Maturinus: School Days

Classroom Management

"Which leads us to the final battle with the remnants of the American Revolutionary forces. General Washington had been executed for treason long ago, France and Spain had recalled their support in fear of retaliation from the Empire, and the members of the false government known as Congress had been found dead by unknown assassins. These days, the battle of Yorktown is known mostly as a mopping up operation. And thanks to recreation technology and The National Archives, we actually have a representation of the battle to show you today."

The entire wall of the classroom lit up with a panning view of an old American town before descending into lifelike scenes of battle, brave hearted Englishmen chasing down and defeating revolutionary troops. Katie couldn't find it in her to pay attention. She had no desire to see any more bloody fighting after Sabrina's Arena contest. It had been bad enough that she'd nearly ruined the plan for the tag battle with her incompetence, but she'd managed to unfurl herself to actually support Sabrina from afar, hoping that maybe watching a real match would help improve their fake ones. Instead, the reality of Adept combat had just made her want to hide away in her apartment lest she be called in to fight in such a manner herself. She'd never once believed that Sabrina could be brought to tears or to scream with such terror. She always carried herself with such invincible confidence, especially when dealing with Gemma and her like. But seeing the way her leg had come apart from Gemma's attack, her desperation to finish the fight to the extent she had taken to Arc... It wasn't that Katie had lost faith in her, but suddenly going back to the Coliseum seemed so much more dangerous for all of them. More than ever was she glad for Grace wanting to avoid any sort of effort and the system they'd set up. Worse still, she couldn't keep a thoroughly unpleasant idea out of her head, the 'what if?' If Gemma had challenged her instead of Sabrina...

"Mrs Collins, can I take Katie downstairs? She's looking a little green."

She was pulled from her morbid fantasies to Sabrina, waiting surprisingly patiently with one hand raised. Their regular history teacher looked up from her computer to fix one robotic eye on Katie, her easy smile at contrast with the lifeless orb scanning her student. Sabrina was helping her out the room the instant authority was given, the pair already halfway down the stairs before Katie found her bearings. Considering the size of the Maturinus grounds, transporting sick or injured students all the way over to the Medical Centre was rather impractical in an emergency. As such, each subject tower had toilets and a basic nurse's office on the ground floor. 

Sabrina led the way, descending with surprising agility for someone using a crutch. She'd been whisked away for medical attention straight after the fight, but it was more or less a miracle she still had a leg at all. The cast thrummed in annoyance at her pace, the nanomachines within aiding the healing process to boost the efforts of the doctors. It was still going to take a while, considering she needed to renew and heal the whole thing from the eroded bone to the hairs on her skin, but Sabrina seemed to be happy enough with the outcome, although Katie guessed that was less from having her leg saved than it was from having won the fight. She supposed that it could have been worse. Arc still hadn't woken up from the assault that Sabrina had dealt her. The nurse's office was empty when they arrived, and Sabrina wasted no time in making herself feel at home, settling into a swivel chair and amusing herself by spinning around as Katie took the bed, lying down and hoping her stomach would settle soon.

"T-thanks for t-t-taking m-me out."

"Eh, no problem. I've done that class before anyway. So, what's got you down? Yorktown isn't even a particularly good battle, and I know you can handle a little blood. What's up?"

Katie tried to sit up to talk to her properly, but the sudden sickening swing of her stomach killed that idea, leaving her staring at the ceiling.

"I... I k-k-keep t-thinking a-about your f-f-fight. A-a-and..."