"Look, I really didn't mind the fact that I died and reincarnated into Ansatsu Kyoushitsu. I didn't really mind that you gave me a hole in the heart. That was a real dick move, but I didn't complain. So god, Void, whatever, I'm sorry I punched a stu...
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19. Rain
A hand clenched over his heart, he sucked in a breath.
The muscle tightened painfully, tearing like it was trying to squeeze it to gooey bits-- it hurt like a searing burn that only got worse with each breath, each flow of a single red blood cell, each pump of a heartbeat only thrummed an agonizing gong in his chest.
Doubled over the desk, his knees losing strength, his eyes squeeze shut as the pain overtakes his sight, and blinds him to his surroundings.
He hears something crash, and realized his arm had knocked something over. His lips bleed from how hard he's biting them, but the laceration inside his chest is so great he feels nothing.
He wavers, knowing he should clean up that pot that shattered-- but his head was on the ground, and he didn't get back up.
—
"We can keep trying to fix you, but--"
"I'm fine," Naomasa firmly insisted, sitting up on his bed, watching his IV end, "it's fine."
Matsukawa didn't like the sharp response, but he didn't have anything he could speak back. He didn't have an alternative, a remark, a lecture prepared-- not even a consolation.
"Just don't," Nao considered with hesitation in his core, "don't... tell Ms Sakurai."
Matsukawa's grip on his pen tightened, a stiff edge to his scribbled notetaking, irritated. He didn't have to right to keep such a promise-- but Naomasa was his own legal guardian, and he had no more family to speak for.
Naomasa was an adult, no longer a child.
"Then, who can I tell?" he challenged, hopeful. "Your older brother?"
Nao's teeth gritted, and he frowned, "don't tell him," the answer came almost expected. "I don't want him to know. I don't want him to come," he seethed, "I want him to come back, see me dead, and wallow in his disgusting regret for leaving me behind."
Matsukawa actually laughed at that.
"Sibling rivalry is present even in this family, eh?"
Matsukawa fucking hated all of the Kunomasu family.
First, the free-range older sister that held no concept of self preservation. Then, the older brother that jumped into hellfire like a suicidal maniac and somehow ended up with a medical degree. Matsukawa now had to deal with the youngest sibling, who was mentally a teenager in his rebellious phase but was probably some monster (zombie) in disguise.
However, he guessed he should at least tell Naomasa's colleagues about it, so they'd know to watch over him.
