New Chapter of Truth and Lies
Truth and Lies
Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Ceres: Celestial Legend and I’m not making any money from this fic. Any characters you don’t recognise from the manga, I probably own. Anything you recognise from another fandom, I don’t own
Warning(s): Spoilers for the manga series Ceres: Celestial Legend; AU; original characters; some violence
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The next time he woke up, Shuro felt well enough to try eating a small bit of toast with the soup he was having for lunch. His body felt quite weak - but that was only to be expected, since he’d been lying around in bed for about three days.
“Since your wounds seem to be healing quite nicely, I thought you might want to take a little walk around the hospital,” Doctor Sato commented when she came in to check on Shuro after lunch. “I don’t feel comfortable enough to let you go home today - but it’s better to get you up and moving about as much as possible.”
“Did Kanae happen to mention when she was coming to visit today?” Shuro asked as Doctor Sato helped him to stand up. Since she was the only clue to his identity, he didn’t want to have to go chasing her all over Japan.
Hm... Now that struck him as somewhat strange. Why could he remember general things - like what country he was in and how to speak its language - but not anything about himself?
Of course, it wasn’t like he knew much about amnesia. Still, it seemed like it should mean something to him.
Doctor Sato was talking, and Shuro pulled himself away from his thoughts to listen. “She has an early shift at the library, so she said she’d probably come and visit this afternoon.”
Shuro nodded, but then had to concentrate on staying upright, even with the doctor’s help. And as she led him out of the room, he stumbled a little, and seriously considered asking to go back to bed. But he knew that, if he wanted to leave the hospital soon, he was going to have to work on getting his strength up again. And that meant he was going to have to do as much exercising as possible.
As Doctor Sato led him past some of the other rooms, Shuro noticed that there were a number of teenage girls who were apparently in varying kinds of deterioration. Several nurses were hurrying around, taking care of the patients; but Shuro saw that one of them was coughing up blood. And he stopped, eyes widening, as the sight of that raised incredibly strong, dark feelings inside of him.
“Please wait here a moment.” Quickly, Doctor Sato helped Shuro into one of the chairs, and then hurried into the room.
A couple of other doctors hurried past Shuro, but he barely saw them. He felt sick, and put a hand to his mouth.
“Hey... you look really pale. Try putting your head between your knees.”
A gentle touch to the back of his neck had Shuro doing as the person commanded. After a few moments, he began to feel better - but was trying not to think about what he’d just seen. The person was lightly rubbing his shoulder, and when he looked up, he couldn’t help frowning slightly when he saw Kanae. “I thought you weren’t going to be here until this afternoon.”
“My boss decided to close the library early because the other librarian called in sick. So I thought I’d come and see how you were doing.” Kanae glanced at the now-closed door. “What’s wrong? Did you remember something?”
Shuro took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Instead of answering, he simply took hold of Kanae’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it yet; but I’m glad you’re here.” He looked into her eyes. “Do you know what those girls are doing here? I didn’t have a chance to ask Doctor Sato before she had to go in...” He was reluctant to say any more, since he didn’t want to think about what he’d just seen; and how it had made him feel.
“I don’t really know much - it’s all very secretive.” Kanae frowned. “I know that those girls are all very ill. And they all fell ill at the same time. And there have been all these weird happenings at the hospital - I guess including your amnesia. I don’t know if they’re all connected; or just coincidences... But you have to admit that it’s very strange.” She shrugged.
“I don’t know. It just looked really bad to me.” Shuro closed his eyes - but all he saw was the girl throwing up blood. It had to be connected to his lost memories somehow - otherwise why would he have reacted so strongly to it?
“I don’t know how long the doctor will be in there for.” Kanae glanced again towards the door. “Is there something I can do? Do you need something to eat at all?”
“I’ve already eaten something. Doctor Sato was just taking me round for some exercise so that I’m not constantly lying around. But I’m happy to just stay and wait for her to be finished. I don’t mind sitting down.”
“But if the doctor thinks it’s important, then it probably is. And I’m your girlfriend... I should be able to help you.” But there was a slight questioning tone to her tone; not the certainty that really should have been there. Kanae didn’t add anything else, though; instead, she stood up, and held her hand out to Shuro. “Come on. I’ll help you.”
After a brief hesitation, Shuro took Kanae’s hand and got to his feet. Despite her apparent hesitation, Kanae seemed to have no problems with slipping her arm around his waist to help support him. “Don’t worry; you can lean on me. I won’t let you fall.”
“Well, if I fall, I’ll just pull you down with me.” As Kanae led him off, though, Shuro couldn’t help glancing worriedly at the still-closed door.
He was having the oddest feeling that something really bad was about to happen.
End of Chapter Two.