Hachiman sat in the hospital room, bandages around his arms and chest. He no longer had to be plugged into IVs or tubes connected to various machines. He laid down on the hospital bed and looked up at his reflection. He had somehow grown more muscle mass but looked less healthy than he had in his entire life. After a month or so in this place did that to him. The strangest thing was he had no idea how he got into this situation. Or any idea about being in this situation. How did he know about it? What was going on?

Whatever happened to him, whatever accident or illness, it took his mind. The only thing he could remember was . . .

Why did his head hurt?

Ignoring the thumping in his skull, he sat up, waiting for the doctor to come back. He knew this but did not remember why he knew this. He no longer remembered sitting up either.

The T.V. was on, but only as background noise. He could not focus on it, because as soon as a scene passed he would forget what he saw immediately. Why couldn't he remember what was happening around him? He sighed.

"Hello, Mr. Hikigaya," the doctor spoke up from out of nowhere. Hachiman looked over at the older man. Since when was he in an English-speaking place? Since when did he understand English? "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess. How did I get here?" The doctor walked over in front of him and sat down on a stool across from him.

"We'll get to that." He said. Hachiman's eye twitched in annoyance. "First, look into this please."

The doctor pulled out a small black orb from his pocket. Hachiman was caught off guard, but nonetheless followed the doctor's strange request. Several seconds passed, or was it minutes, or did any time pass at all? he couldn't remember what was going on. Nothing happened. He looked back up at the doctor.

"Is something supposed to be happening?" The doctor smiled at him.

"No, nothing is. Well, good news, Mr. Hikigaya, you're all set to go, you seem to be in perfect health!"

"Wait? But what about . . . about . . ."

"About what, Mr. Hikigaya?" The tone the doctor used was laced with a calm venom hidden behind a cold friendly smile. The type that screamed danger in every syllable. Not that he registered the words or tone at all.

"Who are you?" He asked. The doctor smiled.

"No one at all, Mr. Hikigaya. First thing in the morning, you'll be transferred back to a hospital in your home-town before release. I wish you the best of luck." The doctor stood up and began to walk out.

"Wait, that's it?! I still have questions! What happened, how did I get here?"

"Hopefully you'll never have to know that." The doctor said, an understanding smile plastered on his face. Hachiman knew it was fake. "Have a good day Mr. Hikigaya." The doctor stepped out of sight, and Hachiman forgot about him immediately.

Hachiman sat in the hospital room, bandages around his arms and chest. He no longer had to be plugged into IVs or tubes connected to various machines. He laid down on the hospital bed and looked up at his reflection. He had somehow grown more muscle mass but looked less healthy than he had in his entire life. After a month or so in this place did that to him. The strangest thing was he had no idea how he got into this situation. Or any idea about being in this situation. How did he know about it? What was going on?

Whatever happened to him, whatever accident or illness . . .

Wait.

Something.

Was.

Not.

Right.

A steady beeping aroused Hachiman from peaceful rest. He groaned, wondering when the last time he woke up to the alarm. Wait, that wasn't his alarm.

Ugh, what's that noise? Hachiman thought as he sat up. He took a moment to take in his surroundings. It was a hospital room. Why wasn't he in his room? That's where he fell asleep, right? Did he have a heart attack in his sleep?

He threw the blankets off him, standing up to stretch. He felt bones popping and muscles tightening as he did so. Damn, that felt good.

"Ah, you're up." A different voice this time. In Japanese! He turned to look at the newcomer, a female doctor who looked as if she had not gotten enough sleep.

"Ah, hello."

"Well, Hikigaya-san. How are you feeling?" Did this person know him?

"I have no complaints." What the hell? Since when did he talk like that?

"It's nice to see you up and about, but I was already informed you were nearly in perfect health, so that is not too surprising."

"Ah, of course." Jesus, was he turning into . . .

Who was he thinking about?

"Although, I suggest not moving around too much unless you want to spend the next hour redoing your bandages," she motioned for him to sit down, which he did with surprisingly little resistance on his part. He looked down at his body, and the bandages covering almost 80 percent of his chest and arms. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. The doctor handling your case told me that some extreme lapse in memory would still be present."

"I see."

"There will be a long re-adjustment period of course, but I think the sooner we get started on re-introducing you to your normal life the better it will be for you. Would you like to start now, or would you like to talk to your parents first?"

". . . I would like to see my parents, but I have some questions I would like answered before then."

"Whatever you need."

"What happened to me?"

". . . you . . . do not remember your condition?" Hachiman shook his head. Dr. Kyson shook her head. "Well, I guess I should ease you into this, then." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Was I . . . bad?"

"Yes. About 5 months ago you were diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Not the prettiest of ones, mind you. It's a usually fatal degenerative brain disorder. There's no cure or treatment against it. When you were first diagnosed, the best we could do was give you opioids for the pain and hope you lived to see next year. The symptoms were . . . terrible would be doing it injustice, honestly."

"What do you mean?"

"Memory problems, lack of coordination, behavioral changes, and visual disturbances. You started to forget things and started seeing others."

"Well, that sure sounds like it sucks." She looked at him with a sad stare.

"Those are just the early symptoms. Soon the patient digresses into dementia, blindness, involuntary movements, and sometimes falls into a coma."

". . . Well, I don't know about all that, I feel fine." She smiled at him.

"Which is nothing short of a miracle, Hikigaya-san. You're extremely lucky to come out of that . . . mostly unscathed."

"Wait, it was a brain disease? So what's with the bandages?" The doctor flinched at that.

"Well, when you started deteriorating, you were prone to self-harm. Somehow, you had managed to burn yourself pretty badly." He looked down at himself again, and he could see just the faint hint of burn scars creeping out from under the bandages.

"Oh . . ."

"You're family should be here any minute now. I'm sure you're excited to back with them."

"Uh, yeah . . . I mean, I guess." He didn't know what to feel. He had been through that stuff, but he had no recollection of it. To him, he saw his parents not three days ago. Or was it four? Eh, maybe more like two?

"It has been hard on them. Especially that sister of yours, ever since you were transferred back here, there hasn't been a day when she wasn't in here with you, you know?"

". . . sister?" Hachiman looked at the doctor confused. He didn't remember having a sister? Since when was that a thing? 5 months didn't seem like long enough to have a kid? And he definitely didn't remember having a sibling? Or . . . did he? Why was the doctor looking at him like that?

"Yes . . . Komachi. Do you remember her?"

"No clue what you're on about," Hachiman said. There was that look again! Was that pity? Whatever it was ticked him off.

". . . Let's just sit here 'til they get here, all right?"

"Sure, not like I have many choices."

". . ."

". . ." This was awkward. She wasn't even speaking to me now, just looking at me like-

"25 . . . 12 . . . 16"

"Huh?" Hachiman perked up at the sudden speaking. The doctor looked as startled as he did.

"Are you okay, Hikigaya-san?"

"What is that?"

". . . What is what?" She looked terrified now, although he couldn't tell why.

"Nothing, I guess I'm just hearing things." He said nonchalantly, trying to play it off. Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say to this doctor, for she was up as soon as he finished talking.

"Are you okay?" She said. Shit, she thought he was reverting or something. He needed to play that off.

"Nothing, it was just my ear ringing." He said, looking her right in the eyes. He thought that at that moment it was so easy to lie to strangers. And he wasn't sure why he was doing it.

"Hikigaya, if you're hearing things, you need to tell me. Between that and your sister-"

"Don't worry Doc, I'm fine. It's just my ear, geez." He looked away, praying she bought that. She stood over him for a few moments, probably self-internalizing what to do next. It seemed that after a minute though, she bought it and backed off, sitting back in her chair. He couldn't help but feel like he had dodged a bullet there for some reason.

He started going over his situation in his head. Man, this was such a drag honestly. Why couldn't he just go home now? Well, it's not like the situation at home would be any less depressing, cause he had a sister he had no idea about. He didn't feel like dealing with that right now, but he would have to eventually. At least that's all he had to deal with. Now that he thought about it, this didn't affect his life in any big way, not anymore at least. The only big obstacle was his new (to him at least) family member and his schoolwork. One of the many perks of being a loner was that he didn't have to worry about anyone outside of those two subjects, so his transition should be a smooth one. Except maybe Totsuka. Wait, who was Totsuka, and why did he remember him? Eh, it probably wasn't important.

Still, this whole situation has made him depressed. So much of his life, albeit much of it uneventful, was lost, not just those five months but even before that if forgetting a sibling was any indication. Not just society, but human nature in itself was cruel. Not that he didn't know that. You could trip and fall, land the wrong way and break your neck. Your life would instantly be over. Or you could just wake up one day with an illness that had no cure or treatment. You could be trapped in your head, slowly descending into a mad prison confined to your mind, a shattered person with no chance of recovery.

All in all, he was lucky. Even if he had gone through some shit, he was lucky enough not to remember it. He guessed that was God's second gift to him for fucking him up.

. . . Okay, maybe that was enough depressing thoughts for one day.

SLAM!

The sound of the door slamming open woke Hachiman out of his stupor. He looked over to the entrance, only to be nearly tackled by a mass with dark blue hair.

"Onii-chan!" The mass cried into his bandaged stomach. Shit, was this his sister? Damn, it looks like he'd have to deal with that right now then.

"Uh . . ." Shit, what was he supposed to say? This was bad.

"Onii-chan!" Not that she was listening. He looked over to the doctor for help. Damn it, stop looking sad and help me!

"Hachiman!" He looked up and saw his mother run up to him and hug him, moving around his sister to hug as much of him as possible. Now they were both sobbing on him, probably soaking his bandages and such.

Hachiman thought to himself that it was strange watching people get emotional over you when you couldn't even comprehend why they were crying. They had to watch him go through hell (he assumed), while to him, everything was just the same as yesterday. Even if in reality it wasn't. He looked up at his father, who was looking at him with a relieved yet wary expression. He understood, his father was never really the emotional type, but that wasn't what he was worried about. His focus was more on the stranger that was wrapped around his stomach.

Okay, just handle this lightly.

"Uh, hi, there . . ." Shit, I forgot her name! How? The doctor told me now 5 freaking minutes ago. Unfortunately, his sister caught on and looked up at him.

"You . . . remember me . . . don't you?" She asked, tears already streaming down her face.

"Uh . . . I'm sorry. . ." This was just as awkward as he expected.

"No . . . you said . . . you promised you wouldn't . . ." Her voice became muffled as she pushed her face back into his stomach. He looked up at his dad who seemed even sadder, although he noted there were no tears in his eyes. His mother looked, however, looked mortified.

"Hachiman . . ." She said, her voice breaking.

"I thought he was fine," His father spoke out of nowhere, looking at the doctor. Dr. Kyson sighed.

"He was cured of the disease. His brain is functioning normally and the prion protein that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has dropped to a safe level. But the damages his brain took during the process . . ."

"He'll get them back, though, right?"

"Unfortunately, the disease affected the hippocampus worse of all. While he'll have no troubles with his memory in the future, any memories he's lost up to this point are completely gone."

Huh, that was kind of a bummer, he thought to himself.

"He's all set to go home, although if it's fine with you I would like to run one more test, just as a precaution."

"That's fine, whatever you need," his father answered with surprisingly little hesitation. The doctor gave him a confirmational nod, before standing up.

This is gonna be a long night.

They ran the test, and soon he was checked out. It was surprisingly painless, although he honestly had no clue what they were doing the whole time. They did explain it, but it was a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo that he couldn't make heads or tails of, so he stopped paying attention.

Now in the back of his father's car, with his sister (Komachi, don't you dare forget that name again) wrapped on his arm with a vice grip, he stared out the window as they drove down the street. He wore a thick jacket over his bandages to protect him from the cold. Even if it was warm, he wasn't too keen on taking it off. He didn't want to see himself in that state.

Funny, usually checking out of a hospital is supposed to be a relief, but the awkwardness levels right now are beyond comprehension. His mother looked happy enough, though. His father appeared worried, constantly glancing at him via the rear-view mirror, although Hachiman pretended not to notice. Komachi was, for obvious reasons, taking this the worst of everyone in the car. He felt guilty about it, but in the end, there was nothing he could have done. His mind was literally in the process of killing itself. As he looked down at her, he felt the urge to say something.

"Hey . . ." He whispered to her. She seemed hesitant to respond to him but eventually looked up at him. "Are you okay?"

Sure, it wasn't the most comforting thing, but it was all he could come up with right now. He knew nothing about this girl after all. She smiled sadly up at him.

"I should be asking you that, dummy." She said with a voice that was barely composed.

"I'm sorry that . . . well, you know." He said. Man, he was not good at this.

"No, it's not your fault," she rested her head back on his shoulder and gripped him tighter, "I just . . ." She couldn't finish her sentence, but he assumed it to be something along the lines of: 'I just feel so bad for you.' At least, that's what he assumed she was trying to get across. He didn't like assumptions, all-in-all they were just uneducated guesses, but that's all he could do right now.

"Don't worry," he said, trying to put on a smile. The feeling was alien on his face. "We can just make a bunch of new memories to replace the old ones!"

Maybe having a sibling won't be so bad. I mean, she could be cool. His sister looked up at him.

"Don't make that face, it's creepy." She said with a teasing smile, however, the intention was lost on Hachiman.

Huh?! I'm taking back my benefit of the doubt, jerk! Although for some reason he wasn't as hurt by that comment as he should be. He guessed it was because he was harsher on himself than the average person.

He looked back out the window and watched the buildings go by in a blur, noting things that before he would have never noticed before, or cared to look at. Even if he didn't remember his near-death condition, just knowing what happened sure gave him a new perspective on things. He was still nihilistic, that much was sure. But he was . . . different somehow. He just didn't know what it was that was different.

Soon, they pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. It was a struggle to get out when Komachi refused to let go of his arm, but he didn't have to heart to tell her to let him go. It was about dusk now, the sky a shade of orange and blue as the sun shyly peeked over the horizon in the distance, but Hachiman didn't feel all that tired. He assumed that was because he spent pretty much all day sleeping.

On his side, his sister let out an audible yawn, though tried her best to cover it up.

"It's been a long day, I think we should all get to bed," His mother said. No one opposed her point. "Hachiman, we have a surprise for you tomorrow, so we want you to get a good night's sleep, okay?"

"Okay." He agreed. I hope I have some books or something in there, I'm not gonna be able to sleep for a while.

He started to walk up the stairs, with Komachi in tow. He saw his father out of the corner of his eye, and it looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Hachiman made it to the upstairs hallway before he stopped. He looked at all the identical doors. Komachi must have noticed his hesitation.

"Um . . . That one's yours." She said, pointing to one of the doors.

"O-Oh, thanks." He said embarrassed, before opening his door. "Well, goodnight." She looked up at him with a face full of disappointment.

"Goodnight . . ." She said after a second but made no move to let go of him. He just stood there awkwardly, waiting for her to get a hint. "O-oh, right." She said as she finally let go of him.

He walked into his room and gave her a final look before closing the door behind him. The only sound was the click of the door, and then silence. He breathed a sigh of relief before examining his room. Strangely, it was just as he remembered it, which was ironic given he didn't remember where it was. The books were the same, his bed was. He walked over to his desk, where a phone lay charging on the top of it. He turned it on.

Of course, it's 100. It has been charging for five months. As the lock screen popped up, he found another dilemma. And of course, I forgot my password. Honestly, I would be fine if that was all I forgot.

He put the phone down, but as soon as he turned his back to it, it vibrated. He turned back to it and picked it up.

20 messages! Who the hell was messaging me so much? Oh, "Yuigahama?" I could barely find her name in all these goddamn emojis. Wait, why is a girl texting me?! I need to unlock this thing! Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably just a relative. It's not like I had any friends.

As he thought that, he got notifications for 4 other message chains.

All girls! What the hell?! Damn this phone for not letting me read it! Wait, "Totsuka?" I remember that name. And . . . "Kawasaki?" That sounds vaguely familiar . . . I think. The first part does at least.

He decided he would save that for another time, and put the phone down. He walked over to the bookshelf . . . and turned right back around.

Okay, this shouldn't be too hard, right? It's a pattern password, too. That shouldn't be too hard since I'm usually "energy-efficient." Should be something really simple . . .

Ooor not. He thought as his phone read out the message "this phone will be locked for the next hour." Oh, well, he would just read then. This day was a rollercoaster from start to finish, he needed a break from it. He didn't know how much more excitement his heart could take with this.

He would deal with all that complicated stuff tomorrow.

As of right now, I don't have any official pairing for this story, although I do think there should be one if only to add more drama. Let me know your thoughts on this, please.