Zeka was on the floor, wondering what was going on. I-I can't feel anything... Where am I? Why is it so dark here... Zeka thought quietly. He couldn't see anything but darkness, and couldn't hear anything but his loud thoughts and his own heartbeat.
Liora noticed his body trembling with fear. "Zeka?" She called to him, hoping for an answer.
. . .
No answer. Liora finally realized he was really completely isolated from the world. A shiver ran down her spine, heavy with guilt. She looked at Genseki with confusion, but Genseki was only watching Zeka's reaction — he looked isolated, fearful. Genseki wasn't just looking at him, though; he was analyzing what was going on in silence.
The door they were sitting next to suddenly opened. It was Akari. Genseki's attention immediately shifted when he felt her presence coming out. There was no difference in her: messy hair as always, and lazy eyes as always. That unsettled him more than any visible wound would have. Genseki looked at her and thought about asking her what happened there. Did the scientist harm her? Fed her something? Should I ask her, or would I look weird? Genseki thought deeply as he looked at the left side of him. Zeka was still trembling, and Liora's attention was only on him. He thought it would be a bad idea to leave Zeka like that, but Liora noticed what was going on. She smiled.
"Isn't that the lazy girl? You were worried about her all day long. You'll sit here without finding out what happened to her?"
She said quietly, more like a whisper, thinking Zeka would notice it. And Genseki looked between her and Zeka. It would be wrong to leave the situation like that, but he really wanted to talk to Akari. And finally he decided to go and ask her. It was a hard decision, but Akari seemed to be more important to him.
Akari, meanwhile, was looking at the two twins; one of them broke a stick with an invisible sword, cutting the stick into pieces.
"Hey..." Genseki spoke; he was now standing close by her side as she turned around to look at him.
Liora watched the two of them chatting; she felt a little jealous. They could talk to each other while she was waiting for Zeka to feel fine again. But Liora noticed something different in Akari; her presence felt different, as if she was more noticeable than last time, and she couldn't ignore it.
Genseki looked at her eyes and felt the same thing; there was something different in her. The scientist definitely did something to her. Genseki said to himself as he opened his mouth for a second before speaking.
"W-what happened in there? Did he do something bad to you?"
Genseki asked as he took a glance behind him, checking on Zeka before returning his attention to Akari. But she looked confused too; she looked at the sky for a moment, trying to figure out what she was supposed to say when she didn't know either. She raised her arm, opening her hand as she imagined making an axe with her light power. But there was no difference; her power wasn't affected, her body looked normal, yet she felt different.
Akari looked behind Genseki and found Zeka trembling with fear and Liora sitting next to him. She felt like she might do something, but wasn't sure what exactly she was going to do, like the answer was right there, but she got no context. Genseki looked at the twins and found one of them bleeding on the hand. It was a small cut, nothing major, but they headed toward it as Genseki and Akari stood still and watched them approach.
"Hey, uhm, can't you do something about my brother's little injury? I mean, don't you have the light power? Most stories say that you can heal or whatever."
Hayato, the older twin, asked, looking at Akari. But Akari felt insulted.
"Most stories? What kind of stories exactly? I literally have the light power, in the meaning of physics, not some kind of angelic light or whatever. Stop watching shows that don't make sense; you look stupid." She said, pointing at him for a moment and then at his twin brother. A sudden wave of energy surged toward the other twin, Hayaru. The wound on his hand vanished as if it hadn't existed just a few seconds ago.
Akari noticed that as she looked at her hand, she really did heal him, but it didn't make sense to her. She thought her mother was right, and the healing power was just a myth. She felt a little betrayed, but she was sure her mother was right. Then why did she heal him?
Genseki finally realized the situation, and an idea suddenly ran across his mind. He looked at Zeka for a brief moment, and then back to Akari.
"Wait, if you can heal him, can you heal Zeka too?" Genseki asked as he looked back again and found Liora confused when he said that out loud: heal? What heal? Liora missed the moment when Akari healed Hayaru by accident. But the kids looked confused for a moment, as they all said something at once. "Who's Zeka?"
They asked in one breath as Genseki realized that Zeka had never approached them before; it was only him and Liora, but he didn't give up. He turned around and pulled Zeka by his arm, as Liora stood up when she saw him take Zeka away.
Meanwhile, Zeka wasn't even there; he didn't even feel Genseki pulling his arm. The kids looked at Zeka up and down, realized that the coat he was wearing belonged to Liora, but they didn't comment about it when they saw nothing under his coat; maybe she gave it to him.
Akari looked at Genseki and then back to Zeka; she was a little confused because she still didn't believe she could actually heal.
"How do you want me to heal him, and why is he so quiet? He didn't even ask for it." Akari asked as she looked back at Genseki.
"He is disconnected from the world right now; some sort of curse happened to him when he got the activation. I think it's a trial that happens only to specific activations."
Genseki was calm, filled with hope that he could help his friend to be fine again. And Akari finally understood and decided to trust in Genseki and Zeka. She pointed at him with one finger just like how she did with Hayaru. This time, something was different — Zeka could suddenly hear again, but he was still lost somewhere behind those dark, empty eyes. Genseki immediately noticed his reaction as he looked at Akari. He analyzed the situation in seconds and took Akari's wrist, as he made her extend a flat palm in Zeka's direction.
The healing affected him more directly, and Zeka's eyes slowly came back to normal, followed by his other senses slowly. Zeka was now back to normal, but there was still a little bit of blurriness in his eyes. When he realized that he was standing in front of the group, he felt a little anxious yet weird for coming back to normal; there was no fear of isolation anymore; he could feel them around him.
And Akari exhaled heavily when she noticed she was holding her breath this whole time; she looked at him and noticed his dark eyes had turned back to normal. It felt unrealistic to her; the same question kept running through her mind: why could she even heal at all? And once Zeka was about to speak, the scientist interrupted them by opening the door they stood in front of.
"Back inside, you must rest before tomorrow; it'll be a heavy day."
The scientist said coldly as he turned around and the door closed behind him. All of them looked at the door, including Liora, as they looked back at each other as if there was an answer on their faces...