Surprisingly, a Half Truth is a Complete Lie 2-7

Earlier today, all three men that were touched by her were whisked away by the nurses. They said that their families were taking them away, and that I shouldn't worry too much. I didn't really bother to reply after that.

There was no reason to. They were lying.

I could tell something was off the second I woke up. The stench was brimming in the room, the smell of blood, defecation and urine was everywhere. When I stood and trudged my way to the source, I found three bodies, pale as if they were mannequins. I fought the urge to retch at the sight. The smell alone was enough to make me queasy and the image in front of me didn't help with the influx of bile rising up my throat.

Despite the sources being gone, and the room spotless and clean, I could still smell it. They renewed the beds and they laid there empty. Yet I couldn't help but think of the three men that previously occupied them, wondering, was I supposed to join them?

The thought made me shudder. I clutched the amulet Yukinoshita gave me, my fist turning cold.

I made my way to the door, forgetting my crutches completely, and threw it open. I just had to get out of that room. Stumbling towards the bathroom, I opened the door, seeing an empty room with white floors and mirrors. White. White like her dress. White like the magnolias in her hair.

White like I didn't like it.

I clutched the amulet harder and opened the door to see the blinding white hallways. So bright, so much of it everywhere, squeezing me as if I were a bottle of air under a bulldozer's wheel. My stomach felt like it was going to pop, and I coughed violently. Nurses tried to help - but I don't want their hands on me. Those hands that might've held the souls of men who passed on, I didn't want their stain on me, a curse that I could never get rid off.

I didn't know how I did it, but I managed to get out of the building to the indoor gardens. The rays of sun, yellow, as if warning me of something shined bright, everything around me shimmering in blues, greens and a splattering of color like a bad postmodern painting.

When my head hit the soft grass, the colors all blended into one — black.

…

"There you are." A voice, not unlike bells ringing was music to my ears. "You weren't in your room, Hikigaya-kun."

When I opened my eyes, I couldn't have been more anxious that she'd pop out and I'd be taken. Thankfully though, it turned out to be Yukinoshita, and I couldn't help but feel relieved at the sight of her. The amulet in my hands felt warm, most likely from the heat generated by my gripping of it, but once she appeared in my line of sight, I wasn't so sure if that was the case.

"Here." She gave the crutches to me. "You left these at the side of your bed."

I was thankful for that. I really was. But my lips wouldn't move and my mind too jumbled up words. Instead, I nodded my head and looked around me.

The blue sky was shining, birds sang and the breeze accompanied them. The sun was warm. The grass was green. There was more color here outside than that room.

I slumped down on a bench, not even bothering to check if there were people around.

The unease in my stomach slowly started to settle as I was lullabied by the sounds of nature around me. My heart pounded slower, the fresh air entered my body and cooled it.

Butterflies fluttered around me.

Shimmering, she appeared, though in her regular dress, floating in the air. Her dress fluttered around her and butterflies escaped through the holes. The white flower she had next to her ear danced in the air in front of her.

I closed my eyes. I felt a look of concern coming from the woman in front of me, but I didn't mind. I was too afraid to open my eyes.

I clutched my amulet once more, praying to all the gods that would listen, that she'd disappear. The unease became painful. My heart wanted to escape from my chest. The air became hot and dry.

We sat in silence for a while. I was mustering up the strength to speak and she was patiently waiting for me to come back to my senses. Finally, I regained the feeling in my hands, and slapped my face with them.

There was nothing there in front of me except the girl who had claimed nights before that she would fix me. In all honesty, I'd accept her over the one that killed people. Toy guns don't kill people right? I should know. I've shot a few schoolmates from the soccer club in middle school. They deserved it. Absolutely. Revenge is a dish best served cold, like ice cream, and is sweet, like ice cream.

"Did something happen?" she asked. Nah, nothing happened. I just like laying on grass. It helps clear the mind. Helps you with sorting things out that did happen. Like the dead guys you roomed with. Also, the smell of grass was said to wipe out any lingering spirits. I'm basically a lawnmower.

"No, everything is just… peachy!"

My voice sounded like a lawnmower - whirring, loud and reeking. She didn't seem to notice the smell, but her head bobbed, as if she understood what was happening.

"You're lying," she said calmly, "if nothing happened, why are you so pale and drenched in sweat?"

The reflection of me in her eyes showed me how I looked to her. I was on my knees, weak and sweating, and looking like the world turned its back on me. Except, I already look the part! Hah.

"I was trying to walk without my crutches for the first time in a week, it was too taxing on me. Is the weather hot or what?" It was. The rooftop garden shimmered like a desert mirage, an oasis perhaps, as the fountains dripped water that carried away my worries for the moment I noticed it.

She crossed her arms and tapped her shoe on the pavement, catching my attention once more.

"Hikigaya-kun—"

Please…

"Just let it go alright!?"

At my outburst, Yukinoshita just stood there. Her eyes were cold as stone, yet underlying that all was akin to uncertainty. I didn't care. I just wanted to get out of here, to go back home and hide under my blankets. To go back to that world where I was the hero. To escape from this world.

I felt a warmth on my hand. I turned my head, dreading for whatever to come, but my eyes met calm blue instead. "Your hand is really white, Hikigaya-kun. Constricting your blood flow like that isn't good."

Bit by bit she opened my palm until the amulet fell out of my grasp, crushed. My hand had splinters, areas red and purple where they were stuck beneath my skin. It didn't matter, however, because I felt the blood drain from my face, it turning cold, and the pit in my stomach getting deeper.

"It seems that you have already injured yourself." She shook her head. "Honestly, Hikigaya-kun, you should really learn to take care of yourself." She opened her bag and briefly rummaged through it.

Pulling out a pair of tweezers from her bag, she carefully plucked each of them from my hand. My hand felt numb and I didn't feel pain.

I didn't feel anything.

She put a drab of rubbing alcohol on a handkerchief and wiped. After cleaning the last specks of blood from my hand, she took a role of bandages out from her bag and carefully wrapped them around my hand before tying it off with a bow.

"There you go, Hikigaya-kun." She sighed. I acknowledged her with a grunt of my own, taking away my hand. We sat there in silence. No one was with us on the roof. I wondered where all the patrons went, wanting to retch.

She broke the silence. "Hikigaya-kun, have you had something to eat? Your food was still wrapped in plastic."

"If it was wrapped, then it's probably uneaten." Really, Yukinoshita-san. Use your head a little. You just solved your own mystery. It wasn't even a mystery, my stomach was protesting madly from hunger.

"You should eat it then."

How despicable do you think I am?

"No!" I didn't want to scream, or to be as loud as I was, but I couldn't help it. "That room is way too stuffy, I'll just lose my appetite."

She didn't mention anything about the room. Stupid, stupid Hachiman. This was what you get for being stupid. You're supposed to keep your guard up against pretty girls like her. They take away your secrets and use it, mock you for it, deride your being and destroy your very existence. You disappear and never want to come back.

Thinking about it just depressed me. I rubbed my palms together, holding them, noticing the little creases that move ever-so-slightly like an ocean wave, watching them and ignoring everything else. For a moment, I was calm, feeling the ocean on my hand.

She hummed. My attention once more on her. She slid her hair on her shoulder, her soft-looking hands moving through soft-looking hair, like cotton on silk. My eyes were dragged along the length, my fingers stopping its machinations. Watching it. It was better than my own hand, which felt like the creases of sand and rubble underneath the ocean.

"We can head the the cafeteria then." She stood and pulled me up. My legs felt like jelly and I wanted to crash back down onto the bench, but she put the two crutches under my arms and told me to follow her. In hindsight, maybe I should've walked with my crutches in the first place, there is a reason why you're supposed to use them with a broken leg.

Would it be enough though?

…

The cafeteria was bustling with patients and nurses. The nurses and doctors were there seeing as it was their lunch time, and the patients were there because they wanted something else. An odd family member or two, evident by the lack of white gown and casual clothes, sat eating alone or with each other, with no one they could talk to in this hospital.

Yukinoshita made me sit down on one of the corners of the room and walked away to grab both of us a bite to eat. When she came back, in front of me she set a tray of rice and curry, and some vegetables on the side. Complimentary miso soup too.

I dipped my spoon in the food, putting it in my mouth. The food was tasteless. The spices numbing and my throat aching as I swallowed the lump whole. I drank some of the soup and it was the same. I drank the water. It's soothing smoothness cleared my throat, passing through my stomach and calming the raging storm within.

I cleared my throat. Yukinoshita glanced at me from the corner of her ebony eye, which whispered the question she asked.

"Are you finally ready to tell me what happened?"

Yukinoshita absentmindedly grabbed a piece of potato with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. After swallowing she said, "You seem alright enough to speak."

"Just shut up for a sec, will you?" I snapped, annoyed with her not listening to what I said half an hour ago. "Just let it go."

"I won't let you go, Hikigaya-kun." She dabbed a napkin on her lips. "I'm still not done with you. You're not yourself at this moment — you're not yourself at all."

"What, to fix me?" My fist slammed on the table, the tray and utensils rocketing off. The other occupants of the room started to look and I glanced away, and keeping my voice low, I said, "I told you I don't need help fixing myself Yukinoshita. I don't need to be fixed."

"You need to be. You're not yourself."

"How do you know I'm not myself!?" My frustration increased. This girl was too much. "I've only known you for a week tops, how the hell can you tell if I'm myself or not!?"

"I…" Yukinoshita trailed off. Her eyes kept their gaze on me, though. She was deliberating what she would say. I could tell. Girls were amazing at not lying while lying.

"Well? If you can't answer me within five seconds, I'm leaving." My throat ached for the glass of water once more and my voice came out in a harsh dryness.

"I…"

"What? Cat got your tongue? Spit it out!"

She fumbled with the hem of her cardigan, gripping her left arm. Her words were low, or maybe I couldn't hear them, because her lips moved without a sound. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Fine, then. If you're not willing to answer me I'll just go!" I stood up, but my cast caught the edge of the seat and I stumbled over. Yukinoshita was right by my side, trying to help me lift myself up, but I slapped away her hand.

I took the crutches and forced myself up. Walking to the door, I paused, turning my head slightly to look at her. "You can keep your help to yourself."

I left the room, not bothering to hear her reply. My head was fizzy. My thoughts were jumbled as if someone shook me. I didn't want her help.

I don't need her help.

…

I vomited in the bowl. The taste of stomach acid burning my throat and tongue. The curry I retched bubbled disgustingly in the toilet bowl, the greens and yellow swirling around in a samba of horridness. A cacophony of my coughing accompanied their dance. I didn't mind it though.

At least it was more color than that room.

I wondered how long I've been here, vomiting the contents of the lunch I've eaten. It felt like an eternity, yet I didn't want it to be so. I didn't want to be here, in this wretched place.

Coughing once more, I stood on the crutches, the reminders of why I was here in the first place. I moved towards the sink, looking at the ghost in the room. Me. My disheveled appearance had me looking more of a ghost than her, the bags in my eyes grew darker with each passing minute. I opened the faucet to wipe my face clean.

Not even the garden was a safe place to go, it reminded me of her and the old men she took the lives of.

I heard the door opening. The silent crack was all I needed to snap my head towards it.

Out came the familiar blond hair I had known of the past week. He was dressed in his professional lab coat, the edges ironed and smoothened out, whilst his face hadn't changed since the day before. Cold and indifferent. A far cry from the day before where he and her danced carefree in the night breeze.

I felt the urge to vomit again.

"Hmmm, how's it going Hikigaya-san," he spoke to me, stepping into my personal space. His apathetic green eyes glinted, and I found myself fighting down a shudder. "I hope you're healing well."

I gulped, "Just peachy, Sensei."

He hummed, watching me in the corner of my eye. A doctor's eyes could size you up the same way a butcher analyzes a slab of meat, picking apart the most useful parts and the most useless parts of me. I felt bare before him, lines drawn, numbers written.

"That's good." Even his words felt like he was going to slice me open. "We only give the highest quality care in this hospital, though you obviously know about that."

When he closed off his faucet, wiping his glasses with a microfiber cloth, and turned to the left, I felt like I just escaped a hunter. I rushed back to the toilet, vomiting more than I knew I could. When nothing came out, I spat bile and saliva until my mouth was dry.

…

"Hello, mom." I tried to keep the quiver in my voice down. "Can you please pick me up."

The voice on the receiver just went straight to the point. "Why?"

I wanted to lie, but I knew she wouldn't believe the words as soon as I let it out off my lips: "You know the old men in my room? They… died earlier today."

My mother's voice was as sharp as ever. "So?"

"Can you see if I can be transferred to a different hospital?"

"No, Hachiman." I heard a sigh on her end. "The Yukinoshitas' are paying for your hospital bill. You know how expensive it is to pay for a broken leg? I wouldn't want to stretch their generosity — and you shouldn't either."

"But—" I was cut off by my mother.

"No, Hachiman. Do you understand what it means? Honestly, you should already have grown out asking for impossible things."

Impossible things.

There's a lot of impossible things in this world. A lot of them I've come to accept over my life. Pigs shouldn't fly. Santa wasn't real. You couldn't throw a fireball out of your hand. It's reality that ground us together in this shitty game we call life.

I gulped, the saliva passing through the burns from the acid rising up my throat. It was painful, and speaking only exacerbated the feeling. "Alright."

That word felt hollow, the voice of a defeated man. How like the sound of people when they lose to an argument to mom. I chuckled a bit.

"Is that all?"

"No. That's all," I finished. I put the phone back on the hanger, the whine of the call's end still ringing in my ears, whispering, as if it were a voicemail from the future of my own beating heart's end.

"Hikigaya-kun." A voice rang out from the hallway. I didn't even turn to look. Her voice was familiar enough, listening to her talk about whatever chuuni bullshit for a whole week was like hearing a stupid, yet catchy-song. You hated it and wanted it to stop, . "I was afraid that I lost you."

"Well you wouldn't have had the entire city to find me then. If I get lost, I'll still be in the hospital."

"I see…" she approached me from the front. There was uncertainty in her eyes, as if it was the first time she'd seen me like this. "I'm glad, then. Though I doubt that you'd be hard to find even if you had the entire city to hide in. You stand out far too much."

She smiled. "Speaking of standing, you should be resting your leg, not administering more pressure to it. It may heal improperly and you wouldn't be able to play most sports."

"As if I'd even play in the first place," I said. "As I've got no friends to play with."

Her gaze was downcast at my words. She muttered something in a low voice, nodding in agreement with herself. Hah. Even someone I'd met only a week before could come to see the greatest loner in the world. The strength of my humanity truly was unsurpassed under the heavens.

"There are some sports that could be played by one's self, is there not?"

"Then it really isn't a sport. It's just a game you play by yourself that would be better if you had someone else to play with. I should know. I invented self-baseball, after all."

She raised an eyebrow. Hoh? The crazy-stalker lady didn't know something about me? That was a surprise.

She parted her lips once more.

"Soccer is a national past-time. Lacrosse is also a popular sport nowadays, and tennis still excites the general populace." Yukinoshita listed off sports one by one. "I, myself, practiced tennis and women's soccer at one point."

"And your point is?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Often, I've mastered them to a point where it's no longer exciting for me to play," she continued. "It was really frustrating not being able to improve any longer."

"If you're here to brag, I suggest going somewhere else."

"But, learning something new always excited me. It's always the thrill of seeking out something you don't understand, something that you want to understand, and then, after working hard enough, understanding that something that pushes me onwards. To me, giving up meant that I wouldn't be able to understand it, that any possibility that was open to me suddenly shut."

She turned to look at the counter. I followed her eyes and saw three old men, not the ones I was familiar with, talking with a nurse. The nurse came out and led them to the elevator.

Poor fools.

Her eyes caught mine and stared deeply into my soul. "If… if you're giving up after failing, then what was the point of trying?" Her gaze was knowing, yet unknowing. It probed into my soul, tried to understand it, failed, and tried again, knowing it would fail.

Indeed, what was the point of trying in the first place? Perhaps if you really wanted to; that maybe this drove your heart, making you walk the path you know would be perilous; that maybe your determination would see you through the end...whether you liked it or not. Dreams don't always come true. Hardwork is true and won't betray you.

Conclusion: don't give up until you've given it your all.

Best hope that I make it till there.

…

I ripped my eyes away from the blue plastic seat beneath me. In front, were people milling about, asking information, waiting for their turn, going into different rooms for a check up, or being admitted into their family member's room. Sometimes, it was a patient asking, sometimes it was the patient's family asking; they all had one goal in mind though when they're in front of a counter.

"How expensive is this hospital you've placed me in, Yukinoshita?" I asked, eyeing a thick envelope being given to the cashier's hand. They probably ran out of insurance.

"It's a private hospital, founded and funded by the Miura family." Came her quick reply. "Though it isn't as outstanding as other private hospitals, they act as the final retirement home for those who have not long to live."

"Must have a lot of discounts for them then, if they're coming here."

"The facilities are top-of-the line; a lot of care was placed in ensuring customer satisfaction and well-being. Dr. Miura has put in a lot of time and effort advertising this place, often saying, in speeches, 'we should at least make their passing happy, and their last days, happier.' In some aspects, I respected what he was doing."

"Was?" The question came out of my mouth before I could think of it.

She frowned. "It was quite noble. He gave a lot of discounts to families without the means to pay properly for such luxuries. This hospital had one of the best retirement plans compared to most retirement homes. Quite soon, it became a place where even the rich and powerful wanted to retire to."

I was sensing a but.

She sighed. "A lot of things can change a person."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Desires and need, usually separated, when combined, turn into a craving. That craving unsatiated turns into desperation. More time passes and it turns into an obsession. Dr. Miura had all the time in the world for it to happen, and when he had what he wanted, it was too late by then."

The crux of this mystery was in that statement. Even though I had already deduced the answer, the context still remained, and the question, unknown.

So I asked.

"Too late for what?"

"For his other daughter." She stared off into space, and I followed her gaze. It met with the blond sunshine hair of the Miura's, and came to meet the forest green gaze that I was certain was burning in falsehoods.

One by one the patrons of the lobby, the populace weary from illness, turned to look at them. They took the center stage, as if a spotlight on them, as they sauntered in front of the lobby. They came to rest in front of where I was, but never gave us a glance.

The patients became an audience, their faces brightening as they met them. "Miura-sensei and Yuuna-chan!" one of them, an old lady, exclaimed. "Heaven's me, have you grown? What have you been feeding her?" She was all over them.

Soon enough, everyone was, as if their arrival was on a rainbow to Idavoll.

Their eyes landed on mine, and I felt the same fear grip me once more. I tried to reach for my amulet, only to find it wasn't there. I had broken it. I despaired.

I spot a hand in front of me. I stretched my neck to the side, and saw Yukinoshita with a hand in her bag. She stopped. And with the same hesitance as earlier, pulled her hand out of her bag.

"Hikigaya-san what on earth are you doing in the lobby!" Dr. Miura exclaimed. His face was stone, yet his voice lively. "You should be resting in your room. Come, come let's go. You can bring your girlfriend with you too!"

I let myself be dragged to stand, and walk with him to the elevator. Yukinoshita and Yuuna followed quietly, a tension brewing between them. We all stood in front of an adoring crowd, yet I felt nothing but like an extra with the two main characters behind me. The elevator doors, closed, and the curtains, shut.

…

The elevator dinged as the door opened to the first floor above ground floor. A woman stared at us, her eyes draping over the gaps between the blond haired Miura's and the darker haired teenagers. The longer she stared at us, the more uncomfortable I felt. Slowly, the doors closed with a thud, sealing us away in this metal tomb.

Several excruciating seconds passed until we reached the second floor. As if thousands of needles were stabbing my arms, the two crutches felt more like stakes driven into my armpits. Breathing was a right, and was then a privilege, and was then an illegal act.

Glancing at the other people in the room, the two Miura's had a nonchalant professionalism to them, acting like the doctors they were, or are pretending to be. Yuuna's lips curled into a snake's grin as my eyes caught her jungle green.

Wind whished, and a large black object was pointed at the succubus in the elevator. The air thickened, my breath becoming like tar. At the same time, the white handbag resting over her shoulder, fell to the floor.

"Hold on, Yukinoshita-san," the doctor said, his words soft, sweet and bitter to the stomach. "If you shoot us, our deal would be off."

Still leveling the gun, she cocked the hammer with her thumb. The click was almost deafening.

"I'm giving you two choices here, you and your boyfriend live and you don't go around shooting people."

He grinned.

"Oh wait, that was one choice."

My back was against the wall as I felt an ever creeping fear from each word he spoke. The buttons pressed against me tickling. The elevator dinged.

Yukinoshita still held the gun poised at Yuuna.

"Yukino-chan. Let's be friends ne~?" Yuuna winked, her lips pursed and fingers stretched into a V. "Peace, peace is what's needed in this world!"

The doctor crossed his arms and smiled. "Peace is needed indeed."

The door opened.

And all hell broke loose.

…

A sound as if a crack shattered in the elevator. And a shot ricocheted off the metal plates, pinging. Yuuna moved faster than I could see, a yellow blur in my eyes, slamming me to the windows and railings. I felt something break in me.

"You could've saved both of us time here, Yukinoshita-san," I heard the doctor say, "He would've lived and none of this would've happened."

"You already marked him."

"Mark him? Oh no, he's just going to use our hospital for a few more years."

Her face inched mine, her breath was unnaturally cold, the touch sending shivers down my spine. My arms were frozen around her fingers, gripping me hard with hands like iron shears. I feared they would snap under her pressure.

A few more cracks fired at my direction, and the lightning-like movement from before blitzed away from me. The iced parts of my body started melting, the numbness in my arm became pins and needles. Despite the numbing pain, I bolted out of my position, my chest heaving on the crutches, my armpits protesting in pain.

I wanted to get away, but the doctor appeared before me. His face smeared with a muddy smug. Or perhaps that was his true face. What was true, what was false, I didn't know.

He gestured to me turn, and as if requesting me to watch a clip, or a scene from a movie, his face was brimming with twisted joy. I watched as his smile shifted to a frown, and as he walked towards me, his hands in his pocket. I felt my face pinched, my neck twisted and my body shifting as he dragged my chin.

Vines crawled out into the open, lashing at her from all angles. The midnight haired girl dodged seamlessly through the whips, her body flowing through like a cloud of smoke. Around her thin strips of paper glistened in the moonlight, brimming lightly with mysterious purple aura, and a small barrier rippled into existence.

A shimmer in the air, followed with a crack like lightning. She appeared in front of Yukinoshita. The doctor-outfitted woman's legs outstretched as white flower petals bloomed around her. Yukinoshita ducked, and fired two more shots above her. The pellets sailed past their target, who had disappeared and left a flower. It blew up, showering her surroundings. Petals bounced off of the barrier around her.

The revolver opened, six spent cases scattered onto the ground. With mechanical precision she flipped a speedloader from her pocket, dumped the contents into the revolver, and snapped it back into place, the spent loader dropping onto the ground in front of her.

He looked at it in joy. Calling out, he said.

"Besides, we'll take good care of him."

"You took more than you should. We compromised, Miura-san."

A blur appeared behind her, she turned and fired. Above her, another shot. Beneath her, another shot.

He grinned once more. "Hahahaha, whatever could you be talking about."

Yuuna appeared once more above her, a kick heading straight behind her head. Flower petals trailed behind her, shooting off as Yukinoshita ducked and fired.

"Your populace, they're younger than they look, they've aged more than they should. They've been afflicted with disease more than they have any right to be in this day and age. You've been picking them off the street." Yukinoshita fired another shot, and something impacted the wall next to me. She missed.

"I say that ten years is more than enough time to live." He pushed his thick rimmed glasses up, glinting in mad light.

"The last three spent in your hospital. Middle aged men and women, you've taken. We compromised, Miura-san."

She shot again into thin air. But a sizzling sound, and a cry of pain, and a ricochet told me that she perfectly caught whatever she was aiming for.

"True. But I couldn't just let such a fine specimen go away," he began to laugh. A booming, disheartening guffaw tore the already tense atmosphere. His howlers were like the screams of a banshee, a signal of death, far cry to his healer garment.

"Can't you feel it? You've been in contact with him for so long."

The blur rematerialized behind the doctor. Yuuna's doctor clothes were torn in places, her face blooded like she'd been hit by a sledgehammer. The flower on her ear withering.

Yukinoshita calmly took out a new loader from her pocket. The revolver opened, and the shells came out tinkering on the floor.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice." The doctor had the audacity to act shocked. "Very well, let me tell you. You'll understand why I'm doing this."

He pointed at me.

"He's immortal. Not deathless, but immortal. You know how rare they are right? We confirmed yesterday, his life force is replenishing, something impossible." He took a big gulp of air. "Imagine the possibilities Yukinoshita-san! Your father and I made this alliance specifically to find these types of anomalies. This is a rarity of rarities. Two wishes coinciding to create a perpetuating life cycle."

"Two?" Yukinoshita lowered her gun, but not before closing the now full again cylinder.

"Two." he nodded. "Hikigaya-san is connected with someone. The closer he is to them, the more life force he can create and vice-versa. If we find the other specimen and bring them close, we can farm an infinite amount of life force."

"I bring you two choices, Yukinoshita." They walked towards her. "You stop shooting us, both of you live, and I ignore this slight against us when we talk the details with your father. You shoot us, we fight, and I swear that you'll live to regret it."

He stopped in front of her, and the ghost floated behind him, both with deranged smiles, madness in their eyes, and an atmosphere carried by killers.

"Choose."

It didn't take a second to figure out that they were talking about me, my life an object to be bargained for. I didn't understand what they were talking about, I didn't understand what deal or compromise or alliance bull they're spouting, I didn't understand what they meant about me being immortal. The scene before me was surreal, as if I was whisked into a story, a light novel scene.

Past me would've been ecstatic; it was something exciting that came to his life after all, but I'd rather not have any of these things happen to me. However, if there's something that he'd not enjoy about this, it's that I had become the damsel in distress, and not the hero that he wanted to be.

Even then, being a hero was bullshit. No matter how much you spruce this situation up, to glamorize it, to novelize it, there's no changing the fact that attaching a horn to a horse does not make it a unicorn.

Even still, I'd rather not die. To use their chuuni terminology, I was immortal, but not deathless.

So Yukinoshita, please save me.

"Choose." The doctor said one more time.

Another shot ricocheting off the wall

…

Pling. Pling. Pling.

Shots ricocheted off the walls, bouncing through the white halls illuminated by moonlight. Four people stared each other down. One was a doctor with thick-rimmed glasses, and a deranged smile on his face. The other was his daughter, a beauty too beautiful to live.

On their opposite was a girl that moonlight fanned, her face clear, unblemished and shining. To her side, crawled a boy too pathetic to even stand up.

In between them, vines and roots and flowers that flickered in and out of reality. Standing in front of that was a black gun held between the hands of the midnight-haired girl.

I was grateful for that midnight-haired girl. She stood between me and the deranged clutches of the doctor duo.

The words of my mother echoed within me. She told me of owing the Yukinoshitas'. And while I didn't believe that we owed their daughter for me being sent to a high-class hospital —it was only natural, seeing she was the one who managed to get me injured in the first place— right now, I felt that I truly owed her.

The lull in the fight was shattered. Grotesque plant-life crawled from the walls and floors in an impossible speed. Yukinoshita began chanting, the purple talismans around her glowing, and before her, a flamethrower appeared. Her hands swiftly snatched the nozzle from the air, pulled the trigger and flames burst forth from within.

The plant-life shrivelled and cried, a baby's whine lilting the air around us. Yukinoshita's eyes remained steadfast, her lips chanting once more, and a firehose manifested. One water sweep away and the flames were gone, washed away with charcoal remains.

Yukinoshita rushed forward, her lips chanting once more. She became a dark blur, faster than my eyes could keep track. Pling! Yuuna's screams reverberated through my brains. Her body suddenly bursting into flames. The doctor's glasses fell off his nose, his mouth wide agape.

"Yuuna, let's go!" He cried out.

The burning girl turned towards her father. She lunged herself at him and as the flames grew brighter, he made her drink a vial of… something. I didn't like the feeling it gave off, eerie, almost like the screams of the damned was inside or something. The burning stopped.

And they disappeared, as if they were never there.

...

"Say, Yukinoshita…" I started. Lumbering behind her, I scanned the rooms beyond us and behind us, afraid of anything that might pop up and rip us to shreds.

"Yes, Hikigaya-kun?" She walked calmly, her gun raised to shoot at a moment's notice.

"I think you shouldn't have shot her."

"She was dangerous."

I sighed at her matter of fact tone.

"Well, because you shot her, the whole hospital is in danger."

She stopped. Then she spoke again, the same calm tinted her voice, yet there was no denying a sharpness in her tone.

"Then what would you want me to do? She was taking your soul, feeding off of you."

"I…"

"Would you have rather died?"

"I wouldn't want to die… Komachi would be lonely if I died…" Would she truly? I imagined a Komachi wailing against my coffin, my white mannequin-like face which had all the fluids sucked off in a perpetual shock. But wait, she was smiling viciously, and her wailing grew quieter as our parents leave the room, bringing each other into tears. Mom and Dad both clap Komachi in the shoulder as her smile grew wider and animal-like, eyes opening up, tears evaporating as the church doors shut close. Finally, she looked at the God hanging from His cross, and whispered.

'Onii-chan! If you die, your laptop is mine.' She cackled. Her laughter echoed within the solemn hall. The Hachiman in the coffin's face grew imperceptibly grimmer.

I grew pale. I turned to Yukinoshita and began giving her instructions for when I die.

"Yukinoshita-san, in my room is a laptop-"

"I won't facilitate your last attempts at purity before God."

"No, what, why?"

And here I thought we became friends. Who am I kidding? I don't have friends. I can't have friends.

She looked at me from the side. The tip of her nose shone in the silvery blue light, and her face bloomed violet. On her lips was a bashful smile. Transient, fleeting, gone before I could see it fully, but not before I could commit a shadow of it to my memory.

"...and I wouldn't want to see your internet history."

At that, surprised, I chuckled. Still, there was one thing that bothered me.

"Where are we going, Yukinoshita?"

At this, Yukinoshita stopped, glancing at me from the corner of her eye. Her breaths became even as she scanned the hallway in front of us. Was she figuring out what to say? Was she going to say something weird like "to find the memories that tether the apparition to this building"? Because if she was, I'd rather jump out a window.

Death is preferable to having to deal with chuunis.

"Honestly speaking," Yukinoshita started. "Your safety is my current priority. I deliberated going down the stairs to the entrance, but…"

She sighed, her gun arm falling by the wayside.

"It'll be difficult fighting someone with her skillset in such an area. Moreover, enclosed stairwells are not an ideal place for combat, especially for one who has an injured leg."

"My leg, huh." I glanced down at the crutches and white bandages that wrapped the cast around my leg. "I don't suppose you have any sort of healing magic, do you?"

"No, we don't have enough time to heal broken bones. Magic, while powerful, needs preparation, preparation that we don't have time for."

So magic had that kind of drawback, huh? Still, why didn't she just…

"You could've healed me during any of your visits, so why didn't you?"

At that, she paused.

"Magic, as cliche as it sounds, is kept secret, Hikigaya-kun." she chuckled bitterly. "Such a powerful tool in our hands, yet barred from being used or shown."

"I can understand why. It's like if you had a nuclear program and you wouldn't want the others to know, right?" At least, that's what the excuse urban-fantasy stories have.

"A good guess, but not the exact reason." And, with that, a hardened gaze settled itself upon Yukinoshita's features. "But I can see where your misunderstanding would stem from."

What?

"The real reason why magic isn't common knowledge is because of politics," she declared. "Magic could be used by anyone, anywhere, if they so choose to do so. Have you ever had a lucky moment in your life, when you wished for something to happen so earnestly, with all your heart, that it happens?"

Yukinoshita lifted a hand, opening her palm outwards. Then, from her handbag, came a glowing purple film of light that wisped around.

"That is the core of magic. To wish for something so much that it happens."

Then, the film of light burst into a shower of petals, all dangling in the air, stirred by some secret wind.

"But alas," Yukinoshita clenched her hand, and with it the petals shimmered and dimmed, before disappearing as if they were never there. "The power to make wishes come true is too powerful to give to the hands of the people. The official argument is that the world would plunge into chaos if magic is revealed."

She turned to face me, her blue eyes sparkling with something that I couldn't quite place. "Personally, I believe the strong don't want to lose the thing that makes them strong in the first place."

Even magic has been corrupted, huh. This world sure doesn't want to create heroes. Not that I care. I just want to get out of this hospital. Speaking of…

"Can't we just take the fire exit?"

Yukinoshita seemed to look at me in a new light.

"Well, we can certainly try."

And so we headed for the fire exit.