Todomatsu pulled his knees to his chest, sitting in the backseat of a taxicab next to Choromatsu, shaking like a leaf. Not only was he nervous, but he was also freezing cold.

"It'll be alright," Choromatsu attempted to comfort his sibling, though his eyes didn't even drift over to glance at his emotionally unstable brother. He just continued to scan the pages of a magazine full of worthless job opportunities. "You've been just fine in the past anyways. It's no big deal."

"Y-Yeah..." Todomatsu sighed, turning his head to look out the window. A man and woman were conversing with each other as they strolled down the busy sidewalks of Tokyo, hand in hand.

The woman, though Todomatsu was unable to hear her, giggled at something her boyfriend or even husband had just said.

"Is that what happiness looks like...? Is that what it's like to be loved...?" Todomatsu thought to himself. He tried to imagine seeing his deceased friend in that way, but he couldn't. "I wanted her to love me...yet..."

"Here's your stop, sir," the taxicab driver spoke sharply, twisting his neck around to look at Choromatsu.

Choromatsu let out a nervous yelp, throwing his magazine down by accident. He fumbled through his wallet nervously, his hands trembling as he pulled out 1,000 yen.

"I-I-I-Is this enough?!" Choromatsu squeaked.

The taxicab driver said nothing as he snatched the money from Choromatsu and motioned for them to get out.

Todomatsu peered out the window as Choromatsu ran around to his side of the door, opening it for him.

"D-D-Don't be nervous!" Choromatsu squeaked. Hospitals seemed to make him uneasy as well. "E-Everything is fine! This is just a t-t-test!"

"Stop acting so panicked..." Todomatsu sighed, sliding out of the cab, his legs like jelly. "You're making me..."

Todomatsu bent over and vomited on the sidewalk. He hadn't felt it coming until it was far too late.

"You're sick! See, it's g-g-good we're here!" Choromatsu exclaimed, careful not to step in the vomit as they walked side by side, entering the hospital. "This is a safe place."

"Safe? The hospital couldn't save Kinkai. The hospital hasn't been able to save many lives. I even have a vague memory of Ichimatsu dying here...yet he's still at home, so I assume that was just a dream..." Todomatsu hugged himself, holding his stomach in to avoid the pain he felt.

Choromatsu was already making the attempt to speak with one of the nurses, so Todomatsu just went on and sat down in the waiting room.

"Too pitiful," the figure spat, crawling out of Todomatsu's chest, sitting down next to him in a chair. "You're such a failure you've ended up here again. Such a disappointment. I don't blame any of your brothers for not loving you in the least! Hah! What good do you even do?"

"Stop..." Todomatsu hissed under his breath, trying to control his shaky voice. "You're not helping..."

"Me? Not helping you?" the figure chortled. "That's a really funny joke. You know, maybe you should give comedy a try."

"Please go away..." Todomatsu spoke quietly, praying nobody could hear him. He'd look even more insane than he already was if someone caught him talking to himself. "You're...not...helping..."

"I'm the reason you're still alive," the figure sighed. "But if you really don't want me, heck, I'll let you die. There's so many things wrong with you that doctors can't fix."

"Leave me alone!" Todomatsu yelled, standing up from the waiting room chair.

The entire waiting room, though it was already silent, seemed to grow even quieter from the man's outburst.

Choromatsu's mouth hung open, mainly from confusion as he paused his conversation with the nurse, staring directly at Todomatsu.

"How about we go on and get him a room ready," the nurse sighed heavily to Choromatsu. "He seems like a problem causer. We don't need outbursts like that in our waiting rooms. This is a place of peace and healing."

A few minutes later...

Todomatsu' doctor removed his latex gloves, tossing them in the trash as he whispered to his nurse to write something down.

The past few minutes for Todomatsu had been absolutely terrifying, and he was to the point of passing out now.

"May I..." Todomatsu breathed heavily, trying to stay calm. "l-lay down again...?"

"Yes, you may," the doctor replied. "I'll be back in just a moment. Your brother is allowed inside now, too."

Within seconds, the doctor left the room with his nurse, and Todomatsu was attempting to doze off to escape the fright he had experienced.

Meanwhile, as Choromatsu was walking back from the bathroom, he overheard Todomatsu's doctor speaking with the nurse in the next room over.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Choromatsu listened as well as he could.

"He doesn't have much longer. His heart appears to be in awful condition. But, it looks like that female heart experiment lasted longer than we expected to. With his physical condition now...it's be far too dangerous for him to undergo another heart transplant. There have been others who've experienced second, and even third transplants...but our patient here is difficult, you see," the doctor spoke in a hushed voice to his nurse.

Choromatsu sidestepped a little, leaning against the wall right by the room the doctor and nurse were speaking in.

His palms were sweaty as he tried to block out the words he was hearing. There was no way Todomatsu was that bad off.

"Did you notice the marks on his arms when I drew his blood?" the nurse asked the doctor. "He clearly isn't doing well mentally himself. The least we could do for him would be to send him to a therapist. If he finds out that he's going to die within a year, he'll probably just commit suicide."

"Are you sure he'd kill himself if he knew his time was already limited?" the doctor replied. "His personal life should mean nothing to us, too. Wether or not he gets mental help is up to him. All I know, is that he's going to die, surgery or not- he's not going to make it."

Choromatsu threw up a little in his mouth, wishing he could die at that moment.

"Todomatsu has always been our forgotten brother, hasn't he? We've always been so focused on Ichimatsu that we've forgotten what he's gone through as well...He's still aching for a better life, but it's a life he will never be given. That's just...not fair...and all this time, I've failed as a brother to even remind him that he matters..." Choromatsu thought. "We've been depriving Todomatsu of the happiness he's deserved...We never even made the attempt to comfort him in the least when his friend died..."