Delirious || Bozari

Chapter Twenty-Two: Atomic

She knew that man.

That, she was sure of. And not in the normal, oh I've seen him before kind of way that she was so used to. No; she knew him intimately. She'd had some form of a relationship with that man before. Him calling out her old name had confirmed that. There was no doubt in her mind about it.

The question was; what was he doing here? Why had Vixen summoned him? If he was from her time before Silver, which he must've been (hopefully), then he couldn't be a member of her world, but rather, the one Mari Takahashi had belonged to. The normal world. So what use could Vixen possibly have for him?

He was attractive. Maybe that was it; she wanted him as a bedwarmer. No, that didn't seem right either. He didn't look like he wanted to be here. Vixen was a lot of things, but a rapist wasn't one of them. There had to be some other explanation. But what was it?

"Earth to Atomic!" Wrath waved her hand in front of her face.

"Hmm?" Atomic asked, melting back into reality. "What's up?"

"You've been looking at the infirmary for the past five minutes," Wrath pointed out. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Atomic replied hurriedly. "Just... curious."

"About who that hunk of meat was?" Rage whistled. "Me too."

Psycho elbowed her. "Don't objectify him!"

"He's not here to hear me!" Rage objected.

"So?" Psycho asked. "It's still a shitty thing to do!"

"Oh, you're just saying that because you're gay," Rage rolled her eyes. "If you liked men, you'd be objectifying him too, hunny."

As the two of them started getting into a heated argument on the subject, Wrath sighed and sat back down. Mari followed suit and started to eat her salad again. 

Despite the frenzy that everyone had been in minutes ago, the cafeteria had gone back to normal. Girls were talking and laughing just like before. Everyone was having a grand ole' time while she sat there, doubting her entire past; again. It had become routine by now. Wake up, brush your teeth, doubt your past, eat, doubt your past, train, doubt your past. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to break the habit at this point. And that might have been the scariest part of the whole ordeal.

After lunch, they went back down to training. Wrath was teaching them how to escape from someone's grasp, be it a chokehold, a simple twist of the arm, you name it. Atomic had a lot of fun practicing the techniques; at least, when she was the one escaping. The other way around... not so much.

Dinner was lasagne. The delivery girls sat with them for some reason, but Atomic tuned them out as she stared at the infirmary. Was he still in there? She was half-tempted to go up and check.

Desperately, she wanted to talk to him. If anyone could help her sort out her memory, it would be someone who was a part of it. Maybe he was an old friend of Silver's who would be able to tell her exactly how their relationship played out. That would be a dream come true, and she needed it.

That morning, she'd woken up with a dangerous thought. When had she fallen in love with Silver? She could remember meeting him, of talking to him in the institute, and of loving him afterward, but she couldn't pin the exact moment when she'd fallen for him, or anything between those two time periods. It had almost made her have a panic attack. How could she not remember that? It must've been the biggest moment in her life, and she couldn't remember a second of it.

God, would Silver be disappointed in her if he was here. She was pathetic. The voice in her head, who still visited her from time to time, was right; she was a pathetic excuse for a woman. Why had a man as perfect as Silver ever degraded himself by deciding to love her? She'd never know.