Chapter 16
Flames and Ashes

"Were you on the sidelines, watching a house burn?"

A few weeks later...

It was a few weeks since they found out the horrible truth and Mikey wasn't handling himself much lately. Sometimes, his paranoia would increase and every night, he would go out, challenging villains for a fight. Every other day, his anxiety would rise and he would commit strange acts and violent ways. One time, he tried to have suicide but was stopped by her sisters. But the rest has been going on for two weeks. Sometimes, he can hear the vioces and footsteps of his brothers; occasionally, his own father. He also had stress and one time, he was traumatized.

Mika was scared of him. So were her sisters.

They tried their best to cure him but no matter, he was never stable. Maybe the depression he had was too much.

But today, he was stable.

Thankfully, the sisters were happy to see Mikey stable. But they knew that the next day, he might have those symptoms again.

Meanwhile, a platypus solider spied on them. He watched carefully how Mikey acted. It was strange for Mikey to have these symptoms. But the truth is, Jewis created the syringe called "H-170". It allowed Mikey to have these symptoms. The only cure was "C-120". But the cure was in his cabinet, locked up. No one could get it. Not even his daughter.

Then, he planned to assasinate the Hermines tonight.

"How are you feeling, dude?"Mika asked. Mikey only took a sip of water.

"Stressed...but other than that, I'm okay. I think I'm going to be fine."Mikey responded with a smile. "Glad that's over for today. Good luck if you get them tomorrow."Cleo punched his shoulder. "Yeow..."Mikey whined.

Then, they laughed.

Soon, they smelled smoke.

"Uh guys..."Raf asked.

"What?"the rest asked.

"Do you smell smoke?"Raf asked.

Mika smelled it too. Soon, they all smelled it.

"Now that you mentioned it, I think there is."Mika asked. The rest nodded.

Soon, they went out for an inspection.

There was fire. Fire in the house.

"Fire!"They all exclaimed. They tried to go down the main stairs but that part was affected. They tried to go the other rooms but they were all burned All that's left was Mika's room. They tried to open the window but Mika remembered that the key for the window was down the stairs. Mikey's nunchuk was in Raf's room.

So, they were left unguarded. Flowers mysteriously fell and were burned. Rosies and Posies fell. Ashes fell around.

"What are going to do?!"Mikey exclaimed. Mika didn't want to do this. But she had to do it. For her sisters.

"Go out on your own!"Mika exclaimed. Mikey was surprised and shocked.

"Mika...!"

Mika held Mikey's face.

"My love, I'm sorry I had to do this. I felt the same thing when mom was gone. But I can't leave my sisters to death. Once a sibling falls, they all fall. When one of us goes down, we all go down. So focus on your way out."Mika said.

Mikey gasped.

"Leo, what will I do?"Mikey asked. Thugs soon cornered them. This 12-year old body was shaking.

"When one of us go down, we all go down. So focus!"Leo exclaimed.

Soon, he focused and defeated the thugs.

"Nii-nii..."he murmured.

"However, you have another chance. Sooner or later, your brothers might worry about you. Do you want them to cry so hard at your grave?"Mika asked.

Mikey shook his head.

"Good. Listen to me, letting go might not be easy. But as soon as that, you must overcome the trials you face in order to retrieve your brothers. So go. Go..."Mika said.

Mikey gave one last kiss to Mika. Soon, they released.

"I was expecting a better one."Mikey panted. "Me too. Go, now."Mika said.

Mikey was in tears. Goodbye, Mika. No matter what, I will always love you. A tear fell down and the tear burned.

As soon as he went out, he found the attic safe. He climbed and found a small window. Before the fire could go after him, he opened the window, climbed to the roof and went to an alley.

Goodbye, Mika.

Soon, the fire was all gone and Mikey left with tears.

But then, he was caught by someone.

When Mikey woke up, he first found himself in a Japanese styled house. He got up weakly and stood up.

"Hello...son of Yoshi."a voice called.

A man that looked like Splinter went inside.

"I'm Hamato Mashimi. Brother of Yoshi. And I've observed what his life is now. You made his life worse, a little piece of s***! You kidnapped my brother and now, he's hypnotized by you! I will kill you bastard for what you've done!"

Then, Mikey screamed as Mashimi slapped and punched him.

"Nii-nii!"

"Aw, you cutie. You're so smart."Donnie said as he got the blueprint from Lucy's mouth. Lucy purred.

"She's awesome."Raph commented.

"I know."

Soon, all the memories of Michelangelo faded away. All that they thought now was Lucy.

Meanwhile, April watched from the shadows and sighed.

"I'm...sorry..."

What has gone astray is my dear home which contained my memories

What echoes is the sound of abuse, waiting for the victim to end it limits

What I reach is the beginning of the end

In the end, my chances of living is only 10

REPLACED,

Previous Arc: Judas Cradle

Next Arc: The Massacre

Chapter 17: Fluctuation

Can you believe?

Okay, so the symptoms that Mikey had were sign effects of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. The Hinamizawa Syndrome (雛見沢症候群, Hinamizawa Shōkōgun) is a psychiatric disease found in Hinamizawa. It can cause anxiety and paranoia which can force the person to commit strange and violent acts, including suicide. The symptoms of this disease are an amalgamation of real symptoms, including clawing out one's throat, which is a real symptom called formication.

Levels:

Levels 1 and 2

Weakest levels; almost all villagers and residents of Hinamizawa are infected, although they are at the lower stages of either L1 or L2. The syndrome does not cause apparent changes until its later stages. This indicates that the entire village is highly unstable and will easily grow hostile from any stress or anxiety. Some more than others, like Keiichi, are susceptible to simple paranoia and stress, which has been shown to activate the syndrome.

Level 3

Beginning at L3, the mental condition of the patient will start to deteriorate and they become mentally and emotionally unstable.

Level 4

Paranoia and hallucinations start to appear surrounding the onset of L4.

Level 5

Strongest level; this is when people began to hear 'Oyashiro-sama's footsteps', and patients are known to start clawing at their own flesh. In some cases, there is a previous psychological motive that serves as a catalyst for the scratching. For example, Ryūgū Rena hallucinated that her wrist and neck were infested by maggots because of a previous incident regarding her belief that her blood from her mother consisted of maggots. This is an example of extreme formication. Formication is when a person suffers from the sensation that insects are crawling under their skin and scratches intensively to either remove the imaginary parasite or to simply end the pain. It is a real symptom to certain sexually-transmitted diseases such as syphilis and herpes. Skin diseases can cause this form of extreme irritation to the skin. Formication occurs in real life due to excessive use of amphetamines, suggesting the police station's wondering of whether Keiichi used narcotics as a provocative of his suicide in the first arc. There are several mistakes on the characters' views on the formication properties of the syndrome. Irie Kyōsuke claimed that drugs did not result in "clawing at the throat", although formication does occur when under the influence of narcotics. If according to Irie Kyōsuke that formication under these circumstances are caused by microbes, Crazy Medicine (C-117 version), Irie's invention, would have to be either an antibiotic or a vaccine. It is revealed in Matsuribayashi-hen that C-117 was developed to be a trial-stage vaccine for anyone visiting Hinamizawa for fending off the airborne pathogen.

The two formulas that was in the fic (H-170 and C-120) were also there. H-170's formula was true in Higurashi but C-120 only reduces patients who have L5 to L2 or L3.

Got all this information from wikia.

So, what do you think?