Chapter Text
One step after another. He stared at the impressions his feet made in the sand, digging his toes into it to stop himself from falling over. Why was he wearing only one shoe? Where was he going anyways? The sun had risen only a few hours ago, or had it only been a few minutes? How long had he been walking for? His trek was noted by the yard of footsteps behind him, though it was useless to worry about that. There was no point in going forward if you had nowhere to go to. There would be no point in going back either. It was just him, his tattered clothes, the stretching beach, and the gentle shushing of the sea that felt nostalgic to him in an odd way. Well, all that and the girl with the pink hair that was heading straight towards him.
Wait, what?
“Hey!” The girl called out to him. Her walking turned into a run as she got close enough to see the blood, “Woah, hey, are you alright?”
“Me?”
She giggled, “I don’t see anyone else here. I like coming out here early enough to avoid the crowds. I think you need a hospital.”
A hospital. He looked at his hands, “Oh. I don’t feel like I’m going to die.”
“You don’t look too good either. We should probably stop the bleeding before I call an ambulance.” She grabbed his hand, making sure not to hurt him.
“...Oh,” was all he could think to reply with. There was something about the pink-haired girl with her clearly self-cut bangs that forced him to look at her. His stare was noticed, but she only smiled in return. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling if he wanted to, “Who are you?”
“Yasuho Hirose! Who are you?”
“Who am I?”
“Yeah. What’s your name?”
“I don’t know.”
Yasuho froze, “You… don’t know your name?”
He could only shrug in response. Part of him felt embarrassed that it was the best he could offer, but the larger part of him seemed to care otherwise. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t recall a thing past the last few hours, or at least, he didn’t think so. People didn’t usually give themselves amnesia on purpose. That’s how he felt, at least.
“Oh… How about I give you a name then? At least, we’ll have something to call you until we find out your real identity.”
“We?” He asked, once again feeling like an idiot.
Yasuho smiled wider as she held onto his hand, “What? You think I’m going to just abandon you to deal with your lack of memory on your own like some jerk? Of course I’m going to help you- completely free of charge.”
“That’s good. I don’t know how much money I have.”
She laughed and he laughed as well. It was a nice feeling. Yasuho shook his hand as if they made a deal (Did they?) and inspected him, “You look a little bit like my old dog. Is that rude to say?”
“Is your dog cute?”
“He was the cutest. I got him when he was just a little puppy.”
“As long as you don’t call me Fido or something.”
Yasuho laughed, cutting herself off as she remembered that she was holding the hand of a man who was bleeding somewhat badly. At least, he hoped that was why she stopped herself from laughing. Her face morphed into a somewhat serious one, “No, I wouldn’t do that to you. His name was Josuke. My little brother has a friend with the exact same name so it’s not like it’ll be weird if you use it.”
“Josuke.” It felt good on his tongue. On Josuke’s tongue. He tried it out a few more times before he was satisfied with it, “I like it.”
“I like it too. Alright, Josuke, let’s get you…” Her voice trailed off, “This is going to sound weird. Can I have your shirt?”
It did sound weird, though Josuke withheld his judgment for now as he pulled his somewhat tattered shirt off. He felt relieved it wasn’t anything worth mourning over as he handed it over to Yasuho, who started pulling it to strips. She reassured him that she passed a first aid class a few months ago as she started to inspect his wounds. From the way she reacted, he could tell he looked much worse than he felt. There were a few cuts on his arm and one across his torso. Yasuho took a moment when her hands skimmed his abs, which were slightly toned. Did he work out? The most worrying cut was the one across his eyes, reaching down his cheek. His eye seemed to be usable, but he had a feeling it would leave a scar behind.
“It won’t look too bad.” Yasuho commented as if she could read his mind.
“What?”
“The scar on your face.”
Josuke stared at her, “How did you know what I was thinking?”
“I’m psychic!”
“What?”
“Just kidding! I figured that’d be something I would be thinking about if I was in your place. I think it looks kind of cool, honestly.” She replied.
“Really?”
“Yeah! Like some kind of action hero.”
That made Josuke feel better about it. He reached up to feel the cut on his face, tracing it down his cheek. There was some blood stained onto his skin. Was blood easy to wash off skin? Did he ever have reason to know the answer to that? Josuke’s chest constricted at the realization he had no way of knowing for now. Was anyone even looking for him? How long had he been gone? Josuke’s distress must have been obvious, or perhaps Yasuho truly was psychic. She took his hand once more and squeezed it in an attempt to comfort. A good attempt, though Josuke’s mind was still filled with worry.
“Hey,” Her voice was quiet and soothing, “Remember what I said earlier? I’m not going to leave you alone like some jerk.”
“It’s all I can remember.”
“What’s the first thing you can remember?”
Josuke wanted to point out how much of a Herculean task that was, but instead, he put his focus into attempting to search through his memory. What was left of his memory, at least. He closed his eyes as he thought back. There was the cool blue of the sky as the night turned to day. The whispering of the ocean. The sand beneath his feet. “I remember walking,” He said, eyes still closed, “I remember the sunrise and the sea breeze. I remember seeing my blood for the first time and I… remember not being able to remember.”
“That’s a lot of things you remember.”
“You remember more things.”
“But so will you. This is just your save plus file!”
“My what?”
Yasuho started walking with him, still holding onto his hand, “Save plus file. My little brother and his friend’s play a lot of video games. See, in some video games, when you finish the game, you get the option to start over in a new file. But! In order to keep things interesting, you get to keep all the skills you learned so you can get your character to be even stronger.”
“I don’t think I finished the game, though.”
“Me neither, but I think it’s a better way to think about it, isn’t it? I don’t have much experience with amnesia though.”
“I don’t either. Do you think your video game characters feel like I do now?”
“Probably. That would be a cool feature to put in a game, wouldn’t it?”
Josuke tried to think about what they would look like, “I don’t think I played many video games.”
“After we get you to a doctor, I’ll show you some of the stuff I like, but that’s more Koichi’s thing.” She swung her arm as she walked, pulling Josuke’s arm into her movement. He allowed her tugging. For just a moment, he forgot about the caked-on blood and the makeshift bandages that used to be his shirt as he walked with her, hand in hand, swinging in synchrony. He could forget about whatever experience put him in this state and enjoy the early morning chill of the beach. As they approached the road, Josuke became more aware of his lack of shoes, though he had more things to be worried about. He ran his hand through his hair, noting the sides were much shorter than the top. His curly, dark hair fell over his eyes in a way that made him cringe when he realized there was some blood matted into it. Washing it out was going to be annoying.
“Oh no- I didn’t even notice that your head was bleeding!” Yasuho’s eyes widened as she saw him pull his hand out of his hair, revealing more blood.
“It’s not bleeding much.” He commented.
“I still have part of your shirt. Let me…” She dabbed at the wound on his head, making him wince, “Sorry. We’re heading to the closest doctor. He doesn’t work at any hospital, but he usually helps anyone out who asks.”
“He sounds nice.”
“He is. He helped me when I was hurt a few years ago. I think he likes to pretend he’s not super nice, but he is.” Josuke wanted to ask what happened, but she was hesitant enough at mentioning it that he had a feeling he shouldn’t.
“That’s good. Do you think he’ll be able to help me find my identity?”
“Maybe. Yoshikage can probably help us look for your family.”
His family. Josuke was sure they were out there, worrying about him. Even if they weren’t. Yasuho was going to help him. Yoshikage, whoever he was, was going to help him. He didn’t have much to worry about despite what the growing pit in his stomach kept whispering. “I hope they’re looking for me.” Josuke replied as he stepped onto the road, his bare feet burning against the pavement.
“They are. They’d be a pretty bad family if they weren’t.” Yasuho walked with him, her grip on his hand tightening as she heard his doubt.
“How can you be so sure?”
“If I’m not sure, then who will be? We’re almost there anyways. He’s usually by his boat this early and-” Yasuho stopped in her step, “Josuke! Look!”
He didn’t have time to look as Yasuho pulled him along, nearly toppling him over. Josuke avoided tripping over his own feet as he noticed what she saw. A missing person poster. More specifically, one with his face on it. Yasuho was right that his family was already looking for him, and he felt a wave of relief wash over him. He snagged the poster from the pole to get a better look at who he was.
Josefumi Kujo. His hair was slicked up into a pompadour and the sides seemed to be growing out from what he could only assume used to be shaved. “Josefumi.” Josuke repeated, giving him a few attempts to get comfortable with his name. It didn’t feel the same.
“Josefumi.” Yasuho agreed as well, “At least we know who you are now.”
“If I am this Josefumi. It doesn’t feel the same.”
She rubbed his arm, “Do you want me to keep calling you Josuke?”
“Please.” He folded up the paper to keep a better hold on it. It was lucky that they found his own missing posters so soon, but it was almost too soon. Too soon he got a name and now he had another. Josefumi. How was he supposed to be Josefumi Kujo when he was already finding comfort in being Josuke?
Yasuho didn’t question his uneasiness. Maybe she was psychic and she could tell what he was thinking. He was grateful for the way she moved on, “Okay, Josuke. You’re in luck, because it appears you’re related to Yoshikage.”
“I am?”
“Doctor Yoshikage Kujo will be more than happy to see you, though, maybe he won’t be happy to see you in this state.”
Josuke looked down at himself as if he already forgot how he looked, “I look that bad?”
“You look like you stepped out of a zombie movie.”
“You’re joking.”
She laughed softly, “You got me. You look just fine, okay? He’ll probably be worried about how you got injured.”
“...I won’t be able to help much there.”
“For now. We’ll figure that part out too.”
Yasuho’s words comforted him once more, “We. That sounds nice.”
“Just because you have a place to go doesn’t mean you’re getting rid of me so easily. Come on.” She pulled him along by his hand again, more pep in her step now that they were already closer to figuring out the mystery of who he was. Josuke pushed down his nervousness as he matched her pace, looking forward now instead of at the ground. Whatever was waiting for him with Doctor Yoshikage Kujo would be nothing now that he had Yasuho at his side.
Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.