Sora thought his heart would stop as he watched Ayano fall cold to the ground, unable to do anything.
"...Ayano...!"
His body jolted as he tried to get to her, but the strain on his body threw him to his knees in another coughing fit. Haruka came to his side to support him, and Yuto rushed to Ayano's aid, gathering the broken girl in his arms, careful to take the vile from her and slip it in his pocket. The moment he held her, he raised his gaze to look at Sora with the saddest expression.
"...she feels cold, Sora...."
He felt sick to his stomach. This was his fault. All of it was because of him. If he had just been watching her... He was supposed to protect her when Sora couldn't, and yet...
Simultaneously, Sora was blaming himself. Damn him for letting himself get poisoned... None of this would've happened if not for him. What was he to do...?

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Ayano did not awaken. Bedridden, Sora never once left her side.
He did not take the antidote.
How could he...? How could he help himself and be well while she sat here like this? He couldn't... In spite of Haruka and Yuto's best efforts to get him to, Sora would not touch the vile.
Naturally, that meant his condition worsened alongside Ayano's. Every once and a while, his body would turn on itself and he'd dry retch for a whileー but there was nothing in his system to throw up. He wouldn't eat, either. Not after this. After what he'd seen.
Upon taking Ayano home, they'd quickly examined her. Lifting the hem of her shirt, they saw it.
A large, almost circular bruise stretching darkly over her abdomen. The sight had made Sora weak in the knees. "....what did this..." It bled through in his voice that he would kill the culprit in less than a second.
Yuto swallowed.
".... They took it..." He had murmured. "They took the power out of Ayano."

"What does that mean," Sora hissed, his eyes never leaving the disgusting mark which marred Ayano's flesh. "What did they do to her."
Yuto paused before continuing in a hushed voice. "Her ability was embedded in her soul.... They took her soul, Sora."

Took her soul....
Some lowlife had taken his Ayano's soul? What could he do about that? What could he do....?

He squeezed her hand in his tightly. "...Ayano....don't go, okay...? Not yet..."
He rested his head beside hers.
"...not yet..."