ahhh… man, I've hardly done ANYTHING concerning fanfiction this week, other than study. and in study, I mean playing JSRF the whole freakin' day yesterday. yeah. that's me, for ya. so, this is the last chapter other than the epilogue, so I want to say a few things before I get on with it.
I LOVE YOU ALL! huggles you lol. big thanks to ALL of my reviewers! and thanks to all those readers out there who didn't review, but, hey, at least you're reading! I know you exist! here are a few people that I really want to thank a lot!
Tallulah, Grammar Songstress- you've been an awesome reviewer, even when fanfiction wouldn't actually let you review through the site! thanks for all your suggestions through the emails!
KoochiZibble- awarded the longest review I've gotten for this story! thanks for your help, and your own fics were a great inspiration to me.
The ShapeShifting Chick- thanks soooo much for all of your reviews! your continuous support was very much appreciated!
there were MANY others who reviewed this fic, but those were the main reviews that had the most impact on me, really. thanks again everyone! and here it is at last, the last chapter! (not including the epilogue. :P)
oh, and I don't own JSRF.
If there had been a quiet moment in the hospital, it was gone now. First the police and doctors had made a big fuss over a rudie in the ER, and now a bunch of other rudies were standing in front of the reception desk, all yelling at once. A robot and even a dog were making a big fuss. They were all so loud, they hadn't even heard the nurse tell them to take the dog outside.
"QUIET!" the nurse yelled at the top of her lungs. It was to no avail, though, because all of them, except a boy with an abnormally large hat, continued to yell. The boy turned to the others behind them.
"SHUT THE HELL UP SO THE CHICK CAN TALK!" he yelled. There was a long silence.
"Dang, I didn't know you could actually COMMAND us to do anything, Corn." a girl with a tattoo around her navel commented. "I always thought you PRETENDED to be the leader."
"Shut up, Cube." about five other angry rudies snapped, most of them looking thoroughly put off on 'Corn's' behalf.
"We're looking for Chicka." the guy named Corn told the nurse. The nurse nodded and began to type.
"There isn't anyone by the name of Chicka in our records. Do you know the last name?" she asked after a moment.
"Do you mean to tell us that there's more than one rudie here?" a girl wearing a helmet asked. "'Cuz who else would we be here to see?" The nurse turned bright red.
"Right. Sorry." the nurse replied. "I'm afraid I'm only allowed to let family members up to the Emergency Room." The rudies frowned, some disappointed, a few angry. "But under the circumstances, I suppose I could let one of you up to see her."
"Alright. Yoyo, you go." Corn said, pointing at a boy with green hair and red shades. The boy's face twitched into a smile, but it seemed a little forced.
"Thanks, Corn." he muttered, sounding somewhat relived. The kid turned to the nurse. "Where is she?"
"She's in room three on the fifth floor." the nurse replied, smiling slightly. Yoyo turned and skated towards the elevator.
"Are you sure you can't let anyone else up?" the one named Cube asked, rapping her knuckles on the desk.
"Umm…"
Yoyo shifted his weight from foot to foot as the elevator went up to the fifth floor. He had to admit he was scared. He kept thinking the worst as the elevator slowly climbed upwards. Wouldn't it go any faster? Maybe just knowing she was dead (or alive, which he preferred) would take a load off his shoulders, but he didn't like not knowing at all.
The elevator dinged and he got off. There were nurses and doctors running every which way, all of them either looking at paper work or giving orders to one another. They didn't notice the rudie as he skated down to room three.
The shades of the view window to room three were pulled up, so Yoyo could see inside the room without actually going in. The bed was empty and only a few medical machines were in the room. Thoughts racing, Yoyo went inside, catching the attention of a doctor.
"Hey! You can't go in there! Who are you?" Yoyo didn't seem to hear as he searched the room, foolishly hoping she was in the closet or somewhere. He was on his knees, looking under the bed, when the doctor and Captain Kanaye ran in.
"What are you doing?" the doctor demanded.
"I'm looking for my friend. Where is she?" Yoyo demanded.
"Under the bed?" the doctor asked, blinking.
"Wouldn't you if you didn't know where the crap she is or if she's alive or not?" Yoyo demanded, voice cracking.
"I'll talk to him doctor. Is the rudie aloud to have visitors?" Kanaye asked. The doctor grunted.
"I'd prefer that she didn't have too much excitement just after she got out of the emergency room." the doctor replied.
"Thank you, we'll go see her right now." Kanaye replied, leading Yoyo out. Yoyo couldn't help but grin at the doctor's face.
"It's Yoyo, isn't it?" Kanaye asked him as they took the elevator to the second floor.
"Yeah. That's me." Yoyo replied. "How's Chicka?" Kanaye chuckled.
"She's well enough to be out of the emergency room, that's for sure. I haven't seen her yet myself, really." Yoyo nodded absentmindedly but didn't say anything. "This way." The Captain said as they got off the elevator. A loud voice and blaring music could be heard from an open room.
"What do you mean, turn it down? This is as soft as it goes, lady!" Chicka was telling a nurse, who had her hands on her ears as 'Let Mom Sleep' was blaring through Chicka's headphones, which hung around her neck.
"Chicka!" Yoyo exclaimed, rushing over and hugging her gingerly. Her arm right arm was in a sling and her right leg was in a cast. In fact, the whole right side of her body was in some way paralyzed from movement.
"Yoyo!" Chicka exclaimed, kissing his cheek. "You have no idea how much civilian living I've had to endure here."
"Are you okay? Feeling better?" Yoyo asked, sitting in the visitors' chair next to the bed. Chicka tried to shrug, but winced when her right side didn't move.
"It'll be a wonder if I get out of here, really." she told him. "I lost a lot of blood, apparently, and they keep sticking new blood in me, which is getting on my nerves." Yoyo grinned. "The only reason they moved me here is because I had enough strength to take a swing at the nurse that tried to stick me this morning."
"But you'll be out soon, won't you?" Yoyo asked.
"Do you think I wanna stay here till I die?" Chicka asked, smiling. Some one coughed and the two rudies realized that Kanaye was still in the room.
"Sorry to break you two up, but could I talk to Chicka alone for a moment?" he asked. Yoyo and Chicka looked at each other for a moment.
"The others are downstairs waiting anyway. We'll come tomorrow, okay?" he asked. Chicka nodded and Yoyo skated out.
"I'm Captain Kanaye." he said, sitting down in the chair that Yoyo had occupied.
"Chicka." the rudie replied, watching him warily. "You're Hayashi's replacement, right?"
"In a way. Actually, I'm the head of the new police organization. We're working on weeding out all of the Rokkaku group." he said. Chicka nodded absentmindedly, not really interested. Realizing this, Kanaye went on. "But I'm not here to talk about that. Could you give me a full report on what happened?"
"You already know what happened." Chicka told him, talking as though she were talking to a small child. "I'm sure the rest of the GG's told you everything you need to know."
"Really now?" Kanaye asked, cocking an eyebrow and frowning.
"Yeah." Chicka replied smartly. "What you really need to know is what might happen next."
"And you know what's going to happen?" Kanaye asked, leaning forward slightly.
"Hey, now, I've just got an idea. The streets are changing all the time. It could be this way in one moment, another the next. But I figure one of two things could happen."
"And what would those be?" Kanaye asked, leaning forward even more, now fully interested.
"Keep your badge on, I'm getting there." Chicka snapped. "It all depends on if I live or not."
"How so?" the captain asked. Chicka glanced at the window, then at the door.
"If I die, the other gangs would think it too dangerous to start another Turf War." Chicka told him in a hushed voice. "If I live, the other Poison Jam members will want revenge for landing him in jail, even though it's the big brute's own fault." Chicka said. "They'd start another Turf War, and I'm almost positive that the GG's can't survive another one."
"So what do you want to happen?" Kanaye asked, also in hushed tones. Chicka stared at the ceiling for a good long while before shaking her head and saying,
"I don't want another war, but I don't wanna die either." she said, a slight quaver to her voice.
"You could always go back to being a civilian." Kanaye offered. He knew that was the wrong thing to say the second after he said it. Chicka's face turned bright red and she balled her left hand into a fist. After a second she sighed and unclenched her fist.
"That's the last thing I'm going to do." she said harshly.
"Well," Kanaye was cut short when his radio crackled.
"HQ to all personnel, suspects involved in last night's accident have been spotted in Rokkaku-Dai. All units investigate. Repeat, all units." a man said over the static. There was a short second of empty static before the connection was cut. Kanaye stood up.
"I have to go. I may come back later." he said. Chicka didn't say anything; she just stared at her bed covers. Kanaye headed for the door.
"Wait!" Chicka yelled suddenly. Kanaye spun around.
"What is it?" he asked, giving her a hard look.
"I have an idea. We can stop another Turf War and help each other out at the same time."
A few minutes later Kanaye was in his squad car heading for Rokkaku-Dai Heights. Chicka's idea was crazy. And he was just as crazy going along with it.
A few days later all of the GG's headed back to the hospital. Now that Chicka was out of the ER and improving greatly, none of them found any reason to keep silent.
Yoyo was grinding down a rail behind Rhyth, who was talking excitedly about going to hang out with Rapid 99 the night before. Yoyo, actually, was trying his best to listen, but his mind kept wandering to what they would do when Chicka got out of the hospital. Rhyth realized this and smiled.
"And what are you thinking about, lover boy?" she giggled, giving him a little poke.
"What?" Yoyo asked, suddenly pulled back to reality. Rhyth giggled and just stared at him. "Whatever…" he muttered as they came up to the hospital.
Inside, all was as deathly quiet as it normally was before the rudies 'waltzed in'. They went up to the front counter, Corn in the lead as always. The nurse at the counter looked up. She frowned and bit her lip.
"I'm sorry, I can't let any of you up today." she said softly.
"Why?"
"What's the matter?"
"What's going on?" The rudies exploded in questions and the nurse continued to chew on her lip in anxiety until the rudies had calmed down enough for her to get a word in.
"Chicka has been moved back to the emergency room." the nurse started. She opened her mouth to continue when Cube asked,
"Why?" Corn elbowed her.
"We think that her body rejected the blood we gave her. Her body-"
"What the hell does that mean?" Combo asked, sounding very annoyed.
"It means that they gave her the wrong blood type." Corn snarled. "How the hell did you make a mistake like that?" Before the nurse could give him a feeble answer, Boogie piped up.
"So why is giving Chicka the wrong blood such a big problem anyway?" she asked.
"Lets just say Chicka's feeling hell and loosing blood fast even though she ain't got any new cuts." Gram replied, looking agitated. There were a couple of 'oh' s.
"Couldn't we please go look in the window or something? I mean-" Yoyo was cut off when the nurse's phone rang.
"Yes? Yes, sir, they're here." Her face fell. "I'll send them up." She hung up. "You can go upstairs. Fifth floor, seventh room." No one said anything as they made a mad dash for the elevator.
The elevator seemed to be taking its time, because it seemed to take forever to get to the fifth floor. He kept punching the 5 button on the elevator, as if urging it to go faster.
A doctor and Kanaye were talking outside room seven. Kanaye's expression was grave. He and the doctor turned to the rudies as they approached.
"Evening, kids." the doctor said with a smile. His tone was far from happy though. Normally, the rudies would have protested being called kids, but at the moment, no one could say anything.
"I regret to tell you that Chicka is no longer with us." Kanaye said, holding out Chicka's headphones to Yoyo. He took them and stared at them for a long time. Breaking the silence, Gum said,
"Do you mean she's…" here she glanced at Yoyo. "Dead?" The doctor nodded slowly.
"I'm sorry." Kanaye said. Cube muttered "No you're not." under her breath, but didn't say it aloud the way she normally would.
The rudies stood in shocked silence. Yoyo suddenly felt a great big hole inside of him. He stared at the window, telling himself that it was all just a joke and Chicka would pull up the blinds and they would all have a good laugh.
When Chicka did not pull up the blinds, Yoyo stared back down at the headphones in his hands, lost for words or tears.
"Let's go home." Corn said. Combo patted Yoyo on the shoulder and they all silently made their way back to the Garage.