Music Playing The Finale by Jeff Russo
Afterwards, the court proceedings came. As promised, Ryuuko and Nui were left out of it. Satsuki did tell me what the potential outcome would be but, mostly, she might enter a plea, considering the circumstances. As she's told me, she's accepted her fate. Memories came flooding back and I told her I wished things were the way they used to be. In that little girl voice before shifting to her usual one, "I know and I wish things were different, too. I'm sorry I put you through this." She told me that she'd write to me from wherever she's sentenced.
"What kind of sentence do you think she'll get?" Uzu asked me. I told him I didn't know but I know I would testify. I told him that I'd tell the court of what she went through, how much she loved her sisters, how, underneath the illness and the trauma, she's really good a person at heart, and that she's no threat to the public. I told him that I ask that she be granted leniency because her mother was a rabid animal that needed to be put down, that her actions were of self-defense.
I remember the trial rather well. Satsuki was in a wheelchair, because of her injuries from her suicide attempt. She was dressed rather nicely, with her hair tied in braids, and her burn scars were unhidden. She was stoic, resigned, perhaps a bit fearful, but composed, so accepting of her potential fate.
"Her name is 'Satsuki Kiryuuin' but she's affectionately known as 'Sissie'. Underneath her trauma and mental illness, she is loving, kind, and a good person at heart. She has two younger sisters, who she loves so much that they may as well be her babies. Her mother didn't appreciate the gift that come in the form of her and her sisters. Mrs. Kiryuuin was, instead, a rabid animal, who needed to be put down. Satsuki was only a little girl and she had no choice. She didn't act with malice but out of fear, for herself, but, moreover, her sisters. She never had a chance nor has she had a childhood. This whole thing and the tragedy of her life pushed her so over the edge that she attempted suicide. I ask, with all considered, that she be granted leniency."
Seeing her in a wheelchair without her makeup or veil, her scars in full view, I wondered as to how I found the strength to testify breaking into down like I did when I saw her in the road. I wanted to hold her hand like I did that night before she attempted suicide. For the first and last time, she got to be a child. Was that the most amount of fun you ever got to have, Satsuki?
I was there when the Judge read the verdict. The consensus is that she'd be incarcerated, as she did confess, but, otherwise, was "not guilty". To my recollections, she accepted a plea deal. I didn't stay there long enough to know how many years she got or what the exact punishments she received were. I do know that she agreed to go away, so long as she said, "Goodbye" to her sisters first.
Before she was incarcerated, I did go to visit her, after she was telling her sisters how much she loved them and asked that they behave in her absence. I asked her what, exactly, her sentence was, to which she told me, while holding my hand again, "Approximately 5-10 years in a mental hospital, 5 years conditional release, and 3 years probation, so, about 18 years, possibly less." She would tell me that, at least, she's inherited her family wealth and she was contented that her sisters would be living comfortably with Mankanshokus.
"Will you join them when you're released?"
"Most likely." her voice hardly above a whisper.
As she was taken to the mental hospital she was sentenced to, she asked for another word with her loved ones, "No tears, everyone, I love you all and I will see you all soon."
Thinking about it, in retrospect, I don't know how she dealt with it. Towards the end of this ordeal, I'd say it was bittersweet. It was so cruel that a normal life was torn away from her and, in the end, she accepted it all with stoic grace. She said "No tears" but I couldn't abide by that, no, I just sank to my knees and cried again because the shear weight of it all.
As promised, she did write me letters from the mental hospital. I didn't have much to write to her but I did tell her that the headlines were much nicer to her than I thought they'd be. Someday, I'd visit her at the hospital but, until then, I'd write to her, responding to each and every one of her letters written from her.
From what she did say in her letters, she's not so much tied to a wheelchair anymore and can manage with other mobility aids. Her symptomology did improve with the medicine she's on and that the staff are very nice with her. She mentioned that she's doing rather in well in therapy. She said she didn't know 100% if she'd be released from the hospital early but she knew it was a possibility. From what Ryuuko, Nui, and Mako tell me, she does get to see her sisters, though she's a bit sad that she has to see that she might in the hospital for so long that she'd miss the rest of their childhood.
By a point, roughly a year since, I did muster the courage to visit her in the hospital. She was so happy to see me that she disregarded her mobility aids to give me long missed embrace. "I'm so happy to see you." she said, pausing for a moment, before going, "You're my best friend." Like she did in her letters, she showed me how nice the place was.
"So, from your letters, you tell me you're doing alright, are you telling the truth?"
"Yes, Nonon, there are no half-truth in those letters. I am doing better than what I was before."
"Do you think you'll get out early?"
"I know it's a possibility but, regardless, I accept the outcome."
We didn't have much more to talk about and, if we did, we'd share it in letters. For the remainder of the visit, we just sat with each other, as dusk started to come, side by side.
"Thank you for coming, Nonon."
Authoress Notes: If y'all were wondering, this story takes place in the US and so we're going to be going off of American laws, with some winging.
That aside, as we're already aware, Satsuki was 11-years old at the time she shot Ragyo and so I'm not exactly sure how that would have gone but her age (and circumstances at the time), as per this story, would be considered when it comes to sentencing. Now, on that note, I'm not 100% sure how plea deals work but the general thing is that the defendant would either agree to plead guilty to a particular offense or to an agreed sentence.
That said, I'm not also 100% sure what kind of plea deal Sissie would take, though I lean towards something of a possible insanity defense, however that would work here. Technically, she'd prolly not go to trial because she'd been declared rather "unfit" but, as Sissie mentions herself in the previous chapter, the authorities weren't exactly sure of what to do and how to try her. That said, not a lot of states really have specific laws/guidelines on how to try juveniles, so I kinda figure her trial and pleas might go like this. Adding to this, Satsuki's actions as a preteen weren't premeditated, though she did admit to shooting Ragyo.
Yes, loved ones can testify at trials, of course, and they can, in some cases, ask for leniency, like Nonon does.
As far as Satsuki's sentence goes, "conditional release" is where she'd be released from the mental hospital under specific conditions that she'd have to follow (like receiving follow-up mental health treatment) and her being on probation would technically be the same thing. Yes, she'd have a chance at being released early from the mental hospital but any years she'd not have served would prolly be added to her conditional release portion to her sentence. Oh, btw, "conditional release" is a thing, I actually knew someone who got it (though for reasons I shan't disclose here).
