The Bully’s Reincarnation

Chapter 8: The Girl who Heals

Kai woke to soft light and a pounding headache.At first, he thought he was dead.

The pale surface above him was smooth white stone, the smell of mint magic in the air.

The faint hum came from glowing crystals tucked into infirmary corners, casting everything in pale warmth.

His whole body aching from shoulder to spine. His sides felt bruised all over; something sticky stuck to his ribs-salve, or blood, or both.

He shifted, wincing. A soft gasp came from his side.

Lina.

She had been asleep in the stool, curled in beside the bed, with arms folded on the sheets. Her brown hair had fallen across her arm and onto the sheet. One of her hands was still gently wrapped around his.

He blinked once….twice….He tried to move.

Her head lifted with a start. “Kai!”

She stood, flustered, brushing hair from her face.

“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just—just making sure you were okay.”

He stared at her, trying to place the right emotion.

Not confusion or not fear, just something soft and unfamiliar.

“You stayed?” he said.

“I wasn’t supposed to,” she admitted. “But… you weren’t waking up. And no one else was here. The healers just patched you up and left.”

“Should’ve known,” he muttered, then winced as he tried to sit up.

Lina reached out instinctively. “Wait—don’t move too fast. You cracked a rib. And your mana lines are—well, I don’t know how you’re even conscious.”

He offered her a dry, sideways smile. “Luck?”

She smiled back. This time, without fear.

“You scared a lot of people yesterday,” she said gently.

Kai leaned his head against the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “ I scared myself.”

“I heard them talking,” she continued. “After the duel. Teachers, students… They think you’re him.”

There was no answer……"You don't remember being the Tyrant," she whispered, more in question than in statement.

"I remember bits and pieces," Kai admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. "Flashes. Sounds. Screams. A field on fire."

Lina did nothing with her face, but something had shifted in her eyes.

Not fear or empathy..

She sat back down beside him, folding her hands in her lap. "When I first got here, people said I didn’t belong either. Called me weak. A scholarship pity case. Said I’d be gone in a week.”

“You proved them wrong?”

“I’m still here.”

He looked at her hands. Small. Barely calloused. He imagined they’d been cut before, maybe even bled for people who didn’t deserve them.

“You healed me,” he said quietly.

She looked up, surprised. “Yes. I mean—I know it was against the rules. Unauthorized healing is a violation. But I didn’t want you to—”

“Why?”

That single word stopped her.

Lina hesitated. Then shrugged a little. “Because you looked alone.”

——-

“Later that morning, Kai moved through the courtyard with a limp, his coat pulled tight around his aching ribs. Eyes followed him. So did the whispers.”

“He’s dangerous—did you see how he moved?”

“That glyph—no one should be able to do that…”

“Do you think he remembers everything?”

“They should lock him up again—before he snaps.”

He kept his head down and said nothing.

A few teachers passed, silent. One of them-a history professor with steel-gray locks-paused at the sight of him. Her eyes swept to the mark on his chest, still faintly visible through his collar.

Softly under breath, she muttered a protective ward and turned away.

Kai gritted his teeth and sped off.

——

Back at the dorms, he dropped onto his cot with a heavy thud.

This Class E dorm smelled of wet shoes and stale bread. The mattress groaned with every movement, and the blanket bore holes the size of rats. Yet, somehow, it felt somewhat protective.

The knocking ensued…..He groaned, "Come in."Lina stepped into the room, clutching a crumpled brown paper bag in both hands.

“I brought you something to eat,” she said, voice low, almost unsure. “It’s not much… but it’s warm.” Lina stepped in, clutching a brown paper bag.

Kai sat up slowly, with every muscle protesting.

She handed it over. A meat roll. A boiled egg. And—somehow—a little slice of lemon cake.

He stared at the cake…..“I stole it from the Class B hall,” she confessed. “Don’t look at me like that.”

His lips twitched. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.”

He took a bite of the meat roll. It was good. Too good.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

She smiled.

And for a moment, the silence between them was something calm—not awkward. Not heavy….Just quiet.

——

Later that night, Kai sat on the dorm rooftop, the cold wind brushing his face.

He pulled the grimoire from his coat—the one he’d stolen. The one that pulsed with a cold energy he still couldn’t explain.

Flipping through pages of broken spells and scattered notes, he felt it again. That pull. Like the book knew him better than he knew himself. Symbols he didn’t know, but somehow recognized.

One page glowed faintly when his fingers touched it.

It didn’t translate. Not like the others. But the feeling it gave him wasn’t hostile.

It felt… protective.

A ward spell?

A barrier?

The symbols pulsed once—then stopped.

Kai exhaled and closed the book.

——

Across the rooftops, unnoticed, someone watched him.A girl with white eyes and hair like frost.

She whispered to the shadows beside her. “The mark has awakened.”

The shadow shifted.

“What now?” it asked.

“Now,” she said, “we wait for the real memories to return.”