Brilliant Red Love (An Ouran Highschool Host Club Fanfic)

Chapter Seventeen: A Dream

Akane groaned. She felt like there was a crazed animal inside her head, smashing against her skull and trying to get out. But at least she was thinking more clearly now.

The first thing she noticed was that it was warm, and she was lying on her side on something soft. She frowned. Last she had checked, she had been in City Park, leaning against a tree trunk in the snow. Had someone found her? Where was she anyway?

She glanced around. The familiar sofas, armchairs, the grand piano. This must be------

"Yo. You're finally awake, are you?" A voice asked.

Akane jumped and looked up. Seven very familiar faces were gazing back down at her, looking rather relieved.

"Ugh. Yeah." She replied, making an attempt on sitting up, which turned into an epic fail as she nearly fell off the couch she was lying on.

"Whoa, steady there." said Kaoru. "You're still a little tipsy."

Akane groaned. "You make it sound like as though I was drunk."

Haruhi exploded. "Are you crazy, Akane? Do you have any idea how worried we were? Why would you jump out the window while you had a fever? Why can't you just stay in one place?"

Akane blinked. "Haruhi? Um---I'm really sorry----"

"That doesn't cover it even by half!"

"I know." Akane said after a while. "But I mean it, I'm really, really sorry to have made you all worry about me. I just-----"

"Why did you leave?" Mori asked.

The other Hosts looked like they wanted to know the answer, too.

Akane pushed a strand of damp hair out of her face and looked out the window. "When I get a fever and get----delirious----I remember things from my past. Sure, I can remember things every now and then, but when I'm sick and go into that shaky mental state, it's like I can see things. Like I'm watching a video of my memories."

"And what did you see?" Mori questioned, like it was perfectly normal.

Akane's eyes became unfocused. "I don't know. There was a manor, more of a palace, really. It was some sort of celebration, with lots of people. But four really stood out to me. They were standing with my parents: a young man, and three young women. All looked to be a couple years older than me, like they could've been my older siblings."

She took a deep breath and continued. "The funny thing is, I feel like I know them. From before. Like they really were my older siblings. And right now, I can still feel their presense."

Kaoru shuddered. "As in ghosts? Around here?"

"No, not ghosts. I mean living, breathing humans. Everyone tells me that I'm the last of the first branch Katonozukas, but now that I've seen that memory, I think differently. I can feel their presence, that they're somewhere out there. Alive."

"But you told us that Waru stormed the dojo and killed your grandparents, along with everyone else. You said you were saved by your parents, who were killed later on by Waru. You said he left no survivors, except you."

"Many went into hiding, including most of the other Katnozuka branches, out of fear that they too would be attacked. I myself went into hiding, though I didn't know at the time while I was living with the Hayashiis in England." Akane replied.

"Akane." Mori said. "If they really were your older siblings, and they really are still alive, then by tradition, the eldest male sibling would be the next head. So why is it that you, the youngest of the five, have the Katonozuka pendant? That pendant is only given to the head of the Katonozukas."