"Keiwa... please wake up..."

"I missed you..."

The next time he opened his eyes he found himself in an almost completely white room. There was something beeping nearby... was he in a hospital?

Keiwa slowly turned his head to the side—only to meet face-to-face with Ace. However, at the moment, the fox rider was asleep... which was quite a rare scene itself. As Keiwa felt Ace's soft breath brushing against his face, he took note of the bandaid on Ace's cheek... as well as the fading bruises on the side of Ace's mouth and face.

.

He could barely remember what happened to him earlier and the fight with Ace. He barely recalled the feelings of helplessness he felt not being able to do anything while his body moved on its own to try to defeat and kill Ace. Even when he felt his bones breaking after some hard impact, even when pain had shot up all over his body... like a broken puppet he continued to stand up and try to take down Ace. Once before, he used to wish that the two of them would get another chance at battling each other in a fair fight. Yet, what had happened instead was...

When he was suddenly forced to wake up and jump on Ace to try to kill the fox rider, Keiwa was aghast. This was not what he wanted, he didn't want to strangle Ace to death! The thought that he might end up killing Ace with his own two hands filled him with remorse, so much remorse that tears started flowing out from his eyes. Keiwa had desperately tried to stop himself from tightening his grip on Ace's neck... though he was not sure if he was even successful at doing that.

But if Ace was still here... that should mean someone did stop him from doing the unthinkable. That's a relief.

Keiwa tried to move his right hand to touch Ace's face to find that his hand was stuck. The more he tried to free his hand, the more Keiwa felt his strength leaving him. And just when Ace started to stir awake, Keiwa felt his eyes growing heavier and heavier...

.

Ace sat up to find that Keiwa had been facing his direction while asleep. He smiled before lifting the hand he had been holding towards his lips. Ace intertwined their fingers together before placing a soft kiss on the back of Keiwa's hand. He sighed.

"It's been days already... Keiwa. Aren't you going to wake up?"

xxx

"Please take me to where Keiwa-sama is—"

Win led the way towards Keiwa's hospital room as he kept sneaking worried glances towards Tsumuri. As much as the hospital was until the management of his grandfather's company, it didn't mean that the place was completely safe from the DGP management. Especially considering, that the hospital was originally designated as the place to treat injured DGP players who have been retired from the game before returning them back to their 'normal' lives with their memories of the DesiGra taken away. It was also the same hospital where he himself had lain in a coma for a brief time after Niram saved him from death.

Despite that, he had taken the risk to have Keiwa treated here at the hospital. Michinaga had offered to provide protection to Keiwa, and later with Ace sticking to Keiwa's side almost all the time... he ended up not needing to worry too much about Keiwa's safety.

But still... to have Tsumuri also coming here to see Keiwa, Win couldn't help becoming worried again. What if... the enemy comes to this place to recapture Tsumuri and Keiwa again?

.

"Keiwa-sama..."

Tsumuri sat down on the other side of the bed as she took a look at the extent of Keiwa's injuries. Thankfully, for the past few days, Keiwa had been recuperating well. Yet, the problem now would be—!

"Keiwa still... is not waking up."

Tsumuri glanced up towards the speaker as Ace continued staring at Keiwa while holding onto Keiwa's arm worriedly and affectionately. She smiled weakly at him.

"Keiwa-sama will wake up—" she said right away, prompting Ace to glance up towards her. "Isn't that what you said before?"

Ace was about to open his mouth to say something before something else caught his attention.

Keiwa's fingers... have started to twitch.