Surviving Wisteria - Saving Shinobu's life!

Kai couldn't find the antidote.

The Corrupt Latios had taken them far with its massive flying speed. However, Kai had failed to battle potency.

Using the Eon Soul Dew had already left him empty of Mana, Breath, and HP; HP that he direly needed.

Not to mention, he had been carrying a dying lady, a sodden wooden box, with a person inside it, and a sword running through his stomach, poisoning him more and more with every passing moment.

However, by afternoon, Kai's HP had gone low enough for him to not ignore it.

The Corrupt Latios had vanished after 30 seconds. The strangest thing was that the Eon Soul Dew hadn't returned to him, but directly appeared in his Inventory.

At anytime, such a mysterious effect would have pleased Kai.

Not here. Not in this Random World.

Now, Kai couldn't take out the Top-Grade Rare Item even if he wanted as the Systems restricted his use of Inventory under the rules of the 2nd Stage of the Tournament.

So the moment he saw a wide, cleared area on the river bank, just after crossing a village, he landed there.

Kai looked around and the first thing he saw was a weather-beaten hut a few hundred meters in the clearing. All around him, tall trees were rising towards the sky, telling him a tale of the rainforest.

He took Shinobu to the hut, made a makeshift bed using the straw, and laid her down over it, her breath broken and low.

But his life came first.

He searched her thoroughly but could find no antidote.

Cursing under his breath, and with the package still on his back, Kai walked to the river again, making sure that the distance between the river bank and the hut was less than 1000 meters.

It was not the time to take an HP capsule. Kai couldn't take it, even if he wanted to.

Times had changed. Now Kai wasn't a 1st Set's newbie anymore, and the Systems played it fair, keeping the absurdness of the Contestants in balance for those who were backed up by top organizations.

The Common Grade HP Capsules, giving 50 HP points, were now 50% less efficient on him.

If taken more than once within 24 hours, this 50% less efficacy would decrease by another 50%, and it would keep decreasing until the limit was met. So, they were pretty useless.

The Uncommon Grade HP capsules he had now restored 100 HP.

For him to get all the 100 points, he must take the second HP capsule after a gap of 3 hours. If taken before, he would only get 50 points.

However, these capsules weren't antidotes. Kai knew that taking an HP capsule now would only stop his bleeding and heal the wound. It was entirely the opposite of what he wanted, though.

Kai slumped down near the river bank, his knees slamming over the wet, polished pebbles.

He put the wooden case over to his right and undressed, keeping only his baggy pants on himself.

Then Kai held the stinger-sword hilt running through his stomach and gritted his teeth.

With one great pull, he took it out, blood and flesh spraying out all around him.

With his HP bar flashing red in front of his eyes, telling him it had less than 10% of its original value, Kai took several deep breaths to keep himself from not losing consciousness.

He hastily used Telekinesis to grab several fistfuls of water from the river, and flushed the pieces of flesh and blood into the river, erasing the foul scent.

After a few minutes, when Kai saw that his HP Regeneration Rate had reached a balance with his HP loss, only then did he unsheathe Afro's Tachi out of its scabbard.

With the sword in his hand, Kai looked down at the wound and saw the mass of rotten flesh darkening with every breath he took.

It must go, he reasoned. Now.

Kai had spent a substantial amount of time in the wilderness in his previous life.

He had experienced enough of it and had learned about it even more. Not to mention, he had learned enough about the poisons; his blood essence had been that of a serpent there, too.

To survive this ordeal, he could see only one particular set of actions.

Cut off the rotten flesh, and detoxify the blood.

The blade entered his body with a muffled squelch, his face contorting to the ugliest degree.

The only thing he could think of was that even with his bad Luck, he had been lucky for Shinobu's sword to miss his vital organs.

Kai swirled the blade around, cutting off a sizable chunk of his flesh, and threw it into the river. His HP bar was now roaring, flashing with the darkest red color one could find in the universe.

It was horrifyingly low.

Kai still didn't take the HP capsule.

One could see the resolve to live in his eyes, the defiance, and the sheer will to overcome the odds.

Kai took the meditative position, taking deep breaths, followed by a deeper exhale.

He would wait for the Regeneration and Loss rates to come to equilibrium again.

As he waited for that moment, dying, he recalled the event from the cliff.

First, Kai's Glitch hadn't notified him about the demon, making him conclude the demon wasn't exactly a species that came under the definition of Magical Creatures.

Then, he had seen the blade coming for him, his ever-dependable instinct letting him know of the danger.

Yet Kai had decided against dodging it.

He had trust in himself to survive the poison, then. What had mattered the most was to implant the first resonance as soon as possible, and at the first sight.

However, Kai knew it would all come to nothing if the Hashira died, succumbing to her injuries now.

He must look at her wounds as soon as he could. Yet, he couldn't rush the ongoing process, either. One moment of haste, and perhaps he could not salvage the next loss rate of his HP.

Kai saw the equilibrium point after another half an hour.

With two precise incisions, Kai sliced off his wrists, letting the blood fall into the river.

Then he waited.

With time, he became paler and paler, but the purplish hue about him, and dense black veins, infused with poison, also lost their color.

Kai's HP kept going down and down, blood flowing out of him like a stream of water.

The moment it dropped below 3% was the same moment when Kai finally took out an HP capsule and threw it into his mouth.

100 HP was a significant amount.

It represented an average adult Contestant's life essence.

The wound on his stomach healed first, flesh regenerating at a visible pace.

Then the bleeding stopped, and the cuts on his wrists closed up. Not one point increased in his HP bar, but Kai had already expected that.

Next came the blood itself. It took longer than the previous healing of wounds. Much longer, in fact.

But with every blink of an eye, fresh blood coursed through his veins, bringing color to his face.

By the end of this procedure, Kai still looked pale, but the purplish hue over his face had receded much. Even the black veins all over his body looked almost blue and red.

Nevertheless, these weren't the things that made Kai take a relaxing breath.

For the first time, his HP regeneration rate overtook his HP loss rate. Not by much, but it seemed enough to move on and do something about Shinobu.

He put on his clothes, snapped his fingers many times to dry the wooden case, and strapped it on his back once more.

Then he went to the hut, walking out with Shinobu in his embrace. He would have to go into the rainforest to gather herbs and other necessary items, and he couldn't leave her behind, either.

Some things would never change, no matter the Timeline or Random World, Kai knew.

Water would taste like water, the common color of plants would remain green, a fire would still burn with the myriad of colors, and love and hate would always be the strongest emotions.

So, in the next few hours, Kai improvised while gathering the local herbs, tasting them, smelling them, and chewing on them.

After returning to the hut, Kai grounded the herbs into a paste, making a salve.

He had also made a wooden bucket, which he used to clean her body after warming it up a little. He then used natural strings of plants' stems to make threads, and stitched her wounds, applying the salve over them.

But even then, it didn't seem enough.

Kai sighed, taking out another HP capsule.

It didn't work as well on the Characters as it did on Contestants, but it was better than nothing. After this one, Kai would have only 2 more Uncommon HP capsules left. Yet Kai had never been an indecisive person.

He forced her mouth open and made her swallow the capsule.

Then he leaned back, his eyes closing with a heavy bout of drowsiness.

The things that happened next were a series of many lucky events.

Shinobu's regaining consciousness, her speechless conversation with him, and the song that just happened to come at the tip of Kai's tongue.

The skipping of his heartbeat had shocked him as much as her, it seemed.

Heart Rhythm - Resonance of Respect!

For a long time after her return to sleep, Kai couldn't fathom what he did for the next resonance to happen. He already had a few plans regarding the Resonance of Respect.

This singular event baffled him the most.

The only conclusion he came to at last was that these Resonances could be triggered by any of the two parties; Contestant or Character. It seemed to him that the Resonance of Respect was triggered by Shinobu's thoughts.

Shinobu Kocho didn't regain consciousness until the evening of the 6th day since Kai's arrival to this Random World.

Kai was sitting by her side, feeding her warm soup using a wooden spoon.

His HP bar now stood at some 60 points. The poison had kept his HP regeneration rate in check, letting it crawl forward at a turtle's pace.

It was then her eyes opened.

***************

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