Chapter 3:

The next time Satoru awoke, he realized he was in a different room than before. A small window was in the corner, but the blinds were drawn, leaving the room close to pitch black. It was a welcome reprieve to his aching eyes. His body was still definitely exhausted, but the pain started falling away. He attempted to move his arms but noticed that they were stopped by soft restraints. "Rude." Satoru thought.

He scanned the room and landed on a very angry Yaga. Satoru sighed. He definitely did not feel like getting a lecture right now. "Ah, nice to see you awake, Satoru." Satoru looked at the clock and noticed it said about 8:00 am. He must've been asleep for quite a while. "Did I keep you waiting long?" Satoru tried to say jokingly. But in his weak state, it just sounded pathetic. "You kept me waiting a couple days," Yaga responded sternly. The man was never known to take a joke, and this was not about to be the first one.

"A couple days?" Satoru was no longer surprised that he was feeling a bit better. He also figured they'd used reverse curse techniques to reduce the inflammation. "You've been out of consciousness, fairly delirious with a high fever. Pulling at the IVs and such." Yaga informed him. "Ah." Satoru realized then why they had to put the restraints on. "Guess you don't remember any of it." "Nope."

But when he adjusted his legs underneath the blanket, he noticed his ankles had soft restraints. More worryingly, he became aware of pulling at a sensitive area. Satoru wasn't one to get embarrassed, but the idea of that nurse having placed a catheter made him feel quite uncomfortable.

The two sat in silence for a moment. "If you're gonna lecture me, please get on with it." Yaga frowned, "This isn't just a lecture about taking better care of yourself. If I could yell, I would. But I'll save that for when you're feeling better." Satoru rolled his eyes, "I'd rather you yell now and get it over with." "I'm gonna ask a question, and you'll think about it. If you answer correctly, I won't yell at you later." "Oh great." "I want to know why you think you're a one-man army."

Satoru didn't respond right away. From the beginning of his life, he'd always been told how powerful he was. Teamwork simply wasn't in his vocabulary. "Well, I'm glad you can understand the think about it part," Yaga said as he began walking out the door. "Wait, how are Suguru and Ieri?" Satoru asked before his teacher left. "Suguru and Ieri are fine. Both are worried about you." Yaga responded, "I'll tell them they can come visit when you're up to it." Satoru nodded, and Yaga left. Before he had the chance to think about what Yaga had said, he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Takeji and the nurse entered.

"How are you doing?" Takeji inquired. "I'm doing better," Satoru replied, smiling as the nurse removed the restraints from his wrists. "Please don't try to run away now," she joked, and Satoru wondered how much trouble he had caused while delirious. "Did I try to do that before?" he asked, somewhat apologetic.

"A couple of times," the nurse answered, reassuring him it wasn't his fault. Takeji then updated him on his progress, explaining that they had administered two rounds of IVIG, and his body had responded well. They might need to do one or two more rounds as his brain was still inflamed. Satoru also learned about the PICC line they had placed for TPN, keeping him fed while he could not eat due to his delirium.

"What's next?" Satoru asked. "We'll start another of IVIG and keep pushing steroids. Then we'll see how you do and try to get you up and moving. You're body has had generalized weakness through the limbs, so you may not be ready to move around yet." Satoru sighed.

He was still tired, but even though he was only up for a few minutes he was already growing listless. He's usually quite the energetic person, so slowing down was not his style. "How long am I gonna be here?" "How long were you sick last time?" Takeji responded. He hated questions to answer questions. "A couple weeks." "There's you answer." Takeji stated. Satoru deflated. "Guess I'd better hunker down." Takeji nodded. "Yep. We'll come back in a couple hours to check on you."

Deciding to rest, Satoru closed his eyes, realizing nothing he could do but focus on recovering.