Chuuya x OC ~ Let the memories cry (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Chapter 9

The desperate look of the girl taught him all he needed to know. Nothing could be found in the mass of her forgotten memories, even with the object that had once belonged to her in the palm of her hand.

The stranger, surely in a desperate attempt, began to detail with the greatest attention the key ring, moving it in all directions in her trembling palms, observing it from every possible and imaginable angle.

The cat's head, light brown with dark whiskers, continued to look at her with its frozen black eyes, while the cold metal of which it was made spread its non-existent heat on the girl's burning skin.

Nothing came. Yet, since she had apparently entrusted this object to Chuuya, saying that it had belonged to her sister, she should have remembered even a few snippets. It was as if she was discovering this thing for the first time.

She had not even had the presence of mind to tell her savior her first name when they had met a few years before. Why had she run away from home in the first place? She was so frustrated.

Who was this sister she had mentioned, on top of that?

This keychain and Chuuya's testimony, instead of the answers she had so hoped for, had only brought her more questions. She was back to square one, before she had even had a chance to take a step forward.

"... I'll leave it to you, if you like. It's yours after all."

The voice of the young man next to her, whose presence she had almost forgotten, brought her out of her chaotic thoughts with a start, making her wince once again because of her neck injury.

She had not even realized she had begun to cry silently, her gaze fixed on the small object she held tightly in her hands, imprinting its metallic contours in her palms, in the skin that was just beginning to regain color since her accident.

Wiping the tears with the sleeve of her hospital gown, she suddenly felt extremely ashamed, crying like this about her fate, even though the one who had saved and helped her since she woke up was there, next to her.

There was no point in crying over memories that were no longer there. All she could do was wait, wait for her memory to return one day. And, if that never happened, she would have to make up her mind.

Although she did not know yet how she was going to admit defeat, and give up what had been snatched from her, which remained lurking in the shadows, out of reach in a remote corner of her mind.

She was not sure that she could definitively abandon these memories for all that. She was convinced that, in a fragment of her being, the hope of finding them again would always be present no matter what.

At the moment, she was not quite sure what to do. She turned her slightly reddened nose up to Chuuya, who had remained silent since his last sentence, and forced a smile to stretch her lips amidst the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

"I thank you, Chuuya-san," she said in a voice that she wanted to be confident. "It may not have worked for now, but it most certainly will in the future."

She did not really know if she was trying to convince the redhead or herself, through these words. The young man, on his side, remained silent, taken by surprise by the words of the unknown girl.

She was stronger mentally than he thought, especially seeing her tiny figure and her neck covered with bandages. Perhaps it was because she had nothing left to lose, that she was acting as if everything was fine and it wasn't that bad?

Or did it have a deeper explanation...?

Whatever had happened in her past, he knew it had not been a smooth ride. The medical report he had skimmed the day before came back to his mind almost immediately.