My eyes traveled around of the organization's hall, which has been transformed into no less than a hospital room; my heart palpitating.
There were futons, first-aid equipments and bloodied bandages lying everywhere.
Apart from Tsunan and I, all the members of the organization, including Master Kagami, had been attacked last night, which had resulted to their being transported to the hospital by ambulance.
None of their lives were in danger but they all had a terrible injury that seemed to make them suffer a lot, even if they were moving- especially, since they were moving.
'Master, what happened exactly?' I called at the latter, as Tsunan and I rushed to his side where he was standing painfully on his two feet, with Hatsu and Heihachi trying to convince him to lie down.
'You dare to ask us what happened?' Yanagi muttered at me from where was, her voice strained. She had an arm wrapped around her waist, her expression distorted with pain. 'At last, you show your true color, huh?'
I was stunned and confused.
Everyone was watching me with a strange look.
'You are the one who has attacked us last night!'
'What?!' I gasped out in stupefaction. 'It's not me,' I said to Tsunan, Master Kagami, Hatsu and Heihachi instantly, my throat dry.
'Is it Subaru?' wondered the master, and my eyes went wide, all color draining out of my face at this possibility.
'Who is Subaru?' demanded Ayame, exchanging a look with the other members of the organization.
In a spasm of panic, I took an involuntary step backward; my breathing accelerating.
'Last night, when you attacked me, I saw your eyes. I'm practically sure that they were both blue,' he stated. 'That person wasn't you, am I wrong?' He began to approach me, demanding in a raucous tone, 'Shun, who is that girl who resembles you like two drops of water? Enough with your secrets! Who was Kirigaya Kuhōin? Who is that demon who persecutes you? What happened really that night- six years ago?'
I backed away by two steps, nearing hyperventilation.
Then, bowing my head, I pressed my eyes shut, refusing to answer.
Without any warning, a pair of hands seized me by shoulders, making me jump.
Opening my eyes, I met Hatsu's intense look.
'Shun, it's time to tell the truth,' the latter told me. 'Six years ago, the weapon that had been used during the massacre, it was a katana. It's the same for yesterday. It leaves one to wonder why you would make use of a bladed weapon while you possess the Godai Shakujō. The possessor of the ability is characterized by heterochromia of the eyes, right? Heihachi has seen the picture that you hide in your bedroom, Shun. He told me about it.'
I plumped down into the chair behind me, utterly floored, and Hatsu dropped his hands.
I was cornered. There was no way for me around the truth anymore.
Without Subaru's existence known, the fact that the weapon that had been used was a katana or the Godai Shakujō didn't really make any difference, but with their being aware of Subaru's existence, it changed everything; it gave place to doubt.
'Shun, I think that it's time that you reveal the truth to everyone. Trust them,' said Master Kagami, as he came to place himself by my side, putting a hand down over my shoulder.
Tsunan did the same.
I stared at the two of them for a minute, before I lowered my head and nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat.
'Subaru is my twin sister,' I declared in a murmur, and silence fell in the hall. No one was wincing in pain or breathing anymore.
'We are monozygotic twins. I am the first born.'
Subaru and I were identical to each other, having the same height, size and hairstyle. The only way to differentiate us was by the color of our eyes since my left eye was green.
I kind of knew that Heihachi had seen the picture that I hid in my bedroom for I had taken it out in front of him, but I had never wanted to tackle the subject. The picture was a family picture of Subaru and I alongside our parents. It had been taken only sometimes before the latter's deaths.
'We were hardly six years old when we first met Kirigaya Kuhōin. He lived in China with his parents and would come to visit his grand-father at the village during school holidays.'
*Flashback*
'Wah! Sugoi!' I exclaimed, crouching down to admire the beautiful licorice growing on the side of the dirt road.
I was about to pick one, when a voice came, abruptly, exclaiming, 'You?!'
Startled, I jerked to my feet, my eyes falling onto the young spectacled boy who was standing there a few feet away, ogling at me.
'But- But I've just seen you on the other side just a few minutes ago!' he stammered, his expression a mixture of puzzlement and mild fright. 'How did you manage to overtake me?'
I stared at him blankly for a minute, wondering what he was talking about, before I realized what happened. I guessed that it was Subaru that he had seen just a while ago.
A mischievous smile came to my lips.
'That's because I've teleported myself.'
'Te- teleportation?!' he gibbered. 'Hah! Hu-Humans can't do that!'
'Who told you that I'm human?' I asked him, putting on my most frightening tone and expression, holding my arms outstretched with my elbows near my body, with my hands dangling lifelessly from the wrists. 'I'm an Oni. Oni!'
I added a small diabolical laugh for more effect.
He gulped audibly, cringing away.
Subaru appeared at that moment, and the boy paled at her sight, demanding, 'How- How can there be two of you?'
Taking a glance at me, Subaru immediately understood what was going on.
Playing the game, she took the same posture as me, telling him, 'We're one and a single person. We can make doubles of ourselves.'
She began to edge her way up to him, moaning, 'I'm hungry. So hungry.'
I did the same, repeating, 'Hungry. So hungry.'
Holding his head in-between his hands, the spectacled boy took to his heels, screaming his lungs out.
Subaru and I waited for him to be out of view, before we looked at each other, breaking into hysterical laughter.
'SHUN! SUBARU!' came the groaning voice of our mother from behind us, unexpectedly.
Breaking into cold sweats, we turned around slowly to meet the latter's terrifying look.
A few minutes later, we found ourselves making our apologies to the young spectacled boy.
'Forgive them,' said our mother, softly, bowing in apology in front of him. Pushing our heads down with her hands, she made us bow too.
'Yes, sorry,' Subaru and I told him together. 'It wasn't really nice of us.'
'It-It's okay!' he said, brushing his forefinger under his nose. He had been so scared that he had tears in his eyes. 'My name is Kirigaya Kuhōin. I don't have any friends at the village. Will you be my friends?'
He held out his hands at us, smiling happily.
Subaru and I glanced at each other, before we looked at our mother who smiled at us cheerily.
'Yes,' we replied with a goofy smile, taking his hand.
***
'That's how Kirigaya became our friend. After our parents died, I began working to run the house and also, to afford Subaru's education. Six months after the funeral, I met with Tadashi Honjō. It was my ability that had attracted him to the village.'
I began telling them about my encounter with him and the bond that formed between us.
'He watched over me and helped me to look after Subaru. He became a member of our family. I have to admit that I had a secret crush on Kirigaya but I realized very quickly that it's Subaru that interested him and the attraction was reciprocal. So, I gave up.'
*Flashback*
'Say, you like Kirigaya a lot, don't you?' I asked Subaru, as we were taking a cup of tea together, sitting at the back of the house, admiring the azure blue sky.
We were nine years old.
'One day, when you'll be older, would you like to marry him?'
'Yes,' she replied, blushing hard.
'Alright then, he's yours,' I declared, cheerily.
'How is that?' she demanded with a growl. 'He's not a trophy for you to formulate it like this! And also, I would have won against you anyway.'
'Yes, excuse me, I'm sorry. It's true. You're right,' I giggled, before I told her, 'But say, do you promise me that I'll be maid of honor at your wedding?'
'Yes, I promise,' she replied, looking at me and giving me a large smile.
'Yo! Shun! Subaru! Look at this!' called Tadashi, who came into view at that moment, with three big fishes at the end of his fishing line. 'Tonight, we're eating fish for dinner!'
'Yatta!' Subaru and I exclaimed together, all excitedly, running to him.
***
'And then, something happened…Subaru and I were fifteen.'
*Flashback*
'Subaru, don't worry, Kirigaya will come back next year. I'm sure about it,' I told her in a reassuring tone, putting my hand down onto her shoulder.
She was sitting at the dining table, holding her face in her hands and sobbing.
Kirigaya's grand-father's funeral had taken place three days ago and this morning, Kirigaya had left for China with his parents.
'Leave me alone!' she snapped at me, slapping my hand off her violently and jerking to her feet. 'You can't understand my frights! Anyway, I'm sure that it'll make you happy if he doesn't come back to see me because you must jealous of our relationship!'
'Subaru...' I gasped, shocked and hurt.
She ran out of the house, shedding hot tears.
***
'That night...'
*Flashback*
Overwhelmed with an uncontrollable feeling of anger and jealousy in all of sudden, I picked up a knife and made my way towards Subaru with a murderous intent, where she was sleeping on her bed, which was next to mine.
'Kill her, Shun!' I heard a familiar voice say in my head.
In that instant, I snapped out of the sudden folly that had stricken me, recovering my self-possession.
'Why am I doing this?' I gasped, astounded.
I didn't have any romantic feelings for Kirigaya. And I knew that Subaru had lashed out at me because she was afraid of never seeing him again and this was perturbing her a lot.
'Tadashi!' I breathed, flinging around, and meeting the latter's eyes.
He had entered the room soundlessly and was standing in the dim light of the window.
It was his voice that I had heard in my head.
'Tadashi, what's wrong with you?' I asked, completely shaken. 'Is it you who's doing this?'
'I'm sorry, Shun,' he said, holding his face in his hand, his expression tormented. 'I don't know what's taken over me. What's happening to me?!'
Without any warning, he jumped out of the window and disappeared in the darkness of the night.
'Tadashi...' I whispered, filled with angst.
***
'One week later, there was the massacre…'
I hugged myself, shivering at the memory.
'I hadn't seen Tadashi ever since the incident with Subaru. That day, the day of the massacre, I had gone to look for him, being extremely worried after what had happened. But I didn't find him. It had already gotten dark when I was returning back to the village and from afar, I saw that it was on fire; the village had been attacked. I rushed onto place to find Subaru, activating my Godai Shakujō.'
*Flashback*
Rounding a corner, I caught sight of Subaru, but instead of relief, it was a feeling of horror that swept over me.
Petrified into place, I stared at the latter, who was standing in the middle of the village, covered in the blood of the villagers, with pieces of cadavers everywhere, katana in hand.
She was possessed by Tadashi.
'What did you do, Tadashi?!' I gasped out.
My legs turned into jelly as he turned his face into my direction and I met his look.
Without any warning, he jerked at me using Subaru's physical envelope, throwing me to the ground.
Holding himself on top of me, he brought the tip of the katana over my heart with both hands, ready to kill me with it.
All that I could do was to stare; my mind refusing to work anymore.
Just as he was about to stab me, unexpectedly, his hands came to a stop.
We stared at each other for one long second, before he ejected himself out of Subaru's body. The latter collapsed onto me; Tadashi landing on his two feet a distance away.
Sitting up with Subaru in my arms, I couldn't tear my eyes off him so much I was terrorized.
He fixated me for a brief moment, a frown creasing his forehead, his expression undecipherable, before he turned away and ran out of sight.
'Oh my god, Shun!' sobbed Subaru, showing me her hands and our father's katana, which were covered in blood. 'What did he make me do?! Everyone is dead.'
***
'Shun,' said Hatsu, in a choking voice; his eyes huge. 'Did you…'
'Yes,' I whispered, holding his gaze.
*Flashback (Continuation)*
'Subaru! You have to leave!' I exclaimed, grabbing her by shoulders and staring into her eyes. 'Go away from here, quick! Run! And don't look back! You're going to leave the country and you will never come back here. Go on, Subaru, run!'
'And what about you, Shun?'
'I'm going to stay here.'
Her eyes went wide at me. 'Shun, no! Don't do this! Let's run away together!'
'We can't. Now, leave, Subaru! Go away! Quick!'
Getting to her feet, she stared at me, hesitating.
'I love you, Subaru,' I whispered, blinking back my tears.
Reluctantly, she dropped the katana and flinging around, she took to her heels.
***
'I knew that no one would want to believe that story of demon and possession. They would have simply thrown Subaru in prison. And even if we had run away, we would have been tracked by the authorities and I didn't want this kind of life for Subaru. And so, I remained behind; asking Subaru to flee. I got rid of the katana. And since I pleaded guilty, there hadn't been any inquiry. The persons who knew about Subaru's existence were all dead. There was no way for me to contact Kirigaya and he believed that I killed her when he learnt about the massacre.'
I paused.
'The next time that I saw Tadashi after the massacre, it was in my prison cell.'
He had his face set in that mocking smile...
I lowered my head and Tsunan squeezed my shoulder softly.
'It's him who killed Kirigaya.'
No one spoke, needing time to assimilate the incredible revelations.
'But I don't understand. What is Subaru doing here?' I murmured, almost to myself; troubled. 'Why did she attack you?'
At that precise moment, somebody appeared in my peripheral view and I took a glance at the latter.
My breath caught.
Thank you for reading!