"Yuki?"
"Y-yes, Master?"
"I think we should run!"
"Uh… What?"
"Run. Let's run to the resort. Right now. Whoever is there first. Three, two, one, go!"
"Ah, wait!"
She ran after him but her was incredibly fast. Even after boosting herself with magic, she could barely keep up. He jumped over bushes and through low hanging leaves, like nothing could stop him. It did not take them long before they reached the ocean and ran along the beach, already seeing the building in the distance. But then all of the sudden, he stopped.
"Finally, you stopped… Ah… That was exhausting… Why did you do that all of the sudden, Mas-…"
As Yamato turned around, Yuki saw a mark spread from his cheek across his entire neck and even some on his hands, from what she could tell despite his clothes covering a lot. It's color was to her unrecognizable, rainbow-ish and bright. Obviously unnatural for a skin tone, and he was sweating a lot.
"Master!"
"Hm? Yes? I'm listening!"
Then he dropped to the gound and stopped moving.
"Aaaaah! No, no, no, no!"
She dropped onto her knees next to him and rolled him onto his back.
"Master! Look at me, Master!"
But he did not react. His breathing was heavy yet quiet and weak. She took of his shirt, only to find the same markings on his chest and all over his body.
"That looks like poison… But I was careful when we walked through the jungle! I…"
His nose started to bleed and his face, besides the colorful marks, went pale.
"I can't cure this if I don't know what it is!! Talk to me, please!"
As he still did not respond, she seaeched in his pockets for anything, anything at all. All she found was a single black blossom, which already started to crumble to dust.
"What do I do?! What do I do?! Please! Someone! Anyone!!"
She tried to slow down bis blood circulation but the poison seemed to be everywhere already.
"Hey, I think it came from over here!"
A familiar voice. Lily and Andrew! They rushed to see what was happening, but froze when they saw Yamato.
"W-what's with him…?"
"I don't know! Do something!"
"I… What are we supposed to do?! How long has he been like this?! Wait… What's that blossom…?"
"I don't know… It was in his pocket… He's been like this a minute max…"
"That's… That's bad, Yuki…"
"What is it?!"
"It looks like… an extremely rare flower… There have only ever been found two in history…I read about it in the book Yamato gave me. Venoxia Toxinosa. A single touch is enough to cause fever, internal bleeding and organ failure… I'm sorry, there is no cure… The flower dies after the slightest touch, and due to its rarity there has never been an opportunity to create an antidote."
"Venoxia Toxinosa?! Are you fucking kidding me?! That sounds like it's born from poison! Out of all things, why that?!"
"There… Is nothing we can do…"
"Fuck no! No, no, no, no! NO!"
She started hyperventilating, clinging desperately onto Yamato, and pressing him against her chest and crawling up to him.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no… If Master dies here, I will… I… No… You won't die, Master! I promise, you won't die before me!"
Her eyes turned pitch black, soulless and devoid of empathy, as she looked over at Lily and Andrew.
"…Get me bandages or anything useful you can find from the resort. Now."
"O-okay!"
They ran as fast as they could, soon only dots in front of the resort. Once they were far away enough, Yuki opened a pocket dimension and pulled out a syringe.
"This will sting, Master… Please forgive me…"
She took the syringe, and injected it into her arm. Taking her own blood and then pulling it out again.
"Don't worry, Master… I will take care of this… Of everything…"
She moved across his arm, searching for a vein. Once she found it, she injected the syringe and gave him her blood. She open his right eye carefully and looked at his pupils, which were dilated with blood partially covering the white of his eyes. Looking at the left eye its pupil was dilated as well but no blood. She threw the syringe away and pulled out a new one and repeated the process. She wiped the blood from his nose and cleaned the injection wound each time she repeated her improvised blood transfusion.
A symmetrical pattern of colors and shapes, as the world was spinning beneath him yet it was just an empty space. He could not move or close his eyes, as he was thrown around up, down, left and right. Until he finally hit the ground, or what seemed to be a ground. He managed to get on his feet, stumbling slightly back and forth, barely stable. He looked around and saw nothing, except a single tree which seemed to be floating, but stood on the same invisible ground he was standing on. He took a step towards it, and suddenly found himself directly infront of it, but upside down? It did not smell like grass or nature. In fact, there was no smell at all. His steps did not make a sound as well. It was an empty realm, one without meaning or purpose. As he took a step back, he was still in front of it but now not upside down anymore. Suddenly, a familiar voice broke the silence.
"Look, Master! I'm a tree! Woooosh!"
He took a step back, surprised by… This. Which truned him on his head again, of course. So he walked back toward it.
"Yuki? Where am I? What is this? I remember we where on our way to the resort… And it became hotter and hotter…"
"Don't be silly, Master. A tree can't answer that question!"
"You just said you were you."
"No, I said I am a tree!"
"And you are Yuki?"
"That's right!"
He let out a deep sigh. This conversation did remind him of how it was to talk to Yuki sometimes.
"What am I doing here?"
"Dunno!"
"What do you know?"
"I know how to do a surprise cuddle attack! Yah!"
"…"
Nothing happened.
"…I don't have arms!"
"You just said you are a tree. Of course you don't. Why am I even talking to you…"
"How should I know?"
"You seem to not know anything at all besides that you are a tree."
"Would you rather have me be anything else?"
"Normal would be nice."
"Sure thing, Master!"
The entire world, or more his perspective of it, turned around in a full circle. Like a clock, only that he did not gain a feeling of time from anything but his on consciousness. When it stood still again, Yuki atood there, not in her school uniform, but in the white robes she wore when they first met. Her golden halo shimmering as the only source of light in the world they were in, even though he could clearly see her before as well.
"Is my appearance more pleasing to you now, Master?"
"I… Guess? If you could do that the entire time, why didn't you strt with that?"
"Because you didn't tell me to."
"What else can you do if I tell you to do it?"
"Anything."
"I find that hard to believe."
"Try me!"
"Fine. Get me out of here."
The world turned again, now Yuki turned with it. It was as if the background was changing, the only constant, certain thing with him was Yuki, just smiling at him. When it came to a stop, they were on a wide field with flowers all over.
"There you go, Master!"
"I meant back to the island."
"Oh…! Well, the real me is in the middle of that, I hope!"
"The real you?"
"Of course! I'm just a fragment of your imagination, Master. A hallucination. Nothing more. You're tripping, haha!"
"Yeah, that makes sense…"
He looked around, then at the palm of his hand to make sure it was still there. But there was a weird marking on it. A rainbow like pattern spreading across his entire arm.
"What's that?"
"I'm not sure. It looks bad!"
"I can tell that! Make it stop!"
"Sure thing, Master!"
The pattern stopped spreading, and his skin turned back to normal again. With it, all the flowers turned into the rainbow flower he found yesterday, only for them to disappear. Then everything else disappeared as well. Until it was just the two of them.
"Yay, it stopped! Great job, Master!"
"I didn't do anything."
"Of course you did! You did everything! I love you!"
"You're not making sense… How do I leave? As in, leave this whole thing?"
"I don't have the answer to that question."
He saw a pattern here. So he tried a different approach.
"Make me leave."
"I would love to! Like I said, real me is in the middle of it."
"Alright... I guess I might as well use this opportunity. I always wanted to know how it works with your sealed power. Explain it to me."
"…Ah. I don't know how to anawer that."
"Why?"
"Like I said, I'm your imagination. I can only tell you what you know already!"
"So you're useless?"
"Pretty much! But adorable~"
"But you knew that the real you is in the middle of helping me."
"Because you knew that."
"…"
"Yay, I win the banter! This was my first time!"
"Technically I just lost against myself."
"Whatever!"
She stuck her tongue out at him and pouted, though Yamato knew that since she was made in the image he had of the real Yuki, she would not actually be angry at him. Suddenly, his arm started glowing, a tingling sensation spreading throughout his entire body.
"What's happening?"
"Looks like I saved the day! You're welcome!"
"I feel like you would suffer more through my death than I would. You're welcome that I survived."
"You're adorably prideful, Master! I love that about you."