MCD: Wow, none of you got it yet~!
Sorry this chapter came late, I was busy at AnimeNEXT 2012 for a few days.
Year 10, age 12 (Seventh Grade):
Her memories hadn't returned through the tenth year, which was funny in an odd way. She didn't really care if her memories came back. She liked being Kikyo. Kikyo was a calm, rational part of her that never got flustered, was always polite, and always agreed. She didn't have much of her own personality, but she adapted like a survivor. She didn't use emotion much, but that also meant she wouldn't feel hurt when her mama couldn't make it to visit her in the hospital, and also meant that she would never be sad when nobody came to visit anymore, not be lonely when the nurse Jinenji left the room at the end of the day.
No, Kikyo wasn't much of a people person, but she was a survivor.
To top it all off and confirm her new identity to herself, her eyes turned brown.
When the doctor found out that Kagome's once vibrant blue eyes had turned into a duller chocolate brown, he was stumped. It took him months to figure it out.
"I've figured it out!" he exclaimed one day after a scan. Pointing to an area on a see-through diagram, Dr. Kirkland traced a small area of her brain, right behind her eyes.
"I'm not quite sure how it's possible, but the Kagome's eye color changing is the result of damage the bus did," he nodded to himself, scanning over the two other diagrams on the light table. "Somehow, the signals being sent to her eyes by her brain were damaged, and the chemicals in her skull became slightly scrambled. However, instead of making her go blind as many have, miss Higurashi here got incredibly lucky. Because of a hormonal reaction before the crash, paired with the medicine we'd given here to speed up her recovery along with other possibilities, somewhere along the line, Kagome's eyes reacted to all the factors." noticing the confused look on the full Higurashi family's faces, Arthur put it into layman's terms. He moved around the light table to stand next to Kagome, who was sitting on top of it, staring at the scans.
"In other words, Kagome's eyes could've been terribly damaged, but because of all the underlying factors, they were repaired in an odd, almost supernatural way, and her eye color changing is the result of that. That means that the brown eye color is a good thing for her, physically, because it means that her body is already making a speedy recovery." Dr. Kirkland patted Kagome's head softly, smiling. He leaned back against the light table.
Mrs. Higurashi breathed a sigh of relief.
"How wonderful," she teared about, feeling the relief wash through her so quickly. She'd thought that Kagome was suffering some sort of disease. Kiku, who had been sitting next to her, rubbed her back gently and smiled. Souta hugged his mother around the waist, and grandpa Higurashi slumped in his chair next to Souta. Dr. Kirkland nodded before turning to look at Kagome, who was still looking at the diagrams.
"Deary, why don't you go back to your room? I'll send nurse Lily and Dr. Vash in to give you something to snack on and administer your medicine for the evening. Kiku and Souta can come with you. I have to stay back with your mother and grandfather to speak with them for a moment. Do you think you can find your way back?" Kagome nodded and Dr. Kirkland smiled, ruffling her hair. "That's a good lass. I'll be right there," he told her and Kagome pushed herself off of the light table. Quietly, she grabbed Souta's and Kiku's hands and pulled them out the door, down the hallway a few rooms to her room.
Dr. Kirkland sighed when the remaining Higurashis gave him a concerned look.
"Mrs. Higurashi, Higurashi sir," Arthur nodded to them both before heaving himself up a bit to sit on the light table. He intertwined his hands and stared at them, unable to look the distressed family members in the eye.
"How can I put this..." taking a deep breath, Arthur plunged forward, "...While the newest addition to miss Kagome's eye color is key in her physical recovery, it is making her mental recovery that much harder." glancing up at them, he winced at the shocked looks they were giving him.
"Let me explain. You see, Kagome has created a new name for herself. For some reason, she believes that her name is "Kikyo", and will not react to anything but that name. Even getting her attention by calling her miss Higurashi has become hard to do. I'm not sure where she got the notion of having a different name, why, nor how, but I do know that her new eye color isn't helping. To put it simply, Kagome is developing a split personality disorder." he sighed and refrained from rubbing his eyes at their horrified expressions. Only twenty-three years old and he felt like he was going on a hundred. All this stress was getting to him...
"But, if Kagome won't react to 'Kagome', only 'Kikyo', then how is it a split personality disorder? Why not developing a single new identity?" Mrs. Higurashi questioned.
"Well," he began, "Kagome's eye colors do play a part in that. Whenever she acts like her old, normal self, her eyes are blue. Whenever she's feeling solemn or gets quiet and thinking, her eyes tend to turn brown. Her eyes are acting sort of like mood rings that you can get in , while she doesn't acknowledge the name 'Kagome', her body reacts to it. It seems that no matter how convinced her mind is that she's this 'Kikyo' girl, her body still knows that she's 'Kagome'." he concluded, clenching his hands together and staring at them solemnly.
"She's no closer to getting her memories back than I am to winning the lottery and seeing a pig fly. Without her own psychological cooperation, we can't promise any spectacular results." He stopped there. He couldn't bear to see the way Mrs. Higurashi doubled over in silent sobs, her hands cradling her teary face. The elder Higurashi simply stared at the floor, frozen in shock, his hand unmoving on his daughter's back, unable to falsely comfort her. Arthur stood, shuffling the brain scans into a messy pile and shoving them back into their folder. Turning to the Higurashis, he cast the a sympathetic glance.
"I'm sorry I can't do more for you. Kagome's room is down the hall. Call the front desk if you need me." with that he left the room, dreading his job a bit more now.