Chapter 8

On the morning of the fifteenth, Toshio was roused from sleep by a single telephone ringnig. Rubbing at his sleepy eyes, he reluctantly picked up the receive, which let out a dismayed woman's voice. What was being shouted, what it was saying, he couldn't really tell.

"I don't know who this is but, could I get you to calm down for me?" Toshio bit back a yawm. Good grief, he realized. It was finally Bon, a day off, and he thought he'd be freed from early morning examinations. "---Calm down. I'm going to ask you some questions, try to answer them for me. Who are you?"

This is Shimizu, said a voice at its wits end. It was a half crying scream raised out in accusation.

"Shimizu---" Toshio suddenly felt himself waking up quickly. "Shimizu-san's wife? Did something happen with Megumi-chan?"

The woman broke down crying into the phone. From the bitter voice, he could only pick up bits and parts of words. Megumi, breathing, dead, even shaking her.

"I'm coming now, within fifteen minutes. Is that all right?"

He said firmly, hanging up the phone without waiting for an answer. He didn't know the gist of things but what did did know was that Megumi's condition had taken a sudden turn.

Rushing out of the room without a moment's delay, he received a suspicious look from Takae and Kyouko who poked their faces out.

"What is this ruckus?"

"Her condition took a sharp turn. Shimizu-san's place's Megumi-chan."

Dear, said Takae, at a loss for words. Kyouko looked most unamused as she let out a yawn.

"I'm going."

Takae arched a brow as she watched Toshio half-jog down the hall to the bathroom, stripping off his night clothes. Hurried noises came from within the bathroom. Kyouko yawned again, going up the steps. Takae called up after her.

"At least put together something to wear, won't you?"

Kyouko's legs, bare from the camisole down, stopped on the steps. She looked down at Takae from halfway up the staircase.

"You needn't worry."

Feeling something mocking in those words, Takae looked up at Kyouko with sharp eyes. Even if she said that, there had never been a time in her life when she'd went out dressed decently, this girl!

"An emergency case could come blustering in, so if you don't at least make yourself presentable to whoever may come flying in, it will be troubling. It may be hot, but that is---"

Takae's words were cut down flatly.

"It doesn't trouble me at all," she said, putting one hand on her hip, the other on the banister. She made a performance of crossing her shapely, white legs. Takae could feel the blood rushing to her face.

"Now that is simply

not funny!"

"Whoever does come flying in will at least know that they're paying a sudden visit while we're asleep in bed, so they'll just have to overlook such things."

"Kyouko-san----"

Toshio nudged past Takae as she had started to speak.

"Mom, move, please."

Kyouko revealed a hint of a smile, at which Takae could feel herself blushing hotly. Without seeming to realize the situation between the two, Toshio hurried up the steps. Kyouko called after him.

"Nee, I'm really

sleepy..."

Toshio's tone was unambiguous. "Don't worry about it. Go to bed."

Kyouko looked triumphantly down at Takae, stretching ostentatiously as she climbed the stairs. Takae was for the moment too overwhelmed with emotion to do anything but stand there.

Not even sparing the time to shave, Toshio came rushing to the Shimizu house just over ten minutes after having hung up the phone. He got out of the car with his medical bag and hurried to the entryway, the door opened as it they were inside waiting. Still in her nightwear, Hiroko clung to Toshio was if she were drowning.

"Megumi is---

Megumi!"

Nodding and giving a pat to the sobbing Hiroko's shoulder, he let himself in and up to the second story in a hurry. The door with the stuffed animal hanging off of it was left open, Shimizu seen standing there dumbfouded.

"Shimizu-san." Shimizu turned to face Toshio who had called out to him. The color of his face changed quickly. In an instant, realizing the rage openly on his face and ashamed of it, he turned away. When Toshio entered the room Shimizu's own father Tokurou sat in the shadow of the doorway covering his face. Toshio quietly took in a deep breath.

---It's possible that it's the worst possible scenario.

Having stepped into the room and turned his eyes towards the bed, he determined it would be hard to draw any other conclusion. The girl laid out in the bed's facial muscles were slack, her features having visibly changed. It meant she was dead. And furthermore, that it wasn't something that had just happened moments ago.

Hearing Hiroko call for Megumi as she came up the stairs, Toshio sat his bag down at her bedside. For the time being he took ahold of the hand laying atop the summer towel like blanket. Indeed it was cool, and the softness of the living was clearly lost to it now.

He quietly sought a pulse. He couldn't feel one at all. Even feeling at her neck, there was nothing. Beneath her lightly closed eyelids, her pupils were dilated. He opened his bag and took out his stethoscope, sliding it softly just beneath the neckline of her clothing but, it was completely silent. Her breath and her heart rate were both completely ceased. Letting out a breath, Toshio removed the stethoscope.

"----I knew it, she's dead, isn't she?"

The voice of Shimizu lingering behind him sounded as if it were being murmured through grit teeth.

"She is dead."

No, Hiroko voiced. "I mean, Doctor, didn't you say that Megumi had anemia? Would plain anemia be, would it---"

"Won't you stop it?" Shimizu said in an angry, low voice. "This isn't the Junior Doctor's fault. You take grandpa and look after him."

"But..."

"Go."

Toshio turned around just as Hiroko was putting a hand on Tokurou's arm, sobbing. Tokurou covered his face as he pulled her along out of the room. While being taken out of the room as if being practically carried, Hiroko cast a glare filled with resentment towards Toshio.

Toshio let out a deep breath.

"I don't know what you'll think of me saying this but, my condolences."

"Why did Megumi die?"

"That's something we won't know unless we examine her," Toshio said as he turned his eyes towards Megumi's bed. Her night closed were undisturbed, and her bedding wasn't in disarray. Her limbs were splayed in a calm position, so at least there was no mistake that Megumi hadn't suffered.

"Do people die from simple anemia?"

Shimizu was trying with all his might to suppress the blame in his voice, but he wasn't very successful.

"In cases where the anemia is a symptom of some other deficiency or defect, it is possible."

"Some other deficiency or---"

Remaining seated, Toshio turned and looked up at the bristling Shimizu.

"Anemia is the name of a symptom, not the name of a sickness. There are times when anemia just happens but, there are times when something malfunctions in the body, and anemia occurs because of that. Normally, in those cases, there are signs that that's the case, though."

"Are you saying that's what happened to Megumi?"

"I don't know. At this point I can't say anything without an analysis. At the very least, if we had the results of the blood sample I'd taken the other day, I might know something but unfortunately the results haven't come back yet. It's right over the Bon holiday."

"Bon Holiday...." At Shimizu's groaning voice, Toshio let out a breath.

"I hate mincing words. Moreover because I do know you, Shimizu-san, I don't want to sugar coat it. The other day, when I visited, I'd taken a sample of Megumi-chan's blood. I sent that for analysis. The results haven't come in yet. It's because the lab is closed for Bon. Of course, it wasn't as if there were no ways I could have had it sooner, and it wasn't as if I couldn't have done the most basic level analysis myself. But all the same, I didn't think that there was a need to hurry, at least not at that point."

"Anemia can be caused by something wrong in the body. Even knowing there was that possibility?"

"I'll acknowledge that it's a possibility but in Megumi-chan's case, I couldn't think that was the case. ---I couldn't think of it as anything but ordinary anemia. Because I knew there was a possibility that wasn't the case, I sent the sample out for the lab. But, I didn't think there was a need to hurry the results. It was because Megumi-chan's condition wasn't severe enough that I'd thought to hurry it. If there was a severe enough defect, there would definitely have been symptoms, and I mean ones other than anemia. If there had been other symptoms that resembled a serious illness, I wouldn't have even hurried the test results, I'd have called for an ambulance and had her taken to the National Hospital. But, it wasn't like that. It looked like simple anemia, and even it it wasn't simple anemia, it looked like there was time to look at the test results, to re-examine her, and to find the exact cause."

"Then, why did Megumi die?"

"Even to me her death is a fluke. If I tried to predict the cause of death here and now, I'd have to say it was simple anemia, which I can't say. ---The truth is, I'm the one who's the most shocked."

When he had examined her the other day, indeed he hadn't really seen any particular symptoms beyond anemia. Nor did she have any particular medical history of such. Megumi was the type of girl who would make a fuss over the most trivial symptoms, and furthermore had a tendency to fake sick. She'd say this or that was hurting but no matter how many times she came for examination, no actual cause was found. ---Or, did that become a forgone conclusion?

Toshio had been wondering to himself when analyzing Megumi's body. Was there the possibility that he already decided for himself, and because of that, overlooked signs of something more serious?

(I can't say there's not...)

Reluctant as he was, he couldn't not acknowledge that. In truth, when Toshio had come to do the examination, he was surprised to see that Megumi even had anemia. After the fuss over her disappearance, when he'd heard that Megumi didn't seem well, Toshio's first thought was that she was faking sick. When thinking about what an incident it had become, Megumi, who had caused the fuss, it was indeed true that he'd thought she was faking feeling bad out of fear of being scolded by the Shimizus.

Looking at Megumi from the outside, there weren't any injuries or anything out of place. Her body temperature had dropped, and rigor mortis was setting in. There was some light postmortem lividity, and her corneas were beginning to go opaque. But, there was no doubt that she was dead, and furthermore that a few hours had passed since she had died.

"Late at night---or, more precise, this morning, I think. From one to three in the morning." Toshio murmured, turning back to Shimizu. "What should we do?"

"What---do you mean?"

"I don't know the precise cause of death. And it's been over twenty four hours since I'd last examined her. If I may, I'd like to recommend a medical autopsy. At the least, I'd like to take a blood sample and perform a bone marrow marrow aspiration, but I need Shimizu-san's permission."

"That's not funny!" Shimizu's face went crimson as he shouted, and then, surprised by the anger in his own voice, he lowered his face. "---No, I'm sorry."

"You want to hit me, I understand that, Shimizu-san."

"No.... I don't have any excuse. That isn't what I meant. But, an autopsy is no good. She's just a little girl. Even if we knew the cause of death, Megumi won't come back. ...Please, just spare her."

The way he's able to control himself is amazing, Toshio thought. He probably wanted to wring Toshio's neck and shout at him. Knowing Shimizu's personality, if it could explain what happened, he might have agreed to letting him take what he needed. But, he was hesitant to stimulate any emotion which might elicit further shameful behavior from Shimizu.

(Or maybe it's that I want a way out of this.)

Simple anemia, he'd said. To be sure, that was a mistake. And there was the possibility that it wasn't an inevitable mistake, but one based on his preconceived assumptions. Megumi's corpse was irrevocable evidence of that.

"Then, shall we say the time of death is 2:00 AM, and that the cause of death is acute heart failure?"

To Toshio's question, Shimizu nodded.