The fight continued without much incident, and the group managed to deal a decent amount of damage. At that moment, however, Jeremy decided to try something. he stared directly into Susumu's eyes, he started to emit a strange golden glow.

"Eep!" Susumu had no idea what this meant, but she knew that she did NOT like being stared at. She closed her eyes, but not before they flashed the same golden color. When she finally did open her eyes, however, something was... Off about her. It was hard to tell, but her eyes were more golden than their usual yellow color, and her eyelashes seemed thicker than normal. When she spoke, her voice was oddly stiff and monotone: "I... Am... Pharaoh..."

"Susumu? What are you-" Neal thought this behavior alone was very strange, but... Susumu knelt down and put her ketchup bottle on the ground. Was she... Refusing to fight?! "Hey! Susumu! You gotta get up! We have to-"

But as Neal was trying to get Susumu back to normal, something ended up hitting him in the back. REALLY hard. "Urgh!" The hit knocked him forward, almost into Susumu.

Samuel quickly ran over to Neal's side. "A-Are you okay?" he asked, raising his staff to heal him. Before he had a chance, however, Jeremy attacked again, knocking Samuel's staff out of his hand.

Priff picked up Samuel's staff and gave it back to him, before scooping up Susumu and her ketchup bottle. Susumu didn't react to this at all. How was Jeremy so strong all of a sudden? "We can't handle him right now," Priff said. "We're going to have to run for now."

"Run?" Samuel asked. "But... Susumu is..."

Before he could finish, however, Neal suddenly jumped in front of Samuel, protecting him from another attack from Jeremy. "Priff's right!" he exclaimed. "We've gotta get her out of here!"

Neal and Samuel ran as fast as they could out of the pyramid, and even Priff moved faster than usual. Once they were outside, they sat Susumu down in the sand, taking a closer look at her. Her eyes were still oddly colored, and she still had that same blank stare. "Hey, Susumu!" Neal yelled at her. "Can you hear me? Snap out of it!"

Susumu simply turned and stared at Neal. "I... Am... Pharaoh..."

Priff closed her eyes for a second. "Ku. No wonder she's so out of it," she said. "She's cursed. her mind's completely empty. Well, mostly. She can't act on her own, that's for sure."

"What are we gonna do?" Samuel asked. "We've got to save her, but... Jeremy is way too strong for us."

"We've got no choice," Neal sighed. "We have to go back to the inn and regroup."

The group quickly headed back to the inn, carrying the unwitting Susumu along with them. Once they were inside, they placed Susumu into a bed. She still wasn't responding to anything at all. "What are we gonna tell Yardi?" Samuel asked.

"She's still pretty out of it," Neal sighed. "Susumu? Can you hear me? You've gotta wake up!"

Susumu blinked at him again, and finally, was able to say something else. "Yardi..."

"Y-Yardi..." Susumu was laying in her bed, with Yardi hovering over her, wiping her face with a cold towel.

"She's... Not looking so good," Yardi sighed, turning to Konade. "Her temperature is through the roof. I wonder if she didn't catch something in New Lumos."

Konade shook her head. "I'm going to make her some tea or something," she said. "She's probably going to have to stay in bed for a few more days." With that, she left the room and went downstairs.

Yardi looked back at Susumu. She was tossing around a lot and mumbling about something. What was she dreaming about?

"What do you mean I can't see her?"
"Yardi, Susumu isn't feeling well right now. We think she's really contagious too, so it's better if we try to limit our-"
"If she's sick it's my job to get her healthy again! She does it for me all the time!"

Yardi stepped past Konade and into the room, carrying some sort of strange bottle with him. "Susumu! Are you-" Oh. Her eyes. What was going on with them? He put the bottle on the dresser to get a closer look at her.

Susumu had been eyeing the bottle the entire time. As soon as Yardi set it on the dresser, she grabbed it, and started drinking from it. "S-Susumu!" Yardi quickly grabbed the bottle away from her. "T-That bottle... It was full of poison! I was trying to think of how to get rid of it safely, but... Why would you...?"

Susumu blinked at Yardi again, her face starting to get more pale than usual. "Yardi..." Was all she said.

Wait a minute. The way Susumu was talking... Her oddly stiff behavior... And that look in her eyes... Yardi realized exactly what was going on. "! ...Jeremy...!"

Yardi quickly scooped up Susumu and prepared to carry her out the door, ready to take Jeremy on himself, until he was stopped by Samuel. "Yardi, wait! I still have to get the poison out of her body!" He raised his staff for a moment, before realizing something. "Um... Would... Everyone mind giving us a moment? Trust me, it's for the best."

Once Samuel had taken care of Susumu, the next step was getting her out of the inn: A very difficult task, considering that she ignored almost everyone. The only person she would show any sort of response to was Yardi.

"Susumu?" Konade spoke to her softly, hoping her words would get through. "We need to save Neksdor Town, remember? So, if you can hear me, please, come with us."

Susumu blinked yet again. "Yardi..."

Then it was Sachio's turn. "Hey, remember me? It's your twin, Sachio! Let's go kick Jeremy's butt!"

"...Yardi..."

Yardi had had enough. He wanted the real Susumu back, and he was willing to fight Jeremy to save her. Just as before, he picked her up and charged towards the stairs. "Sachio! Bowyetta!" he called. "We're gonna need you guys! I'm taking her to the pyramid!"

The group reached the pyramid to find that, oddly enough, Jeremy had been there waiting for them. On one hand, he was already slightly weakened from their first encounter. On the other, he didn't seem happy that the group had taken Susumu with them, and tried to attack them right away.

"Gah!" Yardi quickly dodged Jeremy's attack, and placed Susumu on the ground. "Hey you! Give me my girlfriend back!" He jumped at Jeremy to attack, but...

Susumu suddenly jumped up, standing between Jeremy and Yardi, almost as if she was trying to shield Jeremy. Yardi suddenly stopped himself before hitting Susumu. "Susumu! What are you doing? He's..."

"It is not seeming like Miss Susumu is going to be letting us attacking of Jeremy," Bowyetta pointed out. "We must be doing something about her first!"

Sachio had an idea. "Leave it to me!" He said, and then took place in front of Susumu. "Hey, Susumu! Take a look at this!" He began moving his wand in a spiral motion, creating a blue pattern in front of Susumu's face.

Susumu found it harder and hard to keep her eyes open. After a moment, she curled up on the ground and quickly fell asleep. Jeremy was not pleased by this at all. It looked like he'd just have to get himself ANOTHER servant, and he knew exactly who to use. He began to give off that strange golden glow again, this time staring at Sachio.

Bowyetta, however, quickly stepped in, covering Sachio's face with her fan. "Please to not be looking, Mr. Sachio!"

While this was going on, Yardi managed to sneak up behind Jeremy, and hit him with a surprise attack. "Ha!" he yelled. "What, this is the big bad Jeremy? He's a joke!"

"Then again, the others DID kind of damage him a lot before we got here," Sachio commented.

Yardi didn't care, he just wanted to save Susumu. He kept slashing at Jeremy as much as he could. It seemed like he didn't need the others' help at this point...

While Yardi was finishing off Jeremy, Sachio and Bowyetta decided to take care of Susumu. "Hey! Susumu, can you hear me? Yardi's gonna get you out of this, so... Wake up! Susumu!"

"...Susumu!"

When Susumu opened her eyes, she was back home in her bed. And she felt... Awful, to say the least. It felt like her entire body was on fire. "Urgh... Yardi...?" she groaned. "What... Happened to Jeremy?"

"Who?" Yardi asked, before shaking his head. "Ah, doesn't matter. How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," Susumu answered. So it seemed like she had dreamed the whole thing, but... Did she catch a cold or something in New Lumos? "Yardi... Have you been taking care of me this whole time?"

Yardi's face turned pink at her question. "Y-Yeah, I have," he said. "Uh... Here, Konade made you this." He reached over to the dresser and picked up a cup of Susumu's favorite tea. "You probably want something to drink after all that."

"Thank you." Susumu took the cup and drank from it. It took a moment before she came up to speak again. "And Yardi? ...Thanks for taking care of me. I... Don't think I'm gonna be able to fight again for a while."

"It's... No trouble at all, Susumu," Yardi answered, still trying to hide his face. "You probably want to go back to sleep now, so... I'll let you be, okay?"

Yardi left the room somewhat quickly. Was his face starting to feel hot too?