I am super-duper sorry it took me more than a month to write and upload this chapter. I won't say my excuses since they are so pathetic, but please forgive me and enjoy the chapter!
"Believe the impossible is possible."
Chapter 24
Efforts
"Youichi, y-you're crazy!"
''What if?" the five-year-old objected in a small voice.
"She's dead for heaven's sake!"
''But what if! What if, Ruka?"
"It won't work. It's impossible."
~ I Never Left You ~
Will this ever end? It seemed to go on and on. Sakura Mikan again and again opened and closed her eyes, but the outcome was always the same.
Pitch-black darkness.
Of course, Mikan screamed to see if anyone would hear her, but the echo was her only response. Her hands searched for something, anything to grasp, but couldn't find anything- not even her own body.
Pitch-black darkness kept Mikan imprisoned.
~ I Never Left You ~
Hotaru collapsed in a chair besides the patient, sulking with a frustrated expression. She swiped the sweat from her furrowed brows and sucked in a long breath. Her brother and she tried basically everything, but they achieved nothing even though they have been working for one day and a third now. They gave Mikan shots, medicines and potions in which Natsume forced down the brunette's throat with his mouth, and more shots. Subaru tried healing her with his Alice and the results were nothing new. He even inflicted her with pain (Natsume disliked this experimentation of course), but nothing happened.
They searched information on the Alice Stone of Interminable Darkness, but they only found info they already knew. They asked other people in Alice Academy if they knew anything about the Alice Stone, but they were no help at all.
She exhaled and longingly glanced at her best friend. "Baka."
Hotaru pondered how Mikan would miss her own birthday tomorrow. She was overly thrilled that she finally had the chance to spend her b-day with her oh-so-missed friends, but now she couldn't for she was asleep. Not the sleep where you could awaken hours later. Mikan will sleep forever if the Alice Stone of Interminable Darkness is taken out of her body.
A lurid snuffle interrupted Hotaru's train of thought. She stared at Mikan again, but then shifted her velvet orbs to another view. Hugging Mikan skintight, Natsume laid right next to her. His face was buried in her elongated, auburn locks, and his bare left leg draped over her petite waist.
Shaking her head in acrid revulsion, Hotaru covered her pupils with her eyelids and softly groaned.
"This bastard," she muttered bitterly.
From the moment she tumbled into deep, deep slumber, Natsume absolutely never left her side. He didn't leave the room to occupy his ravenous stomach, therefore Ruka, concerned, fetched him nourishment. He barely caught any shuteye for he wanted to make certain Mikan would be safe. The only reason why Natsume was asleep now was because Hotaru put a strong sleeping pill she created in his beverage when he wasn't looking. Within minutes, he was knocked out.
~ I Never Left You ~
"ANYONE HERE? PLEASE? SOMEONE HELP ME!"
Mikan shrieked on top of her lungs. The resonance of her yelp was her only response. She bent her knees and kneeled on the floor, hoping that she could actually sit even though she couldn't see anything. She felt the cold sour tears roll down her cheeks like a nonstop river.
"Please…anyone…please I'm begging you," she implored under her breath," save me. I don't want this."
Her throat felt unnervingly thick, and her chest felt tight. She tried to clutch her chest, wanting to ease the unbearable agony, but couldn't find it.
"Natsume,'' she sniffed. "Where are you?"
~ I Never Left You ~
"Dr. Imai, can I have a talk with you?"
Imai transferred his sight from his test beakers on his refined granite bureau desk to the two lads in front of him. He witnessed Youichi in his tall, mature fifteen-year-old state (the reason for it is because he swallowed an aging candy he mischievously stole from Hotaru which causes him to be ten years older than what he is originally. He changes at unpredictably random times), and Ruka with eyebrows narrowed and lips pressed into a hard straight line.
"Not right now, Hijiri-san. I'm tremendously busy with trying to create antidotes to cure Sakura-san, '' he tartly responded, transporting his vision back to his experiments.
"But this is the only chance I have to properly talk to you. My five-year-old self won't be able to talk so well."
"Another time!" he retorted.
"But Youichi has a possible method to take the Alice Stone of Interminable Darkness out of Sakura-san!" Ruka pronounced, fervent.
His head snapped to face the two lads. "What? Tell me quickly."
"I have the Ghost Manipulation Alice that allows me to summon spirits. Maybe I can summon Mikan's mother's spirit, so she can get the Alice Stone of Interminable Darkness out of her."
"Wait, can't you only summon bad spirits?"
"He can summon bad and good,'' Ruka clarified.
Subaru pursed his lips and adjusted his glasses, his eyes unfocused behind the lens. "Imai-san and I tried everything, maybe you're theory might just work."
"Hm," Youichi's mouth shifted into a haughty smirk, "whose crazy now, Ruka."
The blue-eyed boy rolled his eyes. "Let's get, Hotaru…," berry red tint covered the tops of his cheeks," p-please don't mention to her that I s-said her name."
~ I Never Left You ~
Giggling filled every inch of the wholesome land. The laugh was like an angel laughing- sweet and sincere; never hinting any indication of bitterness. It wasn't fraudulent. It was true.
"Stop!" the black-haired girl screamed.
"But why? It's so much fun!" exclaimed the girl with the pure laugh. "Join me, Hotaru!
"No, Mikan," she reacted emotionlessly. "You're being an idiot, idiot."
"Am not!"
"If anyone saw me doing that, my whole reputation would be ruined. Now stop rolling down on the hill."
She didn't listen. The chestnut-haired girl hit the bottom of the hill. Smiling, she scampered up to the top and tumbled back down. The process repeated again and again.
Hotaru, on the other hand, remained frozen at the peak, arms firmly crossed. "Such a stupid girl."
Mikan hiked back to the topmost and when she reached it, she lied down on her stomach. She shifted her body weight to the right, so she would trundle to the end. Hotaru observed Mikan turning and twisting on the grass in rapid speed, her pale white clothes catching unsightly stains. She waited for Mikan to smash into the bottom, but then the foot of the hill disappeared. A black abyss replaced it.
"Mikan!"
It was too late. The girl with the divine, celestial laugh rolled into the black abyss.
"Hotaru!"
The young inventor awoke, witnessing Ruka very close to her face. She raised her fist and smacked his head. He recoiled back, wincing.
"Ouch!"
"That's what you get for calling me 'Hotaru,' Nogi and for being too near my façade."
Hotaru arose from her seat and dusted the tiny invisible dirt particles off her uniform. She rubbed the back of her neck.
"Damn it, I fell asleep on that stupid chair."
"But," Youichi interrupted, " he called you 'Imai' several times, but you wouldn't wake up!"
"Enough!This is no time for trivial matters!" Subaru beseeched, slightly growling. "Imai-san. We came to get you. Hijiri-san has a method that can rehabilitate Sakura-san."
Hotaru whipped her head to face the ashen-haired boy. Youichi caught the look in her eye and nodded.
"We need to hurry to the graveyard," he announced. "I'll wake up, Hyuuga."
"Wait!" Ruka shouted, snatching Youichi's arm. "Let him sleep. He hadn't slept for a while."
"Yes, let him be. The moron needs rest," Hotaru advised. "We'll be back before he wakes up."
~ I Never Left You ~
It was snowing. It wasn't a surprise really. It was still December, the last day of December though.
Hotaru concealed her mouth with her beige muffler, and roughly rubbed her hands together to create some heat. Subaru shoved his hands into the pockets of his pallid wool coat. Youichi, shivering from the snowflakes, intertwined his arm with Ruka's. This action made Ruka evoke the true age of Youichi. He didn't push him away.
"Hey, Imai-san?" Ruka said.
"What is it now?" she questioned, removing her scarf from her lips.
"What was your dream back when we were in the hospital?"
Unwarily, her eyes narrowed. "Why so intrusive?"
"Well, you were mumbling some interesting words."
"I heard 'stop,' 'hill,' and 'Mikan,' "Youichi added, compressing more his clasp on Ruka's upper limb.
"It's none of your business."
"Why can't you tell me?" Ruka persisted. The violet-eyed female glared at him with irascibility. He gulped. "Never mind then."
"Glad we are done discussing the trifling topic. Now to more important matters."
She tugged on her taupe muffler back to her mouth and increased her pace, parading away from Ruka and Youichi.
"Come on, Youichi. We're almost there," Ruka commended.
The snow began to plunge heavier and thicker a moment later. It was changing from a snow flurry to a wild blizzard. The wind picked up as well. It wafted everyone's skin which caused a few goose bumps to occur. However, they didn't once complain. Their reasons weren't difficult to explain. Their motives weren't complicated to comprehend either. It was simple.
Mikan.
"This is the grave of Yukihira Yuka," Subaru austerely pronounced.
A million snowflakes lied on the top and sides of the deceased woman's gravestone. It was made out of carved genteel stone. It read:
Yukihira Yuka
A warrior, a mother
"Youichi, tell me again why it is necessary to come to Sakura-san's mother's grave," Ruka inquired.
"It's hard for me to summon specific spirits. It's much easier to summon her if I do it here-right in front of her grave, her dead body," he answered passively. "Now everyone shut up. I need to concentrate. Don't make a sound, don't even move!"
The people surrounding Youichi procured a stride back.
"I hope this works," Ruka murmured under his breath.
Youichi taped his cerulean irises shut. His lean dark brows contracted into a V shape, and his nose to some extent scrunched. He extended his arms and rotated his palms upward, so that it would face the snowy sky. He elevated his limbs just a smidge over ninety degrees. His lips was parted like he was going to speak, but he didn't say a word.
They waited.
Waited for something to happen.
And waited.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing happened.
Nevertheless, Youichi continued to remain frozen.
Hotaru was never the patient type. Never has, never will. She was almost about to march up to Youichi- still in that obstinate position- and give him a piece of her mind for making her walk in the severe snowfall just to have no results to benefit Mikan and for wasting her precious time, but Ruka blocked her way with his arm.
She tried a second time to interrupt Youichi's focus, but her brother gripped her shoulder and pitched a stern, unyielding look at her. Hotaru gaze switched from Subaru's right and left eye for a couple of seconds until she gently removed his hand from her shoulder and sauntered back to her original spot.
Suddenly, a shape began to appear out of the hazy atmosphere. It was floating just above Yuka's gravestone. The outline of the shape quickly began to thicken and solidify until it became so clear everyone knew what it was.
It was a woman.
It was Yuka.