A Thousand Cranes for a Wish (USHIJIMA X OC)

Missing

"Has anyone seen Umeko?" Tendou tottered around the gym searching high and low in an almost comical manner.

There was a chorus of responses, all of them however led up to one answer. No. The team continued to collect the balls after they had finished their serving drills. It had already been an hour since they returned on campus but there was still no sign of her.

"Maybe she fell asleep in her dorm room?" Kawanishi suggested.

"I don't think so." Shirabu furrowed his eyebrows then took out his phone to check for any text messages. After she had revealed her time travel secret to him, Umeko had insisted that they exchange phone numbers. Shirabu agreed - much to his future dismay. There is no way she is asleep. She doesn't sleep till three in the morning. There were more than a few texts he had received during that ungodly hour from her as proof. As far as he was aware, she had never fallen asleep before eleven in the evening. No text messages from her. How odd.

This time Ushijima hastily snuck a quick glance at his phone. He also didn't receive a message from her. While they didn't always text each other frequently he knew that Umeko wasn't the sort of person to make a promise to meet then break it without good reason. Ushijima felt a sense of foreboding but quickly dismissed it. He put his phone away and looked back to face the team. Where could she be?

"I'll call her." Tendou chirped as he held his phone up. Two rings passed then three then straight to voicemail.

"Hello! This is Umeko. I'm probably pretty busy right now so uh, can you call back later? Or text! Texting is better actually. Please leave a message after the beep!"

He was slightly shocked that Umeko didn't answer, usually she would pick up right away. He called once more, and the same thing happened. "I guess she is asleep. She didn't answer her phone."

----------

"Cuddle-bug..." Mr. Akiyama sat beside his daughter on the bed and pulled her into a hug. "You heard what the doctor said. It's possible with surgery."

"B-but..." She let out a single sob that eventually became a torrent of tears once more. The hospital room was as devoid of beauty as Umeko was of hope. There was no decoration at all save the limp curtain that separated her bed from the three others inside. It was perhaps once the kind of green that reminded people of springtime and hope, but it faded so much that the hue was instead insipid and sickening.

"Do you think you can tell us what happened? From your perspective?" Mrs. Akiyama sat on the opposite side of the bed and gently held Umeko's hand.

Umeko nodded. "If I'm being honest, it feels as if this all happened to someone else. It felt like perhaps, I witnessed the scene in a movie one time. The noise, mangled metal, and injuries are what kept it real for me." Umeko sighed weakly as she closed her eyes. She remembered the heat from the fire, the cold metal on her skin and the shattered glass slicing at her. At the time the pain had brought Umeko to the point of blacking out, but according to the ambulance staff, she was in and out of consciousness during the whole ride to the hospital.

As soon as Umeko saw a faint outline of a woman her eyes snapped open. She didn't want to see her, the woman she couldn't save. She began to recount what had happened. It was her hope that perhaps if she talked about it, then the burden would be easier to bear.

----------

Alex clutched his sister tightly, both of them inconsolable. In the span of just a few hours both their parents had died in an accident. "M-mum and D-dad..." his voice was hoarse from his desolate wails. A sound so much in despair that it shook the world around him.