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, sihis was all a reality created by her mind. But nothi fake about it.

  Perhaps if Yuki hadn’t ged Japan into a pce of fi, she could have an easier time not already being aced 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 eople 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 te summer heat of Japan.

  This was reality.

  As far as her body uood it.

  And that was why it hurt.

  Yumi turned away from the demon, hoping not seeing it might help her fet about it all. Her mi w to feed her with everything that she o 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 . ‘Besides I’ve done far worse things already and I was ignorant of them…’

  While her mind focused on damage trol, she tried to put the pieces back together of what she had been doing. “Yuki!?” She finally remembered that she o find him. Ohe fighting intensified she had fotten 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 ’t believe I fot 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 tunibsp; “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 rea he had to her. “You’re…”

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

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

  Yuki touched his fio 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 ’t use your powers! I should have doer!”

  “I don’t know…about that. I haven’t…”

  “What?! Why?”

  “Because I was…uain how it might affect…this simution. I didn’t want to…risk ruining your…bsp; Guess I don’t…have a choiow.”

  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 uand…” Yuki went silent for a moment as he began to trate. 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 ’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 medie…” 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 disappoi, it didn’t have aive effects on the world. They just worked as she expected them to do.

  o Yuki a mae materialized like when he created things before that o be real. Ihe chamber a bottle of a clear liquid formed taining whatever medie that Yuki came up with in his mind. Yuki stared at it with some curiosity as to what he might have e up with that would help him.

  In pained efforts, he pulled out the bottle and drank the tents quickly while the mae 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 iy that he faced. “It worked?”

  “Yes, the pain’s muanageable now.”

  “ 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 colpsed o Yuki falling unscious.

  Chapter 389 – Settling

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

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

  She started to move a 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 gnced 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 geion too. You should remember iure, it’s not wise to remove objects from you that are that rge. You were bleeding out badly. Typically, leaving them ihe loss to a minimum.”

  She rubbed her hand over the fwless skin on her shoulder, thanks to Yuki. ‘He 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 Atntis. 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 tet 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 bnd, but it does the job until we find a proper pce.”

  He handed over something that looked a bit like a chocote bar g that texture. It had something closer to a cracker surface wheouched 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 watbsp; 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 distao them. It felt a little unnatural seeing it so big in the sky. ‘Is this really Japan?’ She couldn’t worry about it too mubsp; 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 distanbsp; ‘It’s so dead…I hear so much more than iy.’ 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 atack.’

  “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 shings 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.”

  “ 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 o stand. Listening for the sound, she plotted a course in the opposite dire. 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 alloeat 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 distaween 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 rexed her shoulders a little. “I think we’re safe now.”

  “But where is the road?”

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