Chapter 8: The Tale of Sleeping Beauty

Inaba brooded under the watchful eye of Dr. Niban. She mentally kicked herself for thinking that those three idiots could have snuck in without getting noticed. Their bumbling around must have caught someone's attention. Or somebody heard Aoki's squawking.

She was wrong.

Dr. Niban said, "Grabbing my stethoscope while I was busy in the restroom was a mistake, young lady. Doctors tend to notice that kind of thing."

Inaba looked down in shame. It really was her fault after all.

The patient's room remained oddly silent. Dr. Niban grew concerned about the delay. He raised his voice, "Hurry up and bring him out."

Nothing.

He was about to motion the third orderly to enter the room when he heard a voice. It was low and had a tone of uncertainty. "Uh, sir? You need to see this."

The doctor turned and looked at the trio, as if to search for an explanation for what he had just heard inside. Taichi blinked his eyes in confusion. Iori gave a blank stare. Inaba was still looking into space as she continued to inwardly blame herself for the debacle.

Iori was the one who recovered her senses first. She had a grin. She quickly came to a decision: She grabbed Inaba's wrist and marched right inside the room. The orderly holding Inaba's shoulder was taken by surprise and let go. The doctor was also caught off guard. He then quickly recovered himself and went in after them, followed by the third orderly and finally by a befuddled Taichi.

They all went inside the room. Taichi entered last.

And there she was.

Taichi saw a stunning tableaux. It could have been a portrait painted by a Raphael or a Michelangelo.

It was an image that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Yui's bed was propped up. She was smiling.

And she looked.. wonderful.

Even in her sitting position Taichi could see that she had to be at least 6 centimeters taller than that shy petite girl in high school. Although her arms and legs had thinned somewhat, she was now a fully mature 21-year old woman. Over the years her mother and her sister had lovingly taken care of her. They had washed her hair and her body, trimmed her nails, and groomed her with exquisite care.

They had turned her into Sleeping Beauty.

Taichi remembered that Yui was always self-conscious about her somewhat flat figure in high school. Not any more. She was full-figured and wonderous to behold, with her long strawberry blond hair draped down behind her shoulders, shining and fragrant as it framed her gorgeous green eyes.

And in that tableaux Taichi saw that Yui's sister, Anzu Kiriyama, was sitting at Yui's bedside on the left. She was looking across the bed at the man on the right, who was kneeling with a bowed head. Standing close behind the man were Inaba and Iori in respectful silence, as if they were two angels waiting in attendance at a beatification. The two orderlies were still near the door, wondering what to do.

For the man's head was bowed in humble supplication, and Taichi saw that Yui had gently placed her hand on that head as if to give him her blessing, like a renaissance madonna to a saint.

For it was only a moment earlier that that same beautiful woman had spoken the soft words that had stunned every other person within earshot - words that had stopped the orderlies right in their tracks.

"Yoshi, can you please forgive me?"

Taichi was bewildered. She was the one asking for forgiveness.. from him?

And the man kept his head down. "Only if you forgive me as well."

She smiled like an angel as she lovingly touched his blond head. "You have nothing to be forgiven for. But if it makes you feel better, then I do."

He finally, slowly, raised his head. And Taichi finally saw the man's face.

That face. How to describe that face? It was not the face of a man who realized that he could now be released from his own everlasting torment. Nor was it the face of a man who knew he would finally be exonerated for his supposed crimes. Nor was it the face of a man who finally could reconcile himself with his dearest friends by sharing them the truth. The real truth.

It was the face of the man who was gazing into the eyes of the love of his life, the eyes he thought he would never see again. And those brilliant emerald eyes, so bright, so alive, were now gazing back into his own.

"Yui.."

And even in that supreme moment, reunited with his dearest love, he was careful not to touch her in any way.

Because he had never touched her.

Ever.

You see, back in high school Yui had confessed to her friends that she suffered from androphobia - the irrational fear of men - after Heartseed had forced out her secret during one of his 'phenomenons'. At first she felt ashamed that her secret had come tumbling out, and she feared rejection. But her friends reassured her that they would support her no matter what happened, and so she resolved to face her phobia and eventually defeat it.

Aoki was actually a bit relieved at her revelation, as he never really understood the confusing signals she was always sending him. She had repeatedly rejected his love confessions, yet she would always then quickly admit that she did like him, very much so in fact, and she steadfastly offered to remain his friend, and indeed she became one of his closest friends. They shared a kind of intimacy between them, though it was always platonic.

Normally when most men get LJBF'ed* they move on. But not Aoki. He was resolute in his feelings for her. And so their relationship evolved into a kind of chivalric romance. He was Sir Lancelot, and she was his Guinevere.

His love was fueled by passion, but also by respect. He would remain faithful and true to his untouchable princess. At first he did not know why she seemed to be locked away in a tall tower. Then he learned that his princess was trapped inside a tower, a prison, of her own making located within her own mind, a prison she very much wished to escape from.

And so he said he would do whatever she asked to help.

And so they began to practice. Sometimes they practiced alone and sometimes with Taichi and the others. She would carefully approach Aoki (or Taichi), take a deep breath, then quickly touch or poke her index finger at the man's shoulder and back away quickly with her eyes tightly closed. Then she would steel her nerves and do it again.

She found that her practice touches seemed easier for her to do when she did it with Aoki. She felt it was because she knew she would be completely safe with the man who loved her so dearly. But her irrational phobia still kept her at bay.

She was living in a small singles apartment near the community college where she was working on her degree in law enforcement. She said she felt safest there in her own rooms, so they continued practicing there.

Yui explained it to them. "It really seemed to be working. I was practicing touching Yoshi. I was able to get up to four or five repetitions before I got the shakes. Then we'd quit and try it again another day when I felt better. I was improving, getting better. I was determined to get over my phobia so I kept doggedly practicing with him, approaching him and touching him again and again. Eventually I worked up to holding his shoulder with my hand. Later I was able to actually hold onto his arm for almost a minute. That day was a big breakthrough, believe me." Indeed, the whole group celebrated that day with a big pizza party. Iori even began to tease her about it. "My word, Yui, you are such a forward girl!"

She went on. "Finally, I told him I was ready to try a hug. A real hug. He promised he wouldn't move. I hadn't given any boy a hug ever. Well, not since I hugged Yoshi during my big emotional breakdown back in high school. That was the only time. I knew it was risky move to make, to try to move up to something that.. intimate.. as the next step, but I thought I was ready for it."

Aoki looked at them. "I thought she was ready too. I encouraged her to try." He looked down. "But she wasn't."

"No.. I wasn't.. It was my fault. I moved things along too fast."

She continued to explain, "So I took a big breath, closed my eyes, and wrapped my arms around him in a great big bear hug. I shouldn't have done that."

She looked down. "At first it felt okay. But then something triggered inside me. I think it was because I could physically feel that my whole body was pressed against his. That pressure, of a man's body pressed against mine, suddenly awakened the deepest fears of my rape phobia. I wasn't ready for my reaction. I went rigid. Then I screamed."

Aoki spoke up, "Honestly, I didn't know what to do. Our rule was that I must always remain absolutely still no matter what. And I did, always. But her arms were locked around me, and she was screaming and screaming. She wouldn't move. She wouldn't let go. I told her to just release her arms but she didn't. She was hysterical. Her arms were still locked around me, frozen. She wasn't letting go. She just kept screaming and screaming."

Taichi remembered that part from the court trial, from the neighbor girl in the adjacent apartment who testified on the witness stand that she had heard those awful screams of pure terror.

"What could I do? What would you have done in my place?" He looked around the room expecting an answer. No one did.

"So I did the only thing I could do. I tried, as gently as I could, to get her off of me. So I raised my elbows and put my hands around her arms to try to break her grapple."

Yui then said, "And with my eyes closed and screaming my head off, I felt his hands on my arms. Someone was grabbing me! All my memories of the attack came flooding back. I panicked. I thought he was that man who was trying to rape me. So my martial-arts reflexes kicked in."

She sighed and shook her head. "I did a move for self-defense during a grapple attack. It's illegal in martial arts. I had planned the move ahead of time if ever I was attacked that way again. I had even practiced it with a cushion taped to a pole. So I did the move like I practiced it. I thought I had proper form: I contracted my abdominal muscles, kept my chin down, and hit him with the top of my head. It should have worked.."

Aoki chimed in. "I saw her getting ready to do it, so I moved my forearm in front of my face to protect myself. I had no time to think. It was just reflex." He looked down. "So instead of head-butting me, she smashed her head right into my arm. She nearly broke it."

That explained why the forensic analyst was able to match the DNA of the hairs on his forearm with those found embedded her in skull.

Yui said, "I knew it was a risky move, and it's a prohibited martial arts fighting technique, but I thought the worst that could happen would be that I would have given myself a headache, or maybe a concussion.."

The doctor tsk-tsked. "You gave yourself a serious skull fracture. It was a traumatic brain injury. The frontal lobe was seriously lacerated."

Aoki said, "I felt her skull crack. I felt it! Then I saw all that blood.. She wasn't breathing. I thought she was dead.."

Iori finally spoke, with tears in her eyes. "Oh, Aoki.."

He went on. "I fumbled for my cell and called an ambulance. So much blood. I thought she was dead. Then I called the police on myself. They took me away."

He looked at them. "I didn't know she survived. They didn't tell me! I blamed myself for killing her."

He shook his head. "I'm so sorry Yui. We should have taken it slower. Progressing to a hug was going too fast. Remember how we all pushed her?"

Taichi, Inaba, and Iori all looked at themselves guiltily. They were just as responsible for pushing Yui along, for encouraging her to fight her androphobia more aggressively. They all kept pushing Yui to keep on practicing, to increase her level of touch. And so they all blamed themselves for the tragedy. It contributed to the group breaking up.

Aoki continued. "It was four days before the police even told me she had survived! Four days! During those four days they interrogated me non-stop. Criminal suspects in Japan don't have the right to have an attorney during an interrogation." This was true. There is no habeus corpus in Japan; the police could legally hold a suspect for interrogation for days if they wished. "So I eventually broke down and confessed: I killed her. I even believed it myself. After all, I encouraged her to keep trying. I know we all did, but it was my fault most of all. I could have stopped her or slowed her down at any time. I didn't. I killed her. I thought she was dead. I didn't want to live anymore. They put a confession document in front of me and I signed it.

"And then I learned she was alive. Alive! She survived! I recanted my confession. I begged to see her. I told them she would explain everything. The doctors didn't yet know she wasn't going to awaken. I thought she might wake up. I clung to that desperate hope. I prayed for her to survive and wake up again. Please, please, wake up.."

He stared at the floor. "The police grew angry. They even kicked me. I was making it harder for them to close the case. I insisted on a trial, that I was innocent. So I was arraigned before a magistrate. I finally got an attorney and pleaded not guilty, and a trial was scheduled.

"My attorney strongly urged me to plead guilty to try to get a reduced sentence. He explained to me that the conviction rate in Japanese criminal courts is over 99%. He said it was my only chance. But I said no. I told him that when Yui regained consciousness she would explain everything. I knew she would."

He sighed, "Only later did I learn that she would probably never wake up ever again."

So that explained the oddity of Aoki's quiet resignation during the trial. He never did fully explain what had actually happened, not even to his own attorney. He knew that without Yui there to explain what happened that nobody would believe his story. His rather far-fetched claim that the victim had done it to herself would only appear to have been coldly self-serving.

The doctor stepped forward. "Ah. I think I understand now. I can explain the rest."

They all looked at him.

"You see, our Miss Kiriyama here had an undetected defect in the forward metopic suture of her cranium. It's called congenital craniosynostosis. It's actually a rather common birth defect. The human cranium consists of five distinct bony plates. The plates are stitched together by four large sutures: The coronal suture, the metopic suture, the sagittal suture, and the lambdoid suture. Now, normally these sutures all close at birth or shortly thereafter. In Miss Kiriyama's case the metopic suture never fully closed after birth. This made the top of her forehead, normally the strongest part of the human skull, its weakest point. It went undetected her whole life. It remained undiagnosed because, well, nobody was looking for it. It's fully closed now post-surgery, of course, but the brain damage was done.

"And that brain damage was actually quite severe. As I said, the frontal lobe was seriously lacerated." He looked at his patient. "Frankly, the fact that you woke up at all is a miracle. Especially after almost four years. In my clinical experience as a neurologist I have never seen that happen after that long a period of time, and with this level of recovery."

Iori said, "A miracle.."

Taichi nodded. "The timing. 24 hours after Aoki's release? That is not a coincidence."

Inaba glared at him. "Oh you do NOT think for one second that Heartseed.."

He grinned. "You explain it yourself then. The doctor just said it was a miracle."

Inaba crossed her arms. "The timing is just a coincidence." Then she remembered what Heartseed told her in the diner. I want to give you a gift. Think of it as a reward for being so interesting.

Iori sighed. "And so we all thought Heartseed had done it. That he somehow took over Aoki's mind and made him attack her. You think maybe he brought her back?"

Inaba wasn't ready to give him that much credit. She scowled. "Oh, Heartseed had a hand in that attack, all right. I'd bet my right arm. He did something to Yui. Look, he's just playing with us again. Don't you see it? This is another one of his damn 'phenomenons.' It was four years this time before he reset everything back to normal. Four years! So if anything he's getting worse."

Dr. Niban piped up, "Excuse me, who is this 'Heartseed'?"

Inaba thought quickly. "Uh, that's the nickname we gave to Yui's original attacker. Right, Yui?"

Yui caught on. "Oh, right. Yes. Heartseed is the name we gave to the man who attacked me in middle school."

The doctor looked at them, "So you think this 'Heartseed' was behind her injury? Do you mind explaining how exactly?"

Inaba kept spinning her yarn. "Well, of course, don't you see? He's basically hiding deep inside her mind - the basis of her phobia. So when Yui grappled Aoki she awakened the monster inside her head, Heartseed, and she flipped out. He was her original attacker, after all. It all goes back to Heartseed. None of this would have happened if not for him." She pointedly looked at her companions when she spoke the last sentence.

The doctor looked a bit dubious. "I see..."

Meanwhile Iori was looking thoughtful.

Aoki was ignoring the conversation. He was sitting respectfully next to his princess. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

And she did the same with him.

Then Yui blinked her eyes. She saw that Aoki looked.. different somehow. More confident. More assertive. More, well, manly. Then it finally registered. She looked at Aoki's toned muscles and bulked-up physique. She marvelled at his new body. "Yoshi.. you're.."

Iori completed her sentence. ".. a hunk. He's a total stud muffin. I mean, whoa, right?"

Aoki started to fidget. "Oh no! My muscles! I'm too big and scary! I'm sorry! These muscles must be scaring you. I'll stop exercising! I promise! I'll become a wimp again! That way you can kick my ass again! Just like before!"

Yui gave him another gentle smile. "Actually, I rather like your new physique. It just surprised me, that's all. Honestly, I'm not scared of you. You aren't scary at all. That's absurd. You couldn't scare a child."

Aoki said, "Great! Wait.. did you just insult me?"

And so the rest of them laughed at his expense.

Iori then decided to have some fun. She said, "Oooh, Aoki, you hunk of a man.." She sauntered towards him, then she draped herself around him like a cat. She purred at him, "Such a man.. my my." Then she looked at Yui with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Say, can I please borrow him for the weekend? I promise to give him back when I'm done." Then she eyed him like she was going to devour him.

Aoki grew alarmed. "Yui! Don't let her take me away!"

They all laughed again. Even Dr. Niban chuckled.

Iori dropped her act and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek for real. As she did so she quietly whispered to him, "You're a good man. Take care of her." Then she stepped back.

The doctor spoke again to the group, "Very well, given the extenuating circumstances I won't be pressing charges. I will submit a deposition to the court in favor of Aoki's exoneration and the dropping of the court order. It may take a few days. In the meantime, I am sure that Miss Kiriyama is tired and needs her rest."

Yui spoke up, "Honestly, I feel fine."

"Be that as it may, you still have a lot of physical therapy ahead of you. Your arms and legs need to catch up on four years without any exercise."

"I understand." Then she looked at her love again. She became concerned for him. "But Aoki, what are you going to do now that you are out of prison?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll look for a job. But I don't think anyone would hire an ex-con with a violent criminal record."

Yui looked at Dr. Niban, "But he's innocent. Can't you have his criminal record dropped?"

"I am not an attorney so I could not say. I would recommend that Mr. Aoki hire one."

Aoki shrugged, "I can't afford it. I would need to get a job first, and that's going to be tough." That was especially true in Japan. Even those found innocent in well-publicized trials often could not find employment anywhere for years afterward due to the fear of taint of scandal for the organization.

Taichi spoke up, "Let me check into that. Don't worry."

Aoki said, "Thanks dude. And I won't. You know, all my life I've always wanted to live a carefree life, with no wants or worries. Well, living in prison was certainly that. There was no need for me to worry about what tomorrow would bring, or where my next meal was coming from. I lived my life in prison just like I always have, one day at a time, and I tried to live each day to the fullest, without worrying about the future. I see no reason to change that now."

Inaba made a smile. "Well, you certainly do have something to look forward to now."

Aoki stood up as they prepared to leave. "So, Yui, will you forgive me?"

"Silly man, I already have."

He got on his knees again. "Then will you marry me?"

His friends all groaned. Ugh, not again. This was what, his 37th proposal attempt?

The doctor grew concerned and spoke up, "Now look.. she is still in the hospital under my observation. She is in no condition to make that kind of decision right now..."

Yui interrupted the doctor, "No, it's okay. I already have my answer for him."

Aoki's eyes lit up. Taichi rolled his.

"The answer is no."

Aoki's face was crestfallen.

She quickly added, "Yoshi, what I am saying is that the real answer is: 'wait', same as before. You need to wait for me. I have my own issues I'm still working out."

"I understand.."

"But if it will make you feel better I will tell you one thing right here and now. Something I have never told you before."

"Which is?"

"That if you can please be patient with me, and help me get over my problem, then over time, possibly over a lot of time.. that someday.. maybe.. if I ever do say 'yes' to any man.."

"Yui?"

She smiled. ".. it will be to you."

"That's all I need to hear."

Dr. Niban's pager buzzed. He looked at it. "Excuse me, I have another patient I need to see. I'll give you five more minutes, then you really must leave. Goodnight." He walked out.

Inaba crouched in front of Yui and whispered, "It's really good to see you back. I'm so happy for you. Now look, I don't want to alarm you, but I need to warn you that Heartseed is back again."

"He's back?"

"Yeah."

Iori was close enough to hear and stepped forward. "Don't worry, we'll stick together."

Yui quickly understood. She nodded, "Yes, it's the only way we defeated him before."

Inaba grew resolute. "Then let's all promise each other that we will stay together, protect each other, no matter what. We are friends who are bonded together for life. Let's promise each other that right now. We will always stick together. No matter what happens."

Iori looked at her former rival, "We will. Now and always."

And so they all put their hands together in a circle. Including Yui.

Their solemn vow was remade, reforged.

The nakama was back.

A/N:

* LJBF = Let's Just Be Friends, the so-called 'friend zone'.

Note: Chapters 7 and 8 were originally intended to be published as a single chapter. The chapter grew so large that I had to break it into two, and there was a big juicy cliffhanger at the halfway point that just begged for a split :-)

-HuuskerDu

P.S. I am still writing this story without my usual method of plotting out the ending chapters completely first. If you know my other stories you know that it is something I never do normally. I take some solace in that I am not the first writer to do this. (Tolkien had no clear idea where he was going with the plot after he finished writing The Fellowship of the Ring and basically winged it up to the battle of the Pelannor Fields.) Like Tolkien I do have some particular plot points that I want to hit ultimately (and I've already decided it will be a happy ending), but I still have no clear idea how I'm going to stitch it all together yet. Mainly it is because I'm still rolling out my two other big unfinished fics (AR and FAHS) that have enormously intricate plotting requirements. After I wind up one of those big fics I'll probably kick up the tempo on this story and give it a faster update schedule.

Thank you again for reading.