A Shatterd soul

Ch.7

As consciousness slowly seeped back into his weary mind, the sterile scent of antiseptic assaulted his nostrils, and the soft hum of machines filled the silence. Blinking open his eyes, Takemichi found himself lying in a familiar hospital room, bathed in the pale glow of fluorescent lights. The room felt like a second home to him, a snort escaped when thinking of all the times he was in the same position he's in now.

His gaze wandered across the clinical surroundings, taking in the well-worn furniture and the chairs organized in the corner of the room. But it was the sight of Emma, standing silently next to him, her eyes welling up with unshed tears, that caught his attention and sent a jolt of worry through his body.

Had he failed? Did something happen to Pah-chin-anyone?

Takemichi tried to push down the uncertainty he felt and asked Emma, his voice raspy and trembling with concern as he spoke. "Emma... What happened?"

Emma took a deep, shaky breath, her voice barely above a whisper. Her brown pants and off-shoulder puffy sleeves top in mint accentuated her delicate features, though now marred by the traces of tears that lined her cheeks. "Draken called me," she said, her words laced with sadness. "I don't know what happened, but when I got there, I found you." A stray tear fell from her eyes, and Takemichi's heart ached at the sight. "Mikey and Draken... they're fighting. Toman got split in two." she continued as tears fell freely from her eyes as her voice trembled and her shoulders tensed and shook.

"Why?" he already knew why. But he wanted to make sure of it and not jump straight to conclusions, as that was (one of ) the most disliked feature of his.

"I don't really know... but I think it's about Pah turning himself in," Emma replied, her voice heavy with uncertainty.

Oh. So he did fail.

Why would Pah turn himself in anyway? Was it because of him? Or because of how he almost attempted to kill someone?

The reasoning behind it wouldn't help his case, though. The plan was for Pah not to go to jail. Not turning himself in and messing everything up. Although he guessed it was mainly his fault for stepping in, what was he supposed to do? Last time he didn't do anything and got beat up by Osanai, and when he didn't intervene, Pah still got arrested.

A headache bloomed in his head, and he tried to comfort the shaking Emma, who had dropped her head and started sobbing next to him. Gently, he rubbed her back with his bandaged hand, which he hadn't noticed until now, only intensifying her cries.

"Don't cry, Emma-chan! I'm sure everything will be okay," he muttered comforting words to the weeping girl next to him, hoping to reassure himself rather than her.

Emma kept on crying until her eyes were red and puffy, mumbling incoherent words that he tried so hard to grasp but couldn't.

Once she finally calmed down, which relieved Takemichi because she was bawling her eyes out, he couldn't say anything because he is-...was... an even bigger crybaby. Another disliked feature of his.

He shook his head slightly and scattered those thoughts away. This wasn't about him. It was about them. And they were way more important than him and his pathetic emotions.

He offered Emma a grin that didn't quite reach his ears as a way of showing her that everything would be okay.

She sniffed and offered a smile of her own, a bit sad but also relieved. They tried to engage in small talk, but the air suddenly became uncomfortable.

The small talk turned into almost an hour of talking about everything and nothing at the same time. It was... fun. He hadn't realized Emma had a sweet tooth that almost rivaled her brother's.