Pi, Pi, Pi. The first thing that I woke up to was this electronic sound. I was in a soft bed within a nostalgic white room.
“Here is... A hospital...?” So far, I never suffered an injury or disease that was big enough to hospitalize me. The room seems similar to what I used to see in TV dramas though. The sound of the electronic device is the only thing echoing through the room, save from some faint noise from outside.
... Why am I in a hospital? No, rather than that, is this the world that I originally came from? I don’t remember anything after that big light, I faintly remember seeing something, but I don’t recall what. I look around the room while trying to raise my body from the bed.
A small amount of light enters through a thin curtain, it gives a warm feeling though. Anyway, for now, what I want is information. Whatever happened, I need to know if and why I’m back in my original world.
However, my body doesn’t listen to my commands and doesn’t really move, there is also a tube infusing a liquid on my right hand and an electrocardiogram on my chest? I’m not sure on what the liquid is, but there is a code bar on them. Just looking at that, I can be fairly certain that here is not Alselia1In case anyone forgot, that's the name of the other world..
I’ll assume this is a Japanese hospital for now, but… What should I do? While still a bit dazed, I was trying to grasp the current situation, but then I heard a noise. Looking towards the sound I saw a nurse, but she showed a surprised face and ran away as soon as she saw me.
Thinking about it, if this is a really a modern hospital, there should be a way to call the nurse. Remembering that, I looked near the bed and saw a few switches hanging on the wall. Maa, I don’t have use for that right now...
After a while, the hall suddenly became noisy. The door opened and a female doctor appeared, together with that person that seemed to be a nurse. The doctor approached me and immediately started a medical examination.
She put a stethoscope on my chest, looked into my eyes and mouth, measured my pulse and only then got away. “I will ask a few questions: Are you feeling sick? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“... No, nothing in particular. Though I’m feeling really weak right now.”
“Fumu, you’ve been like that for a few days now. I’ll give the details later, but let’s give priority to the questions now. Your name is?”
“Fujino Sakura.”
“Your birth date?”
“Year 1996, month November, Day 22.”
“Address?”
“Tokyo △ △ City ×× Block □ □.”
“You have family?”
“I have a father, mother, and an older brother.”
“Telephone number?”
“○○○○ - ○○ - ○○○○.”
“You, call her family and the police station.” She told the nurse… Police though? I understand calling my family, but why the police? And those questions, they seemed to be investigating who I am. “I'm sorry, we couldn’t talk to Fujino-san until now, so we had no way of knowing who you were. By the way, does Fujino-san remember how you were brought here?”
“... I’m sorry, I know that this is a hospital, but I don’t know where this is, nor how I got here… Why am I here?” In the first place, I don’t even know how I was brought back to Japan, so I have no idea how I got to a hospital.
“Is that so... I suppose I should first explain how you got to the current situation. Fujino-san was brought to this hospital by ambulance a week ago, I don’t know any details aside from you being found in a day of heavy rain. You were immediately examined, but no wounds or abnormalities were found. We also made you go through a tomography just in case. Aah, your clothes were taken away for inspection by the way... Apparently they looked like an armor straight out from a movie...? It was quite hard to remove those... After that, it was diagnosed that Fujino-san had no injury, but you still wouldn’t wake up. So, it was decided to keep you here until you regained consciousness... But it was quite the trouble, to host someone that didn’t even have an identity with them.”
... I see, so it’s apparently unknown how I returned to Japan. And I stayed one week fainted... Moreover, she said I was found in the rain? That was lucky, the water probably washed the dirt and blood away... Either that, or some kind of power cleaned it up...? I don’t really have a way of knowing it...
It’s probably because I used my Mana until the very limit, fainting for this long might be the consequence of that. “And because of that, you’re at this hospital... It’s not that far from △△, and can be reached by train, but... It’s quite strange for you to collapse all the way here, don’t you really remember anything?”
I can imagine the reason, but there is no way I can explain it... “No, I don’t know why.... I'm sorry…” I’m not lying, but I still feel a tinge of guilty over it, so I ended up apologizing.
“No, you don’t need to apologize just because you don’t remember. Your parents will probably come later to talk, and the police should also be coming to ask a few questions…” Ugh... The police... I hope it doesn’t become complicated... Anyway, what is the current date? I spent over 10 months on the other world, but I don’t know if the same amount passed here. It hasn’t been something like a decade, has it...? No, when she heard my birthday, there was no extreme reaction, though she seemed a bit surprised…
Then, perhaps...? “I will ask something weird, but what year, month and day are we in...?”
I timidly ask while waiting an answer from the doctor. The doctor showed a surprised face for a moment, but she soon smiled and answered. “Fuu, it is indeed weird... Right now we’re on the year of 2011, September, 9th day. Was this enough?”
... It is was quite surprising, it has only been 3 months since I went to Alselia...! How come? Does time pass different between the worlds? It seems that time flies 2.5 times faster in Alselia then...? Aah, I wish I had asked Takahashi-san when he was summoned then...! “Fujino-san? You seem to be deep in thought, is something the matter?”
When I raised my face, I saw the doctor looking at me with a worried face. “Eh? A-aah, no... It’s nothing... I’m just a bit worried, but everything is okay.” I smiled and tried to reassure her, but she didn’t seem convinced at all. But that’s not really a topic I can talk about...
When I tried thinking of something else to say, a knock resounded on the door. “Come in.” The doctor allowed them to entry, bu-but this is my hospital room!
Two men in suit came in, followed by the nurse that was here previously. One of them seems to be on his fifties which is wearing a worn out suit, behind him is another one on his thirties wearing a neat suit... Looks just like a pair of detectives from a TV drama...
One of them took a notebook from his pocket and showed it. “As you can see, I’m a police officer, could you tell me about your story...?” Oh, he really is a detective!? Didn’t he arrive too quickly? Not much time passed since they were contacted.
While I had such doubts, the doctor laughed. “Actually this hospital is pretty close to the police station, so they arrived quickly.” Eeh? How do you know what I’m thinking!? Is this person an esper or something? “Fufufu, I can tell by looking at your face... Well, she just woke up, so could you both avoid doing something that is too taxing on her?”
The officer nodded. “Understood, Could you tell me your name first?” Eh? That before the circumstances? Maa, I’ll answer for as long as it is not anything troublesome...
Like the doctor did previously, they asked, my name, address, birthdate, family composition, and why did I faint. I answered them truthfully, but could not reply to the last one. However, the other party did not let it slide so easily.
“Isn’t she hiding something? The mentioned address is too far from here, and not knowing about collapsing on strange clothes and in the middle of the rain… It doesn’t sound like memory loss.” Uuh, it’s complicated... I can’t say I went to a different world and spent the last 10 months on it. Nobody would believe it. However, if I don’t say something, this will take a bad turn...
“Nurse-san, what did my family tell you?” I asked. The nurse that was just standing on the sidelines suddenly staggered when being talked to.
“Eh-eeh!? Your family? Eto... They said they were coming right away…” She replied nervously.
“Is that so? How long does it take from city △ △ to this hospital?” I asked again.
“Eh... Th... That is… I don’t know the exact amount, but they should arrive by the evening…”
After receiving my answers and thanking the nurse, I turned back to the policemen. “Would you mind leaving this be until my family arrives? I’ll contact you once they come.” Explaining all of this is way too troublesome, and no one probably believes me, so I’d like to go through it all in one go.
That said, I know that they won’t withdraw this easily, so I turn my eyes to the doctor while asking for help. “As she said, could you return for now? She just woke up after a week sleeping and we couldn’t identify the source of her problem.”
Ooh, As expected of the doctor, her resolute attitude is really cool. The younger officer tried to reply, but was stopped by the older one. “Understood, then we’ll come again... For now, we’ll return.”
“But…!” The younger one tried to intervene, but was stopped once again by the older one.
“Follow me quietly, please excuse us.” Once the officers were gone, I thanked the doctor for her help.
“You don’t need to worry, I was already considering stopping them anyway. We’ll talk more when your family comes, so I think you should eat for now.” Once the doctor and nurse went out, I was left alone in the room... Yes, I am alone. For some reason I am in a private room. I don’t know the specifics, but private rooms have different pricings don’t they? I heard it from a friend that was hospitalized before, about private rooms being expensive or something... Is it okay for me to be here when my identity was unknown until a small while ago?
Later on I discovered that there were two reasons for this. The first one was simple, when I was brought in, there was no empty bed in the shared room. The second was that putting me in a large room with other patients, when I didn’t wake up at all, would trouble the other patients.
... Thinking about it, it would be pretty creepy if I slept next to someone that never woke up, so it was a convincing reasoning.
Lunch was something similar to porridge, I ate the whole of it without leaving a single drop behind. And... I wonder how I didn’t notice until I was told, but I had that… Diapers… Removed… Since liquid definitely dripped out, it became necessary for them to put those on me.
To think I used diapers at this age… By the way, If not diapers, the other method was to put a tube for me to pee on... I'm sorry, diapers were an excellent choice...
After lunch, I decided to take a nap because I got sleepy after eating.
