Afterlife

17

"How does it look?" Fiara asked as Connie removed the bandage from her cheek. It had been two weeks since the incident with Hitori, so Fiara was now close to being completely healed. Her sprained wrist was nearly back to full strength, and Connie was taking good care of her cheek to ensure that it wouldn't get an infection, or scar too badly, but there were some parts of the scrape that had been particularly deep, so it was taking longer for them to heal, and would more than likely leave some form of a scar afterwards.

"It seems to be healing up nicely," Connie replied as she threw away the used bandage. "It's good enough that you shouldn't need a bandage anymore, and there's no sign of infection, which is good."

"But?" Fiara urged, sensing there was more that needed to be said.

"But, it's probably going to leave a bit of a scar for awhile. It may fade after some time, but for now, you'll have to deal with it I'm afraid," she replied, scrunching up her face apologetically.

"Well, at least it'll make me look more badass," Fiara said with a smile, making Connie chuckle slightly. Then there was a short silence before Fiara asked, "Do you think they'll come back today?" wondering if she would finally be able to give her ever worried mind some rest by telling her if her friends were alright, or if her worst dreams of Hitori killing them had come true.

"Maybe," Connie said as she made her way towards the door, "but they usually extend their missions for another week or so if all goes well. So there is a good chance that they might not."

Fiara then stood up as well, pulling her green, long sleeved shirt down slightly as she did so. Due to all the spare time she had, she and Connie had taken a couple days to do some shopping. Buying Fiara some better fitting clothes, and restocking the kitchen for when the rest of the group got back, all in attempts to keep their minds busy, and prevent them from thinking about what might be happening to their friends. They spent the rest of the time training, doing everything possible to increase Fiara's knowledge of IP protocols along with a few tricks and formations that their group would specifically use, along with a few archery skills on the side. Fiara wasn't particularly good at or fond of archery, but you never know when you're going to need certain skills out there, so the more weapons you master, even only to a small extent, is worth a lot to an IP. Santino had made it a goal to master every weapon they had in stock, but he was never able to completely master all of them to his liking, but he could still use them effectively when in a pinch. The others also wanted to expand their own horizons, so he and Marcus then taught them a few things, since Santino had already learned them, and Marcus already knew how to use multiple forms of weaponry even before he came to afterlife. So it was natural for Connie to suggest that Fiara do this as well. It would make her more effective in close and long distance combat, and may even help her develop her skill with her specific weapon of choice better.

Fiara crossed her arms over her chest as she made her way over to doorway of the medical center, where Connie was standing, looking a bit downtrodden as she queried, "You don't think Hitori found them, do you?"

Connie was silent for a moment as they both turned and exited the center, standing in the lobby of the hub as she replied, "Even if he did, I think that the five of them could handle him. Santino and Marcus trained them pretty well you know."

"I'm sure," Fiara replied, "but I just can't shake this feeling that something went wrong."

Connie then fell silent for a moment as she considered what Fiara was saying. She had to admit, she also had an uneasy feeling about the situation, but she couldn't see the sense in worrying about it too much, because if she did, then she knew it would only make Fiara feel even more nervous, and that was something she wanted to try and avoid at all costs.