Chapter 51
[71]
“Please, it’s the only way.” Wakaba pleaded to the injured hero. “Kill me. Don’t let me hurt anyone else.”
“Mom NO!” Futaba cried out as she attempted to run to her mother, only to be restrained by Sojiro out of concern for her safety.
“Please if you’re going to-AHH!” Wakaba cried out as blue bolts of electricity ran throughout her body. After a few moments, she collapsed to the ground.
Ren coughed heavily as he lowered his hand back down to his side.
“Ren!” Futaba broke free of Sojiro’s grasp and ran over to him. After making sure he was okay, she looked over at Wakaba lying on the ground. “Is...is she-”
“Unconscious.” Ren said before breaking into another fit of coughing. “Futaba, I would never.”
“Ren?”
The pair turned to Sojiro who was standing still, his face obscured by the headlights behind him.
“Sojiro *cough* I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
“Don’t talk kid. You’re hurt, we need to get you to a hospital.” Sojiro offered his hand to the boy and helped him up.
“No *cough* not the hospital. I know someone for this kind of thing. Futaba knows where.”
Futaba nodded as she held open the car door while Sojiro set Ren down in the backseat. With Ren in the car now, Futaba turned to her mother, still lying in the rain getting soaked.
“What about Mom?” Futaba asked Sojiro.
From behind them, the sound of sirens nearby indicated that the police would be at the scene within seconds.
“I’m sorry Futaba, but we need to go.” Sojiro quickly decided, getting in the driver’s seat of the car.
“...Okay.” Without another word, she got in the car, never taking her eyes off the woman on the ground. It hurt to do so, but it was too dangerous to take her with them, she could wake up and kill them with ease if they did. The trio drove off before the police could see them.
Tae Takemi ran from home to her clinic while hurriedly getting dressed along the way. She’d gotten a call 5 minutes ago explaining the situation. Ren was hurt badly and needed immediate medical attention.
Just as she finished unlocking the door, the car pulled up out front.
“Hurry get him in here!” Tae ran inside to begin prepping her equipment.
Sojiro and his daughter came in carrying a seemingly unconscious Ren. Shit. That was a bad sign. They laid him onto the bed and the boy let out a cry of pain before breaking into a coughing fit. Damn. Another bad sign, but at least he was conscious.
“Hand me the scissors.” Tae ordered Futaba, who immediately began scrambling around in search of them, knocking over various items as she did.
While she did that, Tae felt around Ren’s chest, checking for any broken ribs. If he had a pierced lung, they were in big trouble. Luckily, even though they felt damaged, none were clearly broken.
Futaba placed the scissors in Tae’s hand and she quickly cut Ren’s costume off of him, revealing his bruised chest and various cuts. As she turned him over on his side, she saw what was causing him so much pain, shards of glass all across his back cut him deeply. She needed to remove the glass and bandage him up now, or he could bleed out. Luckily, she had plenty of his blood on hand, so they could give him a transfusion now.
Using a pair of tweezers, Takemi removed the glass shards precisely and with incredible speed. Futaba stood by, acting as her nurse, getting whatever she requested as fast as she could. As they finished bandaging the last hole, Takemi spoke for the first time since starting the operation.
“Damn! His spine is healing already.”
“Um, isn’t that a good thing?” Futaba was confused.
“Not the way it is right now. Ren’s back is broken in two different places, if it heals while still unaligned, he may never be able to walk again.”
“What!?” Futaba cried out in shock. “What can we do?”
“If we’re going to repair the malunion...Then we’re going to need to break it again so that we can reset it.”
“WHAT!?”
“I’m not finished.” Takemi interrupted. “I don’t have anything here strong enough to do the job. I need you to run to the secondhand shop and find something strong enough to break it.”
“I…um.”
“GO!” Takemi yelled at her and the girl ran out the clinic door. The doctor then turned to the other person in the room. “You, help me replace his blood bag and tend to his other wounds.”
“Wha-me?” Sojiro questioned.
Meanwhile, Futaba was rapidly knocking on the secondhand shop owner’s door. Unfortunately, the shop wasn’t open at this hour of night, not to mention the heavy rain that was pouring down on the city.
“What in the-” Came the voice of the shop owner. “Young lady do you know what time it is?”
“I’mreallysorrybutit’sanemergencyandIneedsomethingfromyourshoprightnow!”
“Come again?”
Back in the clinic, Sojiro was doing his best to help Tae but was proving to be a lackluster nurse. As he fumbled to give Tae more bandages, the doctor was prepping her patient for the most important part of the surgery, now they just had to wait for-
“I’m back!” Futaba kicked in the door carrying a small canvas bag. She quickly made her way into the back room and held out the bag.
“What’d you bring?” Tae asked the girl.
“Here.” She laid out the bag and two items fell out.
“Perfect.”