Peace

N wakes up gasping for air.

After opening his eyes, N finds himself beneath the majestic branches of a beautiful tree.

The branches adorned in leaves provided much needed shade on a day that was hotter than normal.

He takes one glance to his left and sees vomit and is instantly reminded of his actions yesterday after parting ways with Hiro.

Although his body was aching from pain never felt before, he was relived to have completed something he set out to do.

N mustered the little strength his body had and was able sit against the tree that was nearby.

In his half awake state, with his vision now a lot more blurry, N seemingly starts to stare into empty space. He thinks about what the hallucination was about after he passed out, as "dreaming" was still a foreign concept for him.

The only fragments of his dream that he remembered were talking to random people in a strangely white location and uncharacteristically showing emotion.

"...why can I not remember how the hallucination ended? What was I talking to those people about?" N tries to remember the details but to no avail.

His body was wracked by unrelenting thirst, aching hunger, and the never ending torment of muscle soreness.

Although still trying to remember the details of his dream, N's consciousness yielded to the overwhelming physical and mental fatigue.

The next time he opened his eyes, the sun had dipped far past the horizon.

With no idea of how much time had passed, N kept slipping in and out of consciousness.

At one point, N had no idea if days were passing or merely hours.

He could feel his impending doom, but he was at peace.

He would accept death, as a man who finally found some purpose rather than a man who died a meaningless death following a meaningless existence.

To N, the mere act of struggling towards a certain goal was enough. He believed his life had meaning, albeit towards the end, and so he was relaxed.

When N opens his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time, expecting to see the usual park scenery, he is surprised to see himself laying down in a brightly lit room.

Now facing a dull ceiling instead of nature, his eyes are bombarded with extreme light coming from some unknown machines nearby.

After raising his hand to cover his eyes, a random voice says "Dim the light, I reckon he's awake now."

At which point, Hiro comes into his vision saying, "N? You feeling alright now?"

N looks around and sees that he is in a hospital, wearing a pristine white gown, surrounded by seemingly countless IV lines and tubes attached to him.

He stutters on his words as he asks Hiro, "What happened? Why am I in a hospital."

With a gaze filled with compassion, Hiro responded, "You did not come to the dojo, so I was worried and found you collapsed in the park."

He continues, with a tinge of anger and frustration in his voice, "It's a good thing you told me where you lived, otherwise you would be dead by now!"

Hiro then introduces the person that saved N's life, "This guy right here is the doctor who saved your life. I believe he can best tell you about your body's condition, so take over Vesalius."

The doctor then began to speak, his tone brimming with unease, "This is going to sound very very weird but, this guy has already died. Many times over at that."

The confusion on Hiro's face was palpable, and his head was filled with questions, but he let Vesalius continue with his explanation.

"Right, first things first, let me just fill this guy in on everything that's been going down since you found him," Vesalius says to Hiro, pointing at N, as he believes it would be best if N knows about everything that happened, "Good old Hiro here found you passed out in some park, and when he realized that you weren't breathing, he carried you and rushed to me."

Vesalius continues, with a concerned look, "After I found out your heart wasn't beating, I did some CPR but that didn't seem to do much. Then, we decided to give your heart a proper wake-up call with a bit of electricity – defibrillation, that is – and what do you know, it decided to start beating again."

With his concerned look morphing into a curious one, he continues, "Well, then I thought it best to slap on an oxygen mask 'cause honestly, mate, I had no clue when your heart was last beating. Did some tests to see how deprived your organs were of oxygen, to best tell when your heart stopped beating."

And then Vesalius reveals the most shocking information yet, "Y'see, your heart had stopped beating for two days. Mate, the organs start dying every minute without oxygen. Hell, the brain can only survive three to four minutes without oxygen, but yours had no oxygen supply for two whole days."

The atmosphere was heavy with tension, and the shock was unmistakably etched across the faces of both Hiro and N. Vesalius continued, "Mate, by all means, you were clinically dead! Yet your heart was beating fine and your pulse was stabilizing. So after a few hours, I did the tests again and could not believe it. Your organs were somehow still recovering."

You could feel the surprise and confusion in Vesalius' voice as he continued, "Let me tell you, in my forty years of patching folks up, I've seen some real head-scratchers, but your situation was a proper enigma. All the medical know-how in my brain couldn't fathom how your organs managed to bounce back after that colossal stint without oxygen. You, my friend, are quite the anomaly."

It takes a few minutes for Hiro to process all that information, to which he asks Vesalius, "So you're telling me that N died, but somehow his organs and body was able to recover?"

Vesalius replies almost instantly, chuckling, "Yeah."

N, although still finding it difficult to completely believe, accepts it and expresses his gratitude, "Regardless of the circumstances, I thank you doctor for saving me. Without your timely medical expertise, I would have certainly died. And thank you too, Hiro. For coming to look for me and even so much as carrying me to get help."

N then asks Vesalius why there were many tubes and wires connected to him, to which Vesalius says "First of all, just call me Vesalius. And, those wires and tubes are basically IV drips that HAD to be attached to you because your body was in extreme need of nutrients. Three days before your heart stopped, you must have been awake. When was the last time you had food or water?"

Unfazed, N simply replies, "I believe I had not eaten for two days. But I did drink water earlier on, on the day I passed out."

Vesalius says, "Yeah, you absolute buffoon, that was the reason you needed the drips. No sane human would go two days without eating, but Hiro over here filled me in on your circumstances. You being broke and all."

Hiro then asks, with a very concerned tone, "What happened after you left the dojo? You were fine at that time, we even had a good talk. Did someone attack you on your way to the park?" The hostile intent could be felt on his face as he said those words.

N realized it would be best to correct this misunderstanding as soon as possible, "No, I was not attacked by anyone on the way back."

"I just decided to jog all the way to the park after leaving the dojo. It was not too difficult in the beginning, but halfway to the park and I could feel the fatigue and muscle pain catch up to me. However, that would not stop me, my determination was stronger." Said N, with a proud look.

Hiro then asks, "Well, when was the last time you jogged?"

To which N simply replies, "Never. That was my first time. Actually, that was my first time doing any kind of intense physical activity."

Hiro then gets visibly frustrated and angry at N, stating, "So in a starving state, with no previous experience in doing any intense physical activity, YOU JOGGED AROUND 5 KILOMETERS!?"

N gets confused as to why Hiro was getting worked up on something like that, which Vesalius noticed, causing him to burst out laughing.

Vesalius, while laughing, claims, "Hiro, you've brought me a lot of dumb people but this one takes the cake."

Hiro's anger increases exponentially, he shouts, "ARE YOU CRAZY? N, DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW THE HUMAN BODY WORKS?"

N innocently replies, "No I do not. All the information I have on this world is what I learned after an eternity on the streets wandering about."

Hiro then calms down, remembering N's condition and past. Vesalius asks, "What does that mean?" to which Hiro simply replies, "N does not remember his past."

Vesalius' laugh grows louder, "So he's stupid, has amnesia and is a regenerating freak? Mate, how do you find these people."

Hiro quickly tells Vesalius to calm down, and then fills in N on what he has to do going forwards, "So, as you probably know, medicines cost a lot but Vesalius helped you because he is my friend. For the time being, I want you to work in his hospital, doing odd jobs for him in return for literally saving your life."

Vesalius then interrupts, "Also, since you seem to have some freaky stuff going on inside your body, I'll want to run tests on you. Don't worry, I won't treat you like a test subject. So, any problems?"

N replies, "None. Doing a few tests and odd jobs in return for having my life saved is, if anything, asking too little."

Vesalius smiles and, with a sinister face, says, "That's the spirit. This is going to be fun."

Hiro looks at Vesalius with a concerned look as Vesalius laughs maniacally.