{ 4 Hours Later }
She waited by the front entrance of the apartment building she was staying at. Her mind was reeling from the earlier call.
( "...your denial of your brother's suicide will spread fear." )
She clenched her fists. Her breathing came out laboured again.
How could he say that? How could he deny what she heard from him?
"I gotta figure out what's happening," she whispered to herself, "Akashi would never kill himself. He'd never do that. This has to be some kind of sick joke..." But just then, she felt two hands wrap around her waist.
With a sharp turn, she twisted her body, sending a hard elbow to the chin, except he caught it.
"Hello to you too, Aki." Hinasuke said calmly, a small smirk on his face, "Seems like you're doing better now."
Her eyes softened instantly, "H-Hina, I'm sorry, it's just—"
"Don't worry, I'm not mad. I can never be. Not with you."
His tone was soft, gentle as he always did when he spoke to her, but this particular one was different.
She slid out of his gasp, hands clasping her arms as she muttered, "So what's up? You doing okay?"
He chuckled as he stood next her, "Well, not really. My girlfriend's been depressed lately and now she doesn't wanna talk to me. Kinda hard to get through her thick skull especially since she's starting to wanna beat the shit outta my face."
Akira's eyes widened, "Y-You have a girlfriend now?"
Hinasuke leaned forward a bit, breath mingling with hers as he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "Yeah and she's beautiful. She also just so happened to have regrown her hair which is a good sign."
Her body curved back as he leaned forward, "Hina, what are you...?"
Hinasuke's eyes softened a little as he stopped halfway, "Alright then, I get the message. You need your space."
He smiled, the light in his eyes muted as he ruffled her hair, "Shouldn't we get going? Yano and Yoshi are waiting for us at Sehiko College," he said walking forward, hands in his green hoodie.
Her eyes were still wide as she brushed her knuckles gently across her cheek. Her heart thrumming again. She hadn't yet realized it, but her legs were shaking.
What was that just now?
Why was Hinasuke so close and so... personal with her?
He stopped by the sidewalk, tilted his head over his shoulder, "You comin'?"
She blinked, glanced at him, placed a hand over her chest and then began walking with him.
Wherever she was, whatever place Rin took her too, this wasn't her own. And yet...she didn't hate it.
{ Meanwhile...}
The light struck her eyes as she her eyelids peeled open slowly. The air was metallic, smelled like medicine and had this distinct odor that resembled that of sanitizer. Her body moved sluggishly as she looked around.
She was in a hospital bed. She looked at her hands, fingers twitching. The subtle sounds of the ECG beeping next to her as she sat up straight was all she could hear for a long while.
She scratched the back of her head as she tried to remember what was going on.
How...did she get here?
Just then, behind the doors, she heard a woman laughing, trolleys being moved around as a woman, in her early twenties, walked in.
"Oh, you're up already, Ms Hashinada?"
Akira looked at the woman and nodded slowly, eyes drifting down to the cannula in her wrist, "Yeah, I'm...up. Hey, uh, quick question...where am I?"
The woman smiled, small and a little playful, "You're in the hospital. Tokyo Essential Hospital, to be more accurate. You had a minor issue, but your friends rushed you here when they saw you on the floor alone." She leaned forward, a look of sympathy painted on her features, "Must've been scary, huh? Being all alone like that?"
"I'm... used to the feeling..." she said softly, "But, life's...getting slightly better. Not everyone wants to leave me."
The nurse's eyes softened a little, noticing how her voice shook at the end, "Hey, it's going to be okay. People care about you. Your friends especially, they seemed super worried and stressed out. I'm sure they wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you."
"Yeah, that's true. They really do care about me. They're...family to me." she whispered back, a tear falling from her eyes.
The nurse walked over to embrace her, lending her a crying shoulder to lean on and when she was done, she asked if she wanted any food to eat.
"Maybe some Ohagi, please? Lots of them."
"Sure thing. And uhm, Mr Hashibira is outside in the waiting room, if you want to see him, I can go tell him—"
"No. Please, don't." Her voice dropped lower, "I...I don't want him to see me like this. I've... I've already done too much to make him worry."
The nurse nodded as she walked out and left her alone.
She stayed there, staring at her reflection on the window, "Gosh, I'm such a mess..." she muttered, hands running through her short violet bangs, "Life's been pretty hard on us, huh?" she said to herself, looking at her reflection.
She was tired, even her eyes looked exhausted with life.
She glanced at the floor and noticed that she had a bag next to her with a note on top. She picked it up. She could tell from the handwriting that it was Yoshida who'd wrote it:
"Hey, Aki.
I couldn't get time to write this properly so excuse the terrible writing. I don't have much to say, just that me and Yano are going back to the apartment. Those Ayanaki Order guys said we should keep away from trouble, but whilst you were out, all three of us got some offers from them. I don't know about Hina, but me and Yano decided it's best if we talked things out first with you around, but if you're reading this past the 26th—"
She stopped to look around for the date. The digital hologram in front of her bed showed the time:
Saturday 27 June. 10:24 a.m.
She looked back at the paper, "I've been asleep for days..." she whispered, "I must've really passed out or something."
"—then we've probably already chosen to sign up for their little agreement, don't worry though! They did take a liking to you, especially that Rinta chick. She says she wants to train you personally. Also, you won't believe who scouted me and Hina.
BAYASHI WATANABE AND SAIICHI OTAKU!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THOSE TWO, THE LITERAL SHINOBU CHOSE US TO BE THEIR APPRENTICES!! THIS IS SO INSANE!
Ahem, as I was saying, if you're reading this on Saturday then we've already said yeah and are probably learning under their wing now. So yeah, talk to you later, or not because I was told you smashed your phone again.
Later!
THE GREAT YOSHIDA TSUNADE OUT!"
She smiled at that last bit, but her smile had a bit of a weird curve of confusion to it, "I wonder why they'd scout you again though, but I won't pry. You guys do what you gotta do, I guess..."
She looked at the time again.
["Still though, passing out for 4 days just because I've been crying myself to bed? That's new..."] She thought.
But nevertheless, she turned on her side, pulled up the blanket and waited for the Ohagi to come.
"I really need to apologize to Hinasuke, though. I've been avoiding him for so long, he's probably worried I'm going to try to commit suicide again."
She chuckled a little at the end, a bittersweet one, "Though, you could've just told me you loved me at a later time than that, idiot..." She whispered to herself, voice thick with emotion.
The door opened slowly as a different nurse, much older than the last came through, dragging her large trolley, feet shuffling as she sighed, "Ms Hashinada, your Ohagi is here."
She sat up straight, eyes shining as she saw the mountain of the confectionery she adored most.
"Did he tell you to put this much?"
"Who, Mr Hashibira? Yes, yes he did. He said you feel better when you have more than 12 of these to yourself, a cup of milk and—"
"Some sweetening powder by the side..." she added up, a small tentative smile spreading across her lips, "He really does know me..."
The nurse rolled her eyes as she said, "Uh, yes he does, however if I'm not being to rude may I share my opinion?"
"Yeah?"
The nurse opened the lid slowly, unbuttoning her apron, "See, I don't know about you, but...for a long time I've found it quite difficult for me to enjoy my life here with people like you around."
The elder nurse then pulled out a gun.
Not just any ordinary one either.
This one had a silver liquid running from the hilt to the trigger and out on the neck of the gun.
She pointed it slowly as she spoke, "So what me and the organization like to do is called 'Clean Up'"
She clawed at her face, ripping her skin off as the material of plastic and polysynthetic fibres left her real skin.
The nurse who came by earlier.
The nurse's eyes narrowed as they sharpened, "That said, since you're a Hybrid, I don't need to tell you something that your kind already knows, right?"
"I suppose." She answered simply, her voice still soft and her eyes still tired, "But still, what makes you think you can just barge in like that without knocking first?"
The nurse's brows furrowed, "Are you screwing with me? I have a gun in my hand and all you care about is some stupid privacy?"
"Well, you see..." she began, sliding to the slide slowly as her body ached a bit, legs dangling off the bed, "...it honestly doesn't matter whether or not you kill me."
She slid into her shoes, soft and comfy as she dragged herself and the IV drip to the nurse, who just kept the gun following her.
The nurse's eyes narrowed in suspicion, ["Something's wrong...why is she so calm?"]
"Is that supposed to mean something? If I'm not mistaken, all it takes is just the pull of a trigger and you're dead." She clocked the gun, showing her that she was not playing.
"Yeah, maybe you're right." She said stopping in front of the nurse, then whispered softly, "but that's only if you can pull the trigger...before I... can kill you."
The nurse's eyes twitched, "Dumb bitch! Go back to hell with the likes of your kind, you demon"
She pulled the trigger, eyes shutting as she did from the loud noise of the shot.
And when her eyes opened again.
The room was suddenly upsidedown.
"Personally...I don't like ambushes." She said, taking a bite of the Ohagi behind the nurse whose head...
...was twisted a full 180 degrees upward.
["What...just happened to me?"]
The nurse thought, watching as her vision blacked out. Multiple people flooded in the room as her body fell down slowly.
["Did she just...kill me?"]
["But how? I...shot first."]
Her body slumped to the floor.
Doctors, nurses and security rushing in to the scene as one final thought left the nurses lips...
"Damn you..."
"...you demon."
She rasped out finally, "Damn you, Akira... Hashinanda."