"Mayuka," grunted Itsuki, limping into his sister's bedroom. She looked up from her manga at him, her golden eyes twinkling.
"What's wrong, Itsuki-kun?"
He sighed. "Hontou-ni moshiwaka-gozaimasen." (I'm really sorry)
Mayuka was confused. "Nani?" (what?)
Niisan…"(sister) murmured the crippled boy, holding his hand out. "Don't leave me again."
Mayuka lowered her eyes, lost in a memory of her childhood…
"Itsuki!" Little Mayuka called up into the tree her brother was climbing. "Get down! Ouka-san (mom) is gonna yell at you!"
"It's alright," the sweat-soaked little boy smiled down at his twin. "I can make…"
Just then, his foot slipped from the branch it was resting on. He fell, screaming, to the ground, and then lay silent. Mayuka look at him, then took off screaming.
Mayuka looked up to see her brother hobbling out of her room.
"Itsuki-kun! Matte!" (wait)
He didn't listen, and she stood and followed him out into the backyard. She tripped over the picnic table, and pulled herself up in time to see her brother follow a crimson butterfly into the woods.
"Itsuki-kun! Iie! Matte!" (Itsuki! No! Wait!)screamed Mayuka, running after him.
The moment she entered the woods, the warm afternoon sunlight faded into cold darkness. She gasped and halted at the sudden drop in temperature, then noticed Itsuki ahead of her.
"Itsuki-kun!" she cried, running after him. As she ran, his figure was momentarily overlaid by an image of a dark-brown-haired boy in a white uchikake (formal kimono). The image faded back into Itsuki after only a moment, and Mayuka convinced herself she'd been seeing things. Then, when she grabbed her brother's shoulder, she saw it again. The boy turned to her, and Mayuka's vision was consumed by an image of a golden-brown-haired girl in a white yukata (cotton kimono, usually worn in spring and summer) screaming in agony as several men carrying poles and sickles grabbed onto her.
Mayuka gasped as the image faded. She was alone, her brother nowhere in sight. She looked at her hands, then gasped in horror as she saw two crimson marks in the shape pf butterflies branded into her palms.
"Itsuki…"she whispered. "ITSUKI!"
Chris: Yay! I finished the first official chapter! Mayuka takes kinda after her mom, with a strong urge to protect her brother.
