Nidome no Yuusha

『…get. Don’t…for…get… the wounds…cuts…promises…』

I could hear someone’s voice far away.

A voice that sounded like a demon that crawled out of the deepest swamp.

It was unclear; I didn’t know what it was trying to say.

But I knew that it had a fierceness to it akin to something about to rampage.

After hearing that voice, I reluctantly woke from my sleep.

「N…ugh….」

When I woke, there was a cream colored ceiling above me.

「Where? Is this? …ow, my head…」

My head was heavy and groggy like after a long sleep.

There didn’t seem to be anyone in my room, and the sound of electric beeping echoed.

It was a bright hospital room. However, I had no idea why I was sleeping in one.

「Uuum, school started in earnest yesterday so he needs to start going to school soon… while he was messing around with Kenta and Suehiko, Yuuto went to the upperclassman’s floor and to meet a girl and got made fun of… Then…」

Then?

What happened after then? I can’t remember.

「Excuse me…?! Wait, his eyes are open?! D…doctor!!」

A young nurse saw that I was awake and ran out of the room. Left alone again, I thought she didn’t have to run out so quickly, this isn’t some kind of crappy medical drama.

I didn’t know what to do after that so I just sat and waited, and after a while, some stuck-up doctor came.

「Well, good morning. Would you allow me to check you out first?」

「Huh? Oh, yeah.」

I had no idea what had happened to me, and I had a lot of questions as did they.

When I was brought in and they took off the upper half of my clothes, they saw scars all over my body and were shocked.

(W, what? What happened to me?)

I acted as if nothing had happened, but I definitely would be screaming “WHAT THE HELL?” if I saw the scars alone.

They looked quite painful, but since there were no actual injuries, there was little they could do.

「…yes, it seemed that there was no real problem. I think that you’ll need to be tested over two or three more days here at the hospital, but the deepest wound you had has healed nicely. It seems that there’ll be no residual effects.」

After he examined my eyes with a penlight, checked the movement of my arms and fingers, and checked my ears, the check was over.

「Um ,so , doctor, I actually…have no idea why I’m here…was it a traffic accident? Or something like that?」

With all the scars and the fact I couldn’t remember anything, it seemed like a development that any main character in an anime or drama would have. But my body felt fine and there was nothing really wrong with me.

That simple question that I thought would have a simple response came with an unexpected one.

「「「…」」」

(What’s with the silence? Sounds like something bad.)

The doctor with a troubled look turned to the other doctors and nurses and exchanged glances, nodded, and turned back to me.

「Ukei-kun, a question – Do you have no memory of what happened before this?」

「Uh…um, I think I was talking to my friends before the first period of school…」

「And do you know what day, month, and year it is?」

「June 8th, 2015.」

I looked at the calendar in the room as I answered.

The doctor heard my response, and again looked around and began talking with an quieting look.

「…Ukei-kun. Please don’t get upset when you hear this. It’s now October 13th, 2016.」

「What? Huh? Nononono….」

「I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth.」

「So that means what, that uh, I lost over a year of memories? Nononono, there’s no way, was I in a vegetative state for a year because of an accident?」

That nonononono was just like the ones you see in manga, a long nononononono.

My mind was confused, and as the conversation continued, the doctor shook his head back and forth.

「This is the 10th day since you were brought here.」

「Ah, ok, then, yeah, if I had slept here over a year, I’d be weak, right? Hmm hm? In other words, a year of my memories are gone? There’s no way the date is different, right?」

「To be frank, it seems that way.」

「Whaa…one year?」

What? No way? Really?

No, it seems I wasn’t asleep for a year, but losing a year’s worth of memory is nuts.

Because, a year, since I’m a senior now, that means that I need to take my entrance exams, right? 𝑓𝒓𝚎e𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯𝘰𝐯𝒆𝑙.c𝚘m

That means only three months until the college entrance exams begin? Damn…

「We think it may only be temporary, so first we need to image your brain with an MRI, in this other room.」

「Oh, okay…」

I couldn’t hide that I was shaken, but I got off the bed and did what the doctor told me.

「Brother! O…oww!」

Thud! I heard the sound of someone hitting the rubber barrier on the hospital door trying to get by the nurses in the doorway.

「Oh, are you okay?」

However, she barged in past the door and made her way into the room toward me.

「…brother…your eyes are open, it’s not a dream, not a dream, I’m here and you’re alive…You’re alive…」 𝑓𝙧𝘦𝘦we𝘣𝙣𝘰𝘃𝗲l.com

「Hey, calm down, chi, hah hah hah, stop tickling me!」

Mai had suddenly ran in and was now clinging onto me.

She had her hands all over me to make sure it was real, and her face was covered in tears.

Had I ever seen her like this before?

(…hm..what is…this..)

The moment I saw her face, I could feel something inside my chest squeezing.

「Brother, brother…ugh…sniff, sniff」

Seeing Mai again, I really felt like it had been a year since I had seen her.

Last night, no, the last time I saw her…her hair was a bit shorter, and now she looked a bit more like an adult.

But, the person that was weeping and clinging on to me was still the little child I’ve always known.

「Mai, hah hah, sorry, I know you must have been worried.」

I said with a voice of strange emotions that seemed to well up inside me.

I was always the one that would try to comfort her.

I patted her head and after a while, Mai seemed to calm down.

「Okay, wait a second because I have some tests I have to take.」

「She needs to wait in a waiting room. I have something else to tell you.」

「Uh…okay.」

We all left the room and Mai split off from us as we walked down the hall, and the nurse brought me into a room of linoleum.

「Your sister really was worried. As soon as school was over she came to see you…um, Ukei-san? What’s wrong?!」

I tried not to look ridiculous, but as a big brother I had to shed tears over what my sister had done.

「Ah…no…sorry…I don’t know why…I’m just…very emotional about it all.」

「Hee hee, pretty rare to see a brother and sister so close nowadays.」

「Ah, yeah, you’re right. You’re right…」

It was strange for me to cry like that. No, I had to be happy that my sister worried that much about me. But, to cry over it is something that Kenta again would mock me as a Siscon for.

I walked into the testing room while still wiping my tears off.

I had no idea if that day would ever come if I would be mocked for it.

After the test, I went back to my room, and in the room there was Mai with a middle aged chubby man in a well-used dark-brown suit and a medium size, muscular man in a tight black suit.

These must be some people from the hospital.

「…doctor…is my brother…okay?」

Mai stood from her seat and walked to me while speaking in a worried voice.

「He’s fine. For now, we couldn’t find anything wrong with his brain, so don’t worry.」

「Relax, your brother is fine. In fact, his health is quite good.」

「…really? Are you being honest? They aren’t lying are they, brother? I mean his head used to be as empty as a sponge, are you sure his brain won’t open up even more like the inside of a green pepper or something?」

She had a bad mouth as usual, but she stood very worried and wouldn’t let go of my sleeve. It was her habit from when we were kids.

Usually I’d yell at her, but because it was so cute, I decided not to…in fact I’d forgive the whole thing about the green pepper too.

(I mean, it seems like a weekday so school’s still going on this afternoon. Mai, are you going to be okay?)

She probably got out of school early to see me, but she didn’t have to.

Well, I was happy so I didn’t say anything…and because if I did, she’d start pouting.

「Well, well, may I? I am Miyakawa from the Meshizuka Station.」

「And I’m Onishi, nice to meet you.」

The chubby middle-aged man named Miyawaka broke into our conversation a bit forcefully, and the other man named Onishi took out his police badge and presented it to us.

「What? The police?」

「Yes. We have several things we want to ask you, first…」

「Mr. Miyakawa, this boy is still a hospital patient. I know that you can’t stop him from answering questions, but there’s no reason to be forceful.」

「Well, I see. You really are a tough doctor, no need to look so upset. Well, looks like he’s angry at us, Onishi.」

「Hah, of course he is.」

Miyakawa laughed and shrugged while Onishi sighed.

「So, what is it?」

「Mr. Ukei, first, please, take a seat. We have something to tell you.」

「Oh, okay.」

We all sat around a small table, and the nurse brought us tea.

After a second, the doctor there began to speak.

「The majority of the wounds that you’ve had will heal with no problem. The deepest one extends from one side of your collar to the other, and is almost healed, and since there is no numbness in the extremities, just in case, we’ll keep you two or three days and then release you.」

「I see. So, about my memory…」

That was the thing I was most worried about.

「The results of the MRI show no damage to your mind. As for the loss of memory, it seems it might be psychological.」

「Um, so then the, how much of my memory will return then? I mean, I have entrance exams…and other things…」

If I don’t get my memory back, I’m going to be in trouble later. I’ll flunk the entrance exam of the college I want to go to.

「Entrance exam? Hahah hah hah! You don’t have to worry about that!」

「Mr. Miyakawa, if you continue like that, I’ll have to ask you to leave.」

「…that’s too much, Mr. Miyakawa.」

「Oh, sorry. I guess I said too much.」

「Wait, what is HE talking about?」

I felt very worried after the doctor and Onishi got angry at Miyakawa’s statement, and Miyakawa simply shrugged at it.

My sister was even more worried, and she gripped my sleeve and pulled it tightly.

「Mr. Ukei, please relax. First, as we stated, it’s been more than a week since you came into this hospital. There was an emergency at your school, and out of those injuries all over your body, all of them are cuts. And the largest one is the one on your collar, which required your hospitalization.」

「School? What happened to it? Um, so maybe, there was an accident?」

With all that happened, I was trying to get any information.

I mean, it wasn’t normal to have two cops facing you like this.

「Allow me to continue the explanation. It isn’t one that the doctor can do, anyways.」

Miyakawa drank some tea and began to speak.

「First, allow me to say, Mr. Ukei, that you’ve been missing for a year. The reason that I said you have no reason to worry about entrance exams is because you haven’t progressed in school enough to take them, hah hah. Well, I think it will be hard to catch up to this year’s studies too…」

「…what?」

Then, those disquieting yet expected words hit me.

First, what I wanted to say was…

Um…what? Instead of studying for college, I have to repeat a year?