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THE GIRL COULD BARELY open her eyes, unable to blink away her tears or do much of anything else. Her lungs were on fire. Smoke burned at her throat; she could barely breathe. Akuji opened her mouth to take in a huge gulp of oxygen, but instead coughed up an immense amount of blood.
Suddenly, a woman Akuji vaguely recognised from earlier was by her side. "Let me help." She said, already shrugging off her white jacket, folding it neatly and placing it carefully under Akuji's head before she could even register what was happening. "Keep breathing; I think the effects of the gas goes away after a bit of oxygen."
Akuji nodded numbly, trying to focus on her breathing. Then, she vomited – violently. She hadn't eaten in a while so it was just a gross mess of her stomach's empty contents, along with lots of blood. Most of it went onto her clothes, the other parts hitting the cold pavement beneath her.
Suddenly, her body began to jerk. Her body went stiff, eyes stuck open and staring at nothing. Her arms and legs struck out harshly, unintentionally hitting the woman who had helped her.
Akuji could hear everyone around her coughing and vomiting, but it didn't seem that anyone was enduring the same suffering she was.
When Akuji's body finally stopped jerking, she was laid on her side. She wasn't aware of what was going on. She just knew that someone was gently moving her body into the recovery position.
Once she finally gained some sort of consciousness again, she looked up to realise who had helped her was the 'Cool Headed' person that she worked with in the game.
"It's you." She said.
"It's me." They replied with a small smile.
Then, Akuji let her head drop onto the jacket, enjoying its soft cushioning. When her body seized, she had hurt her head quite some, and she enjoyed how the soft material seemed to ease the aching.
'Cool Headed' asked, "How are you feeling? Do you think you will be okay?"
Akuji had little energy left after her seizure. She was sure her energy supply was going to be permanently low. Still, she nodded, knowing that she had things to do: get food, create a shelter, find her other friends – most importantly, go back to Akane, safe and sound.
The woman nodded at her, "Alright, that's good. I have to go find my brother now but if you feel sick, dizzy, have a headache or if you feel like you're having a general out of body sensation – those are the signs of you having another seizure."
With that, 'Cool Headed' left and Akuji was on her own for a while. She tried to get comfortable on the hard pavement, too weak to get up for now. But suddenly, she was pulled into someone's arms.
"Please, please, I can't lose you, too." Arisu whispered, voice strangled from emotion.
Using all of her strength, Akuji reached up to gently wipe away the tears from Arisu's eyes. She smiled up at him, silently trying to comfort him.
"What do I do?" Arisu murmured. He hadn't noticed until now but tears were streaming down his face, thick and fast. "I can't lose you. I can't."
"I'm–I'm okay." Akuji managed to get out, "Someone helped me."
She looked up at Arisu, who was now smiling happily but still crying. Tenderly and slowly, he reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently in relief and comfort. Akuji squeezed back, managing a smile although she had begun to softly weep, too.
"Can you get up?" Arisu asked and once the girl nodded, he wrapped her arm around his shoulder so her weight was leaning on him, "Here, use me for support."
"Thank you." Akuji said as she did so. Her legs were unsteady and her head was dizzy and she was absolutely sure her balance was permanently fucked, but other than that she was okay. Whilst she was grabbing onto Arisu's arm to make sure she didn't topple over, the two left.
And not only did Akuji feel physical pain, she felt a bit of emotional pain, too. She missed them already; and she felt sad.
Sad that she wouldn't be able to get to know the person that saved her life.
AUTHOR NOTES i literally love akuji's and arisu's dynamic if u cant tell he rlly is a big brother figure to her 😭❤️
