"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

~M. Kathleen Casey~

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

"What are you?" she asked when me and the rest entered the bright hospital room.

It was such an odd query, as if she was checking her sanity. If I was worried about her, I couldn't really remember. There was liberation from restricted breath pervading somewhere.

"I'm human," I smirked, not giving into the mind game. "What about you?"

She had bandages rolled over her head, like a tight turban concealed it, and her beautiful auburn hair was shaved off probably as not a strand was visible. Her arms were covered with casts but not her hands.

She's probably disappointed for losing her long hair…but…she shouldn't be playing games at this time.

"Hoy, Naru—!" the monk angrily snapped at me at my indifferent answer, but she spoke, interrupting him.

"Me…?" She placed a finger to her chin and stared upwards innocently. "I…I feel like I was a fish in my past life…There's too much water…"

"Fish…?" the monk uttered loudly in shock and gawked at her as if she really went mental.

She looked at his astonished face in wonder as if telling him how obvious it was. Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san shed tears uncharacteristically all of a sudden.

"Why…are you crying…?" she questioned and then blinked, as if realizing something as she locked her eyes with the priestess, the monk, the medium, the priest, the scholar, the diviner, and then to me. "Do…I know all of you?"

Gasping sobs escaped from the priestess and the medium. The rest just went pale.

"Mai-san…" the young priest mumbled sadly.

"For this to happen so suddenly…" Yasuhara shook his head in disbelief.

"Mai…" The monk gazed at her anxiously.

It was expected; I knew that. She had hit her head very hard after all. The doctor already warned about possible amnesia when she comes into consciousness.

I sighed. She'll remember soon.

"I'm Kazuya Shibuya," I supplied as-a-matter-of-factly (and Mai turned to me curiously), "your boss and the person you said you 'love the most in the entire universe.' "

The rest gaped at me. At dire circumstances like this, they still never changed; Lin was exempted (since he just sported his usual grim countenance).

"I see." Mai smiled incomprehensibly, and I frowned.

It's also expected that I'd be misunderstood, and what I said would be clearly ineffective.

September 19.

I had marked that day on the big calendar in my room. To me, it's a very important day that I shouldn't miss out.

It's the Greatest Narcissist's birthday after all.

I had happily ridden my silver motor scooter to the supermarket at Shibuya early in the morning. I went to Ayako's house after to bake the cake I'd been practicing the past few weeks. Since I have another mock exam at my Juku, I'd decided to leave the baked product at Ayako's house for the meantime.

It was fairly cloudy, but the weather seemed to go along with me. I beamed widely to myself at a store's glass window's surface. The professor at my Juku just told me of the improvements in my mock exam results; he said that with the rapid pace my learning has taken, it's not impossible that I would be able to enter T-U.

I've worked hard after all and promised Obaa-san too.

Obaa-san was my foster grandparent. She had adopted me during the time that Naru was in England.

Anyway, I imagined Naru frowning, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

A credit for the narcissist too…

I giggled to myself. Indeed, Naru had been quite helpful lately. Breaking the barriers, hm?

I imagined him smirking when he'd hear the news, and I grinned. He still has a long way though.

I drove cheerfully towards Ayako's house. She had an old traditional Japanese abode. A towering gate and high walls covered her family's manor. Shading anyone who'd walk on the sidewalk, tiled roofs hung above the walls and gate.

I rang the gate's bell and heard Ayako speak through the device gruffly.

"Who's there?"

I snickered at her odd inquiry. "Knock, knock."

"Mai!" Ayako shrieked. "I thought you were Takigawa!"

"Ehhh, Bou-san's coming?" I teased, and if not for the fact that I couldn't see her, I would have known if she's flushing or not.

"H-he's not coming till noon!"

I laughed heartily. The gate opened and revealed a truly red Ayako.

"Stop the teasing," she warned, and I raised my arms in surrender.

"Hai, hai, your highness," I quipped and entered before she catches me chuckling again.

Ayako's home was really bright. The wallpapers covering the walls were in lemon yellow, and the ceilings were painted in the lightest shade of green.

Without further ado, we proceeded to the kitchen where, on a counter, a box filled with Naru's cake sat.

"Do you think I can win against Masako's gift to Naru with this?" I inquired to Ayako as I gestured at my home-made cake.

Ayako shrugged. "Who knows?" And then she smirked at me. "Are you feeling insecure?"

I loured. "Can you please not answer my question with a question?"

Ayako smiled and ruffled my hair━making me squeak. "He'll surely like it."

I had bought a black box and silver ribbons for the cake. Somehow, I just thought that the colors would suit him. I beamed at my precious gift.

"Ahh, you're blooming again." Ayako propped her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her backhand.

"Is it a bad thing?" I quirked an eyebrow, and she shook her head.

"Not really," she responded. "I think it suits you well. Although, what he sees in you is beyond me."

I fleered, "What Bou-san sees in you is also beyond me."

A nerve popped. "You minx!"

I tittered and ran away while carefully holding the boxed cake in my hands as she chased me in her heels. After shouting my gratitude, I slipped on my silver motor scooter and started the engine after securing my helmet on my head.

"I'll see you at the office, Ayako!" I yelled and zoomed away.

A grin was plastered to my face, and I sang against the breeze. I was excited to see Naru's reaction at my home-made gift.

The fall wind swept my hair and hummed with me as I sang some random song that popped in my head. I glanced occasionally at the sky and spotted some enormous clouds here and there but none so dark so far.

I gripped the handlebars tightly in determination. Nothing to worry, Mai.

I turned a corner towards a long bridge.

Drips of rain started to pour down from the sky. I assured myself that it wouldn't be that strong. I ignored the droplets on my skin and continued my driving. After all, the sun was still up…

Suddenly, without explaining how it happened, it rained so hard that I, who had no protection on, involuntarily raised my hands to my head in great bewilderment.

The sky was still bright…!

Ah…a foxes' wedding?

I grinned and then grimaced.

My motor and I almost staggered sideways, but luckily I was able to hold onto the handlebars before anything else happened. But then, I felt something fall behind me and I turned around only to see the box, where Naru's cake was, open, and its content splattered on the road.

"Ah, NO!" I shouted angrily trying to reach in a very late reaction at the already spilt cake. WHY MUST THE BASKET BE BEHIND ME?

I immediately cursed the structural designer of my vehicle.

A deafening honk reverberated, and instantly whirling around, I swerved my motor scooter to avoid a triple liner truck, which also went sideways to evade me.

Brakes and tires squealed simultaneously in the downpour. I lost control of my motor scooter, and its wheels slipped away. I clutched the brakes hard, and in result, I was thrown headfirst to a freight of the truck; my arms which tried to protect my head━even though I had my helmet━from the impact were automatically useless.

I was knocked out before I could check for broken bones.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

After the surgery, she had gone into a medicine-induced sleep. She had been asleep for an entire week before waking up yesterday. Within the week, I had tried going back to work, but the others kept on bugging me━telling me off to visit her. After riposting that Mai needed her rest, they went begrudgingly. However, when they scrammed, I found myself unable to concentrate.

There was something in the office that I could not decipher. Something…quiet. I had always known that it was Mai who drew those people inside. It was her that pulls them back oftentimes to SPR headquarters.

I…somehow didn't mind that. Her absence though…for some reason…seemed so eerie. It was a first to feel this way. I had never sought for anyone's presence.

"What are you?"

"I feel like I was a fish in my past life…"

I remembered her saying those words yesterday. It was very silly and would have been thought of as a joke if she didn't say it so calmly. The doctor had already said it wasn't something odd. She fell into the river after being thrown away from the impact, so having a sense of reality at the moment was improbable. It could be…a fixable current distortion of her mind━a disorientation caused by a possible unconscious recollection of where she fell.

I sighed.

I wasn't supposed to be feeling uneasy as I sauntered towards the corner where Mai's room should be. She's still alive, and that was indeed a "miracle" of sorts. Also, no serious spinal or cranial injury happened. She still appeared her usual self except for the bandages on her head, the casts on her arms, and the hospital clothing she now wears.

However, I could not shake off something. Some uncertainty.

I frowned as I entered her room. She was sitting gleefully on the wide windowsill and smiling broadly at something outside the window. Her turban-like bandages had already been taken, and I noticed that her hair was not shaved off as I thought it was; it was only cut off unevenly shorter, and the length was slightly similar to the former hairstyle she had more than a year ago.

She laughed suddenly. What she sees that makes her happy was beyond me.

When she remembers, I'll make sure to tell her off from driving recklessly.

I waited for her to notice me standing before the door, yet she never faced me. It was her tendency to sense me anywhere and notice me wherever. For some reason, that tendency right now had been shut off.

I suspired.

"Mai," I called loudly and glared at her when she finally glanced at me.

She blinked her chocolate brown eyes as if seeing an unbelievable creature.

I scowled. "How long are you going to stare at things down there?"

She peered at me as if thunderstruck. "Who are you?"

For the first time, I blinked at her too...

Because she was supposed to remember.

Not the very past but at least yesterday.

Because Mai, for the long time I'd observed her, had a very good memory.

The door to her hospital room opened wide, and in came the doctor. He was shorter than me and had white hair. He adjusted his glasses and watched Mai pitifully.

"Ah, Shibuya-san, I have a very important matter to discuss," the old man said solemnly. He gazed at Mai, who stared back innocently. "As you probably noticed by now, I'm very sorry to say that Taniyama-san has a rare case of amnesia."

"What do you mean?" I queried, narrowing my eyes, but I was inwardly very astounded for the very first time.

"She has both anterograde and retrograde amnesia," the doctor replied forlornly. "I'm sad to say that she would never get her memories back or even create new ones."

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~