Dreams & Memories
Part 3
By: Tisha

	Hiroshi was just climbing from his car when he saw a girl, maybe a couple years younger than 
he, running down the street. He continued to watch in wonder and confusion and then gasped as he 
saw her fall. She had fallen pretty hard so he quickly made his way across the street. The sidewalk was 
pretty empty with few people around, and the girl was still lying where she had fallen.

	He bent down and saw that she was unconscious. He checked her wrist and was glad that she 
at least had a pulse. He gently rolled her to her back and tried to shake her. She still didn't wake up, so 
he picked her up carefully and brought her to his car, laying her in the passenger seat.

	He looked over at her before starting the car and thought to himself that she was very pretty, 
but then he shook himself out of it and turned on the car. He was right between two hospitals. One 
was in Tokyo and the one in his own nearby city. He figured Tokyo would be too crowded so he took 
her to the one near his home.

	She got in quickly and a few doctors did some tests and things before finally coming out to the 
waiting room where Hiroshi was. "Are you related to her?"

	"No, I've never seen her before. I just saw her fall."

	"Do you know her name?"

	"No. Why all the questions? How is she?"

	"She's got a bit of a concussion, so it's not safe for her to sleep for long periods of time. We 
were able to get her to wake up but she doesn't seem to remember her name."

	"What, you mean she's got amnesia?"

	"It's possible with a fall like that. But she could also have a little case of shock. We're going to 
wait until morning to ask her more questions and we can figure it out then. We need you to come back 
also to answer some questions."

	He nodded. "Sure. Can I see her?"

	"I thought you didn't know her."

	"I don't. But I did bring her in and I just want to see how she is."

	"I don't think that's a good idea right now. You can see her tomorrow when we get this 
straightened out."


•••••••••••••••••••


	"What's your name?"

	The blonde's brow furrowed in mixed confusion and aggravation. "I already told you...I 
*don't* know."

	"Where do you live? Think hard."

	She thought about the question as hard as she could. She tried to think about *anything* she 
had ever done before, and nothing came to her. It was completely frustrating. She whimpered a little 
in annoyance. "I can't remember."

	The doctor wrote something on his sheet of paper. "What *do* you remember?"

	"Nothing. It's just blank."

	The doctor sighed and wrote one last thing. "I'll be back to see you later. Press that button if 
you remember anything." He indicated a button on her nightstand with a nod of his head and left.

	Hiroshi was in the waiting room, waiting for his turn at the questioning. "So you don't know 
who she is?"

	He shook his head. "What's wrong?"

	"Well, my diagnosis would be retrograde amnesia."

	"What does that mean, will she remember?"

	"Amnesia is complicated, there are always more people that have something we've never 
seen before. But most likely her case is one of the most common types. It comes from a head injury, 
obviously when she fell. They usually forget everything or only certain things. Most of the time the 
memory will come back, maybe gradually or maybe abruptly, but sometimes they never remember 
the incident that first put them into the condition."

	"But what do we do? We don't even know who she is or where she belongs. There must be 
someone looking for her."

	"But that's also the problem. You said you saw her running, right?"

	"Yes. She was running and crying. Really fast."

	"She could have been running *from* someone. We don't want to expose her to that 
person."

	"Well shouldn't her family know where she is?"

	"Hospital stuff is kept very confidential. Even if the person is a minor they could have their 
records kept secret from their own parents. If you were to find, say a news company that was 
interested in doing a broadcast to find her family, they would need her written consent. Even if there 
was a call that came in to the hospital asking about a young girl, we can't give out names unless she had 
told us we may."

	"So can I see her?"

	"Sure, do what you can."

	Hiroshi told the girl everything he knew. That she had been running. About her disease. About 
finding her family.

	She bit her lip. "I was running?" She didn't know why, but that fact made her bones chill.

	"Yeah. Are you going to give permission to try and find where you belong?"

	Just thinking about that scared her. "No. I must have been running for a reason. I have a really 
bad feeling about it."

	"Well then what are you going to do? How old are you?"

	She shrugged. "I don't know. The nurse said I was probably about 15."

	He nodded, deep in thought. "That would make you the last year of Junior High...I'm in High 
School but I live by myself in an apartment. My school is right next to the Junior High. If you want you 
could...well you could just move in with me and go to school there. I mean...just until you get your 
memories back and can go to your family."

	She looked at him. It sounded risky since she didn't know him, but then again she didn't know 
anyone right now. Somehow his blue eyes seemed familiar and kind and she thought she could trust 
him. "I...I guess that's a good idea. But if I'm going to go to school, what's my name?"

	"You see, this is fun. You can be whoever you want to be."

	She shrugged. "I don't know. You pick a name."

	He looked at her and thought about it for a minute. "How about Akina? Akina...Nakao."

	"Akina Nakao..." She tested the name on her tongue. "I like it."

	"Okay, Akina...er...can I call you Akina?"

	"Well you made it up so I don't see why not." She smiled at him. "Who are you, by the way?"

	"Hiroshi."

	"When can I leave this place?"

	"Tomorrow. You're coming home tomorrow."


•••••••••••••••••••


	"I can't believe this, *why* did we let her go?"

	"I thought she just wanted to think...I never thought she would run away."

	"No. She didn't run away, Usagi *wouldn't* do that!"

	"Rei's right."

	"And she's alive...I would feel if she wasn't."

	"Well then what's left? Did she get kidnapped?"

	There was a knock on the open temple door and everyone looked up, startled. It was 
Mamoru. "Is Usagi here?"

	The four girls and two cats exchanged looks. "We haven't seen her since last night."

	"But...Luna, you live with her."

	Luna nodded sadly. "She didn't come home. Her parents are going crazy with worry, they 
already called the police."

	"What was wrong with her, what happened?"

	"What do you mean 'what was wrong with her?'"

	"I saw her last night, she was running. She told me to let her be alone and...and I did."

	"Why has she been acting so strange? She hasn't looked me in the eyes for the past few days." 
Rei was hurt by that fact and she knew there was something more to this that they didn't know.

	"And it was weird last night the way she sad 'Why do you hate me?' and we were only asking 
her what was wrong."

	Luna decided it was time she spoke up. "I think I might know why." All eyes turned to her and 
she continued. "She had been having dreams. About four days ago she woke up screaming and told 
me that she had a dream about Rei. She was dying and...and you turned away." She looked up at Rei, 
who looked ready to cry. "I told her it was nothing, and I thought it was. From then on she hid the 
dreams from me, but I know she had more. She would wake up sweating in the middle of the night.

	"She acted afraid to go to sleep each night. I think the dreams might have been what made her 
act so strange..."

	The other six in the room were quiet as they thought about it. It really did make perfect sense. 
But most of them still didn't believe that Usagi would purposely run away because of it.

To be continued