The morning sun rose and shone through the open window and its raise beamed straight into Retsu's good eye as he awoke to be surrounded by many busy doctors and nurses working on him.
As he vaguely looked over the room he saw that Ran was getting the same attention and treatment however he didn't see her move and expected she wasn't awake yet.
He felt his face and touched the plaster over his eye and remembers the recent fight and understood. He sadly acknowledged that they were beaten badly.
He remembers now all the members were down, deformed and exhausted but Jan continued to push forward against the enemy only to be thrown back again after his endless attempts.
He never faltered and told them to fight with all they had but they just couldn't.
He continued this stubbornness for a while with each member all telling him to stop but he never listened to them. Until, after their final attack had hit him bad and sent him flying into the side of a muddy cliff, he didn't get back up, he closed his eyes after he deformed and landed limply on the harsh earth.
They lost their faith and will to fight along with the defeat of Jan.
Thinking of him, he looks for the other member of their triangle and saw an empty bed next to him.
No Jan was there waiting for his revival or plastered with wires and machines to keep him alive. All that was there was a bed that looked like it was in use.
He clutched on to the closest nurse's arm and asked her, "Where is Jan?" She was a new nurse here and she was surprised by the sudden stirring of the patient but smiled reassuringly.
As she remembered his question, the nurse looked away sadly towards the empty occupied bed.
"That's his bed, isn't it, why isn't he there? Is he dead?" He was now scared and raced through the questions.
The defeat of Jan, the way his body was flung on the cliff face went through his mind, 'what if that was really the end for him?'
"Well you haven't been up so you could not known but he was the first to wake up so don't worry".
"But where is he?"
"I'm sorry but he disappeared last night"
"What?" He asked worriedly, "but he is fine though isn't he, like health wise"
"Well we don't actually know unfortunately" she said embarrassed at her incomplete knowledge.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Well the doctors said that operating and working on the two with most injuries was most important and what was needed. They thought because Jan had a more a less an 'unbreakable body' that he would be fine to work on later, we had less doctors so we did what we thought was right".
Retsu was shocked at the carelessness of the staff "He was the one the collapsed on battle. The only one that actually kept fighting and nearly died in the battle was him" Retsu said.
"But before we got to work on him, he woke up very scared, seemed he had a nightmare. He kept saying, what shall I do and things like that and as we went out to get the testing equipment for Jan, he had disappeared before we returned, or so we believe".
"Retsu" Shifu bellowed as he entered the room, "don't worry, he will be fine".
The head doctor didn't seem so sure as he joined the confrontation of Retsu and Shifu, "I'm sorry Shifu, but now it looks like he has received internal damage. We were observing and it seems like we need him in soon to sort out his injuries before it gets too late, so please make sure he returns promptly".
"Hoho, you do make me laugh" Shifu said and chuckled to himself, "he is Jan, Geki red and 'Unbreakable Body', he should be fine" He waved the worry off and left the room with the main doctor and the other nurses following Shifu to convince him of the seriousness.
Retsu and Ran were now left alone, and Ran slowly began to move and wake up.
"Retsu, what happened?" She asked still sleepy.
"It seems we are in hospital and as you can see" he indicate to their injuries," we were beaten petty bad".
Ran looked around a bit and saw no Jan "and, him?" She asked, "probably no worry for he is unbreakable body" .
She relaxed but when she looked at Retsu she saw he was serious, "I'd wish people would stop saying he is unbreakable body, he has soft points and a soft heart mostly" he muttered, his breath now utterly disgusted.
Their titles they were presented with went through his mind, "heart- lovely" he said sarcastically, "perfect technique- how big headed, unbreakable body- not for long".
"What happened" she asked now worried.
"He disappeared" he said bluntly.
"What?"
"Before they could test him to see if he was ok, he woke up and left".
A cool breeze entered through the open window which made them both look over towards it. "Through the window I'm guessing" Ran smiled, "No worries Retsu, he will return. How about your brother and Ken".
"They said he might have internal injuries that could mean problems with breathing and brain damage or something to do with the brain"
"Retsu, what about us, we all have problems. My arms in a cast, you don't even know about Ken or Gou and your eye and foot are bandaged up and your worried about Jan, who is well enough to move around".
Ran had stopped her rampage and tried to remain calm "Well he was the one that didn't give up till he was literally put down by Rio. He needs to be here with us, so we can all get better together as a team like always".
A silence came from both of them, without Jan it seemed empty and the room too big.
"Don't know if you will join me, but as soon as I'm well enough to get out, I'm finding Jan" Retsu said as he spat the words out and Ran lied back down and rolled over to face the wall.
"Retsu, just be careful" she whispered.
Barging through the door came Ken and Gou, they had scratches and bandages everywhere.
Ken had his left arm in a sling and he was walking around with a crutch as Gou was following behind in a wheel chair.
This shocked Retsu, "Brother, what happened to you?" He asked very worried.
"Huh, this" he pointed at the chair and laughed it off, "no worries, they just said to use it for I'm still a little weak".
"And ken?".
"Ha-ha same, no worries. Just a few broken this and that but should be better on no time".
"But more importantly, where is Jan?" Gou asked as he wheeled into the room and saw no sight of him, "I'm sure that it said you 3 were together on the computer, must be wrong" and started wheeling back to the door as Ken hobbled and lent against Jan's bed.
"Retsu, which room is his then? You should know" ken asked.
"Why do you want to know so badly?" Ran started talking again and she rolled over to face them all.
"Ran, are you ok?" Ken again started hobbling but quicker this time to his little princess.
"We would like to see if he's ok" Gou started, "he did get a big whack on that last attack, he didn't even carry on or get up, straight out".
"Well, Brother" Retsu started but couldn't finish and ran took on this hard news, "Jan's gone".
"GONE" Gou and Ken exclaimed together.
"Gone where in his state?" Gou asked loudly.
"Gone like in dead?" Ken asked more quietly but everyone heard him.
"No" Retsu shouted at him, he was such an idiot at times.
Gou rolled over to the empty bed and looked at the patients diary that hung from the end of the bed and started reading it out, " Patient - Jan, Geki Red, No injuries seen No problems known But breathing is ..."
He quietened down as he continued to read his description and looked up to stare at ran who looked away from his gaze and turned around to Retsu.
"This isn't true is it?" he asked.
"What is it Gou" ken took the report from his shaking hands and read it out, "there are no external injuries seen and there are no known problems, yeah what's wrong with that Gou?"
"Continue reading" Gou said, "look at the part which seems to have just been written at the bottom", Ken skimmed through most of the page and got to the end and continued reading, "'but breathing problems detected are now severe and brain damage is a possibility, death could be avoided if straight away brain surgery to make sure everything is ok'".
This took them all time to take that all in, "That's worse than I expected" Retsu said as he held his head in his hands.
"What are we going to do" Ken asked.
"Damn" Gou said as he lifted his arm and bumped his head with his fist, his usual move when things were wrong.
"Well, for now, let's just get better and then search for him later" Ran suggested which Gou and Ken agreed to but Retsu was still not convinced.
"I'm going now" Rests said.
"What?" Gou asked.
"I'm going to get Jan" Retsu continued, "you heard the report, death can be avoided if he has surgery pronto, what I we get out of here and find him too late?"
Nobody said a word.
"Retsu, the best thing we can do now is to get better and continue to get stronger" Gou tried to advise him.
"At the moment, fighting the enemy is the priority, don't you think" Ken tried to inspire him; "we can't risk it all for one person, even if it's our comrade".
"And what good would it do Jan if you go in your state, you can't even see properly through one eye yet" Ran said trying to convince.
But he didn't care; he was going to get back Jan.
What if Rio gets him?
What if he dies?
What if he leaves them?
Abandons them?
Betrays them?
Leaves them all the responsibilities and hardships with no second thought?
How did Jan feel in this situation?
He was extremely worried and he couldn't understand why everyone wasn't in the same momentum to leave and help Jan.
Jan wouldn't get up and just leave all of a sudden if it wasn't for a good reason.
He would usual come to him for advice, but he was in fact out of it, unconscious and couldn't help Jan in his own moment of need, he must have thought hard to eventually leave.
"I'll do what I can" he said to himself and started to get out of bed.
His foot didn't hurt as much anymore and it was walk able, a slight numbness was there but he ignored it and went to the door.
Gou tried to turn his wheelchair around so he could stop his brother but was unsuccessful, also ran or ken couldn't prevent his leaving. Ken had attempted it but fell straight on his face and held his leg and arm in pain.
Ran had stayed in her bed and looked from out the window to hand bed, 'what are you thinking Jan leaving us and making us all worry. Also what is with you, Retsu. Charging around like your perfectly well instead of getting fixed'.
She couldn't understand and looked at the struggling boys in front of her, one on the floor squirming at the pain and trying to get up, the other one in the chair calling out to Retsu who was now out of the room and limping down the corridor.
'It must be a boy thing that a girl can't understand' she concluded.
'Jan, I'll come as soon as I can' Restu thought, now cancelling the negativity and echoes of shouting.