A/N: At times I surprise myself at how long I can keep hyperfocusing of a plot muse and eh... we're already at chapter 16 👀👀
And lol... I though I've uploaded this chapter yesterday.
Sara took out the thermometer from Ace's mouth before starting at the electronic reading for a few seconds. She let out a sigh of relief to herself, before double-checking the result by placing a hand over Ace's forehead and feeling his cheek and neck.
"Ah... so the fever finally broke down. What a relief—" Sara gave him a stern look. "You really scared us for quite a bit these past few days, Ace. I really thought that you'd be goners!"
Ace glanced up at her. "How long have I been unconscious?" he asked as Sara let out a shrug.
"Three days. Five if you count the time before you briefly woke up. It really alarmed everyone... I mean, no one here had ever seen you getting this sick before and we're almost at a loss for what to do. That fever of yours also felt so unnatural. I never thought anyone's temperature can go up that high! And I thought it was mild at first—!"
Ace hung his head guiltily. "I'm sorry to have caused so much trouble for everyone—" he started to say as Sara frantically tried to reassure him that it was okay. He smiled weakly at her.
He had to admit that Sara's concern for him was valid. Because even he himself couldn't even remember when was the last time he had gotten really sick—not gravely hurt, by the way—during this current life of his or in any other of his past lives. The only few rare times it ever happened—him getting sick, that is—was when he was still a child.
He could faintly remember the few instances when the parents of some of his past incarnations or even this current one had labouriously cared for him when he got sick. Or when 'they' thought that they'd lose their only child over some unexplained illness. Which may or may not be related to his past selves's discovery of a certain Roman coin and the sudden influx of some age-old accumulated memories...
He rarely had many memories of the many parents he used to have during his many lifetimes. Because most of the time, after a certain point in time... there would be certain incidents where one or both of his parents would somehow disappear mysteriously or die, and he'll end up living alone. Which then rendered him 'free' to participate in the DesiGra without needing to worry about some 'loose ends'.
Sometimes he wondered if the existence of all his other parents were just to bring him back into this world and nothing else...
Ace rarely felt that much attachment to any of the parental figures he used to have during his many lives; as half the time he never really had much time spent with them to form any in the first place, but somehow this time... he couldn't help feeling such concern over him to feel somewhat nostalgic.
But still, this was no time for him to think about some unnecessary pieces of nostalgic emotions...
.
"Five days... huh?" mused Ace softly.
He didn't think that he ended up unconscious for that long. Because it didn't really feel like time had passed that long for him when he locked himself inside Keiwa's room and wallow in his own self-pity. It also didn't really feel like time had even moved when he was inside that space where he encountered his and Keiwa's other selves. And it's not like he had been talking to those 'two' for a very long time...
He raised his head to look at Sara. "How about... Keiwa?" he asked weakly as Sara shrugged.
"There wasn't much change that could be observed during the past few days, Keiwa really seemed to just be taking a very long nap," Sara started to say. "But oh! Kiryu-sensei mentioned that last night and four days ago that... Keiwa's brain activity was really high. It felt as if he could just wake up at any moment, but he didn't."
Ace blinked at her, slightly puzzled. "His brain activity was—?"
Could it just be a coincidence? For him to meet and talk with those two inside of his subconscious while at the same time Keiwa—that's not really likely, was it? Because that guy... Bujin... said that he wasn't—
"—I didn't only do it for Kei-chan's sake only..."
Was it too much for him to think that perhaps Keiwa could also sense that something had happened to him—much like how he somehow was able to sense that Keiwa had fainted while he was still at PunkJack's garage? Or would that be too much for him to hope for?
xxx
"Though to be fair, I think your other friends had already somewhat figured out one important hint by chance."
Oh... that reminded him. Bujin said something about some important hint. He'd tried to ask about it before... but ended up not getting the answer he wanted to hear. But perhaps, what if somehow—
"Sara-san—"
"Hmm...?"
"—since you sounded like you've been checking on Keiwa at the hospital very often, have you—"
Sara grinned at him. "Have I talked about you to him?" she chuckled. "Of course. Because people say that you should try to talk to patients who are in a coma. Because hearing the voices of their loved ones might help them to wake up. Or so they say."
She sighed. "Anyway, I thought Keiwa would be wondering why you haven't come to visit him."
Ace turned his head away from Sara.
"I'm sorry. All this had happened because of me—"
.
"About that... Ace. Perhaps you shouldn't blame yourself too much about what happened—"
Ace glanced up at her, confused. "What—?"
"I mean, wasn't that the reason why you got sick? Because you felt responsible for what Keiwa had gone through all these times—"
"But wasn't that the truth? If it wasn't because of me, Keiwa wouldn't have to go through so much of this suffering. If it wasn't because of me, he wouldn't have ended up being noticed and dragged into participating in the DesiGra! If not because of me—!"
Sara let out a soft sigh. "Ace..."
"You know, a few days ago... me and the others had been talking about this. That perhaps there was something that we've overlooked... or misunderstood. Perhaps what's happened right now wasn't really anyone's fault—"
Ace just sighed to himself before something Sara just said suddenly caught his attention. "Wait! What was that you just said?"
xxx
"—she means..."
Ace and Sara jumped in surprise before turning their attention towards the door as Win started waving his hand at them. The man grinned. "—sorry, I tried knocking on the door but no one responded so I let myself in."
Ace frowned at him as Win continued to speak. "What Sara was trying to tell you just now was that... you might have misunderstood something about Keiwa's situation."
Ace felt his breath catch. Here it was... what Bujin and Kitsune were trying to tell him about. For some reason, he could feel his heart suddenly start to race.
"—you still hadn't realised that you've misunderstood something very important."
What was it... that I had misunderstood... Keiwa?
Lol. Times I feel like my cliffhangers were just trolling. Anyway, not that I'm pressing people to leave comments or anything... but do leave some whenever possible.