Beast Speaker, Monster Tamer

40: Rest and Recuperation

With practiced movements, she effortlessly moved through the rushing people and emerged through the door into the open air of the space separating the buildings. A lone figure was sitting at one of the tables, scrolling their phone. Based on the pink charm dangling off of it, Elise determined that it was Hakuro. Pulling out her phone to check the time, but instead, her eyes caught the numerous messages waiting on her screen. She didn't get any chances to reply to those as Hakuro spotted her. They got to their feet and approached Elise, who also walked forward to save them the trip.

"Wing! Oh, you're alright! I'm so glad!" They stopped in front of Elise, smiling broadly in relief. They were in high spirits, despite the black eye and the ginger way in which they held themself that betrayed their covered injuries.

Despite her general low mood and exhaustion, Hakuro's happiness was infectious, and Elise found it in herself to smile a little as she followed them back to the table. "I'm happy to see that you're alright too, Hakuro-san! I was really worried about you and the firefighter."

They passed her a strawberry Ramune, another one in their hand. The marble in the bottle neck rolled around as they drank from the bottle. "Yeah, with his help, we were able to get to a place where ambulances were. How about you? What happened after you were taken?"

Elise mulled over her words as she took the presser and plunged the marble into the bottle. "Well," she began carefully. "I don't remember most of what happened, but it carried me away and I managed to be where the Hero Killer was, and Endeavor managed to catch up and take down the villain as well as Stain."

She saw them flinch at the mention of the Hero Killer's name, then sag in relief. "I guess Endeavor'll need to to be thanked, then."

It was her turn to wince. Though it was no fault of the hero, their words were an uncomfortable reminder of the fact that he was taking the credit for Midoriya's, Shoto's, and Iida's hard work.

Hakuro finished their soda and stood up, smiling at Elise. "I have to go now, tyke. Promised my folks that I'd come around to visit. They're probably worried out of their minds right now despite my reassurances."

"Oh—Oh of course!" Elise stood up and did a half-bow, still wary of her injuries. "Please don't let me hold you up. I'm incredibly grateful that you took time out of your day to visit me!"

"It's no problem. Be well!"

With the hero now gone, Elise was left to her own devices.

To the room?

To the room.

No one was there to stop her as she made her way up to her temporary stay. The doors shut behind her with a click and Elise released a drawn-out sigh. She wanted nothing more than to sleep but prior obligations called.

'Message from UncleMentor: I saw the news about Hosu. Call me when you can, please.'

'Message from SharkBoy: Hey Wing!'

'Message from SharkBoy: Just heard about the Hosu attack, I hope you're doing alright dude!'

'The Three Musketeers, Message from AtomicBlonde: OI Elise you better not be fucking dead. Reply soon or else I'm going to personally raise hell upon your grave.'

'The Three Musketeers, Message from Machamp: I'm sure Elise is fine, she'll reach out to us soon. Besides, don't you have your internship to worry about?"