C17

Chapter 17: Inability to Understand the Situation

Friday.

As consciousness slowly surfaced, the morning light streaming through the gap in the curtains spread faintly past closed eyelids, and the quiet sound of small birds echoing from afar softly rang through the tranquil room.

Reo slowly opened his eyes.

Normally, this would be the time he woke up thinking about Asuon.

However.

Today was a little bit different.

Staring at the ceiling for a while, he blankly checked the time.

The fog-like sensation that had covered his mind until yesterday had thinned out just a little bit.

His thoughts connected, and he could organize his memories. Even so...

(...I'm still not back to normal.)

Reo checked his own condition beneath the futon.

If his usual self is 100, right now he's probably at around 30.

He can think, and he can tell he's recovered more than yesterday. However, both his information processing speed and decision-making speed are clearly duller than usual.

After gazing at the ceiling for a while, Reo slowly raised his body, but the sluggishness remained, and he was not yet in a state where he could play Asuon.

(...No go today, huh.)

It's not that he lacks motivation; rather, right now during the event period, he wants to log in as soon as possible.

While thinking that, he also remembered that his dad had worried about him when he came home from work yesterday, and breaking his health this time had caused unnecessary anxiety and trouble for his parents. He had thought he was fine by himself, but since he pushed himself until he collapsed, it was only natural for those around him to worry.

(Health management is also a play skill.)

He deeply engraved this failure into his heart.

◇

After a while.

A modest sound echoed from outside the room. It was the sound of a door being tapped once softly, as though hesitating to call out loudly.

"Reo, are you awake?"

It was his mother's voice.

"I'm awake."

When he replied, the door opened after a slight pause.

His mother slowly entered, as if checking the inside of the room.

"How's... your physical condition?"

"My body feels mostly back to normal."

He answered shortly.

His mother let out a breath as if feeling slightly relieved, but an expression of lingering anxiety for her son still remained on her face.

"You see, today..."

She paused for a fraction of a second, as if choosing her words.

"If you're feeling well enough, I was thinking we could go to the psychosomatic clinic the doctor introduced yesterday..."

"......A psychosomatic clinic?"

Reo asked back. Of course he knew the word. But he never imagined he would be the one going there.

"Yeah."

His mother nodded.

"The doctor yesterday also said it might be a good idea to consult them once."

"......"

Inside Reo's mind, the cause was already organized—sleep deprivation from hyper-focusing on Asuon, that was all there was to it.

Precisely because of that, the phrase "psychosomatic clinic" left a slight sense of incongruity.

Yet, he also understood that his mom was worried to that extent. Because he had ruined his health to the point of being hauled into the hospital yesterday, he had caused her worry. That too was a fact.

"......Understood. I'll go."

When Reo answered, his mother relaxed her expression just a bit.

"Thank you."

At those words, Reo averted his gaze slightly.

He didn't intend to have done anything worthy of thanks.

Just...

This time was his own management error.

◇

Finishing his preparations, Reo exited the entryway with his mother. The moment he stepped outside, the cold air specific to the morning enveloped his body.

Normally, at this hour, he should be logging into Asuon at home. He was supposed to have acted for the sake of securing time to skip school, yet before he knew it, the place he was heading to was a hospital.

Heading toward the car parked in the lot, his mother got into the driver's seat, and Reo quietly entrusted his body to the backseat, fastening his seatbelt as the car slowly pulled away with a quiet engine sound.

Seated in the backseat, Reo cast his gaze out the window.

The townscape drifting past the car window, students on their way to school, people coming and going in front of shops beginning their opening preparations—the morning scenery he usually passed by mindlessly looked just a little different today somehow.

Inside the car, the air conditioning blew quietly.

There was no conversation.

Perhaps thinking about something, his mother drove the car without opening her mouth.

Reo looked at his own face reflected in the window. He was calmer than yesterday. Still, a slight trace of fatigue remained around his eyes.

At that point, Reo began to think anew about his current situation.

(A psychosomatic clinic...)

Only those words were snagging in his mind.

He knew the cause within himself—sleep deprivation from hyper-focusing on Asuon was the reason that led to this physical decline.

To be sure, he hadn't told his parents that it was sleep deprivation resulting from playing too many games. Even so, a doubt remained as to whether it was a problem severe enough to warrant visiting a psychosomatic clinic.

However, “The doctor yesterday also said it might be a good idea to consult them once.”

He recalled his mother's words.

Reo could tell that both the doctor and his mother were worried about something.

Even so... why would that lead to going to a psychosomatic clinic? That was the only part that didn't connect for Reo.

(Yesterday I even got an IV drip. I slept through the night and my condition's mostly recovered. I thought if I just healed up like this, that would be the end of it, but is that wrong...0)

After thinking for a while, Reo shifted his gaze even further into the distance.

Beyond the residential area.

The mountains visible in the distance were faintly hazy in the morning light, and while white clouds hung over the peaks and only their outlines floated quietly—unlike the buildings and roads drifting past, only those mountains remained unfailingly in the exact same spot.

In that ambiguous time where it felt like he was thinking about something yet thinking about nothing at all, Reo gazed at the scenery from the car window for a while...

Before long, his mind cleared up just a little bit.

He tried thinking about it once more, but...

......He still didn't get it.

Reo stopped thinking there and entrusted his body to the backrest.

(...Well, I'll figure it out once I go.)

For now, he figured that was fine.