[Charlotte] Seventy-Five Years (Discontinued)

Chapter 11: Family

I wanted to ask why Furuki-san holds the cure for Iori. But at the same time, I know I shouldn't. Yuu looked at his wristwatch. Three more hours...

Three knocks had been delivered on Furuki's wooden door. Thinking it was his wife, the dark blue-haired man quickly went to it. As soon as he opened it, he was left in surprise. Furuki didn't know if he was to close the door or not.

After what had happened in Yuu's case, they never met again. And now in this situation, quite unfortunate for him, he felt like he somehow needed to deal with.

"It's been a long time isn't it, Furuki-san?" He carved a smile on his face.

"S-Shunsuke-sa..n..," snapping out of his surprise, Furuki began defending himself. "I didn't mean to leave him back then! I..!"

"Don't worry about it, Furuki-san," sighed a younger lad. "It wasn't your fault; we're completely blackmailed. The important thing is I'm alive, right?"

"Yeah, but..," a deeper frown was drawn on his face. "What about Kumagami-san..?"

Everyone avoided Furuki's gazes, their brows narrowed in sadness.

"I-I see... If I didn't do all those, Kumagami-san could have-"

"Furuki-san," interrupted Shunsuke. "I'm sure Kumagami had forgiven you already," he looked up at Furuki with his usual smile. "He did understand why you did it, anyway," explained the lad further. "If you wouldn't mind, we would like to talk to you about something important."

"Important?"

---

Everyone sat on their fluffy sofa whilst they prepared themselves to listen to their conversation. Nao and Yuu kept giving each other conversational glances, enough for the people around them to tell that something was probably up.

Furuki handed a bottle of medicine to Yuu. "It's the cure for Iori-chan's inability to move. That is a medicine my ancestors made. Being unable to move was a heredity in the clan. With that, they made the cure themselves. I hope it works for her."

A vivid, happy smile was drawn on Yuu's lips, as of immediately getting hold of the medicine. "Thank you, Furuki-san!" Quickly, he shifted his gazes to his girlfriend. "Let's go and cure her!"

Nao only smiled in agreement.

The two skipped away, leaving Shunsuke and Takajou in Furuki's care, which they didn't think of that much. The gentlemen let the two be, for they know Iori better.

Locating Furuki's whereabouts hadn't been that easy for the group. It took them roughly six days to finally see him when he fled from his old home
to find a new one after what happened between him, Kumagami and Yuu.

As soon as the two stepped out from the amenity, Nao looked up at her boyfriend. "How many hours left?"

The lad looked at his wristwatch. "Two hours, and fourty-five minutes."

With furrowed brows, Nao went back inside.

"Nao?! Hey!"

However, Yuu's shouts didn't lead him to anywhere. Leaving him there with no choice, he followed the tracks of his girlfriend.

The door opened with a thud, people inside were alerted. All of their eyes were on the platinum blonde lass whilst waiting for her to speak. "..?"

"Takajou," called Nao as she walked towards him and dragged him by the collar.

"Wh, what seems to be-," tried the latter to speak in between his breath. "Tomori-san?!"

The door closed, leaving the others speechless. Furuki looked at Shunsuke. Though he was unsure of what to say, he still managed to say a few words regarding the recent scene. "Will he be alright..?"

Shunsuke let out a short chuckle. "It's normal."

Normal..? Only a sweat drop on the side of his temple came visible as his response to Shunsuke's statement.

---

Takajou's pants and incomplete complaints echoed on the road, until Nao finally let go of his collar. "We need your ability to help us get to the hospital before the alotted time ends. If we're going to commute, we might not make it in time."

So that was it, huh? Asked Yuu to himself. She could have said so...

The teleport user fixed the location of his eyeglasses using his pointer finger. "I'll be glad to be of help," but please let Yusarin see me!

With a blink of an eye, the three were now standing in front of the hospital where Iori sure was located. They climbed down from his ever-so-strong friend, Takajou, and went inside the amenity in a hurry. Along with the sound of their pants as they hurried inside was their heavy steps.

"We are Iori Sekiguchi's visitors. May we know her room number?"

"Sekiguchi-san is in room 209."

"Thank you very much."

Nao and Yuu already know her room number; asking it again was their way of not being rude, also just as Takajou would know. As soon as they received the nurse's response, the three headed to the second floor.

Tilting the door knob open, Honoka nor Iori wasn't inside at all.

Where did they..?

A nurse, who they seemed to had stumbled before, was standing before the door as well. Iori's hood and other personal things of the lass were on the arms of her caretaker. "Aren't you guys Iori-chan's visitor?"

They nodded in unison.

She looked down in a frown, obviously sad. "She's...gone."

Gone?!

"W-What do you mean "gone"? She was just-"

"It is as I say. I see no reason joking about a person's death," the nurse sighed. "Poor little girl. She was so energetic..."

Nao was close to crying, but she did her best not to. The lass shifted her gazes towards the staff, and asked her a question. "Where is Iori-chan?"

"She was delivered to room 127."

"Thank you," nodded Nao, then they went off.

When they arrived, they saw in their own eyes the lifeless body of the person they were trying to save. Both Nao and Yuu shed tears in silence, Takajou looking down to avoid the sad atmosphere at the very least.

The powder of cure Yuu was holding caught his attention. "At least..," he mumbled. "Let me deliver this to her..." Without awaiting for Nao's command like the usual, Yuu sprinkled the powder over Iori's lifeless body. They waited for a bit to see if her body would react, but to no avail. Iori is gone.

"Let's go," said the maroon-eyed male; voice, though firmly kept, was shielded with sandness, and guilt for being unable to save her on time.

All of them left the room; Unfortunate enough that they didn't notice the small movement of Iori's fingers.