236 Chapter three, 2017, old and new: 6 (1/2)
When the first roar blasted through the door Ulf rose and stared in panic around himself. At the second he forced the door open and rushed to Yukio's bed.
”What the hell's going on?”
”She says Kyoko's dead!” Yukio screamed and pointed at the nurse as if she had murdered his girlfriend.
It might have been comical but for the cold stone of fear that grew in Ulf's stomach.
”Yukio, listen to me,” Ulf began.
”No! No! No! I don't want to hear!”
'Slug him? No, bad idea. His face is already all beat up.' Hastily running out of options Ulf regressed to how he'd handled problems the first months since he arrived in this version of Japan. ”Shut the fuck up kiddo!”
It worked, to a degree. Yukio retreated back in his bed as much as his prone position allowed.
”Yukio,” Ulf started again. ”There was a woman who died, but it's not Kyoko.” 'But Amaya lost a friend, and I don't think I should tell Yukio that just yet.' And then there was the reason Ulf had a stone of fear in his stomach. ”Kyoko got hurt, Yukio, but she's alive.” 'I hope she is, because I don't know what to do if she dies.' He had to tell his friend. ”Kyoko got stabbed. She's in surgery now.”
Waiting for his stunned friend to say anything Ulf mulled over Amaya's whereabouts. Probably running around Tokyo on a private manhunt pretty much like he himself had done half a year earlier. But this time it wasn't instigated by the old goat.
”Kyoko's alive?”
”Yes,” Ulf said. It didn't matter if that was a lie or not right now. What he needed was exactly the look Yukio just made of deflating totally in his bed.
”So she's OK?”
That was the problem. Ulf didn't know. ”She's in surgery. They'll tell us more later,” he said. He didn't even know if that was true or not, but he had to say something. 'You look like crap. What the hell happened?'
For the first time Ulf got an idea how worried his friends must have been when he got assaulted behind the gym during the festival. And Christina. He had to call Christina. She didn't know about Kyoko.
”Yukio, I was asked to go outside,” Ulf said and looked at the nurse who nodded assent. It wasn't the real reason, but he really, really had to make that phone-call.
***
Screaming bloody murder, threatening Vogue with horrible publicity every talk-show and making just about everyone understand that quitting modelling suddenly was a very real option for her, well that took two hours. Flying back to Tokyo took less.
In the end it turned out she forced her rushed return in vain, but Christina didn't care. Even if she wasn't allowed to visit Ko-chan, she could at least while away her time in the waiting room. She had done as much when Ulf got rushed to hospital. And, as a huge bonus, she found him doing just that when she arrived at the surprisingly small clinic.
”Why here?” Christina asked, rather than the more natural 'How is she?' or 'Did she make it?'. Still, the hospital looked more like a small office than anything related to medical care.