"I'd like to meet Hinari."
A statement or a question. Lozo didn't know. What he knew was that that was what he wanted. To see Hinari.
Dok was taken aback. He could see the determination in his eyes. He must have thought about it a lot before finally asking. He could feel it in the boy's breath. It was still, held back waiting for his answer.
But the answer was obvious.
"N—" Dok spoke but was interrupted.
"If I see her…"
"If I see her, I'll tell you everything you want to know. For whatever reason it might be and whatever use you have for my name. I don't care. Just…"
"Just let me see her." He asked and on the brink of crying.
Outside a new set of carriages were arriving. They caught Dok's attention. A couple of men shot from the horse cockpit and hurriedly moved to the back of the carriage. They unloaded quickly and shot into the large central building. Then after a few minutes shot back out with the same dire look on their faces.
Dok's eyes narrowed. He then looked to the almost crying boy then said.
"Sure."
"Please, I don't care—" Lozo stopped. His eyes lit up on hearing the actual answer, not what he thought he had heard.
"Sure, why not. Being separated from her seems to be gnawing at you. How about two days from now? Sound good?" Dok added.
Lozo was about to answer, completely enthralled, when the door to the room opened. In came a man with a scar on his forehead, Mr Kisharu.
Kisharu raised his gaze meeting that of Dok, smiling as ever, and that of Lozo, who had changed. He seemed elated, his eyes wider than have ever been since he woke up.
He looked at Dok again. Happy. Then looked to Lozo. Borderline happy. Then it clicked.
"What did you do, Dok!?" he asked crossed as he entered the room.
"Perfect timing Kisharu. Get ready, you're going to have go on a little errand for me and him." Dok said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You're going to go get the girl, Hinari was it." Dok added
Kisharu let out a sharp groan. Dok had done it now. And by the boy's happy expression, there was no going back.
***
During his days pursuing his new found hobby, Lozo had learned to count sun rises and consequently be able to tell how many days had passed relative to the day he woke up. Quite accurate I might add. Lozo could easily tell that they were about to enter a new month. The length of the day and of the night had started to vary and thus a new season. A skill that proved quite useful in his time in the hospital prison.
Now one might think that waiting for the sun to rise every day for an entire month was boring. It is, especially if you are tethered to your bed and fed by a person who doesn't like you. But Lozo had found something else more boring than that. His ecstasy to see Hinari after so long made waiting for the sun to rise for the next two days that followed unbearable compared to an entire month.
He hadn't seen her for a while and the last time that he saw her was --.
He couldn't even think about it. He just wanted to replace that incident with a joyous reunion with her. Even for a minute, it would be enough for him to sleep again.
'Finally!' He thought.
…
The two days passed and, on the D-day, Lozo woke with a new glimmer. A glimmer of hope, a glimmer of chance. A glimmer that by the end of the day everything will be fine.
His fresh pair of bluish hospital clothing arrived, escorted by his favorite nurse. They usually arrived before noon or exactly at the zenith and were announced by the jingle of the nurse's hair-pin.
He changed out of his old pair and placed them on the trolley. The nurses, distain in her eyes, glared at Lozo.
"You seem happy today. "
"Yeah, I'm finally going to…"
"I didn't ask why." She retorted his answer.
Lozo's eyes flattened. He should have expected as much.
"Stay here. You'll be summoned when needed." She said as she pulled the trolley out the room.
Lozo shook his head and sat on his spring mattress. His day had only just began, he wasn't going to let her ruin his day.
Two hours had passed and his summon was looking more less likely by the second. The anxiety and excitement shivering through his body made him restless. One minute he is looking through his window and the other he is walking around thinking that they had held back on their word. This would in turn make his even more restless. But his worries faded the moment he heard that distinctive chime open the door into his room.
Finally!
"Unknown 12…" she lagged noticing how his mood had suddenly shifted.
"Please follow me." She added.
'This is it,' he thought. The moment he had waited and prepared for days and nights.
He took a deep breath in and then let it out. There was a stammer in his breath. Probably the anxiety. But he couldn't wait any longer.
Hinari was waiting and so was what laid ahead.
***
For a long while now Lozo had thought and fantasized of meeting Hinari. Many issues came up but the most important one always surfaced last. 'What was he going to tell her.'
From his grave recalling, the last time he had her in his arms she was yanked by some entity and thrown into a well. She was in a terrible condition. And why she was in that condition he did not know.
You see Hinari is a normal human. None like Lozo or old man Ji, she wasn't an Harmatia. So, a question begged.
Why was she hurt by those flames?
This had gone on for the previous weeks since he came to. He would have asked the two men but that would have necessitated him to reveal more about himself. So, he didn't.
All in all, he had finally got something he needed for a long while now.
To see Hinari one last time.
Lozo followed the nurse out of his usual hall. They walked into a corridor that branched to another hospital hall, but larger than the one he was in, and to the large building he had always seen through his window.
"Where's Dok?" an angry nurse asked escorting a patient back to their room. The patient seemed in distress and pain and none like him they weren't in cuffs.
"He's in the Hearth Building. He's waiting for something" Another nurse said as she came to help the angry nurse.
In front of him his nurse stood waiting for him as he watched the sick man been aided back to his room. In the other hospital hall, Lozo could here groan and cries of people. Even back when he was his room, he could hear them but only just their echoes.
"Keep walking. We don't have time to stand around." His nurse said pacing a little bit faster into the other side of the corridor. Lozo fastened his step and followed her, she was quite serious on leaving him.
The corridor lead them out of the hospital halls marked by the fading smell of alcohol and entry of a new flowery smell. It smelled nice almost like the nurse's fragrance. They took a right and entered a large room branded by a label at the top that said
The Hearth Room.
…
The Hearth room was large compared to the hospital wards that surrounded it. It was circular in setting and consisted of what Lozo could count as eight corridors leading to a central gathering place that had concentric seats surrounding a central pillar. The concentric seats dropped down layer after layer forming a sought of circular valley with seats for escarpments. The pillar at the center had some scribbles on it but was a little bit too far for Lozo to word them out.
"Ah, Lozo welcome. This is the hearth room. What do you think?" A voice called with cheery sprinkled all over.
'Dok.'
He was standing next to the pillar with Kisharu standing behind. He seemed happy as usual. Even in the sullen state in the hospital he had just seen.
Lozo remained quiet.
"Okay, I see. You're here to see Hinari. Well, I'll keep you waiting no longer." He said.
Just then a creak echoed from on the eight corridors. It was the sound of a door opening.
The door closed and next… came footsteps.