F Grade Healer Becomes Strongest Biomancer-Chapter 59: Day Off

Mio

"T-that’s an elf on your shoulder, Mio-san!" Ivory shrieked.

The little figure had climbed up during the fall. Mio hadn’t even noticed, too busy remembering how to breathe. White hair pooled over her collarbone, longer than the elf’s whole body. Yellow eyes blinked once, slow, like a cat deciding whether to care.

Nana blinked twice.

"Is that Can’s girlfriend?"

"Onee-san, there’s blood everywhere on the carpet."

She looked down. Red smeared across the beige in a trail from the door. Her blood. The parallel world’s dirt. Ash that didn’t belong in any building in Tokyo.

Fantastic.

The door slammed open.

"Oops. Door opened on its own."

The Champion of Stasis walked in. The coldness stepped in after.

Shizuka wore a t-shirt with some band Mio didn’t recognize. Faded logo, washed too many times. Shorts that rode high on her thighs, the kind no Bureau agent should own. In her hand, a plastic bag stuffed with groceries. Ice cream sweating through the side.

This woman shops?

Those pale eyes swept the room. Mio, sprawled and bleeding. Nana, cheddar dust on her fingers from whatever she’d been eating. Ivory, still shrieking, skin gone bone-white.

"Oh?"

Nana scrambled in front of Ivory, thin arms raised like that would stop anything. A child playing shield.

"You didn’t knock!"

"I gave you fifteen minutes."

"Your thighs are showing!" Nana pointed, finger shaking.

"So?" Shizuka stepped inside and closed the door behind her. "We’re all girls here."

Great.

Mio coughed. Found her feet. Lost them again immediately and hit the floor with her shoulder. The elf on her collar shifted but didn’t fall, tiny hands gripping fabric, weight adjusting like she’d done this before.

Ivory’s face had gone from pale to translucent. Her violet eyes were fixed on Shizuka the way a mouse watches a snake. Ten seconds passed. Neither moved.

Nana’s head swiveled between them, tracking the tension like a tennis match where one wrong call meant someone died.

"Please no killing in the Tamei room." She hadn’t moved from in front of Ivory. Still shielding. Still doing it anyway.

"It’s my day off." Shizuka slipped out of her sandals. Bare feet padded against the floor as she crossed to the kitchen table and dropped the grocery bag. "Thought I’d pay my favorite person a visit."

She looked at Mio.

If any normal person saw her right now, they’d call an ambulance. Ash in her hair. Blood drying on her clothes, some hers, some not. The obsidian arm catching light wrong, too smooth, too dark. And a six-inch assassin perched on her shoulder like a parrot.

"Didn’t you get my message?"

Mio groaned. Her phone was somewhere. She’d given it to Nana yesterday. Or the day before. Time had gotten slippery.

Shizuka’s eyes flicked to Nana. "Shower, huh?"

Nana’s face went red.

"You’re a terrible liar." She didn’t even look at Nana. "Lucky it was me who came."

Shizuka pulled a cardboard box from the bag. Cartoon dinosaurs on the front.

"You want some?"

Nana’s shield stance crumbled. "...Yes."

The microwave hummed. Ivory hadn’t moved.

"There’s an elf right there!" She pointed at Mio’s shoulder, voice cracking. "A real elf! From—from there!"

"It’s harmless."

The little elf had gotten bored of Mio’s collar. She’d hopped down to the coffee table and was now jumping on the TV remote, tiny feet hitting buttons at random. The screen flickered: news, static, a cooking show, static again.

"See?"

"Still!" Ivory’s throat bobbed. "You’re Stasis-sama’s champion, right?"

Shizuka had found the ice cream. Mint. She pried off the lid and scooped directly from the container, spoon disappearing into her mouth.

"What about it?" The words came out muffled, half-frozen.

Ivory whimpered. "I-I come in peace. Please acknowledge the girl’s words. I’m not—I would never—"

"Like I said." Another scoop. She was already halfway through the container. "Day off."

Mio had made it to the couch. Barely. Her arms shook holding herself upright, and her vision kept trying to narrow at the edges.

The couch dipped.

Shizuka had crossed the room without Mio tracking her. Now she was right there, thigh pressed against Mio’s hip, ice cream container balanced on her knee. Up close, her skin really was that pale.

"Mio-san." The cold radiating off her should have hurt. It didn’t. "You look worse than when you lost your arm."

She loaded the spoon. Held it up.

"Say ahhhh."

"Take me to Ishida." The words came out slurred. Her tongue wasn’t working right. "Take me..."

The spoon touched her lip.

"Ahhhh."

Mio opened her mouth.

Mint. Sugar. Cold spreading across her tongue and down her throat. She’d forgotten what ice cream tasted like.

"...to Ishida..."

"He can wait." Another spoonful. "Ahhhh."

She ate. Shizuka fed her. The elf jumped on remote buttons. Nana stuffed dino-nuggets into her mouth while Ivory hovered behind her, still terrified, still ignored.

Mio forgot how good ice cream was. Despite the cold, she was unnaturally warm. That, or it was the way Shizuka wiped her lip off with a finger.

The microwave dinged.

"Nana-san, don’t eat those! They could be poisoned!"

Ivory darted across the room to where Nana was on her fourth nugget.

"Mmmffmm!" Nana’s cheeks bulged. "Mmf mmf!"

"I bought them twenty minutes ago." Shizuka didn’t look away from Mio. "From the combini downstairs."

"That proves nothing!"

"It proves I didn’t have time to poison them."

"You could have poisoned them IN the store!"

Nana swallowed. "These are really good."

"Thank you."

"Nana-san!"

The TV volume spiked.

The elf had found a channel she liked. Some cooking show, a chef demonstrating knife work. She sat cross-legged on the remote, yellow eyes fixed on the screen.

Nana grabbed for it. "That’s my remote."

The elf didn’t move, didn’t even look at her.

"Hey." Nana reached again. "I was watching—"

A toothpick-sized dagger appeared at her fingertip.

Nana froze. The elf’s yellow eyes finally slid toward her. I was here first.

"Onee-san, your elf is threatening me."

"Ahhhh," Shizuka said, spoon raised.

Mio’s mouth opened. Not helpful.

The standoff held for three seconds. Then Nana pulled out the nuclear option.

She held up a dino nugget.

The elf’s eyes tracked it. The dagger lowered a fraction.

"You want one?"

The tiny assassin stared at the breaded dinosaur shape. Her head tilted, assessing, the same look she’d given Mio before drawing her blades.

She took it.

The nugget was almost as big as her torso. She bit into it anyway, both hands gripping the edges, and her eyes went wide.

"Good, right?" Nana grabbed the remote while the elf was distracted. Changed it to some variety show. "Ivory, stop being weird and eat."

"I’m not—these could still be—" Ivory’s stomach growled. Audible. Traitorous. "...Fine."

She took a nugget. Another. Soon she was sitting next to Nana on the floor, both of them eating in silence while the elf worked through her single nugget one careful bite at a time.

The variety show host said something. Nana laughed. Ivory almost smiled.

Then Nana glanced back at the couch.

Shizuka had Mio’s head tilted back. Spoon to her lips. Her other hand was brushing hair out of Mio’s face, tucking it behind her ear. Mio’s eyes were half-closed, cheeks flushed, making a sound that was almost a hum.

Nana’s face went white.

Ivory’s face went whiter.

"Na...na..." Mio managed, between spoonfuls. "S’fine..."

It did not look fine.

The elf, unbothered, took another bite of her nugget.

Shizuka set down the empty container. Her hand was still in Mio’s hair.

"Here." She stood, pulling Mio up with her. "You’re filthy. Let me give you a shower."

Nana choked on her nugget.

Ivory passed out.