[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/h5xf31C.png[/img][/center][hr][i][b]//Night 1 | Location:[/b] Nameless Forest - Lakeside[/i]
[sub][@AThousandCurses][@baraquiel][@Nakushita][@Yankee][@Vertigo][@Cu Chulainn][/sub]
It smelled of pine and spring.

Asahi’s eyes opened, one at a time. It had been the deepest, most dreamless sleep he had had in years, and yet he still felt tired at the end of it, as if he hadn’t recovered at all. There was perhaps some clarity in his vision, perhaps his head no longer felt so woozy, but that sensation of lightness, as his body responded a touch too slow for his mind, persisted. He was starving. A couple of fish wouldn’t do it. He had given so much, suffered so much, and in the end?

Well, it had been worth it.

Framed by firelight, Sasuke sat beside him, offering a slight nod, a slight smile, as he chewed upon a skewered fish. Whatever injuries he had suffered from, whatever the effects of the blood-purge caused by Duncan’s ichor, the youth was there beside Asahi now, a starlight brilliance in his dark blue eyes. It was a miracle, a miracle that they had all struggled through to obtain. And it was their blueprint too now, the elixir they could use to bring anyone else back.

Almost as much of a miracle, really, as the fact that the shelter they were now in had [i]walls[/i]. Not high enough to rise to the top of the poles, but tall enough to block out the wind and the bugs. Mud had been caked against a frame made of wooden poles, a primitive yet effective solution, and the architect of all this free-standing shelter, Rin, was curled up in a corner of the space, alongside one of the Ito twins, snoring with such a ferocity that Asahi wondered how he even stayed asleep for that long.

If he closed his eyes though, he could almost imagine it. That they were at that camping spot up in the mountains, two years ago. That they were back in Japan, just a one-hour bus ride away from home.

[b]“Oh hey, Duncan,”[/b] Maki’s voice sounded out, followed by a light kick that alerted the dozing basketball ace. [b]“Looks like Asahi’s up now.”[/b]

Yuki, however, wasn’t.

While his complexion had improved the same way that Sasuke had, he remained unconsciousness, nothing more than a limp body resting upon the leaf-woven blankets that Tsubasa and Masato had made together. Haruko and Daisuke were present too, the former flashing a smile towards Asahi when their eyes met, while the latter was constantly peeking over the top of the wall, as if checking on the situation.

And what the situation was?

Well, even if they weren’t that close, there was no way Ayane would see her step-sister get smashed into the dirt and stay silent over it.

…

Shun hadn’t had much time to rest, not when she had borne the brunt of Ayane’s tirade immediately after breaking a good couple dozen bones in Ayana’s body and sending the girl straight to bed. Why had she done it? Why did she resort to such extreme levels of violence? What the fuck did Ayana even do to deserve this? Was being stressed and then snapping from it all that wrong? It wasn’t like everyone was out to break Kogen’s skull in, no matter how many dirty looks or weird words the chuunibyou spat out on the regular, so why do that to Ayana? Over a rock too!

Hiroshi tried to mediate, of course, but Duncan had peaced out long ago and while he knew a lot about everything, emotional situations like this wasn’t something he understood how to handle. Shun’s left cheek remained unmarred by the terrific slap that Ayane delivered; the fashionista’s own hand was still an angry, throbbing red from the impact. Even when the others rushed over to break up this one-sided fight, they too had questions. The rock that Ayana clutched so desperately even in her unconscious state didn’t look all that special at all, outside of being black, and there wasn’t really any way for them all to understand how this whole chain of events had happened.

What triggered Ayana to start bringing up a chuuni moniker? Why did Shun decide extreme, near-lethal violence was the way to resolve the situation?

They all sat by the fire now, except for a select few who had checked out into the shelter or were still handling menial tasks around the campsite. Enough time had passed, at least, that Ayane herself had managed to hold back her anger enough that she wasn’t going to lash out anymore, but, well, it all depended on it, didn’t it?

What Ayana was like when she stirred.

[i]How she would respond, when she realized the Endless Eclipse was missing from her person.[/i]

Firewood crackled.

Her eyes opened.