"Mika. Please. Say something."

She looks at me, and her pupils dilate to the flashing light behind my face.

"…Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital, Mika."

"…Mika? Is that my…name?"

Something within me plummets. All the doubt, all the fear, everything lost due to something that's entirely my fault.

"Yes, Mika is your name. I was your brother."

"Was?"

I don't want to respond. I'm no longer worthy to be called a brother. Especially not after what I let happen to her.

"I let something bad happen to you. And for that, I'm sorry."

"Ah, I see."

She lifts a hand into the air with the most gentle of grasps. She uses the tips of her fingers and smoothly strokes the peach fuzz on my face.

"Why are you so soft?"

She put her other hand on her own face. All that's left of her skin is scars. Stitches cover the top of her head, those are from the surgery, but those are not the most concerning. Holes. Poked holed. From pins. From tacks. From needles. All sewn together with irremovable string forming a constellation. Her face, feet, back, arms, legs, are all no exception to the pain she went through.

I touch her face. A gesture for someone I love.

"It's because you saved me. It's why your skin is rough."

"My skin?"

"Yes, your skin."

A teardrop runs down my face. I hug my sister.

"Thank you, Mika. You saved my life and this is what you got. You told me not to feel sorry, so instead, I'll give my gratitude. Even if you're not the same Mika, you're still my only sister, even if I don't deserve to be your brother."

She pushes against my body as if she's never had a hug before. She probably hasn't. She gets the gesture and wraps her arms around my waist.

"Hello, Kaoru."

I release my grip and stare at the man in the hallway.

"Hello, Doc."

"As you can see, the procedure was a success. Well, mostly."

"What did you do to her?"

"She has none of her memories, but perhaps that was for the better. She also will emote less."

"Emote less?"

"Cold, rude, apathetic. All words to describe how she'll be."

"Is she in Despair?"

"No."

"Hm? Wait. Really?"

"Yes. She is out of it. Luckily, she wasn't in Despair enough, so we didn't have to remove much. She should have minor short-term memory loss, as well."

"Remove?"

"Yes. We told you what the procedure was like. And as long as she's fine, that's what you wanted, right?"

I gave a distasteful look.

"Do you still have it?"

"What?"

"The parts you removed."

"We don't dispose of—"

"I want them. I really want them."

"I can't really—"

"I gave my sister up as a guinea pig for your scientific research. The least you could do is give me back the parts of her brain that you cut out."

"I told you that it relies upon combustion, not cutting."

"Don't fuck with me."

…

I gave Mika back the rest of her brain. We put it in the fridge at the house. It's in the basement, so I don't think anyone will touch it.

Mika's memory is completely gone, so I walked around teaching her about the world and about why everything's destroyed. She doesn't really seem to mind. She's the happiest I've ever seen her, although that doctor was right. I have to tell her things over and over again because she forgets. It's only with names, really. But she still is Mika. Most of her personality is intact. Well, she acts a lot more like a child.

Mika and I were walking around the neighborhood we lived in, and we came across another house. There were a ton of plants growing outside. I heard voices so I was skeptical. I held my gun up against the door, and shoved Mika behind me. I knocked.

Silence filled the air with its foggy breath. Then the door opened.

"Hey. This better not be a pr—"

I held my gun up to his face. I know this man. Black hair, strong-looking. I lowered it.

"Your name was Murata, right?"

"Yeah. You're Kodaka."

"Kaoru."

"Ah, sorry." He turned around. "Captain! Kaoru's here!"

Someone stumbled over to the door. He put his hand on the wall, like he was using it for balance. He looked exhausted. Pale white skin, thin, ratty black hair. His eyes were very droopy, like they were going to fall off his face.

"Come in."

I pulled Mika by the wrist into the house and sat on the couch. At least her hands weren't sullied. Their captain also sat down.

"So you're Kaoru Kaneko."

"Ah, yes."

"Murata and Kin said that you would drop by. Although that was a couple months ago."

"I had some complications with…my sister."

"Is that her?"

"Yeah. She doesn't talk much."

"I don't want to delve too deeply into your personal life, but I'm concerned. You were just around here. There must be some troubling issue. It doesn't take months to walk a couple miles."

"They found a way to remove the Despair from someone. My sister is the product of that."

"They? The Future Foundation?"

"Well, yes. But it's still in development. And there's horrible side effects."

"Like?"

"Memory loss."

Their captain looked right at his subordinates. Specifically, Murata and Kin.

"Who did you tell?"

"N-N…no one?"

"It was a doctor. He asked, okay?"

"We didn't say anything about the stuff that Mik—"

Murata put his hand over Kin's mouth. Panic spread within me. How did they know?

"How? How did you know about Mika's procedure?"

"Mika? Who's that?"

I sat down. What? I'm sure I heard Mika. Murata and Kin look at each other.

"Mikan Tsumiki. She's the one who took me out of Despair. Well, saved me from dying. I was hit by a grenade, and it destroyed half of my brain. Probably the reason I ended up better off than your sister is because I was fixed up by the Ultimate Nurse. Her talent is nothing to scoff at."

"My sister won't talk to anyone but myself. I've tried, but I'm always forced to say things for her. I see that you don't have the same issue."

A small girl piped up. She had long blondish hair that had obviously been dyed due to the thick, black roots. She walked up to Mika.

"What's your name, Miss?"

Mika stared back. She looked at me for help. I wouldn't give any.

"N…name…miss…miss…Mika. My name is that."

Mika looked at me to see if she did it right. I strained my face to smile in confirmation. When was the last time I did that?

"Well, hello then, Mika."

"…Hello."

"So, Mika. Who's this?"

"M-My…brother. Kaoru. Kaoru is his name."

"Oh, so you're related?"

She nodded so gently, it was hard to tell if she even moved. The girl grabbed Mika's hand.

"I'm Suika. I'd love to be your friend."

"S…sssss…suika?"

"Say it with confidence!"

"S-Suika!"

"Perfect!"

I'm surprised that no one has asked about Mika's skin. It isn't exactly hard to notice. People always will stare, comment, and make rude gestures. They don't seem to really care here. Maybe…We should stay.

"How many people are here?"

"Including you, nine."

"Ah, that's the original number, right?"

There was a wave of silence. All the people here looked around at each other, as if remembering that their friends died. Two of them did, then. I'm not sure how, but it must have been painful. These people seem to have gone through a lot.

"Tatsuha, what the fuck?"

"I'm sorry, Murata!"

"Both of you, calm down." A woman stepped forwards, she seemed very calm. She had sleek, black hair. She walked towards Mika. "Mika. Is it alright if I take a look at you? I'm a nurse."

Mika looked at me, puppy eyed. When I didn't respond, she tried her best to.

"I-I-I-I…Uh…I-"

"Go ahead."

Mika let out a breath of relief. She really struggled just to say yes.

"Follow me."

"Wait a moment. I don't trust you. Hell, I don't even know your name."

"Sachiko Saito. You can come, too, if you'd like. It may be a bit awkward for the both of you."

I followed Mika and Saito into a bedroom.

"You two can sit down."

We sat on the bed. Saito examined the wounds and Mika reeled back a bit, but after I assured her that it would be okay, she calmed down. She looked at the wounds on her chest and back, as well, injuries I've never seen. When the world's like this, no one's taking showers.

"Well then, these are some pretty nasty wounds." And you think I don't know that. "However, she won't die from them. The worst that will happen is the wire will puncture the skin. I can remove the wire and string, but it will leave a scar. And it will be very painful."

I looked at Mika. She looked at me.

"Mika, I can't choose everything for you, make your own decision for once."

"Well, what do you say, Mika?"

"Uh…I-I…"

She stared down at her lap for a while. She held up her arm and traced her finger across the bulging part in her skin. I saw that this Mika was no longer the Mika I knew. She still was my sister, but someone different, someone who had to take time to think, someone less rash, and someone more soft.

"T-T…T-This is the way I am, right? The way I woke up." She looked upwards. "Even still, if it makes me more human, please, remove the wire."

"Alright then. However, you will have to stay here for a couple months. Something like this will not heal so quickly." Saito's face turned pale. "If you got the operation at the Future Foundation, why didn't they offer to help her?"

"The only reason they gave us help was so we could be their guinea pig. Mika was alive and able to walk. They wouldn't throw around their doctors so easily."

"I see. Well, we have extra room and there's a hospital nearby. Actually, Cap told us to get more people here. Maybe we could make this a new sanctuary. So if you know anyone, tell them to come."

"Yeah. I will."

…

While Mika was healing up, the sanctuary grew quite a bit. There's about twenty people here now. We had to reach out into the other houses nearby, but everything seems to be working out. We grow a lot of food ourselves, too. Cap really wanted to make sure that food would not be a problem.

Cap really is an interesting guy. He seems to be able to walk around without too much trouble now, which is a lot better than when I first got here. The other people here are nice, too.

Suika really became friends with Mika. So far, Mika only talks openly to her, the nurse, and myself, of course. I'm glad that Mika has opened up a bit.

They always talk about how overcoming something makes you stronger. I guess they were right.