New Line: A Fresh Step   von Xanderionas
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                             Kapitel 2: Chapter 2
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White light. Soft humming. A dry texture with the stench of disinfectant. The
bitter taste of something in her mouth. These sensations all flowed over Hifumi
and slowly brought her to an impossible conclusion. 
I’m not dead?
She squirmed under the dry sheets, blinking repeatedly until the stinging of the
halogen lamp dissipated. As she regained her bearings around the room, she
realized where she was. 
“A hospital room?”
Indeed, she was in a sterile room with the blandest colors ever imagined. White
walls and beige floors screamed at any fashion enthusiast. A machine was humming
beside her, soft beeping now audible from a screen that was apparently measuring
her heartbeat. As she tried to seat herself upright, she felt and saw the
numerous tubes hanging from her. Even more evident however was the stinging on
her chest, a quick glance downwards enough to tell her why. Her chest was
wrapped tight in bandages, making it cumbersome to breathe. Yet the stinging she
felt clearly occurred in a straight line down the middle. Just as she registered
it, the door to her room opened, revealing a balding doctor with a neutral
smile. His stereotypical white coat flapped in the gentle breeze that drew
through the half-open window.
“Ms. Takimoto, you’ve awakened. Wonderful.”
Hifumi gazed at the doctor in clear confusion, him picking up on it and
continuing:
“You might have figured this out by now, but you’re in a hospital. I would
ask that you lie down again to ease your wound.”
She obliged him, more out of politeness than anything else. 
“What...happened?”
His smile faded completely.
“You had a heart attack, Ms. Takimoto. A very serious one.”
Despair drowned Hifumi’s mind as she saw the reality of the situation.
“A heart attack? Then how…?”
The doctor’s smile surfaced once more.
“You were very lucky. A passerby found you on the ground and called an
ambulance while providing first aid. They were surprisingly stubborn about
accompanying you and performed admirably well with keeping you alive. I still
believe them to be hiding a doctor’s license.”
He chuckled to himself, before pulling out a clipboard and ticking something
off.
“Well, that’s my mandatory humor of the day marked off. Now, Ms. Takimoto, I
need you to listen to me very closely regarding your current state.”
She meekly nodded, only now aware that he was rather close to her, though there
were still several feet of distance between them.
“Your heart could not be resuscitated due to extensive damage to your heart
chambers, likely caused by the sudden exertion you put yourself through.
Luckily, we were able to connect you to an artificial heart pump and keep you
alive for the time being. At the same time, you won the grand lottery. A patient
in this hospital had just passed away as you entered and it was quickly
determined you two could be a match. So we arranged to have you receive a heart
transplant.”
“Trans... plant...?”
Hifumi couldn’t believe her ears. Not even halfway through her twenties and
already she needed a transplant. The news made her extraordinarily depressed,
despite her gratitude. The doctor smirked as he peeked up from his clipboard.
“You should consider yourself lucky. Most people wait months for a transplant
to be put in place. The surgery itself was a complete success and no
abnormalities have been seen so far. Your mother and friends have been notified
already of your current state and have come to see you, though I have denied
them an audience for your awakening so far.”
“Denied? Why?”
“On behalf of who found you. They were a great help during these last few days
in arranging contact information. They suggested going through with the
transplant and even covered for all the costs, as the circumstances didn’t
allow your insurance to cover the surgery. You have a very good friend at your
side, Ms. Takimoto.”
“A… friend? Who found me?”
“They are in the visitor area right now. Haven’t moved since the surgery,
waiting for you to wake up. I will perform some quick tests and then they may
see you for a short bit. But I must warn you Ms. Takimoto, you cannot get
stressed out. Any stress right now could lead to the incisions tearing and
forcing us to cut you open again. I hope you understand.”
Doom settled over her heart, literally and figuratively, before she nodded and
let him perform the check-up. Once he was satisfied, he left the room quietly,
leaving her alone in the expansive room. She peered out through the open window,
overhearing the traffic of both cars and people outside. Her mind spun with who
could have possibly helped her so much, without even a name to go with. Her
shyness had prevented any meaningful contact with people outside, making her
infinitely grateful for the friends she had made in Eagle Jump. 
“No.” she murmured, “There was someone else.”
She thought back to her chase after Anders, of the danger she had put herself
in. Completely ignoring her own condition, pushing herself beyond her limits,
and losing consciousness in the middle of a graveyard. The memory of him caused
her heart to tighten momentarily, worried about where he might be.
Even though I nearly died, I still think about him. Such a fool you are, Hifumi
Takimoto. He’s surely long gone by now. You failed to catch him.
Her mood turned sour as she considered her priorities, even now with her body no
longer completely being her own. She could feel the new heart pumping, endlessly
slaving away to keep her alive. It filled her with a mixture of trepidation and
happiness. 
At the same time, she heard the door open again, it likely being the one who had
rescued her. She took a deep breath and gathered herself, refusing to lose focus
before her savior.
And promptly released her breath as she saw Anders enter.
He looked ‘disheveled’ to say the least, his beard no longer trimmed but
growing wildly. It was clear he had to shave every day to keep it as neat and
befitting as it was, yet he hadn’t done anything of the sort. His suit,
normally clean and ironed, was now wrinkled and squeezed, as if he had been
sleeping on the floor. Yet what stood out the most was the concern on his face,
marked with lines that made him seem ten years older than he was. 
Hifumi struggled to calm herself, but his mere presence, of being there, was
enough to make her heart race. The inevitable happened when the heart rate
monitor began to beep faster, making him quickly scribble something in large
letters on his notebook:
-	Window.
She grasped his intention and did so, remaining solely focused on the view
outside. Soon enough, the beeping had returned to a normal rhythm. Anders gave a
sigh as he eased into a chair, based on the screech of wood on linoleum. She
continued looking outside though, aware that she couldn’t do anything
dangerous. It surprised her therefore to hear a buzz, revealed to be her phone
on the bedside table with a message. Opening it, she was not surprised to find
it flooded with messages and missed calls. The message that she just received
though came from Anders himself:
-	For the sake of your health, let’s keep it like this for now. We don’t
want a repeat of what happened, do we?
Her heart, as fragile as it still was, melted a bit at his consideration. She
quickly sent him a reply:
-	Thank you for rescuing me.
-	It was nothing, don’t worry about it.
-	You saved my life. How could I thank you in return?
-	By not running around when you have a heart condition.
 Her face burned a bit at that, hesitating before answering back.
-	I’m sorry. I was just so worried about you.
-	Worried? For somebody like me?
-	Of course! You just ran away without telling us. We were looking all over for
you in the city but couldn’t find anything.
-	I see. Why were you at the graveyard though? Thought I’d kicked the bucket?
-	No! I just happened to pass by and I got suspicious of Futaba.
-	Why that?
Hifumi bit her lip on what she was about to discuss. Yet, she couldn’t hold
back on her honesty anymore.
-	She told us all to search in places where a lot of people where, but never
where there wouldn’t be many normally. So I got suspicious and decided to
look.
-	And that was when you collapsed?
-	Yes.
Another sigh echoed in the room.
-	You need to be more careful, Ms. Takimoto. Had I not found you, there would
likely have been nothing saving you.
-	I’m sorry for all the trouble. 
-	You didn’t cause me any trouble, quite the contrary. You gave me a chance to
thank you back, after all.
-	What?
Hifumi’s eyes widened slightly. She had no recollection of ever having done
anything to warrant saving her life like this. She began to type a reply but was
interrupted by him:
-	Do you remember my first day at Eagle Jump?
-	It was only last week, so of course.
-	I was quite nervous back then, unsure what to expect or what to do. I had
after all only followed the advice of Ms. Yagami and joined because of the
lengths she went to get me in. And it was during that day that you, Ms.
Takimoto, showed me the warmest welcome I could have hoped.
She sensed her heart rate rising again slightly, fighting to calm it back down
again.
-	I didn’t do much! Kou was the one who got you into the company and
everything. 
-	Yes and I’m grateful to her as well. But fact remains that you were the one
who made me feel the most welcome in the company.
-	Why me?
-	Both for your general interest in me and for the gift you procured. I still
cherish it. I took it with me before I left my letter.
The mention of his resignation letter made her mood fall again. Now feeling
depressed, she asked:
-	Mr. Tansuke, why would you do that? Why hand in your resignation like that
suddenly?
-	To be honest, it was because I got scared.
-	Scared?
-	I’m embarrassed to admit it but yes. I got scared of all the good memories I
was making and the possibility of something terrible happening to remove it from
me. So I tried to run in order to prevent anything from happening. How
sickeningly ironic that my escape caused you so much harm. I’m truly sorry for
my idiocy.
She heard a thud on the ground, glancing to see Anders in an extremely polite
bow that flustered her enough to almost yell:
“P-please, raise your head! It... it was my fault for not listening to my
doctor’s advice!”
He looked up with a pained smile, causing her to look away again and await his
next text:
-	Thank you. But the truth is that, had I not run away, you wouldn’t be lying
here with a new heart. I can’t help but feel terribly guilty for all the pain
I caused you and the others.
-	I said it’s alright! It was my decision to try and find you so I don’t
regret doing this.
-	You flatter me, Ms. Takimoto. I’m nobody you should be concerned with.
-	Huh?
At that moment, the door opened again to reveal the doctor, still smiling but a
clear signal being sent from him.
“Mr. Tansuke, I’ll have to ask you to leave now. She requires rest.”
Anders nodded and stood up, giving Hifumi a final glance and smile before
exiting the room. Hifumi felt just a slight bit lonely as his presence left the
room, the doctor giving her a few final remarks before leaving himself. As
silence overtook her surroundings again, she stared dejectedly at the phone,
wondering to herself just what he had meant.
I’m nobody you should be concerned with.
The words stuck to her mind like glue, causing endless waves of doubt to run
through her. As if reading her mind, another message from Anders appeared:
-	Please forget what I just said. As the doctor explained, I took over
contacting your friends and family over what happened. Incognito, of course.
-	You did that as well? 
-	I can’t go leaving people wondering where you went, can I? I need you to
promise me something though. Can you do it?
-	Of course! Anything!
-	Don’t tell anyone I ever met you or that I helped you out.
Hifumi’s breathing stopped for a few seconds out of shock, not able to believe
what she was reading.
-	But why?
-	So far as anyone knows, I left Eagle Jump to pursue a new job outside Tokyo.
Ms. Yagami will have spread the news already as a final sign of good-will. I
can’t be letting others see me after this, else they’ll raise hell. So for
the sake of us both, please keep my involvement a secret. The hospital staff are
in on it as well so there’s no need to worry about a leak. Everyone thinks you
were found in a nearby park searching for me.
-	Why do you want to be separate from everyone so badly? They all like you, why
hide your help from them?
-	Because I don’t think I can ever face anybody there again. It’s too
painful after what I’ve done. Please, promise me you won’t tell anyone.
Hifumi’s mind was overloaded with indecision. She still didn’t understand
why he would be concerned about being known, as he had done so much to help her.
Yet, she felt obligated due to him having saved her life. 
-	Alright, I promise.
-	Thank you. I will have to see about finding a new job somewhere else. I might
leave the city for good then, chances of the others seeing me is too high. It
will be difficult, but I’ll manage.
-	No.
-	What?
Hifumi gasped as she realized she typed the word out without thinking.
Scrambling for an excuse, she realized she had none. So she resigned herself to
honesty again:
-	I don’t want you to leave the city yet. At least... visit me every day if
you can. I’ll keep quiet about you, but please come see me. I feel I can
recover better if you are around.
She couldn’t believe she was being so frank with herself. Imagining the
difference had she been speaking herself caused her to grow gloomy again, before
his answer brightened her up:
-	If it helps you, I’d be glad to come by. I’ll have to see about finding a
part-time job in the meantime, but I can stay for at least a month. Will that
work with you?
-	Yes! I’m sorry for asking so much…
-	Takimoto, I am the one asking for too much by hoping for your forgiveness.
I’d be happy to help you anyway I can. But rest for now, you have a long day
tomorrow. I expect half of Eagle Jump is coming to visit, along with your
mother. 
-	I see. Thank you again for everything, Mr. Tansuke.
-	Call me Anders, Ms. Takimoto. Take care.
-	You too, Anders. Just call me Takimoto.
She placed her phone down and sighed as she sank deeper into the covers. The
silence of the hospital overtook the noise outside, granting her peace while her
mind churned. She thought back to Anders and that first smile he had shown when
entering. It had been heavy with happiness, but she had seen it masking more.
That of both regret and sorrow, as if seeing a repeat of something tragic. 
She shook her head gently and gathered herself. She wasn’t about to show
anyone weakness any longer. Not with this new heart that pumped fresh blood
through her veins. 
“I promise…” she said to herself, before sensing her exhaustion beginning
to catch up with her, “I promise to change, Anders. Both for myself, and for
you.”

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