Welcome to chapter seven of Photograph of hope and despair with the only thing I have to say here is sorry for the long wait for another chapter and now with that I will let you get straight to the chapter.
Soda is right now in the lobby of the hospital ready to visit Mahiru since its been a day since Chiaki tried getting him out of his cottage so he decided to come to try to get some clarity before trying to interact with the others as he sighs quickly before feeling a tap o his shoulder making him jump quickly before turning around to see Ibuki standing behind him. "Hello Kazuichi, Ibuki didn't expect you to leave your cottage nevertheless come here to the hospital." Ibuki greets the mechanic who nods still a bit surprised before he nods a bit agreeing with what she said.
"that is true but I want to try to go back to acting normal so I just wanted to see Mahiru before I try to go hang out with one of the others." Soda replies with a forced smile trying to act friendly as he and Ibuki starts walking to the room that Mahiru's unconscious body is in with Ibuki just chattering with Soda barely paying attention until they get to the door with Soda freezing up for a moment as Ibuki looks at him sympathetically before just asking a random question. "So Ibuki has been wandering is it a new wardrobe idea or did you just forgot to wear your beanie?" Ibuki asks making Soda's forced smile disappear almost instantly after the question was asked with him feeling a bit sick even thinking about it as he just closes his eyes and take a deep breath.
"Sure let's go with a new wardrobe idea." Soda says simply and almost emotionlessly clearly not wanting to continue the topic as he walks into the room finally and starts to breathe just the slightest at the sight of the unconscious photographer as his breathing starts to falter as memories of what happened to Mahiru starts to submerge making him sit in a chair by the bed as he looks at Ibuki clearly wanting privacy for the moment with Ibuki leaving the room quickly.
"I know I'm just ranting to myself at this point but hopefully you can hear me, and I just wanted to say even though what happened to you is honestly still troubling me I'm not going to just sit in my room sulking and that I will try to put a brave front up and get along with the others and I hope you recover." Soda explains as he slowly stands up and heads for the door and leaves the hospital with Ibuki following closely behind him as the head back to the first island where the others still are since its still morning.
The second he finds everyone talking and eating in the hotel restaurant Soda sees Fuyuhiko and just barely forces himself to go sit alone with Chiaki going to sit with him while Fuyuhiko pays it no mind, "How are you holding up Soda?" Chiaki asks in a sympathetic way making Kazuichi look at her in a way that someone tired might as he just sighs as he puts his hands on the table with his head lowered clearly distraught at the moment.
"I know it seemed a bit fast but what I felt towards Mahiru felt so real and made me feel cared about so of course after seeing her get the living hell beat out of her brought out many feelings out of me, and if I'm being honest Chiaki I would be lying if I said I didn't want to kill Fuyuhiko for what he did to Mahiru." Soda explains while whispering the last bit to see that Chiaki looks very concerned about the mechanic as he raises his head with signs of him starting to tear up just from the topic making Chiaki put one of her hands gingerly on one of soda's hands on the knuckles.
"I promise you Kazuichi just be a little more patient and Mahiru will get better I assure you on this just please don't do anything stupid." Chiaki replies with Soda pulling with his hands away quickly as a tear hits the table with Soda now standing up clearly done for the moment. "I can't guarantee that I won't do anything stupid." Soda mumbles as he starts to walk away with Chiaki now noticing that Fuyuhiko is now missing making her quickly stand up to see that Peko is doing the exact same.
"Took you long enough you dumbass mechanic." Fuyuhiko points out at the beach while Soda arrives with a look of someone with noting to lose as he runs at Fuyuhiko who calmly stands there as he barely steps out of Soda's charge before the mechanic decides to punch Fuyuhiko in the stomach who returns it with a kick to Soda's knees making him lurch forward on to his knees with Soda trying to get back up before he feels Fuyuhiko push his face towards the sand. Soda somehow able to turn the tables by using his hands to push Fuyuhiko away as he bites the yakuza in the leg making Fuyuhiko step back with blood staining the sand as Soda sits back with a smile.
"It doesn't feel good getting hurt does it?" Soda asks as Fuyuhiko answers that with a kick to soda's face sending his body backwards onto the sand as he tries to move but stops himself when he hears footsteps and a voice. "both of you Fuyuhiko and Soda just stop this." Chiaki commands as she notices the state the two are in before running over to Soda to see him laughing a bit before getting up pushing Chiaki away from him.
"Don't try Chiaki, for crying out loud he injured Mahiru into a really bad state and pretty much got away with it but now you start to care when I try to get back at Fuyuhiko nice priorities there now if you don't mind I would like to get away from that bastard before I do worse than just bite him in the leg." Soda says casually before he starts walking away with Chiai looking over at Fuyuhiko who is holding his leg while cursing under his breathe
"That's what is going on and what that is but then why don't I have any memories of it?" Mahiru asks after Makoto tried his best to explain the simulation as they watch on a screen of what is going on in the simulation including Soda's fight as Makoto tries to figure out the best way of answering her question.
"Yes we put your whole class in a simulation because something happened to you guys that we had to fix by reminding your class of some kind of good memory or at least what could've been a memory instead of the true memories, and the reason you have no memory is because something bad happened to you in the simulation where we were forced to pull you out which tampered with all of your memories if that wasn't obvious." Makoto answers as he pulls up a corrupted folder marked: Mahiru's simulation memories.
"Well if its corrupted and if we need them to get along to help them in the long run wouldn't it help to put me back in even if we're at risk because of the corrupted files?" Mahiru asks as they see Byakuya walk in to explain things a little more clearly to the ultimate photographer as Makoto tries pulling up a file to show her what happened from the beginning of the simulation.
"Well the plan was to put you back in but for it to work you will have to watch some footage so you know how to act and to understand the rest of the class that is in the simulation so yes we will put you back in the simulation and when you do try looking for Chiaki she will help you figure out what to do from there." Byakuya explains as Makoto finally gets the file working with Mahiru agreeing to help them with their plan.
After a bit of watching Mahiru finds herself in a sleep of sorts, the second she wakes up she finds herself in a hospital room feeling major pain at first until she convinces her mind its not which surprisingly works as she starts to walk around the hospital to find it empty so she goes to leave to find Usami waiting for her at first surprising Mahiru until she remembered the footage she watched so she walks up to the rabbit. "Hey Usami where is Chiaki?" Mahiru asks with Usami ready to tell her, "She's probably on the first island keeping an eye on Soda and Fuyuhiko since they seem to be our most troubled of the group after what happened to you." Usami answers now getting Mahiru's attention since Makoto and Byakuya didn't seem like they wanted to tell her what happened to her.
"Usami be honest with me, what happened to me that needed to get me pulled out?" Mahiru asks seeing Usami fumble around with her words, "W-Well you see Fuyuhiko seemed to have a bit of his real memories s-so he met you at the diner and w-well h-he beat you really badly like blood everywhere and something that could be really fatal if they didn't pull you out of here." Usami explains honestly before they hear shuffling nearby making Usami panic and Mahiru a bit confused on how to react.
"What how is it possible that you are awake right now bitch?" Fuyuhiko asks clearly walking to the hospital to see how bad the bite mark on his leg is before standing there astounded and angry making Usami jump in front of Mahiru clearly not wanting a repeat of last time.
And that the end of the chapter two apologies are in order first sorry for the long wait on anything I was working on like this story and at least two others and second is for this chapter being a bit on the short side