Chapter 3
"What happened?" uttered Kise Ryōta tearfully as his first words pour for the first time after what seems to be hours and hours of repressed tendons of his face, forwarding his own body to the distance of the green and teal blue silhouette in contrast against the white hall of the barrier between life and death of humans behind. Travelling as long as 416.9 km and five hours away never drains the worrying and questioning looks on the blonde's face, wanting nothing but to receive answers to the sudden news that comes out of nowhere like that of a typhoon. It's similar after all, abrupt– of no warning nor known factors, things he can't wrap his head around off.
Why would Akashicchi out of all people try to kill himself? By what causes? What happened?
"You're foolish to think you will get your answer by asking me" is the only answer Midorima Shintarō could give to the golden-haired boy of miracles when the pained expression washes over. He's assertive in his message, reminding the fact that the only key to the answer– if it's possible at all– can only be given by the teen that is now laying comatose on the white bed, fragile hands sprawled like fabric blazing in the wind, easy to be cut.
Is the pain at the end of his efflux that painful? It's all Midorima wants to ask of– repression, lack of freedom, overworked body reaching its final stage of energy left.
Midorima Shintarō has only guesses, the truth that they seek lies beyond his reach as much as he is reluctant to acknowledge the fact– his suspicion of whether it's his own overestimation about Akashi's durability or a certain trigger wouldn't be washed away though. But then he remembers that Akashi is always overestimated from the start, by his own father, and then by the world.
At the end of the day, it's fentanyl, a painkiller – a potent synthetic opioid drug used as a way to relieve the pain itself— that almost took the life of Akashi. He wonders if Akashi is still in pain right now– from whatever it's– even if his face denotes a serenity– a fake one. His assertive face is fully gone right now– only a fragile piece of skin left. It's gone so that Midorima's assertiveness is exceeding the former right now, even if Midorima Shintarō's assertiveness is also well-known even if it's not as prominent in the reputation as Akashi's as well.
But Kise Ryōta is always resilient, traits evidenced from his non-stop training to reach the level of other miracles by any means, even fueled by his loss to Seirin just two months ago– something he can't relate to and never wanted to be in his own dictionary. The blonde teen's transformation in their years of Teiko was in fact not the most extreme, but even then there's still a clear mark. Now it's less visible. Kuroko's doing?
"But there's no way your dad didn't tell you anything Midorimacchi– you're son and dad after all " he insisted. But the green-haired shooter is firm, only growing slightly annoyed in the lack of law-awareness of the teen,
"My father already tell me what needed–" he unconsciously slightly gritted his teeth, perhaps in an effort to deceive himself, "that this only a momentary coma, and he only need some muscle therapy afterward and perhaps some psychology therapy as well– " white breath out of his mouth is visible, "anything beyond that will breach patient confidentiality, violating the Hippocratic Oath"
In the end of the scene, after he finishes gazing at the short bluenette that only mutely sitting on the seat, staring hollowly at something distant, Kise's attention diverted its focus on his former captain, laying in the hospital bed with various tubes and wires sticking out, his light green hospital attire didn't hide anything, making his petite body dwarfed by the large bed and paling his complexion. The heart monitor beside provided a steady but weak beat, the only sound besides the oxygen mask and hum of other machines. The weak arm that stretched out at the corner of the bed ends up taken by the larger hand of the blonde, grasping at the pale wrist for the hands to feel the steady thump thump of the pulse, to assure the livingness of the person.
When Murasakibara comes for what seems to be an endless hour of journey, his gestures end in the same note as Kise, holding the much smaller hands in his big arm and then ruffling the red locks sprawled across the surface the white pillow, the hair distastefully somehow resembling river of blood. He ignores it and focuses completely on the tallest male in the room.
Here sits someone who, for the lack of word, ever successfully broke Akashi Seijūrō once– single-handedly responsible for the change of Akashi Seijūrō only by his existence and his apathy personality alone. It's the only thing that causes the conflict in the green-haired teen's heart regarding this former teammate of his, even when he's more obedient as ever to the former captain since the change. Where was this obedience before? He bites the peak of his tongue. If he was this obedient, that Akashi wouldn't even emerge. And there lies the extreme opposition between Midorima Shintarō and Murasakibara Atsushi. The latter is utterly devoted to the current 'Akashi' while Midorima can only be obedient to the actual one– will do all of his power challenging that Akashi to bring the original Akashi back.
"Mido-chin and Kuro-chin– explanation please–" he whines nearing the end of the sunrise. And it wakes them of the fact that they spent their entire night not sleeping at all, too drowning in the deep of their thoughts. As it's the start of the next day, Kise kindly offers himself to buy them some breakfast foods despite the obvious lack of hunger-ness in the faces of the miracles. After that, it's when Kuroko Tetsuya finally receives one brief message on his phone.
To: Kuroko Tetsuya
From: Aomine-kun
We're coming.
—-
The tanned ace and the pink-haired teen coming in like the combination of both the hurricane and mere passing wind, skipping their school just in order to get assured of the condition of the former captain. The tearful eyes of Momoi Satsuki is more than enough evidence, asking the detail of the event similar to the doing of Kise Ryōta in the earlier. The person is never uncaring by any standard, and by reality, she, along with Kuroko Tetsuya were the unwitting bystander staining in their own tears that are left in the sideline, forcing to undergo the watching of unpleasant transformation and the crack, perhaps breakup, for the exact term. She was one of the direct eyewitnesses of Akashi Seijūrō's transformation, having tried to defend him from the bloom of Murasakibara's monsterness but can do nothing– all futile, like that of Kuroko's.
The latter teen meanwhile is perhaps the most distant with Akashi Seijūrō, the most apathetic when it comes to him even before his apathy grows uncontrollably and completely consumes him to become the monster that he's now. Unlike Momoi, he has no tears in his face, and Midorima irrationally feels like wanting to scold the Ace for a second. However the distressed frown painted on his face doesn't bring him from doing it, instead perhaps washing Midorima's calculation on his apathy's level and his level of caringness on his former captain.
"Oi what actually happened?" the bass voice growls, eyes snarling demanding for the answer, "You better explain it all Midorima, Tetsu"
It's when both of them are about to give the answer when suddenly a shattering-sound of an alarm abruptly shatters the hall. From his room, a shrill monotonous sound of a long flatline on the heart monitor continuously chattering.
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