I awaken to slow, steady beep of a machine. I get the familiar sensation of an IV in my arm. I feel an oxygen mask on my face. I try to move but my entire left side aches. I take a deep breath. I try sitting up. Then, I get the sensation of my head throbbing so I have to lie back down for a few minutes. I move slower this time. It takes me a while to prop up the pillow. I shift around awkwardly before sitting up properly. I try to take a deep breath. My body shakes on the exhale. I just sit there. Hardly a thought goes through my mind. I only move once the door opens. A doctor walks through the door. He looks up from his clipboard.
"Oh you're awake, Ms. Sasaki." He puts on this fake smile that makes my skin crawl. I nod slowly. "We'll need to carry out some tests." Already? I've been awake for all of five minutes. "Where are we?" He asks, checking my pupils. I answer. "Can you repeat the months of the year in reverse?" It takes me a while, but I get there. He then asks me, to touch his finger, which he held out in front of me. Then, to touch my nose as quickly as I can. I fail on my first attempt, but manage to pull it off on my second. "Can you remember what you were doing before the accident?"
"I was dueling." I pause and close my eyes. "They were a psychic duelist, I think."
"Do you remember the outcome of the duel?" He's writing something down on the clipboard.
"No." I exhale deeply. "I can't remember anything past the first few turns of the duel." The doctor nods and keeps writing. My brain is so muddled, it's hard to concentrate on what he's saying. He keeps writing on that clipboard of his. The door opens behind him. Kasumi's head pops in the door. She smiles when she sees me sitting up. The doctor checks his watch.
"Three minutes after visiting hours start, quite impressive, Ms. Hattori." Kasumi laughs. "May I talk to you outside please?"
"Of course." Kasumi fully opens, revealing Kaoru behind her. The doctor leaves the room while Kaoru enters. He takes the empty seat beside the bed. The doctor closes the door behind him. Kaoru stares at me for a few seconds. I just focus on my hands.
"Do you know who did it?" He asks me.
"No." I close my eyes, trying to remember any scrap of information. Their face was blocked by a helmet. I remember that much.
"Security took your D-Wheel. They're making an investigation into the crash." I don't listen to him. Fragments of the duel are floating around in my head. "Yuuka, was it…" He goes to ask a question, but the door opens again. He stops. I know what would come out of his mouth next. Was it deliberate? Was it someone from a gang? I don't know the truth yet, but both seem very likely. Kasumi walks back in, and pulls up another chair.
"Good news, honey. If your CT scan comes back okay, you might get discharged tomorrow." Kasumi puts her hand over mine in an attempt to comfort me. Tomorrow is too far away, I want to go home now. I feel Kasumi's eyes resting on my bandages, she tuts. "You weren't wearing your protective gear." It's not a question. I nod. In the rush to leave, I forgot to put it on. "You should really get some riding leathers." That's not a bad idea, I think as I stare at the bandages completely covering my left arm. I don't pay attention to it much. I feel like I'll forget this exchange in a matter of minutes. Kasumi keeps talking. I don't really pay attention. I can feel Kaoru's gaze on me. I try to remember the duel. Who was that mysterious duelist? I focus on the voice in my memories. My head starts to hurt. I can't. I have no idea who attacked me.
"I'm going to go home and study." Kaoru stands up and leaves, without as much as looking back. Kasumi looks after him, worriedly but doesn't question him.
"I worry about him sometimes." Kasumi sighs. "He seems very stressed lately." I hum in response. My head keeps throbbing.
"I'm going to sleep, my head hurts." I start moving the pillow, in an attempt to lie down.
"Okay, I'll still be here when you wake up, sweetie." I vaguely nod as much as I can without feeling pain. Glimpses of the duel keep coming into my head. I know why, when and where. The only question is who.
I wake up to Kasumi reading a newspaper beside me. She sees me sitting up, smiles and puts down the paper. I can vaguely make out something about a Ghost in the headline.
"Are you doing okay, honey?"
"I guess." I move to sit up, Kasumi puts her hands forward in an effort to help me up. "What time is it?"
"Nearly six in the afternoon." Kasumi checks her watch. "The nurse let me stay during the gap between the visiting hours, since I'm your mother and all." I merely hum in response, she's not my real mother. "I'll be leaving once someone else arrives. Your friend Yusei said he'd be arriving once visiting hours start again." I smile softly at this thought of seeing Yusei. Kasumi knowingly smiles back at me. "So, you'll want me to be leaving anyway, yeah?"
"Leave me alone." I manage to squawk out. I feel my face heating up. What's wrong with me? I never used to be this bad. Kasumi laughs, muttering something about young love. I pout. When will people leave me alone?
"Are you feeling better after your nap?" I nod. "I figured, as I always say, if in doubt, take a nap." I smile. I've always had the same belief. I suppose I'm more like Kasumi than I realise. I mean, she did give birth to me. Kasumi gives me some updates on things. Kaoru's D-Wheel licence test is tomorrow which is why he left early, lies. The sink broke this morning apparently. She thinks Kaoru broke it but he didn't say anything about it. Yusei offered to fix it. That makes me wonder when it actually broke. Then again, I must have gotten into hospital in the early hours of the morning since I crashed at like 4am. They must have called Yusei. That's the only reason I can think of. Speaking of Yusei, he comes into the room. Kasumi starts to gather her things. She tries to keep it subtle, but it's clear that she's making a beeline for the door very quickly.
"How are you feeling?" Yusei sits down on the seat next to my bed.
"Better. My head hurts a lot." I groan as I move my head too much. Yusei's body reacts slightly as I lean forward. "I've been better." I add.
"I can imagine. You hit your head pretty hard." I put my hand to my head. I feel the bandages that are tightly wound around my head underneath my fingertips.
"I figured." I run my fingertips over the material of the bandages.
"You should really stop dueling psychics who put you in the hospital." A chuckle escapes my mouth. Yusei blinks. "I was being serious."
"Oh." I pause. "Yeah, I mean, I do have an awful habit of that, don't I?" I laugh nervously. "Where are Jack and Crow? I thought they might have come up to see me." I say that. But I'm kinda glad that it's just Yusei and I.
"Crow's in work, and Jack's gone job hunting."
"Oh, I wasn't aware that Jack was doing that." I was out for less than twelve hours, I figured that much. I must have missed a lot then.
"I suppose there's only so much you can take of Crow's complaining." A chuckle comes out of my mouth, I can't quite get a laugh right at the minute. I think Yusei catches onto that. We keep talking. It manages to be quite light-hearted. I didn't see Yusei in the days leading up to the accident, so we do have some catching up to do. He stays with me for the length of the visiting hours. I wonder if he noticed that he was here that long. I didn't. I only notice when one of the nurses came around saying that visiting hours were over. I'm honestly sad when Yusei has to leave. I think he notices.
"Don't worry, you should be out tomorrow." I think Yusei's amused by my pout.
"What if I'm not? If that's the case, I'm jumping out the window." Yusei chuckles, but he knows that I'm completely serious.
"If you're still in here tomorrow, I'll buy you a coffee." Something in Yusei's disposition changes. Is he flirting? I must have banged my head harder than I thought. Yusei Fudo flirting, I would pay good money to see that.
"I want it nice and black, like my heart, yeah?" Yusei shakes his head, but I can tell that he finds my 'joke' funny.
"Sure." He says it like he's trying to convince me otherwise. "Whatever you want." He finally walks to the door. "See you tomorrow." My head starts to tingle all of a sudden. For a second, I see the Yusei from my dream.
"See you tomorrow." I manage to get out. Yusei closes the door behind him. Then, my head starts throbbing. I feel a fire in my chest. I scramble to lie back down. I clench the sheets in my fist as I writhe on the hospital bed, unable to breath. My dream keeps flashing into my head. That image of Yusei, the changed landscape of the City. They keep swirling around. My mother's face appears in my mind before I pass out.
I'm back in that apartment, overlooking the City. I step towards the window again. It's not my City. It's Neo Domino though, I can tell that. The details blur into one. Yusei calls my name again. He sits there at the breakfast bar, he says nothing. With the casual outfit and longer hair, I almost doubt that it's Yusei. Once again, everything starts to fade away. I look back at Yusei. I sigh in relief, he looks like my Yusei again. I reach out for him. Suddenly, the pitch dark floor beneath me turns into a sandy beach. Yusei stands a good bit away from me. He stares at me. Suddenly, I start to cry. I don't know what brings it on. He throws his helmet towards me. It falls just before me. I kneel down to pick it up. My hands are stained with blood the second I grab the helmet. Blood drips from the helmet onto the sand. My heart stops. Tears start streaming down my face. A shadow looms over me. I hear my heartbeat thumping in my ears. A giant screw blocks out the sun, at least I think it's a screw. Staring at it makes me feel uneasy. It turns slowly in the sky. Then I realise, it's going to crash into us. I just stand there helpless as it starts to speed up. I look around me for help, but there's nothing. Whatever that thing is, it only falls faster. It hits the sea, causing waves to come thundering out in all directions. The waves rush towards me. The water turns blood red. As it comes closer, I spot something in the water. A body. I feel vomit rising in my throat. As it rushes towards me, I catch a glimpse of the face. No, that can't be right. It hurls towards me inside the water, its eyes open. I meet my own eyes. The waves hit the beach, water swirling around me. The body in the water, my body, hits me square in the chest, and I'm lost to the waves.