His Lie in April - 四月の彼の嘘 (Shigatsu no Kare no Uso) (COMPLETE)

"It's All Gone....."

~TWO DAYS LATER~

And now, the results of this week's CFL action. The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost the Toronto Argonauts, 32-21, the B.C. Lions beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30-24.....

It was now September 2. It had been two days since Kousei's operation. Having been largely left in the dark about Kousei, Kaori was feeling listless, going through the motions daily and just running on emotional fumes. She woke up on this warm early September day, clad in her Saskatchewan Roughrider team T-shirt. She was feeling all blah inside.

"It's too damn hot today..... what am I doing? Poor Kousei..... I want to know how he is..... but I don't know what's going on with him. Oh, what do I care? I should probably get back on my violin."

With that, Kaori just got out her violin and bow out of its case once again and started playing. Unfortunately, it was now clear that thanks to all those worries about Kousei consuming her, her violin skills were now completely gone. She sounded like someone that had no experience on the violin at all. This was now all coming home to roost for Kaori, her worries over Kousei. She stopped playing, looked at her hands, looking somewhat frail and weak, and she looked over her situation.

"What happened to me? It's gone.... It's all gone. This just sucks! My mind.... is all jumbled up because of poor Kousei! Oh, I can't do this anymore.... I've faltered completely! I'm doubting myself, and worst of all, I can't even play the violin worth shit anymore! I used to play the violin so magnificently. But all these months worrying about Kousei and doubting myself.... they've caught up with me. My violin skills have gone kaput! Oh, dear lord, this is terrible! All these years of training, wasted, down the drain! Ah, screw this, why did I ever choose the damn violin! I'm going to just play my Famicom! What's the use, dammit?! The violin is now of no consequence or interest to me anymore!" She then just put away her violin and bow back in its case, just feeling defeated over this turn of events.

Kaori then went back into the living room of her residence and looked over the new plastic box that contained the additional 50 Famicom games that she had found recently. One of the games that caught her eye this time was Konami's Road Fighter. Indeed, given the fact that she just couldn't play the violin to save her life anymore, all that was keeping her from going full-on catatonic was playing her Famicom games and walking on the WALK THIS WAY line she had marked in her room. Both seemed to be doing a good enough job from stopping her from going insane completely. However, this would soon change, as a huge dam of emotions would break through her.

Meanwhile, Watari and Tsubaki took a walk around Tokyo. They, too, were left in the dark about Kousei, and had no idea how he was holding up. They also were unaware of the seizure that led to his emergency surgery.

Watari lamented "This has been a terrible summer, Tsubaki. I can't believe that our Kousei, in such a short amount of time went from being all happy about things after shunning us for a while, to just about on the brink of death." 

Tsubaki nodded. "You know, I can't help but think about this..... what if that day comes when he finally does go? I know I don't want to think about, but sometimes, for me..... it just creeps up in my mind. What did a guy like Kousei Arima ever do to deserve three blows to the head and lose his left foot?" Watari said "I don't know. I just found out that had PTSD from all those times his mother was just, well..... cruel to her. I guess when you have that, plus all these tragic events that happen to you now, it's a recipe for tragedy." 

Tsubaki then said "And poor Kaori..... we're just with her, just watching Kousei from a distance, just slowly deteriorating into nothing. How do you think she'll be when Kousei finally bites the dust?!" Watari then noticed "You know, you're right. She's now walled herself off from us, just watching Canadian football games and playing her Famicom. Is this what's become of her, too, like Kousei before she met Kaori? I hope that she gets better soon, and that Kousei, does too. I think we're both getting worried about Kaori and Kousei.... and quite frankly, I'm scared." "Me too, Watari..... I fear of what will happen when Kousei's world finally collapses, and Kaori's does with it, as well....."

Later that night, Takahiko and Hiroko received a phone call. They would be in for quite a surprise over how Kousei fared in his major surgery. He had to be operated on his brain, mostly, but they also operated on him on a few other places that was related to the condition that his mother had. 

"Good evening, Mrs. Seto and Mr. Arima, we do have some good news regarding your son, Kousei. By some miraculous way, he DID survive the operation. There is some bad news, however: Your son is in even worse shape than before. In addition to the fact that he can no longer walk, he is nearly both blind and deaf. On top of this, he is confined to a wheelchair, and he is malnourished as well, because of this, he can no longer eat solid foods; his speech has also now slowed down to a near-crawl; he is nearly paralyzed. Sadly, what we will do with him next remains unknown, but will try and revisit this issue sometime in the near future with you, Mr. Arima." Takahiko started to cry. "Oh, my god..... so he's doing okay, but is worse off than before? Oh, damn...." Hiroko then asked "Well, what is going to happen to him?" 

The doctor said "The problem is, he is a semi-vegetable now. He is usually up for like, 6 or 7 hours per day, and then goes back out of consciousness. The brain damage he suffered was so severe, we do believe that he has CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is normally a condition seen in athletes. It is hard to believe, but Kousei has been in the equivalent of about, by our count, 100 car crashes because of these three blows to the head. Sadly, this is why we think he has only a year, at best, left in him. I'm sorry, Mr. Arima, and Mr. Seto, we have tried our best, but we are almost out of options left for Kousei...." 

Takahiko broke down and cried, and abruptly ended the call. "Thank you..... goodbye. I'm sorry, I can't talk any further..... my heart just breaks right now....." As the phone call ended, Takahiko was now sobbing. "I can't believe it.... my son.... once the brightest musical star in this country..... is almost on his last legs now...." 

Hiroko then tried to comfort Kousei's father. "It's not your fault, Takahiko. We have tried our best to help Kousei get out of his personal hell...... but these unfortunate events were just too much for him. I think I, alongside with his friend, Kaori, should see him again soon..... because who knows where he'll go from here." Takahiko said "Okay..... thank you for coming by to see me..... life is just damn unfair...." Hiroko then continued to hug the sobbing Takahiko Arima into the night.