After that, Shizuma becomes better fast. Soon he can completely feel his legs again, and before either of them knows it, Shizuma is standing upright again, working harder than ever to will his legs to obey his brain's orders again.
In the beginning he can't do much. Physical therapy mostly consists of supporting himself onto parallel bars with his arms, legs not ready to carry all of his weight yet. He can't do it for a long time, only getting through two or three repeats before collapsing onto the mat, scaring the shit out of Reiji the first time it happens. But he turns out to be fine, so Reiji returns to his spot on the floor again, reluctant. He can't do much to help now. He doesn't like it, he wants to help his friend as much as he can, but he understands that from here on, it's mostly Shizuma's battle.
Shizuma does well, really well. He gets through the parallel bars more and more easily each day, and soon he is able to actually try and walk a short distance with the support of crutches. It is exhausting, and he looks ready to drop when he reaches the spot, but he does it, and they couldn't be happier.
When he gets home, he still has his wheelchair, just in case, but mostly he tries to move around on his own as much as he can. That doesn't mean he doesn't accept - or appreciate - Reiji's support, though. It makes him feel special, and a bit proud.
Shizuma goes to physical therapy five times a week, still, since the goal is to walk without any aid, of course.
It takes him quite a lot of time, but in the end he appears to outsiders as though the accident never happened at all. He is standing and moving and walking, and someone who doesn't know about his accident would never notice a thing. Reiji does, he knows Shizuma still is in pain from time to time - he will always have back pains from time to time, the doctors said, but he's mostly dealing with them - he notices when he moves around more stiffly than usual, and he notices the slight stumble that sometimes occurs when he is tired or stressed. They are informed that he reached the end of his recovery, so this is the best he'll get, but it is so much more than it could've been, and it's an inconvenience that can be overlooked easily.
Shizuma attends school again, now in the same class as Reiji since he has to repeat a year. He does go to gym class, but he doesn't join in every activity. Reiji makes sure he doesn't overdo it, too. It's clear to both of them that Shizuma will never run with Reiji and Asuma again. But that doesn't mean they can't do stride together anymore. With Shizuma's caring nature and his ability to empathise with everyone, he's just the perfect relationer, and they're both more than happy to continue doing what they love together.
"I'll run for the two of us!" Reiji promises.
Shizuma smiles. "I know."
A/N: Again, I apologise for any medical inaccuracies in this, I tried googling but I couldn't find enough stuff, and on the website I tried asking nobody replied so I'm really sorry.
Also, as mentioned, I'm not happy with the second part of this story (meaning this second chapter) since things feel rushed and all, but I did want to post the entire thing after all so here we are.
Comments make my day, and please do tell me about mistakes.
Have a great day!