06 / 04 / 2019 - Daito, Prefecture Osaka, Japan.
2 PM, Akane's Room.
'What does this kid want now?'
Letting one of his legs touch the cold floor, Akane kept his eyes fixed on his little sister. She was walking slowly toward him, tightly clutching the fabric of her skirt. Nervous? Agitated? He lifted his head to scan her face.
There, beneath a surface as still as a frozen pool, a myriad of complex emotions surged like hidden waves. It wasn't just her expression — it was her eyes. This was not a good sign. Really not a good sign. And deep down, he already knew the root cause.
'Is it because of my disappearance over the past five days?'
Assuming so, he braced himself.
Her silent steps came to a halt right in front of him. As she leaned in slightly, a soft sweet drift of camellia shampoo filled his nose. But looking at her now, her gaze wasn't meeting his at all — she was staring straight at his bloodied shirt.
Biting her lip so hard it lost its colour, her eyes trembled as she traced the phantom of the wounds hidden beneath the cotton fabric. Reminded vividly of the horrors that had unfolded yesterday and the day before, she looked as if she couldn't bear to face it for another second.
"What are you doing here, Irina?"
Realising his mistake, Akane knew he had to redirect her focus and alleviate the suffocating pressure in the room. Resting his hands over his lap with one leg crossed, he asked softly, trying to sound as normal as possible.
'It really was my oversight…'
One could never afford to forget how terrifyingly perceptive she was. Since waking up, he could only guess at a few of her surface thoughts — he had never fully managed to grasp her true perspective of him.
'Her intuition is a complete antithesis to my wisdom — it really is superior to mine…'
If Ayato was an open book, then this little sister was infinitely more troublesome. By virtue of always being by his side, she had fulfilled every condition necessary to read his traits better than anyone else on earth.
Since he understood this danger, he had tried his absolute best to formulate a plan to counter her — carefully masking his thoughts and altering his gait to fool her senses. But without sufficient feedback, he had no idea if his acting was even working.
'Or whether she's even willing to cooperate with it. What a joke in itself.'
Lifting her head, she finally looked up — her gaze locking onto his just as he had predicted. The room fell into a heavy silence. Those clear sky-blue eyes were wide and glossy, tears welling dangerously at the lower lids.
No. Don't give me that look. Please.
"You… where did you go for the past five days?" she muttered weakly, her voice carrying a fragile, bell-like clarity.
She emphasised the five days with a sharp, heavy weight. Lifting one small hand, she aggressively rubbed at her eye — an inevitable prelude to a much stronger emotional storm. Seeing this, the corner of Akane's eye twitched.
All his meticulous plans and calculations melted away in an instant. His chest grew incredibly heavy. He possessed a clear conscience regarding his choices — knowing that what he did was survival — but he couldn't deny it was cruel to those who had waited for him.
"Haahhhh…."
With a complicated, weary gaze, his body leaned forward slightly. Letting out a pent-up breath, he reached out with one hand to ruffle her hair as he always did, desperately trying to soothe her before she shattered.
Slap.
"Answer me first!"
Halfway through the gesture, his outstretched hand was sharply parried away by the back of her palm. His hand was left hanging awkwardly in the empty air.
Stunned, but not entirely surprised, he stared at his fingers. This was exactly what he meant by his utter inability to fully predict her.
Shaking his head faintly, he dropped his hand back to his lap. Since comfort, physical contact, and every roundabout diplomatic method had failed, he realised that continuing to evade the topic would only trigger a dangerous explosion.
'Then what's left? The truth? But can I even fool her…'
'Your rhythm is truly a hassle, Irina…'
Thinking for a fraction of a second, his eyes narrowed and his lips parted to address her directly.
"I already told you, didn't I? I intended to go to the Mist Gate and investigate the night before. But who could have guessed that I would lose my footing, fall right through, and end up in an entirely unknown space?"
Trying to lighten the suffocating atmosphere, he straightened his posture and offered a soft, reassuring smile. But the reaction was a disaster. Irina merely glared at him, her fingers gripping her skirt so viciously that Akane genuinely worried the fabric would rip at the seams.
Diverting his eyes momentarily to the corner of the room, he cleared his throat, his lips twitching. His attempt at levity had failed completely. Bringing his gaze back to her, his eyes returned to their usual dim, lifeless colour.
"Ummm… look, it's really not a big deal, you know!"
"I was basically just loitering around in that strange space. I met someone, made a new friend, found some cool treasure… There was no particular danger at all, I swear."
Downplaying the life-or-death struggle, he leaned back slightly and retrieved the heavy leather pouch from behind his back. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her glossy sky-blue irises instinctively follow the movement of the pouch.
Seeing her focus shift to the item, a tiny spark of hope flared within him that he might actually successfully divert her attention.
But then, his entire body froze.
The moment he placed the golden pouch onto his lap, a sudden invisible weight seemed to slam directly into his chest.
A sharp burning agony flared across his unhealed ribs from the sudden movement — but that wasn't what paralysed him. His mouth fell slightly agape, the words instantly dying in his throat.
Slamming her head into his chest, she could smell a hint of metal and iron. Irina's small shoulders shook violently.
"Liar… you liar…."
As her quiet sobbing echoed in his ears, Akane let go of the leather pouch.
It slipped from his fingers, hitting the floor forgotten, as he lifted his hands — his eyes half-lidded with a soft, heavy exhaustion. The corners of his mouth quivered into a faint downward bend. Guilty? Yes, he was entirely guilty.
A sudden unfamiliar shiver rippled through his chest, prompting him to bring his arms around her back. She felt so impossibly small beneath his palms as he gently stroked her spine, pulling her into a tight embrace.
As she buried her face in his chest, her tears instantly soaked through the thin cotton of his shirt, turning the fresh bloodstains cold against his skin. It hurt — but it was a deserved pain.
"Have you… ever thought about the rest of us? About how I feel?" her muffled voice cracked against his shoulder. "Suddenly disappearing like that…"
Akane offered no rebuttal, maintaining a sorrowful silence. Irina lifted her head slightly, her small hands wrapping around his neck to cling to his collarbones, though she kept her face hidden, completely immersed in her grief.
"Aya-nii locked himself in his room the entire time. Everyone was suddenly drowned in sadness… but what about you? Did you even think about us for a second?"
"Please don't disappear again, nii-chan… I'm so scared of losing you again."
"Please…"
Every single point hit straight through his heart. The emotions she had kept tightly bottled up over those five agonising days breached like a broken dam. She cried for ten full minutes, pouring her grief directly into his shoulder. Words felt entirely useless.
'Every single one of her sentences is entirely on point…'
Locked in place by the sheer weight of her sorrow, Akane didn't dare move a single muscle.
Gradually, the heavy crying died down, leaving only weak, silent stutters and shaky breaths echoing in the quiet bedroom. Her head remained resting heavily against his shoulder, her face turned sideways.
Akane could only stare blankly down at the floorboards, his lips pressed into a thin, tight line. Out of everything in this world, he too was terrified of losing his remaining family.
Whether it was Ayato or Irina — all of her sadness and desperate anger were completely justified.
'But I can't stop my footsteps, Irina…'
'To protect the few precious things I have left… if my pain and desperation can guarantee a peaceful future for you, then I will gladly pay the price.'
"You really are a crybaby, aren't you?"
Sensing the absolute stillness of the room, he kept his hands resting gently on her back — a soft, tired smile on his lips.
He glanced at his right shoulder, teasing her lightly just to check if she was still anchored to reality. Venting like this was exactly what she needed, wasn't it?
"And whose fault do you think that is?…" she murmured weakly, her voice thick.
"You know… what I said the other day is true. You really look like a proper adult when you wear that mask of yours, nii-chan."
"You're always lying. I can't trust a word you say."
Muttering the bitter truth, she slowly pulled her head back, retracting her hands. When she met his surprised, characteristically flat gaze, she pouted fiercely, her cheeks puffed. He wasn't showing a single ounce of remorse, was he? Fine then.
"Uhhh… whwat wid wou wo?!"
Before he could react, she reached up and pinched both of his cheeks with her hands. Her small fingers felt soft against his skin, yet she dug them in with surprising aggressive force.
Glaring up at her older brother with the same fierce determined look, she didn't offer any explanation — simply squeezing his face hard enough to ensure he felt the absolute weight of his mistake.
Akane struggled to hold her back, nearly losing his grip, but the little devil refused to relent. He could only endure the pinching, completely incapable of truly fighting back against her.
This was his punishment — if a bit of petty revenge could make her feel better, he would let her have it.
"You have me, you have Riscia-nee-chan, and you have Aya-nii… so why do you keep choosing to go out there all alone?!"
"Aka-nii is an idiot! A complete idiot!!! From now on, you aren't allowed to go anywhere without me, and absolutely nothing happens without my knowledge!"
For a split second, her sky-blue eyes flashed with a chilling unyielding authority — a striking contrast to her usual innocent self. To drive her point home, she intentionally shifted her weight, pressing her knee hard into his lap.
The sudden movement sent a violent jolt of pure blinding agony directly through his broken ribs. Akane's eyes narrowed to a slit as a sharp hiss escaped his stretched lips — though he strictly refused to let go of her back.
Irina quivered slightly, a flash of immediate guilt washing over her features at his pain. But she stubbornly forced herself to harden her heart. She wanted him to feel it.
She wanted him to remember this pain — so that the next time he thought about doing something suicidal, he would remember her and everyone else who cared about him.
First, they had lost their mother and father. Then, they had lost Akane for nine months and five days. She had spent too many sleepless nights thinking about worst-case scenarios and, of course, countermeasures for them.
"Promise me! Promise me you won't do it again!" she demanded fiercely. "Say it!!!"
To lose their parents was tragic enough — but she would absolutely not allow Ayato, or this reckless, self-sacrificing Akane, to be taken from her next. Not again. Never again.
For Akane, a minor throbbing in his side was nothing. He had literally endured the horrific reconstruction of his own flesh, dissolved in acid, clawed to ribbons, and brutally mangled. He could handle physical pain.
But looking up at the fiercely determined little devil currently pinning him down, a drop of cold sweat rolled down his neck.
'Shit… before long, I'm probably going to be completely controlled by her.'
It wasn't that he minded heeding her emotional plea — but the logistical reality of having his absolute freedom confined by an eleven-year-old was ridiculous.
The real problem was that if he didn't verbally agree right now, this terrifyingly perceptive sister of his would only become more ferocious and troublesome.
"Allwigght… allwight! Wond't wo wit wain!"
All right… Alright! I won't do it again!
He finally gave in, promising her exactly what she wanted to hear. Looking at the little devil at eye level, he saw her tear-stained cheeks inflate into a stubborn pout.
The crying had left her completely dishevelled. In stark contrast to her pale porcelain skin, a vivid pink flush was concentrated heavily across her cheekbones and the tip of her small nose.
Her large sky-blue eyes were bloodshot and glassy, the lower lids swollen and puffy, while strands of her silver-white hair hung damp and plastered haphazardly to her face.
Sensing his submission, her hands softened slightly and her tense shoulders loosened. Yet she didn't let go.
She simply transitioned from pinching to cupping his cheeks in her palms, gasping softly through her parted lips. When she spoke, her voice was utterly exhausted and weary.
"Вы обещаете?" (Do you promise?)
While she awaited his reaction, her hands tightened faintly around his jaw. Her gaze seemed to cast a sudden heavy shadow — one that surprised even Akane. Her current dishevelled, fierce intensity contrasted sharply with her usual reserved, quiet self.
Before he could fully process the shift, she moved again — shifting her weight, climbing fully onto his bed, her knees pressing into his lap.
Akane's eyebrows creased for a fraction of a second from the sudden pressure on his recovering thigh, but he didn't budge. He knew he needed to answer quickly.
"Sigh… Я обещаю тебе." (I promise you…)
The words were uttered, but Irina still looked thoroughly dissatisfied — perhaps because the victory had come too easily. She clearly couldn't trust a single word coming out of his mouth, fully aware of how slippery her brother could be when backed into a corner.
Thinking for a moment, she suddenly snapped backwards with a sharp puff of air through her nose, tearing her hands away. The moment the weight left his lap, Akane let his exhausted body collapse completely onto the mattress.
Thump.
As his body bounced against the bed, his cheeks throbbed lightly, and the brittle reforming bone in his thigh flared with a dull ache.
Gasping quietly, he stared up at the ceiling, his head spinning from the sheer physical and emotional toll of the last twenty minutes.
Thump.
Another soft shift in weight rippled across the mattress to his right.
Lifting his head an inch, he saw the little devil had settled down right beside him, sprawling out carelessly across his neatly made bed. Though perhaps it didn't matter much at this point.
He let his head drop back onto the pillow, staring blankly at the ceiling to sober himself up.
"Does it hurt…?"
A voice as small as a mosquito's buzz drifted from his right. He didn't turn his head. If he had to guess, she was probably feeling a sudden pang of guilt for meddling so aggressively in his life and aggravating his injuries.
But Akane didn't hate her for it. Never.
"Nah, it's just a minor scratch," he replied, a flawless natural smile slipping onto his face by sheer reflex. "It'll heal overnight, right?"
Reassuring her with a smooth lie was his default strategy — but he had underestimated her yet again. He had unconsciously treated her like a target to be managed.
"Guhhh?!" Akane's eyes winced shut, his entire upper body flinching as a sharp groan escaped his throat.
"You're lying again. You're always lying… I really can't trust you, nii-chan."
Sweating, Akane swiftly learned his lesson and shut his mouth. It was far better to think first than to blurt out another senseless, superficial answer.
His waist was now throbbing where her small fingers had ruthlessly pinched his side to punish the lie.
"R-Right… I'm sorry," he murmured, clearing his throat to pivot, then exhaling a heavy breath as he stabilised his body, his mind running at full speed for an "instant".
His gaze fixed at the ceiling, uncomfortable with this situation. When suddenly, like a light bulb! There it is!
"So… how is school, then? I'm honestly surprised they didn't close down and still proceeded with the ceremony. What did you think of it?"
It took him mere seconds to formulate the redirection. A perfect tactical move: divert her attention away from his health while simultaneously gathering crucial intelligence about what had happened to the city during his five-day absence. Two birds with one stone.
Flawless, right?
Squinting his eyes with a slightly stiff smile, he glanced sideways at her. Irina was lying on her side, her face twisted into a deep unimpressed frown. He had hit the wrong button again.
"You just want to extract information from me, don't you?" she stated bluntly, her tone dripping with suspicion. "What are you trying to plan this time, huh?"
This time, her analysis was entirely naked and explicit. Those five days of agonising uncertainty had clearly forced her to sharpen her mind — or perhaps this terrifyingly perceptive persona had been hiding beneath her innocent surface all along.
'Still… it wouldn't hurt this little thing to just answer me, would it? Please…?'
Maintaining his gentle smile, Akane slowly reached out and ruffled her silver-white hair. She didn't swat his hand away this time, but she clearly didn't enjoy it either — locking him in a tense unblinking staring contest.
"Fine…" Irina rolled her eyes, letting out a heavy defeated breath.
She rubbed both hands vigorously over her face, wiping away the remaining mess of her tears before turning back to him.
"You observed them today at school, didn't you? They don't remember a single thing about what happened. Or rather… their memories have been completely altered."
Hearing the sudden gravity in her voice, Akane's smile remained fixed — but his internal focus sharpened instantly. His hand stilled against her hair, listening with absolute undivided attention.
Irina sighed, her sky-blue eyes drifting downward as her voice grew low and slow — a creeping sleepiness finally catching up to her after the emotional storm.
"The day you disappeared, Ayato and I could only hole up inside the apartment. For a while, whenever a car or pedestrian passed by the street outside, the whole city looked completely desolate. Ghostly."
She shifted her body, curling up slightly as a heavy yawn cut off her words.
"…But all of that suddenly changed on Friday."
Her eyes narrowed slightly in the dim light of the room.
"…The news broadcasts suddenly declared that the entire lockdown was due to a containment breach — a biological outbreak from a hidden laboratory nearby. What an absolute joke, right?"
She scoffed lightly, her memory of the true anomaly perfectly intact. How could anyone look at what had actually happened and call it a simple disease outbreak?
"But the truly terrifying thing is that the exact moment the news aired… everything in the city instantly snapped back to normal. Leading right up to what you saw on the streets today."
"People walked out once again — shopping, walking, going to school, going to work — as if nothing had changed at all."