Happy Life(2)

A loud beeping noise awakened him. He found himself alone in a room surrounded by pale white walls and a window. His head and body were covered from head to toe in bandages as he wore a hospital bed.

As he struggled to climb out of bed he immediately collapsed to the floor from exhaustion. However, a strange strength coursed through him, allowing him to pick himself back up. As he walked out of the room he found himself to not be the only one in the strange building. 

He met a teal-haired girl who looked to be the same age as him. She continued to look out the window with a blank expression as if she was bored of seeing the same sight all the time. Eventually, she noticed the staring boy's presence, and so she patted on her bed urging him to come sit next to her. She then spoke out,

"How long are you going to stay in this reality?"

Akumu confused by what she said asked her, "What are you talking about?"

She quickly responded "Neverminded."

Looking to start a conversation he asked the girl what she was in the hospital for. She responded,

"I was lost for a long time. Eventually, someone found me but I was too weak to live outside."

Her life was a painful one, she had no friends or family to call for help and now she was here by herself. She truly had a meaningless existence. In return, she asked Akumu to tell her about himself. But as he tried to remember what he was doing before he entered the hospital, nothing could come to him. His head was blank, he could only remember cutting his birthday cake and then suddenly the world went dark.

It was then that one of the doctors who walked past shouted in disbelief. She called out for a bunch of the nurses they all grabbed and then dragged him back to his original room Akumu quickly shouted for her name.

"Eto Mizuki", she responded.

As the boy found himself lying in the hospital bed once again, he was now occupied by a big-chested doctor who sat next to her. On her name card was written "Ameno Jihi".

The doctor then spoke, "Your Vitals seem fine, but we still need to run some additional checkups. Do you remember what happened before you came here?"

He explained how he could only remember the events that led up to his birthday. 

Jihi then told him, "You have a brain tumor. Occasionally it can cause the victim to enter a coma-like state, and it has also caused you some short-term memory loss."

He then asked, "How long have I been asleep for?"

She bluntly responded, "3 months."

3 months... What a familiar number. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but as his thoughts about it continued, a strange sensation began to tingle his right arm's wrist. He couldn't see it but there was difficulty something there. As the pain grew suddenly both his parents bursted through the door as they shouted his name.

His mother quickly grabbed him around the body as she shouted while crying, "My baby, is still alive."

As the happy family now sat together reunited, he saw Kiko watching him through the doorway, until she eventually walked away.

After a couple of weeks, Akumu was finally admitted out of the hospital. Yukiko and Misoto waited for him outside. As he approached the two Misoto gave him a strong pat on the back while shouting,

"You took your time getting out of bed, you had us worried ya know?"

Yukiko also joined in stating, "If you died I wouldn't know what to do."

As the two continued to nag at him he just laughed it off as them being overly worrying.

As the group walked back to his house he once again walked past the under-construction building. Even after 3 months, no work had been done on it, which Akumu found odd. Akumu then asked Misoto,

"You ever wondered what they were planning to do with that building?"

The reaction he gave however was strange, it was almost as if he completely ignored that question. Misoto then quickly asked him,

"Do you guys know what you want to do in the future?"

Akumu responded, "I haven't really thought about it that much."

As the group approached his house, he was greeted with a party filled with his family as well as Yukikos and Misotos. Suddenly a strange chill shivered down his spine. It was as if there was something different about this place. In fact, this whole rate of events had passed by too quickly.

It was as if he had only been in that hospital the other day, but now he found himself on his and Yukiko's wedding day??

Wait a minute, he was supposed to be celebrating his discharge from the hospital, but as some time passed he was already celebrating his son's 5th birthday??

As all this time passed the pain in his right arm began to grow more and more painful until he suddenly found himself on his bedroom floor. Happy Memories from his 6th birthday all the way to the birth of his first child, as well as sad memories such as that time his dog was put down, as well as the death of his parents flashed before his eyes.

Happy lives, sad lives, the memories of all of them filled his brain until suddenly he found himself staring at that under-construction building once more. He then asked Yukiko

"Do you know who Sejuro is?"

She then replied, "He is that famous actor isn't he? I see him on TV all the time."

Suddenly a violent pain began to emerge from his right arm. As he gripped on his wrist tightly, Yukiko quickly grabbed onto him while asking,

"Are you Okay?"

He shouted at her to keep away from him before running all the way back to the hospital. As he barged through the reception a bunch of security began to block his path while quickly piling on top of him to restrict his movements.

As they did however a blinding flash of teal light blasted all the men away as Akumu stretched out his arms. He dashed through the maze-like building until he came upon the room in which he once resided. 

As he attempted to open the door, he found it to be locked. He then shouted,

"I don't know where the hell I am, but I realize now that you have been trying to keep me away from her haven't you?"

As he punched on the door as hard as he could, the entire door collapsed revealing an empty room. In fact, it would be an insult to call the room empty, rather this room was darkness itself.

As Akumu plunged his right arm in that darkness he felt more bursts of happy and sad memories enter his mind, The day he won his first cricket match, that time he donated his kidney away to save a life, the day his wife Yukiko died, the day a sudden earthquake destroyed his house, and the day his father walked out on him and his mother.

As this sudden burst of memories entered his mind he quickly retracted his arm from that darkness. In that moment he had felt both pleasure and fear and it was those emotions that kept him from leaving that place.

As he prepared to leave, however, Mizuki who had been watching him from a distance suddenly pushed his whole body into that darkness while shouting,

"Are you really going to settle for a half-assed life like this?"

As he fell into that room he then realized, that there were people waiting for him in the real world to come back. As he fell through that darkness the pain in his right arm began to disappear revealing a metal silver bracelet with a strange engraving carved in it. As he looked at it, it suddenly began to glow a teal light that expanded, filling the room, the hospital, and then eventually the whole world.

As he re-awoke he found himself, in an empty white space as a certain individual stood in front of him. He bore the same appearance as him however this person had completely white hair while possessing a pair of empty eyes. He then spoke out to Akumu,

"I didn't expect you to break free from that illusion."

Akumu then responded, "How did you do that? You weren't this powerful before."

He chuckled while saying, "I wasn't able to achieve this by myself. I was able to interfere with that prophet's Cursed Technique. It was meant to trap you in a painful illusion that showed the world passing by peacefully as you were trapped in a cage filled with your sins. However thanks to my meddling I was able to destroy that prison allowing you to roam free as I continued to prolong it with my own cursed energy."

Akumu asked him, "What would you have gained from achieving all of this?"

"Your body. If you just remained in that happy little lie for a little longer I could have taken complete and utter control of your body but now I have to start from scratch because of that damned bracelet."

Akumu looked at his wrist noticing now that it glowed dim light. Its effect seemed to have lessened. Akumu then asked him,

"Do you know what it is?"

The shadow responded, "As long as that thing remains attached to us, our fate and that girl's will be forever intertwined."

He shouted at him, "What does that even mean?"

But before he could respond he felt his consciousness being pulled by something in the sky then suddenly he awakened inside the arena.

As he slowly got up he shook his head dizzily while asking Maria,

"How long was I out for?"

She quickly responded, "59 seconds."

If he had remained unconscious for even one more second then this match would have been considered forfeit. Maria then asked Akumu,

"What did you do to my Cursed Technique? Something interfered with it yet you were still trapped in the illusion anyway."

He responded before taking a fighting stance, "That's my secret."