The town wasn't what Vira imagined.
In his mind, people congregating and being joyous was what he imagined. Kids giggling and chasing each other while parents did their best to keep their eye on them.
But that wasn't reality... there wasn't any sort of happiness or people being together. The town didn't feel like safety, it felt like a place where people had given up on the beautiful thing given to them.
Life.
Broken structures leaned into one another just like everywhere else Vira had been, the only difference being that lanterns hung from them dancing like fireflies at night.
Nora walked through the suburb, showing Vira where she grew up.
"Here... is a hospital, normally you'd go here to receive help if you're injured. But now people only wander here if there's no other house available for them."
Vira watched as a woman holding a child walked around the corner of the building while coughing... his heart ached.
"Is it like this for... everyone?"
Turning to him, a solemn look grew on Nora's face.
"Not for everyone no, but... there are a lot of less fortunate people here."
She continued walking ahead, her voice cutting through the wind as she guided Vira through the settlement.
She was explaining things so nonchalantly, like it was normal to live in such a gut wrenching place.
Vira followed a step behind her, saddened at most of the things he was seeing.
He was happy to see other people, he loved knowing that there was other life out here besides him... but exactly how he saw these people dismayed him.
The sound of Nora's voice, although seeming to be nonchalant, was real nonetheless. Compared to hearing that wretched Hollow, it brought serenity to Vira's heart... something he hadn't noticed beforehand.
Around them, survivors moved through the streets with quiet efficiency, some looked normal at a distance.
Others didn't.
A man sat on a broken crate with his fingers twitching beyond what was natural, each knuckle shifting out of their sockets like his body forgot what it was supposed to be.
A woman passed by with faint cracks of light leaking from beneath her skin before they faded again.
Nobody reacted to it, and that's what unsettled Vira the most.
Nora never bothered to slow down her pace to look either.
"You'll see worse if you stay here long enough."
Knocking Vira out of his daze, he replied:
"Huh?"
Nora stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him.
"Most people out here either got kicked out of their cities or stopped being useful to their government... not a lot of people make it here though."
Vira gulped hard at the thought.
"I mean... I barely did, until you found me."
Nora's lips slightly curled into a smirk.
"Lucky you huh?"
Her snarky remark flew over Vira's head... his attention kept drifting. First at the devastating view around him, but now it was on Nora.
The way the Lantern light danced over her ebony skin.
The way the wind carried ash through strands of her dirty blonde hair, sticking briefly to the bandana wrapped around her neck before whisking away every time she turned.
Catching Vira in the corner of her eye, she turned around with a puzzled look.
"You okay? you look… sick. I literally just mentioned how hospitals aren't used for medical stuff anymore."
What Vira didn't notice is that his face grew to a red hue.
"Y-yeah! Why… do you ask?"
Nora fixed her bandana before continuing:
"Your face is pink… like you're unwell."
Vira's eyes widened as he cleared his throat breaking eye contact with her.
"I-I'm okay… where else do we have to go?"
Nora gave him a weird look as she continued walking.
"Come on."
His gaze lingered too long while she walked away, realizing it he forced himself to look away, jaw tightening as he adjusted the bandages wrapped across his torso.
The black veins beneath them pulsed faintly when the air blew across them.
He pretended not to feel it… he didn't know how to even process what it was.
They turned down a narrower street, and that's when Vira noticed him again.
The man… the same man sitting on the broken crate from before.
He wasn't fully in view, this time half-hidden between two leaning buildings, like he had been there the entire time.
Watching.
His arm twitched forward, then snapped back into place wrong, every few seconds a part of his body would protrude out in abnormal ways.
Nora followed Vira's gaze without stopping.
"Don't mind him… he's been like that for awhile."
Vira couldn't take his eyes off the man, as he replied:
"But how? W-why…?"
Nora looked away while continuing.
"He's an Arcane, lost his mind before the town even took him in."
Arcane.
The word lingered, making Vira frown.
"Arcane…?"
Nora sighed, pulling on his arm to follow close behind her.
"I'll explain later, come on."
Vira fastened his pace of walking, but he never took his eyes off the man.
The man's breathing changed, it became uneven and sharp like he was trying to force a cough.
His fingers curled inward until they nearly punctured his palms.
Vira slowed without realizing it.
"Is he… following us?"
Nora didn't even turn.
"No, he's just unstable. They don't have a sense of self or reason in that state, the only thing going through his head probably isn't anything worth overreacting to."
But Vira wasn't convinced.
Because every turn they made through the town, he was there… hiding closer and closer. Just existing nearer than he should've been.
A cold weight started forming in Vira's stomach, but he pushed it down ignoring it.
Hours passed, as they were about to reach their destination Vira looked behind him.
And there he was… this time standing out in the open, completely still and eyes wide.
"Hey isn't that the same guy from earlier—"
The moment the words left Vira's mouth the man screamed.
"NO!"
His voice tore out of him like it didn't belong to his vocal cords.
"NO NO NO NO S-STOP LOOKING!"
Everyone nearby froze, staring back and forth between the man and the two people he was glaring at.
Nora spun around quickly toward the yelling.
"What the—"
The man's hands jerked upwards, fingers splitting and reshaping as bone pushing through his skin in jagged unstable bursts.
One arm elongated unnaturally before falling in on itself, reforming into a sharp spike. His legs buckled, joints folding wrong as he held himself up with his new stake for an arm.
"DON'T LOOK AT ME YOU MONSTER!"
His other arm clawed in front of himself… like he was trying to get at Vira.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM! STOP STOP!"
He was unraveling… and looking at Vira like he was the cause of it.
Vira took a step back instinctively, whilst Nora slowly lowered her hand into her satchel.
"I didn't even—"
But the man kept coming forward choking out words, and stumbling as his body trembled to maintain the grotesque form it had taken.
"I can hear it—"
"I can hear it in my head, MAKE IT STOP!"
Nora moved in front of Vira immediately.
"Hey back up! He's not doing anything!"
She took another step forward, but was surprised to feel someone grab her wrist and pull her into the crowd of people.
"Hey let go of me!"
Nora yanked back instinctively, turning sharply, only to find an older woman standing there.
She had dark skin lined with deep tired creases, gray streaks running through her coiled hair pulled back into a ponytail.
Her grip on Nora didn't loosen.
"G-grandma?! We… were just looking for you! What're you doing here?!"
Nora's Grandmother didn't respond, her attention only focused on the boy and man in front of her.
She had a horrified look on her face… aimed at Vira.
The man screamed again in front of them.
"STOP HIM! BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"
But to Vira… everything sounded muffled and his abdomen was vibrating once more. He had forgotten what it felt like, days wandering with Nora dulled his resistance to it… and it was back in full force.
The black veins on his stomach started swirling, forming a sphere where his belly button was supposed to be.
His arms wrapping around himself as he screamed in agony from the pain, while a dull pressure formed behind his eyes.
The deformed man sped up his steps. Half of his body seeming to try and fall apart, and half of his face having rows of teeth.
"You're doing this! It's YOU!"
Vira tried shaking his head but only groaned in pain.
"Aaaargh… I'm not doing anything!"
But his voice didn't sound too convincing, even to himself… the harrowing pain was blinding.
The defiled man lunged at him in blind panic.
Not to attack… but to escape from whatever he thought Vira was doing to him.
And something inside Vira snapped.
Nothing happened at first, no big explosion, no loud noise… Vira could only watch as the swirling finished on his stomach, and an orb made of pure darkness crawled out of it.
It was pure silence, like the whole street had been wrapped in a sound barrier.
Then pressure followed, invisible but absolute.
The disheveled man, frozen mid-motion.
His body began swirling inward violently, as if space itself decided to swallow him whole.
Limbs twisted and cracked, bones and flesh ripping… nothing but a strangled sound left him.
But even that stopped halfway.
Blood pushed from his mouth and eyes as half of his body had already vanished into the strange Void eating him.
His head was the last to go, as the droplets of blood stayed in the air… and the same black sphere from before floated back into Vira's abdomen.
Vira staggered back, his breathing hitched as time seemed to continue.
"I… I didn't—"
His legs gave out as he dropped to his knees.
Vira began vomiting black fluid onto the cracked ground, steaming faintly as it pooled between his fingers.
The crowd of people didn't move, no one spoke, it didn't even seem like the people there were currently breathing correctly due to the shock.
Only the sound of Vira's gags, and the black liquid hitting the ground radiated through the area.
Vira stared at his torso, then at his hands lathered in black resin.
"What… is this…"
To the right of him, Nora's wrist was still held by her Grandmother.
Only then did she finally speak.
"Girl…"
She paused, glancing at Nora and then glancing at Vira sighing like someone had personally offended her.
"I know damn well you didn't just bring that boy in here with all of THAT wrong with him!"