Chapter 3

Yumi had heard that the surgery had finished around the time of the end of the match. Yoshino-san's father had heard this and gone red in the face as he was appearing in his city hall meeting. The surgery was a total success and she was in good spirits, her father who had just come back from the hospital told everyone.

After the match, Yumi could not just stay at home, so she decided to go to the hospital, and talked to Yoshino-san's mother outside the nurse station.

``I'm sorry but, Yoshino is sleeping right now. But, do you want to see her sleeping?''

``Well, after the surgery she was put into ICU, so ......''

``Come back later to see her. It's just that, she looks a little frail now with the tubes connected to her.''

``......''

There was no point lying. Yoshino-san's heart surgery was hard on her. They would speak like this just to put the patient at ease.

Yumi wanted to see Yoshino-san sleeping, but suddenly an image of Rei-sama floated to her mind, and she resolved that she would wait. If she were to so easily meet Yoshino-san, then it would be rude to Rei-sama who had been waiting for much longer to meet Yoshino-san.

It seemed like she had heard Yoshino-san say ``The kendo match'' as she woke from amnesia, but then she went back into a deep sleep.

``So, how was the match?''

Yoshino-san's mother asked but, she changed her mind and said ``Don't answer that question.'' and smiled.

``If we learned about how the match went before Yoshino-san wakes up, then she would be angry at us.''

Yumi thought that Yoshino-san's mother was very insightful.