The next few days of my stay at Ujishima Central Hospital fell into a steady rhythm. I would wake in the morning, either greeted by Kami or Hikaru, and even on a few days, Suijin. I even ended up having all three of them appear at once. That ended up in me getting overwhelmed by the number of questions I was being asked at once. I also noticed the fact that Kami and Hikaru were sharing many hushed conversations. Suijin was talking to me more and more because of the fact that I and Yuri had spent so much time together. The relationship between the two of them was still strained; that fact was obvious from the hurt that was clear in Suijin's eyes. I did my best to answer her questions and try to help her in any way possible, because I couldn't stand to see her that way.
Anyways, after the first round of visitors would leave, I would order breakfast from the hospital's menu, which featured a bunch of dietary dishes. The food was good, if anything a bit bland. Thankfully, the nurses seemed to like me and would sneak in extra things like candy or sweets to spice up my meal. One time, there was even a note snuck in with one of my meals that asked me if I would have any free time after I was discharged. The name it was signed with happened to be one of the many junior nurses in the building. I showed the note to Hikaru a little bit later, asking her how I should respond, and she said that she'd handle it. I was a bit grateful, while at the same time regretful, because I never did end up hearing about what happened with that situation.
After I ate breakfast, Mrs. Jackson would then walk in and do some preliminary checks on me before moving on to a discussion of self-care and the importance of not neglecting your own condition. Unfortunately for me, she was extremely strict with how she evaluated my speeches and answers to the questions she proposed. She would allow no sort of mistakes on my part, nor did she accept any answers that she felt were shallow or lazy. It was a rough time; however, I was getting progressively better at not only speaking but also maintaining eye contact and actually maintaining a conversation with people aside from the basic and necessary things. I could actually make pointless small talk for once, and I found it very enjoyable.
Next, I would go through my daily checkup with Dr. Montez. We would check the basics, and he would make sure I was in okay condition with nothing serious developing. He would ask me if I had any questions, and after that conversation he would leave the room. After going through my main checkup, I would head to the magic therapy room, where I would work with Yuri and Dr. Tamaki. At first the progress was pretty much invisible, as I couldn't tell if the work we were doing was having any major progress at all. However, after a few days, I could see the signs. Now I could allow mana to flow naturally through my body without risking a heart attack. I could even start casting magic spells and flexing my mana out of my body with only minimal signs.
I was starting to feel much better about myself, and Yuri's progress was nothing to scoff at either. He had already halfway built up the reserves of the many spells that he had lost once before. Not only that, but he was also beginning to build back his processing speed. Even with the progress that both of us were making, it was clear that it would still take time and effort on our parts to get back to the level we once were. And according to Dr. Tamaki, even then it might not be as good as we were before. That fact scared me a bit. With everything that was beginning to happen in the world, all of the conflict, the disasters, and the higher beings that Ariel had told me about, and that was just the surface; if I wasn't at 100%, how would I even compete?
Would I be able to protect Kami? Would I be able to even find, let alone reach, the freedom that I hold so dear?
And after that training was finished, I would go off with Yuri, and we would share dinner with Erika, Masayoshi, and Nova. Conversations at that table were usually wild and lighthearted; however, there was a darker mood. Everyone seemed to have a dark cloud hanging over them. Every time the topic of conversation would die down, there was a silence that was filled with tension and more than a bit awkward. It never lasted long, but it spoke volumes about everything with the siege on Theta and life in general, especially.
Erika had lost some of her vigor, and I caught her in deep introspection at many moments. Nova was the same. I tried my best to bring up the conversations, but I didn't want to pry, and I had no way to know what was plaguing them either, so all my attempts failed. This applied especially to Masayoshi. He was always silent. Even when the whole group was joking around, he was sitting in silence, thinking. In fact, we had to drag him over to the table in the first place. He was always sitting alone, sulking. And nothing that anybody else said would bring him out of it. Whenever he did break his silence, it was only to make oddly cryptic statements and ask questions like
"What was the point of me winning if he was going to be right in the end?"
"He was right. They both were right? Where the hell does that leave me?"
Everyone was worried, but we couldn't figure out what to do. So we decided to leave him to his own devices, and we hoped that when the moment was right, he would tell us what was killing him inside.
After that, I would just hang around the hospital, talking to Kami or Hikaru. That would spell the routine for every day. It was simple, but it was nice. Even though there were still some things I had to worry about, I found the time to rest a god send.
So when the routine was broken a day before I was meant to be discharged, I was a bit shocked at first. However, I welcomed the small change and did something different.
Of course, I should have known that the change in routine was a sign of disaster to come.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Surprisingly, I awoke to nobody in my room for the first time in a while. Usually, I'd find Kami in her sleeping bag or Hikaru just sitting in a chair watching me. However, this time, the room was empty. I thought that maybe it was because I had woken up early, but I looked at the clock, and it was the same time that I usually woke up.
Well, it's not like they don't have things to do. It's selfish of me to assume the only thing they should spend their mornings doing is checking on me.
As I thought that, I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I spent a few seconds just getting adjusted, and then I sat in silence. Now that the daily routine had been broken, I didn't really know what I should do. It was still a bit early for me to go out and ask for breakfast, but I didn't want to sit in silence for nearly an hour either. I could go out, but there wasn't really anything to do.
That being said, after a few moments of silence, I finally made a decision as to what I would do.
"Are you there? I have some questions." I spoke out loud because I wasn't sure if just talking mentally would work.
"Of course I'm here, and don't worry, we share a mind in a way. I can hear your thoughts." Ariel replied almost immediately.
I reassured her that speaking through my mind would work, because the worst thing that could happen was someone walking in on me talking to myself; however, I was also put off by Ariel's comment.
"You can hear my thoughts?" I asked.
Even though she wasn't here, I could literally hear her giggle within my mind. "You've been having an awful lot of your mind dominated by a certain someone lately...hehehehe."
Her knowing tone and giggle were sending shivers down my spine, so I immediately changed the topic of the conversation. "T-that's not important right now! Seriously! I have things I need to ask you."
"Well then, ask away. I'll do my best to answer them."
I thought for a few seconds before firing out my first question. "How do I get my heart back?"
I was met by a brief silence. "I said I'd try my best to answer, but you know I'm not omniscient, right?" My hopes fell as she gave that response. "However, I can give you my best guess."
"I mean, a guess is better than nothing. Any sort of idea of what to do is better than where I'm at currently."
"Way to carry a positive mindset! It seems you've actually taken some of Mrs. Jackson's training to heart, despite how much you grumble and whine about it internally." She then gave me what had to have been an exaggerated performance of my mental state whenever Mrs. Jackson gave me a new assignment. After that whole debacle, she finally gave me the answer to the question I had asked. "Remember how I had told you that the Witch would use your heart to initiate disasters?"
I nodded.
"Well then, searching for where the biggest, most unnatural disasters are spawning from is one way for you to figure out where the Witch has been."
Unfortunately, Ariel's answer did not bring me any sort of comfort. That left me with a whole and entire world to look through, not even to mention the fact that disasters were commonplace in a world locked in war and on the verge of exploding into another war. That didn't even cover the fact that I didn't know what constituted an 'unnatural disaster.' I was just locked back at square one.
"Like I said, it was only my best guess." I could visibly feel her shrugging her shoulders.
Deciding that I was getting nowhere on that front, I switched my question. "About those higher beings. How strong do I need to be to face them? Will I ever get to that level if I get my heart back? How much of a threat are they?"
"This one is actually one I can answer!" She sounded way too proud of herself. "I heard that."
"Answer the question."
"So rude, that's no way to talk to a person helping you. The thing about the higher beings that really puts them on another level is dimensionality. I'm sure that you noticed it when the Witch of Vainglory revealed her true form and she began to take over your mind. How could I forget? That hellish pain and the fact that my thoughts were filled with nothing but her. " Simply enough, divine beings can range in strength; however, a majority of that comes from their divinity. Of course, in order to interfere with the real world, they must harshly limit their divinity in order to not shatter the laws of the real world. That means they are harshly lowering their power just to do things within the real world. Now, whether or not you'll be able to stand up to them even in those weakened states really has to do with you. But don't worry, as the 'light of heaven,' there are things you can do to increase your strength. But first, you must get your heart back."
Hearing that made me feel a bit better, but a bit worse at the same time. Yes, I learned that all of the higher beings I was worried about would be significantly weakened in order to interfere with the real world; however, I also learned that the strength I had seen from the witch that completely overwhelmed me was what her strength looked like while heavily restricted. The only thing I could do was thank God I wasn't fighting them at their full strength.
"Finally, is there any way for me to enter that palace where we had our tea party at will?" That surreal place brought me a great sense of comfort when I was there the first time, and there were still things about the castle I wanted to investigate. On top of that, I just had a gut feeling that something about that place was important.
"Well, that's really up to you. While there is a way for you to enter, I can only bring you here when you enter a state of deep rest, like when you're in a coma or when you enter a near-death state. However, I'm sure there's a way for you to do it manually. It's just up to you to figure it out."
I sighed. It seemed like a lot of these things just ended in me needing to figure it out myself. However I had to do it. It was either that, or I let all of my goals and dreams collapse and let people around me get hurt.
CLANK!
The sound of something hitting my window snapped my attention towards it. There was a baseball-sized dent in the window made of reinforced glass. I slowly approached it, wondering what was going on, and my eyes widened in shock when I saw what was happening.
There was a massive group of people holding signs and sticks on fire, as well as weapons. They were probably thousands deep, and they surrounded the hospital.
No, not a group. It was a mob. A mob of angry people surrounded Ujishima Central Hospital.