was a soldier in the ongoing war in their continent before he had died on an unfortunate event that had happened 7 years ago. Their troop was ambushed by enemy soldiers in a nearby town in the area of Uradar. He had regretted that day and blamed himself for not being there to help him.

"If only I was there, you wouldn't have died. You were my only family Hegel…" he thought to himself again as he sheathed his sword. Seiryou had stood up afterwards and now he went near his dormitory exit.

"I won't suffer the same fate, I'll be stronger…I promise…" he thought to himself as he made his way now towards his classroom even if he still had 25 minutes worth of break time.