Murder?? At the wonderstage

Part 2 - Unwanted Guilt.

Not a single word was said between Rui, Nene or Emu, well, there was nothing that could be said. The waiting room in the hospital matched everyone's mood, dull and cold. Emu's second oldest brother, Shosuke, had driven them there and had planned to wait with them until Tsukasa's parents arrived. At this point, they had been sitting in the waiting room for almost 20 minutes in silence, until a buzzing sound filled the room. It would have been better for everyone if that sound was replaced with a doctor telling every Shosuke then stood up, "Sorry, I have to take this." He said and stepped outside the room. Again, silence. Everyone's heads hung low.

The call went on for longer than it seemed, and suddenly there was another person in the room. "Saki!" They all let out and ran over to hug her. Saki's eyes were red and puffy, tears still spilling from her eyes. She was hunched over and out of breath. "I.. ha.. ran.. moms.. ha.. on her.. ha.. way.." She wiped the tears from her cheeks, even though she was still crying heavily. "Saki, you need to sit down-" Nene told her. Saki ignored Nene and continued talking after she had fully caught her breath and was now just crying. "Has there been any news? How was he? What even happened?" I swear i'm going to kill whoever-" She was standing up straight now, looking at each of them as she asked the questions, finishing on Rui. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Rui's outfit, the sight made her let out a small squeal before she hunched over and balled. Her tears were unstoppable. Rui knelt down to her and wrapped his arms around her in an attempt of comfort, he was now balling with her. He whispered sobs of sorrow in her ear, "Saki, I'm so sorry, this never should have happened, I'm sorry..". She rested her head on his shoulder and whispered back. "Whoever did this is going to pay the price for messing with my brother." Her words seemed a lot bolder than she was capable of, but no one said anything because they couldn't imagine what she must've been feeling then.

5 minutes later, Shosuke Otori walked back in the door and just simply looked at the four teenagers and said, "So you're the contact that Kamishiro called?". His voice offered no sorrow or comfort, it was almost cold. Saki stood up and bowed slightly out of respect. "Yes sir, I'm Tsukasa's sister, Saki. Our mother is on her way.."

She turned away from him before looking back from a few feet away. "I hope you can withstand my mother, because trust me there is a lot of things she's going to say." She added. Rui, Nene and Emu watched in disbelief. THE Saki Tenma just said that? It sounded so cold! "Oh my goodness!! I'm so sorry, that sounded so rude! I meant my mother is very annoyed and worried and might come off as a bit aggressive when she gets here!" She bowed low in an act to ask for his forgiveness. "Its fine, Anyway.. You three.." Shosuke looked at the three other teenagers who stood up as he spoke. "The wonderstage has been shut down for investigation, Keisuke is with the police right now. Each of you will be brought in for questioning at a later date, but rest assured that none of the props or robots or whatever else you guys keep there will be damaged" He explained. "You should all sit back down, I doubt anything will happen soon."

The clock on the wall read thirty-two minutes past five, only then did a doctor walk into the waiting room. "You're all here for Tsukasa Tenma, right?" He asked. Everyone nodded. "Alright, well he's doing.. alright.. he's on oxygen and is being actively monitored.." The doctor said. "How is he, as in, about the bullet that went through him? As in, why he's here?" Rui asked, a bit of anger in his voice. "About that, he wasn't shot directly in any internal organs, but the bullet is inches away from his left lung, which could be fatal." He added. "What can be done about it?".

"There is a surgery that we plan to do to remove the bullet, but he is much too weak right now-". He was interrupted by a loud voice, almost as loud as Tsukasa's, if not louder. "But You said you don't even have blood filtering into his body? How is he going to get stronger without blood?". The doctor was stunned. "Uh.. no, we've tried but it just keeps pouring out through the wound-''. Saki looked at him, desperate. "Is there anything that can be done to help?". The doctor replied, "Well there are a few options of what we could do, we can try to have the drip positioned elsewhere in an attempt to regain his blood levels, because he has lost a lot, and if that works we can perform the surgery sooner..". Everyone's faces looked a bit more hopeful. "Can you please try that, then?" Saki asked calmly. "Alright, well, we legally can't do it without a parent or guardian's perm-".

"Go ahead with the surgery and stop wasting time that could be spent looking after my son, or we're going to have bigger issues than just all this nonsense". There was now a seventh person in the room, a lady dressed stylishly and who was wearing sunglasses to cover the puffy tears from her eyes. "Mom!" Saki exclaimed and hugged her mother as the doctor hurried away from the room. "How is he? I didn't hear what he said before he said that last part." She asked. "He's fine for now, as you now know they're going to do a surgery to remove the bullet." Shosuke blankly explained. "Oh? And who might you be?" Mrs Tenma asked. "Shosuke Otori, my brother and I run Phoenix Wonderland." He replied. He honestly couldn't see what Saki had been talking about earlier, she seemed polite. "So you're the one who let this happen? Who let a murderer into your theme park?" She lowered her glasses and gave him a cold stare. He had thought too soon. "Well-"

"Well? You know it's true. YOU let this happen, and now this mistake might cost my son's life. And you decide to call me daughter rather than me?" She complained. "None of us have your number-" He insisted. "No, you have both me and my husband's numbers signed along with our names on Tsukasa's contract of employment." Shosuke slapped his hand to his head. "The contracts.. we forgot the contracts.."

"You forgot? How professional. You know what? How rude of me, let's take this to the corridor, I'm sure the rest of your cast members in this room are emotionally exhausted enough." She said, and urged him to follow her outside the door, to which he obliged. "Mom stop please" Saki said before they had gotten outside the waiting room. "Saki? What do you mean?" She asked. "It's not Mr Otori's fault, it's whoever let the murderer into the park didn't do the security check properly, and most of all, the murderer. It's not like Mr Otori was the one who shot him, so please don't." Saki explained, she could see that Emu became a bit more relaxed as Saki said this. Nene grabbed her hand and ran her thumb over her knuckles. Emu was thankful for the warmth of her girlfriends hand amongst all of this darkness. "I suppose you're right, that was so rude of me! Mr Otori I deeply apologise for my behaviour, it was very immature of me". Like Saki earlier, she too bowed low in a form of apology. Shosuke let out a large sigh. "Its fine, I get it, my sister, Hinata, would probably be the exact the same, plus I don't get paid enough for this." He shook Mrs Tenma's hand and they too sat down on the plastic, uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room. Mrs Tenma began talking to Shosuke about the legal consequences of the accident, but the three girls stayed silent. Rui couldn't say anything either, he felt as if this whole situation was his fault, he should have known, he should have stopped it. Tsukasa was his boyfriend, he should have prevented this whole situation. He was the director, Everyone trusted him, and yet here they were, Tsukasa's family, his other troupe-mates sitting in a cold hospital waiting room, hoping on every star in the sky that he wasn't dead.

The doctor walked back into the room shortly after, causing anticipation to surround the small room. "The surgery went well, the bullet was removed successfully". Everyone sighed a sigh of relief. "So he's ok? Can we see him?" Rui asked excitedly. If he could see Tsukasa, everything was going to be ok, he wasn't dead, this guilt would be no more. "About that.. you can see him, but he won't be able to see you, and possibly not hear you.." The doctor began. "Why?" Emu asked, probably one of the only things she had said yet, but she felt as though it wasn't her place to talk anywhere else. "Well, he has fallen into a coma, and we can't estimate how long it will last..". Any bit of relief or happiness was gone. You could feel the sadness filling the room and everyone just looked down, upset. The doctor told them what room he would be in and told them the hospital's visiting times. Mrs Tenma thanked the doctor with a false sweetness in her voice. He left and Saki's eyes filled up and she began crying harder than ever, with the other three joining in seconds later.

Everyone had been urged to go home that night, no matter how many protests came from Rui and Saki. Rui laid flat on his bed, choosing not to do anything except try to sleep, but he couldn't. Tsukasa's words rang around in his head. "I love you, Rui.". The words haunted him. The memories of Tsukasa's motionless body on the place where they brought smiles to all of their guests. And all of those children in the audience..

Tsukasa was in a coma. He was just constantly unconscious. Rui couldn't believe it. He had caused this. He should have jumped in front and protected his boyfriend.

There was a knock on Rui's door. "Hey, Rui.. everything ok? It's still pretty early to be sleeping yet.." His mother called in the door. He sat up and forced a smile on his face "Yes, mom, I'm fine! Just a bit tired.." He said. He refused to tell his parents about what had happened yet, he didn't have the emotional strength to do it. "Alright then.. oh! How did the new curtain on the stage work? I'm sure Tsukasa-kun was very impressed as always!" She smiled. Rui just looked at her and fake-smiled. This conversation was going on painfully long.. but he couldn't ignore his mom.

"Yeah mom, he loved it.."