Chapter Text
Eichi woke up that morning feeling empty. He attempted to look at his surroundings without moving. It was fruitless, so he decided it'd be better for him to sit up. A sharp pain hit him as he was doing so and he couldn't help but wince and take some time to take deep breaths. Breathing helped ease the pain and, as soon as he felt it was bearable, he looked around.
He was not surprised to see he was in a hospital room again. He felt bitter as he remembered the circumstances of his admission into the hospital.
It was during fine's latest live. Eichi was doing the best performance he had ever done, pushing himself to his limit, and was in bliss as he danced and sang along with his unit mates. He thought it was the best day of his life to date, until he started stumbling on stage. He wanted to believe it was just a simple misstep, that he was not feeling the strain of exhaustion hit him yet. He had to keep dancing and singing, he forced himself to smile as he did so. But desire and willpower was not enough when his body could not keep up.
Eichi collapsed on stage in the middle of a song, his body having been crushed by his illness and his spirits crumbling to dust as he realized the live was over for him. He desperately tried to get up, but every attempt was met with his face hitting the stage's floor. He was panting and yearning for a breath, his eyesight getting blurry. At some point, he cried, mostly out of anger towards his illness, but perhaps also out of anger towards himself for hoping he would be able to make it to the end of the live. Then, as if God pitied him, Eichi lost consciousness.
He was about to be enraged at himself when someone knocked on the door and entered the room. It was a nurse he was not familiar with. She looked at Eichi with surprise, probably not expecting him to be up, then smiled.
"Hello, Mister Tenshouin. What a pleasant surprise to see you're awake."
"Hello. How long was I asleep?"
"You were sleeping non stop since a couple of days." Pause. "I'll bring you breakfast once I warn the doctor you're awake."
Eichi said nothing and watched as the nurse left the room. He looked at the window near his bed as he waited for her to come back. The window didn't lead to anything worth noting, so his gaze shifted back to the room. The nurse came back with a tray on which were biscuits and orange juice, a glass of water and two small pink pills.
"There you go." She smiled at him. "Make sure to take the pills."
"Thank you." Eichi could feel the nurse's gaze on him as he took the pills and drank the glass of water.
"Good." Pause. "You're due to go to the operation block this afternoon for a surgery."
Eichi froze at the sudden announcement.
"Surgery?"
"Yes. Your condition has become... quite serious, and this surgery is of utmost importance for your health."
"Wait, aren't you supposed to have my consent, or at least my family's consent before you can perform any surgery?"
"Your family consents to it."
"Wh-"
"No questions, Mister Tenshouin." Her tone of voice became harsh as she pronounced these words, then came back to usual. "Well then, I'll leave you. You can just leave the tray on the night table once you're done, someone else will pick it up."
After she said that, she walked away. Eichi sighed when the room's door closed behind her. He looked at the tray for a short moment before he took what was supposed to be his breakfast.
He had a bad feeling about that surgery, but he couldn't tell what exactly worried him. He finished his breakfast, left the tray on the night table, and looked at his own hands and wondered what would happen if the surgery failed. Would he die during the surgery, right after or, say, a week or so after? He assumed he wouldn't be missed as a person, but allowed himself to wonder if he would be missed as an idol.
Idol. The thought of the live came back to him as a bitter reminder. Would it even matter that the surgery was a success if something like that would happen again?
He suddenly grew tired. Perhaps was he thinking too much. He allowed himself to go back to sleep, that way he wouldn't think about the surgery or its outcome.
When Eichi woke up again, he was greeted by a blinding light, causing him to close his eyes again and want to cover them with his hands. He couldn't move his hands, however. They seemed to be restrained by something when he attempted to move them, as if they were tied to something. He slowly opened his eyes again, this time trying to get used to the light, and later realized he was in an operation room.
"Doctor, the patient woke up."
"Excellent."
Eichi looked at the direction of the voices and could see the nurse from earlier next to a man in a white blouse, most likely the doctor mentioned this morning. He looked around and saw other nurses. All of them didn't seem to be dressed appropriately to operate on someone.
"Are you the person supposed to do the surgery?"
"Yes, I am." The doctor smiled.
"Aren't you supposed to wear... more than this?"
"Well, you see... our goal isn't to make sure you stay alive."
Eichi froze. "What?"
"In fact, we're pretty much here to mess you up as much as we can."
"M-Mess me up?!"
"You heard well." The doctor had a twisted expression on his face. "Cutting up, taking some pieces, playing with your guts, stuff like that... it's not that we hold anything against you but... we gotta test some pills, and you were the perfect subject for it."
"S-So... the pills..."
"Yeah. You already took them. Now, stay calm, because we're about-"
Eichi tried to get away, hoping that somehow he could escape the restraints, but he was stopped by a sharp pain around his stomach. He looked and saw that the doctor had plunged a blade into his abdomen.
"Bad boys get punishment."
The doctor pulled the blade – which turned out to be a butcher knife – out, revealing a messy stabbing wound and blood oozing from it. He was not joking. Eichi would be messed up thoroughly, and the thought of it suddenly filled him with fear. He wanted to move and scream, but merely twitching made the pain of his wound burn further and he couldn't bring himself to make any sound.
The doctor then took a scalpel and neatly cut Eichi's abdomen starting from the initial wound as to create a huge opening. Eichi could feel tears streaming down his face, feeling the pain spread further, but again did not scream.
The doctor approached his face near Eichi's and spoke in a low voice.
"Say, Mister Tenshouin... you're an idol, aren't you?" Pause. "In that case... I'll try to make you sing."
He tore Eichi's abdomen open, acting as if the cut on it was the opening of a candy bag. The pain was so intense and sudden Eichi let out a short scream and felt like crying. He was horrified and he didn't want to keep looking at what was happening to him, yet his eyes were somehow still focused on his wounds. Yes, it was him that was being opened in such a brutal way, yes, it was him bleeding, trembling and panting, trying to resist the burning pain as much as he could. He could feel tears slowly stream down his face and once looked away from his wounds to look at the doctor's twisted smile. Doctor... was he even a doctor? The thought that this man could be a butcher instead didn't impress Eichi. In fact, it almost made sense. That man could not possibly be someone who saved lives, right? That man had to be someone who cuts flesh for a living, right?!
Eichi screamed again as he could feel a hand playing with his guts. He looked down to see that, indeed, the doctor was humming as he was plunging his hand deep into Eichi's guts and fumbling with them. Eichi let out choked sounds as he felt and saw the doctor yanking out part of his intestines.
"Look, look!" The doctor firmly grasped the bloody intestines and showed them to Eichi like an excited child who was showing their mother a drawing. "That's yours! All that messy stuff down there is yours!"
Eichi wanted to throw up as the doctor kept pulling out more. He couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted it to end. He didn't want to see that excuse of a human being play with his guts like that. Soon, he couldn't bring himself to care about how the man was having fun lacerating his body further and the pain that came from it, all he wished was to embrace death once and for all.
Then, as if God pitied him, Eichi lost consciousness.