"This is so far from over."

Day 4: A-Side

Part 21: All Great Silence, Part 1

Nagi almost pounded her fist against the desk as Eri spoke calmly to the receptionist at the front, trying desperately to find an outlet for all the tension winding its way through her body. In the midst of explaining what they had come there for, Shiki offered her a drink of vending-machine water with a jittery hand. Not a word passed between them and, even after taking a swig of the bottle, Nagi's mouth was too dry to force one out. But there was still understanding there. The weight of waiting for the taxi to pull up to the hospital entrance was crushing and even after leaving the vehicle that weight still was being carried by the two, harsh as the sky against Atlas' shoulders. Even now Nagi was forgetting details of what had happened earlier in the day, everything from the moment of being told Fret was in hospital melting into an incomprehensible mess that her mind could not grapple with. Everything past that moment waned from complete, stark clarity to blurry confusion in her head. Even now the world would still sometimes spin when she reminded herself of just what was happening. Someone close to her was hurt. Badly. The reality of it made her a mixture of nauseous, panicked and terrified. By the time Eri's conversation with the clerk had finished she could feel her legs desperate to break into a sprint towards the room, though "no running in the halls" was a clear instruction in this place. Still, as soon as they crested the top of the escalator her legs could not sit still on, she began a run to the fifth floor, following Shiki's lead, the overriding need to just do something spurring her on up flights of stairs. She had to stop herself dead, the thundering of her footsteps quickly slowing and quieting, when she spotted the forms of her friends gathered just outside a door.

The mood outside of the hospital room was dour. Nagi could feel each gulp of saliva irritate her dry throat, accompanied with an all-too-audible swallowing sound. Beads of sweat sometimes still coalesced on her forehead, sliding down her face and catching in her eyebrows. She wasn't sure if it was because of the quick pace Shiki had them take when they had finished stating their intention of visitation to the clerk at the front desk, how humid and thick the hot air around the gang was or the lingering worry still in her mind. Her legs still screamed, white hot even though she felt as if she had only been running a few seconds. She took stock of the situation, which hadn't changed much since the last time she had done so, but it was a convenient distraction. Rindo was still hunched forward on the fold-out seat attached to the wall beside her, staring blankly one-thousand yards away. Shoka stood beside him, her eyes flitting to him and the wall intermittently as if she really, desperately wanted to reach out but feared doing so and found the wall she bore her eyes into less volatile company. Shiki, Eri and Neku whispered to one another on the other side of the corridor, Rhyme listening in. Every so often a nod or shake of the head occurred. Beat stood a distance away from them, head buried in his phone, eyes buzzing, teeth grinding and agitation rising. He had stopped pacing up and down the hallway, but whatever was causing him to do so earlier had just taken a new, irate form of energy.

Nagi tugged slightly at her shirt's neck, now aware of how cold and uncomfortable the sweat building up there was. Her finger caught an itchy patch of skin and her left foot began to tap the ground. She felt like crying. This was suddenly all too overwhelming. But she did not, and the silence continued. It continued to stretch on as they waited for the call to come into the room. It had felt like hours they'd been waiting now. Eventually, the wait and irritation compounded itself to too great a degree. Nagi saw Beat pocket his phone in a swift but caustic motion, nearly ripping the sleeve of his hoodie. He let out a grunt of anger and took off running down the hallway. His footsteps almost echoing, he blazed hellfire down the corridor, looking ready to kill. Whatever he was doing, there was bloody purpose there. Nagi half-expected one of the four in the huddle to speak up, but either there was understanding or exhaustion there. She felt like doing it herself – she had seen what happened when Beat had gone off on one of these one-man-army missions – but the only thing she could manage was a half-hearted raising of her right hand before it went slack against her shaking knee. For the first time in forever, she really felt as if she didn't necessarily want to go chasing after someone to ensure their wellbeing. But her mind could not decipher if it was trust or apathy. She hoped it was the former. When it came to Beat, it probably was.

Eventually a doctor – a gaunt, short man with parted black hair – informed them they were allowed to enter.

"How long for?" Neku asked him.

"Until one of the nurses return." He was told.

"Do… you have any idea when he'll be out?"

"His condition suggests tomorrow morning, though we may request he return to a local clinic for check-ups." The doctor pursed his lips and looked a ways past the group now gathered at the door. "Whatever happened after the assault this afternoon was unusual, but all seems well now. Please, excuse me." They all parted way to allow the doctor to leave and entered the room.

The room itself would have been spacious if it wasn't for everything cluttering the walls and floor. A sink in one corner, a large waste bin in the other, two hand-dispensers for sanitiser, framed art of seemingly random strokes of paint on the wall, three chairs near the blinds and anything else Nagi could focus on that wasn't the pale form of her friend in the centre of it all. He was covered in an insulated blanket and odd, taped-on bits of yet more insulation. Next to him, the usual hospital equipment. Heartrate monitor. IV drip. Distracting her again.

"You've looked worse, actually." Rhyme said, moving to stand beside him. Shiki and Neku quickly followed.

"Can't keep these dashing good looks down." Fret said, no humour in his voice. He sounded tired. So tired. Like Nagi sometimes did when she was alone. There was a noticeable red rash around his neck, indented deeper where his choker once was.

"Where's Beat?" Fret asked, slightly down.

"Sulked off," Shiki said, sounding a bit irate. "Seemed really angry, but he'll be back soon, I'm sure."

"Oh. Oh… okay." Fret shifted around in his bed, causing the blanket on top of him to make loud, obnoxious crinkling sounds. And then silence, again. Like no-one even knew what to ask, or say, or do. Except Rindo. Rindo's tears broke the silence.

He ran up to Fret and just hugged him. Or attempted to. It was more like he fell over beside Fret and yanked him close.

"I'm sorry," was all he could say. "I'm sorry." His words were shaky, dancing up and down semitones, but they were all he could muster and the only thing keeping the silence from creeping in again. Nagi appreciated them.

"God– ow–! I appreciate it, Rindude, but this is probably a less comfortable hug for me than it is for you!" Rindo pulled away from the hug and just nodded through laboured breaths. He held tight onto Shoka's hand afterwards. From was Nagi could remember from the flurry of information and haze of memory the last hour had been, Rindo had been with Fret in somedrinks when some psychopath mugged him for something. Maybe Rindo felt guilt over the whole thing for inviting him out in the first place? She made a mental note to ask him about it later.

"How're you feeling?" Everyone had made taken positions closer to Fret now, and Eri spoke up from a chair beside his bed Neku had offered her.

"You're… Eri, right? Sorry, I know we've met but… brain's kinda not doing so hot right now." Eri nodded enthusiastically and shot a smile in response.

"Okay, good, I'm not too far gone, then," Fret sighed. "Well, you probably won't believe me but I think I've been worse?"

"You look like death… and you've been worse?" Shoka scoffed. It came from a place of worry. Probably.

"Well I haven't really looked in a mirror yet but… wait, do I really look that bad?" Nagi understood what Shoka meant. Everything about Fret just screamed exhausted. His eyes were sunken and dim, constantly downcast even in conversation. His usual pep had given way to sunken shoulders and drowsy movements. And his skin was pale. Ghastly pale. Nagi looked at her own arm and found it a similar shade, then felt a knot of uncomfortable emotion form in her stomach. Emotion. She didn't know how else to describe it. It was like a flurry of conflicting thoughts and colours undulating and pulsing in her stomach, amplifying her own heartbeat. Fret seemingly noticed her own confusion and caught her eyes for a moment. For a brief second there was vigour returned to them, a flash of… reassurance? Happiness? His own confusion? Nagi's own scrambled head couldn't register what he was trying to convey before his eyes dimmed again. She felt her shoulders relax and let her arm fall down by her side.

"This still sucks. Just putting it out there." Fret told the group. "They want me to rest up and then come in for a police interview on Monday, but apparently some cop'll be swinging round tonight to ask a few questions," His brow furrowed before he added, "Goddamn exhausting," under his breath.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking… what did happen?" Shiki asked, squatting down next to Neku's chair. Fret pushed his head back into his pillow and began reciting a tale of a man clothed in purple choking him half to death before stealing nothing but a slip of paper from his pocket and running off. This caused him to give chase before collapsing out of exhaustion whilst the assailant ran off. The witnesses at the scene called the emergency services and they found his unconscious body hovering on the brink of death and in a near-hypothermic state. He explained all of this coldly, as if it just happened to some stranger on the street and not himself, the words spilling out without emotion. By the time he had finished recounting the story the air in the room felt thicker and colder than before.

"I don't know why he was gunning for me. I just know it… it was probably deliberate. I can't understand why they did that or what that stupid… thing that caused my body to shut down that did to be so valuable butI…" Gears seemed to turn in Fret's head before he just ended up trailing off. "I– I just wish I knew." Neku, who had a particularly grim expression on his face, asked to be excused. Hearing about the assault had shaken him and he left in a melancholic stupor. Nagi thought that, like Beat, there would be an attempt to stop him, but again there seemed to be hesitancy to do so. Shiki just ended up awkwardly taking his now vacant seat, sitting down as if she were an automaton trying to learn how to position herself on a chair, her legs seemingly still not having stopped shaking from tension since the taxi ride. Eri laid a hand on her shoulder to help snap her back to reality and reassure her. Nagi still felt pretty high-strung herself, her mouth still dry and heartbeat not falling below a point where it wasn't immediately apparent to her. Rindo had given up any chance of hiding the fading anxiety, his leg tapping away at the immaculately clean flooring and fingers drumming against the whitewashed walls. Only Shoka was doing a good job at disguising how she was coming off that worry high, her posture relaxed but her eyes buzzing with emotional energy clawing its way to the surface in a way that only someone focusing in on them would notice. It seemed practised to perfection, like an instinct to her.

Neku returned to the room after a few minutes. His face was slightly wet and redder than before. The trance he had left in looked only half-broken and he whispered something to Shiki. After a brief argument mediated by Eri that Rindo, Shoka and Fret averted their gaze from, Neku and company stood up.

"Fret… Sorry we couldn't stay longer, man." Neku hung his head.

"No, it's fine. I'm…" Fret's lips curved into a genuine smile, "I'm just happy you all showed up."

"Neku, wait." Shoka suddenly spoke up in a soft tone. "Are you… going to see Mr. H?" Neku just nodded in response.

"Then I'm coming with," she said, sullenly. Rindo perked up, looking as if he was about to say something, but quickly backed down, staring at the ground, his tapping and fidgeting stopping.

"I hope you feel better soon, Tosai." Shiki reached into her purse and pulled out a tiny Mr. Mew. She laid him down next to Fret's head. "It's the least I can offer as an apology for leaving so soon." Fret pet the tiny plush with his finger. The two smiled at each other and Fret nodded.

"I really, really hope the next time we meet it'll be, uh…" Eru paused, trying to find the right words.

"Not in a hospital?" Fret said.

"Not exactly succinct… or the words I was looking for, but yeah, pretty much. Good luck on your recovery!"

"Hey, I'll be out by tomorrow!" Fret called to the three now halfway at the door. "Whatever, bye guys! Thanks for dropping by!" Shoka didn't say anything as she left, opting instead to pull her hoodie tighter over her head.

"It always comes down to us three, doesn't it?" Fret joked as Rindo and Nagi took a seat next to the bed. Nagi was reminded of Shiki's awkward form as she sat, and Rindo looked equally as shellshocked as she was sure she did – possibly even more so.

"That it does." Nagi said.

"Oh, so you can talk!" Fret laughed, looking full of life once more. "I was worried you were just gonna stand there looking like a deer in headlights. I was convinced you'd learned how to play EleStra with your mind or something!" He cackled to himself, noticed he was the only one in faux-high spirits and quickly crumpled to exhaustion once more.

"What the hell is happening to everyone?" Fret asked, clearly not expecting a response. He was right. The abrupt departure of Shoka, Rindo's reluctance to follow her, Neku's oddly shaken demeanour, Beat's… whatever that was. It was all so bizarre.

"Shoka…" Rindo said, letting out a dry sob.

"Why didn't you leave with her?" Fret asked him, concerned.

"I couldn't face you or Nagi again if I…" Rindo's eyes flashed with anger, "If I just bailed on you like them." He spat out that last word in a venomous tone Nagi had never heard before from him.

"Woah, Rindude, I'm not mad they left so early," Fret assured him.

"But…! But I mean… I mean come the fuck on, Fret! You too, Nagi!" Rindo slammed a fist against the metal of the bedframe. "None of that – none of it was weird to you guys?!"

"Well, now that you mention it, it was rather bizarre, howe–" Rindo rose from him chair.

"'Rather bizzare?' 'Rather bizarre?!' Are you mad?! Beat ran– Beat ran away before he could even say 'hi' to someone who's supposed to be his friend! Neku goes to wash his face and comes back like it's time to just get up and leave and then everyone follows him like they've not just walked out on their half-dead teammate in a hospital bed! I… I thought they were all Fret's friends!" Rindo's voice was airy and beginning to crack. "But they're all… they're all… just like me…" Rindo fell to his knees. What he said next was akin to a whisper, but Nagi still managed to catch it.

"You were right. I can't trust anyone right now." She found herself half-puzzled and half-worried by the remark. Whatever it was it was something he was keeping guarded and perhaps not something best confronted at this moment in time.

"Get up, Rindude." Fret said, sternly. Rindo sniffed.

"Wha–?"

"I said get up." Fret repeated, stern as before. "I get why you're upset. And I feel a bit burned too. I can't lie about that – I made a promise. But… Shouldn't we trust they had a good reason for dipping like that?" Rindo made slow, heavy movements before rising from his hunched-over state on the ground.

"I concur with Lord Tosai. If they had thought what they did was to be a betrayal, I believe they would not have left. Thusly, thou wouldst do well to keep faith in our comrades." Nagi said, still stinging slightly from Rindo's outburst.

"I really would… I really would love to," Rindo rose to his feet, "But it just isn't that simple." He sounded defeated.

"I thought you beat this side of you, man." Fret shot him a look of pity.

"And I bet you thought you beat the side of you that lies about everything being okay, but how many times have you doubted that since the Game's been over?" Rindo asked, irateness returning. He breathed in and out as if realising a bit too late that his words verged too deep into malice.

"A lot," Fret sulked, "But even on the days I feel that way I always have someone. You, Beat, Shiki, Shoka… Nagi. You have someone like that, too. I know you do man, you always gush about her!"

"I-I do," Rindo hesitated. "I think." He said, keeping his gaze fixed away from Fret and Nagi.

"Lord Rindo, I do not mean to push the issue too harshly here, but would it be appropriate to say you have… relationship troubles?" Nagi knew that she was an outsider who very well be overstepping her boundaries here. But she knew that the only way she was going to extract the truth from him was by breaking those boundaries, if only for a little while.

"It's more complicated than that, Nagi." He didn't seem to shut down completely. That was a good sign.

"How so?"

"It's not that I just have relationship troubles, it's just that everyone seems so…" he let the silence hang in the air for a moment while he thought "…distant." Nagi kept quiet and let him continue. "It's like unless it's in a group we hardly talk anymore. Like the only time I spend talking about my feelings is one-on-one, like with Fret yesterday a-and you saw how that went."

"I keep telling you it's not your fault…" Fret murmured from his bed.

"I just… some days I wake up and I wonder if I'm in the Shibuya where you're all gone. Where I'm the only one left. But I'm not. And that hurts way more than if I was." Rindo's body was slumped and tired. He was opening up, but it was taking so much out of him.

"Lord Rindo, if I may ask…" Nagi knew the volatility of this next question but decided she was going to ask it anyway. Rindo did not seem to the type to respond with hostility to it. "…have you tried reaching out?"

"Hm?" He perked up, almost as if he'd received some kind of static shock. Was she wrong? Had she erred in her judgement?

"I mean no offence by it, I am merely curious as to if you've spoken with Lady Shoka or any of our other companions about it? In a direct manner?" Nagi emphasised the 'direct' and Rindo went silent. He turned around to face her and she could not make out what she saw in his eyes.

"I…" He laughed nervously.

"No-one's faulting you for it, Rindude. It really isn't easy, I can tell ya that much. Buuuut… I mean, I thought you would've learned your lesson about reaching out after what happened with Shokie after the game."

"If I may, though you may have your preconceptions of me as well put together and sagely, I am human too and fall to many the same folly as others. That is not to say I am above you. But rather that I can have wisdom and fault in conjunction with one another."

"Way to hype yourself up, Boss. Surprised I didn't come up with 'sagely' before you." Fret laughed in the background. Nagi shot him a look as if to say 'quiet, you'.

Nagi began again.

"And… I never could recognise that fault. I attributed it all to one thing," she said, trying her best to tear her eyes away from her and Fret's skin, "when in reality it all went deeper. Went to me. What others told me I was and… what I thought I was. And, like you, I never reached out about it. I felt like because I was not as damaged as those I offered council to that I did not half to. Until eventually that council was all others sought me for."

"So how did you fix it?" Rindo asked, a mixture of curiosity and compassion swimming in tandem in those once vacant and confusing eyes.

"I did nothing. I very well may never have reached out. In fact, someone else reached out to me. I do not know if they meant it but…" She went slightly red, "I hope they understand I cannot express how eternally grateful I am." Rindo's eyes turned to Fret slightly. Though Nagi could not – or rather, was not willing to – turn around to look at him, she suspected he was probably– definitely, embarrassed.

"But what if someone like that never comes to me? What if no-one chooses to help me like with you?" Rindo asked, exasperated.

"That is the point. That is why you must reach out. But you presuppose that person does not exist." She fixed him with a glare. "Lord Rindo, for a while you have surrounded yourself with people like that. I must ask, if you continued to hide your pain, continued to not object to their growing distance, simply stewed in it, what then? They have not chosen not to help you, you must let them help. There is someone else in this room who hath learned that lesson once before."

"Gee, do you find a way to call me an idiot in all of your lectures?" Fret asked, laughing slightly. Rindo remained still for a while. There was now a noticeable hum from the air conditioning in the room that filled the silence. Nagi averted her gaze and allowed what she had said to sink in.

"Y-You're right. I mean, of course you are." He finally allowed himself to say. Nagi smiled, feeling slightly warm inside. This was probably a small personal victory for Rindo, one she was proud to play a part in.

"When this is all over–"

"'This'?" Nagi cut in.

"Whatever's causing this… stuff with everyone to happen, that's 'this'. But, uh, anyway, whenever it's all over, I think I'm gonna talk to Shoka. Ask her about some things. About us mostly but… I want it to be her I go to first."

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea." Nagi assured him.

"Th-Thanks. For the advice, I mean." He offered his hand out to shake.

"'Twas nothing, I can assure you." Nagi clasped it return and beamed at him as she gave it two firm shakes.

"Hey, Fret," Rindo spoke past Nagi and was met with a startled Fret jolting up slightly from his pillow, "you just looked like you were off in wonderland for a bit there. Not listening to Nagi's advice?" He teased.

"Uh, n-no. I was just… thinking, that's all." Fret said, in a deadpan tone.

"Well that's a first." Rindo joked. He was met with an agitated glare from Fret and his expression quickly sunk as he returned to his chair.

"What's on your mind, Lord Tosai?" Nagi asked him as Rindo and she sat down, the latter still slightly uncomfortable from the visual scolding he was just given.

"Just what Rindo was saying about everyone acting weird. He's right. I still they all had their reasons but… I dunno, feels like it should be more than us three sitting here. And the fact that I was robbed for a single slip of paper…" The A/C hummed away in the absence of speech.

"What happened to you was most definitely a targeted attack," Nagi stated.

"Yeah. But there was nothing important about that paper apart from the fact it landed me here, right?" Fret sunk back into his pillow.

"Maybe… maybe there was," Rindo chimed in, "and you just don't know what it is yet."

"Have you any theories, Lord Rindo?" Nagi asked.

"I don't even know what was taken from him. Not properly, at least." He shrugged. Nagi felt her lips curl into a smirk.

"Heheheh… if there is a grand conspiracy against the Wicked Twisters, then whoever has orchestrated it shall pay the price." She cackled.

"Uh… not sure if you've noticed, Nagi, but we're not in the RG any more. I don't think there's any grand conspiracy to topple us from some top spot. We're all just a buncha teenagers here." Rindo started at his hand, unable to muster a blade of psychic energy or a bolt of electricity or a fist of stone, as if to make this point clear.

"Indeed, we are not. But, just as there was a plot from the shadows against Lord Tomonami in an otherwise quiet storyline, there is sometimes danger where normality would seek to conceal it. Thou hast a lot to learn, Lord Rindo," She noticed him open his mouth, probably to start a torrent of objections, so Nagi continued, "and besides, Tosai–"

"Tosai?" This turn it was Rindo's turn to interject.

"…L-Lord Tosai, has been harmed by an unknown assailant. If the police cannot determine who did it, then should his friends at least not try?" Nagi regained her composure, but was struck by how stunned Rindo was that she would omit a title from the name of another. It was probably because of who it was as opposed to the fact she did it.

"I mean, sure. But I dunno, I just think…" he paused, and a pained expression flashed across his face, "I think it goes deeper than that. Don't ask me why I think that. I just… do." Suspicious. Very suspicious, Nagi mused. Rindo was hiding something, that much was clear. But she was wary of pushing him any further than was necessary. A non-emotional burden like this, she reasoned, could be addressed at a later date.

"Lord Tosai, what are your thoughts on the circumstances surrounding today's events?" The only response she was greeted with were snores. Fret had switched out like a light.

"Ah." Was all she could manage.

"Can you blame him?" Rindo asked.

"No. No I cannot." She answered.

"We still have a few hours before the police show up to shoo us away. I wanna stay here for a bit." Rindo told her.

"As do I." After a few minutes of talking about everything unimportant in their lives, Nagi and Rindo turned their attention to Fret. She watched his chest rise and fall, how peaceful he looked with his eyes closed. She wondered if sleep was any distance from the troubles he had gone through over the past few days – there were so many, she began to question how he had not broken. In a sense, he had. Lying there, pale as a sheet, deep in sleep and with intravenous fluid dripping into him, there would no doubt that Fret was inhabiting a deeply broken body. But his mind was still intact, though traces of a broken latter remained on the broken former. Underneath where the peak of the insulated blanket lay, a scar jutted out from beneath it. A barely visible, jagged point of wounded tissue that would never heal, a permanent fixture on his body that snaked its way down a network of similarly damaged flesh.

"He has a few of those," Rindo told her, probably seeing her eyes fixed a bit too hard on that area of skin.

"So I have seen." Nagi thought back to when he was a sobbing wreck on the floor of an arcade bathroom. She wondered if she could ever truly marry that side of him to the one that seemed so carefree and made jokes constantly. Both were, in a way, the real Tosai Furesawa. He was once like that superficially, but she knew that extroversion and conversationalist side of him must have been rooted in something true. But even she had trouble figuring out what was real and what was just deflection sometimes. If the only time she knew he was one-hundred percent true to himself was when he was broken, weeping, on the floor… the thought made her nauseous. He had come a long way, but for the first time on that journey, she began to have doubts about whether or not it would be in his best interests to forego the fake smiles completely.

"He, uh… he always skipped P.E. Because of the… because of the scars I mean," Rindo said, his voice hushed. "He could hide it with a shirt. Always kept his buttons done up to the neck in summer. When it came to P.E., he was scared out of his mind." Rindo closed his eyes, almost as if he was trying to imagine himself in Fret's position. "Hell, I would be too. In his old school, they had students travel from class to class and not teachers. So when it came time for P.E., they had a changing room. You… you can probably tell why he wasn't a fan. Had an excuse nearly every time… and every time he didn't he'd hide himself in the janitor's closet for an hour just so he didn't have to attend. He told me this story with a smile on his face that ended at his eyes." Nagi listened, staring at the scar as it moved up and down with Fret's slumbering breaths. "When he finally ended up where we are now, he wouldn't take the chances even with his gym uniform under his clothes. Skipped class every time. He was really, completely terrified and I could never fault him for it. I just saw an empty seat where his desk was and felt… pity. But a few weeks after the Game ended, he finally showed up for class. There was a bit of a fuss about it, too. I asked him about it after class and he just told me to 'thank Boss.'" Nagi kept her focus on the rising and falling of the old wound.

"He… really looks up to you." Rindo told her, after a while.

"I know." Nagi said, bluntly. The A/C shut itself off and silence clung to the air around them. An especially deep breath from Fret would sometimes puncture it, but the next few minutes were mute of most all sound. Until Rindo chose to speak up.

"…he loves you, you know?" Rindo whispered. Nagi watched the scar still.