The Left Side of Memories
Chapter 7

What were they going to do now? They'd taken a risk and it hadn't really paid off. Yes, it was keeping Murakami away from them, but since he remembered them still, for how long? And if he took a research route, or his uncle with his digging about unearthed something, Vingulf could still come to their door.

Honestly, Vingulf could come whether Murakami was able to forget them or not, if they ever found out he'd had a connection to them. Hell, if they ever find out about Dresden… Even if she hadn't been there for that little escapade. They'd screwed up his survival chances bigtime…but if they hadn't, they wouldn't all be alive now.

Hatsuna started with Kazumi punched the wall. 'Damn it,' she muttered. 'How the hell do you protect a guy?'

'The stereotypical role of the protector is usually the guy's,' said Kogorou, somewhat amused by her reaction. It was more passionate than the others. More…emotional. There was something other than simple gratitude – or complex gratitude, given the situation, there. If he had to hazard a guess (despite the fact that it was completely irrelevant), he'd say that Kazumi had a crush on his nephew.

'Neko saved his life.' Kazumi shrugged. 'Kana had a vision of him dying in a mudslide, and so Neko had me transfer her over so she could stop it. Otherwise they wouldn't have met, and Murakami wouldn't have chased after her. And gotten me involved when you had me hack into the Dresden security.'

'You were also out of supplements,' Kana replied. 'That's the day we would have all died if Neko and Murakami hadn't broken in.'

'I know, I know, but –' Her face seemed to droop. 'The police vision, and then Valkyria. Makes you think you're taking too much, getting him almost killed, getting him actually killed – Hatsuna mightn't always be able to heal him.'

'Or you lot,' Hatsuna muttered. She'd turned away by that point, to stare at the wall. 'If Vingulf comes, probably the only person I'll be able to regenerate is myself. They'll just kill us all at once – the B witches they'd wanted to dispose of in the first place.'

'Perhaps not,' said Kogorou. 'You haven't been hunted since Valkryia, have you?'

'No…' Kazumi said slowly. 'Kana?'

She shook her head. 'No visions either.'

'Which – ' Kogorou pulled out a seat. He was getting tired of standing up, especially after the long walk to the observatory. '- implies they're changing their approach to you after…I assume you beat Valkryia?'

'Neko did,' said Kana. 'Though she lost a lot of memories after that, including all about Murakami.'

'Interesting,' said Kogorou. He ignored Hatsuna's sharp glare as she turned back from the wall. 'And just how was a group of B witches able to defeat what's supposed to be, as far as you girls know, Vingulf's ultimate weapon?'

They glanced at each other. 'Ultimate witch,' Kana finally corrected. 'They were trying to create something bigger. Hexenjagd knows more about it.'

There were a lot of threads involved. A complicated problem to work through, especially in one sitting. 'Do you have the contacts for these Hexenjagd people? And what are they like?'

'Annoying,' said Hatsuna. 'They said something about hatching as well, but never really explained what that meant. And they had the recipe of the supplements but were more than happy to let us die. It was only the deal they made to get to Kotori that made them give it to us.'

'You traded her for the supplements?' He raised an eyebrow. That didn't match at all with how the girls had protested merging their supplements so one of them could live long enough for him to work out its composition and replicate it.

'No!' they all cried.

'What I meant,' said Hatsuna, more quietly. 'I saw Kazumi first. Because I melted after healing her, by the time I regenerated again, it was far too late. Just like it's too late to fix the damage Neko did because –'

'Don't sound like you blame Neko,' Kana snapped.

'I don't,' Hatsuna glared back.

Kazumi ignored them.

It seemed stress was getting to them all. 'Love is unscientific,' Kogorou said. 'It makes you do very uncharacteristic – and sometimes regrettable – things.' Then, just for clarification, he asked: 'Would there be any harm if you tried to heal him?'

Hatsuna thought about it. 'I've never tried and failed,' she confessed. 'I wouldn't know. It's probably not worth it with somewhere as fragile as the brain.'

'No,' Kogorou agreed. 'It seems I'll have to rely on the science I'm more familiar with after all.'

He'd gotten about as much as he would get from them, he decided after a moment's silence. 'You can send Hexenjagd's details to me,' he addressed Kazumi. She nodded.

He turned to leave.

'Can…we visit him?'

Neko was hovering at the door. The others didn't even glance at her, as though the question was in all of them, but they'd been stopping themselves from asking it. He recognised it as another foolish attempt at protection. Another that was going to fail, or backfire badly.

'Is it safe, you mean?' He raised an eyebrow. 'Theoretically, stepping foot outside this observatory isn't safe, and hospitals have pretty good surveillance, if not necessarily good security. But disguises aren't very hard to manage and he does ask about you all often.'

.

Kazumi hit the wall a few more times, until her knuckles stang. 'It seems like such a stupid idea now. Instead of protecting him, we've left him completely vulnerable.'

Hatsuna drifted to the stairs, but she didn't climb them. 'It was far too late to protect him,' she said flatly. She remembered the girl who'd sheltered her, dead despite not even knowing the truth. And Murakami knew far more, had done far more. 'You guys painted a bright target over his head long ago. It's useless to get rid of it.'

'It's easy for you to say,' Kazumi snapped back, 'since you were a puddle of goo when we were discussing this!'

'A puddle of goo after filling a gigantic hole in him!' Hatsuna's voice raised as well. Neko covered her ears. 'And if we hadn't figured that out, you'd be dead too, Kazumi!'

'We'd all be dead,' Kana interrupted. 'And why argue? What's done is done. Now we just need to fix what we've done –'

'Which is impossible,' Hatsuna muttered, folding her arms and turning away. 'Five minute time limit, remember?'

'I know.' Kana closed her eyes. 'But we're not helpless. There must be something we can do, even if it's just apologise.'

'Sure we can apologise.' Hatsuna looked as though she'd intended to say something more, but in the end chose not to. 'And the uncle didn't skewer us, which I suppose is a plus.'

.

They did wind up going after all, the next day and in whatever disguises they'd been able to dreg up. Not particularly professional, but they had a selection of clothing, Kana hid her rather distinctive hairstyle under a hat while Kazumi had tied a scarf over her's, and Neko had plaited hers into a schoolgirl style that made her look far younger. Someone from school might still recognise the latter two, but they were going while school was still in session to hopefully avoid that.

Murakami was, as Kogorou had told them, happy to see him. He managed to ask them "How are you?" and "Do you have –" with great concern at least twenty times each. Hatsuna had tried to hush the first couple, then realised he wasn't getting to the end of the question anyhow and left it with a grimace on her face.

The others, Murakami possibly included, were well aware it was only pity.

'He's usually more articulate.' The woman must have been Murakami's mother, because she didn't have a hospital nametag and she'd been sitting in before they'd arrived. 'It must be a bad day, and after you came all this way.' She paused. 'Shouldn't you be in school, anyhow?'

'We…were really worried,' Kazumi explained finally. The others said nothing; backstories were always her department. 'We kind of skipped school today.'

Her expression grew more sympathetic, though there was still a hint of suspicion. Wondering where they'd been in the past few days, probably.

'We only heard yesterday,' she continued. 'We've been away before that. Personal issues.'

'Oh.' She seemed to put something together. 'You're those friends of his. The ones he'd take food for, sometimes.'

Sprouting shame-faces of different magnitudes, they all nodded.

That was about the most dramatic moment of their visit, and they were all relieved.