"Hey, Akari, even if I'm here, that doesn't mean you can just abuse our soul weapon like this."
'What… who is that?'
Akari's eyes slowly opened. The room around her was clearly meant for a child.
Stuffed animals were sprawled across the floor. Beneath her was a messy yet fluffy bed.
In front of her stood herself, dressed in a white dress covered in splashes of red.
"Ah, it's you again."
Akari calmly stared at the original owner of her body. It'd been a little over two months since she last spoke to her, and she looked the same… no… there were even more red spots on her dress than before.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you sound so distant. Well, I suppose calling me Akari would be strange… Right, our middle name, call me that!"
Akari slowly tilted her head.
"We have a middle name?"
"Mhm, Yvonne! Our full name is Akari Yvonne Ignius."
"I see… Well, Yvonne, why am I back here?"
Akari tried to sit up, but instead of getting up, her body fell back into the bed.
She couldn't feel exhaustion even in this dreamscape, but that didn't mean she wasn't exhausted.
Yvonne let out a sharp laugh, not mocking, but amused.
"You put us in burnout. Think of it like your soul running out of steam."
"So that's why I can't move? How come you seem fine?"
Yvonne smiled, raising her trembling hands as she spoke.
"I'm not fine. I'm just used to feeling like this… right, you can't feel anything, right?"
Akari gave a small nod. She was constantly trying to sit back up, but her body simply wouldn't listen.
Even with this, she couldn't feel anything.
It seemed different for Yvonne, though.
Now that Yvonne had raised her hands, Akari could see her fingers constantly trembling.
"Can you?"
Yvonne blinked at the question before sitting on the princess-sized bed. "Well, when it comes to stuff like this, we both can feel it. The soul is fundamentally different from the body, after all."
Akari tried to raise an eyebrow, but her facial expression didn't change.
Even then, Yvonne continued, as if knowing what Akari wanted to do.
"You don't feel anything right now because I've taken our burden. Our soul is damaged a little. It'll heal with a bit of time."
Yvonne noticed Akari's silence, but even then, she continued.
"Don't worry, I'm not doing this just out of kindness."
With a sigh, she continued,
"I need you to live, for the both of us. At the rate you were going, I wasn't sure if you'd survive this ordeal. That's also why I'm bringing you here right now."
Akari's eyes widened, her voice coming out more urgently than she expected.
"Wait, what happened? Did we lose?"
Yvonne turned to face her with a serious expression, her usual smile gone.
"We were going to, but someone intervened and defeated that monster…"
Akari sighed, her expression softening for a moment before she paused.
"Why don't you seem pleased about that?"
"You always catch onto the small stuff. I like that about you." Yvonne smiled once more. With shaky movements, she stood and walked toward the window.
It was a large window, completely unobstructed, yet neither of them could see what lay beyond it.
It was pure white, as if the one who dreamt of this place forgot what outside was like.
"That girl, Rain, was it? She's about to die."
Akari's expression hardened once more. Her mouth opened, but Yvonne continued first.
"I know, I know. I'll let you wake up in a moment. While my soul weapon is in burnout, yours isn't… though I don't recommend trying to use it too much until mine is back to normal."
"Wait, I've been using my own soul weapon as well?"
Yvonne turned back as she nodded, saying,
"We can talk about that later. You've gotta save our friend right now, after all. Just don't focus on your eyes, or I'll let you feel what you're supposed to be feeling."
Akari could hear a hint of tease in that last sentence.
Yvonne pushed herself off the window. While walking back to the bed, she tripped on a stuffed bunny, landing on a large stuffed bear.
Sighing lazily, she opened one eye, with it tracking Akari.
"You ready to head back?"
Akari hesitated for a moment before giving a small nod.
She wanted to ask more, but she had no time to waste.
With that confirmation, Yvonne's body began to crumble, and just like the last time, a butterfly was left in her place, flying into Akari once more.
The world went dark, and she awoke.
****
Akari's eyes snapped open, the usual light in them dull, yet she rose like nothing was wrong at all.
She scanned the courtyard, searching for one person.
Silver reflected in her eyes, her body moving before she could think things through.
It was bad.
Really bad.
Rain's body was sprawled out on the ground. Her eyes were barely open, and Akari couldn't even tell if she was breathing.
Her forearms looked as if they'd fall off at any moment, and her chest looked deflated.
Yet she was alive.
Akari rushed forward, nearly falling but catching herself along the way. Each step felt weightless, yet her body moved as if it were dozens of times heavier than usual.
She fell to her knees next to Rain and immediately began healing her.
There was no response at first, but then she saw it.
Rain's pupils lazily drifting to Akari's face.
They were catlike, like usual, yet they had lost the vigor they once had.
Akari strengthened her healing magic, using what little spirit energy the two spheres around her heart had left.
They spun with energy she no longer possessed, each rotation dragging out whatever spirit energy regenerated in that moment.
She focused mainly on her torso, the arms being something that could come after.
She needed to save Rain.
She had to.
"Looks like she received quite the beating, huh?"
Akari's gaze drifted upward slowly, careful not to break concentration on healing Rain.
She saw a young boy. Not young like her or her friends, but not an adult.
He had red eyes, like her own, with golden locs that fell over his shoulders like messy rays.
He had a relaxed expression, as if there was nothing wrong with their situation.
"Zenith, stop mingling with the mortals."
A voice sounded out from behind her.
"Goodness, Kasaki. Since when were you so heartless?"
The golden-haired boy gave a lazy smirk, looking around as he continued,
"Your negligence caused this, y'know."
Kasaki's voice returned with a hint of irritation.
"Don't even try that shit with me. We're both at fault. If you feel so bad, then heal them."
Akari's eyes wavered.
She hadn't turned to see the other one speaking yet, but the way he spoke. He spoke as if healing them all would be trivial.
"Please… save them."
Akari whispered. She didn't want to speak, but she felt that she wasn't enough.
Akari looked down once more, studying Rain's condition.
Rain was still staring at Akari. She had stopped bleeding, but her wounds weren't closing either. She wasn't getting better. The best Akari could do at the moment was keep her in a state of limbo.
At this rate, she'd die.
"Hmm, most of them will survive without my help, though."
Zenith walked around, nudging some of the unconscious children with his boot.
They were breathing. They'd live, even if they'd be hospitalized for months.
Either way, Zenith didn't care.
What he was interested in was the remnants of the divine monster Kasaki defeated.
"What… What about the ones who won't?"
Akari's voice came out a bit louder this time.
In all honesty, she was slightly afraid.
Even without her soul weapon active, she felt the strength the two held.
It was one of the reasons she couldn't dare to turn around.
"Hmm, why don't you give up on that girl and save everyone else? Your magic seems strong enough."
As Zenith spoke, he crouched down and began gathering pink blobs, his usual lazy smirk still plastered on his face.
"Well, alright. I suppose I can afford to show some kindness today. Let's have a little trial of sorts."
Zenith turned to look at Akari, his eyes revealing a hint of amusement.
Akari silently listened, not daring to look up from Rain.
Zenith, holding a good bit of the slime's remnants, walked to where the two girls lay.
Unceremoniously, he dropped the slime onto Rain's chest.
He opened his mouth once more, amusement filling his voice.
"Use this to heal the girl. If it works, I'll heal everyone else here. Simple enough, right?"
Akari stared at the slime covering Rain. Though the slime was dead, its remnants were now clinging to Rain's body.
"Zenith, we didn't come here to do this."
Kasaki grabbed Zenith's shoulder, staring at Rain with calm, uninterested eyes.
"True, but you've got the page, right?"
"I do. What's your point?"
"My point is that we have some leeway now. Plus, I'm sure he won't mind waiting a little longer."
Kasaki stared a moment longer before turning away and walking towards the east.
"I see. I'm heading back then."
"Got it, I'll meet you in a bit then."
In a flash of white light, Kasaki was gone. The only sign of his existence being the charged air and lingering white lightning flying across the skies.
"Hurry up. That girl will die at this rate."
Akari's eyes slightly widened at his words.
'Hurry up? What exactly am I supposed to be doing?'
It wasn't as if she stopped using her healing magic.
She was still using it to the best of her ability, or at least as much as she could at the moment.
"Put the slime in her wounds."
"Are you sure that's safe?"
Akari immediately retorted, her eyes both unsure and untrusting.
"Good question. I don't know."
"Then why sho—"
"Would you rather she dies from your inaction or die from you at least attempting to save her?"
Akari went silent.
Her mind was spinning.
It was so quiet. No animal or monster approached the prison, there was no wind, and none of the other children had stayed conscious from the slime's last attack.
She had no one to consult with.
The world began to warp around her.
Colors bled together, the ground seeming to stretch toward the sky.
Even with all of this happening, she couldn't feel anything.
"I feel dizzy…"
With one hand, Akari covered her mouth.
"I feel sick…"
She didn't want to make this choice.
Her breathing quickened without her knowledge.
Yet even still, she couldn't feel anything.
"Do…"
Rain's mouth opened. An echo of a voice came out.
Her eyes were unfocused, yet she was still looking at Akari.
She had never felt such agony in her life. She wanted to scream, to break anything in order to take her mind off the pain she was feeling.
She knew the easiest way out was to switch with Ranni, but she couldn't let her sister face such pain either.
For even a moment.
So, she endured.
But then she saw Akari's conflicted expression. Somehow, it cleared her head slightly.
If she was going to die, then she wanted to die while having no other options.
So, she pushed once more.
"It…"
Akari's eyesight blurred.
'What… is this?'
Her gaze lowered further, to see a sort of liquid on her fingers.
'Tears?'
Thinking back, Akari realized she hadn't cried once since coming to this world. She was the closest to crying when she first arrived in prison but hadn't done so.
It was surprising to see such a thing.
"Okay…"
Akari nodded, wiping her tears away.
She didn't want to do it, or be the one to do it, but refusing her request now wasn't an option.
It wouldn't be fair to Rain or Ranni.
She intensified her healing magic, putting the slime onto every open wound Rain had.
She then hoped with all her heart that this would work, as she didn't know what else she could do.
Rain groaned, somehow finding the strength to clench her fists.
"Is it working?"
Akari whispered, her healing magic fluctuating along with her emotions and worries.
Rain tried to speak, but another groan escaped her lips instead.
The slime on her wounds writhed, changing colors to match Akari's mana color for a moment before turning pink once more, then turning into the same color as Rain's skin.
The slime, now blending in with Rain's skin, began mimicking everything that Rain was missing.
As if the slime still had the instinct to survive, even while dead, it integrated itself into her.
Rain's eyes widened, the pain becoming even more intense.
She let out a scream coming from the depths of her gut.
This isn't a metaphor.
The slime, entering through all of her wounds, was devouring the destroyed organs of Rain and replacing them with itself. While she was healing, the pain she was going through was so intense that there were multiple moments where she passed out.
Each time she lost consciousness, she felt Ranni's consciousness surfacing.
This feeling is what kept causing her to return.
Akari looked up at Zenith, asking,
"What's happening to her?! Is she dying?!"
Zenith tilted his head, saying,
"What would make you think that? She's actually getting better. It's pretty cool to watch."
Akari held her hand, which Rain squeezed with more force than she held Ranni's soul weapon with.
Akari could see her hand being squeezed but didn't say anything more. She never stopped healing her; she wouldn't stop, not until she saw Rain stable.
Tears fell from Rain's eyes, but she held on.
After a few more agonizing minutes, Rain finally let go of Akari's hand.
Her body looked perfectly fine now, and Rain's breathing had finally calmed.
"Rain…"
Her eyes closed for a moment, then opened them again with determination filling her yellow irises.
"I won't die, not that easily… but I'm tired. I'll let Ranni take it from here."
That determination that filled her eyes slowly faded, along with the color in her hair.
The roots of her hair began fading to black, but something strange happened in this process of switching.
Instead of her usual all-black hair, Ranni's hair now had pink tips.
"Now that's amazing."
Zenith said with an amused laugh.