Shades of Petals

The Girl Who Spit Flowers

The doctors couldn't figure it out, had never seen such a thing. They'd been uncertain when they just thought of the petals being vomited up, but after the x-rays, they were just at a lost now.

Louisa joined him quietly, looking at the x-rays herself. He heard her sniffle and he tiredly glanced at her, seeing her wringing her hands.

"Is Miss Nakajima going to be okay?"

"I don't know, Miss Louisa," he said, feeling drained and yet angry. He didn't know who or what at, maybe he was angry this was happening at all. "But I won't stop until I make sure she will be."

Louisa's smile was trembling, but he was adamant.

"I hope so. She really...she really brought us all together, you know? After The Guild fell before, I tried my best to help pick you up, but really...Miss Nakajima was the one who really helped. And she made you actually really smile and actually be happy —I don't think anyone's ever seen you sincerely happy, Lord Francis. And even though, after the fall, you were more humble and open and friendlier with the rest of us, we didn't actually become friends until Miss Nakajima came around to make it so."

Francis was taken aback by Louisa May's words, but she wasn't...wrong. But all it did was just reinforce how much Atsushi meant to him.

Remembering who she'd been consulting with and who had also taken x-rays, he decided he needed to take a trip to the Agency and have a talk with one Akiko Yosano.

Leaving Louisa behind, he distractedly found his own ride to take to the Agency, trying not to think of Atsushi in his bathroom, to not remember the bloody scene.

It didn't work at all.

It just burned into his mind more and he couldn't help wondering why hadn't he pushed her about it earlier. She had clearly hadn't felt fine before and he knew spitting up petals wasn't something normal. And it had kept happening, becoming worse and lasting far longer than could've been in any way safe.

But he'd just laughed it off.

Furious at himself and swearing this would never happen again, he got out of his parked car and headed towards the Agency's building. The café entrance was quiet but serene, so he didn't think anyone else knew of Atsushi's condition.

"Oh, it's you," a certain voice said huffily and he turned to see Lucy in her working outfit, clearly at break because she was just sitting at one of the café's tables and reading one of those Japanese graphic novels.

"Is Yosano here?" he asked flatly.

Lucy straightened up and gave him a curious look, looking reluctantly concerned. "No, she had an errand to run with Dazai. She should be back soon."

Francis took a breath to steady himself, but as he glanced over the cover of her book, he froze and stared.

A girl with flowers coming out of her mouth.

"That book," he demanded as he strode over.

Lucy straightened up quickly, eyes widening. "Lord Francis?!"

"Miss Montgomery. The girl with the flowers being coughed up on the cover, what does it mean?" he tried not to be impatient.

She quickly gave him the book. "It's called 'The Girl Who Spit Flowers' in English. She has what's called Hanahaki, I guess? I'm still practicing my Japanese and I'm using those manga to help. But anyway, I guess she's in love with someone who doesn't love her back —she gets the disease because of that and flowers start blooming in her lungs and her heart, which makes her cough up flower petals. It's supposed to be painful and there's supposed to be blood, but I just started the book, so I haven't gotten there yet."