Stupid Girl
Part 3
Ryoji delivered her: all nicely packed in a suitcase. And he didn't even realise what he was doing.
None of them did. Not Ryoji. Not the entire Shikabane family – except Toshirou who'd concocted the whole plan. And most certainly not pitiful Inui Mana who she didn't pity one bit.
Ryoji had told her all about that girl and she was pathetic.
But at least she was good for something. Giving Ryoko back her freedom.
It was a hard few months that followed that, but she was stubborn. Not like her stupid doctor that somehow got his legs eaten (or amputated after they were irreparably damaged after being eaten) because of a lie he'd told had gotten a little out of hand.
She was only a little bit sorry, and maybe only that because freedom wasn't too far off now.
He wondered how she did. Worked hard. Hung on to something that had seemed so hopeless.
The answer was easy. It was all she had. All she desired. All she'd screamed for since the day her parents had decided to shut her away and make her the perfect doll.
At this point, it was all she was. So putting up with the therapy was no headache at all.
Afterwards, she walked about on crutches in the hospital's garden – that she'd never bothered going to before, even pushed along by wheelchair – while Toshirou was brought by a kindly old volunteer that gave them a cherry wave and his number when he was ready to return. And she wondered what sort of person she was now. Whether this bitter hateful and murderous – because she'd agreed and now she had a dead girl's spine in her back even if she hadn't liked that girl one bit – self of hers would change.
She supposed she didn't really care if it did change. Ryoji – Ryoji would be on a looser leash if she could go out and get what she wanted for herself. A taste of freedom. A taste of what the world really offered. But he would still be in her reach. Her other self. A part of herself. A part that could never run away.
That was one of the things she didn't like about Toshirou. He didn't understand their connection. That was one of the things she didn't like about Ryoji either. Stupid Ryoji. He should know. He was a part of her.
She commented one day that Toshirou might want to reign in his little sister. He just gave her an amused look, but she hadn't been joking. She didn't like Inui Mana and now she had a new spine, courtesy of that stupid little girl. Hanako was another story, but she was stealing her Ryoji away as well.
Her face twisted in anger and Toshirou laughed and said jealousy wasn't becoming now that she had her legs back again.
But she was a murderer, wasn't she. What did legs have to do with that?
She had her freedom now – but that didn't mean she would change. Or could.