Chapter 2: Tsukinashi Town General Hospital
After school, Houzuki decided where to go.
“Excuse me, I’ve heard that a man named Kuroomi Otoya is hospitalized here.”
“Yes, that patient is in room 508. It’s a shared room, so he’s in the bed at the very back, by the window.”
After asking the nurse at reception, Houzuki found out where the room was. “Thank you,” she bowed and headed for her destination.
In her hands, she was holding a bag neatly labeled “Get Well Soon.” It was clear that she had come to visit someone in the hospital.
As Houzuki passed the reception desk, an old man dressed in patient clothes wandered past her, dragging an IV drip stand. There were other sick people with various circumstances, including patients in wheelchairs and patients sitting in chairs chatting with each other.
They were probably also among the patients hospitalized here. It would be fine if they were getting better, but what should they do if they didn’t get any better?
This was Tsukinashi Town General Hospital – Tsukinashi Town’s only general hospital.
“Wow, this is amazing, Houzuki.”
Yuiru Enen, a silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy, said excitedly as he followed behind Houzuki carrying a gift.
“Look over there. There’s a ghost standing there.”
“……”
Looking in the direction Yuiru had pointed, he saw a hospital room. A woman in a tattered nurse’s uniform was watching the patients using the room with interest, and noticed Yuiru and Houzuki.
She had messy hair and blood was flowing from her forehead, revealing a pitiful appearance. She was half transparent, and the people around her didn’t show any sign of noticing, so she must have been a ghost.
Houzuki looked away from the tattered ghost of the nurse,
“Yuiru, you can eat her.”
“Really? Yay, itadakimasu.”
Yuiru pulled out a silver knife from nowhere and charged at the ghost of the nurse. In an instant, the ghost of the nurse had her neck slit, and the black mist that was overflowing from it was sucked up and became Yuiru’s meal.
Looking more closely, he saw that there were indeed many ghosts in the hospital.
There must be as many ghosts as there are patients hospitalized here. In fact, taking advantage of the fact that they can’t be seen, they blend in with the patients, listening to their conversations and peering into their rooms.
There were so many ghosts in the hospital that it was impossible to count them on the fingers of both hands, including the ghost of a small child following an old woman pushing a wheelchair, the ghost of a man crawling around on the floor with his legs bent in an unexpected direction, and the ghost of a woman with a broken neck sitting in front of the elevator.
“…Why are there so many ghosts in this hospital?”
Houzuki was puzzled by the number of ghosts that gathered at Tsukinashi Town General Hospital.
☆
“Hello, Kuroomi-sensei. How are you feeling?”
“Kasugadani? Thanks for coming out of your way to visit me.”
When she looked into the room the nurse had directed her to, she saw a familiar man lying in bed. He seemed to have recovered enough to sit up, but there was an IV tube hanging from his arm.
It was Kuroomi Otoya, the biology teacher. He had actually been hospitalized for a few days due to gastritis and heat stroke, and Houzuki had come to visit him.
Houzuki handed Otoya the gift she had bought for him as a get-well gift,
“Fruit platters are expensive, so I bought peaches. Sorry.”
“No, it’s not even that serious, but I’m grateful that you brought a get-well gift.”
“Kuroomi-sensei always helps me out, so this is the least I can do to show my gratitude.”
She’s constantly relying on Otoya, who is an adult, for all sorts of things. She’s especially been a nuisance when it comes to things related to Yuiru.
She came to visit him, hoping to at least repay him for his kindness. She thinks she’ll probably continue to be a nuisance in the future.
Otoya said, “You helped me out too, with my sister’s issue,” with a wry smile and continued,
“By the way, Kasugadani.”
“Yes.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes?”
Houzuki tilted her head at Otoya’s sudden, incomprehensible question.
“Well, you see. There are a lot of ghosts here, right? I was a bit worried they might be drawn to you.”
“It’s fine, Kuroomi-sensei.”
Houzuki said, pointing to the corner of the hospital room.
There was a high school boy with silver hair and red eyes, straddling the ghost of a man who had lost one of his eyeballs, eating, carefully cutting his food with a silver knife.
Normal humans would never be able to recognize his existence. At best, an old man or woman wandering on the verge of death might notice him, but that’s about it. There’s no need to witness his eerie meal.
Kicking the male ghost who was groaning, Yuiru turned around while pushing the ghost’s fingertips sticking out from the corner of his mouth into his mouth.
“What’s the matter, Otoya? Is there something you want to say to me, Houzuki?”
“No.”
“I see.”
Yuiru was told that Houzuki had nothing in particular to say, and returned to his meal obediently.
“As you can see, Yuiru is here, so it’s fine.”
“Well, it certainly is fine as long as he’s there.”
Otoya gave a bitter smile,
“By the way, Kasugadani. Have you heard about this hospital’s morgue?”
“Morgue?”
If she’s not mistaken, that’s the room used when a patient dies, but what on earth happened there?
As Houzuki tilts her head, Otoya speaks in a hushed voice.
It’s as if he doesn’t want the nearby patients and nurses to hear what he’s doing.
“It’s said that a scalpel was lying on the ground.”
–They says that it was making a *kashan, kashan* sound.
