Beginning

"The Unknown Ceiling". I muttered, looking up as I slowly woke up. The faint beeping of the heart monitor and my complete weakness told me that something serious had happened. I never went to hospitals.

I blinked.

I could see the ceiling... I wasn't wearing glasses. I haven't seen anything so clearly more than a foot away from my face without glasses in ten years.

Too many years of staring at a computer screen could cause this.

"What?" – I asked, my throat feeling dry, but I immediately felt even more nervous than before.

It wasn't my voice.

I jumped up and gasped as I realized I could barely move. I blew the air out of my lungs, letting out a shocked gasp. The heart rate monitor started beeping and my heart rate skyrocketed.

Moments later, a doctor came into my room dressed in the strangest clothes I had ever seen, his face covered with a plastic face shield so I couldn't see! He quickly took care of me. My breathless questions were ignored with clinical detachment. Until suddenly I felt like I was losing consciousness. The doctor... He drugged meeeee.

Since waking up from the coma, I've learned a few things.

One. I wasn't myself. Or I was me who wasn't me. Things got complicated, so I stopped thinking about it. I am myself, that is, I was myself. Good enough.

Second. It wasn't my land. My house. My people.

I definitely didn't cry though. Fuck you.

Third. The thing that explained everything. The year was 1994. I wasn't in New York. No, it was . Something the doctor explained brusquely when everyone realized I was suffering from "amnesia" from being in a coma.

Gotham though? It was something I knew. DC Universe. I knew everything about Gotham. That alone scared me more than anything because it meant I was in danger. My body felt worse than atrophy. The doctors refused to explain what had actually happened to me, simply saying that my family would explain everything when they arrived.

That it's not their job.

This made me feel even more powerless. Realizing that these doctors caring for me literally didn't care about me. I wasn't even pretending.

Fortunately, my "family" arrived about four hours after I woke up for the second time.

I spent most of those few hours lying in bed, unable to get up into a sitting position, playing with my eyes.

Until the door suddenly opened. The noise from the corridor suddenly broke through the soundproofing.

Although I realized that the soundproofing was probably more about keeping noise from inside the rooms to the outside rather than the other way around.

But a man entered the room, practically pushing past one of the doctors, swearing at him in Japanese, which my mind immediately translated into English without even thinking.

"Bastard! Get out of my face! Don't think I won't cut you!" He cursed as the doctor seemed to finally back down a bit. The man who came in was, well, an older teenager. I could still see the youth on his face as he tried to grow an ugly beard.

But it was the outfit, the style. The fact that he had an Oni mask around his neck, having apparently taken it off when he entered, stood out strongly in my mind.

Yakuza Tiger Claws? This guy was a gangster. A Japanese gang straight from Akira.

"Imouto." He said his voice became a little softer when he noticed me looking at him.

I blinked and raised my hand to point to my face. "I?"

He blinked in response, looking surprised. His hair, which glowed with different colors as if it were made of fire, caught my attention even as the boy turned to the doctor.

The fact that he had a damn sword on his hip was probably why the doctor quickly put his hands up. "Like I tried to tell you before you came in. Your sister appears to be suffering from short-term amnesia due to the coma... Or the circumstances that led her there. Based on our tests, we did not detect any brain damage. So he'll probably recover. "

"Cholera!" He cursed in Japanese, which I immediately translated, before he seemed to remove his hand from his Katana and walked over to my bed.

Despite myself, I felt a hint of fear on his glaring face and even flinched a little as he got closer, causing him to slow down and his face began to light up as I saw lines of metal covering his cheeks, making it look like he had tiger fangs on his cheeks.

"You… You don't have to worry, Motoko. You are safe. I'm sorry." He whispered, taking a seat and just staring at me for a moment, as if he was expecting something.

"Motoko?" I asked. This was something new. "Is that me?" I couldn't help but add.

He looked at me in shock for a moment, then raised his hand and rubbed his face, trying to recover from his surprise. "Yes. You are Kusanagi Motoko. My little sister… No… Don't be afraid Imouto. I made sure everything would be fine."

Motoko Kusanagi? Like Ghost in the Shell? I reached up weakly to check my hair. Black. Not purple. Cholera. That would be pretty cool. I gave him a small nod. What else was I supposed to do? I think it was my older brother? I mean, I didn't even know his name...

"What's your name?" I asked a little weakly, mostly because I felt it wouldn't be well received. This wasn't the boy who looked like I had just stabbed him.

" Yuto . Kusanagi Yuto . "Your big brother."

"June". I agreed immediately and he snorted when I said it.

"Tell Yuto-Nii, I'm your brother."

"Yuto-Nii, then." I agreed without any problem.

He frowned slightly as I fell silent, just looking at him. He was restless, tapping out a rhythm, and his hands never moved. He wore a neon green jacket with Asian dragons on it, and looked every inch like a member of a Japanese motorcycle gang on his shoulders. The chest tattoos I saw under the armor vest? Yes, he had them too.

This guy was straight out of Akira. If Tetsuo started screaming, I'd be out of here. I decided, nodding to myself, which seemed to get his attention because he was just staring as I watched him.

"The people who kidnapped you are dead. Mostly. Just hold on tight. You'll be out of the hospital soon." He told me firmly, standing. Apparently unable to sit still anymore, he left the hospital room in a hurry, and as the door closed behind him, I could just hear his raised voice talking to the doctor before it closed and cut me off from the outside again.

How strange.

—--

"This is a house." He told me three days later when apparently the insurance company had decided that now that I was no longer in a coma they would no longer pay.

Welcome to Gotham. He picked me up in a strange Ford Econoline car . I found out from the badge on the car. Basically a van. But one that was as cheap as could be. "I borrowed it from a neighbor. "Your wheelchair wouldn't fit on my bike." He informed me, sounding embarrassed, that he was driving this thing, but he helped me inside, put my new wheelchair in the back, and wheeled me from the hospital parking lot into the city. The city was very crowded, smelly, and dangerous.

A city where anyone can die at any time and no one really cares.

I shuddered at the thought.

But then he pulled me out of my fears by pulling into the garage. To be honest, this part of town was 80% full of garbage and garbage and 20% neon.

It felt incredibly surreal as Jun pushed me along the sidewalks, glaring at anyone who dared to give me a second glance, and pushed me down the street towards a building that looked like any other to me.

"This is a house. Do you remember him?" He asked again. It prompted me in the introspective moments I participated in.

"NO. It looks like everything else." I told him. Looking over my shoulder, I saw him frowning. "This has been our home for years, ever since Oka-san and Otou-san died." He tells me and I nod.

I guess I would have had parents then. I went back to looking ahead as he wheeled me to the entrance. When we entered, two older Asian guys were playing some board game in the corner to my left. The hall was dimly lit and a bit smoky.

I wrinkled my nose slightly at the smell.

What a dump.Yuto took us to the elevator which, to my surprise, worked and pressed the button for the third floor.

The door to the left of the elevator was ours. He pulled me inside, and I couldn't help but look around with interest. It was a small apartment, full of lots of Asian things. Posters for Asian music bands. Trinkets. A place to light incense directly in front of us as we entered.

I noticed that it was a strange mix of ancient and modern fashion. The whole place. The apartment, this neighborhood, it all had that feeling.

"House." He spoke as he wheeled me around. The bedroom was on our right. A single large room with the odd bed arrangement that Gotham seemed to like. It did, however, contain a small closet-like room that was apparently my own bedroom.

I blinked as I entered, as the entire room was full of Tyger Claw memorabilia.

"I really liked Tiger Claws, didn't I?" I asked him and yuto laughed.

"Of course! Our family has been part of the gang since Otou-san was your age. We have always been with them. You were… You too will join them when you recover and regain your strength." a little older." He assured me he was trying to sound confident. But I detected hesitation.

I heard the doctors. They didn't bother hiding my circumstances during the three days of silence.

Triad. These are the sort of people who in any other century would be considered grave robbers. At least that's what we would call them if they were actually waiting for someone to die first.

They were kidnappers. People who were looking for easy organ targets. Even if that person was still alive.

This is what happened to me. That's why my body was so messed up after the coma. They didn't bother to be gentle while preparing to extract the organs. Even though I was apparently "rescued" later.

I still don't know how. I didn't have the heart to broach this topic with Yuto. Any mention of my circumstances made him furious and look like he was ready to commit... well, murder.

Anyway, between the Triad and the coma, my body was fucked up. Weak as a kitten. I couldn't even walk without help. Not that the hospital cared.

"Oh, here." Yuto offered to put my bag of stuff on the table next to my small bed in my small bedroom with a walk-in closet. "Your things…everything you had with you when you came to the hospital. I don't know... I don't know if this will help, but maybe it will refresh your memory. I love you "Toko". He said softly, pressing a kiss to the top of my head as he seemed to once again become too nervous to stand around. He left the room, stomping a little.

Poor child. His younger sister is kidnapped, falls into a coma and wakes up with amnesia.

Strict.

Well, I might as well. Maybe I'll learn a little about who I was. About Motoko.

I opened the bag and grimaced. Yes. Tyger Claw fangirl. Each piece of clothing had an icon or sticker of a Japanese motorcycle gang on it. Or something. Jacket with a tiger on the back.

How original. At least it looked warm. I looked through these things. Much to my discomfort, the clothes were… well, they didn't look great. As if they were worn when a girl was kidnapped For example, the pair of socks in the bag was essentially brown. Even if they were originally white.

I grimaced as I decided to throw them away.

I hoped it was just my blood, but I had a feeling it wasn't stained with "just" my blood. A bit bored, I decided to finish it. Putting my socks aside, I pulled out my jacket, which looked a little rough, and placed it on the desk.

I don't think yuto is very rich, so I'd probably have to deal with it anyway.

Shoes. Pants that were hard to look at given their neon appearance. Then I found the real stuff at the bottom. A small bag with some SD memory cards. There were two of them, I have no idea what was on them. Several pieces of jewelry. After looking at the piercing for a few moments, I realized it was probably a nose ring. Did my nose have a hole? I would have to check later.

Then downstairs. A small matter. It was a strange thing because it was unlike anything else she had. This case was smooth and flawless. One word at the top in Japanese. 'Gema.' Player." I repeated. After a while in English. After opening the case, there was an SD card inside which sparked when touched. *Initizing the player's system.*