16 / 03 / 2019 - Daito, Prefecture Osaka, Japan.
"Then, later nii-chan!" The girl is standing at the open door, waving her hands with a happy face.
Returning her smile softly and waving his hands lazily, with an unusually warm beating heart, the red gaze watches as she holds the handle and closes the door.
Hearing the closed door and the opening of the door opposite his room, his smile eventually faded along with the softness and the liveliness.
Leaving him in this silence with a lingering conversation that still hasn't faded even a bit, 'Maybe, that's it,' easier or harder than he thought.
Feeling the coldness of his feet and the rising sun, standing in the center of the room motionless, his gaze shifts to the window, light falling gently above the desk.
He immersed himself in this silence for a while, to let rage, anger, and weariness sink to the void once again.
Raising his head, which had hung low for a bit, he took a deep breath. Through narrowed eyes, the pool had shifted to bloody and ashen.
It's time—
Shaking his head slightly, he moved his feet towards the door and opened it silently, as the now-empty corridor came into view.
'Like you could run away.' He thought coolly, letting out his hands and stepping out of the room, to look at the left side, his — Ayato's — room.
Hands grasping the handle and closing it, the purpose is now clear.
Walking for a short stride, he arrived in front of the brown wooden door, stopping in his tracks.
He didn't know whether Ayato was inside or not, whether to be afraid of involvement or not, but—
Raising his hands to the handle, without knocking, he pushed it directly, 'I'm interested to find out,' he thought lastly.
The clean room came into view, but Akane is less interested in the view itself, as the one particular thing he finds doesn't even bother to hide himself.
"What do you want, Akane?" He said calmly, not an ounce of expression on his face, a coward as he is, unreadable and capable when necessary, 'if needed to be.'
That's what he stressed out about: slowly walking into the room and holding the other side of the handle. He closed the door, leaving no way out.
'To confront people like this, the efficient way is brute force or being straightforward.'
Not wanting to waste any more time, he didn't bother to beat around the bush and stared straight at him, "You know it, but pretend not to know it. Do you want to avoid this so much?"
Standing in front of the door, and placing his hands in the pockets of his shorts, his gaze is expressionless, looking towards the figure of his twin, who is putting down the book he has been reading.
He didn't even activate his Observation, like facing a reflection of himself; he knows his twin in and out, and it could be said the same of the other. By the question itself, his right eye twitched, and his jaw clenched.
"I don't know what you're talking about." As for Ayato himself, he is determined not to look into the eyes of Akane, his head hung low, looking over the desk as murmurs drift.
Silence befell the room as one was not willing to communicate at all, and a stifling stillness settled as the two ended up with cold shoulders.
Akane shifted his gaze to the open window near Ayato's bed, as the distant view of the street and the rises of steel jungles came into his sight, brewing something to say.
"I'm surprised you can keep a face after all of this," and after a while, Akane let his words fall, breaking the silence that was maintained, still looking out of the window.
As for Ayato himself, he is unmoved, ignoring any words; again, his determination is solid, but crooked like a branch of a tree, growing not to ever reach out to anything.
"I didn't have to say so many things about you as much as Irina, and I don't know how much of what you heard from eavesdropping earlier, but—" then this time, he turns his head once again towards his motionless twin.
"Until when did you want to avoid things like this, Ayato?"
The hazy, bloody-ashen eyes mirrored the view of the hands that are silently clenched above the desk, until finally the answerer itself had to face the questioner.
Unable to bear the ridicule or maybe the question itself, those sky-blue eyes are cold and dim, looking over the figure of his own twin.
But, in the end… he chose not to be the answerer; instead, his silence is his defiance.
Those sky-blue eyes are firm on their own. "I know you have thought this through, but to avoid this is not an answer—" the two eyes were locking at each other.
"—You are just afraid to take the helm, to make a wrong choice out of everything. You desire control, but those hands are afraid to reach for anything, no?"
His hands clenched further until pale, but despite the pain, silence was his answer and always his answer for his radical twin.
'This is him.' Akane thought while he walked to Ayato's bed and sat at the edge of it, his legs were a bit sore after standing for a while, pulsating along to his entire lower body.
To which Ayato just looked at him, he did not turn his back and just let Akane be, 'Exposing his nature is also not enough.'
Well, he least expected this to work, as his small back came into sight.
"Hahhhh…" Feeling the softness of the bed, his two hands pressed on the soft surface, while leaning his back slightly, he is still tired physically after all, thinking that Ayato wouldn't probably bother him.
The light that falls from the window feeds him with coldness but also some warmth, in balance with each other; if he did not have a hassle to deal with, he could probably lie there all day.
Narrowing his eyes while enjoying the comfort.
He'll just be a sore thumb in his room for a moment, while he thinks of something to say. At the end of this, he is not brave enough to kick him out of his room.
'Ultimately, we are just like different sides of a coin.'
It is kinda funny to think about, the corner of his mouth upturned a bit, ignoring the sore view of his twin that is furrowing his eyebrow.
"One of the twins desires control above anything else; with control, he can achieve anything and eliminate interferences."
His head is gazing at the ceiling as his voice is surely heard by him.
And—
"The other twin is afraid to take control, as if the touch of his hands will take away more things from him than the things they have. It's quite an irony, isn't it?"
Pushing his upper body, he lowered his head to look towards his twin.
"Then what?" For the first time since Akane came into the room, he spoke by himself. His voice is slow, but there is a hint of ridicule beneath it; he still did not turn his body.
"You are insane, aren't you?… What do you think would happen if any of them tracked you and found us? Have you thought this far?"
But he did not stop; he rose from his seat, turning his body and approaching him.
His voice was suppressed, low enough not to be heard by anyone, perhaps. The long-buried frustration finally came out, although it may be just as little as he could muster now.
But, then again, each question is spot on about what should be thought through before anything, like a nail in the coffin, but in Akane's eyes, it is more of an excuse, not enough of a reason.
"Have you thought of the scale of all of this? What could that simple fight mean? What if bigger things are happening, and your involvement will lead to our demise?"
Moving his hands and crossing them above his chest, Akane did not rebut, but listened to each of the concerns voiced by his Ayato, until finally…
Stopping his body in front of the indifferent Akane, he looks up to meet his cold face.
"Before you go on your little adventure? Have you thought about the risk that you would encounter? And the danger you will bring to your family?"
The two were looking at each other; one of them was angry because he had poked a hornet's nest, and the other was unfazed by it.
And, Akane could still think calmly, indifferent to the core, as he considered Ayato's small outburst.
'Apparently, he listens more than I thought.' The thought passed for a second, and thus he replied as it is, with bare truth to confront each of his questions rather than finding excuses.
"If you think this from an ordinary angle, then there's nothing wrong with what I have done. Then… by today's revelation, who had prepared for it, no?"
He admitted it, but he is also not finished.
Tilting his head slightly, amused.
"Furthermore, if we trace the cause back, it all started from Irina, and she is the one who was involved first. Will you blame her? And you heard it too, right?"
He replied with the same slow voice as before,
"We can't stay away from everything if we want to, as it is in front of our noses, our very city. I admit that I was careless today, but what about the other day?"
Standing up from his seat, Ayato instinctively backed away, but his eyes were as stubborn as his twin's. The two were standing and facing each other.
"I could ask the same of you. If you'd stumbled on that fight today instead of me, what would you have done?"
"And as for family? My persistence runs deep enough that I won't give up on them. Everything else is expendable. So make your worth, Ayato."
A statement as light as a feather, ruthless, as Ayato's eyes widen slightly.
Narrowing his eyes, he expects a change in his twin, but this is not the thing that maybe he did not guess about, yet in the end, the familiarity seems to echo deep inside, of what's sleeping beneath.
Ayato's face changed at some guesses, but—
"Tomorrow, I will investigate further. I wouldn't want to avoid this, and I don't want to regret this… as long as I'm alive, I will try every possible means at my disposal."
Thus, Akane walked while saying this, passing the trembling Ayato, until he stopped in front of the door,
"You don't have to go through this alone. I need Irina's temporal pattern and your spatial pattern to make things work, you too don't want any more regret, do you?"
Face close to the door, he turns his head slightly, the back of his twin at his periphery. From the time he came here, his intention is clear,
'The one who can wake him up is himself and the call that he would make.'
Anything more than this would probably fall on deaf ears.
Shaking his head once again, he let out a breath, grasping the cold handle, and he opened the door. This time, the one who felt the silence deeply is Ayato himself.
Alone with the thing he hated most, "regret."
————
One day forward, 8 AM, Living Room.
"In the end, you've decided to come after all." His gaze is on the stairs as Ayato descends, having fully prepared to go out, wearing a dark turtleneck and long red track pants.
His hair is still messy, strands of it falling loosely over his eyes, his face is slim yet soft, his sky-blue eyes are calm and quiet, carrying a distant look.
The main features are composed and clean.
"Wow, I don't know if you would follow along, Aya-nii! I thought it was just Aka-nii and me, huh."
With her hands crossed behind her back, Irina is also looking at her brother in surprise and glee.
Wearing a white formal shirt and a skirt that extends past her knee, her soft and pale face seems to be tinted with a hint of natural blush, adding a touch of youth.
Her sky-blue eyes shine with crystal luster, clear, but they just reflect a depth beneath those dark pupils.
Arriving at the two of them, his face is unsmiling, there is a little resentment and caution in those eyes as he glances at Irina and then locks gazes with Akane,
"I'm worried about Irina, that's all. If you mean what you said, then we'd better get going and resolve this."
Still, 'He compromised after all, that's good.' The first step is the most difficult after all, but overall, he's right, and there's no need to dwell on past matters too much.
Nodding his head in approval, he watches the same face as in a mirror in front of him, his twin's expression seems lighter, but that composure is like preparing for the storm that is about to come after all.
"Well, now we are prepared. I already have a rough idea of how to proceed and to maximize what we have here."
Having said this, Akane also donned a casual black shirt with a grey jacket.
"First things first, is to formally identify and diversify the information that we have from Irina; those marked locations are our key."
Raising one of his fingers, while one of his hands is still in his pocket.
As he saw them listening carefully and seriously, he continued with his explanation after a moment,
"The lineup is as follows: Irina will use her Rhythm or temporal pattern to identify or predict an anomaly in a certain area."
Taking back his hands to his pocket, he turns his head towards Irina on his right side,
"You can do it, right?" he smiles lightly, to which the two seem in agreement, but she is apparently more excited than anyone here.
Standing upright and puffing up her chest, "Leave it to me!"
Well, as expected, she treats this as an outing rather than scouting an enemy's spawn camp, huh.
Akane shakes his head slightly. A kid is a kid.
"As for you, I want you to use your spatial perception to detect any hidden structure that may or may not exist. And the most crucial thing is—"
He raises his head and turns it to the front, facing his twins.
"—You will aid me in perceiving our surroundings for any hidden variable that may or may not exist."
This is by far the most crucial thing for him, and his long-standing worry, his gaze is sharp as he looks at his twins.
Crossing his arms, Ayato seems to realize the seriousness of the task and ponders for a moment, as his gaze loses focus, and he realizes what Akane means.
It seemed, "You mean…" a bit unsure, he voiced it out, his head snapping up to Akane, his face changed a bit.
Nodding his head towards him to confirm it, eyes gleaming in grey and silver,
"Yes, I want you to watch for any interference — accidental or not — from various parties that may exist. We are not alone after all."