Chapter 1: Panic
Yui woke up one morning with a headache and an overwhelming feeling of grogginess. Opening her eyes, the light hit her, and she flinched from the sudden pain. Yui could hear Melissa jumping down from a table in the background. The soft 'thud' that his rag doll body gave off made Yui flinch in pain.
"Kutanagi, it's time to get ready! Today is your first day off in a while with everyone." Exclaimed Melissa. "You have been working so hard that you deserve to have fun with your friends."
Yui groaned and sat up, squinting her eyes towards the blurry yellow figure that was standing in the middle of the room. "I'm coming, just please keep it down."
Yui slid her legs over the side of her bed and began to stand. Immediately, Melissa noticed that she was slightly staggering to gain her balance. "I'm fine Melissa, just woke up with a small migraine. I just need some medicine and I should be good." Smiled Yui.
Melissa nodded and grabbed Yui some pain medication while she was getting ready for the day. Before she walked out the door, she swallowed the three pills and left to go meet with the gods.
-x-
Yui walked up to the group of eight gods that she had become friends with in the past few months. "Hey everyone!"
All the gods turned and immediately began showing worry on their faces as Yui slowly came towards them.
"Fairy-san?" Asked Apollon. Yui stopped a few feet in front of them and looked at him confused. Scanning all of their faces, she saw a small hint of fear in their eyes.
"What's wrong guys?" asked Yui.
They were all silent, none of them showed any signs of answering her question.
"Yui-san, you were dragging your right leg on your way over here and we couldn't understand what you were saying." Said Hades.
"Yeah, and half of your face isn't really moving. The hell has gotten into you Weed?" quipped Takeru.
Yui froze and fear began to take over her entire body. Oh no, this can't be happening not here not now. Not Again! Her legs quivered and could no longer hold her weight. She collapsed to her knees when Dionysus caught her.
"Yui-San!", "Weed!", "Kitten, what's wrong with you?", "Kusanagi Yui you look unwell.", "It must be my misfortune that caused her sudden illness." All Yui could hear were voices around her that was sending painful ringing in her ears. She tried to cover them both in an attempt to block out the noise when she discovered she couldn't move her right arm high enough.
"Everyone! Stop!" Yui managed to sob out her commands. The voices, the wind, all of her senses were in overdrive and her brain cannot discern what was what anymore. Losing control of her own body, she began crying and her whole skeleton began to quiver in Dionysus's arms.
Yui tried to say something after the gods silenced themselves, but they had to lean in closer since they could barely make out what it was she was saying. "Get Thoth, tell him that I think that I am having a stroke…..." Yui then fainted in Dionysus's arms as the gods all tried to wake her up.
"Yui-san, Yui-san!" screamed Dionysus at the limp figure in his arms. He was softly, shaking Yui to try to wake her up, but she was beginning to look pale. The gods looked at each other, scared that they didn't know what was happening to Yui.
Hades, taking charge, began to get the gods moving to help their dear human friend. "Apollon! Thor! Go get Thoth as Yui instructed! Takeru, go get Melissa and bring him to the infirmary! He may be able to tell us something! I'll go tell Zeus something is wrong! Everyone else, we need to get her to the infirmary!"
Without hesitation the gods began running. The three teams split apart to accomplish their missions. They didn't know what was happening, but as the seconds passed by, the pits in their stomachs began to grow out of fear and desperation for Yui.
-x-
Thoth was sitting at his desk in the library when the doors suddenly flew open. Thoth shot a glare at the gods who disturbed his peaceful library and immediately sensed something was wrong.
"It's fairy-san!" Choked out Apollon. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he couldn't say anything more.
Thoth, stunned, look over at the normally cool-headed Thor and saw an unfamiliar look of dread on his face. "She said to come get you before she passed out. She said that she thinks she is having a stroke."
"Where is she!?" Demanded Thoth.
"The infirmary." Sobbed Apollon.
Thoth began to run out of the library, not bothering to pick up the papers that flew off his desk from his sudden movements. Thor and Apollon had a hard time keeping up with Thoth as they made their way to the infirmary.
-x-
Takeru sprinted to Yui's door with as much speed as he could muster. He didn't know why, but he knew that time was the essence if they wanted to help Yui.
Takeru ran into her door and began banging on it, desperate to get Melissa to open the door. The second the door opened, Melissa was snatched up by Takeru and was carried over to the infirmary. The speed of his sudden take off left Yui's door wide open, swinging in the breeze.
-x-
Hades ran to the throne room. As god of the Underworld, he felt as though Yui was in danger of dying and he was not going to let her soul go there so early in her life.
Bursting through the door Hades shot a panicked glare at Zeus. Zeus knew his brother well, and he knew that whenever the god of the Underworld made that face, someone close to him was about to become part of the Underworld.
"It's Yui-san! She's in the infirmary. I can feel her soul…." Hades words trailed off, fearing that by finishing his sentence one of his greatest fears would come true.
Zeus stood and followed Hades to the infirmary. Zeus brought Kusanagi Yui to the garden to help his son, he would be damned if he let her die after finally getting him back.
-x-
Thoth swung the doors to the infirmary open. His eyes immediately caught the flicker of purple against white sheets. Dionysus, Loki, Tsukito, and Balder were all gathered around Yui's bed unsure of what to do. Balder had brought over a bowl of water and placed a wet rag over Yui's head. Loki was holding Yui's hand. Dionysus was pacing the room and Tsukito stood in the corner of the room like a statue. Too shocked to even comprehend who or what was in that room.
"Everyone move!" barked Thoth. Balder and Loki immediately stepped back, understanding that if anyone knew what was happening to their precious Yui, it was Thoth.
Thoth knelt by her bed and gingerly placed one hand on top of her head and the other on top of her left hand that was lying across her stomach.
"Kusanagi." Cooed Thoth. Receiving no response he gently shook her hand. "Yui, It's Thoth, I can't help you unless you wake up."
Yui's eyes began to slowly open and a pained expression immediately was painted across her face. All the gods froze at the sight and gave a small sigh of relief that she woke up.
"The others told me you think that you had a stroke. Is that true?" Calmly asked Thoth. Yui nodded her head slowly, unable to speak now. "Have you had a stroke before?" Yui nodded.
Thoth gave her an uncharacteristic smile and a comforting pat on the head. "You're going to be okay Yui, we're going to help you. I need you to fight and try to stay awake, okay?" Yui nodded and furrowed her brows. Thoth stood and spun towards the gods that had brought her into the infirmary.
"Tell me what you saw before Kusanagi passed out. We don't have a lot of time, so you need to speak quickly." Said Thoth as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, waiting to receive the information he needed to help her.
The gods looked at each other silently when Tsukito stepped forward to volunteer. "We were waiting for Kusanagi Yui this morning when we heard her calling for us." Explained Tsukito. "When she yelled, her words were muffled together, and it didn't sound like her normal voice. When we turned around, she was dragging her right leg behind her and the right side of her face appeared to not be working. When she got to us, she seemed confused and tired."
"When we questioned her what was wrong, she collapsed and I caught her." Interjected Dionysus. "She began to look pale and we were all calling out her name."
"When we called to her, she tried to cover her ears." Said Loki as he walked forward and placed a hand on the moon god's shoulder. "She could only cover her left ear and looked like she was having trouble using her right arm."
"She told us to get you and tell you that she thought she was having a stroke." Said Balder. "She passed out and we couldn't wake her up. Hades-san told us to bring her here while Takeru went to bring Melissa here. Hades-san went off to get Zeus."
Thoth nodded and furrowed his brows. When his eyes opened, the gods could see how concerned he was for the human representative. If something concerned Thoth enough that you could see the worry in his eyes, that was a sign that something bad is happening.
After a few seconds of painful silence, Thoth looked at the gods, "Those are symptoms of a stroke. Essentially, there is a blood clot somewhere blocking circulation in her body. In the human world, the time period to help someone with a stroke before it becomes fatal is three hours. Right now, we have two hours and forty-five minutes to save her life. I need you all to do as I say and if I hear even a little bit of bickering coming from any of you then you will not be allowed back into this room until the danger has passed. Is that understood?"
The gods nodded their heads and stood ready to help in whatever way they could.