Mike, despite all the accumulated mental fatigue, forced himself on Imagination like never before, his great advantage compared to Sora, given that he had a clearer idea on how to proceed with his current level.
First, he Imagined the blood from Clarc's wounds coagulate and temporarily replace the skin and organs to stop the bleeding, including the heart. It was much easier than directly trying to heal him with Imagination and it allowed Mike to realize one thing: the more precise he had an idea of what he was Imagining, the easier it would be to do.
This was an important discovery for him but he couldn't afford to be distracted. After that, he imagined a violent electric shock, comparable to lightning, which struck Clarc's chest for a good second. Mike knew it was violent, but he suspected that a normal electric shock wouldn't even have made someone like Clarc react. The latter's heart began to beat weakly again but he was still not breathing.
"Why are you attacking dad!" Sora shouted, full of incomprehension.
"I'm resurrecting him!" Mike yelled back. "Instead of screaming, hurry to replenish his blood and repair his heart, it's urgent!"
Sora didn't argue further and followed these instructions. At the same time, Mike imagined two currents: one that circulated Clarc's blood through his body and another that circulated air through his lungs and windpipe.
It was the first time he created a movement instead of a physical object, and he was quite happy with the result. Mike continued until Clarc's heart was beating at a decent rate again, and he could more or less breathe on his own.
"Haaan, I was sure you were going to give him mouth to mouth, Mike, that gives you another chance before Clarc is reset in two months" Shinki said.
Mike didn't lose concentration, aware that his "treatment" was not yet finished. With his mother in the hospital, he often read articles about medicine. He wasn't naive enough to believe that it would magically help him discover a miracle treatment, but he wanted to at least be able to understand what the problem was: his basics in medicine were therefore relatively passable.
He knew that using coagulated blood to plug organs was a terrible idea and could create blood clots, which would lead to thrombosis and other ailments. He therefore used his last strength to force this blood to become liquid again and quickly treat the organs concerned at the same time, and also took the opportunity to completely heal Clarc's skin.
Finally, on the verge of passing out, even having fallen out of his chair in the process, Mike smiled in relief, having finally put his friend out of trouble.
At the same time, the transparent cube where Clarc and Sora were disappeared, causing them to quickly fall to the ground, and the child also drew on his last strength to create a giant cushion which cushioned their fall.
Apparently, all three had no or no injuries, but they were exhausted like never before.
However, Shinki didn't even seem angry, and even allowed himself the luxury of applauding a little. He checked that they were indeed asleep before bursting out laughing:
"Haha, if they knew that all this happened as planned by master Noir…"
But he quickly stopped laughing, because even if everything that had happened matched his master's predictions, not having managed to win still made him a little bitter.
"I guess it was a destined conclusion" he sighed.
After a movement of Shinki's arm, Mike, Clarc and Sora were all teleported to their respective rooms to rest.
"Still, it hurts my pride a little" the king sighed again.
The next day, Mike woke abruptly, bolting upright in bed. He looked around in panic, before remembering what had happened the day before. He fell back into bed, relieved to have been able to save Clarc.
After a few minutes, hungry, he got up and happily devoured his breakfast, and only then did he think to check the time. It was eight in the morning, which didn't surprise Mike, until he looked at the date and saw that more than a day had passed: he had slept more than forty hours.
"No wonder I woke up so hungry!" he exclaimed, surprised.
This was undoubtedly the consequence of having forced so much to use Imagination to heal Clarc, even improvising new ways to use it.
On the same page, concentrating for a moment, he noticed that the way he felt Imagination was different now, almost as if this effort had allowed him to evolve to a higher level.
'A higher level? Hehe, I should stop thinking I'm in a video game and go see how Clarc and Sora are doing' Mike thought as he left his room.
As he walked in an attempt to find Sora and Clarc, his mind wandered, thinking about what he had learned yesterday, or rather the day before yesterday.
Fate? A phenomenon that brings a story back to the beginning when the story ends? Mike hadn't been able to think about it earlier because he was focused on his game with Shinki but in hindsight, the situation was really serious, especially considering that it was supposed to happen in two months, from what Shinki had said.
For him and Sora it wasn't a big deal, as they were both able to leave the story and travel across the Platonic Sea, but it was different for Clarc, who was not a Traveler and did not come neither from the Primary World: in two months, he would be basically reset and lose all memory of his reconciliation with Sora, his uprising against the king, and even Mike.
The latter, over the last few months, had come to consider Clarc as his best friend on par with Frey, and could not stand him, and this was even more the case for Sora, who had only just picked up the pieces with his father.
But what could Mike do?
In two years, he hadn't even managed to leave here, so finding a way to stop Fate from taking effect in two months, by himself, was clearly out of reach.
As he was thinking about it, a small person rushed towards him, almost causing a collision: it was obviously Sora. But unlike usual, he seemed nervous and completely lost. Mike thought at first that it was because he still felt guilty about attacking Clarc, but he quickly ruled out that possibility.
A thought then came to his mind: what if it was precisely because while he himself was sleeping, something had happened to Clarc? Unfortunately, Sora proved him right:
"Mr. Mike, help me!"" he shouted. While you were sleeping, Mr. Shinki took Dad somewhere and he doesn't want me to go see him! I asked him lots of times to see Dad, but he said he couldn't give me Dad back until you were here! I don't understand, Mr. Shinki is my best friend though..."
Seeing that Sora was troubled, Mike reached into his pocket and handed Sora a candy to help him calm down.
"Don't worry, Sora" Mike said. "I know I sound negative, but King Shinki isn't really the type of guy who deserves your trust. But even so, he's still someone who respects the rules, so he's certainly not going to hurt Clarc even though we won the game"
Even though he said that, Mike wasn't completely convinced either. He therefore decided to temporarily change the subject:
"But anyway, what if we talked about this Fate story?" he asked. "If what Shinki said is true, do you have any idea how to stop Fate from resetting this narrative... uhm, this world? Or at least help Clarc escape?"
Sora shook his head:
"No, Mr. Mike, I don't know much about it either. I haven't known Imagination for very long" Sora replied. "Mister Shinki said that he can't either, and even the person he calls Master Noir can't completely stop it, just delay it. And according to what Mr. Shinki said, the "characters" cannot become Travelers through external help: they must manage to survive on their own outside of their story"
"It was kinda predictable, Shinki wouldn't have insisted so much on it, if there was an easy way out"
"What if it's about becoming a Traveler? Mike suggested. Shinki seems to be so loyal to this destroyer called Noir precisely because he allowed him to become a traveler. That must mean it's possible to help someone become one, right?"
But Sora shook his head again:
"No, Mr. Mike, Mr. Shinki told me that his master just allowed him to discover that he could become a Traveler" he replied. "For the "characters", being able to become a Traveler or not is determined by our creation, and we can only know it if we go out of the story or if someone who really knows how to use Imagination really well inspects us"
Mike's expression darkened. The two solutions were both terrible: if Clarc ventured out of the story and turned out not to be a traveler, he would simply disappear, and they didn't have a good enough Imagination user on hand to do an inspection, not to mention that even if they found one, in the next two months, they wouldn't have a plan B if Clarc turned out not to be capable of it. Mike refocused and asked:
"And what is the ratio between those who can become one and the others?
I think it's about one for every three stories" Sora replied.
As it happens, the story they were in already had two Travelers, Sora and Shinki. Even if by some miracle there was a third, the chances of it being someone like Clarc who was connected to the other two were simply negligible. Mike felt an extra weight settle on his shoulders: Clarc's reset seemed inevitable.
But right now, they still had things to do, so Mike couldn't afford to let things go. He patted Sora on the head and quickly changed the subject:
"Well, let's take up this problem at another time" he said. "First we save your dad and then we can think about it"
"Okay Mr. Mike" Sora agreed.
Clearly, between the separation from his "best friend" Shinki and the problems with his father, a normal child under ten would have already broken down, but Sora handled the situation relatively well, even making Mike a little admiring.
They quickly went to where Shinki was waiting for them. He, sitting on a chair, was quietly drinking fruit juice while reading a book, all with his usual smile. He didn't seem any different than usual, except for the bags under his eyes, evidence of a pretty bad sleep the last few days.
Seeing them, he got up from the chair without haste and began to speak to them:
"Greetings, both of you" he said. "Haha, Mike, I see you finally woke up? I guess you didn't just come here to see me?"
"I'm just here for you to give us back Clarc" Mike said, trying to look intimidating.
"Sorry, but that's impossible at the moment" Shinki replied.
"For what ? Don't tell me that after such a big loss, you became a sore loser and decided to use Clarc as a hostage to prevent me from leaving?" Mike scoffed.
Shinki did not take up the provocation and replied to Mike, with a spine-chilling smile:
"Of course no, that's not my type! If I keep it here with me..."
He deliberately left a few seconds of blankness to create a dramatic effect before continuing:
"That's because you haven't truly won the game yet, Mike"