A/N: Apparently none of the chapters after Chapter 2 are showing up correctly on Google Chrome...even fewer reason to not uploading it all at once. Wheeeeeee
Standard disclaimers apply of course (even if I'm the only one who can see it on the Internet lol)
Chapter 6. Strike
The first thing Kaoru noticed was the harsh fluorescent light above her. Then the scent of antiseptic. Her head throbbed, a dull pain behind her eyes.
"You're awake." Kenshin murmured, sitting in a chair beside her. "I brought you to the clinic when you fainted. You really scared us."
"Sorry." Kaoru swallowed, her throat dry. She winced as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, the throbbing in her head growing worse. "Thank you."
The moment stretched, but Kaoru's mind was elsewhere-focused on the memories that had resurfaced.
Kenshin shifted in his chair. "Can I stay?"
The puppy-eye look he gave her was one that used to make her heart falter, back when she hadn't been drowning in the ghosts of a past she didn't fully understand.
Now all she felt was exhaustion.
Soujirou would have gotten the hint and left me alone.
The thought flashed through her mind. Kaoru touched her head gently and looked up to Kenshin with a smile, "Thank you again."
Kenshin hesitated, but nodded slowly, "Aah, okay. Well, feel better soon."
The door clicked shut behind him, giving Kaoru the space she needed to be alone with her thoughts.
She exhaled slowly and focused on what she could recall-how the tires screeched as the car swerved and hit a telephone pole, how she had leapt to save Yahiko, and how tightly she held on to Yahiko's body.
She frowned.
Why was she holding on so tightly? Was he important?
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to recall the details of that day. When she opened them again, she was standing on a side street. The cicadas were screaming loudly around her and the pavement was shimmering beneath the heat. Nobody seemed to notice her as they walked past her, going about their business.
Kaoru watched as Yahiko skipped happily past her, balancing himself on the curb, holding an ice cream cone in his hand. Part of the ice cream had already melted and trickled down to the ground.
"It'll melt if you don't eat it quickly!" Kaoru turned toward the voice-her voice. She saw herself, her black hair clipped short and curling at the nape of her neck and a popsicle in her hand. Even just by a glance, Kaoru could taste the bitter orange flavor.
Yahiko laughed, about to take a bite. Then he lost his balance. He tumbled forward; the ice cream splattered against the asphalt.
A sedan appeared, olive green, two doors, flying down the road. The driver blinded by the glare of the sun.
Kaoru couldn't move.
She watched herself drop the popsicle and lunging toward Yahiko.
The popsicle hit the ground just as the car hit the telephone pole.
Everything was silent except for the labored breathing of the siblings on the road, their blood mingling with the melting ice cream, swirling together in sickly-sweet creamy red streams.
She watched her younger self whisper to Yahiko.
What was she saying?
Kaoru stumbled shakily to the pair. She bent down and heard herself gasp, "Please Yahiko…stay with me…stay with me. Please little brother."
Everything crashed around Kaoru.
The sweetness of the ice cream, mixed with the scent of burning rubber, and the metallic smell of blood-everything pressed down on her. The cicadas roared in her ears. The heat suffocated her in sticky, cloying warm.
She couldn't breathe-
Kaoru woke violently, her body drenched in cold sweat. Her stomach twisted, bile rising in her throat. She barely made it to the bathroom before she collapsed against the toilet, dry heaving.
Nothing came out, but everything came out.
Kaoru slipped down to a fetal position on the floor, the floor titles strangely cool against her cheeks. She was too weak to make her way back to her bed.
Maybe I'll just stay here for a little bit.
"Kaoru!" She felt a pair of hands grabbing her shoulders. "Kaoru!?"
She opened her eyes to find an anxious Misao kneeling besides her.
"Misaso," She attempted a weak smile, "Hi."
"Why are you on the floor?" Misao managed to help Kaoru get into a standing position, "Are you okay? You're so pale!"
"I remember." She choked out.
Misao's grip on her tightened. "What do you mean?"
"Remember how I said the name Yahiko yesterday randomly? I remember who he is now. He's my brother...an-and there was a car accident, but I managed to get him out of the way but we were both hurt..."
Was it her imagination or did Misao's grip tighten even more on her arm?
"And?" Misaos tone was urgent now, her aquamarine eyes ghoulishly large in the dim bathroom light.
"I don't remember…I don't know what happened before the car accident or after…but if I ask Yahiko, I'm sure he knows! He'll tell me!"
"Kaoru, wait-"
"I need to see him."
"Kaoru, I-" Before Misao could finish the sentence, the bathroom door swung open, revealing Megumi.
"What are you doing out of bed?" Megumi stared at her before shooting a glare in Misao's direction. "She should be in bed."
Kaoru turned to Megumi, desperation rising in her chest, "I need to talk to Yahiko. He's my brother!"
Grabbing Kaoru's other arm, Megumi muttered, "Come on, Misao. Help me get her out of the bathroom."
"Did you hear me? Yahiko's my brother," Kaoru repeated, "I need to tell Soujirou this. He'll be so excited for me."
"You haven't?" Megumi looked at Misao who shook her head.
"What?" Kaoru stiffened, a sense of dread replacing her excitement of remembering Yahiko.
"The car accident earlier today." Megumi looked directly at Kaoru, "Soujirou was hit. Badly."
Kaoru heard the screeching of the tires again, halting the world.
"What?"
"He was trying to save a younger boy," Megumi's voice was strangely devoid of emotion. "But he was badly injured."
"No…you're kidding, right?"
"I'm afraid it's true." Misao placed a hesitant hand on her shoulder. "Aoshi saw it happen. Soujirou was really brave and saved the young boy's life."
"Don't use past tense," She snapped, ignoring the trembles of her voice, "He IS really brave!"
Misao and Megumi exchanged another glance.
"Which hospital is he at?" Kaoru gasped out.
"We don't know."
The tears started falling before she even realized she was crying. Her fingers curled around the charm bracelet on her wrist. They were climbing a tree just hours ago, laughing about flying squirrels and visiting faraway places.
"Nothing good happens when I try to leave campus." She had told Soujirou.
Her throat became dry as she remembered how she thought about leaving campus earlier in the afternoon. She couldn't help but let out a harsh laugh.
"Kaoru?" Misao eyed her friend cautiously.
"Nothing good happens when I leave campus." She shook her head.
Misao's heart broke at the sight of her friend's slumped form. They really went too far this time.
"I can ask around and see if anyone knows which hospital he's at." She said in an attempt to cheer Kaoru up.
"You will?" Kaoru whispered.
"Of course. Megumi will help too, right?" Misao elbowed Megumi.
"Yeah sure." Megumi sighed, unable to stand Kaoru's tears anymore. "You should get some sleep. I don't think Soujirou is into raccoons."
Kaoru let out a watery laugh. She let her roommates tuck her in, but she barely slept that night, her mind still spinning.
Why had Yahiko never visited her before? Where were their parents?
A flicker of an image flashed through her mind-two figures.
Two different figures.
Her breath caught.
Did she have two sets of parents? Was she adopted? But if Yahiko was her brother-
Was she abandoned?
There was something else that's bothering her, but she hasn't been able to put her finger on it.
But she was going to find it out.
It rained consecutively for the next three days, stopping only during the early hours of the morning.
"I've never seen it rain like this before." Misao peered outside the window.
"We'll be needing life vests soon to go to class." Megumi muttered.
Turning around to face her roommate, Misao sighed, "They are really trying to remove him completely huh?"
By the fourth day, Kaoru was discharged from the school clinic.
"Do you want some food?" Misao asked, opening the mini fridge she had, "I can make you a sandwich or something."
Kaoru didn't reply. She stared intently at the rain outside.
"Kaoru, are you okay?" Misao walked over to her friend's side. Ever since the hospitalization, Kaoru has been strangely quiet and contemplative. If she didn't know it any better, she would say Kaoru is plotting something.
"Misao," Kaoru fixed her fiery eyes on her, "I'm sneaking out tonight and you can't rat me out."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm sneaking out tonight so I can look for Soujirou and Yahiko. I've tried contacting Soujirou by phone and text, but he hasn't been responding and I need to know that he's okay. And I really need to find Yahiko."
Misao looked around the room before turning her attention back to Kaoru. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard you say. You'll get expelled if you get caught. And you don't even know where they are! And I thought you said that bad things happen when you try to leave campus."
"But if I sit around and do nothing, I really will lose my mind!" Kaoru argued.
Misao scanned their dorm again.
"What are you doing?" Kaoru asked, her eyebrows knitting together, "Why do you keep on looking around?"
"I'm nervous, okay?" Misao huffed, "Whatever, I'm making myself a sandwich!"
That night, after making sure her roommates were fast asleep, Kaoru snuck quietly out of their dorm building through the back exit. It was a quiet night, especially after she had grown accustomed to the sound of raining hitting the pavement. Her own breathing sounded strangely loud to her own ears. Taking care to stay within the shadows, she moved stealthily toward the school gate only to find someone standing there with crossed arms.
"Aoshi?" She squinted, "Are you sneaking out too?"
Instead of replying, Aoshi just stared at the woman.
"Whatever." She muttered. Aoshi has never been a man of many words and she still hasn't figured out what Misao saw in him exactly, but that was another problem for another day. Right now, she had to concentrate on climbing over the gate.
"There's nothing there." Aoshi broke the silence just as Kaoru put one foot on a lower bar of the gate.
"What?" Kaoru turned back.
"You want to find Soujirou and Yahiko. You won't find them."
"Why?"
"You can't get to them."
Kaoru took a deep breath. Her patience was running thin with this man. She could never actually understand what he was trying to convey. What did Misao see in him?
"Please speak plain English." Kaoru forced her tone to remain calm.
"Use your brain, Kamiya," he replied. Pausing for a second as if listening, he said, "You should go back. The night security is heading this way."
Kaoru made an attempt to follow him.
"Misao gave up so much for you." Aoshi said, stopping in his track. "The least you could do is play your part and stop making trouble. That or destroy everything."
"What?"
Aoshi turned to look at her, a ghost of a smile on his lips, "After all, it's your world. We just live in it."
"Wait I don't understand!" She protested as he melted into the shadows.
"Who's there?" A new voice yelled.
Security!
Her eyes widened and she started running back to her dorm building.
A/N: I should write to the FFland tech people about this bug, but I'm so lazy wahhhhhhh
Update: 3/7/2025 12:58am