Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 63 Coming Out In One Piece

Well… she "found" herself back in the real world for the slightest moment before the c.u.mulative damage and pain she'd acc.u.mulated during the time she spent in her Soul Land crashed onto her body like a meteor.

Elizabeth practically turned into a lava lamp as various red and blue neon-like lights started sparking all around her body. The pain… it was so extreme that even in her immobile state, her body started twitching and spasming out of control!

DANGER!!! Elizabeth's mind, though completely devoid of anything intelligible, could sense how dangerous a state she'd just entered. If not from the pain and apparent lack of ability to just go into shock and sleep the trama away, then certainly because of her currently uncontrollable flailing.

There were still several needles embedded around her navel and most of them if carelessly disturbed could kill her. Moreover, even though a relatively short amount of time had pa.s.sed, she could tell that the pain would only get worse. Soon it wouldn't be a matter of whether she'd accidentally hurt herself, rather, when the pain would cross her absolute threshold for tolerance and suicide would cross her mind.

Fortunately, upon coming out her Soul Land's tribulation, though she'd instantly been hit with that initial wave of pain, the paralysis seemed to have stopped and through the pain and flailing, Elizabeth could move with some semblance of control over her actions. Thus, at the fastest speed she could muster in her current horrid circ.u.mstances, Elizabeth started to "carefully" rip out the needles still on her person.

Naturally, with the pain and energy shuttling through her body with reckless abandon, her usually precise and impeccable ability to insert and retrive needles was "slightly" impacted. So, almost all the needles she extracted drew blood, in one way or another. Still, compared to the ma.s.sive amounts of damage she could've accidentally inflicted on herself, drawing a "little bit" of blood wasn't anything worth crying over.

Alas, Elizabeth had only completed half of what she set out to do to survive this ordeal and what remained would test how and if she had the willpower to preserve her life at all costs. Not one to waste time, especially at a time of crisis like now, Elizabeth glared at the pile of needles she'd taken out of her body and actually started to reinserted them…

She was planning to shut off her ability to move altogether through the application of her Acupoint Skill to stop any potential suicidal attempts. But to get there, a different kind of hards.h.i.+p would befall poor Elizabeth… Her arms, hands, fingers, everything quaking without any semblance of control… Through attempting the move to shut off her movement, it was likely that she'd only wish for death to come faster.

Every single needle without fail was inserted at least dozens of times over with each attempt either sc.r.a.ping and tearing at her muscles, ripping through the medians, overshooting and piercing through her acupoints, and on several attempts, Elizabeth's shaky hands moved so erratically that she'd fractured and chipped pieces of her bones.

Eventually though, Elizabeth managed to reconfigure the acupoint formation on her body to match the schematic in her mind. She didn't waste a second to start channeling her energy and after completing the task on hand, Elizabeth scrambled to rip out the needles embedded in her once more.

After she cycled her energy, all the muscles in her body would be temporarily relaxed to the absolute max her body could sustain. She would have one more minute of mobility before the effects completely kicked in, thereafter being completely unable to move for the next couple hours.

…

Many hours later… At approximately midnight, Jane woke up feeling better than a drug addict after getting their fix. She felt so good in fact, that the thought of staying on the bed for a bit longer and savoring the feeling was awfully tempting. However, a certain burnt scent annoyed her out of the bed. It didn't take long for Jane to find what the source of the burnt scent was, as what remained of Elizabeth was found almost immediately…

"Hey… What's U-p…." Elizabeth hoa.r.s.e voice took Jane out of the grim thoughts plaguing her mind as she immediately a.s.sumed the worst. Apart from the scratchy and shaky inflections of her voice, one wouldn't think much of anything happened to Elizabeth. Alas, her body looked like a burnt chicken nugget, with pieces of skin literally flaking off. Elizabeth was also covered in blood, literally from head to toe, and parts of her body were emanating either blazing heat or frigid cold.

"What's up? What f.u.c.king happened to you!?" Jane didn't even know how to respond to such a ridiculous contrast. Was she to go help Elizabeth immediately, find someone else to help her, or continue talking like nothing of substance was going on?

"...Nothing much… Just chilling..." Elizabeth luckily didn't spend much time being tortured by the changes in her body. Rather, the pain was quick but mind-breakingly brutal regardless of the fact, and though she was still feeling a bit sour compared to the nightmare of hours prior, at the moment, Elizabeth could sleep through the pain still channeling through her body. But, though she could sleep through the pain, it didn't mean would… Rather, Elizabeth didn't plan to sleep or lose vigilance until feeling returned to her arms and legs.

"Chilling? You need to see a doctor!" Jane was starting to lose her mind…

"NO! I-I'll be fine… In, in a couple… hours..." Doctor? Elizabeth manifested real killing intent until Jane stopped giving her that look of unwillingness to listen. She said, "Later, I… I'll heal my-self..."

"..." Jane just looked at Elizabeth for a solid minute before saying, "Well, can I at least get you in a better state? I can carry you to the bathhouse and clean you up." To Jane, Elizabeth was too pitiful to look at in her current state, and though she wanted to ask her more about what happened after she blacked out, she deduced that Elizabeth was in her current state because of herself and thus wanted to do something, anything really, to help Elizabeth get through her current circ.u.mstances.

"Mhmm..." Elizabeth was caught between a rock and a hard place, as she neither wished to stay so filthy, nor did she want her body to be in the hands of others while she was completely vulnerable. However, if she had to choose whether to be left alone or to be kept by Jane's side in her current state, then by a slight margin, Jane's company beat out totally loneliness. Jane might only count as a friendly acquaintance to Elizabeth, but that should be enough to get her to act on defending her if it ever came down to it. Thus, Elizabeth said, "Fine..."

Jane, happy to be of some help to the haggard and frankly disturbed looking Elizabeth, didn't waste any time. She herself wished to clean up after herself after noticing the still soaked clothes she had on. Jane stood up and tried her best to delicately grab and carry Elizabeth, yet couldn't tell from which angle to begin; it seemed like just touching her would cause dangerous amounts of damage.

Elizabeth, noticing Jane's hesitation, said, "As long as… you're not..." She coughed up a bit of dark blood before continuing to say, "afraid of getting… your hands dirty… Just… pick me up..." She was trying to get Jane to dispel that caring approaching she took when trying to handle her body, but it seems that by talking and therein coughing up blood, Elizabeth just made Jane's case even worse.

"..." Jane squinted her eyes as she held back her tongue. She wanted to ask Elizabeth where she could get a spare set of clothes for after the bath. But, upon seeing her cough blood, she lost all intentions on keeping Elizabeth talking. Instead, with as much care as her body could muster, after making a quick trip to her room and picking out clothes both for herself and for Elizabeth, Jane took Elizabeth into a princess carry and walked her over to the bathhouse.

Luckily, it was deep into the night with barely anyone up to catch sight of the two pitiful looking girls. Even with the slow and careful pace Jane walked, she managed to reach the bathhouse without confronting anyone else.