Journey"...Sucks," she grumbled, sitting on the pa.s.senger seat and looking up through the front gla.s.s at the clouds that covered the entire sky like a blanket made of old dirty wool.
"Yeah... maybe the sun has left you in the lurch at last?" he said in jest as he wrung his soaked socks in a gap he had opened the door to.
The persistent rain outside did not seem to end anytime soon, whereas the clothes they had taken off did not seem to get dry anytime soon.
A few days had pa.s.sed since they had left Boss" warehouse. The two had followed the now-deserted road, aiming for the neighboring town as originally planned. Although they had made a short detour because of mistaking the way, they had managed—with more or less effort—to keep their delay at one day.
But at dusk today they had fallen victim to an a.s.sault of rain.
Only after a short while it had literally started to rain in torrents, inevitably bringing them to resemble drowned rats.
Of course they were not thoughtless. They always carried their rain gears with them, and they had a blue tarp to use as a makeshift tent — they hadn"t been traveling for three months without happening upon one or two rain showers.
That said, those items had come to no use this time.
It was not reasonable to expect to ride Cubby while holding a plastic umbrella, and their cheap rain coats, bought in some convenience store, had stood no chance against that rain. Even worse, the strong wind kept them from setting up a tent.
The two had not had any choice but to start searching for a shelter in their useless rain coats while praying to any G.o.d that came to mind.
If their prayers had reached the G.o.ds or if some devil had taken mercy on them remains a mystery, but after a few hours" ride, when rain water had seeped through every corner of their cold bodies from their hair-ends down to the seams of their pants, the boy had found a deserted station wagon on the street.
Thanks to the fact that the backseats could be folded down, they made two sections by hanging up a vinyl sheet in the center and decided to put on a change of clothes each. It wasn"t their first night in a car, so the procedure wasn"t new to them anymore. Fortunately, the car seemed to be sealed air-tight: there were no signs of any leaks or mold.
They took off one piece of clothing after another, opened the door slightly and wrung the wetness out of them as much as possible before going on to the next one. Their clothes weren"t going to get dry from just that, but if they had let them be, they would have gotten moldy. By the time they had taken off all their clothes, changed into fresh underwear and wrapped themselves in some blankets, they felt completely exhausted.
"Mm, what"s the time?"
"Err... about ten. Ages after the time we should have had dinner!"
"Aah... so that"s why I"m starving...," she said while rubbing her belly.
The boy was completely of the same mind.
"I was going to make us some tea, but do you want to eat something light with it?"
"Sure. As a subst.i.tute for dinner."
The boy opened their luggage and took out a portable stove and a tiny kettle. Since he wasn"t too keen on being short of oxygen, he left the door ajar. The incoming rain was bearable if it was just for a short while.
He put a wooden board, which he had found in the trunk, on the seat in the middle and started to boil water there. With the rushing of rain adding to the already silent mood, there eventually ceased to be any conversation between them. Until the water started to boil, only the sound of raindrops could be heard inside the car.
As soon as the water boiled, the boy immediately put out the stove and retained the warm air by closing the door. He then poured water into their mugs and dropped a tea bag into each one.
The silence that returned was broken shortly afterward by the girl sneezing.
"Are you cold?"
"Nah, I"m fine. But aren"t you? The rain should have hit you harder than me, after all," she inquired with a lopsided smile.
The boy responded with a laugh, "Fear not, milady! I do not shiver and snivel easily for I am naught but a rough and uncouth swain. But, as thou art a fine and delicate maiden, must needs always be comforted and cosseted as befits thee."
Queer as it was, the brown blanket the girl had wrapped around herself suddenly looked like an elegant courtly gown[1] when he used such a style of speaking.
"Milady, thy tea."
He held out her blue mug toward her seat.
"Mm, thou didst not labor in vain. We are well pleased."
She accepted her mug and looked down at the brown liquid filling it to the brim. A strong fragrance rose together with hot steam like a living being from from the black tea, despite it being of a cheap grade, and tickled the girl"s nose. Way too strong! Well, but he made it caring about me, so I"ll be grateful.
The boy handed her some rock-hard sugar cubes, which she dropped into her mug and stirred. A slightly bitter yet fragrant aroma warmed her up from the inside when she took a gulp.
"...lovely warm..."
"Well, it"s fresh from the kettle!"
"...awfully bitter..."
"I"m sorry..."
They shared a laugh together.
After ending their simple dinner consisting of ship"s biscuits and black tea, they finished some tasks such as putting their luggage in order and checking their provisions, and then went to sleep early.
She accepted her mug and looked down at the brown liquid the mug was brimful with.
In the end, they woke up when the clock showed 7am—still raining outside. While he had the impression that the rain had weakened a little, the cloud were still as thick as before and did not let a sunbeam through.
He twisted his body and tried to stretch himself on the narrow pa.s.senger seat. He had slept longer than expected, making him realize that he had apparently been quite exhausted. He was tied up in knots, so to speak, and every time he bent himself like a resisting fish on a bait, a pop resounded from some part of his body.
Flabbergasted by his strange movements—or perhaps just waking up—the blanket dumpling on the back seat, aka the girl, started rustling.
Her head came poking out of the dumpling, took a look at the situation outside and sunk into the blanket again. With a depressed sigh, the dumpling eventually sat up.
"Morning..."
"Mm, good morning."
Considering her usual difficulties in waking up, she had gotten up rather nicely, which was probably to be attributed to the sound sleep she had had. They had recovered from most of the exhaustion of the half day"s ride.
Now that the desire for sleep had been fulfilled, however, the entrance of the next desire was a matter of course. The boy"s stomach gave voice to its displeasure by rumbling aloud.
"I guess I"ll have breakfast now—do you want to have something, too?"
"...Nah, thanks."
The boy was thunderstruck.
It was the very first time during their three months" long journey that it wasn"t her who complained of an empty stomach.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"Hey now... do you think I"m a glutton or something?"
"Yeah."
Preparing for a punch in the next moment, he kept his head down.
However, there was no payback. Something was wrong, undoubtedly.
"Let me take your temperature."
"No, really, I"m fine..."
"No. Objection overruled."
Upon closer examination, her color was clearly not normal. Her hale, tanned skin had turned a little pale.
The boy slipped through between the pa.s.senger and driver seat, still rolled up in his blanket, and crouched down by the girl. In his right hand he was holding a thermometer from their luggage.
"Come on, you"re not well, are you? No need shamming in front of me, so please take your temperature at least."
"...Okay."
Finally giving in, she meekly accepted the thermometer and stuck it in her armpit after some struggling. Since she was wearing nothing but her underwear under the blanket, the boy turned from her just to be sure.
In the meantime, he opened their portable first aid kit and checked their stock of medicines.
"I wonder what it is. Did you catch a cold, or something?"
The girl just turned away from him without answering.
"...the rain, I suspect. But that"s odd, I had no problems..."
In an instant she grabbed him by the collar and scowled at him with a creepy grimace.
"There"s that bothersome event once a month for us girls!!" she roared, making him shrink and go on his fours.
"P-Please forgive my rudeness, milady..."
"...Looks like you got it. I think it will last a while, but don"t mind it since we can"t escape until the rain stops anyway."
"...Honestly, I have no idea of anything in that respect, being a boy and all, you know, so... are you alright?"
"Hm... mine are quite light usually... but it doesn"t look too good this time..." she explained as she hunched up, embracing her stomach.
"Do you want a painkiller?"
"Actually, I"ve already taken one before sleeping. Did it already wear off...?"
Men aren"t of much use at such times. While they managed the medicine together, her sanitary items weren"t in the boy"s control, so he just took a tablet out of a package that claimed to be good against headaches and menstrual pain.
"Here, and some water."
The girl sat up sluggishly and accepted the water and tablet from him.
"...I actually wanted to restock some of our stuff when we were at the warehouse. Well, I should have borrowed some from the secretary, but I completely forgot..."
"So that"s what you were searching for?"
"Yeah."
She gulped the tablet down with some water and handed him her cup. Normally, she would have emptied it, but this time there was still some water left. Probably, her stomach was affected as well.
He drunk up the remaining content himself and wiped his mouth.
"Do you still want to eat something?"
"...No, thanks."
Most likely, it would be best to have her take in something, but he didn"t want to force her. Instead, he handed her a vitamin jelly he had found.
Her temperature was 37.9°C. Rather high.
The time was 02:00pm.
The rain was still falling and the girl"s condition had worsened dramatically.
In the beginning, she"d frequently sat up to do things such as changing the cloth, but after noon, she"d stopped moving and started cycling between light sleep and awakening.
Having used their last remaining antifebrile, her fever had exceeded the 38°C mark. Even the boy realized that this could never come just from the monthly thing. He suspected that she had caught a cold on top of it. Considering that she had been exposed so long to so much rain, there was even a possibility of lung inflammation.
Even if it was not pneumonia, how should he deal with any other illness? The only medicaments at hand were a couple of headache and cold tablets and some ointment. He had no means of treating any illness more serious than a cold. All he could do was putting a cloth wet with rain water on her forehead.
She was in danger.
He could not help but admit that he had been thoughtless not to consider such a situation during the entire three months they had been on the go. It was actually rather surprising that this had not happened before on their journey, which was so equally heavily based on strong luck and good fortune.
However, he wasn"t given the time to regret the mistake he had made. The boy found himself confronted with a choice that was many times harder than any of the numerous exams he had come to pa.s.s during nine years of compulsory education.
Stay here and gamble on the girl"s innate immune system?
Alternatively, go to the neighboring town by himself and catch a doctor?
Both choices had flaws that piled up to Mount Everest"s height.
—On top of it being unknown whether it was an illness that could actually be cured by her immune system, this situation had come about because that immune system had been weakened. What if it was an illness that couldn"t be cured without treatment of a doctor?
—If he went alone to a doctor, how high was the probability of that doctor accepting to come along for an inspection? What if he didn"t find one? Who was going to look for the girl while he was away? Did he have enough fuel?
Either way was one all-or-nothing gamble—in which it was even unsure whether his efforts were of any use. The girl bore all the risk.
The boy clenched his teeth, vexed by his own weakness, and glared at the sky and the never-ending rain.
Time went on and he was left changing the wet towel on her forehead and holding her hand.
While still glaring at the clouds outside of the window, a certain outrageous idea came to his mind.
Struggling through to the next town with the girl on his back.
As the town appeared to be well-populated, there was supposed to be one or two doctors, and if he refused to examine her, the boy could threaten him.
This way he only needed fuel for one way and the doctor could look at her twice as fast as compared to going alone and bringing him along. Though he was going to be unable to care for her while driving, he could still stop from time to time to take a look at her.
However, this gamble was much riskier than the other two. Carrying a seriously ill patient on a Super Cub through the pouring rain sounded like a foolish idea however one looked at it. Even the boy, originator and executor of the idea, was about to doubt his state of mind.
However. However, she was suffering as he kept thinking—worn out by illness, even though she weighted six kilos less than him anyway despite being the same height.
Not even able to cry for help, his dear girl was suffering.
He was not able nor did he want to blink the facts.
The time was winding down.
The boy started packing more swiftly and skillfully than ever before.
He gathered that he couldn"t go with their usual sitting position. Carrying someone whose strength has completely drained is a troublesome task — worse than a water-filled mannequin. Even when tying her to him, putting her on the tandem would leave the risk that her legs might get caught up in the back wheel.
There was only one way to go about it: binding her on him while hugging each other and riding while sustaining her. Lucky in the circ.u.mstances perhaps, the Super Cub motorcycle was designed mainly for fulfilling work with it, therefore could be driven one-handedly. If he could really endure such a long stretch, riding at full speed with one hand, was left to be seen, but he had no intention of considering any problems that he could solve with some effort on his part.
As for her clothes, making her wear a skirt was no good as her body temperature would drop. He dressed her in two jerseys they had in reserve and put a raincoat around her after covering her in a thin blanket.
Changing the clothes of the unconscious girl in the narrow car required to twist her body like an entanglement puzzle, but that was easier than walking through a one-way labyrinth compared to seeing her half-naked in all those positions.
While struggling to contain himself for all he was worth, he changed her into trousers. They were baggy around her waist, but he fixed that by tightening the belt.
He had considered leaving the luggage behind, but decided against it.
If he didn"t find a doctor, he would have to search on with lacking provisions, and if he did find one, he may demand some kind of payment. They were going to slow down, but that couldn"t be helped. He had to believe in her willpower.
He tied her up to him using their hammock net and laundry rope and made sure he could even walk around with her like that. The girl would have beaten the living daylight out of him if she saw how they were bound on each other.
But he was determined to do anything to have her regain that liveliness.
He put on a rain coat as well and slipped into his still half-wet blazer. The soaked synthetic fiber was heavy, but this was his combat uniform.
Bidding farewell to the wagon car that had served them well as a temporary shelter, he entered the never-ending rain outside.
For the ones that may be to come, he closed the door.
The remaining question was whether the Super Cub still worked after being exposed to the rain for so long.
The tank was full. However, while he had protected it with a vinyl sheet, it had still been exposed to the rain. It was left to be seen if he could properly move it.
But right now, the boy was not ready have any consideration for Cubby.
He jumped onto the saddle and checked whether the girl sat firmly. He had tied up all their luggage on the tandem seat to achieve a balance.
While listening to the sound of the rain hitting their rain coats, he put on his goggle-type helmet.
Super Cub! Show me what you can!
He stepped on the starter with a vengeance.
He didn"t know whether his Super Cub answered, "Leave it to me!".
But the powerful roar the 4-stroke air cooled single cylinder raised appeared more rea.s.suring to him than any other reply could have.
The Super Cub was running down a straight road in the pouring rain.
Its speedometer was wavering past the maximum mark and the rain drops that would have been harmless water normally were hitting the boy"s head like pellets. His grip on the throttle, however, did not show the slightest sign of loosening.
While embraced in his arms, the girl was lost in thought.
As much as she appreciated the boy"s nursing, she could in fact not clearly remember anything that had happened after noon.
Her field of vision was shaking despite there was no earthquake—because of her fever, she suspected.
Cubby"s loud echoing humming right beside her ear was nerve-splitting. She could feel the boy and his pleasantly cold raincoat, therefore she wondered if by any chance she was in his arms.
She could not really tell what position she was in anymore because the light dizziness she had been suffering from since the morning had become worse and worse. She felt as though her head was being shaken about.
To make matters even worse, her stomach was on the very brink of sparking off a revolution. A nasty combination of nausea and stomach-ache turned her abdominal region into a living h.e.l.l. It hurt as though something spiky like a crocodile or a chestnut was inside.
Strangely enough, one gets a cool head when unwell like that; even while being shaken in his arms, she found herself watching the scene from somewhere in a corner of her head.
Not only her vision and her ears had gone to pieces, but also her nose and sense of taste, so she failed to grasp was going on. Perhaps she had just gotten off her head because of her fever, anyway, but she didn"t particularly care.
"Still...," she thought, "are all boys cold like this?" It might have been pouring, but it was still summer. Yet his boy was cold.
"Aah," she found a lucid explanation. She was hot. Relativity was bound to be the cause.
"Still...," she thought again, "since when have my periods become so bad? How embarra.s.sing!" Sure, she"d had a hunch that it was about to start since a few days ago, but she hadn"t expected that she would be knocked out so easily. Jeez, it sure sucks to be a girl at times.
When she fell asleep at such times, she would never have good dreams.
"But well, if I get him to look after me like this," she thought, "it might not be bad to get a fever once in a while even so." After all, this way she could get him to hug her completely legally and without seeming awkward!
Mysteriously though, she wasn"t haunted by any nightmares during the time she was in his arms.
"This is bad... her fever has gotten very high...," he grumbled while feeling her forehead.
Holding the girl in his arms, he stopped the bike and supported himself with his leg.
Since she was constantly trembling, he gave only her a disposable hand warmer, but there was no way something like that could do the trick. She wasn"t pale anymore. Instead, she had become as red as a tomato and was breathing wildly.
Perhaps he could consider himself lucky in the circ.u.mstance that the rain had weakened after two hours, but there was still no trace of a patch of blue sky. He also used their last cooling gel sheet on her, but it remained to see whether this was of any use...
He had done everything he could. All that was left now was to head straight for the neighboring town, believing in her const.i.tution.
Putting power into his numb left hand in order to sustain her, he tightened his grip around her.
Cubby"s engine that had completely warmed up was humming without stop.
It was past six when the "neighboring town" boss had told them about came in sight. As he said, it seemed to be a port town: beyond the misty townscape he could see the vast blue sea. He was approaching a port.
There were still about four or five kilometers between them, so he could not really make out much yet.
He tried lifting his goggle and peeping through his binoculars, but with the current weather and the poor magnification, it was of no avail.
There was nothing to worry about if it was a peaceful town. However, in these times of chaos, "peaceful towns" weren"t so common. There were even ones that were left deserted because of plunder and raging riots.
The most dreadful ones, however, were the towns that had decided on a closed-door policy and would do anything to protect their walls, eliminating any intruder without exception.
He didn"t know whether this town was one of those.
He shook off the manifestation of anxiety that had suddenly formed within his heart.
He could not turn back anymore. He had to buy boss" words and fully believe that it was a lively town.
He felt the girl"s cheek, which turned out to be extremely hot. The gel sheet wasn"t of much use. He absolutely had to find a doctor, or, in the worst case, at least get hold of medicaments.
He would reach the entrance in a few minutes" time after starting the engine once again.
However, what waited for him right at the entrance was an obstacle that surpa.s.sed his expectations... no, to be exact, it was "obstacles".
"...What the heck...," he muttered, flabbergasted.
With good reason! The number of buildings had finally started to increase when he had entered the town. However, in the middle of the street he found a light bus that had been overturned sideways. Two of them.
Whatever way one looked at this scene, this wasn"t natural. The two buses were tightly obstructing two traffic lanes each, and from the gap between them and the sidewalks poked some minivans, completely blocking the way.
All gaps had been piled with sandbags and the buses were even filled with those. This was no doubt a barricade to ward off intruders.
The fact that there was a barricade—a means of fending off forceful invasions—meant that they didn"t welcome wicked people.
"...s.h.i.t...!"
Most likely, this had been built in fear of looting. The height of the barricade could easily be overcome if one had something to stand on, but its purpose was to hinder cars and motorcycles from entering. Plunderers only take the offensive when they clearly have the advantage. Probably, the townspeople had presumed that such outlaws wouldn"t have the courage to intrude a town that seemed to have a vigilante group.
However, that meant that he couldn"t go any farther with Cubby. However excellent a motorbike Cubby was, it could never leap over a overthrown minibus. There was no way around proceeding by foot. He had to overcome this accursed barricade with his own two legs and search for a doctor.
Having made a decision, there was no reason anymore to flinch. He untied the rope that had bound the girl to him and gave her a piggyback.
It was rather tough to climb onto one of the buses with one free hand, but it was the right decision. Thanks to the fact that he was on a higher ground, he could well recognize the traps that had been laid out everywhere. One met with a mine field of pitfalls and steel traps if one tried to go around the buildings. Furthermore, for the improbable case that someone managed to break through the barricade, there was a huge hole behind it that could swallow several cars.
The intruders were meant to fall in there if they broke through forcefully. It was also effective against humans who carelessly climbed over the barricade—and they could consider themselves lucky if they only broke a few bones. It were nasty traps indeed.
The more he proceeded in the direction he a.s.sumed the center to be, the more the number of cars decreased. "a.s.sumed", because he was groping his way based only on the broadness of the street and the atmosphere of the townscape, since the names of the places had entirely disappeared from the signposts and boards.
The number of cars that had been illegally parked, no, "abandoned", on the street became almost zero after he had gone past one traffic light.
He didn"t know whether they had been moved somewhere else because they were in the way or because they could be used for something, but it was clear that this town was governed by humans. And apparently quite organized: when he sneaked a peek at the shelves of the shops, he noticed that they had all been taken somewhere. However, there were no signs of plunder. Someone had probably transported them systematically.
There was still no soul, but carrying someone on one"s back consumes more energy than one might think. The difference of their weight summed up to about six kilograms, which still meant that his legs had to sustain almost twice as much as usually.
Having steered his bike for a long time in the pouring rain, his steps had gradually become painful.
On top of that, his arms and legs had grown almost numb from the elbows and knees because of his low body temperature. Due to this, the scratches on the back of his feet had abated to a dull pain. The fact that his sense of balance was starting to suffer, however, was very bad. If he fell down now, he would not be able to stand up anymore.
When sped up, bracing his wavering will and body, his field of view suddenly broadened and a large school came in sight.
It was probably a high school. It had been months since he last saw this peculiar kind of inst.i.tution.
As was characteristic for schools with too much land, the school grounds were very broad. He couldn"t spot anyone outside, but the light was switched on in several rooms of the school.
Perhaps, evacuates lived there. Schools were a common refuge. Besides, those lights were no doubt of electric nature.
"Mh?"
There was someone. At the entrance of the gym neighboring the school building, there was a man.
He squinted his eyes and carefully made sure whether he was friend or fiend.
He was probably somewhere between his late twenties or his early thirties. He was standing upright under the eaves of the gym in a suit.
He didn"t seem to be carrying a weapon and at least looked all right.
Deciding on asking him about the whereabouts of a doctor, the boy approached the school gate.
But the moment he was about to pa.s.s through the gate, he started to waver.
Was it really safe to leisurely walk in there? Wouldn"t it be better to hide her somewhere and negotiate on his own?
He shook his head and chased these sudden negative thoughts away.
It was of no avail to harvest such doubts now. If he was attacked, he would be lost anyway, even if he managed to knock out one or two of a lot. Fighting his way back through to the barricade while carrying a sick girl was impossible. In the first place, he wouldn"t even reach the warehouse with the remaining fuel.
This time he had no choice but to confide in his tough luck and her strong luck.
After making sure she was sitting firm on his back, he pa.s.sed through the open gate and walked straight through the school grounds towards the gym.
"Hey there! Excuse me!"
When he started to yell, the man instantly gave him a look. From close up, the boy noticed that he was facing a quite large man that was about 20 centimeters taller than him. The man wore a well-tailored suit with a neatly tied tie. It was a pretty handsome guy, so to speak, wearing a short haircut that suited him well. His inner alarm bell reacted to that rather showy appearance, but it was too late to turn back.
The man, however, while rounding his eyes, didn"t make a move.
After clicking his tongue in his mind, he started walking towards him once more.
After a ten seconds" mystification, the man finally realized what situation the two were in and trotted to them. He didn"t seem to care about the rain.
"What"s the matter?"
"Um... this girl is feeling unwell... is there a doctor around?"
While firming his hold on the girl who was about to slide down, he prayed that there was one.
"...So you want a doctor to take a look at her? I sure hope you brought your insurance card with you?"
"What?"
"Don"t get me wrong. I am not talking about the card that verifies that you are member of a medical-care insurance. It"s something that proves that you own enough to make up for medical treatment."
The muscles of the boy"s cheeks almost twitched.
"...in other words, I must offer something of equal value?"
"You can"t be thinking to get a doctor for free these days, right?"
The indifferent voice the man spoke in got the boy"s hackles up. The only reason why he didn"t beat him up right now was that he couldn"t use his hands because he was sustaining the girl.
"...a Super Cub in good order and condition, enough water for a grown-up man to survive for four days, provisions to get through one week, and two sets of general goods. Take whatever you want!"
"Heh, now that sounds extravagant. But these are your legs and meal, right? How do you plan on getting by without all that?"
"I"ll think about that when she"s well again," he said as he glared at the man.
The nonchalant man put on a grin and looked down at him, "What if that wasn"t enough?"
"I"d bite the bullet and, after having her treated, I"d take revenge."
"Whoa whoa! Do you want to make the whole town your enemy or what?" he laughed baffledly.
However, the boy kicked off that laugh with his scowl.
"If needed."
"...Oh?"
The man flashed a smile. Not a ridiculing one like before, but a small, interested smile.
"I may not be Superman, but if it"s for her sake, I"m ready to become a fiendish criminal anytime."
"...I see. Fine!"
The man was smiling all over the face. Even though the shape of his smile hadn"t changed, the boy somehow couldn"t sense any ill-will nor sarcasm.
"For starters, let"s carry her into the school."
"Huh? ...No, I need a doctor right now..."
"I"m in charge of health education here, you know. So I"m sort of a doctor. Follow me, I"ll lead you to the infirmary."
The boy was left completely dumbfounded as he listened to him.
"But what about your compensation and that stuff..."
"Idle talk. Just wanted to see how you"d answer me. Now come on, get her over here."
After standing there thunderstruck for a moment, he followed the trotting man with great difficulty through the rain, towards the school building.
A few minutes later and after the skillful treatment of the man, the girl was lying on a bed in the school infirmary. Her face looked much healthier now, which was probably due to the antipyretic injection he had given her.
"...You really saved us... Thank you so much," the boy said as he lowered his head.
The man, however, laughed in response, "No problem, boy. You"re only grossing me out if you act so polite after barking at me a few moments ago."
He had slid into a white coat and put on silver-rimmed gla.s.ses. There had been no trace earlier, but in these clothes, he indeed looked like was in charge of the infirmary. Save for his sports teacher-like st.u.r.dy build, that is.
"How is the girl?"
The man raised his eyebrow slightly, apparently wondering about how the boy addressed his companion, and sat down on his chair.
"Hm... most likely she caught a cold while her body was weakened because she had her periods. Judging by the symptoms, it"s just a normal cold. Well, you did quite well with your treatment, so she"ll be up and about again with some rest."
"...I don"t know if you can call that "treatment". I just cooled her forehead and wrapped her up warm, after all. Even worse, I carried her through the pouring rain."
"That"s just about right, you know. Some people, when they"re confronted with a cold, just stuff their patients with antipyretics, then with anti-diarrheal medicine, then with headache pills and so forth... Besides, her fever was certainly rather high. If you stayed there, she might have gotten ill with pneumonia. It was the right choice to carry her here."
With these words, the man stood up.
"Okay, I"ll go get some new ice. Can you take care of the wet towel while I"m away?"
"Yes. Much obliged."
"...Seriously, stop acting so polite," he smirked and left the infirmary after sliding the door open.
After making a few steps into the empty corridor, he turned to the light that leaked from the infirmary.
"...Heh. To test a patient. Looks like these days have made me worse a person than expected."
Without being heard by anyone, his quiet whisper vanished in the dim, lonely corridor.
He squeezed the hand towel hard and put it on her forehead.
There was some ice in the washtub, which, while only small in quant.i.ty, was clearly superior to rain water. Some color had returned into her face, and her breath had gotten calm as well.
Finally taking a breath, he looked around in the room, and sat down besides the girl on the bed.
This was no doubt an infirmary. From how it looked inside, he could tell that it still functioned and was used as one.
There was a desk and a shelf filled with medicaments and three cots equipped with curtains. Of the two remaining beds, one was piled with cardboard boxes, and the other had its curtains shut. Perhaps, there was another patient.
When coming to this room, they had taken the main entrance. To his surprise, however, the corridors hadn"t been dusty at all.
The shelf there wasn"t any different: while it was apparent that the stock of medicaments had decreased, there were no signs of neglect.
He had no idea how many students were still in this school, but it was highly doubtful if that number was high enough to keep on holding cla.s.ses. Thus the closest possible explanation was that the building was being used as a shelter for evacuees.
Truth to be told, the boy didn"t trust the man very much.
He didn"t really doubt whether the man was in charge of the infirmary or not, as his treatment had been to-the-point and his use of the equipment deft, but he didn"t know if the man split on them.
Perhaps, he had only shammed getting them some ice and was in fact going to come back with a group of hard-boiled thugs armed with spike rods.
What raised the most doubt was the questioning when they met. A doctor in his normal state of mind would have never done anything of that sort—all the less when it was apparent that the boy was carrying a sick person.
At any rate, the boy was determined to stay on guard.
During the first ten minutes, at least.
"Oh...?" the man rounded his eyes as he came back holding a cooler.
During the time he had been away, the boy had apparently neglected his a.s.signed task of looking after the girl and had fallen asleep on his chair with his head laid on the girl"s bed.
He put the box on the ground and tried softly shaking the boy"s shoulders. However, even when he shook a little stronger, the boy showed no signs of waking up.
The man couldn"t leave him like that or he was in for a cold as well. That said, it was also a fact, however, that the boy had gone to great lengths to carry the girl here. It was only natural that he was tired. The man couldn"t bring himself to wake him.
He tried dragging him off the chair. "Err, what to do now?" he wondered. He could hardly let him lie there like the victim of a killer.
"Hmm," he muttered and moved his gaze towards the neighboring bed, where he, however, only saw what he expected see: a pile of cardboard boxes that was akin to the Tower of Babel, stuffed with medicines he had gotten from the nearby general hospital.
In the first place, this infirmary was basically his clinic and where he was when on night duty, so the bed the girl was sleeping on had been left empty only because he used it for his naps.
Reflecting on his rather sloppy lifestyle, he let out a sigh.
Anyway, it was impossible to put away all those cardboard boxes now. Hence, there was only one way to go about it.
"...Heave...ho...!"
The man grabbed the boy by the collar and lifted him onto the girl"s bed. He then made him lie happily beside her and put the blanket over both of them—when he suddenly remembered that she was in her underwear, as he had taken off her clothes because they were drenched.
However, he didn"t bother to care, thinking that they were a couple anyway.
At once, she woke up.
Apparently having gotten a lot of sleep, she was not drowsy at all.
As she hadn"t had a dream, either, it didn"t really seem to her as though any time had pa.s.sed. The fact that her consciousness had been hazy before falling asleep, left her in utter confusion about the situation.
In her field of vision she found the white light of a fluorescent lamp—the first in a while—and an unfamiliar white ceiling. Unless her brain had rotten due to excessive sleep, she hadn"t seen this ceiling before.
"...Um... where...are we?" she was about to ask the boy, but he was not there.
She had a.s.sumed that he was by her side like always, but unfortunately, the bed next to hers held only a mountain of cardboard boxes and no boy.
With a weak sigh, she turned over.
And spotted him.
His sleeping face occupied her entire vision, and before she knew it, she had gazed at it for several seconds.
Uwaa... he has pretty long eyelashes even though he"s a man! He always looks a little dull, but now that he"s sleeping and from close up, he really has a baby-face; jeez, why does he have such full lips! I"d love to ask for the secret of his beauty, but somehow that feels just wrong to do for a girl, and anyway, I strongly hope he hasn"t done anything to me———
For a split second, she forgot herself and was on the verge of becoming delighted with his face. Regaining her rationality, which had darted off into the world of dreams, she started calmly a.n.a.lyzing the situation she was in.
Evidently, she was in some building. The boy had probably taken her to a hospital because he had worried about her. Chances were that this was the "neighboring town" they had been headed to.
Meaning that she had been laid on this bed to sleep. She got that.
But why was he sleeping together with her?
She couldn"t keep herself from blushing upon saying those words in her mind. They were sleeping together. In the same bed! In a little more neutral words, they were sharing a bed. But the problem was not how to call it.
Considering that he was still tidily wearing his clothes, she knew only too well that he hadn"t made a "slip", but still, they were sleeping together!
On top of that, she was left there in her underwear for some unknown reason, exposing her skin, and still wearing her socks in spite of that, making her clothing look extremely fetishistic.
At this very moment, the girl found herself confronted with two choices. Either approve of this situation and keep on sleeping together, or disapprove of it and raise a scream.
What will you do, me? What will you do, girl? Such a chance isn"t going to come again. But it"s still too early! What should I do? Am I supposed to plant a kiss at least, as a preparation for the future? Or should I go straight to the max———
She was about to get a fever again because of wavering and wavering, when the boy suddenly moved sluggishly.
"Mh... oh...? Girl...?"
To her chagrin, her fist was faster than her head. I"m sorry, boy.
"Phgh!!"
"Whoa?!"
Surprised at the boy who came flying off the bed like an aircraft from its carrier, the man almost dropped the tub he was holding. He had been within a hair"s breadth of dashing the freshly-recovered girl with ice-cold water.
"You"re a patient for crying out loud! Stay in bed!"
"Y-Yes!"
She had no idea who he was, but still the girl reflexively obeyed his rebuke as he wore a white coat.
Only after putting her head on the pillow again and hiding half her face under her blanket, she carefully sneaked a peek at the man in a white coat.
"Um... may I ask where I am?"
The man put the tug on the washstand and gave her a smile.
"Your in the infirmary a nameless doctor of a nameless high school in a nameless town is in charge of."
"...So he really transported me here..."
"Quite so. You"ve gotten yourself a pretty reliable boyfriend: it seems like he went over hedge and ditch carrying you."
"He"s not my boyfriend!!"
The objection of the tomato-red girl made the man round his eyes.
"He"s not?"
"He"s not!"
Seeing her answer like a shot again, he compared the girl on the bed and the boy who had sunk to the ground.
"...Oh, I"m sorry then. You looked just like a couple, so I was sure you were. So I suppose it was not so good to have you sleep in the same bed?"
"...I think it"s questionable letting a healthy person sleep next to a sick one in the first place," she reproached with red cheeks.
The man, however, did not consider himself at fault at all.
"...Well, seems like you"re well and sound, so don"t mind it. That aside, that kid down there"s not moving anymore."
"...Eh? Did I go too far by any chance?"
She got off the bed and turned over the boy who had plunged to the ground moments ago.
Having gotten a punch straight into the face, he had been KOed at a single blow and lay there without consciousness but with a bleeding red nose.
The one and only thing he could probably consider himself lucky of was the fact that this was an infirmary.
The result of the examination was a contusion and a cerebral concussion. According to what the boy was told, the man had mistaken them for lovers and stuffed him into one bed with the girl, giving him the pleasure of making the acquaintance of her iron fist. It was a real bother. As terrible as it gets. Why o why didn"t he wake up before her?
"...Oh well, great to see you well up again. Really."
"Um, well, sorry...?"
The boy, who looked quite moody, tossed the tissue in his nose into the bin.
At first, the tissues were bright red, but the blood seemed to have stopped as he exchanged them.
"Don"t mind it. Think of it as a worth-while experience," he chuckled.
The boy gave him a stare.
"I absolutely don"t want to hear that from the one who"s the cause... I"m fine, really. I"ve gotten used to her punches."
"I-I"m not always turning violent like that!"
"Yeah yeah."
He neither denied nor a.s.serted her claim. Matters of this type are often remembered by the victims and cleanly forgotten by the culprits.
"Anyway, little princess?"
"Yes?!"
She straightened herself when he turned on her. "Little princess" didn"t suit her at all, she thought, but she deliberately kept quiet about it.
"Your fever has mostly recovered and so have your menstrual pains, I should think, so you can be relieved for now. However, since there"s danger of a relapse, stay here until tomorrow."
"Yes, understood. Is it okay if he stays here as well?"
"Should be no problem. But the bed"s piled right now, so help me get those boxes off!" the man grinned.
The boy gazed at the mountain of cardboard boxes the bed was buried under and slouched his shoulders.
"A compensation of equal value, I guess...?" the boy muttered. To his surprise, however, the answer was not affirming.
"Quit joking! I"ll have you pay me your treatment on another occasion. This little bit of work barely makes your room rate."
The two travelers exchanged glances.
"Let me warn you: I"m not cheap, you know? There are comparatively many doctors in this town, but unfortunately, my prices are especially high."
The two shrieked inside.
"Ah, and call me "doc", okay? First, let"s get you into some fresh clothes. I brought you some which should be more or less about your sizes."
A pajama for women, and a t-shirt and a pair of jeans for men were laid on the bed.
"You"re done changing?"
"Yeah."
Behind the curtain that then opened was the girl, wearing a white pajama with blue stripes.
Having relaxed, she looked a little more like she was sickly than before.
As almost all of their clothes had gotten unwearable, the boy had had no other choice but to follow doc either, and had reluctantly borrowed some clothes from him. The jeans appeared to be brand-new, so they were fine and dandy, but the black T-shirt with a forceful white print on it got him rather bothered. On the front it said "Straight from h.e.l.l" and on the back "Children of Anarchy". He didn"t count himself among some dense biker gang, after all. He could clearly sense the ill will of that obnoxious doctor, but he was not in the position of being picky.
"Just stay in bed until you feel better. It seems we"ll get some of their provisions and water, so you can be at ease."
"Okay. Thanks."
The girl let herself fall on the bed and covered herself with a blanket up to her mouth. Finding her doing this sort of lovely, he couldn"t help smiling. As she seemed to perceive his delight, her cheeks ended up turning red.
"Boy...?"
"Hm?"
The girl turned over, away from him.
"...Thanks for everything."
He reached out his hand and stroked her head.
"...You"re welcome..."
After having a late breakfast with the girl and calming down a bit, the boy began stowing away the cardboard boxes together with doc.
Apparently, those boxes were filled with medical goods from some hospital. That Mount Everest seemed like a really stiff piece of work.
To begin with, one needed a stepladder to even get those boxes down! He didn"t have enough capacities to care about their contents.
Suddenly, a shiny tiny tip poked through the cardboard box the boy was carrying.
"Whoa, doc! What the heck is this?! It"s a needle! There"s a needle!"
"Ah yeah, that"s syringe needles you"re holding there. Hospital waste, you know. I should definitely dispose of them later."
"Please don"t leave such stuff behind like that! What would you do if I accidentally stuck myself with one?!"
"Don"t worry. I"ve got disinfectants by the ton."
"You"re missing the point!" he objected desperately and put the box that contained used syringe needles on the ground.
By now, there was next to no free s.p.a.ce left on the ground of the infirmary. They were forced to put the boxes in order. They had already tried piling them up on the corridor outside, which looked however as though they were being investigated by some police troup.
Unable to bear it longer, the girl poked out her face from the bed and asked, "Hey, do you need my help?"
However, her goodwill was immediately kicked off.
"Be a good patient and shut up! You would only be in the way. You look clumsy, after all."
"Wha...?! What was that?! Don"t determine the skills of someone you just met by his looks! I"m very well able to do some simple clean—" she began and b.u.mped her hand full-speed into the tub on the washstand. The water in the tub, which was splendidly cold thanks to the ice in it, rained down on the boy with a stunning precision.
"Err... you did well, yeah. You can take a break now. The remaining tasks can only be done by a doctor anyway."
Still drenched, the boy was sent out of the building like a stray dog.
It was such beautiful weather that the pouring rain the previous night seemed like a lie. The clear sky, now freed from all pollution, was filled with a vivid blue and there was not a cloud to be seen. He felt great gazing at it—except for the fact that he looked like a drowned rat.
"I guess it wouldn"t have made a great difference if I had waited until the next morning before taking her here...," he unconsciously whispered to himself with a smile.
Well, in that case he would have had the pleasure of carrying her all the way under the blazing sun. That would have been just as much of a pain, or so he had to convince himself.
The sun burned his skin with its hot beams and started to dry his soaked clothes. In the end and with the help of his own body temperature, his clothes were pretty much dry even before enough time had pa.s.sed to call it a break.
Suddenly, a familiar object behind him struck his eye.
It was their silver Super Cub, which he had left behind at the barricade the previous evening.
"What"s that doing here...? Did he go collect it for us?"
Cubby couldn"t possibly have come here on its own. While that was certainly a funny thing to picture, it was more than improbable that their excellent yet normal Super Cub had such an autopilot function.
"Hey, brat."
"Yes?"
He turned to doc as he had heard his voice. Not that I care, but is that my new name? The doctor didn"t seem to have any ill will, but he couldn"t help but feel a little offended.
"I"m pretty much done preparing your bed. You can go and fetch your futon now. It"s in the dressmaking room in the third floor. To reach it... well, see for yourself. You should find it."
"Understood. Where"s the..."
"Key," he wanted to continue, but the keys came flying before he could even finish. A cheap plastic name card was attached to them.
"As soon as you"ve done that, it"s lunch time. ...well, I won"t serve anything extravagant, though."
"Eh, not you can"t?"
"No, I won"t. After all, your debt is growing and growing at the moment, isn"t it?" he said and chuckled aloud. The boy got the chills. "For one thing, it was me who arranged the collection of your bike, and for another thing I"ve still not gotten my payment for her treatment... Oh let"s see—what kind of payment should I demand from you..."
To the boy it looked as though doc"s broad grin reached up to his ears. A devil"s tail growing from his bottom was of course also included in this image.
"Ghwaa...aahm..."
At the very moment, the girl"s mouth was opened more than a 45° due to a full-power yawn. While opening the mouth so largely without care brings with it the danger of dislocating one"s jaw, yawning is a physiological phenomenon that can be observed in most mammals. Being not exactly dignified in general, she couldn"t be expected to suppress it.
In other words, the girl was bored.
Everyone who has ever had to stay home because of a cold should understand this. The more you recover from illnesses like a cold, the more boring they get. Though you are in the course of regaining your condition, the doctor doesn"t permit you to go out of bed — and due to the nature of mankind, it"s inevitable that a rebellious spirit emerges that makes you want to cut and run if that doctor"s not around.
She slipped into the sneakers by her bed and ran off.
Of course, she didn"t intend to leave the town. All she wanted to do was getting a breath of fresh air―――
"Excuse me..."
Therefore, she could pretty much see her heart shoot out of her mouth when she suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice from the room in which there was supposed to be no one else.
Was she so stricken that she heard things? Searching for a place in the infirmary where one could hide... she found one: the third bed, directly before her eyes by the window.
The girl hesitatingly raised her face.
"Um, excuse me," the voice said, upon which the curtain was slid open.
The girl took a leap backward. She b.u.mped her calves against the edge of the bed behind her and tumbled over it, but fell down on the other side without finishing a turn.
A whang resounded as though a wrestler had just gone down, and in the next moment the door opened.
The doctor and boy entered and rounded there eyes, just to narrow them a second later.
"...what"re you doing?"
"Um... well...," she tried to explain, but it was of no avail. Words could not describe why she would get in the situation of doing a headstand in pajama and sneakers with her back leaned against the bed.
Words could not describe why she would get in the situation of doing a headstand in pajama and sneakers with her back leaned against the bed.
"Excuse me... I have been sound asleep until just now," said a girl about the same age as the girl while bowing.
"No, excuse me for being so noisy."
The unfamiliar girl had been sleeping in the bed with closed curtains. Apparently, the boy"s arrival was news to her, too, because she had been asleep all the time since the previous night.
"No no, the livelier the better," she laughed.
She was near the terminal stage.
Her skin and hair were snow white—whiter than an albino"s. Since suffering from "the vanishing" did not mean getting bad blood or something, but rather that one"s entire color itself faded, she did not really seem unhealthy. Her white skin made her look almost like a fairy.
As a j.a.panese, her eyes should have been either black or a dark brown, but hers were a lightish ashen gray. Without a doubt these were the symptoms of the terminal stages of "the vanishing".
She hadn"t completely turned monochrome yet, but there was probably not much time left until she would. While the speed of the illness" progress was said to not necessarily be constant and depend on the individual, it was safe to say that her remaining time didn"t sum up to very much.
"Well, I guess I"ll introduce her to you," the doctor said as he stood next to her, "This little beauty is a student of this school. She pretty much lives here because she"s in delicate health."
The girl in question made a bow in a slightly embarra.s.sed manner, which, however, was truly graceful and fitted the image of an unfortunate beauty.
"Her age should be about yours; sixteen. We call her..."
"...Doctor...!"
She tugged at his white coat and protested to him in whispers with blushed cheeks. Seeing how desperate she seemed, the boy and girl exchanged glances.
"...Come on, that"s not something you can hide. Nor is it something to think about. Okay, um... listen, her nickname is "princess"."
"Princess?" the girl asked back in surprise.
The girl that had been called "princess" ducked her head and lowered her gaze with a bright red face. Indeed, it seemed to be the perfect nickname for her. She really looked like a princess.
"...I-I do not like that name because it is so embarra.s.sing, but doctor just won"t listen and keeps calling me "princess, princess". Because of him, everyone in town is calling me like that now..."
"But it"s a perfect match," the boy said. With a natural smile that put the girl out.
You"d better not be hitting on her willingly, you player!
"Excuse me...," princess murmured toward the girl.
"Hm?" the girl asked as she glanced to her.
"Excuse me... but may I know your names? It is not fair if it is only me..."
"I see. You"re right. I"m the "girl"!"
"Quite similarly, I"m the "boy". Pleased to meet you, your highness!"
He once more gave a sweet smile. This time the girl unleashed her iron elbow attack — straight into his side.
By the time their group, which had now grown to four members, had a light lunch of some rolls and a seaweed salad, the girl was almost alive and kicking again. What remained was to regain some strength in her legs, which had become weak due to her cold.
One must not forget that she was quite the athlete and fighter though she looked like a corpse the day before. Getting completely healthy until tomorrow was going to be a pushover for her.
"Alright, brat. It"s time for you to work," the doctor said as he stood up from a cheap-looking stool.
While putting down the aluminum plate that had been in the school"s stock on the plate, the boy sighed in his mind. He was slowly getting used to that self-righteous att.i.tude.
"Princess takes to taking a stroll in the afternoon town, you know. Sadly, I do have the incredibly boring but very important task of attending a gathering in the hospital."
"D-Doctor...," princess objected apologetically, but he ignored her.
"Therefore, boy, you"re her escort today. Feel free to sight-see the town while you"re at it."
"Hey doc! What about me?!" the girl objected.
The doctor thrust out his index finger before her, "You"re forbidden to go outside. Therefore, I"ll take those into custody." He then held up a paper bag that contained the clothes she had worn when she arrived, as well as her sneakers.
"Wha—When did you...?!"
She immediately attempted to s.n.a.t.c.h them back, but he dodged her.
"Okay, you know what to do. Don"t worry, I"ll be back in the early evening." He gave them a quick wave and left like the wind.
Left behind in the room was a bewildered boy and girl, and a flushed princess with her gaze pinned to the floor.
In the end, the boy accepted to escort princess and left with her for a stroll in town. The delicate princess used a wheelchair to move, hence and luckily he didn"t end up having to walk hand in hand.
This did not calm the girl"s wrath in the least, though, and she had glared at him like a horned beast from h.e.l.l.
"Um... I am really, really sorry. We can return anytime if you are bothered..."
"Hm? Don"t worry. I owe that doctor one, and most of all, it"s too late to stop the girl from erupting," he answered with conviction as he pushed the wheelchair.
A bright sun that shone just as fiercely as ever welcomed them when they left the building.
He pushed her down a concrete ramp that had only been built recently as it seemed and proceeded without haste through the muddy school grounds.
"Do you need a sunshade?"
"Not yet, thanks."
"Okay," he said and dropped the subject.
To the boy"s understanding, sufferers from albinism—a congenital disorder that results from inheritance of recessive gene alleles—were very sensitive to ultraviolet rays due to an insufficient amount of melanin in the skin.
Much different, the loss of color when suffering from "the vanishing" was not because of a lack of melanin. The melanin itself would simply become colorless, thus her defense against ultraviolet rays was about the same as the boy"s, even though she had turned almost entirely white.
Since, however, direct sunlight could not be good for her, suffering from a weak heart, he had taken a sunshade with him just in case.
"Where is our first stop, Princess?"
"I-I really do not want to be a bother, so we can go back if you..."
"Don"t say that. It"s a great opportunity for me to take a look ar