Page 107 of Pandion

“I know it does. I want to know how much.”

Harumine waited for Kagesawa to reluctantly let go of the link. It was bad, but thankfully not as bad as Harumine had feared. Now that the link was open, he sent back some soothing vibes and climbed back out to make sure they got rescued.

Chapter 40

The coast guard towed the docking robot and the remaining two life rafts to the port of Tomakomai. The Sunfish Memuro had sunk almost precisely midway of the last leg of its route, between Aomori and Hokkaido. They arrived only three hours later than their scheduled arrival time, but since Kagesawa, Harumine and some of the other survivors were taken straight to the hospital for a check up, their trip wasn’t over just yet.

While Kagesawa was examined and receiving treatment for the smoke inhalation and his other injuries, Harumine sat in thewaiting room with a few of the passengers he’d helped from their cabins to the life rafts.

The waiting room was quiet. Because of their grand arrival on a docking robot, the other passengers had probably put two and two together and realised that Harumine was an empath. The atmosphere was tangibly awkward, but so long as no one gave him grief and he’d be able to walk out of here together with Kagesawa, it made no difference.

Before their departure from Oarai, Reika had given Harumine her contact information, so he was giving her a brief account of what had happened. His own family he’d contacted long since. His aunt was coming to pick them up as promised, but she’d taken advantage of the unscheduled extra time to run a few errands.

“Excuse me.” A young woman with a child, neither of whom Harumine recognised, was asking for his attention.

“You mean me?”

“Yes, I’m sorry to disturb you, sir. I was wondering if you were the gentleman helping at the Sunfish Memuro today?”

“Ah, yes, I was there…” The ferry crew and Kagesawa had done most of the work, but he’d certainly tried to make himself useful. She instructed her child to sit and wait and approached Harumine to speak more discreetly.

“My husband was on the ferry. He was sending me messages stuck in his cabin until you and your friend freed him. I am forever indebted to you. You don’t know how much it means to us to have him home safe with us.” The child behind her, perhaps four or five years old, looked happy and oblivious of the tragedy he could have faced.

“I saw your friend when you came in. Will he be OK? I would like to thank him personally if that’s at all possible,” the woman added. Another passenger beside Harumine leaned closer.

“Me too. I don’t know what would have happened if the two of you hadn’t been there. I didn’t think empaths would care what happens to us commoners.”

The other passengers murmured similar sentiments. It was sweet that they were trying to correct their misguided opinions, but some of their comments were so ill-informed they still sounded more like insults. Even so, if the word got out that empaths had taken part in the rescue amidst all this, the public perception might improve a little. Maybe it would amount to something.

A message arrived back from Reika. She was asking for more details on her brother’s condition.

“Ah, excuse me.” Harumine moved aside to respond to the message. He was typing it on the palm reader’s keyboard in an effort to appear normal, but it was painfully slow. Reika in turn replied within seconds:

Reply to your sister’s messages so I don’t have to. She’s annoying.Harumine gave up trying to type and popped in the port extension.

Why are you even messaging her? She can wait a while and fester with her questions, can’t she?

Not that it really bothered Harumine. All he wanted was an excuse to project to Kagesawa to hear something back.Anyword from Ayase?The link was functioning perfectly so it must have not been anything too serious, but it was still a cause for worry.

Yeah, Ayase got back to me when I was getting the oxygen. Said there’s some off-shoot damage and wanted me to lay off the heavier tasks so they can recoup in peace… Oh, hold up,the nurse is done with the splint.

Kagesawa had broken his forearm and three ribs, had a few cuts, a sprain and some bruises, but considering what he’d been through, his injuries were laughably minor.

Apparently I fainted for a moment before, so they gave me a glucose drip. I’m feeling much better now. They still want to do a bronchoscopy, but after that I should be free to go. They’re telling me to take it easy for a couple of days and asking if I have someone who can pick me up. Your aunt is coming, right?

Yeah, she’s in Tomakomai waiting for us to be done here.

Harumine relayed some of the details to Reika and sat down again in the waiting room.Reika responded back with her usual speed:

‘Keep my brother safe’? Again with the misplaced trust. Harumine sighed.I guess I need to learn how to be a bodyguard.He’d probably have plenty of time between farming lily bulbs at the farm or washing dishes and waiting tables at the restaurant.

Considering how homely and embarrassing the family business had seemed before, he felt surprisingly OK about itnow. Maybe he’d been embarrassing himself, thinking there was anything wrong with any of it?

Aren’t they done already?Time had slowed to a tedious crawl where a half an hour felt more like a day. How long did a bronchoscopy take? A month? Harumine had paced between the vending machine and the waiting room for at least half a year when they released Kagesawa back into the wild.

Hello.Kagesawa waved his hand at Harumine.

He was still wearing the decimated husks of the amenity kit slippers, his tattered jeans and the t-shirt he’d picked up from his old wardrobe that was now in worse shape than the one he’d worn previously. The rest of his clothes had sunk along with the Sunfish Memuro, so there was nothing to change into. They’d given him a towel that he wore over his shoulders, and he’d washed his face, but he was quite the sight.

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