"Mao-nii, Mao-nii, open the door already..."
A short-haired black-haired girl hammered on the door with loud thuds.
With a click, the door swung open, and the unsuspecting little girl tumbled straight into an embrace.
"You're up awfully early today, Masumi." Mao Akai pulled her younger sister out of her arms and ruffled her messy black hair.
"Dammit, stop messing up my hair! I'm not a kid anymore!" Masumi Sera grabbed her sister's mischievous hand, baring her little canine teeth in a mock threat.
Hearing her sister say that, Mao playfully ruffled Masumi's dark hair into an even bigger mess.
"Let me go! It took me forever to fix my hair!" Struggling with great difficulty to escape her sister's clutches, Masumi scurried toward the stairs, shouting back a reminder for her sister to hurry down for breakfast, since they were going to visit their second brother Shukichi Haneda today.
Watching her younger sister scamper away, the smile that had lingered on Mao's lips since a moment ago vanished.She closed the door and walked into the bathroom. The mirror reflected an exquisite face with long, golden, curly hair draped over her shoulders and emerald-green eyes like two bottomless lakes. Unfortunately, the beauty in the mirror was expressionless, resembling a finely crafted doll.
Her second brother, Shukichi Haneda, had once been accidentally startled by that expression. Ever since then, whenever Mao Akai saw her family, she always wore a gentle smile. Shuichi Akai had more than once complained that her smile looked fake, but Mao Akai felt it was not bad that way.
After all, she did not want to frighten her family (specifically her second brother and little sister), and besides that, she felt it was even more absurd that out of four siblings, three had different last names.
Glancing briefly at the person in the mirror, Mao Akai took a quick shower. Soon, mist filled the confined space, along with her train of thought.
Mao Akai was not an ordinary girl, but a time-traveler.In her past life, she lived in a world filled with blood and gunsmoke. She was born in a cold laboratory and grew up passing from one experiment to the next.
No one taught her how to get along with others—after all, who would want a "weapon" to have feelings?
When her "creator" decided she was ready to "enter the field," she was rushed from one war to another. Blood stained her entire body, and she was given a name: "Crimson."
From that moment on, "Crimson" became people's nightmare. Countless individuals fell at her feet, but curses, wailing, and reviling did nothing to slow down her killing. A mindless "weapon" only knew how to obey orders.
Eventually, the tool known as "Crimson" was battered beyond repair, and she was "scrapped."
Right before her consciousness plunged into darkness, a feeble light burst before her eyes.
Another set of memories surfaced in her mind—memories and emotions she completely failed to understand, belonging to a consciousness from another world. The two streams of consciousness intertwined and clashed until the stronger one engulfed the weaker, plunging her into a deep slumber as a result.
After an unknown span of time, following a sensation of suffocation and crushing pressure, she discovered that she could perceive the world once again. She was born.
Mao Akai slicked her damp, long hair back.
Truth be told, she herself did not know whether she was now the former "Crimson" or that feeble ball of light.
Or perhaps she was both?
She draped a bath towel over her shoulders and walked barefoot across the floor.
The chilling touch reminded her that those bizarre memories had long since become the past. Now, she was Mao Akai.
......
Mary Akai looked up and saw her eldest daughter coming down the stairs. She raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, Mao."
"Morning, Mom.""Tch." Seeing Mao Akai's smile, Mary Akai curled her lip. Shuichi was right after all—such a rehearsed, formulaic smile was entirely too fake.
Then her expression darkened.
Because she had just thought of that disobedient eldest son of hers.
Placing her teacup on the table, Mary Akai stood up and straightened her hem. "I'm going out for a few days. Don't worry about me."
With that, she put on her sunglasses and hat and walked out the door.
"But Mom..." Masumi Sera chased after her mother. "Didn't we agree to go see Shukichi-nii?"
The only answer she received was the roar of an engine.
Left choking on exhaust fumes, Masumi Sera walked back inside, crestfallen. "Mao-nee, is Mom upset about something?"
"You're overthinking it." Reaching out, Mao Akai flicked her younger sister's forehead, finished the rest of her breakfast in a hurry, and stood up, gesturing to Masumi Sera, who was hovering anxiously beside her. "Come on, it's time for us to head out too."
Along the way, Masumi Sera chattered incessantly like a little bird.
Watching her lively younger sister, Mao Akai felt a trace of warmth gradually creep into her green eyes. Though there were still some things she couldn't quite comprehend yet, she was no longer just a weapon that only knew how to follow orders.
...
*Clack!*
The crisp sound of a piece being placed on the board interrupted Mao Akai's reverie. The man sitting across from her looked at her with a smile. "I win again."
Masumi Sera, standing nearby, began to applaud.
"Mao, you haven't improved at all compared to last time~" Shukichi Haneda looked at his sister with a grievance-laden expression.
"I'm not a shogi player, after all."
"Shogi is so much fun, though."
"I think Jeet Kune Do is quite fun too." Mao Akai smiled as she looked at her older brother's unruly, tufty hair.
Shukichi Haneda recalled the last time he had complained about his sister's abysmal shogi skills—only to be soundly and smilingly beaten to a pulp by Mao Akai.
"U-Um, Masumi, why don't I teach you how to play shogi!" he stammered, frantically changing the subject. After all, among the four siblings, his combat abilities were the absolute worst; even Masumi Sera, who was a whole decade younger than him, could easily beat him up.
Oblivious to her second older brother's panic, Masumi Sera stuck out her tongue and made a face. "No way!" she shouted as she bolted outside, calling back over her shoulder, "Shukichi-nii, Mao-nee, let's go play outside~"
Mao Akai and Shukichi Haneda followed closely behind her. As the two of them walked through a covered corridor, Shukichi Haneda slowed his pace.
"What were you thinking about just now?"
"I was thinking about when we were kids. Shukichi-nii, did you and Big Brother used to be afraid of me?"
Shukichi Haneda rubbed his chin. "Afraid is a bit of a stretch. It's just that sometimes I couldn't really understand what was going on in your head. I remember Mom even thought you had alexithymia. But looking at you now, little Mao was probably just a bit slow to catch on."
Is that so? Mao Akai lowered her eyelashes. The truth was, even now there were some things she still didn't understand; her laughter and tears weren't born of instinct, but rather the result of mimicry and learning throughout her upbringing.
"Maybe I'll never understand the friendship and love that people like you see."
"Perhaps one day you'll meet that special someone and it'll all make sense," Shukichi Haneda joked.
He let out a sigh. "Though, I really envy you. Without emotions, you aren't affected by the outside world. Maybe I could've reached my goals much sooner if I were like that."
"Is that so? Without emotions, you wouldn't have ever met Miss Miyamoto at all," Mao Akai remarked casually, dropping a terrifying truth.
Startled, Shukichi Haneda frantically waved his hands. "No way! A world without Yumi-chan is a truly terrible place!"