A Brief Reprieve

I opened my eyes and blinked twice.

I found myself laying down on some sheets and a pillow while looking up at a crudely placed ceiling fan. Craning my neck, I saw the rest of the room. A sparsely lit white walled area. There was a single large window to the right and looking down to the left, I could see the bottom of a row of hospital beds under the curtains which partitioned me in a section to the corner of the room. All in all, it was a familiar scene.

A place I had visited not too long ago. I was back at the infirmary.

Firstly, I contemplated why I was here again. Truthfully, my memory was a bit hazy, I couldn’t recount anything prior to leaving the cave. It was like that after nap-drowsiness one experienced when they slept for too long.

In fact, I was so lost in thought, I didn’t notice Nanami who had entered the room.

She moved the curtains which sectioned off my portion of the room to the side, and looked at me with a worried expression.

Nanami was dressed in casual clothing, a blue and yellow top along with some sweat pants. She was dressed in the attire she normally wore whenever she slept. I thought this was rather odd until I absent mindedly looked out the window, and realized it was in fact, night time.

Once she saw my eyelids were open, her expression brightened. She tentatively called out to me.

“Onii chan? Are you finally awake?”

Looking straight at my little sister’s face as she uttered her soft words, I was about to reply until I noticed a peculiarity.

Her words were completely in sync with her own actions.

Did the side effects wore off by now?

I thought to myself.

Have the dreaded effects of [monochrome] vacated my system already? Was I not plagued by that pesky lag?

To test this, I performed a simple test. It was a method to check whether my vision was synced once more with the rest of my other senses. I dubbed it the lag test. A simple name, since I’m not very good at names.

Snap!

I snapped my fingers while looking closely at my hand. I observed how the noise came directly after the movement. I repeated this process three more times to verify.

Once I was satisfied I did a little celebration in my head. I was finally free from that accursed annoyance.

“O-onii chan?”

Looking up, I saw the confusion and slight fear in Nanami’s eyes. I guess it might be a little weird to see your Brother smiling to himself while snapping with a huge degree of concentration.

I played off her confusion and replied nonchalantly,

“Oh, what’s up Nanami? It’s already evening and I’m back at the infirmary. What happened?”

“You mean you don’t remember Onii chan?”

“Remember what?”

I attempted to get up, but once I moved a certain degree, my body was met with pain. It wasn’t anything major, rather more like extreme muscle soreness, or like the crick in your neck you’d get from sleeping in the wrong position. Nevertheless, it hurted. And I had a certain aversion to pain.

“O-ow..”

I complained while rubbing the back of my neck.

“Be careful Oniichan. The nurses checked on you a while ago, they found a lot of bruises and cuts all over your body. Really, what were you doing in the forest?”

I scratched my head. Nanami was already full steam ahead into her tirade, and once she gets into her overly doting sister mode, there was nothing I could do but grit through and bare with it.

“What’s more, they were surprised when I turned down their healing spells. After all, dad told me to not let anyone find out you can’t use magic.”

“Hmm? He said that?”

This was the first I’ve heard anything from my old man about keeping my ‘condition’ a secret. Normally, not many people know, aside from Nanami, I don’t think anyone else in school knows, but I never went out of my way to hide it. Although since its a bother if anybody starts asking questions, I usually tried avoiding anybody finding the truth.

“Yes he did, but that’s not what’s important!”

Nanami reprimanded me for trying to distract her.

“What’s important here is that you’re covered in injuries, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”

Nanami tearfully remarked.

Truth was, my little sister was a bit too attached to me. Ever since she found out I couldn’t use magic, she doted on my like a second mother, always questioning where I got every little scratch. It’s not like she has an aversion to pain, but she just can’t stand the sight of me getting hurt.

Really, an unnecessary sentiment.

“Jeeze Nanami, you worry too much! Don’t be so uptight, it’s just a little bit of muscle fatigue, plus I heal fast, you know!”

At this remark, Nanami’s face darkened.

“No you don’t Onii chan, don’t lie.”

Her expression softened as she glided towards me. She sat at my bedside and carefully prodded at a deep cut on my arm that I didn’t even notice receiving.

“This is gonna take weeks to heal,” She stated remorsefully.

“...Did you get into another fight…”

She said it as if she was asking a grade schooler about a scuffle at the playground, but her intentions were clear.

“Ah...yeah, you know, some things happened, and I got like this by mistake. My bad.”

“.....”

Nanami stared at me for a sec. She expressed an emotionless face while looking straight at me. eventually she sighed, and continued touching my injuries (a sort of passive aggresive revenge against my carelessness).

“....Just be more careful next time, okay Onii chan?”

Before I could reply, she continued on,

“Also, don’t use those weird abilities of yours so much. Although you might be able to pass some of it off as magic at this school, at least put in some effort to avoid using it. You’ve got a strange tendency to get hurt every time you show them off.”

“...You worry too much, its not like I use all that often in the first place.”

“Still…..it’s dangerous.”

Her last remark was laced in double entendre. I knew what Nanami meant by ‘dangerous’ and she wasn’t necessarily worried about my well being in that regard.

“.....”

“......”

Our conversation lapsed into silence. Nanami continued inspecting my wounds while I stared out the window and counted the stars. Eventually I broke the silence with a question.

“Oh yeah, why am I in the infirmary again?”

“Well, its the only place they could think to put you in. I mean you just suddenly appeared all passed out and stuff, everyone was surprised.”

“Passed out? Me?”

At this remark, Nanami began explaining what had transpired earlier. She glossed over my sudden appearance, Timmy’s efforts, as well as everyone’s apparent confusion. Lastly, she went over the fact that I passed the exam.

“Ah, well it’s good that I passed.”

I sighed in relief. Honestly, it would have been embarrassing to fail something with such little requirements.

“Nooo~! It’s not good at all Onii chan! Things aren’t great!”

Although Nanami seems to be against my current train of thought.

“Onii chan! Get it together! You BARELY passed! BARELY!”

She emphasized this portion quite greatly.

I shrugged at her incessant nagging.

“Well, what’s important here is that I passed right? And if you’re concerned about the whole ranking thing, don’t be. It’s not like I went down or anything.”

At this, Nanami’s head popped a vein as she angrily glared at me.

“You didn’t go down since you’re already last place! And if it wasn’t for that Boar, you would have surely failed! Why were you even on top of that thing in the first place!?”

I ignored her at this point.

“Ah, I see, I see. Timmy did help out quite a bit. I gotta thank him later...wherever he is.”

“T-Timmy…? Y-you named it!?”

At Nanami’s angry expression, I recoiled a bit.

“W-well you know….he sorta reminded me of a pet I used to have….”

“We never had pets Onii chan.”

“Erm...well, there’s a first for everything then.”

“Onii chan!!!!!”

Nanami, whose boiling point finally reached its climax exploded and yelled at the ceiling. She then turned to me with new found determination, and continued her tirade.

“Onii chan, you’re not allowed to have a pet! The place where we live strictly forbids pets, ESPECIALLY monsters!”

“Er...calm down Nanami. It’s not like I meant it that way. It was a joke, a joke! You really think someone like me can tame something like Timmy?”

I remarked. It was true that I didn’t think anyone, let alone me, was capable of controlling such a fearsome beast.

“I bet you that by now, Timmy’s back in the forest, doing whatever it is Timmys love doing.”

“No he’s not! RIGHT NOW, he’s back at the stables, along with all the other trained monsters. It’s not all that uncommon for monster tamers to attend our school, but what’s weird is to have something that strong residing with all the other weaker ones! I mean, everyone’s afraid he’s gonna go out of control or something! Plus, I hear he’s eating the school dry!”

At this sudden revelation, I could only sit dumbfounded as I pictured a scene with Timmy and a struggling caretaker.

“W-why is he there in the first place?”

“After they took you away to the infirmary, the Boar just sat there. It’s not like he tried attacking anybody or anything, but everyone got really worried. Leaving such a strong monster out in the open could only spell trouble. Eventually, the school tried coaxing him to one of their numerous monster stables, but they couldn’t find one big enough to house such a beast. Fearing the monster would go on a rampage, they tore a stable meant for 10 down, cleared up the insides, and made a special place for your pet pig.”

“....Wow…”

At my look of dazed surprise, Nanami’s tension decreased a little bit.

“...Yeah, things have calmed down at this point and for now, they’ve placed ‘Timmy’ under your ownership.”

At this news I visibly perked up. My confusion was gone only to be replaced by excitement

“Really!? T-that means I get a new pet! Great!”

Any young man would want such a strong companion capable of fighting by his side, even under the most arduous of circumstances. Plus, since I’m keeping the pet at this school, for the lazy me, there was no better situation. The school had designated stable masters and caretakers to manage the monsters, so I didn’t have to put in the extra work in managing Timmy.

A perfect pet with no effort on my part!

“No no no, this really isn’t great Onii-chan….”

Nanami, who looked liked she had finally run out of steam, could only sigh in contempt.

“Just relax, it’s not all that bad. I’ll even let you ride on it if you want. Timmy’s back’s pretty comfy, you know.”

Nanami sighed again in reply.

“Seriously, what’s wrong with having a pet, Nanami?”

“I-it’s not about having a pet….you just keep bringing random things back with you Onii-chan, its a bad habit. First Timmy, then that blue child…”

At the mention of Quinn, I straightened up, and moved my head left to right in frantic search.

“Oh yeah, what happened to Quinn? Where’d he go?”

“Quinn?” Nanami questioned while tilting her head.

“Yeah, Quinn, it’s what I named the brat.”

I answered while looking frantically around the room.

Seeing my behavior, Nanami could only sigh while pointing towards the bed. I looked questioningly at her before turning my attention towards the space next to my left shoulder. There, I saw a mess of silky viridian hair poking out of the top of the sheets.

I sighed and relaxed back down on the bed. My hand drifted towards Quinn’s messy hair, as I began to stroke it, something I usually did with Nanami’s own hair.

Nanami squinted at the head patting but didn’t comment on it other wise. Instead, she continued speaking,

“You really shouldn’t go around Naming children you pick up from the forest like that.”

I wanted to reply back that I found Quinn inside the stomach of a sea dragon, but I didn’t really want to explain the whole situation to her. Plus, she’d get even angrier knowing I fought something way stronger than the monster I brought back.

“Erm, I don’t really think his parent’s will be coming back any soon.”

In all likelihood, they probably died thanks to that Sea Dragon.

“Anyways, why is the child blue onii-chan?”

“Erm...genetic mutation?”

I didn’t really have a good way of explaining without having to reveal the fact that Quinn wasn’t human.

“Eh~ I’m not really convinced.”

Nanami expressed a dubious expression, to which I reacted with a hasty expression.

“W-we really shouldn’t assume its impossible Nanami! After all, I was born not being able to use magic, i-its very possible that he was born blue too!”

“Y-you’re right Oniichan we really shouldn’t assume thin-”

Nanami stopped for a minute as she pondered something before she tentatively asked,

“D-did you just say ‘he’?”

“?”

Nanami’s face contorted as if to say she couldn’t believe it.

“Y-yeah, he...Q-Quinn is a guy after all.”

To this, Nanami sighed.

“I did find it weird you gave her such a rather masculine name….Onii-chan, did you happen to check what gender the child you picked up was?”

Although I did see the brat naked, I honestly didn’t pay attention to his nether regions. I only assumed his gender going by the flatness of his chest.

“Er….not exactly…”

“...Well, Quinn-chan over there’s a girl.”

“Eh!? Really?”

“Yes, yes, more importantly, what are you gonna do with the child?”

Nanami brushed aside my case of mistaken identity and delved into what she considered was the more important topics.

“....I’m going to take care of him, er, her.”

It’s not like I can just hand Quinn over to some random person. What if she ends up with someone suspicious. Being not human or monster (and I doubt she’s a magical being), I can only see a life of experimentation and exploit ahead of her if she were to be in the hands of bad people.

Plus, despite our short time together, seeing her grasp onto my left arm like this, even I’d grow a little attached.

“I hope that’s not a problem Nanami...do you think old lady Jumblee’d allow it?”

Nanami slowly closed her eyes as if thinking about something before she continued.

“Well, if I’m the one who asks her, I’m sure she won’t mind.”

Getting Nanami’s support, I grinned happily. Truthfully I didn’t think I was capable of raising a child by myself, but I’m sure with Nanami’s help things will work out.

“Good! Now I don’t have to worry about anything.”

I stated while blissfully patting the sleeping child’s head.

Nanami, who saw the head patting, bitterly replied,

“Actually Onii chan, it seems like you forgot.”

“Forgot what?” I questioned apprehensively.

Nanami, who walked over to the window and was currently sulking, answered,

“It’s the first day of school tomorrow.”

*****

Author's note: Like always, I'm welcome to any forms of feed back. Also I'm still looking for a PR if anybody's interested.

Chapter 8

Chapter 9