Been writing a lot lately so this chapter is coming at you full speed. Though right now I'm thinking rewriting the first three for four chapters since I feel like I can do much better now. Would you guys be interested if I did that? It shouldn't delay future chapters since I do have several lined up and all they need is editing. Let me know what you think.
…..
The ride back to Inaba was uneventful. Rio still hadn't woken up but no one wanted to call a doctor yet, they still needed to come up with a believable story as to how she got that way. In the mean time they returned to the Amagi Inn where Cathy and Kotori would take turns watching her. Shark kept a bedside vigil and refused to move. Seeing nothing more that they could do, the Investigation Team returned to their homes exhausted from the day's events. Most of them went off with some satisfaction of how things turned out.
That wasn't the case for Yuma and Astral.
The two had walked in quite for some time, Yu trailing behind them with his glasses on allowing him to observe the situation. He knew what was on both of their minds. Just neither of them had the courage to bring it up yet. He might as well get the ball rolling.
"Astral…you said earlier that your mission was to destroy Barian world. Can you explain why?"
Astral stopped in his tracks and didn't turn around, "I don't know….All I remember was that I was ordered to do so."
"But you can't!" Yuma protested. "That's just….wrong!"
"Why is it? Are they not our enemy?" Astral asked.
Yuma paused collecting his thoughts before answering, "I know they are but….not all of them are bad…."
"How do you know they are not trying to trick you like Vector?"
"I…..I just….."
"I think what Yuma is trying to say that just because they are Barian doesn't make them evil." Yu started to clarify. "Same thing with us humans. Just because some of us have done terrible things doesn't make us all evil."
"You have a good point but…." Astral gripped his arms, "I just don't know, and after everything that happened today…I'm just even more confused."
"Don't make any rash decisions. Promise that you will talk to us about this and anything else that's bothering you in the future."
Astral looked between Yu and Yuma who had a pleading look to him, "Alright….."
"Good…now let's go home. Nanako promised me that she would have a good meal for when we get back."
"I hope it's chicken." Yuma licked lips.
…..
Vector stared at the crystal walls around him. He was bored, extremely bored. Bored to the point he wondered if clawing his eyes out would be entertaining. Don Thousand had ordered him to stay in Barian World, and that was two days ago! If he even tried to leave Don Thousand gave his heart a good squeeze. That was painful, and not in a fun way.
It seems that Astral as acquired the last two Legendary Numbers.
Geee…..I wonder why….it's not like I was force to sit on my bum for the past few days.
Don't get coy with me Vector.
Don't tell me what do you? Your orders have made no sense!
Do not question me Vector! My plans had to be….modified.
Modified how?
Let's just say….and old ally has made herself known.
Oh? That got Vector interested. Shall we go meet this person?
There is a challenge to that. She can disguise herself as a human to the point that you won't recall meeting her afterwards.
Well that's annoying….
She can also detect my presence no matter where I go. You must send a spy for me. That fly will do.
Oh goodie…..him…..Vector went over to where he kept a jar. Inside was a fly…with a rather human like face.
"What's the deal?!" It spoke in a high pitched voice, "I told you the locations of those ruins! When are you going to let me out?"
"Shut up Heartland." Vector couldn't believe that this is what became of the former mayor of Heartland city. Why did he even save the guy in the first place? "I have a job for you."
"A job? Doing what? Being the fly on the wall?"
"Sort of…." Vector smashed the jar against the ground, Heartland buzzing in protest at the near crushing experience. "You're going to need proper attire." Vector held out his hand and let Don Thousand's power course through him.
Heartland was confused, then felt everything rushing at once. Falling over he caught himself on the floor with his hands….wait….he had hands? Human hands?! He was human again! Shame he was in a simple black suit….it felt too plain.
Vector let Don Thousand feed the words to him, "I need you to go to Inaba and do two things."
"Of course Vector-sama…." Heartland said with much more respect in his voice.
"I need you to infiltrate the police force and track down two people. First…I want to meet the perpetrator for the murders and kidnappings that have taken place in the town. Second is a god that takes on human form and I need to know what appearance she takes on."
"Could I….perhaps have the name for this god?" Heartland asked.
Vector could feel the respect and resentment from Don Thousand as he said the name, "Izanami-no-Okami."
….
Yukiko stretched as she set down the stack of trays. Even after their exhausting day there was still work to be done at the inn, especially with Yuma's friends staying. She began cleaning dishes as she thought over recent events. All of the Legendary Numbers were accounted for and they had all but one so they were good in that department. All that excitement Yuma brought with him Yukiko nearly forgot about the problem of the Midnight Channel. Thankfully that had been having good weather recently so there were no dangers of people appearing on the channel. But that also means they had no clues as to who was pushing people into the TV world. Yukiko sighed as she stacked the clean plates, this was really getting bigger than they thought.
"YUKIKO!"
Yukiko nearly dropped the plate in shock, "Cathy-chan? What is it?"
The cat girl was nearly out of breath, "It's Rio! She's gotten worse!"
"What!?" Yukiko ran with her back to their room. Inside all of Yuma's friends had gathered around Rio preventing Yukiko from getting a good survey of the situation.
"Back off! Give her some air for crying out loud!" Everyone complied except for Shark who remained at his sister's side. Rio seemed to be having trouble breathing clutching her chest in pain.
"I'm getting my mother and we're calling for an ambulance. Shark…gather your things so you can travel with her to the hospital." Yukiko ran out of the room before anyone could protest and located her mother in the main lobby. "Mom! One of our guests is having a medical emergency!"
Her mother immediately ran for the telephone, "What kind?" She asked dialing the number.
"Breathing trouble and chest pains, that's what I could tell."
Mrs Amagi nodded and relayed the information to the operator. Yukiko ran back to the room, "The ambulance is on its way."
"What do we do?" Kotori asked.
"You just stay here. Once we've got Rio situated at the hospital we'll let everyone else know."
The paramedics arrive a few minutes later quickly loading Rio into the ambulance only permitting Shark to go with them as he was family and proceeded to bombard him with Rio's medical history. Shark racked his brain for the necessary information. He had visited her plenty of times while she was in her coma but it was always a relative signing off on procedures and medicine. He should of paid better attention to that kind of stuff! Right now the paramedics were trying to get an oxygen mask on Rio but she was thrashing about so much she managed to knock several of the men into the side of the ambulance. They had to hold her down but her vitals were skyrocketing. Panic rose in Shark as one of the medics began contemplating reaching for a defibrillator watching Rio's fluctuating heart rate. The ambulance took a hard turn before stopping at the hospital its occupants quickly unloading their patient wheeling her into the examination room. Shark was forced to wait outside on one of the benches holding medical paperwork in his hands.
Blood type….medical history….Rio never had these diseases….I'm going to have to make a call to our uncle….Shark groaned leaning against the wall. There was too much going on right now.
"Shark!"
Shark sat up surprised at who he saw. Yosuke was running down the hall with Teddie out of his bear suite behind him.
"Yosuke? What are you doing here?"
"Yukiko called us and told us what happened. I live the closest to here and Teddie lives with me so we came straight over."
"Is Rio-chan going to be okay?" Teddie asked.
"I don't know….right now I'm trying to fill out this paperwork…." Shark said holding up the packet.
"Have you called your parents?" Yosuke asked.
Shark gave a glare but calmed, "Our parents died in a car accident years ago…..I'm pretty sure our uncle is our legal guardian but we've been living on our own for quite some time."
Yosuke stared at him in shock, "Sorry….didn't realize."
"Don't worry about it…..it was a long time ago."
"Do what are you going to do? Aren't you guys supposed to head back tomorrow?"
Shark groaned again, Teddie had a good point. Tomorrow was the day they were supposed to head back to Heartland but if they checked Rio into the hospital, she was going to be here until it was possible to transfer her to the hospital back in Heartland. And who knows how long that would take, and that's in the case she was in the condition to travel.
"I'll probably stay. I already missed a bit of school already this year so what's a few more days. Plus it's close to winter break so it won't matter that much."
"What about a place to sleep? The Amagi Inn is nice but it's probably going to be expensive after awhile." Yosuke pointed out.
That's right….they were only at the inn because Kaito had paid for it and Shark wasn't in the mood for asking him for help monetary wise. "I'll figure out something….I just want to know what they plan to do for Rio first."
"I see…." Yosuke sat down on the bench along with Teddie. They began to play the waiting game as doctors and nurses hustle too and for. Teddie eventually fell asleep while Shark placed a call to his uncle but only got voicemail. Yosuke occasionally texted everyone else to give them updates when they inquired but there wasn't much news.
It was close to midnight when the doctor approached the trio.
"Mr. Kamishiro?"
"That's me….is Rio alright?"
The doctor let out a sigh, "We've managed to stabilize her but we're keeping her in the ICU incase she crashes again. Our main concern is that we cannot get her to wake up. She reacts slightly to what's around her but never regains consciousness."
Shark swallowed a lump in his throat. "What does that mean?"
"We're not sure. All we can do now is to observe for now. We've already done a CT scan of her brain and are analyzing the results. But we will have to keep her here."
Shark was afraid of this. Rio had only just recovered from her coma that the fire had placed her in. Now she was in another one. If Abyss had done something to her he would never forgive himself.
"Can I see her?"
"Just for a bit, visiting hours will end soon."
Shark nodded and followed him to the hospital room. His stomach knotted seeing Rio hooked up to all sorts of machines for the second, no third time in her life. Just why was she like this? And those visions from the ruins…it implied way too much for Shark's liking. Calling this an identity crisis would be an understatement.
"It will be okay…." Yosuke placed an arm around Shark's shoulder who didn't have the energy to shake it off, "We'll help you out as much as we can."
"Maybe Yosuke's dad could get you a job at Junes to help pay for the hospital." Teddie suggested.
"And we'll see if Yukiko could cut you a deal at the Amagi Inn so you can stay longer. If not I think Kanji has some room at his place. Teddie already took the extra space at my home."
Shark was too tired to smile but felt grateful that there were others looking out for him. Hopefully things would get better soon.
….
Now we're are starting to deviate from cannon and to be honest I am getting very nervous about it. When I first started this fic I was clinging to cannon like a life preserver but got more comfortable taking liberties though still I want to make sure I am still writing the characters correctly. We are starting into a new story arc now so get ready.