The moment Faye, the tall silver haired woman, entered the room, everyone froze. Momo upon seeing her arrive caused his soul weapon to disappear. He knew that she was not to be trifled with as he tried causing trouble last year.
'Damn it, not her,' Momo thought, 'It was bad enough fighting against that string guy, but to get an actual speed ability user here?'
"Those of you who are injured, go to the doctor's office to be treated immediately, while the rest of you head to the dorms and stay inside until you are called out again. Do you understand?" Faye commanded.
Everyone was stunned into silence, not knowing who she was or what was going on. In that moment of silence, Erin got off of Momo and ran over to Quinn's side. Slightly shaking him, he appeared to be unconscious.
Seeing the movement, Faye ran over to her nearly instantaneously, leaving behind a blue blur.
"How'd she get over there so fast?"
"Didn't you see that guy? He needs the hospital now!"
"What part of 'I command everyone to halt this instant' did you not—?" Faye began, before realizing what Erin was doing.
She shot the older woman a cold stare, then lifted Quinn over her shoulder.
"I'm taking both me and him to the doctor's," Erin said then gestured to her bloodied clothes with her free hand.
Faye shook her head, "Apologies, I acted too harshly."
Erin soon had taken Quinn to the doctor's, especially since she was visibly bloodied with a few wounds on her body that hadn't healed yet.
Surprisingly, not that many people got hurt in this incident, at least, not too badly. Quinn was the notable exception due to how badly injured he was. Hayley had tended Quinn's wounds, but it was harder to explain Erin.
"I thought you'd be hurt more? Weren't you the one who got attacked by the second years?" Hayley asked, examining Erin's bloodied clothes.
"Someone used the healing ability on me," Erin lied, then added "... after I was freed."
"Oh really? How nice of them. They did a good job given the circumstances. By any chance did you see what they looked like? It gets really busy here and having an assistant would help."
"uh… I dunno what they looked like. I was busy getting attacked."
Hayley sighed, "I'm gonna have to look into finding an assistant soon. This is the second time this week you've brought someone in."
Erin looked at the unconscious Quinn. He was motionless, and almost lifeless. It hurt to see how many bandages covered his body.
"...hey, uh…" Erin quietly spoke, "... Is he going to be alright?"
"What was that?" Hayley asked.
"Nothing."
—
Erin left the doctor's office after being healed, and returned back to her dorm room. Inside there were her roommates. Layla was sitting on a chair fiddling with her fingers, and her other roommate was laying on her bed, her hands behind her head.
"You're back!" Layla said, standing up, "...are you alright? You were hurt pretty badly."
"I'm fine…" Erin muttered. Her mind a little preoccupied with something else.
Erin walked over to her bed and laid down. She didn't say anything, which got Layla worried. Soon after, a private came into the room and Cia's name was called out. She got up and left.
"They're taking her for questioning about the whole event," Layla explained, "They did the same thing with me earlier. They're just asking about what happened to piece together a timeline, so you don't have to worry about your… y'know…."
Erin glanced over at Layla before staring back at the ceiling. She didn't care so much about her secret being revealed, but more so how Quinn got hurt badly when she was right there. She hadn't felt worry for another person since her parents had—
'Why did I have to care for him?' Erin thought to herself.
{Erin} Quinn?
Nothing.
What would happen if Quinn died? Would she be freed of her system? Or would something be irreparably broken, missing a key component. She didn't want someone like him to die, but after being stuck with this system, she had lost a lot of her strength.
"...Layla?" Erin whispered.
Layla became very attentive when hearing her name, "Yes?"
"Blood makes me stronger, and I don't want this to happen again," Erin sat up on her bed, "I need you to do something for me."
Layla nodded, "I'd do anything to help."
"I need you to get me as many different varieties of blood as you can."
Soon, Cia returned from her interrogation, and Erin was called up. She wasn't the only one who was being questioned though…
—
In one of the interrogation rooms, a large muscular man with arms as thick as thighs was sitting on the opposite side of Momo. This man's badge showed the rank of General along with his name of Duke King. He was the head of the second year students.
"Of all people to stop us, it had to be Faye," Momo complained, "I did as you asked and now I might pay for it."
"Will you relax? Nothing will come of this I promise you that," Duke replied, "You're only students, these kinds of things happen, and I will vouch for you."
"Really? So I wont get punished then?" Momo asked.
Duke got up from his seat and walked behind Momo, whispering into his ear.
"Of course, as long as no one finds out about our little secret," he said with a smile.
Soon after, Momo left and Duke was looking over the report of everything that happened. He was required to by his job. Initially, he was skimming it, until he saw something peculiar. In the report, it was stated that a student by the name of Quinn Talen had thrown a ball made using beast crystals, and that these beast stones were made out of metal. What was the strange thing was that the ball was dented.
Checking over the student's records, Duke noted that Quinn was only a level 1.1 earth user. Normally, an earth ability user would not have been able to bend metal like that, and so he would've assumed it got dented from someone else's ability, except there was nothing in the report that indicated someone had dented the beast stone.
Nothing was for sure yet, but if this was a sign that someone had a unique property to their ability, then Duke was going to make an important call.
—
After the questioning, it was a little surprising how despite being the main victim of the incident, that she wasn't questioned as much about what happened. Apparently they already had the whole story down of what happened, and they were only asking her as a formality.
She was thankful for that since they didn't bother to ask why or how she was attacked. Perhaps they thought it was reasonable to happen since it was with a second year with a soul weapon attacking a first year.
She was sent back, but there were things on her mind as she got ready to sleep. If Quinn got hurt like that trying to save her, then she needed to be stronger. She wont let it happen again.
—
Similarly, Quinn was having very similar thoughts. He was laying down in the hospital's bed thinking about his own strength, or lack-there-of. Just because he got an earth ability doesn't mean that he was going to be automatically strong. He had no earth to work with, but maybe he could figure out how to have earth on him while also keeping it hidden.
Quinn looked at the system message, seeing that singular one of Erin calling for his name. He felt a little guilty for not responding to it once he was in better condition, but with how late it was, she was most likely asleep.
'I have to train my ability, I need to be stronger so I can protect my friends," Quinn thought.
It was a funny thought, in a way, to think of Erin as his friend. Not that long ago they had just met and became linked, but something had changed. He wasn't sure if it was the system at play or not, but there was something deeper going on with their connection.