The headache is already severe and on top of that Noah's stare was making it worse. Aki had a hard time convincing Aito why he didn't show up but Noah needed to know a face-to-face answer which is difficult for Aki. Reiji told him that he had gone to a territory too. His fever got worse after going there. He remembered hearing a low voice but couldn't recall the words.
'Noah! Please stop! I told you it was my fever that got worse while driving, nothing else. I forgot to charge my phone. That's it.' Aki tried to convince Noah.
'You have got really reckless.' Noah said.
'I'm sorry for that.' Aki felt bad for lying.
He couldn't look into Noah's eyes while talking. Nora entered with a large number of files.
'I was just absent for one day.' Aki was unable to accept the load of work.
'It's a punishment for making me worried.' Nora squints her eyes.
Aki sighed and continued doing his writing.
'I will go then. You have a pile of work.' Noah said.
'Ya! I will contact you later.' Aki bade bye to Noah.
Noah left. While leaving,he saw a car standing and a woman was looking at him while he was getting out.
Aki felt something.
A noise like scratching on something. He went to the balcony and saw Noah was crossing the road and a woman was watching him. After a while, when he passed, the woman looked upwards in Aki's direction. Aki unconsciously backed out a step. He hurried out. Everyone was stunned at Aki's sudden action. He didn't stop. The elevator was busy so he took the stairs. While in the last floor his footsteps halted seeing Noah going down. Aki got confused, "Did I see wrong? Wasn't that Noah?"
Aki followed Noah from afar.
When Aki was out he saw the woman standing beside a car and watching Noah.
Aki's heart started beating fast. When Noah passed the woman, she looked up. She smiled then got in the car and left. Aki got out and crossed the road. He stood where the woman was standing and looked up. He saw Ginger. Ginger was looking down from the building and watching Aki, Ginger stood up on his feet from sitting.
Aki couldn't understand what just happened. He noticed his heart was going erratic so he tried to calm himself through breathing. He tried to get in the elevator but saw Noah getting out. He froze on the spot.
Noah was surprised to see him down here, 'What are you doing here?'
Aki couldn't answer.
'Aki!? What's wrong? You look pale…is it your fever again?' Noah touched Aki's forehead. It was cold, 'No fever!'
Aki looked confused, "What the hell is going on?! Who was she?"
'Oy! Aki!' Noah calls out the name.
'Ah!! Sorry...I was…you left your pen there.' Aki gives him a pen.
'It's not mine. I have my pen with me.' He showed Aki his pen.
'Maybe I was wrong. I thought it was yours.' Aki tried to smile.
'Silly! Ok! See you later.' Noah leaves.
Aki was standing there even after Noah left. The same event repeated. Noah got out, the woman watched Noah, then she looked up. Aki this time took a picture of that car's name plate as well as the woman's.
"What if she follows Noah!" That thought made Aki not waste any time and he hurried to his car.
He was right that car was following Noah's car. Aki followed both of them. Noah entered the school. That woman's car stopped there as well. The driver got out and told Noah something. Noah went in alone. Aki was watching them from inside his car. After a while Noah came out with Mei. Aki didn't expect that. The woman got out of the car and hugged Mei.
"Is that Mei's mother?!" Aki waits and sees.
She looked like she adores Mei so much. But Mei wasn't that comfortable. She talked with Noah as well. Aki didn't want to follow anymore. Mei looked directly at where Aki was. Mei greeted him with a glance to let Aki know that he could see him. Aki understood and greeted him back.
Aki then leaves.
Aki got back to his office and entered his room. Ginger was playing. While he was playing he saw a cut on Ginger's throat. Aki couldn't breathe. He got suffocated as he remembered everything that happened inside the territory. Aki's situation got worse. He sat on his chair leaning back. Aki's heartbeat went irregular.
Slow, fast there was no stable rhythm. Nora entered and placed more files then left. Aki placed his hand on his chest. He closed his eyes. His heartbeat was getting steady. Suddenly he saw Nora's eyes covered with a blindfold, blood on the corner of her lips. She was seated with hands tied down in a chair. His eyes felt like they were burning. He got up then went to the washroom holding his eyes. When he removed the contacts he saw his eyes were red. He released a heavy breath. He left the room.
Nora couldn't take her eyes off him.
Aki said, 'Nora! I will not be back today. Text me if you have any problems.'
Nora tried to understand, 'Ok! But your eyes…'
'I know.I don't feel like wearing contact lenses now. Take Ginger…' Ginger got out ahead of him.
Now that he knows that Ginger is a Jinn he feels a bit disoriented.
Nora seeing Ginger next to Aki, she said, 'I think he wants to go with you.'
'I guess.' Aki got in his car then went to a gym.
He searched there for someone but couldn't find it. Then when he reached the Konami sports club in Otaru, he called for someone but that person was not there either. Aki asked the receptionist for a man named Hikaru. Aki was getting impatient.
Just then Hikaru came in, 'Aki-kun! You really came!'
Aki asked without any casual talk, 'Hikaru-san! Did she leave anything for me?'
'She did. How did you find out?' Hikaru frowns.
'I was told I may find her here. From you.' Aki said. Hikaru seemed sad, 'I just have her number. But she never received it.'
'That will be enough for now.' He knows that number was left so that Aki can contact in desperate measures.
He got out of there.
After typing the number he called.
After a while, that person received the call.
'Azusa-san! It's me Aki.' Aki said even without hearing from the other side.
The opposite side that received the call was silent. 'Azusa-san? Can you hear me?' Aki asks again.
'Long time! Aki-kun.' Ruan Siya's voice made Aki turn to his side.
Aki cut the call. She was smiling seeing Aki. The summer sea wind blew through the silence. Her eyes were reflecting the blue color just like the sea.
Aki answers with a sad smile, 'Been longer.'
Siya smiles and gestures with her head to follow her, 'Walk with me.'
Siya turned and walked towards the park near the sea. Even though it's day time,the place was silent more than usual.
They sat on a park bench.
'At last I could find you.' Aki said.
Siya smiled, 'I was never lost.'
The sun was setting and they sat there silently. Aki doesn't know where he should begin. This person was the only one that knew everything about Aki. Including Mei's. As she claims to be like him,he trusts her. She doesn't think he is weird. After the operation, when Aki was healing,he used to come here. That was when he met Siya first. Later he knew she was one of the doctors who operated on him. To Aki, she is still a stranger who has become a friend. Even though he knows nothing about her except this, Konami Holdings is one of her alliances. She is a very distant person. But she always looked after Aki whenever he needed. She taught him how to ignore, how to adapt to everything. How to distract his mind from crowded thoughts.
'Where were you?' Aki asked her.
'Somewhere.' Her answers were vague as always.
'I thought I wouldn't be able to see you anymore. You didn't contact me for over a year. I can't even ask 'Why don't you look for me anymore as I was never anyone to you.' Aki seemed to have coped with it.
Siya tried to avoid the situation, 'It's not like that. I had given you the emergency information na, where to find me. If you really didn't mean anything to me I wouldn't have left any trace. I'm not a very people person, you know why.'
Aki nods, 'I know but...it is weird. Not being able to tell you. It felt suffocating. You have been looking after me for 16 years. It became a habit. You even left the hospital where you used to work.'
'I thought I should prepare you for the goodbye.' Siya said in a low tone.
'I'm glad my intuition was right. If I hadn't insisted on your contact, you wouldn't have even given me this.' Aki sighs.
'Your intuition is very scary. This is why you were so fixated on getting any means of contact, when you never insisted when I denied before??' Siya was surprised after understanding that.
Aki muttered, 'Do you really have to say goodbye?'
'What is it that made you look for me so desperately?' Siya asked.
Aki told her everything. She pretended not to know anything. When Aki was finished, he looked at her hoping that she would ask anything, but she didn't.
Aki asked, 'Is it hard to believe?'
'Not really. There are things that cannot be explained properly. During my practice, I saw some cases where patients never woke up. Even though their body was ok,their soul couldn't enter back. I saw the soul perish while their body was still alive. So I thought that souls are what animates your body. But the soul expired while the body didn't. Then I saw one person's soul leaving the body as soon as it gave up. Without any problems the soul perished with the body. A baby,where the soul was inside the body. But the body was not active. After some day that soul left the body. That means the body expired when the soul didn't, so, it couldn't be explained properly. The conclusion becomes like this, a body and soul have a different expiration date and you need to have the same expiration date to have a proper death. This is why souls wander around even when their body is expired but the soul's doesn't. I guess they get reincarnated again and again to have a proper death.' Siya became lost looking at the sea while explaining to him.
'What are you trying to say,We get reincarnated to have a proper death? Not because it's a natural process after death?' Hearing Aki, Siya laughed for a while.
'No! No! I was saying...Just something foolish...Just some of my experiences. That you won't know what exactly soul is. How it works.' Aki has an unknown fear inside him, to see her talkative today.
Siya asked, 'Aren't you hungry? Let's go eat something.'
She didn't wait and began to walk. Aki followed.
Siya asked, 'You will be 34 this year,ya?'
'Will I die this year? You can see souls right? How does it seem to you?' Aki jokes about it.
Siya smiles, 'You can't die so soon. You are a survivor,a fighter. You have to live.'
Aki smiles. Always the same words. Even when training him to fight she encouraged him with these words.
Siya was lost in her own thought, "I sacrificed my whole life for you so you just have to survive. By any means necessary, you have to prove that you live on God's will,not with anyone's favour. Because…"
'If you are meant to be dead nothing can save you. And if you are saved then it means you are not supposed to die yet.' Siya said out loud.
'Ya! I get it.' Aki smiles.
Siya stopped and turned to look at him, 'You loved Mei so much na?'
Aki didn't expect this question, 'Of course I do.'
'I'm going to tell you something, it will let me know if you are ready or not.' Siya said with a serious face.
Aki didn't get the meaning, 'What are you talking about?'
Siya stops walking, 'The heart...in you…is hers.' Aki couldn't move from there.
The sea was making beautiful noises, the wind was refreshing but that couldn't make him feel good anymore. Aki could feel his heartbeat slowing down. Then after a while, it becomes normal.