Chapter 2: Remember Her
"Satoshi-kun!" I throw my arms around his neck when I realize what's happening. He's awake! Satoshi-kun's awake!
"Muu… You're embarrassing me, Shion…" he mutters and I laugh. It's so good to hear him say "muu" again and I swim in the way he says my name, remembering that time years earlier when he'd called it beautiful.
"There's no one around anyway," I point out, beaming. It suddenly hits me though that he had Hinamizawa Syndrome, and a serious case of it at that. "Wait, are you okay?" I pull away to look for… What? Scatches? What should I be looking for? "You don't feel… violent…? Scared…?" I can't think of a better way to put it, my thoughts are so jumbled.
"Huh? Um… I don't think so…" He replies, looking confused. Does he not remember what happened before he had to be kept here? Does he not remember that he… That he killed his aunt? "I… what…?" he whispers and I realize I was thinking aloud. I avert my gaze when I see the shock on his face, not knowing what to say.
I spend the next half hour explaining things to him. Apparently he'd woken a little after I'd started talking earlier, but he doesn't know that several years have passed, so I try to explain to him what's happened in that time.
He really doesn't remember killing his aunt. Could I have been wrong about him doing it? No. I'm sure that Satoshi-kun was the one who committed the act. It's probably just his subconscious trying to stop him from falling back to level 5. Either dissociative or lacunar amnesia, I believe, digging into my memories of from what I've learned in my classes. It's not like it's unheard of.
"How's Satako doing?" he suddenly cuts in, breaking my train of thought. He's looking at the teddy bear sitting on the other side of the room. It's the one he bought for Satoko's birthday just before he'd disappeared.
"I'm not really sure… I made sure to take care of her like you'd asked while I was still here, but I haven't seen her since I got back. Onee said she's doing okay though, and I'd asked her, Onee I mean, to call me if anything happened to Satako…" I feel guilty. Satoshi-kun had entrusted Satako to me and I'd gone gallivanting off to Tokyo at the first chance I'd gotten. "…Wait." Getting an idea, I stand up and walk over to the phone that Irie had pointed out before.
I pick it up and hear it ringing. A second later, Irie answers. "Help! Irie, help me!" I yell, screaming once before harshly slamming the phone back down. I turn back around to see Satoshi-kun looking shocked and bewildered. "Just having a little fun," I assure him, winking.
The door bursts open less than a minute later. It's Irie of course, his hair dishevelled and a look of panic on his face. "Can we go see Satoko?" I ask brightly as his gaze flits back and forth between Satoshi-kun and I a couple times. "Satoshi-kun wants to see her and I'm sure she'd like to see him as well. I've been talking with him and he seems to be alright. But one other thing. Satoshi-kun was supposed to be sedated, wasn't he? Do mind explaining to me why he's awake now?"
"…Uh… Well… To answer you're last question, I decided not to give him his sedatives for the afternoon when you came. His vitals and brain waves had been good recently as I'd mentioned, so I thought I'd let you two see each other since I know you'd wanted to. That's why I told you about the phone…" he explains nervously.
"And about seeing Satoko?" Satoshi-kun prompts.
"…I suppose it's fine," Irie replies after a moment's hesitation, "Your clothes from the day you came here are over there." He points to a shelf where a few swatches of fabric are visible. "I assume you want to change out of the scrubs. Can I talk to you for a minute, Shion?"
I nod, surprised but happy that he had given consent. I follow him out, looking back quickly as I close the door to see Satoshi-kun testing his weight as he stands. His muscles have probably atrophied a fair bit over the last couple years. Please be okay.
"You're sure he's stable?" Irie questions me once the door has clicked shut.
"Looks that way. We talked for a while and he doesn't seem much different than when I first met him."
"What about his aunt? Has he accepted that he killed her?"
I flinch, hesitating a moment. So Irie also thinks Satoshi-kun did it. "…He doesn't seem to remember it. I think he probably has situation-specific amnesia. …But I told him it was his doing without thinking. Was that wrong? What if he's really innocent and I made him think otherwise?" I'm panicking now. What have I done? What if this causes me to lose him again?
"…I think it's best that he knows from the start rather than risking that he be reminded of it at a bad time. There's no doubt in my mind that it was him. He admitted it to me when he fell to level 5." Irie assures me. So Satoshi-kun really did do it then… "Just make sure to keep an eye on him. I'm worried about him going out, but I trust your judgement. I'll just run a few quick tests. If all goes well, he can go see Satoko for a little while.
"Chie-sensei?" I ask my old teacher after knocking quietly, the entire class staring. "Would you mind if I talk to Satoko for a few minutes?"
"Sonozaki-san? What's this about?"
"There's someone here who wants to see her," I reply, trying to hide my smile.
"…Alright. Go ahead, Houjou-san," she answers after a breath.
At the words, Satoko gets up slowly and walks over to where I stand by the door. "Who is it who wants to see me, Shion-san?"
"You'll find out soon enough." I lead her to the front entrance and, as we step outside, she sees Satoshi-kun leaning nervously against a wall, loosely hugging the giant teddy. He looks as shocked to see how mature looking Satoko's gotten as she is to see him at all.
"…Nii-Nii…?"
"Satoko…!" He pushes off the wall and faces her, handing me the bear as Satoko rushes to him, embracing him as her eyes fill with tears.
"You're back…! You're finally back!" she cries into his shirt as I hear whispers behind me and turn to see several of her classmates staring. I shoot Rika a look and she smiles in response before shooing the others away.
When I turn around again, Satoshi-kun looks at me before casting his eyes to the bear and I notice that his eyes are wet. Despite all the hardship I know he's gone through, it's the first time I've seen him even close to crying. Happy for him, I offer the teddy back and he takes it.
"I knows it's a bit late but…" he holds the bear out to his sister, smiling the smile that I love, "Happy birthday, Satako."
A/N:I apologize for this chapter being late, but here it is! If all goes according to plan, the plot should kick off next chapter. I'm still trying to work out the details of course, but I've written up an outline of what I want to happen, so yay! I hope I got the stuff about amnesia in this chapter correct. I just grabbed it off Wikipedia which obviously isn't always accurate and then the only things I know about psychology is what I've taught myself since I can't get into my school's pyschology class until next year...
Anyway, I intend to do a fair bit of writing this week. The reason for this, as well as just feeling guilty for not uploading very often, is that along with all the fics I currently have going, I have two Madoka Magica fics and one more Vocaloid fic that I want to write... Damn you imagination.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was originally created by Ryukishi07 and 07th Expansion. All characters and settings were created and are owned by them. I own nothing but my annoyingly overactive imagination.