Onihunter Yuna 2

127 Back to the Hospital (Present)

Yuna was already waiting at the reception. She had asked for Yui Masuda, but the last entry had been her release. At first she had walked around the entrance, then she went outside and listened. Minutes lined up without something happening.

Did something go wrong?

She should have got his number from Watanabe-san so she could get in touch with him. Although she couldn't feel something concrete, she believed that there was a tremendous tension somewhere inside.

Has everything really happened? Is it just a nightmare? I wish so much it is.

She couldn't imagine how her life would change now. Again. Peace had lasted only a few months. At last she heard sirens and ran quickly to the driveway to see what was going on. An ambulance stopped and a stretcher was unloaded. She could only catch a glimpse of her blonde hair, but it just had to be Yui. "Yui!"

She ran over, but a paramedic stopped her. "Wait! You can't get in here."

"She's my sister!" The paramedic raised an eyebrow. "I'm Yuna Masuda. This is Yui Masuda, my sister."

He glanced at his colleague and when he nodded, he said, "All right. Come with us." She ran after the paramedics until they denied her access to the next room. The high-school student sat down on a chair and waited.

At some point, Watanabe-san came by to pick up the laundry bag. "I'll take care of everything, Masuda-san." Yuna nodded and waited.

***

Midori stormed into the waiting room. As soon as she saw Yuna, she approached her. "Yuna-chan. What happened?"

The blue-haired girl looked up. She had been sitting in the chair for almost an hour, staring at her feet. Her lips quivered, but she couldn't say a word.

"Yuna-chan? Are you all right?" Slowly, the high-school student nodded. "And Yui?"

"I don't know," whispered the older Masuda girl.

"What happened?"

Pointing her gaze to the ground, she breathed, "I can't say."

"Yuna-chan, do you know something? She is supposed to have had an accident, but I wasn't told more."

"You don't need to worry about that, Omura-san."

The nurse jumped. She turned and saw Shinji Shiba, who was also in the waiting room. "Shiba-san."

He rose from his seat and came over, smiling. "It's nice to see you again, Omura-san. I just wish the circumstances would be more enjoyable."

The black-haired woman looked back and forth between the undertaker and her protege. If the oni was here, there was a good reason for that. She looked at the girl again, who was completely downcast. "Yuna-chan, does it have something to do with the oni?" Midori asked excitedly. As soon as she uttered the words, she slapped her hand over her mouth.

Yuna flinched, then abruptly raised her head and stared at her guardian. "You know about them?"

In all the confusion that was plaguing her mind right now, the one thread that she had missed for so long jumped right into her face. If she had thought about it only once, she would have noticed, but she had been so busy with herself and all her problems that all the while she was overlooking the fact that was right under her nose. Her eyes widened, now that she understood everything.

Yoshiro had rescued Midori when she was a child. That had to be twenty or even more years ago. They had met again a few months ago, so she must have realized that he hadn't aged. At some point he must have initiated her because she had surely asked questions.