Chapter 16 – Sleeping Prince ⑤
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Early in the morning of the day after Yuuta was transferred to Lilith’s research institute, Aoi and the other girls went to the institute as soon as they got out of bed and wanted to confirm Yuuta’s safety. The opening hours of the Institute of Genetics started at 9 a.m., but when they were told by the other staff that no one would be at Lilith’s institute before 11 a.m., the girls went back to their hotel for the time being.
And then, as soon as the clock hit 11 a.m., they visited the institute once more.
“First off, there is nothing wrong with his body. I share the opinion of the Yoshiwara’s doctors on this,” Lilith informed the group about the results of her examinations while somewhat sleepily rubbing her eyes.
“Last night I couldn’t find out about the reason for him remaining unconscious. There are still several things I want to examine, but one of them would be…,” Lilith looked at Aoi’s group once, “…I was wondering, how about trying to have Yuuta-sama meet Suzune-san.”
“Wh-!? Why!?”
The one to cry out right away was Aoi. Suzune was the culprit of the incident which caused Yuuta to black out during last year’s excursion. Although he’s currently sleeping, it’s unthinkable for her to let Suzune meet Yuuta.
“If the reason for Yuuta-sama not regaining his consciousness lies in the incident during his first year at junior high school, he might show some sort of reaction, if we have him meet and listen to Suzune-san, the other party related to that incident.”
“What are you going to do if Yuuta-sama’s consciousness plummets beyond unconsciousness because of that?”
“Aoi-sama, can you scientifically prove that a consciousness can plummet beyond unconsciousness?”
“T-That’s…”
“It’s merely a proposal from me. If you dislike the idea, I won’t mind it either.”
Aoi and the others couldn’t help but feel uneasy about letting Suzune meet with Yuuta. There might be some sort of reaction, just as Lilith said, but they couldn’t believe that it’d be a good reaction.
Only Ayaka thought differently about this. But that was probably owed to her possessing more information than the others. Aoi, Manami, Yukishiro, and Tomoe were aware that Yuuta’s memories were manipulated. They were aware that this wasn’t the accurate truth, but since they were told by Yuuta about it, they had no choice but to believe his words. Because of that, they couldn’t agree to him meeting Suzune, the root cause of the painful memories he was trying to block as he didn’t want to remember them.
Unlike them, Ayaka knew the truth. A personality had been reconstructed in Yuuta from the genetic information of an Old World’s man…or to use Lilith’s words, they had their souls fused. Not being able to precisely recall the memories of the incident while getting headaches whenever he tried was a fact, but even Lilith hadn’t foreseen that.
The soul fusion has succeeded. In that case, it’s impossible for Yuuta to possess memories he can’t recall, nor should he experience headaches. It’s not as if Lilith has intentionally sealed his memories.
But, who did it then? It can only be the previous Yuuta…the being Yuuta has called Yuuta-kun.
It’s going to be a drastic measure, but trying to let Suzune meet Yuuta, as Lilith suggested, might trigger some sort of response from Yuuta.
Ayaka didn’t think that the reaction would be bad by all means.
“What do you plan to do in case we let him meet with Suzune-san, but his consciousness doesn’t return nor does he show any reaction to it?”
Ayaka asked Lilith with a voice as calm as she could muster.
“There are several things I’d like to test besides letting him meet with Suzune-san. But, if all of those fail, I would suggest taking Yuuta-sama……to Mir as a last resort.”
Everyone, including Ayaka, was lost for words.
Why? Why did the name of Mir pop up here?
While confused, Yukishiro asked with a trembling voice, “W-Why would you t-take Yuuta-sama t-to Mir?”
“An acquainted scientist of mine lives in Mir. Her field of expertise are memories. She possesses equipment that is only available in Mir. Bringing Yuuta to her and having her examine his memory domain to search for the cause should be an effective method.”
“N-No way…”
This came out of the blue. It wasn’t as though they hated Mir, but it was true that they had difficulties coming to terms with Mir’s culture. Moreover, there was the case with Layla as well. Aoi and the other girls couldn’t help but worry. No, rather than worry, it’d be more correct to call it a rejection.
“I think you have various worries about taking Yuuta-sama to Mir. Moreover, you people won’t be allowed to be present when she looks at Yuuta-sama’s memory domain over there. Will you be able to leave Yuuta-sama in her care?”
The girls’ faces turned pale upon Lilith’s question. It was a proposal they hadn’t foreseen and didn’t want to foresee either.
“Well, I consider this to be the last resort. I don’t want to leave our precious Yuuta-sama to Mir either. For this reason, I’d like to try whatever I can, but…”
In other words, she was telling them that she wanted to try having Suzune meet Yuuta. Basically she was saying, letting Yuuta meet Suzune should be more acceptable as a compromise for them than taking him to Mor.
“I will be extremely cautious when letting Yuuta-sama meet with Suzune-san. If there’s even the slightest irregularity in his response, I will have Suzune-san leave the room right away. How about this?”
“……”
Aoi had a very heavy heart about transferring Yuuta to Lilith’s institute. Last night she couldn’t sleep for the most part either. As she wondered whether he was suffering in some way or if Yuuta was being examined properly all night long, she could hardly catch some rest. And even though she came here as soon as dawn broke, she couldn’t meet Yuuta. But when she was finally able to meet him after some time passed, Yuuta was still asleep.
And now she was confronted with two options she didn’t even want to think about: letting Yuuta meet the criminal who attacked him, or taking Yuuta to Mir.
Just thinking about these choices gave her a pain as if her chest was stabbed by thousands of needles. A pain she had never experienced in her life assailed Aoi’s heart. She wanted to scream and take Yuuta back home with her right now.
Maybe he’s going to wake up at some point, if he’s nursed at my family’s hospital.
Her heart was yelling at her that it’d be best to ignore everything in front of her and do as she believed to be correct.
But.
There was another voice in her mind, warning her and asking whether this would really be the best for Yuuta. The pained voice brought about by her reason, and the sweet voice whispered by her instincts were duking it inside her, causing Aoi’s heart to suffer either way.
“Aoi-sama……”
Manami gently hugged Aoi from behind. Just by looking at it, she could tell that Aoi’s trembling was so intense like she’d never seen on her friend. Yukishiro hugged Aoi as well. Being hugged by those two girls, Aoi couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.
“W-Why……gh….why……”
Why did she have to choose between two such painful options? She couldn’t and didn’t want to rely on someone else. What she had to decide here was about Yuuta’s fate. As his fiancée and the one with the closest relation to Yuuta, she had to make the call.
While Yuuta, on whom she wanted to rely, was asleep.
When it came to the necessity of deciding something about Yuuta here and now, it’d be Aoi’s duty.
Even if Yuuta’s consciousness didn’t come back as a result of that.
And even if Yuuta…died as an outcome of her decision.
She was too inexperienced to be called an adult, but she wasn’t child enough to be called a girl either. Big tears rolled down from Aoi’s eyes. She crouched down on the spot while holding the handkerchiefs, which Yukishiro and Manami were pressing against her cheeks, with both hands.
She stifled her crying as she couldn’t afford to cry…to cry in front of Yuuta.
Tears were also flowing from the eyes of Yukishiro and Manami as they supported Aoi from both sides. The same applied to Tomoe and Ayaka.
For a while, only the sobbing of the women could be heard inside the room. Meanwhile Lilith silently watched them.
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No matter how much time passed, Aoi and the others probably wouldn’t calm down. It wouldn’t change the fact that both of the offered plans were hard to swallow.
Even so, Aoi stood up after a while. It looked as if her tears had stopped. But, as soon as she was about to talk to Lilith, they started to come out again. This repeated three times. At last, during the fourth time, Aoi managed to squeeze out some words with a trembling voice.
“T-There are still s-some things you w-want to examine…b-before letting S-Suzune-san meet with Y-Yuuta-sama, right?”
“Yes.”
“Please do those first.”
“Of course.”
“Should Yuuta-sama still not wake up…w-we will try…to make h-him meet S-Suzune-san.”
Aoi chose to let Yuuta meet Suzune instead of taking him back to a Yoshiwara hospital. It would be simple to take him there, but afterwards she would have no other choice but to wait for Yuuta to wake up.
Even though the Yoshiwara doctors had examined Yuuta while using cutting-edge medical technology, they couldn’t do anything for him. As such, she’d be doomed to waiting.
Is that truly alright?
Aoi had rejected her heart’s voice which had clung to a simple hope while refusing change.
“It will be necessary to bring Suzune-san here. If I remember correctly, she’s…”
The one continuing Lilith’s words was Tomoe.
“…being imprisoned in the Kanagawa Prison for First-Class Criminals.”
“It will also be necessary to talk with the government to bring her here. Let’s have this pass through Boss.”
“I will tell her,” offered Ayaka.
Albeit temporarily, they’d take a criminal, who had been imprisoned for life as a First-Class Criminal, out of her prison. Since it’d be impossible to do this through official procedures, they had no choice but to have it handled as exceptional measurement in a behind-closed-doors-deal via Boss.
Ayaka left the room to contact Boss and then came back after some time.
“Boss says she would like to have three days to talk with the involved offices.”
“That’s plenty for me to examine Yuuta-sama.”
“But, she says she doesn’t know whether Suzune-san will agree to meet Yuuta-sama.”
“Well, that makes sense. Even for her, this will sound like something impossible. We won’t be able to tell her the details of Yuuta-sama’s condition until she’s brought here…I really would prefer them bringing her here after persuading her skillfully, but…”
Tomoe strongly felt that those words were directed at her and thus she said, “I will go. I’m acquainted with Suzune-san…”
And then she looked at Aoi, “Aoi-sama, please leave it to me.”
Aoi also believed that it’d be best for Tomoe to bring Suzune here.
“Please do…Tomoe-onee-sama.”
“Yes.”
Thus they started to move in order to make Yuuta meet with Suzune. Ayaka decided to head to Kanagawa Prison together with Tomoe. She was unsure whether Tomoe alone would be able to remain calm when meeting Suzune.
Lilith continued her examinations of Yuuta after that. The girls around Aoi decided to return to their hotel.
But before they could leave, Lilith said to them, as if having just remembered it, “Ah, please wait a moment.”
They stopped in response.
“Could I have you come back here tonight?”
“Eh?”
If they could meet Yuuta, they’d come here anytime, regardless of the time of the day. But, they couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind Lilith’s words. Why did she tell them to come back at night?
“I’d like to request your help with a few of my examinations.”
“O-Okay!”
Finer details were irrelevant when it came to the possibility of helping with Yuuta’s examinations.
“Okay, please be here around 8 p.m. then.”
“I understand.”
“I will leave this card here with you. The institute will likely be closed at that time, but please use the card to come inside.”
In the evening Lilith instructed her staff members to clean Yuuta’s body.
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