Oh How We Tried {Kirito X Asuna Short Story}

5: I Am Tragedy

Ha. Ha. Ha. I hate myself. I've been gone so long people are telling me they hated the ending to this book. ITS NOT OVER IM SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE.
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"We need oxygen!"

Everything was dark. It was black and cold, as if the life itself had been sucked completely out of the world. It was void of light, of the fliting breath of life. It hurt, pain exploded everywhere, deep in the marrow of shattered bones, fluidly in the ice cold blood that once halfway filled up the flesh vessel.

Everything was broken.

"Sir, Sir! Can you tell us your name? Can you hear us? Sir?!"

I can hear you just fine, the inside voice mumbled back, though his lips wouldn't move, they wouldn't even capture breath. That's why his lungs ached, lack of air.

He was dying.

He felt the icy blood rush out of him, the squeal of a wheeled bed under him. The atmosphere around him rang urgency, the clamber of feet thumping against linoleum seemed to be his heartbeat, and he feared if the stopped he would as well.

Deep in his mind he knew he was too weak to come back from this. He was pitted against the gates of life and death and Life's battalion had been halved by each wheel squeak. He didn't know what to think, what processes could he conjure as he knew these were his dying moments. Here, in this cold, chalky hospital, he would die.

He always imagined dying in a peaceful, muted hospital room once his dark hair had lightened into gray, until his skin had formed the cobwebs of veins and the natural purple tint. He pictured Yui at his side, the onslaught of silver detailing her own black ribbons. She would have kids, they would be there too. Her spouse would be next to her as she silently kissed her father's pruned hands and whispered a passing prayer with gleaming tears whispering their way down her cheeks.

He imagined Asuna there too.

Older than he, he'd hoped she'd have the audacity to show up. To hear her voice one more time. To see her bright eyes. Her and Yui alone could make him regret passing on. Asuna would sit there and do nothing but hold his other hand, and smile, knowing they wouldn't be apart long.

He couldn't die now. Knowing that Yui would be fatherless. Knowing that from this moment in history of ever, Asuna would wake up to a cold bed. He prayed for her to heal, for her to sigh in joy once again as she no longer held fear of the possibility of her grim survival.

Though as he pondered a bit more, his mind dancing on the wavering line of life and death, he didn't know how in the world he was going to survive. He loved his tiny family, and he kept them into a little lock box in the back of his mind as the determination to keep his tight chest moving overcame every awakening sense inside of him.

The voices of the hospital soon merged into a giant wail that pounced behind his eyelids and scratched the living fury out of his mind. Kazuto fought the urge to gag as he felt a thin rubbery tube find its way down his throat. If he had the attention for it, he would notice that the tube tasted like stale dust, even though it was clean for sure.

A puff of air jerked his chest into a forced pump, and it hurt. Kazuto hated how he no longer had any control over his body as the tube frothed gasp after gasp of air into him. It hurt and he wanted it to stop. To end.

"We're losing him! Charge to 300!"

One more breath was whipped out of him.

"Clear!"

And everything faded into a nothingless void.

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Asuna was still sore.