Welcome Back Readers! Thanks to everyone who asked for a story about Kimiko's past because I am enjoying writing this one. I hope you enjoy it.
First Time Readers! Just check out my profile for information about the OC - Kimiko. That way you don't have to go back and read "Our Last Day" and "K: Return of Kimiko" but if you have time you should because it will tell you a lot! All you need to know though is that Kimiko had the ability to feel other people's emotions through touch. She had a three year relationship with Tatara Totsuka until his death. This story follows the events of K: Return of Kings (so there are a few spoilers). Enjoy and REVIEW! - CC
Note: I'm starting to go back through my stories and rework some things. Sorry for any errors.
CHAPTER 1: Lost
It's a different warm than before. It's still gentle and tender... the feeling of two hearts beating together.
My eyes opened when I felt rough knuckles gently brush my cheek. He was laying across from me and looking at me with eyes so light that they almost looked golden. I couldn't help but smile thinking that this person cared so much about me. I never thought I could experience that love again. Not since I lost Tatara.
"Ohayo, Kimiko." He smiled at me as he said it while lowering his hand towards mine and interlocking our fingers. I grinned and pleasantly hummed while his warmth covered me.
"Morning, Chitose-san"
He looked at my hand in his and asked, "Can you feel anything?" I looked at it also and nodded. I could feel his every emotion. It was the gift Mikoto-san had given to me over four years ago when I became a clansman of HOMRA. I had the ability to feel other people's emotions and even take them on temporarily just through interacting with their body heat. Every time I rubbed against someone, shook a hand, gave a hug... I was pelted with hundreds of mixed emotions. It took years to tame that gift and realize it's true potential, but when Yashiro Isana destroyed the Dresden Slates... I thought it was gone forever along with HOMRA's red aura. For a while it was, but when patrolling with Chitose I encountered someone's emotions through touch again. My power was back and I didn't know how.
"My aura still won't show though," I said.
"Mine either. It hasn't shown since the day the silver king destroyed the slates. I'm still just boring Chitose."
"You're a lot of things, Yo Chitose, but boring isn't one of them."
"Prove it..." A sneaky grin crossed his face as he leaned forward to kiss me, but he stopped when his PDA started beeping on the nightstand. "Ugh..." he grumbled as he buried his face in his pillow to try to ignore the beeping.
I picked up the PDA and said, "It's Izumo... He's probably wondering why you haven't started patrolling yet."
"You answer it."
"Ha. Right. I'll answer it and explain to him what I'm doing with you this early in the morning?"
He groaned and took it from me as he got out of bed and walked back in forth in his room. We had been together a little while. We hadn't really called whatever we had a "relationship." We just had this unspoken knowledge that we were... together... I guess. It was hard for us to say it. It took me over a year to come to grips with the death of the love of my life, Tatara Totsuka. All the while, Chitose waited patiently to share how he felt about me out of respect for his old clansman. When he finally did, I didn't know what to do. I felt like giving myself to him would be leaving Tatara behind. It took me a long time to realize that he's never gone. Tatara is always with me. He wants me to be happy. He was my best friend and still is. Chitose is my partner, someone who will protect me. I know that. Still, I find it hard to refer to someone else as my boyfriend or say 'I love you' to them even if I'm feeling it. But if anyone deserves that, it's Chitose. He hung up the phone and walked back to me. He sat beside me on the bed. "I've got to go patrol. You should head back to HOMRA. They will be wondering where you are." I nodded and he kissed the top of my head.
That is the last thing I remember about the day. The rest is like a puzzle that has had its pieces scattered about and I can't put them together. A car door. A shout. It's all so blurry. That's the state my mind is in as I wake up in a hospital room, unsure of how I got there. The walls are so white it makes me sick. Everything is silent except for the beep beep beep of heart monitors that I notice are connected to my chest. I'm laying on the bed in a hospital gown and my body is limp. It takes me a moment to find my voice. "W-what happened..." The nurse beside me, who had been busy checking heart monitors and the like, turns quickly to reveal a surprised look across her face. It's evident that she had not been expecting me to wake up any time soon. As she stands there, her lip trembling as if she is trying to find words to say, I ask again, "What happened to me? Why am I in a hospital?"
"Y-you don't remember?"
"I... don't know." I think of hospital noises in my head. They were vivid memories. I remember the sound of whispering doctors. The clacking of the wheels on a gurney, or were they skateboard wheels. But I'm in such shock I can't even think of my own name. I had gone by so many nicknames in my day that they were all jumbled up. The nurse quickly asks me to wait there and I am tempted to sarcastically say, "how can't I," referring to the IV's and monitors attached to me. I decide not to though. I just lay there in silence when she has left. My whole body is sore as if I had been hit by a train. I'm dizzy, probably from medication. I can't even look around the room much without giving myself a headache. However, I do notice a couple chairs at the foot of my bed which are customarily placed in hospital rooms for visitors. Why is nobody in them? Where is my clan? Wouldn't Kusanagi at least be here or Anna? Then my mind clears. I start remembering myself. Kimiko. My name is Kimiko. Tatara gave me that name when we met. Just to ensure that my brain is properly functioning, I decide to think through things I can remember. I am HOMRA. I'm Kimiko. Mikoto-san is dead. Tatara was killed. I have been with the red clan for 3 years no... 4... no... wait yes. Or was it 5? All the numbers are bunching to together. Wait, how old am I? 19? N-no I was 19 when I met Tatara. I can't remember my phone number... I can't remember the address for HOMRA bar. I can vividly remember the shirt Chitose was wearing last I saw him but I can't remember his age! What the hell is wrong with me!? I hear a heart monitor start to beep warnings as my heart starts pounding. My heart races because I'm so freaked out by this... numbers thing.
A doctor hurries back in with the nurse who goes to the screaming monitor. The doctor looks over me with a concerned face. "Calm down, calm down... how long has she been awake?"
"She just woke up!"
"She's going into shock. The nurse steps beside him and sets a calming hand on my arm, but it makes it worse. I feel the concern she has for me and it makes me grit my teeth as I try to concentrate on my own emotions. The doctor sees me tensing up and smacks the nurses hands away. "Don't touch her. Give her space. Breathe kid, breathe..." I try to calm down. I think of Tatara. Breathe, love... breathe... I'm here... Then I picture Chitose trying to calm me the way he had many times before when he would hold my head in his strong hands and say, "Hey, Shorty, look at me. Right at me... calm down..." After a moment, the machines stop shouting their alarms and my heart returns to a normal rate, despite my body still shaking. The doctor nods at me and says, "Good. Now, do you remember anything?"
"I- I'm not sure... a- all my numbers are mixed up."
"That's normal. The medication you are under hinders certain areas of your brain. I can promise you that it is only temporarily." I sigh in relief and he asks, "Do you know your name?"
"H-Hai..."
"Well, what is it?"
"...Kimiko."
He glances at the nurse then looks back to me with an annoyed expression. "I mean your real name."
I give him a confused look. How does he know Kimiko isn't my real name? Only Tatara knew that. I hesitate before saying, "I don't go by it."
"Regardless, I need to know your legal name."
"Why? I told you my current name so you know I don't have amnesia, so just tell me why I'm here."
"Listen young lady..." His voice has grown sterner. "You have no identification on you, no records under the name 'kimiko'. Unless you want to remain a Jane Doe then you must confirm your name."
"C-confirm? So you think you know what it is?"
"The people who brought you to us, they called you a certain name and I need you to confirm that for me."
My heart skips a little bit. If whoever brought me here didn't call me Kimiko, then they were someone from my past. I start thinking of names I wouldn't mind hearing again that I had gone by before meeting Tatara. "Kiyo?" He doesn't say anything. "Elle?" No response. I think of other nick-names people had given me but he doesn't respond to any of them. Finally, I nervously say, "L-Lavina?" I can see from his eyes that I am on the right track. I finish, "Lavina Kiyomizu..."
"Good," He picks up a clipboard from the side of the bed and puts a check mark on it while saying, "I guess that really is your family outside then. I'll fetch them for you." My heart begins to race again as the alarms beep. He looks over his clipboard at me as the nurse returns to the monitors. "Is there a problem with that, Ms. Kiyomizu?"
"P-Please... I don't want to see them."
"Why not? Members of your family have been in and out of that waiting room every day since your admittance. They will be glad to see you awake."
"NO! Please! Please, you can't let them in here. You don't know who they are! I don't want to see them!" I start screaming and tears streak down my cheeks. I can't face them again. It doesn't make sense. Why would the family that had disowned me be here? How were they the ones who brought me here? Where is HOMRA? Where is Kusanagi and Misaki. Where is Anna? Where is Yo? I continue to shout, certain that everyone on the entire floor can probably hear me, "Don't let them in this room! I'll go home with a stranger before I go with them-"
"Ok ok!" He runs to my side and pushes on my shoulder to get me to lay back down. "Easy... you are old enough to decide who sees you. I just thought... well they were so concerned about you."
"I-I don't want them here. Call someone else to get me."
"Well, we are not releasing you quite yet, Kiyomizu-san. And even if we were, do you think you can remember a phone number for me to use?"
I can't. All the numbers are jumbled up. I wish he would stop calling me Kiyomizu. It creeps me out. This must be how Misaki feels when Saruhiko insists on using his first name. But then again... so do I. "Just... call HOMRA bar. Call my clan. The number is in the phone book." He and the nurse glance at each other at the same time and it makes me nervous. "What is it? They know I'm here right? I mean... you would have seen my mark on my shoulder when you put these monitors on me. You must know I'm a HOMRA."
"Yes. We know you were... but."
"Were? But what?"
"You wait here. I'll go send your family away first before I tell you."
"Tell me what?" I try to sit up again as he walks out the door. The nurse tried to follow. "M-Matte! Please, tell me where are they. I know they should be here."The nurse walks to my bedside and meekly says, "I-I'm not supposed to say anything until the doctor is here."
"As a patient, I'm demanding an answer. Where is HOMRA? Where is my clan?"
She sees the concrete glare in my brown eyes as we lock gazes. She takes a small breath and calmly says. "Your clan is gone... they were killed."
Silence. Shock.
It's so quiet that someone could hear a pin drop. "W-What?"
"I'm so sorry..." The heart monitor starts beeping faster and I repeat.
"What..." The alarms start up again. Red lights flashing from them. A feeling I had known all too well surged through me. Grief. Overwhelming grief as I started shouting, "T-this makes n-no s-sense... you're wrong... I-just saw them yesterday."
"You were here yesterday. It just feels like you saw them yesterday because you just woke up."
"Then the day before that! A week ago!" I am fully screaming louder than the heart monitor alarms now, "They can't have all been-"
"Kiyomizu-san... you've been here longer than that." I blankly stare. I can hear my heart in my ears. I am afraid to ask how long I've been in the hospital while my clan was supposedly slaughtered. She doesn't wait for me to ask as she says, "You've been in a coma for eleven months... come next Thursday it will have been a year." The monitor alarms are blaring now, but the nurse ignores them as she looks at me in pity.
What happened? How can this be? Who would have killed my clan? And of all people, why was I the one who survived it? I just lay there in tears as, once again, the only life I had ever known... vanishes.
Outside the hospital Room:
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid she wont see anyone from her family."
"She'll change her mind when she has nobody else to turn to."
"We don't exactly have that kind of time. The drugs impairing her mind will wear off and she'll realise-"
"Then give her more."
"More drugs? She might loose her entire memory if I do that!"
"That wouldn't be a bad thing."
"Sir... this is your daughter. Are you sure you want to-"
"Don't forget who you're talking to. I hired you to do this job. I can just as easily kill you and find a replacement."
Poor Kimiko, I just can never give that poor girl a break, huh! Be sure to keep reading to find out what caused her to be in a coma for a year... or how that is even possible! Next chapter will be very revealing on what truly happened to HOMRA. But in the meantime... any guesses about what is coming up. Who is her family, exactly? Why does she want nothing to do with them? Why is her father such a... well... a you know what...? And WHAT the crap happened to HOMRA?! Follow to keep up with the story!