Chapter 87, Be Strict When Needed

Ugh. Last night was rough. I know Arata was in a rush to get to the north but... couldn't he have at the bery least waited for the blizzard to pass. We couldn't even say goodbye to the others properly. Well, he must have his reasons.

"Arata, are you awake yet?" Zhen's voice knocked at the room next to mine.

As usual he is quick to wake up and also quick to wake the rest of us up. I need to have a word with that man later. Maybe stuff a sock down his throat for how loud he is first thing in the morning.

"Andrew, are you awake yet?" Ethan asked.

"I am now. You?" I answered.

"I was having a good dream before Zhen woke me up." He answered.

We all meet up at the bridge, I'm so sleepy and it seems the only energetic one is Zhen and Leon. They must be something else if the could've slept through last nights incident. I heard someone throwing up last night and judging by the look on Licas, Adonis and Zhen's face, I'd say their suffering pretty bad. Looks like no one got any decent sleep last night. We all yawningly sit on the table and after fifteen minutes of chatting Arata and Van join us and I almost jump out of ny seat. The two look even worse than we do. Arata looks like he hasn't slept a wink and Van looks like he's about to collapse.

"You two okay?" Angie asked as she rubbed her yees.

"I'll live." Van answered. "Not sure about Arata though."

"I won't... give... in... that... easily..." Arata said and suddenly as his eyes got sleepy and began to close and the ship started to rock.

"Wake up!" Van spapped his face and Arata jumps awake and the rocking stops. "You guys take over, I'm going to try get some sleep. You have to keep Arata awake till we reach the northern continent or else Growth will turn back to normal and we'll fall into the frozen sea."

"What?!" We all exclaimed.

"Give it your best..." Van says as he stands up and walks to the door but collapses befpre he can make it out.

Michael and Lucas carry him back to his room while we try to keep Arata awake. Arata explains things in a somewhat understandable way. If Arata falls asleep he'll stop supplying Vi to Growth and it'll stop being a ship. Last time he managed to stay up the while trip cause he had sleep decently the previous nights but recalling our recent adventure he hasn't gotten any sleep and can't hold on for long. My first instinct is to let his head rest on my lap and sing him to sleep but if I do we'll fall straight into the frozen sea below.

"Arata, you can do it!" Lia and Rachel cheered him.

The ship rocks for the whole morning as we try to keep Arata awake. We take turns but by afternoon everyone except Liam, Me and Will have yet to throw up our breakfast thanks to the constantly rocking ship. Van has returned but his face looks worse.

"How much longer till we hit land?" Adele asked.

"Just till sunset when we reach Snowflake Cape." I answered. "Hang in there Arata. When we get to Snowflake Cape you can sleep for as long as you want."

We spend the rest of the afternoon trying to keep Arata awake but we just can't bring iurselves to hit and Arata's eyes begin to shut themsleves and finally Van sprays his face with ice cold water and he springs awake and complains before going off to change his soaked shirt.

"I get that you all love Arata, but you need to be strict at times too." Van said to us the moment Arata closed the door. "He isn't so weak that he can't take a bit of force. There are times to be gentle and there are times to be rough."

"What are you trying to say?" Adonis asked trying to hold on to his train of thought.

"You're all weak when it comes to Arata." He answered. "You wanna spoil him? Sure, fine by me. But there are times when you can't keep spoiling him. You need to man up and hit him when you need to!"

Suddenly the ship begins to rock again and we all rush to Arata's room where he is hugging a pillow and Van slaps his face waking him up and the ship stabilizes.

Van takes care of Arata while we all go up deck to see how far away land is. It's quiet for a while before Angie breaks our silence.

"Van's right. We're too soft on Arata." Angie stated. "I can't exactly imagine myself hitting him."

"I can." Lucas said but we all had doubtful looks. "What?"

"You? Who secret dotes on Arata? Who never lets him out of his sight?" Adele retorted. "But, I guess none of us are better. We can't exactly bring ourselves to be strict to him."

"Let's try." Alistar said. "What Van said made me think. Arata isn't invincible but he always takes everything on by himself. There were times when we should've stopped him but we didn't because we couldn't bring ourselves to be strict with him."

"Unnecessary kindness will only end up hurting the giver." Reinhardt stated and we nodded. "We need to be strict when necessary."

The wind felt cold and we could feel the air around us growing dark when Arata comes to us with a big smile on his face. He points to the horizon where we could see the lights of a city shining past the frozen seas. Snowflake Cape. Just as the sunsets, the bow of the ship lands on the waters of the cape. We all nodded to each other and got off and booked hotel rooms. After our dinner and baths, we all collapsed in our beds finally able to rest after the exhausting day.