Race Against the Clock

Ryu woke with start, sitting up quickly. 'It was just a dream,' he thought to himself as he began to calm down. He looked out the window and saw it must be around four in the morning. He turned to look the other way and noticed Ryosuke hadn't left the chair he had been sitting in the day before. 'He fell asleep sitting,' Ryu thought with a small, gentle smile.
As Ryu turned his body to try to get out of his bed, he noticed he felt no pain or discomfort at all. 'Huh,' he thought as he stood up, staying as quiet as possible so as to not wake his father. 'I guess I've recovered fully.' He walked over to the door with the intent of going to the Apex Library to check on Chihiro. But, just as he was about to turn the corner as he was leaving the room, a sharp pain shot straight through his chest.
"Ngh!!" Ryu grunted, falling to his knees. Having been shocked awake by Ryu's  shout, Ryosuke ran to his son's side. "Ryu, what are you doing out of bed?!!" Ryosuke said firmly, though a bit of worry slipped through. "I thought I hadー I thought I had recovered," Ryu managed to say through sharp inhales. Ryosuke, worried for his son, helped Ryu back to his bed. "Don't try to move from there until Chihiro comes back with the scroll, alright?" Ryu nodded. "Alright," he said quietly, taking Ryosuke's hand in his own for a moment. 'He'll be fine,' Ryosuke tried to tell himself. 'I withstood Abyss attacks at seventeen, Ryu's my son. I'm sure he'll be alright, I just hope...'

                                                       'I hope I'm not wrong.'

Later, at around noon, Makoto and Shiro had exhausted themselves training ー and Shiro, teaching ー and now both were lying on their backs on the ground, and they were panting as if they had just fought off the entire Abyss Army. "Puer," Shiro said, turning his head to look at Makoto. "I'm not teaching you again, *pant*, got it?" Makoto looked at Shiro and nodded, still catching his breath. "No offense," Makoto said, "but I don't want you to train me again, I, *pant*, I just wanna sleep for five days straight, now."
Shiro laughed at this as he sat up. "No offense taken, puer," he said as he helped Makoto up as well. "We should go check on Ryu, no?" Shiro suggested. Makoto nodded, but just as they were about to get up, they heard a piercing scream come from the Apex Library. Shocked, they jumped to their feet. "Chihiro!!" They both shouted before running to the Library.

But when they reached the Library, instead of finding an Abyss Warrior attacking Chihiro, they just found a grateful ー but still exhausted ー Chihiro, holding none other than the Dragon Scroll in his hands. "Makoto! Shiro!" Chihiro said as he ran over to the two. "I found it!! I found the scroll last night, and I read through it just now!!"
Shiro and Makoto both gave a sigh of relief when they saw that nothing was wrong, and in fact, everything was going to be back to normal soon. "You gave me a bit of a fright with that scream for a second, puer," Shiro said to Chihiro. "Well," Shiro continued, "it's good to hear you found the scroll." As he turned on his heel, Shiro said, "now, let's go see Ryu, I'm sure he's waiting for us."
But as they were leaving the Library, Chihiro stumbled a bit before grabbing onto Makoto's shoulder for support. "C-Chihiro, are you OK?" Makoto said, worry in his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine," Chihiro mumbled, waving his hand as if to brush it off. "My spell's just wearing off, is all." Shiro face-palmed and shook his head when Chihiro said 'spell'. "Chihiro," he said, "you did NOT use the Surgere spell just so you could find the scroll!" "But Shiro," Chihiro protested, the drowsiness showing in his voice, "if I hadn't, I would've... *yawn* fallen asleep."
Shiro shook his head again and went over to the sleepy Chihiro. "Give me the scroll, I'll hold onto it til we get to Ryu's room." Chihiro begrudgingly handed Shiro the Dragon Scroll and yawned again. "You just stay awake til you've used the spell, alright?" Shiro said to Chihiro, who nodded slowly. "Wait, Shiro," Makoto started. "What happens if someone uses the Sur... Surgere spell?" Shiro turned to face Makoto and said, "I'll answer as we walk, come on."

As they walked, Shiro began explaining to Makoto what would happen if someone used the spell Chihiro used.
"In a regular circumstance," he began, "the worst that happens is the user gets a bit tired, like if they drank coffee late at night and then woke up early feeling tired. But Chihiro must've used the spell at least twice," Shiro let out a short exhale before continuing, "if not three times or more, so the amount of drowsiness increases, which will eventually render the user harmless and unprotected in battle."
Makoto listened and nodded when Shiro finished. "Well," he said, "at least it's not dangerous health-wise, right?" Shiro nodded a bit, considering this point of view. "I suppose you're right. Ah, we're here," Shiro said as they got to the door of the infirmary room where Ryu was.
"Chihiro," Ryosuke said, going over to Chihiro. "Are you hurt?" Chihiro shook his head, seemingly more awake now. "No, I'm fine," he said. Haruka stood in the corner of the room, watching everything from the sidelines. Then, Ryu, who had been asleep again, woke up and saw Chihiro. "Chihiー ngh," Ryu winced as he tried to sit up. "Ryu!" Chihiro ran over to his brother's bedside. "Hey, take it easy, Ry," Chihiro said, worried. "Shiro," he said, looking back at Shiro, who nodded and gave him the scroll.
Chihiro took the scroll, and with a deep breath, he opened it and read the spell, which is as follows:

                                                                 "Stars of Eldoria,
                                                                   King of Astria,
                                             I call upon the Dragon of the Apex,
                                      To lend me the power to heal the wounded"

Suddenly, a small light appeared above Ryu. It floated in the air for a few seconds before slowly floating down unto his chest. In almost an instant, Ryu noticed that all the previous pain disappeared the moment the small light touched his wound. "Chihiro," Ryu said slowly as he sat up. "It's completely gone. I don't feel anything."
Chihiro looked at him, his hopes up. "Y-You mean it?" He said, holding back tears of relief. "You're not just saying that so I won't worry?" Ryu smiled, stood up, and hugged Chihiro. "I mean it, Chi," he said as he gently stroked his younger brother's hair. Overwhelmed by relief and happiness, Chihiro hugged Ryu back and  cried out of joy. All the stress that had been in the air suddenly went away when everyone saw Ryu was OK. And though he tried to hide it, Ryu saw Ryosuke blink very quickly and look away for a moment before clearing his throat. "Father?" Ryu said, pulling away from Chihiro and looking at Ryosuke. "I'm fine," Ryosuke said, but it was obvious he was holding something in. But Ryu just smiled and said, "alright, then."
A short time afterwards, Ryosuke said, "I should be going now. Ryu, Chihiro, take care of yourselves," to which the brothers nodded, though by this point, Chihiro was very tired from having used the Surgere spell for so long. But as they walked through the corridors of the Apex Tower to the small side door, Haruka stopped in his tracks, a shocked expression on his face. "Oh no," he whispered. He had just had a vision, and he saw the Abyss in it. 'I have to tell the others before theyー' But he was too late.
Ryosuke had opened the door already, and an evil voice said...

                 "Yamamoto Ryosuke, it seems we meet again."