As Sasha mentioned to the siblings, there was a relatively big forest in an area behind Rose Academy. This forest had many entrances from which you could access it. There was one in the farthest wall of the academy, one outside, and there were many others scattered throughout the area nearby. You could even use teleportation magic to enter the forest, but neither Shu nor Kaede had the ability to cast that kind of spell by themselves, so they had to get there the normal way: by walking.
Once Sasha told them about the entrances, she also let them know about the one that was around the area outside the academy. After telling them the exact location, the siblings made started way there and began their short journey to reach the Purification Spring they'd talked about.
As it currently stood, they were both currently walking around the forest. The one bad thing they could say about this forest was that there wasn't any particular pathway that led anywhere, so they had to wander around aimlessly. This caused them to become lost, but even though they were, they kept walking towards a random direction.
"Why is there such a forest near Rose Academy like seriously?" The brother inquired as he continued making his way through the dense forest
"It's sort of weird, but maybe they use this forest for some sort of "training"? The sister answered his question with another question as she made her way through her brother's same path, walking with a slower pace and coughing a bit as she did so.
Even though she appeared to be completely fine, Kaede was still feeling pretty sick. She felt weak and her head slightly throbbed with every passing minute. As mentioned before, they both thought that she was feeling this way due to some "lingering effects" of the Neutralizing Serum she was hit with during their last SR mission.
Shu and Kaede sort of had their suspicions on whether this Purification Spring really was there, as well as if it was a good idea to come into a forest of an area that was new for the, but why would Sasha ever lie to them? She was their childhood friend and as of now, Shu's new maid, and even though this fact made Shu rather uncomfortable, it also made him have more faith in her.
After around 15 ish minutes of walking nowhere (in reality, it felt like an hour for them), Shu saw something in the distance.
"Hey, look! There's something over there!"
"Huh? Really?"
They both made their way to whatever it was that Shu saw over in the distance. They lightly jogged towards it, and they saw it. The Purification Spring. At least, that was what they both assumed it was.
"Woah…" Kaede said as she looked at the structure.
The structure looked like some sort of white, square pool that was built out of a white looking material. The pool itself was nearby a white wall that was shaped like an oval. It had sort sort of circles engraved in the middle. They appeared to resemble small magic circles.
"This must be it. I mean, it looks like something that would be called a "Purification Spring."
In their eyes, it resembled a jacuzzi way more, but calling it a spring was way cooler. They both agreed on this.
They proceeded to walk closer to the spring. They were now standing on a grey platform that was somewhat close to the spring itself.
"Well, I suppose you should go in, right?" Shu suggested.
"I mean, that sounds like the best idea. It's called a Purification Spring, after all." Kaede felt the need to respond with a comment pointing out the obvious.
"Well, okay then. You didn't have to point that out again." Shu responded with a face that made him look like he was sort of annoyed, but Kaede just let that slide.
Kaede walked to an area from which Shu couldn't see her. As she did so, Shu just stood there, thinking about many different things that were just going through his head. Of course, his sister did the same as she went to do whatever she went to do.
Oh yeah…we should probably call Mr. Leblanc when we get back, shouldn't we? Funny enough, they both thought this at the same time.
Shu thought of something else as he wandered off in his head while staring at some trees in the distance (they WERE in a forest, after all.)
I should also try out the knife that my grandfather gave me. If if works as intended and allows me to finally use Crimson Magic, that's going to be…
As he was thinking, he heard a voice from behind him. The voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey brother, I want to ask you something." Kaede spoke towards her brother whilst slightly coughing
"Yeah, what is-HUH?!" This was his reaction as he turned around to look at his dear little sister.
She was…to put it simply, completely naked. She had her hands over each of her chest's sides (well, of what she had little of.) Of course, Shu was blushing at the unexpected sight, of course. What male wouldn't be? Seeing a girl without her covering in front of you was a sight that would awake something in most men, now, wouldn't it?
The entirety of her small, thin body was visible to her brother, who didn't feel comfortable looking at what he was looking. I mean, it was his SISTER, after all. His only sibling. Feeling sort of…pleasant at such a sight could raise many red flags.
"Before I got in, I wanted to know if-" her voice was interrupted by a relatively panicking voice.
"N-never mind that!" Shu had his right hand over his head in an attempt to stop himself from seeing his sister's thin body, which was a normal reaction for a man. Don't get any weird ideas. "WHY ARE YOU NAKED IN FRONT OF ME?!"
"Huh? We're siblings. Seeing each other naked shouldn't be a problem, should it?" she spoke with a calm voice, but as she kept speaking, her voice had a slight hint of embarrassment.
"Huh? What do you-" he accidentally looked at her completely exposed sister again, immediately closing his eyes as he did so. He turned around in order to avoid committing this act again.
He sighed. "Look. Kaede, that was when we were younger." He could feel his sister look at him with a strange sad face as he talked, for some reason. "I know it's only you and me here, but I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea if they were to hypothetically be anyone else here.
Once he finished saying what he wanted to tell Kaede, unbeknownst to him, she was blushing at the thought of what she'd listened to him speak about.
"Oh…okay then. I'm sorry then…" She said with a voice that sounded sort of…disappointed? Shu couldn't really make out the emotion he heard, but he still thought of something to say to her.
"I-it's alright, don't worry. Just…don't do that again."
As they finished their conversation, Kaede walked without covering herself towards the hot spring and entered it. As she was finally now within the spring's hot water, she laid back and started to relax a bit.
Aaaaaa…this is so nice…"
Kaede did like taking baths every once in a while, though she usually took showers just because it was much more convenient and quicker to do so.
Shu was sitting down at the grey surface he was standing at earlier, looking at the spring. Now that Kaede's body was submerged within the water, he felt more comfortable looking at the spring now. Kaede was still slightly blushing, but sadly, she had her eyes closed due to her relaxing, not noticing Shu was looking at the water she was inside of.
It's not like Shu was looking at her, anyway. He just wandered off again, the spring's water what he was staring at. Again, no weird ideas.
"I really hope this helps her…" He muttered to his own self.
In truth, as many siblings felt, he was worried about Kaede. Her sickness returning out of nowhere was rather unexpected.
At first, nothing of interest happened at the spring. Kaede was simply relaxing in the spring's water as Shu was just there, waiting for her to recover.
But then, the spring actually started doing something.
As Kaede was relaxing, the circles engraved in the oval shaped wall started glowing with white energy.
These engravings emitted a slight resonating sound, which put Kaede back into reality because she was spacing out.
As the engravings shined, the water in the spring started to glow the same white color. Kaede was taken by surprise.
"Huh?!" Was her reaction to the sudden change of the water's color. For a second, she thought about the idea of leaving the water, but after remembering that this was supposedly a "Purification Spring", she decided to stay there, believing that this was the spring working it's purifying magic.
At the same time, her brother was there, staring at the now white water.
"Is it working?" He reacted, his own mind blank due to being entranced by the white water, for some weird reason.
But then, there was a very bright light that surrounded the area, causing both siblings to cover their eyes because of the irritating light.
Once the light disappeared, they opened their eyes again a few seconds later. Shu was just sitting there still, but he was sort of nervous because he hoped that nothing happened to either Kaede or him. But he looked at the spring once more, and Kaede was completely fine. She was nervous as well, but she decided to just not be because she believed that Sasha's information was correct.
A few minutes later (around 8 or so), She rose up from the hot water, not covering herself and blushing. Due to the distance between them, Shu did notice the covering, but not the fact that she as blushing.
It took a bit longer, but she finally got dressed and walked towards Shu. He looked at her once again. She was wearing the clothes that they'd had the entire day. Even though he didn't verbalize the thoughts, he was relieved that was the case.
"How are you feeling?" Shu asked his sister, finally standing up after sitting down for so long.
"I feel…"
"Yes?"
"I feel amazing! The pain is gone, and I feel like I gained my strength back!" She responded with a smile.
Shu gave a smile as he heard this information. "That's great! Welcome back, Kaede."
As they both knew they were done here, they looked at the spring once more, and looked throughout the forest. There was one little thing that they sort of forgot about.
"Um…where do we go?" Shu asked both to himself and to his sister.
"No idea." She responded.
And so, they started their journey back to the forest's entrance, or in this case, the forest's exit.