The flimsy piece of coffee-stained paper shakes in Seiji's hand, as his eyes scan over the writing, unable to stop the tears from dropping and splattering onto the written note.
His stomach feels sick, and his heart has started racing tenfold. But, he keeps reading.
You've been my best friend ever since we were 4, we've been through literally everything together. You're the reason I'm still sane to this day.
Truth is, I'm a giant coward. I'm avoidant and I hate confrontation. I love you so much that it's hard for me to describe, and I didn't want to hurt you? I really don't know.
I hope you will forgive me, because I hate myself for not telling you.
See ya,
Yoshi.
Ryoku bursts into the miniature laboratory, something is clearly off; He's never seen Seiji so upset. "Seiji! What the fuck is going on!?" he asks, his voice full of concern and confusion. Seiji just stays silent and drops to his knees. "Seiji!"
"It-it's Kojima…" Seiji begins, his voice cracking, "he's gone into cardiac arrest…"
"Wait, what!?" Ryoku shakes his head, maybe he misheard.
"I said that Kojima has gone into cardiac arrest, Umi just told me," the distressed man growls, tears escaping his eyes and fleeing for refuge on the concrete floor, "can you fix your fucking ears and listen for once!"
Ryoku simply stands there in shock, Seiji rarely ever snaps, "W-well is he okay?"
"I don't fucking know! All I know is that they're at Tokyo U hospital."
"Then let's go!" Ryoku forces Seiji to his feet and places his hand on his shoulder "He'll be okay alright?"
Seiji grabs a nearby sweater and sticks his phone and the note into the pockets. "Yeah, let's hope so."
"I'm coming with, he is my Master after all," Tokyo Rose adds as soon as the two humans get into the living room, grabbing a jacket of her own and running out the door along with them.
Once they step outside they are immediately hit in the face with intense droplets of rain.
"It's raining, huh? Seems strangely fitting somehow, almost as if it was all planned," she comments.
Immediately after that Seiji starts running as hard and as fast as he can to the hospital. Oh god, I hope he's okay!
They rush into the emergency doors, panting from the running and drenched from the pouring rain.
"Haah...haahh...Where is he?" Seiji asks a certain pain can be seen in his eyes.
Umi sits up from her seat and slowly walks over to the two men and the persocom, her footsteps shaky and uneven.
"They took him in for emergency surgery, he's been in there for ten minutes already," she explains.
"Emergency surgery? W-what for?" Tokyo Rose stutters, "where is Kotoko?"
"I-I don't know," Umi says, "she has been hiding in Kojima's bag, refusing to come out."
"Oh, god! This is all my fault… I should've seen the signs..." Seiji puts his head in his hand in shame.
"Seiji! It's not your fault! None of us saw this coming, I don't even think that he did." Umi gives Seiji a hug and doesn't let go.
"I know, I just feel that way because I've known him for sixteen years…" He replies, hugging her back. Ryoku puts his hands on their shoulders.
"I guess that all we can do now is wait…" Tokyo Rose says quietly.
Some time passes, no one knows how long, and the five have stayed put in the same position, not saying a word.
A nurse walks out with a clipboard in hand, "Excuse me, are you guys relatives of ?" he asks.
"Uh, in a sense…" Tokyo Rose replies.
"Why? How is he? Is he okay?" Seiji questions urgently.
"Well, he is alive. We inserted an ICD once we got his heart beating again," the nurse responds, the group breathes out a sigh of relief, "However, we also noticed that he looked somewhat malnourished, so we took a blood test and looked inside of his stomach, turns out he also has a peptic ulcer, it's a very small one and shouldn't take more than a week to heal. The test results should be in tomorrow."
"Can we see him?" Umi requests. The nurse shakes his head.
"We have placed him in the ICU until we are sure that his condition is getting better and we know that the ICD is working properly. Any further questions?"
"One more actually," Seiji steps forward, "when will he wake up?"
"Ah, it's hard to tell, but we predict two or three days." The nurse says.
"Okay, if he wakes up when we're not here, call this number please," he says, giving the medic his number.
"I will sir, you guys should probably go home and rest, it's been a long evening," the nurse suggests.
My entire body feels weightless like I am being suspended mid-air. I can't hear anything, it's as if I'm in some sort of a void that no human has traversed before. I twitch my fingers and my body as much as I can, trying to infer where I am, but yet I feel nothing.
What the hell? Am I in space or something? No, that's impossible. Am I dead? I slowly open my eyes, only to find myself in a blue and black space, the two colours bleeding into each other to form a gradient.
"Huh?" I lift up what I assume to be my hands, only to find the paws of my monster form instead. I quickly feel myself to make sure. "Yup, I'm in my monster form. Doesn't seem like I can transfer back to being 'human' either."
Just to make sure, I attempt to transfer back into my human form using all of the methods I know, but nothing works. I let out a deep, long sigh "so, this is what death feels like huh? Hm, it's nothing like I've expected. Y'know, life was much more exciting, at least then I had computers, anime, friends…"
I blink rather slowly and look up into the abyss, crossing my arms. "I'm so sorry Seiji… I'm a fucking retard for not telling you." I sigh again, immediately sitting up and looking around a bit more. It's just the same blue and black gradient all around until my eye catches a small white figure somewhat far away from me.
Wait a minute… I take a closer look at it to see long dark brown hair, the same shade as mine, tied into a super high ponytail. My eyes widen as everything in my body just stops.
"Yume?"
She soon sits up and turns her head to face mine, and her face is that of shock. I can see her saying something, but I can't hear it. It looks like she is saying "Yoshi?" but I'm not entirely sure.
We run towards each other, reaching out to the other with one arm. once I see her clear as day, confirming that yes, she is my sister, we start running towards each other, full speed with tears in our eyes, but, as soon as our hands are about to touch, less than a millimetre apart, some kind of wall stops us.
Startled and panicked, I glide my hand over the surface, creating a rippling effect. It's as if it is some kind of force field dividing us.
We press our paws up against one another, almost touching with only the thin shield in the way, and gaze into each others tearing eyes.
Wait, this is probably all just a dream. There's no way that this is the real her… I divert my eyes away from seemingly my sister She isn't alive… she hasn't been alive for years… this is all an illusion.
I look back up at her and I start banging on the shield, trying desperately to break it, but alas it fails. Because of course, it does.
We try banging on the barrier together until suddenly, I can feel the fur of her paw against mine.
I pull back and look at my own "hands" and then back at her again, she has the same shocked expression as I do.
I try to traverse the wall again just to make sure, and my arm travels through and touches her shoulder as she touches mine.
Tears run down our faces, looking at each other in astonishment.
"Yoshi!" Her voice is clearly audible to me now, albeit more mature than I remember, same with her body.
"Yume!" I gasp, putting my paws up to my mouth.
We both step forwards, crossing the wall and immediately hugging each other as tight as we can, both of us sobbing as we feel each other's warmth and touch for the first time in years.
She smells of artificial vanilla, her favourite scent.
We just stand there holding each other for the longest time, not saying a word, wishing that we can just stay like this forever.
Soon I can feel a strong force trying to rip us apart, and we grip onto each other, trying to stop it, but it fails and we are torn apart before everything goes black once again.