6:00 PM September 11. It's already dusk and the sky has different shades. The clouds turn into gray spots in the sky as the sun sets. In the midst of this all, there is a young boy who can only see part of it through a window. It's Taiyou, who wanted to be out of the hospital permanently. He didn't like being brought here because his parents were scared that he would die if he didn't get medication. So there, he had to accept that he had to be locked up in a hospital, day after day of tests and injections, seeing white walls, bedsheets, and even clothes while visitors, including his parents, came rarely.
He sighed. It surely was monotonous. "At least I'm not a "critical case" or ER patient. THAT would be worse than my condition. If only I could be as healthy as my teammates or other soccer players... Looks like there's nothing I can do but talk to myself. Wait - talk to MYSELF!? Can't that cause insanity? What if I'm not alive anymore?" he started slapping himself to ensure that he was still alive. When he realized that doing that would just be hurting himself, he stopped.
"Oh, it's so boring, no one to talk to... how about I sneak out again? Surely Fuyuka-san won't notice..." and so he crept out.
He was just going to go in a corridor when he heard crying. He traced the origin of the sound to a young girl in a red sleeveless dress holding a kokeshi doll in her right hand while rubbing her eyes with her left. "Hey, what are you doing here? Where're your parents?" he asked her. "M-my parents w-won't come, mister." she said between sobs. "Hey hey, stop crying, OK? We'll find your parents soon enough."
"O-ok.." she dried her eyes, looked at him and he saw that she had large, black eyes. "What're YOU doing here, mister? Aren't you a patient?" she asked, noticing his clothes. "Huh? Oh, yes I am. I actually sneaked out because I was bored. Why?" she smiled, a childish, innocent smile that reminded him of Tenma. "If you want to, I can accompany you to your room and talk with you! That way we both won't be bored! Right?" he smiled and gladly accepted her offer.
Soon after, they started talking with each other everyday. Sometimes they would talk in his room, sometimes outside. Staff never spotted them together. This went on for some time and one day, Taiyou asked her for her name. She grinned and said that her name was Kokeshi. She gave him the doll she always held in her hand and told him that it was her token for him. "You're the only friend I've ever met." He said thanks. She smiled and left after that.
The next day, he waited for her, but she never came. So he went out and asked the staff if they saw a girl with black eyes wearing a red dress. They said no, so he tried to ask the other patients. They all said that they hadn't seen her. He was going to his room when he heard a voice call his name.
"Young man, were you the one that asked about Kokeshi-chan?" he turned and saw an old lady in a wheelchair behind him. "Follow me and we'll talk." he followed her to her room and she told him to lock the door. He did. "So you've seen her." "Yes, I have. How did you know her name? Did you see her?" he asked. "...Yes. that was a long time ago, perhaps 10 years back. Tell me, did you meet her crying and holding a doll in her right hand?" "Y-yes ma'am. And how did you se-" "Questions later, young man. That Kokeshi you met? She isn't alive anymore. She died some 10 years ago, a child in this hospital. I saw her name in the record. She was a pneumonia patient whose condition gradually turned into tubercolosis. Her parents left her in here and then never came back. I guess they forgot about her. When she heard the news, she was devastated. She died in her room wearing the dress and holding the doll - the only thing her parents left her with. Ever since then, the staff say, she's been roaming the halls, looking for a person she could relate to. And that person... was you. Say, do your parents visit you often?" He replied that they did not. When she heard his reply, she nodded and pointed a withering finger to the door.
He got it and left, closing the door behind him. When he reached his room, he felt a gentle breeze blow by. He looked at her doll and remembered her last words: "I'll never forget you, Taiyou-san. I promise I won't. Really with all my heart, I won't forget you. Ever." He smiled, softly saying, "I'll never forget you too, Kokeshi-chan."