[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/h5xf31C.png[/img][/center][hr][i][b]//Day 2 | Location:[/b] Nameless Forest - Lakeside[/i]
[sub][@Vertigo][@baraquiel][/sub]

[b]“They can’t stay scared all the time,”[/b] Mayumi replied, leaning back on the log and planting her hands upon the grass. [b]“Can’t stay sad that long either.”[/b]

It wasn’t something that could be sustained. Not if you wanted to keep going. Perhaps it was heartless, to move on so quickly after Yuudai and Yuki passed, but if Duncan and Daisuke had been willing to do it, everyone else had simply followed through.
She squinted through the smoke, into the distance, at where Tsubaki and Yukiko were. There was still a space for those who couldn’t follow through. Even with only one hand, even with her own bundle of troubles, the dark-skinned girl still managed to make herself into a sanctuary for others, huh?

[b]“Being safe for a couple days doesn’t mean too much, but yeah, let the idiots be idiots while they can.”[/b] Uncharacteristically, she slapped Asahi on the shoulder. It was weak slap, as expected of an indoorsy type like her. Hardly inspiring. But she made an effort to flash her teeth. [b]“You should try it out too. Least ‘til you get back to being your usual cutesy self, Asahi.”[/b]

Perhaps she caught the worry in his eyes, perhaps she didn’t.

[b]“I’m sure Sasuke only jumped in to join you.”[/b]

That was more of a lie, but the lopsided quirking of her lips made it a joke.

...

The forest was noisy as hell once you really stopped to listen, but humans were noisy as hell even when you didn’t stop to listen.
Duncan was a strong, after all. Superhumanly strong, even. If he put his mind to it, he could topple a tree by kicking it. He could jump insane distances too. Could probably survive a bullet to the face at this point. He was akin to a superhero, a demigod in the Otherside, spilling golden blood that was so potent that it was anathema to mere mortals.

All this did not translate to stealth. Not at all.

He was peculiarly big, after all, and heavy too. He couldn’t move on all fours and slink about like a true beast, and there were just so many [i]things[/i] on the ground! Twigs could snap beneath his weight, or his hips could graze the brush. Even the gentle crinkling of fallen leaves beneath him felt too loud, and Duncan took so much effort in slowing down and approaching visual range that he…failed to read the situation.

Haruko and Akito were alone, as alone as they could be. It was by choice, of course, for a conversation that demanded privacy. But it meant too, that vigilance was necessary too. This was a world of monsters, and they stepped into the wilderness. The unnatural shuddering of vegetation, the [i]sensation[/i] of something massive approaching them with a predator’s gait. They were not insensitive to it, and while Akito still played at a lone wolf, Haruko was different.

She, after all, had a super strong boyfriend. Perhaps, if rumors were to be believed, currently the world's strongest boyfriend.

And thus, her response to lurking danger?

[b]“DUNCAN! HELP!”[/b]

It was simple irony, of course, that the presence the two sensed [i]was[/i] Duncan.

[hr][i][b]//Day 2 | Location:[/b] Nameless Forest - The Den[/i]
[sub][@AThousandCurses][@Nakushita][/sub]

It was sunset in her eyes, and the only blue came from her classmate.

The monsters were dead. Shun had given her body for it, and even as she forced more food into her mouth, even as Oros came to feed her, her ruptured organs refused to hold it down for long. The air, once sweet with victory and sated thrill, was soon stained with the sour of vomit and the rust of blood instead, the crippled girl forced to roll over and hurl out the contents of her stomach. The forge inside the pit of her stomach was [i]broken[/i], whatever fuel placed inside, whatever fire fanned by the bellows, spilling out instead of staying in.

The cold settled in. The cost had been paid, but the debts had not. And her body was still not fixing itself fast enough. She needed to recover. Recover so she could eat. But she couldn’t recover without energy. And energy could only be gotten from eating. Eating which she couldn’t do. She had to recover still.

It was a small thought. A flicker of a thought.

But that golden blood may have been most appropriate for a moment like this. An elixir to be taken when all else had been emptied. The drop of fuel to restart the engine.

Oros watched as Shun weakened in the daylight.

It was up in the air, truly. She could run back. Believe in fate and search for a helping hand, but did her one friend have that long to live? Was there even anything she could truly do to help, when her own Facsimile was unformed, when all those mountains of meat couldn’t even be chewed by Shun, couldn’t be kept down even if they were chewed?

There was sunset in Shun’s eyes. The dying of the light.

Without the boons of being an Awakened, it was only through human tenacity that Shun could cling on. And yet…

She had avenged Yuudai. Had enjoyed that splash of freedom. Had accepted the consequence of fighting where she ought to have run.

What reason remained for her to continue living?