A Farewell to All Futures

Echoes of the Past

Warning: mentions of neglect, abandonment, bullying, abuse, murder, ableism, PTSD, abandonment, almost-trafficking

***

"Alright, today's November the fourteenth. Has everyone arrived?" Kokoro asked, looking around.

Whether by their own will or not, everyone had made their way to their unused classroom as they agreed. Everybody wore grim or morbid faces as they sat down on the floor in a circle, either holding onto somebody or offering comfort to another.

"It seems so." Sora replied before turning to the rest of the others. "For the record, everyone, this is meant to be a group therapy session day. Chiaki said that doing this was successful for her class so that anyone with any problems can have a bigger support system, and I believe that her logic is sound."

"Does it matter if her logic is sound? This is the weirdest icebreaker shit I've ever been in." Syobai cut in.

"Have you ever been in an icebreaker activity before?" Yoruko shot back. 

Mikado sighed before giving a sharp glare to both arguers. "Yoruko, Syobai, no fighting. This is meant to help everybody gain awareness and be more comfortable with each other." He chastised. Syobai turned away with a huff, and Yuri grabbed his hand to calm him down.

"Since the Children of Utsuro have already shared their pasts, I suppose you can skip us." Emma added.

"As class representative, I'll go first." Sora began. "From what I got of my early life, my parents were either neglectful or didn't care much if I disappeared from the public eye. All I remember is that I fell in a reservoir and lost my memory."

"Trauma-induced amnesia." Yoruko added. "For a young mind to go through that, all of the memories of her former life were completely erased."

"How do you know that?" Hajime asked.

"...I'm thinking of taking a counselling course in the future, maybe." The hostess explained.

"Getting back on track, the first thing I remember is Akane pulling me out of that reservoir. Neither of us knew my name, so she just called me 'Saiai' for the time being. It means 'beloved'." Sora giggled. "We only found out my name because of a missing poster. However, it turned out that the notice was put up by my grandparents so that they could gain custody of me. Akane didn't know if they were as uncaring as my real parents, so she didn't return me to them."

"That's terrible." Yuri stated, her hands gripping onto her kimono. 

"Hey, but what if they aren't terrible?" Setsuka asked. "You should take a DNA test. Get in contact with them, maybe. Just have a one-on-one talk about your lives."

"I'll keep that in mind. Though one thing's for certain: I'm never going to talk with my real parents again." The albino vowed. "Anyways, Akane and I lived on the street for a long time, taking any jobs we could just to get by. In fact, we were under the employment of the Togami family when we got our acceptance letters."

"Ah. So that's the reason he's never cold and condescending to you or your sister." Emma realized.

"Yeah, that's why. Alright, I'm finished my story. Who's next?" Sora asked.

When nobody spoke, Kokoro cleared her throat. "I'll go next. I was born with a condition called alexithymia, which means that I am not able to identify and describe my own emotions. I'm sure I can feel the same emotions as you all, but I couldn't tell you exactly what I'm feeling. The only one I knew I could feel at a young age was curiosity. Because of my apparent lack of emotions, I was put into the foster care system."