Corpse Party: Redemption

Meeting With Faces From The Past

"Come on, everyone's waiting!"

I didn't really want to do this, but Kurosaki had gone through all the trouble of getting this group together. The least I could do was try.

Kurosaki pulled me into the student council room where his friends waited. With everyone staring at me, I held my notebook tight to my chest. Inside it were some of the pictures I'd wished to learn about. But, as much as I wanted to know, I had great doubts about this.

"What's this about Kurosaki?" one of the girls in the room asked, sounding a bit rude.

"I told you this was a bad idea," I said to him. As I turned and started to walk away, Kurosaki stopped me.

"You wanted answers, didn't you?" He reached out and grabbed my arm, causing me to drop my notebook and scattering the pictures.

Immediately I pulled my arm from his grip. Kneeling down, I started to pick up my pictures that were scattered across the floor. While reaching for the one of the boy in the tree, another hand reached down and took it.

"Why do you have this?" the person asked as I looked up to them. His hair was red, just like the boy from that picture.

"It's mine. I thought one of you might know who the red-headed boy was," I explained calmly.

"That's why I brought her to see all of you guys," Kurosaki added, taking the other pictures from my hands.

"So why do you have a picture of me and the girl I was friends with?" the red-headed guy said a bit rudely. So he had been the boy in the picture, but what was his name?

"Why should I know? It's not my fault I can't remember anything before two years ago," I said, ripping the photo out of his hands. "My things are my own business anyway."

He opened his mouth to say something but just closed it again. For just a second, his eyes went wide and then a smile spread across his face.

Before I could ask why, his arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. "Why didn't you just say it was you, bunny girl?" He laughed a bit and messed up my hair with his hand. "I don't remember why we quit hanging out then, but what does that matter? We're pals now, right?"

I just stood there stunned a moment. Bunny girl? That's right, the boy had often called me that. But what was his name?

"I told you someone would know, didn't I?" Kurosaki laughed at me as I stared up at the red-headed guy whose name I couldn't remember. "Do you remember his name yet?"

I thought about it really hard. It had to be somewhere inside my brain. Thinking back to the day I'd met him, I played through some possible names until I found it. "Kai..." I whispered to myself, then I said it out loud. "Kai... Shimada, right?"

After that, we all gathered around and flipped through all the pictures. As we did, I could feel little parts of my memory coming back.

"Awwww... little Yuuya!"

"There's Fukuroi too!"

"Hey Emi, that's you and Mitsuki."

For each picture, there was someone who had something to say. Some pictures caught more attention than others. One of Fukuroi and I brought all of us a good laugh. Apparently laughing wasn't something he did often, since one of the girls, Tohko I thought her name was, asked how I'd managed to make him laugh like that. Obviously, I didn't remember, so I'd had to ask him.

"I'd rather not say," he said, frowning a bit. "That was a quite unpleasant event."

"Don't be such a stick in the mud," I laughed, nudging him with my elbow. "You had such a cute laugh! You better hope I don't-"

Something tugging at my skirt brought my attention away from the group. Standing there next to me was a smiling little girl.

"Hey Sachi," I greeted her with a smile while everyone else took a step back. Then I remembered she'd been helping Kibiki until now. "Have Naho and Kibiki had any luck finding a way to fix us?"

She just shook her head. She held out something for me. "I brought these for you." They were two photos. The first one was old, showing a young girl and who I assumed was her mother. Looking closer, the little girl turned out to be Sachiko. "We talked about mommy, remember?"

"I remember. So what's the-" I stopped the moment I saw it. The second picture was much newer, only about two years old. I knew because I remembered when we took it. "Sakutaro... Mayu..." I looked over to Sachiko.

"You miss them, right? You left it at his home," she explained, smiling up at me. "I thought it would make you feel better if you had it back."

I just stared at the photo in my hand, forgetting all about the others in the room. "I hope you're doing alright on your own, Sakutaro. Thank you Sachi-" I'd looked up to thank her, but she was gone already. Guess that meant it would have to wait until the next time we met. Though the next time might be when Kibiki and Naho could fix us, meaning I may no longer exist in this world.

It was a scary thought. No doubt my concern showed. "Sayuri?" I heard one of the girls ask, though I paid no attention to who it was.

"You asked if she'd found a way to fix you," the voice I recognized as Fukuroi's said. Apparently, he'd noticed my little slip-up. "What were you talking about?"

"Hoshikawa?"

I put on a brave face and merely smiled at them. "It's nothing you need to worry about. Let's just enjoy the time we have together."