Ch 13: The Thing about Sweets

Hiromu listened intently while Ryuuji talked with a medical representative.

"Her vaccine program has been slightly affected, erasing a few years from her memory. She knew a thing or two about Vaglass, but nothing more on metaroids or megazords. Her superhuman abilities are still there. We did show a picture of the Special Missions on her and asked her to identify every person from the picture. She has no memory of Miho Nakamura-san, buddyroids Cheeda Nick and J and—Hiromu Sakurada-san."

"So her memories of what happened during our fight with Vaglass were erased" Ryuuji commented wearily. The medical representative shook his head in agreement.

Hiromu gestured a hand to cover his face. He was absorbed in deep thoughts. Ryuuji thought he saw the unlikely expressions of despair and frustration from his face. He suspected that Hiromu was taking all the guilt to himself. After all, Hiromu was too much of an open book.

"Our buddyroids have the same vaccine program as Youko's," Hiromu said determinedly, his voice giving away, "During our teleportation process from the Edo period, they were attacked indiscriminately. Their vaccine programs had to be reinstalled in full and with that, they lost all their memories. But something happened along the way. Our emotional link helped to recover those lost memories. Only partial of Youko's vaccine program was affected. It's more possible to retrieve her memories if judged against what happened to the buddyroids."

Ryuuji and the medical representative looked at him sympathetically.

"…but—she's a human…might be a different…case…" Hiromu added, the last words of his sentence sounding like a whisper. Ryuuji's brotherly instincts kicked in and so he placed a hand on Hiromu's shoulder to provide emotional support.

Setting: Youko's Room, A.M.

"What was his name again?" Youko asked.

"Hiromu Sakurada" Usada replied, placing a breakfast tray on the desk beside her.

"siscon" Youko corrected, trying to amuse herself. She had to amuse herself, for reasons that medical representatives from the management always bugged her with tests. And Usada particularly, would soon pester her of a test that begins with an "H" and ends with a "K". She shrugged—appalled for thinking about worksheets and cram school with Usada.

But mostly, she felt overwhelmed. Firstly, she heard that Vaglass had been defeated with her full cooperation and secondly, she finished her third year in highschool with grades that were above satisfactory. How was that possible? She hated studying!

Since training was no longer possible (there's no demand for it anyway), Youko had to find other reasons to amuse herself.

Usada left her to finish her meal. Youko had to send him off because he stayed all night to watch over her. She thought Usada had nothing to worry about her except re-tutoring her of her subjects in third year highschool. But deep inside, her heart was screaming something else. Could it be her regret for bypassing all the fun in fighting Vaglass or of Usada telling her that there were no survivors from the subdimension?

Her side wounds hurt along with the pain she had in her heart. Without hesitation, she began to cry.

Hiromu happened to pass by her room when he heard her crying in pain. Without asking permission for his intrusion, he made a dash inside and hurried to her side. He spotted her wiping her reddened face with her hands.

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to her. Youko looked up to him.

"It's wrinkled…but it's clean" Hiromu said, hoping that Youko would remember something from this little gesture of his. Youko was hesitant to take the offer, but she gave in. She wiped the tears from her eyes as Hiromu searched for a pain reliever from the medicine cabinet.

He watched closely as Youko popped a tablet in her mouth. His small gesture didn't even hit a nerve.

"daijobou?" he asked, his voice giving off hint of pain.

Youko nodded, slightly absorbed as to why he's overly-reacting since yesterday.

She didn't have the faintest idea that he felt utterly useless about her condition. He looked as if he wanted to tell something (or everything for that matter). But all Hiromu could do was to wince away.

The thing with homeworks and sweets..

Youko had to be excused from school for a week. She had a lot of catching up to do with the overall condition of her health. She felt almost normal (if her hate against homework and cram school were considered) but still overwhelmed of the information being disclosed to her slowly. All her life she prepared for the real battle against Vaglass…And now, she had to adjust to a "normal life".

"Youko, you're lagging behind your homework" Usada said, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Ah mou!give it a break, Usada" Youko said, burying her face in her arms.

"You were better when competing against Hiromu".

Usada had mentioned his name again. Youko wondered why she's always being compared to him. His name was slowly getting in her nerves. What she didn't know was the buddyroid was referring to Youko's determination in proving Hiromu wrong about her being moody, impulsive and not serious in doing her homework.

"Why do you always have to mention him?" Youko asked, almost mocking him.

"You have a special bond with him, Youko"

You have a special bond with him…Youko heard this statement as a remark from Ryuuji when he overheard Hiromu and Youko's conversation inside her room.

What Ryuuji overheard..

Youko used Hiromu's handkerchief to wipe the tears from her eyes. She wondered why Hiromu looked as if he wanted to tell something but was still hesitant to do so. She thought he was hiding something from her. Out of curiosity, she asked,

"Why did you have to return? You could have stayed with your oneesan"

Hiromu looked at her intently. It was as if they returned to step 1. "Because I promised."

"What did you promise?"

"That we'll return things back to normal."

Youko felt her cheeks flushed. She remembered that they held hands after he made that promise. Hiromu still locked his eyes on her even if he seemed in pain. His bluntness in words and gestures made her feel awkward. She looked away so that he wouldn't notice the strange color in her cheeks.

Hiromu continued, "but…it had to be broken. Our parents entrusted their lives to us. They had to sacrifice themselves to help defeat Messiah. Gomen, Youko…"

"Usada told me about that already" Youko replied defensively.

Their conversation was cut short when Ryuuji entered her room. Hiromu had to excuse himself so that Ryuuji could have a private time with Youko. When they were left alone, Ryuuji just smiled at her (pretending he didn't hear about their conversation) and asked, "daijobou? Your face is really red. Did he tell something to you?"

Youko puffed her cheeks and said, "it's nothing Ryuu-san."

Ryuuji couldn't hide his amusement. He put a hand on her head and patted it. When Youko pressed her lips together tightly as if signaling irritation from Ryuuji's last remark, he said, "You have a special bond with him, Youko-chan. Ask him about it next time."

Youko insisted that he spill everything he knew about them. But Ryuuji wouldn't tell anything.

Youko had to be adamant about her own breaktime. Usada finally gave in to her request because she had her nose on workbooks all day. She thought that a visit to the shooting grounds (even if there's no need) will remind her of the old times when she and Ryuuji used to train their buster weapons together. She supposed that it would be comforting and enjoyable at the same time.

Youko was absorbed in her own world when Hiromu came running at her with a wafer in his hand.

"You haven't taken anything yet for your inner battery" Hiromu said, offering the wafer to her.

Youko could trace the frustration from his voice. But instead of being thankful, her natural response was, "I can remind myself of little things like that". She took the wafer forcefully from his hand and placed it in her pocket. She remembered about the handkerchief incident and the story of the promise he made to her. This made her feel more embarrassed.

"I will only leave you if you consume it" he insisted, putting his hands in his sides "gomen, but I have to be obstinate with you, given your present condition."

Youko felt more annoyed than ever. First, Hiromu was overly-reacting around her. Second, Usada said that she was better at school work when she competed against him. Third, he was always the first person to know when she's in pain. Fourth, he was obstinate about her calorie-intake. And lastly, both Ryuuji and Usada insisted that she had a 'special bond' with him.

Youko turned to match his stance. When she was only a few inches away from him, she said, "You intruded in my room and comforted me when I didn't ask you to. You always ask how my day was. And now you're obstinate about my calorie intake. Your promise to me was already broken and Vaglass was defeated. Why-make-a-fuss-over-me Hiromu?!"

Hiromu parted his mouth a little, but no words came out. The most prominent expression from his face was a frown.

"I'm not a child anymore! So stop—"

Youko froze in her spot when Hiromu leaned himself to her, almost kissing her. Her face was redder than ever and her eyes were wide in shock. Youko remembered about the 'special bond' that Ryuuji and Usada were talking about. But she didn't know what that was.

"An emotional link might recover lost memories." Hiromu said candidly.

"w—what link?"

"I love you, Youko"

And within a fraction of a second, he kissed her.