Taiki
((OOC: So SO much thanks to
sano_ashiya for putting up with this for hours.))
He sat cross-legged at the end of the bed, staring blankly at the form under the blanket. How did he manage to get himself into these situations? His gaze shifted from the sleeping figure over to the man sitting in the chair next to him...If he had a heart it would have dropped right out of his transparent chest.
“You know, it really isn’t healthy to dwell on these kinds of things.” He didn’t even look over at the spirit to his left.
“I do not think that my health really matters at this point.” The flat reply made the ghost sigh.
“You can’t move on unless you...well, move on. You have to let go of your human life.”
“I am not dead.” He watched the form in front of him breathe...in... out...in...out... “And I doubt that you are the one that should be giving that speech.” The blond in the chair beside him sighed and leaned forward, just staring at the bed.
“How can you not be dead? You’re here, your body is there.” Taiki remained silent, ignoring the question for now. This was the sixth time they’d had this conversation...The ghost apparently had the unique ability of ‘confusion’. Some spirits could go through walls, some could incite anger or calm crowds, and some could confuse and disorient humans...But unfortunately this talent left the ghost a bit muddled himself at times.
He had been trying hard, so hard, to figure things out. How to get himself to wake up...How to take care of that thing that came from New York...How to fix everything that had gone wrong...How he’d been attacked...Why he’d been attacked. He hadn’t been wearing his charms but his ring should have protected him from most beings. And Shuichi had been wearing his pendant which should have covered at least that room. Then there was the small fact that nothing should have been able to pass through into the house.
Something had gone wrong, obviously.
Now what he needed to know was if it was still present...If it was still in this plane of existence or not. What had happened to it (and to him) when he’d absorbed it into his body?
He needed to wake up. He needed to find some answers before someone else got hurt. ...Like Shuichi.
“I was here a few months ago and there was a spirit on the fifth level, Imanari Shinobu. Is he still present?”
People came and went...Aya and Nakao seemed to split shifts so usually there was someone to sit with Shuichi. But sometimes it was just the two of them...Sometimes Taiki would sit cross-legged on the end of his bed and watch helplessly as the blond stared down at his body. He had tried to touch Shuichi a couple of times; petting his hair or holding his hand elicited no response from the athlete but it did reassure Taiki a little.
Murasawa-san had dropped off his charms earlier that day. Taiki didn’t know why but the old man couldn’t see him... His employer didn’t say anything about what had happened so Taiki had no new information to work with. Apparently his partner and his boss were still not on speaking terms...
There was a bit of commotion out in the hallway and he sat up, trying to see around the privacy curtain from his seat on the end of the bed. Shuichi was at his place up by his head, arms crossed over his chest as he carefully watched for any sign of movement. Taiki could hear Nakao complaining about something but he was suddenly cut off...It wasn’t until the female voice demanded to see her son that the blond perked up.
Shuichi seemed to go into shock when his mother pushed her way through the blue curtain. The woman swept into the room with the presence of a lioness, eyes sweeping over everything before finding her gaping son in the corner. Taiki slid off the bed, taking a few careful steps back as he watched the scene unfold...In one motion Shuichi snapped his mouth shut and lunged for the woman, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face against her shoulder. The disembodied psychic bumped against the machine stand that was bolted to the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. He watched his partner break down and cry, comforted by his parents. Taiki hugged his knees to his chest and stared down at the white tiled floor.
Two hours and neither spirit had showed up at Taiki’s room. The ghost had left earlier, promising to return with Imanari Shinobu...but still nothing. Shuichi’s mother was currently chiding her son about his dirty fingernails and Taiki was a little unnerved by the fact that she seemed to be sitting on his body’s right foot. With a small sigh he wandered, for the first time, out of his section of the room and towards the door. He was convinced that Imanari would know something...he just had to get to the man...ghost.
He had no idea where to start. Obviously the fifth floor but beyond that...The last time the spirit had found him. It had been Obon and Taiki had been visiting Aya and trying to dodge the mass of supernatural beings that flooded the hospital. They had talked over several days...Imanari had been at the hospital for over forty years and a spirit for even longer. Taiki hoped that he’d be able to help; if anyone here knew anything it would be that spirit.
But the further from his room he got, the more detached he felt. The hallway seemed to distort and faze, walls and people blurred together...
And then...He couldn’t recall where he was.
Taiki had no idea how much time had passed when he was pulled back to reality. There was yelling all around and someone was shaking him. It shouldn’t be this much of an effort for him to focus...But eventually he blinked and the spirit from before came into view. He was trying to get Taiki to move, urging him to hurry back.
Things didn’t make sense until he got closer to his room. Then he saw the group outside his door...Shuichi was fighting against two nurses, yelling and crying for them to let him in. Meanwhile his mother argued with frazzled staff, insisting they tell her exactly what was happening or she would have all their jobs by morning. Nakao and Shuichi’s father were off to one side, both pale and silent as wide eyes watched the scene unfold.
Inside things were worse. Shuichi had managed to push his way in and a doctor was shouting for backup to keep the family out. A cart squeezed through, ramming into Taiki’s left hip and knocking him off balance. He tried to push through the crowd, desperate to see what was happening...He clung to the hope that it was one of his roommates but knew that was impossible. Shuichi was crying and now his mother was pulling at his wrist.
And then he saw it...He saw his body. Two doctors shouted orders to the three nurses that bustled about. Someone was bent over him, pumping up and down on his chest while counting out loud. Another person was setting up a bag over his head while the cart that had hit him was wheeled into place. Everything happened so quickly...so agonizingly slow.
Plastic tubes and wires seemed to poke out of every inch of his skin and his hospital gown had been pulled off, baring his still chest. Beside him the heart monitor screamed out a flat-line and he wanted nothing more than to make it stop...to make everything stop. But the chaos only seemed to grow around him. Yelling and so much movement, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his body...It was just lying there, eyes closed and skin so pale in the fluorescent light. He couldn’t believe what was happening, couldn’t understand...He was here! He couldn’t die because he was standing RIGHT HERE! The urge to leap on the bed and shake himself swept over him but Taiki couldn’t move...He was rooted in place at the foot of the bed.
There was a whir of electricity and everyone took a step back. A doctor set two paddles against his chest and shouted ‘clear!’...Every single person jumped when the machine sent out the pulse and if it had been possible Taiki would have been sick. All eyes were on the heart monitor as an eternal silent second ticked by; they couldn’t hear the scream that tore through the room as Taiki fell. He grabbed his chest, gasping and crying while they shocked him again and again and again...Each time felt like it was tearing him apart from the inside.
His face pressed against the white tile, slick with tears, and he struggled to pull in breath. Gritting his teeth, he waited for the next stab of electricity...but it never came. Instead someone grabbed his elbow and he was jerked up, off balance...His wide, shocked eyes met Murasawa’s for a brief moment before it hit him.
He was dead.
The old man opened his mouth to say something but it was lost as the defibrillator went off one last time. Taiki choked and grabbed his chest and Murasawa’s shouts were lost in a frenzy of sound and movement.
The heart monitor bounced back to life.
It took Taiki a moment before he realized what had happened. He was lying on the ground and someone was yelling...Wincing, he grabbed the foot of the bed and pulled himself up, trying to clear his head. His boss was beside him, calling out his name and searching blindly as two nurses and a security guard pulled him from the area. The monitor ticked out a steady, regular beat...
All he could do was stare down at his body, every inch of him trembling...He'd just died and came back to life.
sano_ashiya for putting up with this for hours.))
He sat cross-legged at the end of the bed, staring blankly at the form under the blanket. How did he manage to get himself into these situations? His gaze shifted from the sleeping figure over to the man sitting in the chair next to him...If he had a heart it would have dropped right out of his transparent chest.
“You know, it really isn’t healthy to dwell on these kinds of things.” He didn’t even look over at the spirit to his left.
“I do not think that my health really matters at this point.” The flat reply made the ghost sigh.
“You can’t move on unless you...well, move on. You have to let go of your human life.”
“I am not dead.” He watched the form in front of him breathe...in... out...in...out... “And I doubt that you are the one that should be giving that speech.” The blond in the chair beside him sighed and leaned forward, just staring at the bed.
“How can you not be dead? You’re here, your body is there.” Taiki remained silent, ignoring the question for now. This was the sixth time they’d had this conversation...The ghost apparently had the unique ability of ‘confusion’. Some spirits could go through walls, some could incite anger or calm crowds, and some could confuse and disorient humans...But unfortunately this talent left the ghost a bit muddled himself at times.
He had been trying hard, so hard, to figure things out. How to get himself to wake up...How to take care of that thing that came from New York...How to fix everything that had gone wrong...How he’d been attacked...Why he’d been attacked. He hadn’t been wearing his charms but his ring should have protected him from most beings. And Shuichi had been wearing his pendant which should have covered at least that room. Then there was the small fact that nothing should have been able to pass through into the house.
Something had gone wrong, obviously.
Now what he needed to know was if it was still present...If it was still in this plane of existence or not. What had happened to it (and to him) when he’d absorbed it into his body?
He needed to wake up. He needed to find some answers before someone else got hurt. ...Like Shuichi.
“I was here a few months ago and there was a spirit on the fifth level, Imanari Shinobu. Is he still present?”
People came and went...Aya and Nakao seemed to split shifts so usually there was someone to sit with Shuichi. But sometimes it was just the two of them...Sometimes Taiki would sit cross-legged on the end of his bed and watch helplessly as the blond stared down at his body. He had tried to touch Shuichi a couple of times; petting his hair or holding his hand elicited no response from the athlete but it did reassure Taiki a little.
Murasawa-san had dropped off his charms earlier that day. Taiki didn’t know why but the old man couldn’t see him... His employer didn’t say anything about what had happened so Taiki had no new information to work with. Apparently his partner and his boss were still not on speaking terms...
There was a bit of commotion out in the hallway and he sat up, trying to see around the privacy curtain from his seat on the end of the bed. Shuichi was at his place up by his head, arms crossed over his chest as he carefully watched for any sign of movement. Taiki could hear Nakao complaining about something but he was suddenly cut off...It wasn’t until the female voice demanded to see her son that the blond perked up.
Shuichi seemed to go into shock when his mother pushed her way through the blue curtain. The woman swept into the room with the presence of a lioness, eyes sweeping over everything before finding her gaping son in the corner. Taiki slid off the bed, taking a few careful steps back as he watched the scene unfold...In one motion Shuichi snapped his mouth shut and lunged for the woman, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face against her shoulder. The disembodied psychic bumped against the machine stand that was bolted to the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. He watched his partner break down and cry, comforted by his parents. Taiki hugged his knees to his chest and stared down at the white tiled floor.
Two hours and neither spirit had showed up at Taiki’s room. The ghost had left earlier, promising to return with Imanari Shinobu...but still nothing. Shuichi’s mother was currently chiding her son about his dirty fingernails and Taiki was a little unnerved by the fact that she seemed to be sitting on his body’s right foot. With a small sigh he wandered, for the first time, out of his section of the room and towards the door. He was convinced that Imanari would know something...he just had to get to the man...ghost.
He had no idea where to start. Obviously the fifth floor but beyond that...The last time the spirit had found him. It had been Obon and Taiki had been visiting Aya and trying to dodge the mass of supernatural beings that flooded the hospital. They had talked over several days...Imanari had been at the hospital for over forty years and a spirit for even longer. Taiki hoped that he’d be able to help; if anyone here knew anything it would be that spirit.
But the further from his room he got, the more detached he felt. The hallway seemed to distort and faze, walls and people blurred together...
And then...He couldn’t recall where he was.
Taiki had no idea how much time had passed when he was pulled back to reality. There was yelling all around and someone was shaking him. It shouldn’t be this much of an effort for him to focus...But eventually he blinked and the spirit from before came into view. He was trying to get Taiki to move, urging him to hurry back.
Things didn’t make sense until he got closer to his room. Then he saw the group outside his door...Shuichi was fighting against two nurses, yelling and crying for them to let him in. Meanwhile his mother argued with frazzled staff, insisting they tell her exactly what was happening or she would have all their jobs by morning. Nakao and Shuichi’s father were off to one side, both pale and silent as wide eyes watched the scene unfold.
Inside things were worse. Shuichi had managed to push his way in and a doctor was shouting for backup to keep the family out. A cart squeezed through, ramming into Taiki’s left hip and knocking him off balance. He tried to push through the crowd, desperate to see what was happening...He clung to the hope that it was one of his roommates but knew that was impossible. Shuichi was crying and now his mother was pulling at his wrist.
And then he saw it...He saw his body. Two doctors shouted orders to the three nurses that bustled about. Someone was bent over him, pumping up and down on his chest while counting out loud. Another person was setting up a bag over his head while the cart that had hit him was wheeled into place. Everything happened so quickly...so agonizingly slow.
Plastic tubes and wires seemed to poke out of every inch of his skin and his hospital gown had been pulled off, baring his still chest. Beside him the heart monitor screamed out a flat-line and he wanted nothing more than to make it stop...to make everything stop. But the chaos only seemed to grow around him. Yelling and so much movement, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his body...It was just lying there, eyes closed and skin so pale in the fluorescent light. He couldn’t believe what was happening, couldn’t understand...He was here! He couldn’t die because he was standing RIGHT HERE! The urge to leap on the bed and shake himself swept over him but Taiki couldn’t move...He was rooted in place at the foot of the bed.
There was a whir of electricity and everyone took a step back. A doctor set two paddles against his chest and shouted ‘clear!’...Every single person jumped when the machine sent out the pulse and if it had been possible Taiki would have been sick. All eyes were on the heart monitor as an eternal silent second ticked by; they couldn’t hear the scream that tore through the room as Taiki fell. He grabbed his chest, gasping and crying while they shocked him again and again and again...Each time felt like it was tearing him apart from the inside.
His face pressed against the white tile, slick with tears, and he struggled to pull in breath. Gritting his teeth, he waited for the next stab of electricity...but it never came. Instead someone grabbed his elbow and he was jerked up, off balance...His wide, shocked eyes met Murasawa’s for a brief moment before it hit him.
He was dead.
The old man opened his mouth to say something but it was lost as the defibrillator went off one last time. Taiki choked and grabbed his chest and Murasawa’s shouts were lost in a frenzy of sound and movement.
The heart monitor bounced back to life.
It took Taiki a moment before he realized what had happened. He was lying on the ground and someone was yelling...Wincing, he grabbed the foot of the bed and pulled himself up, trying to clear his head. His boss was beside him, calling out his name and searching blindly as two nurses and a security guard pulled him from the area. The monitor ticked out a steady, regular beat...
All he could do was stare down at his body, every inch of him trembling...He'd just died and came back to life.