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"Are you sure she is well enough to get visitors, Choco-sensei?" said Amelia with a nervous tone.
"Yes, the doctors monitoring her told me that she hasn't displayed any harmful behavior and was even able to hold conversations in her rare moments of lucidity." She responded in a soothing voice to calm Ame.
"And when she is not lucid?"
"In simple terms, her body acts in automatic mode, being able to do necessities on its own, like eating and drinking. Outside of that, she keeps an emotionless expression, and when I say rare moments, I mean it. She has been here for a few months, and the doctors were only able to talk to her twice."
Ame's face turned sour after that; she almost dropped the gift sheet she was holding. A very big and heavy box wrapped in purple paper and tied with an orange ribbon.
" S-sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned that last part." - Choco-sensei said apologetically.
"No, no. You did the right thing, I would have been told that sooner or later."
She then looked down at her gift with a solemn smile.
"I'm just happy there is a chance of her coming back."
Choco-sensei just replied with a smile and continued to guide Ame through the hospital, into the Magical Afflictions wing, where Ina was being treated.
It's not like anyone can figure out if her condition is magically induced or not; it could be just trauma as far as the doctors could determine, but it is the only area with enough magic protection to bind Ina in case the Ancient Ones try to take over her body again.
The corridors of the hospital were pristine, and most rooms didn't have any windows to preserve the patients' self-confidence in cases of physically changing afflictions. However, Ame, with only passing voices and noises, could deduce some cases: victims of monstrous curses, mind-altering potions, and other magical mishaps.
They get into an elevator and go to the third basement floor, where the extreme cases are kept. Ame always found the need to keep her down a bit too much; they could just replicate the wards on another floor, but Ina's remaining family insisted on keeping her where she would cause less damage.
"They didn't even think about coming on her birthday, did they?" - She asked without mentioning any names, but Choco-sensei was aware of what she meant.
"As far as I was told, you were the only one to schedule a visit."
"Why is she still down here? Hasn't she shown any signs of the Ancient Ones' influence for months?"
"I agree, but her remaining family is pressuring the hospital to keep her here until she receives a full discharge; they don't want to be responsible for another incident, and her close relatives all disappeared after what happened, right? The only option is having Ina show enough progress to contest the claim on her own."
Amelia almost ripped the wrapping of the gift with how much anger she was holding on to it. She was investigating Ina's close relatives' disappearance, and nothing came out of it, almost like they vanished from the map.
Meanwhile, Kiara and Gura are tracking members of the Ancient One's Cult to see if her family is among them, and Calli is paying the price for bringing Ina to the underworld so she couldn't hurt anyone else while they fought.
After they reached the floor, they did another check-in before reaching Ina's room. Another nurse accompanied them to the room and unlocked the door.
"You go first, I will get the other part of your gift, I didn't want to spoil the surprise, so I kept it in another room." - Choco-sensei explained and let Amelia enter the room.
Amelia nodded to Choco before entering the room. It was bright, the walls were painted in blue with plenty of decorations hanging on them to make the room feel less empty, and the floor and ceiling were colored white.
The room wasn't just furnished with a bed, chair, and table, but also a closet and bookshelves with all sorts of books that Ame could tell were hand-picked by Choco-sensei or gifts sent by Amelia and their friends. Besides the entrance, there was another door that Ame assumed was the bathroom.
Ina was sitting on the floor, her purple bangs covering her eyes. The flaps and squishy parts were gone, leaving only slightly messy long hair.
Her body was pale, but not due to malnutrition; Choco would probably kill someone if they didn't feed their patients proper meals. Her clothing was a simple white shirt with a pink heart pattern and black shorts. Ame guessed that it was suggested by Choco.
Ame took a deep breath and stepped forward, putting her gift down in front of Ina. Something about seeing her for the first time after what happened stirred her heart; she felt the tears falling down her face, but she kept her smile.
"Happy Birthday, Ina. The others and I prepared a gift for you, Wanna see?"
Ninomae Inanis slowly looked back at Ame. Her hollow expression with those deep violet eyes gave Ame emotional pain, but she kept going; this was more important than her feelings.
Ame slowly approached her and laid out the present in front of Ina. The emotionless face watched her every step of the way until she opened the box and showed what was inside.
"Surprise! It's a painting set! It has a bunch of brushes and paints…"
Ina didn't show any reactions, just followed Ame's hands as she presented the set, one by one, and she set them on the table nearby.
"I remember you mentioning that you wanted to start painting. I don't know how serious you were about that, but I know how talented you are, so I suggested that to the other girls, and they agreed. This is a present from all 4 of us. Choco sensei said it might help you if you manage to communicate with drawings instead of words."
Shortly after, Choco-sensei arrived with a canvas and a support for it. They weren't expecting Ina to start right away, but at least have it there to decorate the room until then.
"By the way, the paints and brushes will be kept in another room to avoid any accidents, but the staff will bring it to her daily. Until she either uses it all or asks not to bring it anymore." The nurse accompanying them explained.
"I see, thank you." Ame replied.
She nodded and left the room.
"So, what do we do now?" She asked Choco-sensei.
"Well, like I said, we don't know when she might go lucid, but I'm sure your gift will be useful once she is. So how about you don't just-"
"Ame…" a soft voice broke through the room, coming from the girl with the hollow expression. Her hand reached out to her friend. "That's… you…?"
"YES!" Amelia immediately went down and held Ina's hand. "I'm here, can you hear me?!"
"Help me… Up…"
She complied. Ina struggled to move despite her body being healthy, as if she were not in complete control of it.
She sits down on the chair in front of the canvas. Choco leaves to fetch the other nurse and also to give those two some privacy.
Ina reached out for the paint bottles and gave them to Ame to open and set up for her. The detective obliged, and soon enough, Ina had a tray of different colors for her painting.
With Amelia's help, Inanis painted the canvas, creating a simple but clean art piece after an hour or so, saying nothing the entire time. In it, a girl with purple hair was sitting alone in a dark place, a figure wearing white and a pink swirly accessory at the top of her was surrounded by 6 orbs in 3 colors: white, pink, and blue. The figure was shown to be protecting the girl from a mass of tentacles.
"Title: My Protector…Old friend." Ina said once the painting was done, she didn't even get up; she just leaned towards Ame and fell asleep in her arms.
Ame, with the help of the staff, put Ina on her bed. Seeing her friend sleep so peacefully reminded Ame of their sleepovers after Ina spent hours playing games with her and the others.
The detective looked back at the painting. The obvious implication wasn't lost on her; this woman in the painting was somehow protecting Ina from the Ancient Ones' influence. Considering Ina just suddenly stopped fighting that day, the woman in the painting has probably been the one who stopped the possession from that day too.
After being inquired about the occurrence by the staff, Ame left alongside Choco-sensei. She thought it would be better for Ina to get the rest she deserved.
"I'm surprised your present would bring such a breakthrough in her condition." Choco said happily. "If this keeps up, she will be back in no time."
"Yeah…"
"What's wrong?"
"The woman Ina painted, I noticed something minor on it that is bothering me."
"What is it?"
"The protector looks tired; there were cracks on the orbs surrounding the figure. Also, only one arm was up; the other one wasn't part of the painting at all. I think that painting wasn't just informing us of her condition, but warning us of a future where she is possessed once again."
"Hmmm, interesting deduction, as expected from a genius detective. What can we do to help this protector then?"
"I'm not sure; hopefully, Ina will draw more clues."
Choco couldn't help but smile at Ame's dedication to thinking of ways to help her friend.
"Considering she put so much effort after you arrived, maybe you should visit her more. You were the first thing she said in weeks." Amelia blushed for some reason, but couldn't help agreeing to the head nurse's suggestion.
"M-maybe it's just because we are close friends… I bet if the others had come, the same would have happened."
"Yeah, but all of them are busy, right? So, for the sake of your investigation, you should visit Ina as much as possible."
Choco-sensei smiled deviously at Ame, who only got more embarrassed but passed it off with a look of confidence.
"S-sure, for the sake of the investigation…"
Back in Ina's room, the sleeping girl smiled.
"Ame… I missed you…"