♠ ♦ Alice in Borderland ♣ ♥

47

The hazy fog my head is in becomes less and less hazy, until I'm at the point where my senses start making perceptions.

Slowly the sound of squeaking starts to echo through my head and the realization of a headache arises. I manage to move my fingers. More and more muscles are working, but I still don't know how to open my eyes. The smell of disinfectant bores into my nose, like I'm in the dentist's waiting room. Is that right? Where am I?

'Kairi.'

My eyes snap open at the sound of my mother's voice. Quickly I grab my hand to my head and try to block the bright light of the lamp, but the stabbing pain continues to be felt. The emotion that comes up in me when I hear my mother's voice and look at her is registered by my body before my brain can control thoughts.

'Mom?' My voice sounds hoarse and weak and my throat feels dry. When my mother puts her hand on mine, I realize that my arms are wrapped in bandages and that I'm connected to tubes. What happened? Why am I in a hospital bed? 'Calm down, honey,' my mother says softly. 'Your body has taken a serious blow.' Tears moisten her eyes. 'Oh... I'm so glad you're awake again...' Fragments of a collapsing ceiling begin to dawn on me. 'Those fireworks... the group and me... Soran!' I look around wildly while ignoring the pain in my head.

Soran lies motionless in the hospital bed next to me. No... not completely motionless. His chest rises and falls quietly. Still, that doesn't reassure me. 'Soran!' Without thinking about it I jump out of bed. I don't let the fact that I'm connected to all kinds of wires stop me, but my mother thinks otherwise. 'Honey...' she mumbles. 'Soran!' I call out to him. 'Soran, please wake up...' Tears stream down my cheeks and I keep calling his name in panic as my mother tries to calm me down. His finger moved. I'm sure I saw that right. 'Soran?' I ask a little more calmly. His closed eyes twitch, then slowly open. 'Soran,' I mumble with relief. I fall back on my bed and feel how much strength it has cost me.

'Kairi... Miyuki,' he mumbles softly, 'what...' He stops talking by grabbing his head with a painful moan. My mother leans forward and puts her hands gently on our arms. 'I'm so glad you awoke...'

'Awoke?' I ask. I think again of the ceiling that came towards me and caused the lights to go out. 'You were in a coma,' my mother says carefully. 'In a coma,' I repeat. A wretched thought comes over me. I quickly try to push it away. 'For how long?' I ask. 'For a week...' My mother's lip twitches. That means... 'We missed the English exam,' I growl disappointed. My mother begins to laugh through her tears. 'Shit,' Soran sighs. 'That exam was important.'

'Don't worry,' my mother says, 'the whole school had to postpone the exams. You're not the only ones who couldn't make it.'

'What happened?' I ask. 'Those fireworks damaged the school.'

'It wasn't fireworks, dear...'

'What was it then? I'm sure–'

'We'll explain it to you all,' my mother says calmly, 'but the doctor needs to check you first.' The moment she says that, a gentleman in a long white coat walks up to us. 'Where's Dad?' I ask. My mother doesn't reply immediately. I can see that she's trying to find the words. 'Miss Yamada,' the white coat says to me, looking at Soran after. 'Mr. Kichida.' We nod at him.

'Tenjin isn't far away,' my mother says. 'I'll tell him you're awake.' I don't want my mother to leave, especially now that she seems nervous, but I'm sure we'll be in good hands with the doctor. That's why I nod at her. 'It's good that you're awake,' the doctor says in a calm voice as soon as my mother has left. 'My name is Dr. Agawa. How are you feeling?'

Soran and I both look at each other to let the other go first. 'Tired,' I say, despite only sleeping for a week. Soran agrees with my statement by nodding. 'Are you in a lot of pain?' We both seem to have mainly headaches, but other pains are more in the background. 'What happened?' I ask the doctor, but he just looks at us with a slight smile. 'If you don't mind, I'll run some tests with you to see how you're doing.' We probably don't have a choice, so we just nod and let the doctor run his tests. He shines a lamp in my eyes and I have to follow his finger, he taps a hammer under my knee to test my reflexes and I have to name some numbers and colours. When Soran also succeeds, we keep looking at the doctor expectantly.