Rehabilitation Therapist for the Broken Warrior – Chapter 49

*******************

“Are you back with us, Zion?”

It was the day Zion had a seizure at the Hero Party Memorial Hall.

Somehow regaining consciousness, Zion found himself back at the palace with Now.

“This place is…”

“It’s my room. I thought it would be risky to keep you there.”

Zion was quietly sifting through his memories. He recalled wandering around the exhibit at the memorial hall, but from a certain point onward, he couldn’t remember what he had done.

“What do you mean risky? What did I do this time?”

“Well, you kept trembling and saying you were in pain, as if old memories were haunting you… so I calmed you down and brought you here.”

I see. I lost consciousness and had another seizure…

“Thanks, Now. I owe you my life.”

“Right? You can’t do without me, can you?”

Zion and Now exchanged gentle smiles as they looked at each other.

But suddenly, Zion seemed to recall something, and his expression darkened.

“Then the gift…”

The reason they went to the memorial hall was to pick a 100-day anniversary gift for Hop. If Zion could not visit, he wouldn’t be able to choose a gift.

“Zion. Here, take this.”

“What?”

Now, as if she had anticipated Zion’s reaction, pulled out a prepared item and placed it in his hand.

“Now, this is…!”

“Zion. I don’t know much about what Director Hop means to you. But earlier, when you were struggling, you kept asking for that person.”

“……”

What Now handed to Zion was a small, transparent sphere, even smaller than a baseball. From the center of the sphere, three beams of light extended, pointing somewhere.

“If you ever feel uneasy being far from someone, you can gift this and tell them to keep it with them. It’s also an antique we used. But that was only if that person was precious enough for Hop Harvey to give it.”

Zion stared at the sphere in his hand, deep in thought. He held the gift that Now had given him close to his heart.

“Thanks, Now. I’ll take this.”

Now’s expression as she watched Zion was complicated and subtle.

‘He really said he would accept that… It could be a relief, but…’

Amidst these tangled emotions, the item designated as Hop’s gift was…

***********

“What is this?”

The small wrapped object revealed a dazzling little sphere when opened.

“Four interconnected crystal spheres. They’re Iris’s relic.”

“Excuse me?”

Iris’s relic? Moreover, according to Zion’s explanation, this was an item mentioned in the original story.

When the four members of the Hero Party separated, they created it to find each other again.

Are you really giving me something like that as a gift?

“Since there’s no one to use them now. Please keep it, Teacher Hop.”

“Even so, something like this…”

“Please accept it. If you have it, I won’t feel uneasy.”

The three beams of light extending from the sphere pointed to the directions of the other connected crystal spheres. A tool that allows you to know where each other is, no matter how far apart.

If I have this, Zion can recognize where I am, even if we’re apart like now.

“Then I’ll gratefully accept it. I didn’t expect to receive something like this.”

“Do you know what it is? Oh, I wonder if Teacher Hop only knows the five-piece version?”

“I know. It’s a magical tool that reveals our locations.”

The three beams of light extending from here pointed in the directions of the other three crystal spheres.

The white light indicated where Zion was, the green light was HanaMana, and the yellow one pointed at Now.

Zion then rummaged under the bed and pulled out a crystal that was the same as the one I held.

As he brought the sphere from under the bed, the white light that was directed downward began to point towards the sphere in Zion’s hand.

And instead of white, a blue light from the sphere in Zion’s grasp pointed towards mine.

“Please keep it with you. So I can feel you, wherever you are, Teacher Hop.”

This small object felt overwhelmingly heavy to me. I never thought I would receive something like this.

As Zion said, since Iris is no longer in this world, there’s no one else to use this sphere, but still, to give this to me.

A magical tool that each member of the Hero Party carries to know each other’s locations.

Perhaps this is because Zion thinks of me as a companion, hence entrusting me with this.

“That’s right. It would be nice for me to always know where Zion is too.”

“?!”

Suddenly staring blankly at the light from the sphere, Zion was taken aback.

“I’m surprised that’s even possible!”

“Of course it’s possible.”

“Then, Teacher Hop, don’t look at it; just hold onto it. I’ll be the only one to see it.”

“It’s a shame that I won’t be able to see something so pretty.”

“Eh? Are you really not going to look?”

If I insist on doing what Zion tells me not to, I’ll just get scolded, so I decided to comply.

And it was surprisingly amusing to see Zion looking flustered when I said I wouldn’t look.

“You told me not to see it.”

“Well, I did, but… are you serious?”

“Of course, you don’t have to see it.”

“Why…?”

“This sphere is precious, but if we aren’t apart, we won’t really need it.”

“……”

Once I announced that I wouldn’t look at the sphere, Zion’s flustered expression morphed into one of blankness.

“That makes sense.”

“Right?”

As long as we see each other every day, we won’t have a reason to use this.

This time, I had to go out on a business trip alone, but I should do my best to ensure this doesn’t happen again… No, perhaps it’s best to take Zion along, even if he struggles a bit, to make sure such a situation never occurs again.

“If it was that hard for Zion, then I won’t let you be apart ever again.”

“Absolutely. This time, it’s definitely a promise?”

“Ugh, I feel like I slipped up with my words…”

Before I could finish, Zion had grabbed my empty hand.

Now we sat side by side, holding our respective spheres in one hand and quietly grasping each other’s hands on my lap.

“I guess I have to hold on tight to prevent you from going anywhere.”

“You know I won’t go anywhere, even if you don’t.”

“After I believed that, I ended up struggling way too much. So, I’m not letting go now.”

“……”

“I’m going to turn off the lights~”

The night-shift nurse maid went around the corridors to signal the end of the hour, but we didn’t move.

As soon as the lights went out, we sat there without exchanging a word, without even thinking, just leaning against each other, savoring the warmth of our clasped hands and gazing blankly at the two spheres that were glowing for one another.

********

“Wait? Iris’s light…?”

On the second day of Hop’s business trip, HanaMana returned home and noticed a small anomaly on her desk.

Naturally, HanaMana possessed the Hero Party’s spheres, too.

Currently, it wasn’t wartime, and to HanaMana, Now and Zion were merely past companions, so her sphere sat atop her desk like a souvenir or decoration.

Then, HanaMana noticed that the blue light representing Iris was pointing in a different direction than usual.

Since Now was keeping Iris’s sphere, their blue light and the yellow light would always overlap, but after coming home, she found that Iris’s blue light was intersecting with Zion’s white light.

‘Zion took Iris’s sphere. Why is that?’

The sphere was an item for confirming where everyone was. If Zion needed that, it was obvious he would give it to someone.

Someone he wants to always know the whereabouts of. If he had such a person in mind…

‘There’s only Hop-senpai. He must have given the sphere to you.’

HanaMana felt a twinge of surprise.

What kind of person is Hop to Zion? Is he really someone who can be entrusted with Iris’s relic?

That means, what HanaMana had seen at the restaurant back then…

“Did they really act like that, but HanaMana walked in cluelessly and pretended it was a seizure…!”

That wouldn’t happen, especially not from Zion.

HanaMana sat at the desk where the sphere lay, resting her chin on both hands, staring blankly at the sphere.

In any case, the new owner of this blue light is Hop Harvey.

Though she hadn’t confirmed it definitively… it was reasonable to believe so, right?

“Ugh…”

In this now peaceful world after the war, the former members of the Hero Party—Zion, Now, and HanaMana—were all going their separate ways.

They had sworn to do so, promising not to deeply involve themselves in each other’s lives anymore…

‘Should I really let this decision go? That Zion received it means he told Now about it, but does that mean Now agreed with this decision?’

Knowing well what sort of existence Iris had been to Zion, HanaMana’s doubts and suspicions deepened.

Given how clumsy HanaMana usually was, if time were given, she’d likely prove to be the most cautious of the Hero Party.

‘I need to hear from Now and Zion. As Zion’s companion and as a rehabilitation expert, I have to accurately assess Zion’s condition.’

HanaMana, just like Hop, had not had a chance to use the overflowing vacation time since she participated in the establishment of the center.

And now, she was planning her very first vacation since becoming the director of the Rehabilitation Medicine Center.