Following the events at the dumpster, Aki found himself in an unknown place, brought back and cared for by his benefactor, a woman named Catherine. Although she was the owner of the house that took him in, her decision to bring in a new boarder was not unanimously accepted.
"How could you bring him home without talking to us first?" the first boarder asked irritably, followed by a second.
"Ilda is right, if it had been a girl we would have understood, but it's a man."
"Don't worry, he won't cause any problems, I assure you," his savior replied.
"It's all well and good to want to help people, but this man seems to have serious problems, Catherine. Even the doctor was terrified just seeing his wounds;" she added worriedly, "but who could have done this to him?"
"I say he's a gangster who got rejected by his clan!"
"Stop it, Sakura, with your gang novel fantasies, we're in real life here."
"Let's talk elsewhere, we're going to end up waking him," Catherine asked before closing the door.
Aki's mind was foggy from the medication he had received, and he was only slightly conscious, able to hear only buzzing sounds like women's voices arguing behind the door before it closed. Unaware of what was happening, still believing he was in his alleyway, he thought...
'Is it morning already? But what a sweet dream it was, how long has it been since I slept so well? If only this could happen in real life, yes, like that gentle voice that spoke to me, carried me, showing me something other than this wall and this dumpster, showing me the beauty of this city, these tall glass buildings or these metallic creatures wandering the streets, not to mention all these enticing scents. If only I could experience it.'
Confusing his dream with reality, he fell asleep once more. This time, it was so deep that his body, eager to rest, plunged him into a coma that lasted an entire week.
A whole week to dream, to face his nightmares over and over until he completely tamed them. Every time he closed his eyes, it had become like a routine, the same ones over and over, except for one detail, the darkness that haunted him grew larger and larger, and every time it took hold of him, his heart stopped beating. What could he see in that shadow that terrified him so much? He never told me. Fortunately, every time, that woman was there, her eyes, shining and golden, dispelled the darkness, and her voice made his heart beat again, and so it was fifteen times, waltzing between life and death, playing with them, an act which, I remind you, is and will never be without consequences.
Time passed slowly, Aki regained color, and when he opened his eyes, he was in an unknown land, in front of him brown curls that he easily recognized. 'The little tuft? What is she doing here?'
"Good morning, sir, have you become a ghost? Because Aunt Ilda said you were dead!"
He, who thought his encounter with Charlotte, whom he called "little tuft," was just a pale production of his imagination, began to look for explanations. Was he still dreaming? Or was it reality? Feeling his throat obstructed and his ribs being crushed, he had confirmation; the little one was dangerously close to him, placing her hands on his chest as a support point, and her hair desperately trying to enter Aki's eyes before being suddenly pushed away.
"I've already told you to stop bothering this poor man, how many times do I have to repeat myself," said a female voice lifting the child. "Mom, it's Aunt Ilda who told me to check if he had already become a ghost." "You can see he's not dead yet! Go tell your aunts!"
The woman approached, also her face, after sending the child away; obviously, problems of proximity and space violation were a family affair, she introduced herself as Catherine; a blonde beauty with blue eyes. Aki squinted his eyes to try to understand where he was, but his body did not respond, or rather he was incapable at that precise moment, he heard beats similar to those of a heart, how was that possible? He wondered.
"Oh my God, the tube! The doctor had told me to remove it once you woke up," Catherine exclaimed before removing the tube that hindered him, it was a nasal cannula, while the beats he heard were those of his heart, coupled with stethoscopes which themselves were connected to some kind of echo amplifiers. A rudimentary cardiogram writing heartbeats through sound.
"You fell into a coma, we had to feed you and every day you died at least once, even the girls were crazy with worry," she added. Before leaving, she went to warn a doctor who returned to his side a few hours later. At the door, slightly ajar, Aki could see a vertical row of heads spying on him, they scattered as soon as they heard Catherine's voice approaching, talking with her daughter.
"Mom! What's a zombie?"
"It's someone who was already dead and then woke up. Where do you hear all this?"
"It's Aunt Ilda who said that the man in the room had become one."
"Don't believe everything your aunts say. Wait for me outside, I'm coming."
She then entered the room with the doctor who examined him, giving his long-awaited diagnosis. Aki was finally going to be able to walk again. After his seven leg fractures, including four to the femurs, it was a miracle that even the doctor had only seen in patients of great doctors. To achieve such a result, there were only two plausible explanations, either he had become a great medical genius during his journey, or it was this boy who had something special.
Catherine and the man then left after replacing Aki's bandages with casts reaching the end of his thighs, only returning the next day. At dawn, the sunlight passed through the pink satin curtains, reflecting off the beige walls of the room. Although he still had his strange dreams, Aki no longer woke up with a start. He calmly opened his eyes and discovered Catherine watching over him, looking at him tenderly, but she was not alone, there were also many faces of young women he had never seen before. Each of them introduced themselves to him:
- First Sakura, an unconditional fan of novels.
- Sule, a sparkling young woman.
- Rita, mother of a little boy, Egée.
- A beauty with black hair and brown eyes, the famous 'Ilda', great friend of Charlotte but also mother of Gaétan, a six-year-old boy.
- And finally Catherine, mother of the little tuft aged four.
Although there were other residents, these were the only ones who came to him that day. The house had a total of thirteen inhabitants, including three children and ten women, all more ravishing than the others.
{[Except for sakura, as an author I have a personal problem with her, maybe I kill him? ( opinion in the comments)]}
For the first time since he lost his memory, Aki wanted to speak, even more, he needed it so much that it was a necessity for him. Seeing this, Catherine and Sule rushed to him to help him sit up, placing his legs towards the door where the others stood. Aki then slowly turned to Catherine and said "Thank you," a simple two-syllable word that meant so much to him. Unfortunately, no sound came out of his lips, or rather none that they could hear. He repeated it once more, but the result remained unchanged.
"Don't tell me he's also mute!" exclaimed Sakura, before being struck by the gaze of all the others.
Aki, resolved, stopped trying and just nodded his head twice towards the girls and then Catherine. The latter replied that she understood what he meant. She wanted to add a sentence when she was suddenly interrupted by the cry of Sule who was holding Aki.
"What's wrong?" Catherine asked anxiously.
"My hand," she replied; her naturally pale palm had taken on a deep pink hue, following the patterns of the beginning of a circle, she had burned herself. With what then?
That's when all their gazes turned to poor Aki, he had been violently thrown to the ground, lying on his stomach. He also began to groan in pain when Ilda, the bravest of all, had the courage to open his hospital blouse. His back began to glow with an intense orange, following the shape of a circle, gradually thinning as other circles, smaller than the first, placed here and there in the first.
The light from his back finally dissipated, taking with it every sound in the room. Catherine then broke this deadly silence by asking: "Is it a moon? A normal tattoo doesn't do that! We agree?"
"Uhum," all the girls replied in chorus. Sakura then added: "Sule! Correction, this boy doesn't have a lot of problems; he is the problem."
"Hmm," the others replied again, except for Catherine who displayed unprecedented enthusiasm.
Aki lay there, on the floor, wondering what could be happening on his back.
'What are they all looking at my back for?'
"Emergency meeting," Sule announced. All the women in the room swiftly made their way outside with the precision of an elite commando unit. Aki remained alone, wondering what kind of place he had ended up in.