Night 55: M11 - M20 Hallway
And there was the evening announcement, timely as always, although he could have done without the noise at the beginning. It was still slightly jarring to not hear those mocking tones that he had grown so accustomed to, but he did prefer the more direct announcements that had been rolling in ever since last evening. No pathetic attempts at creating
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And so, she nodded again for Kratos to take his shirt off. She was about to offer to help with both injuries, but then remembered Sora's warning about pushing her limits too much. "Maybe we can try the ribs first, and if everything's still good, we can do the arm after?" she suggested, trying not to look too much while Kratos shed the shirt.
When he was done, Rapunzel bent down and grabbed the end of her hair. "Okay, this is going to be a bit awkward, but it's the easiest way to make sure we get complete coverage. And if it's not too much trouble, try to lift your arms a bit for me," she warned before standing back up and touching the end gently to part of the bruised area (owowowow Rapunzel thought with a big wince). She held it there while her other hand lifted more hair up and around Kratos's mid-section, like winding thread around a bobbin. Eventually, with some patience, she had wrapped a few layers of hair around him, covering most of the bruising.
When she was satisfied the hair would stay in place, she stood back, closed her eyes, and took another deep breath. Then, she began to sing: "Flower gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine..."
As she continued, her spirits began to lift. She could already feel the warmth gathering in her scalp, and through her closed lids, she could see the darkness beginning to light up with a golden radiance. It took a few more moments for the glow to make its way down her train of hair, but eventually, it reached Kratos, and once she felt it get there, she focused on his ribs, visualizing the whole area as perfectly healed. So far, all seemed to be going well.
Until she realized that from what she could feel, the pace of things wasn't anywhere close to what she was used to. She would have expected the area to have healed after less than a minute, and for the glow to fade away after that. Not so, as it turned out. The glow kept going strong, and her magic was telling her that the injury, while healing, was barely even started yet. "...Okay, this could take a while," she admitted with a sigh. After a few more moments, she started up the chant again. Eventually, she realized that her singing seemed to have less bearing on keeping the glow going than just focusing did. Once the song was sung, she didn't have to keep repeating it. Small favours, she supposed; if she was going to have to spend longer on healing, she was glad she wouldn't have to dry out her throat in the process, at least.
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It was probably a good thing that no one he knew from the twin worlds - a certain Zelos Wilder in particular - was here to see this, too; he probably looked ridiculous.
Kratos was about to ask Rapunzel what the purpose of being tangled up in her hair was when suddenly, the girl began to sing, and the entire mass of hair, starting from the roots, began to glow in a definitely inhuman manner. He managed to have the sense to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched the light wind its way down to him, and inhaled sharply on reflex (He regretted doing so instantly.) as the power...energy...whatever it was began seeping into his ribs. It felt like mana, but at the same time, it was completely different from the feeling of his own powers.
"...how did you come by this ability?" he asked quietly, partially hoping to distract himself from the fact that he was trapped in a mass of glowing, golden hair and probably would be for some time.
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Marie's quiet thrum of appreciation sent a warm tingle down her spine. The girl in her mind had never seen anything like this before, and as usual she was more optimistic about it than Soma was. The last time she'd seen healing like this here, it had backfired horribly--with luck, nothing like that would happen tonight.
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After a little while, Kratos asked her a question, and Rapunzel raised her head. Thankfully, so long as she kept at least part of her mind on the healing process, the magic seemed to flow steadily, allowing her to answer: "I didn't, really. It's been mine since I was born. The only thing I know about it from that time was that someone-" whom, Rapunzel suspected she now knew "-tried to cut a piece of my hair and take it for themselves when I was a baby."
She lifted a section of glowing hair from the back of her neck, revealing one tiny lock of completely normal brown hair. "But if you cut my hair, whatever is cut loses its power and turns brown, like this," she explained before letting her hair back down to cover the lock. "So I don't know. Have you guys ever heard of anything like that?" she asked after a few more moments of focusing on the wound, which was starting to heal more noticeably by that point.
Rapunzel felt herself sway slightly after that. She stopped herself, putting her hands down firmly on the mattress. Was she starting to get tired? She had been pretty awake just a few minutes ago.
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He frowned lightly as he considered the brown lock of hair. "I've also never heard of anyone being able to lose said powers in such a fairly uncomplicated manner." It had to be some sort of accomplishment, lasting through eighteen or how many years old Rapunzel was without anyone cutting her hair save for that first instance. To protect a power like that...what had it taken?
At this point, though, he noticed that Rapunzel was definitely tiring. "Ah--" Kratos nearly got to his feet in order to steady her, but remembered just in time that his ribs were still healing; even though he could hold more of a conversation, he certainly didn't feel as if he'd recovered to the point where he could handle sudden, abrupt movements. "...if you're getting tired, perhaps you should stop. I still have tonight off to rest, and you'll need your energy for later."
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But that explained why Rapunzel hadn't cut her hair yet, even when it seemed like such a burden to carry around. So there was no way to cut it without her losing her powers. That seemed like a significant price to pay for an ability as useful as hers. Perhaps she hadn't done much running about in her world, but in a place like the institute, that healing power might not be worth the extra weight.
Still, that was all up to Rapunzel--who was tiring now, visibly, and Soma took a quick step forward to support her. "How long does it normally take to heal injuries?" she asked. Hopefully if she could keep Rapunzel talking, it'd help her focus.
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She kept her focus for all of about two minutes more before her shoulders sank and her head dropped.
"Okay yeah, never mind. I should stop."
Healing had never been tiring in the slightest for Rapunzel before now, and the idea that it could be was entirely foreign to her. And yet here she was, suddenly feeling like she had walked a few miles on about half a night's sleep. She supposed that a limitation like that was better than having her gift taken away outright, but it was still disappointing to think that she couldn't do as much for people as she was used to anymore.
It was then that Rapunzel realized she hadn't answered Soma's question from earlier. "Oh! Right!" she said as the glow finally faded back into darkness. "Back home, that whole thing would've been cleared up into under a minute, tops. Sorry, I guess whatever they used to shorten my hair without cutting it also put a limit on how fast it can heal."
She started unwinding her hair from around Kratos's ribs. The bruising underneath seemed much less severe than before, by about half. That was something, at least, right?
Something disappointing, she thought with a short sigh.
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As the hair fell away, Kratos tentatively tested the bruise, noting with satisfaction that not only had the color improved, but that it didn't hurt quite as much as before when he touched it. Good. Perhaps by tomorrow night he would be able to get back into things.
"Regardless, it would seem that I am in your debt," he said mildly as he pulled his shirt back on and began doing up the buttons. Kratos paused and then added, bowing his head slightly, "Thank you." It was a rare admission for him, but he knew when thanks was due.
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No matter. Soma had a spare weapon; that was hardly the most important thing at hand. Right now, she had to make sure Rapunzel and Kratos wouldn't be suffering from any long-lasting effects.
"Are you in any pain?" she asked, trying not to hover. It was stupid, but she couldn't help but feel a little useless at the moment. Anything she could do to help would be a welcome change. "Either one of you. Anything besides fatigue?"
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Making sure she took a stretch before they left, Rapunzel turned to answer Soma: "And no, don't worry. Nothing besides the tiredness so far." There was another yawn out of her at that (what was with her and the bad timing on those, she wondered), and she covered her mouth again out of politeness. "I'm okay. If we keep moving, it'll be fine, I'm sure."
After goodbyes and good lucks were all said and done, Rapunzel and Soma moved back out into the hallways.
[To here]
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