The fall of The Prince
First of all, I'd like to say that I'm truly sorry for this extremely late update. I see that it's almost a year since the last time I updated. There isn't much I'd like to say to defend myself than the fact that I was actually having quite a hard time during this almost-a-whole-year. But yeah, I can assure you that NEVER crossed in my mind, the idea of stopping this story nor to stop writing. Just, I haven't found the right time.
So... I start again now. Believing that if I don't start now, I may probably never start again. I do hope you enjoy the story...
Chapter 8
When Ryoma opened his eyes, he was greeted by a bright room that gave him a dizzying effect. While adjusting himself with the light, Ryoma stared at the clock and realized that it was five to nine already. It was strange how he still feels so tired after such a long period of sleep.
After a while, Ryoma realized that there were no changes in his hospital room. There was no additional lamp, no additional window or any other additional light. Yet, the room felt strangely painfully brighter than the prior days. It took only a while before Ryoma recognized there was something wrong with himself that day.
In an odd way, Ryoma began to feel some new uncomfortable sensation after his understanding. Somehow, he could tell that his body was gaining a few higher degrees than it supposed to be. His joints started to feel painful and his skin felt a bit too sensitive that it gave him uncomfortable feeling.
As he lapped his tongue to wet his lips, he realized how dry they were and how his mouth felt so bitter. Ryoma tried to sigh but finally decided not to do so for his head felt heavier that he would only make it worse by taking a deep breath.
He was completely not in a good condition at all. Yet, his intensive check up was today. That's life after all. Nothing is going to be as simple as what human planned.
The door opened with a gentle creaking voice, revealing his cousin's face with a warm smile. "Ohayou, Ryoma-san."
Feeling weak, Ryoma thought he doesn't need to answer the greetings. His eyes felt dry and his eyelids often felt so heavy that it refused to be opened. Ryoma had wished he could just come back to sleep and do nothing for that entire day. But he knew he couldn't.
Following right after Nanako were Dr. Endo and two nurses. One of them was pushing a wheelchair inside the room.
"Ryoma-kun," greeted Dr. Endo. His voice sounded even as he helped Ryoma to sit up on his bed. "It's time for the check up."
Ryoma eyed his doctor for a while, trying to tell him not to annoy him by telling things he already knew like he was so forgetful. Of course, not being able to read Ryoma's mind, Dr. Endo only gave a friendly smile.
Reluctantly, with the help from the nurses, Ryoma moved to the wheelchair.
Before he and the other left the room, Ryoma stole a quick glance towards the clock that showed precisely 9 o'clock now. Subconsciously, his mind darted to the tournament he had been leaving at that time. At least, the third single match should be starting already. And Ryoma couldn't help wondering about the result.
They went through some corridors, took en elevator to the second level of the building, and went pass some patients and other hospital installments before they eventually slowed down and turned to another white room with strong disinfectant smell.
Ryoma paid not much attention towards all things inside that room. All he knew from his brief sight-seeing was there was a high bed in the middle of the room which Ryoma assumed to be the bed where he should laid on after this.
A woman with a long white laboratory coat appeared from the next room connected with a door-less threshold and she walked approaching Dr. Endo as the nurses guided Ryoma from the wheelchair to the bed. Ryoma heard Dr. Endo gave some instruction about what she should do to him while the nurse told him to lay down on the bed.
Suddenly, Ryoma felt very uncomfortable.
The woman walked closer to the bed and stopped on Ryoma's right side. "Hello," she greeted. Not waiting for Ryoma's response, she continued, "Now I need you to turn left," said her while gently pushing Ryoma to his left, "and pull your knees up to your chest."
Ryoma obliged reluctantly. As a matter of fact, he hated backing someone he knew was threatening him. But after all, he had no other choices. From his position, he could see Dr. Endo asked Nanako to leave the room before they were completely gone.
A sudden urge to run away was starting to rise as well.
Ryoma could feel the back of his pajama was being pulled up, revealing his sensitive skin against the cold air. The uneasiness grew stronger as he felt something wet and extremely cold touched his back skin, right in the middle where his backbone was on the level of his stomach.
With some fear growing inside his heart, Ryoma dared himself to look back to the woman as he felt the skin that was lapped with that cold thing before was gradually getting numbed. And he saw something that made him regret his decision.
A huge needle, as sized as a small pencil from Ryoma's opinion, was being held by the woman's hand. The needle was made from some kind of metal and it was quite long that it shocked Ryoma for thinking what such a big needle could do to him. He abruptly turned his gaze away, facing the door in which Nanako left before.
"This may hurt a little." The woman said lightly, trying not to scare him.
Unconsciously, Ryoma's palms clenched into tight fists.
There was a great pressure that Ryoma assumed as the time when the needle pressed against his skin. It was nothing painful at first, just a strange feeling of something being pressed against anesthetized skin, which didn't give him any particular sensation. But that lasted no longer than a second before the pressure gradually turned into a great pain.
His mind told him that it was too late if he was thinking about running away this time. And Ryoma closed his eyes, wishing that it would somehow prevent the pain he felt.
Before Ryoma could come out with another thought, a very sharp pain overcame him. Somehow he felt something was being taken from his bone marrow and that gave him such an unbearable pain that Ryoma couldn't help to gasp loudly. His nails dug into his inner palm as he clenched them strongly, wishing that any other form of pain would distract him from this Bone Marrow Aspiration.
Just when the lack of oxygen alerted him, Ryoma realized that he was holding his breath since the time the needle inserted into his bone marrow. And when he finally dared himself to take a small amount of air, he realized that the process was over already.
"Are you okay?" The woman asked gently as she carefully helped Ryoma to sit up.
Ryoma didn't bother to answer since he still felt so weak. It took him a few seconds to adjust himself with the reality and to recognize the tears that were wetting his cheeks.
He knew he must look completely messy, but he really didn't care about it at the moment.
A few moments later, Dr. Endo and Nanako reappeared in the room. The two nurses that were staying inside before helped Ryoma back to his wheelchair once again before finally they departed from the laboratory.
Nanako looked so worried and tried to talk to Ryoma, which Ryoma ignored subconsciously. He was tired. He was shocked. And all he wanted now was just his warm bed room, not the unfamiliar white-colored hospital room where he was staying at the moment.
As the reached Ryoma's room, the nurse opened the door only to find a number of worried-looking guys waiting inside. Tezuka and the other regulars were already there, each wearing their own expressions to represents their nature.
"Ochibi!" Eiji wailed as he dashed towards the door.
One of the nurses abruptly stood in front of Ryoma's wheelchair. Her face showed great annoyance. "This is hospital. Please mind your manners."
The other nurse looked at the number of people inside the room and voiced her opinion. "I suggest for you all not to stay too long. Ryoma-kun really needs his rest now."
"It's okay. I'll make sure everything is under control." Nanako said gently while mentioning the nurses to leave. "We'll be fine from here." With Nanako's convincing smile, the nurses eventually left with their sour faces. One of them muttered about checking again in a few minutes, but Nanako didn't seem to care.
"Mou… annoying!" Eiji pouted and stuck out his tongue to the closed door. "We just want to visit ochibi. What's so wrong about that?"
"But they're actually right, Eiji. Echizen needs rest after all." Oishi said with concern.
With help from Nanako and Tezuka, Ryoma got off from the wheelchair and lay carefully on the bed. His face was as pale as wall. And from his motion, one could clearly assume that Ryoma really didn't have much power left.
"Are you alright?" Tezuka nearly whispered as he fixed the blanket on Ryoma's small body.
"I'm fine." Ryoma answered silently. There was barely any sound came out from his mouth. "Just tired." He added after a brief pause.
Fuji slowly approached the bed and stopped right beside Ryoma. His face filled with anxiety as the smile he usually wore was nowhere to be seen. "Sorry. We just rushed here without thinking about your condition." He said very softly. "We won't disturb you anymore. We'll leave now."
"You're not disturbing." Ryoma put all his effort to say those words. He really didn't want his teammates to feel guilty. In fact, he was just so happy that they still wanted to visit him like this. Just, the check up went unexpectedly tiring that there was barely any power left for him to even talk.
"Ne, ochibi!" Eiji called. His voice was enthusiastic, but not as energetic as it usually is. "We won the tournament. First, it was Inui-Kaidoh in the second double and Oishi-Me in the first double. We defeated them in quite spectacular score, you know?" He continued rather proudly.
"I'm in the third single." Momo said, walking closer as well. "And we only needed to attend three matches after all. It's a straight winning." He said with a genuine smile. There was no teasing tone like his usual way of speaking instead there was only concern towards the younger boy.
"But don't think that our opponent this time is boring, Echizen," it was Inui who talked. He and Kaidoh walked closer and stopped beside Ryoma's legs, "because this spectacular score is rather unexpected, even from my calculation."
Ryoma didn't give any sound as response, instead his eyes showed a faint curiosity as if asking how Inui's calculation could have been wrong. After a pause, he asked, "Why's that?"
"This straight winning is because we all want to come here as soon as possible," Fuji said gently, "and tell you not to lose to your illness."
"Since we're not losing either," Kaidoh finally spoke, "you better not to."
Ryoma gave a faint smile. He badly wanted to sleep, but he didn't want them to go either.
"Get well soon, Echizen. Because we can't celebrate our victory without you." Kawamura said. "Also, you have to try a new sushi recipe my father invented. It's delicious."
"Okay." Ryoma mouthed, still with the smile on his lips.
"Here, Echizen." Eiji handed something to Ryoma's hand. "It's the recovery charm I said earlier. Inui, Kaidoh and I bought it in the temple yesterday. May you get well soon." He said solemnly. Such a rare expression from such a guy like Eiji.
"Thank you." Ryoma received the gift.
Tezuka stared at Ryoma for a while before decided to take over the conversation. "Listen, everyone. I think it's better for us to leave since Ryoma doesn't look so well today. I'm sure he needs some rest."
Everyone of course agreed. Soon after, they had already left the room after saying goodbyes to the youngest boy. And they left the couple together alone finally.
Tezuka turned to Ryoma who was looking at him with his tired golden eyes. He walked closer and sat on the edge of the bed. "Is it hurt?" He began.
There was a brief pause as Ryoma battled with himself about telling Tezuka the truth or not.
"Not really. Just a little." He answered faintly. "Thanks for coming anyway."
Tezuka smiled genuinely. "You must be really tired," said he slowly, "you want me to leave?"
Ryoma looked at Tezuka's eyes again. It's better for Tezuka to go home since he would like to go back to sleep again. "Unless you want to watch me sleeping, you can go." He answered, not meaning to chase him away. Actually, he selfishly wanted Tezuka to stay there the whole day. But he knew that's not a good idea.
Tezuka gave a smile as the reply. "I'll wait until you sleep then."
And Ryoma smiled before he closed his eyes.
"Ryoma-san," A voice calling his name woke Ryoma up from his uncomfortable sleep. While slowly opening his eyes, he saw Nanako's face looking at him with her usual gentle smile. Ryoma only gave a questioning look. "You have guests."
"Huh?" was Ryoma's respond.
Nanako nodded then turned to the entrance. That's when Ryoma saw a huge mixed of red and pink roses bouquet came inside, brought by a person hidden behind it.
"Rose?" Ryoma responded again. He frowned and a purple head showed up behind the bouquet. And Ryoma's eyes went so wide, shocked.
"Hello there, little fellow." It was Keigo Atobe and he was standing on the threshold. The bouquet indeed looked very fascinating against the white hospital room.
"Hyotei no Atobe?" Ryoma asked to himself while gawking.
And Atobe walked inside only to reveal another person standing behind him. This one was taller with a darker hair, wearing a black cap like usual. Sanada Genichirou nodded briefly towards Ryoma as he stepped inside, following Atobe to come closer to the bed.
"I'll leave you three alone then." Nanako smiled and Sanada replayed it with a gentle bow while Atobe smiled and said 'arigatou.'
Ryoma was completely stunned. He didn't even make any sound as he received the bouquet Atobe offered him. His jaw was still hanging.
"So, young boy. How are you doing?" Atobe asked with his usual sly smile on his face.
A fear was starting to grow inside Ryoma's heart. How come they knew about his illness?
"He went to the tournament today and found you were not around." Sanada suddenly talked. He took the bouquet from Ryoma's hand and put in on the empty vase on the bedside desk.
"And?" Ryoma said carefully.
"And I asked Fuji if he knew what's going on with you." Atobe said.
"And what did he say?" Ryoma asked again. His voice was getting lower.
"He said you are overly exhausted and need a lot of rest. But for me, you seem like a complete idiot to let your body down like this," answered Atobe. "I can't imagine how you treat yourself to let them hold you in a hospital."
There's sudden warmth in Ryoma's heart to know that the two boys before him knew nothing about his severe illness. He really didn't want anyone else to pity him right now.
"And that's before he went all crazy, bugging me to accompany him here." It was Sanada who spoke. His face didn't really change, but there was a glint of amusement Ryoma could see.
Atobe turned to Sanada to give him a death glare before turning back to Ryoma. "How are you doing? When will you get out of this place?"
"I don't know." Ryoma answered. "But I'm feeling better."
"Good to hear that," was Sanada's answer. "How could they took you in like this? Were you collapsed or something?"
"Uhm… just having some headache." Ryoma answered lamely. That's the only spontaneous answer he got and he hoped it would be convincing enough. And for a safer conversation, he chose another topic that emerged in his head since he saw Sanada. "Eh… it's rare to see you guys get along."
There's a sudden change in their expression. Sanada was the one who recovered first. "Well, we get along. Sometimes." He said rather doubtfully. Ryoma saw he stole a glance towards Atobe from the corner of his eyes.
"Yeah. Sometimes." Atobe said, trying to convince the smaller boy. He also stole a quick glance towards the taller boy for only a millisecond.
Ryoma had the expression he usually wears when he was confused before his mind came into a conclusion. "Aaa… Sometimes, eh?" There was a wicked smile on his lips. "Since when?"
Atobe's eyes widened a bit. He turned to Sanada again, as if asking what to say or what to do. Sanada's reply was a slight shrug. The grin in Ryoma's face grew wider.
"Love is actually everywhere, eh?" Ryoma said, rather to himself.
"What?" Atobe and Sanada said in unison.
"No. Nothing." Ryoma answered. The grin on his lips subsided into a smile. His mind flew to his Tennis Club Captain.
Speaking about Tennis Club Captain… "I heard Rikkaidai no buchou is ill too." Ryoma said.
"Oh yeah, how's he doing?" Atobe turned to Sanada. "I heard he is hospitalized too."
Sanada nodded. "Yukimura is hospitalized here in room 5021. He's getting better, but the doctor said he still need to stay until the medical team sure he is okay to walk away from their watching.
Why don't you give him a visit? I'm sure he must me happy to meet you in person."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's interested to meet the boy who defeated his apprentice in the final." It was Atobe who teased. A sly smile was on his face as usual.
But the smile was suddenly gone when he felt Sanada hit his head gently. At first, he was surprised, and then he smiled in return. Ryoma's smile grew wider.
"Why don't we visit him now?" Atobe suggested.
Sanada replayed with a nod before turning back to Ryoma. "Get well soon, Echizen."
"Yeah. You better heal soon, you know. It's not a court without you." Atobe said. His tone was serious and his expression was stern. That was the stance he wore when he stand with the title Hyotei no buchou.
Ryoma wanted to nod, but finally decided only to smile. He can't promise anything. And he didn't want to promise anything.
"We'll see you again." That was the last word Atobe said before he and Sanada stepped out of the room, leaving Ryoma all alone again.
And, accompanied by the silence again, Ryoma wished Tezuka were there.
Boredom overcame Ryoma when he finally decided to leave his room. The thought of visiting Yukimura like what Sanada said before was the first thing that came to his mind. It was still nine past five and he's not feeling like to sleep already. In his head, 'why not try the idea?'
The alley Ryoma went through was completely empty. Sometimes, some nurses passed around, doing their night duties, rechecking the patients on their own rooms. Some of them eyed Ryoma suspiciously, but most of them decided to ignore him. Until one of the troublesome-type one decided to great Ryoma and ask where he intended to go.
"Hello there. What are you doing here instead of resting in your room?" She asked, wearing a friendly smile which Ryoma wouldn't consider so annoying if he wasn't in the situation of not wanting anyone to speak to him.
Not answering the question wouldn't help him. Simply strolling away from her wasn't something to be considered either. So he simply said what first popped in his head, "I'm going to Dr. Endo's room."
"What's going on?" She asked, truly concerned. "You can always push the emergency button in your room if you want someone to come to help."
"It's not that." Ryoma answered. He stopped for a few seconds, trying to find the best word. "I just need to talk to him. About my prior test this morning." He added the last sentence just to make it more convincing.
And that's his biggest mistake.
Because that's when he accidentally saw the nurse he acknowledged as Dr. Endo's assistance coming from a room behind them. She seemed to hear what he had said to the other nurse and came approaching him.
"Ryoma-kun," she greeted. On her hand was some short of document inside a brown envelope. "You're going to Dr. Endo's place, right? We can go there together then, I'd like to give this report to the office right beside his room." She mentioned the large envelope she held.
And Ryoma could only curse mentally as together in silent, they walked the way to Dr. Endo's working room.
"I'm going this way," the nurse who accompanied him all the way said while smiling. She turned and disappeared behind the door that leads to what they called 'office' before telling him to go back soon after finishing his talk with Dr. Endo, leaving Ryoma with a relieved sigh.
Not knowing what to do in a short amount of time made Ryoma accidentally looked at the door that was so familiar to him, for he had walked trough it so many times during his usual check ups before he became a semi-permanent resident of this hospital.
For a while, he considered to come in, though without any certain reason. But his motion stopped as he realized that the door wasn't completely closed, leaving a very small gap, not enough for him to peek inside, but quite big enough to let him hear some mumbling voices inside.
Being controlled by curiosity, Ryoma moved closer to the door, wishing to get somewhat useful information. Though in his mind, hearing things about his illness out of Dr. Endo's other patients' while somehow accidentally being lead to his room by fate like this was a real coincidence that rarely existed.
The voices inside were merely like murmurs with the door almost closed like that. And after a second thought, Ryoma risked being captured eavesdropping by pushing the door slowly and carefully, hoping that it will reveal more gap without making any disturbing sound. His wish came true as the door moved a bit without any considering creak. And he was greeted with by none other that his father's voice.
"...can't find a donor?" That was Nanjiroh's voice, sounded worried like hell.
"If none is suitable within the time, he needs to take chemotherapy," answered Dr. Endo. His voice was as dark Nanjiroh's. "Though," he added slowly, "this is considered rather risky."
"Risky?" Nanjiroh's voice was choked.
"Chemo will clean the leukemia cells by using X-Ray. Nothing bad so far, as long as we destroy all the cells completely. I said completely, means there are no trace of the cells left. For if it's unsuccessful and there are still some of them left in his body, even one cell, it will multiply even faster than before Ryoma take the chemo."
"And the illness will spread even faster?" Nanjiroh asked, very carefully. He knew what will happen. He knew that already. But still, he was too afraid to admit it.
There was a rather long silence. Ryoma didn't really know, but somehow he was sure that Dr. Endo answered his father's question with a nod. He even could visualize that in his rather floating mind at that moment.
Ryoma didn't know whether he wanted to stay there, listening to every other word the two adult will share and know everything about his severe illness, or to leave and let himself continue his life with delusion of not knowing the truth, and filling his head with false hopes.
"Why don't we wait for a donor then?" Nanjiroh asked again, rather doubtfully this time. "I know Rinko didn't find one until the end, but that doesn't mean Ryoma won't either."
Ryoma felt his heart skipped a beat. The ground beneath him somehow was slanting now.
"We don't need to be in such a rush to do the chemo, right?"
"That's the reason I asked to talk to you tonight." Dr. Endo said slowly, rather regretfully. "From the result given after the test performed this morning, I can tell that Ryoma's illness isn't quite the same with his mother's."
There was a short silence before Dr. Endo continued with a more dark voice.
"I remember have given you explanation about this long time ago, but I guess it's better to say it again. Generally, there are two types of leukemia according to the type of cell affected and by the rate of cell growth. It's either acute or chronic. All I can tell you without giving you unnecessary information is that Ryoma's type is the acute one. For more specific, it's called Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia or for short, ALL.
This one isn't really inherited from his mother, for ALL is mainly caused by injury to the DNA of a single cell in the bone marrow. And this one is different than what Rinko had which is you know is the Chronic type."
There was another silence occurred between them. This time, it was rather long and Ryoma was having another battle in his own mind. His mind told him to remember again about differences between the Acute and the Chronic type he had read long time ago soon after their family was informed about Rinko's illness. And strangely, he couldn't really cooperate with his mind.
"I remember." Nanjiroh said. Weakly. Defeated. "Acute type spread a lot faster than the chronic one, right? So that we really don't have that much time as we have with Rinko."
No answer given directly from Dr. Endo. But Ryoma knew exactly, like before. The same visualization took place again in his head. Dr. Endo was nodding. His eyes showed his great sympathy.
Ryoma felt nausea overcame him. His head was dizzying. He knew he had to leave. Not by the risk of being captured or by any other thought. He simply knew that if he heard anymore about this subject, he would go crazy, exploding, uncontrolled. He would come back to his defeated stance and he was scared that he would never ever regain his old composure back.
Ryoma forced his leg to move. No matter how much it felt heavy as if glued to the floor beneath. Ryoma forced himself to walk away, to run away back to his own room, the only place where he could feel secure at that very time. He didn't care about the pain he felt in his joints nor the sharp sting he felt every time he took a breath.
Ryoma threw himself on his bed and covered all his body with the white blanket, wishing that the warmth of it could somehow saved him from the vicious grip of his fate. Wishing that somehow, it could comfort him, support him and help him to stay sane.
He wished somehow, there's someone he could hold all night long, comforting him, assuring him, making him believe that everything will be all okay. Telling him that he will recover and continue his life as a junior-high-school student who shouldn't think about anything other than his school-mark, love-life or winning another tennis tournament.
No. He didn't wish there was someone. He only wished it was Tezuka.
To be continued
Well-well... that's chapter 8. It's rather long than the other ones, ne? No Tezuryo action... that's why I think this one is rather boring. Waaaaaahhh... desperate
Special thanks to:
May.neuma – thanks banget ya! Sori lama updatenya...
RuByMoOn17 – Atobe had said it, right? Please enjoy
Katariun – thank you. I'm sorry for the late of update.
Kawaii chibi yami – thank you... hiks... I'm truly sorry for not updating in such a long time
Craze – thank you... really... thank you!
Jia – arigatouuu...
Krystal – glad you like it. Thank you...
Jenn – Sanada and Atobe's visit felt a bit... ordinary here...what do you think? But... anyway, thank you...
Babymar-mar – Hohoho... Nanjiroh challenges Tezuka? That sounds great!
Princessugar – sorry to keep you waiting for such a long time... Gomen...
Guest-san – Thank you!
Gravitation pig – sorry for the late update... Gomen... Hope you enjoy this chap...
Liveandletlive – Thank you!
KatSakura – Ryoma will be... hehehe...
Ja'aime – I'm still working with my grammar and I do hope I can be better. Thank you for your support!
Sakura Echizen – Aaahh... thank you so much...
Shii-chan – Thank you! I'm now trying to update sooner
DianaLineelu2001 – Thank you so much for your support! Hope you enjoy this chapter...
SnowMage – thank you so much! Really! For reminding not to give up this hope.
Next chapter: more sweetness from Tezuka-Ryoma. A plan of Nanjiroh and Dr. Endo is going to be revealed about how to take care of Ryoma's illness. And a lunch time between the father and the soon to be son-in-law.
What do you think? Tell me... I really don't have a clue. Thank you very much! bows down