Phytoremediation

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but something will eventually

tw// owie pain and blood and yucky stuff like that.

Sunny felt his cheeks still flushed from what Basil said.

I know he didn't mean anything by it, but still... ugh, stupid face, go back to normal!

Sunny looked back to Basil. He had to do something to distract from the awkward tension. He ran over to the middle of an unoccupied area, the walls had trampolines covering them too, which gave Sunny an idea.

"Hey Basil, watch this!" Sunny ran up to the wall, and bounced off it, attempting a flip.

The attempt failed, however, and he landed awkwardly on his face, his back making a loud cracking.

"Sunny! Are you okay!?" Basil shouted as he came to Sunny's side.

"Don't worry, it didn't hurt, I'm alright." Sunny responded while he got up. The impromptu chiropractics being a good result, in comparison to what the possibilities of failure could have led to.

Fuck, I'm so dumb.

"Are you sure?" Basil pressed with some concern.

"I'm sure." Sunny smiled back.

A familiar voice came from behind them. "Yo, Basil! What are you doing here?"

Basil and Sunny turned to the voice, Kel was there bouncing over. "Sunny's here too! That's..! Maybe not as awesome... don't let my brother see you." Kel's enthusiastic tone grew hushed, "He's a bit... uh... cranky whenever I bring you up."

Sunny felt a wave up fear travel through him. "Hero... Hero's here?" He tried not to let his fear show.

Kel may not have noticed, but Basil did. "Are you okay, Sunny?" He asked in a soft tone.

"Huh? He looks fine..." Kel spoke with his signature cluelessness.

"I'm alright. Basil I think we should leave..." Sunny quietly said. His voice was shaking.

Kel looked sad, "Aw man, I was hoping we could hang out..." his sad tone and face were betrayed by him still bouncing in place.

"We'll have to hang out next time, then!" Basil smiled at Kel.

"I'll hold you to that!" Kel smiled back.

Sunny held out hope that his glasses would disguise his appearance enough to hide from Hero. He slunk into his shirt. Of course today would be when he decided to wear the white shirt he wore on his last days in faraway.

His hopes quickly were proven futile, as he heard a familiar voice approach.

"Hey, Basil! You here for trampoline basketball too or..." Hero trailed off as he gave a sour expression to Sunny.

"10 minutes until trampoline basketball! Please be patient with our staff!" The intercom sounded. Hero's gaze stared unflinching into Sunny's terrified eyes.

"Why are you here, Sunny." Hero's words were filled with hatred.

"I- I was just- Actually, I was just leaving." Sunny stammered out, and began walking quickly towards the door, but was stopped by Hero grabbing the back of his collar.

"No, no. We have some stuff to talk about." Hero said through gritted teeth.

Hero spun Sunny around. "So, what the fuck were you thinking when you came here. Trying to taunt me? Maybe hoping to try and turn Kel against me? Manipulate him to your advantage?"

"He's not like that, Hero!" Basil interjected.

"Yes he fucking is, Basil! He's manipulating you! That's all he does. That's all he's been doing! He's just been fucking with us all along! I know he tricked you into helping, nobody covers up a murder just because they're friends!" Hero ranted.

"But- I just-" Basil stuttered tentatively, but resigned, and walked to the front desk to try to get help.

"I- I'm sorry, Hero, I-" Sunny began.

"You aren't fucking sorry! If you were sorry, you'd fucking turn yourself in!" Hero yelled.

Sunny looked away. Hero had a point, in a way. Sunny tried to open his mouth to speak, but this time was interrupted by the employee from the front desk approaching the pair.

"Excuse me... we have a policy for no fighting inside. You can either leave, or cut this shit out." She seemed mildly annoyed in contrast with the extreme confrontation before her.

"Don't worry, he's leaving now." Hero spat back, before grabbing Sunny by the front of his shirt collar, and approaching the exit.

"Wait- W-Wait, Hero, please we can talk-" Sunny anxiously struggled while Hero approached the exit door.

"Ladies first." Hero whispered before tossing Sunny down the narrow staircase. Sunny bruising himself on the steps before landing at the bottom, and hitting the back of his head against the glass door.

Amazingly, the door held up, not even cracking. Sunny, on the other hand, did not hold up. He noticed he couldn't see from his right eye, watching as a blurry figure approached him. Sunny rubbed his right eye, and still couldn't see from hit. With his left eye, though, he could very clearly see it was bleeding.

Sunny look at his glasses on the floor next to him. The lenses were in one piece, but the frame was bent beyond repair. One lense was popped out.

The figure was now comforting him, making it clear it was Basil.

"Can you hear me Sunny? You hit your head really hard." Basil frantically asked.

"Muh-huh..." Sunny mumbled.

"Ummm... what do they do in those concussion checks..." Basil muttered to himself, before addressing Sunny, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Basil held up his hand, but Sunny couldn't see much beyond a peach toned blob. One eye producing a constant stream of tears, and the other being able to see about as much as his elbow could.

"I dun knoew" Sunny answered. He bit his tongue on the way down the stairs, but his eye hurt way too much to really notice.

"Oh gosh, um... don't worry, the front desk lady is calling an ambulance. Please be okay, Sunny..." Basil sounded like he was crying.

Sunny tried to speak, but it was unintelligible. Basil sobbed at this and whispered, "I'm sorry... this is all my fault, I'm sorry... I shouldn't've brought you here..."

He whispered some more, but it was too quiet for Sunny to hear. Sunny felt Basil clasp his hands around Sunny's hand.

"You'll be okay, I promise I won't let Hero hurt you again. I won't let anyone hurt you again." Basil whispered to Sunny.

"Mghh" Sunny groaned in response. He really didn't have the capacity to say much in this state. A lot of pain, and evidently losing blood, as Sunny saw plenty of red when he looked down at what was supposed to be his cargo shorts.

That explains why Basil sounded like he thought I was gonna die.

"I mean hey, maybe you will. Even if you don't, though, I think you'll get what's coming to you eventually." Omori snidely remarked.

In response, Sunny puked onto his lap. He heard sirens in the distance as he felt his consciousness begin to fade. He heard Basil panicking, but Sunny couldn't say anything before he passed out from pain and likely some form of head trauma.