"Quick, bring the syringe immediately, he is alive!"
In a gloomy hospital with death-pale walls and flickering fluorescent tubes, doctors, nurses and ward-boys ran from one corner to another holding medicines, documents or stretchers.
The beds in the hall were arranged in groups and each group had a banner fluttering above which bore some writings in an unrecognizable script.
All beds seemed to be occupied, with people lying on them, some half dying, some staying strong, while some giving up.
One group however, unlike any other group, was almost empty. But somewhere in the middle, there was one bed, positioned in front of a grayed window, on which lay a person.
In curiosity and confusion, doctors and surgeons gathered around that patient, covered in bandages and different medical equipments.
"I cannot believe it, he is that one? The only earthling who was saved by IDRF ?"
"Yes, one they say, just one, it's horrific !"
A few of them talked with each other in puzzlement and disbelief.
"Has he undergone the Space-Time surgery yet?"
"Yeah he just did, but the injuries were very fatal. Let's double check his vital status before we waste the syringe on him."
A few doctors went towards the silent heart meter. A tube was attached to the person's chest and was connected to the heart meter. This deviced resembled an electrocardiogram but looked more portable. It was designed to measure the cardiac cycles, sinus rhythms and the electrical activity of the heart and hence deduce whether a person is alive or not.
As soon as one of the doctors pressed the display button, the small monitor of the heart meter flashed with wide waves of heart beats, it's long amplitudes constantly vibrated on the screen.
The doctors were stunned. Not only was the person undoubtedly alive but also he fought all forces that threatened to extinguish his vital spark, tenaciously clinging to it, as if that life is his only hope and the greatest treasure he will ever wield!
The doctors converged around the person's bed to have a more vivid look at him.
He was a thinly built young man, probably in his sixteens, he had a pale complexion and black messy hair, his face was quite sharp and his closed eyes were slant.
The two upper buttons of his white shirt were undone and the sleeves were rolled up, the shirt was tucked inside a black trouser that reached all the way to his ankles. A fancy black trench coat with yellow buttons, a yellow tie along with an olive green backpack was kept beside him.
He slowly opened his eyes, revealing a bright yellow iris, he stared at the white ceiling above him and slowly rose, leaning against the headboard.
First his face was calm in fatigue, then came confusion and then came horror. He looked at the people around him and analyzed them. They had fair complexions, most of them having brown or blue eyes, blond or brown hair. The boy thought he was surrounded by westerners, he spoke in English clearly.
"What is this place? Where am I?"
For the doctors, it was an otherworldly language. For them, these words were nothing but strange and unknown sounds. The doctors tried to comfort him down.
"What does he say?"
"No clue, earthlings do have wierd languages."
"Anyone got tongue-alter potions?"
A doctor injected the life-supporting syringe into the boy's right forearm, the boy was too fragile to refuse. One of the doctors called for a nurse who was passing by with a tray in hand, different colored potions with droppers stood on the tray. The doctor took a blue coloured potion from the tray and pressed the upper rubber part of the dropper sucking in the blue liquid and went towards the boy.
The doctor pressed the boy's cheeks to open his mouth, but the boy aggressively reacted, repelling the grasp of the doctor's hand.
"And this brat won't even try to communicate, leave him and let him die!"
As soon as the doctor yelled those words, a man walked in from behind and replied massively, "Amazing clinical ethics!"
A man with a solid built, short white hair and clear blue eyes stood in front of them. He was wearing a full-sleeved, white uniform with blue accents, it had different badges and emblems on the shoulders and collars. He stood in front of the doctors with a disgruntled expression on his astute face. His name was Yuriel.
"He is still in his teens, finding his place in life, but fate has struck him with a disaster. Look at him for once with a hint of mercy and generosity. His young life is derailed. Hear the words through his ears and you will know that we are also speaking a phonetically horrendous language !" his loud tone silenced the chittering doctors.
Yuriel took the blue potion from the doctor's hands and shook the flask a little.
"It's quite inaccurate alchemically, we sure have alternatives," Yuriel fastidiously examined the texture of the potion.
He moved out from the group and raised his head above to recheck the writings on the fluttering banner above, "Refugees from Human World." he read softly.
He carefully lifted a flask of green potion from the nurse's tray and approached the boy. Sitting down on the bed near the boy's feet, he used the dropper to pipette the green liquid from the flask. Seeing him so close, the boy retracted and took a defensive posture. But to his surprise, Yuriel took the dropper and put it in his own mouth. The boy confused, watched the green column get emptied in Yuriel's mouth.
"See, it's not harmful." Yuriel said with a slow and assuring smile. He again pulled up some of the liquid into its column and brought it close to the boy's mouth.
The boy hesitated but then ultimately drank the potion from the dropper and then, he lay on the bed instantly falling asleep.
"The surgery did wear him out," one of the doctors commented after seeing the boy's state.
Yuriel rose from the bed and spoke to a woman about something with a serious look before leaving the hospital.
-----
The next day, the boy finally woke up from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes to find himself sitting on a soft bed in a cozy room. The floor was wooden and the white ceiling above shone in adequate lighting, the brown walls were hard and were of moderate temperature. His gaze fell on a small table at a distance, where stood a delicate flower. The room was unused and hence well-arranged. It was a room on the third floor of Yuriel's house.
Yuriel entered the room with a tray in his hand which had a bowl of soup and a few pieces of barley bread dipped in butter.
"How are you today?" Yuriel asked in a gracious tone, in a different language than the boy originally knew.
The boy's face was ruffled in doubt and wonder, he slowly comprehended the new language and opened his mouth to answer,
"I'm unaware of where I am so I can't answer that." His reply was unusual and somewhat unexpected.
"I brought you breakfast." Yuriel sat on the bed in front of the boy with the tray in hand.
"Thank you, can you tell me where I am? I don't recall being in an accident." The boy spoke clearly without hesitation. "And also, why am I able to speak this langauge?"
"It is because of that potion you had before." replied Yuriel in a steady voice.
"Who are you? May I ask your name, sir?"
"My name is Yuriel, I'm a senior officer of IDRF."
"I am Kanito Aramishi, what is IDRF?"
"I will explain it to you. First you tell me, what do you remember before opening your eyes in that hospital?"
"All I remember is that I was returning home from my school's farewell party."
The previous night was the last day for Tokyo International High School students to meet each other in school. At the end of the party, students gathered around the people they knew, shared soft words and relived old memories. They all slowly left the school premises.
One small group of friends still remained. Among them, stood a boy of medium height and thin built. He had short black hair combed stylishly with curvy front bangs, had a pair of slant, yellow eyes. He was wearing a black trench coat over a white shirt, tucked inside his black trousers, a yellow tie was around his neck and an olive green backpack hung from his shoulder. He had a gentle, melancholic smile on his face. His name was Kanito Aramishi.
"I will miss you.. all of you, so much." A friend of Kanito teared up and immediately wiped away his tears. "Will you search for meaning in goodbyes as well, Kanito?" Another friend added jokingly.
"I would," Kanito smiled and patted his shoulders, "Don't make it more difficult or me. It's unfair that only I am the one who is holding back tears."
Another friend of Kanito asked him, "I heard Patrick and his family left for the States this morning. They must've reached by now. He was your best friend, wasn't he? I wish he was present today."
Oddly, the mere mention of his name made Kanito's lips pucker, he looked down. "What's wrong?" The friend asked.
Taking a deep breath, Kanito stared at his friends and said deeply, "I was hiding something from you guys the entire day, and I thought I would continue to do so for the rest of my lif. Its just that.. we were having such a good day, I didn't want to ruin it."
He cleared his throat and said, "I was tracking Patrick's flight all day, waiting to call him the moment he lands in Los Angeles. But then I checked the news, Sakura Wings SW001.. it crashed somewhere in the Pacific."
Dropping the bombshell on his friends in the end moment, Kanito didn't wait for the group's death-pale reactions, they won't help at all. He left the school premises and dashed towards home. Everyone else had already left and Kanito neither had the energy nor the mood to talk about the death of his best friend at the middle of the night.
The party was long over and Kanito was headed home under the dark midnight. He walked with his hands tugged in the pockets and his head lowered. Sometimes he'd kick at the dust, frustrated, and sometimes he'd stop in his path to wipe away the tears that brimmed in his eyes often – he knew he'd let it all out, let the sobs rack up his chest.
There were no cars on the street and yet the signal sign was oddly red. Nevertheless, he waited for the signal to change and then crossed the street at the zebra-crossing.
Walking past a few buildings with a swollen look, he gave his trench coat a hitch, 'Its so cold today!' he quickly buttoned up the trench coat as a chilly wind blew across the street. He a saw a black fabric from the corners of his eyes.
As he walked by a building, an unusual thought, almost poetic came to him, he looked up at the garish emotionless sky and gauged his own existence, "In this world, no sound remains but my own footsteps, no sorrow remains but my own grief. I walk alone on this path, forsaken by the world."
Kanito moved to a certain distance and realized that he was standing on some indistinct red patterns drawn on the ground.
And then, he felt a lacerating stab in his chest.
With a horrified face, he looked down and saw a sharp dagger protruding out from his chest, his white shirt and coat were soaked in red, he coughed out piles of blood as his vision blurred.
He saw a mysterious man with a black-veiled face. He had stabbed him from behind with a dagger. That man with a sinister grin saw the blood from Kanito's chest trickle down on the red circular patterns below their feet.
'Please, bury me respectfully.'
But then in the sky, a blue magical portal materialized and from that portal, came out Yuriel, he came down and landed a huge blow on that veiled man.
The man managed to dodge this attack quickly and engaged in a duel with Yuriel. But soon, Yuriel overpowered him and killed him with a heavy thrust of his sword, he then touched Kanito's wound and healed it by some means.
The patterns on the ground were indeed a magic circle which started to glow in a red aura. Kanito rose from the ground with confusion and stood afar along with Yuriel. As he watched the mysterious circle glow, dangerous creatures slowly came out of that circle, one after another.
Then, in huge numbers, the creatures erupted from the circle and spread in all directions, armed with various weapons in their hands.
Kanito was horrified by the bizzare scene, he tried to run away from the scene as fast as he can but was faced by a dangerous four-armed being. That creature launched a gigantic claw at Kanito and chiseled his back and shoulders, drenching him in blood.
However, Yuriel jumped and rotated his sword across the creature's neck, beheading it. After that, he delayed no more. Seeing no one else present on the streets, he held a half-dying Kanito by his collars in one hand and flew high up in the sky towards the blue portal.
Soon, the creatures multiplied at an alarming rate, spreading across the city like wildfire. In the blink of an eye, chaos erupted, and a catastrophic storm ravaged the metropolis.
Kanito, suspended in mid-air and bleeding profusely, gazed down in stupor : the city below was a carnival of blood. Fire engulfed buildings, screams dashed the streets and smoke claimed the sky. The ferocious beasts rampaged through the streets, destroying everything in their path – this will spread across the world soon.
Yuriel looked around him, as if helplessly searching for his companions to find no trace of anyone. No other portal opened other than the one through which Yuriel came out. The blue portal started to shrink.
Kanito noticed another bizzare event, the black sky turned pure crimson.
'Please God, if this is the end, then give me refuge in Heaven!'
Before Yuriel could enter the portal, Kanito raised his eyes to catch a glimpse of this world for the last time, he saw a horrific scene : a thousand blazing stars were flying down on Earth like artillery.
The portal snapped shut behind them and they transitioned into a hospital like place.
Yuriel immediately placed Kanito's cold body on a stretcher, a few ward boys pushed the stretcher, taking Kanito away.