“You fucked up.”

  I sat in the healing tank, floating, listening to Master. It was incredibly unnerving seeing him hunched over a screen, staring at it, flickering through different diagnostic readings. He maneuvered it like an expert, brow furrowed in concentration and thought.

  That look of concentration and concern was so unlike him, so alien, that I felt like I was seeing a ghost of a man that had long since departed from this world.

  “I don’t even know where to begin. Everything is wrong. You have diseases that would’ve killed you, moss growing in your lungs and on your heart somehow despite how healthy they seem, an infection in pces I didn’t know could actually become infected, an utterly destroyed right hand to the point it’d be easier to cut it off and regrow it, most of your bones look like they were put through a woodchipper and then stitched back together, and your muscles are torn apart and somehow fused in pces they shouldn’t be.”

  “Someone healed you, and they did a good job, but it doesn’t work with base human physiology. Not just that, they definitely healed you multiple times after you kept breaking your body. That’s without looking at your non-existent nutrition, dehydration, and more. I’m surprised you can even see considering these readings are showing that you burnt your eyes somehow. The inner workings of them specifically.”

  “And these are literally the least of your issues.”

  It was the single longest thing I’d ever heard Master say. It might even be more than he’d said the entire time I’d ever known him. I couldn’t even reply, floating in the tank as I was. Some of that was downright horrifying. When had I burnt my eyes or fused my muscles? I didn’t remember any of that, besides some feelings in certain areas. I could see perfectly fine so, what? And I had moss growing on my lungs and heart. That was extra horrifying.

  I couldn’t even reply but master picked up on my look. He hadn’t mentioned the elephant in the room.

  “Yeah. Your arm was destroyed by a ki bst. It tried to originate from your arm and failed. It should’ve killed you. Well,” He scratched his cheek. “It shouldn’t have been possible at all but we can talk about that another time. The healing tank can heal most of this, the problem is the Ki.”

  Master grimaced as he looked at another screen, this one showing all red.

  “Ki shouldn’t be pyed around with until you’re stronger. The body, mind, and soul can’t handle it. It would’ve harmed all three at once. The body was your arm being destroyed. The mind, how was that after your bst?”

  He looked at me and now it was my turn to grimace. I mouthed a single word at him. ‘Bad.’ I’d practically been mentally broken for a while, loopy. It was like a certain part of my mind had broken and now I knew it was because it literally had. Thankfully that part had at least healed.

  Master nodded.

  “The mind is more resilient than the body. That’s not the concern if you can still speak without being an invalid. The problem is the soul Mutai. This should have damaged it.”

  The instant he said it, I remembered the dream. The horizon, white and gold, the unmaking.

  It was a blur but pure terror hit me in ways I couldn’t understand.

  “Ah. Well, that’s a relief.” Master said as he saw my face.

  “I didn’t want to have to deal with another soulless monster.” Master followed up with, sending more shivers of terror up my sides. Another? “Always a pain to deal with.”

  Truly, a long life has its own journey.

  “We can fix the rest of the body but the arm is a problem. We can’t naturally heal it but immediately fixing it might lock your body back into a prior state, permanently reducing your essence. It could hamper you for the rest of your life, with even odds of even lowering your potential at this early stage of development. It’d be like removing a child’s eyes at birth. Even if they’re healed in adulthood, it’s never the same.”

  Why did he sound like was speaking from experience? Master’s face was stormy now, mind clearly spinning, scaring me. I’d never seen him like this, I’d never heard him talk like this, I’d never seen him stare at me so intensely. It was like everything I knew about the man was wrong. The fact that he was that serious about my health, after nearly killing me by causing all these issues, was not lost on me. He’d done this to me, sent me there, and only now was he worried about me? Truly, master remained an enigma.

  It’d be touching, if I wasn’t still furious and also wasn’t scared as hell. A permanent reduction to my potential?! If that happened, I might never beat Vega. I needed that potential, it was the whole reason Master agreed to train me in the first pce. It was the basis for our… working retionship. If I didn’t have enough potential to succeed, what would be the point of my life? How would I beat Vega then? If it was like that… it might be better to just lose the arm for good.

  I was steeling my heart, ready to accept the loss, when master sighed and turned away from the screens, looking at me.

  “We’re going to have to rebuild your arm bit by bit. Along with all your other problems. We’ll need to do it outside of pure bodily healing. Think of it like a broken pte. The healing tank can undo the damage, but we can’t do that, or it’ll cripple you. It would also mean you could never use a healing tank in the future. We need to go the other way. We need to put the pieces of the pte back together and then, metaphorically, use nanomachines to make new pte in between the cracks till the pte is whole again. It’s about a million times harder. It’s going to take months.”

  My heart rexed immediately and a smile lit up on my face. Months? I could handle months. That was fine, better than fine! In only a few months, I’d be fully healed then. I’d have my arm, my hand, and maybe even my power level restored! This was great news!

  So why did Master look so unhappy?

  “Kid, do you think this is going to be so easy on us?” He guffawed. “Maybe for you. This is technology no one has because there’s no point. The nanomachines might not even be metaphorical; they might be necessary to do this kind of hyper precision work. And it all has to be perfect and distinctly you or your essence isn’t going to connect with it. You can’t simply sp on a new limb and call it a day. It doesn’t work like that. It’s going to be experimental, risky, and it has to be done perfectly the first time, with no problems, or you might die. You don’t want to see what a body trying to connect to a half finished arm that’s only ‘mostly’ you is like. I’d seen that happen with someone’s leg once.”

  “It exploded.”

  Oh.

  “Course, this is only going to suck for me I guess.” Master’s expression slowly pulled back, falling back into his normal nonchance. As if everything was equivalent to the weather passing by. Which was, I realized, even more scary. The st time I’d seen him go fully like that, he’d sent me down into the sewers for six months and I’d nearly died over a dozen times. His words didn’t inspire any sort of confidence either. What did he mean by that?

  “No use having you awake for this.”

  What?

  He clicked a few buttons on the screen and the healing fluid around me began to change, feeling… different. Calmer. More peaceful. I was starting to rex, which sent a spike of worry in my brain. I tried to shake it off but it was like I was being lulled to sleep. So… peaceful. So nice. I just wanted… to sleep.

  No!

  I stared, wide eyed, barely keeping them open as Master simply looked at me, arms behind his back.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll either work and you’ll be good as new or you’ll die in the process. See you in a few months. Well, you awake at least.”

  You bastard, don’t do this to me! I don’t want to take that gamble! I can be fine without the arm, really! Don’t make me fall asleep without knowing if I’m even going to wake up! My fist went forward but it was literally moving through water. It barely touched the gss and my whole body felt so calm. I just wanted to… sleep…

  “Goodnight Mutai. Maybe see ya ter.” Master said.

  I took a page out of Ragual’s book and gave Master the middle finger before the tiredness and peace and calm overwhelmed me.

  My eyes closed and then darkness took me.

  *****

  “Five more minutes…”

  Slowly, begrudgingly, I opened my eyes. I leaned up, stretching. Mom would want me to make breakfast today. I blocked the light trying to hit me in the eyes with my left hand and-

  My left hand.

  Memories like a torrent smmed into me and my eyes shot open. My arm, my arm was back! I had a left arm again. And that wasn’t all! My right hand, my right hand was healed! I squeezed them both into fists and tears nearly came out my eyes. How long had it been since I’d actually been able to feel either of them? Getting used to missing a limb and a hand had felt like a nightmare. And now it was like it was all gone. Actually… not just gone.

  I felt good.

  Better than I ever had in fact. Better than before the sewers, before when I’d first broken through. I felt great! I shot to my feet, unable to stay still. Laughter burst out of me. I felt amazing! I looked down at my body, smiling. I was, so much stronger now! I felt like I could-

  I didn’t think, I simply tried and flipped head over heels, nding on my feet.

  I could do a backflip!

  Hahaha! This is amazing!

  I looked up and-

  [10]

  What. What? What?! How?! WHAT! How could I, wasn’t I only level [6]? What happened?! How could, how can I be this strong?! What is going on?!

  I heard a knock and my head snapped towards a… door? What? I looked behind me and saw a bed. A proper bed. Since when did I sleep on beds? Even Ragual’s bed had been a bit weird and different but this was just a mostly normal bed. What?

  Betedly, only now did I realize my surroundings. I had seen this type of room before, in TV shows. Wasn’t this… was I in a hospital? The walls were white, the bed was a bit strange in design, and there seemed to be some basic medical equipment around me.

  The knock at the door came again. My mind bnked. Someone knocking on a door. That meant… they wanted to be let in? When… when did that happen? No, when did that become so bizarre? I was stumped. I was supposed to, do something here right?

  “Uhh… come, come in?”

  The door opened and a green skinned woman with blue hair in the form of a ponytail walked in. She had three eyes, one in the middle of her forehead, and was holding a clipboard and wearing a doctor’s coat.

  “Hello.” She said, her voice like silk somehow. “Mr. Mutai, no st name correct? I am Dr. Sarvenall. I am your appointed physician. Tell me, how are you feeling?”

  “Uh. Great doctor. I don’t really… know what’s, going on?”

  “You were under intensive care for the st few months. For reasons I am not and was made clear I should not, be fully aware of, you were to take a roundabout and incredibly risky form of healing. I have monitored your vitals and recovery every step of the way.”

  “Oh, uh, thank you?”

  She smiled.

  “It’s my job Mr. Mutai. Now, you should be back at full health but whether that’s true or not is still to be seen. Would you mind doing a physical and a few other tests to make sure you’ve fully recovered?”

  “Of course doctor, whatever you need.”

  “Then, for starters, would you mind putting on some clothes?”

  Her smile was professional but as I looked down and realized that I was completely naked, I felt my cheeks go red. Why was I naked?! Why am I only realizing it now? Wasn’t I supposed to get a gown thing?!

  Shamefully, I noticed at my feet where I did have a gown. I’d torn it off of me when I’d woken up somehow.

  “You can find clothes in the bathroom.” My doctor said, pointing, still with a professional smile on her face.

  I practically dove into there, embarrassment coloring me.

  She’d seen everything.

  I was never going to live this down!

  “Don’t be too concerned.” Dr. Sarvenall’s voice called out from beyond the door. “I have had to see you in many different states over these past few months, don’t feel the need to feel embarrassed.”

  My body shook from the pure mortification.

  Master… I’m going to bme you for this one. The next time I see you, I’m definitely going to punch you!

  Warix_Viviana