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Just as Yukinoshita Yukino wanted to take a closer look, Yukinoshita Haruno suddenly stopped her.
"That's enough, don't come too close to me."
"At a time like this, are you still saying such things, Big Sister?"
Yukino looked at Haruno, who was already dressed, in disbelief.
In fact, Yukino had always felt that although her elder sister seemed affectionate on the surface, she always maintained a subtle distance from her.
However, in the past, Yukino had a certain degree of inferiority complex about not being able to catch up to her elder sister, so she didn't dislike this sense of distance; on the contrary, she found it quite normal.
Now that she had one foot in the supernatural realm, although Yukino still couldn't shake that inferiority complex—or rather, because she didn't have Curse talent, that inferiority complex became even stronger in front of Asakura and the other Magic Club members—at least regarding her elder sister, she no longer had the thought of needing to maintain a distance.
So, seeing Haruno, who was already gravely ill, still resisting her closeness, made Yukino's sensitive heart feel a little hurt.
"It's not what you think…"
Haruno, who understood her younger sister quite well in some ways, saw Yukino's teary-eyed look beneath her facade of strength, knew she had misunderstood, and sighed, "This thing might be contagious. It's better to keep a safe distance from me now."
"Contagious… Wait, didn't the news say this thing isn't contagious?"
Yukino frowned.
"That's why you're too naive, Yukino. You still believe the island nation's news at this point?"
Haruno said nonchalantly, changing to a more comfortable position, leaning on the hospital bed, and basking in the sun with an air of composure.
Yukino knew very well that her elder sister must have her reasons for saying that.
Recalling the grotesque face on the lump, Yukino pulled up the visitor's chair and sat next to her, disregarding Haruno's objections.
"I need to know what happened."
"I said, at this point, does that still matter?"
Haruno looked at her sister, who had suddenly entered a rebellious phase, with dissatisfaction. She said earnestly, "Yukino-chan, I'm already very happy that you came to visit me. Otherwise, we can just talk about the rest over the phone—"
"Then I won't hear the truth."
Yukino rejected her elder sister's request without hesitation: a phone call could be hung up at any time, and the conversation rhythm was entirely controlled by the other party. Such a negotiation would never achieve her desired goal.
"Yukino!"
Haruno shouted with a severity that was rare even in Yukino's memory: "Listen to me, get out!"
Yukino's chest heaved violently, clearly angered by her elder sister's forceful attitude, but she also fully understood that Haruno said this out of concern about infecting her. For a moment, she didn't even know where to vent her anger.
However, after being confronted by Asakura so many times, Yukino had become quite Apprentice at regulating her emotions.
She quickly regained her composure, looking at Haruno on the hospital bed, who, despite her best efforts to hide it, clearly looked much more haggard: evidently, the other party had not accepted the fact of her terminal illness as calmly as she pretended to.
Perhaps in the short few days since her diagnosis, she had already felt fear, pain, and despair, and finally, just like her usual self, put on the mask of 'peacefully coexisting with impending death.'
"Don't worry, I can guarantee that no matter if this strange illness is contagious or not, I will be fine."
Yukino comforted the other party. She weighed her words, then continued, "And although Big Sister, you might not believe it, this illness might not be incurable…"
"Don't get your hopes up—"
"It's not wishful thinking."
Yukino interrupted Haruno, who was still trying to persuade her, and said firmly, "'I will be fine'—that's just stating a fact."
Because just now, the three times of "Scale" that Asakura had given her had already been activated.
Now, she could resist, isolate, and refuse anything she didn't want.
Whether it was illness or a curse, everything was no different from a speck of dust before the "Scale."
Haruno looked at the expression on her sister's face and suddenly felt that the other party seemed a little unfamiliar.
"I should have stopped Mom from telling you about this…"
She mumbled, feeling that she had become much weaker after getting sick.
Seeing that Yukino had no intention of backing down, Yukinoshita Haruno could only tell her everything that had happened to her not long ago.
It wasn't anything special, just that the granddaughter of a business magnate who had a partnership with the Yukinoshita family suddenly fell ill. So, Yukinoshita Haruno, as the representative of the Yukinoshita family—who relied on that magnate's resources in both political and business circles—naturally went to the other party's home to visit the patient and expressed concern and hope for her recovery.
When she arrived at the other party's home, she found that the person was suffering from the acute specific connective tissue system necrosis, which had been causing a stir recently.
So, the expressions of concern had to be changed to regret for her suffering from this incurable disease.
Up to this point, there seemed to be no problem.
But the key was that when Yukinoshita Haruno visited the sick little girl, that fragile-looking girl, who seemed as if she could disappear into this world like the Little Mermaid's foam at any moment, suddenly opened her eyes, her face full of pain.
"…Don't… come near me."
She said so.
At the time, Yukinoshita Haruno thought the other party was just shy, or resistant to strangers visiting because of her strange illness.
But what made her feel chills was what the other party said next.
"It… it wants to go to you…"
The girl said painfully, "Quick, run…"
Not long after that, Yukinoshita Haruno discovered a lump growing on her back.
Initially, she didn't pay attention, but in just a few days, the lump grew to its current size at an alarming rate.
In a few more days, Yukinoshita Haruno would believe it if someone said she had grown on the lump.
Huh, could this be the truth behind the high mortality rate?
"Is this the time for such jokes?!"
Yukinoshita Yukino looked at her elder sister, saying somewhat speechlessly.
"I've told you everything you wanted to know, so it's pretty much time for good kids to go home and sleep now."
Haruno looked at Yukino, seemingly wanting to imprint her sister's image in her eyes forever: "From today on, unless something special happens, don't come again—"
"Big Sister's illness, it might be curable."
Yukino suddenly interrupted her. The girl gently rubbed the Scale Flash Pattern imprinted on her by Asakura, her tone confident: "If my confidence was only fifty percent just now, it's at least eighty percent now."
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