Chapter Text
when i was 12 years old i died. my body was crushed under the weight of a kei truck.
i died on impact, my ribs smashed in like a rotting door and my skull shattered like a mishandled snow globe. the driver had lost control of his vehicle, and a failure in its breaks caused the truck to careen towards me. he had tried to turn out of the way, causing the truck to make impact and drift leftwards, making a large sweeping motion like window wipers. it spun 168 degrees, smearing burnt rubber and carnage against the street, screaming and screaming until it jolted and came to a stop.
the driver didn’t exit his vehicle, but he didn’t pull away either. he sat horrified, staring ahead of him aimlessly with ragged breathing. when he believed he could produce any other sound from his mouth, he called an ambulance.
when the paramedics arrived, there was no need to inspect my body. i had been torn apart: different parts of me had caught the grill and the tires and the underbelly of the vehicle, torn and smashed as the truck made a clockwise rotation around my initial point of origin. bits of me were strewn about the floor. there was no corpse to inspect, only carrion.
three bodies were retrieved from the wreckage.
the mangled remains of mine, the drivers, who became unresponsive when he exited the vehicle, and hibiya’s.
from where he was standing, he should’ve died. and in a way, i suppose he did. my arm had been torn from the grasp of his hand, and by all means, the truck should’ve hit him. i’m certain it did hit him. that’s when he first died. but he did not sustain injury. he instead, as one of the paramedics assumed, stumbled backwards, out of the way of the vehicle, but was hit by the back of the truck as it swung around. he was tossed like waste, discarded into the street, his arm shattered and broken in three spots, his ribs cracked, his ankle twisted, his head concussed when he landed in the pit of remains, both dead and vehicular. he was unconscious, but breathing. he was recovered in critical condition and transported to the nearest hospital.
there were two key witnesses. two teenagers. one was unresponsive and the other was incomprehensible. they too were taken by the emergency responders, deemed too unwell to leave behind.
hibiya died that day. he died with me. he died several times before and several times after. the person his parents knew from birth to his 11 years of age was torn to shreds with my body.
when he woke up three hours later in the real word, he screamed. he had entered consciousness like a newborn, his body fresh with the feeling of being drenched in blood.