After talking to Akane, we all went back to the hospital ward. I thought she was gonna come with us but Colonel Bianca wanted to ask her some more questions. Bianca said she would be with us shortly though. Warren and I are put back in our beds as Adam lectures us on how to heal properly. I try to zone it out because it’s Adam talking.

“And remember to take this healing potion every six hours. But be careful because it can make you sleepy. Did you get that Warren?” Adam asks him.

Warren’s face just looks like he’s in deep thought. I bet he’s also trying his hardest to not listen to Adam.

“Yeah” he deadpans.

“Ok what about you Quincy?” Adam asks, turning to me.

“Yes Adam I got everything. How could I not? You are a very interesting person so I was hooked on every word. Please, tell me more about medicine and healing. Keep going. Don’t ever stop” I say sarcastically.

“Wow Quincy you never said something so nice to me. Thank you I will, I was about to stop but since you insist I can give you some extra tips.” Adam says all happily.

He then starts to talk about...something I don’t know I started to zone out again. Why did I have to be sarcastic? I forgot Adam is stupid so I can only blame myself for this. Is this what it’s like when I start to rant about history to people? Nah it can’t be, my rants about history are interesting unlike whatever Adam is talking about right now. Luckily Nerva enters the conversation to end my suffering.

“Wait hold the fuck up. How long they gotta heal for?” she questions stopping Adam mid sentence.

“ Huh? Hmm given the injuries they sustained I think they’re gonna have to rest here for about a month” Adam answers.

“Oh hell no” I renounce.

I can’t do this for a month, this is too awful. Adam would be able to annoy me day and night and I would only be able to defend myself by throwing things at him. Wait a minute, I ran out of things to throw at him, oh god I’m defenseless.

“Yeah that’s too long” Warren concurs.

“B-but you said you would do whatever I wanted if I let you guys go talk to that girl” Adam reminds us.

“That’s true but we don’t have the time to wait that long. I was expecting it to take only a week to heal” Warren voices.

“I’m sorry Warren but a week is too short. With your injuries it’ll take a month for you guys to get back to near a hundred percent”

“Sorry Adam, that’s just not happening”

“B-but you promised! If you two leave early you’re both gonna die, so this is for the best”

“I think I’d rather die than be nursed by you to be honest” I cut in.

“...But you were so interested in my advice earlier” Adam mentions.

“No Adam. That was sarcasm. I still hate you.” I emphasize.

“I’m with Warren and Quincy, fuck healing! I wanna fight now, not in a month. Let’s go! Right now! Let’s kill a bitch!” Nerva yells in excitement.

“But Nerva they can’t walk” Adam states.

“That don’t mean shit. They can fight in their wheelchairs, right guys?” she asks us.

“Yeah I’m good! let’s do this!” I lie.

I know damn well that if I fight in a wheelchair I’m not gonna make it. But that’s ok if I get to avoid being taken care of by Adam for a month.

“Nerva no! Quincy you can’t you’re a monk. Your whole war class is based on you being mobile. You too Warren, you can’t use your machete if you’re confined to a wheelchair” Adam argues.

“...I could throw my machete,” Warren points out.

“See Adam, we're good. Let’s go!” I exclaim.

“Fuck yeah!” Nerva cheers.

“Guys no-” Adam tries to say but then the whole tower starts to vibrate as we all hear a big boom go off in the distance.

“That must have been Ryder,” I remark.

“A-are you sure? It could have been an attack” Adam suggests.

“Nah I know that explosion. I’m used to it by now. I can tell it’s the same one that blew up North Point since I remember getting blown up so clearly. I hope it defeats the Reaper Will’s group is fighting.” I explain.

“Hold the fuck up. You telling me the first hero is fighting one of them rapers nearby?” Nerva questions.

“Yeah they’re fighting a raper” I say using her mispronunciation of the word reaper for the fun of it.

“WHAT THE FUCK! AGAIN!? THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME! I MISSED ANOTHER FUCKING FIGHT! GOD DAMN IT!” Nerva screams in anger.

I would have suggested to Will to take Nerva with him but I had the feeling Will wanted to win his fight. Nerva bouncing around everywhere and setting everything on fire would have ruined his team’s coordination thus leading to everyone dying.

“N-Nerva please calm down,” Adam says in an attempt to stop her from exploding.

I’m not being hyperbolic about that. Flames are slowly emerging from Nerva’s body so she might actually explode.

“NO FUCK CALM! I’M PISSED! EVERYBODY GETS TO FIGHT BUT ME!” Nerva vents.

“Adam’s right Nerva you need to calm down. Don’t worry, you’re gonna get your chance to fight. I’ll let you do most of the fighting” Warren assures her.

“You fucking better” Nerva mumbles to herself as the fire slowly subsides.

“Nerva I’ll give you an even better offer. How about I don’t fight at all? I’ll just be there. That way you can fight even more.” I pledge.

“You mean it?” Nerva asks excitedly, her mood being the exact opposite of what it was a few seconds ago. This girl goes from 0 to 100 back to 0 very quickly.

“Yeah I swear”

“But you guys still can’t walk and I’m not letting you guys fight in wheelchairs.” Adam asserts.

Warren sighs and replies “You’re right Adam. We really can’t fight in our condition, but I’m not staying here for a month either. Is there any way to speed up the healing process?”

“N-no not really. There’s no other way.” Adam confesses.

“Oh but there is a way.” a voice says from the door of the hospital ward.

We all turn to it and from the shadows emerges Akane handcuffed behind her back.

“Were you just waiting in the hallway to make an entrance?” I question.

“....No.” she says impassively.

“Yes she totally did. I was taking her up to you and we were about to enter but she stopped saying she wanted to wait for the perfect moment.” Bianca says coming into the room as well with Ice Cube following suit.

“....Your commanding officer lies to you” Akane disputes.

“Oh really? Anastasia am I lying?” Biana asks playfully.

“...” she answers.

“I can’t refute that. Regardless, I’m here to help out with your medical problem.” Akane explains, walking closer to us until they’re in between the beds.

“Behold” she says as she effortlessly breaks the handcuffs off, reaching into her pocket to take out a needle with some bright blue liquid in it.

I think she was about to explain what it is but before she could do so Ice Cube puts her in a chokehold. Dang Ice Cube is pretty hardcore. The only person I’m willing to choke without a second thought is Adam.

“It’s ok Anastasia let her go. I’m curious to see what she has to say. If she starts attacking us then you can kill her.” Bianca states.

Ice Cube lets her go and Akane continues like nothing happened.

“This is-” She tries to say but is interrupted by Warren.

“That’s Benetant isn’t it? That stuff is extremely rare from what I heard.” Warren comments.

“Yes you’re right. It’s extremely hard to get a hand on this here-”

“Oh yeah I heard about that stuff. It’s popped up a few times in my history books. It’s a drug that’s made from crushing a crystal only found in the mountains of Astus. It played a major role in giving the empire’s soldiers a huge boost during the War of Unholy Succession.” I explain.

“...Yes. I myself got my hands on it when-”

“Yeah but that’s a bad drug. I heard it’s addictive and causes a huge crash after it’s effects wear off” Adam says, cutting off Akane for the third time.

I look at Akane’s face and it’s extremely deadpan. It looks like she’s just done with the world.

“Ok so how exactly does it work?” Warren asks.

She doesn’t respond right away. She waits for about 15 seconds before doing so just to be sure no one is going to cut her off.

“It works by-”

“Holy shit the first hero’s party looks fucked up!” Nerva observes looking out the window of the hospital ward.

“Is Will dead?” I call out to her.

“Nah he’s good. He looks fucked up though. Ryder’s on a bear. That’s cool. Remi still looks stupid. Oh there’s Nazuko. HEY NAZUKO!” Nerva yells waving out of the window.

“Hiiii. I’m in pain.” I faintly hear from outside.

“Akane, ignore them. You were saying” Warren interrupts, making everyone focused once again.

“It doesn’t heal you like a normal healing potion, it provides pain relief. It’s so effective that you’ll feel like how you did before we fought. It’ll also give you a huge boost of energy. But like the one with bad taste said, it is slightly addictive and after it wears off you’ll crash due to fatigue.” Akane explains.

To me it sounds like a combination between Tylenol and a Monster energy drink. In any normal circumstance I wouldn’t touch that stuff with a ten foot pole, but it seems like it’s my only option to get out of this hospital ward so I’m inclining toward taking it.

“How long does it last?” Warren follows up.

“Three days. If you take it now you’ll have to leave immediately. Ravenna is a two day trip from here.” she declares.

“Warren don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Just heal the proper way please? I’m sure the normal knights can take out the reapers.” Adam begs.

“Why are you against this idea? Something very similar happened in Bongo. The third arc of it when he had to take drugs to get enough energy to fight the angel wizard.” Akane argues.

“Oh yeah I read that comic. Wait he died because the drugs wore off mid fight! That led him to getting killed by the angel wizard!” Adam retorts.

“Hmmm” is all she says in defense.

“I’m gonna take it. It’s my only option. I’ll defeat the reaper before the drug wears off. Quincy, you don’t have to take it to come with. You can stay here and heal properly.” Warren tells me.

“Nah I’m coming with Warren. It’ll be messed up if I stayed here while everyone else in my party did the work.” I justify.

It’s weird, like staying here so that I don’t have to fight is something I should want to do. Yet I don’t, this guilt just comes over me. Like what if people in my party excluding Adam get hurt? I’d feel bad. I think that fight with Akane really did mess up my brain.

“Well alright then. Akane, give it to me” Warren says.

Instead of giving Warren the needle so that he could do it himself, Akane instead jams the thing into his neck. I see the liquid slowly go into his body.

“How’s it feel, Warren?” I ask.

Without answering Warren unceremoniously gets up and starts to stretch. After finishing he looks at me and responds “I’m good. The clock is ticking, I’m gonna go get my car, you guys be ready to go when I come back.”

He proceeds to leave the room to go to the airship. Where did we park that thing again? Eh it’s a giant airship so it’s not like it’s hard to find.

“Ok sounds--AGH!” I scream as Akane jams another needle into my neck.

Suddenly a wave of energy overcomes me and the pain in my body is gone. Yep, this is exactly what I thought this would feel like, half medicine, half energy drink. I’m able to get myself out of bed.

“Ok wow that stuff works alright. Adam this feels wonderful, way better than that garbage you made us drink. You should carry drugs on you instead.” I state.

Adam shakes his head in disappointment. I can tell this is the last thing he wanted us to do. But hey at least we’re at 100 percent now. Actually no, given that I’m not really healed but just putting off the pain I’m about to go into battle at about 65%. Eh good enough for me.

“Well I hope you take advantage of your temporary state second hero. Given that you almost died in your last fight I’ve deemed it necessary to assign you a guard. I can spare at least one knight. Anastasia, you’re going to accompany them, understand?” Bianca orders.

“...” Ice Cube affirms.

I look at her. Oh no, I can’t handle more of this being unable to communicate stuff, it’s not funny anymore, it just hurts. Wait a minute, there’s that notebook I got her.

“Ice Cube, I’m going to communicate with you now ok? This whole me not understanding you thing is stopping right here and now you hear me? Take this notebook, if you have anything to say to me just write it ok? You do have a pen or something on you right?” I tell her as I hand her the notebook.

Her eyes widen as she takes the notebook. Is that good or bad? I can’t understand normal women so understanding one that can’t communicate normally is twice as hard.

“She’s excited.” Adam remarks.

“How can you tell?” I ask him.

I look back towards Ice Cube and she’s already writing away with a pen that she apparently had on her. Well good for her. She hands it to me to read.

My Dear Quincy, I apologize for being unable to communicate with you for so long. I appreciate this gift you have given me in the highest regards. There is so much I wish to convey to you but in the meanwhile I wish to tell you thanks. I will use this notebook so that we may have the most stimulating intellectual conversations.

Wow she has fancy handwriting. That’s to be expected from aristocracy with the exception of Nerva because I’m sure she can’t write.

“Yeah no problem Ice Cube” I react.

“So anyway are we ready to go?” I ask everyone around me.

“I’d rather we not go at all” Adam states.

“Well too bad Adam, I already took drugs for this. So we're going, we’re going to fight a dude, then we’re coming back. What about you Nerva you ready?” I inquire, turning to the window but see she’s not there.

“Ugh where did Nerva go?” I ponder aloud.

“Oh she jumped out the window to go talk to the first hero’s party.” Adam reveals.

Then Ice Cube taps me on the shoulder and shows me her notebook.

Do not worry, my sister will be ready to depart once she becomes cognizant of our plans. She left a few minutes ago before you took the drug. I’m sure she’ll be ebullient upon hearing the news. I also want you to know that you will not have to worry about her in battle, I will protect her.

“Good job Ice Cube, you’re a good sister. I’m not worried about Nerva though, she’s not good at many things but we both know that fighting is one of them” I declare.

Ice Cube nods her head in agreement.

“What about you Akane, are you ready to go?” I question, turning my attention towards her.

“I will not be coming with you. I’ll meet up with you there but I have some business to attend to first.” she informs.

“What? Where you gotta go?” I ask in disbelief since this whole operation was her idea.

“I have some things to discuss with Monk. I can sense his energy. The first hero did not end him. Then I’ll go save my parents but do not worry, I’ll be there to assist you with Lancer. Before I depart some words of advice. I recommend that you do not get close to him, he can take your breath away.” she warns.

“I don’t care how sexy he is.” I retort.

“That’s not what I meant. Though he does get a new girlfriend every few weeks. Then he kills them.” she divulges.

“Now I’m jealous and sad” Adam mumbles to himself.

After that we hear a honk from a car come from outside. That has to be Warren telling us it’s time to go.

“Well you better be there by the time we fight him. If you don’t I’m gonna have to assume you sent us into a trap.” I tell her.

“Understandable. Don’t worry, a true samurai keeps their word and remember this Quincy, what lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” she responds as she makes her way to the window.

Ugh god the cringe.

“Stop. Just stop talking like that, don’t do that anymore. ” I admonish.

She smirks in response, blows a whistle, then jumps out of the window. Adam, Ice Cube, and I head to the window and look down to see that she landed on a dark black horse.

“That wasn’t cool!” I call out to her.

She doesn’t call back to me but I swear I see her mumble to herself “yes it was”.

She rides on her horse past Will’s party to the outskirts of the city.

“I thought it was kinda cool” Adam admits.

“Adam your opinion doesn’t count. Now let’s go” I say as I head to the stairs.

“Good luck second hero. I’ll have cookies for you when you come back” Bianca tells me on my way out.

“Ugh thanks.” I say.

“Ooh what kind of cookies?” Adam questions.

“It’ll be a surprise,” Bianca tells him.

“I just hope it’s nothing with walnuts in it. I’m allergic to those”

“You know what? Bianca, make sure those cookies have walnuts in them” I cut in.

“What? Quincy no, then I can’t eat any” Adam pleads.

“You got it second hero. I’ll make sure they have walnuts” Bianca ensures.

Adam looks at us confused and distressed.

“B-but” he tries to say.

“Adam we don’t have time to talk anymore, let’s go. Ice Cube could you be a dear and get him moving?” I request.

As requested, Ice Cube starts to escort Adam out of the building. Adam looks sad as he’s trying to process what just happened. Good. We make our way out of the tower to see Warren outside of his car talking to Nerva and Will’s group.

“So basically we’re about to head out to fight another one of the reapers right now.” Warren tells them.

“Aren’t you and Quincy still in bad shape?” Will asks him.

“Oh hey Will. It’s ok we took drugs.” I greet coming up to them.

“What kind of drugs?” Azura asks with her eyes squinting. I think she already guessed what we took.

“The good kind.” is all I say.

“Uh huh” she replies sassily.

“Our drugs are on a time limit so we have to leave right now. Sorry we can’t talk more, I’m glad you’re alive.” I tell him.

“Yeah no problem Quincy. I’m in so much pain” he says.

“It’s ok man you get to relax in a hospital ward”

“Yay” he cheers sarcastically.

“He’ll have a great time. I’ll be his nurse” Nazuko says, coming up to us with Nerva.

“That is not happening” he bluntly tells her.

“Yeah it’s not. I’ll be his nurse.” Remi cuts in.

“No, that's not happening either,” Will says.

“Yeah Remi I think he wants to get better, not fucking die under your care” Nerva insults.

“Nerva I’m not in the mood for you right now” Remi declares, angrily pointing at her.

“It’s ok Will, I’ll nurse you and not kill you in the process. You could lie in my lap again if you want” Lilith proposes.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Will remarks.

“Nope as the only real healer in your party I’m making you stay in bed for your own good so none of that. Everybody got hurt in the last fight so everyone is going to stay in bed except me because I got damaged the least.” Azura orders.

“Now I have absolutely nothing to look forward to,” Will states.

“It’s ok Will, I’ll be in the bed next to you” Ryder says laying on top of a spirit bear. It’s weird how I just noticed that.

“Nevermind. I have something to look forward to now” Will proclaims.

“By the way Warren, did you see that cool huge explosion I did?” Ryder asks him.

“Yeah. It was good. Good job” Warren answers.

“What about you Nerva? Did you notice the awesomeness?” he asks but can’t look at her because he can’t move.

“It was dope as fuck!” Nerva replies.

“Heh, nice.” Ryder says to himself satisfied that other people noticed his explosions.

Warren then claps to get our attention

“Alright we need to go. Take care guys we’ll be back in a few days” he orders, getting into the car.

“WOOOO LET’S GO! Bye Nazuko, good luck getting Will meat. We about to go fight a raper now.” Nerva says entering the backseat of the car.

“Bye Nerva!” Nazuko responds, waving her arm.

I get into the car’s front seat and look out to see Adam talking to Azura. It looks like she’s haranguing him.

“Did you really give them Benetant knowing what that stuff does to people?” I can faintly hear her ask.

“It wasn’t me! I told them not to take it but they insisted. It was the reaper girl who had it” I think I hear Adam reply.

Warren honks the horn to make him hurry up. I see Adam apologize and come over to enter the car. He does so and like that we’re all cooped up together in a car again. With the addition of Ice Cube who’s sitting in between Nerva and Adam. She must have entered the car when I wasn’t looking. Warren turns on the ignition and as he looks through his mirror notices her.

“Wait, she's coming with?” he asks.

“Yeah she’s been assigned as my bodyguard or something.” I explain.

“Well alright then” Warren says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Holy shit sis when did you get here?” Nerva asks.

Wow I keep forgetting how slow and oblivious Nerva is. How she gonna notice only after Warren did when she’s the one sitting right next to her? Anyway Warren starts to drive us out of town.

“Anastasia I’m glad you’re here, now your sister can’t hurt me since you’re between us” Adam notices.

“Oh bitch you ain’t safe. Check this out, hiyaah!” Nerva says leaning in her seat about to poke. Ice Cube instinctively bends forward to dodge. Nerva’s arm keeps going unimpeded, making contact with the side of Adam’s head.

“Ow!” he reels in pain.

“Ha! Got ya, bitch. There’s more where that came from.” Nerva promises.

“Oh no. . .” Adam says dejectedly.

Thus began our journey. It mostly consisted of Warren focusing on the road and Nerva bullying Adam in a myriad of ways, mostly poking and spewing insults. Something else interesting happened on our journey. I expected to spend most of the time reading my new book but that didn’t happen. Instead I got to communicate with Ice Cube. She would write things in her notebook about a historical event and then her and I would get into a debate about it. She would make a claim like how what a certain emperor did was wrong in her notebook and I’d go on a rant about why she’s wrong. She would write a counter argument and we’d just keep going back and forth. This led to us arguing about broader political ideas by the end of the trip.

“No Ice Cube I’m not trying to defend feudalism in this dialectic. Anyone who does deserves to face opprobrium and live in obloquy in my eyes. I’m just saying that the solution to the plight of the peasants isn’t utilitarianism and utopianism. Those philosophies would lead to social atomism and retrogression as you use Benthamite calculus to turn society into a soulless machine. I understand you want equality of condition but achieving that is impossible. The only time it existed was during the age of barbarism. In trying to create heaven, you inadvertently create hell.” I prate.

Ice Cube furiously scribbles in her notebook, hands it to me to read.

You speak of despotism while ignoring the despotic rule which already exists in this land. You speak of hypotheticals, ignoring temporal reality. In this land, each of the lords suffers from pleonexia. For instance Creon does not want to put down this rebellion to save lives, only to aggrandize himself. The peasants rebel because of his lack of apprehension of their plight. Disregarding the true cause of this current rebellion, the fact remains that they are oppressed. This will not change after the rebellion is put down. If change is not instituted for the betterment of the people, Creon will face another rebellion, regardless of the influence of the demonic or not. You also seem not to understand the inherent connection between justice and utility. The two essential ingredients in the sentiment of justice are, the desire to punish a person who has done harm, and the knowledge or belief that there is some definite individual or individuals to whom harm has been done. Utilitarianism as a philosophy is in alignment with this because it acknowledges that those on the top of the social strata harm those at the bottom. Utilitarianism resolves this. By using the Greatest Happiness Principle and a proactive and vigorous central government, the empire can ensure the greatest happiness for its citizens by restricting the tyrannical tendencies of the lords. The central government can do what the lords fail to do themselves, provide for the material welfare of the people. But most importantly utilitarianism will ensure equality. Society between equals can only exist on the understanding that the interests of all are to be regarded equally. And since in all states of civilisation, every person, except an absolute monarch, has equals, everyone is obliged to live on these terms with somebody; and in every age some advance is made towards a state in which it will be impossible to live permanently on other terms with anybody. In this way people grow up unable to conceive as possible to them a state of total disregard of other people’s interests.

“Ok now you’re talking about a type of historical determinism in which collectivism is inevitable. I find that to be a load of blarney. The solution lies at changing the system from the bottom up, not from the top down and it must be done through slow reform. This radical economic and social levelling via statism would not lead to eucatastrophe. I understand the need for a strong central government, but a welfare state is going too far. By turning society up on its head you’ll lose more than you gain. Say the peasants succeed, what will be the result? They will find punishment in their success: laws overturned; tribunals subverted; industry without vigor; commerce expiring; the revenue unpaid, yet the people impoverished; a church pillaged, and a state not relieved; civil and military anarchy made the constitution of the kingdom. And this is all ignoring the demon stuff.”

I hand the notebook back to Ice Cube and notice that Adam and Nerva are staring, their mouths agape.

“You guys good?” I ask.

“What the fuck was that?” Nerva asks. “You can talk like my sister? People can do that? Holy shit my head hurts. I’m getting flashbacks of when sis came into my room after reading a book when we were kids. I had to dropkick her to get her out of my room.”

“What? We were just talking. Well technically just me so I guess you guys didn’t hear the full conversation.”

“Anastasia said everything she wrote. I didn’t understand any of it but w-we heard it. Ow, my head hurts too.” Adam corrects, holding the temples of his head.

“Oh great so everyone knows how wrong Ice Cube is, right Warren?” I ask, looking at him.

“Huh? I wasn’t listening.”

For some reason Warren not knowing what we talked about makes me sad; like a kid whose dad didn’t notice something cool they did.

“Alright guys we’re at the outskirts of Ravenna. Now Quincy, you said Akane was supposed to meet up with us right?” he asks for confirmation, clearly showing his mind never deviated from the mission at hand.

“That’s what she said. She didn’t tell me what time though. Why do you wanna wait for her out here?” I answer.

Warren thinks for a bit and replies “No. I think we have about 6 hours left before the drug wears off given when we took them. Let’s just go in there and at least do some reconnaissance. If she’s not here by the time we find him we’re just gonna have to fight him ourselves. Sounds good?”

“Sounds like a plan, let's do this. Nerva, you got any words of inspiration?” I ask, turning around.

I just want to see what she’ll say. Nerva’s the one who’s been hyped about fighting so maybe that hype will transfer over to me.

“Yeah check this out: You gotta fuck a motherfucker in the ass before they fuck you in the ass” she states.

We all stare at her in silence. After about a minute, I’m the first one to speak.

“Yeah you right! Let’s do this baby woooo!” I exclaim while I clap my hands. I quickly get out of the car full of excitement.

“Woooo! Bad bitches here we go!” Nerva yells following suit.

Everyone else gets out as well but not nearly as excitedly as Nerva and I did. Maybe things won’t be so bad. Let’s go fight ourselves a raper.