Breathe Chapter 8

Doctor Hiyamori rummaged through the Misumi family medical folders, his room was dark, but with help of his little office lamp it shone at the papers. He took up a paper while he drummed his fingers on the edge of the table, his eyes examined through the letters. When he found nothing he threw it on the table again, frustrated. He stopped for a second as he looked at the papers; none of the papers stands that the Misumi family ever had Leukemia before, so how did Nagisa get it? Scientifically, it can pop out randomly but Hiyamori wanted to know if there is something behind this, which stated in the folder that she was often sick from age of 3 to 7. Hiyamori began to grow suspicious about this; he wanted to ask the parents about Nagisa's childhoods. Hiyamori sighed heavily, tired, and lighted a cigarette to ease his nerves. He wanted badly to save this girl; in his thirty years of his career, he never saved any child or above that age lives. But since the technology is better today, he had the confident that she will be saved. Without a warning, he heard someone arguing outside. Anxiously after the startle, he put the cigarette out and headed to the door.

Ryouta stared at his feet kicking in the air. He looked at the door where his parents headed inside to check on his sister. He wasn't ready to see her and the nurse told him that he could see her when she wakes up. That nurse stayed with him until she was called for an emergency. She was slim all the way up and down her feet, the nurse outfit looked a little tight on her but she was cute with the nurse hat. Ryouta stood up from the chair and roamed in the halls where nurses and doctors where running while looking at their papers and talk to the nurses. He saw a guy lying on his bed with mask around his mouth and the doctors were running like crazy, shouting "We need a surgery, stat!" Imaging that his sister was in state like that made Ryouta scared. He tried to shake that feeling and walking forward without trying to look at the guy again. With the doors open at some rooms, he saw kids playing with toys where he got from the family. He passed by and old man, hooked with wires and mask and his family around him, mourning. He walked faster; afraid that one of the families would catch an eye on him. Without noticing, he was standing infront of Doctor's Hiyamori's door. That was kind of the plan he was going for but in the meantime he wanted to kill the time. He hesitated but squeezed his hand into a fist.

"Kid, what are you doing here?" he was cut off by a middle old nurse with glasses; she looked like one of the people who are strict and mean. He was both relieved but frustrated to be detected by a nurse who was interfering his business with the doctor.

"I only need to speak with Doctor Hiyamori." He tried to sound innocent, but the nurse didn't buy that. She fixed her glasses with her index finger while she replied. "No one sees the doctor. He's busy. What businesses to you have with him?"

"I just need to talk to him." The nurse bowed to his height; Ryouta could see her wrinkles on her face and according to the good smell, which was probably a material it looked like she was trying to hide them. "You're not a patient." 'You just noticed it, you old hag?' Ryouta thought. He wanted to say it out loud but it would mean trouble for him. "My sister is a patient."

"Humph. And you expect me to believe that?" Ryouta was so close to lose his patience but luckily a head of Hiyamori popped out. Ryouta immediately smelled the stench of cigarette, he clamped his nose. "Mrs. Kobe, is something wrong?"

"This kid is lying his way to you, Doctor Hiyamori." Hiyamori caught his eyes on Ryouta. Putting up a smile, his whole body came out and patted Ryouta's head. "It's okay. He's with me." "I'm so sorry, Doctor Hiyamori." Mrs. Kobe bowed and walked away ashamed.

"Come on in, Ryouta-kun." Hiyamori beckoned inside. His office was little, but comfortable, but the smell of the cigarette ruined it. Again he clamped his nose; noticing Ryouta, Hiyamori walked up to a window and opened, Ryouta was finally able to breathe. He sat down behind his desk with his hands clamped together as he could still smell the cigarette stench and beckoned Ryouta to sit down on the chair across him. "Doctor Hiyamori. I've been questioning this to myself for a long time and I was afraid to ask you, but…" Ryouta exhaled and inhaled before he continued.

"Is my sister gonna die?" Doctor Hiyamori's heart jumped when he heard that. He recalled the times when his patient had Leukemia too and their families or friends asked the same question. He understood that Ryouta was afraid but he wasn't afraid of the question, he was afraid of the answer.

"Ryouta-kun." He began. "To be honest…" Looking at Ryouta's face made Hiyamori sad. Ryouta clamped his hands together ready for the answer. "She's gonna be okay." Hiyamori smiled sadly. Luckily for him, Ryouta was too young and didn't notice or understand that emotion but he was overwhelmed with joy that he jumped around the room which made Hiyamori smile yet he was afraid he was wrong.

It was a quiet peaceful night. The only thing the parents could hear was the heart beep from the machine where Nagisa was hooked with. According to the doctors, her condition isn't bad but it would get worse, but seeing her being hooked with wires and machines scar the parents. Takashi and Rie hold each other's hands as they watched closely at Nagisa breathing; every breath she took made them stressful as they always thought that she would stop breathing. A door opened up behind them as they looked back to see who it was coming in. Rie stood immediately up and approached to Hiyamori while Ryouta came over to Takashi to see his sister. "Tell me, doctor. Did you find anything out?" Hiyamori shook his head and looked at the family folder again.

"It says here that she had a high fever and her mouth was bleeding," He changed the subject as he looked up in the folder. Takashi stood up, leaving Ryouta to have some time on his own with Nagisa. He warped his arms around Rie while he asked the doctor. "Yes, she kept passing out during classes, but her motuh didn't bleed. But that was when she was six, what does it have to do with the situation now?" Takashi was almost yelling when he said those last sentences. "Misumi-kun, please calm down. I just need to ask you some more questions." Takashi grabbed Hiyamori's collar, his face so close up to the doctor.

"We don't have time for that. Just save my daughter!" Spits literally spat at Hiyamori's face; he had to turn his head away in order to avoid the spitting. "Takashi, calm down!" Rie shouted, drawing Ryouta's attention to her, while pulling him back to her. Silence was brought in the room. Ryouta sat there, scared over his father behavior; never in his life had he ever seen him that angry. When Rie let go of her husband and Takashi took deep breathes, Hiyamori continued while he looked at the folder again. "Was she tired, lack of dizziness?" "Yeah, for a few weeks, we thought that she didn't get well dressed for the weather." Hiyamori looked up in the folder and continued. "Did she felt any pain inside the bones?" Rie and Takashi looked at each other worried. Hesitating, Takashi replied.

"Y-yes?" "As I suspected…" The couples held hands together again, ready for the doctor's explanations. Hiyamori hesitated as he saw their reactions; he didn't have the courage to tell them. He couldn't keep a secret like he did to the previous patient who had the same disease. Hiyamori was starting to feel stressful again, he wanted to light a cigarette but because of the forbidden rule of smoking he couldn't. He swore the rules under his breath so the family couldn't hear him. He tried to get the words to come out of his mouth, but his body wouldn't obey him. He wanted to end this quickly so he finally managed to burp the words out. "I-it seems that Nagisa-san had leukemia when she was six. It's very common for teenagers and child but the disease is called acute lymphocyte leukemia. It original appears often when the patient is under six, and it reappears again after several years." Rie couldn't take all the surprises anymore. She fell down to her knees in shock and shamed of herself. How couldn't she have seen that? Why didn't she take her to a doctor? Because she was too optimistic of her daughter is going to be okay. She let out a wail as Takashi wrapped his arms around her. He began to shed tears.

Nagisa regained consciousness but still with her eyes closed, she felt really comfortable wherever she was. She smelled disinfect material which led her to think that she was home with her mother aside her, probably because she got badly hurt because she fell down during practising lacrosse. No wait. She remembered talking to her parents about the blood spot on the bathroom blanket which Ryouta found. They were furious over her because she didn't tell them about her health condition when she got from the doctor. She began to realize that she must have passed out again. Her mind drifted out again when she felt like the room was colder than ever, even it is in the middle of May. She smiled pleasantly as she felt the warm on her body; something soft and comfy. She didn't felt like sleeping anymore, but she didn't wanted to wake up otherwise her parents would scold her. She heard some rustles around her. Curiously, she half opened her eyes but everything was too blurry. A blurry image of white with Red Cross on the top appeared in her sight. As it cleared out, it was revealed that it was one of the nurses. "Good morning, sleepy head." She said friendly and handed her three pills. Nagisa took her hand out to get the pills. The nurse pushed a silver cart outside as she said her goodbyes. Confused, she looked around, nobody was in the room, she sighed in relieved. She looked at the pills strangely but was interrupted by Doctor Hiyamori. "Ah, Nagisa-san. Good thing you're awake." Nagisa clenched her hand into a fist while watching the doctor approaching her.

"How do you feel?"

"Confused." Hiyamori chuckled. "Well, that's the first thing that patients feel when they wake up from passing out. Now take those pills, here's some water." He handed Nagisa the water from the cart that was beside her bed. Hiyamori smiled as Nagisa looked at him. Knowing that Hiyamori won't leave until she gulped down the pills, she threw the pills in her mouth and took a big gulp, sticking her tongue out afterwards in disgust of the taste of the pills. Hiyamori chuckled over Nagisa's face before he stood up and was about to leave the room. "Wait." Hiyamori obeyed when she called him.

"Where's my family?"

"They are outside the hall. They've been waiting for you to wake up. Do you want me to call them over?" Nagisa stared blankly at Hiyamori. After all the lying, her family was still beside her. She smiled sadly, turning to Hiyamori and nodded. "Onee-chan!" was the first thing Ryouta said when he saw Nagisa awake, running over to her to give a big hug. This time, Nagisa let him hug her; usually she'd punch him on the head. Takashi and Rie followed him behind; when she noticed them, her smile turned into guiltiness. She looked away from her parents, she couldn't look at them anymore she was afraid that they are too mad. Swallowing her own spit, she gathered up courage. "Mom…" She stopped automatically. Rie approached her to the bedside. Rie took a seat on the edge of the bed while looking at her daughter with angry expression. Nagisa avoided her mother's eyes. She shut her eyes close to prepare for the scolding. But Rie gave her enormous hug, which at that point startled and confused Nagisa.

"Thank goodness you're okay." Rie expressed her feelings. Nagisa noticed Takashi overjoyed while Ryouta stood there with his father, smiling. When Rie pulled herself back, Nagisa could meet her eyes. "Mom…I'm sorry for everything…" she couldn't do it with straight face; she cried in the middle of the sentence. Nagisa covered her face on Rie's clothes. "I forgive you." Rie held Nagisa's chin to let her face her as she continued. "Promise me that you will fight this and survive." Nagisa smiled as she nodded happily, tears streaming down her face.

Kujou Hikari woke up after dinnertime. She blinked a few times before she looked at the clock; it was nine pm. She got up and stretched her arms, waking Porun up, who was sleeping on her lap along with Lulun. Porun changed into a stuff animal and snuck out off of the bed without waking Lulun. Hikari threw her sheets gently aside and touched the floor with her barefoot; it was cold which made Hikari shiver but it was not problem with Porun as he just bounced around. Hikari didn't know what to do tonight since she slept through the night. She felt stiff on her legs as she tried to walk over to the small table. After working overtime, it's no wonder. Akane and Hikari went to Osaka to sell takoyaki as a businessman made a deal for them. They came home around six o'clock in the morning home, so she had to skip school which she didn't wanted to do. Hikari recalled that she hasn't heard from Honoka or Nagisa for a long time, not since two days ago. They usually come over to her every day and order takoyaki. Hikari sat down behind the table as she began to find it suspicious, that something must have happened. She heard a rumor two days ago that Honoka and Nagisa were fighting in the classroom and Nagisa snapped at her two best friends but she ignored it as she thought that it was false. Though, she saw that Rina and Shiho acted strangely, never asked where Nagisa was, they were desperate all day. So maybe the rumor is true? But she's never seen them fighting except when something came up between those two when they went skiing along with Nagisa's two friends, Kumata and Fuji-P senpai. She went deep into thoughts, not noticing Porun calling for her. A door opened and Porun quickly changed into a cellphone and hid under the sheet.

"Hikari, are you awake?" Akane asked as she peeked inside. Akane stepped in as she saw Hikari sitting near the small table; she approached her and sat near her. "Hikari." She called her again while waving her hand infront of her. "Huh? Ah, Akane-san. I didn't notice you come in."

"You must be thinking something important. Maybe memorize the answers from the test for tomorrow?" Akane gave a guess. Hikari shook her head.

"Akane-san, haven't you noticed that Honoka-san and Nagisa-san haven't visited us two days ago?" Akane put her index finger under her chin. "Now that I think about it…I heard that Nagisa snapped at Shiho, Rina and Honoka." 'So the rumors were true.' Hikari thought.

"Hikari…there's something I need to talk you about. I heard it from Shiho when she visited me after school." Akane put up a sad smile, which made Hikari worry.

"It's Nagisa…she has leukemia…" Hikari looked confused at Akane, Akane understood that expression and that Hikari didn't know what leukemia was since she was too young and un experienced with Garden Of Ranbow knowledges. "To put it simply; Nagisa is sick. She's held at Wakabadai hospital." Hikari stared blankly at the floor; she wondered how sick she was, was it fatal or was it just normal sickness. This was killing her; she wanted to see Nagisa badly.

"I'll take you to there tomorrow." Hikari nodded without saying a word to Akane when she shut the door. Porun changed back into stuffed animal and stood on the table. "Hikari, will Nagisa be okay-popo?" Hikari patted Porun while replying. "She will; she's strong and I bet it's just a normal sickness."

Akane let her fall down while her back supporting her. Tears streamed down her face. She went into fetal position and buried her face while wailing silently.