[Story] Awakening

[longingfreesia]

It had been a very difficult week.
Kotori had struggled on as much as possible through the waves of intense headaches and it's accompanying vertigo. Although incredibly challenging, she still attended her job, but her health had made her unable to work as fast as she usually would which frustrated her, feeling she was letting Ai and Shiroko down. She hadn't even been able to work on her own projects at home for the last few weeks. She'd been coming home and was spending a lot of her time just laying down.
She was grateful for Yuma being there for her. He had come home early from the party the previous weekend just to be with her and through this week he'd been a tremendous source of support. He walked with her from work if her condition was too bad, he attend every hospital appointment, he would lay down with her when she was feeling too bad to do anything else and stay up with her the nights she couldn't sleep. She honestly felt like she was being a huge burden to him, but Yuma was the type to stay by a friends side no matter what troubles they were going through, even more so if that person was someone he considered family.
Through the worry, he still tried his best to make her smile with his upbeat attitude and huge grins. Though she knew behind it, he was hiding a lot of pain and worry over her.

At the appointments, more tests were taken and more came back negative. It was frustrating.
After explaining to them how unbearable the headaches and vertigo were getting, the hospital decided to send her for an MRI scan. This was terrifying, but Yuma stayed with her every step of the way.
The scans showed nothing unusual to them.
Although a huge relief that one of the worst case scenarios had been ruled out, this cast a shadow over the both of them, still having no answers. Kotori felt that the hospital was already beginning to give up on her, they were running out of options already and it made her wonder if they honestly thought she was making all this up.

This was Christmas Eve.

As Yuma walked with Kotori back from the hospital, snowflakes that were lightly falling from the sky brushed against their cheeks. He made sure to hold onto her so that she didn't fall from the dizzy spells or slip on the ice on the streets.
Kotori yearned for the chance to have spent Christmas Eve together with Yuma on a date, doing fun things in the snow, seeing a movie, looking at the decorations at the plaza, they even had the entire apartment to themselves, but instead the day had been full of hospital appointments, all the while her headache just got worse and worse.

As they walked home, something at the back of Yuma's mind was bothering him.
Things his friends had said to him; Trena's suggestion of it being a curse, Yuya's message that Kiko wished to find them a doctor who looked more into supernatural aliments... he wasn't sure if he was being crazy, but what if this was something that regular doctors couldn't find?
But Kotori had never showed any signs of anything out of the ordinary. In this crazy city full of duel spirits and unusual abilities, she was probably one of the more normal things in his life.
Still, the hospital was getting them nowhere and Kotori's situation was getting worse, so maybe it was something that was worth a try. Maybe he would contact Kiko tomorrow about it. Right now Kotori was feeling terrible and so he needed to concentrate on her.

Walking in through the front door, Yuma helped Kotori take off her winter coat and boots as she could barely do it herself without almost falling over. Walking her through the corridor of their home, Yuma led her to the living room so he could sit her down on the sofa. Taking a blanket from the back of it, he gently wrapped it around her so that she could warm up after being out in the cold.
Sitting down beside her, he could see tears forming in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Yuma... I..."

"Hey, hey, c'mon." He reached out to gently wipe the tears away. "You don't need to apologise!"
He sighed, placing his forehead against hers. "Never apologise for something like this, okay? We'll get through it."
They stayed there for a moment in silence before Yuma pulled away and gave her a small smile.

"I'll get you a glass of water and that medication the doctor gave you and after that, I'll lay down with you for a bit. Sound good?"

Kotori nodded, before laying back against the sofa, feeling unable to really sit up anymore. She was sure the medication would do nothing to help her, it hadn't since it was prescribed to her, but right now they had nothing else to try.
Yuma brushed some hair away from Kotori's face tenderly, his smile dropping a little, seeing how exhausted and ill she was looking.

"I'll be back in a moment."

After another nod from Kotori, he slowly stood up and left the room.

Entering their bedroom, Yuma looked around for the medication, eventually finding it in a drawer by their bed. As he took it out, the D-Pad on his belt buzzed.
Looking at it, he saw it was a message from his sister asking how everything was going. Biting his lip, he considered what to reply with. He didn't want to lie, but he knew Kotori didn't want to worry her. After a few moments, he wrote 'Everything is good!!' ending it with a thumbs-up emoticon. He knew if Kotori got any worse, he'd have to tell her, but right now he didn't want Akari panicking over messages. He was already finding it hard to fight back his own overwhelming feelings of worry and frustration.
Placing the D-Pad back onto his belt, he took a moment to collect himself before he left the room for the kitchen to get Kotori some water.

While waiting for Yuma, Kotori was trying to rest on the sofa but was finding it difficult. Even with her eyes closed, it felt like the room was spinning. That, in combination with the unbearable headache was making her feel incredibly nauseous.
Feeling like she should really head for the bathroom, she tried to move off the sofa, but the moment she got up and tried taking a step, she just fell to her knees on the floor. Hunching over, she held her head in her hands tightly. It honestly felt like it was gong to explode.
What was happening to her? Was she dying? Why couldn't the doctor's find what was wrong? Why couldn't they help her!?
As these questions circled in her mind, her breathing began to become more erratic as she started to panic.

Walking back into the room, Yuma's eyes caught sight of Kotori hunched over on the floor. Alarmed, he ran over to her kneeling down beside her.

"K-Kotori! What's wrong?!"

"It hurts so much, Yuma. It hurts so much!" she cried out. "What's happening to me!?"

Tears forming in his eyes, Yuma quickly held out the medication and glass of water towards her.
"J-Just take these! They might help-"

"They won't! Nothing will help! No-one knows what's wrong!!"

"Just... please! Kotori-! Just try and take them!"

Kotori just shook her head slowly, making pained cries, tears running down her face. "It hurts so much!! I want it to stop!"

Yuma didn't know what to do to help her. He looked over to where the phone was. Should he call an ambulance? Standing and moving over to the phone, he was about to call the emergency services when something caught his eye. A glowing thing, fluttering past.
Looking back at Kotori he gasped. Fluttering all around her were glowing butterflies. They definitely weren't real butterflies, he was sure of that, but then... what WERE they.
One-by-one, more and more seemed to appear from nowhere the more frustrated and upset Kotori became.
Suddenly, there was a deafening rush of fluttering wings as a torrent of butterflies suddenly exploded in the room, circling around both Kotori and Yuma. There were so many of them Yuma couldn't even see in front of him. Frantically he began waving his arms, trying to get them away, but he felt he was just being swallowed up by them.
Through the deafening rushing sound of wings, Yuma could still hear Kotori's distraught cries.

"Kotori! KOTORI!!"

He tried calling out to her, he tried stepping in the direction of her voice, but the swarm of butterflies was too thick.

Yuma wasn't sure what really happened next. He found himself being hit suddenly by a strong, invisible force that threw him backwards. As he was, he could hear things scraping along the floor, things falling, glass smashing... then he hit something hard.

Opening his eyes, Yuma found himself on the floor at the back of the living room. Slowly sitting up, a sharp pain briefly shot through the left side of his head. Holding his hand to it, he noticed it was bleeding. Above him was a desk that was at the back of the room and he figured he'd hit his head on it but... why? What in the world just happened?
Coming out of the temporary daze, he looked up and around the room. Furniture had been moved drastically, or had been pushed over somehow and the windows were smashed. The glowing butterflies were still fluttering in the air around the room, but not in the great numbers they had been before and more importantly... smaller items were also now hanging in the air with them. Plant pots, some of his parents artefacts, the phone, the TV, books... they were all floating in the air.
There was a distinct feeling that filled the room, it didn't feel malicious... but it felt powerful.
It was the silence in the room that scared Yuma the most. The only thing that could be heard were the fluttering sound of the butterflies beating wings.

Kotori was still knelt on the floor, but was now no longer hunched over. Instead she was sat up straight, staring blankly at nothing with glazed over eyes, not moving.

"Kotori!" Yuma moved over to her and knelt down before her. She didn't even react to him. It was like she was in some kind of trance.

"Kotori! What's wrong? Oi, Kotori!!"

He shook her slightly.
When there was no reaction, desperation began to overtake him.

"Kotori! Sweet! Please! Say something! Kotori!!"

The items that hung in the air suddenly shifted a little. Yuma glanced up at them in confusion.
As he did, a blue figure appeared behind him, also looking up at the items in the air with a mixed expression of interest and bewilderment.

"This..."

Yuma looked around to see Hope behind him. "Hope! Do you know what's going on?!"

Hope shook his head slowly. "Not entirely, but there is no doubt that this power is coming from Kotori."

"From Kotori?!"

Looking back at her, she still hadn't moved or reacted. Panicking right now wasn't going to help her.

Slowly, he reached up and gently rested his hands against either side of Kotori's face.

"Kotori. I know this might be super scary right now, but I promise, no matter what, we'll get through this. We'll get through it together!"

The items shifted again.

"I'm right here, Kotori. I'm staying right here."

There was silence for a moment, then Yuma noticed the tears forming in Kotori's eyes. Her lips moved slightly, like she was trying to say something. Eventually she was able to speak.

"Yu... ma..."

A little glimmer of hope appeared on Yuma's face. She knew he was there. She was starting to respond to him.
Hope watched as the items in the air shifted once more, and then again. Was she fighting to control it?
The items kept shifting erratically around them, sometimes together, sometimes separately, all the while Yuma spoke to her, trying to gently bring her out of the trance.

After a short while, Kotori began to waver, her eyes drooped and then slowly closed, before completely passing out in Yuma's arms. Soon after, each item that had been in the air came crashing down around them. Yuma instinctively shielded Kotori as the items hit the floor, which caused the majority of them to smash to pieces.
After everything had fallen, Yuma quickly looked at the unconscious Kotori.

"Hey! Kotori! Wake up! Kotori!!"

There was no response, she was out cold.
Gently, he held Kotori closer to him, cradling her in his arms, allowing a few strained sobs to escape as he did, not knowing what else to do.

Hope silently watched on from where he was, before gradually glancing over the carnage that was once the Tsukumo's living room. A few of the butterflies were still fluttering in the air, but were gradually disappearing. Reaching out to touch one, the butterfly instantly exploded into orbs of light and vanished before Hope's curious eyes, noting how they seemed to be made out of some sort of light energy.

He didn't understand how or why Kotori, a seemingly normal human, could demonstrate such a powerful ability, or why it came to surface in this way, but he knew that her life from this point on was going to change.

And Yuma's would change along with it.