(I)
Day after day. Night after night. I'm still locked up in a room I slowly became tired of. How long has it been now? Why haven't I had any visitors if I was so cool? How long until all my talents come back and I can find out what my life was actually like? I know I shouldn't rush recovery, but god I just want out of this boring room! Maybe I shouldn't complain. After all, the Steering Committee paid for everything. I should shut up and be grateful. Despite the positives of my situation, who can blame me?
Everyday became the same. Wake up, talk to the neurologist kid about not neurologist things, eat, test a talent or two, physical exercise, eat again, bathe, sleep, repeat. It all dragged along. The most interesting part was seeing which talent would be tested next. Always a surprise seeing what I was once amazing at. Wonder when we would reach the end of the list. So far, my talents of gaming, analyzing, writing, drawing, and criticizing have been successful. Judging by that, today was only day 6 of recovery. Ugh, really?! Maybe I'm going stir crazy in here. At least, this should be over soon. I keep telling myself that, anyway.
The most unpredictable part of everyday was Matsuda. For some reason, he went out of his way to talk to me every morning. I don't get the point. I won't turn down a chance for conversation, but it felt like he was forcing himself to talk or maybe he was told to by the committee. Either way, it's always incredibly awkward since I can't remember anything of who I was or what my hobbies were. Guess I did a bit of everything. Talents don't just manifest like that. He asks my opinions about random things, despite him usually having to explain what he's talking about. Maybe he's just an awkward person or something.
Almost like clockwork, the boy himself shows up. A manga book under his arm as he brought me some breakfast. We talked about his recent favorite yesterday. A strangely childish thing for such an adult acting teenager. "Sorry I'm a bit late. Had to talk to someone." Matsuda sets some pancakes down while he explains himself. As if I would notice if he was late or not. "Don't worry about it, man." I chose not to press for now. Probably had to talk to one of the committee people before they show up. Thanking him for the food as I dig in, he sits in the same chair as always. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't read the manga, not yet anyway. Instead, he holds up a fashion magazine originally folded into the book to point at it. The cover having some girl with huge, bleached, curly hair on it.
"Do you know anything about fashionistas?" Of course, I don't. I know what they are, obviously, but any memory of reading a magazine like that has been erased. Not something very interesting to me, so there's a chance I didn't have any memory of reading such a thing to begin with. As a response, I only stare at him. He knew the answer by now to any question like that. "...Right." He pauses to think of where to start explaining. A pull at his disordered, dark tie. The strangeness of the situation became overwhelming. Before we talked about music, manga, or movies, but fashion couldn't be something he was actually interested in judging by his disorganized appearance."I appreciate you talking to me and everything, but why are you forcing yourself? Especially about something like that."
Matsuda folds the magazine back to it's spot before an answer like he didn't expect me to call out the weirdness. Oh, wait. He's probably thinking something else. Why else would he specify fashionista and not model? Model, I could understand. Pretty girls are everywhere for a reason. "Are you trying to imply something?" I ask with a neutral tone before he can follow up the previous question. He scoffs my assumption. "No. Just making conversation." That commonplace serious tone doesn't budge as he responds. Although I much prefer the voice he has when he's talking about his favorite manga or movies, pestering him could be entertaining. Haven't done that yet.
"If you're trying to imply that I'm gay, you can just ask me out." Matsuda gives an utterly confused expression. Completely dumbfounded as I managed to keep a neutral tone throughout the sentence. "...Just kidding. You're not my type." My laughter messes up the last word on that one. I couldn't help it. The twist in his face of annoyance and confusion was too good! "Like I'd ever get with you, dumbass." He sneers through the words as he crosses his arms. I should've done this sooner. Before I could fit in another jab, he takes out that magazine again. Pointing at the cover girl with a straight face, he continues. "I prefer her to someone like you." I jokingly tsk at him. "You're just saying that since you can't get me."
I smirk at him as his muted blue grey eyes stare into my bright crimson ones. The expression switches back to his old one. A straight laced, high-priority, focused look watches me. "I didn't think you were the type to joke around so suddenly." His voice has a lightness to it that shows he didn't get upset from it. That'd be embarrassing for him if that was enough to get him to freak out or stop talking to me. "Yeah, well. There's not much to do in here, y'know." He nods at my statement in a lingering silence as he rounds up some thoughts. "Did I react how you predicted?" That question certainly wasn't predicted. Hm, looks like he figured me out quicker than expected. "...No, actually. I thought you'd shoot it down more defensively." I finished the rest of the pancakes in the small pause.
Before the jestering torment could go on any further, the oldest of the committee members came in. Wow. Either Matsuda was way later than I thought or the member came early. Shame that I couldn't keep pestering him. "Good morning, gentlemen! Are we ready to get started?" The elder smiles as he wheels along a chalkboard. Haven't used one of those yet. "I certainly am." Suddenly fired up to find out what today's talent would be, I shoot up out of bed. What'll it be this time? "Perfect! Just what I like to hear. Today we'll be testing your talent of geometry." ...I no longer felt fired up. Me, good at geometry? I don't know. Math doesn't speak to me like gaming or analysis does. Was this really a talent I had? Doesn't sound like something I'd be involved with more than necessary. Still, I decide I shouldn't give up so fast.
"Alright, what do I need to do?" The old man silently wrote down a problem copied from a book in his shaky hand. To me, it almost looked like gibberish before any kind of code or solvable problem. A triangle with labeled points and some numbers. "Solve for the correct angle of BAC." Unlike my other tests of far, this looked completely foreign. I could only stare at it as I try to force my mind to remember a starting point or any type of lead. Nothing came to mind. No understanding of the steps. Maybe I shouldn't have talked all big and confident about leaving soon to myself.
Matsuda shakes his head at my elongated pause as he writes something down. God, am I really that dumb? "I'm sorry, uh, but I have no idea how to do this." After a few minutes of tossing around in my mind, I come clean. This was too embarrassing to continue. Why didn't the answer just flow out like everything else? Does this mean I... lost a talent? What happens then? "That's a shame. Don't worry, Kamukura. You've been doing very well so far and I'm impressed with how smoothly things have been going." One of the four Mr. Steering Committees goes over his notes again before saying anything else. The embarrassment slowly fades as I think about what this means.
"We can move on for now. Let's try a biology test, alright?"
"Sure... Um, so what happens to that geometry talent? Do we just forget about it?"
"Oh, not at all! There's a small chance we have to do another surgery if all else fails. Most likely, it'll come back before long."
Another surgery? For just one talent? How drastic. I already had so many, so isn't it ridiculous to linger on it? If I had another surgery, would my memories of before come back? That wouldn't be so bad. The worry of failure balanced out my hope for that knowledge. With a strangely encouraged puff, I set my mind to focusing on the next test. One that I know I can easily flourish in.