Zodiac Girls

The Increasing Questions

When Rain next woke, she woke with a heavy, painful migraine. As she tried to reach her head to soothe the headache, she then found herself tightly strapped to the bed with chains. Enraged as she was with her predicament, her headache won over her soul, and she settled with just simply lying there with a sigh, waiting for the pain to just pass.

As she lied there, Rain could not help but wonder where she was and why she was in this situation. No matter how she looked at it, this room did not look like something from Luminoir Academy. And she had never got into that organization’s hideout or base or whatever it is they call it, so for all she knew, she could’ve been captured. 

But, that wouldn’t make sense, if that were true. For one thing, why would they capture her after sending someone to kill her? If they found her dangerous or troublesome enough to go to such length, why bother trying to take her afterward?

There was also the fact that Lucy was the first person she saw when she last woke… and failed to escape from. Well, she wasn’t sure exactly if it was her or some lookalike- then again, she had never seen Lucy act seductively before- but regardless, if that really was the school nurse, and this place is the organization’s base, wouldn’t that make her a spy this whole time?

At any rate, Rain was all the more glad to be away from Luminoir Academy. She much rather be alone than be anywhere with liars, especially if those liars are from the organization, or people with powers who don’t bother reaching out to her when she needed it most.

Rain sensed footsteps approaching the door, and looked to see it open, revealing Lucy on the other side.

“Hm. So this time you decide to not play dead,” the woman hummed in amusement.

Rain was opposite to her, as she simply glared in response and turned her head away.

“Being stubborn isn’t going to make you feel any better, you know,” Lucy then said, walking to her bedside. She pressed a button in the side of the bed, causing the top half of the bed to lift up, thus lifting the upper half of Rain’s body up as well. “I’m going to change your bandages now. I assume you won’t turn into some feral kitten and try to bite me as I do?”

Rain found that insulting and turned to the woman in rage, only to stop and hold back, as she felt the headache slightly worsen, and settle with just lying down, seething. In response, Lucy patted her on the head like a child.

“That’s a good girl~” she cooed. “Now hold still.” Lucy began to unwrap the bandages around Rain’s head. As she did so, the teen felt her headache worsen ever so slightly, most likely from the fresh air hitting her head, and endured. “Gotta say, though, for someone who wanted to run away, you sure are quite reckless when it comes to fighting,” Lucy then spoke, hoping a light conversation would ease Rain up a little.

Sadly, the only response the teen gave was a brief glare, before looking away from the nurse.

“And so stubborn, too… I don’t think I remember you being like this at all.”

“And what do you know?” Rain questioned that time. “You only saw me in the nurse’s office, when I or anyone on the soccer team gets injured. How could you possibly know much about me from that?”

Lucy seemed taken aback by the questions, and asked, “You… How much do you remember, really?”

Enduring the headache she was getting from her growing anger, Rain faced her and shouted, “Now look here. I know I got tranquilized and I hit my head hard, but that does not mean I lost any memories from either of those! Where is this place, anyway?! The organization’s base?! It is your base, isn’t it?! Well, congrats. You people finally got what you want; me. What’s next? Brainwashing me to be some weapon? After trying to Jill me like you did?! I just want to live normal! Is it really bad for me to have that?!”

Lucy widened her eyes at those words, just finished removing the bandages. “Wait… Are you saying after all this time, you still don’t know?” she questioned.

“Know about what?”

Rather than answer her that time, Lucy left the room altogether.

“Wha-?! Hey!” Rain attempted to go after her, when her binds stopped her, kept her pinned in bed.

******

Meanwhile, with Lucy, as soon as she left the room, the nurse held her watch up to her face and spoke into it. “This is Goat, contacting Viper. Are you there, Viper?”

A moment of silence later, a familiar voice responded, “I hope you realize you were supposed to call me ‘leader’. Then again, the fact that you referred to me the way you did… Does it have to do with the Freshie?""Affirmative," Lucy confirmed. "As Rabbit said, even though she has awakened to her powers, it seems she has yet to recover memories of the forgotten past."

"It is not possible for us to have these powers and yet remember nothing about that past. Taking that into consideration, as well as the fact that these memories only come to us in form of a dream, it's possible she believes them to be nothing but dreams. And there is also the possibility of who she may be the reincarnate of. Age could also play a factor here."

Lucy lightly grimaced at this. "If that is the, then can we truly afford to wait any longer for her to remember? The way she is now, the way she reacted to me, I fear if we keep this waiting game going on for too long, she just might..."

Lucy did not need to say any more, for Viper seemed to agree. "Yes, as you say. It is too dangerous to keep her in the dark any longer. We have to tell her everything. I just hope she will be able to accept what we tell her... And that she forgives us for taking this long to reach out to her," she said.

At that, the nurse lightly rubbed her head with her free hand, reminded of the headbutt Rain had dealt earlier. Though the latter was the one who got knocked out, it still left quite the mark on her. "Something tells me it will take more than a story and an apology to get her to forgive us..." she muttered.

"It matters not, so long as she does not get in the hands of the enemy, or die by their hands... For now, it's still the afternoon. You may have taken a sick leave to look after the Freshie, but Rabbit and the others are still busy with their public life. Until school is over, keep watching over her. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am. Leave it to me." With that, Lucy turned the communicator off and turned back to the door. Upon opening it, she saw Rain was still lying in bed, head turned to the side, away from the window.

Recalling the conversation she had with her leader, a small smile was formed on the woman's face, as she approached the bound girl. "Later today, we're going to meet with the others to find out what to do with you," she said. 

"Huh..." Rain simply sighed.

Lightly taken aback by the lack of response, Lucy replayed what she said in her head and realized it came out wrong. "I-I don't mean it in a bad way or anything. It's just... I'm sure you have many questions. And as much as I would love to answer them myself, it's better if we have everyone around. They do say seeing is believing, after all."

"Sure they do."

Finding it hard to speak to Rain when she's like this, a part of her in which Lucy was not used to, the nurse could only sigh, and proceeded to get some clean bandages for the teen's head. "You've become quite obedient," she then spoke. "Then again, considering your predicament, I suppose it's not by choice... And for that I-" As Lucy turned to the girl, a roll of bandages in hand, she was surprised to see Rain had gone missing from the bed. The woman frantically looked around the room, wondering where the teen was and how she had even escaped. Searching the bed, she saw the straps were still intact. So how?

The next thing Lucy knew, something struck her on the head from above, slamming it onto the rails of the bedside, and knocked her out.

"Who ever said I was being obedient?" Rain questioned, rubbing her wrists, both which had turned red from when she slipped out of her binds. 

Truth be told, this was not the first time she was captured, and she had self-taught herself how to quietly slip out of whatever binds she would be trapped in, thus making her quite the slippery girl to catch anyway.

Now free and without a guard, Rain hastily made her escape.