What is this life?

What is this Life?

Chapter 28

Warning- violent content! And Thanks to Dekapacide for clarifying some details for me!

Tohma crashes his car through the front gate of Ryuichi's property, speeds up the drive and slams into the back of Ryuichi's limo. The airbags on his Rolls Royce explode in his face forcing Tohma's head to be thrown back against the headrest. He's momentarily dazed but quickly snaps back to life, not even a broken nose is enough to deter him in his mission. He wipes the blood from his dripping nose on his coat sleeve and he reaches over to open the glove compartment. Once it's open, he takes a silver 9mm Luger from the compartment and removes the safety. Reeling back slightly from a sudden onset of dizziness, Tohma sits for a minute holding the gun in his right hand. Tohma studies the weapon in his hand and verbalizes his thoughts, "I'm going to kill the little bastard once and for all. He's been nothing but trouble since the day he got here."

Tohma takes a deep breath and steels his free hand against the steering wheel. He looks at the gun in his other hand and puts it in his coat pocket. Once his mind and body are able to coordinate, he opens the driver's door and stumbles out of the Rolls leaving the door wide open. Leaning against the driver's side passenger door, he steadies himself and works his way around the back of the car. As he makes his way up the steps to the front door he’s met by Tatsuha who has come to see what the crashing sound was. Tohma pushes Tatsuha to the side causing his young brother-in-law to fall into the grass. Ignoring Tatsuha's condition, Tohma forges forward and barges in the front door.

As Tohma enters the mansion he trips on the slightly raised threshold and lunges forward, catching himself on the end of the marble table in the middle of the foyer. Once he regains his composure, he uses his hands to steady himself as he makes his way around the table and towards the dual staircase. Grasping the banister, he climbs up the stairs and down the hall towards Ryuichi's suite.

He leans his shoulder against the wall outside Ryuichi's doors to gather his thoughts.. He reaches into his pocket and extracts the Luger and using two hands slides a bullet into the chamber, a distinct clicking sound echoing in the vacant hallway. Taking a deep breath, Tohma stands back and with one mighty kick breaks the left-hand side door open breaking it off its hinges.

Ryuichi is talking to Shuichi and Hiro when he hears the door crashing to the floor behind him and quickly makes an about-face. He sees Tohma standing there panting with the gun pointed directly at Shuichi. Panic freezes Ryuichi in place as he watches the events unfold in slow motion. He hears Tohma screaming, “SHINDOU, YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A PAIN IN THE ASS SINCE I FIRST LAID EYES ON YOU……….DIE!” As if in a nightmare sequence in some movie, he sees Tohma raise the gun and aim at Shuichi, and then a loud explosion is heard.

Ryuichi moves his eyes from the gun towards Shuichi who is standing a few feet away. As he sees the flash from the gun’s barrel, Ryuichi leaps over and pushes his lover to the side, knocking the smaller man to the floor bellowing out, “SHUICHI, NO!.” As Shuichi falls over the bullet makes contact with Ryuichi, striking him in the throat. The force of the impact forces Ryuichi to fall back and sideways where he lands on carpet right in front of a prone Shuichi.

Just as the gun is discharged, Tohma is tackled from behind by Tatsuha who has finally made his way back into the house in pursuit of the enraged Tohma. Tohma falls forward with Tatsuha square on his back reaching forward to grab the gun from Tohma’s hand. Tohma lands face-down on the carpet and is knocked unconscious.

Shuichi screams, “RYU! NO!”, as he scrambles over to his bleeding lover.

Hiro rushes over to the prone and semi-conscious Ryuichi. He sees blood gushing from the front of Ryuichi’s throat just a little to the right of Ryuichi’s Adam’s apple and exclaims, “OH MY GOD, NO, RYU!”

Tatsuha raises his body off Tohma and rushes over to Ryuichi’s side. He yells for Hiro to call for an ambulance as he reaches in his pocket and takes out a handkerchief. He pushes the cloth against the bleeding wound in Ryuichi’s neck and applies as much pressure as he can to hold back the bleeding but not strangle him.

Hiro grabs a cell phone from a nearby table and calls for the ambulance then drops the phone and rushes over to Ryuichi’s side. All three younger men are crowding around Ryuichi who is trying desperately to breathe and talk. “Shu …. i….chi?” is all he can get out.

Shuichi leans down and lets Ryuichi see his face. As tears stream down his face Shuichi whispers, “I’m here, Ryu. Don’t try and talk. I’m ok.” Shuichi looks up to Hiro who is on his knees next to Ryuichi’s side. Shuichi begs for some kind of reassurance from his friend, “Tell me he’s going to be okay, Hiro! Tell me he’s going to be okay!” He looks back at Ryuichi and cries out, “WHY? Why did you do it? Why didn’t you just let him shoot me?”

Ryuichi looks at the crying form above him and tries to speak. It’s faint but he’s able to eke out, “I couldn’t let you die, it’s my fault.”

Shuichi sits there, horror written all over his face. His lover took the bullet to save his life. Shuichi drops his head down until his forehead is touching Ryuichi’s forehead. He takes his two small hands and wraps them around Ryuichi’s cheeks and just cries out, “Don’t you die on me, I love you!”

After what seems like an eternity, three paramedics run into the room, one carrying a big case of medical supplies. Two of the paramedics push Shuichi and Hiro back as the third places his hand over the clothed-hand that is pressed against Ryuichi’s throat. A calming voice is heard next to Tatsuha’s head, “I’ll take it from here, sir. Let go.”

Tatsuha slides his hand out from underneath the paramedic’s and he falls back onto his heels, sitting there watching the trained medical personnel do their job. He looks down at his blood-soaked hand and then starts to cry. The impact of the situation finally takes hold of him. He turns to see the prone Tohma starting to stir and lunges over towards him. He yells, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

Tohma wrestles with Tatsuha for several minutes being punched about the head and body continuously. He’s finally able to get free from Tatsuha’s death grip on his neck. Shocked eyes widen as he stares at his best friend lying on the floor being worked on by the paramedics.

Shortly thereafter the paramedics pull back from their patient. Ryuichi is lying on his back, thick dressings oozing with his precious blood wrapped around the wounded throat. There’s an IV needle and tube hanging out of one arm and a bag of some kind of clear liquid being held up on a makeshift stand. Two of the paramedics run out and return moments later with a stretcher. On a “1-2-3” the three trained medical personnel lift Ryuichi’s limp body onto the stretcher. Once the IV stand is placed in a corner of the stretcher, the safety straps are buckled and the men head out the door to the waiting ambulance.

Shuichi rushes after the men, “I’m going with him!”

Hiro pursues the group exclaiming that he is going too.

Tatsuha punches Tohma in the stomach causing the older man to double over. Tatsuha jumps up and chases his exiting family, leaving Tohma on the floor.

The paramedics get Ryuichi in the back of the ambulance and before the doors can close, three interlopers jump in behind the paramedic that is attending the injured Ryuichi. The paramedic looks over his shoulder at the three young men who are gaping at Ryuichi. He knows it’s futile to try and get the others out of the ambulance so he just calmly tells them, “Sit down and let me do my job, please.” He turns his attention back to Ryuichi so his drifting in and out of consciousness. He smiles at his patient and tries to reassure him, “You’ll be fine.”

Ryuichi looks over at his three crying lovers. He sees how much the really care for him. He blinks a couple of times and tries to raise a hand towards the three, but the straps are restraining him.

Hiro looks over at the attempted motion and reaches around the paramedic, taking hold of the clammy fingers of the injured man. He gives a weak smile and says, “It’ll be okay Ryuichi. We aren’t going anywhere without you. Just hold on.” Ryuichi gives a slight grasp on Hiro’s hand and passes out.

The ambulance speeds out of the mansions gates with lights on and sirens blaring. It will take about twenty minutes to get to the hospital.

Meanwhile back in Ryuichi’s suite, Tohma sits on the floor with his hands clutching his stomach. The events that just unfolded swirling in his head like some gigantic whirlpool. He replays over and over how he aimed at Shuichi and as the bullet went speeding towards the pink haired man, Ryuichi jumped in front of it and took the bullet in the throat. Tohma raises his hands to his face and sobs. He tried to kill the man that has caused him such turmoil and instead may have killed the person he holds dearest to his heart.

As he keeps rerunning the events in his head he comes to a realization that Ryuichi is more than just a master to his slaves. The way he reacted, the way he looked, those were all things that only a man who loves someone would do. He buries his head in his hands and sinks further into the floor and cries out over and over again, “What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?


The ambulance pulls into the semicircular area outside the emergency room doors at the trauma hospital. The siren is silenced and the flashing lights go off. After the motor is quieted, the back doors swing wide and the two paramedics that were in the front reappear. One of the men yells to Shuichi and company to get out. The three men jump out of the back and stand off to the side of the opened doors and watch as the stretcher is pulled out of the back of the ambulance. Once the stretcher carrying the critically wounded Ryuichi is on the ground, the attendants rush through the hospital doors marked AMBULANCES ONLY. The doors close quickly behind the last man through the doors.

Hiro grabs Shuichi’s arm and pulls him to an adjoining door. Tatsuha looks over and follows as the three make their way to the nurses’ station. Hiro designates himself as the spokesman for the group. “We want to go back with him. When can we go back with him?”

The nurse looks up at the three harried men and bit perturbed asks, “Who are you and who are your talking about?”

Hiro gets impatient and practically screams, “Ryuichi Sakuma, he was just brought in by the ambulance!”

The nurse perks her head towards the closed doors to her left. “Sakuma-san is here? What happened?”

Hiro glares daggers at the perplexed woman. He is about to jump over the desk when Tatsuha puts his hands on Hiro’s shoulders. In an uneven tone he says, “Calm down Hiro. She doesn’t know what just happened.” Tatsuha looks at the nurse and continues, “Sakuma-san was accidentally shot about a half hour ago. The paramedics just took him in the back there. We’re with him.”

Being as professional as possible, but still flustered by the fact that the great Ryuichi Sakuma has been shot, the nurse tells the men to sit down and she will check on him. She gets up and after running her badge/passkey through the electronic lock, she disappears behind the two wooden doors.

Shuichi paces back and forth in the seating area adjacent to the nurses’ station as he keeps a watchful eye on the closed doors. His patience is non-existent as he keeps asking, “Where is she. What’s taking so long?”

Hiro and Tatsuha are also impatient but know that it’s going to take a few minutes before they hear any news. Hiro grasps Shuichi’s forearm the next time he walks back within arm’s reach. “Settle down, Shuichi. There’s nothing more we can do now, it’s up to the doctors.”

Intolerable time ticks on the clock as the three continue their vigil in the hospital waiting area. Ten minutes after the nurse disappeared she comes out from the closed off trauma center. She casually walks up to Tatsuha to speak. “Sakuma-san requires surgery to repair the damage to his throat. We need to get medical consent to operate. Who do we contact?”

Tatsuha stands up and pulls his wallet from his back pants pocket. As he takes out a folded piece of paper he stares at it and then hands it to her. It’s a power of attorney form, something which Tatsuha never anticipated using. “I’m the person responsible for Sakuma-san. Where’s the papers I have to sign?” Tatsuha follows the nurse to her desk where she hands him some forms and indicates where to sign. Once the papers are signed, the nurse disappears back into the trauma section leaving the others to wonder what’s going to happen next.

That question is soon answered when the wooden doors swing open and a gurney carrying the unconscious Ryuichi is quickly moved down the hall by two green-clad men. The nurse comes out behind the gurney and approaches the assembled group that is gaping at the sight of Ryuichi being wheeled away. “Gentlemen, they are taking him to the surgical unit. If you come with me, I will show you where to wait. Be aware that it’s going to be quite some time before you know anything. The damage seems quite extensive to Sakuma-san’s throat and surrounding tissues. It’s going to be touch and go to see if he even survives the surgery.”

Shuichi grabs Hiro’s arm to keep from falling over as he hears the news about just how badly his friend and lover is injured. Tatsuha and Hiro are visibly shaken but are able to maintain some decorum. They all listen to the words and then silently follow the nurse to the other waiting area.

TBC