This is actually the result of me offering to write for someone. I said I'd help her out, then it turned into this. What started as a beta-read turned into her handing the fic's reins over to me.
Oh well. Usual disclaimers apply.
Original story "Seirensen" published by Captainess Scout (Kyouko Kasodani, at current) and rewritten at her request. Source material "Touhou Project" belongs to ZUN and any other members of "Team Shanghai Alice".
Tick. Tock. Tick.
The nondescript clock hanging on the wall ticked away the time, ticked away the hour while doctor and patient awkwardly stared at each other.
Unlike the clock, the room was not nondescript, painted in shades of vanilla and a few ferns stuck in corners here and there, their frilly leaves sagging. On the ebony desk was a potted violet in desperate need of water, hidden among stacks of books with confusing titles such as "Interpersonal Relationships: an Advanced Study" and "Social Behavior: A Guide". The window looked onto a forest partially hidden by mist.
Sitting at the aforementioned desk was a woman with dark brown hair, a long green skirt, and a dark black dress shirt. Her hands were long and thin, tipped with sharp fingernails painted in red, and typing away.
She stared at the monitor in front of her, currently being filled up with text, contemplating on how she would deal with her current patient, who was being rather disagreeable.
The patient, a girl with black hair, very pale, almost ghostly skin, rather alarming teal eyes and a puffy black coat stared out the window behind the psychiatrist as she propped her boots up onto the small coffee table. She looked extremely upset about something, muttering to herself as she rubbed the wood of an old ladle between her fingers. She was visibly shaking, cold, even with the heater.
The doctor took a long, deep breath. She glanced at the clock. 9:55. They had been at a standstill for the last 5 minutes of this 15 minute session, both doctor and patient trying to calm down enough to continue.
"Now... Miss Murasa, in order to figure out what might be the matter-"
The girl shot up at an alarming rate, slamming her fist onto the table and sending cracks through the wood.
"I already told ya, there's nothing wrong with me, dammit!" Murasa sounded extremely frustrated, perhaps due to the fact that she was in denial about her condition. The doctor paused. She needed to choose her words carefully if she didn't want her table in pieces. Dealing with amnesiatic patients was very hard, but someone had to do it.
"...In order to continue, I need you to give me as much detail about what you remember of your past as you can"
Murasa's shoulders drooped. Her black hair hung in her face as she shuddered uncontrollably. She sat back onto the couch as her eyes drifted slightly. Now she just seemed tired, no longer willing to continue the feud.
"Fine. Well, the first thing I remember is an endless purple void, with bloodshot red eyes-and hell, even a few hands-drifting everywhere. I can also sorta remember a woman with long blond hair and the strangest lookin' eyes you've ever seen, they were bright purple, just like the void.
"And then I woke up on a little wooden boat, half frozen, and some sailor was yellin' at me, tellin' me to grab the rope he'd thrown out. The little boat seemed like it was just about to break, and something about the water scared me. I thought I would drown. Turns out, I did, so they dragged me up onto this Coast Guard boat and gave me this coat, which I've always kept, seeing as I'm practically freezing wherever I go, even in the summer. They got me to a Coast Guard base called Cape Disappointment, and tried to get some answers out of me, but I couldn't say anything, cause I had nothing to say to them! One of the guards mentioned a shipwreck the previous day, and they got out their computers and looked at the crew.
"When they didn't see me on the list, so they just figured ah was a stowaway. Then they shipped me up to Blacklock Orphanage, I made some friends, and, well, that's all. The miserable story of me in a nutshell"
Murasa paused for a second. She fidgeted with the ladle once more. The doctor noticed that she had a strange speech defect- she spoke like a sailor. She must have picked it up from the Coast Guard lackeys, seeing as they were the first people she'd heard.
"I still think something's missin', though. It feels like I had a whole entire life beforehand, but I can't remember for the life of me. I feel horrible for those capsized sailors, though. It makes me feel like their blood is on my hands when I think about it"
The doctor duly noted all of her strange behavior. She could count at least three disorders that this girl possessed from only one session. She was certainly interesting, almost like she was from a whole different country.
"I see. Thank you for your help, Murasa"
"Ah, just call me Morgan. No need for all the formalities when I'm just a simple orphan"
Morgan wiped her lips as she stood up, pocketing the ladle and giving a hasted bow to the doctor. The clock clicked loudly upon reaching the nine, echoing around the small room.
"Well, I'll be seeing you again next week, I guess..."
The door creaked rather loudly as Morgan quickly stepped outside. The hallway also had strategically placed plants, huddled in corners and a thick rug that muffled her footsteps. It was almost like a labyrinth as she wove through corridors, often backtracking and getting lost. Left, Left, Right, Straight, Right . . . .
She finally stumbled into a lobby, where there were a few busy receptionists typing away behind their computers, little glasses perched on the ends of their noses, and dull looking people randomly seated in chairs, often far away from one another- except for two people, a bored looking redhead with short, messy hair and a brunette with long, wavy hair and a bright smile. The only thing the two girls shared in common were the soft, gold colored eyes.
As Morgan made her way out the door and onto the street, she shuddered even harder and tried to bundle herself up in her coat as best as possible. Even after being around for a year, the city of Blacklock was still frigid, with a massive lake right next to it and Canada only an hour's drive away. It was snowing again and there were strategically placed frozen puddles on the sidewalk which everyone gave a dull glance and avoided with ease.
She tightened the scarf around her neck just as the two girls followed her outside, both looking as fine as ever, unlike the frigid amnesiac.
"I don't understand how you two put up with this weather," she exclaimed shakily. She was trying her hardest to keep her teeth from chattering, and by extension, her voice from stuttering.
The two girls glanced at each other, shrugged, and then the brunet spoke up. "So... how'd the session go?"
"Why the hell did ya sign me up if there's nothing wrong with me?"
Now, outside, Morgan could vent her anger. She whispered ominously, her voice dripping with all kinds of emotions.
Even with Morgan's hateful glare, the brunet remained strong, They began to walk away from the building, shoes crunching in the white powder that was beginning to cover everything. "I didn't want you to get into fights again, for my sake or not"
She reached out her hand, placing it on Morgan's shoulder. The pale girl flinched in pain before recomposing her posture, standing up straight and picking up the pace.
"I'm just frustrated, okay Bella? The dead of winter isn't very fun for me and I can't just let those morons go after you." She took a deep, shaky breath and hugged herself tighter.
They were referring to an incident a few weeks beforehand, where a group had marched up to Bella and threatened to hurt her if she kept urging people to join the Girl Scouts. Morgan had caught wind of this, taken things to hand, and while had managed to drive away the group, got roughed up quite badly. There were still bruises from the violent fists that she had to take.
"Look, Bella, I'd sworn to protect you from the humans, from the youkai, from anyone who tried to hurt you again! I can't let those damn Taoists try to stab you in the back now!"
By now Morgan was speaking rapidly, her mind drifting off while she just spouted things. Bella and the redhead's eyes widened, not sure what Morgan meant by "humans", "youkai", and "Taoists"
"Morgan, what are you saying?"
Morgan paused and one could see the gears grinding in her head, before her own teal eyes widened, tears starting to form.
"To be honest, I-I really don't know"
"Then stop, please"
For the rest of the walk through the snow-covered streets of Blacklock, everyone was silent, simply enjoying the falling snow. The flakes drifted from the sky, landed on the ground, and simply waited to be decimated by the brilliant rays of the sun, which were yet to come.
Morgan shifted around under her covers. Once she'd gotten back to the orphanage with the rest of the girls, she'd headed straight to her room and quietly cried herself to sleep. Why did she have to go through this? So what if she was violently protective of Bella and the others? That didn't make her insane! She realized, though, that if she kept sleeping in her clothes, it might start to look that way, so she slipped out of her bed quietly and rifled through her drawers until she found the same things she normally slept in: a tank top and bike shorts. Granted, they weren't the best of nightclothes in the dead of one of the coldest Blacklock winters Morgan had ever experienced, but they were all she had.
Slipping off her coat, she tried to move quickly before she started shivering again. Not completely successful, that attempt. She managed to get her street clothes off before the shakes took over and made everything that much harder to do. The orphanage tended to focus on the girls' wants rather than their needs, so while everyone had a pair of skates, decent coats, and several outfits (Natalie even had her own skating dress that she wore at least once a day), the orphanage itself was rather run down, drafty in some rooms and without any real heating or cooling system. As a result, it was often frigid in Morgan's room during the winter, sometimes to the point where she could see her breath.
In fact, when her teeth started chattering as she slipped her tank top over her head, Morgan found herself thankful she had her own room. She tended to be noisy when her shivering got really bad, like now. Once she was dressed though, she quickly bolted under the many blankets on her bed and curled up, trying to at least get a little bit of warmth back into her body. It was the one thing nobody in the orphanage understood. Not Bella, not Natalie, not even bookworm Sadie could figure out why Morgan had a very difficult time staying warm.
Honestly, it was almost enough to make her cry.
"Something is wrong with one of the subjects."
"What could possibly be wrong?"
"She hasn't fully adapted to being alive again. The cold of death is always upon her."
"How is that a problem?"
"It weakens the barrier holding back her true memories. There is, occasionally, a bleeding effect, such as what we saw this afternoon."
"Until such a time as it actually causes more than bleeding effects within the Project, we will continue to act as though nothing is wrong."
"Yes, sir."