Yumi was her usual bright and chipper self early the next morning as she and Sachiko got ready for school. The Rosa Chinensis en Bouton found the hustle and bustle of the dorm quite interesting and fun to watch as all the girls ran hither and yon between their rooms, the common bathrooms, and the kitchen. She and Yumi had gotten up earlier than most of the others so that Yumi could start making breakfast for everyone, but seeing that many girls all focused on getting ready for school was a new and exciting experience for the only child of one of the wealthiest families in all of Japan. The youngsters were the most fun to watch as they flipped between earnestly getting ready and playing with each other and the older girls.
Katsura-san helped Yumi in preparing the simple but filling breakfast of rice porridge with brown sugar, toast with jam, and fresh fruits and juices, laughing all the while at the antics surrounding her. Sister Agatha did what she could to contain the younger girl's enthusiasm, making sure that they had their book bags properly prepared and that their uniforms were in order. She also kept a ladle in her hand to smack the wrists of those girls that seemed to be getting a little greedy with the food, ensuring that everyone had plenty to eat at the start of the day.
All in all it was a boisterous but well-tuned chaos that kept Sachiko brightly entertained.
But underneath her smiles and laughter was a deep, unending worry for her dear little sister.
"Yumi," she asked quietly as the two finally sat down to their own meals after Yumi had finished fixing everyone's lunches, "would you like to do a little bit of shopping after the session this afternoon?"
"I'd love to, onee-sama," Yumi exclaimed with real glee. "I don't have much money until the first of the month, but I've been wanting to look for a few things for the children."
"That's fine," Sachiko chuckled, "as long as you don't mind if I purchase a few things for you. I noticed that you needed a bit more in the way of casual clothes. Remember, the summer break is coming up. I'd like to take you a few places and you can't wear your uniform all the time. Also, we will have meetings with Hanadera Boy's Academy, both on campus and off, and you will want at least another outfit or two for those meetings."
"Um," Yumi mumbled as she played with the food on her plate, embarrassed for the first time in her life at her lack of clothes and funds, "I guess I don't mind. I want to look my best for you . . . but you have to promise me that they won't be too expensive," she stated flatly. "I don't want you spending your money on me for things that I can get myself . . . eventually."
"I want to do this for you, Yumi," Sachiko smiled at her petite soeur, "please let me pamper you a bit."
"Alright, onee-sama," Yumi replied with a sigh and a small, shy smile.
-oo-
Sachiko waited until Yumi was completely in her hypnotic trance before she described to the counselors the early morning's nightmarish episode.
"It seems that the little hole we drilled into the dyke has been spawning more and more cracks," Morioka-sensei said worriedly as he rubbed his chin. "We have been able to rescue dozens of 'happy' memories of Yumi-san and her family, but so far they have all included her brother, Yuuki-kun. It's amazing how much she loved him and he her. There isn't a single memory of the two even arguing. He also seems to have been very protective of his sister. However, the first memory we want her to 'remember' is one without Yuuki-kun so that it will be less of a shock to her.
"So far we have tried to pull out her memories in a chronological order from her earliest memories as a small child. Maybe we need to skip ahead to try to find a specific memory? You said something about going shopping later, why don't we try to find a memory of her and her mother shopping by themselves?" he asked of the other two. With nods of approval from the others they finally began that day's session.
-oo-
Sachiko had never seen Yumi so giddy. The two were walking down the sidewalk on their way to a clothing store that Sachiko thought Yumi would accept was cheap enough to allow her to purchase some decent clothing. Yumi was practically skipping in happiness and the smile on her face was bright enough that most of the people around her smiled or grinned just to see the joyful child as she seemed to infect everyone around her. Sachiko found herself laughing and giggling at some of her petite soeur's antics, unable to find or even want some form of vaccination from Yumi's virus of good spirits.
Yumi was like this because she had remembered her mother's face. The hypnotherapy session had gone well enough that everyone had agreed that it was a memory that Yumi could "keep" for the first time. It had been of a time when she and her mother had gone out shopping for her very first set of kindergarten clothes. It had been just the two of them and they had spent the entire afternoon together. They had enjoyed lunch at a local McDonalds, Yumi's favorite eatery, before heading to the local mall. They had hit both of the big anchor stores, Sears and Macy's, as well as Gap for Kids and a couple of other boutique stores for kids clothing. They had tried on and picked out four dresses, two pairs of jeans, five t-shirts, and two new pairs of shoes along with a new 5-pack of Winnie-the-Pooh underwear. Yumi had especially liked the Tigger underpants and had laughed at the way he was shown bouncing on his tail, a great big toothless grin on his face.
Morioka-sensei had brought the memory to a close as the two returned to the car after sharing a couple of small Jamocha milkshakes from the mall Arby's. Everyone had agreed that it was the perfect memory to begin Yumi's remembrances of her happy childhood. Sachiko was sure that it was not an implanted memory because when they asked her to tell them about her mother Yumi's description had been too vivid and exactly matched the photographs Sachiko had of Yumi's real mother.
So it was no wonder that Yumi was literally floating on air as they passed various small specialty shops. Every so often Yumi would stop to window shop, usually at toy stores, kitchen utensil shops, or florists that also carried garden plants that could be planted either in the conservatory or as bedding flowers for the dorm's foundation.
When Sachiko looked to her side and found Yumi missing she assumed that she had stopped to window shop again. Turning around it took a moment of searching to find her petite soeur. When she found her Yumi was standing in front of another toy store window. The reason it had taken so long to spot her was because two tall boys were standing between her and Yumi about ten meters back. Yumi's back was to the store window and all signs of happiness had fled her features to be replaced by total fear.
They were probably just trying to pick her up, thinking that she was a cute girl alone. Sachiko didn't want to think badly of them, but they had no idea what their maybe innocent intentions were doing to the fragile girl. Before Sachiko could even take a step in their direction, the taller of the two boys did what was probably the absolute worst thing that he could have done. He grabbed Yumi by the arm to restrain her from running away. Just as Sachiko broke into a run a piercing scream filled the air, causing people everywhere to stop and turn in Yumi's direction.
The young girl's eyes were closed, her mouth open wide in one of the most strident screams of terror that Sachiko could ever believe would have emanated from the small girl. The boy immediately let Yumi go, hastily stepping back with his friend. As Sachiko rushed to her sister's side she actually heard the boy squeak in fear and tell his friend that they needed to get out of there. Sachiko didn't try to hold Yumi when she stopped next to the still screaming girl. She talked to her, lowly and slowly, trying to calm her and tell her she was safe; that nobody was going to hurt her. It did no good, Yumi continued to scream and scream until she suddenly stopped, her eyes flying wide open and her jaw clamping shut. It was similar to what had happened after her nightmare as Yumi's body became rigid for a moment, like a tonic seizure, before she collapsed to the pavement so quickly Sachiko had no time to try to catch her. If she had been a marionette it was like someone had simply cut her strings.
Sachiko dropped to her knees, fumbling in her pocket until she pulled out her cell phone and hit a speed dial button.
"Security," the other voice answered her calmly on the other end of the phone, "how may I help you Ojou-sama?"
"I need an ambulance at this location immediately," Sachiko nearly screamed into the phone.
"ETA two minutes, Ojou-sama," the voice said, still calm and confident, telling Sachiko without words that she needed to calm herself as well.
"Th-thank you," she said a bit more quietly. "Please contact Morioka-sensei and tell him to meet us at University Medical Center. He has privileges there."
"Of course, Ojou-sama."
"And call my father and tell him to meet me there as well," Sachiko sighed, as she held her limp sister in her arms, the distant wail of a siren coming closer and closer.
-oo-
It had been such an absolutely glorious day!
Classes had been fun, she had spent some time with her friends from the Yamayurikai – her onee-sama sitting next to her holding her hand under the table when she didn't need it to take notes – and then the wondrous session with Morioka-sensei and Ikeda-sensei.
Yumi was not a stupid girl. She had figured out after the second session that she was being treated with some form of hypnotherapy. But Sachiko seemed to trust the new doctor and she had to admit that there was something happening in her subconscious. The nightmares that had begun to become regular occurrences were proof enough that something was trying to break through even if it wasn't exactly what the doctors had been hoping for.
She had also easily seen through the polite farce that her onee-sama and Youko-sama had gone through to get her to offer to have Sachiko stay with her in hopes that her presence might help with the nightmares.
But today there had been real success. She had remembered the face, the voice, the laugh, and the touch of her mother! It was ecstasy! She couldn't remember a time in her life when she had ever been happier.
The shopping trip was also going well. She was able to be with her onee-sama, to hear her laughing and chuckling along with her. It had been a perfect day; until the two boys had stepped up behind her when she had stopped to look in a window at some board games that she thought the younger girls in the dorm would enjoy.
The first she knew of them was when the taller one spoke to her. She glanced up in the window to see the boy's reflections as they stood behind her.
"Hey, cutie. You alone today? Why not come have some fun with us?" the boy had asked with a charming smile. The reflections in the window had seemed to swirl as other faces, of boys and men, comingled with those of the two standing behind her. Where these two young men were smiling, the others seemed to be sneering or taunting, some raging at her. A fear unlike she had ever known before flashed through her.
"N-no, thank you," Yumi had stammered in reply, trying to hold herself together as she turned away from the window that was beginning to make her nauseous. "I . . . I'm here with a friend," she said softly, looking down at her feet.
"Hey, no problem, bring her along, the more the merrier," the shorter boy had responded with a low chuckle that sent a stab of pain through her brain as she seemed to remember another, similar chuckle that was much more sinister and her fear redoubled.
"N-no, we . . . we're shopping and need to get back," Yumi had stuttered again, desperately trying to find a way past the blockade of their bodies; her fight or flight response kicking in and telling her to get away as fast as she possibly could.
"Hey now, don't be like that, cute stuff," the taller boy had said as he grabbed her by the arm, trying to restrain her. She felt his fingers gently holding onto her bicep, but it seemed that another hand was gripping her tightly, the fingers digging in painfully, leaving large, deep bruises on her tiny body.
The boy's face had changed into that of another person, much uglier and meaner, an ugly grimace on his face as he seemed to be finding some form of release . . . and suddenly it had all flooded back to her.
The beatings, the rapes, the cutting and burning; being thrown against a wall and then into the dark, smelly room when she didn't do exactly what they wanted as quickly as they wanted it. The multiple gang rapes, all of them wanting her to "like it" or at least pretend as if she did. The multitude of large, angry dicks stuck in her tiny vagina, in her mouth, and in her anus. The slaps, punches, and worse. It all came back to her in one fleeting moment as the dam that had been so carefully built inside her mind to hold these nightmares at bay suddenly burst under tremendous pressure.
In her mind she heard the deafening sharp report of the gunshot that had taken her mother's life, and then the shot that had killed her father, and then she was gone. She was back there, in the past, watching as her mother and father were killed in front of her eyes, as her brother was yanked away from her and taken to another room, as the very first of more than a year's worth of daily rapes was perpetrated upon her tiny body.
It was too much, all too, too much. She could feel her body and mind shutting down. She could hear Sachiko over the screams that battered her ears, unable to recognize them as her own. The older girl tried to comfort and calm her, but it was far too late for that as she felt herself crumple to the ground.
And then she heard no more.
-oo-
"From what you tell me of the incident I think it's fairly obvious that all of her memories came back in a single rush," Morioka-sensei was telling the two people in the light green painted private hospital room. All three sets of eyes were focused on the fourth occupant of that room, looking so small and fragile in the large bed, an IV tube in her right arm while electrodes were attached to her chest and forehead. The other two in the room were Sachiko and Tooru Ogasawara, two members of what could easily be described as the most powerful family in Japan. Right now, however, they were simply a father and daughter, deeply concerned for the girl that was sister to another family member and meant so much to them.
"I've had this type of sudden deluge of memories happen in about three percent of my previous patients. I was really hoping that Yumi-chan would be part of the other ninety-seven percent," he sighed as he ran a hand through his sparse, greying hair. "I've given her a mild sedative along with an anti-anxiety medication to help her. My guess is that right now she is trying to sort through everything that happened to her from the time of her earliest memory to the day she was dropped off at the church."
"Does that mean that she has also recovered the pleasant memories of her childhood?" Tooru asked of the doctor, his eyes never leaving the silently weeping girl in the bed. Tears glistened on those deathly pale cheeks even though the eyes were gently closed and her chest rose and dipped in the slow breath of sleep.
"I believe that it does. There is no reason to think that only the memories of the death of her parents and her time in captivity with those . . . people have been released," the doctor answered.
"How long do you think the assimilation will take, Sensei?" Tooru asked as he squeezed his distraught daughter's hand as she wiped away yet another set of tears.
"It could take hours or days. It's hard to say which way Yumi-chan will go. All we can do is wait."
"Thank you, Sensei," Tooru said quietly as father and daughter moved to take seats on either side of the bed in which the girl that they both cared so much about lay, desperately fighting the demons in her own mind.
"I'm sorry, Otou-san," Sachiko sobbed quietly. "I thought things were going well. I had no idea . . ."
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about, Sachiko," Tooru told his daughter with a slight smile as he reached across Yumi's body to take hold of her hand again. "You did everything you could for Yumi-chan. There was no way that you could have foreseen the circumstances that led to what happened today, so don't beat yourself up about it."
Sachiko was going to reply when she felt another hand lay itself gently upon her own. She turned in shock to see Yumi had grasped her free hand where it had lain on the starched sheets. Her petite soeur's eyes were still closed, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she appeared to continue in her deep asleep. Even still she had reacted to Sachiko's pain, trying to give comfort to the older girl that she loved so dearly.
"See, Yumi-chan agrees," Tooru grinned.
"Yumi?" Sachiko whispered in surprise.
"She is probably somewhat lucid even now," the doctor said gently as he checked the machines that displayed her vital signs. "Her heartbeat is normal for a light sleep, but her brain wave activity is much higher than normal for a conscious person as a result of trying to sort through all the memories inundating her."
"Yumi, I'm here," Sachiko said gently as she held Yumi's hand, drawing tiny circles on the top with her thumb. "I'm here for you and I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay by your side as long as you need me to."
The brown haired girl's response was a slight squeeze to Sachiko's hand.
"You can sleep on the sofa or I can have a lounge chair brought in for your use, Ojou-sama," the doctor said with a slight smile as he watched the two young women. The love the two shared had been obvious to him from the start. "I'm sure that she will appreciate your desire to stay with her."
"The lounge chair will be fine," Sachiko told the doctor, never taking her eyes from her petite soeur.
-oo-
Tooru Ogasawara left with the doctor, giving his daughter a chaste kiss on the cheek and telling her that he would see her in the morning. It was getting late and time for Yumi to try to get some real sleep. Sachiko had stretched herself out on the lounge chair pulled up close to Yumi's bed, but a tug on the hand that was still clutched within her petite soeur's own did not require any measure of telepathy to tell her what it was that Yumi wanted.
Sachiko stood up again and pushed the chair up against the wall near the window. She then let down the guard rail on the bed and, after gently shifting Yumi's body to one side, climbed in next to her sister. The raven haired girl adjusted the pillow one of the orderlies had provided for her and lay on her left side, her right arm across Yumi's stomach while her left continued to hold Yumi's right hand tenderly. A soft smile briefly touched Yumi's lips before they opened in a small sigh and she seemed to drift off into a hopefully restful sleep.
It was only the second time that Sachiko had slept with Yumi and she would have thought that doing so in such a public place as a university hospital would have been horrifying for her honor, but she found she could have cared less just so long as she was with Yumi. The nurse that showed up a few minutes later never said a word to her as she went about checking and making note of Yumi's vital signs and switching the IV bag. She gave Sachiko a warm smile and softly wished her a goodnight before turning and heading back out the door. Sachiko returned the smile and as the door closed, in the last bit of light from the hallway, placed a soft kiss on Yumi's tear stained cheek.
The bright light of morning finally woke her slowly somewhere around eight o'clock. Sachiko had never been good in the mornings but for some reason waking next to Yumi found her much happier to face the day. When she finally opened her eyes it was to find Yumi's beautiful brown eyes looking at her with a love that went straight to her heart.
"Good morning, love," Sachiko whispered with a grin.
Yumi didn't respond, but a smile graced her lips and she tried to mouth a "good morning" to her grande soeur.
"Did you sleep well, Yumi?" Sachiko asked, happy that Yumi seemed to be awake but somewhat concerned that she didn't speak. Yumi used the index finger of her free left hand, her right hand still gently holding Sachiko's own, to make a swirling motion above her head.
"Oh, everything is still trying to find its rightful place?" Sachiko asked, unsurprised that her petite soeur was fully aware of what was happening. "You heard us last night? So you know about the hypnotherapy?" she asked quietly, a worried look entering her eyes, afraid Yumi would be angry at her for keeping it from her.
Yumi, however, just nodded and gave her another smile and squeezed her hand to show that she understood and held no grudges about the slight deceptions that had been perpetrated upon her.
"Thank you for forgiving me, Yumi," Sachiko sighed in relief, surprised at how much it meant to her to know that Yumi trusted her that much. "I only wanted what was best for you."
Yumi nodded and leaned over to give her a soft kiss on her nose. Why did Sachiko feel like pouting, wishing that she had instead placed those soft lips on her own? She shook it off as an unworthy question to be explored later, if at all. The kiss itself was enough of a delight.
"Can I get you anything, Yumi?" Sachiko asked, raising her head and shifting higher in the bed.
The pigtailed girl withdrew her hand from Sachiko's and used her right hand to mime writing on her left palm.
"A pad and pen?" Sachiko asked, still concerned with her petite soeur's lack of vocalization but willing to accept that her sister had a reason. Yumi nodded, but then also shook her head and made a motion of her hands indicating a much larger, square item. "A pad and pen and," Sachiko had to think for a moment before the light bulb went off in her head, "your sketchbook?"
Yumi grinned and nodded enthusiastically, clutching Sachiko's hand again and bringing it to her lips for another soft kiss.
A little tremor wound its way through the taller girl, like a spike of electricity, at the touch of those tender lips against her skin. Later, she thought to herself. I'll think about this later.
"Is it in the art classroom?" At Yumi's nod Sachiko reached into her skirt pocket and dialed Youko-sama's cell and left her a voicemail regarding bringing Yumi's sketchpad, charcoal pencils and colored markers to the hospital when her grande soeur did not pick up immediately. She wasn't sure why her onee-sama had not picked up, but assumed that she was probably in the morning Yamayurikai meeting and didn't want to interrupt anyone. She then reluctantly let go of Yumi's hand and slipped out of bed to gather a pen and notepad from the nurse's desk, returning to Yumi's side as quickly as she could. When she saw Yumi's note, she immediately took her phone out again and, after only a moment's hesitation, called Sei's cell.
"Sachiko-chan!" Sei's ever ebullient voice answered the phone, "what can I do for you? Hey, why aren't you here? The meeting's been going on for over half an hour." Sachiko could hear her grande soeur's voice in the background demanding to know what was going on.
"Please tell my onee-sama that I tried her first but she wasn't answering. I need someone to do me a favor," Sachiko said quickly.
"What does our good Rosa Chinensis en Bouton need this early in the morning when she can't even find her way to school?" Sei chuckled.
"I need someone to go to the art department and get Yumi's sketchbook and drawing things and bring them to us," Sachiko explained.
"I can do that," Sei said, her voice dropping down as she became serious after hearing the tone of Sachiko's voice, "I brought the car today. Where are you Sachiko-chan?" she asked with a hint of concern now in her voice.
Sachiko sighed before she answered. "Yumi and I are at University Medical Center. There was . . . an incident yesterday. Yumi's fine, but all of her memories returned at once and we felt it better to have her here."
"Alright," Sei said slowly. She must have put her cell on speakerphone because the exclamations from the rest of the Yamayurikai were much more evident. "Hush, all of you," Sei commanded the others and, for probably the first time in Sachiko's memory, every voice stilled including that of her onee-sama. "Alright," the blonde said again, "I can do that. Can I ask why she needs her sketchbook? I assume from your tone that it's not to simply pass the time?"
"You're right, Sei-sama," Sachiko sighed again. "Yumi just asked me to contact the police. She has some people she wants to sketch for them."