What's this? Why is this light so blinding? Where am I? Why am I wearing whites?
"So, you've finally come, my son," a familiar and friendly male voice greeted him from behind. He turned his back and found...
"Father! Mother!" His parents in all white as well, standing side by side in front of him. Healthy, no scars whatsoever, they looked exactly as before they died. And not to mention they're really short compared to his height. Masayuki, his father's height only reached his shoulders, and Yamanote, his mother only as tall as his middle chest. Happy smiles crept on both faces.
"What are you doing here? But you were—Does that mean that I'm—Yukimura, is he—" his father cut his stutter and circled his arm to Nobuyuki's shoulder.
"Come with me, son. I'll explain everything as we walk." His parents walked him in the void white space.
"First of all, yes, we're dead. Two, you're not dead but stuck in a comatose. And three, thanks to you, Yukimura is perfectly fine."
Nobuyuki breathed out in relief. That's what matters most for him. However, Masayuki's second answer puzzled him. Comatose?
He dug out any memories before this. Few second later, he recalled of passing out, the ocean, everything. But how could he end up in coma?
His father; few meters ahead of him turned back and approached him. Leading him to a mirror propped on a wall above a small fountain. The foggy reflection dissolved on his tap. Few seconds later it displays a shocking image.
He saw himself, laid on a hospital bed. His corpse-like face was covered by a green mask he recognized as oxygen mask; strange devices around his bed. Weak but loud monotone sounds he recognized from the cardiograph signaled how weak his heart is and how he's so depended on those devices to survive.
Ina and Yukimura, they hold his hands within theirs. They kept talking to him as if he could hear them. He felt his left hand was tightly hold and dots of water fell on it. He zoomed in the mirror and found both of their eyes dripping transparent liquor while pulling themselves together from bursting out.
That was more than enough to break his tough heart apart. He had made his most treasured family sad. Masayuki pat his shoulder when he was about to blame himself.
"Don't blame yourself, son. Your mother and I never do and so do they." He referred to his younger son and daughter-in-law." He pats Nobuyuki's shoulder and smiled merrily.
"Here's something to humor you," he says.
Then, another image showed up. This time, it's only him and Yukimura. His younger brunette brother was cupping his ice-cold and bigger hand to his cheek. Nobuyuki zoomed in the image.
"You know, Brother... I've never get to say this... because... this might sound too childish, ridiculous, stupid, for someone in my age... but..." Yukimura scratched his head awkwardly. "To be honest, I've been... even until now... envy to you..."
The stunned Nobuyuki concealed his expressions and keep looking to the mirror. Waiting for Yukimura to spill what he's envious about.
"Well... please don't fret on me, Brother? And knowing you, please don't apologize to me because you trully don't need to. And if you still will apologize to me, I will deny that I had said this,
"Okay, so... I'm envy to you in every way you are. You're always the calculative, genius, careful, and everyone's favorite. People always comparing me with you, that makes me uneasy, it's like that I could never escape your shadow. People always recognize me as 'Nobuyuki's little brother', saying that I could never exceed your achievements. It's true, Brother. I mean, you're really genius, you've graduated high school before you were nine, you've gained double degree in master of international affairs before you were twelve from Harvard and Tokyo Daigaku, you always get perfect score in every assignments and exams, and in every championships you've participated you've always won the first place and advanced to the international level and won the first place with perfect score, how could I exceed such perfect achievements?" Yukimura sounded so frustrated; he took a deep breath and continued.
"Not to mention you mastered karate, judo, spears, and swords. You cook, sew, pastry, sing, paint, and you're great at multitasking. Me? I just mastered karate and spears, I'm a horrible at all things you can do.
"Every time I look on the mirror, and remembered your face, you look like a fairy tale prince and I look like... nothing... my nose is too big and my lips are too thick... but you... are soo perfect. Every time my friends see you... they would think you as a flawless man; and me as nothing. Sometimes, I just wish that I was born like you…" he scratched his head awkwardly again.
"But this doesn't mean that I hate you, no. Instead, I'm really proud to have a brother like you. Like, what kind of brother who wouldn't be proud to have such perfect brother? I love you more than anything in this world, Brother. And I couldn't be prouder to have you as my brother."
The image dissolved in fog and faded away as he wondered. Nobuyuki had never thought Yukimura was envious of him. He never meant to overshadow his younger brother; all he did was mainly because he wanted to be a good role model for Yukimura, he wanted to be someone Yukimura could rely on, and little did he admit, he wanted Yukimura to be proud of him. Aside to live up his clan's bright reputation, it's because he didn't want to burden Shingen for too long. It's not that he had been mean to him and Yukimura.
He had been the best father figure Sanada brothers could have. After their parents' death, he quickly adopted them and had taken care of them as his own son ever since. He schooled them, gave them affection they deserved to have, and had never laid a single hit on their bodies, and many other wonderful things he couldn't mention. Being aware of how busy and important Shingen was to his carrier, Nobuyuki didn't want him and Yukimura walled him from his carrier. He wanted the elder man to reach his dreams of building his very own hospital that would help all kind of people, especially the poor as they were the ones who really need help. Shingen also wanted to build orphanage and schools to help children who had lost their parents or those who were abandoned by their parents. These noble acts require great amount of cash, both Nobuyuki and Shingen were aware of this. That's also why Nobuyuki wanted to build a company as fast as possible so he could be Shingen's main donator, to help his kind adoptive father realize his dreams of helping others.
A light punch on his muscular arms snapped him from his wandering mind. He looked around and found his father's satisfied face from succeeded of gaining his son's attention.
"You see, Nobuyuki. The hellish pain you felt during your swim came from two box jellyfishes' tentacles. You chose to bear tormenting pain for two hours only for saving Yukimura."
That explains much.
"Because of that, you suffered congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and heart inflammation, thus you fell into fourteen months of coma,"
"Fourteen months?!"
"Healing from such damages is not easy, my son. The doctors were nearly given up on you. They assumed you wouldn't survive less than twenty hours." He stood before his son and put both hands on Nobuyuki's shoulders, staring him proudly.
"But you didn't. You made wonderful recovering progresses much faster than the doctors anticipated. For someone in your circumstances, fourteen months is very quickly, my son."
Nobuyuki was left speechless. He was never the type of losing his wits and went speechless. But this time... was different.
Yamanote approached her eldest and tallest son and cupped her hand on his cheek. "You fulfilled your promise to us perfectly, my dear. You kept Yukimura from harm, protected him, raised him, taught him, and loved him in manners we had never thought of. And there's no word strong and fine enough to describe how proud we are to you." She carved a genuine smile, sounds of ticking clock roared across the room.
"Well," Masayuki captured his relieved son's attention.
"It's time," the deceased Sanada family head gave a penalty.
Nobuyuki kept the confusion in his own head, speculating the best possibilities of what Masayuki hides behind those two words. He's (FINALLY) going to see his brother! Leaving the hospital as quickly as possible and lived his normal life. Or he would rather join his parent in afterlife and never see his living family ever again. Leaving Yukimura as the only living Sanada left.
He quizzically stared his father.
"Your time has yet to come, son. Don't be so pessimistic!" His father's cackle laugh humored him. "Don't you want to see your precious brother and wife?"
He just smiled in reply. Despite being dead, his father's humorous side is something that would likely just never change. The three Sanadas walked again to where they came from.
They kept laughing all the way about some nostalgic memories, and Yamanote never stopped telling her oldest son his father's embarrassing moments before they were married. And Masayuki didn't stop telling how silly his wife was before they were spouses either. Their laughter stopped when they had reached an ancient large white marble Greek gate with two doors.
"Will I ever see you again?"
Yamanote embraced her husband's body and looked at her beloved son. "We're always be with you son, although you never realized it."
His father said something in a strange language he never heard to open the door. "Send Yukimura and Ina our best and warmest regards. Tell them how we're so proud of them,"
Nobuyuki gave a firm nod and smile and walked to the gates.
"And Nobuyuki?" The silver hair turned his body, his parents were still there.
"We're truly proud of you, son. You fulfilled your duty as a brother and as a husband wonderfully." Masayuki approached and hugged his overwhelmed son for one last time. "Gosh, I can't believe my little boy is now a true gentle man!" he faked a cry and putting in his invisible tears into his jacket's pocket.
"And we're truly sorry couldn't be good parents we should have been, for leaving you to take up great responsibilities in such little age." He added.
Nobuyuki hugged back, as soon as his father let him go, he replied, "There's nothing needs to be apologized, Father. Both I and Yukimura understand."
Masayuki formed a genuine smile and, "Thank you, son. Now off you go! Yukimura can't wait to see you!" He merrily sent off his brightest son.
Nobuyuki passed the gates that were engulfing him with blinding white light.
Sorry for the long update!
Thank you for reading! I really appreciate it! LOVE YOU ALL!
Remember about Snow Fever I've mentioned in previous chapter?
I'm planning to give another story about that one.
So what do you think?
I'm really sorry for grammatical errors -_-
Anyways, feel free to review!