Waking up
- Hey! He's waking up! A curious character in a yellow T-shirt shouts out.
- Bring the dish! Not him, the one on the white table... No, the one on my right! Wait, wait, wait... - This time it's a JR controller in a shirt.
My eyelids are heavy, it's like rubber bands are trying to keep them closed, like they're trying to hide something from me. I mean, rubber bands don't have a conscience.
- There you go, that's good. Open wide!
The two people in the room look pretty inexperienced to me, one seems to be a trainee. I swallow the little cube the supposed doctor gives me, before I'm reprimanded.
- No! You shouldn't have eaten it. Well, never mind. Just keep this one in your mouth and let it melt on your tongue so that...
My thoughts get mixed up in my head. I then try to remember an event that happened recently that would allow me to understand my presence in that hospital bed. Finally, a hospital bed in a room similar to the infirmary of my high school. I am reluctantly ignoring the instructions given by the doctor in the chemist's shirt, who reprimands me a second time. JR controllers do not wear white shirts. I am slowly regaining consciousness.
- I will give him the other one later. Bring it to me, there are some in the teachers' lounge. All right, how are you feeling, not too much of a headache?
The man in the smock finally turns to me, to ask me this meaningless question in my current state. I'm cold, my head is hot, aching all over.
- Don't you remember anything? The doctor asks me, looking worried. I nod my head to avoid moving my lips. My throat hurts, and I'm very likely to spit in his face, involuntarily.
- I'll try to give you a brief summary of what happened this morning. You had an altercation with a student in your class, Shiina Tsumugi.
The words of the individual sitting next to me on a wobbly plastic chair took some time to reach my mind. Did I hit a girl in my class? To find myself in such a state? After all, I wouldn't be surprised, her Kendo level is very high.
- Are you listening to me? I'll start again. So I was telling you that Kirigaya tried to separate you, and yet you would've continued to hurt yourself by hitting every corner of the room. You looked like you'd just had your first epileptic fit.
It's a nameless disorder that appears in my skull. Is this another setup by the influential students in the class? While I'm trying to put the pieces together, I'm focusing on the future. On my future. What will become of me if these facts are verified? I'd probably go before a judge at the juvenile magistrate's court. My vision is blurring. My wounds hurt, and I have trouble thinking.
- The disciplinary board will contact you by mail soon. In the meantime, you are allowed to go home. No follow-up will be necessary. You can thank the new girl in your class for that. In short, take this every day and pay attention to this - My eyesight becomes clear again, I stand up despite my wounds, albeit shallow, I notice that my face is covered with bandages: removing them would probably reveal an awful crevice.
I leave the room with a dagger in my stomach. It keeps moving, and I can't remove it. It is 3:10 p.m., time for the students to go to their clubs. As a result, some look at me with a look of pity, others with a murderous look. I see the new student chatting with her new classmates, who are trying to rally her to their unjust cause.
I let a "thank you" slip out, although I don't know why I should thank her, it's all still jumbled in my head. And it is with my morale at an all-time low that I finally decide to leave the school grounds.