Despite having black hair and eyes which are very apart from her original color back in the other world, just her base looks and her movements along with her tone of voice easily shout who she was without a doubt.
"wow… your room looks completely out of life. You'd wonder if the person sleeping here is still breathing or not…" Reine said blatantly as she walked around, observing the room, "seriously… it's like this place didn't change even a bit. It only got more messed up,"
"You enter my room so casually and then started casually started insulting me… I'm glad to see you're at least comfortable,"
"We're cousins, this kind of thing should be fine, right?"
"I don't remember any cousins that are as frank as you are… Also, you talked like you've been here before, I don't remember letting anyone in my room yet,"
"Well, it's because you didn't know I was here…" She sighed.
"You broke into my room…?" he said with a disturbed look on his face.
"Only once… I was investigating something for myself back then," she said with a slightly sentimental look in her eyes as she stood by the window and observed the whole area, "seriously… what have you been doing in these past two years…"
Riyoko flinched in shock as if her words hit him.
"Say… you only went in here once, right? When was it…?" he asked with a serious tone and a sentimental look on his face.
She opened the curtain along with the window and looked outside as she feels the cold nightly breeze.
"Around two years ago… where things took a huge turn in your life…"
"Two years ago…"
Memories of his dad's death and his mother's disappearance quickly flashed in his mind.
"Hey… do you know anything about those incidents…?"
Reine turned around and glanced at Riyoko, "by incidents, do you mean…?"
Seeing his facial expression for assurance, she then looked back outside as she seemed to be avoiding eye contact.
"If it's regarding your dad, only one person knows about that,"
"one person…? What about my mom?"
"She's the only one who knows the truth about your dad…"
Riyoko's eyes enlarged as he took a step forward, "I've asked this before but you didn't answer back then… you know my mother, right?"
Reine stayed silent as she continued to look outside, hiding her face.
"Do you know why she left? Where is she now…?"
"I can't answer anything about her… at least for now," she said with a low tone and voice without turning around.
"Look's like I won't be getting anything further from her now…"
He gripped his shivering hands as he felt slightly frustrated by having the graspable truth so close to him.
He took a deep breath and lowered his head, "Then can you at least tell me this…? Is she… doing ok?"
Reine glanced at Riyoko and was stunned shocked by his sincere worried expression and tone.
"She is, at least for now…"
Riyoko felt surprised and raised his head, "for now…? What do you mean?"
Reine scratched her head and looked away as if she didn't mean to say that out loud.
"hey… what do you…"
"Look!" Reine said, interrupting him, "look… you can find out the answer to all of your questions, but it won't be coming from me,"
She then turned and looked him in the eye with a serious expression and tone.
"Say… do you want to go back to that world?"
Riyoko's eyes felt teary as her words struck through his chest as if it was the words he had been yearning for.
"If you say you do, I guarantee you my help in finding the truth for yourself. However, don't expect it to be free or easy… you'll have to work for it, and it would probably be a tough journey. You already know one kind of problem you could face, you already faced it once…"
Memories of the child and the demon played back in Riyoko's head.
Reine walked closer to him, "even so… are you willing to go back there…?"
Riyoko stood straight and smiled, "I remembered I have some unfinished business there… and if you're saying I'll be able to find out more back there, I don't see any reason strong enough for me to not go…"
Reine giggled, "it's as if you already know the answer before I asked… did facing a demon not even scare you…?"
"Well…" Riyoko hesitated for an answer.
"Well! It doesn't matter!" she said cheerfully, breaking the tense mood, "this is what's best for you and I…" she said, slightly dancing around as she moved toward the bed.
"It's already this late… do you have any less serious questions?" she asked as she sat on the bed and tapped beside her, asking him to sit with her, "come on, let's get comfortable… I'll entertain you until you feel sleepy," she said in a weird insinuating tone with sassy eyes.
Riyoko flustered, "w… what are you…?"
"Come on!" she said, interrupting him, "sit down, there's no way you can just sleep after what we just talked about, right? Let's get comfortable and just chat about nonsense stuff so your heart could ease up a bit!" she smiled brightly.
Riyoko looked at her with a complicated expression, not knowing how to feel about his situation.
"Did she do that on purpose…?" he thought.
"We'll continue all the serious stuff tomorrow, I'll explain to you everything you need to know and what to do by then, so just chill for now, ok?" she said, grabbing Riyoko's hand and pulling him onto the bed.
"O… ok," he said, averting his gaze with feelings of slight embarrassment.
Reine giggled, closing the windows and curtains then sitting closely beside Riyoko, "so? What did you do back when I left you with Arisa?"
Leaving out all the serious questions for the night, they talked casually as if without any care in the world, relaxing to their heart's content as the night became deeper.
Later.
As the two of them continued to talk, Reine notices Riyoko slightly swaying back and forth.
"You seem pretty sleepy now…"
Riyoko nodded with heavy eyes, "now that you mention it, I guess I'm pretty tired,"
"Go ahead and sleep now, at this rate you're only going to get less than 6 hours of sleep," she said, looking at the clock that shows 1 pm.
"That's all right… it's the weekends…"
"Regardless, you need your rest. I might need you to work in the morning,"
"I see…"
Riyoko moved forward and fully lay down his body on the bed, "what about you…?"
"Who knows…" she said with a teasing tone and expression, "maybe I'll sleep with you or watch you all night," she whispered loudly with a soft and tingling tone.
Riyoko slightly blushed and averted his gaze as he shuts his eyes, "suit yourself…" he said in a tired tone.
Reine giggled.
Some time passed as Reine watched him fall into a deep sleep, "hey… are you asleep?" she whispered, moving slightly closer to his face.
Seeing no response, she slowly backed off.
"All right… now,"
Her eyes began to glow bright yellow as she looked around the room.
"So it's not around here…. then could it be at the warehouse he mentioned?" she said, grabbing her chin as if she was thinking about something serious.
She carefully walked out of the house without making any noise.
As she stood still in front of the house, she closed her eyes as some sort of invisible field began to surround the area.
"There doesn't seem to be any cameras or anyone awake nearby… it should be fine…"
She then opened her eyes and they glowed bright gold as she looked around the house.
"Yeah… this doesn't seem to be the place, no wonder he wasn't able to go back,"
She blinked, turning her eyes back to normal as she looked beside her, "if I remember correctly, he said the warehouse was over there…"
As she was about to begin making her way, she suddenly stopped in remembrance of something.
"Oh yeah… I can't just leave him like that,"
She pulled out her special sack from her pocket.
--------------------------------------------
Birds chirping, as the glimpse of light from the sun passes through the small gap in the curtains.
Riyoko slowly opened his eyes and sat up from his bed to check the time.
"today's Saturday… it's ok if I should sleep more…"
As he was about to go back to bed, he remembered the night and quickly woke up fully.
"Where's Reine…? There's no way last night was a dream now…" He thought, standing up from his bed.
As he quickly went downstairs in hopes of seeing Reine, he found nothing but a small piece sack and a piece of paper placed on top of his kitchen table.
Grabbing the familiar sack, he read the note written on the piece of paper beside it.
"Hey, Good morning! when you're reading this go ahead and eat your breakfast that's inside this sack, just remember the bread you forgot to eat back in the other world, it should still be fresh. Also, don't show this to anyone, I made it so it won't work if anyone I don't trust is looking. P.S someone should be there to pick you up later this morning so get ready as fast as you can you rascal! See ya! (winking face)"
"My breakfast…?" he looks at the sack with feelings of excitement.
He opened the sack and it showed nothing but pitch-black. He took a deep breath and put his hands inside.
Suddenly, he pulled out a warm bread, in the same state as when he put it back in the other world.
He smiled with the feeling of excitement and exhilaration flowing through him.
"That's a way to get this morning started, I guess…"