Bukimina Meiji

Strength

"HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO RIP MY SHIRT THROUGH MY SWEATER WHILE DRAGGING ME!?" Mei let's out after an hour of walking as he realizes part of his side is exposed through his shirt. Not being able to feel the extra cold.

"You are very heavy ok?" Yurei remarks under her breath, still completely covered in the sweater. Only her nose and up being visible.

"I'm... not heavy... I'm so light... what are you talking about? I think you're just weak!" He snaps back, looking over at her.

"Says you! You couldn't escape when I was pulling on you to get you out of the house!" She crosses her arms, a look of annoyance and "gotcha" mixed onto her face. 

"Ah..." Mei puts his hand up to contest but can't think of anything. She was right after all. He did fail to even bend down to grab the book while being pulled. But was that because he was weak? Or was she just strong?

"That's what I thought! Hmph." 

"Yeah whatever. Yu, are you sure we are going the right way? You said it was nearby right? We have to of been walking for over an hour now and there is still no sign of a village." Mei glances out to look at the landscape, still only ice as far as the eye can see. "Or anything for that matter" 

"I was pretty sure it was in this direction. It's been a while since I've been out here, maybe they moved it."

"You... You're saying they moved an entire village? You're saying they picked up the village and moved it somewhere else?"

"I... I guess" Yu slowly ducks deeper into the hoodie with her entire face beet red. 

"You're special. In what way I still have to decide."

Popping her head out she starts "Hey! Need I remind you what I did for you before you woke up?"

"Rip my clothes? ... uh... Yu, am I hallucinating or is there a person way over there?" Mei points to a figure in the horizon bobbing up and down as if approaching. 

"Oh yeah! We can ask them for directions!" bounding up and down in the air Yu smiles at Mei.

"D-do we have to talk to them...?" looking up at Yu with a worried expression. His knees buckle underneath him. He lands on one knee.

"Mei, at this rate, if you keep reacting like this to the idea of talking to people you will never get better at it and you'll be stuck like this. " She floats down and puts a hand on his head through the clothing. Her small hand throwing a huge wave of heat through his body. "You can also figure out if looking into my eyes will help you talk to other people as well!"

"Oh, I guess you're right, now or never right" He musters a weak smile up at her. He tries to hide the growing anxiety but doing a very poor job at it. The all too familiar hot sweats enveloping his body.

"You get it! We can wait here for them to come over cause from the looks of it you might not be able to even walk right now." She looks directly into his soul though his eyes, "Mei, you got this." 

He feels the same wave of relief wash over him, the calming nature of her gaze overtaking some of his intense anxiety. "Y-yeah... I... I got this. I can do this." Clenching his hands together he steadily gets back up to his feet looking off in the direction of the figure. 

Over the course of the next 10 minutes it gets closer and closer, getting more and more defined. At the same time "M..." Mei's vision gets "Me..." more and more clouded and closed in. "MEI!"

Mei jumps at the loud and sudden noise directly next to his ear. "Mei... you were totally gone for a second there. If you start feeling like that again just look at my eyes again ok? I don't like seeing you like that it was scary." Yurei pouts, her soft eyes staring into his.