My Lie in October

Chapter 22

He got permission to leave school since it was his last period and it was only a practice hour. With the information received from the secretary, he made his way over to the right hospital, right floor, and right room.

Walking in, he saw Sakura on a large hospital bed, asleep from the drugs that were being pumped into her through various tubes of all sizes. Some of those were just measuring vitals. Next to the bed was Sakura's mother, sitting on a stool and looking back at Kousei.

He didn't really feel any hospital gitters he would normally feel probably because he saw a mother observing the bed, not actually being in it.

Kousei walked a little further into the room and sat across the bed from Sakura's mom. He didn't know what to say. Should he ask what happened, or comfort the mom, or just say nothing? He chose number three because he couldn't figure out whether to do number one or two.

After a while, Mrs. Nakamura said, "It's Arima, right?"

Kousei waited a bit before responding to fit the solemn mood. "You can call me Kousei."

She nodded slowly then looked back at her daughter on the bed, background noises of beeping machines filling the air.

She audibly breathed in and said, "They'll keep her like this until tomorrow, then bring her out of sleep."

Kousei finally couldn't hold it in any longer. "What. Happened?"

Mrs. Nakamura sighed. "When she didn't come home Monday night, I was really worried. At about 23:30, I got a call. Someone found her sitting on the edge of a freeway bridge. It was really hard to get her out of that situation, but once the police showed up, they were able to bring her here."

"So no injuries?"

She shook her head. "Nothing remotely serious."

Kousei exhaled in slight relief. But he still had questions. "Do you know why?"

"Only theories. Though I'm afraid she won't tell me why when she wakes up." Mrs. Nakamura looked up at Kousei. "I might need you to help get it out of her tomorrow. Think you can do that?"

He nodded in agreement. "Of course." They stayed there for a little while longer until the doctor kicked them out so he could administer more happy drugs. But as Kousei was leaving, he saw in the doctor's medical cart several pain medications, bandages, and other medicines for moderate wounds.