HaruGou: Remember Me

Part I. "Past"

She could hear the beach.

And it was as if they had been washed up on its shore; like twin sea shells sleeping with abandon.

She felt him smile against her neck, his fingertips brush aside her bangs.

"Kou..."

He whispered, softly.

"...It's time to wake up."

----

"Mrs. Nanase? Mrs. Nanase, can you hear me?"

The voice had changed, Gou thought.

It was no longer soothing, but disturbingly urgent.

"Mrs. Nanase!"

She wasn't with him anymore.

In his place was chaos; the morning glow of her alternate reality obliterated by harsh light fixtures crooning above her on a cold, metal bed.

At least four sets of hands were touching her, strapping her down and cutting off her clothes.

They were shouting at each other from all directions, using words that she only half-understood from basic first aid class and TV hospital dramas.

"What have we got here?" came a harsh, clinical assessment.

"Female, twenty-six years old, car accident," another answered, the voice accompanied by the snapping of latex against skin. "Internal bleeding, undiagnosed head injury..."

"...Pupils dilated, unresponsive..."

"...she's tachycardic. Someone get me large-bore, sixteen gauge IV..."

There was unexpected stabbing pain in the crook of her arm, and though she tried to cry out, her parted lips could not produce a single sound.

Her whole body thrashed as compensation, fighting her intruders off until the noxious liquid began to circulate her veins and her muscles went lax, lulling her into a deep and dreamless sleep.

"Shh, its okay, Mrs. Nanase, you're going to be okay..." a female voice stroked at the top of her had.

Mrs. Nanase? Who is that...?

Gou thought, as her eyelids slid shut.

...Are they talking about me?

---

When life deals you a bad hand, it is all too easy to turn to the past and pick at your mistakes.

'If only I have started studying earlier,' you'd say.

'If only I had told him before it was too late.'

In Nanase Haruka's case, it was as simple as choosing to stay at the office an hour later than usual.

If only I had left on time...

He thought, sprinting up the hospital steps.

...If only I had driven her myself.

---

The first and only thing Gou could recall after the accident, was waking up in a hospital bed feeling like she'd been hit by a truck – and then nearby nurse telling her that she was there for that very reason.