AN: spoiler heavy for both games and I've only actually skimmed the surface as far as the fandom goes so apologies for lore holes!
working on everyone being human here if only because my head just couldn't do the whole pinch of salt thing when I was actively writing characters so I've done a bit here and there with certain things down the line that were bird universe specific to fit them in with that thought!
Everything is Moa's even all the thoughts and feelings that inspired this in the first place!
Mirrors were the gateway into a parallel universe.
Hadn't he read that somewhere in one of the big, fancy, books his brother had started begging him to check out from the library on his way back from work?
The smell of the musty pages in his nose, the feel of the cracked parchment of their pages and the sight of those rare, glorious, illustrations that the younger man had spent more than one night examining with such intensity that he'd simply forgotten to sleep.
He keeps his mind there as he works the bleach into his hair, looses himself the details of the memory, of how much brighter his brother's smile had been when presented one of those books, of how excited he'd become when discussing the new myths he'd discovered in their pages.
For a brief moment he'd seem like any child his age, bright and full of such promise and then...
A sharp burn as the chemicals find some small abrasion in his scalp and in wincing a little against the unexpected pain his eyes at last fix to his reflection's.
Lost weight, dark shadows and already his hair is soaking up its colour, twisting a brash golden hue just a shade too orange to pass just yet.
Still it's close enough that with a subtle shift of posture he's no longer seeing his own face.
Seeing instead the face of a ghost.
Uzune Hitori meets Kazuaki Nanaki a month before his world tumbles in on itself.
It is not an auspicious meeting, no mistimed collision or heroic rescue a gang of unpleasant vagrants, but instead simply one scarred boy reaching out for another in companionship:
Their friendship grows slowly, Kazuaki uncomfortable even the smallest of conversations and Uzune wary always of just how deeply pushing too quickly could hurt.
Still by the time the incident occurs they are certainly close enough to be considered friends, close enough that Uzune chooses to return to Kazuaki despite the fact that he is meant to be dead.
For a week after Uzune hurts enough that he finds himself, at last, agreeing with Kazukai's pessimism and wishing for the death he'd been refused.
Anger burns the hurt eventually and twists him, crafts a new self fuelled the scent his brother's charring flesh.
This new self begins whispering at how alike Kazukai's appearance is to his own, how he was the other boys only true friend, how his family was long since dead and an ugly plan began to form.
Three months later Uzune Hitori became Kazuaki Nanaki.
It's been years since he'd claimed someone else's life and still it's unnerving to see a reflection other than his own in the mirror, a sharp shock of confusion before understanding kicks in and then...
Kazuaki stretching out for him, tendons a taught line beneath his skin, eyes rolled back in his head, his breath hard and frequently strangled the tremors racing through his body.
Still his mouth is moving, placing foolish effort to shape again and again the question of 'why' about spittle and blood.
He's learned just where to look so that it's easy to pretend the staff room mirror a window and the brief movement of his reflection Kazuaki waking by outside.
Repeated the lie to himself over and over enough now that it feels strangely possible that, just maybe, he was catching some broken snatch of another life.
A life where everyone had lived
As expected Kazuaki is already nested down in one corner of the library, workbooks scattered in an ever decreasing spiral in towards the somewhat subdued man himself.
There's a cup of tea balanced on one of the books to his left that has him smiling a little to himself and enquiring,
"Someone take pity on you?" A tiny jump and a face that's so tempting to simply tease a little no matter how sorry he is, still there's a lot of work to do right now and he's in the mood to play at being a responsible adult for a little so instead he apologises and, once the tear filled face is settled out he repeats the question.
"Nageki, though he's gone home now." Again the same fond smile that says, louder than words, that Kazuaki understands how much he cares for his little brother and, indeed, admires him the somewhat neurotic need he has to assure the other safe and well.
More and more he begins to think that perhaps it was fate that had steered their paths together, that, perhaps, they had been broken as they had so that they might form some better whole.
Smiling the sweetness the thought he grabs the closest book to him and enquires,
"Let's see what craziness Kawara has put down this time shall we?!"