2: Futago no Imouto Shion (Shion the Younger Twin Sister)
St. Lucia Academy for girls was a strict, implacable place with almost more rules than students. The uniforms were uncomfortable, the curriculum was overloaded with western Christianity, chapel three days a week was required, teachers were hard-nosed and graceless, clubs were rarely allowed, dating was not allowed, working a part-time job was not allowed, and curfew was nine at night even on weekends. Students were shamed and punished harshly for being late, absent, failing to turn in homework, and not being ladylike enough. Being struck with a wand was common.
Life was difficult for the best of the students at St. Lucia Academy. For Sonozaki Shion, it was even worse. She was a natural free spirit who loved the taste of adventure. Her family rarely made any contact with the school, so the teachers had the opportunity to treat Shion however they wanted. They punished her for every little thing, humiliated her in class, destroyed her relations with classmates, and sometimes even denied her food in the cafeteria. The worst part of it all was that there was no break. Shion had to stay at St. Lucia all year round, never being allowed to return to her birthplace in Hinamizawa. For about two years, Shion was a captive, confined to the unsparing boarding school.
Finally, she could stand it no more, and she plotted to run away. In the dead of night, Shion climbed out of her dorm room window into a tree and then down. Then she climbed a tree on the edge of the lawn near the academy wall. She was able to get over the wall and drop down on the other side without injury. In her spare time, Shion had done a lot of athletic activities; otherwise the climbs and jumps would have proven too difficult. At last on the far side of the wall, Shion watched as a black car pulled up to the road in front of her.
Driving it was Tatsuyoshi Kasai. The escape plan would never have worked without his involvement. Many years ago, he had accepted his assignment as Shion's bodyguard, and he never once regretted it. Though he was a man of few words and did not show affection easily, Kasai was endlessly reliable for all things practical, and his obvious toughness was comforting, since it meant he could protect her from just about anyone. That was what Shion thought, anyway. She loved him like a close older brother.
Although Kasai remained mostly loyal to the Sonozaki family, he disagreed with them concerning the treatment of Shion. The main family would never have approved of the girl running away from St. Lucia, but nevertheless, Kasai helped in the escape. He picked up Shion outside the school and drove her to a two-bedroom apartment he kept for himself in Okinomiya, the next town over from Hinamizawa. Shion could live here comfortably under Kasai's supervision, and Okinomiya was a much larger, more developed town than Hinamizawa, so she would have plenty of freedom and opportunity.
"I'm going to get a part-time job," Shion announced happily as she and Kasai talked and caught up with each other. "I'm sure I'll like work better than school. Besides, I need to do my part if I'm going to be living with you."
"Shion-san," Kasai said just before the girl headed to bed that night. He had tried to avoid the topic, but at some point, they would have to face it. "What do you plan to do when Oryou-sama finds out?"
As he spoke, Kasai crossed the room and caught Shion's wrist to stop her. She turned and looked at him. He was a fine man, tall, medium-weight, and smartly dressed in a black suit. His facial hair started under his lip and went down in two thin lines on either side of his face, joining together at the bottom of his chin. The beard was short, and all along his face the hair was well-kept.
"It's one thing if you lie low here," the man said, "but it's another if you want to work a job. We're within biking distance of Hinamizawa."
Shion broke away from her bodyguard, but gave him a winning smile. "Well, I guess we'll just have to make sure oni-baba doesn't find out. Don't look so worried," she added, though in reality Kasai's shades and ever-straight face made his expression unreadable. "I have a plan. I think my dear sister Mion would help."
The plan was simple. She and Mion were identical twins. If anyone recognized her, she would pretend to be Mion. Of course, that meant that Mion had to agree to the arrangement. It also meant that Shion would need a supervisor who understood her situation and knew her real identity.
"Yoshiro-Oji-san was always nice to me," Shion thought aloud as she entered her room and undressed.
Fortunately, she had an uncle who lived in Okinomiya and ran a cafe called Angel Morte. Uncle Yoshiro was something of an outcast, despised by the main Sonozaki family for breaking traditions and not bothering to seek their approval for things. He also had a soft spot for Shion. Chances were good that he would hire the girl as a waitress at Angel Morte.
Kasai remained standing outside the slightly ajar door while Shion changed into a white nightgown. "Yoshiro aside," said the bodyguard, "what about Mion-san? Will she agree to help you?"
Opening the door half-way, Shion peered out at Kasai. The nightgown was tight across her breasts, which were large for a sixteen year old girl. Kasai had the decency to look off to the side.
"Of course she'll help me," Shion said confidently, but her confidence was false. She was faking. Her relationship with Mion was anything but simple, and she couldn't be certain of her sister's agreement.
Growing up, the twin girls had been as close as any normal twins. However, favoritism had a strong say in the way they were raised. Mion was several minutes older than Shion, and was consequently declared the heir to the Sonozaki house. (Oryou was the current head; her daughter Akane, the mother of the twins, had her birthright taken away as punishment for marrying an outsider.) Akane and her husband loved Mion, but were never quite as affectionate with Shion because they simply didn't know how to treat her. They weren't nearly as bad as Sonozaki Oryou, though. She was abusive toward Shion, having hated her since the day she was born.
While Mion enjoyed every privilege a rich yakuza-related family could offer, Shion was beaten and emotionally and verbally abused by her grandmother. This made things tense between the twins for a while. However, life wasn't all sweetness and light for Mion, either. She was held to different standards of behavior, and forced to learn all about the family and how to be a leader, from traditional etiquette (such as tea ceremonies) to self-defense (mostly kenjitsu). In addition, Mion sometimes pretended to be Shion and took the harsh punishments in place of her little sister. Because of that, the twins loved each other more than ever, and even slept in the same bed for many years.
They might still have been that close if Oryou hadn't decided to send Shion away to boarding academies starting in middle-school. From ages twelve to fourteen, Shion was allowed to come home during breaks such as summer vacation, but besides that, she had no contact with Mion. They were not permitted to speak on the phone to each other, though sometimes they sneaked and did it anyway.
After that, Oryou forced Mion to transfer into St. Lucia's Academy for two years of junior high. For two long years, Shion wasn't allowed home, and though she wrote letters back and forth with her sister, they were not nearly as close. Judging by those letters, Mion was becoming more and more like a member of the Sonozaki group, and Shion almost felt like she no longer knew the person she was writing. That was why, now, she couldn't be certain whether Mion would concede to defy her grandmother and help Shion with her plan.
As if sensing her feelings, Kasai said, "I have a telephone here. Tomorrow morning, I will call the main house and ask to speak with Mion-san. I'll hand over the phone then so the two of you can talk it out."
Again, Shion smiled. It was an easy thing to do in those days, before her real suffering began. "Thank you, Kasai," she said. Before she went to bed, she hugged him, and he grumbled as if to object, but patted her on the back.
"Good night, Shion," he said.
The next day, in Hinamizawa, Sonozaki Mion attended school in the tiny academy where there only twenty-some kids taught by one teacher in one class, regardless of grade level. The teacher, Chie-sensei, spent most of the class moving between the students and instructing each of them on what to read or study given their grade level.
Though Mion was as bright as the next girl, she had trouble keeping up in school because she got bored so easily. At home, she already had to listen to lectures from her mother and grandmother, as well as study village history, leadership skills, and proper etiquette. It was tiresome to have a lot of school on top of what she was learning at home. Things might be different if there were more people her age. Or if she had some real friends, regardless of age. But few people ever approached Mion, fearing her as the heir to the Sonozaki house, or else put off by how tomboyish she could be. So she remained lonely and bored.
This is what life had been like for Mion for the past two years; only recently had things begun to change. It started when she was approached by Furude Rika, who had rapidly risen to a position of authority in the village after she correctly predicted her parents' death last year. Supposedly, Rika was the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama, god of Hinamizawa, and she possessed the ability to predict the future.
Mion had seen Rika at a few of the town council meetings. There, the shrine maiden spoke like an adult, solved various village troubles, and always seemed grim. She rarely smiled. However, when Rika approached Mion at school, she was like a different person. She was cheery, playful, childish but well-behaved, and utterly adorable. This side of Rika was so endearing that Mion became fast friends with the little girl. They studied together and played together, neither one of them caring too much about the age difference.
As time passed, Mion's circle of friends slowly grew. Rika started including Satoko in the time she spent with Mion. The Sonozaki heir supervised the little girls while they played, and often joined in their games. Then, Satoko's brother Satoshi joined in too. The boy always seemed a little "off," zoned out, unobservant, and melancholy. Mion tried to look past his faults, though, and accept him. Satoshi and Mion practiced baseball, studied, and walked to school together, usually accompanied by Rika and Satoko. The four friends truly enjoyed each other's company.
All that being said, Mion's friends did not think she looked very happy that day in early April 1982. Something was clearly bothering her. Though Rika and Satoko tried to get her to talk, Mion kept quiet about the truth. Her younger twin sister, Shion, had called her that morning, having run away from boarding school against the wishes of their domineering grandmother. Shion was looking for a job in Okinomiya and, to top things off, wanted permission to masquerade as her older sister.
Of course, Mion had to refuse. She could hardly believe her sibling would ask something like that of her. Did she not realize the many rules she was breaking? Did she not understand that Mion could be punished for Shion's actions under her sister's name? In the past, the twins had been inseparable and highly affectionate with each other. After Shion was sent away to boarding school, though, both girls changed and grew in different ways.
Mion became increasingly aware of her position as heir to the family, accepting many responsibilities, obeying her family always, and even subscribing to belief in Oyashiro-sama. Meanwhile, Shion seemed to grow more and more rebellious and careless, with a sarcastic sense of humor. It made Mion angry. She was also frustrated by the fact that Shion was so much more feminine than she was. From now on, it would be difficult to get along with Shion. All day, Mion thought about this, angry at Shion and worried about her at the same time.
Shion walked briskly through the dusky streets of Okinomiya, almost stomping in her anger. She had an expression of rage on her usually radiant face, and she didn't care who saw. Nothing was going her way today. Nothing. Her identity might be compromised already. She didn't have her sister's backing for her plan, she didn't have Yoshiro-san's anticipated support, and she didn't have a bike on which to ride home.
It had all started that morning when she spoke with her twin over the phone. At first, Mion seemed happy to hear her sister's voice after so long. However, it quickly became apparent that she disapproved of Shion's running away. She started talking about how much of disaster it would be when "Grandma" found out. Despite feeling that the conversation was doomed, Shion went ahead and told Mion she wanted to work in Okinomiya. Her sister responding saying that was a terrible idea, and Shion didn't even have to ask if she could use Mion's name as her cover. The answer was clear regardless. She could not count on Mion.
With or without Mion, she decided, she would continue with her plan to work and be an independent young woman. If Oni-baba found out about her being in Okinomiya, it couldn't be helped. Shion was old enough now to defend herself from an elderly lady's beating, and old enough not to be cowed by verbal abuse. At the time, beatings and harsh words were the only things she thought she might have to contend with. It never occurred to her that the family might use their yakuza ties against her.
Things didn't go well at Angel Morte, either. Uncle Yoshiro and Shion had exchanged letters once or twice in the past few months, and the former had written about how delighted he would be to have a waitress as young and pretty as the latter. The man had seemed warm, and open in the past, with a charming amount of mischievousness. In person, that day, Yoshiro was like a different man. He didn't seem to want to meet Shion. He made up excuses about having other things to do until Shion called bullshit. The café wasn't busy at all, so he had no reasonable excuse.
When he finally sat down with Shion in the back room, Yoshiro said he was sorry but he couldn't hire her. He wouldn't even look at the rough resume she had written up, using an ink brush and fine white paper. Shion bowed low and practically begged, but to no avail. Throughout the interview, Yoshiro seemed bothered by something he wasn't saying. This only served to anger Shion, who stormed out of the café angrily. By then, the sun was setting and the café nearing its closing hour.
Uncle Yoshiro managed to stop Shion long enough to offer her a ride home. The teenage girl declined none too politely, lying and saying that Kasai would take her home. In reality, Shion had asked Kasai to lay off and leave her alone today for once. Instead of being carted around in a car, she had decided to take herself around town by bike. She had ridden it from the apartment, through the downtown district, and all the way to where Angel Morte sat on a lonely edge of the growing town.
To her dismay, Shion found that her bike was no longer parked where she was sure she had left it. It was hard to believe that someone would have stolen it, but there didn't seem to be another answer. Shion knew she ought to go back inside and take Yoshiro up on his offer for a ride home, but she was too stubborn. She didn't call Kasai either, because depending on him so much felt embarrassing. Instead, she decided to walk home. It didn't matter if it took half the night. She could work off some steam this way and have some time alone.
Shion had no idea what the night had in store for her.
