Chapter 148: S2 - Trip to Hospital
The cheering ended, and the living room went dead silent as the family of four looked at the television screen mounted above the fireplace in pure horror.
Kenji didn't know how to react to this sight as he saw his unresponsive daughter tumble to the ground, head first, barely managing to open her eyes again as people nearby called out to her.
"OH MY GOD!!!" Kaori screamed in terror as she witnessed the girl fall. Her mouth went agape, and she couldn't hide her shock, as if she'd seen a ghost.
"W-what happened…?" Eiji asked everyone, but they didn't know how to respond to the little boy. Even when asked, he could get the gist of what happened to her. After all, she didn't look "normal" to him on screen.
"K-Keiko… sh-she's… what… i-is…" Haruto could barely find the words to produce a coherent sentence as he stepped back, covering his wide-open mouth that he couldn't close.
As the cameras were still rolling, they saw people rushing to her side. Her teammates, the other team, the five judges, and *them*.
["ALL OF YOU, PLEASE GET OUT OF THE WAY!"] A woman's voice erupted from the crowd as she rushed to the fallen girl.
The woman was dressed in a formal business skirt and had short, dirty blonde hair and fierce green eyes. Even from the screen, she gave off an intimidating vibe that could scare people away.
Behind her was a group of professional-looking people running to the scene. Once they arrived, people cleared the area for them to come through.
On-screen, they could see the woman checking the girl's pulse for a response, but then—her face turned into pure dread as her green eyes widened in fright.
["S-she's not breathing! Hurry and alert the hospital and her family right away! Go and grab an AED immediately, I will perform CPR on her!"] The woman forcibly instructed the people who came along with her as she quickly went straight into performing CPR on the motionless girl without wasting another second.
Quickly, the cameras were forcibly cut off, and the screen turned black.
.
.
.
*RING RING RING! RING RING RING*
A phone could be heard ringing loudly in the kitchen at that moment. Kenji rushed over to pick up the ringing phone.
"H-hello?" Kenji picked up worriedly.
"Is this Michiko Kenji?" A deep man's voice asked.
"Yes, this is he," Kenji clarified as he felt his palms sweat.
"I am here to deliver some news about your daughter, Michiko Keiko. I am not sure if you've seen the live broadcast or not, but I need to inform you that your daughter will be taken into the Kashino Family Hospital. Right now, her life is in great danger and she has become unresponsive. One of our doctors here will do their best to perform CPR on your daughter until the paramedics come," the man tried to explain as calmly as he could.
As Kenji listened to the phone call, he could feel his head fall off his shoulders. His expression darkened as he tried to muster a response. It was as if he had lost his voice for a moment.
"P-PLEASE! TRY TO SAVE MY DAUGHTER! DO EVERYTHING TO SAVE HER! SHE'S MY ONLY CHILD SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'LL DO IF SHE'S GONE!!!" Kenji anxiously pleaded with the man on the phone to the point that he gripped it intensely.
"Mr. Michiko, please understand that we will try our very best to revive her but… our results cannot be guaranteed…" the man spoke hesitantly.
"No! You all are doctors! YOU HAVE TO SAVE HER!!!" Kenji yelled through the phone, and his veins could be seen popping out of his forehead and neck as he got riled up.
They HAD to save her, no matter what. That was their job!
He sounded so desperate, yet he felt so useless.
What could he do but spout out words that couldn't be guaranteed?
Just imagining his child gone from this world is nothing a parent should have to think about. Not to mention, a parent should never have to bury their own child.
She was the child of his 1st love… What more could this world take away from him?
After barely getting back on his feet again, he didn't know what would happen to him if his daughter left this world. Surely, he'd think that death was the best possible solution to join them, but what about his other family that he also loves? What would happen to them?
"Please calm down as we try to handle the situation. We will inform you right away if we see any responses from your daughter," the man attempted to ease the tension of the other side, which slightly worked.
"A-alright… but please… notify me of all updates on her condition if that's the least you can do. I-I'll be heading to the hospital as soon as possible… " Kenji muttered quietly as he loosened his grip on the phone.
"Yes, we will notify you of everything," the man replied, and Kenji ended the phone call.
He dropped his phone on the kitchen counter and began fumbling his short brown hair around and tugging at it. He couldn't feel pain no matter how much he tugged at his scalp; that was the least of his worries.
'Why am I such a useless father? I didn't even call her to see how she was doing!'
Kenji could do nothing else but blame himself. He saw how sick his daughter looked on TV, yet the face she put up hid all of the struggles and pain she was really going through.
'Why… why couldn't she just tell me what she was going through when we talked?' Kenji asked himself uneasily, thinking back to that conversation he had with Keiko not too long ago.
She asked if they'd be coming but never told him what was happening with her. He assumed everything was going fine, but why didn't he ask her how she was doing? Why… didn't she say anything?
Ha. That's right. He forgot that his daughter bottled up her emotions to numb the pain. If she felt anything, she would play it off by distracting herself with even more ways to torture herself… yet he even had the audacity to suggest attending an academy without anyone there to watch over her.
He knew she struggled with this problem for six years, but what was going through his mind!?
If anything, that should be the least of his worries. He put those thoughts away to think about later and quickly walked to the living room, where Kaori, Haruto, and Eiji were looking straight at the black television screen without a sound.
He had a grim expression, and his hazel eyes seemed soulless.
"Hurry up and bring your stuff. We're going to the hospital."