Chapter 21: Chapter 60- Broken Soldier

With Irapesha living here, Cresta was a lot happier. They were, suffice to say, inseparable. The first thing she did was break Professor Markel's suggestion of keeping Irapesha within the dorm, taking her to Rocket Burger to eat fast food all day. The next visit was to the grocery store to meet the retired veterans-turned meat butchers. 

Remmy, Ines, and Tamara were also glad to meet the woman whom Cresta cherished like a soulmate or sister from another mother. The only one who wasn't so keen on Irapesha's presence was Ange, our resident demon. Rightfully so, since the dragonewt was known just as well as Cresta to be a merciless demon killer.

"Ange, you can't just hide in my room all day. You have to get along with your fellow dorm mate eventually," I urged from the door to my room.

"Watch me," Ange said from the safety of my bed. "As far as I'm concerned, your room is the safest place on Earth. It has everything I need to live— a bathroom, bed, and you."

"What about food?" I asked.

"I already mentioned you." 

Two days had gone by, and she hadn't stepped out of the room since Irapesha's arrival. It was the Tamara situation all over again, except these two were less likely to become friends due to their backgrounds.

"We finished setting up Pesha's room!" Cresta waved to me from down the west wing of the hall.

Leaving the hermit alone in my room, I went over to check out Irapesha's bedroom. This side was unbalanced with four tenants, compared to the other side's two tenants. Even less now that Ange took up residence in my room, leaving Tamara as the only one. I had to put Irapesha there because Cresta wouldn't take no for an answer.

Approaching Irapesha's room was like walking up to an open oven set to bake. The floor was filled with scalding hot sand, heated up with salamander stones underneath the mounds. Apparently, dragonewts especially liked warm places.

"Holy crap… It feels like I'm back in Weyera…" I remarked, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

"It can be hotter, but this will have to suffice for now. What do you think?" Irapesha asked me.

"How do I say this? Looks, uh… pleasantly warm," I said.

Coming from Japan and having gone to Okinawa beaches for years, I knew all this sand was going to end up in every nook and cranny of the dorm. 

Ines burst out of her room in a bikini and a towel slung over her shoulder.

"The hell are you doing?" I asked, appalled by her beach-going outfit in the middle of winter.

"Irapesha gave me permission to relax in her room. It's beach time, bitches!" She strutted past me and into the sand-filled room, spread the beach towel out, and laid down on it as if to tan indoors.

Much later in the day, a ruckus was coming from the unused gym. It seemed the former soldiers moved the enchanted weights downstairs and were pumping iron together. The place had a row of dumbbells, several multi-purpose machines, and treadmills. A wide mirror along the wall of free weights allowed the vain to check themselves out as they worked out.

Irapesha was quite the looker with only a sports bra and dolphin shorts on. The sweat made her body glisten, and her heavy breathing somehow made this otherwise harmless scene sound erotic.

"Why don't you join us? You can use some more muscles on you," she said, taking notice of me from the mirror.

I entered the home gym that smelled of fresh air conditioning and sweat in a constant battle.

"I still have work to do, but it's good to see you guys making use of the gym instead of letting it collect dust."

"We'll use this place from now on, since working out upstairs would make too much noise," Cresta said, running on the treadmill that was at max speed and incline. "By the way, does this thing go any faster? I'm getting bored!"

"There's no machine in this world that could match your speed!" I retorted.

"Nngh!"

The enchanted weight that Irapesha was holding dropped with a hard crash and embedded into the rubber mat floor. She gripped the side of her missing arm, wincing in apparent agony. Cresta hopped off the treadmill, and we raced to check on her.

"That's odd. It's hurting a lot more than usual." Irapesha grimaced.

"Should we call a doctor?" Cresta asked. "Maybe Tarcosa might know what to do about it."

"No, I just need some fresh air. Excuse me," she said, exiting the gym.

"Has this been happening a lot? She looked fine a minute ago," I said.

"I don't know. Lately, Pesha's been randomly going quiet lately. She also sometimes scratches at her arm stub and complains about it itching," Cresta answered, helplessly watching Irapesha leave.

That must be phantom limb pain.

"Why don't you go keep her company until dinner," I suggested. "In the meantime, I'll talk to Ines about what can be done."

Ines had fallen asleep inside Irapesha's room, buried up to her neck in sand. I put a foot on her stomach and stirred her awake.

"Enjoying yourself?" I asked.

"What the… How long have I been asleep, and why am I buried? Tamara! Remmy!" the college girl screamed.

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"Quit struggling! You're flinging sand in my face!"

I dug her out and explained what happened to Irapesha earlier. She immediately came to the same conclusion.

"No two ways about it. Irapesha's feeling phantom limb pain. Normally that goes away over time, but the unlucky ones may be stuck with it for life," Ines explained.

"Is there any way to help her cope with it?"

She nodded. "Plenty of ways. Whether they'll work or not is another thing. I'll compile a list of treatments for you by tomorrow."

"Thanks." I breathed a sigh of relief.

As I turned to leave, Ines grabbed my hand and had more to say.

"Irapesha recently came out of beast mode, right? As far as she's concerned, she lost her missing body parts twice: once when they were ripped from her, and the second was the moment she snapped out of it. I also wouldn't put it past her to have some PTSD."

"Someone like her suffering from PTSD?" I scratched my head at the notion.

Ines put her hands on her waist and leaned too close for comfort in my face. "PTSD in veterans— in general is a serious issue. Sometimes the strongest among us are taking it the worst by bottling up their emotions so as to not show weakness."

I went to bed that night with what Ines told me gestating in my head. Ange came out of the bathroom and took a seat on the bed while blow drying her hair.

"What's on your mind? You usually stare at me and make 'guehehe' sounds whenever I come out of the bath like this," she said.

"N-No, I don't! And… I'm worried about Irapesha. Without a dossier, I have no idea the extent of her circumstances and what to watch out for."

"Aren't you thinking about her too much lately?" The succubus pouted.

My door suddenly burst open.

"Something's wrong with Pesha!" Cresta exclaimed in panic. "She's hurting in her sleep, but I can't wake her up!"

The three of us ran to Irapesha's scorching room and found her thrashing around in the sand. She was clawing at her throat, struggling to breathe.

"Nightmares?" I asked aloud.

"Can you do something? Anything?" Cresta asked, holding her friend's only hand.

"I...I may be able to help ease her mind with magic," Ange said from the door, hesitating to enter.

"Magic? I thought—"

She shook her head. "That injection didn't work after all. Now step aside."

The succubus braved the room and went behind Irapesha, putting both hands to her head just below the smooth horns. She shut her own eyes to concentrate as magic that I couldn't see began to work its way through their bodies.

"She's… in so much mental anguish…" Ange was beginning to sweat from the blistering heat.

"Can you take her pain away with magic?" Cresta asked desperately from the side.

"I'm trying—"

Irapesha's eyes snapped open, but it was the same bestial and mindless look from before. She growled at Ange and clenched a powerful hand around her throat.

"Urrk— help…!"

"Irapesha, stop! She's trying to help!" I shouted, vainly trying to pull the hand away.

The others, awakened by the commotion, came right away to try and help 

"Pesha, snap out of it!" Cresta cried. With her strength, she was able to wrench the fingers off Ange's neck with ease and pushed them away from each other. Irapesha hit the wall with a thud and was pinned to the ground by her own subordinate.

As I held a terrified Ange in my arms, Cresta was trying to get through to Irapesha who struggled under her grasp.

"Wake up, Pesha! It's me! Cresta! Please, wake up!" she screamed repeatedly.

Irapesha soon regained her senses and stopped struggling. She saw us around her room, including Ange who was in tears and with a bruise on her neck.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…" the dragonewt uttered in shame. "I don't know what came over me."

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