The Left Side of Memories
Chapter 8
Ryouta was still asking about the girls, but with the damage to his hippocampus, Kogorou couldn't really expect anything less or more. At least it wasn't with the same expression – and that did give a slight cause of surprise. The role of different areas of the brain, Kogorou supposed. The amygdala in recording emotion. An entirely different memory system that seemed to be in tact.
The brain certainly was a complex thing, mused Kogorou. And after a few tries, Ryouta was able to remember the girls had visited and were okay as well. Right at the top of his precious file.
.
It wasn't that he forgot the girls had visited, had apologised profusely when his mother had ducked out for some reason or other. It was just that he had limited time to think about something before it slipped away from him.
It took him a long time to realise he was still recording new memories, despite his apparent short-term memory dysfunction.
It took him even longer to work out what could possibly be the cause. And longer still to piece together enough words to explain it to his uncle.
In a couple of days, though, he managed it.
Recording messages. Think Nanami safe and doing it.
.
Kogorou read the words. Interesting, he thought. And lucky, as well. It helped Ryouta out immensely…though, of course, there was still the problem of his mind resetting itself every three seconds. The only problem, it sounded like, if Nanami could make up for the deficit in memory.
But that made him wonder. Ryouta had never fully explained, and so it required quite a bit extra effort now, but he described it as Nanami having downloaded herself onto his memory. Which was a somewhat odd choice of words, and he only wished he could talk again to Nanami. But only Ryouta could see her.
He chuckled at himself as that thought was struck down. When had he started to simply accept such bizzare things? Or perhaps, since it was his nephew involved, he'd always accepted them?
Still, dealing with someone invisible to him, and whose only conduit was a boy who couldn't hold a thought for more than three seconds, would be quite the challenge. And may not bear any fruit.
He wondered which avenue was more worth pursuing. Nanami, Hexenjagd…or the riskiest of them all: Vingulf itself.
But if he did the last, he'd almost certainly bring them to their doorstep – even if they were the best bet, with what they'd managed to produce with the witches (though that was also ignoring all the ethics and human rights they'd literally stamped upon). Which only left the first two as viable options, and the first as the safest.
But a desperate person could do desperate things. Hadn't he told those witches as much?
He sighed, opened up a document, and began typing questions. 'If you're listening, Nanami,' he said to the room at large, 'these questions are for you.'
.
Kana frowned. There'd been a trickle of hope in that vision and then it had faded away.
'What is it?' Neko asked.
'Murakami…' Kana said slowly. 'For a moment, it looked like he'd be back to normal…but then something changed.' She blinked at the ceiling. 'Someone must have thought of an idea that would work, but then discarded it.'
'Why would they do that?' asked the other girl, confused. 'If it's a good idea…'
Kana shrugged. 'Maybe it's not a good idea.'
After all, their idea had turned out to be pretty bad.
'Well…' The old Neko would have been proactive, but this one was missing too much of her memories. Still, she tried to puzzle through Kana's vision. 'Maybe…a doctor?'
'Maybe… Kazumi could work out who the treating physician is.' But truthfully, there was no guarantee that it was that doctor, or any working directly with Murakami, who'd come up with the idea. There was no guarantee whoever had come up with the idea even remembered it.
But they could fix it, so didn't it warrant searching?.
.
'Of course it does!' Kazumi exclaimed with a grin. 'That's the best news I've heard all week.'
'Better would be if the idiot hadn't thrown a good idea out the window,' grumbled Hatsuna. She was still in a sour mood.
'It mightn't be a good idea at all,' said Kana. 'I only know it works because I can see the future. It might be something crazy like… I dunno, drilling more holes?'
'That's ridiculous,' said Hatsuna. 'It's not a pressure problem.' She frowned. 'Could it have to do with getting into contact with dangerous people?'
'Like underworld markets? I can check that,' said Kazumi, but she found nothing useful at all.
Dangerous… Kana mused. 'What's dangerous for the brain?'
None of them were doctors, or medical students. They didn't have much of an idea, despite the research they'd done.
'Maybe we should contact Murakami's uncle,' Kana sighed, eventually. 'He knows the doctors better, and he's got a science head.'
.
'A vision,' Kogorou repeated, blinking at the world. More things beyond his understanding were piling up in front of him. 'Explain to me the limits of these visions of yours.'
'I see what will occur unless something changes,' Kana explained. 'I can't affect the future while I'm there physically. Sometimes it's not very clear – but since Valkryia, it's been much clearer. This vision was particularly short though – like the decision that prompted it was fleeting and quickly cast aside, replaced by something that meant things would continue as they are currently and that one was taken as a decision…'
'So that changed the substance of your dream.' Kogorou took out a pad and pen. 'And when did you say this was?'
He almost started at her reply. He'd been in the hospital then, just before typing his questions for Nanami. He'd looked at the time on the laptop, so he was sure of that. What ideas had he considered? Vingulf, Hexenjagd and Nanami. And only Nanami was a new avenue.
But he'd settled on pursuing Nanami as a lead, hadn't he? Which meant that, according to Kana, it would be a dead end. Unless it was somebody else of course…but the likelihood was slim.
'Are you still there?' asked Kana.
'I am,' said Kogorou. 'I had an idea is all.'
'Of who?'
Should he tell them? He didn't like having to act so blindly – but what choice was there? Things were suddenly too complex for everyone involved…and it was for Ryouta's sake, in the end. 'Me,' he confessed. 'I was thinking about things then. I settled on a course of action, but now you're telling me it's useless.'
'That simplifies things,' said Kana, after a pause. 'What other options did you consider?'
'Hexenjagd and…' Should he really be telling them this? 'Vingulf?'
'…what!' she shrieked. 'Have you lost your own brain?'
'I should like to think it's intact,' Kogorou replied calmly. 'Mine's not the issue, here.'
'Yes, but – ' She seemed to flounder a little, before dropping her voice to a near whisper. 'But Vingulf?'
'They've made a perfectly ordinary girl gain the power to see the future,' he pointed out, 'and another capable of regenerating a person considered medically dead, and another who can hack into any computer in a matter of seconds…'
'Point,' she admitted, 'but they're hardly the sort of person who'll extend a handshake. They are trying to kill us, and anyone who finds out about us. You can't even justify knowing about them without running the risk of getting killed. Their workers are all people who've cut ties off everywhere, who've basically vanished off the planet! They're near impossible to find, even if you used us as bait.'
'Ryouta would be displeased,' he said, to dispel that last notion. It wasn't his job to deal with their guilt anyhow. 'My point is they may possess the knowledge. Is there any way for your hacker girl to check?'
'You're considering it again…' said Kana, slowly. 'I don't know if Kazumi can do it, but it's coming back, that image.' She was silent for a moment, and then she cursed. 'Why does he have to be at his house? That doesn't tell us anything else.'
'He's at home,' Kogorou said slowly. 'Home and cured.' That was good enough for him, but he could see why it might cause concerns for the girls. They had no way of knowing if it had cost them anything. If it had cost them their lives. 'If you're correct, we know that his safety at least is guaranteed, if he's fine and returned home at the end of it. And my sister presumably as well.' Because he doubted Ryouta would live by himself in that large house if something did happen to her…though she was arguably the safest of all of them, in the veil of ignorance both brother and son had kept her in.
So now he had to think about an idea he'd discarded, and discard an idea he'd thought about. A merry chase this witch powers were leading him on. As a scientist, it ruffled his feathers greatly…but, as an uncle, it really couldn't be helped. Ryouta was beyond frustrated but still he tried, and tried to find a way around his own deficit as well, if the tidbit about Nanami was anything to do by. And, though perhaps not in the way they'd intended, it had given them a lead that would bear fruit – assuming they didn't make any wrong turns to change that vision along the way.
