His Reflection (5)
written by Sycia
Hospital Blues:
Kula
slammed her eyes shut and tried to be brave, waiting for K’s finishing
deathblow.
Be
seeing you soon, Candy…
Death
didn’t claim Kula Diamond that day. She had waited for a while before opening
her eyes to find out what the heck was going on.
K’
was helping Maxima up some distance away. Kula fumed over the fact that her
nemesis should deny her a fair death and yelled out to him weakly.
“Hey! You’re not done
with me!”
K’ supported Maxima and
looked at Kula evenly, “Just don’t get in our way again.”
“?!” Kula tried to
stand, failing again, “You get back here and finish me off now!”
Maxima was conscious,
though seriously injured, “What’s with her?” He asked K’.
K’ shrugged meekly. He
started to lead Maxima away when Kula started her screaming again.
“K’! You owe me a fair
death! I don’t need your pity! Come back!!!” She gained her balance and
began to pursue K’.
Unfortunately, she
fell clumsily after six steps and started coughing dark blood out. The next
thing she saw was K’ squatting in front of her with a worried look. Then Kula
blacked out.
* *
*
“So why are
you looking after her?” Maxima miffed crossly. It had been two hours since the
duel between K’ and Kula. The girl had passed out and K’ brought both Maxima
and Kula to the hospital to treat their injuries.
As expected,
Maxima didn’t take too well to the idea of saving someone who had just tried
killing him two hours ago. The doctors had said that they needed to keep Kula
there. And now K’ was insisting that he stay to watch over her.
“I don’t
know.” K’ replied, standing beside Kula’s sleeping figure. She was now in
the usual hospital clothes, with her NESTS attire (gloves and all) stuffed into
a small bedside table’s drawer.
“Jeez…
K’. She tried to kill us. You should have just left her there.”
K’ didn’t
say anything immediately. He looked at the pale-faced Kula Diamond and sighed
softly, “Maybe I feel a little sorry for her. She’s just like me. A victim
of NESTS. I doubt she knows her own true past.”
Maxima shook
his head, “So are you going to stay here all day?”
“I guess so.
You should go back to the apartment and get some rest.”
“Yeah. You
take care. Don’t let her kill you.” Maxima left the room.
K’ took a
chair and sat next to Kula’s bed. He stared at her youthful face and observed
that was really pretty when not trying to kill him.
“Dammit. What
am I doing?” She’ll try to kill me again when she has recovered.” K’
thought and slapped his forehead.
But he stayed
there faithful, in her room, watching Kula for the whole afternoon. A few times,
Kula mumbled things in her sleep, mostly some vague sentence about Foxy and
Diana being in danger.
“K’… I
don’t want to kill you. But…” She sleep-talked one time.
“?” K’
nearly jumped, “but what?” He went closer to hear.
Kula’s
rambling stopped from then on, leaving K’ more perplexed than ever. He asked
himself numerous times why he wanted to stay by her side, finding no certain
answer.
Soon, he fell
asleep on the chair.
* *
*
He woke to the
sound of Kula Diamond stirring. It was night now. She was moaning and rolling
about slightly in bed. K’ patiently waited for her to wake.
Kula opened her
eyes lazily to see the plain whiteness of the ceiling. The smell of the room was
slightly sickening, dense with the lingering sweep of ailment and the stench of
medicines.
She tried to
sit up, to find out where she was and what happened. Muscles ached and bones
groaned the moment she moved, making her wince.
“Don’t move
too much.” Kula heard a familiar voice.
She slowly
turned to her right and freaked out upon seeing him.
“You!” She
shrieked in panic. Instinctively, Kula got up to attack him, but ended up
doubling over in pain.
“Owww… ooww!”
K’ sighed and
went to the door to call a nurse in to check on Kula. Then he went to the end of
Kula’s bed and talked to her a little.
“Just keep
still. Someone’s coming to make sure you’re alright.”
Kula looked at
him suspiciously, “What do you want with me?”
K’ looked out
of the window, “Nothing.”
“Why do I not
believe that.”
“…”
Kula quickly
scanned the room for a telephone when K’ wasn’t looking. None. What
the… now how am I gonna get outta this one? I can’t fight like this.
K’ seemed to have read her mind, “Don’t even think about escaping now. When you’re fit enough, then you can get out of here yourself.”
“?”
The nurse came
and gave Kula a few pills to take. But when a syringe and needle were taken out,
Kula’s face drained of its color.
“I hate
needles…” She whimpered, gripping the sides of her bed tightly.
This was a
mini-revelation to K’; here was a girl who was one of the top fighters in the
world, and she was afraid of needles. He went to her side, ready to restrain
Kula if she tried to ‘defend’ herself against the nurse.
The nurse gave
Kula a stern look and drew out the medication into the syringe.
When the nurse
took a step towards the frightened girl, Kula suddenly grabbed K’s arm. The
latter was surprised but bore with it. Kula’s grip got tighter with every
approaching step the nurse took.
“Girl, close
your eyes. This won’t hurt. Relax.” The nurse recited neutrally. This got
Kula even more scared. She squeezed her eyes shut and dug her nails into K’s
sleeve.
“Jeez. Ease
up will you? It doesn’t hurt a bit.” K’ chided Kula exasperatingly.
“I hate
needles!” She screamed desperately into K’s ear.
“Would you
get a grip on yourself!” K’ yelled back, annoyed.
Kula was about
to shout something back when she felt a slight stinging sensation.
“Okay,
done.” The nurse announced. Cleaning her stuffs up quietly.
“Huh?” Kula
opened her eyes, astonished.
“Its over.”
K’ told her.
Kula noticed
herself holding K’s arm and took her hands off immediately, blushing ever so
slightly. The nurse left quickly and K’ went to the end of Kula’s bed again.
“Are you
thirsty?” He asked her softly.
His question
was met with a glare from Kula, “Why am I here?”
“You were
seriously injured.” K’ said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.
“Duh. By
you!”
“It was you
who wanted to fight.”
Kula wanted to
retort with something, but decided otherwise.
“Is it
absolutely necessary to dedicate your time to try killing me?” K’ asked in
an accusing tone.
“I’m only
following orders.” Kula sulked.
K’ made an
irritated sound. He remembered that he was once like that; being ordered around
by NESTS all the time, “So you take pleasure out of murdering people you
don’t know?”
“I don’t
have to answer to you.” Kula snapped.
K’ shrugged
and sat down on his chair again. Kula wondered why he was sitting down in the
same room as her.
“What?
You’re going to be here?” She exclaimed.
“Yeah. I’ve
been here for the past eight hours.”
Kula was
slightly, only slightly impressed by that, “Go away! I don’t want to look at
you while I can’t kill you!” She growled.
K’ expected
that. He got up to leave, “I’ll be outside so don’t try anything funny.”
“… I’m
not your responsibility! Just go away! I don’t need you!”
K’ smiled to
himself and left the room.
Kula
tested her strength once she was alone. She tried pulling a few punches into the
air but finally gave in to pain. She was feeling terribly weak and tired, not to
mention helpless. She had expected K’ to kill her, but to her mild dismay, he
had spared her life. Not to mention brought her to a hospital for treatment.
“It
is absolutely necessary to dedicate your time to try killing me?”
Kula thought of
what K’ had said, “Yes. For Foxy and Diana’s sake, yes.” She mumbled,
“How am I going to capture him now?!” Kula felt her eyes turn teary. She was
a delicate girl who had a loving heart inside; contrary to the icy cold mask she
wore into battle.
She could not
do anything at the moment, “I only have a week more to give K’ to them. But
how can I recover in time to do that?”
Another nurse
came in a few minutes later with a tray of warm milk and a small sandwich.
Kula was a
little hungry and thanked the nurse, who politely told her to eat slowly.
The nurse left
and Kula picked the mug of warm milk up to sip. She saw her left hand with a
drip and squirmed in disgust (she’s terrified of needles). The milk made her
feel slightly better.
When Kula
reached for the thin sandwich, she noticed a clean white piece of folded paper
under the plate and picked it up curiously. It was a note written in neat
handwriting that Kula recognized as her superior’s:
Kula Diamond:
You
have failed in your last mission.
The
one-week grace granted to you, for capturing K’, has been deemed null and void
because of your serious injuries. Foxy and Diana shall suffer the consequences
of your failure, as stated in the beginning.
Use this recovery period to consider
your loyalty to NESTS and the quality of your efforts. I hope you will come back
with a clear mind and objective.
Kula read that note in horror, her hands slightly trembling after finishing it. So caught up in the moment was she, that she didn’t notice K’ at the door, observing all this…
Part 6 coming up...