Chapter 19

“I’m glad I’m stuck with you...” I muttered out. My eyes then fluttered open. I was back in our bunker, in my bed. My body ached, my muscles cried and my stomach growled. I strained myself to sit up but only managed to slightly lift my head up on the pillow. I looked at my bedside and saw a pale face with equally pale blue eyes staring at me.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning... what time is it?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“3:47 am.”

“...” I paused. “AM?”

“Yes. It is also Thursday.”

“...” I paused again. “I was out for 5 days?!”

“Yes.”

“What happened? And why aren’t you asleep, Marie?”

“I couldn’t sleep until I knew you were well.” She said, as if I should have known that already.

“What about everyone else, are they okay? Is Tsuki fine?”

Just then, my door burst open, getting blown right off the hinges and flying across the room, embedding itself into the wall. In the doorway was a girl with pink twin tailed hair, breathing heavily and pointing at me.

“RYUKI’S AWAKE~! I heard you say my name!”

Tsuki jumped into my bed, landing on top of me. Once again, she was dressed in just her T-shirt and whatever little underneath as her nighttime wear. I panicked as she landed on me, both because I had no strength and because I was afraid of Marie’s wrath. As Tsuki clung to me, I looked over at Marie, but instead of the rage of a thousand suns burning, I saw a girl with silver hair, eyes closed and head resting against the wall, fast asleep. Her hand was still holding onto her manga as she slept, almost making her look like an art piece.

“Oh, she’s out cold. She did stay by your side for 5 days straight.” Tsuki said, nuzzling her head against my chest.

“She really stayed next to me for that long? Without sleeping? She’s such a dummy.”

“That’s how you respond to her signs?” Tsuki said, crossing her arms on my chest and looking up at me.

I looked at her and tilted my head. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t be the oblivious protagonist, dude.” Tsuki said as she stared at me through half lidded eyes.

“I...”

Then, Ichiro knocked on the wall as he entered my room next. I let out an internal sigh of relief as I saw him.

“Yay. You’re alive. I would have been so sad if my spell killed you.” He said as he put his hands together in a praying gesture and bowed slightly. The way he worded that made me question if the concern was for me or for the spell. Either way, I was happy for his sudden presence.

“Yea, I’m glad too.”

“I do have to say, you look worse than I usually do, though.”

“Don’t say that! He’s still cute as always! He just... has some bags under his eyes and his skin is a bit pale... and frosted the tips of his hair...”

I stared at them both, blinking my eyes rapidly. “What?”

Tsuki ran out of the room and came back quickly, holding a hand mirror. She held it up to my face, and it was exactly as she described; my eyes had dark, almost pitch-black circles underneath them. My skin was nearly ghostly, paler than even Marie’s, and my normally fiery red hair was white at the tips, and my face looked like I was malnourished. I looked like a revenant had sucked out my life essence and left me for dead.

“What the hell happened to me? Ichiro, what in the world did that spell do? I thought it just erased mana?”

“It does.”

“Dude.” Tsuki said, staring daggers into Ichiro.

“It does erase mana. Mana is in everything. It’s like the thing that runs alongside your stamina or vitality. And it’s not like in games where you can run out of mana; you can whip out spells left and right, and it won’t affect you. But if you get sick or have an infection, whatever, that will drain your mana and lower your total health.”

“Really? I never heard of that.” I said, scratching my head.

“Well, that’s how I wrote it in that spell.”

Tsuki and I looked at each other and both let out a sigh at the same time. She then put her hands on her hips and tilted her head in annoyance.

“So, you’re saying you made a spell that erases the vitality of everything it hits. Because you imagine mana being attached to vitality, you say it erases mana.”

“Yes. You get it. It erases mana.” He then turned to look at me. “I thought you understood that if you were able to use the spell.”

“Can I slap him?” Tsuki said, turning to ask me as she pointed at Ichiro over her shoulder.

“Please do, I don’t have the strength to do it myself.”

“Goodnight.” Ichiro said, running out of the room.

“Are we sure he wasn’t trying to kill you too with that spell?” Tsuki said concern on her face.

“I’m sure.” I then turned to look at Marie, still fast asleep next to me. “Tsuki, mind doing me a favour?”

She simply nodded and picked up Marie out of her chair and carried her out of the room in a princess carry. It was quite a sight seeing the much shorter Tsuki carry Marie like that, and I let out a small chuckle. Tsuki looked back at me and asked what was so funny, but I brushed it off as nothing, gesturing for her to leave. She stuck her tongue out at me and left the room, and I believe I heard her whispering something to Marie, but I couldn’t make out what it was. I laid my head back down, fatigue consuming me once more, closed my eyes and fell asleep.