The land of the unwanted

A week later Karaza stared at the ceiling of the hospital room. Leg wrapped in thick bandages. Immersed in complete silence she lets a small sigh.

'I want to smoke.'

She sites down and stretches, looking at two chatting patients next of her. They were talking for a while but she only heard them when the silence melted and her eardrum decided to work again.

"Will you need another surgery for your internal deformities?" The older women asked.

"No, the doctor said I am all good, just need some time for recovery. What about you?"

"Oh, I just needed to fix my Pancreas, it was a quick ten hours surgery."

Karaza laid back and looked at the ceiling again.

'No matter how many times I visit this land, I don't think I will get used to how they talk about surgeries...guess it makes sense for them, this is the land of the unwanted after all. Almost everyone has a disease or internal deformities from birth. Man I want to smoke.' She rubbed the bridge of her nose, headache settles in. She recalled her last smoke, it was before her last mission.

She looked at her leg, an attempt to distract the craving. 'But they fixed me good, even dukes and kings doctors aren't this good. It's probably because of the magnet knowledge...That's it, I am getting my pipe.' 

She sat down again but her surgeon came to check on her, halting any chance to smoke.

"How are we feeling today?" He asked with a smile as he put a dark gray patch on her arm, another one on her wounded leg.

She perused him for a quick second, something about him felt unusual. Maybe it was his sliver hair or the long braid or maybe it was the leftover anesthesia in her system.

"Good, I want to walk though." She replied and observed as he was looking at an awkward hexagon shaped device.

"No inflammation or infection signs. Do you feel dizziness or you feel like objects are changing colors?"

"No, it's not my first time here, I am used to the magnetic field."

"Good, then you can go on a walk outside today, let me get you some crutches."

Behind the hospital she put her weight on the crutch, exhaling the smoke in satisfaction. She looked at the seemingly peaceful sky.

'It's really coming in this direction.' She zoned out.

A swift hand took the pipe from hers, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Excuse me, gonna take this back to your locker." The same sliver haired surgeon said, holding his own extended pipe.

She looked at him exhaling smoke with an expression of a hungry man seeing others feed. Part of her was afraid of getting in trouble the other part wanted to snatch her pipe back.

She eyes him while he looks curiously at her pink pipe in his hands.

"Good old Tabaco? " He adds with an admiring tone.

"I though a doctors don't smoke."

"You would be surprised, and I'm not a doctor."

"I am pretty sure you did my surgery."

"Yeah?"

"Doesn't that make you a doctor?"

"No, it doesn't work like that here." He smiled. 

She tilts her head, deciphering the sentence. 

"I thought you were here before."

"Not for treatment."

They stood in silence. Last inhale of smoke rose above with the breeze, Karaza studied it til it vanished.

"Do you like it? Your job." She asked, looking at a slightly purplish cloud in the far horizon. If it's all gonna end soon then no harm is asking a stranger something she wouldn't normally ask. 

"On days when no one throw up on me, yeah." He joked, not surprised by the abrupt question.  

'Must be nice.' The thought sat on the door of her mind like an unwanted visitor. 

'Too late for me that is.' She avoided looking at the sky.

"Then, that's enough standing for today." He folded his pipe. She was merely reading his lips now as her ears gave up temporarily. 

"Not my place to pry but you can get your hearing patched up easily." He spoke slowly. She was about to say she doesn't need that but a sound of two adolescence chatting in the empty area interrupted them.

"Are you sure he's here? " Roxy asked, distracted by some patches of grass. Ryu walked toward his nii-san, confused by seeing two white heads instead of one. He gave the surgeon the paper bag nonetheless .

"President told me to tell you to not have smoke for a meal today."

"She dragged you to here for this?" The surgeon asked.

"I am visiting a classmate too."

Karaza looks at them cautiously. Roxy notices her long sliver hair instead of the previous pink.

'First her and now an apex predator too. Forget the tornado.' she swallows.

"You... you are not actually a pink head?" Roxy asks her, with a dramatically betrayed voice.

"It was fake." She hides her fear behind the uncaring expression.

"So.. the curls?! "

"It’s all fake. Thank you for the ride anyway." 

"No prob!"

Ryu and Karaza looked at each other. She was not sure how to react to the big black eyes staring at her soul.

"Pleasure to meet you, I am Ryu." He introduced himself, quite politely for an apex predator with staring problems. She simply shook his hand, deciding not to risk it by talking.

"Well, I am putting this in your locker, you should come back to your room." The surgeon said as he walked away.

She waited until he was far enough to give Roxy some money, asking politely.

"Perhaps could you buy me a cigarette?" 

"I can hear you." He shouted from afar.

"Come on!"

They all parted. Later in the day, Ryu was searching in his suitcase, Roxy entered the apartment to see his side of the room a hot mess.

"I am back~" She looked at the tendrils lifting everything on the ground. He was seeping in his suitcase.

"Have you seen my small glass crown?" He asked

"It was near the kids." She tilted her head.

The question prompted her to look around, eyes stopping at the walls where her embroidery works hang.

"Where's my Ojamajo doremi magical tools embroidery?"

"No idea."

They look at each other, bamboozled. Eventually Roxy goes to her house plants.

"Kids what happened here?" She asked the potted plants.

"They suddenly disappeared?" Ryu repeats what Roxy told him.

"That's what they saw."

"Like someone made a wish?" He frowned.

"Possibly."

They eat dinner on the floor with their non-human pupils. The city gets darker as shop owners closed for the day. She was looking at his hand, many Band-Aids on his fingers.

He avoided eye contact.

"We gonna delay more sessions because of the auction right?"

"...Sorry."

"No bigge." She said with fake teary eyes.

"Maybe I am already strong enough to awake that monster thing." He suggested, not minding her theatrics. 

"Well, you are technically, but you lack experience and the yellow zone is more dangerous than you--"

A mental shock hit them, stronger than the pervious, even Karaza gets knocked out of her sleep because of it.

"Is it getting closer?" Ryu asked, holding his head.

"Well~~ it'll take months in the worst case scenario."

He didn't say anything, the looming danger seemed closer when silence take over.

"Are you afraid?" He couldn't tell if it was teasing or a genuine question.

Looking at the sky, pupils as narrow as a line.

"If my time come then there is nothing I can do." He shrugged.

Next day, in the auction center the preparation were going smoothly, until it wasn't. Amongst workers who were hanging paintings and carrying sculptures, artists checking their pieces and slots on the auction schedule. Couple managers whispered about a missing piece. Ryu eavesdropped until his teacher called him. His teacher standing next to a mischievous looking man.

"Sir Jonathan, this is Ryu."

They shook hand, making eye contact. Jonathan gave him a smile replied by a neutral polite nod.

"This patch of students are crazy aren't they?" Jonathan praised.

"Totally." The teacher agreed.

Their conversation halted when some workers hanged a portrait on the wall next to them. It was hard to decode Jonathan's smile while he looked at it. Ryu looked at the name signature in the corner, below the beautiful family portrait. "Sami" the signature says.

"Must be tough, having that guy Andre as an advisor, lucky for you kid, Yamada is much more lenient." Jonathan nudged the teacher.

"Actually, I'm just his sculpting teacher." Yamada corrected.

"Then why isn't you're advisor with you?"

Ryu points with his eyes at the portrait.

"My condolences."

They noticed a man with a long ponytail entering the room, with a young blond man walking behind him.

"Speaking of the devil."  Jonathan says, before walking toward them with a welcoming gesture. Ryu and Yamada moved to another corner near some ladders and scaffolds.

"Well, let's go over it one more time, Next week the auctioneers will visit, vote for the art pieces that they liked the most, then pieces that passed the pre-selection will be presented in the auction. Now who is your targeted audience?" Yamada told automatically like someone who done that for many years.

"Rich people, I mean people who is interested in niche art."

".. Exactly, for the pre-selection your work will be shown either Saturday or Tuesday, that's when niche art enthusiasts will visit."

"So it is a matter of which day is optimal."

"More or less, auctioneers who come Tuesday are usually looking for an artist to hire, your work might not sell but you might get a patron."

"So in auctioneers with buying intentions coming Saturday."

Yamada take a deep breath.

"You gotta think for the long term kid, your advisor wants to make the greatest painter in the world, and that's not your jam which is acceptable, just not with him. I am sure you realize it more than anyone else, if you don't paint for him he will not let you stay in the academy. Getting a patron maybe the best bet for you, at least for now kid."

He looked at his student, unable to decode the black eyes staring at his soul.

'Thank you teacher, but I want the Saturday after lunch slot."

"Come on, stubbornness will not -"

He was cut off when someone slipped and bumped into a ladder, it almost fell on them but Ryu grabbed it just in time.

Yamada watched, half confused and half impressed when he lift the metal ladder up with one noodle arm.

"Are you okay?" Ryu asked, shifting his head to see the other person, his expression grew cold when he saw the person behind the ladder.

"Hey, Sami slippery floors huh?" The teacher joked as he reached his hand to him, lifting him up and noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

"Yes, Thank you! Pardon me, I must go." He moved hastily.

"Andre is surly putting a lot of pressure on him, you two grew together right, can you check on him?"

"No." He says, his polite low voice has unusual sharpness to it.

"Is that so?" Yamada says, not wanting to dig deeper, shooting a concerned look toward the blond young man.

At the breezy starry night, Roxy's broom was flying slowly in the sky, with a grey blob in her overalls pocket and Karaza behind her the broom was fighting for dear life.

"You were very brave broomy!" Roxy's patted it after they landed. Meanwhile Karaza was looking at the sky with a binoculars.

"It's not accelerating, guess we gonna make it to the end of the month." The human stated.

"Can we annihilate it somehow? The mental shocks is getting annoying." Ryu asked.

"Only if there was a selfless hero to wish for it to disappear!" A strange voice said.

The three of them looked around for the source of the voice. Roxy looked at a rock with a mouth on the floor.

"Oh hi, it's been a while!" Roxy greeted.

"This frequency? Is that you, walking plant?" The rock recognized.

"Yup!" 

"Company? That's rare." The rock murmured. "Hello apex predator, hello human who I see a lot around here." He greeted anyway.

"Haven't you walk far away?" Roxy asked.

"Apathetic as usual, walking plant. I am trying to run from the demise with those tiny legs, but it's should be alright since you're here."

She blinks at his statement.

"You gonna burn the tornado with the box of normal matches right?"

Karaza now stops playing with her hair and pays attention to the conversation.

"Oh right! the pack of matches can do that." Roxy remembered. 

"You didn't get rid of them all right?" The rock asked with a shaking voice.

Roxy giggles politely, the rock doesn't wait for more words and moves its small legs, running toward the green zone.

"Well, that was awkward." Karaza comments.

"What's those matches you talk about?" Ryu asked while morphing to his human form.

"It's a long story." Roxy stretched her limps.

"A weapon from an ancient civilization. A pack has one match, you lit it up, then you order it to burn something, it burn some of your points with it, but they're rare, only two of them exist now." Karaza explained as the two looked at her.

"Back when I was a youngster they were abundant, I had to destroy them because they kept being used to burn the forest." Roxy admitted nonchalantly.

"It can burn radioactivity?" Ryu doubted, not intentionally dismissing the backstory. 

Inhuman conversations worked like that sometimes.

"More or less." Karaza said foundling something in her pocket.

"Actually even though it looks like it's burning the target. The function of the weapon is to cause atoms decay. I almost turned into dust once." Roxy recalled the memory in a jolly tone.

"So it can burn wishes?" He asked.

"Oooo Ryu is mad at the crown thieve!!" Roxy teased.

"You bet I'm."

"But why would someone use precious points to make art disappear?" Karaza gathered enough context to ask.

"I couldn't care less about the motivation, I can't allow this."

"Ryuyu is real angyy~" 

He gave her a fed up look that only scared Karaza.

"Do you know who wished for that?" Karaza asked, now laying on the ground. Roxy looked at her.

"No."

"Then you will not be able to burn the wish."

"Why so invested~?" Roxy switched the target of her teasing.

Karaza took her hand of the pocket, raising her arm, holding a pack of matches, chroma blue.

"Ooo, this bring back memories."

"Can I get this one?" Ryu asked.

"Guess saving art is more important than saving the world." Karaza said with light hearted sarcasm.

"Well.. I am sure certain somebody knows where the second pack of matches is, will use that for the tornado." Ryu's stared Roxy, his face almost glued to hers while she played dump. 

"It is inside a volcano, in the orange zone." Under the intense staring Roxy murmured, avoiding eye contact.

Both of them gave a look that says "seriously?"

"A little unorthodox but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do." The silly parasite told.

"Volcano or not, I will get it and give it back to you, what do you say?"

"I never said I will destroy the tornado with it." She scratched her hair.

"That's you're business."

She looked at the pack in her hand, she sits down, and Roxy takes couple steps back, tension comes out of nowhere. 

"Whether it's all ended or not, I won't have anything going for me." She laughed faintly as she stood up, pulling her axe out of the dress.

"Pardon?"

"Oh dear, well for today's homework bring her to her senses." Roxy said. Summoning her broom and dashing.

"I don't want to fight an injured pers-"

His instincts kicked in, switching to his blob form. Invisible blast hits the area when she swing her axe, violent sound waves shook air and ground alike.

He disappeared from her field of vision only for a grey sharp pole to breakthrough the ground, almost impaling her. She jumped in the air last minute. Swinging the axe as gravity pulls her down toward the opponent.

The ungraded spot she was targeting turned into a thorny patch, a perfect bait.

She blasted sound waves that thrusts her to the opposite direction.

"You're not a minion of Dracula, don't just punch holes into your foe." Roxy yells, flying closely to the fight.

"DoN't PUnCh HOles InTo. Easy for you to say!" He hissed.

She swings at him again, he morphs into a puddle, dodging it.

'There we go' Roxy grins.

'All I need is one hit to knock her out, But if she dies I am banned from the green zone, do I have enough control? I do, in my hands but not in those shapeless limbs. Technically they’re my hands as well.'

Karaza walked to the gray puddle, raising the axe for a final blow. He closed his eyes.

A giant glass clipper clutched on Karaza, squeezing her body until she was out. He went back to his human form, setting her free, letting out a tired sigh.

Three bodies were flying back on the thin broom. Gray tendrils acting like ropes tying Karaza and Ryu to the broom, eight limbs overflowing in the air.

"What was that? Ryu asked." unable to move.

"Normal phenomena, the air outside the green zone causes humans to become feral. It's important to know what that looks like, since you're half human."

"And yet you let her come with us."

"She escaped the hospital and hitchhiked her way to my broomy !"

"Oh, sure." He said sarcastically. Looking at her usual faint smile.

He gazed at the starry night, the slowness of the broom drifting him to sleep.