After Sophia found out that Ari was suffering from the same mysterious illness, the blonde wanted to see her and had Maya carry her over to the castle as she was too weak to walk herself. The sick duo then talked for a while, but they just couldn't figure out what was going on with her. Afterward, the two took a nap together in Anna's bed because they felt sick and tired.
"Hmm..."
"I agree." The duo slept together for around three hours and felt a little better, but they woke up to an interesting sight.
"Even though they forbade us to hug... W-While understandable, it's still unfair!" Ari pointed at the sofa right in front of the bed in Anna's room they were in. On it, Maya and the princess were taking a nap while leaning against each other.
"Well, it is indeed a bit of a hypocrisy, but... let them be. I bet the two were just worried and came back to look over us. I'm sure they didn't sleep much last night, either, because they were taking care of us and accidentally ended up like this as a result."
"Y-You're probably, right... Still..." The jaguar didn't sound happy.
"Come on, there's no need to be jealous."
"You aren't? Not even a little?"
"Maybe a bit." Sophia admitted to it. "I would love to change places with the princess. Still, my excuse for any kind of jealousy is that Maya's my girlfriend. I think that's justified there. You, on the other ha- "
"So what? And I love Anna!"
"Oh, well, never mind then... Wait..." The blonde needed a moment. "What did you say just now?"
"E-Eh...? Wait…" Ari's entire face turned red. "D-Did I just say what I think I s-said...?"
"You sure did... I guess Maya was right, huh? This illness affects our filter to keep things to ourselves."
"Uuh..." Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "I-I managed to keep it a s-secret for years, and now, I just... blurted it out because my brain's not working properly... T-That can't be!"
"Not so loud, Ari. You don't want to wake them, well, her up now, don't you?" Sophia pointed at Anna napping on the sofa.
"A-Ah." She turned down the volume.
"Well, now your reactions when it came to the princess before really make sense now."
"Uuh..." Ari was getting more and more embarrassed with each passing second. "C-Could we not talk about this right now? With A-Anna right in front of us..."
"Of course. I'll come back to it, though~." As Sophia enjoys these kinds of stories, she wouldn't let go of it so quickly.
"Y-Yes..."
"Alrighty!" Seemingly in an excellent mood, the blonde sat upright on the bed before continuing. "How about we try to wreck our heads a bit more about our situation to make Anna stop worrying? My Maya, too, of course."
"I-I would love to..." Ari happily dropped the topic, also got up, and both leaned with their backs against the top end of the bed to support themselves. "I really still have no idea what's going on, though..."
"Me neither." Their motivation took a quick dampener. "That never stopped me, though." She was an expert in not knowing what was going on. "Well, it has to have happened yesterday when we were alone because no one else we met is suffering from the same." Sophia got the first hint.
"Hmmn..." Ari also tried to concentrate. "You know, now that I think about it... Muscle pain and feeling tired aside, the things I'm suffering from the most are the throbbing headache and the extreme dizziness."
"Yeah, it's the same for me." The blonde nodded.
"If I remember right, that actually already started around the time when you were complaining about activation words so much."
"Oh, you're right... Didn't I just confuse ourselves so much that it made us dizzy? I mean, I'm good at confusing people."
"You sure are." The jaguar had no plans to disagree. "Still, a headache on top of feeling dizzy… Isn't that a bit suspicious?"
"I'm REALLY good at it." Sophia thought otherwise. "You should see how often I gave the king a headache already."
"W-Well..."
"Wait, do you think I actually made magic angry, after all?"
"No... Maybe?" She paused for a moment. "That's stupid. I mean, that's not at all how magic works."
"How... Uhh, how does magic work in the first place?" The confusion was rapidly increasing once again.
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"Well, it's... err... eh?" Ari was unable to finish her sentence. "Magic is magic. It exists, and it just works. That's all..."
"H-Hey, don't make me do the sensible retorts! That's not how our friendship's supposed to work!" The blonde got a little angry.
"It's not really an answer, is it?" She knew what the tiger meant.
"Not at all!"
"You don't usually question things you take for granted, do you?"
"Fair point..." As Sophia didn't always had magic, she couldn't fully agree but still understand her side. "So, now what?"
"I don't know..." The black-haired girl tilted her head. "L-Let's assume everything anyone knows about magic is wrong..."
"Okay." It was no problem for her.
"If we actually made magic a-angry..." Ari had a hard time staying serious while saying it out loud. "I agreed with most of what you said, after all. It did make sense what you questioned... Do we, uhh, have to apologize to it now?"
"I am really sorry, magic!" Sophia just went for it. "I just got confused while thinking about you... I didn't want to hurt your feelings! I really love you, after all!" It sounded more like she was talking to her lover.
"M-Me, too... I'm also deeply sorry. We weren't making fun of you, just trying to understand you!"
"..." The two waited for a few minutes to see if anything had happened.
"And?" The blonde glanced at Ari. "Headache and dizziness still there?"
"Ever the same..."
"Yep." She nodded. "Okay, now that we got that out of our system, how about a more serious approach?"
"E-Eh?!" The jaguar's face turned red. "Y-You were just playing around?!"
"Of course?" Sophia only tilted her head. "Come on, do you really believe magic would be a conscious being? That's way too absurd~."
"What else do you think is going on, then...?" She got even more flustered.
"Well..." The blonde closed her eyes while she concentrated. "I often use magic unconsciously when I want something really badly or accidentally pour magic power into my words. Maybe there was something I said yesterday that had an effect on both of... Ah!" Her voice suddenly changed.
"Stop that!" Ari hadn't experienced Sophia's ominous 'Ah' to a degree the others of her group were, but she instinctively knew she hated them.
"N-No, it's a good Ah this time!" She accidentally used the same retort she usually gives Maya. "I mean, I think I have an idea now..."
"Seriously?! What is it?"
"Do you remember my storage magic?
"Of course! I still want it sooo badly!" There was no way Ari would've forgotten about it.
"That's exactly it."
"Hmm?"
"Afterward, I loudly complained about wanting to help you out with it and addressed magic about it directly..."
"Yes, I remember thinking about how much of a dork you are..."
"Sure am." Sophia didn't seem angry. "I think I poured some actual power into it when I asked magic for help..."
"Meaning...?" She couldn't follow her.
"l, err... think I might accidentally have messed up our powers..." The tiger had a pretty awkward expression while admitting so. "That might also be why we're feeling so sick... Because our bodies are confused..."
"I don't think I like the sound of that... Can we fix this?"
"Hrmmn... Oh, can I try something?" It seemed like Sophia had an idea.
"Of course!"
"Okay, let's hold hands."
"Ehh...?" She naturally got confused. "It's not the time to play around."
"I am not! I just want to test a theory."
"Alright..."
"Good." After getting her permission, the two faced each other on the bed, and Sophia gently reached for Ari's hands. "W-Wow, they're so smooth and soft! Your hands feel amazing!" She instantly got sidetracked after she started holding the other's hands
"So, you just wanted to fool around, after all... If those two wake up now," She glanced at Maya and Anna napping on the sofa. "They'll positively freak out. Also, this time, I'll put the entire blame on you! Sure, your hands also feel nice, and I enjoy holding them right now, but this is entirely on you."
"Err, you admitting that you also enjoy it… That outs you, too, though."
"Ah." Ari noticed her mistake.
"Okay, before we continue, what type of hand cream are you using? It really feels so nice~." She was kneading the hands of the jaguar a bit while asking. "I want my hands to feel like that, too!"
"Uhh, the same as Anna. It's originally a specially made product for the royal family, but she always gets something extra for me because I like it, too. If I remember right, it's from the same company that also makes the race-specific shampoos that are so popular with everyone."
"Really? I guess I'll have to visit them again. Thanks for the info!"
"Sure..."
"Also, wow, Anna's so sweet. No wonder you-"
"Pshhh!" Ari didn't want her to finish her sentence.
"Ehehe~." Sophia let out a chuckle when she saw the jaguar's bright red face. It was something she could relate to a lot.
"S-So, again, why are we holding hands...?"
"Right!" The blonde had almost forgotten about it. "Okay, I'm going to try out something now. It might be a bit of a tingly sensation but try to bear with it."
"Okay…?" Ari could only tilt her head in confusion. "What is your plan?"
"I want to try to pour some of my magic power into you to regenerate yours."
"Uhh, the magic healers of the castle Anna gathered for me last night already tried that. It didn't work, and they said that it seems like something's been blocking their attempts..."
"Yeah, as I'm probably the one responsible for it, I believe that only my magic's able to fix it."
"I-l see..."
"Alright!" Closing her eyes, Sophia started to concentrate and focused on pouring her magic power into Ari.
"I-It's working!" It didn't take long for the jaguar to notice a result. "It's extremely slow, but my magic power's returning!"
"Err..." The tiger suddenly had an extremely complicated expression, but she kept sharing her power for the next 15 minutes.
----------------
"Thank you very much!" Ari had a bright smile. "I can feel my magic again, and the power's filled to the brim! I'm also feeling less dizzy, and my headache's much better, too!"
"Y-Yeah, I'm also feeling better... Still feels weird, but it's getting better." Even so, Sophia looked even more awkward than before.
"Is something wrong?" The jaguar noticed the blonde's expression.
"Well... Do you feel anything odd about your magic...?"
"Not at all. If anything, it seems like I have more power than ever!"
"Maybe like four or even five times as much...?"
"I don't know." Ari tilted her head. "That sounds too excessive, though. Wait, why is it such a specific number?"
"Err..." She needed a moment. "I've lost around ten to 15 percent of my magic power during the illness."
"Okay?"
"I also had to pour around the same amount into you just now to fill yours up... It didn't take so long because it was going slow, but because I had to transfer so much. Not to mention that the magic I'm detecting from you now is around four times as big as Anna's, and the two of you were roughly the same before..."
"E-Eh...?"
"I think I accidentally gave you a significant portion of my magic power yesterday, and I had to activate or charge it first, which I just did..."
"..." It was too much for Ari to take in.
Afterward, the two needed a bit of a break to wrap their heads around what was going on and had just happened.