“Is your brother around? I need to speak with him in my exam room. It’s about something important.”
“He won’t be coming. You can have your conversation with me, right here,” I replied flatly. “How long does Himari have left?”
“A few hours. Tomorrow morning at most. I’m sorry,” he told me calmly.
“Please excuse me. I need to call my family.”
I casually set No. 2 on the stool, then left the room. Out in the hall, I called my uncle, then Oginome-san. A short distance away, the nurses’ station was bustling with activity.
Uncle Ikebe was very quiet; he must have gleaned Himari’s condition from the sound of my voice. Bit by bit, I told him only the most relevant details. He told me he’d be here as soon as possible, instructed me to get some rest, then hung up.
Likewise, Oginome-san wasn’t that shocked to hear that Himari was taken to the hospital. Instead, she calmly asked me what happened and whether I needed her to bring anything. This helped get me to think things through a bit more.
“There’s a spare key taped to the underside of the potted plant at the far edge of the porch. Use it to get into the house. Then go to Himari’s room and you’ll see a bunch of cardboard boxes with my uncle’s address on them. They have Himari’s clothes inside…”
As I mumbled on and on, the house I had only just left rose to the forefront of my mind—the cold, dark, empty house with its chilly wood floors and ancient bathroom tile. And the cramped, cluttered kitchen. And the fridge covered in papers held up by magnets. And the warm orange light of the living room, and Himari’s bedroom right next to it—a magical, fanciful room with a big pink four-poster bed—
“Shoma-kun? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. Anyway, we’ve got her insurance card here…um…uhhh…”
All at once, my mind went blank, and I kept stammering over and over. Wasn’t there something else? Something we needed?
“Slow down and take it easy. I’ll just bring you and Himari-chan some spare clothes,” she told me firmly, and I knew I could count on her.
“Okay. Thanks,” I mumbled. “Hey, um, about Himari… They told me she’s at the end of her rope. She might make it to tomorrow, but that’s about it.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s…awful…” I could hear her voice grow muddled on the other end of the line. Maybe she was fighting back tears.
When I returned to the hospital room, I accidentally sat down on top of No. 2. Dr. Washizuka gave me an odd look, but didn’t ask.
“Where’s Dr. Sanetoshi?” I asked as the thought occurred to me. He had said Himari couldn’t be cured, but maybe he would know of some other way to save her.
“Sanetoshi? Who are you talking about?”
“Dr. Sanetoshi, the internal specialist!” I shouted back on reflex. “He’s been treating her illness, and I’d like to get his professional medical opinion!”
“Now hold on a minute. We don’t have any ‘internal specialists’ at this hospital. Besides, I had a different doctor take over for me while I was out of the country. Didn’t you meet him?”
“That’s not true. His name was Watase Sanetoshi, and he was tall, with long hair, and…” What did his face look like again? What floor was his exam room on? Dr. Washizuka looked at me with concern as I searched for the words. “And he had two kids with him!”
“You know, I used to have an assistant by that name, once upon a time,” he replied, smiling bitterly. “That reminds me—I actually had a dream about him just the other night. What a strange dream.”
“So what happened to him?”
“He died sixteen years ago. In my dream, I think he called himself a ghost… Not very scientific, now is it?”
“A ghost…?”
That couldn’t be possible. Himari, Kanba, and I had all met him in person dozens of times. He smelled like a greenhouse, and his hair glowed funny colors, and he always crossed his long legs, and he had two young twin assistants. But the one thing I couldn’t remember was his face—almost like someone blacked it out with a Sharpie.
“Get some rest. The fatigue is clearly getting to you,” Dr. Washizuka sighed.
Inside the pitch-dark KIGA hideout, Kanba sat in front of a dozen large computer monitors. He leaned against the chair with his full weight, enduring the pain in his back. Himari was nowhere to be seen; the only sound was that of his own labored breathing. The pain and panic made him sweat. Occasionally he would pause to wipe his brow with his sleeve as he watched cardboard boxes full of black teddy bears ship out one by one.
“In short, you three are cursed by the dead, and the curse is me. Stunning, isn’t it?”
Sanetoshi stepped out from the shadows, his long white jacket fluttering behind him. The light from the computer monitors reflected off of his hair, creating ripples of pink and blue and yellow that spread through the darkness. His eyes were as deep and bottomless as space itself; they absorbed the light and twinkled mysteriously.
“This time, I will destroy the world. And I’m going to rub it in my little girlfriend’s face.”
“I don’t care what happens to the world. I want to save Himari.”
Kanba didn’t take his eyes off the monitors for a single second. His voice was flat, and his breathing wasn’t getting any slower. Why wasn’t she here?
“You will. As proof, allow me to show you one of my magic spells… Survival Tactic,” Sanetoshi whispered hoarsely into his ear.
Kanba’s heart skipped a beat, and he looked up—but they were no longer in the same room as before.
“I’m really not the dramatic type,” Sanetoshi shrugged, then started walking.
They were now floating in space—the same space reflected in his eyes. A breathtaking number of stars twinkled brightly, flying past and exploding all around them. Kanba had never seen space before, but the tension in the air told him he wouldn’t last a moment outside of this contained area—he could feel it viscerally through his skin. It smelled nearly as sweet as the place the penguin queen always manifested.