Post by schrodinger on Oct 1, 2014 10:10:59 GMT -5
Stein wheeled the gurney into her lab and closed the door. It was a good thing people were accustomed to her dissecting cadavers, otherwise she’d never be able to continue her live dissections. This dissection was promising to be interesting, Stein was investigating one of the organs in this species and needed to see one in action, one of the enzymes contained in it promised to be fascinating; it also might cure cancer, but that was different.
Saya strolled down the hall on her way back to Ms. Cheshires lab from the vending machine. Her master had sent her to get another can of her favorite soda, Dr. Power. She walked in a faster stride than normal, remembering the incident a day or so prior. However, as she passed by Dr. Steins room, she noticed that it seemed as if it was accidently left open. Being the courteous soul that she was, she stopped at the door and leaned through the doorway to close it. She started to pull it closed, causing it to make a slight creaking sound before she glanced into the room to see the student on the gurney.
Saya blinked. She could have sworn that student was alive and walking around the other day. It didn’t make sense to her that they were now a “cadaver.”
Stein paused when she heard the door creak, no one else should have been wandering the halls currently. Stein turned and saw Saya staring at the girl on the gurney *Sigh* now i’m going to have to deal with her Stein grinned as she set down the pencil she’d been writing with. “Hello Saya, come on in and close the door behind you, you’ll let all the cool air into the hallway.” After Saya had stepped into the room and closed the door Stein twisted her screw 3 clicks and used her metal affinity to flip a small switch across the room, triggering knock-out gas to be released into the room, filling the entire place within a minute.
Before Saya had hardly a moment to realize the trap she walked into and escape, she found that her limbs seemed to cease functioning, her sense of balance falling out of paradigm, and that her face became quite acquainted with the floor as she collapsed forward. Physically, she was unconscious, mentally, however, her contracted spirit was fully aware of what was happening to her, finding the situation rather inconvenient as the body she had been bonded with refused to obey her commands. How would she deliver the can of Dr. Power to Kye now?
Stein flipped the switch off again and allowed the gas to finish dispersing as the fans came on to clear the room. Stein moved Nicole’s (the other girl) body to the table before placing Saya’s body on the gurney. As she moved Saya’s body the can of Dr. Power rolled a few feet and bumped into the wall. Stein blinked, then sighed as she realized Saya was retrieving soda for Ms Cheshire; Kye would be mad if her soda didn’t get to her by a certain time. She picked up the can and called Damu over to her “Damu, can you please bring this can to Kye, she’s in room 0666. Tell her I ended up with an extra can when I got my soda and sent it to her since I know she likes Dr. Power.” Damu bounced as he accepted this mission and took the can from Stein, he wouldn’t be able to speak with the can in his mouth, but once he got there he could say ‘hi’ to Kye, and maybe he could steal one of those pastries she kept on her desk before returning to help Stein. Damu raced down the hall and into the magic department and ran to Kye’s door, opening it with his nose as he walked in, soda proudly in his mouth.
When Damu entered he would find her, where else, at her desk, papers cyphered in numerous different sorts of runic symbols, pocky box beside the infamous book, empty, wearing a rather irritable expression on her face. She glanced up from her work at the sound of her door opening, ready to scold her familiar, only to pause pre-yell to see…
“...You’re not Saya.” She stated. Eyes narrowing, she took notice of the can of Dr.Power in the chimeras mouth. “You’re Eris’ aren’t you?...This is for me?” She asked, reaching down from her chair to take it. As she did, however he flipped onto his back, as if expecting a belly rub. Kye frowned, “Yeah, I know that stitchwork,” she muttered. Reluctantly, she pushed back her chair so she could get lower to the ground to appease the strange puppy thing and rub its belly, and then reached to pluck the can from its mouth. “What’s the occasion for the generous gift?” she asked in a suspicious tone.
Damu was grinning as he got his belly rubbed. “Stein got the wrong soda from the machine and sent it to you since you like Dr.Power. She’s doing a cadaver dissection and wanted caffeine to keep her awake, it’s a long dissection.”
Raising an eyebrow, the Grimalkin muttered to herself, “Huh, guess she likes to keep herself busy even at this hour…”
Hmm, wait, Kye thought, glancing at the can, then at the clock as she continued to rub the puppy-thing. Saya should have been back by now. Looking back down at Damu, she asked, “By the way, did you happen to see my assistant on your way up here?”
’Yeah, she’s in Stein’s lab to be dissecte-wait..oops.” Damu quickly flipped over onto his feet and ran from the room; he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about Stein’s live dissections. He skidded to a halt and ran back into the room, jumping into the lower drawer of Kye’s desk where she kept the pocky and grabbing a box before jumping out again and running back towards Stein’s lab.
Dissection?! Kye thought just as Damu flipped back onto his feet and ran. “Hey, Get back here!” And return he did, but Kye only became furious as he swiped her back. “OI!! DROP IT, BAD DOG-THING-WHATEVER!!!” she shouted after it. As Damu escaped once more she gave out a frustrated groan before looking at the can of Dr. Power still in her hands.
“...Stein doesn’t drink soda,” she remembered, half tempted to slap her palm against her forehead. Instead, she grabbed White Hare and placed it in a holster on her belt before strolling out of her room and down the hall towards Steins lab.
“Damu, why would Kye have given you a box of her Pocky?” Stein asked holding the box of Pocky and looking at it, Kye didn’t share her Pocky...ever.
Not two seconds later, the door to Steins lab was kicked open, and the grimalkin in question entered, a scowl darkening her face as she looked over toward the gurneys. “And what,” she growled, “are we up to in here Stein?”
Stein blinked as her door was kicked down, glad she hadn’t actually started the dissection yet. “Hello Ms. Cheshire. I’m just doing a cadaver dissection. Did Damu steal this from you?...here Stein said handing the box of Pocky back to the scowling teacher “Did you not like the Dr.Power I sent over, I thought you’d like it.” Stein concluded as she slipped a vest onto Damu and fastened it; it was covered in pockets, and filled with scalpels and tools of all sorts. As she fastened Damu’s vest she used a little bit of her metal affinity to weld the gun on Kye’s him onto the holster so it couldn’t be removed. “You must excuse me now, I’m busy with a dissection and would like to get started.” She was asking Kye to leave without actually saying it, Stein then realized that Saya was still laying on the gurney, in plain sight. At least Nicole was still covered and appeared to be a cadaver.
Kye crossed her arms as Stein apparently realized her folly, and did not budge an inch form where she stood. “I don’t recall giving you permission to my assistant.” she stated, even more frustrated as she reached to check on her weapon, to find it welded on. “We aren’t trying to perform any live dissections, are we, Eris?”
Stein set the box of Pocky on one of the counters and turn to look at Saya. “You didn’t give me permission, but technically since she’s an adult you don’t get a say in her medical procedures, I’m not legally allowed to release information about her to you.” Stein grinned a creepy grin at her own joke “However, seeing that she’s technically your familiar, you’re welcome to take her. I guess I can wait on that dissection and save it for another time. However, you’ll still need to leave, I’m busy with a different ‘cadaver’ dissection as well, and I must get started before the body decomposes to much.” Stein turned and walked to one of the far tables, picking up several large knives and setting them on a table beside the ‘cadaver’ on the table.
Kye raised an eyebrow. “‘Another cadaver,’ huh?” She walked over to the other table and peered over Steins shoulder. “Who’s the other one?” she asked curiously. It wasn’t often that she had the chance to sit in at a dissection and saw the inner workings and such biological mechanics of a person. In the past, it had given her insight in her necromancy feats. After all, it was important to understand how a spirits vessel would function if one were to stuff them inside. She had watched “Saya’s” pathologist perform a dissection on her when they were investigating the cause of her death, and with that understanding, Kye knew exactly where and how to distribute energy to sustain her functionality. It was like taking apart a toy robot in that regard.
Stein walked across the room and pulled out a face mask, face shield, and gloves before pausing and looking at Kye “You’re a necromancer aren’t you? How much do you know, or how much are you interested in life and death?” Stein considered it for a moment, it could be interesting to get a necromancers option of life and death, or just of the condition of the body. Stein walked over to the table as she felt Nicole waking up; she’d need to apply the anesthesia soon, Stein pushed the door shut from across the room, locking it in the process and pulled a gas tank from under the table and adjusted it before placing a mask on the end and flipping back to sheet, revealing the still-alive Nicole. Stein had actually kidnapped her about 15 minutes ago as she’d been leaving Ms. Cheshire’s class, but Stein wasn’t sure Kye would recognize her; Nicole was as quiet as a mouse. “Did I mention my dissection subject for the day was still alive? The cadaver’s tomorrow.”
“Life and Death, hm?” Kye said as she regarded the question. They were aspects that she would play with like they were nothing on multiple occasions. The field of research that was Necromancy in of itself was one abundant in negative reception. Many believed that it was wrong to manipulate the position of those who had passed on and use them to accomplish mortal gain, and in many regards, they would be in the right to say so. Some would even say that those undertaking the field of necromancy had little to no regard or value in life. Kye was no saint, she could admit that much. There was nothing noble about what she hoped to accomplish using necromancy. This did not mean, however, that she belittled the value of sentient life. There was, in fact, the life of a certain individual that was absolutely invaluable to her: Aylia. With her constantly in Kye’s thoughts she never took any sentient soul, be they living or dead, lightly. “If I had to put it one way,” she began. “Life...is a cruel, cold, heartless bitch most times. And in most cases, Death is just the same. Both are still important, and both must always exist, lest they both become insignificant. With that said, it’s both important to understand both of them to the fullest and yet none at all.” Humph, what’s she trying to do anyway, she wondered. Make me sound like a philosophical nut to change the subject?
She blinked as she noticed something peculiar about the “cadaver” on the table. It almost seemed to be breathing. As Stein pulled back the blanket, she recognised her student almost immediately. It was a sort of talent, she figured most teachers had, to be able to identify the face of those they imparted their knowledge to on an almost daily basis. “Nicole the mouse”, she had mentally noted her as over the semester. She rarely spoke, the grimalkin remembered, but would listen attentively to her lectures. Her understanding in the programming of magic was quite superior compared to most of her students. Kye predicted a great deal of potential in her some day.
...So what’s she doing here? Kye wondered. She was just attending her final lecture for the night not half an hour ago.
“Hmm, I should’ve known.” She replied nonchalantly as Stein explained this would be a live dissection. She regarded the unconscious Nicole for a moment, and in that brief moment, an expression of slight concern seemed to cross her face before she adjusted her glasses and grabbed a spare coat and mask, saying, “Well, normally, I suppose I’d be expected to report this to someone. But I suppose as long as everythings put back and she gets out of this room just fine, there isn’t any harm done.”
Having fully suited up, with mask, gloves, and coat, she asked, “So, you gonna start, or what?”
Stein grinned another one of those creepy grins as she finished suiting up. “I presume you have no medical experience except Saya?” Stein said as she cleaned her hands and dusted Damu with a sanitizing powder. “Do you want to know what we’re doing, or are you just along for the ride?” She said as she put the mask over Nicole’s face and stood there for a few more minutes while the gas took complete effect. “Along with general curiosity and enjoyment I’m going to be collecting samples from the ‘ort-pase organ’ It’s an organ specific to her species that is rarely studied enough.” Stein made the first incision and begun. “Oh, don’t break any bones,and no causing extensive bleeding, otherwise you have to fix it.” Stein finished as Damu walked over towards Kye (beside her on the table are several menacing looking saws, and Damu’s vest is loaded with dissection tools)
“Heh, you could say that,” Kye answered regarding her “medical experience” while seeming completely unbothered by the utensils. The way she saw it, blades were blades, they cut things. A handy and precise tool that led to injury when some moron was using it. Crazy. “I can probably lend a hand if you need it, but you seem to know about this organ well enough, so you should probably take the scalpel.” she said, now rather curious about this particular organ as well. “What’s so special about this ort-pase thing?”
Stein smiled slightly, she’d enjoy educating yet another teacher. She took the scalpel and widened the incision over the stomach/liver area. "Damu, can you please put up x-ray number 396-24; not the original, the recolored one.” Damu hopped across the table and over to a light-wall-screen, he opened a folder and pulled one of the x-rays out, carefully putting it up and turning on the light. “Thank you Damu. That organ highlighted in red is what we’re looking for. It’s more commonly known as a ‘symbiont’ outside of the trill species, but it’s scientific name is the ort-pase.” Stein paused to move several blood vessels and nerves to the side, she didn’t want to cut anything wrong. “It’s technically a different creature entirely, like a parasite, but there’s a symbiosis between them and the trill. Only a few trills are viable for transfer each year since competition is fierce. Also it- crap” Stein said as she reached over and adjusted the gas levels. The symbiont was moving as if awake and was flooding Nicole with adrenaline to try to wake her up. Stein handed an injection full of something blue to Kye and said “Insert that approximately an inch into the symbiont and release all of the sedative into it.” Stein instructed as she was fidgeting with the gas valve.
Kye tensed as she was handed the injection. Does this symbiote perceive our actions as a threat and is thus trying to revive its host? she wondered. Such intelligence.
She knew she didn’t have time to dwell on this, however. Assumingly, if the parasite itself wasn’t sedated, Nicole would wake up with a hole cut into her, and it could only fall dangerously downhill from there. Ironic that the symbiotes attempt to rescue its host could forfeit their life.
Her cat-like eyes narrowing to thin slits in focus, Kye drew a steady breath and stilled her hand. Carefully, precisely, she moved the injection needle in her hand as smoothly as she would when wielding the ceremonial chalk she would use to draw necromancy circles, where errors would just as easily mean death or worse. She did not panic, for it was natural for her to take the fate of life and death into her own hands while practicing her condemned art. While the particular field and situation were different in this circumstance, where it was a living creature rather than their soul, in this instance, it became irrelevant to the necromancer.
The needle was placed into the symbiote in a matter of mere seconds, and the injection was delivered. As her hand drew back just as steadily a second later, away from Nicole’s vitals, Kye exhaled behind her mask and blinked, her eyes diluting out of focus. She looked to Stein and asked, “Did it work?”
Stein stood up again as she finished adjusting the gas valve. The symbiont stilled and looked almost like it could have been sleeping “Yes it did.” Stein replied checking Nicoles vitals again “The symbiont, despite being within Nicole and serving as a part of her is it’s own entity, apparently it remained awake when Nicole was sedated. It must have it’s own functioning systems despite not being able to survive outside of the body….that is fascinating.” Stein said as she stared at the organ; she only stared for about 30 seconds before blinking and continuing her dissection. Damu ran up beside her and stood still while she pulled a smaller knife-scoop-thing, 2 needles and several glass vials from his vest. She drew a vial of blood from the symbiont and used the scoop to take a small sliver off the outmost edge of the symbiont. “I wish I could actually dissect the symbiont, but I don’t know it’s anatomy, nor how it’d respond to being dissected.” Stein grinned, she’d just remembered that Saya was still sedated on the gurney a couple feet away, why couldn’t this be a double dissection day? “Kye, is there anything else you’d like to examine? I could give you a brief lesson on anatomy and the parts of the organs, it’s not often you get to dissect live specimens, or get this close and personal with students." It was fairly obvious that Stein was enjoying this too much, and that obviously this wasn’t the first student she’d dissected.
Kye followed Steins gaze to the gurney where Saya lay and considered her offer. She’d feel less concerned about poking around one her assistant as opposed to one of her actual students, especially since in the worst case scenario, she’d have to expend an extra ounce of Mana to fix any mishaps. Besides, perhaps a second look at Saya’s inner workings would provide extra insight on how she might provide energy at a more stable and convenient percentage. “Hm...I don’t see why not.” she answered. “You’re gonna stitch this one back up first, though, right?”
Stein took the gas mask off of Nicole and handed it to Kye as she adjusted the gas intake “Can you please put this on Saya, she’ll probably be waking up from sedation soon.” After Stein did that she turned back to Nicole’s body and grabbed some metal that had been set in disinfectant; she silently used her affinity to manipulated it into place around a few bundles of vessels and nerves that had been disturbed, it was pure iron so the body would still be able to handle it. “Damu, hit the buzzer please.” Damu sprang into action “Buzzer! buzzer….where’d I put it? where’s the buzzer?” “It’s on the table to my right Damu. Kye, what blood type is Saya?” Stein asked nonchalantly as she picked up what appeared to be a dead mouse body and dropped it into Nicole’s chest cavity; Stein then closed the wound and stuck several little metal ‘stitches’ into it, effectively holding the wound closed, but not sealing it, She reached over to one of the lower shelves of her table and came up with some goo that was plaid-patterned and spread it across the length of the incision. “I hit the buzzer, anything else you need Doctor?” Damu asked Stein as he walked over to her “That should hold it. and yes Damu, can you please pull out the bridge-board” Damu ran off to the other room to comply as Stein walked over to gaze at Saya “Is there anything I should know about Saya since we plan to dissect her? I’d hate to be a bad doctor.” She finished grinning another twisted little grin.
Kye took the gas mask from Stein and made her way over to the gurney. Once there she heard a noise from its occupant. “moh ileh dy...errr.” Kye blinked. “Hm? Oh.”
“errr…” Saya’s numb form murmured. ”aboh ohies.” After a moment, the grimalkin realized what she was trying to say. Mobility Error, apologies. It was her strained attempt to explain her situation to her master. With her being a spirit possessing a body, Kye realized she must have been aware of the events around her while her body had been rendered “unconscious.”
Kye glanced over her shoulder at Stein, who was busy with Nicole at the moment. What was that she just dropped in there? she wondered. “She’s a type A.” she answered before looking back toward Saya with a soft sigh. The things you get yourself into, she thought. In truth, while she might have been frustrated earlier, she felt a bit sorry for the familiar for being put through this, even if it inadvertently meant for some benefit of useful information. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, sweety,” she said quietly in a surprisingly gentle tone to her, hoping Stein was too busy to notice. “While we’re here though, we’re going to check your bodies workings. I might be able to find some insight about how to manage your ‘condition’ better, kay?”
Saya seemed incapable of making hardly any more means of communication to show she understood, but Kye knew her well enough. As she placed the mask over her servants face, she regarded her position as a spirit once more. The gas would surely nullify any signals of pain that Saya’s brain would register while it was “unconscious,” but it would not change the fact that Saya would be aware that she was being cut open and prodded in the duration of the dissection. She would be asleep, yet at the same time, fully awake through the procedure.
A chill went down Ms. Cheshire’s spine as she imagined it, and for a moment she questioned whether or not it was fair to do this. This girl wasn’t just a corpse anymore, like she was before her soul was contracted into it. Throwing Saya into combat was one thing, where she was prepared for potential injury and bodily harm but could still fend for herself and likely avoid such damage, after which Kye could mend with minimal effort. Here, she could only lay still and allow her insides to be cut into and examined. The grimalkin sighed, seemingly ready to change her mind out of a sting of morality, when she heard Saya’s voice whisper behind the gas mask. “Ih wil e alrih.”
Kye blinked, studying Saya’s face to see if she would say more, only to find her to be silent. Did she imagine it? Did her familiar sense her hesitation and was trying to comfort her? ’It will be alright?’ Idiot, she thought. You’re the one on the table, I should be saying that.
As Stein inquired of any additional information, Kye thought a moment before answering. “You’ll probably notice some currents of Mana circuitry, which will look like faint lines of light moving through her vitals. It’s a treatment I use to counteract a condition she has called Nidhogg's Disease. They shouldn’t be of any physical obstruction though. Any tools you use should just pass through the circuits.”
Technically speaking, she wasn’t lying, she simply didn’t elaborate on the whole truth. Nidhoggs disease was a condition that would eat away at a living beings Mana reserves until the life source was completely depleted, killing them in the process. Upon contracting Black Schrodinger, or rather, “Saya,” the grimalkin had installed a mana circuit through her body so as to constantly renew rapidly lost energy, providing it with a “life support,” its source being Kye’s own mana reserves as her species was known to have extraordinary high levels of said life source energy. This form of “life support” was the same method as what Kye’s father would use to maintain Aylia, her sister, who suffered a similar, yet much more severe case of the condition, where a circuitry like this eventually couldn’t provide enough energy for her to be conscious at all. Kye wondered, was that why she suddenly felt guilty over this? Because Aylia and the familiar laying on the table before her shared the same sort of illness?
Ordinarily, a circuitry like this would be unnecessary to install and could be replaced with a single heavy dose a mana which would manage itself almost as naturally as a normal living being, much like one would jump the battery of a car. It could actually become harmful to Saya’s body if too much of the energy exceeded her human body’s capacity. However, because the Nidhoggs virus was still present in the familiar, it acted as both a threat to kill the body again, ceasing its functionality, and as a counterbalance to the support mana. Kye would have no idea exactly how balanced Saya’s mana supplies would be without this sort of procedure however, where she could visibly gauge the circuitry condition. Perhaps this incident would turn out in their favor after all.
She turned to face Stein, but glanced over at Nicole once more. “...Stein, you didn’t seal up my student.” Leaning over to peer into the chest cavity, her eyes narrowed a moment, her frown veiled behind her mask. “...What the hell, is that a mouse?!” she asked as she cast a glare Steins way.
Stein walked over to a fridge and pulled out a bag of A-blood, which she hooked up beside Saya silently. Stein looked over at Nicole again when Kye expressed concern about her condition, she grinned. “That won't be a problem, just be patient and let the mouse work, she doesn’t get her bubonic plague till she’s done anyways.” Stein seemed completely unconcerned that she’d dropped a mouse into someone’s chest and left it there, she turned back towards Saya and spoke to her. “Saya, I know your bodies unconscious but your spirit is not; I can not cause your spirit to be unconscious as well, but the best way to relax is to just go to sleep, I promise not to hurt you, and Kye is here to help me.”
Alawa looked up as the new person was peering down at her. Glaring over her obvious interruption she went back to moving around the organs removing any and all signs of infections from the bacteria that had ended up in the cavity. The Plaid goo on top seemed to grow little mouse eyes and stare up at Kye before disappearing again. Though the plaid goo seemed to be laughing at her due to the jiggling of the goo. “Christmas, focus.” Stein said absently over her shoulder towards Nicole where the plaid goo was still giggling.
The door opened behind Kye and Stein as a brown haired, brown eyed girl walked in in a red shirt and black slacks. Her eyes took in the teacher and the girl on the table blinking. ”.....so you got caught?” “Only because Saya wandered in here, and Damu told Kye; It was no fault of my own, extraneous circumstances.” Ash walked over to to Nicole and placed a small black and white ‘baby’ Chimera on the table, who quickly set about to grabbing the dirty Scalpels and dragging them to the edge of the table before stopping and sitting as if waiting for something. Ash on the other hand was peeling away the blob with one hand and adjusting a small ring on her pinky with the other.
Damu quickly ran into the room past Ash’s feet with a board and set on end on the counter before lifting the other side into place beside Mizu. He then sat down and looked at the board, checking it’s stability; it looked good. Mizu watched the board being set before tentatively stepping out on to it. It wobbled slightly before settling letting Mizu haul the scalpels one by one to the sink.
For a moment, Kye wondered what Stein was playing at, with this method of operation. She was pretty sure dropping living vermin into the chest cavity to clean infections wasn’t part of a standard procedure (or at least, she very much hoped not).
Her suspicions aside, Kye respected the girls regard for her familiar. She supposed by now, a few people had begun to suspect that “Saya” was an undead soul. However, she held her tongue. For now she would neither deny nor confirm it. Kye also found herself wondering if Saya’s soul actually “slept” or if she simply remained “conscious.” It depended on the nature of the soul, she supposed. Odds were, in order to retain a grip to sanity, a soul that had once been alive would repeat mortal habits once reincarnated, regardless of whether or not they were required to. Things such as eating, sleeping, or other such regular life practices would help stabilize their mental condition so they wouldn’t become reduced to a feral, berserking monster.
As Saya, or Black Schrodinger, was a higher entity above standard mortals however, it was possible that she had no need for such practices, or if they existed, or what they might have been, especially when her amnesia was taken into account. Just what were you, Saya? the necromancer wondered.
She was brought out of this train of thought at the entrance of several other students and their dog-things. ’Caught,’ huh? she wondered. Clearly, this isn’t the first living dissection little Eris had been conducting. She shrugged and replied, “Don’t worry, if Nicole gets put back in one piece the way she came in, I don’t see why I should report anything to anyone.” It would have only been an unnecessary distraction from her research of the grimoire anyway. Besides that, it would look a little shady for her, too, since she partook in a fraction of the activity here. The less people know about this the better...and maybe the more fun, she concluded.
Stein pulled out an x-ray of Saya’s torso that she’d taken earlier, she’d told Saya she was taking the girls picture several days ago and she was now examining it more closely. Normal human anatomy, died to Nidhogg’s. I can get some samples She set it aside as she made a thin incision an inch to the right of the breastbone. “How long was the body dead before you installed Saya in it?” Stein asked as she widened the opening site and began inspecting the entire chest cavity, she ran her fingers down both edges of the ribcage setting a little metal piece around each rib. She then carefully took the left edge of the rib-cage and opened it as if it was on hinges to the right so that the entire chest cavity was visible. “Nidhogg's Disease huh. How did you install the mana circuit? It must take daily maintenance to upkeep properly.” Stein looked more closely at Saya’s heart and her eyebrow went up “Saya’s heart has an arrhythmia, it’s not severe enough to be deadly, but it would cause occasional chest pains, fainting, and palpitations in a normal human. Do you have anything you’d like to study more closely Kye while we’re here?”
Kye stared at the x-ray a moment before mentally facepalming. She could only imagine how little effort it took Stein to get those from her naive assistant. Saya, we’re gonna have to sit down and have a talk when we’re done here, she noted.
“ According to the coroner, the body had been deceased for about 24 hours, and shortly after that I had her arranged to be put in airtight storage and brought here.” Kye explained while watching Stein work. “It took about a week’s time, but she was in near perfect condition when she arrived, if not for the Nidhogg’s. I installed Saya’s soul that night, along with the mana circuit to revive the cells in her body claimed by the disease and reverse the decomposing process that occurred.”
Kye shrugged at Steins question regarding the circuit. “S’not too complicated, albeit taxing. It’s a sort of support magic, sometimes used by healers, sometimes by people like me. It binds the souls of two bodies, at least one of them living and actively generating mana to sustain themselves, and transfers it to the other. In the case of two or more living bodies, energy circulates back and forth between them, providing each other energy that is lost when it is expended to either maintain themselves, mend wounds, recover from illness, or when that energy is utilized to perform magical feats. In our case, it’s a one-way connection. I send my life force energy into a lifeless corpse to get the organs, brain, and cells moving around again and back into functional condition so that another soul, Saya, the body’s control, can manipulate it.” she explained. “It does, of course, require a spell circle to be drawn initially on the bodies connected to configure the starting point and destination of the mana that is being transferred, but once the path is set for the energy to travel, it can be removed from the body. There’s another set of circles that can be drawn to serve as the circuit’s ‘cancel’ command and cease the transfer.”
As she stared down at the circuit of life force coursing through her servant, Kye rubbed the back of her wrist, as if a cramp had just settled in upon it. “You’re right, though. It is exhausting. Between restoring Saya’s full power and the Nigghogs, the amount of life force I have to put in this kid…” She sighed. She could really go for another cup of coffee. She felt so tired, and she had work she needed to be doing after this. “If I could just do something about this disease…but I can’t go looking for another body.”
And if I could do something about the disease, Kye thought glumly. Aylia wouldn’t be…
She crossed her arms, and her shoulders slumped as she glanced around the room, wondering if Stein had any decent cadavers she might be willing to part with. That was when she noticed the back room. Wasn’t that where Stein kept all the Horo Whitetail clones? Hmm, I wonder if a clone Anulupis body would conflict with Black Schrodinger’s soul, Kye thought. Then again, I don’t need that Whitetail brat glomping my servant, I have enough romance stuff to deal with.
Her ears perked then as another idea struck her. Clones? Cloning? Duplicating a body?? A new, healthy body??? “Say Stein, you like cloning don’t you?” She looked back towards the screwheaded girl. “And you like studying cadavers, right? How would you like to do me a bit of a favor and clone me a second body from Saya here that’s clean of Nidhoggs? If you do, I’ll transfer Saya to the clone you make, and leave a small circuit in this one to keep things running just enough to keep it alive so you can study it until I need it again."
“I’d be happy to clone Saya, but if you intend to keep this body intact it will also need a new heart, the arrhythmia is bad enough that it could cause problems later in life.”
Kye brought her hand to her chin, a contemplative gesture. “That will be a problem. Do you think one of your Horo Whitetail clones would have a compatible heart?”
“Horo’s blood type is ‘AWSM’ and her heart is too small to effectivly pump blood through the average human’s body. However, it’ll not be difficult to grow a replacement for the older body; with some healthy cells and about 2 weeks you’ll have a fully functional heart.” Stein moved the heart aside and continued investigating the body which by all rights, should be dead. “The clone would take about 4 months to grow after we cured the cells. I’m not sure how long it’ll take to cure the disease, it could be days or months. Is there anything else you’d like to see within Saya? Or is there anything Saya’s had questions about?” Damu glanced over at the other table and noticed that Kye’d never taken back her Pocky. Feeling it’d be wasteful to leave it their Damu wandered across to the other table and opened the box before proceeding to pull out several sticks and start eating them.
About 4 months plus a couple weeks, Kye thought with a frown. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. “Nidhoggs doesn’t have a known cure, thats another part of the problem. Fortunately, its not genetic so far as anyone knows. Thats why I’m hoping a clone wouldn’t be stuck with it. Arrhythmia clean heart aside, thats what I’ll need. I don’t care how long it’ll take. We can make do for a while.”
“As for Saya…” She started. “Lately, she’s reported seeing dreams.” Expecting Stein not to understand the nature of this phenomena, she added, “The body she’s in now is supposed to be dead. that includes the brain inside of it. In normal scenarios, the mana circuit I installed would only revive the brain enough for the foreign soul to take control of it to pull the bodies strings. In other words, Saya shouldn’t be seeing dreams at all. I mean, the only way I figure she possibly could is if the body... ” she trailed off for a moment. “Was still alive before being possessed.”
If its still alive, she thought, could the disease have merely forced the host to enter a comatose state? “Once we do manage to pull the body switch, I’d like to investigate this more closely, meaning I’ll need your help keeping the first body...er…running.”
Stein listened to Kye speak as she reached behind her and took a stick of Pocky from the box. Putting it in her mouth she started closing Saya’s rib cage and sealing the wound with the help of the tiny Henkos. She grabbed another stick as she spoke “If you can wait a bit I can find the cure. I’m waiting for a grant to come back, and I’m applying to another one soon, writing that I’m looking to cure Nidhoggs disease with either get extra money thrown my way, or get me laughed out of committee.” Stein sealed the wound and let the Henko’s finish the job. “We could do some brain scans to determine if there is more than one thought pattern in Saya’s head. Her body will have to wake up from the anesthesia first however. Saya, how are you feeling? Just let me know when you start regaining use of your limbs ok?” Stein pulled a 3rd piece of Pocky from the box and nibbled on it while she made quick work of cleaning the lab.
Kye nodded, “I could definitely use a hand finding one. I’ve found the medicinal section of the grimiore, but I’m having a hard time sorting through even the sections I translate. Maybe you could give me a hand with it-” She realised then, that Stein was eating her pocky, then remembered why she was here originally. “HEY!”
Meanwhile, Saya’s eyes managed to half open in response to Stein. “Moh bill ih iy err rr.” Her bodies speech was still slurred, but it was beginning to regain active consciousness..
Kye scowled at Stein eating her pocky but sighed in defeat. “Anyway...I’m hesitant to do this, but you understand medical science better than me, Stein. If...If I share my findings of the medical data in the grimiore, would you help me find the cure for this. I don’t care how long it takes or what you do with whatever other data of that sort that you identify, I just…” She thought of Aylia once more. Its been so many, many years now. How much time did she really have left? “I have to find it.”
“You seem concerned to be sharing your data on the grimiore...are you concerned about it because you’re afraid I’ll steal your data?” Stein looked at Kye, the teacher looked very sad, Stein walked over and set her hand on Kye’s arm “Even if I don’t find it I’ll be happy to help find it so that someone in the future can cure Nidhoggs or so someone else in the community can cure it; I know how much the cure means to you, and not just because of Saya.” Stein moved back over to Saya to check her vital readings “I know you’re having a mobility error, it’s natural for the body to have problems moving after being under the effects of anesthesia, most people don’t start moving for at least 15 minutes, you’re ahead of the curve already.”
“What I’m concerned about is…” Kye trailed off for a moment regarding Steins question. “There are things in that book that even I don’t want to touch with a two planetary system long stick. If things were different, I wouldn’t be sifting through it at all. In fact, I might have rather destroyed it. I can’t trust just anyone with it.” Maybe not even myself, she thought. She blinked, giving Stein a perplexed look as she claimed to understand the cures importance. After she spoke to Saya, she asked, “What do you mean, you know?” She felt her face heat up as her anger suddenly began to surface. “How could you possibly know?!”
Stein listened as Kye explained that she hated the book and wished to burn it, and watched the teacher’s face shift through an expression of perplexion, and into one of anger. I was not aware this was still such a touchy subject with her, maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. Stein thought to herself, well, it was too late now “There are very few people with the last name ‘Cheshire’ and even few who have an interest in Nidhogg’s disease. Your sister Aylia, better known by her codename ‘Kitty’ is a well known case of Nidhogg’s disease and is documented in several journals. I’ve been reading about her since before I arrived at the Academy.” Stein walked to her computer and typed a note into a Word file before returning to stand before Ms. Cheshire “If you’d prefer I will not bring it up again since it has visibly upset you, but you should know; It was her case that really got people's attention and tipped this from a few odd cases to a real and rare disease.”
Kye was indeed upset to hear her sister spoken of so lightly, and even codenamed something that she felt she should have considered demeaning. “Did you think I would be honored, Eris, that it took my own sister, the last bit of family I have, for people to pull their heads out of their asses and actually give two shits about her condition to ponder and ogle at?! Did you?!”
She became aware that her voice had risen to nearly shouting at her, and was generating sparks of electricity in her clenched fists. She paused, took a deep breath, and ceased the sparking. “...Sorry.” she finally answered.
Meanwhile, Saya had turned her head, and had been quietly watching and listening to her master, a look of sympathy in her eyes. Slowly, she sat up, and looked down at her arm, opening and closing her fingers and hand, tentatively.
Stein watched calmly as Kye got ready to explode and calmed herself before she could; Saya had also regained her mobility and was testing her muscles. Stein turned away from Kye and Saya towards Damu, who walked walked across the table, ignoring the Pocky and leaned against her as she pet his head. “Science improves though cases like your sister’s; people learn and get better so that no one else has to suffer what you did. I would have prefered to have lost my family to a disease. My mom was assassinated; I know who did it and yet, I have to see them almost everyday...and I can't do anything about it. No one will get better from my knowledge of this, no one will avoid living what I did, it won't even matter 10 years from now that she died, and no one will benefit from me killing her assassin. At least people will benefit from Aylia.” Stein wiped her sleeve across her face. She picked up Damu and walked back over to the computer where she set him down and began typing, she cleared her throat before speaking “How are you feeling Saya? Any stiffness or dizziness?” Stein hit print and several pages of paper came out of the printer; Stein stapled them and set them to the side of her desk, the top page was titled “Nidhoggs’s Disease”
Saya shook her head. “My mobility has been restored.” She stood up from the gurney and returned to Kye’s side. The Grimalkin had turned her gaze downcast from in shame as Stein spoke of her past. In her outburst she had struck a past that she had no right to. And what was more than that, even though Stein had just as much, if not more motivation for vengeance than Kye, she chose not to. Though she didn’t say it, the grimalkin wished she were as strong as her student in that regard. “...Sorry to trouble you, Eris. Have a good night….and thank you.” She turned and exited the lab, Saya bowing her head to Stein before following her master.
~~~~
“Legendary hero brought back from the dead. Knocked out by an 11-year old with an invitation taking less effort than offering candy.” -Saya in a nutshell
Saya strolled down the hall on her way back to Ms. Cheshires lab from the vending machine. Her master had sent her to get another can of her favorite soda, Dr. Power. She walked in a faster stride than normal, remembering the incident a day or so prior. However, as she passed by Dr. Steins room, she noticed that it seemed as if it was accidently left open. Being the courteous soul that she was, she stopped at the door and leaned through the doorway to close it. She started to pull it closed, causing it to make a slight creaking sound before she glanced into the room to see the student on the gurney.
Saya blinked. She could have sworn that student was alive and walking around the other day. It didn’t make sense to her that they were now a “cadaver.”
Stein paused when she heard the door creak, no one else should have been wandering the halls currently. Stein turned and saw Saya staring at the girl on the gurney *Sigh* now i’m going to have to deal with her Stein grinned as she set down the pencil she’d been writing with. “Hello Saya, come on in and close the door behind you, you’ll let all the cool air into the hallway.” After Saya had stepped into the room and closed the door Stein twisted her screw 3 clicks and used her metal affinity to flip a small switch across the room, triggering knock-out gas to be released into the room, filling the entire place within a minute.
Before Saya had hardly a moment to realize the trap she walked into and escape, she found that her limbs seemed to cease functioning, her sense of balance falling out of paradigm, and that her face became quite acquainted with the floor as she collapsed forward. Physically, she was unconscious, mentally, however, her contracted spirit was fully aware of what was happening to her, finding the situation rather inconvenient as the body she had been bonded with refused to obey her commands. How would she deliver the can of Dr. Power to Kye now?
Stein flipped the switch off again and allowed the gas to finish dispersing as the fans came on to clear the room. Stein moved Nicole’s (the other girl) body to the table before placing Saya’s body on the gurney. As she moved Saya’s body the can of Dr. Power rolled a few feet and bumped into the wall. Stein blinked, then sighed as she realized Saya was retrieving soda for Ms Cheshire; Kye would be mad if her soda didn’t get to her by a certain time. She picked up the can and called Damu over to her “Damu, can you please bring this can to Kye, she’s in room 0666. Tell her I ended up with an extra can when I got my soda and sent it to her since I know she likes Dr. Power.” Damu bounced as he accepted this mission and took the can from Stein, he wouldn’t be able to speak with the can in his mouth, but once he got there he could say ‘hi’ to Kye, and maybe he could steal one of those pastries she kept on her desk before returning to help Stein. Damu raced down the hall and into the magic department and ran to Kye’s door, opening it with his nose as he walked in, soda proudly in his mouth.
When Damu entered he would find her, where else, at her desk, papers cyphered in numerous different sorts of runic symbols, pocky box beside the infamous book, empty, wearing a rather irritable expression on her face. She glanced up from her work at the sound of her door opening, ready to scold her familiar, only to pause pre-yell to see…
“...You’re not Saya.” She stated. Eyes narrowing, she took notice of the can of Dr.Power in the chimeras mouth. “You’re Eris’ aren’t you?...This is for me?” She asked, reaching down from her chair to take it. As she did, however he flipped onto his back, as if expecting a belly rub. Kye frowned, “Yeah, I know that stitchwork,” she muttered. Reluctantly, she pushed back her chair so she could get lower to the ground to appease the strange puppy thing and rub its belly, and then reached to pluck the can from its mouth. “What’s the occasion for the generous gift?” she asked in a suspicious tone.
Damu was grinning as he got his belly rubbed. “Stein got the wrong soda from the machine and sent it to you since you like Dr.Power. She’s doing a cadaver dissection and wanted caffeine to keep her awake, it’s a long dissection.”
Raising an eyebrow, the Grimalkin muttered to herself, “Huh, guess she likes to keep herself busy even at this hour…”
Hmm, wait, Kye thought, glancing at the can, then at the clock as she continued to rub the puppy-thing. Saya should have been back by now. Looking back down at Damu, she asked, “By the way, did you happen to see my assistant on your way up here?”
’Yeah, she’s in Stein’s lab to be dissecte-wait..oops.” Damu quickly flipped over onto his feet and ran from the room; he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about Stein’s live dissections. He skidded to a halt and ran back into the room, jumping into the lower drawer of Kye’s desk where she kept the pocky and grabbing a box before jumping out again and running back towards Stein’s lab.
Dissection?! Kye thought just as Damu flipped back onto his feet and ran. “Hey, Get back here!” And return he did, but Kye only became furious as he swiped her back. “OI!! DROP IT, BAD DOG-THING-WHATEVER!!!” she shouted after it. As Damu escaped once more she gave out a frustrated groan before looking at the can of Dr. Power still in her hands.
“...Stein doesn’t drink soda,” she remembered, half tempted to slap her palm against her forehead. Instead, she grabbed White Hare and placed it in a holster on her belt before strolling out of her room and down the hall towards Steins lab.
“Damu, why would Kye have given you a box of her Pocky?” Stein asked holding the box of Pocky and looking at it, Kye didn’t share her Pocky...ever.
Not two seconds later, the door to Steins lab was kicked open, and the grimalkin in question entered, a scowl darkening her face as she looked over toward the gurneys. “And what,” she growled, “are we up to in here Stein?”
Stein blinked as her door was kicked down, glad she hadn’t actually started the dissection yet. “Hello Ms. Cheshire. I’m just doing a cadaver dissection. Did Damu steal this from you?...here Stein said handing the box of Pocky back to the scowling teacher “Did you not like the Dr.Power I sent over, I thought you’d like it.” Stein concluded as she slipped a vest onto Damu and fastened it; it was covered in pockets, and filled with scalpels and tools of all sorts. As she fastened Damu’s vest she used a little bit of her metal affinity to weld the gun on Kye’s him onto the holster so it couldn’t be removed. “You must excuse me now, I’m busy with a dissection and would like to get started.” She was asking Kye to leave without actually saying it, Stein then realized that Saya was still laying on the gurney, in plain sight. At least Nicole was still covered and appeared to be a cadaver.
Kye crossed her arms as Stein apparently realized her folly, and did not budge an inch form where she stood. “I don’t recall giving you permission to my assistant.” she stated, even more frustrated as she reached to check on her weapon, to find it welded on. “We aren’t trying to perform any live dissections, are we, Eris?”
Stein set the box of Pocky on one of the counters and turn to look at Saya. “You didn’t give me permission, but technically since she’s an adult you don’t get a say in her medical procedures, I’m not legally allowed to release information about her to you.” Stein grinned a creepy grin at her own joke “However, seeing that she’s technically your familiar, you’re welcome to take her. I guess I can wait on that dissection and save it for another time. However, you’ll still need to leave, I’m busy with a different ‘cadaver’ dissection as well, and I must get started before the body decomposes to much.” Stein turned and walked to one of the far tables, picking up several large knives and setting them on a table beside the ‘cadaver’ on the table.
Kye raised an eyebrow. “‘Another cadaver,’ huh?” She walked over to the other table and peered over Steins shoulder. “Who’s the other one?” she asked curiously. It wasn’t often that she had the chance to sit in at a dissection and saw the inner workings and such biological mechanics of a person. In the past, it had given her insight in her necromancy feats. After all, it was important to understand how a spirits vessel would function if one were to stuff them inside. She had watched “Saya’s” pathologist perform a dissection on her when they were investigating the cause of her death, and with that understanding, Kye knew exactly where and how to distribute energy to sustain her functionality. It was like taking apart a toy robot in that regard.
Stein walked across the room and pulled out a face mask, face shield, and gloves before pausing and looking at Kye “You’re a necromancer aren’t you? How much do you know, or how much are you interested in life and death?” Stein considered it for a moment, it could be interesting to get a necromancers option of life and death, or just of the condition of the body. Stein walked over to the table as she felt Nicole waking up; she’d need to apply the anesthesia soon, Stein pushed the door shut from across the room, locking it in the process and pulled a gas tank from under the table and adjusted it before placing a mask on the end and flipping back to sheet, revealing the still-alive Nicole. Stein had actually kidnapped her about 15 minutes ago as she’d been leaving Ms. Cheshire’s class, but Stein wasn’t sure Kye would recognize her; Nicole was as quiet as a mouse. “Did I mention my dissection subject for the day was still alive? The cadaver’s tomorrow.”
“Life and Death, hm?” Kye said as she regarded the question. They were aspects that she would play with like they were nothing on multiple occasions. The field of research that was Necromancy in of itself was one abundant in negative reception. Many believed that it was wrong to manipulate the position of those who had passed on and use them to accomplish mortal gain, and in many regards, they would be in the right to say so. Some would even say that those undertaking the field of necromancy had little to no regard or value in life. Kye was no saint, she could admit that much. There was nothing noble about what she hoped to accomplish using necromancy. This did not mean, however, that she belittled the value of sentient life. There was, in fact, the life of a certain individual that was absolutely invaluable to her: Aylia. With her constantly in Kye’s thoughts she never took any sentient soul, be they living or dead, lightly. “If I had to put it one way,” she began. “Life...is a cruel, cold, heartless bitch most times. And in most cases, Death is just the same. Both are still important, and both must always exist, lest they both become insignificant. With that said, it’s both important to understand both of them to the fullest and yet none at all.” Humph, what’s she trying to do anyway, she wondered. Make me sound like a philosophical nut to change the subject?
She blinked as she noticed something peculiar about the “cadaver” on the table. It almost seemed to be breathing. As Stein pulled back the blanket, she recognised her student almost immediately. It was a sort of talent, she figured most teachers had, to be able to identify the face of those they imparted their knowledge to on an almost daily basis. “Nicole the mouse”, she had mentally noted her as over the semester. She rarely spoke, the grimalkin remembered, but would listen attentively to her lectures. Her understanding in the programming of magic was quite superior compared to most of her students. Kye predicted a great deal of potential in her some day.
...So what’s she doing here? Kye wondered. She was just attending her final lecture for the night not half an hour ago.
“Hmm, I should’ve known.” She replied nonchalantly as Stein explained this would be a live dissection. She regarded the unconscious Nicole for a moment, and in that brief moment, an expression of slight concern seemed to cross her face before she adjusted her glasses and grabbed a spare coat and mask, saying, “Well, normally, I suppose I’d be expected to report this to someone. But I suppose as long as everythings put back and she gets out of this room just fine, there isn’t any harm done.”
Having fully suited up, with mask, gloves, and coat, she asked, “So, you gonna start, or what?”
Stein grinned another one of those creepy grins as she finished suiting up. “I presume you have no medical experience except Saya?” Stein said as she cleaned her hands and dusted Damu with a sanitizing powder. “Do you want to know what we’re doing, or are you just along for the ride?” She said as she put the mask over Nicole’s face and stood there for a few more minutes while the gas took complete effect. “Along with general curiosity and enjoyment I’m going to be collecting samples from the ‘ort-pase organ’ It’s an organ specific to her species that is rarely studied enough.” Stein made the first incision and begun. “Oh, don’t break any bones,and no causing extensive bleeding, otherwise you have to fix it.” Stein finished as Damu walked over towards Kye (beside her on the table are several menacing looking saws, and Damu’s vest is loaded with dissection tools)
“Heh, you could say that,” Kye answered regarding her “medical experience” while seeming completely unbothered by the utensils. The way she saw it, blades were blades, they cut things. A handy and precise tool that led to injury when some moron was using it. Crazy. “I can probably lend a hand if you need it, but you seem to know about this organ well enough, so you should probably take the scalpel.” she said, now rather curious about this particular organ as well. “What’s so special about this ort-pase thing?”
Stein smiled slightly, she’d enjoy educating yet another teacher. She took the scalpel and widened the incision over the stomach/liver area. "Damu, can you please put up x-ray number 396-24; not the original, the recolored one.” Damu hopped across the table and over to a light-wall-screen, he opened a folder and pulled one of the x-rays out, carefully putting it up and turning on the light. “Thank you Damu. That organ highlighted in red is what we’re looking for. It’s more commonly known as a ‘symbiont’ outside of the trill species, but it’s scientific name is the ort-pase.” Stein paused to move several blood vessels and nerves to the side, she didn’t want to cut anything wrong. “It’s technically a different creature entirely, like a parasite, but there’s a symbiosis between them and the trill. Only a few trills are viable for transfer each year since competition is fierce. Also it- crap” Stein said as she reached over and adjusted the gas levels. The symbiont was moving as if awake and was flooding Nicole with adrenaline to try to wake her up. Stein handed an injection full of something blue to Kye and said “Insert that approximately an inch into the symbiont and release all of the sedative into it.” Stein instructed as she was fidgeting with the gas valve.
Kye tensed as she was handed the injection. Does this symbiote perceive our actions as a threat and is thus trying to revive its host? she wondered. Such intelligence.
She knew she didn’t have time to dwell on this, however. Assumingly, if the parasite itself wasn’t sedated, Nicole would wake up with a hole cut into her, and it could only fall dangerously downhill from there. Ironic that the symbiotes attempt to rescue its host could forfeit their life.
Her cat-like eyes narrowing to thin slits in focus, Kye drew a steady breath and stilled her hand. Carefully, precisely, she moved the injection needle in her hand as smoothly as she would when wielding the ceremonial chalk she would use to draw necromancy circles, where errors would just as easily mean death or worse. She did not panic, for it was natural for her to take the fate of life and death into her own hands while practicing her condemned art. While the particular field and situation were different in this circumstance, where it was a living creature rather than their soul, in this instance, it became irrelevant to the necromancer.
The needle was placed into the symbiote in a matter of mere seconds, and the injection was delivered. As her hand drew back just as steadily a second later, away from Nicole’s vitals, Kye exhaled behind her mask and blinked, her eyes diluting out of focus. She looked to Stein and asked, “Did it work?”
Stein stood up again as she finished adjusting the gas valve. The symbiont stilled and looked almost like it could have been sleeping “Yes it did.” Stein replied checking Nicoles vitals again “The symbiont, despite being within Nicole and serving as a part of her is it’s own entity, apparently it remained awake when Nicole was sedated. It must have it’s own functioning systems despite not being able to survive outside of the body….that is fascinating.” Stein said as she stared at the organ; she only stared for about 30 seconds before blinking and continuing her dissection. Damu ran up beside her and stood still while she pulled a smaller knife-scoop-thing, 2 needles and several glass vials from his vest. She drew a vial of blood from the symbiont and used the scoop to take a small sliver off the outmost edge of the symbiont. “I wish I could actually dissect the symbiont, but I don’t know it’s anatomy, nor how it’d respond to being dissected.” Stein grinned, she’d just remembered that Saya was still sedated on the gurney a couple feet away, why couldn’t this be a double dissection day? “Kye, is there anything else you’d like to examine? I could give you a brief lesson on anatomy and the parts of the organs, it’s not often you get to dissect live specimens, or get this close and personal with students." It was fairly obvious that Stein was enjoying this too much, and that obviously this wasn’t the first student she’d dissected.
Kye followed Steins gaze to the gurney where Saya lay and considered her offer. She’d feel less concerned about poking around one her assistant as opposed to one of her actual students, especially since in the worst case scenario, she’d have to expend an extra ounce of Mana to fix any mishaps. Besides, perhaps a second look at Saya’s inner workings would provide extra insight on how she might provide energy at a more stable and convenient percentage. “Hm...I don’t see why not.” she answered. “You’re gonna stitch this one back up first, though, right?”
Stein took the gas mask off of Nicole and handed it to Kye as she adjusted the gas intake “Can you please put this on Saya, she’ll probably be waking up from sedation soon.” After Stein did that she turned back to Nicole’s body and grabbed some metal that had been set in disinfectant; she silently used her affinity to manipulated it into place around a few bundles of vessels and nerves that had been disturbed, it was pure iron so the body would still be able to handle it. “Damu, hit the buzzer please.” Damu sprang into action “Buzzer! buzzer….where’d I put it? where’s the buzzer?” “It’s on the table to my right Damu. Kye, what blood type is Saya?” Stein asked nonchalantly as she picked up what appeared to be a dead mouse body and dropped it into Nicole’s chest cavity; Stein then closed the wound and stuck several little metal ‘stitches’ into it, effectively holding the wound closed, but not sealing it, She reached over to one of the lower shelves of her table and came up with some goo that was plaid-patterned and spread it across the length of the incision. “I hit the buzzer, anything else you need Doctor?” Damu asked Stein as he walked over to her “That should hold it. and yes Damu, can you please pull out the bridge-board” Damu ran off to the other room to comply as Stein walked over to gaze at Saya “Is there anything I should know about Saya since we plan to dissect her? I’d hate to be a bad doctor.” She finished grinning another twisted little grin.
Kye took the gas mask from Stein and made her way over to the gurney. Once there she heard a noise from its occupant. “moh ileh dy...errr.” Kye blinked. “Hm? Oh.”
“errr…” Saya’s numb form murmured. ”aboh ohies.” After a moment, the grimalkin realized what she was trying to say. Mobility Error, apologies. It was her strained attempt to explain her situation to her master. With her being a spirit possessing a body, Kye realized she must have been aware of the events around her while her body had been rendered “unconscious.”
Kye glanced over her shoulder at Stein, who was busy with Nicole at the moment. What was that she just dropped in there? she wondered. “She’s a type A.” she answered before looking back toward Saya with a soft sigh. The things you get yourself into, she thought. In truth, while she might have been frustrated earlier, she felt a bit sorry for the familiar for being put through this, even if it inadvertently meant for some benefit of useful information. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, sweety,” she said quietly in a surprisingly gentle tone to her, hoping Stein was too busy to notice. “While we’re here though, we’re going to check your bodies workings. I might be able to find some insight about how to manage your ‘condition’ better, kay?”
Saya seemed incapable of making hardly any more means of communication to show she understood, but Kye knew her well enough. As she placed the mask over her servants face, she regarded her position as a spirit once more. The gas would surely nullify any signals of pain that Saya’s brain would register while it was “unconscious,” but it would not change the fact that Saya would be aware that she was being cut open and prodded in the duration of the dissection. She would be asleep, yet at the same time, fully awake through the procedure.
A chill went down Ms. Cheshire’s spine as she imagined it, and for a moment she questioned whether or not it was fair to do this. This girl wasn’t just a corpse anymore, like she was before her soul was contracted into it. Throwing Saya into combat was one thing, where she was prepared for potential injury and bodily harm but could still fend for herself and likely avoid such damage, after which Kye could mend with minimal effort. Here, she could only lay still and allow her insides to be cut into and examined. The grimalkin sighed, seemingly ready to change her mind out of a sting of morality, when she heard Saya’s voice whisper behind the gas mask. “Ih wil e alrih.”
Kye blinked, studying Saya’s face to see if she would say more, only to find her to be silent. Did she imagine it? Did her familiar sense her hesitation and was trying to comfort her? ’It will be alright?’ Idiot, she thought. You’re the one on the table, I should be saying that.
As Stein inquired of any additional information, Kye thought a moment before answering. “You’ll probably notice some currents of Mana circuitry, which will look like faint lines of light moving through her vitals. It’s a treatment I use to counteract a condition she has called Nidhogg's Disease. They shouldn’t be of any physical obstruction though. Any tools you use should just pass through the circuits.”
Technically speaking, she wasn’t lying, she simply didn’t elaborate on the whole truth. Nidhoggs disease was a condition that would eat away at a living beings Mana reserves until the life source was completely depleted, killing them in the process. Upon contracting Black Schrodinger, or rather, “Saya,” the grimalkin had installed a mana circuit through her body so as to constantly renew rapidly lost energy, providing it with a “life support,” its source being Kye’s own mana reserves as her species was known to have extraordinary high levels of said life source energy. This form of “life support” was the same method as what Kye’s father would use to maintain Aylia, her sister, who suffered a similar, yet much more severe case of the condition, where a circuitry like this eventually couldn’t provide enough energy for her to be conscious at all. Kye wondered, was that why she suddenly felt guilty over this? Because Aylia and the familiar laying on the table before her shared the same sort of illness?
Ordinarily, a circuitry like this would be unnecessary to install and could be replaced with a single heavy dose a mana which would manage itself almost as naturally as a normal living being, much like one would jump the battery of a car. It could actually become harmful to Saya’s body if too much of the energy exceeded her human body’s capacity. However, because the Nidhoggs virus was still present in the familiar, it acted as both a threat to kill the body again, ceasing its functionality, and as a counterbalance to the support mana. Kye would have no idea exactly how balanced Saya’s mana supplies would be without this sort of procedure however, where she could visibly gauge the circuitry condition. Perhaps this incident would turn out in their favor after all.
She turned to face Stein, but glanced over at Nicole once more. “...Stein, you didn’t seal up my student.” Leaning over to peer into the chest cavity, her eyes narrowed a moment, her frown veiled behind her mask. “...What the hell, is that a mouse?!” she asked as she cast a glare Steins way.
Stein walked over to a fridge and pulled out a bag of A-blood, which she hooked up beside Saya silently. Stein looked over at Nicole again when Kye expressed concern about her condition, she grinned. “That won't be a problem, just be patient and let the mouse work, she doesn’t get her bubonic plague till she’s done anyways.” Stein seemed completely unconcerned that she’d dropped a mouse into someone’s chest and left it there, she turned back towards Saya and spoke to her. “Saya, I know your bodies unconscious but your spirit is not; I can not cause your spirit to be unconscious as well, but the best way to relax is to just go to sleep, I promise not to hurt you, and Kye is here to help me.”
Alawa looked up as the new person was peering down at her. Glaring over her obvious interruption she went back to moving around the organs removing any and all signs of infections from the bacteria that had ended up in the cavity. The Plaid goo on top seemed to grow little mouse eyes and stare up at Kye before disappearing again. Though the plaid goo seemed to be laughing at her due to the jiggling of the goo. “Christmas, focus.” Stein said absently over her shoulder towards Nicole where the plaid goo was still giggling.
The door opened behind Kye and Stein as a brown haired, brown eyed girl walked in in a red shirt and black slacks. Her eyes took in the teacher and the girl on the table blinking. ”.....so you got caught?” “Only because Saya wandered in here, and Damu told Kye; It was no fault of my own, extraneous circumstances.” Ash walked over to to Nicole and placed a small black and white ‘baby’ Chimera on the table, who quickly set about to grabbing the dirty Scalpels and dragging them to the edge of the table before stopping and sitting as if waiting for something. Ash on the other hand was peeling away the blob with one hand and adjusting a small ring on her pinky with the other.
Damu quickly ran into the room past Ash’s feet with a board and set on end on the counter before lifting the other side into place beside Mizu. He then sat down and looked at the board, checking it’s stability; it looked good. Mizu watched the board being set before tentatively stepping out on to it. It wobbled slightly before settling letting Mizu haul the scalpels one by one to the sink.
For a moment, Kye wondered what Stein was playing at, with this method of operation. She was pretty sure dropping living vermin into the chest cavity to clean infections wasn’t part of a standard procedure (or at least, she very much hoped not).
Her suspicions aside, Kye respected the girls regard for her familiar. She supposed by now, a few people had begun to suspect that “Saya” was an undead soul. However, she held her tongue. For now she would neither deny nor confirm it. Kye also found herself wondering if Saya’s soul actually “slept” or if she simply remained “conscious.” It depended on the nature of the soul, she supposed. Odds were, in order to retain a grip to sanity, a soul that had once been alive would repeat mortal habits once reincarnated, regardless of whether or not they were required to. Things such as eating, sleeping, or other such regular life practices would help stabilize their mental condition so they wouldn’t become reduced to a feral, berserking monster.
As Saya, or Black Schrodinger, was a higher entity above standard mortals however, it was possible that she had no need for such practices, or if they existed, or what they might have been, especially when her amnesia was taken into account. Just what were you, Saya? the necromancer wondered.
She was brought out of this train of thought at the entrance of several other students and their dog-things. ’Caught,’ huh? she wondered. Clearly, this isn’t the first living dissection little Eris had been conducting. She shrugged and replied, “Don’t worry, if Nicole gets put back in one piece the way she came in, I don’t see why I should report anything to anyone.” It would have only been an unnecessary distraction from her research of the grimoire anyway. Besides that, it would look a little shady for her, too, since she partook in a fraction of the activity here. The less people know about this the better...and maybe the more fun, she concluded.
Stein pulled out an x-ray of Saya’s torso that she’d taken earlier, she’d told Saya she was taking the girls picture several days ago and she was now examining it more closely. Normal human anatomy, died to Nidhogg’s. I can get some samples She set it aside as she made a thin incision an inch to the right of the breastbone. “How long was the body dead before you installed Saya in it?” Stein asked as she widened the opening site and began inspecting the entire chest cavity, she ran her fingers down both edges of the ribcage setting a little metal piece around each rib. She then carefully took the left edge of the rib-cage and opened it as if it was on hinges to the right so that the entire chest cavity was visible. “Nidhogg's Disease huh. How did you install the mana circuit? It must take daily maintenance to upkeep properly.” Stein looked more closely at Saya’s heart and her eyebrow went up “Saya’s heart has an arrhythmia, it’s not severe enough to be deadly, but it would cause occasional chest pains, fainting, and palpitations in a normal human. Do you have anything you’d like to study more closely Kye while we’re here?”
Kye stared at the x-ray a moment before mentally facepalming. She could only imagine how little effort it took Stein to get those from her naive assistant. Saya, we’re gonna have to sit down and have a talk when we’re done here, she noted.
“ According to the coroner, the body had been deceased for about 24 hours, and shortly after that I had her arranged to be put in airtight storage and brought here.” Kye explained while watching Stein work. “It took about a week’s time, but she was in near perfect condition when she arrived, if not for the Nidhogg’s. I installed Saya’s soul that night, along with the mana circuit to revive the cells in her body claimed by the disease and reverse the decomposing process that occurred.”
Kye shrugged at Steins question regarding the circuit. “S’not too complicated, albeit taxing. It’s a sort of support magic, sometimes used by healers, sometimes by people like me. It binds the souls of two bodies, at least one of them living and actively generating mana to sustain themselves, and transfers it to the other. In the case of two or more living bodies, energy circulates back and forth between them, providing each other energy that is lost when it is expended to either maintain themselves, mend wounds, recover from illness, or when that energy is utilized to perform magical feats. In our case, it’s a one-way connection. I send my life force energy into a lifeless corpse to get the organs, brain, and cells moving around again and back into functional condition so that another soul, Saya, the body’s control, can manipulate it.” she explained. “It does, of course, require a spell circle to be drawn initially on the bodies connected to configure the starting point and destination of the mana that is being transferred, but once the path is set for the energy to travel, it can be removed from the body. There’s another set of circles that can be drawn to serve as the circuit’s ‘cancel’ command and cease the transfer.”
As she stared down at the circuit of life force coursing through her servant, Kye rubbed the back of her wrist, as if a cramp had just settled in upon it. “You’re right, though. It is exhausting. Between restoring Saya’s full power and the Nigghogs, the amount of life force I have to put in this kid…” She sighed. She could really go for another cup of coffee. She felt so tired, and she had work she needed to be doing after this. “If I could just do something about this disease…but I can’t go looking for another body.”
And if I could do something about the disease, Kye thought glumly. Aylia wouldn’t be…
She crossed her arms, and her shoulders slumped as she glanced around the room, wondering if Stein had any decent cadavers she might be willing to part with. That was when she noticed the back room. Wasn’t that where Stein kept all the Horo Whitetail clones? Hmm, I wonder if a clone Anulupis body would conflict with Black Schrodinger’s soul, Kye thought. Then again, I don’t need that Whitetail brat glomping my servant, I have enough romance stuff to deal with.
Her ears perked then as another idea struck her. Clones? Cloning? Duplicating a body?? A new, healthy body??? “Say Stein, you like cloning don’t you?” She looked back towards the screwheaded girl. “And you like studying cadavers, right? How would you like to do me a bit of a favor and clone me a second body from Saya here that’s clean of Nidhoggs? If you do, I’ll transfer Saya to the clone you make, and leave a small circuit in this one to keep things running just enough to keep it alive so you can study it until I need it again."
“I’d be happy to clone Saya, but if you intend to keep this body intact it will also need a new heart, the arrhythmia is bad enough that it could cause problems later in life.”
Kye brought her hand to her chin, a contemplative gesture. “That will be a problem. Do you think one of your Horo Whitetail clones would have a compatible heart?”
“Horo’s blood type is ‘AWSM’ and her heart is too small to effectivly pump blood through the average human’s body. However, it’ll not be difficult to grow a replacement for the older body; with some healthy cells and about 2 weeks you’ll have a fully functional heart.” Stein moved the heart aside and continued investigating the body which by all rights, should be dead. “The clone would take about 4 months to grow after we cured the cells. I’m not sure how long it’ll take to cure the disease, it could be days or months. Is there anything else you’d like to see within Saya? Or is there anything Saya’s had questions about?” Damu glanced over at the other table and noticed that Kye’d never taken back her Pocky. Feeling it’d be wasteful to leave it their Damu wandered across to the other table and opened the box before proceeding to pull out several sticks and start eating them.
About 4 months plus a couple weeks, Kye thought with a frown. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. “Nidhoggs doesn’t have a known cure, thats another part of the problem. Fortunately, its not genetic so far as anyone knows. Thats why I’m hoping a clone wouldn’t be stuck with it. Arrhythmia clean heart aside, thats what I’ll need. I don’t care how long it’ll take. We can make do for a while.”
“As for Saya…” She started. “Lately, she’s reported seeing dreams.” Expecting Stein not to understand the nature of this phenomena, she added, “The body she’s in now is supposed to be dead. that includes the brain inside of it. In normal scenarios, the mana circuit I installed would only revive the brain enough for the foreign soul to take control of it to pull the bodies strings. In other words, Saya shouldn’t be seeing dreams at all. I mean, the only way I figure she possibly could is if the body... ” she trailed off for a moment. “Was still alive before being possessed.”
If its still alive, she thought, could the disease have merely forced the host to enter a comatose state? “Once we do manage to pull the body switch, I’d like to investigate this more closely, meaning I’ll need your help keeping the first body...er…running.”
Stein listened to Kye speak as she reached behind her and took a stick of Pocky from the box. Putting it in her mouth she started closing Saya’s rib cage and sealing the wound with the help of the tiny Henkos. She grabbed another stick as she spoke “If you can wait a bit I can find the cure. I’m waiting for a grant to come back, and I’m applying to another one soon, writing that I’m looking to cure Nidhoggs disease with either get extra money thrown my way, or get me laughed out of committee.” Stein sealed the wound and let the Henko’s finish the job. “We could do some brain scans to determine if there is more than one thought pattern in Saya’s head. Her body will have to wake up from the anesthesia first however. Saya, how are you feeling? Just let me know when you start regaining use of your limbs ok?” Stein pulled a 3rd piece of Pocky from the box and nibbled on it while she made quick work of cleaning the lab.
Kye nodded, “I could definitely use a hand finding one. I’ve found the medicinal section of the grimiore, but I’m having a hard time sorting through even the sections I translate. Maybe you could give me a hand with it-” She realised then, that Stein was eating her pocky, then remembered why she was here originally. “HEY!”
Meanwhile, Saya’s eyes managed to half open in response to Stein. “Moh bill ih iy err rr.” Her bodies speech was still slurred, but it was beginning to regain active consciousness..
Kye scowled at Stein eating her pocky but sighed in defeat. “Anyway...I’m hesitant to do this, but you understand medical science better than me, Stein. If...If I share my findings of the medical data in the grimiore, would you help me find the cure for this. I don’t care how long it takes or what you do with whatever other data of that sort that you identify, I just…” She thought of Aylia once more. Its been so many, many years now. How much time did she really have left? “I have to find it.”
“You seem concerned to be sharing your data on the grimiore...are you concerned about it because you’re afraid I’ll steal your data?” Stein looked at Kye, the teacher looked very sad, Stein walked over and set her hand on Kye’s arm “Even if I don’t find it I’ll be happy to help find it so that someone in the future can cure Nidhoggs or so someone else in the community can cure it; I know how much the cure means to you, and not just because of Saya.” Stein moved back over to Saya to check her vital readings “I know you’re having a mobility error, it’s natural for the body to have problems moving after being under the effects of anesthesia, most people don’t start moving for at least 15 minutes, you’re ahead of the curve already.”
“What I’m concerned about is…” Kye trailed off for a moment regarding Steins question. “There are things in that book that even I don’t want to touch with a two planetary system long stick. If things were different, I wouldn’t be sifting through it at all. In fact, I might have rather destroyed it. I can’t trust just anyone with it.” Maybe not even myself, she thought. She blinked, giving Stein a perplexed look as she claimed to understand the cures importance. After she spoke to Saya, she asked, “What do you mean, you know?” She felt her face heat up as her anger suddenly began to surface. “How could you possibly know?!”
Stein listened as Kye explained that she hated the book and wished to burn it, and watched the teacher’s face shift through an expression of perplexion, and into one of anger. I was not aware this was still such a touchy subject with her, maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. Stein thought to herself, well, it was too late now “There are very few people with the last name ‘Cheshire’ and even few who have an interest in Nidhogg’s disease. Your sister Aylia, better known by her codename ‘Kitty’ is a well known case of Nidhogg’s disease and is documented in several journals. I’ve been reading about her since before I arrived at the Academy.” Stein walked to her computer and typed a note into a Word file before returning to stand before Ms. Cheshire “If you’d prefer I will not bring it up again since it has visibly upset you, but you should know; It was her case that really got people's attention and tipped this from a few odd cases to a real and rare disease.”
Kye was indeed upset to hear her sister spoken of so lightly, and even codenamed something that she felt she should have considered demeaning. “Did you think I would be honored, Eris, that it took my own sister, the last bit of family I have, for people to pull their heads out of their asses and actually give two shits about her condition to ponder and ogle at?! Did you?!”
She became aware that her voice had risen to nearly shouting at her, and was generating sparks of electricity in her clenched fists. She paused, took a deep breath, and ceased the sparking. “...Sorry.” she finally answered.
Meanwhile, Saya had turned her head, and had been quietly watching and listening to her master, a look of sympathy in her eyes. Slowly, she sat up, and looked down at her arm, opening and closing her fingers and hand, tentatively.
Stein watched calmly as Kye got ready to explode and calmed herself before she could; Saya had also regained her mobility and was testing her muscles. Stein turned away from Kye and Saya towards Damu, who walked walked across the table, ignoring the Pocky and leaned against her as she pet his head. “Science improves though cases like your sister’s; people learn and get better so that no one else has to suffer what you did. I would have prefered to have lost my family to a disease. My mom was assassinated; I know who did it and yet, I have to see them almost everyday...and I can't do anything about it. No one will get better from my knowledge of this, no one will avoid living what I did, it won't even matter 10 years from now that she died, and no one will benefit from me killing her assassin. At least people will benefit from Aylia.” Stein wiped her sleeve across her face. She picked up Damu and walked back over to the computer where she set him down and began typing, she cleared her throat before speaking “How are you feeling Saya? Any stiffness or dizziness?” Stein hit print and several pages of paper came out of the printer; Stein stapled them and set them to the side of her desk, the top page was titled “Nidhoggs’s Disease”
Saya shook her head. “My mobility has been restored.” She stood up from the gurney and returned to Kye’s side. The Grimalkin had turned her gaze downcast from in shame as Stein spoke of her past. In her outburst she had struck a past that she had no right to. And what was more than that, even though Stein had just as much, if not more motivation for vengeance than Kye, she chose not to. Though she didn’t say it, the grimalkin wished she were as strong as her student in that regard. “...Sorry to trouble you, Eris. Have a good night….and thank you.” She turned and exited the lab, Saya bowing her head to Stein before following her master.
~~~~
“Legendary hero brought back from the dead. Knocked out by an 11-year old with an invitation taking less effort than offering candy.” -Saya in a nutshell