Miyajima Tsubaki woke up.
She didn't know when she had lost consciousness and fallen into a coma.
When she came to, the first thing she saw was the bright incandescent light on the ceiling.
But thankfully, it wasn't blinding.
It was just that her eye membranes seemed to be tinged with a whitish halo, and the scenery she could see looked blurry, as if it had undergone a Gaussian blur.
Where is this?
Tsubaki wondered.
"Mom!"
A call from beside her immediately made Miyajima Tsubaki fully awake. She trembled her lips: "Sakura…"
Turning her head, she indeed saw a graceful young girl standing by the bed.
She was holding her hand, her blue-purple eyes filled with worry and concern.
It was Sakura.
Still the same as in her memory.
The red hair tie, binding her side ponytail, swayed.
Although it had only been two days since they last met… Miyajima Tsubaki felt as if centuries had passed.
She breathed a sigh of relief, then showed a heartfelt smile.
That's great, she's fine…
However.
Miyajima Tsubaki realized she was lying in a bed. If she wasn't mistaken, she should be in a hospital now…
Perhaps sensing her mother's confusion.
Miyajima Sakura replied,
"Mom, Hayato said you've been too overworked recently and fainted…"
As she spoke, her grip on her mother's hand tightened. "You… must take care of your body," she said.
Hayato...…
Upon thinking of this name.
All the events that had occurred before she fainted finally resurfaced in her mind.
She cried out, then sat up abruptly as if a dying patient.
"Ah—"
After Miyajima Tsubaki sat up, she quickly asked, "Where is Hayato?"
"She's with your father."
Someone answered for Miyajima Sakura.
Miyajima Tsubaki looked over and saw a woman emerge from behind the door.
Short red hair, under thirty years old, with a rather dignified face.
Miyajima Tsubaki remembered her. She was the woman who had been with Hayato before. She was also the "culprit" who had imprisoned her… At this point, saying so might not be entirely appropriate, because she knew the "culprit" should be Hayato.
However, what had happened was too mysterious. Even having experienced it herself, Miyajima Tsubaki still felt so ethereal that she couldn't fully believe it.
She looked outside.
It was already past early summer, nearing Xiaoman.
In a few more days, it would be Mangzhong.
May was almost over, and the temperature had long since risen. The hospital room was, of course, fully air-conditioned. The windows were tightly closed, and faint light streamed in through the thin curtains.
"Sakura, help Mom open the curtains," Miyajima Tsubaki said.
"Okay."
Sakura obediently followed her mother's instruction.
After the curtains were opened, due to the high floor of the hospital, she couldn't see the pedestrians on the road, only the distant skyscraper spires and the blood-red sunlight streaming through the gaps in the towering steel forest.
It was the sunset.
And the evening glow.
"Is it already this late?" Tsubaki murmured.
She had seen the position of the sun in that "mysterious cabin" before; at that time, it should have been shortly after noon.
"Yes, you fainted after lunch and woke up when it was time for dinner. You really are something." The short-haired woman teased her playfully, then raised her hand. Miyajima Tsubaki then noticed she was carrying a plastic bag.
"Do you want dinner?" the short-haired woman asked, then turned to Miyajima Sakura and said, "Miyajima, you must be hungry, right? I bought some for you too."
"Ah, thank you."
Miyajima Sakura clapped her hands together and smiled brightly.
Miyajima Tsubaki, however, still looked at the short-haired woman with suspicious eyes… Although she now knew that the woman was with Hayato and shouldn't be dangerous, the memory of being held captive by her was still indelible.
The short-haired woman's mouth twisted.
"What's wrong? Do you want me to feed you?"
Miyajima Tsubaki's eyes grew more vigilant. It was she who had… almost force-fed her food. That uncomfortable sensation, like being choked, made Miyajima Tsubaki feel utterly nauseous.
"Who exactly are you?" Miyajima Tsubaki asked.
"Ah, Mom, you don't know her yet, do you?" Miyajima Sakura said with a smile, "This is Aiya Yayoi… Hayato-sensei."
When she heard the first half of the sentence, Miyajima Tsubaki thought, "This way of introducing her… why does it make Sakura seem so familiar with her? Has she already won over Sakura?"
Then she heard the next sentence, and Miyajima Tsubaki's thought was, "…Huh?"
"Tea-teacher?"
"Yes."
Miyajima Sakura said naturally, "She's the School nurse at Baiqiu High School… The Kendo Club has received a lot of help from her!"
Miyajima Tsubaki was dumbfounded.
So, this is the setting… No, that's not right. If Sakura can accept it, then this shouldn't be a "setting," but "reality," right?
"Nice to meet you, Madam Tsubaki." Hayato blinked.
Tsubaki bit her lip slightly. It was indeed a formal "first meeting," because the previous times she had seen this woman, her eyes had been covered.
"What's wrong?"
Miyajima Tsubaki pursed her lips, looking bewildered as she glanced at her mother on her left and Hayato-sensei on her right… She felt a strange atmosphere in the air, but with her ability to read the room, she couldn't even discern the type of "atmosphere," let alone the "reason for its creation."
"…Nothing."
Miyajima Tsubaki murmured, then adjusted her emotions, suppressing her surprise and other feelings: "I just feel a bit embarrassed to meet a school teacher in this state…"
"Madam Tsubaki, you're too polite. There's no need to be so formal." Aiya Yayoi chuckled, "Besides, 'School nurse' isn't really a proper teacher, you know. I just happened to be at the hospital, so I came to lend a hand."
Although her words were polite, Miyajima Tsubaki could read a sentence in the short-haired woman's narrowed, mischievous eyes:
"What's so embarrassing about this? I've seen you in much more embarrassing states…"
But Miyajima Tsubaki couldn't speak out.
At least in front of her daughter, she had to maintain the story she had told…
"Oh, by the way, how is Grandpa?" Miyajima Tsubaki quickly asked. Her father's health was also a source of worry for her.
"He's awake too. In fact, the old man's body is even stronger than yours…" Hayato replied.
According to the "story," Tsubaki had been taking care of the old man in the hospital… If she asked any inappropriate questions, the truth would be revealed.
Tsubaki finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Sakura was fine.
Her father was also fine.
That's great.
However… what she had done, she absolutely had to keep it from her father.
She didn't want to put too much pressure on her father, especially at his age and with his current injuries… It would be bad if his condition worsened.
"Old man." In another room, Miyajima Kiichiro's hospital room, Hayato stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at the old man on the bed with a commanding posture: "Do you want to know what happened?"
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