A few weeks later, there were multiple rotations of the warriors positioned on base 37. Warriors migrated from base 24 also rotated back to the island. Some of them had therapies as they still have trauma over the breach, with gruesome sight of the deceased. Among new souls to enter base 37, there was Hoshikawa, Kazuki's little brother.
"Brother!" Hoshikawa greeted his brother with a wide smile as he touched down to the base. Kazuki however, is not really feeling great about this family reunion. Instead he ignored Hoshikawa for a moment and decided to talk with someone else first.
After Hoshikawa kept calling his name, Kazuki finally snapped, "Okay, okay! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on the island? You don't want to fight, do you?"
"Well, I changed my mind, so I'm here now," the boy replied gleefully while Kazuki expresses his worries over his brother's motivation. "I trained in secrecy with my friends, then join the warriors about three months ago,"
Kazuki turned his back against him, and said a message, "I don't want you to be killed," he then slowly walked away.
"I won't! I will prove to you that I will survive... after learning about Kyuuto and his intentions... I want to avenge our parents too! Don't you feel the same?" Kazuki stopped his steps. He didn't reply with anything and just continued walking away with the rest of his team.
----
"You're too rough, Kazuki," Kyuuto commented on his teammate's behavior during the lunch break.
Kazuki, whose chewing sandwich really quickly stopped and triggered, "No I wasn't! He doesn't know how much risk there is to his life. He's too innocent," he lamented. Kazuki then continues to tell his family's past.
The Itsuka family was a religious family, and they believed in superstitions. When Kazuki was conceived, he was believed to be the "luck-bearer" for the family. Because they had planned his birth on the 14th of January, the birth date of their great-great ancestors. In fact, the Itsuka family had chains of successful descendants born on this date. But after they faced many obstacles regarding his date of birth, and the increasing complications of his mother's pregnancy, he missed the mark and was born on the 15th instead.
Because of this, Kazuki was not particularly treated as special by his parents. Throughout his childhood, Kazuki faced the lack of attention from both of his parents, while his father worked all-day from morning to evening, his mother opened a small stall in front of the house and kept an eye out for it all the time.
They believe that they have to accurately program their children to be born on the sacred date of their family tradition, so that the child may raise the family social class to a higher level and bring fortune to their lives in multiple contexts. But despite this extreme belief, Kazuki wasn't deserted entirely, he just had to deal with neglect by his parents most of the time, but little Kazuki didn't experience any abuse verbally or physically.
"A few years passed, when I was in elementary school, my mother got pregnant of Hoshikawa. My parents were ecstatic to hear the news, and they planned it really well this time, until his estimated birth date was programmed carefully," Kazuki further explained.
"Wait, did you say Itsuka? Like Itsuka Megumi? The famous idol?" Yato cut Kazuki's story after he remembered a famous celebrity with Itsuka last name. Kazuki quietly nodded. "Like, also Itsuka Haruto? The politician?"
"Yes, yes! You're right, those are actually members of the grand Itsuka family. They are my relatives," Kazuki finally snapped again, "and their same birth dates wasn't a coincidence,"
The team was shocked to know this fact. They never heard about the connection between their fortunes and birthdates. They were believed to be the fortune-bearer of the family, meanwhile numerous others were the "unspecial" ones, they were treated as though they don't have any importance, even though some of them contributed much to the family.
"My family was weird enough to have that tradition, I'm so sick of it,"