89 Memory
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Kazuya laid on a bed sleeping soundly inside the hospital. There were no longer signs of pain on his face unlike his earlier episode at the car dealership. Seeing Kazuya finally at peace, Kyouko finally calmed down and sat by his bed and held her son's hand.
*SLAM*
"What happened?" Mei rushed in the room with a pale face. She didn't know what happened but Kyouko called to inform her that she rushed her son to the hospital.
"I don't know.. Everything seemed fine when we were talking in the car but as soon as we arrived at the car dealership Kazuya appeared to be in so much pain" Kyouko shuddered. Remembering the pain filled expression on Kazuya's face broke her heart. She tried soothing him with what little recovery magic she learned but she gave up and just took him to the hospital after seeing that nothing was working.
"How long has it been since he passed out?" Mei looked at Kazuya who looked like he was sleeping normally.
"A few hours" she was worried that there has been no update in Kazuya's condition and he was showing no signs of waking up. She was worried because there has been no indication of something happening to him.
Mei touched Kazuya and tried casting a recovery spell. She was a lot better than Kyouko at magic since it was her natural affinity so Kyouko remained quiet and hoped that there would be changes. To both their disappointment, there had been no visible changes that could be seen in Kazuya's condition.
"This is strange.." Mei usually felt something whenever there had been an injury of a person since she's tried recovery magic out whenever she had the chance on stray animals and Kazuya himself whenever he went too far with his training. "It doesn't seem like Kazu's hurt or injured in some way"
"Do you think it's a side effect of mana?" Kyouko asked since Mei and Kazuya had been utilizing it longer than her. The three of them only gained benefits and the only real disadvantage about it was that they needed to keep it a secret at all costs.
"That's highly unlikely" Mei replied. She was confident in what Kazuya explained about mana. From her own understanding, there shouldn't be any negative side effects to it since it was supposed to have been natural energy that has been long forgotten.
*knock knock*
"Come in" Kyouko turned towards the door and saw the familiar hospital director accompanied by multiple colleagues. Kyouko immediately felt nervous because she didn't expect to be greeted by various doctors.
"Sorry for startling you Kouzuki-sama but please do not mind my colleagues. It seems that Kazuya-kun continues to baffle us with his condition" the doctor reported. "Though this time we have a result in the tests we conducted" he added as soon as Kyouko grew a frown.
"What is it?" She was desperate to know anything about her son's condition.
"We may not know exactly for sure but from the scans, it shows that Kazuya-kun's brain has been showing signs of hyperactivity specifically on the hippocampus" He showed both women the scanned brain activity on the tablet on his hand. "Even as he is unconscious, his brain is working as if it is registering new memories. We are not entirely sure what is causing this phenomenon but since Kazuya-kun is suffering from amnesia, we can only hope that he is recovering some if not all of his memories at the moment"
Kyouko was shocked. She had given up entirely on letting Kazuya recover his memories. She didn't know how to react at the sudden news. How would her son change if he really did recover his memories? She turned towards Mei and noticed that she wasn't as surprised as she was. Mei looked calm and indifferent despite what they just learned.
"When will Kazuya wake up?" she decided to ask Mei about it later since she chose not to say anything at the moment.
"We're not entirely sure. From the tests, it shows that Kazuya-kun is as healthy as can be so we believe that he will regain consciousness after his brain activity settles down and rests" the doctors nodded at each other before excusing themselves. They assured Kyouko that there was nothing to worry about and her son was going to wake up not too long from now.
"They're gone" Kyouko made sure that everyone already left before turning towards Mei. "What's on your mind?"
"I don't think it's Kazu's memory returning" she went straight to the point. "I think Kazu is experiencing another vision"
"Another vision?" Kyouko frowned. If that was true then will her son's mental age mature past her own? She didn't want to think about it because her initial assumption that her son had ended his own life after being abandoned by everyone he knew which was why he was still immature and innocent about certain things.
"That's just what I think. If it happened once then it can happen again. His vision could have ended at a certain point and it could be the continuation of where he left off" Mei delivered her hypothesis.
"It's not a continuation but a recollection big sis" the familiar voice startled the two girls as they turned to find Kazuya holding his head while staring at the ceiling.
"Kazu! Since when have you been awake?" Mei was a bit upset since she thought that he had been pretending to be unconscious just to eavesdrop.
"from before the doctors left" he sluggishly tried to sit up. Kyouko wasted no time and helped him up and looked worriedly at her son's pale complexion. He didn't seem fine at all.
"Are you okay Kazuya?" Kyouko handed him a bottle of water in which he drank in one go. His throat felt dry and his body a little dehydrated.
"I'll be alright mom. My head still hurts a little but talking should be okay" he really didn't want Kyouko to worry too much so he squeezed her hand and smiled to show that he was fine.
"What happened Kazu? Your body didn't show any signs of being injured when I tried casting some recovery spells. The doctors couldn't find anything strange aside from your suspicious brain activity" Mei tried not to show it but she was worried as well.
She witnessed his magic training methods and tried to imitate them once but she was scolded by him because she almost caused injury to herself when she tried to ricochet a magic spell to hit herself. Kazuya blocked the magic spell that was supposed to hit her with his own body and despite the visible damage that could be seen, he didn't even flinch so when Kyouko told her about how much he seemed to be in pain, she shuddered at the thought of how much pain Kazuya had to endure.
"You were not wrong when you said that I experienced another vision but.. it was not a continuation because those have already been completed. The vision I saw was.. before the accident occurred" Kazuya frowned and felt his brain pulsating.
"before the accident..?" Kyouko was a little startled. "But from what I learned.. you lost your memories in your vision after the accident right?"
"Yes. I have no idea how but it looks like I've seen something in my vision for the first time" It was indeed a mystery on why he would recover memories from his past life but he couldn't deny the images that appeared on his head.
"What did you see?" Kyouko asked curiously. She believed that Kazuya already changed what was supposed to befall her so she had little hesitation to ask.
"I think that.. the vision I saw was triggered the moment I saw that car you wanted to buy mom" he wasn't fully unconscious the whole time. He had been in a half unconscious state as he tried to absorb and understand the images and memories that appeared on his head. It took him a while to piece things together but he completed the fragments inside his mind before he decided to speak up.
"The car?" Kyouko looked confused. "Don't tell me that car was.." she looked at her son who gave a heavy nod to confirm her suspicion.
"It was the car we were using on the day of the accident a little over a year from now" Kazuya felt his throat drying up and accepted the water handed to him by Mei who was remained quiet as she listened. "Please don't buy that car mom. It may have little to do with anything but I want everything to be different from that vision for as much as possible" Kazuya placed a hand on this throbbing head.
"You should get some rest Kazu" Mei tried to let him lay back down. "We can talk about this after you feel better"
"Can we go home instead?" he suggested. "This place won't be able to do much for me and I would be much more comfortable with the help of the formation back at home"
Mei and Kyouko didn't object to this suggestion since both of them already understood the effects of the formation in the Kouzuki house. They already experienced the difference of recovering their vitality at home compared to other places and the doctors already stated that he was as healthy as he can be so Mei handled the paperwork as Kyouko helped Kazuya back to their car.
"I'm really okay mom" Kazuya felt a little embarrassed since Kyouko decided to carry him in her arms like she used to.
"Listen to mom okay?" Kyouko giggled and ignored his request so Kazuya could only bury his face on her shoulder. He didn't want anyone to recognize him so he hid his face until he failed to keep ahold of his consciousness and fell asleep under the calming scent of his mother.
Mei caught up with them as soon as she was done with the discharge procedures. She took a cab to the hospital so she rode in Kyouko's car on their way back. It wasn't until they got back home that Kazuya immediately woke up after sensing the change in the atmosphere.
"(I fell asleep huh..)" he felt quite ashamed because it seemed like he fell unconscious out of sheer embarrassment.
"Did you wake up already?" Kyouko was a little disappointed, she wanted to carry him all the way to his room but it looks like she wouldn't have the chance to do it now. She pouted towards Kazuya but was feeling relieved because her son already didn't look as pale as he did earlier. It seems like his judgement was right and he would recover better at home.
"I'm already feeling a lot better mom" Kazuya got out of the car on his own to make sure that his mother didn't get the chance to carry him again. He wouldn't be able to hear the end of it from Yui if she saw him getting carried like a little boy at his age and size.
"Me and your big sis will leave you alone and let you sleep in your room peacefully tonight. You're also going to rest for the whole day tomorrow so I'll go ahead and call your school in the morning" Kyouko didn't give him the chance to decline.
"Okay.." Kazuya agreed.
"I already informed Granny Fuji that we will be arriving so let's go eat. I assume you two must be hungry after skipping lunch and all" Mei pulled the two because she was worried about them both. They were supposed to have fun today but everything didn't go as anyone expected.
Granny Fuji was updated of the situation and agreed that their young master should take the day off. She was relieved that they found nothing wrong with him aside from the heatstroke the two ladies came up with.
Kazuya didn't have much of an appetite at the moment and finished earlier than usual. He grabbed a pencil and paper and worked on something as Mei and Kyouko had their meal. It was still too early for him to go to bed so he drew a little to pass the time.
"Mom.. I was wondering" Kazuya spoke as he continued to draw. "Why did you want to buy that car anyway? Don't we already have one?"
The two women looked at each other as if coming to an understanding looked towards him at the same time. He felt like he was missing something so he waited for them to answer.
"It's really nothing much but the car manufacturer offered to give us a car of our choice. It's kind of a publicity stunt where all I had to do was to be featured in an article with the car I chose and be seen in the public using it" Kyouko explained. She really didn't think anything much of it since she would get a new car in the process. Kyouko was one of the few well known successful business people who still chose to drive simple and efficient cars after all.
"I see.." Kazuya took note of the company and looked at Mei as if hinting something. He suspected the company that offered this because from what he had deciphered from the images that appeared from his mind, he needed to confirm a few things before he could rule them out.
Mei nodded to confirm and would look into it later. Both of them really couldn't communicate through the whisper skill because Kyouko was extremely sensitive to whenever they used the skill for private conversations.
The three of them finished dinner. Afterwards, the two insisted to bring Kazuya to his room. They wanted to make sure that he wouldn't head to his research center and rest for the rest of the day. Though his complexion already recovered, the two ladies were still worried.
"Ummm.." Kazuya turned and faced the two who were blocking his path. "From what I've deciphered in the vision I saw. There were two people that will be visiting this place soon enough. I don't recognize the two of them so I drew this picture so that I could ask who they were" Kazuya handed the paper to his mother who immediately crushed it in her hand.
"Huh?" Kazuya was shocked at his mother's reaction because not only did she crush the paper, she even used magic to immediately burn the paper into nothing.
"Kyouko, those two were..."
"I know" Kyouko frowned and looked at her son. There was no way he would know the two so she didn't know how to begin explaining it to him.
"Looks like both of you know who they are" he was a hundred percent certain of it after seeing such a reaction.
"Those two are.." Kyouko took a deep breath before looking her son directly in the eye. "Those two scum are your father and his wife"
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