Chapter 158 (1/2)

Volume 2

Chapter 137

『…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?

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…」

「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」