Chapter 39: Yumiko Miura Arc: Incident VI

It took a couple more days for the sort of good news to arrive. Shouya Ishida was awake, still in the hospital though with multiple fractures, but awake nonetheless. Hachiman Hikigaya had gotten the news from the students at Detective Q. Sinichi Kudo and Hajime Kindaichi had ruled him out as a suspect. However, when he asked them about where the investigation was going and who else was on the suspect list other than him, the duo went rather tight-lipped and left without saying another word.

It was quite the unnatural behaviour on their part because after all, everyone who had the unpleasant experience of knowing that lot knew that detectives liked nothing better than to talk and talk and talk about an ongoing investigation.

"But I thought they were some of the best trainee detectives on campus." Miura said.

"I guess they are only good when it comes to solving murders." Hachiman explained. "Attempted suicide might be a bit out of their league. It also doesn't help that the victim lives to tell his own tale and mess up their entire investigation which is based on circumstantial evidence and deductive reasoning."

Miura looked at him rather suspiciously. "Don't you have the trainee detective program as one of your electives?"

Hachiman blushed and replied without thinking. "I only took it because, Kawasaki is in that class."

Miura blinked. "Who?"

This was no good, Hachiman thought. If Miura realized he took a class just so he could be in the same class as a beautiful woman, who was most definitely not her, then she might actually put him in the hospital for good measure for being such a creep. And because fate likes to play its cruel games, he might be put next to Shouya Ishida. If that happened the two of them might actually talk things out, realize he was in the wrong and by the time he was out of the hospital, the two might actually become friends.

Stuff like that shouldn't happen. Hachiman had to do something. Look for a distraction. As it so happened, he didn't have to look too far. Shouko Nishimiya had joined them outside the hospital, where they had been waiting for her to arrive in the first place.

He wasn't certain whether she would show up. After Hachiman had heard that Shouya Ishida was out from the intensive care unit and that he was actually awake, being able to talk and take visitors, he had been the one to ask whether it would be a nice gesture to visit him in the hospital.

Yumiko Miura hadn't been fond of the idea, but she had relented. However, it was Shouko Nishimiya who didn't want to do it. She still blamed herself for what happened, her inability to forgive him and not entertain the notion of becoming his friend, she believed those to be the reasons which pushed Shouya Ishida off the edge, literally in this case.

However, Hachiman had been at it for a couple of days, even before he got the news that Shouya Ishida had woken up. He wanted her to be there. He wanted all of them to be there. This was the least they could do, he had said.

In the end, Shouko Nishimiya had given in to his pleas. However what she didn't know is that like always, Hachiman Hikigaya had ulterior motives. He wasn't visiting Shouya Ishida out of the kindness in his heart.

He needed something from him.

But he didn't need to tell the others about it.

For the moment, Hachiman smiled and waved at Shouko. She returned the smile. Then he put his new learned sign language skills to good use and used the fingers of both his hands to communicate. Yumiko Miura looked on, feeling a bit jealous. But Hikio made an attempt to include her in the conversation by speaking what he was signing out loud.

"What did you bring for him?" Hachiman asked.

Shouko Nishimiya produced a small heart shaped box of chocolates which had a pretty pink bow attached to the top. She showed it both to Miura and Hachiman and silently gestured to them about what they thought about her gift.

Each of them had decided not to come empty handed. Shouko had persisted and argued that if they were to visit Shouya Ishida in the hospital, then the least they could do was bring him some get well soon gifts. Yumiko Miura had reluctantly agreed to the sentiment. Hachiman Hikigaya had said not to expect much. So naturally, it fell on Shouko Nishimiya to pick up their slack.

Shouko Nishimiya thought the box of chocolates was a nice touch. But she wanted confirmation from her two friends.

"Nice going, Nishimiya." Hachiman said. "I hadn't had anything to eat since morning. We can share this box of chocolates between ourselves."

Shouko hugged the box of chocolates to her chest protectively and moved to the side. "Not for you." She said verbally.

Hachiman pouted like a cute kid that he definitely wasn't and curled his fingers into a fist and put them on his waist, trying to look a bit peeved. "C'mon Nishimiya, it's not like he can eat the chocolates while he's still in the hospital. I have been hospitalized before. Patients get nothing but those so called nutritious but extremely horrible tasting food."

"He will have chocolate!" Shouko Nishimiya persisted.

Hachiman decided to pick his battles. But really there wasn't much to pick on. He looked at Miura and asked the same question. "What did you bring, Miura?"

Yumiko Miura produced a bouquet of flowers. "I got it from Rokka's store."

Hikio looked at the flowers for a few minutes. Then, "Isn't this rather in poor taste, Miura." He said. "I mean, the man clearly made it through. Now you are gonna remind him that if he died, these were the sort of flowers which were gonna be placed on his grave."

Miura hit him on the head with the bouquet. A couple of petal came loose and fell to the ground. Miura didn't care. Hikio was being stupid. There was no way Ishida could think like that, could he, she thought. Then, because someone had to ask, she did. "What did you bring for him, Hikio?"

Hachiman Hikigaya smiled. He then produced a simple looking, white envelop from inside his jacket pocket. Neither Miura nor Nishimiya looked awfully impressed.

"What do you have in there? Money?" Miura asked.

"A good luck charm?" Shouko asked.

"Close," Hachiman told Shouko. "It's a get well soon card."

Needless to say, neither of the two women was awfully impressed. But Hachiman Hikigaya didn't care.

"C'mon let's head inside." He said.

"Th-thank you for the card."

Shouya Ishida had greeted them politely from his bed. He was doing well, all things considered. He was no longer put on suicide watch, having now been relocated to the general ward with the other healing patients, soon to be on their way out.

Hachiman Hikigaya had tried to be natural about it. "I know it isn't much, but when I was in your place, I too received a get well soon card. It was from my younger sister."

"I have an older sister." Ishida said. Then, he said a bit bewildered. "I'm sorry, but did I hear right? You were in a similar situation like me."

Hachiman crossed his arm. "Yeah, I was hospitalized too."

"…For falling off a building?"

"No, are you crazy!? It wasn't anything like that." Hachiman said, shocked. "I was hit by a car. A really nice, speeding, Aston Martin."

Ishida felt confused. Perhaps it was the pain medication the doctor's had him on, but what this guy was saying made absolutely no sense. "I'm sorry?" he said, uncertainly.

Hachiman Hikigaya shrugged. "It happened back in my first year. I lived through it." He then looked at him with something close to a promise. "You're gonna live through it as well."

The way he said it, it felt oddly threatening. Ishida wanted to be bitter. What good it was to threaten a man who had just tried to commit suicide by falling of a building. Oh right, he had to make something clear. Of course from the looks of it, he already got it. He had already become accustomed to the small lie. Now the rest of them have to get used to it.

"I hope the police aren't giving you any trouble." Ishida said. "I talked to them and explained the situation, how it was all a big misunderstanding."

Hachiman Hikigaya tried to act surprised. "Oh?"

The lie came off easily this time around. The pain in his ribs and limbs didn't protest as much. This was the least he could do for them, because of the momentary lapse of judgment, giving into the weakness, picking the coward's path and deciding to take the one final step into oblivion.

"I told them the truth." Shouya Ishida said. "I had a bit too much to drink and I slipped and fell off the building. It was really no one's fault but mine."

"Thanks." Hachiman murmured. It was the actual truth. He had been glad to hear it, hear the lie from his lips. This had been his ulterior motive to come here. Not to spare him from the guilt, not to spare him from the rightfully deserved punishment, but this. He turned to Shouko Nishimiya and signed. "You hear that, Nishimiya?"

Nishimiya looked at him and cocked her face to the side. The look, innocent and lovely as it was, said what need not be said out loud. Hachiman Hikigaya was the biggest idiot in the world. Then again, why was there sign language in the first place for the sentence, you hear that.

So you see, it wasn't really all his fault. Now he had to make her believe it was not hers either.

"It was all a big misunderstanding." Hachiman said to Shouko using sign language. He had been practicing these sentences for a while now. It felt good to see that he was doing it correctly. Another month and he would have this whole thing down. "It was not your fault."

Shouko shook her head. "But -" she started to sign, but then pause.

It was Shouya Ishida. He yelped in pain. It was because he was trying to say something using his fingers. But his arm was in a sling and it was really difficult to make the shortest of movements without hurting himself in the process. Still, he wanted to do this, just say this.

"It's not your fault." Shouya Ishida managed to sign, somehow. Then verbally he spoke to Hachiman. But Shouko Nishimiya could read his lips. The lighting of this room was really good. She had no trouble listening to his silent voice.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Shouya Ishida said dryly. "I learned sign language because I wanted to meet her again and apologize to her and tell her, that if back in our childhood, if I knew how to understand her, how to speak in her voice, speak in her language, maybe communicate with her in the way which would have put us on a common ground, maybe then I wouldn't have been as horrible to her as I had been in the past."

Hachiman tried to control his rage. He didn't understand what he was trying to say. But then again, he had never been a bully. He was the one who was being bullied throughout his entire life. It stopped when he enrolled in Neo Tokyo University because here people slowly started to act like mature adults and realized there could be serious, life altering consequences for bullying someone. But he had seen it on more than one occasion, the urge still being there. It was just the fear of getting caught that was stopping them.

He had the same problem with Shouya Ishida. Just because he now knew how to communicate with Shouko Nishimiya because he had learned sign language doesn't mean all the wrongs in the past were magically corrected. "Do you really believe that?"

"I was a stupid kid." Ishida said. It was the thing he said back then too. It did nothing but make Hachiman angry. It didn't earn him any favours with Miura as well. She was now glaring at him and seriously thinking about whacking him in the head with the bouquet of flowers she had just given him.

"That's your excuse?"

"It's not an excuse." Shouya Ishida said. "I was a violent jerk back in elementary school and I did it all because of the attention. I mean, I used to jump out of bridges and fall into the river on a daily basis because of some moronic test of courage. But what I'm trying to say is that, I'm not that person anymore. I have changed."

"Hiratsuka-sensei told us you were bullied." Miura said. "Didn't like it when it was done to you, huh?"

"You can say that." Shouya Ishida admitted. "But I needed that to happen. I needed to know what it was like. What happened to me, it doesn't hold a candle to what I did to Nishimiya, but I needed something to happen to let me know the gravity of my actions. I needed to know I was a bully and I needed to know what it feels like to be bullied. Oddly as it may sound, I'm thankful I learned my lesson while I was still in elementary school."

"I don't think anybody has ever been thankful for being bullied, but you are a strange guy." Hachiman said.

"That just sounds wrong when you say it." Miura said.

While Miura and Hachiman were bickering, Shouko Nishimiya took out a marker. Then, with all the courage she could muster, she reached for Shouya Ishida's plastered cast arm and started to write something on it. Hachiman noticed her actions first and smiled.

"Guess what Ishida, you might have earned her friendship after all." He said.

Shouya Ishida blushed. Shouko Nishimiya had written her name on his cast and drawn a heart shape around it for some charm. However, Miura had gone in for a closer look. Her eyes widened. She turned to Shouko, who was blushing in anticipation it seems and said. "Why did you write your contact information in it? You know he has a girlfriend right?"

"Um, actually I don't have a girlfriend." Shouya Ishida said. "Ueno lied to the police about it, so that she could have access to me at all time. It might have also helped with the case she was trying to build."

"You mean put me behind bars for a crime I didn't commit." Hachiman scoffed. "You need better lady friends, Ishida." he said.

Shouya Ishida blushed. "Maybe I will have one soon enough." He said it while looking at Shouko Nishimiya. Their eyes met and the two of them blushed like silly high-schoolers which they were definitely not. However, Hachiman decided to end it before things could even start to flourish between the two of them.

"Hachiman!" Shouko yelped verbally.

But he was too quick. Before either of the two girls could do anything, he had crossed out her contact information with the marker and doodled something rather philosophical. Miura and Shouko looked at it for a second, but said nothing. This made Shouya Ishida curious.

"What did he write?" Ishida asked.

"Death is not an apology." Hachiman remarked.

Shouya Ishida went silent. Miura and Shouko decided it was time to leave. After they left, Shouya Ishida repeated the sentence around his head a couple of times. Who knew, Hachiman Hikigaya was right. Now he felt even more foolish about what he did.

But the lie he told will live on and he would live on with it and sometime in the future he would once more make a genuine attempt to reach some form of friendship with Shouko Nishimiya. He had a lot to atone, but lucky for him he had all the time in the world.

A/N: So, I got the distinct feeling that people didn't like the previous chapter because it might have been a little too dark. As a result, I decided to make this chapter a bit less serious than what I originally intended (Ueno was gonna be a bitch to Shouko and hurt her seriously. I don't wanna go into the details, but yeah, it would have been hard to read and difficult to write.)

So, with this concludes the Silent Voice Arc.

Now from chapter 40, the real fun begins!

Instead of writing a separate fic, I decided to continue the Orgairu x The World God Only Knows Arc here. However, if you want to pick a different anime for the next arc, here are the options:

Option 1: The World God Only Knows – (Harem)

Option 2: Oregairu – (Slice of life)

Option 3: Durarara! – (Seinen)

Option 4: Bakemonogatari – (Supernatural)

Option 5: Maid-sama – (Shoujo)

Please pick any of the above option or suggest an anime in the review.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.

Trivia: Shouko Nishimiya's roommates are: Shouko Komi (Komi-san can't communicate), Nanako Yukishiro (Senryuu Girl) and Tomoko Kuroki (Watamote).

Shouya Ishida's roommates are: Kousei Arima (Your Lie in April), Jinta Yadomi (Anohana), Satoru Fujinuma. (Erased)

Yumiko Miura's roommates are: Ai Hayasaka, Maka Albarn (Soul Eater), Mikoto Misaka (A Certain Magical Index)

Also, Hachiman is good friends with Satou Kazuma (Konosuba)

Kazuma's roommates are: Kamijou Touma (A Certain Magical Index), Karma Akabane (Assasination Classroom) and Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket)