Prologue
When she was fourteen years old, Kyousuke's sister left to pursue track and field in America. No one was very surprised. Kirino was a miracle child. In a world where actions meant more than words, she could do no wrong. When she left her brother behind to pursue a dream she had every chance of achieving, it was just another chapter in the bright, neon-coloured book that was her life.
She never said goodbye to him. One day, she simply didn't turn up to the table to eat. "Where's Kirino?" Kyousuke asked, glancing towards the empty, pushed-in seat. It turned out Kirino had to leave early in the morning for her flight. "What flight?" he asked. No one had ever told him about it.
Even though they lived in the same house, they hardly ever saw each other. She lived her life and he lived his. When they did speak to each other, their conversations were short, terse and perfunctory. But even so, it was unsettling when she left. The house felt empty without her. He could never walk around inside it without inadvertently frowning. His sister's presence loomed in every nook and cranny like a spectre. When, in years to come, Kyousuke strained his memories to think of the last words he ever uttered to his sister, he would be unable to think of anything but dull, hollow static. It had been nothing important. When he thought of her, his mouth felt strangely bitter. It tasted almost like, of all things, betrayal.
Looking back, Kyousuke couldn't really say he knew who his sister was. Maybe, he thought, if he had known, everything that came next could have been avoided. Or maybe not. Even without knowing his sister, he knew perfectly well that she was the pivot point to everything in his life. There was no getting around it.
Even beyond the grave, it seemed, Kyousuke's sister never stopped stepping all over him.