Previously:

Iaso continued to put on salve until the snowflake was covered. The salve then slowly sank into the ice and disappeared. "Now we wait."

Yui stayed with Iaso for several hours, trying all of the 8 salves but none of them seemed to work on the ice. After each salve they had waited 30 minutes before they tried the next one. Honestly, it had caused more damage than good. Yui was leaning against the couch, feeling very sick and exhausted and her skin was pale. Her eyes seemed cloudy as well.

"We shouldn't try anything else, you're only getting worse, Yui-san." Iaso informed and put the bottles away. "None of the salves worked."

"I have to… keep trying… or else I-" Yui got quiet after that.

"Rest for now, alright? You need all the energy you can get and it would be too dangerous for you to move around right now."

Iaso didn't even get to finish the sentence before Yui had fallen asleep out of exhaustion, this was too much for her and her body had finally given up. The goddess just hoped Yui was strong enough to wake up again, or this would be the last time she closed her eyes.

Now:

When Yui finally woke up it was late afternoon, it wasn't very pleasant to wake up and her body was aching all over. Iaso had let her be in the same sitting position she was in when she had fallen asleep, it was too risky to move her into a lying position. The star-shaped stone was back on her chest so some of the endless pain was gone but it still hurt like hell.

She looked down to the side and noticed her dress lying beside her so she carefully stood up from the couch and let the blanket fall from her body. While she was trying to dress herself, Iaso entered the room. "Good, you're up. I was afraid you wouldn't open your eyes again."

"Thanks for putting the stone back and cover me with the blanket." Yui thanked the goddess.

"No problem, but more importantly, how are you feeling?"

"Not good I'm afraid."

"That's understandable."

"Thank you for trying, Iaso-san. What do you want as payment?"

"There's nothing I want Yui-san, helping others in need is what I do. Too bad I couldn't do anything, though. Tell me, do you know anyone else who might be able to lift that curse?"

"Only one."

"And that is?"

"His name is Chiron, I've heard he's known for his knowledge and skill with medicine."

"The centaur?"

"Yes, that's right."

"I have met him a few times. You will most likely find him and other centaurs by the meadow not too far away from here." Iaso explained.

"Thanks for the information, Iaso-san, I won't bother you anymore."

Just as Yui was about to head for the door Iaso stopped her. "I will take you there, you can barely walk on your own."

"Oh, you don't have to do that. I think I'll be fine on my own."

"I insist, I know the way and with my support you'll get there faster. Besides, I'm a goddess, I can teleport us there you know."

Yui's eyes widened. 'That's right, she's a goddess!' "If… if you don't mind?"

"Of course not, let's go." Iaso smiled and grabbed Yui's hand to connect them to each other and then they disappeared.

When Yui opened her eyes she and Iaso were standing in the middle of the meadow Iaso was talking about. But there were no centaurs anywhere. "Iaso-san, is this the place?"

"Yes, there's no mistake."

"But where is-?"

"Can't you hear it?"

Yui listened but couldn't hear anything at first but then, a faint rumbling sound echoed through the meadow and it was getting louder and louder. When she listened more closely she could hear exactly what it was. "Hooves?"

"Here they come." Iaso smiled.

And in the next moment a big herd of centaurs were heading their way, fast. If Yui hadn't been in so much pain she would have tried to get out of the way. Thankfully, Iaso seemed calm and just stood there, waiting for the centaurs to get closer.

"Just stay quiet and let me do the talking." Iaso informed. "Centaurs are known to be wild and in your condition it wouldn't be good if they suddenly decided to approach you."

"Alright." Yui wasn't about to argue with that, even if she was desperate to find a cure.

There were at least 20 centaurs heading their way and they showed no signs of stopping. Were they just going to run them over?

Yui closed her eyes and waited for the impact. It never came. Instead it got quiet and she dared to open her eyes again.

A horse body was the first thing she saw once her eyes were open. She turned her head to the side, the centaurs were standing around her and Iaso in a circle and when her eyes traveled up she saw well-looking men and women staring down at them. She also noticed that if one centaur's body was black, then the hair on its head had the same color. She had never seen such different yet beautiful creatures before, they were really fascinating to look at.

The male centaur with a white horse body had been staring at her the entire time and Yui was starting to feel uncomfortable. Then he turned to Iaso. "You, goddess, what are you doing in our territory?"

"Forgive us but we've come here to look for Chiron." Iaso explained.

"Chiron is tending to a sick foal right now. What do you want with him, goddess?"

"It is not I who need him." Iaso said and turned to Yui. "It is she who needs him."

The centaur turned to Yui once again. "You are a human aren't you? Tell me why you seek Chiron."

Yui took a step forward. "My name is Yui and-"

A female centaur noticed the ice on her. "What's that on your throat?"

"... I… I got cursed by Sisyphus. The thing on my throat is ice and it's spreading over my body. I will die soon if I can't find a cure, that's why I've come here to seek help from Chiron." Yui explained.

"Interesting." A male centaur with grey hair said and started to approach her to get a closer look but Iaso put herself in front of Yui to shield her from him. "You can't touch her. She's very weak and fragile, if you put too much pressure on the ice it will tear on her skin and she will start bleeding." She explained to the centaur.

The white centaur took a step forward and pushed the grey one out of the way before he turned to the human. "Yui, was it?"

"Yes."

"I believe you, I don't believe you have come here to take advantage of Chiron and therefore I will let you see him."

Before Yui could answer him another male centaur spoke. "How can you be so sure of her?"

"She wouldn't have come here if she wasn't desperate. To a human, our kind can be very dangerous. A human like her is no threat to us and besides, it isn't every day we get to see a human wandering around in the world of the gods."

"Thank you for believing me." Yui smiled up at him and Iaso moved out of the way.

"My name is Alexandro." He introduced himself and bent down a little so he could shake her hand, she wouldn't be able to reach otherwise.

Yui gladly accepted his hand and shook it. Even if he was trying to be gentle she could still feel the ice tearing on her skin when she moved.

"You do indeed look like you're unwell." Alexandro pointed out once they had let go of each other.

"It's only getting worse I'm afraid." Yui answered honestly.

Right after she had finished the sentence, the ice started spreading again and Yui dropped down to her knees and screamed. Iaso, who dropped down as well, touched Yui's bad shoulder without thinking, causing her to cry out and pleaded for her to stop. But by the time Iaso had removed her hand from her the shoulder was already bleeding and Yui was at the verge of fainting. The centaurs looked on in panic and confusion and started to move away from the screaming human and the goddess, only Alexandro remained. Some even stormed away from the unpleasant scene. "What do we do? !" Alexandro shouted between Yui's screams.

"We have to take her to Chiron!" Iaso cried out.

"Jump on!" Alexandro ordered and bent down low enough for the two women to get on his horseback.

Iaso managed to get Yui to sit on Alexandro's back and sat down behind her so she could keep her from falling off.

Yui barely knew what was going on anymore and when everything got blurry it didn't take long before she fell unconscious.


'It's so soft. I don't want this feeling to end…' Yui thought in her dream-like state.

"Yui-san!"

'Who's that?'

"Yui!"

'And that?'

"It's time to wake up now, young human."

'Who are these people? I don't recognize their voices…'

"Yui-san, you really need to wake up or you might never wake up again!"

'Never wake up- That's right… Iaso-san… and Alexandro-san. I remember now.'

"Young human, can you hear me?"

In that moment Yui woke up, immediately regretting it because she was met by a very intense pain. It felt just like she wasn't wearing the stone she got from Regin anymore. But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that she couldn't open her left eye. The ice on her throat had traveled up her cheek, over her eye and stopped about half an inch above her eyebrow. The one on the left side of her waist had moved down her leg and stopped on the left side of her knee. The third one that had passed her spine had continued up to her right shoulder, then traveled down and stopped about halfway down her arm. The fourth and last that went past her left shoulder blade had moved down a little, then taken a turn, went over her spine and continued a bit further until it had stopped on her right hip. "This is it, isn't it…?" She whispered to herself. She was lying on a soft blanket in the grass, next to her lay the horse body of a brown centaur while the human part of it was putting some kind of medical herbs on the places where her body had cracked due to the ice. On her other side Iaso was sitting and further down by her feet Alexandro was standing, assisting the other centaur with the medicine.

"Don't say that Yui-san, it's not over until it's over." Iaso said calmly.

Yui could feel she wasn't wearing her dress anymore, only two other blankets were covering her more intimate parts of her body. "Where am I?"

"Welcome, young human." The brown centaur smiled. "My name is Chiron. Iaso here told me you were looking for me."

"I told him everything you told me, Yui-san." Iaso informed.

"Chiron-san, you don't have to waste your time on me if you're busy…"

"Don't worry about that, Yui-chan, I have all the time in the world." Chiron answered calmly. "You poor thing, the world hasn't been fair to you. But I must say you're very brave and strong minded for holding out for yourself and that boy."

"But soon it won't matter… I can feel my body dying."

It got quiet after that and in that moment Yui knew Chiron couldn't do anything to save her, no one could. All they could do was ease her pain.

What none of them knew was that in a tree not far away sat two black birds, observing them closely before they croaked at each other and flew away.

"There's one thing I have to tell you." Iaso spoke and held out the stone from Regin above Yui's right eye. "When the ice started spreading the stone cracked and fell off. I'm afraid it doesn't work anymore."

"It's alright, Iaso-san. It was bound to happen sooner or later, Sisyphus's power is too strong." Yui told her and weakly raised her hand to take it from her. "I'll keep it as a memory."

Iaso just smiled down at her. "The thing you got from the elf, you can still travel to one more place, right?"

"I don't know if I have the strength to travel anymore…"

"But if you do, I have a suggestion for you." Chiron informed.

Yui turned her head to the side to look at him.

"In the realm of the Japanese gods, in the snowy mountains, lives a goddess named Yuki-onna."

"Yuki-onna? ! Isn't she more like a ghost than a goddess?" Alexandro exclaimed.

"Not to mention dangerous. I don't think she's interested in helping anyone." Iaso added. "She's the kind of goddess that lures men to their deaths with her beauty."

"But she's a goddess of ice and snow is she not?" Chiron stated. "Perhaps there's a way for her to remove this curse."

"She will kill this girl before she can even ask for her help." Alexandro claimed.

"There has to be another way." Iaso added.

"Yui-chan will most likely die before she can find another way." Chiron told them.

Yui slowly sat up, getting everyone's attention.

"You have to rest, Yui-san!" Iaso exclaimed and tried to make the human lie down again.

But Yui refused. "Iaso-san, please, my dress. I don't like being this exposed…"

"Oh, of course." Iaso grabbed Yui's dress and began helping her get it on. Alexandro and Chiron turned away so she wouldn't feel too uncomfortable.

Once she was dressed she checked her pocket, the bottle was still there and she put the stone in the same pocket. But there was one thing missing, the necklace wasn't hanging around her neck anymore. "My necklace?"

"This one?" Alexandro asked and held it out to her. "We had to take it off when we were treating you."

"Thank you, Alexandro-san." Yui smiled sweetly at him as she put the necklace around her neck. "This is the part where I say goodbye."

The three looked at her in confusion.

"Where are you going?" Alexandro asked. "I can take you there, you know?"

"If there's anything else we can do-..." Chiron added.

"What are you going to do, Yui-san?" Iaso asked.

Yui just smiled at them and grabbed the necklace. "Thank you for everything."

Then she disappeared without a trace, leaving the goddess and the centaurs with their mouths hanging open.


The moment Yui stepped out from the portal in her room she fell to her knees. 'What should I do…?' The curse had taken away almost all of her energy, how could she possibly make it to Yuki-onna?

She heard the front door open and in panic she tried to stand up, the ice over her eye was impossible to hide.

"Yui-san?" She could hear Balder call as he and at least two others got closer to the bedroom.

"She's been gone all day." She heard Loki point out.

"And I thought she was supposed to stay in bed?" Takeru added.

It was too late to hide, her friends were already too close. All she could do was to turn around so that she was facing the portal.

Then her friends stepped into the bedroom.

"I know but- Yui-san!" Balder exclaimed when he saw her standing there.

"Hey, Kitten, where have you been? You weren't here when I came to check on you." Loki asked with a frown.

"You're not supposed to move around like that when you're sick!" Takeru added.

"I'm… sorry…" Was all Yui managed to say.

"Hey, Yui-san, is something wrong?" Balder asked, worried.

Loki took a few steps forward. "Why won't you turn around?"

"Don't! Don't come any closer!" Yui suddenly exclaimed, causing Loki to stop dead in his tracks.

"What is wrong with you?" Takeru asked, confused.

"You're acting weird." Loki stated and took another step towards her.

"It's… It's just that…" Yui sobbed as tears began to fall from her one eye.

"Yui-san, are you crying? !" Balder exclaimed and he too started walking towards her, followed by Takeru. "Hey, Weed, we can't help you if you won't-"

"... There's nothing you can do…" Yui whispered.

"I'll be the one to decide that. Now tell me what the hell is going on!" Loki shouted, he was almost right behind her when Yui took one step through the portal and said, "I'm sorry…"

Then she disappeared, leaving her friends behind.

"Yui!" Loki called after her.

"What the hell was that? !" Takeru exclaimed in confusion.

"She wasn't herself, that's for sure." Balder stated.

Loki just stared at the portal.

In the next moment, Tyr came running through the front door and into the bedroom. "Guys!"

The three friends turned around. "What?" Takeru asked.

"Odin needs us!"

"Why? Can't you see we're busy!" Loki shouted.

"Yui-san wasn't acting like herself and refused to look at us." Balder explained. "She just left through the portal."

"Yui-san is the reason Odin and Zeus are gathering us, they will explain later but it's a good thing you didn't look at her."

"And why is that a good thing?" Loki frowned.

"I know just as much as you do, Odin just told me to gather Yui-san's friends and tell them not to try and approach her." Tyr explained.


When they finally made it to the room where Odin and Zeus had told them to come to Apollon, Hades, Dionysus, Tsukito, Thor, Sif, Freyr, Freyja and Vidar were already there, sitting around a table. Odin and Zeus were standing in front of them and Hugin and Munin were there as well, sitting on Odin's shoulders.

"Alright, we're here, now tell us why we can't get close to Weed." Takeru demanded as he and the rest took the seats beside the others.

"Zeus, what is going on?" Hades asked his brother.

"Is Fairy alright?" Apollon added, worried.

"Tell us already!" Freyja cried out.

"We've got some disturbing news regarding Kusanagi." Zeus said with his eyes closed.

"Hugin and Munin here told me what they had seen when they had found Kusanagi in the world of the Greek gods today." Odin explained.

"What was she doing over there?" Dionysus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We will come to that." Zeus informed. "But for now, you should know that your friend is in danger and close to death."

The room got quiet before everyone exclaimed, "WHAT! ?" and Apollon, Takeru, Loki, Sif and Freyja rose from their seats. "What the hell are you saying! ?" Loki shouted.

A/N: I'm going to be a little busy for a few days, so I'm going to play the devil and leave you with this for about 6-7 days until I post the next chapter. Sorry, don't kill me! ;D