June 6th, 2021

Satoshi felt heavy.

It wasn't a heaviness he was familiar with –it was like all his blood had turned to sludge, and his bones into lead. Even as he rose slowly out of sleep, awareness creeping in, he felt like he was immersed in tar. He could barely move, even if it was to just drag his chest up and down, even if it was just to breathe. He was lying on something soft, though, so he wasn't uncomfortable –under something vaguely warm, too, warm with the coziness of a well-made blanket.

His head ached, a little, but Satoshi didn't have the energy to lift his head up and rub it. That was annoying, though –you usually didn't have headaches after you woke up. A nice nap or a good night's rest usually took care of that problem, not caused it.

Hrrm…maybe something had happened, and that was why he was feeling so drained and weak. Tentatively, Satoshi managed to drag his eyes open just a little, registering that he was in a room with a steady, bright light. Sensory input rushed towards him as he tried to think –he could smell the faint astringent sting of chemicals, and the starchy smell of sterilized fabric, so he must be in the clinic. The light was an overhead one, but not an operating one, thank goodness.

Slowly getting used to the bright light, Satoshi opened his eyes further, using what little strength he had to flick them around the room. There were a lot of machines he didn't recognize, some of which were connected to him, with a needle in his arm and some kind of plastic mask strapped to his face, and he was in some kind of hospital bed, with –incongruously enough– a knitted blanket draped over the standard sheets he was lying under. It was a bit lumpy, like someone had made it by hand, with blue and pink yarn in no discernable pattern.

More importantly, though, there was a door and an observation window in the wall to his left, and a plastic chair beside his bed. On the opposite wall was a counter with a sink and some cupboards underneath, and Satoshi's throat tightened as he saw the enormous stuffed bear perched in pride-of-place on the counter. He was going to give that to Satoko, before…

His mind went hazy. He, he remembered biking to the store, and buying the bear, and staring at it and his bike in consternation before using his little change on a payphone to call Coach Irie with his car, but after that…his mind was a blank. It was like scratching at a glass wall: his mind seemed to slide off of it, never leaving a scratch in that implacable blankness in his reel of memories.

Satoshi was jolted out of his attempts to remember by the door opening, and he relaxes a little as he sees Coach Irie stepping into the room. He isn't wearing the cream shirt he'd had on before, though, he's wearing his usual dark suit and vest and yellow tie, with his labcoat over it all. How long had Satoshi been asleep?

The Coach's familiar face was shadowed with a hint of something Satoshi couldn't identify. Something like trepidation, or uncertainty, as though the Coach was pleased but unsure of his welcome. How could he be, though? Irie was the only adult Satoshi could ever really remember being kind to both him and his sister. Satoshi would never reject him for no reason.

"Satoshi?" Irie asked quietly, remaining by the door. His green eyes glimmered with concern behind his glasses.

"Coach." Satoshi managed to breathe back, straining against the lethargy of his body as he tried to talk, to smile back. "Did…something…happen?"

Coach Irie pressed a hand to his mouth, the tension in his shoulders –why were they tense?– relaxing as his eyes glimmered with tears, now. He looked unfathomably relieved, like Satoshi had escaped death by a whisker after hovering for weeks on its doorstep.

Maybe the fear of that showed on his face, because Irie's expression quickly flashed over into professional neutrality, and he took several steps forward, sitting down beside Satoshi's bed on what had to be some kind of visitor's chair.

"A lot has happened since you last were awake." Irie said, his eyes flicking from Satoshi's largely immobile face to his vitals, humming and bleeping contentedly on the machines around him. "So I'm going to need you to stay calm while I explain it to you, okay?"

Satoshi nodded as much as he could manage.

And Irie explained it –he explained everything. He explained how Satoshi had been in a coma for over a year, that his uncle had fled Hinamizawa, never to return, that Satoshi's absence had been taken for the fourth year's curse of Oyashiro-sama. Knowing Satoshi's priorities, he had also explained that Satoko had been safe, happy, and healthy all this time, that she had grown into a strong and vibrant young girl, mischievous and lively, that she was still waiting patiently for Satoshi to come home.

He had explained, gently and slowly, that Satoshi had been afflicted by a terrible disease that had destroyed his ability to reason, and it was only through devoted care and study that Irie and his team had managed to help drag Satoshi back into the realm of coherent thought. He explained that Satoshi would be kept in the clinic for a few weeks more, and likely have to take daily shots both before and after he was formally discharged. He explained the disease, the secrecy of the disease, and the importance of not telling his sister.

Throughout, he stressed the importance of Satoshi staying calm, and the more Satoshi knew about this "Hinamizawa Syndrome," the more he understood why. He could hardly bear to think of it if he hurt the Coach, who had done so much for both him and Satoko.

Despite the importance of his explanations, Irie seemed to be hurrying them, and Satoshi eventually dredged up the energy to ask why. Irie smiled at that, the corners of his eyes crinkling in a way that had nothing to do with trepidation.

"There's someone who has been waiting very impatiently to see you." he said fondly. "Shion?"

The door jerked open in an odd, aborted motion at Irie's call, like the girl that opened it couldn't wait a second longer but didn't dare do anything to startle Satoshi. She rushed through the gap, wide teal eyes and a flurry of bright green hair, and Satoshi was struck dumb by the maelstrom of emotion she bore in her face, her posture, her agonized voice as she stepped towards him.

"Satoshi-kun?"

She was trembling with hope, looking at him like he was too precious to be real, that this was all too perfect to have happened, like she had been hoping and begging and praying for this moment for long, long nights all this time, but now she couldn't believe it had actually happened.

Satoshi mustered up a smile for her.

Much like Coach Irie, Shion clapped a hand over her mouth, but this time she sobbed, and tears began to trickle down her overjoyed face.

"Satoshi-kun!"

"Muu…hello, Shion-san." he managed to croak. Shion continues to sob, sparkling tears sliding down her cheeks, and her fingers tremble as she reaches out for him, like he is a vision she still doesn't dare to believe. Her fingertips brush the knitted blanket, quivering, like insects, and then, as if making up her mind, she swoops down and pulls him into a tight, frantic embrace, continuing to cry.

Satoshi blinks up at the ceiling over Shion's head, feeling nonplussed. The desperation with which she clutches him, the way she's crying, it feels…oddly nice. He has to remember that its been a year since they last saw each other, but the frantic way she held him, no longer uncertain that he was there but so, so desperate to protect him and make sure that he didn't slip away, it was…nice, to feel so wanted, so needed, like he was something precious she was terrified to lose.

He dredges up more energy to lift one stick-thin arm, patting her softly on the head. Shion sobs louder and hugs him tighter, and Irie smiles as he watches them both.

Its been a few weeks since Satoshi woke up. Shion visits every single day, bubbling over with joy every time she walks in and sees him awake, and they talk. Oh, how they talk, Shion overflowing with news like uncorked champagne as she tells him all about what he has missed, all about Satoko, whom she is fiercely protecting as a big sister –"She called me her Nee-Nee!" Shion confides, and they both blush– and what, exactly, the curse had actually meant and who had cast it.

She tells him about the armed shootout they had in this very clinic, and Satoshi can imagine her, a diamond-hard demon princess chipping the distance away with her black kitten heels as she marches fiercely down the hall to find him, and about how hard Irie has been working to heal him. Satoshi knows about that, about the countless checkups and tests that Irie has to run, smiling softly and apologizing as he does, about how Satoshi is always so hungry as his coma-starved body tries to recover its lost nutrients. Shion always brings food, homemade bento with a feast of healthy snacks, and he blushes when he realizes that she made them herself.

Shion made his blanket, she explains as she flushes and toys with the end of her hair, saying that she didn't want him to wake up in a strange, sterile room, and that she'd read pink and blue were soothing colors. Irie tells him that Shion visited nearly every day even when he was asleep, reading stories and softly talking to him, or even just holding his hand and praying. Satoshi is almost intimidated by her unwavering devotion, feeling like he has to prove himself, somehow, to this vision of adoration. He isn't sure how to do it, but Shion treats every scrap of his affection and attention like precious gems, so he makes sure to lavish them as often as possible.

And then the big day arrived.

Satoshi was strong enough to walk and move around, and neither he nor anyone else was willing to wait a second longer than he had to before going home. Of course, they'd had to come up with an explanation, which Irie had gracefully provided.

"People will notice that you're emaciated." he'd said as he moved his stethoscope around at Satoshi's final checkup. "So we'll say that after you bought the bear for Satoko, you were hit by a car and fell into a coma. The car was driven by a couple about to give birth, so they took you with them to the hospital, and because they were tourists speeding through Okinomiya, they didn't have any idea of where they picked you up, and your wallet was damaged in the crash, so there was no way of identifying you until you woke up, at which point one of my colleagues at the hospital called me and I brought you home."

"Don't you think people will question that, Coach?" Satoshi had asked as he pulled his shirt back on. Hinamizawa was insular enough that even a speeding car would be noticed, and the investigations around each successive incident of the curse had been intense.

"People tend to see only what they want to see." Irie had said. "You look like you've been in a coma, and why would we lie about how you got into one?"

They had shared a little, wry smile at that.

He and Shion had tossed around a lot of ideas about how Satoshi was going to be reintroduced to the others, and had finally settled around a somewhat anticlimactic "Welcome Home!" meeting at the clinic, in the above-ground portions where normal medical activities happened. Anything else was too dramatic for such an already-emotionally-charged event, and he didn't want to make his little sister faint –or scream like a steam engine.

As it was, even already knowing that he was alive, even having been told before she and the rest of the expanded club settled into the clinic's lobby, Satoko still screamed "NI-NI!" and cannoned into his legs with nearly enough force to knock him over.

"Muu, I'm sorry I was late." Satoshi apologized with a hesitant smile, patting her head as Satoko clung tightly to his waist and sobbed. She was bigger, and louder, and his heart warmed as he saw how much stronger she had become, how after that initial relieved burst of tears she stepped back and held her head high, looking at him with gleaming eyes and a happy smile. "I got you a stuffed bear for your birthday, though."

Satoko sniffed and tossed her head.

"Tch, well! You're lucky I love you so much, otherwise I would scold you quite harshly for being so late!" she scoffed haughtily. Satoshi caught the other club members hiding smiles. He didn't bother hiding his –Satoko really had grown into a strong, confident young girl. He could hardly recognize his quavering younger sister in this bold child.

"So you don't want the bear?" he asked, and she spluttered.

"I-I never said that! How dare you show up late and not present me with my due gift, Ni-Ni!" Satoko cried, lunging to grab two handfuls of his shirt. "How dare you!"

Satoshi chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, as Irie shuffled into the room, holding the enormous stuffed bear. Satoko's jaw dropped as she saw it.

"Holy crap! That thing's bigger than she is!" the brunet that Satoshi didn't know exclaimed, his jaw dropping as well. Satoko squealed and grabbed it, staggering back from Irie as she tried to lift the stuffed monstrosity without tripping over her own feet.

"Its mine!" she cried out as Satoshi tried to steady it with one hand. "Ni-Ni, you bought it for me! It's mine and you can't have it!"

They all abandoned decorum and laughed, even when she started scolding them, and eventually settled to rest in the bear's lap like a throne as they all gathered around the welcome table piled high with food. Satoshi felt himself slotting back into the rhythm of the club with almost palpable relief, with Rena being as bright as she always was, Rika as cutely mysterious, Mion as exuberant. Shion and the other boy, Keiichi, they were slightly new and different, but Shion was familiar in her own way –just not a part of the club– and she made him blush as she clung onto his arm.

"At least this way you'll stop angling for Kei-chan! Nyah!" Mion stuck her tongue out at her sister, patting a heavy hand onto Keiichi's shoulder. Shion grinned slyly and rubbed her chin.

"Ah, but Onee, if everything goes as it should, they'll end up brothers-in-law." she said cheerfully. "Why bother?"

Keiichi and Mion both spluttered, going red and starting to stammer denials, and Satoshi coughed and looked down. Shion intercepted his gaze, then looked aside as she tucked some hair behind her ear.

"You don't…mind the thought…of maybe being with me?" she asked, blushing faintly.

Satoshi hesitated a moment, thinking, then adjusted his arm and wove his fingers through her own.

"I already am." he said, and she blushed harder, squeezing his hand back.

9.43 AM, USA Central Time