... well, is she?" Ryo looked closely. He couldn't understand how an unconscious girl could look at him with her eyes open? Kaori was fluttering her eyes? Or was it just another misleading vision that Ryo was having just like some thousands that he had all this way? Just then Kaori's lips shook. Ryo brought his ears to her lips and during this, his eyes fell on the deep flesh-wound on her right elbow and his inner gut churned within him, imagining the amount of pain that she had possibly been going through, "Don't…..leave….me… alone…you …i…diot!" was all she could muster. After all, that went unsaid that Ryo would never leave her alone; especially when this was the same hospital where Ryo had to come the previous year due to Saeko's ploy to see 'dead' Kaori! Nothing much had changed here. After that Kaori again went back to her state of unconsciousness.
"Oh, who is Kaori Makimura here?" asked a lady in white apron. "She must be the doctor" thought Ryo, as, by then, his eyes had caught the name-badge on her chest. He said nothing, just indicated to the now-prostrate figure in front of himself inside the ambulance. He couldn't even come down from the ambulance because Kaori had had his hem of his blue overcoat gripped tightly in her right hand. The officers and some more nurses emerged from within, with a stretcher, to carry Kaori on, but they all stopped with a single gesture from Ryo's side. Ryo had put up his palm of his right hand, so as to signal them to stop. He then gently lifted off Kaori from the bed of the ambulance, came out of it and then gently put her down on to the stretcher laid out by the nurses. By then another police car was seen to enter the hospital compound. It came and stopped just beside the ambulance and Saeko came out of it with a soft yet sad face. Meanwhile, the group of nurses and the lady Doctor had proceeded to carry the stretcher inside so as to start the check-up soon, but as they did so, Ryo felt a gentle tug on his overcoat, and he too followed them, Saeko joined in too. After sometime, when they were about to enter the check-up room, the doctor stopped Ryo and Kaori "Sorry Sir, Sorry Ma'm! You can't go in!" she said and then indicated to the nurses to carry her inside. But they couldn't. When she understood the matter, she gestured them to cut off the hem of the overcoat. Ryo was not in a mental condition to oppose, but Saeko was the one who stood out. "What do you think you're doing?" She retorted as the nurses came back with a pair of scissors to sever the overcoat and take her in. The lady Doctor gently answered "Ma'm, Visitors are not allowed to enter the check-up ward during the check-up of the patients. It's our rule here." Saeko gave a faint grin, "If you think you can control her without letting him inside, you are vaguely mistaken. Let him come with her. I'll wait outside." The Lady Doctor looked at her with a questioning look, "And you are….?" She asked in confusion. Saeko spoke in a tired tone "I am the Chief of the Shinjuku Police: Nogami Saeko. I am the one who told you to be ready for this patient in the first place." She said. "Now can you please hasten? She doesn't seem in a very good condition!" she added having taken a quick glance at Ryo, who was looking at Kaori with a longing look in his eyes as if he had completely forgotten all about the presence of others around him. With her words, the atmosphere seemed to have taken a sudden twist. The Doctor hastened with Kaori and Ryo inside and the nurses closed the door behind them as they too went in…..
As the nurses and Doctor entered the room, Kaori was shifted on to a bed on the right hand ride of the large room. The bed was adjacent to the corresponding wall, beside which there was a stool with a pair of worn-out steel legs. Someone brought it closer and Ryo sat on it. Then the nurses went in their normal check-up duty of Kaori. The first thing that they noticed was the deep flesh wound on her right elbow. Blood was still dripping from it. Under normal circumstances, one glance at it and Ryo could tell that the bullet was still inside. But this was a completely different Ryo, a Ryo completely cut-off from the outside world, a Ryo solely immersed in Kaori. He didn't take a heed to the wound, he just kept a close look at her face and her chest simultaneously. The constant alternate heaving and relaxing of her chest sent him a message that she was with him. She won't leave him alone in this godforsaken world. Having discovered the wound, the nurses took quick efforts to stop the blood loss; it was the doctor who first discovered that the bullet was still inside. "Look closely you idiots! That's a bullet-mark, and the bullet must be inside as the wound has an entry wound, but the bullet exit is missing! See carefully before dressing it up!" she scolded to all three of them. The three of them got to serious work. The bullet was still in the wound. They took a pair of forceps and with some tries, succeeded in bringing out the bullet. Then they dressed the wound well. The dripping of blood stopped finally. Just then one of them spoke up "Doc, the girl's lost a lot of blood. Her pulse is somewhat strange." It goes unsaid that the nurse who said this was the one who was checking her pulse. In an instant the Doctor took her place. She was an expert alright, as soon as she touched her wrist, she exclaimed "Quick, give me a syringe and arrange a donor for her. Run! Now!" One of the nurses handed her a syringe. In expert hands, she picked Kaori's vein and drew out her blood. Ryo turned his face away and his heart bleed deeply, but he had nothing to do except to see her suffering her just because he accepted her love. As soon as she finished taking her blood sample she handed it to a nurse who ran out with it.
