Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku pushed the door open and walked straight in.
There were more people in the ward than yesterday.
A middle-aged man in his forties, his hair already thinning a little.
He was the senior attending physician in charge of Mrs. Shimizu's ward.
Right now he stood beside the bed, a thick stack of test reports in his hands, his brow furrowed as he reported something to the person next to him.
A whole crowd of people stood around him too.
All of them deferred to one of the older doctors among them.
And this doctor was none other than the full professor of the First Department of Surgery.
At Nihon University Hospital, a single department usually had only one full professor.
In Japanese medical circles this was known as the "one-chair system," or the "one-professor system."
This professor looked to be around sixty, yet he had the face of a baby, and he too held a report in his hand.
Mrs. Shimizu lay on the bed, her complexion worse than it had been when Tsushima Kagami left yesterday.
Her lips had a purplish tinge, her breathing was quicker than the day before, and her chest rose and fell in obvious heaves.
The oxygen mask had been put back on.
Shimizu Nayotake stood at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped tightly together.
Dark, heavy circles ringed her eyes.
"Yesterday's readings really were bizarre."
The senior physician flipped through the report and spoke to the old professor beside him.
"The ejection fraction climbed back up from an end-stage value to somewhere in the moderate-to-severe range. The blood markers improved markedly too.
We all thought…"
He trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"Thought it was a spontaneous remission?"
The old professor picked up the thread, his tone flat.
"Yes."
The attending physician nodded with the utmost respect.
"But on the morning rounds today, the patient looked like she'd relapsed back to her earlier condition."
The old professor leafed through the report and was silent for a while.
"This kind of fluctuation isn't common in end-stage heart failure patients, but it isn't entirely without precedent either."
"Sometimes the patient's mental state, drug response, even differences in the timing of the tests can cause the numbers to swing."
"But an improvement as dramatic as yesterday's—"
He shook his head.
"That is rare indeed."
The group started up a low discussion again.
Out of their mouths came medical terms Tsushima Kagami couldn't quite follow.
Things like BNP, Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction, Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure.
The words bounced between them like ping-pong balls, and in the end no firm conclusion was reached.
"Let's just keep observing."
The old professor said at last.
"Continue monitoring the blood markers, and leave the medication plan unchanged for now."
"If the situation keeps deteriorating, we'll adjust again."
The others nodded, gave a few more instructions, and then filed out of the ward together.
Once Tsushima Kagami and the others had all gone, the door was pulled shut.
Mrs. Shimizu lay on the bed with her eyes closed, as if she'd fallen asleep again.
"How is Auntie Shimizu doing?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku took out the breakfast she'd brought along for Nayotake that morning as she asked.
Shimizu Nayotake answered, her whole face weary.
"After Mom suddenly felt a lot better yesterday,
she slowly started to get a little worse again toward the early hours.
But she's still better than before.
At least now she can lie down and sleep for a bit."
Shimizu Nayotake glanced at Mrs. Shimizu, asleep on the bed.
Then she looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku and forced a smile.
"That's a good thing too. There's sure to be hope.
Enough talk, eat your breakfast first."
"I hope so."
Shimizu Nayotake nodded and took the bento box of breakfast Yukinoshita Shizuku held out.
Once Shimizu Nayotake had finished eating.
Yukinoshita Shizuku picked up the bento box and said,
"I'll go wash the box."
"Let me do it."
Shimizu Nayotake shot to her feet, reaching to take the box.
But Yukinoshita Shizuku dodged her again.
"You sit and rest a while.
Look at you, your eyes have gone all panda."
Shimizu Nayotake was caught off guard by that.
She touched her own eyes without thinking.
In the end all she could do was give a helpless laugh.
"Then I'll trouble you."
Once Yukinoshita Shizuku had left.
Tsushima Kagami, off to the side, suddenly spoke.
"Nayotake."
Shimizu Nayotake turned to look at him.
"Mm."
Tsushima Kagami drew a small bottle from the inner pocket of his coat.
About the size of one of those oral-liquid vials the hospital dispensed.
Inside the clear glass was a pale blue liquid.
When it swayed faintly in the sunlight, it refracted a strange sheen.
He held the bottle out in front of Shimizu Nayotake.
"What is this?"
She took the bottle and looked down at the liquid inside.
"Medicine."
Tsushima Kagami kept his voice very low.
Putting on an air of mystery, he trotted out the excuse he'd cooked up the day before.
"This is a drug still in the clinical-trial stage. It isn't on the market yet.
I pulled a lot of strings to get hold of it."
Shimizu Nayotake's fingers tightened slightly.
"Whether Auntie Shimizu can be saved—this might be the last hope.
Don't ask anything, and don't tell a single soul."
Shimizu Nayotake lifted her head and met his gaze.
"Using medication from outside during a hospital stay isn't allowed in the first place.
And on top of that, it's an experimental trial drug of unknown origin.
If anyone found out, you could be thrown out of the hospital.
So, Nayotake.
Do you trust me?"
Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.
But in the end, she only nodded hard.
"I trust you.
I won't ask anything, and I won't tell anyone."
She had wanted to add that even if her mother took the medicine and something went wrong, she wouldn't blame him.
But somehow it felt like emotional blackmail.
So Nayotake only added it silently to herself.
Because her mother was already waiting to die in agony right now.
Rather than that, it was better to try.
After all, Kagami would never harm her.
"Good!"
Tsushima Kagami smiled.
Girls like this were the most obedient, the easiest to fool.
It saved him a great deal of explaining to keep his story straight.
Then he pulled out a whole batch of energy potions from inside his overcoat.
"Quick, get your bag and pack them away."
"Oh, okay."
Shimizu Nayotake hurried over and fetched a canvas bag hanging nearby, one clearly worn pale and frayed.
Then she tucked all the little blue bottles Tsushima Kagami had given her into the bag.
"Give Auntie Shimizu one bottle a day.
In the morning is best.
Because a side effect might be that she's too wired to sleep."
"Right, remember to record how long the drug's effect lasts for Auntie Shimizu each day.
We'll adjust the dosage afterward.
Got all that?"
Shimizu Nayotake nodded earnestly.
She clutched the canvas bag tight, as if gripping a lifeline.
"Got it!"
Tsushima Kagami nodded, satisfied.
Then he looked at the great dark rings around Shimizu Nayotake's eyes.
He took another bottle out of her bag.
And opened it right there.
"You drink this first."
Shimizu Nayotake asked nothing, just obediently took it and drank it down.
Before long she felt her whole body come back to life.
She stared at Tsushima Kagami in astonishment.
She thought of how her mother had suddenly improved after drinking that water last night.
At the time she'd had an inexplicable feeling it might have something to do with Tsushima Kagami.
Because he was the one who'd poured that water.
Now it was as good as an outright admission.
She was about to ask whether her mother's sudden turn yesterday was because he'd added this to the water.
Then she remembered she'd just promised him she wouldn't ask anything.
At once she clapped both hands over her mouth.
Seeing that, Tsushima Kagami asked, curious,
"What did you want to say?"
Shimizu Nayotake kept her hands over her mouth and shook her head.
Looking at how silly Shimizu Nayotake seemed.
Tsushima Kagami smiled too.
Shimizu Nayotake loved watching Tsushima Kagami smile.
There was always a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.
She had no idea where he found so many happy things.
But she just loved stealing glances at his smiling face.
She had loved it all along, ever since before.
That smile seemed to tell her:
Winter has come. Can spring be far behind?
____
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