Upside Down 19 Chapter 17: Revelation Part 1

When we arrive back in Dr. Sasaki's office, she is waiting for us.

"Sora, Chinatsu, why don't you go ahead and make yourselves comfortable." She tells us with a smile.

We step past her and take a seat on the loveseat. After she closes the door she walks over to the desk and picks up a digital recorder and small metallic looking item about 1cm in diameter. She then walks over to me. Setting down and turning on the recorder, she turns her attention to us.

"You two can call me Airi. Sora, this is a Delta wave inducer. All this does is help you relax and slip in a hypnotic state. Chinatsu, you can continue to hold her hand, but once we start you need to stay quiet and not move around, okay?"

"Okay, I can do that. Those aren't dangerous are they?"

"No Chinatsu, they aren't. The inducers have been in use for a long time with no side-effects."

"Sora, I need you to lean back and get comfortable. I'm going to place this on your temple. It won't hurt at all and you probably won't even notice it after a few moments."

I lean back against the loveseat and take a deep breath. I glance at Chinatsu, she smiles at me and squeezes my hand. I smile back and return my attention to Airi, who places the inducer on my temple and taps it. I can feel a faint vibration for a moment and then nothing.

Moments later, my eyelids begin drooping…

[Airi's POV]

"Sora, can you hear me?"

"Yes Airi."

"Sora, I want you make a safe place for yourself. You will be relaxed and calm while there. Nothing other than my voice can reach you there. Do you understand?"

"Yes Airi, I understand."

"Good. I want you to go there now. While you are there, you will become even more relaxed and at ease. You will also immediately go to your safe place if I, and I alone, ever tell you the word 'Camarilla.' Do you understand Sora?"

"Yes Airi, I understand."

"Sora, the whole time we are talking you will be like an outsider looking at your memories, they will not be able to affect you. You will remain calm and emotionally detached throughout this. Do you understand Sora?"

"Yes Airi, I understand."

"Sora, do you remember the incident with Mr. Akiyama on Sat.u.r.day evening?"

"Yes Airi."

"Was that the first time you had ever met Mr. Akiyama?"

"No Airi, I have seen him many times before."

"Do you know why you were so frightened by him?"

"Yes Airi. When I was six he choked me and threw me into a wall."

I see Chinatsu start to react to what Sora just told us and make a shus.h.i.+ng gesture to her. I understand her reaction though, I'm horrified myself. In this world where children are so precious, he does something like that to a 6 year old. Saying it's sickening is putting it far too mildly.

"Sora, could you tell me more about that incident?"

"Yes Airi. One evening when Mother, Father and I were watching TV, Mr. Akiyama came over. He started arguing with my Mother and Father. He said they were destroying research. Mother tried to ask him how they could do that since all the labs and offices had security cameras. He accused them of trying to take over the company and oust him as the CEO. Mother and Father denied trying to do anything like that. He ignored them and started screaming about them needing to work longer hours and stay at the labs more. When they told him that wasn't going to happen because they needed to be here for me at night, he picked me up by my throat and choked me. He told them he would kill me right then and there and they wouldn't have to worry about ever coming home if they didn't obey him."

I look at Chinatsu, who has tears streaming down her cheeks, doing her best to stay still and not interrupt the session like I asked her. I understand her reaction all too well, I feel like crying myself. After hearing this, I'm actually surprised Sora's even remotely stable or functional in any capacity. It's no wonder her mind repressed the memory of the incident.

Sora continues telling us about that night, "When they agreed to do what he said, he threw me into a wall. It dislocated my shoulder and gave me a concussion. He then told them if they ever disobeyed him, heard they were hiding anything from him, or they ever told the police about this that he would kill all three of us. That was the last time I ever saw him until Sat.u.r.day. I rarely ever saw my parents after that incident."

"Sora, how did that make you feel?"

"I was terrified."

"Sora, did that change how you saw people?"

"Yes Airi. I felt as if people would be like him, except for Chinatsu and her parents. I thought no matter how nice they were they would eventually hurt me like he did. I no longer felt like I could trust people."

"Sora, were there any other incidents like this to make you feel this way?"

"No Airi, not like that one, but lots of other people reinforced my belief it was true. Everytime it happened I became more insecure, timid, and soon I was afraid of almost everything."

"Sora, were there any other reasons that caused you to be so afraid of people?"

"No Airi, I just become more withdrawn and less willing to interact with people every time something would happen."

I need to talk to Sora's parents and let them know what we found out. We are going to have to call the police as well. I need to give a little more thought on how to deal with this for her as well. I'm fairly sure standard therapy will be of little help for her, this is simply too deeply ingrained in her psyche at this point.

"Sora, I'm going to count from 3 to 1. When I reach 1, you will wake up, but you will remember none of what has happened in this session until I tell you to do so. Do you understand?"

"Yes Airi, I understand."

I pick up the box of tissues beside me and hand them to Chinatsu.

"Chinatsu, I need you to not tell Sora about this session for right now. I know it's going to be hard, but please act as if you know nothing about what happened for the moment. Okay?"

Chinatsu nods while wiping away her tears. I wait, giving her the time she needs to compose herself.

"Thank you Chinatsu. I fairly sure you are the only reason Sora is able to even be this normal. I think most people in her situation would have completely withdrawn into themselves."

She nods again.

"3… 2… 1."

Sora opens her eyes and looks at me.

"How do you feel Sora?"

"Fine. Actually, great."

"Would you two mind going out to the waiting room? I need to speak to your parents for a few minutes."

"Sure."

"Okay."

"Thank you."

I go to the door and let them through, while I ask their parents to come in. After they walk past me, I close the door after them.

Stepping over to the chair, I sit down, close my eyes, and take a deep breath. When I open them, they are looking at me curiously.

"Okay. I will play back the recording I made of this session I had with Sora. That will be a lot easier and more convincing than anything I can say. By the way, I made it to where Sora will remember nothing of our session until I tell her to and asked Chinatsu to not tell her about it either. I believe it would far too traumatic for her if I hadn't done it that way."

I lean forward and start the playback of the recording. As it plays back Mrs. Kobayas.h.i.+ starts crying and going by the look on his face Mr. Kobayas.h.i.+ wants to kill Akiyama, not that I don't understand how he feels. Anyone that would do that to a child doesn't deserve to live in my opinion.

After the recording finishes, I lean forward and press stop. Leaning back in my seat, I take a breath and slowly let it out while waiting for them to compose themselves.

It takes a while for Haruka to calm down. I can easily see that Eiji is still furious, but he isn't letting it control him.

"First, let me start by saying I realize how hard this revelation must be for you. Second, I'm required by law to report this, but I also know this case is far from ordinary. Even so, I hope you do allow me to report this. That man needs pay for what he has done."

"Dr. Sasaki…"

I hold my hand up to stop him. "Airi please. I'm not much of one to stand on t.i.tles and such, they tend to get in the way in my business. If you don't mind I will call you Eiji and Haruka as well."

They both nod.

"Airi it is then. Please do call the police. Sora's parents' death was suspicious in the first place. The police told me as much after the investigation, but they couldn't find anything that would allow them to dig deeper. This will allow them to do that, in addition to putting him on trial for what he did to Sora."

He takes a deep breath and continues, "That said, what do we do to help Sora now?"

"I've been thinking about that. At this point, I believe the damage from the trauma is too deeply ingrained to be dealt with with by normal means. What I'm going to recommend is going to seem slightly radical, but you are welcome to seek other opinions if you wish. I believe we should separate Sora. She would still have all her memories, she just wouldn't have to deal with the trauma they would normally induce."

"I'm sorry, but I guess I don't follow what you mean."

"It's okay Haruka. What I mean is, I think we should separate him and her. He will be the one with the trauma and the fallout from that. Basically, we will be disa.s.sociating her from all of this. She will still know it happened because she will have all the same memories, but it will be like it happened to someone else with no emotional impact on her. Her fear of people, timidity and everything else that developed from the trauma will be something that happened to him, not her."

I pause to take a deep breath and continue, "She will still have the issues we previously talked about concerning redeveloping her sense of self, but even that should be far easier for her to do without the other issues overshadowing her. One of the main reasons I'm making this recommendation is that seems to be how she is dealing with remaking her ident.i.ty already. She has already started to consciously separate herself and himself. Using her own words she told me earlier today, 'I have to become a new me.' She has already been doing quite a good job at this already. I'm sure you have seen this for yourselves."

"Just how radical is this?"

"Well, Eiji, it's not as radical as you might think. This has been in regular use for more than 40 years, but usually only used in fairly extreme circ.u.mstances. I think this qualifies in that respect."

He looks at Haruka and she asks me, "Are you sure this is the right way to do this?"

"I believe so or I wouldn't have made the recommendation. Honestly, if we tried a traditional approach here, it might be decades, if ever, for her to be able to live a somewhat normal life. As I said this is far too deeply embedded within her psyche to be dealt with easily."

She looks at her husband and nods. He sighs and turns to me. "Okay Airi. All we want is for Sora to be happy and safe. If this is the best way to help her then lets do it. When were you wanting to do this?"

I glance at my watch and think for a moment.

"It's 2:15 now and I already cleared my schedule for the day, so if you and she are willing, we can do it today. Even after I do this, you should bring her in to talk to me if she seems to be having trouble, but at least once a month for a while, so I can see if she is coping alright and make any minor adjustments if necessary."

"We are fine with today, if Sora is too."

"Okay, let's call them back in here and explain everything. We can go from there."