"It didn't work again." That person spoke those words silently... after the words came out they ended up bouncing off nothing but the bare walls of the quiet hospital room, reaching noone's ear. There was noone else there with that person, as per usual. So that pers——
——No. Rather, Veyle Othuris lay completely still, staring up at a blank and dirtied white roof with lifeless, pale blue eyes... In his right eye, lay a strangeness shaped like an hourglass in the pupil. He blinked once and sighed deeply.. Every movement dragged on forever, like he was still underwater. His white hair was a wet and tangled mess on his pillow as it stuck to his forehead. His gloves that had a black colouration were still on, for some reason.. Why hadn't anyone taken them off when he was wheeled in? Maybe the staff thought they were medical or something... Or rather, it was more likely that noone even cared enough to bother... and last but certainly not least a black hospital gown that clung to his pail white skin.. light with thin fabric, it was suffocating in a weird way, kind of like a cage... It most likely felt that way because it was a reminder to him of where he was and what he'd failed to do——
『——Again』
"I should be dead.." he muttered, groaning at the simple fact of being alive, as if he was holding a conversation with himself.
A heavy breath passed through him, a breath that normally follows disappointment. Feeling his throat dry up, he tried to push himself up for water to quench the burning sensation within, but he quickly realised how futile it was. "Fuck it——" Veyle let out another groan, but this time it was a shuddering noise as his chest huffed, boiling tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
The reality of everything that had happened just an instant ago for him having passed crashed down on him like shower of stars from the night sky, crushing the breath from his lungs. It was a nightmare.. nothing made sense, and the confusion felt like a physical pressure that was pressing down on his chest. He was unable to fight the exhaustion that was pulling him deeper and deeper, so he gave up.... Or rather he gave in. He sank deeper into the mattress, shut his eyes tight as he was still against the cruelness of being alive and he finally let himself drift into a deep, deep sleep——
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——Darkness...
——Darkness that stretched beyond what his ■ could sense. Such of which darkness could be considered an endless darkness. There was that person.. deep in something, but his ■ couldn't quite figure out what.. Falling forever and ever, there was only darkness. As he felt nothing... no depth, heat, texture, nor quality. Forever lost. Forever gone——
——Then, a sudden warmth within his hand, as if it were being held by another. Yet, even without sight, he could tell there was no physical hand there. It simply felt like the presence of someone with a deep devotion and love for the person whose hand was being held.
——A hand... maybe the soft hand of a woman? No. He had never been popular with anyone, let alone girls. If this was the death he had hoped for, he wouldn't mind it. But in the end, Veyle really did want to be a dad. If he had been forced to choose anything other than his current fate, he would have chosen to be a father. Maybe with a beautiful wife who would greet him after a long day of hard work, alongside a little girl they could call their own——
——Suddenly there was two sharp pains that had flared up in his head, mimicking a healing stab wound that had pierced right through his skull. Maybe he had hit his head on something while trying to drown. He felt as if he were falling, yet he couldn't feel the air moving around himself. It was a completely blank sensation.. "Veeee—eeeeyle wakey, wakey.. you really took a hit back there hun, oh he's actually waking up?" the calm and mature voice of an older woman filled his head, but before he could even register the it——
"Eh? He's getting up? Ve—Veyle, are you okay? I didn't mean to get you hit, i just slipped and you know how I've been lately.. sorry." a second voice cut through the first. This one sounded like a girl too, maybe two years older than him. Her voice was firm but wavered with genuine guilt.
"Lyra you have no need to worry, I'm sure he'll forgive you.. but you need to try and keep it down, Oh‐kay? he just got hit by a suuuper hard attack and fell asleep, you know?" A third voice. The soft and calming voice of a girl, she sounded maybe a year or two older than Veyle.. with a voice that reminded him instantly of the moon's beauty.. in contrast to the others, this girl was close enough to be right beside him... The moment that thought crossed his mind, the sensation of falling stopped completely... There was no impact. Instead, he felt the physical sensation of soft hands holding his.. He wasn't flat on his back anymore, rather instead he was laying on his side facing the left.. As fine, soft strands of bunched-up hair were resting against his arm. He was perfectly relaxed——
as relaxed as could be——
——Then came the smells.
——The air was thick with the metallic stream of fresh blood. That was the strongest of the smell. But right beneath his nose lay a soft, creamy scent... a fragile and sweet scent that he favored over the rest.. As the Other smells drifted in.. earthy mud, cigarette smoke, burning plastic, and chlorine full water..
"Dont'cha go babyin' 'er jus' 'cause she's been showin' emotions more often lately.. ya'll are makin' me sick, be sure ta have fun wit' this puny lil' pity party. I'm out ya brats.." A rough voice of a man, tone full of annoyance.. he was maybe thirty? And he sounded royally pissed off.. Veyle heard the sound of heavy boots leaving the room as the soft girl's grip tightened..
"Phad, what the hell man? You can't be throwing around that kind of shit right now, you know this.." The response came from a younger man, his voice coming out oddly, muffled as if speaking through a helmet that collected the words before Veyle's ears could.. from the voice alone Veyle could tell he was probably the casual, laid-back type of person.. maybe around 25 years old? Veyle couldn't really pinpoint it for this man——
"Shut yer trap soroki..."
——A door slammed shut in the distance, cutting off the argument before either side could escalate it. The room fell quiet, aside for the crackle of a fire and the delicate breathing of the person sitting right in front of him.
"Ignore him, Lyra. You know how sensitive he gets when it comes to Veyle——" the older woman sighed.. "——Seren, could you be a dear and fetch some fresh water for when Vivi wakes up?" The older woman added again..
——Taste suddenly flooded his mouth..
The only taste available was nothing but bitter saliva that lay on his tongue, His mind was already racing at three thousand miles per hour. If his hypothesis was correct, a certain sequence was nearly complete. Pain, hearing, touch, smell, taste... and finally, vision. if his assumption were correct, the next sense he would gain would be sight.. annoyingly though, off the bat Veyle would have to deal with people arguing and he couldn't be bothered to do so.. but there was a strange feeling, he couldn't just quite figure out... He was about to open his eyes to a room full of arguing strangers, But the older woman's final words replayed in his mind, a strange shock ran through his system——
『——For when Vivi wakes up?』
The only person in his entire life who had ever called him Vivi was his mother. She was a deaf woman who had passed away years ago. This couldn't be an elaborate prank or a hallucination. These people knew him by name... How could he hallucinate details this precise? They were explicitly talking about Veyle. Yet, he did not recognize a single one of their voices. How was that possible? Or rather how was this possible——
——Further more to think of it, the girl whose name he hadn't caught yet had mentioned he had been knocked out by a 'suuuper hard attack', speaking as if it were a casual fighting game.. The thing that was even weirder is that the Lyra girl was decided to have caused it.. or to have had a hand in it to some extent, so if that were true——
——Inside his chest, Veyle's ■ began to beat faster and faster. Cold fear crept into his veins. The truth was undeniable now...
——he wasn't in the hospital. He hadn't even thought about that possibly until he had completely crossed it off the list. These strangers genuinely believed they had a deep, unbreakable connection to him. To Veyle... When his eyes finally opened and the vision returned, what was he supposed to do? Should he confess the truth and tell them he wasn't the person they loved? Or should he play along? Veyle was the type to hate seeing others in pain and he struged lying to people he saw as genuinely good.. But as he felt the warmth of the girl's hand and the aching in his skull, a strange, comforting thought crossed his mind——
——If this body truly belonged to a Veyle Othuris.. would he really even be really lying?
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His eyelashes fluttered against his cheek. The dark prison his eyes had been trapped in broke, allowing a blinding luminescence to invade his consciousness in a hurry——
——As
——Vision had returned.
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