Time seemed to slow to a crawl while Senzo kept injecting the energy into Yugiri's head carefully and tried to free her from the trauma that had kept her unconscious all this time.
But something felt wrong, like the current method would be able to slightly stimulate the slushy but not get rid of it fully.
What am I missing?
Deep in concentration, Senzo kept staring at it; while the energy he was injecting did help, it was way too slow. If it kept going at this pace, his estimation was that it would take weeks if not months of constantly doing this, and that was impossible for him to do.
"Fuck!"
But he couldn't even stay mad because he needed to keep his concentration focused on her, and the energy in his body once again calmed him down almost immediately.
Wait, can't I use that?
Suddenly an idea hit him after the energy had calmed him down for the umpteenth time.
Carefully he released one of his hands from the little girl's head and held it above her head while he kept injecting energy to stir the slushy with the other one.
"Nothing wrong with trying, I guess..."
Then he tried to imitate what the energy had been doing for him when it rebalanced his emotions and whole body.
He sent the energy throughout Yugiri's body. Once it entered, he let it do its work while monitoring the slushy and her vitals to prevent accidents.
"!!!"
And almost immediately after, he saw the little girl's mouth move a little from its original neutral expression to a small smile.
Now Senzo was sure he was going in the right direction and fully focused on making sure he would not make a mistake now.
One minute turned into ten, and ten minutes turned into an hour.
Beads of sweat were dripping from Senzo's forehead, but he couldn't give up now. It felt like he was so close to resolving the slushy; its size had been reduced by around 90%, and everything that had been resolved was once more in perfect balance.
He was finally approaching the center, where it was the most vital to be careful and not harm her psyche.
"Just wait for me, Yugiri. I will not let you suffer anymore!" Senzo said through gritted teeth.
He knew that with the current method, it would take too long—might even never save her. Right then, he made a decision: up the dosage of Taiji energy.
He had to be brave and bold now, push harder before his stamina gave out.
Inside Yugiri's body a massive war of all kinds of energies was ongoing; the Taiji energy that Senzo was injecting was slowly converting all the Yin and Yang energy into Taiji and restoring the balance.
But the Yin and Yang wasn't going down easy because Yugiri herself didn't seem to want to wake up at all.
She had been through such traumatic things that she'd much rather stay unconscious, and so her body rejected the balance the Taiji was trying to achieve.
But luckily the Taiji energy input was very low and constant; otherwise, her body might have gone into shock.
In the deepest part of the slushy, Yugiri's consciousness was tightly wrapped into it and peacefully sleeping; like that, she didn't need to suffer anymore.
Even though she really liked the time she spent with the Major, Senzo, and Sophie, her suffering was worse, especially when she was captured by those bad guys.
That's when she suddenly felt a very soothing energy knock against her Yin Yang barrier.
Hnnn?
She slowly opened one of her eyes as she looked around, but luckily it looked like she had just imagined it.
Yeah, I'll stay here. I don't want to feel any more pain.
Just like that, she closed her eye once more and snuggled into the slushy; it was nice and warm while at the same time also being nice and cold.
This was the perfect place to sleep forever.
But right before she fell into deep sleep again, light suddenly shone on her body.
Hnnn?
It felt so uncomfortable that she turned around and hoped her cocoon would quickly fix itself so she could go back to sleep.
I just want to sleep; leave me alone!
She was so tired, tired of suffering, and just wanted to rest forever all alone here.
The thing that broke through her cocoon did not care in the slightest, though; it drilled straight through the cocoon and wrapped the little girl.
What is this? It feels so familiar and comfortable.
That's when realization dawned on her; this felt like Senzo.
!!!
Get me out, Senzo! I don't want to sleep anymore!
She was trying to scream as hard as she could, but no sound came out of her mouth.
But luckily, the energy that had wrapped around her seemed to understand. It came flooding in all at once, wrapping her in a massive blanket of soft, luminous gray.
It broke straight through the black cocoon with no issue.
Thank you.
***
"!!!"
Senzo couldn't believe it; after struggling for so long, he had actually done it. The whole slushy had vanished, and it was nice and balanced once more.
He planted a kiss on her forehead with a tender smile. "Welcome back, Yugiri. Don't worry, and take your time to slowly wake up."
He knew it would still take some time for her to wake up, but at least she would wake up now.
"You all can come in now," he called out, as a couple of tears fell down from the edges of his eyes.
Momiji, Sophie, Yo, and Magi rushed inside with expectant gazes; they all stared at Senzo, waiting for an explanation.
"Don't worry, it was a success, but give her some more time; she has worked hard."
"!!!"
All four of them heaved a sigh of relief simultaneously while smiling and tearing up as well.