It was only a few years ago, in Mitakihara Preschool, as Narita was attending to one of the students in her office when there was a knock on her office door. Putting down the stethoscope and telling the boy on in front of her that she would be back in a minute, Narita and her assistant went over to the door and opened to see one of the teachers. She looked worried and had some news for the both of them, "Nurse, I need your help. it's Homura again."
While it was already the 3rd month of school's first semester, Homura had just transferred here recently and she wasn't having a good start at all. The moment the young girl had begun schooling here, they already started having some difficulties that involved her parents and some medical issues. As the school nurse, Narita had been constantly tending to Homura for about several times already and had seen her the most inside her small office more than anywhere else other than the classroom. It was beginning to worry her.
Sighing, Narita told her assistant to stay with the boy inside for a few minutes before she picked up a small bag nearby and followed the teacher into the corridor, "What happened this time?" she asked as kids and teachers walked pass them on their way out of the hall. The place was simple as a school could get and Narita wondered if she should transfer to that upcoming new middle-school they were building.
"She locked herself in the storage shed and won't come out. A few of the kids were picking on her, so she ran inside there," the teacher explained as they walked out into the sunny playground at the back of the school and saw a bunch of kids talking around the dusty storage shed. The moment the kids noticed the two adults heading towards them, the kids stopped their chatting and scurried away. The storage shed door was dusty and chipped, as the teacher knocked on it, "Homura, I brought the nurse."
Nothing but the sounds of movement inside and the rattling of some metal equipment.
"... Go away," a shaky, timid voice replied.
Narita clapped the teacher's shoulder, assuring her, "I got this. Don't worry."
Hesitantly, the teacher nodded and reluctant headed back indoors for her classroom, leaving Narita out in the open sun and next to the storage shed alone. The kids on the playground ran around noisily and laughed as they played. Narita put down the bag on the floor and knelt down one knee. The door to the shed was not locked, but they all knew better than to just open it up and scare the girl. They always needed to calm her down first.
Narita gently knocked on the door, brushing a strand of hair off her face and whispering, "Homura, can you hear me?" She heard nothing more than the scuffling of tools inside the shed again. Narita's voice was gentle but confrontational as she continued, "Ignoring me won't help anyone, darling. It never does. Here," she zipped open her bag at her side and took out a lunch box, "I brought some food for you again. If you tell me what happened this time, I'll give it to you straight away. As always."
Silence again.
The door opened up and Homura, with teary, red eyes and tear stains on her cheeks, stared at Narita behind a large pair of red, round glasses. The small girl walked out of the shed, wiping her tear-stained cheeks as her long, black braid trailed down her back and reached her waist. The girl's fingers fidgeted as Narita wrapped her arms around the young girl and brought her into a warm hug. Homura continued to cry into the woman's chest as Narita ran a hand through her hair.
"Good girl," Narita muttered, giving a warm smile, "Now, let's head back to my office."
Moments later, Homura was sitting on Narita's desk, eating the meal Narita had given her as the nurse was talking to the teacher again outside her office in the empty corridors.
"That kid really is sensitive," The teacher said, peeking at Homura through the door, "Scared of most people and prone to panic. Really makes me worried how she will handle herself when she grows up."
"When you see your parents die at a young age, you'll get scared easily all the time," Narita sipped the coffee in her hand and let out a tired sigh, the coffee tasting more bitter than usual, "Trust me, I've seen plenty of kids like this. Too many, in fact, and it sometimes keeps me up awake at night whenever I remember all of their faces," the nurse solemnly looked down on the floor, a distant look in her eyes.
The teacher looked back at the nurse, agreeing with her statement, "Speaking of kids, how are Takuya and Tomura? Have they been recovering from... you know?"
Narita pursed her lips and sipped her coffee again, downing the entire cup this time. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and answered, "Yeah. Takuya and Tomura seem to be taking it quite well. They're strong, both of them. Just like their mother and father were. But it makes me worried if they bottle up their feelings too much just so I won't get worried," Narita slid the door open and went back inside with one last comment, "If anything, I was wondering if I could Homura in more ways than just this."
"W-Who are you?"
Hideki could not believe the words that he had just heard. His felt his throat tighten and his face pale. He felt his stomach churn and his lips purse. Homura's actions. Her words. Was this caused by the accident? Was this his fault, too? Did he make a mistake for more grave than he had realized?
It was almost too much for him to bear as he stepped back through the curtains, a hand grasping the side of his head as Homura scanned the room with one eye covered in medical wraps and the other wide open with utter terror.
Her heart began to race, increasing in its speed along with her the rate of her breathing as cold sweat trailed down her face. Homura's body ached from every move she took, she felt nauseous and her mind was cloudy, the persistent feeling of throwing up plaguing her mind. Panicking, she pushed Narita and Yuri away from her before curling up her legs and backing herself against the head of the bed, "W-Where am I?!" she grasped her injured shoulder, wincing in pain, "Wh-Who are you people...?"
She was like a scared child in the presence of strangers that threatened her lives. Trying to take care of the situation, Narita went to her desk to get a sedative from her drawers while Yuri attempted to calm Homura down as best as she could, "A-Akemi, calm down... You're safe. I-It's me, Yuri, remember?" she took a step forward Homura and the raven-haired girl retreated to the corner of her bed. Yuri looked shocked from the reaction her actions received and took a step back, feeling hurt. She stepped behind Hideki, who was still registering Homura's words in his head as Narita came back with a sedative in hand.
Narita held the sedative in one hand as she held out the other to put Homura at ease. She slowly approached the trembling girl, saying, "Now, Miss, I need you to cooperate with me and-" When the needle came close, Homura swatted away the syringe in her hands and the glass object shattered against the wall with a crunch. Narita reeled back, grasping her stinging hand as Homura shrieked.
"S-Stay away!"
Outside the nurse's office, Mamoru and Minami stood in the empty corridor of the school with no words exchanged between them. Leaning against the wall with folded arms, Mamoru looked up at the silent council president and spoke up. Her back was facing him and he wasn't sure if she would listen, but he continued, "If it makes it better," Mamoru brought an open hand to his chest, solemnly declaring, "I shall be taking full responsibility for this."
Minami scoffed, sounding bitter, "And do what, make it worse?"
Her sharp, sour reply made Mamoru look back down on the polished floor, unsure of what to say. Minami wasn't surprised. She always knew the boy's pride always made him unable to say things he founded degrading and/or submissive. The two had been bickering for years and even though this was the first time she had seen him this apologetic, she still resented him. Minami then motioned for the door and reached for its handle.
She stood there for a while, hands grasping the handle tightly, "If you want to help, then-"
Suddenly, the doors forcefully slid open and Homura, bare-footed with her bloodied medical wraps around parts of her body, knocked into Minami. The two fell to the floor, but Homura was quick to recover and got back to her feet as Mamoru helped up the wincing council president. Looking back into the nurse's office, Homura then took off to the hallway with a bruised Hideki following her out of the office, "A-Akemi, wait!"
Once she was on her feet, Mamoru left the council president to herself and followed the two down the corridor as well. Minami looked dumbfounded, grasping her pained arm as Narita and Yuri came out of the office. They both panted with bruises and scratch marks on their faces. Minami crouched down to her sister and saw the work Homura had done, "Miss Narita, what happened?!"
"She's suffering from retrograde amnesia and a panic attack," Narita answered, still out of breath, "She can't remember anything and starting panicking, but when we tried to hold her down, she ran. Minami, I need the boys to bring her back before she hurts herself or anyone else," Minami still was confused from the situation, but she gave an understanding nod and tried to focus.
"A-Alright. You two stay here and prepare something to calm Akemi down. I'll go get help," Minami took out her phone and ran to the Student Council room while the two walked back into the office.
Narita pulled out one of her drawers and prepared a few more sedatives, placing them in a small bag Yuri passed to her before zipping it up. Narita sat down on a chair and took out a few bandages and ointments to clean up the wounds on their faces. Yuri sat down in front of the nurse and Narita patched up her injuries with the bandages, "Yuri, do you mind telling me on just who was that girl?" she asked, applying ointment onto the little girl's skin, "I don't remember her being a student here."
Yuri stifled a yelp when Narita applied the bandages on her face. The little girl received a soft stroke on the cheek to calm her down and she answered, "Akemi Homura."
Narita looked at her questioningly and paused, a look of realization crossing her face. She whispered, "Akemi... Homura?"
Minami was running through the corridors as stuffed her phone back in her pocket. She had told her council members to watch out for Homura and try to catch her if they see her. Knowing she needed all the helped she needed, Minami had called Makoto as well and briefed him on what was going on. They had come to an agreement and now Minami was going around as well to try and find Homura when she bumped into someone and fell to the floor,
Wincing, she opened her eyes and saw Takuya on the floor as well, coughing and rubbing his sore chest. Behind him, Tateyama and Tomura turned around to look at the distraught president. They could see the panic in her eyes as Tateyama helped Takuya to his feet. The council president shook off the blow and wanted to leave when Tomura tugged her on her uniform's sleeve.
"Is there something wrong?" Tomura worryingly asked.
Minami grimaced and frustratingly answered, pointing a damning finger at the younger boy's older brother and his white-haired friend, "Dammit, it's because of you two and your friends that this happened!" her shouting echoed through the hallway, "Because of you 4, Akemi is now...! Akemi is now..."she felt the energy to scold them drain herself and she trailed off when she realized she had better things to do, "Never mind. You two can't do any-"
"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Takuya, his tone sounding more serious.
The Council President scratched her head and looked at the three gazing expectantly at her, "Is there?" she muttered. Heaving a sigh, she turned on her heel and answered before running off, "Just wait in the nurse's office and stay with Miss Narita and my sister. Your friends will be back with Akemi, anyway."
Once she was gone, Tateyama took out his laptop and leaned against the wall to do some research. He typed on the keyboard with one hand only and on the computer screen, the Fujimaki brothers saw him accessing the school's computer database, "What are you doing?" Tomura asked and tried taking a look at the taller boy's computer screen.
"Researching Akemi's personal database."
Running through the hallways of the school while grasping her right shoulder in pain, Homura shoved confused students and teachers out of her way, trying to find a way out of the place she was in. Stopping near a few flight of stairs, she panted from her hare-like run and looked around. The school's complex architecture worsened the headache Homura was experiencing, her feet beginning to freeze from the floor's cold touch. She massaged her head to ease the pain and hurried to looked for the nearest exit.
"Akemi, wait!"
Homura spun around and saw the Hideki and Mamoru catching up to her, calling out her name at the same time. Terrified, she broke for the staircase nearest to her and rushed for downstairs.
The pair proceeded to go and pursue Homura throughout the school as the girl was more agile than she seemed despite her injuries and state of mind. She slipped pass the grip's of Minami's council members that had caught up to her and constantly outmaneuvered them with hiding and diversionary tactics. Homura could not find any exit that had been blocked off under Minami's orders, so she tried instead to go to the upper floors and hide. Hideki and Mamoru were the few that managed to stay on her tail and continue pursuing her, but they started to tire out from their run.
After nearly half an hour or more, Homura was nowhere to be found running throughout the school and Mamoru and Hideki had found hiding inside the school's equipment shed where most of the practice weapons and P.E tools were stored. They were lead here from the trail of blood that leaked from Homura's reopened wounds and both of them were gasping for air, hands on their knees. Hideki was still able to run if she were to try and escape again, but Mamoru was already heavily exhausted and fell to the floor on one knee.
Stepping towards the door, Hideki pushed down on the handle to open it, but it was locked from the inside.
He closed his eyes and leaned on the door, slumping down to the floor with every muscle in his body bleeding battery acid. He could barely manage a whisper through his pants, "Akemi... can you hear me?" his barely inaudible voice went through the door gaps and silence was his reply. The next thing he thought of was to kick the door down, but he had no energy to do that, and he hesitated when he thought of how it would just end up scaring her. Unsure of himself, he tightened a hand into a fist in frustration, "What am I supposed to do...?"
Mamoru sat beside him, leaning on the wall with a hand massaging his tired legs, "Shall I get Miss Narita? You could wait here and watch over her in the meantime."
"Yeah... I think..." Hideki trailed off and looked pass Mamoru's shoulders. Turning around to see what he was looking at, Mamoru saw Narita heading towards them with a square bag in her hand. What the boys found strange was that she had no bag of sedatives with her or anything else that would help bring back Homura to her office. The two got up from the door, barely managing to stand, "Where's the-?"
"Sedative? I don't need it," Narita replied with a dismissive wave of her hand and gestured the boys to move away from the door. They did so respectively, the nurse calmly stepping forward to take care of the situation. She put the bag she had with her on the floor and crouched down in front of the door, assuring them, "I know how to handle this," lifting a hand from her side, she gently tapped on the metal door, whispering, "Homura, can you hear me?"
On the other side of the door, Homura hid in the darkness of the equipment room and under a large table of tools. Her breathing was rapid, her palms and cheeks were sweating, and her eyes darted left-and-right. Her wounds had reopened under the medical wraps that covered them and blood leaked from the gaps of the wraps. When Homura brought a hand to her chest, she could feel herself shaking.
The room's floor was filthy and Homura's tattered clothes were stained with dirt and grime. Homura moved deeper into the protective cover of the table and caused one of the tools on the dusty shelves to tip over and fall to the floor. It landed beside Homura with a loud 'clang' and Homura shrieked, her hands covering her mouth to lower it and not attract any attention from the outside. But despite the tools loud shaking with each movement she made, she could still hear Narita's gentle voice coming from behind the door.
"Homura, can you hear me?" she softly repeated.
Homura didn't recognize the name. She did not know who the woman was addressing nor why was she here in the first place. Where was she, in fact? And who were these people? These thoughts flooded Homura's mind. Hearing the soft voice calling to possibly her again, she managed to voice a reply, her tone shaky and trembling with fear, "W-Who are you talking to...?"
"You, Homura. I'm talking to you, and I need you to breathe. Nice and easy," Narita advised, "You're only making it worse by panicking and running. Please, don't be afraid."
Homura covered her shaking hand with the other and reluctantly followed her order. Even though she had no idea on who she was talking to and if 'Homura' was her name at all, she could smell the welcoming odor of food behind the door. Her stomach began to grumble and Homura felt like she had not eaten for hours. Taking a deep breath, she curled up under the table, slowly breathing in and out through her nose. She could feel better and her heart slowly beginning to calm down.
"Now, I want you to think positive. Remove any trace of negative emotions and focus only on my voice."
For some reason, Homura could feel a familiar ring to this voice. This calming, soothing tone that put her at ease and brought a sense of safety to her. She could not put her finger on it, but she felt like she had heard this voice so many times before.
"O-Okay," Homura slowly crawled out of the table and towards the door. Leaning against it, she covered her ears and tried to stop all of her thoughts that made the panic stay within her. She blocked them out. She wanted push them all away and just be at peace. Homura let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes.
"Homura, are you still there?"
Despite still not knowing her name, she instinctively reacted to it, "Y-Yes..."
"Can you come out now? I'll give you a nice, hot bowl of soup and a comfy bed if you do. Please. Don't make it harder for your or anyone else. I'm here to help you."
Homura's hand hesitantly reached for the doorknob and then pulled back once she was centimeters from it. One hand clenched tightly, she pursed her lips, took a deep breath and reached for it again. She gripped the metal doorknob hard before turning it and letting the light from the corridor outside flood into the room, stinging her only visible eye in the process.
Minami and Makoto had been running around the school for a while now. Once they were sure that Homura wasn't on the lower floors, they had went up to the upper areas and searched around. They reached the equipment room, and after taking a turn around a corner, they reached the scene. Mamoru, Hideki and Narita standing outside the door to the equipment room, watching as Homura opened it.
Minami was going to step in when Makoto outstretched his arm to block her, advising, "It would be better if we stay out of this. Let's leave this to Miss Narita. She can handle this."
She wanted to object, but she had to agree with Makoto. Minami casted a worried look at Homura slowly coming out of the room before reluctantly leaving with the boy to wait in the Nurse's office. It was the best thing she could do at the moment, even if she didn't like it.
No movements – sudden or not – were made by Mamoru, Hideki and Narita in case they would end up frightening her. The door pulled open, and once the girl was in full view, they could see the blood from her opened wounds dripping to the floor. Homura took slow steps forward and Narita wrapped an arm around Homura's dusty shoulders before she gestured the two to lead the way.
As they walked back, Hideki looked at Homura while he followed the group from behind. She wasn't the calm, stoic girl he had seen her as earlier anymore. No. Now, she was a scared, confused girl that was clinging onto Narita's clothes with no idea on how she was or any memories of the things around her. It was his fault that she was like this now. He knew it. The thought was painful to admit, but he knew it was true.
Hideki then proceeded to take off his school uniform's jacket and placed it on Akemi's shoulders. The girl nearly jumped when he did this and she looked over her shoulders to meet his gaze with wide and frightened eyes. They softened after a while and she held tightly onto the jacket he gave her.
"Thank you."
Hideki looked away, unable to meet those eyes, "… It's the best I can do... You're welcome."