"Ma'am, just come with us."
The woman looked blearily at the heavily armed man holding her elbow. "Is it Wednesday already?" she asked, her voice heavily slurred.
"No, ma'am. Just come with me and we'll clean you up." He was slowly leading her a van parked on the street, the entire area swarming with men dressed similarly.
"But it's not Wednesday..."
The man gestured to an emergency vehicle, and a paramedic jogged over to them. "Another one?"
"Yeah. Is it safe to sedate her? She's confused and flying like a kite."
"Let's get her back to vehicle first," the paramedic answered, taking the woman's other elbow. "Can you tell us your name, ma'am?" he asked gently.
Name?" She looked at the two men with bloodshot eyes. "His name was... Ta... Tate... Tategawa."
"Yes, ma'am," the armed man answered. "Tategawa Masaru. We have him in custody. You don't need to be afraid of him any longer. But what's your name? We need to notify any family you might have."
"Family? I... don't remember."
The two men looked at each other and nodded.
"You just keep trying to remember your name, ma'am. We're going to get you to the hospital," the paramedic said soothingly.
"I'm so tired. So tired..."
"What's today?"
"It's Tuesday. It's time for dinner."
The woman shook her head slowly. "Tuesday... No dinner on Tuesday."
The orderly faltered for a moment. "Well, sure. You get dinner here on Tuesday." The young woman smiled brightly and set the tray down. "When you're done, the officer would like to speak to you."
The woman stared at the food in front of her blankly. She was hungry, but... There was a voice telling her not to eat it for a hundred different reasons. Clasping her hands in front of her, she closed her eyes and began to rock herself slowly.
There was a fire in her blood that made her nervous and sick and tired, and she just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. The voices she heard sounded very far away, but they weren't ones she was familiar with.
"She won't eat."
"Don't worry about that. I think it's better that we set her up with an IV. There's no telling what she's been through. Look at her; I'm amazed she's even alive at this point."
"Can we question her?"
"Yeah, but I don't know how much she'll be able to tell you. It looks like she's high for the past three months."
"I've managed to get answers out of criminals three days high..."
"Not three days. Three _months_. Tategawa was a very disturbed man to do this to any human being."
"No shit. Thank you, doctor. I'll give it a shot."
The sounds of footsteps and creak of vinyl. "Can I ask you some questions?"
She opened her eyes and looked at the man sitting in the chair next to her bed. "What's today?"
He answered, "Tuesday. What's so significant about the day?"
"Eating on Tuesday wasn't allowed. He... he said we... we were too fat. No eating on Tuesday..."
The officer shook his head, disgust plain on his face. "For the love of... What did he do to you? Was it like this for all of you?"
"Who?"
"The other women. Was it always like this?"
"I... I don't know. What's today?"
"Tuesday," the officer repeated. "Ma'am, can you tell me your name? There must people who are looking for you."
"My name? I... I forgot." She spoke with a quality that reminded the officer of a person speaking in their sleep.
"Anything you can remember. What letter does it start with?"
The woman's brow creased. "N, I think. N... N..."
The officer smiled, trying to reassure the woman. "N. That's a very good start."
"Ne... Nemuko. My name."
The officer pulled out his pad of paper and wrote down her name. "A family name? Can you remember your family name?" He handed the piece of paper to another officer outside the door.
"I... It's... so... What's today?"
"Tuesday. Nemuko, can you tell me..."
"Sergeant," the uniformed officer said quietly. "I think I found her."
"You just keep thinking, Nemuko. I'll be right outside for a moment," he informed the victimized woman. He went outside to see the other officer consulting a list of names. "You think you found her?"
"There was a woman, personal name of Nemuko, abducted in the same manner as the others over four years ago," he said in a hushed voice. "No guarantee it's her, but..."
"What's the family name? She might be able to help us out a little more if she hears it."
"It's Kuno. Kuno Nemuko."