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nilielhRating : PG
Pairing : Ohno/Nino
Disclaimer : fiction, yo!
Summary : On the day Japan was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami, the Jimusho gathered all of its artist for a headcount. All were present except for one : Arashi's Leader, Ohno Satoshi, was missing.
Note : This took place during the 2011 earthquake.
“I think this is the one,” Sho said, counter-checking the coordinates on his phone and the itinerary Nino’s manager had sent on Nino’s phone as Julie-san’s contact slowed to a stop in front of Hotel Route Inn.
“Well, Ji-chan did say this is the only hotel amongst the clutter of hotels around the area that is cheap, clean, and idol-friendly.”
Sho snorted. “Just the way he knew you like it, then?”
“Oh, totally.” He agreed with a good-natured wink, putting his face-mask on to cover half of his face as he reached for the passenger’s door. “I know what you’re going to say, Sho-chan,” he said, before Sho could even open his mouth to talk. “and for the nth time, I promise I’ll be fine. I’ll send you mails from time to time, and call too, yes, I swear. I won’t starve myself, I’ll sleep when I have to and I’ll tell you ahead of time when I’m coming back. So quit the worrying and go, okay? Okay?”
The expression on Sho’s face told him he wasn’t the slightest bit convinced but figured Nino was right anyway. Nino completely understood Sho’s unconscious desire to keep them close, smother them with his barely-concealed affection while worrying himself silly especially during this time when one of them was missing but Nino also needed Sho to understand that he had to do this alone. To figure things out for himself the way he supposed he had to.
“If anything comes up –“
“I’ll call you.” he finished Sho’s phrase for him, reaching out to squeeze Sho’s forearm gratefully. Then he was pushing the door open and stepping out of the car, his footsteps filled with purpose as he closed the car’s door behind him and started walking.
+
The hotel room he checked in to hold not much difference from those others Nino had checked in to before. The standard-sized bed, the mahogany-colored floors and walls, the dim lights (which were probably remote-controlled), even the dresser attached to the wall; the bathroom-slash-shower seemed larger, probably because of the presence of a bathtub inside it but Nino wasn’t at all interested. He simply did an impromptu inspection just for the heck of it, and then he was throwing himself on the bed once he was sure that the door was locked, staring at the ceiling and wondering what in hell he was doing.
Well, he did know; he was the one who decided about it, after all, but being here suddenly made him feel like he was plowing towards an unknown territory with a blindfold on, and he was simply relying on his instinct as he made his way through hoping he wouldn’t fall. It was also difficult to make sense of everything that had happened – from the time he received that creepy call to the moment he stood right in front of that payphone trying not to freak out – and braving the consequences by sticking to his decision to stay back even when his common sense told him to run the opposite direction.
He couldn’t, despite the fact that he probably should have listened to Sho and just went back with him to Tokyo. He would if he could, but somehow, that was simply out of the question. He had to stay, and that was that. Confusing or not, he had to stay and figure out what was about this place that made him feel like he was definitely at the right place even though he wasn’t sure why.
With that thought in mind, Nino didn’t realize he drifted off until he did, waking up to the unfamiliar sounds of a female’s voice talking rapidly from a distance.
He opened his eyes and realized he was standing in front of an Emergency Room. This certainly baffled him because for one, he didn’t remember falling asleep anywhere near a hospital and then suddenly waking up in one? He was probably dreaming, he told himself, had fairly convinced himself that he really was dreaming when, suddenly, someone – a doctor, presumably – appeared out of nowhere, then charged towards the Emergency Room shouting something. Nino found himself moving from the spot he’d been glued on, heart thudding in his chest, his curiousity winning as he tried to take a peek from the slightly opened door.
He couldn’t see much from where he was but it was obvious in the way the lady doctor was moving, quick and precise, that she was attending someone lying motionless on the bed. There were more shouting, a nurse on standby handing over things at her every command, but somehow, Nino’s gaze landed on the patient’s foot, particularly of the patient’s shoe, hanging limply on the edge of the bed.
Something in Nino’s chest clicked at the sight of it and before he realized it, he was running towards the Emergency Room’s door, screaming.
… and woke up to the sounds of someone banging the front door apart from the sound of his own screaming voice.
The pounding resumed even when Nino’s screams didn’t.“Hello? Hello? Excuse me, are you okay? Hello?”
He struggled to his feet, already trying to think of an alibi as he made his way to the door. He was sweating like mad, chest heaving hard. It was going to be seriously difficult explaining himself to whoever was on the door but to hell with it.
When he reached the door, he yanked it open and jumped back to avoid the cleaning lady’s fist hitting him square on the face.
“Oh my god, dear, are you okay?” the lady asked, looking stressed. Nino didn’t know what to say at first but figured it was best to come up with something believable before she went on and call security.
He bowed his head as quickly as he could manage it and offered his sincerest apologies, hoping against hope that she didn’t recognize him or else he would be forced to check out the second she walked off.
“I’m okay, I’m sorry for causing you trouble,” he said, keeping his voice low, his eyes on the ground. He held his phone for her to see and mumbled, in a voice he wished was pissed enough, “I just found out that my girl friend was cheating on me. I was fighting with her on the phone, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, you poor dear,” the cleaning lady exclaimed.
“It’s fine,” he followed, bowing low; he was also doing the shoulder-shake thing on purpose, the quivering chin, too, knowing that a broken-hearted and sobbing guest was the last thing an hotel employee would want to deal with. “I s-swear I’ll be fine. I’ll just – I’ll just –“
Her hand, when it came up to squeeze his shoulder, was warm and firm. “Of course, dear, of course. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call the Reception’s desk for assistance, okay?”
He nodded, sniffing. “I’ll do that. Thank you.” he said, closing the door behind him the second she stepped away and leaning himself heavily against it, breathing hard.
Once he was sure he was able to talk without stuttering, he whipped his phone out and dial Julie-san’s PI’s number, slapping the phone to his ear waiting for the call to connect.
It only took two rings. “It’s me,” he said. “Meet me at the dining room in ten, yes, upstairs. I need you to check something for me.”
+
“No, of course not, Jun, I’m not that stupid,” he grumbled, shoving his room keycard into the back pocket of his jeans just as he entered the dining room. Nino noted the lack of crowd, feeling vaguely grateful for it as he scanned the few occupied tables for Julie-san’s PI.
He spotted him at the very corner, waving at him; at the other end of the line, Jun was still mumbling something about dragging him home after he’d shoved him into Jun’s luggage.
He chuckled. “Something is seriously wrong with you and Sho-chan,” he commented drily. The joke wasn’t lost on him and he much preferred it if those two would stop treating him like a goddamn child. Jun huffed in answer and proceeded on telling him never to compare him to Sho’s stupid way of dealing with things, most especially the way he dealt with a bandmate who decided to do equally stupid things on his own.
“I don’t want to hear that from you, Nino!” Jun grumbled, obviously pissed. Nino would have felt bad for worrying his friends if not for the fact that he wasn’t doing this just because he felt like it. Not really. It was more than that, of course, but trying to explain it all would be difficult since he was sure they wouldn’t even understand it.
“I’m not coming home until I figure out what the hell is up with this place. I’ll call you guys when I find something. Bye.” He hung up before Jun could protest, taking the few deciding steps towards the waiting PI.
“Thank you for coming,” he said, even though he really didn’t have to. It was the man’s job to meet with him when he needed him to, after all.
The man waved him off with a curt nod. “What is this thing you want me to check for you?” the man asked, sounding rather impatient. He clearly wasn’t someone who liked to mess around, someone who got the job done as soon as he was handed it. Nino liked him.
He nodded, tersely, as he unlocked his phone, opened the website he was checking out earlier and slid it forward for the man to see.
“This is a list of all the hospitals in Fukui,” the man said, meeting his eyes. If he was confused, he was good at hiding it.
“Yes.”
The man frowned. “And?”
“I want all of them checked,”
The man’s frown deepened. “For what?”
“For who,” he pointed out. “I’m sure Julie-san already prompted you about our missing friend. We have leads in Tokyo but even now, nothing’s concrete. I have a feeling we’re looking at the wrong place so when I received that call, I knew I had to come down here.”
“Ninomiya-san, I don’t –“
“I know this is going to sound crazy but I need you to trust me,” he said, a touché desperate. “Someone or something led me here, for reasons I have yet to understand but I’m pretty fucking sure this is the place where I should start looking. I don’t understand it either, and I don’t know how else to explain it without making me look like I just lost all of the remaining working screws in my head but if you will just bear with me, that will be absolutely fantastic.” He said.
The man looked two seconds away from considering leaving him and Nino found himself bracing himself. Then, to Nino’s surprise, the man shook his head with an almost imperceptible look on his face and heaved a sigh, leaning back against his chair, arms crossed over his chest.
“Okay,” the man said. “I’m listening. You sure look like you’re going with your gut feeling here and I can say I know how confusing it is sometimes. You want to tell me how this started and where you want me to begin looking?”
He nodded, feeling more than a little confident as he pointed at the name on his phone’s screen.
“Sure, but later.” he said. “For now, tell me, do you know anyone in Fukui University Hospital? I want you to start there.”
