Without requiring Light's prompting, Yukio stood up and bowed his head to everyone, "I'm sorry for making everyone worry because of my willfulness."
Everyone simply chuckled and waved their hands, indicating that they didn't mind. They had all been extremely worried about Yukio but understood why he made the decision he did.
Turning to Light, he bowed again, "Nii-chan, I'm sorry I was so willful. I know I caused you a lot of pain."
Light lifted him back up and said in a stern voice, "Never again. Understand?"
"Mmm," Yukio nodded in assent. Seeing that the issue had been solved and no one was angry anymore, Rin leaped towards his brother and tackled him to the ground. He was ecstatic to have his brother back!
After that, Yukio went to take a shower. While he had been wiped down by Light every day, he was still feeling disgusting and sticky. Rin was also forced to go shower since he pounced onto Yukio.
It was time to start travelling to cities again! Ace navigated the RV towards the nearest city while everyone else excitedly geared up to fight. The morale was higher than it had ever been now that they had a healer on their team.
Aida began to map out her schedule for the day. She intended to actively look for mental or psychic type gems from now on. Light and Ace were the only ones who hadn't become Variants within the group. Aida had already unilaterally decided that Ace would be sent back into a human city. He clearly showed a disinclination towards fighting and couldn't seem to acclimate to this post-apocalyptic life. So that just leaves Light. Light had two younger brothers who were now Variants, so there was no way that he would choose to stay human particularly given the benefits of becoming a Variant.
As they reached the new city, Rin immediately hopped off the bus and ran out before the RV even stopped moving, dragging Yukio along with him. "Brother, show me your new power!"
Used to his brother's enthusiasm, Yukio nodded his head helplessly, responding in a pacifying tone, "Okay okay, go disable a Reaper and bring it to me."
Everyone got out of the RV and watched on with curiosity, curious to see why Yukio wanted a Reaper brought to him.
"Ok! You stay right there!" Rin said this and disappeared into the shadows. Everyone else shook their heads and chuckled at this sight. Rin had vastly improved his abilities over the past few weeks. He no longer got lost and turned around when he reappeared from the shadows.
Moments later, Rin returned with a Reaper who had a large rope tied around it's arms and legs. Rin's speed while travelling within the shadows had improved, allowing him to move faster in the shadows than if he were to sprint.
Yukio smiled sweetly towards his brother, extremely proud to see his improvement. Then turning towards the Reaper, his expression turned serious. This would be the first time he actually tried to use his power, he was a little nervous.
He held onto Rin's hand with his right hand. When Rin saw this and merely showed a puzzled expression. He simply thought his brother was nervous until he saw what his brother did next.
Yukio lifted his other arm and grabbed the Reaper. Squeezing his eyes closed, he began to imagine the flow of energy within his body. He cutely called out to his elements, "Sister Green and Brother Light, can you please lend me your power?"
Most of them had seen Yukio communicate with the elements before so they continued to watch quietly. In contrast, Lucifer and Ace watched on with wide eyes, slightly disbelieving that Yukio would be able to call upon his elements like this. It was like a scene from a cartoon, they were waiting for fairies or sylphs to pop up out of nowhere.
Moments after Yukio spoke, a soft green light on his left arm lit up. Yukio smiled widely and said, "You can take the energy from Reaper-san, Sister Green."
As though hearing his words, the green light could be seen entering the Reaper. As the green light wrapped itself around the Reaper, the area where Yukio gripped the Reaper had begun to shrivel up at a visible rate.
Yukio smiled happily and thanked the element, "Thank you Sister Green!"
Not to be overshadowed, Yukio's right arm lit up with a warm white light without his reminder and moved into Rin. Rin's eyes widened as he felt the warm light enter him. Although it was just a small sliver of energy, the energy seemed to nourish not just his body but also his soul.
Yukio thanked the light element as well, "Thank you Brother Light!"
Aida's eyes widened at this sight. She was brimming with excitement. Yukio's dual abilities had merged to complement each other and mutated into a whole new ability in itself. The green/wood ability had transformed into a parasitic ability while the light ability could heal wounds. Essentially, he could suck up a person's life force and transfer it into another person.
The combination of the two would allow Yukio to save anyone from death's grip. No matter how injured a person may be, as long as they were still breathing, Yukio would be able to resuscitate them given enough time. If they were on their last leg, he could draw life force from others and forcefully insert it into the person. After guaranteeing their livelihood, he could then take time to use the light ability to slowly heal their wounds. This was practically the ultimate form of healing.
After a few more tests, Aida generally grasped Yukio's skills. Yukio's main limiting factors were that he had to directly get into contact with an object in order to absorb and/or heal. He, as a container, was also unable to hold or transfer too much life force. In order to improve the latter's capacity, he would have to continually channel more life force through his body until it is able to grow and acclimate. His healing power and absorption power is currently fairly weak, but it is bound to improve over time.