It's a rainy summer evening outside of Mitakihara General, with the sun having just gone down behind the horizon, and inside the doctors are talking to one another about the amazing progress one of their patients has made. It seems that, after examination today, many of Kukai Souma's wounds have faded, shrunk significantly, or closed. His bruises are all for the most part faded to a brown or yellow, and he is sleeping easier.
He still hasn't woken up yet though. So his brothers are still taking turns with him - today there's a young, pretty older teen boy, almost feminine in structure, with pinkish-mauve hanging down in long strands, sitting in the chair in the room, a magazine in his lap and a smartphone in his hands, tapping away.
There's a little bluish-green haired Chara sitting on the side table doing situps and pushups, keeping himself busy as he waits for Kukai to awaken...
Rune sometimes has trouble following news... so it has taken a little longer for her to even hear about what happened, but as soon as she did she arranged for a driver - rain and all - to take her here. Umbrella folded once she's inside, the princess asks around...
...and eventually figures out where Kukai is staying. Her first impulse is to worriedly burst in and quickly check on him, but she reins this feeling in and instead makes a very, very light knock before poking her head in to see what's going on.
The young man lifts his head from his phone as someone knocks at the door and smiles, standing, setting the magazine to one side and pocketing his phone. "Hello! It's nice to see someone coming to visit Kukai. My name's Rento, Rento Souma. I'm one of Kukai's older brothers. Please, come in."
He moves to one side so Rune can come over closer, looking at her and letting out a little whistle. "Wow. They said some amazing people were coming to visit Kukai but I had no idea. What's your name?" He lets out a little oh, as if remembering. "We're taking a picture album of the people who've come to visit him - can I take your picture for him for when he wakes up?" He seems fairly cheerful and upbeat, if not nearly as athletic as Kukai.
Daichi sits up, then grins, hovering into midair. "Runealy! Hello! It's good to see you!" He looks over at Rento, then at her. "He can't see me, but people have been coming to talk to me for a while now..."
"Older...? Oh," it occurs to Rune she had no idea. She nonetheless shuffles into the room and introduces herself, "I'm Runealy, Cr..." No, maybe not the best time to bring up royal rank. Instead, she decides to go along with the topic Rento raised: "Sure, that's fine. If a picture would help him, go ahead."
Her gaze drifts over to Daichi, about to talk to him... until he explains the situation. "Oh, goodness... I probably should have gotten here sooner." She's doing her best to try to talk to Daichi while directing her gaze mostly to Kukai, trying to play along with the act; it would look weird for her to talk to someone who 'is not here', after all.
Rento takes the picture then smiles, sticking the camera back into his pocket. "Wow. That's amazing! Thank you so much. OK! So.... He's not changed a lot, so sooner wouldn't have done much good." He sighs. "Even though a lot of his wounds and bruises seem to have cleared up overnight somehow he's still not woken up. The doctors think he may wake up at any time now, though.
Daichi sighs and then nods. "It's ok. It wasn't your fault - Kukai decided he could fight WPS almost all on his own - one girl I dunno came to help, but, then he got hit by multiple people and..." He shakes his head, then moves over, sitting down on her shoulder and hugging her neck. "Thank you for coming."
Runealy has at least figured out enough about phones to know how photo-taking works, and she offers a slight smile for the camera, nodding slightly once it's done and Rento explains the basics. "That's weird, but if he's healing up like that then at least that's one good sign, right?"
Responding to Daichi requires some curious work, as she steps over bedside to find a way that she's looking at Kukai... and then Daichi lands on her shoulder to solve the rest of the issue. No need to keep looking at funny angles that would keep both of them in view.
The real problem now is finding ways to respond that make it sound like she's talking to Kukai, while still being reasonably on-topic to Daichi. Her speech thus becomes full of little pauses as she thinks on it. "Well... I'd sure love to know how this happened. Knowing you, you probably got in a bit over your head... but at least you're here, with the healers."
Yes, 'healers.' Rento may pick up on this sort of thing; Rune is distinctly speaking in a somewhat archaic way. Her words are understandable, but there are times where she naturally picks more ancient words than a normal Tokyo native would. "Whatever it was, if it's too crazy... we'll just have to look into it, make sure it doesn't happen again."
Rento nods. "Yeah, it's a really good sign! He's apparently doing really well right now, except for, y'know, being unconscious." He looks over at Kukai for a moment before looking back to her as she speaks. "Well, what they said on the news was that the gas main in the diner accidentally blew up and he was caught in the edge of the blast. It could've been so much worse..." He shivers. "But it was just an accident, apparently."
Daichi winces and shakes his head. "Kukai actually went to go see if he could get a Heart's Egg that someone from WPS had stolen. He got into an argument with Miss White and her friends ambushed him, and the three of them knocked him into the diner. I don't think they meant for it to explode, but..."
Rento hmms, looking at Runealy and smiling. "It was crazy, but the doctors are taking good care of him. I don't think we could have kept it from happening." He pats Kukai on the leg. "Just a bad coincedence." After a moment, there is a faint groan from the bed and a noise, and both Rento and Daichi look at it with wide eyes. "Kukai?!"
"That's messed up," Rune responds with this twice. First, to Rento. Then she softly repeats it right after Daichi speaks, hoping this will pass as just idle muttering as far as Rento can see. "How something like that could have hap-- ...huh?"
A response? Rune almost jolts back, but manages to calm herself enough that hopefully her movement won't dislodge Daichi. "Did he just respond?" She saw it too, but apparently wants confirmation.
The three of them watch as Kukai's eyes slowly open, just a bit, and he looks upwards towards the ceiling. "What... Rento? Rune? What... what happened? Where...?" He looks around with his eyes, then slowly cranes his neck, looking down at himself. "I'm in the hospital?" Rento presses him back down. "Sssh, ssh, there was an accident, you're ok. Just lie back and rest." He looks at Rune. "I gotta go call the others, ok? I'll be right back!" He moves over towards the door, pulling his phone out.
Daichi flits down off Rune's shoulder and hugs Kukai tightly, almost weeping. "Kukai, you're awake! We were so worried about you!" Kukai looks up at Rune for a second. "Did you find me or something? I remember being knocked into the diner but... nothing after that." Daichi shakes his head. "No, the blue flying girl carried you to the hospital along with the birdgirl..."
"Right!" A quick agreement to Rento; Rune makes no effort to even slightly slow him down or second guess him going off to contact others. It works out just as well, it means she can talk with him and Daichi without having to avoid certain words and topics.
"No, I didn't find you. I just came here once I found out what was going on. 'Miss White' attacked you? I've been trying to talk to her, and this is just one more reason if she knocked you in to an explosion!" Her mind's eye is envisioning that, causing her actual eyes to raise wide. "By the Barrier, that's just... wow. I'm glad you're okay."
Kukai groans again. "I think you and I have a very different terminology of the word 'ok'. I feel like somebody took a big rock and beat every inch of my body with it. Which is sort of what happened, and kinda funny with how floaty-headed I feel right now. You came to visit? That's so sweet..."
He shakes his head. "I don't.. think.. they meant to blow everything up.. maybe. She was really mad at me. I was putting holes in her building. I... yeah.." He looks up at her for a moment.
"Alright, I'll get more precise. 'You have the potential to get better and thus become okay,'" Rune quips. "That's the big thing I'm worried about. But yes... I came here, once I heard about it."
One of her arms folds in front of her, an odd gesture. "Whether she meant to or not, it happened. I was supposed to talk to her, see if we could get her to stop doing all this. It's really weird... every time I see her do something wonderful and nice, she turns around and does almost the opposite. /Almost./ Though... maybe I'm biased. She's one of the ones who came to help save my home."
"She was one of the girls I danced with at the Walpurgisnacht funeral party." Kukai sighs and leans back, resting. "Oh.. Yeah? I'm glad I'm doing ok. I haven't had time to think about it recently." He tries giggling, but then stops, wincing. "Oh, wow, who dropped a truck on my ribs...?"
Daichi picks up here. "They said one rib got broken - it may time a little while to heal all the way." Kukai sighs and then looks at Runealy. "Same thing here. I hear about something awful she's done, I remember something great she did. She's crazy. Maybe I'm crazy, though, for putting holes in WPS..." He lies back and sighs. "boy I hope she doesn't try sueing me for that." He giggles again and winces, light-headed.
Rento comes back in to join them. "OK, Kukai? Your brothers are coming - everybody wants to see you." He looks at Rune. "You're welcome to stay if you want."
"A truck?" Rune takes this literally. "Who was throwing trucks at you? ...Oh." Daichi manages to explain that one well. "I think, in some ways, we're all a little crazy. She'd just openly look the part if she took this before a magistrate or mediator," again with the unusual word choices.
"After all, nobody knows what you d--" She cuts off as Rento returns, nodding over to him. "Sure. Thank you!"