Michael's Future

Chapter 3: Home

By: Tanokai

Tohira lied in her room. Her hair was unkempt and she had the faint odor of having not bathed for several days. She lied beneath her covers with only her head exposed. She wore nightgown that it seemed she had not changed out of for several days. Her eyes were no longer red and puffy, since yesterday it felt as if she had no tears left to shed. On her bedside table sat a tray of food that was untouched except for the two bottles of water which lay empty. Currently she stared blankly at the door to her room, not really seeing anything.

I don't understand anything anymore… Tohira thought to herself. I don't have a past…then what did I hear? It was definitely my voice in that memory. But who was…

Tohira's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. She turned in her bed to face the opposite wall from the door and covered her head with her covers.

"Tohira, it's me Robin. I'm coming in."

Tohira heard the door open and close softly shortly after. She heard the soft footfalls of Robin and soft clattering. Her nose was also greeted with the scent of butternut squash soup and toasted buttered bread? However the smells, however delicious, did not spark her interest in the least.

"Tohira…" She felt a shift of the mattress as Robin sat next to her and a light pressure on her hip as she placed her hand there.

"Whats wrong? You've kept yourself shut in here for four days now. You hardly eat and you barely move. We are all worried about you. Michael especially has been really worried."

Tohira did not reply.

"Tohira. You need to talk to us, what's wrong? I mean I know you had a fright with your heart and all, but that doesn't explain this…What else happened?"

Again Tohira remained silent.

Robin sighed. She wasn't sure what to do. She removed her hand from Tohira and turned slightly to look out the one window in the room. The sun had already gone down and the sky was a deep blue. The moon had yet to rise.

"I don't understand, Tohira. Why would you go after that witch on your own? I know you are a great witch hunter, but even when you worked with just me and Amon, you never went on a mission by yourself. You said you just liked there to be 'insurance' around in case your heart… So why didn't you wait for someone?"

Silence continued from Tohira.

Robin sighed again and was about to stand when she her a faint voice in her mind.

/…Really?…/

"What?"

/Robin, I don't even remember fighting alongside you and…Amon was it/

"What do you mean? We only left Amon barely a month ago to split off and track another witch before coming here a week ago."

/That sound about right…After about 3 weeks, memories begin to fade. It's a form of amnesia that I suffer from./

"I don't understand.'

/I don't either. I don't know for how long I've been suffering from it, or why it happened. I just know that it feels normal./

"But that's terrible!"

/Not really. You get used to it./

"Is that why you hunted that witch on your own?"

Tohira fell silent again.

"Tohira?"

/I figured that if I could just get rid of him, nobody would have to suffer. It should have been easy…I have no past buried deep in the back of my mind. Everything in my past is still fresh to me, nothing for him to dig up and torture me with./

"That still doesn't answer my question. What happened? Why did he get away? Why did your heart stop? Why have you closed yourself off from us?"

Tohira was quiet again. She stirred for the first time beneath her covers and sat up on the side of her bed opposite of Robin.

"Tohira?"

/I think I'll take a shower now./

"Tohira."

Tohira remained silent as she gathered clean clothes, a towel and her basket of shower supplies. She slipped her feet into her slippers and opened to door to walk to the shower at the end of the hall. /Go ahead and tell everyone what I told you…I suppose they have a right to know./

Tohira took a long shower. She worked a while on her long hair. Her long full hair was always one of her pride and joys. As she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower she began the long process of drying and combing through her hair. She had to admit to herself that the shower made her feel a bit better.

It was two hours after entering the shower that she finally walked back down the hall to her room cleaned, dried and smelling faintly of mint. She put her shower supplies back and hung her towel up to dry.

Even though it was well into the night now she wore her typical street clothes. Dark blue jeans and a long sleeved blouse, this one was a jade color. Her hair hung down freely.

Tohira looked to her forgotten soup and decided she should probably eat something. She was feeling a bit better and her stomach was reminding her of her neglect over the past few days. She walked over to her food tray and touched the bowl. Just as she thought she would have to warm it up. She sighed as she grabbed her food tray and left her room

As she headed toward the nearest microwave to nuke her soup she heard someone talking. That was weird, everyone should have gone by now. Unless…

"Oh! Now I get it," Michael was talking quietly to himself, as he seemed to usually do at night. "That's why she said she had no past! I guess in the span of a lifetime, three weeks is nothing. It's just enough to remember what is important to you, but short enough to forget what you really regret…" his voice became even quieter "…like getting stuck in this place…"

Tohira smiled as she pressed the needed buttons to begin warming up her dinner.

I guess that's why I never minded. I don't have to worry about those dark demons wandering my past, because after three weeks they are gone.

The microwave beeped and Tohira reached in a grabbed her food and place it back on her tray she also got a few doughnuts and placed them on plate that she also placed on the tray. She figured she might as well see Michael since he was so worried about her.

"But…" Michael sounded kind of sad now. Something about his new tone made her stop. "If someone died…or left… Someone I really cared about. I guess I would forget them, huh? That's kind of sad… No one deserves to be forgotten. Wow"

Tohira heard the slight squeak in Michaels chair that said her was leaning back, a sign that he was really pondering something. Sure enough as he came into view she saw him leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head.

/Hey Michael./

"WHA!" Michael fell out of his chair and hit the ground. Hurriedly he looked around. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw Tohira and crawled back up into his chair.

"Hey you. I see you're up and about."

Tohira set the tray down and sat in a chair. She grabbed her soup and a spoon and began to eat her food.

/Yeah. Sorry for making you worry. I guess I was being selfish the last couple of days./

"Selfish?"

/I moped about what I've forgotten and forgot to think about he future. I can't change the fact that I have no past, but I can rejoice in the fact that I have a future./

"It's not your fault. You can't help it, like you said. But I do have a question."

/Yes?/

"If you've lived with this…circumstance as long as you remember, what made you start moping about it now?"

Tohira stopped eating for a moment and put her food down.

"I'm sorry I didn't-"

/It has to do with that witch./

"Huh?"

/He found something… in my past./

"Your past?"

/Whoever he was…in my past… I promised him…I swore to him that I wouldn't forget him./

Tears began to spill down Tohira's cheeks.

/I promised…but I couldn't keep that promise…when the witch brought up that memory it hurt so much. That's why my heart stopped./

"Because you forgot somebody?"

Tohira nodded

"I'm sorry…" Michael moved his chair closer to hers and wrapped his arms around her.

And even though she cried, Tohira felt content in Michaels arms.

~The Next Morning~

Tohira woke to a nock on her bedroom door early the next morning. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and glared at it. She had only slept for 4 hours.

"Tohira, it's me Robin. I'm coming in."

As Robin entered Tohira sat up sleepily and rubbed her eyes. She let out a long yawn.

/Morning. I would have preferred more sleep…/

"Sorry, but this letter was left at the front gate for you."

/Letter?/

Tohira took the envelope with her name written upon it. She opened it and read the short message with her weary eyes.

It's time to come home.