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When Togo woke up after losing her memory, all she could think about was fighting.
She started thinking about battle tactics because she knew it was important, even if she didn’t remember why.
But when she woke up after the battle, it seemed like a silly thing to focus on. She looked at the falling petals and thought, Oh.
The next day she goes to the library and checks out as many books on princesses as she could find. She starts reading magical girl mangas.
She thinks, this is important.
She thinks, sometimes there is nothing more powerful then fighting in a skirt.
Once, she would laugh at something like that but now?
Now, she takes their faces and makes them into collages. Sometimes, she gives them to Sonoko.
They were friends once. It could happen again.
At first, Togo doesn’t think that they’ll be able to do their culture skit.
Itsuki and Fu remain mainly the same. Itsuki loses her sense of smell. Fu needs a pair of glasses. Togo feels that maybe Fu is the luckiest out of all of them, but it’s not her place to compare disabilities. She got an ulcer, after all.
It’s something that goes away, at the very least.
But what worried Togo was Karin and Yuna.
Karin, along with losing feeling in a hand and a leg, has to learn how to communicate all over again. She can’t use sign language, like Itsuki, and she can’t have an e-reader.
Itsuki is, actually, the first person to learn how to talk to her.
Togo thinks she enjoys having a friend who doesn’t consider signing and writing “a hassle” in having a conversation.
But Yuna… Yuna doesn’t wake up.
Togo convinces herself that a coma can count as a sacrifice. That Yuna will wake up soon enough, and she’ll be fine.
But none have them have been getting better.
When they’re talking about what they want to do with their script, the theatre club comes by and offers their help.
“You’d do that for us?” Togo asks, while Itsuki translates for Karin.
“Of course we would!” One of the club members exclaim, “You’re the hero club! You’ve helped us so much, it’d be wrong not to help you in return!”
Fu’s so touched she almost starts crying.
The theatre club ends up giving them a first year to take Yuna’s role.
“If Yuna wakes up, she can do it herself, but until then, you’re our new hero,” Fu tells the girl.
The whole school helps with the set.
Togo realizes that they’ve helped more people than they thought.
Itsuki gives up on her dream of singing and decides to make her own music instead.
She buys vocaloids and garageband and when she finally has a song ready, she shares it with the entire club.
Fu hugs her.
“I’m so lucky to have such a talented sister!” She cries out, “Itsuki, when you’re famous don’t forget about me okay?”
“You’re lucky, Itsuki,” Karin says, “You’ve found what you want to do. All I know how to do is fight, and it’s not like I’m going to be doing that anymore. I probably won’t be able to stay here either.”
“We’re in middle school,” Itsuki reminds her, “You don’t need to have everything figured out.”
“I have no idea what I’m going to do after I graduate!” Fu declares proudly. Itsuki laughs and translates this for Karin.
Togo wonders if Yuna had any idea what she wanted to be. She wonders if, when Yuna wakes up, she’ll change her mind. Togo had always thought she’d go into programming, or use her knowledge of historical battles for something, but now she thinks she might not.
They go visit Yuna every day and Karin always holds her hand.
“I want to make sure she’s really here,” she explains one day, “Because I can’t see her.”
Togo wants to say, looking at Yuna won’t make it look like she’s here.
Instead, she reads a story and prays to see her best friend’s smile.
And eventually, she does.
Togo’s not sure what the exact diagnoses were, but she can see the aftermath of the battle in Yuna clearly.
The worst of it’s brain damage. Yuna can’t speak without stuttering, and she forgets words. Sometimes, she forgets how to do simple tasks, or forgets that she can’t stand up, and Togo has to remind her.
At first Togo worries Yuna will never fully recover, and that eventually her mind will get so bad she’ll forget everything.
But one day she sees Yuna smile and it just occurs to her that she was worrying for nothing.
Yuna is always Yuna, after all.
And she still gets to be the hero.
The first year isn’t too disappointed by this.
“The part was made for her, after all,” She says, “I’m just happy I got to fill in for a little while.”
“B-b-but don’t you think it’ll b-b-be kind of strange for hero to be in this?” Yuna asks, gesturing to her wheelchair.
“You’re our hero, Yuki Yuna,” Togo replies, “Anything you look like is what a hero looks like!”
“It’s true!” Fu agrees, “You’re a hero!”
Yuna laughs.
The wheelchair ends up being dressed up as a horse. Karin says, “Every hero needs a noble stallion,” and so Togo enlists the Art Club to help her make the perfect hero’s house.
The first year ends up having a role as “hero’s assistant.” Her job is to make sure Yuna remembers her lines, and to roll her wheelchair where it’s supposed to go.
She also helped make the costumes.
“I might have stolen these cloaks from my club, but I don’t think they’ll mind,” The first year says, “Everyone loves the hero club, after all.”
After the performance, they end up in a newspaper. Fu hangs it up in the clubroom like a trophy, and Togo can’t stop smiling at the picture.
It’s the Hero Club, but they’re not alone. The first year is with them, along with her club members who offered to help first, and the art club members who helped with set and Yuna’s wheelchair.
You can’t do everything alone, after all. Sometimes, you need someone’s help.
Togo looks over at Yuna, who smiles back at her.
Fu looks at Itsuki, then repeats the headline out loud.
“The Sanshu Middle School Hero Club: Not even Injury Can Stop These Girls!”