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Though his first reaction was to push Selene's hand away, Argyle's nose was really beginning to hurt and anything that stopped him from glowing more than usual would be a welcome relief.

"Dust bake by nose top," he tried, pointing to his face to indicate the onset of another awfully glitzy nosebleed.

As much as he wanted to rat out the students who were very possibly going to meet up with that strange reaper again, he'd leave this one to someone who could make actual words happen right now.

Tarot tightly wrapped her arms around Vanth. “Everything will turn out okay,” she murmured, though she wasn’t sure if it would be alright. She felt a pair of arms from behind and she looked back to see May. She smiled and shook her head. “He didn’t. I’m perfectly fine.”

Her grip on Vanth tightened slightly when she heard the professor’s words. A human from DETH, dead. It was only one of two options, but just the thought brought horrified shock.

She looked around a bit before she spoke up. “The attacker looks like a reaper—he has a weapon, a scythe. He appears to be very powerful and managed to take on multiple students at once.” Tarot paused as she tried to recall what the attacker had told them. “He talked about power, seeking power and what true power was. Then he said to return the stolen treasures by meeting him at the Weeping Forest.”

Tarot turned toward the others. “Am I missing anything?”

"Prof," Tex said slowly, moving forward, "if it was the rock he was after, then it was my fault they were gettin' hurt." He seemed quite frustrated. "And I just stood there, tryin' to open the exit. I KNOW it ain't right to fight when there's other options, but--" He scowled. "When is it too far?" he asked. "When do you stop sayin' violence ain't the answer and start seein' the violence that's happening to your friends while you're yellin' for peace?"

So much important discussion! Selene was really glad she had something to keep her from feeling awkward about not having anything to offer to it. Not that she would have been able to speak up, even if she had.

"Of course, please, come closer." Selene reached out, putting both of her hands against his face, and very slowly pulled him down to her level. Her cheeks blushed a bright, vivid red as she leaned in, and pressed her lips against his nose.

Under normal circumstances, actions like these were completely impossible for Selene. But when someone was hurt, all thought of inappropriateness flew out the window. She would help someone when needed, no matter what the consequences or awkward situation. So her lips pressed against his nose, and she kissed it better.

That is, her thin teeth slid like tiny punctures into his nose, biting down on it just enough to use her Fear healing on the injury. Her venom passed through, all the way up to the broken capillaries and swollen tissues that were causing him the trouble. When she pulled away, his nose was still glowing from the Fear healing, but it faded a moment later.

Her blush, of course, did not.

"Better?"

"The R-r-reaper..." Vanth was shaking and stuttering still in the final throes of her upset. "Where he was h-hurt, his blood w-was red, and his sleeve was w-white."

Just like the bloody trail and the fabric scraps all who saw them could swear by. And the accursed tablet had been underneath a black cloak, like the one the Reaper had worn. This couldn't be coincidence.

There was a moment it seemed like Vanth was going to crawl back into her metaphorical shell, but she glanced at Argyle, and Selene, and Sophie, and Tarot, and Arcana, and all of them gathered around trying to make a difference. And then Vanth and Janus began to alternate telling the rest of the story, frightened stutter and mile a minute action pace and back again.

"He trapped e-e-everyone in the cave and the D-defenders attacked him-"

"He pushed us aside with his scythe, all of us in one sweep-"

"He t-told everyone to return what they s-stole at the Weeping Forest-"

"He said the treasures and the water had no power, only he could give it-"

"S-Sophie and I think that stone is what he wants more than the treasure.This isn't the first time he's been asking students to give it back, I overheard them -"

"And he mentioned Kato, that Kato forgot about his friends-"

"I haven't seen Kato... Kato wasn't there!" Vanth turned to her familiar while her expression slowly shifted into one of horror. She immediately turned her full attention back to Quibble, her voice threatening another barrage of tears even as she pointed directly at the object they had found instead of their little lost human. "Professor, what is going on? Why would any Reaper or human or even DETH need it so badly they'd threaten us all? What is that horrible block we found??"

In the midst of all the text messages, cave evacuations, and shinies, Oinqa had gotten a little verklempt. Instead of taking anything of actual value, the ghoul had just stared at the water and ran off, not even making it to the first DETH meeting Professor Quibble had summoned them to. She had escaped back to her room and had taken the opportunity to exchange her smoldering dress for a substantially less charred t-shirt and jeans.

She strolled into Quibble's office with cheerful determination. Then she noticed the state of her classmates. Something had gone wrong? There had been a scythe involved? Kato was missing? This was terrible! She almost asked what had happened, but in a rare instance of thinking before acting, Oinqa practically adhered herself to the nearest wall instead, trying to keep out of the way.

Argyle just froze as Selene reached out to touch him, invading every bit of his personal bubble. But she was trying to help, and was going to stop that accursed glowing, and he was just going to have to let her. Even if it felt totally awful.

Even if he immediately began to regret his decision as soon as he realized that she was leaning forward to kiss his injury. The tiniest sqeak, inaudible to most anyone except for Selene, emerged from his startled mouth.

When she'd finished, he just stared at her for a moment, ignoring the everliving ******** out of that blush because nope.

"...yes," he responded with a little sniffle, wiping that last bit of glowing ooze from his lip with the back of his hand. "Thank you."

After Quibble's orders, he glanced to Vanth, brows just slightly furrowed. He was typically not one to turn down any opportunity to scold his fellow students for doing something positively stupid, but if she had another idea and needed him elsewhere...

"What do you think? Time to go tell off a bunch of sheepy conformists?"