Several breaths of time passed,
And Kotaro discovered something else, that the flow of the two's magic energy was not constant and changed from time to time, Kotaro knew that this only happens when a mage is in a battle, where he needs to spend magic energy irregularly according to the variety of his methods.
But if the two are now fighting another enemy, then where is he? The two of them were in front of him and nothing happened.
Kotaro wanted to inject some of his magical energy into his two friends to force them to wake up, but he backed off after reconsidering the matter. If he did, there was a possibility that the two's energy would not accept his energy, then they could not control the stability of their mana, and it would be worse as a result of the mana seed exploding inside them.
"Shit!" The longer this strange and mysterious situation continued and Kotaro remained ignorant of what was happening, the more he felt that it was not as simple as it seemed to him, especially since his two friends were the victims here.
Kotaro thought for a while and then decided, he would wait half an hour for at least one of his friends to wake up, but if luck wasn't with them today and his two friends didn't come to their senses, that's what he didn't want to imagine.
...
after five minutes:
"what? How?!" Akina woke up as Kotaro had hoped, but she didn't show the reaction he had expected.
"Big White, go." Without saying a word, Akina moved her hand, forming a cloud lion, roaring and swooping down on Kotaro.
"Hmm!!"Kotaro was surprised and didn't even have time to ask why his girlfriend attacked him and immediately a layer of flame covered his fists and he got into a quick fight with the white monster.
After two movements, the lion fell down and was not even recognizable, and then turned into small clouds that dispersed in the air.
"His magic level suddenly changed." By using her technique to fight Kotaro, Akina sensed that his level had increased from what it was just a little while ago.
She still hadn't discovered yet that the current Kotaro wasn't the fake enemy that attacked her in the beginning, so she thought he was intentionally hiding his level from the start but she didn't know why.
"Akina! what is happening to you? It's me, are you mad because I touched your feet? If that's the case, I'm really sorry, I did this to make you and Ryota wake up but in the end nothing happened so I just waited for you to wake up yourselves" Kotaro quickly explained what he thought had happened, not wanting to make Akina madder even more.
"Kotaro?! Is that you?" Akina's eyes suddenly lit up. After seeing that Kotaro did not continue to fight against her and then listening to his apology from which she did not understand anything, Akina found that Kotaro's actions in front of her were not the same as the fake Kotaro, then she reconsidered and remembered that the level of magic that Kotaro showed was the same as the real person, so she became more confident.
"You really are Kotaro, aren't you?" Akina got excited and her familiar smile returned, she jumped like a lively rabbit and wanted to talk to Kotaro.
"...You!"
"Akina! Is this a joke or what?" Kotaro erupted in displeasure, feeling himself stupid and he, the one that was apologizing a little while ago, worried about causing Akina to have a tantrum.
"Am I Kotaro? And who did you think I was all this time?".
"Sorry, I thought you were the fake." Akina apologized and then explained the reason for the misunderstanding: "Because after we parted, someone who looked like you appeared in front of me and started attacking me for no reason. I thought it was you at first, but he was only at Elementary C level and although his fighting style was very similar to yours, it lacked the will and anger that I knew in you."
"The fight was easy and I managed to beat your fake copy but in the meantime something strange happened. This enemy's body was starting to decompose into a mist with silvery rays surrounding it, and quickly mixed with the original mist in the air and after two breaths of time, the place where he lay was completely empty."
"Then right after that, I saw your picture in front of me, and that's why I thought the enemy had come back, and the rest you already know."
Listening to Akina, Kotaro believed her, he had many questions in his head, he had some guesses about the answers and based on all this he had a close idea of what really happened to them.
"Akina, I will tell you something. I believe everything you said because the same thing happened to me, except that the person I fought did not take the form of you or the form of Ryota, but did something ruder and took the form of my mother."
"this...!" Akina closed her hand with her mouth in shock. She was able to imagine how Kotaro suffered in front of that and couldn't even ask him about it.
"Anyway, after I defeated the enemy, the same thing also happened and merged with the mist. The important thing comes next. Right after that, I found you and Ryota standing behind me without you being able to hear or see me. That's why I was waiting for you two to wake up yourselves."
"I was the first to wake up but you attacked me right after I did. You're going to tell me what this nonsense is? But that's exactly what happened."
"Then after I listened to your story too I came to something. That from the beginning, the three of us never moved from our place and we were all the time connected, but because of some external element our will was separated or something and moved to another place on the bridge and then it was Defeating the fake enemy is the way back into our bodies."
"..."
"I don't know what to say, this is really hard to believe," anyone in Akina's place would have said the same.
"Akina, what Kotaro said is correct, or at least that is the only explanation we can rely on now," Ryota was the speaker. He walked towards Kotaro and Akina and met them again.
"Ryota!" Akina took a long breath: "Are you alive?!".
"Why? Are you upset about that?!" Ryota sneered jokingly.
"No, of course I'm glad you were released too, but you took so long that I was worried that something bad had happened."
"Hello Ryota, are you alright?" Kotaro followed her with a serious face, inquiring about his friend's condition.
"Kotaro! Yeah, nothing to worry about," Ryota said without expression, but a little reserved.
After a short round of reunion of the three, Kotaro touched on the most important topic directly and asked towards Ryota: "Who was it?"
"My father," Ryota replied, and although he did not want to reveal it, he could sense the sadness and grief on his face.
"Ryota…" Akina felt a little sad as well. Now she know why it took Ryota the longest between them to defeat the fake enemy, at the same time she became more impressed by Kotaro's will and determination, he had fought his mother's version as well and yet was freed first out of the three.
Ryota continued: "I listened to the last part of your conversation and what Kotaro said is the most we can come to right now, so there's no need to stay in this place too long and let's leave this damn bridge quickly."
"Let's go, and let's hold on like the last time. It will be difficult to know where we are if the same thing happens again, so be careful," Kotaro urged as he advance first.
This time the three had learned from their last experience and had become more alert than before. It was not wise to make the same mistake more than once, especially in the mages world where sometimes it meant death.