Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Fan Fiction ❯ My Magical Gate Experience Was Ruined, As I Expected ❯ YGS: 3 ( Chapter 3 )

My elementary school years went quickly, and my bright and cheerful nature meant I had friends. I still curse in German when startled, and niisan’s obsession with reincarnation went into full blown chuunibyo when he was in middle school. That stopped when he fell for some girl who talked to him a few times. Being a lonely boy just getting his puberty hormones he latched onto that. No amount of consolation would fix his rejection despair. Honestly, I think he made a narrow escape. She wasn’t really that nice, and her laugh was annoying, and she had the look of a poisoner to me. Not sure why, but I could swear any boy who ate her Valentines chocolates would probably die and have very bad dreams before returning to life drained of vitality and horrified for the rest of their life. Oniisan not getting further involved with her probably saved us both a lot of grief. As his sister I’m honor-bound to ride his future wife hard and make sure he makes good choices where that’s concerned.

March 2013

By the time I was in junior high, niisan was all kinds of depressed and fully cynical. I can’t decide if I’m proud of him for becoming a monster of logic who truly understands people or sad that I failed him so badly. I was trying to raise him to be a good person, but I have utterly failed. He’s rotten, and other people notice. He squints his eyes and sort of leers and people who see him whisper about what a villain he is. They rarely bother to find out for themselves, they just assume this.

“Hikigaya Komachi, come to the principal’s office. You have a message,” said a hall monitor. It was the first day of school. I followed, confused, and was told there that my brother had been hit by a car and rushed to the hospital. This upset me greatly, and most of the loose items in the front office started vibrating and rising off the desks and counters. I rushed out, grabbing my phone and calling a taxi to get me to the hospital. I used my pocket money to pay for this, thankfully, and found Mom and Dad at the emergency room pacing back and forth. My phone rang and I walked over to Mom and tapped her on the shoulder where she finally noticed me.

“Oh, Komachi. How did you get here? Nevermind. We’re waiting to hear from the doctor.” For an absentee parent she was suitably distraught.

An orderly found us in the waiting room and escorted us through several corridors to the surgery area. The doctor eventually showed up in a surgeon’s smock, with blood on it, and explained that there was a compound fracture of the lower leg but no serious nerve damage or blood vessels and several layers of stiches and surgical cement has sealed him up and he’ll be getting a cast once the surface wound healed properly. They’d only needed a local anesthetic at niisan’s insistence to stay awake. Some mild painkiller was needed so he’s groggy but awake.

My parents were relieved at this and continued to talk with the surgeon.

I went to see niisan. I found him a nearby recovery room behind some bluish curtains where the nurse finished up securing his leg in a temporary aluminum splint. There was a white bandage taped over the stitches on his leg. He was heavily bruised everywhere I could see and was pretty out of it. It reminded me of the Rhine, only with less screaming. And a lot cleaner. Fine, it wasn’t like the Rhine front at all.

“Sorry Komachi. Was a dog. Then a car. My high school debut is ruined, isn’t it? Doctor said it would be weeks before I can walk. Now I’ll never make any friends.” And he sniffled, a bunch of tears and snot flowing down his face. I haven’t see him like this since that Orimoto bitch hurt him a couple years ago.

I peered under the edge of the bandage, which was loose for the nurses to check it and put my hand near there, remembered the battlefield medicine spell from Germania, and tried it. There was a faint pink light and some of the bruising gradually vanished. Odd. I still have magic in this magic-less world. Maybe not so magicless as I’d thought. This raised questions. I kept the spell going in the area of the break and felt something improve gradually and some of the pain lines on Hachiman’s face eased. He drifted off to sleep. Let the hospital chew on that one. I know how much he loves that bicycle. I can’t have a happy brother with a broken leg and a limp.