The Plague Doctor

Acquainted

As the onlookers watched in shock as Celeste had reigned her victory, Terra gazed in awe at her presence. His face began to feel warm; he was entranced. It took until Vio called out to him in his subconscious for him to snap back to reality.

"Uhh, Terra? You alright? Your heart is going crazy right now-"

"I-I'm alright!!" he quickly replied, shaking his head and covering his face with his arm. Despite being flustered, he continued to watch Celeste and Netz as they made their Arcanes fade away. The duel was settled, Celeste the victor.

She walked forward, pulling Netz up with a blank expression. "You're getting better." she stated, staring into his eyes. "Keep it up."

The tall man let out a chuckle, brushing himself off. "Platitudes from the White Reaper? I'm honored, Cat. If you could show happiness on that face of yours, I'm sure you would be smiling ear to ear right now."

Celeste simply stared at him.

. . .

As the two made their way up to where the other Plague Doctors were, they were quick to split up to avoid a lecture. All but Squad Four, who were waiting for the last remaining members to make their way to them.

"How many duels does that make it?" Fren asked, scratching his head curiously.

"I think that's about eighty-six now!" Kinae answered with a bright smile. "Celeste won all of them!"

"Well, if you're done having a good ol' measuring contest, weren't you supposed to be watching this guy?" Joker said, sliding Terra in front of them with his cane. Terra gasped, looked around for a moment, then gulped as he looked back at Celeste.

Celeste stared at him for a moment. Then another. Then another. The silence was torturous, making Terra increasingly sweat nervously. Finally, these words escaped her mouth.

"Try to catch up next time."

Terra practically fell over from the release of the tension, but stayed on his two feet just barely. With a sharp inhale, he lowered his head in shame.

"Yeahhh... I bumped into the hoodie guy here and lost you."

Fren pointed at himself with a surprised face, but was quickly smacked upside the head by Joker.

"Brother WHO ELSE?!"

The smack definitely jogged Fren's memory, as he let out a long "Ohhhh" after rubbing where he was struck.

Netz stepped forward, looking down at Terra with sharp eyes, reminiscent of Celeste's own gaze. He was quick to notice the lack of restraints on their newcomer.

"Where are they?"

Terra looked down, remembering that he lost the cuffs. With a nervous smile, he shrugged.

"Er... I got hungry...?"

"Did you somehow eat them?"

"N-no...?"

"Then how did you lose the restraints?"

"I uhh... asked."

"Asked who?"

Terra began to fumble his no-snitching prerogative, beginning to sweat again.

"Uhhhhh... A Plague Doctor?"

Kinae let out a loud groan, finally stepping forward.

"Me me me, it was me!!" she called out. "Please, you don't have to watch out for me so hard! Jeez!"

Netz stared at Terra more. Deeper. Deeper. Suddenly, he sunk a black string into his head, yanking out a familiar blue light from within it.

"Agh!! What the-?!" Terra grunted out, gripping his head and stumbling back from the newfound migraine he had gotten. When he looked back forward, it was then he saw it: Vio, trapped in the lanky man's black strings, unconscious. "H-hey, what the hell?! Don't touch her!!"