ANGELIC LAYER: Another Story
By: Enigma-Nemesis
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Angelic Layer nor the characters in this fantastic anime! All original characters named similarly to any real life people are completely coincidental.
Summary:
It is the year 2009 and Yumiko Ariwara is a 13 year-old teenager girl who moves to Tokyo City with her family. However, things turn out for the worse as they were driving to Tokyo City. Amid the tragedies, she is soon attracted to a merchandising phenomenon known as Angelic Layer.
Chapter 00: Worst Case Scenario
My name is Yumiko, and I have lived in Osaka all my life. However, today, my family and I were moving to Tokyo city thanks to my father's job being relocated there. My father already bought a new house there, and everything was already packed up and waiting in dozens of boxes in our new place since a few days ago.
Right now, I was heading back home for the last time from my school here, walking alongside my two best friends, Aki and Ryoma. When I arrived at my house, I waved goodbye to them. Hopefully just for a while, until I can visit them during the school break or holidays. I sighed as I entered my house, walking up the stairs and into my bedroom. My nice, comfy bed and furniture were already sent by truck to our new house and my essential things were packed in a small travelling bag downstairs in the living room. So there was nothing in my bedroom anymore. It was empty. I don't know why I came up here. Maybe it was just a habit, going upstairs every time I came back from school to rest for a bit. Maybe I wanted to see my bedroom one last time. I don't know. Maybe I went up here for both reasons. Yes, I think that's why.
Just then, I heard my mom calling me from downstairs, telling me it's time to go. Well, I got out of my bedroom and closed it for the very last time. As I descended the stairs, I looked back at my bedroom door one last time before it disappeared from my sight.
When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, my mother looked impatient, with a pout on her face.
"Mou, it took you long enough, Yumiko. Take your belongings outside and put it in the back of the car. We want to arrive before it gets too dark!" When she was done talking, she walked towards the kitchen, probably to make some snack sandwiches for the ride to Tokyo.
I immediately obeyed her, and carried my bag out the front door to place. I lazily plopped my bag in the trunk, eliciting what seemed like a "groan" from the car, as it lightly bounced from the weight of my bag. Our car is pretty old and small. It was a 1996 Honda Civic DX, and it the rusty corners and bottom parts of the car clearly showed its age. I wish we had the 2009 one, because looked much cooler, and, well, it just looked safer too. Unfortunately, dad refused to sell this car, and whenever I asked him why, he would typically say, "Why bother wasting money for something new if the old one is still working?" and then laugh after that. But I knew that wasn't the real reason he didn't sell the car. You see, this was his very first car, and he's had fond memories with it, one of the them being him asking my mom for her hand in marriage. For a reason like that, I guess I can live with it, until I'm old enough to get a new car for myself.
"Yumiko-chan, it's time to go!" hollered my mom from in the car, snapping me out of my nostalgic thoughts. I guess I was too dazed to notice my parents going into the car, despite me staring at the car a few feet away.
Knowing that I shouldn't be keeping my parents waiting for no important reason, I opened the back door and sat in the backseat. I kept staring out of the window, looking at what will no longer be our family's home, as father drove out of the driveway and headed towards Tokyo City at late in the afternoon.
Two hours later, we were halfway on our journey there. Evening came, turning the cloudy sky into pitch black. The lack of clear stars in the night made it very hard for me to see anything outside the window, and I hoped this wasn't as bad a case for father. Dad was listening to the radio for any big news on the highway, and mom was just looking at herself on the mirror checking to see if she had any dirt on her face. Despite the lack of being able to see anything clear outside the window, we were pretty relaxed, albeit in a pretty boring way, as we were driving on the highway.
"How are you doing back there, dear?" my father asked me.
"I'm fine dad," I replied, sighing heavily, "When are we going to get there? I'm really bored."
"It'll take just a bit longer." He said, "Dear, will you pass me the map? I want to make sure we're going the right way, or else our daughter HERE will get angry." Father chuckled at the end of his sentence.
My mother gave him the map and he began looking at it, muttering things to himself quietly. My mom was finished looking at herself, so she looked at the side mirror. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she wore a panicked expression.
"Um, dear? You might want to look behind." she said blankly.
"Not now honey, I'm busy checking where to go." He said, while his face was buried in the unfolded map, examining the roads he will have to drive through later.
"Dear! There's a truck swaying back and forward through the lanes. You may want to be careful!" He quickly scrambled to put down the map and glanced at the mirror.
"What? Nonsense! Who would drive like-" he stopped abruptly and his eyes widened.
Curious, I turned around to take a look and then I saw it. A truck was swaying left and right heading right towards us at a very fast speed, as if the driver was not consciously aware of his surroundings. I couldn't take my eyes off it, as it swerved past us to the left side of our car and slammed into us. I screamed in pain and fear as the left windows shattered into pieces, and my body flung to the other side, where I hit my head on the right window. It was then that I blacked out.
It was a peaceful and quiet night in one of the many hospitals in Tokyo City. All the patients were sleeping quietly in their beds, while the nurses were walking around and doing their jobs. The security guards were sitting down in front of a small television in their office, eating junk food bought from a nearby convenience store, and they chatted about random things as they watched. A nurse was walking down the clean, white hallway near the emergency entrance where ambulances would occasionally arrive with an injured person. As she took a right turn at a corner, she accidentally bumped into another nurse.
"Sorry Kaori, are you alright?" she asked, bowing in apology.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," the nurse replied, "Just a bit surprised."
"Quite a dark night, don't you think?" she said cheerfully, staring out the window, "It's so peaceful and quiet. I hope nothing serious happens tonight at the hospital."
"Yup, you got that right," Kaori replied, also peering out the window.
Suddenly, the Emergency doors slammed wide open and in came three paramedics, pushing a stretcher as fast and carefully as possible through the hallways towards the Emergency operations room. Kaori and the other nurse quickly scrambled to the side of the hall to allow the paramedics to pass by them. They frowned sadly, as they quickly recovered their composure.
"It's a young girl this time, huh?" the nurse said quietly as she leaned her back to the wall and looked down. "Poor child."
"Yeah. she was wearing an oxygen mask and seemed to be bleeding pretty badly." Kaori said quietly, "Especially her legs. They were pretty bloody and bruised."
The nurse sighed and looked back outside. "Of all the nights it just had to happen tonight."
"I hope she'll be alright."
"Yeah."
Meanwhile, the paramedics were rushing through the hallways, yelling at people to move to the sides. The girl was breathing heavily and blood was seeping out of her legs at a fast pace. She was slowly losing consciousness and was groaning in pain and agony. A doctor and some nurses soon entered the scene alongside them.
"What happened to her?" the doctor asked sternly, taking out a clipboard and a pen.
"She and her parents were driving on the highway when another car turned suddenly and severely smashed the rear left of their car," a paramedic explained, "and then their car spun out of control and a big truck bashed the entire front portion of their car."
"Major car accident, I see." he said jotting down everything. "What's her current status?"
"Heavy breathing, severe bruises on her head and upper body, and huge loss of blood due to many severe glass cuts on both of her legs, which could possibly be broken, doctor."
"What about the driver and anyone else in the car?" the doctor asked.
"Dead," another paramedic said, looking away from the doctor, "Both a man and a woman. Doctor, I think they were her parents... and they were killed instantly when the truck hit. From what I saw in the wreckage, I believe the mother's neck was snapped in half and the father's head was cracked open from the impact of the truck's right side. The broken pieces of glass pierced his entire body. Luckily, we were able to get the girl out just before the car exploded, probably from a broken, leaking gas tank in their wrecked car."
"I see," he said sadly, "Well, let's get her into the operation room, cause we've got a person's life to save."
"Yes, Sir!" the paramedics said unified, as they pushed open the doors and let the doctors begin the operation.
They entered the room and began immediately by hastily stopping the bleeding from going any further. She was slowly losing consciousness as she slowly stopped breathing.
"We need to give her an electric jolt to the chest quickly before it's too late!" ordered the doctor.
Another doctor grabbed the electric shockers and pressed it on her chest.
She was still drifting away though. Her eyes began to twitch.
The doctor pressed it again.
Still no good. "Again!" he yelled, and so the other doctor pressed it again.
The beeping sound on the machine was getting faster. She stopped twitching and laid deathly still.
"Try again!" he said nervously and the doctor pressed it a fourth time.
The beeping sound got even faster. She was on the brink of death. It was now or never.
"STAY ALIVE DAMNIT!!" and the doctor gave one last jolt of electricity to her chest. There was silence for one whole second, when suddenly.
Beep... beep... beep...
A wave of relief fell over them, and the nurses and doctors began to congratulate each other for a job well done. The doctor took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his face. "Good job people, good job. Now let's patch her up and heal her injuries!"
Another doctor covered his face with his hands and then looked down at her and smiled. "You did great kid, you did great."
Another doctor smirked and said "I knew she was going to be alright!"
"Ya right, Keisuke," replied a happy nurse, slapping him hard on his back, nearly toppling over a table of equipments. The other doctors' eyes were blazing with fury.
"BE CAREFUL!!" they yelled, glaring daggers at the nurse.
"Heh, heh, heh..." the nurse scratched the back of head as she laughed nervously.
4 days later.
I woke up but kept my eyes closed to prevent myself from being blinded by the sunlight that passed through the window in the morning. How did I know it was morning? Well, I could see the red sunlight burning on my eyelids, I could hear the birds chirping on the tree branches outside, and I could also hear the kids playing. As for me, I was just taking a snooze on my bed. But something was different however, and it was the bed. It was hard and lumpy but mine isn't supposed to be like that. It was supposed to be soft and comfortable. The bed feels much smaller too, so, could this really be my bed? What was going on here? Am I at home? Where. am I? I wondered endlessly until I heard some people starting a conversation really close by, so I listened carefully, while pretending to sleep.
"It's already been four days now." a woman whispered, "I really hope she's alright now."
Four days? Asleep? Are they talking about me?
"Luckily someone called the ambulance just in time." Another woman said.
Ambulance? What? I'm beginning to get confused.
"That was quite a big car accident," the other woman said, "It was on the front page of every newspaper that day."
What?! A car accident? Are they saying I was in a car accident?
"Too bad her parents."
Before she could finish her sentence, I quickly opened my eyes, sat up, and forcefully grabbed one of the women' shirt.
"What about my parents? Did something happen to them? Tell me! Please!" I yelled, looking at them nervously. Did something bad happen to my parents?
"Miss, will you please clam down, miss." the woman I held said calmly.
"PLEASE! I (cough) need (cough) to know!" I yelled, still holding on to her.
"Meryl, give her the needle, quickly!" she said, as she was restraining me onto the bed. The other nurse, Meryl, picked up a needle on the counter, squirted a bit of the fluid out of the needle and injected it into my arm. I soon felt relaxed and very sleepy. In a few seconds, I went into a deep sleep.
-= End of Chapter 00 =-
No flames please!