Shiori Toyonaka admired her mother who was a nurse, and wanted to follow in her footsteps.
Shiori was a girl who was born to a very normal household.
She grew up with a lot of love from her public official father and nurse mother. She had a cheeky little sister, but thought they were both loved with no favoritism.
She had been working as a nurse for three years, and was still struggling. She caused trouble for younger nurses, and people had to help her with many things, which embarrassed her as their senior.
But her relationship with her juniors was not bad, it was in fact good enough that they went out together on off days.
On a certain day, she was working the night shift, from sixteen thirty to nine o’clock the next day.
As the time to leave for work approached, she combed her bob cut hair that reached her shoulders, put on light makeup, and left after finishing her preparations in less than ten minutes.
The hot sun was shining mercilessly on her. Thankfully, she kept a parasol with her, but being hit with this sunlight was enough for the sweat to flow. She was sure her makeup would run.
Damn you sun, go easy on me, she thought.
Once at her destination, she entered the Kisaragi General Hospital, and changed into her nurse uniform. The Kisaragi General Hospital used a two piece uniform, so she had a white jacket and black pants.
“Hello.”
The person who greeted her was Ayano Watabe, one of her capable juniors. She had long hair that reached her lower back, but today it was in buns.
She was a little jealous of her strong femininity.
“Good job Ayano. I’m glad to have you with me again today.”
Shiori implicitly asked that she help her again that day, but Ayano was unaware.
She saw the day shift nurses leave, and focused on her work.
Shiori and Ayano did the rounds in pediatrics. There were vacancies the previous year, so it fell on them.
Both liked children, so neither had complaints, and they enjoyed seeing children get better. Conversely, they felt a sense of powerlessness as they said goodbye to children they could not save.
“Hello Shiori.”
“Hello Mako. You’re looking good today.”
Shiori crouched, and when her eyes met the eyes of the seven year old Mako, she smiled.
Upon seeing Shiori’s smile, Mako smiled back and said yes.
“Put out your hand, Mako.”
“?”
Mako seemed puzzled, but did as she was told.
And Shiori placed a strange keychain with a panda’s face facing upward ,and its body around it on her hand.
“Ah, Beta Panda! For me!?”
“Yes, I brought it for you. Just don’t break it.”
This strange character was called Beta Panda, and for some reason, it was popular with girls. And Mako was one of them.
“Thank you! Yay!”
“Don’t run.”
Shiori got back up, as she watched Mako leave.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yes. Onto the next.”
Mako was in the hospital due to a congenital heart disease. Her symptoms were severe, and her hopes were said to be slim.
Slim hope meant…
Mako was not the only one in that situation. They were not all like this, but there were others.
They performed as best they could so they could let them have even a little fun, let them be at peace to a certain extent, and extend their lives even just a little.
◇ ◇ ◇
“She already quit, but there was a girl who joined in the same year as me who could see them.”
This was shortly after she became employed in this hospital.
She finished her work late at night, and was at the nurse’s station, when a senior who was fighting her drowsiness spoke to her.
“There are a lot of souls of the departed roaming around this hospital. That girl could see them and talk to them, and apparently exorcised them when they asked. But children were different, they kept looking for their parents.”
“What are you talking about? Is this like an urban legend?”
“No, I heard it directly. And also, she would call the parents of these wandering souls, and they were really mad when she told them the souls moved on the moment they got there.”
“Well, of course they were. They were told they could see their dead children.”
“Yes. And telling them that their children were able to move on because they came to see them only fueled the fire.”
“So that happened?”
Apparently this was a famous story in the Kisaragi General hospital, and everyone working there at the time knew about it.
At first the hospital decided to quietly observe, but as these incidents repeated and caused a lot of complaints, the nurse was severely reprimanded.
This made it hard for her to be in the hospital, and she ended up quitting.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Iori… Shiori… Please wake up!”
A flustered sounding Ayano woke up Shiori, who was taking a nap during her break.
It was rare for her to lose her composure, and Shiori got up with a sleep expression.
“What happened?”
“Something isn’t right. Please come with me.”
Shiori jumped up, as the way Ayano acted led her to think there was trouble.
She left the break room, and immediately saw the issue.
It was a mess.
The charts that were on the shelves were on the floor, and the chairs were all over the place. The camera monitors were black, showing nothing.
Also, the lights were flickering, as if signaling an abnormality.
“Ayano, where are the others?”
“They went to call for help, but aren’t back yet.”
“L-let’s check the ward. The patients come first.”
Ayano was surprised to hear that. She thought at a time like that, they should stand by and wait for the others.
Shiori thought to take a flashlight just in case, and avoided stepping on the charts as she went to get it.
There was a chair in the way, and when she reached it, it turned around despite no one sitting on it.
“Eek!”
The surprise made her fall back.
Her face spasmed with fear, and her trembling body would not move.
She had never faced a supernatural phenomenon in the three years since she started working there. There was a colleague who was said to be able to see the dead, but she just thought it was scary and did not believe it. And it would not have been this big of a deal even if it was true, she thought.
Now that she was face to face with it, her fear prevented her from doing anything.
The chair turned for a bit until it stopped, sitting still as if nothing happened.
“Shiori! Come quick!”
Ayano left the station, and was calling her from the exit. She had a flashlight in her hand, that she surely picked up while Shiori was immobile.
Shiori stood up with tears in her eyes, and forced her trembling body to rush towards Ayano.
“W-w-what is that!?”
“How would I know!?”
Ayano responded loudly to Shiori’s question.
She was typically cool-headed, but that seemed to be gone in this situation.
“I-I know. Let’s look around the patient’s rooms.”
“…Shiori…”
“W-what?”
“Let’s hold hands.”
Ayano put out her trembling hand, and Shiori realized she was not the only one who was afraid.
Shiori thought she had never seen Ayano like this, and she had to rouse herself as her senior.
She took her hand, and told her to go with her, with a strong nod.
◇ ◇ ◇
At night, the hospital was only lit as much as necessary.
These lights were now flickering, and completely out in some places. Because of this, the halls that usually had good visibility even at night, looked dark on the other side.
Shiori and Ayano walked forward while holding hands. Even with a flashlight shining ahead, they could not see the floor very well.
She opened the door to a hospital room just a little, and saw a patient on a bed. Next to it, a man who was most likely with this patient stood up and bowed a little.
They asked quietly if there was anything out of the ordinary, and the man nodded. He was most likely being quiet out of consideration for the patient.
Shiori left the room, thinking everything was all right.
As they left, Ayano’s hand seemed to shake even more.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Do you know the person in that room?”
“Kanata… Right?”
She remembered. Kanata was hospitalized following a traffic accident. His father protected him, so his life was not in danger, and he suffered only a broken foot.
But his father could not be saved.
But then who…?
She fearfully opened the door.
Kanata was sleeping on the bed, but there was no one next to it.
◇ ◇ ◇
Both continued looking around, saying nothing.
Something was off, so they remained cautious, and held hands tighter.
They peeked into other rooms, but saw nothing unusual.
They saw a dark shadow out of the corner of their eyes, but there was nothing there when they turned to look. Both wondered if they were seeing things due to the strange situation.
There was a sound like someone was moving.
It was a common noise, the sound of a wheelchair.
A wheelchair was approaching from the darkness. Someone was on it, which was in itself not odd.
But there was an old person sitting on this wheelchair, even though this was pediatrics.
“Eek!?”
The old person raised his head slowly. He had no eyes, his nose had been scraped, and his chin was gone.
And yet, he tried to say something.
Both retreated in fear, and the old person disappeared like mist, leaving only the hospital’s wheelchair.
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Real hard to keep track of this chapter
Thanks.