Chase The Truth

Chapter 57: Visiting the Hospital

Begin

~Normal POV

11/20 - Sunday

Yu sighed to himself staring out his window. It had been raining the last three days in a row. That meant the fog had come in tonight. He checked the Midnight Channel. No images of any kind. Good. Since Nanako was safe at the hospital and the culprit was arrested, the case must truly be over. There wasn't a reason to check the Midnight Channel anymore. Pretty soon, Inaba was going to be peaceful again.

~...

11/21 - Monday

Yu left the house to head to school and was alarmed to find something very unexpected. The fog from last night was still here.

He looked around. It was morning, with a lot of light, but still he could barely see more than a couple feet in front of him. This can't be right... But he knew the streets of Inaba by heart now, so he started to head to school by memory. He wasn't the only one who was confused by the weather either. He passed a couple of his neighbors talking about how the fog was the only thing in the weekly weather forecast. Which was even more strange. Once he'd reached the school road, he ran into Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko. (Almost literally since he couldn't see well right now.)

"Hey, there you are!" Chie greeted.

"Hey..." Yu noticed the newspaper in Yukiko's hand. "What's going on?"

"Take a look at this." Yosuke said, "Namatame's in today's paper." Yu moved closer to read over Yukiko's shoulder.

"Today before dawn, the suspect Taro Namatame, who had been confined in a local hospital, regained consciousness. In response to police questioning, he testified that he is sorry for what he has done, and was scared. From here on, the police are hoping to solve the entire case based on the suspect's depositions."

"So it's finally over..." Yosuke said, quietly.

"Yeah... seriously... I wish we could have done it sooner..." Chie said, but she was distracted by the weather. "Isn't the fog kinda thick this morning? And it's so chilly..."

"It rarely gets this cold in November..." Yukiko commented.

"Oh- it's you guys!" They heard Adachi approach them. They greeted him happily. "I'm glad I ran into you. I just got a call from the hospital. They said that starting today, it's ok to visit Nanako-chan!"

This cheered them up considerably. "So she's getting a little better!" Chie said, happily, "Thank goodness!"

"Then we'll all go see her after school," Yu said, smiling.

"Oh, is that today's paper?" Adachi asked, "So you already know about him..."

"You will be able to pin a charge on him, right," Yu asked.

"Two counts of kidnappings and murder, and five counts of attempted murder..." Adachi replied, "Those are serious crimes. I think it'll go down in history as one of the worst sprees in Japan... He's still mentally unstable, but we're still piecing together his story. This is a secret, but I guess it's ok to tell you guys... Ya know that diary we found? There were entries about Ms. Yamano and Ms. Konishi in it. Looks like Namatame had been making advances on Ms. Konishi."

Yosuke's face hardened. "That son of a bitch..."

"Well, I'm gonna head over to the hospital now." Adachi said, "Dojima-san's still recovering too, so I need to go over a few things about this case with him." He gave a little wave and walked away.

"Yosuke..." Chie said, sympathetically.

"Sorry..." Yosuke said, "I'm alright... Namatame's been caught. He can't hurt anyone now..." He spent the rest of their walk to school looking very relieved by this fact.

~...

After school, the whole team hurried over to the hospital, all eager to see Nanako. They met up with Adachi and Dojima in her room. Dojima actually wasn't allowed out of his room yet, but had made Adachi help him into a wheelchair to go see Nanako too. Just like the stubborn old man he was, he didn't seem to give a damn about his own injuries. Even though Nanako would have wanted him to heal properly first. It was a little cramped in here with so many people, but nobody was in the mood to care. Nanako was lying in her bed, breathing softly.

"Nanako?" Dojima said, gently. "Everyone's here to see you."

Nanako weakly opened her eyes and looked up at all the relieved faces of everyone. "Mm... Big bro..." She said, softly, smiling at her cousin.

She sounded like it pained her to speak right now, but she was still in a cheery mood. Just in a very quiet way. A few moments later, a nurse came in to tell Dojima to go back to his room.

"Are your injuries really that bad," Yukiko asked worriedly.

Dojima sighed, "Well, my wounds have just closed up, and it seems I have a couple of fractures as well."

"I'm sorry, I'll take him back to his room." Adachi said, sheepishly.

"What are you apologizing for?" Dojima asked dryly, as the nurse left again.

"Big... bro..." Nanako said, quietly.

Yu gently grabbed her hand. "I'm here..."

"Yeah..." Nanako said, smiling, "I'm so glad..." She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and fell back asleep.

Yu affectionately squeezed her hand before letting go. They figured she could use the rest and the group left the room together. In the hall, they ran into the doctor in charge of her. He had something important to tell them all.

"Her condition is stable for now, but... I never thought I'd say this as a doctor, but... We still can't figure out the cause of Nanako-chan's symptoms."

The Investigation Team tried to avoid sharing uncomfortable knowing looks with each other. They knew the problem came from being in the tv world. But there was no way they could explain it to the hospital staff. Even Dojima and Adachi didn't believe it. Though they'd stopped asking.

"That's why we can only administer temporary treatments to alleviate her current pains," The doctor finished.

"But she's not in danger anymore, is she?" Dojima asked, worriedly.

"She's regained consciousness, but we can't let our guard down yet... All we can do for now is to monitor her condition closely..."

"Adachi, how's it going with Namatame?" Dojima asked.

"Well, he's awake now, but he's in no condition to tell us anything useful. We only get a little time each day to interrogate him, so we're stuck until his strength recovers."

"I see..." Dojima said, "I should get back to work as soon as possible. Hopefully by then, Nanako will be out of the hospital..."

"Hm. I think Nanako-chan can get more peace and quiet if she stays here." Adachi replied, "It's so foggy out, and there's been some weird rumors going around... Seems like no one knows why there's so much fog in town."

"It's true." The doctor said, "The number of patients complaining about fog-related health problems has increased... Which is quite unusual..."

"Is the fog poisonous, or something?" Yu asked.

"I can't say for sure that it has no effect on the human body..." The doctor answered, "It could certainly be a psychological effect. People's anxiety over the fog could cause problems. But as far as the fog's chemical makeup... Well, that's not my field, so I can only speculate. What concerns me is that the transportation of our medical supplies has been delayed due to the fog..."

"Fog-related health problems..." Dojima commented, "That's just ridiculous. Anyone who says that is just blowing smoke."

Maybe he was right. Or maybe he wasn't. But they couldn't do anything about the weather. All they could do now was keep waiting for Nanako to get better.

~End of Chapter