Chapter 3

The cramped room could hardly be called an office, Shion thought as he and his mom waited for Dr. Faustus. He sat on a hard examination table while Karan rested in a chair, her expression one of extreme exhaustion. Shion looked down at his hands, which trembled uncontrollably, whether due to anxiousness or sickness he could not be sure.

"Where did you get that sweater, Shion?" his mom asked sweetly. She was attempting to take his mind off of the situation. Shion looked around absentmindedly.

"An old friend."

Shion thought back to the morning that he'd found himself in Nezumi's clothes. He'd woken up much later than usual, groggy with memories of the night before swimming in his head. He'd thought that perhaps he had dreamed it all; slipping away to their old hideout, tackling Nezumi, embarrassing himself when he broke down crying. But when he got out of bed, he hadrealized that he was in unfamiliar clothes. No, they were familiar. Just not his own.

Since that morning, Shion had returned to Nezumi's place four times, with no success at finding him. He'd lay in the bed, hoping that Nezumi would return. Shion thought painfully of how he hadn't even gotten a glimpse of his face in the darkness, had no clue what he may look like now. The longing burned in his chest. A little more than a week had passed, and the clothes were the only proof Shion had that the interaction had ever happened.

"Well, it looks nice on you." his mom said. Shion smirked at her in thanks. There was a polite knock at the door to signal Dr. Faustus' arrival, and then he entered.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he greeted Shion warmly. Shion shrugged.

"Kind of the same." he answered. Shion's mom scoffed.

"He can hardly work up the energy to get out of bed anymore." Karan butted in. Shion felt the urge to point out that he'd been strong enough to sneak out to Nezumi's place plenty of times that week, but decided to keep his mouth shut about the whole ordeal. He simply repeated his shrug.

"Yes…" Dr. Faustus said, almost awkwardly. He seemed to be inching away from the two, anxious to get the appointment over with. "Karan, if I could talk to you about these lab results in the hall…"

"I'd like to hear it as well." Shion said calmly. The doctor chuckled, walking over to Shion and placing his hand on his shoulder.

"It's just a preliminary thing, I always like to speak with a patient's guardian before getting too deep into-" Shion grabbed the man's shirt collar and tugged him towards his face, staring at him sternly. Dr. Faustus yelped.

"Shion!" Karan gasped.

"I'm nineteen years old. I'd like to hear what you have to say, please." Shion said, sill intimidating for despite his suffering. Dr. Faustus pulled away, shaken.

"Sure." he muttered. Karan looked away uncomfortably. The doctor cleared his throat.

"Although there are no other cases I can compare to your own, it seems that the diagnosis is simple; even though it didn't kill you, the poison from the parasite had an extreme effect on your organs; in particular, your kidneys. The tests show that they're no longer filtering blood the way they're meant to. You're entering the early stages of renal failure." he looked down at the floor. "Basically, when we took the blood, we look for different materials that the kidneys should be eliminating. The abundance of creatinine, one of those materials, in your sample tells us that your kidneys aren't doing a very good job, and, soon, they won't be doing any job at all." Silence engulfed the room. Tears began to stream down Karan's face.

"I know this is hard to hear. But there is a way to keep you alive." Dr. Faustus tried to say cheerily. "We start you on dialysis, where we perform the kidney's work artificially, at the hospital, until we can find you a donor." Dr. Faustus finally worked up the nerve to look at Shion. He was completely frozen, unable to respond.

"Any questions? I know this can be a big weight on your shoulders." The doctor's cliche attempts at bedside manner slid off of Shion like droplets of water on oil. He was lost in another time. One where Nezumi had looked at him, assuring him of the future.

You'll be fine.

"How long… how long until he has to start dialysis?" Karan said chokingly. She wiped at her eyes angrily.

"As soon as possible. You can talk to my receptionist right outside about scheduling a check-in day at the hospital."

Karan had to tug Shion by the shoulder to get him out of the office. Dr Faustus followed them out, speaking quietly to the man sitting at the desk by the exit. The secretary nodded, making notes on a form.

"I need to schedule his check-in day for the hospital." His mom said timidly. The secretary smiled at her, and began explaining the process of moving Shion into the hospital and beginning dialysis. Karan asked a few questions and picked the soonest day available. Right before they were going to leave, the secretary pressed his lips together.

"It seems that you have some outstanding bills… Could we settle those up today? And here is the predicted hospital bill for his first week." he slid a piece of paper towards her. Karan gasped audibly.

"How… how am I supposed to pay this?" she begged. Shion could sense she was cracking. He gazed over her shoulder at the paper. What parts of him that already felt numb now froze over completely. Shion knew what would come next. He knew this woman. She would pour everything she had into keeping him alive, and even that wouldn't be enough, in the end. He turned to his mom and put his arm around her shoulder.

"That won't be necessary." Shion said to the secretary with a smile. He looked at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Faustus asked, still lurking behind them.

"We won't need the bill because I won't be going on dialysis."

Nezumi walked about the busy marketplace, mulling over his different options for dinner. He spotted a produce stand and approached it, gingerly selecting what he wanted and placing it in his wicker basket. Remembering the many times he hadn't had to luxury of being able to pay, he eyed the saleswoman suspiciously, waiting for her to run him off, spitting expletives. He had to remind himself that he was no longer a feral child, driven by hunger to do anything in order to survive, no matter how shameful. He was at least somewhat presentable now, trustworthy in his fitted jacket and new shoes. For some reason, the social approval he received made him cringe. He looked back to the saleswoman with disdain. She was gossiping with a customer, allowing the line behind them to gradually grow. Nezumi was too far away from the conversation to be a part of it, but too close to ignore it.

"...And you must have heard about Karan's boy. You know, the woman who just opened that bakery a year ago?" the saleswoman blurted. The older man she was speaking with shook his head. Nezumi's interest was peaked when he heard them mention Shion.

"I know them alright, stop in the shop from time to time. I haven't seen the boy in, well, probably a month." he responded.

"That's because he's about to kick the bucket," the lady went on, "you really didn't hear?" Nezumi's ears began to ring, and his surrounding seemed unreal, like time had slowed and all he could hear was her words, echoing softly. "He isn't letting them treat it. Too expensive. He's decided to die instead."

"But isn't he only-" the man began, but they were interrupted by the crowd's uproar. Nezumi had dropped the vegetables onto the dirt, turned the other direction, and begun to run, splitting a pathway through the packed throng of bodies.