I love you all!
I don't own anything!
Uozumi
Guilt Case #10
They were sitting in the office again, silent as stone.
Picking at the wooden arm of the chair she was in, Sango contented herself with avoiding Miroku's eyes as he deliberated over what to do next.
"Okay, I've been thinking about it, and since Kikyô isn't here to have an appointment next, I have enough time to tell you," Sango looked down at her hands, then met his eyes, "but first off, I. DID. NOT. KILL. KOHAKU!"
Miroku stared. He wanted to ask who Kohaku was, but he wasn't sure if he should speak.
As if reading him, Sango smiled sadly, "Kohaku is my younger brother. If fate was kind, he would have turned fourteen back in August.
"Anyway, my cousins, Kagura and Kana are twins and hold weight in our family. How that happened, I'm not sure, but they have the power to bend people to believe them and not others - even my own parents took their words over mine, and told me how horrible I was and verbally berated me before sending me off to a trial where I pleaded insanity over intent."
Pausing, she held his gaze. "I was in court for murder, you know. A murder I didn't commit, the murder of my brother that Kana and Kagura carried out because he wouldn't do as they said."
Miroku swallowed, his mouth dry. This was insane! Two people controlling the beliefs of a family, turning immediate family against each other and killing off their own cousin to make it seem as though his older sister had done it?!
It didn't add up, but by the way she met his eyes, he knew it was true.
"Did they try you as an adult?" a raspy whisper signified the dryness.
"No, but if I were to say, 'Look, I wasn't insane,' well, I'm about to turn eighteen, so I would have a trial as an adult now."
Miroku's eyebrows knitted. "I think I can get you out of here, but I'm not sure how well it would work." Twirling in his chair, he began riffling through his file cabinet behind him, Sango watching his every movement. Twirling back to face her, he spread a binder out, and began flipping through the pictures of various drugs. "Okay, here we are," he placed a tissue to mark a page, "and…" he flipped a few more pages into the binder, "…here's the other one."
Sango raised an eyebrow, "Wha -"
"Okay, you have two options that I can see that might work without a repeal that your parents will certainly put up for lying under oath, which will get you into lots of trouble…" pausing, Miroku slipped out one of the tissues, "Actually to avoid that scenario, you have one option which is a little radical."
Sango scooted closer, "What is it?"
"Well, my friend Tanuki - the guy who went with me to Prom to pick up chick, remember?"
She nodded.
"Well, he's a lawyer, and I think…" his voice trailed, and then he looked up, "Sango, do you want to leave here?"
"Huh?"
"Before we proceed, I want to know if you do want to leave. What I'm about to suggest is dangerous, but will work. We will need to make lots of preparations to do it, but it would be pointless to begin if you want to stay in this environment."
"But…" she frowned, "I…."
"Sango, in your heart, did you kill Kohaku?"
"No."
"Do you believe you are insane?"
"No."
"Do you believe that you should be here?"
"Hell no!"
"Then do you want to take a slightly dangerous approach to getting out of here?"
She met his eyes, pursing her lips. "Let's hear it."
---
"It's not the same without Kikyô," Rin sighed, hanging from the couch upside down. "They never finished Yu Yu Hakusho either…now there's just some dumb cyborg show on…" sighing again, she gazed about the recreation room, then blinked. "Hey, Abi -"
"THAT'S ABI-HIME TO YOU!"
"Okay, okay," Rin somersaulted into a sitting position on the floor, "Abi-hime, have you seen Sango?"
"Sango?" the young woman gave the younger girl a puzzled look.
Rin sighed, "Never mind.
"What about you, Yura?"
"What about what?" Yura looked up from where she was re-braiding a large Barbie head, two others that had been played with already discarded. If she wasn't clinically insane, Yura could have been an excellent hairdresser.
Letting out an exasperated noise, Rin responded through clenched teeth, "Have you seen Sango anywhere?!"
"Sango?" the girl with a bob cut, glanced around, "No, I haven't. Why?"
Rin stretched out on the floor, "I don't know, it's just not the same with her not h -"
"AIEYA! NURSE WENSCHWEIGER! NURSE WENSCHWEIGER! COME QUICK!"
Instantly the three girls were in the hall with the nurse who was barreling towards a new staff member.
"What's wrong, Nurse Meeks?"
"I - In here, ma'am," the young woman pointed a finger into a room, "S - She's…."
Plowing past the newbie, Nurse Wenschweiger entered the room, then came to a halt. Stepping back slightly, she made a face, then turned to Nurse Meeks, "Meeks, go round up the girls, Dr. Arisugawa and Dr. Ming," at the hesitance of the other woman, she bellowed, "NOW!"
---
"Dr. Miroku!" Rin instantly launched herself into the older man's arms. "Oh, Dr. Miroku, you're here! It's horrible!"
"What? What's happened?" Miroku cast his violet eyes about the recreation room, "Where's Sango?"
Instantly Rin's eyes welled and she began bawling.
"Rin, Rin, what's wrong?" he looked down at her, then looked at his other patients, "What happened?"
"Sir, Sango -" Abi went to speak, then blinked, Abi-hime speaking instead, "Dr. Arisugawa, your beloved patient is in the medical ward. We heard the screaming about a half an hour ago, that newbie nurse came rushing out from her room, screeching for Nurse Wenschweiger, and then she came out looking very solemn. After that, they gathered us all into the recreation room, even patients who aren't yours," she gestured her hand about ten girls he had never seen, "and called for you and Dr. Meeks."
"What happened to her?" Miroku stared, his heart dropping to his feet, a sweat breaking out.
"I don't know," Abi-hime shook her head. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Miroku shook his head. What was he going to do next? His mind was blank. All they did was paged him and said there was an emergency in the psychiatric ward. Pursing his lips, he sighed, "I won't hesitate to tell you that I'm as speechless as you all are. If you can think of anything we could say or do, feel free to suggest it. I would like to pretend that I know what's about, but I don't. I am barely older than you all are, and not experienced with this kind of matter."
"Dr. Miroku?" Rin looked up at him, "Could you - could you see what's going on? We all want to know, but they won't tell us anything! It's like they don't know we exist!"
Miroku surveyed the crowd, whose eyes were boring into him.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do, okay?"
"You better get something," Abi-hime met his eyes, "In the spirit of Kikyô, I won't let you back in here without something decent."
Miroku nodded, then disappeared. That last line hit him. He could imagine Kikyô's reaction, she would have had it all figured out, actually, she would know what was going on. He could see her indifferent stare, and hear her voice.
"You have access we don't," she would say, staring into his eyes, "and if you think I'll let you back in here with some wimpy excuse for why you know nothing, you have another thing coming," and then she would hold his gaze, and he would be doing what he was doing right now. Perhaps his patients had some power over him, but in that power came things that Dr. Naraku would never have achieved. He was able to bring things out of the girls that no one knew that could help some of the ones like Rin, Kagome, and Sango escape. Kikyô never said anything about why she was in there, but whenever he looked at her, he had the impression that her soul had died long ago, and he would never get her out.
In his mind a quote from Spider-Man reigned, reverberating in his ears, a quote he had read and liked so many years ago.
"With great power, comes great responsibility."
They had all the power, but he had the responsibility, two entities that were joined hand in hand. The girls had a right to know what was going on, and so did he. It was his job to find out what they couldn't find out for themselves, time to use the power to help them, that was part of his responsibility to keep the stability of his patients.
Halting in front of the nurses' door, he rapped it.
"Oh, Dr. Arisugawa," Nurse Wenschweiger spoke from behind him, "you're here?"
"Yes," he nodded. "I was wondering what exactly is going on. The girls are going crazy, no one has told them anything, and since it seems to concern one of my patients, I figured that I also have a right to know as well."
Nurse Wenschweiger eyed him, then sighed, "Dr. Arisugawa, it's been hell.
"We've just called Hill Street Morgue," her blue eyes, dead for the first time, gazed into his wide, vibrant violet orbs, "Sango is dead. No one knows why, but we are filling out her last request since all her family stated was that she be tossed in a ditch."
Miroku stared, swallowing nothing, his mouth too dry.
Nurse Wenschweiger placed an elderly hand on his shoulder, "Dr. Arisugawa, you can't fool me."
He stared, his eyes widening farther.
"What Rin said was right. You and Sango were in love, I know right now that your world is falling around you. Like the adult and doctor you are, you didn't act on what you felt, possibly hid it away so you could perform what you had to." Her eyes kept his gaze, "Go tell the girls, they're waiting for you, and I think that it will be better they hear it from you rather than me, Dr. Ming, or - heaven forbid - Nurse Meeks."
Nodding numbly, Miroku turned to go. His world was falling around him. It wasn't fair. This whole ordeal wasn't fair.
Leaning against a wall, he rested his forehead against his right forearm, his left hand stuffed into his pants' pocket. Gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut, he let his body shake violently with a stifled sob. This was painful, this was worse than pain, and it shouldn't have to be this way.
It had been going so well, but this was the only end, right? This was the only way it would ever end. Sango was going to die in the ward, and that was the only way it could have been.
The plan was going smoothly, and that made him even sicker.
To be continued…