A silent beat passed and Yoshinaga spoke up again. “And what of you?”
Yuko frowned. Her head was starting to spin. “Yuko. Just Yuko.”
“What are your expectations?” Satoru ask ifed, equally cautious.
“That you and your fellow citizens will join me in Niku. Those of you that are strong and worthy enough to do so, at least. To serve and become better and stronger, and fulfill a purpose only we can.”
It was starting to become difficult to listen. She felt so hungry she was starving, yet so nauseous that she'd puke it back up immediately. Her skin itched like she was about to break out in hives while sweating buckets, and her mouth was dry as a desert. Was this guy doing anything to her?
Yuko looked at her companions. Was it just the lighting, or had they always looked so pale?
The man got up to his feet. Yuko attempted to back away, but tripped and fell to the ground, forcing her to scramble back instead. “What are you doing to us?”
“You only just noticed? It should have started before breaking the surface. I can help.”
Shizumi spoke up. “What do you know about kegare?”
The man chuckled, though it sounded empty. He reaches for a suitcase and opens it. He presents a bottle of pills. “It's a long lesson we don't have time for. For now, just know that one of these every day should build your resistance to the “kegare” to a point of becoming tolerable within a few days, but you'll need to take them for a month to no longer need them.”
Everyone knew it was a bad idea to blindly trust this Yoshinaga figure. Yet, considering the fact that Yuko could probably barely run if she tried, she had little choice. He hadn't done anything harmful yet, despite basically claiming all of Shini as his property.
Yuko reached for her water container, and carefully accepted one of the pills. It was gone in but a moment, even if the urge to hurl it back up did come.
“Yuko-” Satoru tried to protest with a hiss, but Shizumi cut him off.
“We are dying.”
Satoru looked away as he accepted the pill, swallowing it clearly painfully. Shizumi had more of her wits remaining as she took the medication, and even kept her hand stretched out after being given the medicine.
Yoshinaga chuckled as he also placed the bottle in her hands.
“Niku is located north of here. Cross the small stream ahead and keep going. Follow the water side if you come up empty. It should take about a week to arrive.”
Yuko's head continued to swim, she could barely register what the man was saying anymore.
Yoshinaga then pointed in the direction of the large light in the ceiling. “The sun goes down every day. This comes with its own challenges, so beware.”
Taking a step back, Yoshinaga found the leash of the creature and tugged. “I will take my leave now.”
“One more thing,” Yuko managed to push out, “the monsters, are they yours?”
She pointed weakly towards the creature to aid her.
The man then started to collect his items, without a care for the world that the trio was still there. “I made thirioids, yes. I made all of them, but they aren't all docile like this one. Horses like this one should be fine to encounter.”
Yuko stumbled to her feet.
Shizumi took Yuko's hand and started walking. “We should get these to the others.”
The group sat in a circle under the “sky” to discuss their plans the best they could. Yuko was still having trouble focusing, but at least she wasn't feeling like she was being cooked from the inside out anymore.
There were thirty-nine pills left in the bottle. If Yoshinaga was right about it taking about a week to reach Niku, that was about enough for five people and have a few spares, or four people if you wanted to have extra days. Alternatively, one person could take them all and become fully immune to the kegare.
That was all under the assumption that they were going to go to Niku, anyway. It seemed like that should be their last resort, even if it looked like their only option at the moment, that wasn't turning back at least.
Yuku didn't like the conditions under which she was proven right in her suggestion to split up. They were going to pressure her to go back to Shini, she just knew it.
As the time passed for the worst of the kegare’s effects to fade, Yuko could see the colours return to the others. She even managed to eat something for the first time that day.
Then the squabble began. What were they supposed to do now? They hadn't anticipated anything like this happening. Some people argued that they should take the medicine with them back to Shini to analyze and reproduce. Someone else argued this was probably a placebo and that they shouldn't be wasting time like this.
Shizumi clapped her hands to silence everyone, then spoke. “Satoru, Fukui, Yuko and I will explore this surfaced world. We take thirty-six pills to give us two extra days to find anything we can. Everyone else returns to Shini to report on our findings so far, taking the three remaining pills with them for analysis.”
“You're seriously taking the kid-”
Yuko interrupted him. “I'm not going back yet.”
Someone groaned. “At least don't waste the medicine on her.”
Satoru glared at them. “Are you hearing yourself right now?”
“We're not letting the kid die. We're just going to use the cards we've been dealt, and Akai’s suggestion seems most favorable.”
The way they spoke of her like she was a toddler right to her face made Yuko's blood boil.
Her gaze wandered back and forth between Shizumi and Satoru and she calmed down. She didn't know if it was her skills or them giving in to her stubbornness that caused them to defend her, but she appreciated them either way.
It didn't take much longer before supplies were redivided and everyone was on their way.
The sun was warm. Yuko would never have guessed that there would be a single light able to illuminate this much space, and provide this much warmth. Yuko had to discard her jacket and lose the helmet to keep herself from overheating, tying them to her backpack.
Fukui had taken the lead on navigating, as Satoru couldn't help but take out a notebook and scribble away, likely making notes on everything he saw.
Besides the foliage on the ground, larger shrubs were also plenty, and even trees were found everywhere, much bigger than anything they'd manage to grow in Shini. Yuko could swear she could see remnants of structures sometimes hidden under the green, and she was pretty convinced they'd found themselves walking along what was once a road. Sometimes they'd find ruins of strange objects that they took a break to analyse. Some they knew, some didn't.
There were more thiriods, too. Each was stranger than the last, though they were much smaller and not hostile. There were just bugs, as well, none of which she recognized.
A few hours into their trek, the sun had moved. Not all at once, mind you, but it was definitely in a different spot in the sky. Where was it going? The party had to check if their compas wasn't broken more than once, it was so confusing.
Not once during this time did Shizumi take her hands off the rifle hanging off her torso or her eyes off the horizon. Yuko guessed Shizumi wanted to be ready if another monster popped up, even if not every one of them was bad.
Eventually, land ended, and there was only the largest pool of water they'd ever seen. It was kept in a large basin of which the sides were walled off, yet looking on either side the walls and water disappeared into the horizon. Objects littered the place and even the water, but there was a large gap in the rubble, purposefully cleared. The platform that made up the ground underneath also looked much more recent. “Maybe that's the way forward?”
“It's too far to swim, that's for sure, with our barebones practice,” Satoru muttered as his gaze followed Yuko’s, trying to explore all possible options.
“Yoshinaga made it sound like it wasn't a big deal,” Yuko argued as she approached it.
The group followed Yuko more carefully. When she set foot on the strange platform, it shook. What appeared to be a control panel sprouted from the floor. There was one large button up top, but a quick look revealed more on the side and bottom.
There was a moment of hesitation, before Yuko pressed the big button.
The water started to quake, startling everyone, before large connected panels came to float on the water, a green light illuminating the path.