A/N: This chapter and subsequent ones contain spoilers for the more recent Brynhildr chapters. From one hundred and fifty-something. Can't remember the exact number, but it's the chapter Aphrodite appears. If you don't recognise the name, then this and future chapters will contain spoilers for you. XD

The Left Side of Memories
Chapter 10

The fancy language took a while to get used to, but she recognised the incident in the report after getting half a page in. Murakami had told them all about it. Told Neko multiple times. They were reminded of it multiple times in the early times as well. That time when the two of them had gone searching for aliens together and fallen from the top of the dam.

So these were Neko's results, then? That made sense. They must have known there'd been another person there –

She gasped again when she realised exactly what she'd just read.

…both victims too damaged to restore through conventional means…

'They were both dead?'

She read on. It explained a little about Neko's older sister and the original Valkriya. It also explained about a boy called Makina and his role as a sorcerian. Valkryia and sorcerian. Both involved combining human and alien in novel ways, in ways that possessed higher risks to the humans involved and so both would '…benefit from having back-ups in the two victims that have, like God's gifts, fallen into our hands?!'

That meant… That meant… Murakami as well had been modified by Vingulf. Made into half a human. But because he was a boy, because he lacked a harness, none of them had had any idea.

His memory wasn't just photographic. That was why even the magic of a witch wouldn't affect it. It was alien. All alien. And she was staring at the proof.

'Is that Ryouta?'

She jumped. She'd entirely forgotten about Murakami's uncle, behind her. He was peering over her shoulder. He'd probably read the notes as well. Now he was looking at the pictures attached. Of Neko and Murakami – both plainly recognisable, even though they were nearly half their current ages back then.

And Murakami, most definitely, had a mess of bone, blood and goo where his head should have been. So did Neko, for that matter, but they knew Neko was a witch. They knew Neko had been heavily experimented on.

Why was Murakami living a normal life if he had this buried in his past? Kazumi scanned the rest of the article, but it was all medical mumbo jumbo that went over her head.

'Are you done reading it?' she asked Kogorou.

He was silent for a moment, eyes raking the last few lines. 'Done,' he said, after a pause.

She went to the next file. Freya was there, suddenly, again. Her attention was split between grappling with her and reading the file. Or newspaper clipping. Something about a car accident. Murakami's name again. And that Makina guy's.

Wait a sec…

Father and younger son, Makina, tragically killed, leaving mother and older son, Ryouta, behind…

Ryouta and this Makina are brothers? Murakami had never mentioned a brother… But then again, he never talked about his father, either. She knew he'd died. But that was about it. But Makina was the name of the sorcerian in the previous file. There was no way that was a coincidence. Not when they were talking about Vingulf's –

She coughed and spat out a trickle of blood. 'Damn Freya.' She tore her attention away from the article and shoved at the other hacker again. It took a good fifteen minutes. She'd let Freya get a foothold again, and even injured and slow as she was, she was good at what she did. She had to be, to still be alive after Kazumi had beaten her once. The other witches they'd bested hadn't been so lucky.

For the most part, they had Kana to thank for that information. But Kana could only see so much.

How could this have been a good idea?

Freya stumbled. Kazumi took the opportunity to throw her out again and opened the next article. She skimmed through those ones rapidly. Test scores. School reports. Following Ryouta's progress from primary school. The occasional medical report. Even a few psychological evaluations, after the whole dam incident. The psychologists were also from Vingulf, it seemed. Looking at how the incorporation of human and alien was handling life.

She felt bile rise to her throat, mingling with the aftertaste of blood. She'd lived through such things. She was such things. But Murakami had been different. Murakami was supposed to be the normal one, but they'd reached even him. Not that he knew. He was a pretty good liar when he wanted to be but not that good. He'd been sincere, and everything that'd gone through together was sincere. It wasn't fair that Vingulf had done this to him too…

But there'd been those photos. Murakami probably wouldn't have been with them if they hadn't. Neko too. At least with Murakami they'd fixed him and let him be. It was Neko she should feel for. And she did. Those lost memories. That lost love. Having to kill her own sister. Yeah, Neko did have it the roughest out of all of them.

But if they hadn't come into Murakami's life, he might've lived out his entire life never aware of this part of him. Or would Vingulf have come for him, in the end? If this Makina failed, like Mako had. Or if something else happened. Were they watching him in person as well, instead of just through the net. Had they known all along where the runaway witches were?

The ideas began to pile in her head. Had they just been testing him? Testing that alien brain they'd given him when he'd topped the country for the second year in a row without anything to challenge him any more? Were they testing his limits? Trying to find out his strengths? His advantages? Had they used Nanami just to see if he'd be able to resist her power or not?

But they couldn't have planned for this. They couldn't have planned for Neko doing what she did. Unless… They were still testing him. And the thought angered her, because how could they! How could they just sit and watch. Or stand in the shadows and watch as everyone suffered.

She shifted through the articles, keeping Freya at arm's length as she did. Nothing new and interesting came out. They were the two major reveals. Until she stumbled on the most recent reports. Familiar reports, that she'd already read once by hacking into the hospital's security. So Vingulf were aware of his current condition. They were even aware of the witch power that had done it. Target A, they were calling her. Calling Neko.

She made a mental note of that, but first, she had to get through the rest of the Murakami related files. There wasn't anything new in them until the end. Talking about the inherent regeneration properties of the enhanced sorcerian and how they weren't replicated in the one left to live naturally. How the comparative results in that aspect were rather disappointing. How the correct balance between intellect and tissue regeneration had yet to be achieved, how Makina was too much regeneration and not enough intellect, while Ryouta appeared to be the other way around.

But that didn't answer the question of what they planned to do. What were they going to do with Murakami now? Leave him alone, leave the doctors to try and figure out a puzzle that would be forever beyond them because that wasn't even a human brain they were dealing with? Wasn't there going to be something in these files that could help them after all? Was this little excursion of theirs going to only leave them with despair?

She almost let Freya push her out this time, but remembered Neko. They'd called her Target A. After wanting her disposed of. She had to find out why. Even if it was likely as insane an answer as Murakami's. Even if it was going to be as unbearable, and as useless.

It was. They wanted her back because she was the backup for Valkryia and Valkryia was gone. They were making a new one, of course. But that would take years. Years they might not have. What's the big rush? She wondered. They were creating a new Grani as well. What Kotori had died for. Why the hell…

But they wouldn't do anything yet. They were waiting for a specific time. A specific phase. They were safe for the time being. Vingulf wouldn't be coming after them. Instead, Vingulf was content to let them wait until they hatched – what is hatching? – or died by other means. It was even content to let them witness the end of the world, if it came to that.

'How little they think of us,' she mused, 'after all the times we kicked their butts, too.' She coughed again. Freya had clawed her way back, was filtering through the information Kazumi had already searched. She erased the final steps, the bits about Neko, about them. No need to make them change their tune. The stuff about Murakami was too late to hide, though. Was it arrogance or complacency, she wondered? Or mere distraction. She felt her harness hang up. Felt blood in her ears as well. Freya hadn't quite pushed her out – she'd done that herself – but she'd done a damn good job is messing her up in the process.

And Kazumi had done a fine job in messing up, too. 'Guess we didn't find anything useful.' She leaned back and closed her eyes. 'Sorry. You're going to have to walk back with me on your back.'

Kogorou regarded her. She couldn't quite make out his expression, and she figured she didn't really care as she let her eyes slip closed. But he did carry her back (or called a cab and broken his own edict), because she woke up the next morning in the Observatory and the girls said he'd brought her there.