I was woken up by a constant, insistent bang on our front door.
I got up, grunting with the effort, as I used my right hand to roughly rub all over my tired face.
I instinctively looked over at the broken, taped-up analog clock hanging crookedly in its usual corner; its hands said - 6:19 AM.
I then turned to Genji, who was just staring at me from his mat, and he said, very weakly, "… I …I would have ans… answered… the door if, if I could…"
He's okay enough to be joking now… that's a good sign.
"Just rest, Genji. You really need it," I said softly, inwardly, incredibly thankful that he'd managed to pull through whatever the hell that was.
As I slowly walked towards the rattling door, I noticed four small, indistinct 'things' hovering in the top-left corner of my left eye's vision.
They seemed to be just hanging there in the air, shimmering faintly.
I turned my head sharply to try and get a clear view of these strange 'things,' but they moved instantly with my gaze, still retaining their exact position - now in the left bottom of my left eye, one hovering on top of the other.
I moved my head again, trying to face them directly, but they still moved, always staying just out of direct sight.
I repeated this frustrating exercise again and again until Genji suddenly called out, his voice thin, "Oniisan…Why… What's up with you?"
I just looked over at him and replied softly, trying to keep the confusion out of my tone, "Nothing."
I noticed those damn 'things' still retained their fixed position in my peripheral vision.
I walked up to him, bending my face closer to his while asking, "Is there something *in* my left eye? Like, stuck in there?"
"No." He replied with total affirmation.
I stared at him for like two solid seconds, searching his face for any reason to doubt his word, before walking back towards the still-banging door as I found nothing.
I mean, if Genji can't clearly see the shit I'm seeing right now, then I must be fucking hallucinating… Fuck, I AM finally losing it for real.
Guess my life choice is finally catching up with me with full force.
I simply decided to ignore those persistent 'things' for now and, with a surge of annoyance, walked to the door to finally answer the persistent fucker that was knocking so damn loud.
When I wrenched the door open, I was genuinely surprised to see who was standing on the other side.
It was Daigo, and he was practically holding up Eiji, who looked up at me with lazy, unfocused eyes.
Eiji looked as drunk as gin itself and roughed up as all hell.
His school uniform was torn all over the place and caked with dirt.
He had a deep, already swelling cut just above his eyebrow, definitely from a solid punch, not something sharp like a knife.
His right arm was wrapped limply around Daigo's left shoulder, and he was mumbling incoherently about something I couldn't really hear well or make any sense of.
I then looked back at Daigo and was a bit surprised to see his own eyes wide open in what looked like full-blown shock.
But before I could open my mouth to ask what was wrong, Eiji let go of Daigo (and promptly fell like a sack of shit to the floor) and then Daigo lunged forward and hugged me, hard.
"Fuck!!! Shitsubo, I really thought you were diced up for sure, my man!
Fuck! I can't fuckin' believe you are actually standing here, alive!" he said, his voice thick with emotion, as he pulled back but still had his hands grabbing onto my two shoulders, like he wanted to make absolutely sure he wasn't seeing things or something.
"It will take a hell of a lot more than a fucking missile and some machine guns to kill me," I said with a weak, tired smirk.
"Fuck Yeah!" Daigo yelled, a wide grin spreading across his face.
He then put his arm around my neck in a rough, friendly gesture and said, "C'mon, man, let's go do something. I feel like fucking celebrating your undead ass!"
"Chill, Daigo. I can't celebrate right now. I need coins, remember?" I asked rhetorically, then suggested, "I do have some urgent runs that you might be able to help me out with. Will that place you sell your elixir at be open by this time of morning?"
"Yeah… Maybe… I don't fucking know for sure, man, but they usually open up every damn day," Daigo replied, finally letting go of my neck.
I walked back inside for a second and grabbed my backpack, then told Daigo, "Let's go then."
I nodded briefly at Genji, who had managed to sit himself upright and nodded weakly back to me.
Then, I and Daigo carefully stepped over Eiji's sprawled, unconscious form.
As we were approaching the rickety stairs leading down from our floor, Daigo asked, his curiosity getting the better of him, "So, seriously, how *did* you survive a fucking RPG hit, man?", and I just responded with a deadpan, "With magic."
This caused Daigo to laugh wildly, a loud, booming sound, while smacking my back hard, repeatedly.