Note: This chapter does not share continuity with the first chapter.
Heartstrings
If you were to ask the people who know him what Kira Yoshikage's likes were, they would all answer that Kira has no likes, or rather; his likes are so plain and ordinary that it looks like he doesn't like anything at all.
If you were to ask him directly, he would confirm everyone's impression if him by giving the most uninteresting and boring answers possible.
Truly, Kira Yoshikage was the most ordinary person in all of Morioh-Cho.
If only they knew this was all by design.
After discovering his innate desire to murder young and beautiful women, Kira spent time and effort into being as average and uninteresting as possible. He was never too good and never too bad. He had several 3rd place awards in his room to prove his dedication to his fabricated persona.
But once inside the safety of his home, Kira allowed himself to show the side of him that no one else in the world knew or had an inkling of an idea about.
Well, no one except one…
"I'm h…!." He was about to announce his arrival, but he quickly held back. The house was filled by the enchanting sounds of music.
After taking off his shoes like proper etiquette dictated, Kira walked deeper into his home towards the origin of the music. When he arrived he found his little sister inside of her own room playing her most favorite musical instrument: the lyre.
An unconventional instrument to be sure, especially this day and age; but Lyra took upon herself to learn and master it after she found out their mother had named her after the instrument itself.
Kira remained quiet as he watched Lyra with her eyes closed concentrated in playing her namesake and carefully listen to her melody. He was no connoisseur in music, but he was an expert on his little sister and he could hear exactly what her musical piece was about.
It started out slow and soothing to try and relax you, put you into sense of calm and security; but slowly the tune changed, it stir and shifted not unlike a person when a pleasant dream started to become darker and darker; the melody was no longer comforting, instead it conjured a foreboding feeling of dread.
Then it happened.
What once was a pleasant dream, it had become a nightmare and the terrors once held back reason and optimism flow out like water from a broken dam. The shifts and turns became struggles against the bounds that chained you preventing you from escaping the cold darkness that surrounded you and started to consume you.
But soon the fear became something more. It became pain. The darkness that wrapped around you began to pierce your skin and burrowed underneath and slowly crawling to envelop the insides. It was a slow and lengthy process as the darkness consumed you on the inside, the cold burning worse than any fire; no longer do you wish to escape but rather you beg for the end.
And the end comes, not as a vengeful strike from an angry god, but as the soft caress of a mother consoling their child. No longer would you suffer from the pain of the darkness, all you have to do is close your eyes and soon you'll be taken to where nightmares do not exist and dreams become songs, so dream and soon the pain will fade away.
And that is the end of the song.
"Did you like it?" Lyra opened her eyes and looked up to her brother who she knew stood there in silence the whole song.
"As much as I like you." Kira gave an answer that she could interpret in whatever way she wanted.
"Thanks!" She gave him a very big smile, obviously elated by his words. Then her gaze move from him towards the clock on the wall. "Oh! Is it that late?! I forgot to prepare dinner!"
"It's alright. It is my turn to make dinner today." Kira said calming her down before she ran towards the kitchen in a crazed frenzy. "Meanwhile you can work on your strings."
"Mou, you know I can't work on my strings if I don't…" and before she could say more, Kira pulled out a plastic bag containing something special inside. "Oh my goodness! You are the best big brother ever!" Lyra jumped unto him and gave him the biggest hug she could muster. "You must really love my music then!" she said with a small laugh.
Kira would rarely say it out-loud but he really did love his sister's music. It was unlike anything he heard from any other musician, either from mainstream music or from a symphony. Lyra's melodies invoked all sort of emotions from him, emotions that he suppresses every single day in order to maintain his public persona and their peaceful life.
Kira silently lamented Lyra could never truly play at the best of her abilities outside of the confines of their home. She could be playing for the best orchestra in all of Japan, but just like him, Lyra holds back her true talents for the sake of their peaceful lives.
It was a true shame, talent like that could not be shared with the world. But a small part of him enjoyed the idea of being the only one who could enjoy his sister's exquisite music.
"I better start working; hopefully I can clean the fat before dinner!" Lyra took his gift and jumped excitedly. But before she could go get to work, she stopped and looked at him. "Did you bring a new girlfriend home?" she asked cocking her head to the side. "Should I wash up and dress up for dinner?"
"You should always do that regardless." Kira looked at her and how she was still dressed in her school uniform. "Tonight I'll prepare something special: Loin served with a Cumberland sauce of red fruits."
"Oh! Fancy!" Kira rolled his eyes at that. Loin wasn't that fancy of a dish; at least not without a proper side dish and plate presentation.
"Hurry along, and maybe after dinner you can play some more for me." He said and instantly he could see a sparkle on his sister's eyes.
"Ok!" She gave his a small kiss on the cheek before she ran off in direction of the basement with his present.
After she was gone, Kira took the opportunity to enter Lyra's room, something he had done less and less as time went on; she was a growing girl and he respected her privacy after all. What distinguished Lyra's room from the others in the house was towards the decorations hanging on the wall. They were his sister pride and joy: dozens of string musical instruments. Though her favorite was the Lyre, she also played the, the harp, the violin, the viola, the cello, several types of acoustic guitar and other instruments with names he couldn't remember. Lyra played them all.
She was a musical prodigy.
A shame she was born in the Kira family.
"Then again, if she were not for the strings she makes. Her music would sound as pure as it is." Kira commented out-loud as he ran his fingers through the strings of the cello magnificently crafted by Lyra.
Looking around, Kira was reminded of how unorganized his sister was compared to him thanks to how messy her books and trinkets above her desk were. It was a mystery how she managed to find something in that disorganized mess.
But Kira's attention move away from the unkempt desk and to a book that laid open. Inspecting it for just a second, he realized this was his sister's dairy. Though he respected her privacy and didn't want to stick his nose in her private thoughts, he had to admit that what little he saw had intrigued him.
"Working on a brand new instrument, huh?" Apparently Lyra was working hard in perfecting her technique to try and play a unique instrument and create music like it was never done before. She was preparing a show just for him. "I'll wait patiently, then."
On the basement of their home served as Lyra's work shop and in it she crafted strings unlike any other in the world.
"Let see what Yoshi-chan brought me today!" She smiled referring to her big brother by the pet name she gave him when they were little as she opened the package from it an exceptionally healthy small intestine fell out. "Wow, Big Bro's girlfriend really ate healthy took care of her body." She admired impressed by clean it was, so much that she couldn't help but smile. "With it I could create my best strings yet!"
She proceeded to clean them out and carefully take out all of the fat. A masterpiece required time and dedication after all.
[X-X-X]
Lyra hadn't cried in years. She hadn't done so since the funeral of her late mother where she promised she wouldn't cry anymore and be happy for everyone's sake. But the phone call she received, made her broke her vow.
Yoshikage…her big brother… they found out about him. They found out he was the mass murderer that had been making people disappear for more than a decade. And the peaceful life they had worked so hard to maintain was over.
All because a stupid kid mistook Yoshi's paper bag for his own.
Her brother was forced to kill him and in doing so, brought the attention of a bunch of people with similar powers as her brother's. Stand users they called themselves. And now they were on their way to their house for her too.
The person on the phone who told her all of this was none other than her brother Kira, which should've made her happy to know he was alive, but this did little to dull the pain of his next words.
"I had to assume the identity of another man. Kira Yoshikage is dead." This broke her heart.
Yoshikage needed to remain hidden as the man whose face and life took over. Meaning that besides this last phone call he would never contact her again. She would never see or hear her brother ever again. She'd ever be able to give him hugs or prepare dinner for him. Never celebrate his birthday or watch his favorite movie with him. And worse of all, she would never be able to play for him.
Her life was over.
Kujo Jotaro, the man with the invincible Stand, was going to come for her any minute now and unlike her brother, she didn't have the luxury to exchange faces and take over the life of another to hide. Jotaro and his companions would most likely try to apprehend her to interrogate or use her to find her dear brother, something she would refuse to do even if it killed her.
Over. Her life was over. If she didn't spend the rest of her life in the run she most likely end up dead. Well, if her life was over there was nothing stopping her from taking the people who ruin her and her brother's lives with her.
"Father!" She called out for the spirit of her late father that still resided inside the house. "Whatever happens please take care of Yoshi-chan!" She knew how much her father loved her and how he would most likely refuse to leave her on her own.
Her pleas were answered when a polaroid camera took a picture by itself and the photograph fell out. "Lyra please! You're my sweet little angel! Let me protect you from those people!" said the ghost of her father from inside the photograph.
"It's already too late for me. My life is already over, but he can still live the peaceful life he wanted for the two of us. Please father! Do it for me, protect my dear brother's now that I can no longer do it."
"Lyra I can't…!"
"Please father!" She shouted as tears fell down her face and into the floor. "You have to promise me that you'll protect him no matter what."
"L-lyra…"
"B-besides…" She said with a sniff. "Maybe I'll get to see mom too." She tried to find the silver lining of this whole mess, which in turn cause her father to cry even more, as he said yes to her request.
"Come Kujo Jotaro…"She said with steel in her voice wiping away her tears. "I'm waiting for you."
[X-X-X]
Morioh-Cho Jouzenji Block 1, number 28
The house the serial killer used when he was still Kira Yoshikage. With a new identity to hide in, it was unlikely for him to come back to the house anytime soon, even so Jotaro and his allies Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi went there to investigate and find any clues or leads to help them find him.
Once they arrived, Koichi couldn't help but notice something peculiar about the name plate at the entrance. "Um… Jotaro-san is that how Kira's name is spelled?"
"Yes, what of it?" The tall man look down to him wondering what caught the short boy's attention.
"It's just… there's a girl in my class whose last name is written exactly the same." Koichi pointed out much to Okuyasu surprise.
"Oi, Oi, are you serious?!"
"Maybe it is just a coincidence." Josuke cut in before his pal got any wrong ideas. "There's no way a classmate of yours is related to a serial killer."
"No, he is right." Jotaro said agreeing with Koichi. "According to what little info there is about Kira Yoshikage, we found out he had a little sister Kira Lyra, a student at your school."
"Are you telling me we have been going to school with the sister of a mass murderer?!" Okuyasu shouted, scared of the whole idea despite the fact that he too was the sibling of a murderer.
"After our confrontation with Kira Yoshikage, no one has seen signs of his sister anywhere. She most likely ran away." Jotaro explained as he pulled a picture showing Kira Lyra.
"Makes sense, it's not like she could change faces just like her brother did." Koichi figured the most likely possibility of her own disappearance.
"Hey, isn't she kinda cute?" commented Okuyasu as he looked at the picture of the girl with cyan hair and a white streak running down it,"She defiantly doesn't look like the sister of a murderer."
"Oi Okuyasu! What the heck are you thinking at a time like this!?" Josuke chastised his friend's lack of focus at the matter at hand.
"Neither did Kira look like a serial murderer." Jotaro brought everyone back to the point at hand. "We aren't just looking for clues to find Kira, but we also trying to find his sister as well. She knows him better than anyone and whatever info she has will help us find him." Though even if they found her, there was the issue of getting her to speak. "We do not know if she was directly involved with the murders or not, but if we find her we must treat her cautiously as if she was a stand user as well."
With those sobering thoughts the party made their way inside the house to investigate. And not soon after they stepped inside, music started playing resounding all over the supposedly empty house.
"Wasn't this place supposed to be empty? What's up with that music?!" Josuke asked alarmed fearing the attack of an enemy any second now.
"Maybe they left the TV on." Okuyasu proposed much to everyone's dismissal.
"It was silent until we all stepped inside." Koichi clarify before looking at Jotaro. "Do you think this is some sort of strategy from an enemy?"
"It could be, or it could be just to distract us from the real attack." It wouldn't be the first time an enemy use distractions like this. "We cannot stay still, we must found whoever or whatever is producing that music. Everyone be ready and if it is a sound based attack, be prepared to cover for us Koichi."
"Yes, sir." Everyone tensed as they made their way in to find the origin of the music.
What they found inside, would haunt them in their nightmares to the end of their days.
Inside a ample room, Kira Lyra stood with one hand on the neck of a cello and the other on the bow. But what she was playing wasn't a cello or even a musical instrument at all.
It was a woman.
A woman with a cello neck jammed down her mouth and her neck cut opened exposing the vocal cords, which Lyra was playing like the most disturbing string instrument of all time.
Jotaro who was accustomed to grizzly scenes, was shocked with what he was seeing. Josuke and Okuyasu looked completely sick but they managed to hold it down relatively well and poor Koichi ended up puking on the floor. Nobody could blame him for it though.
Everyone stood frozen in place in what could be described as the disturbing horror picture of all time, as the girl with mint hair played without a worry in the world. Nobody said anything, nobody dared, as an ironically pleasant melody was played with the corpse of what once was a woman.
"You should be honored." Lyra finally broke the silence as her haunting song was over. "No one was supposed to ever see me perform this piece with my brand new, one of a kind, one-use-only instrument, besides my dear brother Yoshi."
"You…!" Josuke growled finding his voice once again. "You are a sick bitch!" If this was a taste of what she and her brother did, then they put Angelo to shame.
"Now thanks to you I will never be able to play for him this song I worked so hard for this past year or any other of his favorites ever again." She said, her voice filled with melancholy.
"Are you even listening?!" Josuke continued to shout angry not because he was ignored but because of her nonchalant attitude towards the corpse she had been desecrating.
"I heard your stand is very powerful, Kujo Jotaro." She turned and looked at the tall man who remained silently staring at her. "They say it can stop time. Star Platinum, the invincible Stand. Not to mention you have three other stand users to help you. Nobody could stand a ghost of a chance."
Jotaro looked at her curiously at her admission. Was she implying her surrender? Or was this some sort of distraction?
"But I believe there is a power far stronger than that of your Star Platimun." Lyra's eyes narrowed with fierce determination. "And that is the power of Love! And let me tell you, the Kira family love is unlike any other."
Of that, they had no doubts. The Kira family was obviously out of their damned minds.
"And the love I feel for my family, for my brother Yoshikage is reflected in no better place than my own soul!"
"Everyone stand back!" Jotaro ordered as Star Platinum appeared ready to attack or defend appropriately.
"Come forth!" She shouted as she called out her Stand.
く===ToBeContinued====