Luke had wondered before whether his phoenix heart would make him immune to poison, something that was surprisingly missing from his memories. Had the people who sent the memories never found themselves in a position where they could only rely on the heart to deal with poison? That was possible, since the tower had so many alternatives. Or was the information just missing?

Either way, now he knew the answer: no. Both medicine and poison were drugs, and the phoenix heart wasn't preventing the medicine from affecting him. All the heart did was help him recover faster after his body was damaged, not prevent it from getting damaged in the first place.

Well, he might be immune to some very light headache medicine, as the phoenix heart would "heal" its effects right after they affected him. Dealing with strong substances was beyond his phoenix heart though, as proven by how his head was dizzy.

Sakura left the room and returned a little later with a Japanese doctor. The middle-aged man was stern looking, not unlike Mr. Akira, and Luke wasn't surprised to read his name on his coat: Akira Sota.

"You sure you want refuse medication?" he asked with a thick accent, the complete opposite of Sakura's perfect English.

"Yesh," Luke replied.

"You need sign papers, but you cannot move arms. I come with camera to film. You okay with that?"

"Yesh."

Soon, Luke had recorded another video, this time saying he was refusing antithermic medicine out of his own will and that the hospital or its staff shouldn't be held responsible if anything happened to him as a consequence to that. After that was done, a nurse came to remove the medicine from his IV.

He immediately felt a little better, the phoenix heart already fighting the remaining substances in his body.

"Zank you," he told Sakura.

"No problem. That's what friends are for, isn't it?" She smiled brightly.

She was just returning the words he had said to her before, but they felt like a punch to his guts after he had said she was beautiful and she ignored it. He had just been friend-zoned. He was totally okay with that, of course, as she was waaaay out of his league, but it still hurt.

Thankfully, his face was so messed up that he was simply unable to show his disappointment, so she didn't notice it.

"Yesh," he said.

"I... I believe you. About..." She suddenly stopped, looked at the clock which had a hidden-camera, then took her smartphone and tapped it a few times. "Now the microphone is off." She looked Luke in the eyes. "I believe what you said about monsters. Sorry for doubting you before."

Luke's eyebrows tried to rise in surprise, but the pain made them stop. "Weally? Why did you change your mind?"

"You... Someone who would sacrifice themselves for others like you did for me wouldn't lie about something like this."

Oh, it came from a misunderstanding. He knew better than to let her wrongly believe something like that. "Sowwy, but I washn't sacrifiching myshelf for you. I heal fashter than you do and zey jusht wanted me to begin with. It made no shenshe for you to alsho get hurt."

She looked pointedly at him. "Exactly my point."

He tried to shake his head, it hurt. "No, I mean I would've done it for anyone. I'm sowwy."

She chuckled. "You don't even realize it, do you? They said they would break all your limbs, and you were worried about someone else. That's what I'm talking about. Do you think just anyone would've done the same in your position without ever flinching?"

Luke was absolutely sure any guy with such a pretty girl by their side would do it. "Yesh," he said.

"You're wrong. Some people would have to think twice before doing it. Some wouldn't do it no matter how much they thought. Thank you for worrying about me." He opened his mouth but she raised her hand to silence him. "I know, I'm not special, you would've done it for anyone. Still, you did it for me, so thank you."

She lowered her hand and touched his chest, probably because his upper body and right cheek were the only parts of his body not fully covered in bandages. The heat of her touch burned through him much fiercer than what even a phoenix's heart could.

"To be fair," she continued, "I want to keep doubting it, but you said we have six months, didn't you? That's way too little time. We can't lose one month for you to prove your words to me." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to risk a lot to prepare the world for it. A lot. Do you remember when I said how the clan is there for me in case I fail?"

"Yesh."

"Well, it also depends on how big I messed up. I..." She clenched her fist, grabbing his hospital gown. "I'm going to bet it all on you. I have some influence in the clan, so they will go to great lengths for me. But if nothing happens, they'll have to pay a big price, and I'll lose it all. I'll not suffer physically, but almost all privileges I have will be taken away." She looked firmly at his eyes. "So I beg you. If it was a prank, just tell me now. Please. For our friendship." She teared up a little, proof of how important this was.

Luke was moved by her actions. He had only wanted her to think about how to warn the world, yet she was willing to go to such depths for him.

Maybe it didn't matter if he had been friendzoned when she was such a damn fucking amazing friend, after all.

"I washn't lying, but I'm not completely sure monsters will awwive." He took a deep, and painful, breath. "Let me tell you all I know."

He didn't even have to think about it. If she was willing to sacrifice so much for him, the least he could do was to trust her more.

So he told her about his memories, the system, and the messages he had read.

Sakura was sitting on the armchair with a dazed expression. "I don't even... If... When I said I didn't want to believe you, I hadn't even heard all of it. Now? My brain is begging me to take your story as the ramblings of a madman or a fantasy you read somewhere."

Though it did hurt a little to hear that, this time she wasn't calling him a liar. She was just sharing her feelings and thoughts with him, something usual between friends. Luke himself would've doubted it if the memories hadn't been placed straight into his brain. So he kept silent, letting her absorb everything.

She took a very long while to consider what she had heard. "But I said I'll trust you, didn't I?" she said after a while. "Just know that if this ends up being a prank, I'll hate you for the rest of my life." Luke forced himself to nod through his physical pain. She sighed. "So you have a treasure trove of information in your brain?"

He was surprised she talked about it first instead of the incoming demonic invasion. "Yesh, but it's all uselessh."

"No, it isn't. Didn't you say the world's mana levels are rising? That means everyone will be affected by it. Reiki works by pushing ki into someone to help them heal while willing it to happen. What will happen when everyone has a lot of mana at their disposal and can feel it more easily? You'll know how to grow stronger properly and prevent common pitfalls. What if plants start changing and get special properties? You'll know how to analyze every new plant much quicker. What if monsters appear everywhere? You'll know how to deal with them. Whoever has you and your knowledge will be way ahead of all competition in any field, be it self-improvement, medicine, or military."

"No," Luke said firmly. "I don't wanna use it to my advantage. I wanna let the wwole wowld know for free."

"I'm not sure you should," Sakura said. "Ill-intentioned people will also get access to that knowledge, won't they? What if they get strong enough to start a genocide? What if they use your knowledge about skills to enslave others?" She bit her lower lip before continuing, "One of the first Akira teachings is that humans are inherently evil. Clan members must be honorable, and that means fighting against our true, evil self every single day. There's also the common saying that power corrupts. If ki— If mana starts making people strong..."

"I don't want people to die because I was afraid of maybes or because I was selfish in keeping all the knowledge for me."

"But you're okay with people dying because you wanted to feel good about yourself by releasing all that information? A wise old man once said that with great power comes great responsibility. The information in your brain is no different from a lot of power. You have the responsibility to use it right."

Luke forced himself to smile through the pain. "You also said power cowwupts. How will I know if I'm doing the wight thing or getting cowwupted? If I ask for help, the helpers will also be powerful, and cowwuptible, by proxy." His speech was recovering a little already. "I can't be responsible for the wwole wowld. I can only do my best for them, give them a shot, and hope for the best."

Sakura frowned as she thought about it. "You could be responsible for everyone. If what you said about the power levels is true, someone strong enough could dominate the entire planet with a chosen few and impose their will upon it."

"Yes. But I'm not interested. I'm not a good leader, and I don't like to decide things for others. I'll fight for those I care about and help when and where I can, but I..." He slowed his speech. "Don't want... to do more..."

Even as he spoke, he realized how egoistical his words were. He was just thinking of himself and his comfort zone instead of what he, personally, could do for humankind. Even if his knowledge saved people, it would be thanks to whoever had given it to him, not his own merit. He was just being lazy and avoiding responsibility.

He found himself in a bind. On one hand, hoarding knowledge and power for himself would be selfish. On another, just releasing that knowledge instead of using it, in person, to help others would also be a way to selfishly avoid responsibility.

"This is a rare opportunity," Sakura insisted. "Earth... today, the worst rule over it. Politicians, companies, billionaires, most of them have an agenda that doesn't involve doing ther best for everyone. Not all of them are bad, but enough that I don't fully trust some people even in an honorable clan like mine. But you... Luke, I believe in you, and you have something no one else does. Yes, power corrupts, but there's an exception to every rule. And even if it was impossible to stay incorruptible... Can't you see? Something impossible already happened to you. Memories from an impossible place called Sentinel Tower with impossible beings like demons and phoenixes came to you."

She bit her lower lip and rested both her hands on his chest again. "We haven't known each other for long, but what I have already seen from you... I... I was wrong. What Jackson and his goons did to you was torture. Actual, Middle Ages-level torture." Now that she mentioned it, it was actual torture, wasn't it? The last two beatings had been way over the top, but he had gotten so used to it that he hadn't even noticed until she mentioned it. "I can't imagine living in fear of having someone I love hurt, and the attackers walking away free. For your grandfather, you sacrificed so much. Even now, you're going through pain everyday so you can build your mana channels more quickly to heal him. And today, back at school, you knew what they would do to you, and you only thought of my safety."

She took a deep breath. "Maybe it's impossible to stay incorruptible, but if it's you, I believe you can do the impossible."

Luke... He felt good about himself hearing that. That confidence in him was something so novel, he didn't even know what to do with the pride that arose from it.

Part of him told him she was talking about a few simple things in his life as if they were a big deal; that it was only natural for him to protect his grandfather and his only friend. It said that he wasn't special. It whispered that it took much longer than a few days to determine someone's character.

Yes, their days had been pretty intense. Luke especially had gone through a lot in between finding out about his grandpa's disease and getting beaten to a pulp. But her reaction seemed a little extreme.

Luke shut that part up. He was trying to act like a warrior, and he had to give himself credit where it was due. He was fighting. Losing, yes, but fighting. That should be worth something.

As for the discussion at hand...

The most beautiful girl in school—in his humble opinion—a girl he definitely liked, was telling him she believed in him even when he didn't.

He just had to do his best for her.

"I'll... think about what to tell the world. It's not something I can decide in the heat of a moment. People's lives rest on it."

She smiled slightly. "And that seriousness and maturity are the reason you're worthy."

Luke smiled, even though part of him still found her trust in him stupid. The smile hurt a lot less than he thought it should. The phoenix heart was really good at dealing with pain, it seemed. He also guessed it had been fighting the medicine's effects before and thus couldn't focus on decreasing the pain.

Actually, now that he could think a little more clearly, it was more than that. As a phoenix hybrid, he was extra resistant to the cold, yet also suffered more if the cold went through his resistance. The medicine had been lowering his body temperature, which was a straight attack to the heart and decreased its power.

If he was higher leveled, no medicine from Earth would be strong enough to do that, but at level 1, he was mostly human still.

Anyway, he had to answer Sakura. "I'm not all that, but thank you for your kind wowds." His words were a compromise between old and new Luke. A middle ground. They felt right.

She kept smiling for a little, then briefly clenched his gown and removed her hands. His chest felt cold and hollow without her touch. Their contact had been brief, but he already dearly missed it.

"Then we can continue this talk after you decide how much to reveal," she said. "I'll help you with whatever you decide."

"Alwight."

"If I understood things correctly, the reason you told the doctor the take the medicine out was because of your phoenix heart," she deduced. Luke confirmed it. She bit her lower lip. "About the mana channels you're building... Can you teach it to me? I also want to grow stronger."

He smiled. "Of couwse."

She nodded, then stepped back, clasped her hands in front of herself in martial arts style, and bowed slightly. "Please teach me, sensei."

Luke chuckled and did his best impersonation of a wise master. "Such a willing student. How could I wefuse your sincerity? Heed me, young grasswopper, and you shall reach unimaginable heights."

Sakura smiled. "Yes, sensei."

They looked at each other in amused silence for a while, then Luke started teaching her how to build her mana channels.