Hospital Visit

The hospital hallway was pristine like every time that Ryu found himself walking through it. Its white walls held barely a speck of dirt and smelled heavily of sanitizers and other cleaners used often on it throughout the day. Despite the constant distant beeps of a wide variety of machines and the hushed conversations of doctors, nurses, and attendants, the hallway was eerily quiet.

The room that Ryu’s mother was in wasn’t too far ahead, and his little sister Riko had already run ahead and was in the room herself. As for Ryu, he was staying back and walking slowly side by side with his grandmother.

She was a head and a half shorter than he was and was wearing what Ryu believed was a shrine attendants outfit. From what Ryu remembered his mother saying, his grandmother was in charge of a rather large shrine on the eastern coast in Chiba. Her current outfit must’ve been the outfit she usually wore.

“I’m surprised you got them to let all three of us in at once.” Ryu commented on the fact that one word from his grandmother had gotten the staff at the hospital to bend the normal two visitor rule that they had.

“It’s not that shocking. I am the co-owner of the hospital, afterall.”

Ryu nearly tripped when he heard her casual statement. “You’re what?!” Ryu’s voice had raised unintentionally and he slapped his hand over his mouth after. He hadn’t meant to respond so loudly and was quickly looking around to make sure that no one was bothered by his small outburst.

“I’m the co-owner of the hospital,” Ryu’s grandmother let out a small chuckle. “This one and five others across the greater Tokyo area.”

“How? Aren’t you also in charge of a shrine in Chiba?”

“The Shrine? Yes. That shrine has been in the family since the fourteen hundreds. Of course I’m still in charge of it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have other ventures, can it?”

Ryu didn’t get to properly answer as the two had finally reached the door to his mother’s room. His grandmother was the one who opened the door and motioned for Ryu to enter. When the door closed behind him, Ryu realized that his sister and him were being given some space to be with their mother alone at first.

“... and then, last night, grandma came over!” He could hear his younger sister excitedly catching their mother up on the going-ons at the house since the last time they had come here.

“My mother?!” Ryu walked past the small wall that was blocking him and his mother from seeing each other as she sat up, alert at the mention of Ryu’s grandmother.

“Yes.” Ryu was the one who answered instead of Riko.

Not wanting to get her story telling taken away from her, Riko blurted in with a fact that he hadn’t wanted his mother to know. “She came in with a super bloody Ryu late last night!”

“What?!” His mother’s voice rang out. Concern wasn’t only in her voice, but also written across her face with deep wrinkles forming as her face scrunched up with worry. “What happened?”

“It’s fine, mom. I’m fine,” Ryu took a seat next to his mother’s bed and held her hand in his. “It wasn’t my blood.”

He could tell by her face that she wanted to know everything. Ryu took a deep breath. It gave him enough time to come up with a fake story. There was no way that he was going to explain the truth, especially if his grandmother’s words about family magic and his mother being magicless were true.

“On my way home from work last night, Chika and I came across two thugs fighting. Well, more like one was mercilessly beating the other. When the one doing the beating noticed us, he ran. Probably to make sure we didn’t get a good look at him. I tried to help the wounded one. It was his blood on me. I passed out from the blood though and the next thing I knew I was in my room with the old hag there as well,” Ryu awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know when she showed up while I was out. I would need to call Chika to know that.”

Ryu could feel his face starting to grow hot under the gaze of his mother. The pressure inside of him was rising and his eyes flicked away from hers. Riko was saying something, but Ryu didn’t hear her.

Finally, his mother spoke up. “When did you wake up?”

Ryu looked over at the clock next to the bed. It showed that it was only a few minutes past five in the evening. “Around an hour ago.”

His mother thought for a second and then asked a question that Ryu didn’t want to answer. “Is my mother here as well?”

Had she figured out that he was lying to her? Did she suspect the truth?

“I think she’s out in the hall since she didn’t come in with Ryu.” Ryu barely heard Riko’s voice as she answered the question. He was starting to sweat as his mother turned to Riko and smiled a fake smile at her.

“Riko, honey. Can you go get your grandma and tell her to come in here? I need to talk to her and your big brother in private.”

“Okay!” Riko bounded out of the room, unaware of the sour mood hanging in the air. A second later, Ryu heard the clacking of his grandmother’s shoes on the hard floors.

She appeared from around the corner and stopped there. Unlike Riko, she could feel the tension in the air.

“Did he tell you?”

“Tell me what? A lie? Yes.” His mother knew. Ryu was sure that he had some tell that made it easy for her to know when he was lying. Or it was just her mother’s intuition.

“Hmph. So what do you really want to know, daughter.”

“Is he involved in the Royale?” Ryu’s ears twitched.

Royale? What royale? Was there something that his mother knew about what was going on?

“You have to be another competitor, yes?” The words of the man he had killed the night before rang in his head. He had been called a competitor. Did the man mean a competitor within a battle royale?

That would be insane.

There’s no way that the Japanese Government would be fine with a battle royale being held within Tokyo.

There’s just no way.

“Yes.” Ryu’s head snapped to his grandmother.