Chapter Text
"...AR...”
“....RA!!”
“KU...”
There was darkness; a splinter of noise, three booming voices with the strength to shatter. There was a sharp moment of pain, just a moment, and then... nothing.
Absolutely, nothing.
It was gone. He was gone. They were gone. And they... they were safe.
It was time to open his eyes
He opened his eyes, blinked against the bright white light reflected in his room, and let out a sigh.
‘Ugh... what a headache...’ He thought, as he slowly shifted into a sitting position. Or at least he tried to. His left arm was alright, a little shaky and weak from ill-use, but his right arm was in a thick cast from the elbow down. And even with the cast, when he tried to put pressure on it, a deep pain shot up through the nerves of his arm.
“Ah, dammit!” He hissed, collapsing on his side with his good arm. The short fall back into his bed, let him know that all of him was actually hurt. Every part of him, ached in some way, though nothing compared to his right arm.
“Oh, Kazuma! Kazuma you’re awake!” A feminine voice sobbed, catching his attention.
The injured man looked up, surprised to see two women with different shades of blue hair, looking at him. They were smiling brightly and both crying, though one of them was shedding.... pearls?
He watched them clatter to the floor with some confusion, while the taller blue haired girl took off screaming down the hall, “Kuwabara! Kuwabara is awake! Hey!”
He looked around the room. There were two other beds, but they were empty, with the blankets and sheets neatly folded at the edge of the bed. He was the only occupant of this room.
He turned back to look at the crying girl, and gasped as she flung her small arms around him. He let her cling to her as she sobbed, and laughed. Cheering for “Kuwabara’s,” awakening.
His good hand hovered awkwardly in the air, while he kept his still aching arm out and away from where she might accidentally put pressure on it. As she still sobbed and cheered, the injured man finally plopped an awkward palm repeatedly against her head, in an awkward patting motion.
She pulled back, and her smile was radiant and full of delight and happiness. Tears clung to her lashes, and as they slid down her cheeks crystalized into... into what he thought might be shining pearls.
‘Is this woman an angel?’ he found himself thinking, feeling dumb with his assessment, but what other explanation could there be. You didn't just cry jewels!
There was a commotion at the doorway, and he looked up seeing the other blue haired girl had returned, three others at her heels. They were bandaged up as well, and looked at him... well... their faces were so mashed with emotion he wasn’t quite sure who to look at first. He wound up looking at the shortest member of the group. His expression was pinched into a confused and angry scowl, his red eyes dancing with a many number of emotions. But at least the injured man felt he could understand his expression.
The others were so full of emotion, the injured man just couldn't bring himself to keep his gaze on them for long.
He couldn’t recall ever seeing people with such expressive faces... but if he really thought about it... there was a lot he couldn’t recall.
The group began shouting all at once, a mix of delighted, and somehow angry, frenzy noise. There was so much noise-too much noise, and he couldn’t take it all in.
He could only pick out a few screamed statements amongst the prattle and tried to focus on those words.
“You’re awake!”
“Kuwabara, thank God!”
“Kazuma!”
There were more words, but it was a terrible mash, and he had a feeling it would only get worse if he let it continue.
Sitting up a little straighter, he hooked his good hand around the short woman’s arm, the woman who was still smiling and weeping jewels as she clung to him, and as gently as he could whispered, “Would you let me go, please?”
He looked her in the eye and saw something shine back at him in her gaze. It had been happiness at first, but as she stared at him, something anxious began to creep in. She knew something was wrong now, and slowly her smile stilled, and her tears stopped. But she nodded gently and released him. Once he was sure her feet were firmly planted on the ground, he held up a hand, his palm flatly presented to the noisy group, in an effort to quiet them.
He was surprised when it worked.
“I’ve a question,” he said, his voice surprisingly hoarse and cracking. Goodness, what had happened to him to make him such a mess?
When no one asked him to clarify, he pressed on, “Which is it? Am I Kuzuma, or Kuwabara? Which one of those is my name?”
There was only absolute silence in the wake of his question, and everyone was looking at him in a mingling mix of horror, shock, disbelief, and concern.
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He had expected his question to be a shocker to these group of onlookers, but perhaps he had underestimated how casual he should have been. Figuring politeness might be the better route to take, he put on his biggest smile and tried again, “Sorry, sorry... Could you tell me what happened? And also maybe get a doctor? I can’t seem to remember a thing.”
The shorter woman next to him, burst into loud sobbing her face falling into her hands, and he cringed at the sound.
Looking out at the others who had crowded his room, he could see they looked very upset too.
‘Well, shit... what am I supposed to do?’ He thought guiltily. He hadn’t meant to upset anyone, but that was probably impossible to avoid-
“Quit playing around!” Someone barked.
The injured man, (or was he the Amnesiac man?), turned to look at the person who had shouted. This man had a few smattering of bandages and bruises, though they appeared to be healing. His hair was dark black, and short, though some of his hair flared out just above his ears, giving a kind of winged effect. If he slicked his hair back, he might look a bit cooler the injured man thought, nodding to himself.
At that thought, the injured man’s head hurt, and he put his good hand to his brow. He frowned at the momentary blip of pain closing his eyes against the sudden, sharp pain, and then found himself snapping his eyes open as hands dug into his shoulders.
The man who had shouted at him had sprinted across the room in a mad dash and seized him tightly. He squeezed his shoulders to a painful degree and shouted, “Kuwabara! This is no time for a stupid joke!”
“Yusuke, stop!” Someone else shouted.
“D-Don’t! Don’t!” The crying woman had dropped her hands from her face and hooked an arm around the black haired man’s waist. “Don’t! Let me... we need to examine-”
“KUWABARA!” The black haired man screamed instead, his eyes fixed on the injured man’s stunned face. It was as if he expected his call to stir something out of the injured man. To wake him up, and rise to action.
The injured man’s head throbbed, and he found that his heart seemed to be aching in a surprisingly painful way. It... it oddly made him feel guilty. Guilty and very tried.
“S-Sorry,” the injured man tried to explain, and slowly he sunk himself back into bed, “I think I need a doctor... can you get one... I don’t feel so good.”
And he really didn’t. He was dizzy now, and his aching body was starting to hurt worse... not to mention his right arm was really starting to bother him now. He closed his eyes, and the room exploded into noise again.
“Kuwabara!”
“Kazuma!”
“KUWABARA!”
Really, he hoped he was this Kuwabara guy, or Kuwabara Kazuma guy, or whatever... because if he wasn’t, he was going to have to punch that guy in the face. The people that wanted and needed him were really loud now and giving him quite a headache...
Mercifully, he found himself going back to sleep against the noise, easily slipping back into the darkness that he had struggled awake from before.
Maybe next time when he opened his eyes, this matter would be settled.