Shigatsu no Kare no Uso, otherwise His Lie in April, is a Your Lie in April Alternate Universe fic, written by Johnny Garfield.
It is available on Wattpad
and Fanfiction.net.
Warning: Unavoidable Your Lie in April Late Arrival Spoilers follow!
For Kousei Arima, he was a young pianist stuck in his own bubble, and he only sees in monotone. But then, a blond-haired violinist shows up in his life, and his whole world brightens. But then, he gets into a string of accidents that puts his fate in jeopardy.
This fanfic contains examples of the following:
- An Arm and a Leg: What sets Kousei's path to his eventual demise is his left foot getting crushed by the weight of an oncoming car when he slips and falls on the pavement of the crosswalk in a rainstorm; he also hits his head on a signpost as he falls down; due to the severe damage it sustained (it gets crushed pretty badly), Kousei's left foot gets amputated, and is forced to use a prosthetic left foot.
- Bittersweet Ending: For all of this story's darkness compared to the original, it does end on a high note, as even though Kousei ended his life, 20 years later, it shows that Kaori endured and pulled through with Kousei's father, Takahiko, remarrying and Kaori marries Takahiko's stepson; they also have a son named Hikaru; on top of this, the fictional World Young Orchestra Foundation (which organized Kousei's memorial concert) has set up a scholarship called Kousei's Wish.
- Convulsive Seizures: For Kousei, after he hits his head for a third time on a concrete curb, this happens to him, and he has to be operated on sooner as a result.
- Distant Finale: 20 years after the original events, Kaori marries Kousei's stepbrother (as Kousei's father, Takahiko, remarries and moved on with his life after Kousei's demise; as aforementioned, the couple have a son together), and she becomes a successful violinist.
- Driven to Suicide:
- After enduring three episodes of head trauma, and after his successful surgery (that, however, left him in a worse off state than before), Kousei decides that his life is no longer worth living and he ends his life via overdose, making this decision after he sees the ghost of his mother Saki telling him that she is waiting for him.
- After her friend commits suicide, Kaori realizes that her whole life is in a major state of shambles, and decides to end her life by overdosing, like Kousei did. However, her friends and her parents intervene to stop her.
- A new character, Keiko Tamura, tries to jump off a bridge after hearing the news of Kousei's death. She too is stopped by her own parents and a few police officers.
- Darker and Edgier: And how. This story is much darker than the original when you consider what happens to Kousei Arima.
- Her Heart Will Go On: Kaori, especially after Kousei tells her to just live and "succeed for my sake", in spite of the failures of his.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
- Losing Your Head: After the second blow to the head, in a deleted scene, Kousei has a nightmare where his head falls off in the middle of a concert (literally and bloodlessly), and to the horror of the crowd, he tries to get it back on, but wakes up screaming just as he puts his head back on.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After realizing that trying to end her own life would have been a cowardly way to go out, Kaori breaks down emotionally, as she is NOT terminally ill unlike the original story.
- Secretly Dying:
Word of God states that Kousei's ailment was the very deadly brain disorder known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; as a result of this, Kousei mental capabilities diminish to the point where he can no longer speak, see, or remember his name. This is explicitly stated in the Director's Cut of the story. As things become worse for him, Kousei hides his real intentions to his friends as things worsen for him, keeping them to himself. - Shirtless Scene:
- Notably, Kousei is accidentally seen naked (but only from the waist-up) in his residence by his three friends after a bath in which he accidentally sleeps in his tub, which prompts him to throw every toiletry he can, to which he admonishes them by calling them The Three Stooges after Kaori, Watari and Tsubaki go out for some donuts and coffee to get their mind off what they saw - this incident later turns out to inspire a story-within-a-story fic called The Three Nerima Stooges.
- On top of this, most hospital scenes that Kousei is involved in has him shirtless.
- Spoiler Title: One of the working titles of the story was They Couldn't Save Kousei's Brain, but was rejected as it gave away the plot too much.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Poor Kousei Arima, what with this child prodigy having his brain destroyed by three blows to the head, and extremely reducing his mental capabilities leading to his suicide.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Kousei after the second blow to the head; initially, it is very minor. It becomes more extreme after the third and most fatal one; he says he cannot remember his name before he has a very major seizure that results in his operation being moved up.
- Working Title: Two, actually. In addition to the aforementioned They Couldn't Save Kousei's Brain, one of the working titles was Your Lie in April: Another Story.
