"-trying to send Nanako-chan back to the hospital?!"

But then the phone rang... and I recognized the number immediately.

"Hello?"
"Narukami? This is Adachi. Um... I want you to stay calm and listen to me, okay?"

What could be going on that was so urgent and troubling that he'd--

Oh.

Oh, no-

"Nanako-chan's condition suddenly got worse..."

I could feel my heart dropping, fear for her growing more and more as everything else but it was growing dimmer in my mind. I could feel them all staring at me, but my eyes couldn't register it. I could only mouth out her name...

'Nanako...'

Adachi continued speaking, but all I could hear was him saying "-come to the hospital immediately."

Numbly, I agreed before quickly explaining to the others. Of course, it was Yosuke who noticed my inner panic first and acted on it. Soon enough, we were in a cab racing toward Inaba Municipal. Everything from then and before standing around her hospital bed was a blur as we all stood there, listening to the voices coming from outside and trying to keep ourselves together. I could only stare at Nanako's pained face as the doctor explained. All of this paranoia from the fog...

...My heart sunk even lower as my uncle screamed in frustration and pain. He'd gone through so much with losing his wife, my aunt and Nanako's mother. Neither one of them deserved this, and hearing those words repeated again.

"-please save Nanako..."

There's really nothing I can do...?

My own face contorts in worry. There's nothing I can do but try to support them both like I have this entire time.

I didn't want to leave her side... not again... Not when she-

'Nanako......'

As the others are lost in grief and worry, I do my best to support them too because I know... Nanako's important to all of us.

"We all feel the same way." Please, stop beating yourself up Kanji... and Yosuke, don't yell at Teddie. He's trying his best, too. No one deserves this pain, and I know you don't handle loss well, but please...

"Why'd it turn out like this?" indeed...

'Nanako...'

We all couldn't handle it when Adachi said that they wouldn't be able to make the charges for his crimes stick. ...Why? We all knew he was the one who killed them, right? He was the one who threw Nanako and the others in-! Wasn't he?!

Wasn't...

... The reason they took him off the list of suspects in the first case. It was him being in the city at the time, right? Far away from when the time of death occurred? Yet he'd definitely done this to my friends and my own family... and I can't let that slide if something were to-

KANJI, STOP-! WE ARE NOT THROWING ADACHI INTO THE TV!

Just as Rise beats me to the punch, a nurse runs out from Nanako's room.

"Is Nanako-chan's family here?" I raise my head, the fear pulsing through my very core at those very words. "Hurry inside! Please talk to her!"

...It wasn't even thirty minutes when they called me back into room 404. A room I'd spent so many nights cleaning as one of their part-time janitorial staff. How I wish I could just talk to Sayoko right now, to hear her determination to save others once more.

Instead I was rushing to be by her side, clinging to the side of her bed until my knuckles turned white as though afraid if I reached out to touch her she would slip through my fingers as though her hand were made of sand.

"Daddy..."

Her tiny, agonized voice was like a knife through the heart, but I held back the sob that threatened to leave me. Instead, I-

"He'll be here soon."

The pain in the words she tried to make... I couldn't even hear the doctor try to call out for her. All I could hear was that uncle was on his way as well. The tears were already forming as the beeps from her heart monitor were speeding up and then slowing down, erratic... I had been in hospitals long enough to know what that meant.

"Big... bro..."

"I'm right here."

Nanako's sad, hurting smile... It was something I had never wanted to see. Something I couldn't protect her from... Without hesitating any longer, I grasped one of her frail, tiny hands in both of my own, calloused ones. Hands that had caught her when she fell, did magic tricks to cheer her up...

"Daddy..."

"Hang in there, Nanako!" I force myself to smile. Something that had been so easy when I was in drama club. Why was it so hard to smile, now?

Why now, when she needs my help most... Why can't I-?

"I even looked at some kotatsu. Let's go buy one together, okay?"

Please... don't leave us, Nanako. Don't leave me and uncle...

"Remember our promise? We're going to make snowmen when it snows. We promised to play together a lot!"

It's growing harder and harder to keep the sobs from my voice; it's betraying me. Yet I continue to speak for fear of losing her. One of the few people I could sympathize the most. Someone who'd given me hope that one day, I could mend the relationship between myself and my own parents.

"We promised!"

"Big bro..."

Her voice is getting weaker... I try to squeeze her tiny hand in a silent promise. She must be as scared as I am...

I'll stay with you forever... just don't leave me... Nanako...

"Big bro...I'm... scared..."

There's... nothing I can...

"Big bro... Da...ddy..."

...

My quiet sobs were drowned out by the sounds of the monitors blaring in our ears that, screaming that she had gone into cardiac arrest as her eyes closed and cheek fell to the side.