Corpse Party: Redemption

Frustrating Memories

"Why can't I figure out who all these people are?" I mumbled in frustration. In the middle of my bedroom, I sat on the floor in the middle of all the pictures I'd found scattered around.

I'd spread every one of them out on my floor, hoping somehow I could force myself to remember even the tiniest little thing.

"Come on! Remember something already!" I ordered my brain, trying to pound the information out of my head. Too bad for me, luck was never on my side.

"You get back into bed right now missy," my mother's voice said from the doorway. She'd been very upset with me for taking off without telling her the other day. Unlucky for me, all that time walking in the rain without an umbrella had done its damage as well.

When she saw the pictures scattered about, she simply sighed. "I know it's hard for you, but you need to stay in bed until you get better. Your memories aren't going anywhere, so don't try to rush it."

"I need to remember now though," I countered. Still sitting in the same spot, I picked up one of the pictures. This one was of me and a little boy with red hair. He'd been hanging upside down from a tree branch while I was sitting about a foot away on that same branch. "Maybe then everyone wouldn't act so afraid of me."

"If you insist on trying to remember, do it while resting in bed," Mom said, walking away.

If only I could remember their names, I thought while I gathered up my pictures and climbing back into my bed. I wish Mayu and Sakutaro were here. They'd know what to do... Mayu always was better with people than I am.

"Why does this have to be so complicated?" Tears started forming in my eyes from frustration. As I sat up, I just buried my face in my hands.

If it hadn't been for that stupid Sachiko Charm that Ayumi talked the others into doing, this mess wouldn't be happening. Sure, I'd probably have less of my memory, but I could have been happy.

In just a couple of months, I'd been possessed, taken to a school that doesn't exist anymore, watched countless people die horrible deaths, revived those victims, nearly got killed by vengeful ghosts and a zombie-like guy, almost lost my best friend forever, gotten stabbed by a murderer who I go to school with, and visited with paranormal researchers. Not to mention everyone in my new school seemed to hate me and I'd become good friends with the child ghost who was responsible for all those deaths in Heavenly Host. And on top of all that, I had no memory from before I'd met Sakutaro two years ago.

Was a normal day too much to ask for?

"Hey, Hoshikawa," a very familiar voice called from the door of my room. Guess that means Mom wasn't that mad anymore if she was letting any friends visit with me.

"Hey..." I looked up at him and pushed back my emotions for now.

"Your mom said you've been kind of down lately," he said, pulling the chair from my desk over next to my bed. "Want to talk?"

After having told him all about what had been bothering me, I instantly felt a lot better.

"So what's with the pictures?" I'd forgotten that I'd left them on my bed earlier. I handed the stack of pictures to him and he flipped through them.

"I've been trying to remember them, but I just can't..." I pulled one of the pictures out at random, hoping maybe Kurosaki could help me. It was the same one of me and the red-haired boy in the tree. Suddenly, I felt something stirring in my brain.

"I remember him a little..." I mumbled, looking closer at the photo.

One of the older kids had thrown the stuffed bunny I used to carry around all the time up into a tree. I'd climbed it and was almost able to reach it. Standing up on the branch, my foot slipped.

That boy had been climbing around in the tree and I hadn't seen him until he'd grabbed my hand to keep me from falling.

"You should be more careful," he had said with a smile. Then as I'd sat down on the branch I'd nearly fallen off of, he hung himself upside down on the branch above me and handed me my rabbit. "My name's...."

Then my memory cut off.

"Why can't I remember his name?"

"Well, I don't know who he could be, but I might know someone who would know," Kurosaki started to say, but got distracted by another picture. He'd still been flipping through them and stopped on one that he seemed to recognize. "I remember that one. That's me." He pointed at a picture of three children. One was me and another was Kurosaki. It looked like it'd been taken at some sort of festival. Kurosaki then pointed at the other little boy. "That's Kizami."

That confused me. You'd think if we'd know each other before the mess with Heavenly Host, then he wouldn't act so afraid of me. But then again, what part of my life made sense anymore? "Not the same Kizami that..." I trailed off, unsure how to finish that sentence.

"Yeah, that Kizami. That was actually the first time you'd met him." Kurosaki then went on to explain what happened that day.

Apparently, he'd convince Kizami to go to that festival and I'd ended up running into the two of them. Originally my mom was going to take a picture of just me and Kurosaki. But, with me being me, I'd insisted that Kizami be in it too, saying that Kurosaki's friends were my friends too.

From there we talked about every one of the pictures that he could tell me about. Most of those had him and people he used to know. Anything that had no one he knew would get set aside and we'd move on to the next picture.

Eventually, the two of us ended up sitting together in the middle of the floor, with my pictures scattered around us. For the first time since Sakutaro had disappeared, I felt like I was normal. Maybe with a little help from a friend, I could make everything work out.

"We can talk to some of my friends when you're back at school," Kurosaki said, picking up another picture and looking it over. "I'm sure one of them will know who these people are."

"They'll never talk to me," I sighed, giving him a sad smile. "I look like the vicious ghost from their nightmares of Heavenly Host. There's no way any of them will help me."

"They will if I'm with you."