The Gifted Vol.5 - The Death In the North Ward

By Ryosuke Akizuki

A rumor on the Internet said, “Death lives in that hospital.” Strange accidents and mysterious diseases were taking away lives in the north ward of City East General Hospital. Moreover, even a survivor of a suicide attempt out of despair, died right after that unnaturally. To investigate such a wicked series of incidents, Yoma Fialka, an exorcist, was dispatched to the hospital.

With the help of Yoma, an exotically beautiful girl and Milo’s longtime friend, the four gifted found the traces of “The Death In the North Ward” behind the incidents. Can they overcome the most ominous adversary, who is capable of controlling the lives and deaths of people at will?

In the final chapter, the truths behind deaths are masterfully unraveled with the “Logic of Death”. The startling ending will rock the readers’ perspective of life and death, and will open the gate to the world full of wonders and menaces!

This is the latest pinnacle of “The Gifted” series, by Ryosuke Akizuki, a gifted storyteller.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329941151

Book preview

The Gifted Vol.5 - The Death In the North Ward

The Gifted Vol.5 – The Death In the North Ward

Originally written in Japanese by Ryosuke Akizuki

Translated by Ryusui Seiryoin

Cover illustration by Makoto Sakuma

Cover design by Makoto Sakuma

Copyright © 2016 Ryosuke Akizuki / The BBB: Breakthrough Bandwagon Books

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-329-94115-1

Prologue

Some unpleasant rumors seemed to be spreading.

Jael Otto made a slight sigh as she was arranging patients’ medical treatment records at her desk.

You will die, once you are involved with City East General Hospital. Such rumors spontaneously began spreading over the past few days. One of the scathing rumors went like, Once you are hospitalized in City East General Hospital, your disease condition will soon deteriorate and you are going to die from it. Or, like an urban legend, another rumor would go like, You would die only by approaching the hospital because Death lives there. The numbers of such vicious rumors were increasing on bulletin boards and blogs on the Internet, as if they were cancer cells. Public relations section of the hospital vehemently denied the rumors. But, scandalmongers on the Internet, who mainly consisted of the bereaved and insisted the grimness of the facts, blamed the hospital fiercely, and they made the hospital website to go viral to end up having to be temporarily closed.

Jael did not accept the situation in which such bad rumors for her workplace had spread, and she could not stand it. She was badly shaken by the fact.

Death lives in the north ward of City East General Hospital.

Nobody knew who started the rumor first. People on the Internet were saying Death was residing in City East General Hospital. In a way, it was right. In another way, it was wrong. Those involved in the hospital noticed there was a particular tendency regarding the fact.

Jael looked at a patient’s medical treatment records that were no longer necessary. Under the bluish florescent lights, the blurry shadow of her left hand was projected on the document. As she moved her left hand, the shadow followed the movement as if it were crawling on the surface. It looked like Death haunting a living person.

Again, Jael sighed slightly.

City East General Hospital comprised the west ward, the north ward, and the east ward, the three of which were surrounding a parking lot in a courtyard. The first floor of the north ward had the reception desk. The second floor had the internal medicine department. The third and fourth floors had sickbeds for medical treatment. For the west ward, the first floor had the department of obstetrics and gynecology. The second floor had the department of pediatrics. The third and fourth floors housed the departments of ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and dermatology. Then, the east ward had the department of surgery as well as operation rooms and general sickbeds.

Since the north ward accommodated patients of blood-related diseases and cancers, some of them actually died in the hospital. But, they were no more than eventual deaths caused by illnesses. If people regarded them as the results caused by the acts of Death, the business for the hospital would not go too well. What were happening in the north ward were not mere deaths from illnesses.

Jael did not or could not understand who was the first victim of the rumor, or the victim of Death for that matter. In any case, Jael was speculating that the string of the supposed deaths related to the rumor started with the death of Brea Travis on Sunday, July 24th. Brea, a female at the age of 59, was visiting the hospital to see her grandson who was hospitalized here. On her way back home, she slipped on the east stairs of the north ward, tumbled down, and died because her neck was snapped.

It was a death, caused by the accident.

After that, deaths started occurring continuously, as if floodgates were broken.

On July 26th, two days after the first case of the string, a patient named Eydis Holt died from the sudden deteriorating condition of her stomach cancer. She was at the age of 62. Considering the rate of her cancer’s progression, it was too sudden.

Further, on July 27th, a day later, her husband Orm Holt made a bad move in driving on his way to Eydis’s funeral. The car climbed over the sidewalk and collided with the wall of a building. Although the passers-by and people in the building did not suffer from the accident at all miraculously, Orm died instantly.

Next month, on August 1st, Renenet Tabia visited the hospital for the cancer-related medicinal examination, and died from the anaphylactic shock of medicine while in the checkup. She was at the age of 37. It might be a mistake of the hospital. However, during the Q&A session prior to the examination, they received the answer in which she said she was not allergic to the medicine.

Jael thought, since about that time, people in the hospital seemed to begin whispering the rumor pertaining to deaths in the north ward.

Then, on Friday, August 5th, Jung-A Jang was killed in a car accident on her way home from the hospital, which she had visited to see her husband, who was a patient there. Next day, on August 6th, the husband Hae-jin Jang was so depressed that he tried to kill himself by jumping from the rooftop of the north ward. Fortunately, his wound was