The third (and essentially last because 4th installment is from Idol K AU) piece for Lost Small World. The original text is provided by .
K ~ Seven Stories: 24 Pieces
Piece 15: Fushimi Niki (The Reason for Refusing to Die)
by Kabei Yukako
The sirens were wailing again… Lately, number of freak incidents in the city was on the rise. It looked like this time there was an explosion, gray smoke rising up at the site. Until the police could take control, curious onlookers gathered in chaotic crowds even as several blue-painted vehicles arrived on the scene. Boots clicking against the ground, young men clad in blue uniform quickly got off onto the street.
“I am a registered nurse. Is there anything I can help with?” I called out to a man who almost ran past me while dishing out orders over the comms in a cutting tone.
“Well, we’re carrying the injured over there, so can you maybe go take a look at them?”
When I saw the face of the man who gave those curt but clear instructions to me, I was taken aback. …No, it couldn’t be. The troop seemed exceedingly young, looking to be barely in his twenties. It had been more than 5 years since that incident, so it surely couldn’t be the same person…
At that time, I was strolling around the city, like I was today, when a man walking from the opposite direction suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed right in front of me. Normally, when falling, a person would instinctively try to use their arms to prop themselves, but this rather tall man just toppled over with all the considerable momentum of an unbroken fall like a baby whose neural network had yet to finish developing.
Although I was paralyzed with surprise for a moment, I rushed over to the man, kneeling next to him.
“Sir, do you suffer from a chronic disease? Do you have your medicine with you? Someone, please call an ambulance! Gentleman over there in yellow clothes, please make the call!”
When I pointed at one of the bystanders who was trying to film the scene with his PDA, he was thrown for a loop for a few moments before starting to dial the number.
Meanwhile, the prostrate man, who didn’t appear to even realize he had collapsed as he was starting at the blood on his hand - there was so much of it that it had painted the limb red entirely - suddenly howled with wild laughter.
“Ahahahaha! The fuck is this?! Am I gonna die?! You’re kidding me! Oh fuck! I can’t die! If I die, he’ll be sooo relieved! Crap! It sucks sooo super hard! I don’t wanna fucking die, duh! Gyahahahahaha!”
The eccentric behavior of the collapsed man who was convulsing with laughter as he yelled how he didn’t want to die, startled myself and the people witnessing it, the ring of the curious bystanders around us backing away as a result.
I accompanied the ambulance to an emergency hospital and described to the staff what happened, but what became of the man after that, I did not know. I could only hope he could get better and leave hospital, but the chances were he suffered from some far-advanced disease.