Editing HanTsuki:Volume 1 Chapter 1 (section)

=== 2 ===

Akiko's surveillance became more strict.

As might be expected, the personality of a former delinquent is on a different level. When lights out came, she put a bench outside my door. The door's in this hospital open outward, so I could no longer open the door from the inside.

A confinement with which I couldn't argue about.

"What'll I do if I need to go to the toilet!"

When I tried to resist using that method, Akiko pressed a transparent container with a weird shape into my hands.

It was a bottle for urine.

Completely shocked at the treatment I was receiving...

"S-Seriously?"

I asked, and...

"Seriously! Have fun!"

I was nodded at, the bottle still in my hands.

Really, as expected, the personality of a former delinquent is on a different level.

It wasn't only at night that the surveillance was tighter. It was also more strict during the day. When I get hungry, I go to the supermarket on the other side of the street to buy bread or sweets, but that was all forbidden. Just going to the lobby, the woman sitting at the reception window would glare at me. And when I tried to circle to the back, this time, my hand was grabbed by one of the cleaning ladies.

"Sorry, but I was asked by Akiko. You get it, right?"

Nodding, I returned to my hospital room like I was running away. Exceeding what I had even dreamed of, the surrounding net was wide and surrounded me perfectly...

"Haaaaah<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>"

Letting loose a sigh, I walked down one of the hallways of the hospital.

Now, the only place I could tread carefreely was within the hospital. However, a hospital is filled with doctors, nurses, and sick people, the worst place ever. Just having a young hospitalised patient is in itself rare, so if things don't go well, then the traps which involve groups of grandpas and grandmas dragging me into their small talk are waiting for me. A terrible trap where, once dragged in, it would be at least an hour before I was released.

Despite that, my ''friends'' completely misunderstood what hospital life was like.

"Must be nice...there's beautiful nurses, right?"

They said things like that, but that's just a fantasy.

If they wanted to know the reality, they'd just need to be threatened by Akiko once.

Then they'd know...they'd be dead, but they'd know.

"Haaaaah<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>)"

Letting loose another sigh, I plodded down the corridor, which the sunlight shone in.

Really, this is boredom.

At first, I was happy that it was fine that I didn't go to school, but as might be expected just continuing my life of boredom like that and instead I started to miss school, which was rather strange.

Ahh, I want to take a noon-time nap in the afternoon classroom...

The udon of that horrible cafeteria seems so nostalgic...

Eventually, I reached a fork in the corridor.

In Municipal Wakaba Hospital, there's the west hospital wing and east hospital wing. My room was in the west hospital wing, and mostly it was used for the people with relatively light diseases. And, on the other side of the courtyard, there was the east hospital wing. There, the people who're being hospitalised for a long time or have serious disease are housed.

I had decided not to go much to the east hospital wing.

What we call hospitals, though a rubbish definition, are places that are relevant to the sick. People who would reside there would mean their sickness had reached to some extent; and to those who would go to the acute disease sector, are people who have contracted really serious illnesses—illnesses that wouldn’t be of any matter like mine. 

I stopped walking long the corridor.

I was a bit reluctant to go there with the attitude of trying pull a prank or kill time. 

I remembered I had once lost my way in the east hospital wing. Just when I was going around in circles, I heard a crying sound from afar. I didn’t take much concern of it and followed to the source of the sound out of pure curiosity. Of course, I hadn’t any mental preparations for what was awaiting me. Then, I saw a scene—there were two young people, a male and a female, sobbing and embracing each other in the corner of the corridor. The female was biting her thin lips, and the male was trying to act strong and say something to the female. He would sometimes even wipe his eyes.

I had no idea what happened. I couldn’t put the odds and ends together.

This was because I left in a panic afterwards.

At that time, I thought I had seen something I shouldn’t have seen.

Perhaps, things like disasters weren’t that rare as they seem. They are incessantly going around and happening despite being out of our reach.

The east hospital wing gave me such a thought.

“Go back,” I murmured to myself, my body turning back.

Let me head to the roof and bath in the sun. The wind wouldn’t blow against me beside the water tank, and it was warm in this season. Bringing along with me a manga would also be nice.

As my thoughts went wild, my eyes were captivated by something.

Black lustrous hair.

White skin.

I could see from the windows of the corridor some of the east hospital wing rooms, and in one of them there was a young girl leaning against the window.

She laid her hands on the window frame, gazing upon the sky.

I was a bit surprised.

Since the two months of hospitality, I had a bit of remark on every patient in the hospital since the hospital wasn’t a huge one.

Hospital.

There shouldn’t be girls of this age in the hospital.

“Is she here to visit someone?” mumbled I to myself. I saw the clothes on her, which deterred away my proposition. She was wearing aqua blue pajamas. No one would visit someone in his or her pajamas. Only patients in the hospital would have such an outfit. 

Akiko’s words suddenly rang in my ears, “There are girls in the hospital.”

She was right. She had to know something about that longhaired girl.

“Your eyes are quite sharp,” she laughed maliciously.

Though I was bit infuriated, I couldn’t do anything that would anger Akiko, as I would be the final loser. Besides, Akiko was holding an injection needle, which could target my left arm’s vessels with its sharp needle head.

Or to put it another way, I was a patient preparing to be drip-fed by Akiko, the nurse responsible for this job.  

If I happen to go against her at this times...

“Oh, sorry, I made a mistake.”

She would say such words and poke me with the needle with the wrong places—places far from the correct position; along with that, the same action would repeat about three times. When she first took such actions on me, I knew deeply in my heart the scary aspect of Akiko after repeated dismal events. I knew I had to be extra careful when she was holding the injection needle.

“When did she start living in the hospital?” I asked as I looked closely to the approaching lens. I had been drip-fed almost every day now, but I still hadn’t got used to this pain.

“Let me think about it. About three days ago. I heard she was transferred here from some hospital outside our district,” answered Akiko as she injected the needle into my blood at the same time. The skill of injecting someone had a disparity. Skilled people would get their job finished without letting you feel any pain. And Akiko is one of those who do it the bad and crude way. As the pain went through me, I slightly cried, “...uagh!”

“You’re so feeble.”

How dare she say this? It was her fault!

“If you’re a man, stand the pain.”

I had to stand the pain. If I had any complaints, she might not even tell me anything.

“What is the name of the girl?”

“Akiba Rika. Seventeen, the same as you.”

“The same as me...”

“You’re thinking something, right?”

She laughed at me maliciously again. I denied her solemnly, “No!”

“Oh, is that so? Hm...?”

She kept on giggling endlessly. Suppressing my anger, I continued to ask, “Does she reside in the east hospital wing? Is her sickness acute?”

At that instant, Akiko’s feelings slightly changed. She still kept her frivolous smile, but there were no hint of a smile in her eyes.

“She’s fine. Nothing about her.”

She was lying. I knew right what this meant. Doctors and nurses are even more reluctant to speak when the patient’s illness are more acute. People who rarely go to the hospital might not know what these words meant and really believe it wasn’t a big deal. Nevertheless, I had lived here for two months, and I was sure she was lying. The girl had to have a serious illness. A very heavy burden suddenly fell right into my abdomen. It was a burden close to grief and sorrow, yet there was a slight and subtle difference in there. Perhaps, I was slowly accustomed to the deaths in the hospital. It was usual for patients to reside in a hospital, students in schools, and policemen in the police office. Everything had their reason. There were other examples of the sort. For example, there are patients with serious illnesses who pass away without having any hopes. They could protest and complain to God, or they can go to a place with high altitude, and shout out loud, releasing their emotions. However, diseases won’t cease by such actions. It would slowly and gradually advance and bring death alongside it one day or another. At those times, the last resting place for one is to get accustomed to death. Very slowly, puffing out the damp and heavy breath accumulated under your chest—this was the only thing that could be done.