bubblegum princess

chapter eighteen

┏━━━━━━━◦𑁍◦━━━━━━━━┓
the beginning:
NOT ON HER
DEATHBED
┗━━━━━━━◦𑁍◦━━━━━━━━┛

━━✥◈✥━━

SUMIRE HELD her expression more grimly than the two beside her. Thankfully, a man saved them before the falling building could do any harm to either of them. She recalled how he held an unbearable expression when he saw Seiren in her arms, his cold ruby eyes gazing upon them as he aided her and Seiren's unconscious state.

"Are you hurt?" she remembered him asking as he successfully led them out to the building that was nearly collapsing. Sumire still hasn't taken her arms away from Seiren and continues to hold her as she cries "S-Sei-chan!" she whimpers. He suppressed his lips together before calling "Medic team!"

Naruto grunts to see two of them before two students run past him, calling out Sumire's and Seiren's names in despair "Class rep! Sei-chan!" Namida gasped in horror as she looked at Sumire, who had a few cuts and a slightly burned hand, no major injuries were present, thanks to Seiren.

Arriving at the hospital, she watched as they took Seiren away. Laying her to the hospital bed and watched as the medics communicated calmly and efficiently as they guided the gurney, one holding an oxygen mask over Seiren's face to assist her breathing while another adjusted her IV line to ensure she was receiving the necessary fluids and medication.

"If it weren't for you and Sei-chan... we would have..." Namida cried, Sumire panicked and tried to console them as she spoke "You guys are exaggerating... I never did anything," She gripped the blanket and laid on her lap "I was utterly useless if only I could have known what to do, Sei—" she bit her lip, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

Sarada closed her eyes, swallowing the pain and fear she felt after receiving the news. ChoCho held her arm in comfort "Sarada I..." Sumire looks at her with guilty eyes and Sarada smiles softly "There's nothing to apologize for, class rep. As long as you and Seiren are safe from harm, that is all that matters."

Inojin gripped his fist "We were thankful that we were saved right on time. Lord Seventh and Lord Kaizen were just around the area." Sumire said.

"I'm so sorry," Shino spoke for the first time after Sumire retold the events "The workplace experience was my idea."

ChoCho had the idea to talk some sense into him when Inojin beat her into it "Don't beat yourself up, sensei. We never expected any of this to happen. There's nothing we could do but move on," the boy rubbed his temple "Seiren doesn't want us to mop in sadness while she's unconscious." Sarada nods in his words "He's right, sensei. Seiren doesn't want you to regret anything."

She then smiled "You're the only adult that believed in us when others couldn't. Maybe that's why you're Seiren's favorite teacher." Shino flinched, looking away with an embarrassing blush creeping on his cheeks. ChoCho giggles and slaps him on the back "Don't let it bother you too much, sensei!"

Iwabe, however, still has a tremendous amount of fear rubbing on him "Nevertheless, these incidents where people suddenly become violent, are happening too frequently, no?" Denki looks at him "I don't know how to explain it very well, but when it happened to me, I felt anger welling up inside of me. It wasn't a good feeling."

"Yes, it almost felt as if I had a fever." Both students talk based on the experiences they had after being possessed. Sarada eyes them worriedly whereas Inojin furrowed his eyebrow "I've never heard of an illness with those symptoms."