How was this day supposed to go anyway?!
I sighed deeply and tiredly.
Who could've guessed that today would spiral so badly out of control?
I had just barely escaped death. By a hair's breadth.
The very first time in my life – and honestly? It was unspeakably creepy and terrifying.
I had been as good as dead and somehow still made it at the very last moment.
I shivered. Hard and long.
The ironic part was that I used to love emergencies. Totally insane, but I loved the thrill. Staying perfectly calm in the midst of it. Keeping everything under control, giving sharp instructions, focused on saving the patient's life.
But today? Today I was the one who had needed help.
And that felt like shit. Really shitty.
Helpless.
I hadn't noticed any of it. As if I'd been fast asleep.
Dreaming? I hadn't. At least not that I could remember.
At some point, I vaguely reached the moment when it was 'time to wake up.'
I still remembered clearly how the familiar scent of disinfectant tickled my nose and triggered a flashback to my workplace in Shimoda.
Then I felt – strangely – that I was lying horizontally. That was when it clicked, and I startled awake.
In front of me: Shoko.
The same one whose immense tension visibly dropped at that instant. With the words, "Thank God – you're finally awake," she let her head and shoulders slump.
Groggily, I looked around. Sat up shakily on the examination table and shortly after got a rough explanation from Shoko about what had happened.
My vitals? Beyond good and evil – even I, in my entire professional career, had never seen such a critical emergency.
Which was probably for the best, because Shoko had also seriously told me I had almost ended up in the intensive care unit.
Barely, terrifyingly close to multiple organ failure. I had already kissed it breathlessly.
I pulled my legs closer to my body as my vision started to blur and I clutched the pillow beneath me for support.
I knew it had been close. But to now replay it all in silence – to really process it – scared me more than I liked to admit.
And there it was: the first tear, soaking into my pillow.
It could've ended for me today…
However Shoko had managed it, I would be forever grateful to that miraculous woman.
For saving my life.
Even if she'd vehemently denied it earlier – but how else had my condition stabilized?!
Where had that extreme state even come from?
Had the wound on my leg caused it?
No way!
Yes, it was damn large, hurt like hell, and was anything but shallow.
At first, I'd even suspected he'd poisoned me – but it hadn't felt like that either.
As I'd already mentioned, my fever hadn't felt typical. More like I was literally burning from the inside out. Fire, spreading everywhere.
But Shoko's guess – that it might have been my cursed energy – somehow sounded… possible?!
Still unlikely. Because I wasn't feeling any of that now.
But what else could it have been?!
I squished the blanket between my legs and turned even more onto my side.
Noticed that my eyelids were growing heavier and heavier.
Still, I glanced again at the red marks on my skin – on my arm.