Astraia blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes to focus on the tall Asian boy sitting across from her, and playing with a… How the hell did he get a knife in here?

“I-I’m o-okay, I guess…” her stuttering was very unconvincing. “Y-you know, y-you sh-shouldn’t h-h-have a k-knife i-in here…th-they’ve killed p-people for less than.. l-less th-than that, and it would b-be most u-u-unfortunate to see--” she doubled over, clutching her head, as a bolt of agony shot through it. Damned big words and big concepts.

“D-d-don’t give in, don’t g-give in.” she muttered, more to herself than to anyone around her, as she clenched her hands into fists and dug her nails into her palms to try to distract herself.

When the pain subsided, she appraised the boy again. “Y-you’re B-Bayakko, a-aren’t you? I th-think w-we’re g-going on a m-mission t-together…” she winced as another jolt of pain went through her head.

“I-I’m s-s-sorry. M-my h-h-head h-hurts because i-it wants m-me t-t-to l-let my p-power o-out a-and I d-don’t w-want to…” God, he probably thought she was crazy. Well, crazier. No one in the Corrupted wing was ever entirely sane.

Such thoughts made her headache come back in full force and she weakly dropped her face into her hands, trying to make the pain go away by rubbing her temples.
But the evil thing was inside, not out.

“B-before w-w-we l-leave, c-can we go p-petition D-Doctor F-Faust…? A-ask h-him i-if I c-c-can’t take a bottle of i-ibuprofen w-with us, a-at least? I c-can’t th-think…” She let that train of thought go away and resumed shuffling the playing cards, rather than looking at the crazy boy with the knife, rather than trying to think.
[@ClocktowerEchos]