After Eric had finished his work he leaned back in his chair with a sigh of relief and disappointment. He was reliefed that his work was finished but also disappointed because Alan never showed up. He thoughtout loud to himself, "I hope that Alan is out of the hospital." The blonde shinigami sat in silence for a while before the sound of his chair scraping against the ground broke it. Eric walled around his desk, to the door, then closing the door to the office and locking it for the day. He placed his hands in the pockets of his pants and thought, 'I should go see if Alan is still in the infirmary.' So he did.

When he arrived back at the hospital wing, he approched the front desk, this time there was a different nurse than last time.

"Uh, I need to see Alan Humphries, please," Eric asked the nurse.

The nurse looked up from the desk and at Eric, "Ah, yes, Mr. Humphries. He's down the hall there," she said sweetly and pointed to her right, "the tenth door on the right." He thanked the nurse and went to Alan's room.

Eric opened the door to find all three of his co-workers, Ronald, Grell, and even William, standing next to Alan's bed chating with each other. The click of the door closing interupted their conversation and each shinigami turned to face Eric.

"Uh, hey guys, what are you all doing here?" Eric asked the others.

They all gave each other a glare and was quiet about who was going to answer. Then the younger shinigami, Ronald, stepped forward to answer the question Eric had asked, "Eric-senpai, this isn't exactly easy to say but there is news on Alan-senpai's condition..." Ronald paused for a minute and looked away to avoid Eric's eyes. Pushing up his glasses William jumped in and finished what Ronald was saying, "It turns out that Alan has a disease named Shi no Toge, or The Thorns of Death." Eric's eyes widened at hearing the news. He remembered reading about Shi no Toge in one of the records in the Shinigami Library. It was a fatal disease that was hard to be contracted to and there was no known cure for it.

Knowing about this disease, when William had dropped the news to him, he ran his fingers through the side of his hair that wasn't cornrowed and tilted his head back so he saw the ceiling. He tried so hard to hold back the tears that welded up in his eyes but he couldn't keep them contained.