I sit yet again in the small apartment labeled 107 just outside. Part of me is relieved that the Dan have split up, but many others scream at me that I had needed it, it had kept me from being lonely, we need to go get Danchou and Seto and-
I stop going back to that train of thought. My eyes burn slightly and just from the mirror in sight I can tell I've been using my eye powers. My golden brown catlike eyes are burning crimson, and I bring down the mask again, revealing my worn-out sleepless face.
I groan, apathy briefly taking over. So this is what Shintaro-kun felt like for two years. The story in my head suddenly rewinds, and I find myself muttering. "I'll tell a story for you. It all began 10 years ago..."
She comes in drunk through the door, yet again ranting about how I, Kano Shuuya, had ended up killing Dad.
I hide just under the cot, our home smelling of just a bit of alcohol as well as cigarettes and smoke. There are faint blood stains in the room; still mine. Mom always came back to abuse me over and over again.
I don't think it makes her feel better but I let her do it anyways.
I quiver slightly as her footsteps hit the floor heavily, then continue into the room just beyond mine, where faint sobbing can be heard.
I just decide to sneak back to the small orphanage, with my cuts in plain sight. This one caretaker always takes pity on me and allows me to stay the night most of the time. Those are the nights I actually enjoy. Night tends to be more peaceful for me than for other people.
Anyways, on those nights, I meet up with two other kids, Kido and Seto, and we just end up having fun way past the bedtimes assigned. I can still remember one moment where the three of us were watching fireflies...
The childish me is interrupted when the caretaker refuses. She pushes me away, and I look up startled, the tears on the edges of my eyes threatening to spill over.
She says no one more time before threatening a beating, and I get a safe distance away from her arms before rubbing my eyes. It's not the friendly caretaker; instead it's the mean old head caretaker with a long wooden cane in one hand.
Sobbing, I run down the street and seconds later muffle my sobbing. I have to lie about this. About everything.
No one can know about my abused life.
"Ah, that was when I started lying yet again. Oh, but wait!
"Didn't you forget? I'm a liar..." My voice trails off as the memories start coming back. "And sometimes I lie to myself..."
She comes in drunk again, but this time there's a greyish black object in her hand. I almost make it up the stairs before a loud shot echoes in my ear and suddenly pain lashes out from my right calf, the blood and the bullet on the floor.
I scream and clutch my leg, just barely on the stairs. I could climb, escape this monster that is not my mother-
Someone is behind her and suddenly I see the gun wrenched away, the stranger pulling the trigger. The monster, no, now she's my mother, falls to the floor. Bits of bone, blood, internal organs, and just the faintest glimpse of metal are scattered around the floor, and I find myself screaming for Dad, Mom, anyone to save me.
The stranger smiles, before pulling out a long silver knife. The blade is razor-sharp, just like Mother's tongue or her pocketknife of torture.
I feel like I've nearly bitten my tongue in two as he draws it across my arm, scarlet blood tracing downwards. Blood fills my mouth and flows down my arm and leg. My feelings are caught between about to fake happiness or complete and utter sadness.
I feel the blackness at the edges of my vision slowly grow bigger, and the comfort of maybe just being able to fall asleep growing. The stranger continues wounding me for almost a full minute.
The cold barrel of the gun rests against my forehead. My sobs grow quieter. The man looks just a bit closer and more shadowy than before. Then everything in my head spirals outwards into nothing as he pulls the trigger.
"Alright, Ayano's your big sister now, okay?" Ayaka-chan pats us on the back encouragingly. The band-aid on Kido's cheek and the cold pack on Seto's forehead stand out. Us three would always stand out.
We're facing Ayano-chan, a girl with brown hair much like her mother's and huge brown eyes. I don't look at her because I have my powers on, and I've done it out of reflex.
Ayano-chan tries to get us to play with her, talk with her. But we stay silent. She's probably pitying us.
And yet...
The next day, she's come with a red muffler. Seto's eyes widen.
Ayano-chan wraps the scarf around her neck and poses like the superhero does. We are all surprised, even me with my mask off. "If you guys are interested, we'll make our own superhero gang!"
The following weeks are the happiest of my life, at least until... let's not talk about that yet. She gives each of us a hoodie, and most of our days are spent doing "missions" and having fun. As a family.
"Ah, Kido!" My small cat eyes flicker between red and gold as our impromptu leader walks out from behind one of the trees. Behind her is a crying Seto.
"Seto-san, what happened?" My mask is always on, since the monsters called society were everywhere. His sobs are quickly quelled by the approaching rain.
"I...I heard their thoughts again." Seto nearly goes into tears again, and Kido hugs him closer, the rain just beginning to fall. "I... why were we cursed with these? They call us red-eyed demons, monsters. They hate us! They want us to die!"
At this point Seto is in a crying fit while Kido tries to calm him down and I just stand there. I'm such an idiot sometimes.
"..." Kido says no words, just holds crybaby Seto closer, keeping him warm in the freezing rain. We walk back to the orphanage in silence.
The monsters inside cause Seto to cry even harder and eventually we lock ourselves in a closet and try to calm Seto down. It barely works.
"It'll be alright." Kido's words vainly try to calm the boy down. I glare through the door crack at the other laughing kids, their voices grating against my ears and probably the others' ears too.
"Tch!" I close the door. The two with me are crying together now. But I have to stay strong for them, don't I? I have to weave my web of lies yet again as the kids clear and someone opens the closet door. I jump up and get my excuses ready-
It's a startled woman, with two red hairpins in her light brown hair and her coffee-colored eyes show surprise. "Oh!"
They're all watching me. Kido and Seto are still crying in the corner of the closet, and I feel the red eyes turning on, sending a slight pain through me. I take a breath. The mask changes.
"Those kids were bullying us! You can't blame us if something happens and we come back beaten and bloody-"
The lady shushes me. I stand there looking like an idiot with my arms raised and her hand over my mouth. The kids begin laughing again and my cheeks flush with embarrassment. Kido and Seto are sniffling now. They look at her, eyes red but Kido doesn't disappear and Seto isn't crying.
"I'm adopting you. Because you seemed to be lonely. And if you prefer to be lonely, then you can stay here." Her voice is gentle, and it calms Seto and Kido. I lower my arms, but my mask doesn't come off. She isn't allowed to see my tears yet.
"Hey, Kido!" I point towards the school building. Already a few people are gathered near the science room. "There's something interesting there! You wanna check it out?"
Kido sighs, and makes no other action than turning on her eyes and making herself invisible. I led her through the crowds and we ended up at the door. I poked my head through.
"Ah!" I retreat slightly, but the two teens inside smile and beckon me in. "Okay. It's a shooting game, though… Hey, Kido, you want to try it out?"
She appears right next to me and freaks the other player out. She's a girl with twin black pigtails. As she explains, Kido sits down and grabs the controller.
Around the last round of the game, the other girl starts getting worried. She wins barely; 100 points and Kido would've won.
"Ah, Kido-san, why'd you cheat?" It comes out a bit louder than I expected so I follow up and hope she's not embarrassed. "Ah, we should get going though."
Then, to the stall runners. "Thank you for the game. Don't worry, it'll run fine after this, I promise!" Kido looks like she's about to cry. "Ah, Kido-san, it's okay. At least you tried, right?" She doesn't answer. Instead we wait just by the entrance so we can meet up with Ayano-chan and her boyfriend again.
Danchou's dead. Those Kisaragi siblings are dead too; Shintaro-kun committed suicide, and Momo-chan fell to him.
I can hear the snakes searching for me, getting ever so closer.
Ene-chan got smashed, and even though she's not dead I'm assuming something like her can be traumatized. For a long while.
The hissing gets closer. I don't dare let out the breath I've been holding. He's whispering psychopathic things and the blood drops down.
Hibiya, that little boy, got run over by a truck from nowhere. First his girlfriend and now him. She told me this would happen, that medusa-
I hear his laughter now as he, the monster, grabs me and pulls me to the living room. Mary's already there, her red eyes covered by her hands, white hair splayed around her, and quietly sobbing while I feel the familiar gun barrel rest on my forehead.
I feel my mask drop, crying as hard as I've cried in ten or so years.
This is serious.
This is not the time to lie.
Tears stream down my face as he smiles and for a second he looks exactly like the same person who killed me all those years ago.
I see nothing yet again as the gun explodes in front of me, making me fall backwards as the monster laughs and laughs and laughs while Mary lies there crying and Seto is getting choked to death by the monster's snakes.
Kido-san shows in a young orange-ish haired girl with darker orange eyes. "Her name's Momo. She's like us."
I end up grandstanding. "Hello, and welcome to the headquarters of the Mekakushi Dan!"
"Where's the name come from?" Danchou asks.
"I made it up while you were gone!" My cheerful comment somehow gets Kido-san riled up and we end up arguing. Mary accidentally spills tea on our new member, and we have lots of fun for the remaining three hours.
Ah, family seems so wonderful, since we only have each other in a world of discrimination and bullying.
I see Shintaro-kun go down in blood as Konoha-no, the monster that was Konoha- shoots. Instead of killing himself, that monster killed Shintaro. Momo-chan is starting to cry.
The monster rips at himself and all of the medusa's snakes come out, leaving just Konoha's snake and turning him from black to white again. No one moves.
Suddenly a flash and Shintaro is standing in the doorway. He sees Konoha. Konoha sees him.
"Ah, this is so disorientating." Shintaro-Kim's voice calls the others to look at the doorway... at his crimson eyes. The snakes all look at all of us.
Konoha smiles and suddenly everything goes white-
-and goes back to normal. The medusa, Azami-san, appears hazily, almost frowning, before smiling at Mary, who's speechless, before calling all the snakes together and disappearing, making everything go white again.
When that fades, the person standing there looks vaguely like Konoha. He has brown hair, and the two connected dots, although those are black. He looks at us, lost for a moment, before Shintaro reacts just barely and Ene-chan's voice becomes unbearable from only two feet away. It's that loud.
"Haruka-kun!" Ene would've pushed out of the screen if she wasn't stuck in technology. The boy, Haruka blinks before his memory kicks in and he smiles. His time before and during Konoha seems to have been remembered.
"Um... Why is everyone staring at me?" His voice seems familiar, although I almost can't place it until I think about a shooting game long ago.
Everyone quickly explains, and in a fit of hilarity, Mary actually trips and knocks Haruka over, causing everyone to relax. It's not until everyone looks at each other that they realize something.
We're all a family, through our experiences. Losing our eye powers wouldn't ever change that. But it seems we have lost our eye powers, and even then, we'll stick together, or at least remember each other, until we die.
My memories come to a stop as the doorbell sounds. I get up slowly, putting on my mask in the meantime and closing the small journal I've written in for the past few years. The sound of rain clattering outside seems to me like that night long ago, that summer night when we had promised we'd see each other again.
I open the door, and Danchou- I can't really call her Danchou anymore, so Kido- stands just outside, the last summer day's rain soaking her from head to toe. "Kido-san, where's your umbrella?"
She doesn't reply. Instead she comes in, sitting down on the sofa and cries. I don't really react. She won't tell me what it's about and she does this quite a bit. So I sit down and let her hug me while she cries, my arms around her.
"It's okay, Danchou. You're safe here."
A half hour later, we watch the rain fall outside.