‹Gin›

It all suddenly felt so strange.

From the division parting this hospital room and where I lie down, I was woken up by a distant voice of a nurse talking to Rin from the other side. I chose not to get up until they have left or at least once they are done with this morning's duty.

Weirdly enough, I had somewhat of a normal sleep.

Yes, I had felt an incredible assurance seeing Rin smile in such a long time, but it didn't mean that it swept all my troubles away.

I have killed someone in the past. Even after a decade and some, it still haunts me so. The people that had helped capture me had reassured me that I did not do anything of the sort. Nevertheless, sometimes when I look at my present hands it reminds of me of small hands, trembling, and coated with blood. It has never gotten easy, especially when I have hurt tens of people to the point of beyond recovery. I have my own share of opinions towards the people that tried to kill me; I was never that good of a person to begin with. But the issue lies with the actions I had committed. I can never dismiss the sound of the bones I cracked and the screams that gradually turned terrified.

I also still distrust myself very much.

I still hate the program that I was put in 17 years ago. I hated the fact that I have something that could possibly save Rin—in this forsaken body that I have. Even to this day, I still feel so filthy and violated, and that thought just gets amplified by reality overlapping with my memories of people clad in white lab coats.

I honestly do not want Rin to accept this potential cure. I do not want her to be tainted… but I set aside my useless pride if it means seeing her for another tomorrow rather than nevermore.

So much for a melancholic start to the day, I thought. I stepped out to the main room with the assumption that the nurse had left, but it seemed that they were waiting for me.

"Ah, hello, Mr. Sakato. I was informed that you would be staying here for an extended period of time."

"Ah… yes… there hasn't been anyone that can permanently stay… with Rin, so I presented myself… I'm essentially her guardian currently…"

"Did something happen to your throat? Should we call an ENT for you?"

"A-Ah… yes, please… I have only been drinking medicine but I haven't got it… checked yet."

"I'll ask for it to be organized, then.

Oh, anyway, have you been told about the discussions here last night?"

"I-I was actually here that time…"

"I was too scared to face Uncle Shuu and Aunt Sumi so I didn't show myself."

"Dr. Kagetora personally told me to inform you that testing is currently undergoing. If you wish to observe, you may ask for a PPE in this floor's reception desk.

Also, there will be a scheduled blood drawing from Ms. Akanami later today."

"I see… can I be informed when they will be doing th-the procedure of testing the virus to the sample…?"

"We'll note that, Mr. Sakato. You can expect a call from this room's intercom about it, then."

"Thank you very much…"

And so the nurse took their leave. Rin was just quietly listening as I was talking to the nurse, and now that we were left alone, I felt somewhat nervous.

So much things have happened in such a short amount of time. I know that she wasn't still told about what happened with me, but I can't help but be a little anxious about it.

Still with my sloppy attempt, I tried to pull myself together.

"How are you feeling… Rin?"

"Hmm."

"Sorry," I instinctively said without even knowing what her response was supposed to mean.

I sat on the same spot I was on beside her, but I couldn't engage in any conversation as I immediately came to a realization: it felt like I don't really know this Rin from the past few weeks, because I was rarely here to begin with.

Noticing that I have unconsciously had a thousand-yard stare on me, she asked.

"Are you worried?"

"…

Of course I am… As much as I want to, I can't get myself to be very hopeful to be honest… It hasn't even been a day… but I'm so impatient… I really just want to see results right now, but yeah…"

"You see… since coming here, I've avoided talking about how I feel all about this because I don't want to lessen what remaining time I still have…"

I clenched my hands to the point of almost bleeding, but she continued.

"Honestly, my legs hurt a lot most of the time. I guess that means my nerves are still connected, but it doesn't make things any better, really. And there's also Reina… who is getting hurt because of me. Still, I'm just glad that you're here now.

I guess we'll just have to wait for what comes next…"

"I… I don't know how I can make it up to you, but if you feel like crying… you can just come to me next time, okay?"

"Mhm.

I'll take a rest, Gin."

It always scares me.

Every time I see Rin close her eyes, I feel very fearful even if her pulse clearly says she is still here. I tried to divert my thoughts elsewhere and found my eyes looking at her whitening hair, then to her face.

It was probably the first time that I had taken a closer look at her in a while. It made me glad that I can still see a semblance of herself even after everything.

"You’re still the Rin… that I fell in love with…"

"Thank you."

"…! So you're still awake…"

My phone then vibrated, revealing a lengthy email coming from Detective Artecus orienting me about the Underworld's people in the custody of the police.

They have been apparently transferred to an asylum to tend to their mental care as their conditions worsened aside from physical factors. Some of them have begun to lose their memories and they don't even recall being part of the underworld, while the others are still in dismissal of the incident, as though it never existed in the first place.

Numerous of the crippled ones underwent amputation to their limbs as they began to develop infection that can be irreversible if it spread.

It was painfully clear that this was the aftermath of my own actions.

A crippled body… mental instability… those were some of the things that I share with them, yet I didn't feel empathetic about it.

I turned off my phone's display, and saw through the dim and cracked reflection of my face.

"Miserable, as always."

Soundless, I stood up and put on a cap to briefly leave the room to call a nurse on a desk specifically situated for this intensive care room.

"Excuse me… can you stand in for me while I get something to eat…?"

"Ah, yes."

"Thank you v-"

I stopped on my tracks with the sight of Aunt Sumi approaching the desk with a startled look on her face.

…

The hospital's courtyard was incredibly silent.

I asked Aunt Sumi to wait on a bench as I grabbed myself rice balls from the convenience store to eat. Soundless once more, I returned and sat several inches away from her. But as it seems she didn't want to speak yet, I proceeded to eat and she patiently waited for me.

"Y-You seem to have lost weight…"

I could only nod in response.

"I… actually arrived yesterday, but I couldn't find it in me… to face you and Uncle last night…"

"N-No… In hindsight, all of us are frustrated. We expected that you would always be there for her, and we forgot that you are also your own person."

"But it is still inexcusable… Not only did I run away from you… I ran away from my own family… It is at least my role to be by her side… but I couldn't even accomplish it until now…

Please… just admit that you are mad at me…"

"Yes, we are. But Yuna has already given you a share of that, didn't she? It was wrong of us to put our expectation of you too high, but we still wished you could have been here more.

Our daughter is dying… Yet our 'son' can't be found with her when she needs him the most.

But what could I have even done… when you are hurting just as much as she is…"

"I w-will properly… apologize once everything has been settled, Aunt Sumi…

I really want to save Rin… which is why I offered up my damaged self and hope to be the cure for her…"

Unsurprisingly, Aunt Sumi fell into confusion as she heard something I have not told to many people. I was planning to, or the coward in me was planning to relay the message to my family that I had the base of the medicine being developed right now.

"Down to my bones… I hate to say this… but it's time for 027 to save 019 again, just like back then…

I was… the source of the virus…"

Right as the bead of tears left to roll, Aunt Sumi immediately wiped them and smiled, and wrapped her arms on me.

"Please come back home soon."

"…

Ah…"

I had completely forgotten.

It has been weeks since I last came home, and to top it off was me being in a mental limbo that it had completely slipped my mind. I forgot that the home I consider right now is that within the Akanami family's, quite literally as I moved some months ago with a purpose of trying to heal Rin's tired soul every time she is back from college.

But I suppose this time, or next time, I am going to have to help her heal her soul and body.

"We should… b-be heading back…"

~ ~ ~

Later that day, Rin's blood was drawn out as per scheduled. Aunt Sumi briefly went home to bring food for me as… well, Rin cannot eat solid food anymore so she is taking what the hospital provides for her. Aunt then decided to stay until sundown so I had some time to wait until I get a page about the testing that are soon to happen.

To my surprise, she handed me a faux leather sketchbook and a familiar pencil case once she had thought that I nothing to do aside from watching over Rin. It was a sketchbook that I used to draw on before the things escalated that was in my room in their house.

I briefly flipped through the very few drawn pages and cursed my lapses in memory when it mattered the most.

The sketches were mostly of Rin's when we used to just sit around in the living room together. She had always come home exhausted and I from time to time caught her sleeping or resting image on graphite. Looking at them now, the drawings made me feel very warm inside, and the urge to return to those times grew in me.

"…"

Pulling a mechanical pencil and flipping to a new page, I looked at Rin… but even before the lead touched the paper, I completely stopped.

It was not an image that I wanted to capture. Unsurprisingly, I grew even more impatient at that very point. I don't want to see her bedridden anymore. I want her to return to her normal life just like how it was not so long ago. I want to see her smile. I want to console her. I want to touch her. I want to embrace her. I want to cherish her more. I don't want to be apart from her anymore.

…

Amidst everything, it felt as if I had fallen in love with her all over again.

I've always known how much Rin cherishes the present; I want to create a future for us where she would not be hurting this much. I want to remove this image of dullness and melancholy that we are in right now. I want a future where we are in the comfort of our homes and not worry about all the obstacles against us.

I then sat back down beside her as I watched over her sleep. Once again opening a blank page, I began drawing a fantasy that I want to become a reality.

I may have done most of my part in the making of a potential cure for her, but nonetheless I wanted to see to it that there really is something in me that can save, protect, and support her.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

~ ~ ~

"Hello, am I speaking to Mr. Gin Sakato?"

"Yes."

"We would like to tell you that the first scheduled test would be starting today at 6:30PM. You may observe the process later as per your and Dr. Kagetora's request, so please do note since they are following a strict schedule and will proceed as is."

"Understood."

Twenty minutes before the scheduled time, I approached the floor's front desk to get clearance on taking a protective suit making sure that I am really allowed to enter the testing room. Soon after I reached the place, I was led to an automatic disinfection for obvious reasons and wore the PPE over my clothes.

Just like Dr. Nishina's laboratory, the room itself was divided into two, and I could only observe through a window as someone like me who has neither the medical background nor authority is not allowed to be close to the facility.

Before the doctors came in, I was able to meet them briefly and introduced myself as Rin's guardian. They were of different races—Caucasians, of dark and fair skin, and oriental; and they, being one of the greatest doctors in the world have come to Orio from Japan where the disease was last recorded.

I was there under the pretense that I wanted to see some of the procedures and experiments while making a cure, when the truth is that I simply want to see up close how the virus that was extracted from is going to be used. It has been separated from my blood already, but even I do know the dangers of a fraction of it in someone, hence why I heavily refused the transfer of mine to others.

On the other hand, the air seconds before the procedure became extremely heavy, and the tension in their faces was clearly seen beyond their masks.

I was oriented that BEF-1 was such a strong bacterium than no substance had come close into killing it… for tens and tens of years. The study continued even with the scarcity of information from it with the purpose of eradicating it before it turns into an even more enormous problem that could endanger the global population in the future.

It was only then I realized the extreme weight they hold after generations of failure in stopping the disease.

In truth, this testing session would only be very abrupt. The only purpose of this was to get an answer between yes and no—which to be expected, there have been zero out of 189 tests that resulted in a "Yes".

The bacteria is very selective. It does not affect anything aside from the host that it feeds on. Rin's blood had a high concentration of the bacteria but there were observable contamination or infection as it chooses to consume the flesh first before anything else. They were still inactive, but there is no knowing when they will, and the patient's life is on the line every second of it.

I had not heard anything from the doctors once the door of the facility closed. The attendant together with me from the observation room explained that the testing to be done is to see how the two substances would interact. An observation of "no change" would result to a "No", while one that shows fighting and killing the bacteria will lead to a "Yes".

A very high-definition microscope was turned on, and is being recorded for research purposes. It was much powerful than the ones in Dr. Nishina's lab, so I saw the virus inside me much clearer… and I also got to look at the one thing causing Rin the pain she is enduring.

Then, I witnessed the two substances being placed on a slide and waited for a reaction, just like the doctors inside. The virus was much smaller than the bacteria cells but they began moving around the other cells. It was the same characteristic that was observed in Dr. Nishina's lab and they immediately attack the substances.

But this time it did not happen.

The precedent from Dr. Kagetora and Dr. Nishina's initial testing was that the virus would begin to destroy hostile cells within ten seconds, but we had waited at least more than a minute, and the virus only remained dormant. I had felt that perhaps I was too overconfident that the thing that rejects and help me become immune to foreign objects would also be effective in this case.

Perhaps this proved it wrong.

It was evident in the gestures of despair inside that this was far from the first time this failure had happened.

It was a painful scene to look at. The frustrations only grew with the doctors. Just when they had found a strong candidate to fight against the disease, their hopes disappeared just like the bac-

(!)

"Nurse…?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, Mr. Sakato… they tried their best but… I suppose it was to be expected…"

"No… I'm not talking about that… wasn't there… three bacteria cells at the left side of the screen…?

Th-There's… only one of them…"

From looking down, the attendant slowly turned their head at the monitor on our side. She noticed that there were remainder of cell walls from the location I pointed at. She then perked up and knocked on the window that immediately caught the doctors' attention.

There was three, then there was one, and there was none.

All of a sudden, there were ten times the number of the virus in the screen, and they quickly moved towards the other cells whose cell walls immediately broke once propagation began again.

As said the time it took for the virus to react to a new and unidentified substance is within ten seconds.

The time it took for the virus to kill all the tens of the sample harmful cells was three seconds.

From an expected disastrous failure, the situation turned into an unprecedented success.

The room was still engulfed with silence even a minute after the bacteria was completely erased. I almost lost my balance as I pushed myself away from the window, and the statue-like scene inside was dispelled by a scream roared out from the depths of my already damaged throat.

I then heard muffled cheers from the other side. I only saw blurs of the doctors celebrating and wondered why my sight felt so distorted. It hadn't dawned on me that a full stream of tears had come out of my eyes.

When I wiped them, it only made sense how much of a historic thing was made in this place when I saw a demeanor so different from the serious and intelligent attitude they exuded just a few minutes ago to be replaced with a child-like celebration. The tears had come out after the realizations that the work they put their life on had finally found significant progress after decades of deadlocks and failures.

…

I stepped out of the facility once the testing concluded after watching a repetition of the same test ten more times to validate their findings, and had the protective suit disposed. A cup of warm water however was not enough to remove the doubts I still have inside me. I suppose, a part of it was that I still don't think any of this is real. Suddenly, my memory of being overwhelmed by elation felt like a blur.

I was once again greeted by the doctors who I then shared embraces with and showering them with gratitude as they subsequently stepped out. Their work for the day is apparently not yet done as they would have a conference call with colleagues overseas to present their findings and wait for approval to push through while the room was being cleaned for purposes of pushing through the following procedures.

I questioned to myself why can't the virus by itself be used for treatment, but while I may not know, they probably have a good reason as to why or why not.

The only thing that I could do from this point on is wait, remain informed, and hope that things would be fine.

But as soon as I got near the ICU room where Rin is, I noticed that the nurse on the desk was not there and I could hear screams from the inside.

Hurriedly, I entered the room where Aunt Sumi and the aforementioned nurse is trying to calm down Rin in immense pain.

"Gin…! Come here. This happens a lot, but I'm going to call for a doctor!"

It made me realize once more how much I ran away. Even now I still couldn't look straight when her expression twists in pain, just like how I did time and time again.

I never really saw how much pain she actually had to endure because I wasn't there. It was extremely pathetic on my part, even after being reminded that she was always with me when I was the one quickly hitting the abyss.

But amidst the immense self-hatred I am inflicting myself, I managed to resolve myself to stay there for as long as I need to and opened my eyes to meet hers. That being said, I could not make myself assure her that things are finally going to be fine. It appeared that no breakthrough could quell the doubt inside me as long as nothing can stray her away from the pain.

Once again, the impatience in me only grew.

"Just like a few weeks ago, she's showing signs of some of her organs failing again. It is not yet something that can be considered dangerous and can be recovered.

Rest assured that we are doing our best in developing a cure for her, now that we have found out that the bacteria in her can finally be defeated."

Rin's condition had stabilized for the most part as she listened—awake—on the doctor's explanation, while her mother's eyes only widened as the news entered her ears.

"They found out… just a short while," Gin chimed in.

"What we weren't able to tell you earlier, Mr. Sakato, was that we have to regulate the virus in order to introduce it to Ms. Akanami's body.

By pure accident that Dr. Nishina and Dr. Kagetora discovered the virus, it was deemed to be objectively dangerous if not controlled. The virus propagates and attacks hostile substances at such an extraordinary rate that we are worried what could happen if the virus in its rawest form enters someone's body. Our conjecture was that no normal person could probably withstand such a sudden change in their constitution."

"That just means that my body is never normal as we had always thought."

"We've already discussed a way to control the speed of the virus's activity with other agents, and we could probably complete the cure within 48 hours with the technology we have.

We are entirely glad that the new results of our tests have sped up and made what we have to do be very concrete.

Now if you will excuse me, it appears that Ms. Akanami is doing fine now, so I could leave the rest to the nurses."

"Thank you very much… doctor…"

After letting the news sink in to Sumi, Gin suggested that she go back home to rest while he watches over her daughter.

He had stayed awake beside Rin, unmoving, up to the fourth hour of the day until a nurse beginning their shift convinced Gin to get some sleep.

With three hours of rest, he woke up with Rin's immediate family in the room.

Just like Sumi, Gin had not seen her husband in so long that he almost sank back to hide. Shuu stood up to chase on him, only to put his head on Gin's while he gently stroked his hair to calm him down.

"We will save our talk down the line. Nothing is more important than what's in front of us right now.

I've heard from Sumi… I can't thank you enough."

It was one of the few times they had conversed in the span of many hours albeit being together in the same room. Gin had opted to stay silent, which could be taken as him distancing himself even if not intended, but Hiroomi had stayed close to him so as to make him less dissociative. There were much more people in the room, yet it became more silent than when there was only Rin and someone or some-two.

The strange tranquility however had gotten to him as he slowly fights back the urge to sleep in an intent to keep watch of Rin for longer. Gin was someone that can have a lot of energy reserves, but the incident with Joseph Horach had drained all of them and has not returned even after days of rest.

With Hiroomi forcefully placing a sleeping mask on his eyes, he gave in to the exhaustion and fell back asleep.

…

By the time he came to, the gentle caress on his shoulder had woken him up to see the presence of Yuna beside where he had slept while the parents and her husband were not there.

The lights of the hospital room were turned off as the light of the sun was enough to give illumination. He had inferred that it was somewhere around early afternoon… and he vaguely recalled that he fell asleep at around 4 in the afternoon, which should not have a sunlight that is still a bright as that of noon's.

He then looked at the clock that had its short arm just passing 2.

"R-Rin… d-did something happen to her…?!" he vigorously got up and exclaimed.

"She's just asleep as usual… and nothing happened thankfully. Though you were asleep for almost 24 hours, it seems your voice is doing much better."

Gin then stood up with his fingertips on his neck while he approached Rin, but abruptly stopped in three steps.

"I should clean myself."

While face masks were not mandated to be worn inside the hospital room, it was strictly followed that it must be always maintained clean, including the people inside so as to not affect Rin's condition. It was a special room even for intensive care purposes, where not many people in normal circumstances should only be allowed.

Nevertheless, he stepped out with a bag of clothes and went to a separate bathroom to shower and subsequently dropped off his dirty clothes in the hospital's laundry.

"Ah, right. Aunt Senna dropped some packed meals here. She's hoping you'd eat them when you have woken up."

"I-I'll give her a message later…"

"You really haven't gone home for a while… she said she missed you."

"…

Thanks."

With a food container on his hand, he stepped out once more to find a place to eat. But being not familiar to the hospital, he ended up making his way to the courtyard anew and saw five children in hospital dresses running in the hallway.

The sight left him in discomfort after being reminded of a blank year in his life, but he snapped out of it as he caught one of the children from tripping and falling to the floor.

"Be careful, okay…?" he gently uttered as he patted the boy's head.

"I'm very sorry…!" a nurse on a jog suddenly sprung towards Gin.

"W-What… happened to them…?"

"An orphanage suddenly collapsed two days ago and that children got caught in it. Most of the children were unhurt thankfully. They look cheerful, but they are being treated with psychiatric help. It seems they experienced severe trauma from that. Apparently, the treatment could take months."

"Are their guardians safe?"

"Yes. It's a good thing that no one died when it happened."

"…

It's probably not my place to say this… but thank you for your hard work on taking care of them," Gin bowed and prompted to be on his way.

"Uhh… You're welcome…?"

"Never again."

He thought to himself on every bite of the food while he made incredible effort to brush the dark memories away from his mind.

The thought has gotten deeper than he had imagined, now that he had seen himself. Something so cruel must never happen again, and he would on his own ways prevent a repeat of the abominable program. His stance was not for the sake of the country or anything that grand, but instead it was fueled with a more selfish reasoning.

He simply just does not want the creation of another monster again.

From a voice in his mind, he expressed his gratitude for the food and to his mother. Prompting to open the dialer on his phone to dial Senna's number, he instead got a notification popping from his notifications that revealed a message from Yuna.

"They said the cure is ready and they will be administering it at 7PM."

"It's… It's finally time…"

~ ~ ~

With said time arriving also came Rishou Kagetora and Kurt Snetr in the hospital room carrying a kit with masks and gloves on them.

The former only bowed briefly and immediately shifted his gaze away from the family, knowing full well that it was the family of who was supposed to be Code 019.

As he was preparing the kit, Dr. Snetr cleared his throat with the intent to speak.

"I want to greet a pleasant evening to the Akanami family, Katsuto family, Mr. Sakato, and especially Ms. Ringo Akanami.

As we have already said, we have finished developing the most potential cure to BEF-1 in the history of the research…

And it was thanks to Mr. Sakato's cooperation that we reached this point," he paused and whispered so as to not be heard outside.

"As much as Dr. Kagetora and I want to administer the medicine, we would like to make it clear that we all agree to do this procedure as to reiterate the signed agreement that was made?"

He looked at the parents that nodded, and then he turned towards the patient herself, uttering "I am prepared."

"Alright… disclosed in these papers are the process in which the cure was developed, including especially the virus that was drawn from Mr. Sakato. From several of Ms. Akanami's blood samples including the most recent blood drawing five hours ago, we have confirmed that the cure had very significant effects to the bacteria to the point of erasing them completely. Due to the fast acting of the virus, we had to dilute it down to have a much more stable reaction so as to not present any possible adverse effects to Ms. Akanami's body.

And it seems that Dr. Kagetora is ready with the preparations… so let us all hope for the best for Ms. Akanami."

With that, Dr. Snetr took a pen and a clipboard to his hands while Dr. Kagetora on his grasps had a vial and a syringe.

"Dr. Snetr?" Dr. Kagetora asked for confirmation.

"Please go ahead."

The injection had left the vial and the doctor raised the sleeve around Rin's upper arm.

"Administering the very first cure against BEF-1…"

The needle had penetrated on Rin's shoulder and the cure had successfully entered her body. Immediately after the release of the needle, Dr. Kagetora placed a cotton ball adhered with medical tape.

"Cure successfully administered," he declared as he placed the injection to disposal and began packing up.

"We will be staying for 15 minutes so as to check if her condition changes while the cure starts to reach her bloodstream. Once the time passes, there is a nurse outside that had just started their shift that can check on her overnight, so please just call to them if anything happens."

Once the 15 minutes passed and the doctors left the room, Gin immediately ran towards the bed and crouched on his knees beside Rin.

"H-How are you feeling?"

"Nothing… yet?"

"If you ever feel something just tell us if you are awake, alright…?"

"I will.

…

You know, Gin… I'm tired of seeing the same thing every time I wake up… I hope soon… I'll be able to see the outside again."

"I'll be with you… okay?"

"I know."

"You should take a rest too, Gin."

"I actually woke up just a few hours ago, so I'm good.

I'll watch over her for the time being," he turned towards the family and suggested them to rest.

"I'm good," Hiroomi responded and turned to his wife and his parents, "but you should."

After the three of them went to the resting area of the room, Hiroomi carried a chair to where Gin is at, but as he put it down, he received an embrace which he then reciprocated.

"This time… thank you, Gin."

"I should be the one thanking you… for all those times I wasn't here…"

▪ ▪ ▪

The time is 5 in the morning.

There were signs of the sun rising, but the sky is still closer to black than blue. The dimmed lights of the hospital room had the temperature between warm white and daylight.

It was silent. The only thing I could hear was the ticking of the clock and the beeps of the machine.

My eyes opened wide. No one was awake apart from me.

To be honest, I felt somewhat lonely, although all of them are still here.

Still, I saw the silver hair from the head resting from the bed. I had wished I could stroke that enticing shine, and so my body obeyed and I felt its silkiness and softness.

It was truly a beautiful sight.

"…ey. Hey… wa… up…

Gin, wake up."

A voice that gradually became clearer entered Gin's ears and he once again felt a caress on his hair that woke him up.

He had realized he had fallen asleep, although not for long, and pulled away his head from the softness of the bed.

It felt as though he had just snapped out of a dream. He heard a familiar, feminine voice same tothe one that used to wake her up and begin the day with a pleasant mood.

"You could have hurt your back sleeping like that."

Gin saw a smile.

Right in front of him, he saw Rin slowly placing her hand back down to the bed. Yet something was very different, but his only waking brain could not put a finger on what exactly it was.

He squinted a few times, and saw Rin with her upper body up and straight, instead of leaned to the angled bed.

Even if she was not paralyzed to that point, she could not muster the strength to even do it, yet here she was, doing the small things that she was disabled to do.

Gin had come to his senses, and the tears flowed uncontrollably. His voice once again broke, but for an entirely different reason. As he bellowed, he took the slender hand of Rin's, but this time, it was full of warmth.

"Surprise… I guess?"