“So what do you think, Nerine?” Yuki asked. All of them gathered back at Phoibe’s place standing out in the main room of the third floor. “Do you think that you can do it?” He had been so focused on the taboo and his own fear of hurting anyone that he immediately ignored what was in front of him. It made him glad that Saki could be at his side.

A pensive expression dug through Nerine’s face as she weighed an answer. Digging through the minds of others carried a lot of risk. When their powers got involved it didn’t always pan out the way they wanted. It was an unpredictable nature at times. “I’m not as talented as Athene, but you’re not wrong in that I’ve been trained to wipe memories. Though wiping memories is a far simpler sort of task than trying to retrieve something or trying to wake someone.”

Seiji patted Nerine on the back with his usual brand of positivity. “You can do it, Nerine!”

“I’ll give it a try,” she replied quickly with much of her waffling disappearing.

“Thanks!”

Saki looked around the room despite it being a pointless effort. There was no one else in the room besides those around her, Yumi excluded. “What about Yori? Shouldn’t we have him present for this as well?”

“But no one knows where that bastard ran off to after we got back.”

“She’s still his sister and cares about her more than anything else.”

“Saki’s right, Seiji. We should find him so that he can be here for this.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to find him? No one knows where the hell he went!”

“Hmm…” Yuki fell silent along with the others. Seiji spoke the truth, as much as everyone already knew. They saw nothing of Yori after he left abruptly on their return. ‘I had sort of hoped that he would have returned while we were away, but I guess that was too much to hope for. We need to help Yumi. But I haven’t a clue how much he’s hurt by the way things ended.’

Moving to the door, Saki didn’t seem to be taking it to mean that they should do nothing. “Let’s start where we can probably get the most answers.”

“Answers?” Yuki wasn’t the only one confused by Saki’s idea. They all stared at her with a slightly tilted head trying to figure her out. But no one arrived at the same conclusion Saki made.

She motioned to them to follow her. “I’m talking about Phoibe, she knows a little too much about too many things. She’s our only play at the moment, unless you enjoy the thought of running around the city blind.”

Chapter 380 – The Impossible Floor

“Yeah, I know where he is,” the woman replied to everyone’s surprise. She looked around at them with a bit of her own that they had lost their friend.

As to be expected, Seiji leapt forward first for the answer. “Where the hell is he?”

“In his cell.”

“What?!” shouted everyone. They all needed a moment to process the fact that Yori never actually left the building on top of the strange fact that he just went back to his cell. The same cell that he wanted out of badly before to save his sister. The very one that he hated and despised when looking at them for their treatment of him. He went back to the very same room.

“You’re joking right?”

“No, I know the location of everyone in my shop, he hasn’t left since you returned.”

“I guess that makes it easier for us,” Yuki said, just having to accept the simplicity of the situation, not that dealing with Yori could be anything simple. Each encounter would only get more complicated with him. That much he understood. “Saki, could you visit him? I doubt my presence will have a positive influence on him at this point.”

“Right.”

Waiting back on the third floor for the answer, Saki stepped through the threshold first with Yori in tow a few steps behind. A half awake and dazed expression painted over his face. ‘I sort of expected him to have more anger In him, but he looks more defeated than anything now…’ Yuki hesitated a little before moving back to Yumi’s bed with the others.

As everyone sat around on the neighboring beds, Nerine knelt next to Yumi taking in measured breaths. Slight shakes in her hand betrayed any sort of confidence she bolstered in her actions. Even as she activated her powers she drew out each action.

Yuki looked across Yumi’s bed to Yori on the other side. “You good for this?”

“Whatever…”

‘I want to say more, but he’s just going to yell probably if I try anything more. This isn’t the way to get his approval, he’s not in his right mind to make any sort of judgments. But we can’t wait either. Nerine doesn’t want to hurt Yumi… What other option do we have?’

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“You going to get started?” asked Seiji, becoming impatient with Nerine delaying as long as possible. In his own way, Seiji seemed to understand how she was feeling, but pushed her forward.

Putting her attention to Yumi, she closed her eyes and focused everything she had on Yumi’s mind. As the world around her melted away, she entered darkness. Her approach to Yumi went smoothly. The moment crossed the threshold everything changed from black to white. She found herself in a completely white room. “Where am I?”

“A place you don’t belong,” answered an unknown voice on all sides.

“Who are you? Wait! N-no…. NO!!!” Nerine screamed aloud making everyone in the room jump off the bed. Seiji rushed over to Nerine’s side to catch her before she collapsed to the floor.

“Nerine! Nerine, answer me! Are you alright?!” He shook her while trying to remember his strength. Fortunately for him, the shock that Nerine took didn’t seem to have knocked her out completely. It only froze her for a moment and she started to move again. “Nerine? What happened?”

Breathing heavily and struggling to get her heart beat down even under a hundred was difficult. Even worse was that all of it was still etched in her mind. It carved into her skull providing her with an endless loop that she couldn’t escape from. Every moment spent on it felt like a ten and each experience felt as though she was being killed slowly.

Everything drained out of her.

Yuki finished checking on Yumi to ensure that nothing happened to her. Worst was that she looked completely unchanged. Only Nerine came out of it different. “What did you see?” he asked, fearing what might have caused her to be in such pain.

Still trying to catch a breath, Nerine fought with her mind to focus on reporting her results. “I failed…” That much had already been pretty clear to everyone. “I understand why the Commander was blinded by what she found. Her mind…” Nerine looked over at the bed and Yumi, her body recoiled in reaction. “I can’t bring her back. I don’t know how the Commander survived for so long, but this is impossible for anyone.”

Like everyone else, Yuki found it surprising to hear that Nerine called it impossible. Given their powers the thought of something being impossible sounded like a joke. Their powers were about doing the impossible in the real world. ‘Is this our limit? Can we do nothing to save Yumi now?’

“Hey guys, I was just wondering,” opened Seiji as he began his question. “Is there a reason we can’t have Yori do it?”

“Huh?”

Helping Nerine over to an open bed, he let her rest and hopefully to forget about everything that happened. Seiji turned to look at his friends. “I mean we’re just trying to wake up Yumi by going into her mind. Yori’s got weird mind powers right? He talked to us in our minds before, back in Atlantis.”

Yuki and Saki stared at each other for a moment thinking about the suggestion. They both had a slightly bewildered and shocked expression that only seemed to multiple the longer they thought about it. To break the cycle, he stood up and went around the bed to Yori. “You might have something. I had forgotten what Athene told us about her attempts to break Yori and the results of it. It’d make sense that Yumi’s mental defenses are as strong as Yori’s if not possibly worse.”

It took a second for it to happen, but some life started to return to Yori’s eyes. He looked up at Yuki standing next to him. There seemed to be a bit of hope within him.

“You might be the only one that can save Yumi.”

“I haven’t heard that before,” he replied sarcastically.

A grin came across Yuki’s face to hear some fire back in Yori’s words. He didn’t know how long it would last, but for now Yori might be their only chance to save his sister. “Glad to see you’re back. Think Seiji might be on the right track?”

“It’s possible.” Yori had already been thinking about it for a while before Seiji brought it. But it wasn’t an aspect of his power that he had trained. Athene’s training was martial, not mental. ‘I know I spoke with Yumi directly in her mind when we were trapped under the rubble from the school. But I’ve never dug deeper with her. Even when I went into Athene’s mind it felt different like I wasn’t in control of what I was doing.’ He could only hope for such an experience.

Nerine made it the second time that he saw someone try to enter their minds and be nearly destroyed by it. None of it really made a lot of sense to him. This sort of thing was Yuki’s field. The impossible and fictional. He still tried to understand how to use everything he had to fight and survive.

Not that much of that mattered at the moment. He had no real options remaining. Staring at his sister, she remained quiet and unmoved. Even after all of this time she didn’t wake. It had nearly been a day now and she was in a worse state than before.

Stepping forward, Yori accepted the challenge. “I know from personal experience that my mind is a complex maze that is difficult to explore. If Yumi’s is even half as bad as mine this isn’t going to be easy. But I’m not normal anymore, so I should have more mental fortitude to survive.”

“It’s all on you then. We’re out of options at this point.”

“I understand the stakes.” He knelt down at her side resting a hand on her hand. Life still flowed through her as an encouragement that all was not lost yet. Time remained for them to save her. ‘Test isn’t over, huh? What will I face inside Yumi’s mind?’

He looked around at the others before he proceeded. “I’ve never done this, so I don’t know what will happen to me. No matter what becomes of me don’t stop me no matter what you see.”

“Hey man, we’re not going to let you kill yourself to save Yumi!”

“Don’t stop me! I must save her.” He stared down at her. A wall already seemed to form around her and he hadn’t even started yet. It channeled into his hesitation and doubt feeding on his fears. It understood him better than himself. ‘I will…’

Saki put a hand on Seiji’s shoulder to get him in line. “I’ll throw you back in myself if it comes to it.”

“…thanks…” Focusing back on his sister, Yori breathed deeply as he pushed his commitment to the next stage. He threw himself in, forcing back the doubt. If it wanted him it would have to follow and keep up. There was no slowing down anymore. It would only drag him down.

Leaning in, Yori touched his forehead to his sister as he had done before when he talked directly to her while she was unconscious. ‘Yumi…hear me…listen for me…Yumi!’ The rest of the room began to crumble away from the edges of his mind. He could no longer hear the pattern of breathing from Yuki or the racing beats of Nerine’s heart. Everything faded away as the void drew him in deeper and deeper.

Minutes or seconds, he couldn’t understand time in such a construct. It felt long and short at the same time. Like it went on forever while also forgetting it and knowing it only started. His body tumbled through the space between until he fell on something solid. It remained indescribable and unseen. Something existed without any sense of self or form. “Yumi! Can you hear me?” He hoped that he dropped straight into the place between her subconscious and conscious states.

In response, perhaps to his shouting, multi-color lights exploded everywhere around him completely filling his view. It was bizarre and somehow unnerving. Something in it made his head ache. He winced a little trying to keep his focus. “So it’s come… I’m ready for whatever you have for me!”

Back in the real world, Yori’s body jerked and shook in response to the unknown. His friends could only watch with uncertainty at what was going on with him. He lasted longer than the few seconds that Nerine did in her attempt. And the toll on him became clear as blood started to drip down his nose from the strain.

Seiji jumped up to grab for Yori before it could be permanent. However, Saki stepped in grabbing his wrist to restrain him. “The hell, Saki?! He’s in pain, this isn’t working!”

“We have to believe in Yori. This is our last chance even if he’s completely destroyed by this, this is something he has chosen to do. Respect his will.”

“Dammit! There’s got to be a better way,” he shouted, snatching his arm back and turning away. They were going to stand in his way.

None of them knew the danger that Yori might be in within the depth of Yumi’s mind. The unknown potential of Yumi’s mind created a looming fear in the room as Yori became more pained with each second that passed. They didn’t know how much damage he would take before he was rejected. Did Yumi not want to be saved?