Chapter 3
“Ah, please try.”
“…”
I didn’t make a sound, but I opened my mouth anyway. The doctor examined my mouth, looked over my body, and wrote something down. All I had were scratches and bruises from being hit here and there. The doctor checked my body with a rather serious face and then lightly pressed my face.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt…”
“That’s strange. With this level of injury, you should be feeling pain.”
Why suddenly my face? I touched where he had pressed and looked at the doctor with confusion. The doctor muttered something about checking again, then pressed various parts of my face firmly.
“Wait a moment.”
“Why? Does it hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt.”
“How odd.”
But the doctor just tilted his head from side to side without answering me, then started writing something again. Watching him press my seemingly fine face and click his tongue made me suddenly afraid. Could I have contracted some disease without knowing? In a moment of panic, I grabbed the doctor.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Please tell me. Is there something wrong with me or… some serious injury…?”
The doctor’s face filled with bewilderment. His expression so clearly showed how ridiculous he found my question that I felt foolish for having asked while clutching my anxious heart. I cleared my throat and avoided his gaze. The doctor scratched his head with the end of his pen and handed me a small mirror that was on the desk.
“Look. You’ll understand when you see it.”
I turned the hand mirror back and forth before looking into it as the doctor suggested.
“Huh?”
“I find it strange that you say it doesn’t hurt.”
The doctor sighed as he looked at me. I looked at the mirror, then at the doctor, then back at the mirror, staring intently. But no matter how long I looked, my appearance in the mirror didn’t change. My entire face was covered with dark bluish bruises, making me look like some grotesque monster.
“Huh? How did this…”
“Are you naturally prone to bruising?”
“No. If anything, I rarely get bruises…”
I touched my face while looking in the mirror. When did these bruises appear? I hadn’t fallen or bumped into anything. It might have happened while I was disoriented, but bruises this severe should have caused more than just mild pain. It felt so unfamiliar, almost alien, as if the marks on my face weren’t bruises at all but rather blue paint.
After touching it for a while, I recalled feeling something like pain. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t pain but a burning sensation, like having applied a medicated patch to bare skin.
“…Could it be?”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
I waved my hands, dismissing the doctor’s concern. I needed time to organize my thoughts. The meteor shower had definitely fallen on my face, and afterward, it kept stinging. I had dismissed it as being overly sensitive, but…
My mind was in turmoil. I was scared, trembling, and all kinds of worries rushed in. But I didn’t know how to explain this to the doctor. Something strange had spread across the sky, then a meteor shower fell, and a drop touched my face. That seems to be what caused the bruises on my face…?
“Next patient!”
“W-wait. The bruises on my face…”
“If it doesn’t hurt, you should be fine. There doesn’t seem to be any bone damage either. If you’re worried, we can take an MRI.”
“That’s not it…!”
“Come on, please leave quickly. There are many patients waiting.”
Pushed by the nurse’s urgent gesture, I was shooed away from the doctor. I was forced out into the hospital corridor without being able to give a proper explanation. The gazes of people gathered in the corridor waiting their turn lingered on me before dispersing. I stared blankly at the door that had closed in my face, then touched my face.
“Mister, are you hurting?”
“Huh?”
A little boy with dirty fingers that he was sucking on spoke to me. His missing front tooth and scattered scar marks suggested his usual appearance, but the child was strangely well-behaved. Had the hospital—permeated with wails, screams, and occasional groans—changed even the child’s personality? I crouched down to meet the boy’s eyes.
“I’m not hurting.”
“Your face looks like it hurts.”
“Does it? Thank you for your concern. But where’s your mom?”
“Mom is sick like you, mister.”
The child’s finger vaguely pointed nearby. There, a middle-aged woman was suffering silently with a bandage soaked in blood wrapped around her head. Seeing her gesturing with a scabbed hand as if looking for something, I brought the child right in front of her. The woman embraced the child and suppressed a groan.
“Mister, goodbye.”
The child patted his mother’s shoulder gently and waved to me. I smiled slightly, said goodbye to the child, and moved on from the corridor. I was still worried about the bruises, but after seeing the child’s mother, my concern felt trivial. I felt utterly ashamed for making patients wait while I fussed over an injury that didn’t even hurt, just stung a little.
The world visible through the corridor window was pitch black. The dark clouds had completely disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black night sky floating overhead. However, the strange patterns still remained in the sky, with helicopters busily flying around them.
What could that be? What had happened today? As my thoughts deepened, there was a sudden “thunk” sound in the air.
“?”
I jerked my head up in surprise. But it seemed I was the only one who heard the sound, as the people filling the hospital showed no reaction. I wondered if I’d heard things and cleaned out my ears, shaking them thoroughly. But then—
Rumble, rumble.
This time, there was a visible phenomenon, not just an auditory hallucination. The ground was starting to shake slightly. Dust flew up between the trembling floor. People who had been groaning stopped and stared at the floor. But the vibrations didn’t stop. As the trembling gradually intensified, the faces of people who had already suffered once before began to turn pale.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Beginning with one scream, screams erupted from everywhere. A huge crowd rushed toward the building entrance. People screaming and falling as they ran, others pushing and stepping over those blocking their way. A child who lost his mother’s hand disappeared into the crowd, and people crawled outside even while bleeding profusely.
Frozen in momentary fear, I was pushed by the crowd into a corner of the hospital. Machines fell over and surgical tools rolled across the floor. The doors swung loosely, unable to withstand the pouring crowd.
When I regained my senses and tried to join the crowd, I had to stop. In the corridor filled with screams, the child I had seen earlier was crying loudly. I hurriedly approached after seeing an object being kicked at the feet of people in front of the child. The woman was curled up, unconscious.
“Wake up!”
“Mom, Mommy!”
“It’s okay, mom is okay.”
“Move!”
A man as big as a mountain pushed through people and ran forward. I curled up in pain as his foot kicked my shin. Cold sweat ran down my face from the pain rising from my toes. The child was startled by my reaction and turned pale, breathing heavily.
I quickly gathered the child and woman into my arms and pressed against the wall. Though my fingertips trembled from the pain that felt like a broken bone, protecting our bodies from the crowd was the priority.
“Mister, mister.”
“It’s okay. Let’s hold on a little longer, okay?”
The three of us remained crouched for a long time, as if trying to shield ourselves from the vibrations and screams shaking everything around us.
* * *
I closed my eyes and listened to the heartbeats in my arms. The labored breathing of the child’s mother as her body trembled, the sound of the small child’s heart as they clung to me. Though my own heart pounded whenever the vibrations struck the hospital, focusing on those in my arms helped me barely maintain my composure.
I was ordinary, and my courage was only that of an average person. If the breathing and heartbeats of these two hadn’t reached my ears, I would have abandoned them and fled like a coward.
As we relied on each other, the vibrations that had been shaking everything gradually subsided, just as they had begun. Still, we remained embraced for a long time. I was afraid another earthquake might come, but with injured people, I didn’t dare attempt to move. However, as time passed and the ground didn’t shake, I gathered my courage and carefully opened my eyes.
“What the…”
The hospital, now completely empty of people, was eerily quiet. I turned my head looking for people, but no one was in sight. It felt as if we had been dropped into an isolated world. How could so many people, enough to need numbered tickets, disappear so quickly? I had heard that during an earthquake, it’s safer to be outside than inside a building, but…
But for that explanation, it was strangely quiet, without even a commotion from outside the hospital. What on earth was going on? In this incomprehensible situation, I blinked and looked around the hospital. Then I was startled when various entangled blankets looked like corpses.
“Mister.”
A small hand tugged at my clothes. The child was looking at me anxiously, holding the hem of his mother’s clothes with his other hand. Only then did I remember the mother’s injuries and laid her down comfortably.
Having not even a speck of medical knowledge, I didn’t know what to do for her. I should have learned first aid properly. Belated regret washed over me, but I quickly abandoned it when I realized it was useless now. The child sniffled with a red-tipped nose, fidgeting restlessly. I stroked the child’s head.
“I can’t manage alone. Will you wait here for a moment? I’ll quickly find someone to help us.”
“Uh, okay.”
Tears welled up in the child’s eyes. The hand gripping my clothes gradually tightened. The child seemed terrified of losing the only adult they could rely on, apart from their mother. It was so pitiful that for a moment, I considered taking the child with me.
But I had to shake my head. I couldn’t move with the child. Since I couldn’t even gauge how other places had been affected by the earthquake, it was better for the child to wait beside their mother. I rubbed the child’s head and stood up.
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, pain from my leg shot up my spine. I forcibly resisted the urge to bend over. Something must be wrong with the part that had been kicked. As I gritted my teeth and suppressed a groan, something small moved below me. The child was looking up with a startled face. A tear that had been welling up in their eye fell. The child’s face contorted, looking like they were about to burst into tears.
“Ah, I got dizzy from standing up suddenly. Oh my, that’s tough.”
I joked and pretended nothing was wrong to comfort the startled child. Only then did the child’s face, crumpled from crying, somewhat return to normal.
“Are you okay, mister?”
“Super~ okay. If you wait just a bit, I’ll quickly bring someone to help your mom. Okay?”
The child was still frightened but nodded and waved goodbye to me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
