"From now on, don't let a patient get rained on. Her constitution is frail, and she can't handle staying up late or sitting for long stretches either. And what kind of older sister are you? This child has had a low fever since yesterday, hasn't she?"
"I'm sorry! That was my oversight. Thank you so much for helping us, Dr. Haizuka!"
"It's fine."
Haizuka Kyou, the white-haired, gold-eyed doctor in the white coat, waved a hand and pushed open the door to the ward.
"Go and look after her properly. Remember to give her medicine on time, and don't let her keep such a dangerous routine and diet anymore. Someone this thin and frail is going to run into trouble sooner or later."
"Yes! Yes! Thank you so much!"
As Dr. Haizuka walked away, Taki Shiina finally let out a breath.
"Haaah—"
Sigh after sigh. Taki Shiina, is sighing all you know how to do?!
Slapping her own cheeks hard outside the door, Taki forced herself to perk up a little.
It was just past six on the second morning. She had spent the entire night keeping Chiose company through her IV drip, and the last of the trouble hadn't been sorted out until the small hours. In between, Taki had dozed for a while in Chiose's room, then gone out to buy some breakfast and run into the doctor.
And on top of that, she'd gotten a good scolding.
"Ugh, I really deserve to die."
Taki straightened her back and, in the end, chose to go back into the ward. Her silver-haired girl was waiting for her on the hospital bed.
Her lovely lashes trembled slightly. Chiose was propped half upright against several layers of pillows, gazing at the view outside the window.
"Little Chiose, good morning."
"Mm! Morning, Taki."
Chiose touched her hearing aid, which had a crow sticker stuck on it.
"I... are you feeling better?"
"Much better! Thanks to Little Taki getting me here in time. If I'd been on my own, I'd probably have rotted away at home."
"I..."
Should I tell her that her getting sick is partly my fault too?
Taki shook her head and didn't dare say more. Just as she'd hidden the fact that she was the reason Chiose had lost her hearing, she didn't dare admit that if she'd taken a little more care of Chiose, the fever wouldn't have gotten this bad.
And she had sworn to take good care of Chiose.
"Pfft. What kind of face is that? Your little gloom is overflowing. You're so cute, Little Taki."
Taki's scrunched-up face was so adorable that Chiose Noshiro, weak as she was, couldn't stop laughing.
"Huh? Well, as long as Little Chiose is happy! That expression just now... I'll try to recreate it."
The black-haired girl started pulling goofy faces and striking silly poses, until the white-haired girl on the bed was shaking with laughter.
Only then did Taki Shiina realize that Chiose's crow-like laugh was gone. Chiose's laughter was sounding more and more like a normal girl's. That was good. Really good.
[This counts as my doing, doesn't it? Heh! For once I actually did something good.]
So she hadn't only harmed Chiose. At least she'd helped her a little, hadn't she?
"Taki! How's Little Chiose! Is she okay?!"
Noisy voices came from outside the door. Taki looked at the three little heads poking through the gap and felt a headache coming on.
"I never should have told you Chiose wasn't feeling well! You come running over first thing in the morning, aren't you afraid of disturbing her rest?! All of you, get out and wait outside!"
"Huh? Is everyone here?"
Chiose Noshiro cut off Taki's motion and tried to sit up.
She failed.
So she propped herself on her elbows against the sheets, barely lifting her head, and said:
"Come in, quickly! I've rested plenty!"
Outside stood Tomori Takamatsu, Mutsumi Wakaba, and Soyo Nagasaki.
This was the first time the Crychic remnants had gathered since their captain, Sakiko Togawa, quit the band.
It was a strange occasion, and in a hospital of all places, somewhere none of them had ever imagined.
"Little Chiose? You..." Tomori pinched her own fingers, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say. In the end all she could squeeze out was a feather-light, "Have you eaten breakfast?!"
"Me? I can't eat right now..."
Chiose shot Taki a look. Taki, who was in tune with her, knew Chiose had something she wanted to say.
That look means she wants me to play along.
But what does Little Chiose want to say?
Looking around at the band members, Chiose adjusted her hearing aid.
"Actually, I wanted to ask all of you... please don't quit Crychic! I think at least one of you has already decided not to stay."
"..."
Silence was the main theme once those words were out.
Then again, that was only natural.
After all, Crychic was a band that had existed for only a few weeks. Not quitting would make a person look like she was scheming, just like Chiose.
Quitting was the choice a normal person would make.
But in Chiose Noshiro's plan, Crychic played a vital role.
Without Crychic as a good tool, Taki Shiina's "carry this regret for the rest of her life" index would definitely drop!
So how could she keep everyone here?
Chiose's lips quivered again and again. She had pressed them together just now precisely to make them look deathly pale.
"The truth is, I don't have much time left."
"?"
"Huh?!"
"What?"
"Chiose? You..."
Chiose Noshiro's words hit like a depth charge, blasting everyone wide awake the moment they surfaced.
Taki Shiina was the first to rush forward. She grabbed Chiose's hand, only to be stared back by a look from Chiose Noshiro.
[Chiose? Are you lying?]
Taki signed rapidly in sign language. Chiose rolled her eyes and nodded a few times.
But the others didn't know the truth.
Tomori, soft-hearted and never having faced a parting by death, already had tears welling in her eyes.
"Sigh, you all... please don't be sad. The doctor says I may only have a few years left, and told me to go and do whatever I want to do... I want to form a band, the kind that lasts a lifetime... Mm, until the day I die. Is that okay?"
It sounded like begging.
No, the pitiful Chiose Noshiro really was begging.
The silver-haired girl in a pale patient gown had skin that was unnaturally white.
All of this made her words even more convincing.
"But without Sakiko, the keyboard..." Mutsumi kept her emotions from wavering too much.
She had originally meant to leave the way Sakiko had, since her main reason for joining the band was Sakiko. But Chiose's speech had hit her like a blow to the head.
If she left now, wouldn't this poor deaf girl carry this regret for the rest of her life?
"From now on, let me be the keyboardist, all right? I'm really quite good at it!"
"Little Chiose! Won't that wear on your body? Don't be reckless... The band matters, but your body and your health..."
"Soyo, there isn't that much time."
Chiose performed like a dying patient. It was the acting skill that years of experience dying of illness had given her.
"I really want to keep playing in a band. It would be such a shame to die without ever playing properly even once."
When she finished, the room fell quiet.
There were only a few scattered sobs now and then.
And that was how it went.
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