He was regaining consciousness. There were noises around him that he didn't recognize, beeping noises. He opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling. A plain white one with a plain square lamp. Where am I? He thought and looked around. A hospital room? Why am I here?
"Are you awake?" A husky voice said. Kid turned his head in the direction of the voice and almost fell out of the bed of horror. He was almost about to scream, but then a horrible pain struck his left arm and he remembered. They had played against Hakushuu Dinosaurs and he had finally found his personal wish; to go to the Christmas Bowl with Tetsuma, Riku and the whole team. But at the very moment he found his wish, it was crushed along with his left arm. My, my I guess I was right, he thought, having a wish is just asking for trouble.
"Woaw you really scared me there." He said to the Sadako-like nurse.
"My apologizes." She said in the same husky voice. "It happens a lot. I should have been more careful."
"No it's alright. I've just regained consciousness and was having a hard time telling reality from imagination." He lied. Christ, that woman looked horrifying.
"I see." She said and stood still for a moment. "Well as you might already know you have broken your left arm. Three fractures." She said and actually had a human sympathizing look in her eyes. Even though he knew it was broken and probably badly broken. Three fractures came as a shock. His mouth felt dry and he was at a lack of words.
"Will I…" He forced himself to swallow. "Will I be able to use it again?"
"Yes. But it will take a while." The nurse said and then she shrugged lightly. "The more rest you give it the better it will heal. Of course you need to rehabilitate it as well." She added.
He sighed. A big relief. Out of habit he reached up to adjust his hat, but it wasn't there. Instead another pain attack struck his arm and he gasped.
"You have to lay still. We still haven't had time to put a cast on." The nurse said.
"I would appreciate if you told me sooner next time." He said under his breath. The nurse gave him a huge white pill and made him swallow it, while she told him a story of some poor guy, who died in the very same room because he didn't eat his pills. Then another young nurse came in, clearly uncomfortable in the other nurse's presence. While nurse Oka, the scary one and Kimiko, the young one put on a cast, Oka told another story of an evil doctor, who didn't do the cast properly and the patient died somehow. Kid was unable to listen properly. The pill Oka had given him was fairly strong painkiller and he was barely conscious. So when Oka told him to get some rest, he didn't refuse and fell in a deep sleep.
It took a while for Riku to get permission to go and see Kid. The head nurse wouldn't let him go to Kid's room, since he had just fallen asleep and shouldn't be disturbed.
"Just let me go see him. I promise I won't wake him up." Riku said impatiently.
"Fine. But if you wake him up, you will be cursed!" The nurse said and held up a voodoo doll and a hammer.
"Yeah, fine." Riku said and went to Kid's hospital room. He went in and sat next to the window and looked at his team captain. He was snoring quietly and his mouth was half open. His left arm was covered in a cast and the right one hang down from the bed.
The match was over now. And they had lost. 64 – 14 to Hakushuu. The match had started out to Seibu's advantage, but as soon as Kid was out, the Dinosaurs had the upper hand. And Tetsuma was out of the game as well. Riku had done his very best to keep the team's morals up and lead them to victory as the only main player left. But he failed and they had lost. Even if Riku himself knew, he couldn't have done it any better, he still felt somewhat guilty for not winning. He kept remembering Kid's face expression right before Gao had crushed him.
It was an expression Riku hadn't seen before on his team captain. There was no real way to explain it. Happy? Hope? Maybe it was a mixture of both.
Riku sighed. There isn't much anyone knows about this guy. I don't even know his real name. He looked out the window at some people sitting and having lunch.
"Next year, I promise I'll be stronger and we'll make it to Christmas Bowl." He muttered.
It felt like he had slept for hours, but then it somehow also felt like he had only slept for five minutes. He opened his eyes and the clock across the room told him, that he had slept for around three hours. He noticed another presence in the room.
"Next year, I promise I'll be stronger and we'll make it to Christmas Bowl."
He heard someone mutter. He turned his head to the window and saw Riku sitting and looking at something Kid didn't see.
"Riku?"
"Ah Kid-san you are awake. How are you feeling?" Riku asked, happy to finally see his team captain with open eyes.
"I'm fine I guess. As good as I can be in my current state." He chuckled and tried to sit up in the bed.
"The bed has a remote." Riku said and pointed. He wasn't sure whether Kid wanted help or not. Kid saw it and tried to reach for it, but it was on his left side so he had a lot of trouble reaching it.
"Do you want me to take it?" Riku asked. Kid smiled and nodded. Riku gave him the remote and smiled at Kid when he didn't know how to use it. Apparently Kid was somewhat technically challenged.
"That button means lifting the head of the bed and that's down." Riku explained. "Can't you tell from the marks?"
"No. I hardly know how to use a television remote. But I know how to use a coffee machine." He added cheerfully.
"And I'm sure that will get you far." Riku muttered. He was happy that Kid wasn't all down about not being able to go to the Christmas Bowl. But also surprised. Why? Didn't he want to go to the Christmas Bowl? Riku had never actually heard Kid mention it. He watched him fumbling with the remote and suddenly he got annoyed.
"Hey Kid-san?" He began.
"Hm?" Kid looked up.
"Aren't you sad about not going to the Christmas Bowl?"
"Of course I am."
"You don't seem like it."
"That is because I wasn't expecting too much of it." Kid said and shrugged.
"What? Wasn't your dream as well as ours to go to the Christmas Bowl?" Riku felt his temper rise. Kid looked down on his broken arm.
"Dreaming is what lead to this." He said and poked the cast.
"What do you mean?"
"I never dreamt of reaching any goals." Kid said. "It usually always becomes a painfully broken dream. But then at the game, I realized just how much I, Tetsuma, you and all the Gunmen have done to get this close. And then dreaming lead to this."
Riku looked at his team captain and then he realized what the Kid's face expression had meant. Kid had been wishing to win and go to the finals. Now that he thought about it, Riku had never actually seen Kid wish or dream for something. He had actually never even heard him say Christmas Bowl.
"So is that is what your face expression meant?" Riku murmured. "You were actually dreaming for once to go to the Christmas Bowl with us, but then Gao broke your arm and now you are afraid to dream again?"
"Yeah that's about it." Kid tried to shrug, but it hurt so it was only half.
"Then… Then what if you believe?" Riku asked.
"Believe? Believe in what?" Kid asked and wasn't sure what the running back was talking about.
"What if you believe in Tetsuma? And me. Believe in us and we'll win the Christmas Bowl next year! Believe in us and then the Seibu Wild Gunmen will win the Christmas Bowl." Riku looked at Kid. There was an awkward silence for a while and Riku was wondering if his speech had made any sense at all.
"I have always believed in you guys." Kid said and sounded somewhat shy.
"Yes, and I don't doubt that. But you never believed that we would win the Christmas Bowl."
"You got me there, I must say." Kid said.
"Well, from now on, if you don't want to dream, then believe." Riku said and smiled. "It's basically the same, but then again way different."
Kid looked at him for a moment then he smiled. Dear me, he sure knows his way with words, he thought.
"Alright I'll give believing a shot."
Riku was just about to answer when Oka came storming in and accused Riku for waking Kid up. The argument ended when the rest of the team came to visit as well and Oka was pushed out by an ordered Tetsuma. The mood was luckily not that bad, even thought they had just lost their chance of going to the finals. They seemed happier about the fact that Kid would be able to use his arm again. There was a lot of noise and promises made that they would kick ass in the next tournament. Kid tried to follow the different conversations, but it seemed that Oka's painkiller was kicking in again and he eventually fell asleep again.
The next morning when he woke up, he was alone. He looked around. Someone had been so nice to bring him his clothes and hat, but they were again laying on his right side and the bed was too high above the floor for him to reach.
"The remote." He muttered and reached for it. But then he stopped and looked at his arm and then burst out laughing.
Someone had written on the cast:
Here lays the broken bones of Kid from Seibu Wild Gunmen. And then someone had added with another color: The best quarterback in the world.