Jakunen Mirai
Chapter 4: K-chan
***
The piercingly loud scream of an electronic alarm clock broke the
silence of Kazuya’s large bedroom, half-scaring him to death. Sitting up,
panting slightly from the shock of the loud sound, he sighed almost angrily,
and slapped a hand down on top of it, cutting out the noise immediately. With
his free hand, he rubbed at one eye, and used the other to glance down at the
LED display on the clock face. Ugh, 6am. How disgustingly early.
***
“K-chan, are you not
hungry?”
He looked sleepily up at
the pretty young nurse with his right eye…the left side of his face was buried
somewhere in his pillow. It was only
“I’ll eat after I get
some more sleep.”
The nurse nodded and
left the small room. And small it was; enough room for a bed, desk, and a small
wardrobe; not that he had many clothes anyway. But this was better than having
to lie in the middle of a hospital ward, going insane as scientists poked and
prodded him, wondering if his body really worked, pondered over his memory
loss, idled fascinating over the fact that he was alive at all.
Yawning, he rolled back
over into the small single bed, curling up under the covers again. Going to bed
after 2pm – spending the night talking to late night shift workers of course –
and being woken up four hours later…it wasn’t a good habit. Oh well, it was
Saturday regime for him. He’d been like that since he’d woken up here for the
first time, six months ago. Though he’d always felt a little
disoriented, this place, ‘G-Corporation’, had become home. He had no
memory of a place before this, only here. Being born from
nowhere, as an adult. He’d heard mutterings in that foreign language the
nurses called ‘English’ which he was sure were about him, but he ignored it.
And why the nurses all seemed so nervous of him to start with, and why some of
them still avoid him like he was going to kill them, he couldn’t fathom. This
place, the place he called home, was the only place he knew. He had to make
friends, and he had done just that; even though, at first, it was difficult.
People seemed to almost recognise him, and fear him, without him even opening
his mouth. But a warm smile and a friendly hello usually eased their tensions,
he found. But why he was known as ‘K-chan’ or ‘Kaz’, he had no idea. Maybe he
was a genetically engineered human, and that letter was assigned to him, and
changed into an affectionate name. Oh well, he identified with it.
Looking at the cheap
plastic clock sitting on the desk beside his tiny bed, he decided he’d better
start moving before the whole day was gone. It was only
Quarter of an hour
later, he was sitting on the bar-top of the cafeteria serving area, munching a
piece of toast. One of his first friends was carted into the hall in a very
large wheelchair – like most of his other friends, besides the doctors and
nurses and scientists, this man was a patient. G-Corp had taken on a lot of
different faculties; science and research, medical and diagnostic,
environmental and naturalist. Of course, he was tied in with the two former
sectors. The man, being pushed by an old nurse, waved weakly at Kaz, but smiled
happily. The man was huge; he took up the entire wheelchair, and oozed over the
sides a little. He was terribly obese; and almost a lost cause. Except for the fact that he had a will to live. Kaz munched
down the rest of his toast, smirked, and wandered over to the younger man, who
most definitely looked older.
“Morning…”
“Yeah,
morning to you too, skinny.”
The large Japanese man chuckled to himself after the comment, and rested his
hands on the armrests.
“I’m not skinny…I’m just
tall for my weight.” Kaz grinned a bit and sat down on a chair opposite the
table the large man was wheeled up to.
“Sure you are. You’re a
chick magnet too.” At those words, the few women in the room glanced at the
two, snickered (a few waved), and turned back to what they were doing.
Kaz snorted like it was
funny. “Me? You kidding?! With the ugly mug they gave me?! Come on, be
realistic! I look like a cross between Dracula and Frankenstein!” He ran a hand
through his raven hair, then folded both over his
chest.
“Who cares about a few
scars? You’ve got the body of a sex god. I mean look at what you’re sitting
next to! I’m too heavy to stand on my own two feet.” Kaz blushed substantially,
but frowned as he smirked. “And don’t give me that…you might not notice it, but
your face just isn’t ugly enough to scare those nurses into looking away from
that ass of yours.”
He blushed even more.
“What, are you greasing me up so I’ll get you chocolate from the vending
machine?”
The man frowned. “No, of course not! I’m just giving that low self-esteem of
yours a boost.”
Kaz rolled his eyes and
swung his legs up onto the table. “Whatever you say.”
***
“…Low self-esteem…feh! Nakamura
never knew what he was talking about.” Kazuya growled under his breath as he
climbed out of the shower, towelling off. After drying his hair partially with
the towel, he wrapped it around his waist, and began to prepare for another day
of work.
“I wonder how he’s doing these days. Perhaps I should pay him a
visit sometime…” The flashbacks of his past, occurring
seemingly more frequently, kept on reminding him of his past self, and who he
was before even that. Somewhere in there, deep down inside, he could
feel this strange little stirring of what some people call a conscience.