Once they pulled the body of the piercing stone, they threw it in the seemingly bottomless pit. Though of course it was not actually bottomless, as they heard it reach the ground after about 10 seconds or so. There was still the blood, which Yuki cleaned up with shooting water magic from outside the cave, bypassing the magical barrier this place seemed to have. And with that, it was all done. Safe for now. All good. Yet there was this feeling of guilt… Leaving a man, that was almost a child still, in a cave like this. Dark, alone, forgotten and not cared about. The feeling of wishing for it to have turned out differently. For them to have made up, laughing together like nothing ever happened. Yet, Yamato couldn't reach that feeling. He knew it should be there. Yet it wasn't. As he looked at Yuki, it seemed to be similar. Though she didn't mind that fact at all. Actually, if anything, she was looking even more in love. The moment Yamato snapped Satoshi's neck, he felt Yuki staring at him with heart eyes, like it was exactly what she wanted. It probably was. She clearly hated him. Probably outright said she wanted to kill him, but this had become so normal that Yamato wasn't even sure if she did. If he wanted to he could search his memory and would probably find it, but it wasn't that deep. Even if Yamato arrived here only when it was too late, he was still clearly responsible for all of Yuki's actions. His laziness had killed him. His decision to not partake in the exam. Yet, it didn't matter to him. The only thing he could identify as a mood right now was slight frustration of having to lose the exam because of it. Which was a problem still. The winning condition was the theft of the objective. Yamato thought about what to do with the one of Satoshi. Taking it seemed difficult as it was prohibited to have it not in the possession of a person. How that was going to be controlled was another question. Maybe it wouldn't even work because of the anti magic barrier? The body hasn't disappeared after a few seconds like the ones with Arina have. So it is to assume that the school does not know about their ware abouts or conditions. But neither Yamato nor Yuki knew about that even being a thing, so they couldn't take it into consideration. So leaving it on him was better? Not really, as again, they couldn't be sure that it couldn't be tracked. And if the body is found, the letter doesn't add up and becomes evidence of a crime. Prof. Reed was also aware of Yuki's capabilities in combat, and since Satoshi was fairly strong, possibly the strongest in their year after Yuki, suspicion would fall onto Yuki, as the number one. They could have tried to take the body off the exam grounds, but the barrier made that difficult. Plus the body was not exactly… Stable to transport. Even moving it to the hole made a giant mess. Carrying it through the woods, by flying or on foot, would both not have worked in their favor. In the end, after Yamato considered all that, they decided to leave the objective untouched, as it seemed to have the lowest risk to bet on the anti-magic barrier in the cave to cover up all possibilities to track the objective. After writing down a copy of the writings on the wall, which seemed to be a prophecy, they left the cave.
"Oh my god, Master!!"
"What?"
"You are all injured and roughed up! I didn't notice because it was so dark in the cave! Poor you! What happened?! Tell me all about it!"
She hugged him possessively into her chest as she casted healing spell after healing spell. It was comparable to caughing and your girlfriend just stuffed your mouth full of whatever medicine she found.
After Yamato told her about the avalanche incident, he could tell she wanted to fly off and kill everyone. Especially after getting away with it once already, for now at least. Though her urge to protect and heal him further surpassed her violent ones by a lot. There was no way, no universe where she would leave him alone after hearing about this. She praised Arina in her head over and over, though crediting herself more for sending her just in time. It was already getting dark and from what Yamato told Yuki, there was not much left of the camp. Besides they were way too far away to reach it in the first place, unless they flew. Which Yuki wouldn't allow since Yamato was still injured even after her healing. Her mana was quite low too, as the fight had pretty much drained her completely. Although it was more her outburst at the end then what happened before that was so mana exhausting.
So it seemed they would do it like old times, in the wilderness with just the two of them. Almost nostalgic, even though it had not been that long. Yuki and Yamato slept under a tree, as the cave was, as Yuki put it, "super gross", even if it would have been protecting them from wind and other students. Before Yamato could protest further, she had already cuddled up to him and fallen asleep without a worry in the world. As Yamato remained awake for a while longer, he thought about what happened that day.
"Well, I've never been hit by an avalanche before… Guess I do experience unexpected things once in a while. The injuries don't even hurt anymore thanks to Yuki… I was actually surprised when she didn't mention it at first. I took her for the kind of person that would have ignored the dead body and just focused on my injuries instead. I guess that would have happened too, if she would've seen them right away. Which was actually… Kind of cute. Weird. I never associate that word in that context with someone… I also… Enjoy this? What we are doing right now… Although it is probably just exhaustion. Today was rather intense. Even she was sk exhausted she fell asleep instantly… Or this is her way of trapping me here, knowing I won't leave her here alone. Guess she really didn't want to go in that cave to sleep… I could've forced her… Yet I compromised for a lesser option… It's probably romantic to her. Under the stars… I never saw the appeal… If it makes her happy… I guess I should sleep now too…"
With a quiet night, they slept unbothered and were back at full strength when they woke up the next morning. Well Yamato did anyway. Yuki was already awake, looking at a piece of paper.
"Ah, good morning, Master! You kept it!!"
"Good morning… Kept what?"
"Don't play dumb with me! My drawing~ You folded it… And now the paper isn't as pretty… Maybe also cause you got buried in snow… But you kept it! I knew you loved it!!"
"You gave it to me and were so worried I'd throw it away that you are relieved now…?"
"…Kinda. You are the kind of person who just throws stuff away after the other person turns around."
"When did I ever do that…"
"Just a vibe. But I'm super happy that you didn't! I'll give you lots of stuff from now on!"
"I'll start throwing things away then…"
"Don't!"
"Just kidding. Come now, we should get back to the others."
"Okay!"
"…Did he ever make a joke before…? Progress! Basically married already!!"
They went on their way back, with Yuki being extra careful for class 1 students near by. But there were none. Quickly getting bored, Yuki wanted to chat.
"Master, you told me earlier after the avalanche that you threatened the class 1 students. One specifically. You also did that thing again where you know someones childhood or something. Explain it to me! Why did you threaten them anyway, and why do you know these things! And don't go with "just guessed" I'm not buying that!"
"Sigh… Well, the threatening for one was just stalling time. I had not much of a choice and I needed to regain as much strength as possible if I wanted to fight them."
"You wanted to fight them yourself?!"
"Again, hardly a choice… Since he was already at the ground chances were that if I provoked him emotionally, he might not use magic but want to just hit me. At which point I could have overpowered him. Then, since he could still cast magic, knock him out and use his body as shield against the other two. That became irrelevant when I saw Arina arrive down at the camp and come up the hill."
"Ah… That's mean! And incredibe eyesight!"
"I just detect movement well. After that it was clear it was Arina. And they attacked first. That's mean."
"Fair… But how did you know which buttons to press?! How did you know it in such detail?!"
"It really was just a guess… Just an educated one. You know how I told you he kept apologizing?"
"Yeah? He was a crybaby, so what?"
"Well, statistically, if he were an only child, he would have a higher chance to be entitled, self absorbed, that kind of stereotypical stuff. Thus I started with a broad guess on the direction of a sibling. Sister, I guessed. It's a fifty percent chance and you can just change depending on the reaction you get. Then you just add, correcting depending on their reaction. Since he was so apologetic, I leaned into the direction of trying to be good enough but falling, a little sister he is probably protective of, because, just how it works for most, then just connecting the two. He failed to properly protect his sister, from some internal problems, most likely family issues. So I push on him trying to make her proud, as it makes sense with that narrative in mind. His reaction supports it, so I push and push. So it really is just guess work."
"You always oversimplify it! But it's okay, since you explained it now… I forgive you!"
"…Thanks."