Chapter 28: Sorts of Causes
Hige pulls up to the parking garage of the hospital. After getting into an empty spot, he and Kaede get out. As they make their way to the waiting room, Kaede fiddles her fingers nervously. Hige notices it immediately and takes hold of her shoulder to calm her down. "I know how you feel, Kaede. I'm just trying to stay calm throughout this." He assures her. Kaede nods back. They enter the waiting finding Ai praying for her sister's help. "Ai, we're here." Hige comes to her to embrace her. Ai smiles in relief that her husband and niece are here at last.
"Where's Miyuki?" Kaede asks her right away. "She's in a patient, but the doctor won't let me go see her." Ai answers with a small frown. Kaede nods to show that she gets it. "Ah, you're here." The doctor enters the waiting room. "Which one is Kaede?" He asks the group. "That's me." Kaede turns to him. "Ok. You were with her for the last 24 hours. Have they told you about Miyuki's condition that caused her to be here. Kaede shakes her head. "No. What happened to her?" She asks him. The doctor looks down to his clipboard to look at Miyuki's profile. "Apparently she has food poisoning and she vomited blood." He tells her so far. Kaede covers her mouth with the palm of her head in horror. "Do you remember what you two ate within the last 24 hours?" He asks her gently to make her focus of the issue.
Flashback
Miyuki returns home with a lot of moving boxes for herself and Kaede. "I'm home." She calls out to Kaede. Kaede smiles to see so many boxes. "Wow. This should be more than enough for us to pack." She keeps the smile as she gathers a couple for her room and the rest for Miyuki. "And maybe after packing, we could go out to eat." Miyuki suggests as she carries the boxes into her room. "That'd would be nice." Kaede agrees with her.
After a few hours, Miyuki and Kaede head out to their favorite restaurant. The place has a nice bar, dinning room and the costumers know them left and right. "Ah, Miyuki." The bartender greets them as they take a seat at their booth table instead of the bar because Kaede is underage. "Hey there Satsuki." Miyuki greets back as the bartender offer them their menus. "How's it going?" Satsuki asks the group. "Nothing much. How about you?" Miyuki responds back, not into telling her about their move. "Same here." Satsuki said back. She turns around to go back to the bar to prepare their drinks.
End of Flashback
"I ordered my chicken fingers, while Miyuki asks for her pasta dish. I have no idea what it was at the time. I don't know if it was from the drink or the dish that." Kaede explains so far. The doctor has to think very hard base of Kaede's story. "Maybe it was the pasta dish. Is she lactose intolerant?" He asks her. "No. She just can't eat seafood because it made her sick to her stomach." Kaede gives him the details. "Hmm. Maybe there was piece of seafood that Miyuki wasn't aware of while she was eating." The doctor comes with an idea.
"That's a strong assumption. We just need to go to the restaurant where you two went to eat last night." Hige comments as he comes up to them. "That maybe truth, but we can't be certain about it." The doctor replies back to him. "Does the bartender know her staff who works in the kitchen?" He asks Kaede. "She might. I don't know her on a personal level. Maybe Miyuki knows her." She offers her advice. The doctor knows that this is the only option they have at the time. "When Miyuki wakes up, she'll tell us." He tells her as he leaves the room.
As soon as the doctor leaves, Kaede is about to go out to look for Miyuki. Hige takes a hold of her wrist. "Kaede, it's too risky to go see her. When she wakes up, the doctor will call us." Kaede nods despite how much she wants to go see her guardian. "Let's go home. There's nothing we can do at this point." Hige tells her as he and Kaede go to his van while Ai follows them in her car.
Back home, Kagome is doing some coloring in the living room. Turns out that she's quite the artist. Her favorite designs are the mandalas as they give her the stress-free session. She hears the door opens and closes afterwards. "We're home." Ai calls out to house. "In here, mom." Kagome calls back as she puts her coloring stuff away. Kagome sees her parents and Kaede coming into the kitchen. "How is Aunt Miyuki?" She asks them cautiously, worried if it's too much for Kaede to bare. "She's still out. For what the doctor said that Miyuki had food poisoning and was vomiting blood when Aunt Ai and Uncle Hige came to pick us up." Kaede tells Kagome before the adults did.
Kagome nods so far. Ai gently takes Hige hand and guides him from the girls. "What re you doing?" Hige asks in shock for doing something that he's not aware of. "This should be a time that Kaede and Kagome to talk. Kaede had Kikyo but now Kagome is the only one in the family left that is close to her age." Ai explains to him in whisper when they got into his office. Hige gets it. "I see. So this is something that Kaede needs to talk to someone who can understand her problem." Hige said. Ai nods and they wait patiently until that moment is down.
Kaede spots the books on the coffee. "Is this yours?" She asks as she picks up the coloring book that Kagome was doing. "Yeah." Kagome only spoke as she watches Kaede browses the pages that Kagome did throughout the time. From one design of a mandala to another, Kaede is fascinated by this. "You've done quite a lot. What makes you want to do this?" Kaede asks as she sits onto the couch by Kagome and gives the book to her.
Kagome turns to one page to see that it's in a various of greens and blues in a beautiful design. "I'm usually bored whenever I'm done with my other tasks of the day. From what I found out it that relieves my stress. It kind of calms me down in a way that I can't put my finger on it. But it does relax me from time to time." Kagome explains the purpose of the coloring. Kaede can only see that it's just one so far. "How long have you been doing this?" Kaede asks her curiously. Kagome holds her chin. "I'd say about a year now. I have others in my bedroom. I just choose one that is best suited for the time being." Kagome answers as she guides Kaede up to her bedroom upstairs.
They enter the room, as Kagome puts the book she finished into a book shelf, Kaede spots the other books of other designs. "Is there one that you want to try?" Kagome can see that Kaede is curious by the look in her eyes. "If you don't mind, that is." Kagome smiles at that. "Sure, how about this one?" Kagome pulls another mandala coloring book for Kaede. Unlike the one that Kagome was using, there are a lot of pages that have not been coloring as of yet. "If you want, you can keep it." Kagome offers it to her. Kaede is flattered. "Are you sure, Kagome? I don't think that…" But Kagome stops her. "Kaede, I had no idea that Kikyo my cousin the entire time. If she were here, she'd be happy to see you smile again." Kaede nods at that. "All I can say that because of this separation, I think it'd be nice to spend time together. I always get the phrase that I look like her. I just never got meet her. There was a time that I just wanted to go see her myself and try to talk things out. But I'm too gentle of a soul to do such a thing." Kagome said as she pulls out her colored pencils from her shoe box that she kept the new ones in. Up until that moment, Kaede finally feels at ease.
