Fourth Day, Injury

Waking up like usual and pushing Natash out of the bed, Mitsuna stood up and put her clothes on.

"Is this going to become a habit of yours Mitsuna, yes?"

"You just answered your own question there."

Leaving the house and going to hunt while enjoying some casual small-talk, Mitsuna soon noticed a rabbit.

"Same meat as last time?"

"Let's look for something bigger like a deer. That way we might not have to go hunt again tomorrow."

"True. Although these rabbits do have enough meat for an entire day, eating the same thing all the time will get us sick sooner or later."

"Yes, yes."

"Did you have to add that last 'yes'?"

Mitsuna asked as she ignored the rabbit and jumped further into the forest.

"Yes."

Finding a boar, a smirk came to their faces.

"Wanna hunt that?"

"I need my revenge, yes."

"Same strategy?"

"Mhm."

Filling the area with string and needles, Mitsuna waited for the distraction.

'Since it's level 71 it will be difficult but not impossible.'

Seeing a familiar sword slam into the ground, the next thing the boar did shocked her.

It ran straight at the man.

"Natash, cancel and prepare for battle."

Natash, hearing the slight worry in the normally calm Mitsuna's voice, cancelled her illusion and looked at the boar who smashed into the tree behind the illusion.

Mitsuna pulled on her strings and the boar got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sorry, I meant a broken tree and mana thread.

Pulling and spinning the thread as much as she could, Mitsuna could only do small amounts of damage as only a few scratches appeared on the boar's hide.

Wrapping some thread around its neck, Mitsuna gave some to Natash and told her to jump, run and pull as hard as she could.

Jumping back a little, Natash soon followed as the thread got stuck behind the branch.

The boar was pulled into the air and started struggling.

Running around the tree for a little more stability, Mitsuna slammed her feet into the ground and pulled.

Natash tried to do the same but failed, struggling to pull the thread any tighter.

The boar was slowly dying due to lack of oxygen and its struggle died down.

Natash saw the chance and tried to infuse some of her mana into the string so they could finish it off faster.

The moment her mana entered the string, it turned slightly pink and broke a moment later.

'Damn it.'

Mitsuna thought as she used as much mana as she could.

The boar was slowly standing back up, breathing heavily.

Mana strings manifested in the air along with a large amount of ice.

Pieces of ice started to fall as the boar got ready to charge.

Natash was bewildered.

'Why? My mana isn't sick or bad or anything. Right?'

Natash looked at the boar that started charging. Tears welled up in her eyes.

Before it could reach them, Natash looked up and saw.

A large chunk of ice, it was being peeled down by mana thread to resemble the shape of a guillotine.

Threads held it in place.

Natash looked towards Mitsuna who was violently twisting the thread between her fingers.

Natash then heard the words 'stupid pig' coming from Mitsuna as the guillotine was launched by the threads like a boulder from a catapult coming from above.

It sliced the head off the charging boar and penetrated the earth.

The head kept going as it smashed into Mitsuna and pinned her to the ground against a tree.

Natash snapped back to reality and rushed to help Mitsuna.

Her fingers were heavily hurt and a tooth from the boar had penetrated her stomach, not to mention her head that was slammed against the tree was also bleeding.

"Ow ow ow." Mitsuna cried out as Natash pulled the head away and carried Mitsuna back home.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Can you do me a favour and get the meat back home too?"

"Yes... yes."

Mitsuna saw Natash feeling really down and guilty so she tried to lighten the mood.

"You really don't have to add that second yes, do you?"

Mitsuna smiled as her eyes closed and the world darkened slightly.

...

Waking up back home in bed, Mitsuna sat up and held her head.

'Ouch...'

Looking around, she saw nothing different.

'Well... at least I didn't die. Heh... Ow.'

Hearing talking above her, Mitsuna stood up and started hobbling upstairs.

"Really Natash. I'm disappointed, not angry. I get that you were scared but seeing someone you should look towards like your sister about to die should get some response out of you. Mitsuna almost died you know? She barely had 1/9 of her maximum health left."

"I'm sorry."

"I get that. You've been saying that for the entire time but still. 52 levels above Mitsuna and you leave her to go at it alone just because your illusions don't work as expected?"

"I'm Sorry!"

"..."

"My mana. I sometimes feel like it's... sick. I can only do Illusion magic. If I try anything else it breaks. When I saw Mitsuna's strings, I thought I finally found something but it didn't work."

"..."

"I- I felt useless..."

"*Sigh* Natash..."

Empathy embraced the crying Natash.

Mitsuna who heard all of this while sitting on the stairs, decided to go back to bed.

...

The next morning, Empathy helped remove her bandages and Mitsuna was mostly fine, just a little sore.

Natash seemed a little more distant as she didn't even shoot back after Mitsuna's quips.

After hunting, Mitsuna spoke while dragging the rabbit.

"Hey, Natash."

"..."

"I don't blame you."

"..."

"You can talk to me anytime if you want."

Reaching home, Mitsuna prepared some sandwiches with both rabbit and boar meat.