The Nesscas Bible

Hanahaki Disease

Lucas starts coughing up flowers and doesn't know why.

Lucas

I lie on my stomach, watching Ness play megaman 2. He's very good at it. I twist and turn on his bed to get comfy but my shirt begins twisting around my body and I become the opposite of comfy.

Not comfy.

I stand up and readjust my shirt.

"What's wrong?" Ness asks, pausing his game and looking up at me. I smile.

"My shirt got uncomfortable, so I'm fixing it." I tell him.

"Oh, alrighty then." He says, smiling back. I get butterflies in my stomach, but my thoughts get interrupted.

I begin coughing and Ness's face becomes worried, causing me to cough more.

"What's wrong?" He asks. I shake my head and begin coughing.

"Guess I just have a dry throat. I'm gonna get some water. You want some?"

"Yes please," He says. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yep, I'm fine." I say, closing the door and heading into the kitchen. I have another coughing fit that lasts about 20 seconds. By the end of it, about five pink petals are lying on the ground. I pick them up and tear one to see how fragile it is. I frown, confused. It's a petal. A literal flower petal. I don't remember eating any flowers recently. Or ever, for that matter.

I chug down a glass of water and fill it back up, as well as another glass. I bring them both back into Ness's room and put them both down in front of Ness.

"You feeling any better?"

"Mhm, I was kinda choking on... Petals, though?"

"Petals? Like... Flower petals?"

"Yep, those are the ones."

"That's... Weird. Have you been eating flowers, or something?"

"Not that I know of." I tell him with a shrug. He frowns, in thought.

"You wanna see the doctor?"

"It's almost midnight."

"I can take us to see Dr. Andonuts, I reckon he'll know what's up. And Winters is way far away, it'll probably be daytime over there."

"Oh, sure then." I say, standing and getting my day clothes.

I change in the bathroom, and Ness has already changed by the time I get back. He nods to me, and I nod back. We leave the house and teleport to Winters, like we've done many times before.

I look up at the sun. It looks about 5 or 6 pm. Ness bangs his fist on the door and I look around before breaking into a coughing fit. I cough up a couple of flowers before stopping, and Ness rubs circles into my back to make me feel better. I cough even more because of it, it seems.

Dr. Andonuts opens the door.

"Ah, Ness! Hello! ...And Lucas! Hi! What brings you two here?"

"Just wondering if you knew anything about coughing up flowers, is all." Ness says.

"Coughing up flowers, eh? Well, I've heard stuff about it. Come in, lads." He offers, moving towards his desk, leaving the door open.

He begins absentmindedly tinkering with a machine as he talks to us.

"I don't quite remember what it's called, but I'm pretty sure it was along the lines of Hana-something-or-rather Disease. A rare disease which is more common amongst you young'uns, which is caused by unrequited love, I believe." He says, pressing a few buttons and flipping a switch on a complicated looking machine.

Unrequited love, huh? Where somebody you like doesn't like you back... Of course.

"What'll happen? To the person coughing, I mean."

"Well, they can undergo lung surgery to remove the flowers, but there's a consequence."

"Hmm?"

"Getting Hand-a-kahki disease or whatever it is puts you in a lose-lose situation. If it isn't the lungs aren't treated, the infected person will die. If they are treated, they forget everything about who they loved."

"Can you do the surgery?" I ask him. He shakes his head.

"No can do, sorry. I'm not a surgeon, more of an... Inventor," He says, pulling a circuit breaker on the machine and pressing a button. It fills a miniature bowl with mixed nuts. "Care for a nut?"

"Then who can help?"

"Those Saturn creatures down near Threes should be able to do the surgery. They may be strange, but they certainly are geniuses."

"Thanks, Andonuts." Ness says, taking a peanut and shoving it in his mouth.

"Any time, lads." He says, beginning to work on something else.

-

We teleport into Saturn Valley, where most of the Mr. Saturns are sleeping. We knock on the door of Dr. Mr. Sarurn, and it answers.

"HELLO?" It asks in its strange accent.

"Hey, there. Lucas needs lung surgery to remove some flowers." Ness says.

I have another coughing fit and this time cough up about 8 full flowers.

"YES, YES. COME IN." Dr. Mr. Saturn says, standing beside a bed.

We go through the procedural doctor thing, and I get anaesthetics applied to me. I hope Ness looks away.

I slip into sleep.

-

I wake up, and a strange boy looks over me. He has a hat and Violet eyes.

"Lucas...?" He asks. How does he know my name?

"Who are you,?" I ask him, shuffling away from him.

"What...? Oh... Oh, no, Lucas... I'm so sorry..." He says, looking incredibly sad.

"What're you sorry for? How do you know my name? Why am I in Saturn Valley?"

The stranger only hugs me and begins crying. I frown in confusion, but hug him back.

Oofety oofety oof