Uprooted

"Quick, bring the syringe immediately, he is alive!"

In a gloomy hospital with flickering fluroscent tubes, doctors, nurses and ward-boys ran from one corner to another holding medicines, documents or stretchers.

All beds seemed to be occupied, with people lying on them, some half dying, some staying strong while some giving up.

The beds in the hospital hall were arranged in groups and each group had a banner fluttering above, carrying some writings in an unrecognized script.

One group however, unlike any other group, was almost empty. But somewhere in the middle of the group, in front of a grayed window, was a bed, on which lay a person.

In curiosity and confusion, doctors and surgeons gathered around that patient, covered in bandages and different medical equipments.

"I cannot believe it, he is that one? The only one who was saved by IDRF ?"

"Yes, one they say, just one, it's horrific !"

A few of them talked with each other in puzzlement and disbelief.

"Has he undergone the Space-Time surgery yet?"

"Yeah he just did, but the injuries were very fatal. Let's double check his vital status before we waste the syringe on him."

A few doctors went towards the silent heart meter which had a tube attached to the person's chest, a device somewhat resembling an electrocardiogram, but it looked more efficient and portable. It was designed to measure the cardiac cycles, sinus rhythms and the electrical activity of the heart and hence deduce whether a person is alive or not.

The doctors, some with anticipation and hope while some with boredom and placid faces gathered towards the heart meter and operated it.

As soon as one of the doctors pressed the display button, the small monitor of the heart meter flashed with wide waves of heart beats, it's long amplitudes constantly vibrated on the screen.

The doctors were stunned. Not only was the person undoubtedly alive but also he fought all forces that threatened to extinguish his vital spark, tenaciously clinging to it, as if that life is his only hope and the greatest treasure he will ever wield.

The doctors converged around the person's bed to have a more vivid look at him.

He was a thinly built young man, probably in his sixteens, he had a pale complexion and black messy hair, his face was quite sharp and his closed eyes were slant.

The two upper buttons of his white shirt were undone and the sleeves were rolled up, the shirt was tucked inside a black trouser that reached all the way to his ankles. A fancy black trench coat with yellow buttons, a yellow tie along with an olive green backpack was kept beside him.

He slowly opened his eyes, revealing a bright yellow iris, he stared at the white ceiling above him and slowly rose, leaning against the headboard.

First his face was calm in fatigue, then came confusion and then came horror. He looked at the people around him and analyzed them. They had fair complexions, most of them having brown or blue eyes, blond or brown hair. The boy thought he was surrounded by westerners, he spoke in English clearly.

"What is this place? Where am I?"

For the doctors, it was an unrecognized and otherworldly language. For them, these words of confusion were nothing but strange and unknown sounds. The doctors tried to comfort him down.

"What does he say?"

"No clue, earthlings do have wierd languages."

"Anyone got tongue-alter potions?"

A doctor injected the life-supporting syringe into the boy's right forearm, the boy was too fragile to refuse. One of the doctors called for a nurse who was passing by with a tray in hand, different colored potions with droppers stood on the tray. The doctor took a blue coloured potion from the tray and pressed the upper rubber part of the dropper sucking in the blue liquid and went towards the boy.

The doctor pressed the boy's cheeks to open his mouth, but the boy aggressively reacted, repelling the grasp of the doctor's hand.

"And this brat won't even try to communicate, leave him and let him die!"

As soon as the doctor yelled those words, a man walked in from behind and replied massively, "Are you not ashamed of saying that as a doctor?"

A man with a solid built, short white hair and clear blue eyes stood in front of them. He was wearing a full-sleeved, white uniform with blue accents, it had different badges and emblems on the shoulders and collars. He stood in front of the doctors with a disgruntled expression on his astute face. His name was Yuriel.

"He is still in his teens, finding his place in life, but fate has struck him with a disaster. Look at him for once with a hint of mercy and generosity. His young life is derailed. Hear the words through his ears and you will know that we are also speaking a phonetically horrendous language !" his loud tone silenced the chittering doctors.

Yuriel took the blue potion from the doctor's hands and shook the flask a little.

"It's quite inaccurate alchemically, we sure have alternatives," Yuriel fastidiously examined the texture of the potion.

He moved out from the group and raised his head above to recheck the writings on the fluttering banner above, "Refugees from Human World." he read softly.

He carefully lifted a flask of green potion from the nurse's tray and approached the boy. Sitting down on the bed near the boy's feet, he used the dropper to pipette the green liquid from the flask. Seeing him so close, the boy retracted and took a defensive posture. But to his surprise, Yuriel took the dropper and put it in his own mouth. The boy confused, watched the green column get emptied in Yuriel's mouth.

"See, it's not harmful." Yuriel said with a slow and assuring smile. He again pulled up some of the liquid into its column and brought it close to the boy's mouth.

The boy hesitated but then ultimately drank the potion from the dropper and then, he lay on the bed instantly falling asleep.

"The surgery did wear him out," one of the doctors commented after seeing the boy's state.

Yuriel rose from the bed and spoke to a woman about something with a serious look before leaving the hospital.

-----

The next day, the boy finally woke up from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes to find himself sitting on a soft bed in a cozy room. The floor was wooden and the white ceiling above shone in adequate lighting, the brown walls were hard and were of moderate temperature. His gaze fell on a small table at a distance, where a delicate flower stood, adding a touch of elegance to the space. The room was unused and hence well-arranged. It was a room on the third floor of Yuriel's house.

Yuriel entered the room with a tray in his hand which had a bowl of soup and a few pieces of barley bread dipped in butter.

"How are you today?" Yuriel asked in a gracious tone, in a different language than the boy originally knew.

The boy's face was ruffled in doubt and wonder, he slowly comprehended the new language and opened his mouth to answer,

"I'm unaware of where I am so I can't answer that." His reply was unusual and somewhat unexpected, it startled Yuriel.

"I brought you breakfast." Yuriel sat on the bed in front of the boy with the tray in hand.

"Thank you, can you tell me where I am? I don't recall being in an accident." The boy spoke clearly without hesitation. "And also, why am I able to speak this langauge I don't know?"

"It is because of that potion you had before." replied Yuriel in a steady voice.

"Who are you? May I ask your name, sir?"

"My name is Yuriel, I'm a senior officer of IDRF."

"I am Kanito Aramishi, what is IDRF?"

"I will explain it to you. First you tell me, what do you remember before opening your eyes in that hospital?"

"All I remember is that I was returning home from my school's farewell party."

The previous night was the last day for Tokyo Central High School students to meet each other in school. At the end of the party, students gathered around the people they knew, shared soft words and relived old memories. They slowly left the school premises as they bid goodbyes to their friends, not knowing whether they would ever meet again.

Among them stood a boy of medium height and thin built. He had short black hair combed stylishly with curvy front bangs, had a pair of slant thin eyes holding a yellow iris. He was wearing a black trench coat over a white shirt, tucked inside his black trousers, a yellow tie was around his neck and an olive green backpack hung from his shoulder. He had a gentle melancholic smile on his face as he bid his friends goodbye. His name was Kanito Aramishi.

"I will miss you.. all of you, so much." A friend of Kanito teared up, immediately wiping away his tears. "Kanito, I heard Patrick and his family left for the States this morning. They must've reached by now. He was your best friend, wasn't he? I wish he was present today."

Upon the mentioning of the name, Kanito's lips puckered as he looked down. "What's wrong?" The friend asked.

Taking a deep breath, Kanito stared at his friend's eyes and said, "I was hiding something from all of you the entire day and I thought I would do so for the rest of my life if you didn't mention his name. We were having such a good day, I didn't want to ruin it." He cleared his throat and rubbed his wet eyes, "I was tracking Patrick's flight all day, waiting to call him the moment he lands in Los Angeles. But then I checked the news, Sakura Wings SW001.. it crashed somewhere in the Pacific."

Dropping the bombshell on his friends in the end moment, Kanito didn't wait for the group's death-pale reactions to bloom into a grim flower of sorrow. His slow strides quickly amplified into a dash as he left the school premise, not caring about anything else.

The party was long over and Kanito was headed towards home in the dark midnight. He held back his tears and decided that he will cry his heart out once he reaches his apartment. The street was silent, the atmosphere was asleep. There were no cars on the street and yet the signal sign was oddly red. Nevertheless, he waited for the signal to change and then crossed the street at the zebra-crossing.

Walking past a few buildings with a swollen look, he gave his trench coat a hitch, "Its so cold today!" he quickly buttoned up the trench coat as a chilly wind blew across the street.

As he walked by a building, he saw a mysterious looking man, sitting by the edge of an alley, with his back against the wall a building. His face was covered in a black velvet veil which had an emblem of a white feather with complex yellow patterns on its marginal coverts. Kanito didn't pay attention to him and continued to move.

Kanito moved to a certain distance and realized that he was standing on some indistinct red patterns drawn on the ground. He felt a lacerating stab in his chest.

With a horrified face, he looked down and saw a sharp dagger protruding out from his chest, his white shirt and coat were soaked in red, he coughed out piles of blood as his vision blurred.

He saw that the man who sat with his face covered in a black veil stabbed him from behind with the dagger.

That man with a sinister grin saw the blood from Kanito's chest trickle down on the red circular patterns below their feet.

But then in the sky, a blue magical portal materialized and from that portal, came out Yuriel, he came down and landed a huge blow on that veiled man.

The man managed to dodge this attack quickly and engaged in a duel with Yuriel. But soon, Yuriel overpowered him and killed him with a heavy thrust of his sword, he then touched Kanito's wound and healed it by some means. That wound closed and the blood loss stopped.

The man lay dying on the ground, laughing maniacally. The patterns on the ground were indeed a magic circle which started to glow in a red aura. Kanito rose from the ground with confusion and stood afar along with Yuriel. As he watched the mysterious circle glow, dangerous creatures slowly came out of that circle, one after another.

Then, in huge numbers, the creatures erupted from the circle and spread in all directions, armed with various weapons in their hands.

Kanito was petrified by the scene, he tried to run away from the scene as fast as he can but was faced by a dangerous four-armed being. That creature launched a gigantic claw at Kanito and chiseled his back and shoulders, drenching him in blood.

However, Yuriel jumped and rotated his sword across the creature's neck, beheading it. After that, he delayed no more, seeing no one else present on the streets, he held a half-dying Kanito by his collars in one hand and flew high up in the sky towards the blue portal.

Slowly the numbers of those creatures increased and became uncontrollable, they scattered all across the city in no time. Within a blink of an eye, the entire city was thrown in mayhem. A storm of catastrophe swept across the city.

Hanging in mid air, the bleeding Kanito with terror in his eyes saw a deadly scene below : the city was on fire, the air was jarred by screams and smokes. The ferrocious creatures destroyed everything that came in their sight.

Yuriel looked around him, as if helplessly searching for his companions to find no trace of anyone. No other portal opened other than the one through which Yuriel came out. The blue portal started to shrink.

Kanito noticed another bizzare event, the black sky turned pure crimson. The portal shrunk more and as it was about to close, Yuriel waited no more and entered the portal along with Kanito. When Kanito raised his eyes to catch a glimpse of Earth for the last time, he saw a thousand blazing stars above his head, each of them, plummeting down like artillery on Earth. The portal snapped shut behind them and they transitioned into a hospital like place.

Yuriel immediately placed Kanito's cold body on a stretcher and a few ward boys pushed the stretcher, taking Kanito away.