Chapter 178 (1/2)

Volume 2

Chapter 157

『To Mai, I am on duty today so I will be leaving before you. From: By Brother』

One day, my ordinary days suddenly turned into the darkness, leaving only that simple note behind.

Yes, sudden, like with a turn of a breaker.

『It’s later than I expected… At this rate, I’m going to be late. I’ve just been warned by Brother, I cannot afford to be late… Wait, this might be a good chance to give Brother an excuse to scold me and then as a form of atonement… N-no, it’s pointless, I can’t be late to school on purpose.』

One and a half year ago.

Spring has ended and the rainy season was right around the corner.

Beneath the sky that had a too large part of it covered in thin clouds to be called clear.

That was the day when I was in a hurry after saving the collapsed old lady, the situation that can be called the very cliche of cliches of excuses for lateness.

『Nice, I might somehow make it in time… Kya?!』

Carrying naginata, that I used in the club activities, I was almost half running, and when I was about to finish ascending the stairs an intense blinding light burned my eyes.

Even now I remember that sensation of slipping from the stairs.

With dimming eyesight, I saw a shining magic circle at the spot where I fell from the stairs.

While hearing that people nearby were calling out to me worried, I lost consciousness.

『…Eh?』

And the next time I awakened a lot of things vanished leaving me all by myself.

At first, I had no idea what was going on.

Being told that father and mother have fallen into the sea in an accident and were missing.

Being told that brother was dragged into a mass disappearance case and also went missing.

All of it seemed fake, like reflections on soap bubbles.

『…It’s a lie.』

I returned to an empty house but I didn’t get the feeling that I actually came home.

I sat in the rocking chair at father’s study and grabbing my knees was swaying back and forth.

After watering with a sprayer pot plants, that mother was raising, I spent the rest of the day staring at them in a daze.

At brother’s room.

I read the manga that brother had read.

I tried clothes that brother wore.

I wrapped myself in the blanket that brother was using.

『…It’s a lie.』

In the empty living room, I re-watched anime that brother liked when he was a kid.

The story about the adventures of a bit absent-minded big brother and his reliable little sister at school in a fantasy world.

It’s was popular when we were little and since I was a sickly child and wasn’t able to go outside a lot, brother would often play make pretend of that anime with me.

While I called him Brother in the role, he looked very happy, so I changed my way of addressing him from 『Bro』to 『Brother』.

『…It’s a lie.』

Because brother said that『When Mai will grow up and get healthy let’s play this outside』

Because when I asked『Will you always play with me if I become like her?』he replied『Yup, we always gonna have big adventures together, as brother and sister.』

I worked hard and trained myself. When I was choosing martial art I decided on naginata since the girl from that show was using it.

I tried so hard at many things in order to become a dependable girl.

I troubled brother by usually saying mean things, and from time to time I also dropped front and was just getting spoiled.

In ways Brother would not notice I was shutting down girls that tried to get close to him.

『…It’s a lie.』

Even when people around called me brocon I replied just like that girl from the anime『Exactly so, because little sister should cherish her brother』and I did not feel embarrassed at all.

Because he also cherished me just as he proclaimed he will.

When I said I want to go shopping he would accompany me.

For birthday and anniversaries, he would give me presents.

If I pouted a little when he got invited for a mixer, he would refuse.

When I did something for Brother he would always smile saying『Thank you』and just like the girl for the anime I would reply『It’s all for my helpless big brother.』.

『…It’s a lie.』

As I was muttering such words, soap bubbles were bursting one after another.

And as they were bursting, my world was getting crushed by something gray that was reflected in them.

And thus my world became riddled with holes.

It turned into a world where one wrong step would send me to the bottom of the pitch dark void.

Bleak room, a room devoid of human’s warmth.

Empty home with everyone important to me disappearing entirely.

As if I returned to the times of my childhood when I was always staying in bed.

It’s hard to breathe, like I am deep, deep inside water depths without a single light in sight.

Scary, frightening, terrifying, dreadful.

That time, I woke up and brother had disappeared somewhere.

I was unbearably scared of staying at home and went outside where I was struck by a car and lost consciousness. When I woke up again around me were father, mother, and brother.

Which was such relief for me that I did not think much of being hit by a car.

But this time I have nowhere I can go to leave this place.

Because even if I were to rise up and tried to go somewhere, there was nothing but a black abyss around me.

The black abyss, falling where would break and crush me.

Thus, I, unable to cry, also became unable to move.

When I was awake I kept watching that anime on endless repeat, when I grew tired I would fall asleep right at the spot as if my batteries had suddenly died.

For the first few days, I had no energy neither to eat or bath nor to change clothes.

After all, I had no one to show that to. Healthy food, daily treatment in bath, an adult-like appearance that brother liked so much. Since brother wasn’t here I saw no reason to bother with any of that.

Before long I would only get up for a toilet and would spend my days simply by sitting in front of the TV, going back and forth between dreams and reality until eventually I lost track of days.

As if trying to dissolve the boundary between dream and reality I began to repeat shallow sleep with incomplete awakening.

『I wonder if worried Brother and others will be beside me the next time I wake up.』

My vision turned dark several times per day and that is what was on my mind every time.

And each time I thought.

——————Brother is not here anyway, just how nice it would be if I just died in my sleep.

Until then it was only the prologue to my despair.

Yet even during that dark time when I thought that I had lost everything I still had something left for me.

『Are you an idiot? What are you even doing?!』

『We were, worried…』

『Ouch, ouchouch, you two, it hurts.』

When I woke up I was in an unknown hospital and the first thing I saw when I got up was my friends.

Daughter of a famous judge, usually strong-willed, with a distinct dislike for shady things, Miyuki.

Daughter of a prosperous family, she had a seemingly bubbly personality but actually was quite stubborn, Satomi.

Miyuki slapped my cheek with full force and Satimo firmly pinched the skin on my upper arm.

Both of them were crying hard and seriously angry.

I didn’t understand what was going on.

I could be only puzzled by their actions.

However, with my body, I could understand the emotions they were throwing at me.

『Whaaa, hyaaa, sto, ooooo, AaAAAAAAAA…!!!』

Like some limiter has broken, tears start overflowing.

We cried and cried and cried until our tears and voices dried up, until we released everything we had on our hearts.

It was already dusk when three of us fell asleep on the hospital’s bed.

As I regained clarity, probably due to intravenous therapy, I heard that since I shut myself inside the house the two started to worry and decided to check on me and by peeking inside through the big window that was opened all the time, they found me, unconscious and weakened.

When ambulance transported me I had mild malnutrition and severe dehydration.

And concerned about me, the two stayed by my side until I regained consciousness.

『First of all, you are the boldest one among us, why are so easily giving up now. If you have time for spacing out then you should be working on ways to find your beloved brother. Where is your usual『Thots lusting for my Brother should just die』proactivity.』

『Yes, yes. Even we had to face that murderous gaze plenty of times…』

Admonished by those two, after leaving the hospital I began searching for the truth behind the disappearance case, no, for Brother’s whereabouts. I asked around the net to contribute information and also was frequenting police station, inquiring if there were any new developments or clues.

I also began exchanging information with Brother’s friend – Yuuto-san.

A lot of things didn’t go smoothly and the hole-riddled world remained unchanged but because Miyuki and Satomi were with me I was able to walk through such a world.

Hence, I once again made a mistake of forgetting.

Important things can one day suddenly disappear, that’s something I have already experienced once.

The incident happened a few months after we started investigating the disappearance case.

When shocking disappearance case started to become a hot topic for public discussion, a full set of classified information on people related to the case was leaked by police along with the fantasy-like video taken during the incident.

Following that, strange rumors began to spread and as public order deteriorated came that day.

On that day I was at a certain shopping mall.

Magic circles that appeared in that fantasy-like video made me remember what I saw around the time just before the incident. Being suspicious as of why a magic circle appeared before me as well even though I was not at school, I was going through the places I visited and the actions I took on that day.

It was shortly before lunch when I heard screams of strangers.

A part of the incident that later will be called as『Mass slasher incident』turned the peaceful shopping mall into the crucible of turmoil.

A man with a knife suddenly stabbed a high school boy then straddling him proceed to thrust the knife deeply into him over and over and over, and so we were swayed by the crowd of people terrified by that violent crime scene and became separated from each other.

That was the last time I saw Miyuki.

Later I was able to rejoin only with Satomi, no matter how many times we called on Miyuki’s mobile phone she never picked up.