The paramedics arrived three minutes later, sirens screaming into the narrow street, red and blue lights washing over the apartment walls.
"Let go, kid."
One of the responders had to pry Ren away from Kaito's body. Ren barely felt it. Barely heard anything at all.
Everything blurred together after that, his brother being lifted onto a stretcher, IV lines snapped into place, oxygen forced over his face. Voices overlapped, sharp and urgent.
"Massive blood loss. Multiple penetrating wounds. Blood pressure dropping fast."
"We need to move—now!"
Ren tried to follow them, panic finally jolting his body into motion, but a hand caught his shoulder.
"Son, you can't ride with us. We need space to work. Your mother's already at the hospital."
Ren recognized the voice through the chaos in his mind. Mr. Tadao. One of his mother's colleagues.
He nodded numbly.
"Good. Get cleaned up and get there. We'll do everything we can to save him."
And just like that, they were gone, sirens tearing through the night, the ambulance disappearing down the street.
Ren stood alone in the doorway of the apartment, soaked in his brother's blood, clutching a bloodstained piece of paper he didn't even remember picking up.
Naruse West General Hospital,
1:47 AM.
The waiting room was too bright.
Ren had always hated hospitals. He'd spent too much of his childhood here, waiting during his mother's late-night shifts after the divorce before she eventually remarried.
"The fluorescent lights make everyone look dead already. " Ren would say.
Kaito would always laugh, heavy and warm, ruffling Ren's hair. "You say the funniest things."
Now Kaito wasn't laughing.
Aiko sat beside Ren, her face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
Ren had tried to clean himself up in the bathroom earlier. Tried to wash the blood away. He scrubbed his hands until the skin burned, raw and red.
It didn't matter.
He could still feel it, the warmth, the way it had soaked into his palms. Every time he looked down, he still saw the blood.
Mr. Tadao stood near the vending machines, speaking quietly into his phone. Probably calling Ren's father.
"Not like he cares." Ren thought bitterly.
The doors to the surgery wing opened.
A middle-aged doctor stepped out, surgical mask hanging loose around his neck, exhaustion etched deep into his eyes.
Ren's stomach dropped.
He knew that look. He had seen it on TV a hundred times.
"Mrs. Mayeda?"
Aiko looked up instantly. She rushed forward, legs trembling. Ren stood with her, his fingers finding hers, gripping tight.
"Your son…" The doctor paused, choosing his words carefully. "We were able to stabilize him. The surgeries went as well as we could expect, given the severity of his injuries."
A sense of hope filled in Ren's chest.
"He is alive?" The words rushed out. "He is..."
"However," the doctor said gently, and just like that, the hope shattered. "He lost a significant amount of blood. His brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes."
Aiko's breath hitched.
"He's fallen into a coma."
"A… a coma?" She repeated, voice hollow.
"Yes. His body is essentially in survival mode."
The doctor's expression softened. "We've done everything medically possible. Now…"
He hesitated.
"Now it's up to him. And we don't know when..."
"...or if he will ever wake up."
The words hit Ren like a gunshot to the chest.
His legs gave out. Aiko made a sound Ren had never heard before raw, broken and collapsed back into her chair, sobs tearing out of her as she covered her face.
The doctor kept talking medical terms, prognoses, visiting hours but Ren didn't hear any of it.
The world felt distant. Muted. Like he was underwater.
"Kaito might never wake up."
"Might never open his eyes again."
"Might never... "
"Ren." Aiko pulled him into her arms, her voice thick with tears.
They cried together in the waiting room while strangers looked away.
Before Ren knew it, it was morning already.
He found himself alone in the hallway outside Kaito's ICU room, fluorescent lights humming overhead, the antiseptic smell of the hospital burning his nostrils.
His mother was inside, he could see her through the small window in the door. Sitting by the bed. Holding Kaito's hand. Talking to him in a low, hopeful voice, just in case he could hear.
Ren couldn't go in.
He couldn't.
He couldn't bear to see his strong, invincible brother hooked up to machines, tubes down his throat, bandages everywhere, chest rising and falling only because a ventilator forced it to.
So he stood in the hospital hallway. Alone.
His hand went to his jacket pocket. Felt the crinkle of paper. Slowly, carefully, he pulled it out.
The bloodstained paper Kaito had pressed into his hand three minutes before collapsing.
Ren unfolded it with trembling fingers.
Most of the writing was obscured by the now dried blood but he could make out some of it in the hospital light.
"D5-RED. 24-5-4 / 15-23-6-8 / 2-12-4-7 / 23-0-0-13 / 237"
Ren quickly recognised the writing. "Our code. The treasure hunt game."
"We played that when I was... what, five? Six?"
And below it, partially smudged but still very much visible."4... 7... 19—"
The rest was lost to blood.
Ren stared at it. "He remembers that now? While dying?"
"4... 7... and a 19 what? " He thought. "A date?"
"Is that a code? A combination?"
"But where? For what?"
He turned the paper over. Nothing on the back except more blood.
He held it up to the light. No hidden messages. No watermarks.
Just these fragments. These breadcrumbs.
"What were you investigating, Kaito?"
"What did you find that got you killed?"
A nurse walked past him, her shoes squeaking on the floor. She glanced at him holding a bloodstained piece of paper but said nothing. Probably thought he was in shock.
She wasn't wrong.
Ren carefully refolded the paper along its creases. Tucked it back into his jacket pocket, right over his heart.
"Find Hasegawa at Sakura High."
That part was clear to him.
But this code... this treasure hunt...
He looked through the window again. His mother had her forehead pressed against Kaito's hand now, shoulders shaking.
"What were you trying to tell me, Kaito?"
"What did you find that almost got you killed?"
A doctor emerged from another room, chart in hand, white coat pristine. He nodded at Ren as he passed.
Ren didn't nod back.
He stood. Wiped his face with his sleeve. Forced himself to breathe.
"I'll figure it out. " He promised the silence.
"Whatever this means, wherever it leads..."
"I'll find your final treasure."
"I promise."
He took one last look through the window. His mother hadn't moved. Kaito hadn't moved. The machines kept beeping their steady, mechanical rhythm.
"Even if it kills me."