Chapter 191 35.X Interlude: A Budding Healer

Shen didn't think she had it in her to fight like that. Sure, she had her fair share of brawls against some of the bastards that tried to cramp her style back in the scrapyard, but this... This was an entirely different beast in terms of conflicts. She never expected that going out to the Deep would be this... scary... and she even had her own [Manifest] to fight with! Thankfully, they've managed to free Shizu from the... horror that captured her. She didn't think that such a thing could even exist, but apparently, it did... Lady Guidance even confirmed that there were more of these things out there...

Was she seriously going to go through with this?

"Princess!" Shade called out, moving quickly to cradle Shizu up in his arms. "Shen!"

The girl blinked. In her hands, [Fixit!] glowed with green energy, the urge to fix overwhelming her entire being as she quickly made her way to her older sister in all but blood. The fear that she felt was still there, but she still had a job to do.

"Heal her," Shade practically commanded.

"Hah! As if I wasn't gonna do that anyway!"

Raising her trusty wrench up in the air, Shen willed her power through her fingertips, her new [Move] manifesting itself as she whacked the princess right up on her head.

"[Fix]"

[*WHACK!*]

With a resounding thunk, her power flowed through her [Manifest], Shizu's body glowing green as some of her more obvious wounds mended themselves. Places where the tentacles have pierced her skin closed up, the gashes littering her body making way for smooth and flawless skin as Shen kept applying her power where necessary. Somehow, doing so really felt good for her, the urge to fix seemingly being sated as soon as she saw that her patient no longer had any wounds on her person.

"There!" Shen proudly declared, placing her hands on her hips as she stood up. "Fixed her right up!"

"Thank you, Shen!" Maruki loudly thanked her. He then turned his head towards the entrance and yelled, "Moriya!"

With her job done, Shen could only watch as their leader and recruiter finally made his way toward them. Shade was still cradling Shizu by the head, but he was quick to speak as soon as Moriya arrived.

"We can leave now, right?" Shade asked.

"Supposedly," Moriya replied, kneeling down as he too began supporting Shizu's unconscious body. "How is she?"

"Shen already healed most of her wounds, but we don't know when she'll wake up," Shade explained. "I don't know if there are any of those debuff things affecting her though."

"She doesn't," Moriya quickly confirmed. "Still, she's probably just tired from her ordeal."

Shen couldn't help but frown at that exchange. Those debuff thingies that Moriya and Guidance kept talking about still eluded her. She didn't know how they could see it, but looking at Guidance work was more than enough for her to know that she should be able to see such things if she really wanted to fix people. The fact that she couldn't even repay the older woman for curing her earlier by doing the same for her was already gnawing at her pride and urges.

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Ignoring the conversation happening around Shizu, Shen made her way to where they left Guidance. The older woman's warmth never left their presence, still somehow being able to keep them from freezing despite being affected by this monster that they just beat.

"Shen?"

The girl blinked as she saw Lady Guidance standing tall once again. She supposed that beating the monster had healed her from those debuffs, allowing her to finally join them.

"You're okay," Shen whispered out, her relief palpable in her tone. "I thought ya were still..."

"Still being called? It went away as soon as you beat it," Lady Guidance warmly smiled. "Thanks for that, by the way."

A sudden surge of warmth in her heart almost made Shen blush at the praise. Such things were starting to become more commonplace these days, and she should really try and get used to being rightfully commended for all of her hard work.

"I-It was nothin!" she stuttered, failing utterly to put up a proud front despite puffing out her pitiful chest. "There's nothin I can fix, remember?!"

"Yeah," Lady Guidance chuckled. She then looked up out towards the room, her eyes landing on the group of people still huddled out in front of that creepy eye. "How was the fight, by the way? I'm assuming that's them fussing over Shizu?"

Shen blinked at the question, her mind briefly wanting to say that it was difficult before her pride demanded that she downplay what happened.

"N-Nothin too hard for us!" Shen weakly declared. "We died a couple times, but we still killed it!"

"That much is clear," Lady Guidance chuckled. "Still, we're not out of danger yet, I think. Let's go join the others and see what's happening."

With that, Guidance led the way as they made their way back to the group. Behind her, Shen followed dutifully, her mind already coming up with more [Moves] that could possibly help her with their journey.

She shouldn't be as defenseless and clueless as she was right here on their next inevitable fight. Lady Guidance surely had a few [Moves] that enabled her to attack. Why not have her own?

Or better yet, why not try to learn from the best?

"Uhm... Can ya teach me?" Shen meekly asked. "How ta fight?"

Stopping midstep, Lady Guidance turned to her, a small smile on her face as she replied. "We were already going to teach you how to write and read, right? Of course, I'll teach you. We all will, depending on who you want to teach you."

Another swell of uncomfortable gratitude almost made her lose her breath. Taking in a deep breath, Shen puffed her chest up, doing her best to show her thanks in the only way that she knew how.

"O-Of course I want ya," she weakly declared. "We're da closest in da way we fix stuff."

Seeing Guidance smile, Shen did her best to stand her ground. She was definitely not tearing up. Big girls didn't cry.

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