The Outsiders - 9

Chapter 9 – The Fight

Miroku sat in an ambulance and stared at the back window. They had just drove away from the central hospital to the highway. And the destination was the hospital of Kuroshima – the loony bin, nuthouse, whatever.

Miroku remembered everything that had happened these past few days. He was first put straight to a stomach lavage, and from there to the intensive care for the night. He was on the edge of life and death, but made it. It took six days, and now he was returned to Kuroshima. Miroku was so upset. His attempt to get to his home world had been nullified – all wasted!

The ambulance stopped in front of the buiding K10 and the van's door opened. But Miroku didn't move an inch. He would never get in that cursed building again.
  ”Come out”, said the ambulance nurse, standing outside. Miroku didn't react. The nurse sighed:
  ”Ring the bell, we need more nurses...”
  And in no time nurses started flowing out from the bulding's door. Two of them grabbed the man from his arms and dragged him out of the ambulance. Then another duo of nurses grabbed him from his legs, and so he was carried inside. The ambulance people thanked the K10 nurses and drove away.

Miroku sure objected at first, but as he was carried inside from the K10-3's door he gave up. Two male nurses held him from his arms, and Miroku broke away.
  ”Let me go!” he shouted as loud as he could.
  ”There there, calm down...”
  Suddenly Miroku's eyes turned at the end of the corridor. There stood...
  ”Sango!” Miroku shouted and started running towards the woman.
  ”Mi-Miroku...” Sango couldn't believe her eyes. As the man came close enough, she ran to him and hugged him tight and cried.
  ”I thought you'd be dead!” Sango sobbed. Miroku stroked her hair gently.

The news of Miroku's return spread like a fire. In half an hour everyone knew it. And oh man how happy the atmosphere was! You see, Miroku was quite popular among the patients. But one's joy was over the others (not counting Sango); Jakotu's

The gay man ran to Miroku and shot in his arms, tightening his hug. Miroku slowly pushed him away. ”Never do that again! Promise me!” Jakotsu pleaded with sparkling eyes.
  ”But Jakotsu; I still have to go to my home world”, Miroku answered. Sango waked towards them.
  ”But... Don't you care about my feelings?”
 ”Listen, Sango...” Miroku reached his hand towards the woman, but she retreated.
  ”How can I live without you? Don't you care?” she said with small tears falliing from her eyes. Even Miroku seemed a bit upset.
  ”But Sango – that is my destiny.”
  ”No it's not! That is a delusion!” Sango shouted. The whole corridor went all silent. No-one said a thing, when suddenly Sango continued; ”Don't you get it? Don't you understand that all those voices are just hallucinations?”
  ”Sango, you don't understand...”
  ”Don't talk to me!” the woman shouted, turned and jogged away.
  ”Sango...” Miroku sighed as the woman turned away to another corridor.
  But in the other hand, those words made Miroku really think. 'Delusions'. What 'delusions'?” Could it really be?

And now, about delusions...

“Hyaaaaaargh! Hyaaaargh!” Inuyasha shouted, or more like screamed in the eastern corridor, all alone. He was lying on the floor, fidgeting and kicking in every direction. He was helpless, as he was wearing a straightjacket. He rolled from his back to stomach and so on, again and again, and when he got towards the wall, he started pounding his head against it.
  Then his eyes turned to the ceiling – and he saw black shadows, whose hands were dripping in blood. The boy tried to bite them, but couldn't reach them.
  ”Rrrrrgraaaahhh!” Inuyasha roared. As he had given his all in this fight, he closed his eyes, rolled on his back, panting.

As the exhausted boy laid on the floor, he suddenly started hearing fast steps getting closer. He opened his eyes to see who it was. It was Mitsuhiro, his own nurse.
  ”Inuyasha!” the man shouted and started walking slowly towards Inuyasha, trying to keep him as calm as possible. ”Steady, steady... It's okay...”, but Inuyasha just tried to bite him. The man backed off a few steps, and suddenly Inuyasha strated to 'fight' again. This wasn't the first time for Mitsuhiro being in a situation like this. He knew what to do. He sat down on the floor about five meters of safety distance from the boy, and that's it. He did nothing else. He looked at the thumping fight. He was a little scared, but thank God the boy was strapped in the straightjacket. Otherwise Mitsuhiro wouldn't dare to sit there.
  ”Hyaaarh!” Inuyasha shouted for the last time, rolled on his stomach and closed his eyes. Now Mitsuhiro dared to get closer to the boy.
  ”Easy, easy...” the man murmured as he got to the boy and knelt down beside the panting boy. He had held his dog ears back, but as Mitsuhiro started stroking them, the ears went limp.
  ”Still hallucinating?” Mitsuhiro asked.
  No answer.
  Three nurses appeared to the other side of the corridor, maybe because they had heard Inuyasha's 'call'. Mitsuhiro just waved them away and formed the words 'I'll', 'handle' and 'this' with his mouth. Then he turned back to Inuyasha and put his hand on his shoulder and just waited.

As the time went by, Inuyasha stopped panting and just seemed more relaxed. Mitsuhiro flinched as Inuyasha started to get up from the floor. And there he sat, opposite Mitsuhiro, with his red eyes and fangs showing. But now the man wasn't afraid. Instead he stood up and waved at the boy to get up. Inuyasha twitched his ears and got on his feet slowly.
  ”That's good”, Miroku said slowly and clearly. ”Now, let's go for some lunch.”

Suddenly Inuyasha caught a smell in the air. A familiar scent. He knew who it was.
  ”Take your seat”, Mitsuhiro ordered and pointed at the farthest corner of the dining hall, where Inuyasha always sat. And there was someone else who sat in there, too – Miroku!
  Inuyasha's ears jumped up as high as possible and his eyes widened of surprisement.
  ”Inuyasha, take your seat”, Miroku repeated as he put food on the boy's plate.
  ”Hi, Inuyasha...” Miroku greeted his friend lethargically. ”I... failed...” the man sighed and stirred his soup.
  This is when Mitsuhiro appeared to the table, sat next to Inuyasha, and, as Inuyasha was still wrapped in the straightjacket, he had to be fed. He started feeding the boy, who ate slowly with a bit poor appetite.

And talking about poor appetite... Kagome sat a few tables away from them, and hadn't even touched her food. And again, Kaede was sitting opposite her. But this time she didn't urge her to eat, because the girl already had her feeding tube. If she didn't eat, food would be put in through the tube, and if she did eat, the tube would be taken off. Simple.
  ”Kagome”, Kaede said. ”Do ye know what happened to Ayame?”
  Kagome nodded.
  ”She died. And ye know why?”
  The girl nodded again.
  ”Exactly. She died, because she didn't eat. And guess what? Ye will face the same fate if ye don't start eating.”
  ”No”, Kagome whispered.
  ”Hm? What do ye mean 'no'?” Kaede grunted.
  ”Ayame was so thin...” Kagome mumbled. ”But I'm so fat I could never...”
  ”But my dear child, ye are so thin! I know you can't see it, but ye must fight the illness!”
  The girl burst in quiet tears. The whole dining hall went quiet enough to hear  Kagome's quiet sobs echoe in the air.

Inuyasha stared at the crying girl, not noticing the spoon Mitsuhiro was holding in front of his mouth.
  ”Inuyasha, now concentrate on eating”, Mitsuhiro urged, and Inuyasha chomped the soup on the spoon. Still he didn't move his face from Kagome.
 ”Hey, Inuyasha!” Mitsuhiro snapped his fingers in ront of the boy's eyes. Inuyasha didn't like that and started growling with his fangs bared. Mitsuhiro flinched a bit, but kept on the feeding.
  ”Now we'll focus on eating.”