Chapter Text
Kazuma Asogi didn’t really remember what happened on that ship.
He knew an accident had happened where he broke his neck, and he knew what happened after he woke up, but his memories of the trip itself were foggy, at best. Even after having recovered from his amnesia, he just couldn’t bring himself to remember that time.
It wasn’t the only period of his life that was missing from his mind, either. A lot of his teenage years had just… disappeared to him, but he was pretty certain that had always been the case. He sometimes questioned if he was like Mr. Vigil about that. Certainly a thought, but he didn’t give it much weight. If it was the case, he'd rather it stay like this.
His memory problems didn’t stop there, though. He found himself forgetting a lot of things in the short term. It was incredibly annoying, to say the least, but he had found a way to deal with it. He had a notebook where he wrote down anything he needed to keep in mind and regularly checked it. Sometimes, he would see something written there and not understand what past him meant by it. It was slightly amusing, at times.
Another thing that came off as a consequence of his injury were terrible headaches attacking him with no warning. Sometimes, he could live with those, but that was the exception. Most of the time, when that dense pain came to him, he could barely function. He had found out that laying down with low light and maybe taking a nap helped, but still…
Having to stop, having to just lay down and do nothing was something he hated. Time he could have spent doing something useful, something amongst the many things he needed to do, went to waste in exchange for simply… nothing. There was almost an anxiety to it.
To top it off, Lord van Zieks wouldn’t let him work when he had those headaches, and even if he was right for once, having to do what that man told him was so, so frustrating. With the law it was fine, he was a top notch prosecutor and Kazuma respected him in that regard, but in other aspects of life? Absolutely not.
There was also the lack of balance and coordination. It was… annoying, and embarrassing to some extent. Tripping over himself, dropping things, walking into walls… It was all part of his day to day now.
He should probably get something for that, but he didn’t really trust doctors, at least not British ones. His situation was complicated, to say the least.
Still, he was happy with the progress he had made.
“‘Ey, K, ya ok?”
A side effect of everything else was the way others reacted to his issues.
“Yes, don’t worry… It’s just- a headache,” he explained, tripping over his words. Goddamnit, it was bad.
“Ya sure? Ya look pretty bad to me…”
“I can handle it. Don’t you have homework to do, anyway?”
“Don‘t boss me around, ‘ey!”
“Lord van Zieks is going to kill you. Come on.” Gina was… complicated, but he really couldn’t blame her. She had gone through a lot, especially these past few months. He wasn’t going to admit it, but he felt sorry for her. “I can help if you want.”
Speaking of Lord van Zieks, he also found himself worried for Kazuma, a thing he hated. He didn’t want a man such as him to pity him, but still…
It happened right after Guilds’ trial. It had gone well, with them securing a guilty verdict extremely fast, but as they were walking out of the Old Bailey, Kazuma suddenly lost his balance.
Before he realised it, his feet had failed him and he was close to falling, and he would have fallen, if it wasn’t for certain someone stopping him.
“Asogi, is everything in order?” Van Zieks asked. He was… genuinely worried? It was weird.
“Yes, it- just happens,” was Kazuma’s response.
“I noticed. Have you considered getting aid for this issue?”
“What do you mean!?”
“Calm down, Asogi. It’s just… something I remember my brother told me.” He paused for a moment. “You could use a cane.”
He hated to admit it, he really did, but Van Zieks was right.
He had gone over and bought a pretty nice one for him and god above, it really helped. His balance was still poor, but now he had an extra support and suddenly, a weight lifted from his shoulders.
It would take some time before he got used to it, but he had already carved out his name in the cane, a nice and clean 亜双義 一真.
Y’know, maybe things could get better.
