This lack of updates was my fault. My friend just finished her epic length fanfic and in the process inspiring me to finish all my fics, good to luck to me. Hopefully I finish this, Hope you enjoy this chapter.
As soon as the Fuji family left to check on their son , the whole team suddenly relaxed and their focuses were then turned to uncharacteristically untouched food on their plates. Ryuzaki had to note that for a group of tired, athletic and growing boys, they were eating too slowly.
"Not eating is not going to help him. Finish your food."
They may have sped up, they may have not. Ryuzaki could not tell but still, she waited patiently for them to finish. The invitational camp was starting on Monday and she knew she had to clear the issue on the team's future and Fuji's slot as soon as possible. She was sure if she brought it up before they ate or while they were eating, they would stop and argue, leaving wasted food and more importantly, leaving her with a hungry and frustrated team.
Let them eat first. She thought. She, then felt a vibration on her hand. She looked down to see a new message from Yoshiko Fuji.
Just an Update. Shuusuke's in the Intensive Care Unit but they've allowed visitors, three at a time at the most starting tomorrow. This is in case any of his teammates want to see him before the invitationals.
She looked up to see that most of the players were already in their last few bites. "Just an update. Shuusuke's in the Intensive Care Unit but they've allowed visitors, three at a time at the most starting tomorrow. This is in case any of his teammates want to see him before the invitationals."
Just as she expected, everyone dropped their utensils and stared.
"Intensive care unit?" Momoshiro repeated.
"It's a place where people go when they're really sick, stupid." Kaido answered, his voice laced with venom as usual.
"I know that but Fuji-senpai is not really sick right? It's a knee injury." Momoshiro replied, surprisingly, he didn't argue with Kaido anymore. Instead, his attention was all on their coach.
"The doctors most probably have their reasons for this. Treating a knee dislocation is not as easy as treating other injuries. They have to think about his arteries, nerves and ligaments… People have lost their legs from misdiagnosed dislocations."
"Why do you know so much about this?" Kawamura asked.
"Like I said before. I've been a coach long enough, long enough to see rising stars end their careers through knee injuries." She looked up at all the players one by one and sighed. "And since we're in this topic, there's something I want to talk to all of you about. This may seem too abrupt but with invitationals on Monday, I won't have a chance to talk to all of you as a team for a while and I don't want any of you having false hope." She stopped and took a deep breath.
"Wait…" Eiji started. "What about OIshi?"
"He already knows what I'm going to say. I told him to inform Tezuka about this." She felt her quiver in her lip. Would she be able to say this with a straight face? She had to at least try. With that, she narrowed her eyes. "We will have to hold ranking matches again as soon as the invitational camp is over. Someone's going to have to take his spot as a regular."
A BREAK FROM UNGENUITY
Fuji's hospital room was just one of the many rooms in a hallway in the third floor. Not too disturbing, or worrying, that was until Yumiko noticed the influx of nurses, in and out of hospital rooms, looking much more stressed than usual. She didn't have to wonder why because only a few seconds later, a nurse entered his room explaining that they were in the Intensive Care Unit- the ward people go to when they need careful monitoring or when they are seriously ill.
"Kitamura-sensei will be here in a while to explain your son's condition. Your son's not critically ill but the condition of his knee needs monitoring that's why we're keeping him here." She explained reassuringly as she started to fiddle with the drip on Fuji's left arm.
There were two bags connected to his arm, both of colorless liquid. The nurse turned back to the family, pointing to the bag nearer to Fuji's bedside. "We're putting him through a light round of antibiotics to prevent infection. This one here is his first round. The one to the right is his morphine drip. He's waking up soon, so I have to make sure he'll be able to manage the pain." She then tapped the shoulder of the sleeping teen. As if on cue, Shuusuke started to fidget in the bed.
Yumiko's heart skipped a beat as she saw the signs of her brother finally waking up from surgery. She felt a surge of warmth come through her as she watched Shuusuke fidget some more, her eyes focused on his.
They slowly opened but to her disappointment, they were still as unfocused as they were before the surgery.
"Fuji-san, it's your mother." The nurse said softly as she patted the head of the young teen on the bed. She then pressed a few buttons on the side of the bed. The bed started to move on its own, helping the young patient into a more convenient position, the angle of the bed still wide enough for Fuji to comfortably sleep but also inclined enough for him to be able to easily sit up.
"Okaa-san." Fuji muttered softly as he looked up to his mother. His eyes then scanned the whole room, widening with a hint of recognition as he saw his sister and brother. "How was Echizen's match against Sanada?"
Are you serious? Yumiko thought to herself, trying to hide the hint of annoyance in her face. My brother's injured, most probably for life, and this is the first thing he asks about? "Think about yourself first Shuusuke. You shouldn't have continued that match."
"Nee-san…" Fuji started.
"They're champions, Shuusuke… " Yoshiko answered, interrupting her son's attempt to speak, pressing the medal to his hand.
Yumiko noticed the relief in his face, as her mom answered him. Did that championship really mean that much to him? She watched silently as Yoshiko whispered things into his ear and as Fuji's face then darkened. She knew exactly what her mother just told him.
"The doctor will come in soon to explain your injury. " Yumiko added. She quietly observed her brother from afar. Her brother and mother were already by his bedside, her mother continued to pat his head comfortingly, her other hand on top of his own. Her brother on the other hand, just sat awkwardly on the side of his bed, looking like he was torn between caring and looking cool. She knew Yuuta always cared about his older brother. He was just still too immature to express it during hard times. Acknowledging the unease in her younger brother's eyes, she knew she had to find a reason to get him out of the small hospital room.
"I'm going to get a drink mom." She said, then making eye contact with Yuuta. "You want to come with me?"
"Yeah, I'm actually pretty thirsty…" He made his way to his sister's side.
Yumiko was about to open the door, her hand already on the knob when it started to move on its own. Someone was coming inside. She instinctively stepped back and watched as the door slowly opened.
"Room 307. Fuji Shuusuke. Correct me if I'm wrong?"
"Kitamura-san" Yoshiko bowed her head politely at the doctor, not leaving her place by her son's bed. "Shuusuke, this is your doctor."
Shuusuke put his hand to his side and tried to push himself up. Yumiko hurried to the side of the bed and gently pushed her brother back down. "No need, you just had surgery."
"I'm sorry, nee-san." Shuusuke said as he looked up at his sister, his face a mixture of guilt and shame.
Yumiko felt the frustration and anger from a while ago disappear as she continued to look at her brother. She was about to answer with a "sorry about what?" when her mother called her name and gestured for them to listen to the doctor.
The doctor put his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat. "You probably noticed by now that your son is in the intensive care unit. The good news is, his condition is not life threatening. The bad news is, the reason we're keeping him here is because his present course of treatment is a very delicate process we call a 'limb salvage.' We make one mistake with this and we might end up having to cut off his leg. This is the best way to make sure someone monitors his knee regularly."
"So how long will he be here?"
"We'll have him here for a week at the least. Our goal right now, is to get him to outpatient status."
"So you still don't know when he can go back home."
The doctor shook his head.
"It's summer vacation now, so it's not a problem… But how long do you think he'll have to stay here. He'll have to get back to school in a week or so."
"I don't know. The truth is, during surgery, the only thing we were able to do was set the bones . clean out the wounds and temporarily graft some of the more obvious arterial injuries. We still have to consider his nerves, meniscal tears, his other ligaments to get his knee fully functional again and it is a very long process. Our first goal as of now is to fully diagnose your son's knee injury which we will be focusing on tomorrow."
"What's going to happen?" Yoshiko asked.
"I booked him for an MRI tomorrow at 9am, through there we will figure out what arteries nerves and ligaments were torn. They will send me the results soon after. After that we may have to schedule an other diagnostic methods like an EMG, arteriography or CT scan right after depending on the results of the MRI. From there, we can plan a much clearer course of treatment." The doctor nodded to the nurse and the family of four and exited the room.
Yumiko couldn't help but turn to her brother soon after the doctor left. His face was as unreadable as ever. His eyes closed, his mouth a grim line. If all she could see was his face and had no idea what was happening, she probably would have considered his face almost normal, almost routine. She decided to look elsewhere , for signs of how her brother was really feeling. Looking down, she started to see his right hand shaking and hovering over his left as if he was going to pull out the IV.
"Fuji-san, please don't touch the IV." The nurse said, grabbing the young boy's hand and pressing it back down on the bed. "I have to check the other patients, you need any pain killers? Is your leg bothering you? " She asked. The questions were routine but the nurse looked like she really did care about the young teen.
"I don't need it."
"Alright, just call me if you need anything Fuji-san, I'll be checking on the other patients." With that, the nurse left the room.
The whole time, Yumiko had her eyes fixed on her brother's right hand, resting on his lap. She couldn't help but watch as the hand slowly yet shakily moved back to the tubes connected to his left arm.
"Shuusuke…" Yoshiko squeezed her son's hand. "You must be thirsty, we'll have your siblings get you some water." She then turned to Yumiko and nodded, her eyes narrowing as if she did. It looked as she was sending her daughter a secret message and it didn't take too long for Yumiko to figure it out.
"Come on Yuuta" Yumiko said as she grabbed her brother's shoulder and dragged him out of the room with her.
"What do you want?" Yumiko asked, as the two siblings made their way to the vending machine.
"Ermm. Just water." Yuuta muttered, his eyes downcast the whole walk.
Yumiko rummaged through her pocket for some lose change, finding a 500 yen coin, she pressed it on her younger brother's hand. "Just get four bottles of water. I have to get some things from the nurse."
The young woman made her way to the end of the hall where the nurse of a while ago was bent down, looking like she was fixing some things in the medicine cart.
"Is this about your younger brother?" The nurse asked, as she stood back up.
"So I won't have to call you later, I'll get some his painkillers now." Yumiko started.
"Yes, you should. A knee injury is in general, an unbearably painful injury, I honestly don't think his morphine will suffice." She opened a few drawers before handing a yellow medicine bottle to Yumiko.
"Just give him three when you get back to the room. It can help him sleep tonight if he's having trouble too." The nurse advised. She bent down once again, her focus completely shifting from the young woman in front of her. "Sorry, I have to finish fixing the cart now so I can start on the next round."
Yumiko nodded in thanks instinctively before making her way back to the vending machine where her youngest brother stood with two bottles of water on each hand.
"Is that for Aniki?" Yuuta asked, looking pointedly at the yellow bottle.
Yumiko nodded. "As soon as the anesthesia completely wears off, he's going to need it." She spun the medicine bottle a few times in her hand before placing it in her skirt pocket.
She thought back to a while ago when her brother had shot down the offer of the nurse, saying he didn't need the painkillers. She remembered the sharp indignation in his voice and the tone to it, implying that offering him those painkillers was merely a waste of time in the scheme of things. Her brother probably wouldn't comply to easily too even if she was the one to order him to take the medicine.
Walking back to her brother's room, she thought of ways to convince her younger brother to down the pills. She found herself looking back to those times as children when was able to bully her two younger brother's into helping her bake a cake or help her fix her doll. Fuji was never really bullied in any of those situation, he was just generally nice enough to comply to his sister or brother's every whim.
Would he be nice enough to take the medicine if I ask him? Yumiko thought wryly to herself as she walked through the hospital corridors, feeling the extra weight of the medicine bottle in her pocket and hearing the slam of the many pills as they hit the sides of the bottle.
She shrugged and kept walking. She'll find a way to make him drink it. She had to.
A BREAK FROM UNGENUITY
The rehabilitation was almost over so with a quick promise to do the exercises vigilantly when he gets home, Tezuka was given permission to return to Japan.
It was three in the afternoon and Tezuka was going through flights. He sorted through the flights that were to depart that night. If he could get a flight at nine or ten that night, he'd have enough time to pack his things, get to the airport and check in.
He'd arrive in Japan on a Sunday morning. The camp starts on Monday, that means enough time to meet with his family, meet with his teammates and probably meet with Fuji. With that, Tezuka clicked on the earliest flight he could find.
Seigaku, I'm almost home.
I was half asleep as I revised this. Please message me if there are any writing bloopers and do leave a review telling me what you think. Good morning or Good evening, (depending on what your time zone is)