My heart racing, I rushed to find Yuto as fast as humanly possible. Naturally, Yuto was asleep, and while I felt bad waking him, I knew this was an emergency.
"Yuto...! Yuto...!"
I whisper-yelled.
His eyes cracked open and he looked up at me. "Ayano...? What's...?"

"It's Sora...!"

•~•~•~•~•~•~••~•~•~•~•~••~•

I paced so intensely outside Sora's door that I thought a rut might form beneath my shuffling feet in the wooden floor.
The only reason I was out there was because Yuto was examining Sora thoroughlyー and by that, I mean Sora was definitely completely naked in there.
But that was the farthest thing from my mind, to say the least. It was all so strange... I'd been living with the two of them for around a month now.
I had never once seen either of them get sick. That fact worried me immensely. Was he not supposed to get sick...?
I couldn't stop running it through my head over and over again, shuffling back and forth and back and forth. I felt sick to my stomach from the worry.
My heart almost popped as Yuto opened the door and I whipped my head around to look at him.
"Ayano," his voice was soft. "He's begging to see you..."
My throat felt tight. "Is he clothed...?"

"Yes."

That was all I needed to hear before I burst into the room, seeing Sora lay on the bed in worse condition.
I could hear his rugged, labored breathing even from where I stood at the doorway.
"Sora..."
I rushed to his side, taking his hand in mine despite how much it burned.
"Ayano...?" He murmured hoarsely.

"Yes, it's me, I'm right here..."

His hand weakly tightened around mine and I bit down on my lip. I'd never seen him look so broken before...
It reminded me too much of what had happened to him before, all because of me.
I snapped back to reality, when Sora made a weird face, squinting at me.
".... What is it...?"

"....I can't hear them..."

I blinked. "What?"

".... I can't hear your thoughts."

My stomach tightened. "... You...?"
My mind was unstable, whirling with the things that were hitting me all at once. The only thing keeping me from breaking down was Sora's grip on my hand.
My tense body tried to relax a bit as Yuto came to the bedside next to me and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.
"The good news is, it shouldn't be fatal."
My body visibly relaxed at Yuto's words. Thank god...
"But... Whatever it is... It's doing less than good things to Sora's body."

"What...?"

I knew that Sora couldn't hear us, unconscious and breathing ruggedly, his eyes closed, so Yuto told me the truth of his condition freely.

"From the looks of it, something has been put in Sora's body that isn't supposed to be there."

"You mean he was poisoned...??"

"Judging by his symptoms, I think that just might be it... Have you noticed anything strange lately...?"

I struggled to swallow the lump in my throat as it hit me and tried my best to keep my voice steady.
"... He kept holding his arm."
Yuto looked at me, silently urging me to elaborate.
"... After he came back...f-from the store, he... He said it was nothing, but...."
My hands were as shaky as my voice as Yuto cast his gaze down at Sora, who was twitching in an uncomfortable state of unconsciousness.
"...that would explain it..." He murmured, and reached for Sora's arm, sliding his clothes out of the way to reveal a bulging, purple mark on Sora's skin.
My breath caught and I had to cover my mouth to keep from audibly gasping.
Sora...
Yuto swallowed.
"... I think they might have poisoned him with Galeflower.."

"Galeflower...?"

"It's a plant that grows in vines around the trunks of trees in the Middle East. It's only known by humans by a different name to be pretty, but.. To us..."
My skin broke into a cold sweat as Yuto finished in a hushed voice.
"... It's a deadly disease of the mind."