A Time for Healing

Bliss. It’s a beautiful word seldom used in conversation and even more rarely experienced personally.

I was experiencing bliss.

Before I opened my eyes, I could smell Erika’s familiar perfume and feel her arms cradling me. And every once in a while, I thought I could feel a tender kiss on my cheek or bandaged forehead.

Suddenly, I felt her body stiffen. “How long have you been awake, Keisuke?” A note of suspicion was in her voice.

I opened my eyes to see her face hovering over mine a few inches away.

“Hey,” I said in a weak voice that would have sounded more appropriate coming from an old man. “Not long. But seriously, you didn’t give me any incentive to wake up.”

“Oh.” She blushed and turned her head away. I took the opportunity to check out my surroundings.

I was still in the Eye. Dozens of uniformed officers from the prefectural police department were moving around the scene, taking pictures and gathering evidence. The big gold transport truck was the center of attention, with police swarming over and around it.

A crash of heavy doors opening drew my attention. Escorted by paramedics and two armed police, a gurney with a very large body on it was being rolled out of the room through a set of doors on the east side of the Eye, directly across from the entrance Erika and I had come through. She saw where I was looking.

“That’s the driver of the armored truck, Keisuke. The sixth man, the only one of the robbers that got away. Something awful happened to him while he was down here. I think he was exposed to the effects of the Shard for too long.”

“Well, never mind him or the Shard. How’s your leg? I saw you holding it after he attacked you.”

“It’s broken, but the paramedics immobilized it.” I noticed that her legs were stretched out and resting on a blanket. One of them was splinted. “They also bandaged your head. Hayami’s as well.”

“And, uh, Hayami? Is she okay?”

“Yes, I was able to talk to her while we were being treated. She is as normal as anyone can be who’s lost a close family member.” She absently stroked my hair. “Hayami is also feeling guilty about, well, you know…”

“About trying to carve me up, then leaving me to die in a pool of quicksand?” I said. “Let’s just chalk it up to that Shard crystal and leave it at that. Which reminds me, where is that thing? It’s dangerous!”

“It’s gone, Keisuke.”

I blinked in confusion. “Gone? But we both saw it.”

She shook her head. “I told the police where the hidden room was. Although I warned them, they told me that they found no trace of a jewel, only gold.”

While I was digesting this piece of information, I saw one of the Special Unit officers detach himself from a crowd of policemen and walk toward us.

“How are you feeling, Mr. Nakata? Miss Tokunaga?” To my surprise, it was none other than Commissioner Fukuda Hinata of the National Police Agency, the officer who’d given me the medal. He was dressed in tactical garb for the occasion, but was carrying his riot helmet under his arm.

“Mr. Fukuda!” I tried to sit up. “Ow!” My head started to pound and I slumped back against Erika, who started to scold me.

“Keisuke, take it easy! You’re injured!”

“Well, so are you, Miss Tokunaga,” Fukuda said. He took a seat next to where I was reclining. “I just finished viewing the recording of the events leading up to your injuries. It was taken by the prefectural Special Team after their descent.”

He turned and pointed at the ceiling. Several ropes dangled from the jagged edge of the hole created when the truck fell through the chamber’s roof. Erika and I hadn’t noticed the police rappelling into the room. But to be fair, the lighting was bad and we’d been fighting a giant, crazed bank robber.

“So that’s how they got in. Ouch!” The pain between my shoulder blades reminded me of something else. “Who was it that shot me in the back?” I couldn’t help but feel a little indignation.

“One of the Special Team. His reasoning for doing so was, I believe, justified.” Fukuda pulled out a notepad. “The team leader reported that you approached a suspect who had been rendered unconscious. He said, and I quote, that your facial expression and body language suggested ‘murderous intent.’ So, to prevent injury to the suspect, he had one of his men fire a rubber bullet into your back.”

I stared at him. “I was shot by a police officer because he was worried I would harm someone three times my size?”

“Yes, I believe that sums it up,” he said without a trace of remorse. He stowed his notepad back in one of the dozens of pockets in his tactical vest. “However, I deeply regret that you were injured during the process.”

Fukuda nodded at the truck. “After the transport was hijacked, the robbers scattered, intending to regroup with the driver and split up the money from the sale of the gold. As you may know, Mr. Nakata, it’s thanks to your uncle that we captured most of them.”

“That can’t be right,” Erika said. “My father is on the Bank of Japan board of directors, and he said that no outside consultants were called in on the case.”

A look of surprise came over the commissioner’s face. “Oh, your father sits on their board? Well, what you say is true. However, someone else on the board became suspicious of the bank’s ‘official internal probe’ and hired Nakata Kouki without informing anyone else.”

I could feel Erika tense up. She’d accused me of lying to her about BOJ hiring Uncle Kouki, when it had been true all along. “I’m so sorry, Keisuke,” she whispered in my ear. I awkwardly patted her arm.

I heard footsteps crunching across the debris strewn across the floor. “So, how’s your head feeling, nerd?” I heard a familiar voice ask.

“Takeda!” It was a huge relief seeing my friend in one piece and unharmed. He wore his usual cheerful grin as he sauntered up.

I was bursting with questions. “Are you okay? What happened with you and Endo?”

“Oh, that. Well, it turns out that Endo heard his father saying that the foreman probably wasn’t telling the whole truth about the entrance that he blocked up. So as soon as he had a chance, Endo took off to check it out.”

“But why the rush?”

“Endo thought that, if it turned out there really was stolen gold down here, the foreman would be in the best position to smuggle it out.”

He smiled like an indulgent parent. “Ah, that Endo. He’s not the sharpest blade in the toolshed, but he realized that if the foreman was involved with the theft, he could return at any time. As soon as we reached the intersection he knew he could find the blocked entrance on his own, so he --”

“He just took off,” I finished for him. “Yeah, that sounds like Endo. But what about that scream we heard?”

Takeda started laughing. “Endo saw a rat. He freaked out, ran into a nearby support, and nearly brought the whole tunnel down on us.

“But, you know what? Endo was right. ”

“What do you mean?”

Commissioner Fukuda answered for him. “Mr. Endo discovered that the eastern entrance to the hallway accessing this room had been concealed, but not buried under rubble like his father had been told. Acting on his intuition, your friend called the local police.”

“Oh! So it was Endo that brought the police here!” Erika said.

“Yes. The foreman has been arrested for complicity in the Bank of Japan robbery. He was the one responsible for transporting the gold from this location to the buyers. But when he came to retrieve it, the truck’s driver had gone insane. Fearing for his life, the foreman fled the room and concealed the entrance.”

Fukuda rose to his feet and placed the helmet back on his head. “Mr. Endo is currently giving a statement at the local police station. The officers there notified the National Police Agency as soon as they received information about the location of the stolen gold. Since I was in the area, I volunteered to act as liaison.” He smiled for the first time.

“It’s been ages since I was in the field. I appreciated the opportunity to participate in a major operation.” He gave a brief bow. “Miss Tokunaga, Mr. Nakata, Mr. Masashi. I must leave now, but the prefectural police will be in touch with you concerning the reward money.”

He turned and left without a backward glance, while the three of us gawked at each other.

The police dropped Erika and me off at the same local clinic I’d used when I’d gotten the stuffing beaten out of me by the volleyball team. We were taken to separate rooms while waiting for the results of the x-rays, and I had to listen to the doctor joke about giving me a frequent customer discount.

It was still late at night when I was released.

But Erika was gone.

While I was standing around the lobby of the clinic, dejected, I received a text from her.

: Can you meet me tomorrow at lunchtime? I’ll be at the bench by the old shed.

I knew exactly where that was. I punched in my reply.

: YES! See you there tomorrow!

I could feel my heart pumping when I received a single heart emoji in reply.

Erika greeted me as I came down the path. “Keisuke.” She placed a hand next to her, indicating where I should sit, but seemed unusually quiet.

“How is your leg?” I asked as I sat down. It was in a cast, and she’d had to walk all the way out here using crutches. “We could have met somewhere closer to campus, you know.”

She gave a slight shake of her head. “No, this place holds some good memories for me.” The look she gave me was full of sympathy. “How is your head?”

“Still attached, but I had to check this morning when I woke up.” A weak joke, to be sure, but she laughed anyway.

“Erika, I need to know. Who are you, really? What is the Antediluvian Shard?”

I could tell she was uncomfortable, as if she’d been dreading this meeting. “Are you sure you want to know? It may bring back some painful memories.”

I felt a lump forming in my throat. How bad could it be? “Yes. I have to know.”

“Very well.” She still seemed hesitant. “Do you trust me?”

Her smile was tiny and sad, but it was still a smile.

“Completely.”

“Then, close your eyes.”

As I did so, I could feel her warm, gentle hands hold my head.

I heard a voice, distant but clear…

"I can hardly believe that I once thought of you as a friend, Garret.” Catarina’s voice dropped to a whisper that only I could hear. “And maybe even as more than a friend. What a fool I was.”

I saw a memory, both savage and vivid…

The flames of my companion’s torches faded away as the floor closed back over my head, leaving me to my fate and plunging me into total darkness.

And I felt pain…

My body dissolved as I was eaten alive.

"What's going on?" I mumbled. "I'm...remembering. Seeing and feeling things from someone else’s life."

"Keisuke," I heard Erika sob. I opened my eyes.

Her face was a mix of pain and sorrow. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault."

She repeated this over and over. I could hear it in the background as more memories, thoughts, and echoes of another existence rushed into my head.

I was an ex-soldier, a scout named Garret.

Hayami… was the noble swordswoman Malissa in that other life.

My friend Takeda had been Ebersol, Endo was Vandt.

And Erika was…

-----------

I held Erika in my arms as her tears dripped onto my shoulder. In between her sobs, she tried to explain.

"I let you die, Keisuke. In another life, in another reality. I could have saved you, but I let you die. I was Catarina, a priestess of Light, representative of the goddess of Justice herself! And she loved a young scout named Garret."

I was still reeling from the memories. "Erika, if that's true, then how did you get here?"

"The goddess of Justice. Ellarian. She made me aware of my crime, showed me your innocence when you were Garret. Once the truth was known to me, I begged her with every fiber of my being to bring you back to life."

She pulled me closer. "Instead, she let me be reborn here, in this reality. It was both a blessing and a curse to have my memories of that old life intact. I've had only one thought since I was reborn -- to win your favor, gain your approval, and ultimately, --"

As she raised her face to mine, I could sense the desperation underlying her words. "And… to ask your forgiveness."

I embraced her tightly, feeling the soft touch of her hair against my neck and face. I held her like that for a brief moment. Neither of us spoke.

“And the Antediluvian Shard?”

“It’s a lie, wrapped in a crystal matrix,” she replied. Her voice became as hard and cold as the winter sky. “It’s not a key to ultimate knowledge, or power, or anything but a trip into Hell. You saw its effects on me and Hayami, what it did to that bank robber.

“The Shard has existed as long as there have been humans, and is found in every reality. It always appears alongside the richest of treasures, to act as a trap for the greedy. It may have vanished for now, but it will reappear elsewhere.

“I know all this because it was created by Ellarian, whose cause I served. How ironic that I should fall for the same trap as those it was meant to defend against!”

Her eyes were looking at the sky but seeing distant and painful memories instead.

I couldn’t bear to watch her suffer any more. I spoke as gently as I knew how.

"Erika. Whatever you did, as Catarina, was long ago and far away, when you were a different person in a different existence."

I gently tilted her face up to mine. "I forgive you."

Like sunshine breaking through clouds, her face lit up with sheer delight. "Keisuke, you don't know how long, how very long, I've waited to hear those words."

The look of joy on her face reminded me of another reason I’d wanted to see Erika today.

I cleared my throat, as if preparing to deliver a prepared speech, then stood up. Reaching into my shirt pocket I fished out a small envelope. I didn’t want to handle it any more than I needed to, because it would become stained with sweat from my nervous hands within seconds.

I coughed nervously. “I have a few more words I’d like for you to hear.” Erika stood up, probably sensing what I was about to do.

“Erika, it’s a tradition at this school when a boy wants to date a girl…” I coughed again and could feel my face growing hot. I’d just kissed this girl yesterday, so why was I so nervous?

I decided to cut to the chase. I bowed and presented my letter to Erika. “Would, uh, would you like to go out with me?”

I thought I heard her smother a giggle. “Will monsters be involved?”

“No.”

“Fighting criminals?”

“No!”

“Underground bunkers, the national police,” she paused for a beat and I could hear the smile in her voice, “or your Uncle Kouki?”

“No, no, and -- what? Uncle Kouki?” I straightened up and stared at her.

“Isn’t that him over there?” She pointed back at the school. I followed where her finger was pointing.

I could hear his voice blasting across the campus like a winter typhoon. “Keisuke! Nephew! Where are you?”

As usual, I could hear him long before I could see him. It was easy to spot his 193 centimeter frame as he stood on the school grounds, oblivious to the students who’d stopped to stare at him.

“That’s him, right Keisuke? Is he using a megaphone?”

“No, actually, that's his indoor voice.” I couldn’t help but grin as I recalled the text he’d sent me that morning:

:See you at lunch. Have to talk about an urgent job with NPA and your share of the reward money, sent to me as your guardian. It’s all yours. Don’t spend it all on sake and women.

Then I remembered what I’d been doing. Hastily, I bowed again. “So, uh, anyway --”

Erika took a step toward me, cupped my chin in her hand, and pulled me back upright. “Yes. Yes. Yes. I will go out with you.” She put her arms around my shoulders, and I held her close. “I would like more than anything to go out with you. Boyfriend.”

Yes! I felt like shouting out loud.

She continued. “I wouldn’t mind meeting your Uncle. He’s your only family, right?”

“Yeah. He’s actually a cool guy, once you get over the hearing damage.” I stood on the metal bench and waved my arms. Uncle saw me waving, bellowed one final “Nephew!” then headed toward us like a monster advancing on Tokyo.

I jumped down and, standing next to Erika, reached out and held my new girlfriend’s hand.