23 / 03 / 2019 - Daito, Prefecture Osaka, Japan.
8 AM, Saturday, Living Room.
'It truly is bliss.' The body is drowning in the softness and comfort offered by a creation made by the effort of countless ages of evolution.
Thoughts undulating amidst the darkness, a state that is alien but not so unfamiliar to him, he learned to accept it, so… he thinks as naturally as he should be.
Then again, is he exaggerating? No, not at all, it is only natural to think about it. Humans always take things for granted, right?
Thus, when what's supposed to be is taken from their own hand…
Slowly opening his eyes in this intoxicating feeling, he finds a light and a waving shadow through his blurred eyes; it is not nearly warm, yet again it is surely cold.
'Will they cry like the firstborn they were? Will they fight back for the endless cycle of decadence that is about to come amidst this chaos?'
The weight of his limbs is anchored in place, like he is suspended between sleeping and waking, but eventually, external pressure will decide what he wants to be.
The ignorance is sitting in the seat of a judge, ruling above others, and dictating their safety through the lens of bias of value, authoritarian, isn't it? But is it truly that useful?
'It's been two days of silence. I wonder what they will do after this, huh.'
Mulling it over and over, floating in the darkness, they will not give up their seat, demanding more and more, greediness overflows, yet, did he have to yield? Of course not.
Clearer and clearer his mind would be, returning to the surface amidst his slumber, perhaps evolution itself will always be accompanied by a defect?
The hands of the damned are reaching towards those who are cast out of society, granting them the same opportunity as those the judge has.
And they will eventually face its consequences, like the crocodile-man; it is just the beginning, there will be thousands of them later, blasting out their hatred towards the one who cast them out.
His dry lips seem to tremble along with his eyelids, and yet, the ritual? What is the meaning of it? For him to ponder, yet not having arrived at an answer, is the key to something.
"Nii-chan… wake up…" Identifying those unmistakable tones of annoyance, the stillness that he tried to preserve eventually broke, as the dark haze was fading away.
The narrowed eyes slowly blinked back, fingers twitched as his body turned responsive, awakening from his stupor, "Quiet… I'm just taking a nap."
There is no delay whatsoever; his body is his, his reaction fully aligned, the warm hands that flow with his own warm blood move to his temple, slowly massaging it.
Yeah, he takes a short nap and his philosophical class for a bit; realizing it, memory rushed to his mind like a floodgate, eyes fully open with clarity.
His body shivers slightly as he realizes, once more, like a meta-cognition, he arrives in an unfamiliar state, venturing into unknown territory by himself, and lets his thoughts wander freely.
Then again, he pursed his lips and placed his hands down at his side. 'Like there's no other thing that could be lifted as a topic, huh?'
He wonders why it feels familiar, since the subject of that philosophical class, of course, was connected to that bastard a few days ago.
Eyes flashed with a hint of coldness that was quickly suppressed, and the train of thought ran rampant as his emotion flared up.
And yet, if he wants, he could list up a thousand reasons as to why he reacts that much to that simple message,
'One must not look at things superficially.' Things are not that simple.
Unneeded to, and he knows he is petty, but he is still reasonable enough to take the value of someone upfront and reward it in kind; he shouldn't have taken this matter to heart.
Still, 'Am I being overboard or overly sensitive?' as he ponders for a bit, his eyes are gleaming in red, his body is motionless, must he think about it right here, right now?
Only then could he feel someone shaking his body as his head wobbled left and right, though his face was plain as ever, the corner of his right eye twitched in irritation, train of thought broken midway.
"Haaahhhh…" Letting out a pensive breath, he waits a moment for the person who is shaking his body to stop, and a physical headache builds up in this short time.
And probably realizing it too, that little devil lets go of her hands, those tiny hands that were grasping his shirt.
Then, Akane pushes, shifting his body to a more comfortable position than he was earlier, which is a bit unsightly to look at.
Finally, he could lift his gaze to the right; standing as a shadow was blocking his vision from the light of the sun itself, his face frowned at this.
"What do you want, little brat?"
One little bit more, and maybe he could reach Nirvana while setting his thoughts free. His eyes are on Irina's face, who is puffing up her cheeks like a pufferfish.
Well, she is cute as always, as expected of his siblings; that small and soft face is pumped up, her sky-blue eyes are narrowed, and her hands are at her hips, flushed red.
"Are you sure your cheeks aren't gonna explode?" Jokingly said, though his face did not change at all, his usual antics; he placed his hands above his stomach, thus he caught her as she grunted.
"Humpfffff…." Now he is worried that it might really explode, as his eyebrows droop slightly. In the meantime, this cute little devil may not want to explain her anger at all, it seems.
So…
He shifts his gaze to her back, where Ayato is standing with a troubled face as he looks at him, "Irina is… You know, she is impatient and demands your promise. I can't stop her."
Facing his domineering, bloody-ashen eyes — to which is in his imagination — his twin seems to be more docile, or is it his imagination? Then again, he tilts his head with a scowl.
"You can't stop her? Or you are overly doting on her?" Well, as it matters very much, he has to make a point, and if he does not, he is the loser of this exchange.
Anyway, that sums up pretty much of this little event. Back to Irina, who is in the same pose, he tries very much to ignore how uncomfortable that is,
"Listen here, you brat, being the hunter that we are means being patient."
Leaning forward to seem serious and more convincing, he locked his gaze with her,
"You must always remember this lesson: you are the one who holds the gun; don't let them sway you into letting that go."
He watches as those balloons gradually flattened back to chubby cheeks, but her gaze is still the same cold one, as she doesn't want to fall into his honey-sweet traps once more.
But he doesn't care and continued, "Irina, if you are faced with these two choices, what will you choose?" He then raises two fingers and makes sure she looks at them.
"One, you are faced with a dire situation that requires you to take this choice or leave it, that is, gaining one prey for two days of eating, or…"
One finger down, as he closes his eyes, he is too seriously explaining to her, albeit half of him is still not there yet, or wants to fool her for a bit, as her eyes are gradually bewitched by his words.
"Two, you desperately, despite anything, Kept. Yourself. At. Bay! And then you will be rewarded with a thousand loads of prey that fall into the trap."
Closing his fingers, he then leans back and opens his arms wide, still, "So… what will you choose?"
At this moment, Irina has completely fallen, as she is seriously considering the answer; again, to be noted, a kid is still a kid after all, despite her cleverness.
"Option Two?" as she hesitantly answered, her eyes darted as if she was not sure of her answer, her hands already lowered to grip her dress.
And Ayato at the back is also pondering over it, with his hands on his chin, the other on his back; one step, grow a beard, and he'll be like an old ancestor of a sect.
Then, the moment of revelation, Akane takes back his hands and places them above his knee, whispering, leaning forward,
"Do you want to know the answer?" Eyes fully gleaming in red, uncontrollable.
The two nod simultaneously, fully absorbed in the atmosphere, closing in on Akane, awaiting his answer, and he himself glanced furtively.
Irina is clutching the end of her dress, her body hunched as she is in front of him, her large eyes twinkling in anticipation, very easy to deceive.
And Ayato, though now his face is partly indifferent, hands above his chest, probably knowing his trickery over this, but now wondering what he will pull out.
"The answer is…. none, ahahahhaha….. Ummm!!"
Starting with a whisper and then laughter, but what he can't foresee is the flashing hatred in Irina's eyes concealed at the last moment.
In the end, unable to bear it, Irina pounced on Akane as he was mid-laughing, his body sliding sideways as her weight pressed on him. Akane got his own karma.
Pah, pah, pah, those tiny hands land a perfect punch on his stomach, then his chest, and Akane can do nothing as his hands are out of this, so he can only grit his teeth while closing his eyes.
"Stop, ughhh, it hurts! I'm sorry! Pfftt…"
Irina didn't back down for a bit despite the begging, she waited until the wails gradually died down, and only then did she take off from the top of his body.
Pushing her body to sit on the sofa, her face is entirely red from her anger and weariness, her mouth agape as she gasps, those large eyes half-lidded, leaning on the backrest.
"Hahhhhh, hahhhhh…."
Sweating and breathing raggedly as her dress crumpled, but still, there is a wild smile that forms on her face, watching the slumped figure of her brother at her left.
Barely breathing, lies down sideways, one hand falls to the side, touching the floor while the other is still in instinct, holding the backrest on the right tightly.
"Cough, cough… hahhhh,"
His eyes half-lidded, he could feel his mouth and entire stomach churning along with his head, even his morning breakfast was climbing rapidly through his throat now.
Lifeless, bloody-ashen is dim, facing the ceiling as he waits once again for his body to stabilise, releasing his hands to fall freely at his side.
For a while, the living room is filled with heavy breathing, leaving the sane Ayato sitting on the right wing sofa, watching their antics with a smile, particularly towards his twin.
"How is it, is the taste of consequences so good? You are practically addicted to it by now."
Leaning on the backrest and crossing his hands with his usual fake sunny smile, Akane just watched it calmly through his eyes as his head tilted sideways, chest heaving up and down.
"I'm not a coward after all, I can face my own consequences head-on, not like you at all."
Do you think he can't beat both of you? In both words and mouth, he is the superior one here; he ignored his smile that was twitching, the same reaction and pattern.
Then, letting his head press on the sofa, he allowed his headache to subside for a while before he spoke, "What I said is not a lie, Irina."
Propping and pushing his body up for a bit, his head finds the armrest of the sofa, leaning on it.
His tired face looks at Irina with a soft smile, to which she is now calmly looking at him.
"Why do you have to act according to what I said? Just like that bastard cop some days ago, they want our fruit of labor without giving anything."
Twitching his eyes slightly as the back of his head was aching, he still said what he needed to say, setting a good example of what he knew.
"But aren't you the one who told us to act like that, and manage everything? You said you want to present something interesting!"
Even if it seems like bullshit in her eyes, she still plays along with it, wanting to see what her brother has in mind and how he would fulfill his promises.
Rolling her eyes and leaning on the backrest, she punched the shin of his leg, which caused Akane to groan, treating it as a warning for him not to mess with her again.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, which is why you must precisely wait for this! The more agitated you are, the more the prey will run away. We just have to wait for them to fall."
Massaging his now pained shin, he lamented for a bit, but was not actually angry at what she did to him; thus he said what he wanted to say, and his reasons.
Is he irresponsible? Of course not, through the depth of red in his eyes, malice and coldness bloomed,
'Of course, you are free in your thoughts, but in the end, the course of freedom is set by me after all, hahahah.'
Without a good enough brain, people wouldn't actually see this kind of invisible string.
You have infinite choices and possibilities, but it is up to you to bear the causality of it and the potential to do it.
'Did you think all of it was free? Well, I dictate what you want to see, even your choice, so how could you still be so arrogant in front of me?'
Right at it, Irina dismisses it with a snort and crosses her hands above her chest; apparently, she is still dissatisfied with his answer.
To which Akane could only sigh, leaving her to fend for herself for the time being; right as he wanted to prop his body up to wash his face,
The ringing notification of a phone transmitted through his back, face changing slightly as he realized that his phone had fallen out of his pocket during the slaughter.
Quickly straightening his upper body, he takes the phone that had fallen and was pressed from under his back and opens it to see what it would be.
Reading it between the lines for a while, the corner of his mouth slowly upturned, and lifting his face from the screen, the snake has fallen into the trap.
"Oy, little brat, the show you want the most is here…"
Perfect timing, bloody-ashen eyes locking gazes with those furtive glances that got caught, but hearing her brother calling her.
Though she is reluctant, her face a bit sorrowful, she still heeded it; just this time, she'll believe him.
Crawling atop the sofa, Akane lowered the phone in his hands as he shared the email that was sent to him so she could read it.
.....
"Dear Mr. Sakamaki,
Once again, thank you for your ongoing support and for the crucial information that you provided in these past few days.
We have noticed and want to formally apologize for the unpleasant behaviour of the previous replier.
For this, I am speaking as a Deputy Captain of the Second Division, inviting you for further discussion of cooperation regarding the current anomaly in Osaka.
These are the invitation and the channel itself,
[Dark Network - Invitation.pdf]
Once again, we will not treat our source of information rudely and will even account for all your past contributions.
Further arrangements will be discussed in the Dark Network.
Sincerely,
Department of Special Security, Heaven's Gate
Takahashi Aki / Deputy Captain of Second Division."
.....
All is silent, but the implications are clear, looking at each other, two sky-blue eyes and bloody-ashen eyes, including Ayato who had unknowingly been kneeling at the side.
"The sender has changed,"
Irina whispered, her face blank, but by the trembling of her body, Akane knows it, that she is happy, very happy right now, as her work is approved and bears fruit.
She has had it rough, the most useful of them all, and part of it is why he was angry earlier; though he didn't show it, to dare discredit his sister like this is unacceptable.
But eventually, she can't take it anymore, as under the two eyes, one smiling softly while the other is stunned, she got up from the sofa and jumped around happily.
"Yay, yay, yay!!!"
Watching the happy and joyful figure of her finally getting her recognition, he is also happy for her, and he smiles softly as his gaze stays on her.
Ignoring his little sister, Ayato addressed the concern left unsaid by the others, but he knows that the others have noticed it, as this is probably the most important thing.
"Heaven Gate? So they truly did exist after all." As his hands are on his chin, Ayato is pondering it while Akane is a bit disappointed with this revelation,
'I thought you would notice some discrepancy here.'
Then again, 'Of course they exist,' but this particular twin simply wouldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes, while a simple hypothesis and probability could prove it.
Shaking his head slightly, he didn't forget another important thing,
"Dark Networks? Cooperation? Huh, hahah." It seems this time he hit a jackpot in one swoop.
As his eyes are gleaming, his gaze is frozen on the packed document, 'For others who treat the extraordinary as a new norm, this channel is like a privilege for them, right?'
Then what will happen when the blind see the other side of the world for the first time and their own wonder? The first key of his plan, "Get," muttering lightly, oblivious to all of them.