The heart monitor hummed steadily and Takeru stirred slightly in the hospital bed.
"How is he doing, doctor?" Natsuko asked.
"Oh, Takeru's fine. He's sleeping right now and will probably wake up soon."
"Oh, isn't that great Yamato?" she cried to the other blond next to her, but he was busy staring at Takeru.
'I wonder how's he going to take it...'
'Where am I?'
Takeru looked down at his hands.
"Takeru? Takeru!?" a familiar voice said to him. He faced to his right, "Yeah, I heard you, Hikari."
The two friends got on the bus they always rode every day, and sat in two empty seats next to the window. They sat in silence for a few seconds.
'This feels like dejavu... (A/N: a feeling that something has happened already)' Takeru thought, feeling nauseous. A few beads of sweat slid down his handsome features. He was staring into space at the seat in front of him, deep in thought.
She raised an eyebrow. "Takeru, are you okay?" Hikari was facing her best friend with concern evident in her voice.
The bus jumped a bit, snapping Takeru out of his thoughts.
"Huh?"
The bus jumped again, bigger than the last time.
Hikari, who was next to the window, looked out. "What the...?"
Suddenly, the bus rocked again, making her head bump into the window. She squeaked in pain when the cold glass collided with her forehead. Takeru snickered at her.
"Man, what's with all the bumps?" Hikari grumbled, rubbing the place where she bumped her head to soothe the pain. She then stood up and looked at the road all the way in the front, through the front window.
Takeru motioned her to sit down. "Hikari be careful, you might get hurt.", but she ignored him. Unfortunately for her, the person sitting in the seat in front of her was very big, blocking most of the view of the window. To add to that, he was sleeping. Instead of waking him up, Hikari stood on her tip toes, but still couldn't get a very good view.
Takeru chuckled softly next to her, "Shorty."
Hikari pouted, but continued to crane her neck to see.
As Takeru rose to see for her, the bus rocked violently, staggering the people who were standing, which included Hikari and Takeru.
Hikari toppled towards the window, but Takeru, by instinct, grabbed her around the waist before she hit her head again. The guy in front of the snorted awake, alarmed by all of the rocking. Hikari blushed a bit before turning to her saviour, "Thanks." Takeru held onto a pole near them and smirked at the brunette. "That's why you should listen to me..." he paused and smirked again, "shorty."
Hikari punched him playfully, and they both laughed. All of this happened while the bus kept rocking.
Suddenly, they heard a crash, then a very loud, ear piercing screech while the bus tilted towards the right. Everyone on board covered their ears.
"Hold on to something and stay here." he said to her, having to raise his voice over the noise. She was scared and wanted to follow Takeru, but was obeyed anyways. Hikari nodded and clamped her ears.
Takeru smiled slightly, and made his ay towards the front. With one hand to hold on and only one to block out the noise, he still had a headache.
He froze. The bus driver was knocked out with a thin stream of blood down the side of his head.
'He probably got knocked out by bumping his head pretty hard on something...' Then it struck him. 'Wait! If he's unconscious, then how is the bus still moving?'
Takeru didn't bother investigate it any further, because what mattered was what was in front of them. They were closing in on a truck. He pushed the driver out of the seat and took over. He stomped on the brakes and the whole vehicle stopped just in time. By now, people were panicking, not knowing what was happening or shocked when Takeru pushed the driver and taking over the bus, thinking he was hijacking.
With a sigh of relief, Takeru quickly made his way over to Hikari. She was still holding on to his seat with her eyes clamped shut. He smiled a bit and shook her gently. Her eyes opened slowly and relief washed over her face. "What happened, Takeru?" she asked looking at the scene.
"I'll explain to you later, but all that matters is that everything is okay right now. I'm going to go check out what happened outside, so please wait here." he said quickly. Hikari wanted to protest against his words, not wanting to be left alone again, but managed to nod.
He examined the tire, or where a tire should've been. He kneeled down to inspect the empty space for the tire. It was all burnt and disfigured a bit. Takeru stood up and sighed. 'So this is the cause of the rocking and tilting of the bus.'
He moved his way over to the back. There was a puddle of gasoline and oil.
"We should atleast get everyone off the bus." he concluded. His head turned and was horror stricken. A car was speeding towards the bus with a drunk man at the wheel. Takeru ran towards the window where Hikari was behind and knocked on it urgently.
"Hikari! Hikari! Get everyone out of there!" he screamed as loud as he could.
Unfortunately, Hikari couldn't hear him well and it only came to her as muffled yells, but she could tell something was wrong.
Takeru pointed towards the speeding car that was almost yards within them, and Hikari turned her head.
All of the color drained out of her face when she finally noticed the speeding car heading towards their way.
Yards... feet...
"HIKARI!"
Takeru faintly heard the explosion and sirens wailing. The last image he only saw was Hikari before he blacked out and fell into unconscious.
"TAKERU!"
Takeru jerked awake and sat up with sweat glistening under the hospital lights. His sight focused into the images of concerned and scared faces of his mother and older brother.
"M-mom? Yamato?" he whispered.
"Yeah it's us. You're in the hospital. Thank goodness you're okay after the buss accident!" she choked out with tears streaming down her face full off relief and happiness.
'Bus...accident?'
It struck him like lightning. Images from his dream flooded into his mind. It wasn't a dream, but what actually happened before he was in the hospital.
"..."
"What was that, Takeru?"
"Where's...Hikari?"
Takeru thought he must've said something that struck them because when those words came out, both Natsuko and Yamato had a grim expression. He waited for their answer quietly, but anxiously. He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it or not. Yamato spoke up.
"Uh...well you see, we don't know."
Takeru widened his eyes. To him, he thought his heart was thumping slower and slower. He had so many questions and so much to say, but only one word escaped his lips.
"Why?"
"Well, look at the time, I think we should go now!" Natsuko's voice wavered slightly, and she turned to leave.
'Why are she avoiding my question...?'
Takeru almost spoke, but Yamato beat him to it. "We have to let him know, Mom.", Yamato spoke in a firm voice, but Takeru could tell he was also nervous.
The blond woman's lip quivered a bit, but turned to face them and sat down in the nearest chair. "Will you please tell him, Yamato?"
The older blond nodded, then told the story.
"It all started when we arrived at the bus accident. We found you near the scene unconscious and scratched. Luckily, the ambulance came and took you, but the Yagamis also came. They said that Hikari was also on the bus with you, so we waited for the firemen to douse the flame and search for her body to... you know... see if she was dead or not." Takeru's heart skipped a beat and almost lost his breath. He nodded for Yamato to continue. "Well, everything was burnt and most likely everyone on board was dead..." Takeru almost lost his breath again. "The Yagamis requested that they try to find Hikari, but the firemen refused to. So Tai ran up and tried to find her herself. The bodies weren't burned that badly so that we couldn't recognize their faces. We...couldn't find her body." Yamato paused. "How many people were on board?"
Takeru thought for a moment, trying to remember. "Thirteen I think, including me, Hikari, and the driver."
Yamato looked shocked. "We only found eleven."
It was now Takeru's turn to be shocked.
'What!? Hikari couldn't... just disappear just like that.'
Suddenly, the TV turned on. "Recently, there was a bus accident in Odaiba..."
Yamato turned at Natsuko who had a remote in her hand, and looked at her as if she threw a table at Takeru. (A/N: Sorry, trying to make it a bit funny) Takeru watched the screen.
"The cause of the accident seems to be by a drunk man in a speeding car that was driving towards the bus which broke down. The two exploded when they crashed, leaving everyone in the bus and the drunk man dead, except for a lucky young man by the name of Takeru Takaishi. However, there was another body not found in the accident, a young woman called Hikari Yagami, who was riding in the same bus. We are not sure if she is dead or not, but she is named, 'missing', for now. I-"
Takeru didn't listen to the rest after hearing the words, 'Hikari' and 'missing'. He didn't know whether or not to be glad she might not be dead.
He just didn't know.
After Takeru was discharged from the hospital, he suffered from the disappearance of Hikari. The reporters mobbed him with questions and comments about the accident which kept coming at him. At one time, he snapped at them, not being able to take it anymore. They didn't come anymore, but he didn't really take notice in that. For a while, he didn't go to work because riding on the bus would remind him of her. He would always have an empty seat next to the window on the bus. A seat that was always Hikari's. He didn't know why he's acting like Hikari's dead when there might be a chance she wasn't, but he just didn't feel hopeful. (A/N: Sorry again, all of this didn't make much sense to me since I just typed it from the top of my head...)
"You're going to work?" Natsuko said in a surprised tone.
"...Yeah, and I'll be late for it if I don't hang up soon." Takeru remarked back into the speaker.
"Oh..uh...sorry, please be careful! Bye Takeru." she said, not wanting to mention about riding the bus, before hanging up.
Takeru set down the phone and slid on his shoes. He slowly dragged his legs all the way to the bus stop. The bus halted in front of him, and he got on.
Surprisingly, he found someone next to the window in the seat where Hikari used to sit.
Hikari...
Takeru shuffled and sat down next to her. He smiled at the young brunette next to her. "It's good to have you back."
Hikari smiled, "Yeah, I can't remember when I last sat on this seat."
Takeru chuckled a bit. Something he hasn't done in a while.
"So tell me. How did you survive the accident?"
She looked at him and grinned. "Let's just say, a miracle happened."
He looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Let me guess, you were just lucky."
They bursted out laughing and everyone looked at them.
The two young friends laughing in their seats next to the window, on the bus.
His seat and her seat.
Fin~
Wow! Exactly five pages this took. I made this idea up while I was at the doctor and the details just came to me while typing this. If you're wondering how Hikari survived, just use your imagination :) All comments are welcome, but take it easy on me since this is my first fanfic.
-Koa