A notification from my phone woke me up early the next morning. I groaned as a stretched my arms slowly, then turned my head from side to side; it was a little stiff, but the pain that had been there less than a month ago felt like a distant memory. I checked my phone for the notification. It was a text from Takahashi, so I opened it.

Good luck today. I’m sure it won’t be fun, but bear with it for now. I’ll try to stop by this evening.

“Bear with it?” I asked out loud. I couldn’t imagine physical therapy would be that bad. I responded with a thumb’s up emoji, then put my phone back down on the nightstand. It was only seven-thirty, so I turned on the TV and waited for Dr. Watanabe to make her entrance. I watched an anime that Yua had recommended to me. It was only on episode three, but the plot was pretty interesting, and I liked the character design.

Almost immediately after the episode was over, I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said, sitting up a bit in my bed.

“Good morning, Mr. Tanaka,” Dr. Watanabe said as she walked through the door. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No, not yet,” I replied.

“Good, you’ll be drinking one of these instead from now on. You can also have either an orange or a banana,” she said, handing me a carboard bottle with the words “Veggie Super” written on the front.

“Okay. Can I have a banana then?”

“When we walk down to the gym area,” she said. “Do you think you can walk?”

“It’s been a while, but I think I can,” I said.

“Alright. Let’s hurry up and drink that, then we can head out,” she ordered.

I downed the drink as quickly as possible. It didn’t really have any flavor; if anything, it tasted like the cardboard bottle it was packaged in.

“I’m ready, if you are,” I said, forcing down my last sip.

“Ok,” she said, standing up, “grab on to my arm and try to stand.”

I obliged, grabbing hold of her arm. It was skinny, but it wasn’t bony at all. In fact, it felt like her arm was made of pure muscle. I pulled myself up out of the bed and stood on the ground. Blood rushed to my head, and I suddenly felt really dizzy.

“Take it easy, no need to rush things,” she said gently.

I stood there for a solid minute before I felt confident enough to take a step. Finally, we began our walk to the hospital’s rehabilitation gym.

“About how far is the gym?” I asked as we walked toward the elevator lobby.

“Oh, we’ll be taking a detour, so around a kilometer,” she said.

“A kilometer? Seriously?” I exclaimed quietly.

“I need to get you readjusted to using your legs. Walking is the most efficient way to do that,”

“Understood,” I sighed. We stood in the elevator lobby for a minute before Dr. Watanabe took out a keycard, swiping it in the door handle between the two elevators. The door made a high-pitched sound, then unlocked. We walked through the door, and I saw stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.

“Exactly which floor are we on?” I asked, fear creeping into my voice.

“Just the second,” she laughed. “No need to be so scared.”

We descended the flights of stairs. I had to walk like a baby, putting both feet on a step at a time, and Dr. Watanabe had a firm grip on my left arm. Slowly but surely, we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, then walked around the ground floor twice before going to the cafeteria for a banana. After I ate my banana, we continued or walk to the gym. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the double doors to the gym. Dr. Watanabe took out her access card once again and swiped it on the door’s lock. We walked into the empty room, and she guided me to a seat.

“How do you feel?” she asked as she guided me into the seat.

“Not as bad as I’d thought, honestly,” I said through a deep breath. “I think I can handle everything except the stairs on my own on the way back.”

“That’s good news,” she replied flatly, “I’m going to grab some equipment, so you wait here for a minute. This will be the only breather you get for the next couple of hours, so you’d better enjoy it while it lasts.”

I narrowed my eyes at that last remark as she left the room. Exactly how hard was she planning on pushing me?

I waited around for a few minutes while Dr. Watanabe hunted down training equipmen. Even though I’d said I was mostly ok, I felt pretty sore after that walk. After all, laying in a bed for nearly two months had forced my muscles to atrophy.

“Alright, you ready to get started?” Dr. Watanabe asked as she walked back through the door, carrying a large box filed to the brim with exercise equipment and topped with a clipboard and papers.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” I groaned, realizing just how hard she was planning on making me train.

Over the course of the next five hours, I was forced to do at least a hundred different stretches, strength tests, and reflex tests. By the time lunch rolled around, I was exhausted to the point that I couldn’t stand on my own. Even sitting up in a chair was difficult. Dr. Watanabe let me rest for fifteen minutes before speaking to me again.

“Good work, Mr. Tanaka,” she said with a beaming smile. “You did well.”

“What does that mean for me?” I asked.

“That means I can work you to the bone and get you home in two weeks,” she explained. “After those two weeks, you’ll be at a point where we can focus on defense training at my personal training center.”

I briefly wished I could just stay in my bed and laze away, but that thought was quickly swept away when I thought about going back to school with Riku and Yua.

“I look forward to it,” I said through a clenched jaw and a forced smile.

“I do too! Now then, let’s get you some lunch,” she said, helping me stand up. My legs were shaky, but I was able to stand. This time, however, I needed to lean on Dr. Watanabe completely. We slowly walked to the cafeteria, where she had me sit in a chair while she ordered food for us. Ten minutes later, she returned to the table with two salads, a plate of beef cutlets, and two bottles of sports drink.

“Your diet is going to be very strict starting today as well. As I said before, your breakfast will consist of a vegetable juice and fruit. Your lunch will be roughly the same as it is today, and your dinner will be something light, but high in protein; most likely a protein bar and some kind of sandwich,” she explained as she started eating her salad.

I ate my food, being careful not to spill any on my gown. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was still wearing my gown.

“Can I get some workout clothes?” I asked, pointing at my attire. “I feel like working out in this is not a great idea.”

“Oh,” she said, “I completely forgot about that! Yes, I’ll bring you some tomorrow. What are your sizes?”

“26.5 in shoes, and medium in pants and shirts,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.

“Alright. Any brand or color preferences?” she asked. “ I have pretty much everything you can think of available.”

“Oh, if you have Aether that would be good,” I replied.

“No color preferences?”

“No, not really,”

“All right, I’ll bring your stuff tomorrow,”

“How much is it going to cost me?”

“Pay me back with your effort, not your money,” she instructed. “Besides, I don’t need any more money than I have.”

“That’s a weird way to brag,” I thought to myself.

We finished eating, then took our time walking back up to my room. After she helped me get into my bed, she bid me farewell for the day. With that, I closed my eyes for a nap. It was the first time that I had actually wanted to sleep in a while, so I was grateful to fall asleep quickly.

I had a pleasant dream about a date with Yua. In my dream, we went to a movie, got Takoyaki, and read books in the plaza at Summit. It felt ethereal, and I hoped that we would be able to do something like that soon.

I peeled my eyes open after my short nap. The soreness in my arms and legs had begun to really set in, and I could barely lift my arms. I sluggishly took my phone from my nightstand and scrolled through my notifications I had a text from Takahashi, two LIME messages from Yua, and one from Riku. There were various game notifications and VidTube notifications too, but I chose to ignore those. I took my time responding to each notification, but they were all along the lines of “how was physical therapy,” so my responses to each were essentially the same. Takahashi had said that he would stop by after work, but Yua and Riku were busy. Sana was hanging out with her friends again, so she probably wouldn’t be able to visit. After sitting in my bed for a bit, I hit the call button on my bed’s remote.

“Is everything ok?” a nurse asked from the other end of the call.

“Yeah, all good,” I said. “Can I go for a walk?”

“If you have someone with you, that is fine. Would you like me to send someone?”

“Yes, please,” I replied, then ended the call. A moment later, a nurse walked into my room.

“What did you need, Mr. Tanaksa?” he asked.

“I was told I could go for a walk if I was with someone. Do you have time to walk for a bit?” I asked; I really didn’t want to inconvenience anyone, but I’d had about enough of the whole “bedridden” thing.

“I have time, though if I’m called again, I’ll need to bring you back to your room,” he explained. “Is that ok with you?”

“That’s fine,” I groaned as I put my feet on the floor. My body was still sore from the fitness tests, but I didn’t feel any pain.

“Can you walk on your own?” the nurse asked.

“Yeah, I should be able to. If you could stay close, though, that would be awesome,” I answered.

We began our walk by circling the entire second floor, then we moved to the third floor and walked around aimlessly for about a half hour. We talked a bit at first, but none of our conversation topics really stuck, so we ended up walking in silence for the most part. Eventually, about an hour after we had left my room, the nurse was called to help with another patient, so we made our way back to my room.

“Thanks for the help,” I said with a shallow bow.

“No problem,” he said. “Please let us know if you need anything else, and someone will be right over to help.”

“Right,” I sighed as I got back on my bed. I checked my phone for notifications as the nurse left, but there weren’t any new ones. It was a little before five in the evening, so I still had a bit of time before Takahashi would show up with dinner. I scrolled through my social media apps for a bit, then watched some videos. If being in the hospital wasn’t over soon, I would probably go insane from the boredom alone.

Finally, Takahashi showed up. Today, he donned two plastic bags, one on his left arm and one on his right.

“What’s in the bags?” I asked, eying the bigger of the two.

“Dinner,” he said with a smirk.

“And that would be what, exactly?” I asked; his smirk turned into a full-on grin.

“You know that meal plan you’re supposed to be doing?”

“So she told you,” I groaned. Any hope I had of a normal meal today had been thrown out the window.

“I brought you the same meal that I had the first time I went through her therapy course,” he snickered.

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“Behold!” he exclaimed, opening the bigger bag. “A peanut-butter and protein powder sandwich and whole grain wheat bread!”

I gagged at the thought of it; it just sounded dry.

“That’s not all!” he continued. “We also have plain yogurt with unflavored chia seeds!”

“Are you enjoying this?” I asked.

“A bit,”

“Just give me the food,”

I took the sandwich out of its bag and took a bite. As expected, it was dry; almost as if I had eaten a spoonful of sand after being stranded in the desert for weeks without water. Luckily, the yogurt was still there, so maybe it would help combat the dryness of the sandwich. I took a spoonful of the yogurt and jammed it into my mouth.

“Gah!” I spat. “What else is in the yogurt?”

“Protein powder,” he replied flatly.

“How much protein is all of this, roughly?”

“A little over 500% daily value,”

“Isn’t that a bit much?”

“With how much you’re gonna be working out, it might not be enough,” he explained.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. Just do your best to eat it. I know it tastes horrible, but it’ll make your life a lot easier over the next couple weeks. All that protein is going to help accelerate the regrowth of your atrophied muscles,” he said.

“Did Dr. Watanabe tell you that?” I asked.

“Yep,” he laughed, taking out his dinner from the smaller plastic bag. It was Takoyaki-to-Go from FamilyMart.

“Are you sure that’s safe to eat?” I asked, eying the suspicious Styrofoam plate.

“Should be,” he replied, taking a bite. “Tastes fine to me.”

We ate our dinner while he interrogated me about the training session. I explained to him what had happened, and what Dr. Watanabe’s plan of action was.

“So you should be out of here in two weeks, huh?” he asked.

“If everything goes right, then yeah,” I confirmed.

“It’s been a while,” he sighed. “It’ll be good to get you home.”

Home. I couldn’t wait much longer to get home.

“You work late tonight too?” I asked, choking down the last bites of my sandwich.

“Yep,” he answered, “through next week.”

“Is Sana doing ok?”

“She’s fine. It seems like she’s gotten pretty popular at school,” he said.

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“I haven’t gotten any calls from the school, so I’d assume it’s at least not in a bad way,” he laughed.

“Well, that’s good at least,” I sighed.

“She’s fine,” he said again. “Anyways, it’s almost six. Gotta go.”

“Right, see you later,” I said as he got up.

“Text me when you finish training tomorrow,” he said as he left my room.

The exhaustion from the day’s events finally caught up with me, and within minutes of Takahashi’s departure, I was fast asleep.

I opened my eyes in yet another dream. This time, I was sitting on a bench in the middle of a bright garden, surrounded by flowers of every color imaginable. There was a gentle breeze, blowing the warm air across my face and through my hair. I stood up from the bench and looked around the garden. In front, behind, to my left, and to my right, there were solitary silhouettes, just like the ones from my other dreams. Suddenly the breeze stopped.

“This is your only solace,” the silhouettes said in unison as they began walking towards me.

“What do you mean?” I asked, though I knew I wouldn’t get a response.

“He is getting too close,” the silhouettes said, their voices growing more distorted as they approached me.

Before I could ask what they had meant, the silhouettes lunged at me, their bodies disintegrating. The particles from their bodies enveloped me. Almost instantly, I was shrouded in the familiar darkness from my previous dreams. In that darkness, I waited patiently for something to happen, but nothing did.

Something shook my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to see Dr. Watanabe standing next to my bed.

“What time is it?” I asked groggily as I rubbed my eyes.

“Time to get up,” she grinned. “I brought you some clothes and shoes. I’ll wait in the hall for you to change, then we’ll go. If you aren’t ready within five minutes, you’ll be doing extra reps of everything.”

“Alright, alright,” I said through a loud yawn. I got out of bed, then walked to the clothes she had brought for me. There were two white t-shirts, a black hoodie, two pairs of dark-grey sport shorts, and a pair of red and white Aether trainer shoes, in addition to some sports boxers and crew-cut socks. I scooped up a set of clothes and the shoes, then went into the bathroom and changed quickly. I folded up my gown and put it next to the remaining clothes, then slipped on the trainers.

“All ready,” I yawned again as I walked out of my room.

“We’re going to start by walking around the hospital grounds three times,” she said as we walked to the stairs. “It should be about five kilometers. I’m not going to make you run today, since your legs are still getting back to normal.”

“Yay,” I grumbled. She took out her keycard and unlocked the door to the stairs, then we made our way outside. I was happy that I was able to go outside; after all, it had been more than two months since I’d seen the light of day. However, that feeling of relief was overshadowed by the task at hand.

“We’ll start off with just a normal walking pace, then we’ll move up our pace incrementally each lap until you hit a very light jog,” she explained as we started our first lap.

It was pretty cool outside, considering it was the middle of June. Usually it would’ve been pretty hot and humid, but that wasn’t the case. There was a cool breeze, and it wasn’t very hot outside; the shade certainly helped the temperature as well. Our first lap took around fifteen minutes for us to complete, but I didn’t feel particularly exhausted.

“Alright, now you’re going to match my pace on this next lap,” she instructed. “Do you need to take a break yet?”

“No, I can keep going,” I said, flashing a thumbs up.

With that, we started our second lap. Though we were definitely faster than our first time around, I was able to keep up with her. I felt my arms move more in sync with my lower body, meaning that my body had unconsciously recognized the change of pace. We were done with our second lap in exactly eleven and a half minutes. At this point, I had begun to work up a sweat.

“Water?” Dr. Watanabe asked, handing me a bottle as we took a short break.

“Please,” I said as I took the bottle from her outstretched hand. Not even a minute had passed since we stopped for a rest before she spoke again.

“Alright, this one is probably not going to be fun,”

“Why?” I asked in a worried tone.

“We’re shooting for a nine-minute pace,” she said. “Do your best to keep up.”

We started our third and final lap. Contrary to what she had said before we started our laps, Dr. Watanabe was doing a normal jog. I tried to keep up as much as possible, but my legs were starting to get sore, and I was having trouble moving them. I ended up finishing a minute and fifteens seconds after Dr. Watanabe was done. Dripping in sweat, I fell to my knees.

“Here,” she said, tossing another bottle of water at me. I caught it and drank it quickly.

“That wasn’t a ‘light’ jog, you know,” I chided, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

“My apologies,” she said with a smirk, “I thought you would be able to handle it.”

I laid down on the concrete for a minute, waiting for Dr. Watanabe’s next instruction. Soon after I laid down, she motioned at me to stand up, so I did. My back had left a dark sweat stain on the concrete.

“Throw some water on that,” she instructed, pointing at the stain. I emptied another bottle of water on the concrete, then threw the bottle in a nearby trash can.

“What are we doing now?” I asked.

“Eating breakfast. Let’s head back inside,” she said, walking back towards the main entrance.

I followed her into the hospital, then to the cafeteria area. I sat at the same table as the day before, and she went to get food. She quickly returned with a Veggie Super, two bananas, and two stringed cheeses. We ate our breakfast in silence.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, cleaning up her trash.

“Not horrible,” I lied. I wasn’t feeling good, but I knew that sticking to her plan would be the best thing to do.

“Alright, lets get to the gym. You’ll be working on legs, arms, and core,” she said. I must have made a face or something because she immediately followed that up with, “I’ll make sure it’s easier than the running.”

We made our way to the gym, where we spent the next three hours working out. Each exercise she gave me was difficult, but not so much that I couldn’t do it. She had me alternate which body parts I worked out, starting with arms, then core, and ending with legs. I did ten different exercises for each area. By the time we finished, I felt like passing out, but we still had to get lunch before I could rest.

“Just so you know, you’ll be eating exactly the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day,” she said as we returned to the cafeteria.

“Why?” I asked, though I had a general idea of what the answer would be.

“For simplicity’s sake,” she sighed. “It’s too much hassle for me to keep track of what you eat if we keep changing it. I asked the hospital to prepare meals for you for dinner with similar nutritional value, so you’ll at least get a bit of variation in that.”

“So I don’t have to deal with Takahashi’s cooking,” I thought to myself. Dr. Watanabe got our food, and I waited at the table again. My daily routine would probably be almost exactly the same for the next two weeks.

“Well,” I sighed, “consistency is good I guess.”

Dr. Watanabe returned with our food. We ate, cleaned up our mess, then I walked up to my room and Dr. Watanabe left the hospital for the day. Before I went into my room, I stopped by the nurses’ station.

“Am I able to take a shower on my own now? Or do I still need to be given rag-baths?” I asked. I really wanted to take a cold shower.

“You should be ok on your own, but we’ll have someone wait in your room just in case,” the male nurse said. “Do you need to shower now?”

“That would be good, but I can wait a little bit longer if you need,” I replied.

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be right there,” he said, handing me a rough white bath towel. “Please don’t turn on the shower until I get there.”

I nodded, then walked back into my room. I noticed that my gown had been washed and folded neatly. The bed had fresh sheets, and there were two unopened bottles of water on my nightstand. I sat down on the bed, which was cool to the touch. My phone was turned upside down, so I didn’t bother checking my notifications. Roughly ten minutes later, the nurse walked into my room.

“You can take that shower now,” he said as he sat in one of the chairs next to my bed.

“Thank you,” I said as I stood up from my bed. I collected the towel and gown from my bed, then walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

“Make sure you don’t use super-hot water,” he warned through the door. “It’ll put stress on your stitches.”

“Right!” I shouted back as I turned on the water. As I waited for the water to heat up a bit, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My hair was long, nearly covering my eyes. My arms were pretty skinny compared to how they were before, and I could see my ribs through my skin. I looked pathetically weak. Seeing myself made me want to build my body so I wouldn’t have to see that pathetic build ever again.

Finally, the water had reached a comfortable temperature, so I got in the shower. The water felt amazing on my back and face. It felt so good that I almost wanted to cry. Not being able to take a proper shower made me forget how satisfying a shower could be.

I took about ten minutes in the shower before the nurse knocked on the bathroom door and told me to get out. I turned off the water, then stepped out and dried off. I changed into my gown, then opened the door and walked to my bed.

“Is that all?” the nurse asked.

“Actually, is there something I could use to tie back my hair?” I asked; my hair was starting to bother me for some reason.

“I’ll ask one of the other nurses,” he said as he left my room. I sat down on my bed and checked my phone. A text from Takahashi, three LIME messages from Yua, and two from Riku. Surprisingly, there was also a text from Sana, but it was just a link to a VidTube video. After I finished watching the video (which wasn’t that interesting), one of the female nurses knocked on the doorframe.

“Did you need something to tie your hair?” she asked.

“Yeah, sorry to be a bother,” I apologized.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, handing me a thin black hairband. “You can keep that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course,” she said, “I have a bunch at home.”

“Thank you,” I said, bowing my head slightly.

“No worries,” she said as she left.

I put on the hairband, then continued checking my phone. Riku said that he would stop by that night to bring notes and maybe play some games, and Takahashi said that he would be visiting at about the same time as Riku. The last thing I checked were the messages from Yua.

Sorry I wasn’t able to visit the last couple days!

I’ll come by later today. Right after school.

Should I bring anything?

It had been about a week since either Yua or Riku had been able to come visit, so I was happy that I’d get to see both of them. I sent a text back:

Maybe a board game? I can move around on my own now, so we can move around if we need to, also.

She replied almost instantly.

You can move? That’s great! I’ll bring my laptop and we can watch something.

That seemed like a good plan; it meant I wouldn’t have to move around too much. I texted back with:

That sounds good, see you then :)

I turned off my phone and closed my eyes. I had about four hours before Yua would show up, so I decided to get some sleep. Luckily, I fell asleep quickly. I tried to keep myself in a light sleep so that I wouldn’t dream. My success was limited, though, as I opened my eyes to the same colorful garden from the night before. This time, there were only three silhouettes.

“Hey, where’s the fourth guy?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t get an answer.

The silhouettes silently circled me. As the walked on top of the garden, the flowers wilted and turned black. As they approached me, the light slowly faded away, and all life in the garden faded away.

“This will be the last one,” the silhouettes shrieked in their distorted voices. “You are running out of time.”

“What does that even mean,” I asked. Once again, I didn’t receive an answer. Their bodies engulfed me in darkness, and my eyes snapped open.

I looked around, as to double check that I was in my hospital bed; everything seemed to be normal. I checked my phone for the time.

“Woah,” I said. “It’s already four.”

I got out of my bed and walked into the bathroom, washed my face off, then went back into my bed. Soon after I sat back down, Yua knocked on the doorframe.

“I like the hairband,” she giggled as she plopped down on the bed next to ne.

“Thank you,” I said, patting my hair. “What are we gonna watch?”