Büdo was arranging her belongings and cleaning up the perpetual mess everyone made coming into the infirmary. She was sure people were breaking in during the night, but the lack of a locking mechanism meant that anyone could come and go as they pleased.
455 was assisting her in the process so she could think of today's lesson plan.
Pat! Pat! Pat!
Some small knocking sounds could be heard in the infirmary. Stopping what the pair were up to and their heads turning to the source.
Pat! Pat! Pat!
As curious as the boy with scruffy hair was, he wouldn't ever be the one to answer the door first.
"Coming~" the purple alien chirps. Striding over to the door with her long heavy tail dragging about the floor.
Opening the door revealed a pleasant surprise, a subtle sigh of relief as it's someone disarming for the woman. A child with a wild head of hair, sharp and spiky enough to fit right in anywhere on this planet. One of her hands was gripping the collar of a larger male prisoner who was knocked out. Her other hand was resting on the ground where the door was a second ago.
On closer inspection it looked like the both of them had been beaten up quite a lot. Beaten and bruised all over, somehow the older one had taken worse damage to specific parts. His hands were wrecked.
"Oooh, isn't that. Teacher, isn't that Zukki!?" 455 says with a mild surprise crossing his face.
"Looks like it..is this one a friend of yours?" Büdo gestured to the other prisoner.
"No"
"Looks like he could be!" Büdo giggles, but her suggestion isn't the wholehearted push. Just a suggestion without advice or instruction.
"No"
It seems as though the man with a child-like hairstyle and an older gentleman's facial structure didn't fit the priority list of 455's interests.
"But I'll talk with him when he wakes up"
"Good, now let's get your friends" büdo emphasizes the "s" in friends to make it clear that while they are helping both, the friendship aspect for this newcomer is up in the air.
Of course Zukki was on a bed in a moment, but number 151 took a fair bit of time. Even though the man was in worse shape they got to fixing up Zukki first.
They inspected all of her injuries. Again just horrible bumps and bruises, no real gashes or cuts.
("Healing so quickly..and yet") Būdo thinks to herself about the girl's state. "Ahh i see" Her remark was audible upon checking the girl's heart rate.
Her eyes darted to see the boy's earnest curiosity and back. A brief moment of hesitation washed over the purple alien before she hummed out loud. Būdo didn't know how much of her own research and time had been spent on his kind alone. Their biology and why it differs so drastically despite looking strikingly just like any other basic humanoid race.
"455 come here, feel her pulse for me ok?" She gently encouraged him to make this a teaching moment.
As he studies her pulse, the boy notices the difference in what should be the normal pace. It was irregular and slower for that matter. He immediately landed on the fact that she was unwell.
"Her heart isn't beating the best it could?" 455's eyes turn to meet his teacher's.
"Yes, that's right" she agrees in a praising tone.
"Didn't you help her the last time? Is it because of her injuries now?"
"Fufu, I did. Seeing as she feels and looks fine by all measures" Būdo takes another studious glance over her body. "She should be up and about after a nap, or not"
"Or not?" He exclaims very softly.
Būdo caught the concern in his eyes.
"Trust me, your friend will make it as usual. She seems way too stubborn for that." She reassures only to feel the need to do something actively to shove his doubts to the side. Her motherly side is forever showing. "Ok let's feed her a bit of what i have here"
The nurse had caved and her eyes twitched towards the cabinet. The boy had kept his eyes on her hers and darted to the little storage area on the corner opposite his desk. There were a handful of random things and a jar full of that macabre applesauce. Did it normally have a red tint to it?
455 thought to bring a spoon and a cup of water along with him.
"How much is she going to eat?" He asks while putting the jar and cup on a tray next to the bed.
"Not too much, though I suspect we don't have nearly enough to fill her appetite." She makes an educated guess based on a saiyan stereotype.
"Hmm?" 455 doesn't really understand the stereotype, how could he, having only spent his whole life so far here on this prison base.
"Just a little bit. Maybe just a twelve spoonfuls or so"
"Ok" he agreed.
Būdo took the lead and lifted the girl's head. Opening the jar and taking a spoon full of the old slop she began feeding the girl.
In her slumber the heinous goop went down rather easily. The purple alien had an easy time feeding the girl while 455 struggled each time it was his turn to try and feed her. They helped her sip water after as well.
Zukki slept rather peacefully after that, with some smug grin that suggested she wasn't having a bad day so far.
"456 will be happy to see her" he muses while ignoring the other patient for a moment.
"I'm sure he will. Maybe she'll share her secrets with him too" she continued the conversation. Also casually forgetting about the man with childish bedhead hair passed out with broken knuckles laying on her floor.
a long moment later and they were simply putting a pillow underneath his head.
"I'll just wrap those hands. As long as he doesn't punch anything further. He'll be fine" she says and only passively ignores the glaring amount of scars along his knuckles.
The way she set his cracked bones into place was cold and to the point while the man's body kinda just spasms in response briefly.
455 just kind of looks over at his desk indifferent to how Būdo treats the man he doesn't care to know.
The next moment she was shifting her attention back to the boy. Today would be more writing and reading, although the purple woman whines inwardly and the lack of academic tools.
("I can get sugar in here..blasters..but not books") She ponders the lopsided and random contraband list.
***
(First pov)
[Prisoner ???]
My face is in the rocks again. I swear it's not the part I enjoy.
"Mmmhg" a groan escapes my lips while I try to get back up. It's the first time today so it isn't that hard.
When my mind wonders thinking about change, something different, I hope for a world where the floor I fight on all the time isn't small rocks. After you've been knocked down a bunch it starts to get tiring and painful to get back up.
Eventually I got up, relieved to be able to this time instead of being punted further down.
The woman before me is Negi. This place is a prison, and she leads it. They call her the warden, she doesn't care what i call her unless it's something like ma'am or lady or something along those lines.
I've really started to wonder if Zukki was special or I'm simply just not at all. Regardless, I see an opportunity to throw an attack at her. On the principle of changing what I do, I keep throwing new attacks as I get chances to do so.
I've started low, I've started high. I've started with my arm all the way back, and this time I simply charge her down with it stretched out.
("One of these times she would tell me what is good and bad") I actively thought in my mind.
Negi had been distracted by something. Her eyes flicked about over the distant sky. The gravel was way too loud for such heavy steps to be hidden. Her eyes darted down to meet mine and I froze up.
I missed.
She struck my chest so hard I thought the world stopped for a second. Then as my back hit the floor my heart thumped in my chest. A horrible feeling that never landed so viscerally before.
The air wouldn't escape my lungs for the longest moment, but at the same time the pain in my body paralyzed me. Gripping the gravel with my fingers, moving felt like a struggle until I could breathe again.
"Guaahh ahhh" I exhaled the most relieving breath of my life. Time felt like it moved again as I rolled to my side.
This time I didn't just get up like it was nothing. Negi's demands didn't rush me either. Suddenly it was my choice to get up and I'd just felt a new level of pain that begged for me to stay down.
Up until now unless i was sleeping or put to sleep, I would bring myself back to my feet. The simple questions I asked myself; Can I see? Can I move?
The answers are yes, so I stand back up and look over at Negi.
She's touching the button on the side of her Scouter. Is she gonna aim it at me next?
She doesn't, in fact she isn't even looking my way when she speaks.
"Come on, I heard you get up"
Her voice snaps me out of my unfocused state. The pain lingering in my chest aches and I don't just want the previous moment to happen. My mind races with the thoughts of what could happen, but they all seemed to converge on the single fact that I couldn't stop it.
I ran to her again. My fingers are tightly clenched, more to dampen the pain in my chest every time it pulsates. Just as I get to maybe a foot away from her, I start to dash to the right. Could have sworn there was an idea behind that choice.
My face in the gravel again before I could blink twice. Letting my body slump and the light grey out at the edges of my sight. This felt like taking a nap. I'd think about it all when I woke up later.
Even though, when I opened my eyes I could see.
My fingers in the dusty pink rocks loosen.
Even though my body could move.
My tail, which would wave about, gradually lost its energy.
No matter what i thought about nothing would change the p–
"Pain in my a*s, finally you're back"
My lips pursed with the small rocks wet between them. Didn't have the motivation to spit them out for the thousandths time.
"Yeah yeah lady.."
The voice was so familiar it was magnetic. Full of energy and life unlike anyone else here.
"What's uh..he doin here?"
The voice got closer and my eyes darted up to see who it was.
"Pzuppkki?" Her name came out in a mess of pebbles and letters.
Suddenly the world shifted. I was on all fours looking towards the person I thought I would never see again.
"Ignore him, he was just the substitute."
Neither I nor Zukki give her attention though.
"Er uh…. I'm not calling you 456"
She decided on it alone, like she seems to do everything. In spite of the pang in my chest I couldn't help but feel revived by that grin on her face. Who was she and who was I, but before I could ask why not.
"I'll just call you spikey, that not a name, but whatever"
I watched her look me over and eye my hair before coming to that conclusion.
"W-what? Pffft ha.." I let out a laugh after flinching, a laugh that removed the rest of the rocks from my lips.
After a moment I heard her respond with her own laugh, restrained, but I could feel some positive emotion welling up from her in response to my reaction.
I also felt a pair of eyes barring down on me that didn't appreciate this reunion.