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39.95% Transition and Restart / Chapter 180: Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 8

Chapitre 180: Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 8

"I'm afraid that's all I know."

Kyoko tried to wrap her head around those last words. 'Broken ribs and punctured lungs. How bad is that?'

Back at the chairs Kuri-chan had fallen into a fitful sleep with her head in Yukio's lap. Kyoko saw him caressing Kuri-chan's head, but rather than any jealousy she only felt pride for his caring.

'It's your best friend. You must be worried sick.'

Despite the nurse's advice all three of them decided to stay the night. Not because they could do anything to help Urufu, but because Kyoko didn't have it in her to desert Kuri-chan again, and Kuri-chan didn't dare leaving the hospital. Yukio, well he stayed for two reasons Kyoko guessed.

Looking up at the clock she noticed how Sunday had given way to Monday. A school day she was likely to miss or at least sleep through.

"Something to drink?" Kyoko asked.

She didn't wait for an answer, but walked down the corridor to where she had seen a vending machine on her way here. A few coins lighter, and loaded with an armful of bottles and cans, she returned to where Kuri-chan still slept in Yukio's lap.

"Coffee?"

Yukio nodded in response and looked up at her. "But let her sleep some more," he said and glanced down at Kuri-chan.

With an effort not to wake her he moved out from under her and replaced his legs with Kyoko's bundled coat. Kuri-chan protested sleepily but didn't wake.

"It's warm," Kyoko said and handed him a can.

"Thanks." Yukio took two bottles nestled in her arms and placed them on the seat next to Kuri-chan's head. "Soda or tea?"

"Tea," Kyoko said. She watched Yukio take the remaining can and put it beside the two bottles.

Yukio broke open his can and tilted it to his lips. His face turned upwards, and Kyoko saw him close his eyes as if that would enhance the taste of his coffee.

'Do you know how beautiful you are?' Kyoko twisted her bottle open and let the taste of cold and bitter run down her throat. She screwed the cork back on again and went to the windows. Outside the glimmering Tokyo night-lights shone their promise of a never sleeping life. An illusion, she knew, but in the capital of capitals, an illusion easier to keep alive than anywhere else.

"Want to sleep?" The words came from behind her back just as Yukio threw his arms around her and clasped his hands over her stomach.

Kyoko revelled in his closeness for a few seconds before answering. "No, I'll stay up for a while longer." She turned in his arms. "I should be awake when Kuri-chan wakes."

Hissing sounds of elevator doors opening announced a late entry onto their floor, and Kyoko tilted her head so she could see past Yukio's shoulder.

"Then I'll stay up with you as well," he said.

She hugged him closer, but she never stopped peering beside him to catch a glimpse of whoever came to the waiting room at this hour.

'Sato-sensei?'

Kyoko looked again. It was hard recognising anyone shadowed against the lights in the corridor, but it did look like Urufu's guardian.

"Yukio, I think Sato-sensei has come here."

The shadowy figure stopped by the chairs where Kuri-chan lay sleeping, hesitated for a moment and moved as if to caress the sleeping figure. At the last moment it stopped and rose again.

"Let her sleep," Kyoko said. By now she was sure it was indeed Urufu's guardian who had arrived. "Don't you think you've hurt her enough?"

Sato-sensei recoiled as if whipped.

"Kuri-chan told me about your phone call. Of all who said they cared for Urufu she came here first and you last."

The last words made Yukio flinch in her arms, but Kyoko didn't care.

"It's not that easy," Sato-sensei murmured.

"It's exactly that easy. When those you profess to love are taken to hospital you drop everything and rush there. That's how easy it is."

Kyoko prepared herself for a stinging rebuke, but none came.

"How is he?"

Some of her anger ran off her with those words, but far from all of it. "What gives you the right to ask that now?" Kyoko said, and this time Yukio's arms around her tightened to tell her that enough was enough.

"How is my little boy?"

Something in that voice silenced the next stream of angry words from Kyoko before she even had a chance to voice them. She looked at Urufu's guardian. What she saw in Sato-sensei's face was less fear than rage.

"I don't know. Broken ribs and some internal damage," Kyoko said, suddenly subdued. "The doctor's didn't want to tell me how bad it was. He's in ICU."

Sato-sensei's mouth was a thin line, and Kyoko found it hard to understand how she managed to voice a reaction.

"They told me on my way here."

"Why, why didn't you come earlier?" Yukio asked.

From his voice Kyoko knew he was still facing the windows. He never made an attempt to turn and greet Urufu's guardian.

"I was told an hour ago."

"We called you as soon as we knew," Yukio protested.

"You called my job. They didn't tell me."

'What kind of awful job do you have?' Kyoko knew Sato-sensei worked with the police, but what kind of department kept something like this secret from their employees?

Suddenly Kyoko felt how tired she really was. She glared at Sato-sensei and let go of Yukio. "Promise you wake me up if anything happens," Kyoko said and walked over to Kuri-chan's side.

"I promise," she heard from behind her.

That had to suffice. Kyoko moved the drinks to the floor, moved her coat under Kuri-chan's head so there was enough to make a pillow for her as well and lay down to sleep.


Chapitre 181: Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 9

Twice a nurse had arrived only to tell him there were no news.

Yukio looked at the rows of chairs where Kyoko lay sleeping head to head with Kuri. By the windows Sato-sensei walked the length of the waiting room. First left to right, stop and turn, and then back again. She had done so for the last half an hour, and remained silent throughout the time.

The clock on the wall showed half past two am, and a long day made itself felt in his limbs.

With a sigh Yukio rummaged through the last of his coins. Sato-sensei nodded when he shot her a questioning look, and he went to buy two cans of coffee. Come tomorrow his stomach would have him pay for his excess coffee-drinking.

"Black," Yukio said as he handed over one hot can to Sato-sensei. He didn't have to. She had drunk nothing but black coffee since she arrived, but it was the polite thing to do.

Urufu's guardian nodded her thanks and opened her can. Yukio copied her, turned and walked back to where the undefined zone where waiting room and corridor melded into one. Back at the windows Sato-sensei resumed her walking, only broken by taking a sip of more and more lukewarm coffee whenever she reached a wall.

Yukio spent his time standing under a lamp and read the same poster he had read several times since Kyoko fell asleep.

A part of him wanted to shake her awake so he could get some much needed sleep himself. Another adamantly refused anything so unchivalrous, and a third told him he was a stuck up idiot. Kyoko wouldn't thank him for spending the entire night awake and leaving her to sleep through it.

He pushed the thought away and read yet another poster he by now knew by heart.

From the chairs he heard one of the girls stirring and moaning, and shortly after Kuri groggily sat up. She looked around her with panic in her eyes, until she recognised him by the bulletin board.

"Anything?" she asked and rose from her chair.

Yukio shook his head. "I'm sorry. They'll tell us when they know more."

"What time..." Kuri stared at the clock above his head and scowled. "You let me sleep that long?"

He emptied the last of his tepid coffee and nodded. "No reason to wake you up." Yukio looked at the windows until Kuri started turning. "Sato-sensei arrived a while ago." There wasn't much point in telling Kuri Sato-sensei had been here for over two hours.

"You're late," Kuri said to the walking silhouette. "I tried to reach you earlier, but they wouldn't let me through. I'm sorry." She slowly approached the figure, and the last words had been faint enough for Yukio to barely hear them.

'Why are you apologising?'

"It's not your fault. You tried." With those words Urufu's guardian abandoned the windows and walked to Kuri.

In the poor light Kuri looked like the older of the two women. Something in the way she stood showed her true age, and Yukio saw how Sato-sensei momentarily deferred to his fellow student.

'I always forget who's the more experienced,' he thought. 'And that she's not from here,' he added mentally. 'What would Urufu have done?'

The answer came surprisingly quickly. Yukio resolutely walked to Kuri and hugged her. "He'll be just fine. He always is."

Sato-sensei glared at him with surprised eyes. She mustn't be too used to Urufu's alien familiarity with his friends no matter their gender. Kuri was the same, hugging people left and right.

"Thanks," Kuri said and hugged him back. "You know him best so I'm sure you're right."

'I know him best?' The very thought was absurd. 'He's my best friend, but I don't think I've ever gotten to know him.' "Yeah, trust me on this," Yukio said instead.

He let go of her and sat down beside Kyoko's head. 'Should I wake her and get some sleep?' With Kuri awake it didn't seem like as evil an action as it had done earlier. 'They probably need to talk with each other.'

Kuri looked at him, and in her eyes he saw that she had already read his thoughts. She nodded.

"You wake her instead," he said. "I'll just take a nap."

"Should I wake you if there are any news?"

"Yeah. Don't want to miss out on any updates." Yukio could hear how unnaturally cheery his voice sounded. 'But I promised her Urufu will be fine. Doesn't that require me to be cheery?'

He lay down on the seats Kuri had used before him. There was more than ample space for him. Closing his eyes he smelled Kyoko's hair and nudged himself a bit closer. This was the most like sleeping with her as he had ever come.

"Keep your mind out of the gutter," Kuri's voice admonished him.

'Did it show that much?'

In response to his thought Kuri laughed as if she had read it.

Whatever the reason Yukio was glad to hear her laughing. There had been preciously little of that as it was. He dug his head even closer to Kyoko in an exaggerated show of affection and was rewarded with another laugh.

"What is he doing? Won't she wake if he continues?" That was Sato-sensei's voice.

For a moment Yukio felt a pang of guilt. She had to be just as worried as Kuri, but he hadn't given her feelings much thought.

"I plan to wake her anyway, so it's OK."

Yukio wondered if Kyoko would agree with Kuri's statement, but in the end he felt rather certain she would.

Lying down his body slowly took command, and two long days' work made themselves felt. Yukio barely noticed when Kyoko woke, but he drowsily surfaced for a while when he felt her fingers digging through his hair. From a distance he heard her sharing the absence of news with Kuri and Sato-sensei.

'I love you Kyoko. Urufu, get well.'


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