Yumi repeated it in her mind to no avail. Her mind could attempt to rationalize everything that she saw as something that wasn’t real. It was like a game, since this was all a reality created by her mind. But nothing felt fake about it.

Perhaps if Yuki hadn’t changed Japan into a place of fiction, she could have an easier time not already being accustomed to the strange and impossible. Though she had her doubts about that. Part of what made Phoibe’s business so good was that it felt real. It was exactly what people needed. Her body could feel everything. The pain from her wounds stung as the wind brushed at her exposed flesh. An almost curdling stench of the demon hung through the air, even before she killed it. And the hot unbearable heat cooked her flesh from the late summer heat of Japan.

This was reality.

As far as her body understood it.

And that was why it hurt.

Yumi turned away from the demon, hoping not seeing it might help her forget about it all. Her mind kept working to feed her with everything that she needed to justify it. Only time would tell her if such things worked. The only thing that worked for her to keep moving was that if she hadn’t killed it, it would have killed her and Yuki next. ‘Besides I’ve done far worse things already and I was ignorant of them…’

While her mind focused on damage control, she tried to put the pieces back together of what she had been doing. “Yuki!?” She finally remembered that she needed to find him. Once the fighting intensified she had forgotten about him. He was supposed to be out of harm’s way. But now she didn’t know where she had tossed him. “I hope he’s still alive! I can’t believe I forgot about him!”

It didn’t take long for her to pick up the sound of his groans of pain and follow them. She leapt over some scattered debris to find him away from the direct site of her fight. Blood dripped from his arm and forehead, while also soaking into his tunic. “Yuki?! Yuki!” Her mind immediately went into a panic seeing that he wasn’t moving. She went to grab him, but stopped when he spoke.

“I’m still alive…just hurting a lot. I’m trying not to move.”

“Yuki! I’m so sorry!” Yumi touched his arm, but recoiled the moment she saw how strong of a reaction he had to her. “You’re…”

“Yeah…I’m pretty messed up. This might be…unbearable if not…for my recent fights.”

Tears started to drip down Yumi’s face. “This is all my fault! I shouldn’t have…”

Yuki touched his fingers to Yumi’s hand nearby resting on the ground. He wanted her attention. “I’m still alive…as are you because…of you.”

“But! You’re like this because you can’t use your powers! I should have done better!”

“I don’t know…about that. I haven’t…”

“What?! Why?”

“Because I was…uncertain how it might affect…this simulation. I didn’t want to…risk ruining your…chance. Guess I don’t…have a choice…now.”

The thought that Yuki might not be forced to endure all of this pain gave Yumi some hope. “I don’t care about what it does to this. I don’t want you to be suffering!”

“I understand…” Yuki went silent for a moment as he began to concentrate. For a while Yumi thought nothing had happened as he remained very still and then he looked back up at her. “Just remember…if this works…I can’t instantly fix everything with me.”

He made her heart skip a beat thinking that it didn’t work. “What are you going to do then?” She focused on what she could. It was more important right now.

“Something I did before…make some medicine…” Once he finished a ripple came out from his body as the sign of his powers activating. They worked as Yumi hoped. And to some of her disappointment, it didn’t have any negative effects on the world. They just worked as she expected them to do.

Next to Yuki a machine materialized like when he created things before that needed to be real. Inside the chamber a bottle of a clear liquid formed containing whatever medicine that Yuki came up with in his mind. Yuki stared at it with some curiosity as to what he might have come up with that would help him.

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In pained efforts, he pulled out the bottle and drank the contents quickly while the machine disappeared. Only moments after he finished, Yumi could already see that he didn’t look to be shaking from the pain. He no longer had to hold himself back from the intensity that he faced. “It worked?”

“Yes, the pain’s much more manageable now.”

“Can you stand?”

“That might be asking a little much right now. I don’t know how bad it is right now.”

Yumi leaned down to help him up. “Then I’ll support you…ugh…” She pressed her hand to the earth, suddenly feeling lightheaded. “Something’s wrong with my body…” Before she could get anything more out she collapsed next to Yuki falling unconscious.

Chapter 389 – Settling

“Yuki?!” shouted Yumi, as she flung herself up right. Seeing him in pain was the last thing that she remembered. He had been next to her, but now the view was different. And things were out of place. And it was dark. ‘Why is it dark?’

“I’m over here, Yumi. I’m fine.” Locating his voice, he had propped himself up against a chunk of rock that remained from her fight. He hadn’t moved too far, but looked more comfortable than before. And most certainly, he seemed to be able to move a little better.

She started to move and felt a little lightheaded still. Her hand had to brace the ground to get her from falling out. “I feel strange…”

“I wouldn’t move too fast right now. I fixed up your wounds, but you lost a lot of blood.”

“Blood?”

“Yeah, your shoulder, whatever made that wound you had you removed it didn’t you?”

Yumi stretched her hand around to touch where the wound should have been. ‘It’s gone…’ She glanced over at Yuki and then around at the rest of her body. They were all gone. “You healed me?”

“Yeah, I also gave you a boost to blood generation too. You should remember in the future, it’s not wise to remove objects from you that are that large. You were bleeding out badly. Typically, leaving them in keeps the loss to a minimum.”

She rubbed her hand over the flawless skin on her shoulder, thanks to Yuki. ‘He can do all that, so why do the others keep their scars?’ The most obvious was Seiji, who now had massive scars up his arm because of his fight in Atlantis. Yet Yuki could remove them for him.

However, she didn’t allow herself to dwell on it for long. She stood up slowly feeling the lightheadedness fight with her. It wasn’t enough to slow her down though. “I didn’t think about that. It was just slowing me down.”

“The instinct is to remove it and it’s easy to forget in the midst of fighting.” Then suddenly Yumi’s stomach rumbled, reminding her why they had stopped to begin with. She covered up her stomach with her hands as though that would do anything. “I made some food. It’s pretty bland, but it does the job until we can find a proper place.”

He handed over something that looked a bit like a chocolate bar lacking that texture. It had something closer to a cracker surface when she touched it. And it was dense from the weight. ‘I guess you went for practicality than enjoyment.’ Yumi bit a piece of it off with little worries over the taste thanks to her stomach yelling at her. “It’s sort of like…milk…”

“Watered down milk, yeah… But it’ll keep you going.”

“Thanks!” She took another bite and started looking around at the area. “It’s night…how long was I out?”

“Not sure…I don’t have a watch. But it’s been night for a while with where the moon is, I'm guessing midnight maybe.”

Above them the moon hung an unusually closer distance to them. It felt a little unnatural seeing it so big in the sky. ‘Is this really Japan?’ She couldn’t worry about it too much. There were worse things on her mind.

Behind her, Yumi heard quiet sounds of movements. She wasn’t used to using her senses fully so it gave her no meaningful sense of distance. ‘It’s so dead…I can hear so much more than in the city.’ Processing the sound presented a challenge for her. Yumi hoped to figure out if it was human or not. But it wasn’t something she could figure out. ‘I’m just going to have to assume it’s either an animal or another demon. If I assume the worst, it’s a demon and we’re not really in the right state to be dealing with another attack.’

“What’s wrong Yumi? You’ve been staring for a while.”

Snapped out of her trance, she looked down at Yuki. “I heard something, could be another one of those snake things or just an animal.”

“I made sure not to do anything to give away our position. So it probably hasn’t noticed us, but it’s probably best not to stay.”

“Can you move?”

“Not well, but if you help then I should be able to make it.”

Yumi quickly moved to provide him the support he needed to stand. Listening for the sound, she plotted a course in the opposite direction. She gave him her shoulder to lean on as they started a slow walk away. It would mean not following the road they found, but for now she didn’t care about it.

“Still behind us?”

“For now…” She kept her ears focused on the sound not wanting to lose it for a moment. The way it felt was if she missed it she wouldn’t be able to find it again amongst their walking. ‘I’m not going to allow a repeat of what happened. I will protect Yuki correctly!’ Determination carved slowly into Yumi's face as she told herself how things would be for now on. She couldn’t allow for another mistake. He was nearly dead because of her error. That wouldn’t happen again.

As time passed and they put more distance between the sound and themselves, Yumi lost it. It became too soft for her to hear anymore. Some bit of relief could fall over her now as she relaxed her shoulders a little. “I think we’re safe now.”

“But where is the road?”

He was right. She had no interest in following it before, but now that they had escaped safely they needed the road again. Without the road, they would just be stumbling through the wilderness looking for a village. The road gave them some certainty that they would eventually find civilization again. “I think we’re lost…”