A/N: Alrighty, a chapter posted on time, can you believe it, lol-

Last chapter, after Karia boldly returned by breaking into and yelling in the library the other three were in- King Metallica threw a book at her head due to her disrespect to the building. This made Karia fall unconscious after a few minutes of talking. Right afterwards her past in the Hopian Army from 3 years ago started to be revealed, to where she just found out that her closest friend, Sariel, was in critical condition...

Karia's P.O.V.

"Shit that idiot, I told him to be careful! Did I fucking not?! Damn it!" I swear and shout as I pace outside of the stupid navy blue metal door to the ICU Sariel's in. Why is everything here so blue?!

"Damn right you told him, can't blame you for being mad but calm down a bit, he should be fine... I think..." Jessie starts to say as she sits down behind me in the blue hall but stops as the sounds of other people running on the floor start to flood the area. Stopping my walking and looking back it's three doctors pushing a hovering bed with someone with a bloody head and respirator on lying in it.

"Move we're going in!" One of them shout to me which makes me take a step to the side so I'm just next to the door as they get to it with the hunk of a bed.

One of them swipe a card into the handle which unlocks the door and automatically opens it, with them charging into the room with the bed before it even finishes opening.

"Karia don't even think about it!-" Jessie tries to say but of course I run into the room right after them as the door slams shut behind me.

"Where is he?! Oh God...!" I think to myself as I look around the long room filled with turqoise curtains and beds, normally this placed is only used for kids with injuries during training, but now... b-blood's everywhere, there's hundreds of doctors running around...

"No- n-no I need to find him, I can't afford to freeze up like last time!" I shake off my fear as I squish through the damn irritating traffic of people with masks running by the beds so that I can be on the "path" right next to them.

"Not him, not him, not him... not him, come on!" I think to myself as I walk by and look at all of the beds that are being used with some of the patien- students even going through surgery right in here!

"He's gotta be he-" I think to myself but freeze as I can see a patient with turquoise hair lying down with his eyes closed.

"Sariel!" I call out and run towards the foot of his bed while three other hospital workers stand on the sides of his bed while wrapping up his entire body in those medical pads we always have around.

"Is he alive?! Wait- phew..." I think to myself with a sigh of relief as I finally notice his chest moving up and down just a bit, and the fact that his arms that have tubes connected into them are twitching a bit.

"The hell are you doing here?! Somebody get this student out of here!" One of the masked doctors shout out to me and to the people around us, but like hell if I'm gonna leave Sariel here.

"Doctors!! Commander Erucid, he- he needs help NOW!" A man shouts while panting from behind us which draws the people working on Sariel's attention.

"Mm... ugh..." Sariel starts to mumble as the heart rate monitor next to him starts to get louder, and his eyes start to flutter open!

"...Damn, even Commander Erucid?! ...Oh, look you two his eyes are opening!" One of the other doctors in blue say as they look down at Sariel as well and back to the front door that I came I'm.

"Good- that means he's relatively stable. But still we can't just leave him here... girl! You're close to him right? Stay here and comfort him, alert any other available personel if he shows any of these symptoms." One of the tall doctors to Sariel's left say as they grip my shoulder and reach behind them to grab a electronic note board that they shove into my arms.

"Ow... my- my... damn... wheream I?" Sariel mumbles with his eyes more open now as the three doctors rush past me.

"The ICU- but oh thank God you're alright! I... I don't know what I would've done without you, Sariel!" I shout to him as tears start to pour out from my eyes, but he only looks at me with a confused- but still loveable face.

"...Huh... so I made it back... and wait- Karia? Sorry... guess I didn't live up to my-" Sariel tries to make a stupid excuse as I stare at his sparkly green eyes, but I stop him by dropping the symptom list, stomping to the side of his bed and leaning down to slam my lips onto his own chapped and bloody ones.

*BEEP... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

The heart rate monitor connected to Sariel starts to go off like crazy which makes me jump back off of Sariel and stumble back as I realize what I just did.

"Wha... Karia, what the, are we, like, even a thing yet?!" Sariel says with a laugh and wide eyes as he starts to lean up- but stops as he groans in pain and falls back down.

"Je-jeez calm down!" I say back to him- even though I have a huge blush on my face... what the hell was I thinking?! We've been friends for years, now I probably just ruined that!

"AhhhhhhhhhHHHHHH no no no, he's the only person I can really open up to!" I scream to myself in my head as I try to catch my breath.

"Jeez you're a... you're something Karia. But... anyways whatever it's... uh fine- just, help me out here will you, my everything... fuck it hurts bad, excuse the language." Sariel says to me as he squints his eyes shut, which instantly snaps me out of my daze.

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"W-wow so it was that rough? I can't believe even Commander Erucid lost to just one person. But wait doesn't that mean that the enemy you guys were facing was... innocent? But I thought he even killed a few students though..." I ask with a sad but mainly confused face as I'm still trying to get my cool back, as the whole point of Erucids Blessing is for it to have more power the more "sinful" the person he uses it on is- whatever that means.

"Beats me, though I'm sure the HA is going to make a huge deal out of it though and they should. But before I got knocked out the guy who attacked us was wearing some weird armor and acting crazy though. So maybe the Blessing doesn't apply to people who aren't all there?" Sariel adds in a bit of a slurred tone, but I end up ignoring most of it due to what I'm about to say myself.

"Maybe... but um, about before, sorry, I was just so nervous- I felt like if I didn't kiss you there I'd never get the chance since you almost died and-"

"Karia I already told you it's fine, I get it. Don't make this into a big deal yeah, my brain's already messed up enough as is... speaking of that though, I hope I just have some broken limbs and that's it... I can barely move anything except my head right now." Sariel says as he tries to put on a smile and laugh a bit.

"Oh pfft come on you'll be fine, remember that time you got your arm broken after arm wrestling Aora? You just need to rest up a bit and not show off in class- or training for a while... though that'll be hard for you right?" I say to him with a smile as I, gently, nudge his shoulder. Normally I would've punched him though obviously.

"...True, but please don't remind me about the humiliation I dealt with while I recovered from that for six weeks... still don't know why the teachers made us do that tournament in the first place. Especially with that monster... and come on sure I'm proud of what I've become and becoming but I'm pretty humble at least, right?" Sariel asks me with a hopeful furrowed brow but I only respond by purposely awkwardly looking away.

"You suc-"

"You're coming with us." I get interrupted by two men and a second later get both of my arms grappled before I get spun around and shoved away from Sariel. At the same time two other doctors speed walk towards his bed to check on him.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? She was assigned to help me!" Sariel tries to have my back like always- but I'm the only one who can even hear him due to the other noisy panic that's going on in the room. But this is fine, I didn't hesitate and got to make sure he was ok, that's all that matters... take that, you guys.

I smile as the men swipe their cards into the now bloody scanner by the door I came in through, which automatically swings it open to the outer hall where I can see Jessie doing a huge facepalm as she shakes her head at me...

🚨🚨🚨
Two days and some punishment later...
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"Now then- due to my ever so gracious mood today, I'll allow you all to choose your partners for this assignment. Remember, you're researching two major technological advancements made by the Hopian Army in the last decade. And no- you can not just use two of the different types of Telo-Sphere's that I already explained beforehand." Our teacher explains as he smiles and rubs his nasty beard covered chin as he looks at the group of jocks who scoff at that last part.

"Augh- great just what I needed when Sariel isn't here... basically no girls in this class even like me 'cause of how many guys I... saw before. And now that I'm not like "that" anymore, even the guys wouldn't want to be with me I bet..." I think to myself nervously as I look around at all of my other classmates who're already finding and talking with their partners.

"...I guess I'll just have to wait to see who's left then... but no I'm already barely passing this class, I need someone good!" I think to myself as I snap out of my moping and look around the class again- until I see one student sitting at the front of the class, who's still writing like crazy like she's always been since day one of this class.

"...Do it for the marks, it'll make Sariel proud. For the A Karia! Besides this isn't training- she can't be that bad when we're just doing a project... yeah, these kids are dumb, why wouldn't they want to get a free ninety while she does all the work?! She is still younger than me after all... hehe..." I think to myself with a confident grin on my face as I kick my chair back and do a extra sweet looking stride towards the desk Officer Aora is writing at.

"Heeeeey, Officer Aora! ...Still looking as fit as ever huh?" I say with a smile on my face as I lean on the empty gray desk next to hers.

But she doesn't respond whatsoever...

"Well anyways, do you wanna work as partners for the assignment?" I say in a less kind tone now...

"Hm? There's an assignment? What are we required to do for it, more training?" Aora asks as she stops writing on her led covered paper for a second and looks up at me with her scary amber eyes.

"Oh no no, we're researching Hopain tech or something..." I mumble out as I look away from her.

"Oh. So a waste of time. Fine then, if it is mandatory and we must work with someone else. I do hope that you're more skilled in academics than your physical training." Aora says as she puts her pencil down which makes me grin mentally in response- I'm even worse in school, idiot!

"Sweet, thanks! So, these are all your notes right?" I ask as I lean down towards her desk to get a closer look at the big letters on her page- still don't know why she doesn't just type like everyone else does though...

" 'ABC'... huh? What the hell- you've been writing the, the damn alphabet this entire time?!" I exclaim with a VERY confused look on my face as I scrunch it up and stare down at the countless written lines of the alphabet on her paper- yes in both upper and lower case.

"I have. Writing on paper seems to be a dying field but I have always wanted to learn it as a precaution. It also allows me to put my reading training I've started recently into practice as well." Aora casually explains as I flip through her notes to see even more sloppy lines of the alphabet until she grabs my arm and shoves me backwards so my hip hits the desk behind me- ow!

"...It seems like my hopes about you were wrong... but it seems like everyone else is already occupied so you will have to do." Aora says in a disappointed tone as she stands up from her desk to stretch up to her massive size of almost six feet that even dwarves a bunch of guys here, and at the same time she raises her uniform covered arms above her head and starts stretching.

"YOUR hopes?! You're not the one with the dumbest person in this class damn it! Has her entire life seriously just been combat based?" I think to myself, and scrunch my nose at the same time as I swear I can smell her sweat or something...

"Haha, so you haven't taken any, uh notes in class then? Don't we need some of the information we learned in class for the project?" I ask, but half- or basically all of me is scared to hear the answer.

"Notes? I don't know what those are, but yes I have all of the information I found important memorized. So we should be fine." Aora says as she continues to stretch and leans to the side, which let's me see her exposed lower chest and more importantly crazy six pack, for a girl at least...

"Oh... that's good then- I guess... by the way, random question but since we're partners now..." I say as I lean towards her and motion her to lean her ear down to mine, but she doesn't move and looks down at me with a confused look on her face.

"Are you... like did you... switch, before you came here?" I whisper up to her, and make sure that no one else is near us or listening obviously.

"What? Is this some sort of Hopian phrase? Regardless I doubt this involves our work, goodbye." Aora asks in a fancy ass tone for a fifteen year old at least as she turns around... but no I need my answer, I made a bet about this with Jessie a year ago and I know I'll win it!

"Wait, I mean... are you....
trans? Wait no, I mean like, a boy before you became a girl? I was just thinking because you're, you know so tall and muscular and..." I continue to whisper gently and awkwardly to her- which makes her slowly turn around with squinted eyes and raised eyebrows which obviously makes me stop.

"...Are you alright? I... don't believe it's physically possible for one to become the other gender... unless there is a person that has a Blessing that can perform that operation... perhaps, but even then, people desire that? I hope you have an answer to this, as if not maybe my training has been too much on you mentally..." Aora asks loudly with not just a curious look on her face now, but one with some concern even...

"Ah- well no no not neccesarily, it's possible without a Blessing, I mean, ah well its complicate-"

*RINGRINGRINGRINGRING!*

"WELL there's the bell see you later!" I say with fake enthusiasm and a smile as I give her a nod and speed walk towards the door that's luckily already open.

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A few minutes later...

🏥🏥🏥

After a bit of walking I arrive at the outside of Sariel's "acute care" room I think they called it, and of course open the door being excited to tell him about the crap just happened.

"Yo, Sariel-" I start to say as I walk inside but stop when I see him hunched over in his bed and with his hands covering his eyes, and with no doctors in the room either... I thought they were meant to take care of him?!

Not even a second later though I realize that he's... sobbing? What the hell...

"Sariel?" I ask again, with him seeming to hear me this time as he swings his head up to where I can see his pitch red and puffy eyes along with his tear covered face.

"Karia- I'm so-sorry co- could you c-c-come later, I don't want you to se-see me like th-this." He tries to whimper out through his tears as he shoves his face back down into his palms...

"No, of course not, what's wrong? I'm not gonna judge you here or anything..." I ask as I slowly walk towards the side of his bed and take a seat next to him. This is weird, he never cries...

"God I'm- I'm so pathetic! Even me-mentally I'm weak... fuck! ...Karia... it's my-my spine- they told me that I-I'll, I'll never... I'll never... walk again!" Sariel barely manages to cry out as he grips his sheets and grits his teeth the hardest I've seen anyone ever do it.

"Wait, wait what? You've only been here for two days, they couldn't of confirmed that so soon, right...? Right? But anyways even if that was the case how the hell can they not fix you with all of their medical stuff?" I ask, not really knowing how to feel yet but starting to get worried regardless.

"N-no, you should know just-just what Hopian tech can actually do... DAMN IT, what did I do to deserve this?! Now I'll never be a Commander, I'll never be able to- to live life again... I won't even be able to be your boyfriend... like hell if anyone would want to stay with a cripple!" Sariel continues to cry as he shamefully looks away- and my heart obviously skips a beat at the boyfriend part... but, with him being disabled, that would mean...

No, I can't think like that!

"What? No, why would you ever think that Sariel! Whether you can move or not you're still you to me, same as always!" I say to him, but, deep down I... no, stop that!

He sniffles again then looks towards me.

"...R-really?" He asks and I crazily nod my head in response as I stare into his teary green eyes... sure I like him when he's tough, but there's still a charm to him when he's like this...

"Yep, and I'll take you up on that boyfriend offer, I've waited long enough." I say back to him with a wide grin on my face as well as a blush of course, which makes his face go wide eyed until even more tears start to come out from his eyes...

"T-th-thank you, Karia! I-I'll try my best to be a good one... but- still, my life, everything, it's going to change... oh God, and wh-what about my promises I made to everyone about making this world a better place by becoming a Commander..." Sariel says as he calms down a bit and takes a long sigh with that last part.

"...Hm... oh! I know! I'll do all that for you, Sariel! Just watch, I'll become a Commander and make this shitty territory 100 times better- for everyone!" I declare, without even thinking about what that really means or involves which makes Sariel's jaw drop...

A/N: Karia's school life continues, but it seems like Sariel's may come to an end... however, Karia decides to 'carry on' his ambitions by herself!

I hope you guys consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed, and see you next week!