Chapter Five:
TRYING TO RESURRECT THE CORPSE:
Yoichi woke up to discover one of his arms had fallen asleep. He groaned and shifted, wincing at the pins and needles.
A weight lying over his body stopped him from sitting up. He shoved it off. An arm.
Hisashi was sleeping curled up against him. Yoichi screamed. He threw himself to the other side of the vault and plastered his back against the wall, willing the steel to break and let him run away.
Oh, god, his hair felt wet. These pajamas were a different shade of blue than when he'd gone to sleep. Someone had given him a bath while he'd been drugged unconscious. He shivered.
Hisashi sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Argh, my ears. You're even more piercing than my alarm clock." His gaze turned rueful as it fell on Yoichi. "I meant to be gone before you woke up."
Yoichi's skin crawled. What did that mean? Could Hisashi have done this before? Given the frequency of drugs in his food, he probably wouldn't have even noticed if his brother had been secretly sleep-cuddling him.
"I didn't mean to startle you." Hisashi sounded disturbingly normal about this, as if he believed they were still children sneaking into each other's bed at night when scared. "You always sleep better when I'm with you."
"No, I don't!" Yoichi screamed. "You liked sleeping together! Probably because you were a possessive lunatic even when we were children! I tolerated it!"
"Now you're trying to rewrite history." Hisashi clucked his tongue. "I remember all those times you begged me to sleep in your bed to chase your nightmares away."
"You hogged the covers even back when you were nine, you asshole!"
"Yeah, well, you snored."
"This isn't a joke!" Yoichi cried. "You drugged me again! You gave me a bath while I was asleep!"
"Is that what has you so upset? Don't worry, it was just me. I wouldn't let anyone else see you like that. I'm your older brother, I've given you hundreds of baths. It's fine."
"It's not fine! None of this is fine! We'll never be fine again!" Yoichi's throat hurt from screaming but he still hadn't gotten through in the slightest to this madman. "Never do that again! Any permission you had to touch me is revoked!"
Hisashi moved in a flash, wrapping him in a hug. "Calm down. You're hysterical."
"Stop. Touching. Me." Yoichi thrashed and struggled.
His much stronger brother easily pinned his arms to his side and trapped him against the wall. "Hush. You can't stop me. The sooner you realize that, the easier this will be."
Yoichi didn't like the implications of that. He bit his brother's ear, hard enough to draw blood.
Hisashi yelped and shoved him off, finally releasing him from the smothering grip. Clutching his bleeding ear, Hisashi's eyes darkened. "Very well, then. We'll see how long it takes before you're begging me to come back."
"Never! I'll never forgive you!" Yoichi screamed.
Picking up the only lantern, Hisashi glanced over his shoulder. "As soon as you say that you want me to come back, I will. I'll be listening for those words. Remember that."
As the vault door closed, leaving him in total darkness, terror formed a pit in Yoichi's stomach.
The first few days in the vault had been difficult. The days without the lantern were agonizing.
There was nothing in here. No light. No furniture. Nothing to break up the monotony except the guard who delivered meals three times a day and never spoke. Food delivery should have been his chance at escape, but the guard who regularly came had a power that paralyzed him with a single look. He always wasted that precious moment when the door opened lying on the floor, unable to even look at the painful yet beautiful bit of light leaking in.
After a week, Yoichi gave up on the hunger strike. There was no point in avoiding the drugged food if he had no ability to escape. Ironically, he was fairly certain the drugs in his meals had been lightened for the exact same reason. His limbs still felt heavy and his head muzzy, but he wasn't sleeping as much. Extra time awake inside the vault was an agony.
Hundreds of times, Yoichi almost broke and begged his brother to let him out. Lying staring at the dark ceiling, he told himself that he should pretend to be compliant as a trick, then escape as soon as these metal walls no longer restrained him.
But his brother would know he was lying. He'd never lighten his security no matter what Yoichi pretended. This was Hisashi's plan to brainwash him. Yoichi had read about cults and interrogation techniques in college. He wasn't naïve enough to believe himself to be immune. If he played his brother's game from his current powerless position, then he'd lose.
Let Hisashi be the one to break first. He'd get lonely and come back the way he'd always crept into Yoichi's bedroom as children. Then…
Then Yoichi didn't know what would happen. He had no plan. Just spite, endless reserves of stubbornness, and a desperate desire not to let his big brother win.
At least as long as Yoichi was inside the vault, neither of them was getting what they wanted. Yoichi would destroy himself if only he could take Hisashi down with him.
One week blurred into two. Then Yoichi lost count.
Sometimes his mind faded in and out. He lay on his back as a flash of light came from the door. He no longer tried to escape when the door opened. He'd given up.
When he heard the tray clatter on the floor, he expected the light and the guard to quickly vanish.
Instead, footsteps walked over.
Yoichi sat up, a desperate hope filling him as light fell across his face. But no, the light came from a lantern held by the guard. The vault door was closed. No way out. No hope. He fell back down against the metal floor.
"Do you remember me?" the guard demanded. "You got me in so much trouble!"
Ah, yes, this was the same guard he'd gotten to open his cell door by humming obnoxiously. One of his prouder moments.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?" The guard kicked him in the chest.
The piercing pain came as a surprise. Yoichi's mouth opened. Another kick winded him before any sound could come out.
His mind screamed at him to grab that leg before it could attack again. To fight back since he had nowhere to flee.
But then he had a thought: Will this man kill me?
The notion brought a euphoric relief. He could die. All of this would be over.
Yoichi lay flat on his back as another kick connected with his ribs. It urged an involuntary moan from his lips.
"Say something already." The guard planted a boot on his chest and ground down.
Bile came up his throat, along with a hideous, wracking cough. You need to press a bit harder if you want to kill me. He tried to say it, but couldn't speak through his coughs. He couldn't breathe. The angry face looming over him warped in and out of focus. It hurt so much. How long could a human go without oxygen? Surely no longer than minutes. It felt like an hour. He gurgled, choking on his blood. Why wasn't he dead yet?
The pressure stopped. The guard was walking away. Apparently the man didn't plan to kill him.
Yoichi screamed in frustrated rage. He tried to keep screaming so that he wouldn't inhale, so that air would continue to be denied to his aching lungs, so that he could die already.
Stars danced before his eyes and he passed out.
Yoichi woke up to softness under his body and all around him. So many layers of blankets and pillows surrounded his body, it took him a moment to realize that the particularly heavy weight pressed against his side was a person.
With a furious growl, Yoichi leapt up. The blankets tangled around his legs. He fell out of the bed, hitting the floor with an impact that left bruises on top of his existing bruises.
There had been an IV in his arm, and he'd yanked it out. With that additional pain came a streak of blood down his new, white pajamas. They matched the windowless white bedroom containing a giant bed, a small wicker table with two chairs, and nothing else. Nothing except his delusional older brother still presuming to think that he had any right to go near him, much less crawl into bed with him.
Leaning over the bed, Hisashi reached for him. "Calm down. You'll hurt yourself."
Calm down? Yoichi was very much tired of being told to calm down. He slapped away the offered hand. "This was your plan, huh? I refused to break and beg you to let me out, so you sent in a brute to beat me up so that you could pretend to 'rescue' me." He hurt so much, he could barely speak. Bandages covered his ribs.
"No!" Hisashi's voice filled with hurt. "How could you ever imagine I would ever do such a thing? That guard acted on his own."
Yoichi sneered. "How could I ever imagine you'd do such a thing?" he repeated in a mocking tone. "You locked me up in a bank vault—spare me the self-righteousness!"
"I killed the man who hurt you with my own two hands. I even killed the supervisor who thought him suitable for the task of feeding you after the usual guard called in sick. I can show you their corpses."
"As if that would prove anything? You're enough of a bastard to murder your men for following your own orders." Yoichi's laugh sounded hysterical. "This is the same trick you always pull! Like how you've been drugging me for years!"
"I most certainly have not. Your illness has gotten worse, probably because you've been running around too much. I know that sometimes the medicine has side-effects—"
"You're still lying about that? What's even the point?" Yoichi stared at his older brother with wild eyes. "Do you think I don't know what you're doing? It's all about control with you! You insisted I take guards with me everywhere, knowing full well that would only attract attention to me and force you to keep me at home for 'my own good.'"
"Now you're just being paranoid."
"You used the bodyguards to isolate me from my classmates, and you poisoned me when I tried to leave home. You're not even satisfied with physical control any longer. Now you want my mind. You can never have that! I'll never let you win! I'll make you kill me first!"
Hisashi batted away his thrashing arms and picked Yoichi up. Laying him back down on the bed, Hisashi wrapped him in a constraining hug. "You're overwhelmed and not thinking straight. Try to rest."
"You patronizing jackass!" Yoichi fought with all his might, but his might was nonexistent. His body had little strength—he'd definitely been drugged again through his IV. He recognized the mental haze by now.
A tear slipped down his cheek. Hisashi brushed it away. "It's okay. I'm here. I'll look after you. I'll never stop looking after you."
Yoichi clamped down hard on his tears. He refused to cry in front of his brother. The condescending attempt at comfort infuriated and humiliated him.
He squirmed and bit his brother's arm.
Hisashi yelped. Yoichi clung on grimly, determined to sever a bite of flesh in repayment for his own suffering.
"You're injured, please!" Hisashi cried. "I don't want to hurt you! Don't make me fight you!"
Yoichi ignored all his big brother's pleas and single-mindedly focused on biting with all his strength. Even Hisashi's gentle attempts to free himself jostled his injured ribs, but he didn't care. He'd have his pound of flesh or he'd force his brother to give up on pretending to be unwilling to hurt him.
When Hisashi finally knocked him over the head, all Yoichi felt was relief. An honest bruise was better than the bastard's fake love.
The scent of katsudon returned Yoichi to consciousness. Hisashi sat by his bed, holding a plate. "I made your favorite—"
Yoichi snatched the plate from his hand and smashed the meal into his brother's nice suit.
"Little brother!" Hisashi cried, having the nerve to sound surprised and disappointed, as if still acting the part of legal guardian to his disobedient orphaned sibling.
Yoichi sat up in bed and ripped the bandages off his ribs. He flung those at his brother, too. "I don't want your food! I don't want your care! Stay away from me!"
"Stop!" Hisashi cried, grabbing his wrists. "You're hurting yourself!"
"What, are you angry that I'm stealing your job?" Yoichi sneered. "Is it less fun for you when I inflict my own injuries?" He tried to headbutt.
Hisashi grabbed his forehead. "How could you say that?"
"Spare me the fake hurt! You stuck me in that vault to break me! It didn't work. I never gave in. Go ahead, put me back in there! No matter how long it takes, I'll never break!"
Deep down, Yoichi was terrified of going back into the vault. Therewithin lay the cleverness of his older brother's plan. If Yoichi let himself grow accustomed to this gentle treatment, then he'd become more and more scared of going back to that dark hellhole, until he could no longer defy his brother. In order to not fall for the brainwashing, he had to resist everything his brother tried to give him.
Yoichi kept battering his body against his brother, each hit hurting his ribs. He knew he was doing more damage to himself than Hisashi, but he didn't care. He kept going until his brother knocked him out again.
Every time Yoichi woke up, he repeated the same pattern. He attacked his brother on sight. If alone, he ripped the room to shreds, destroying anything he could get his hands on. He refused to eat. Hisashi force-fed him a few times. The burning agony lingered in his throat for days afterward.
But by then, every part of his body already hurt. He'd bruised himself all over bashing against the door. An insane exhilaration had consumed him. Nothing mattered to him any longer except destroying anything he could get his hands on, including himself.
For a full day, Hisashi didn't show his face. Yoichi took this as a triumph. He'd finally driven the bastard away.
When Hisashi entered his room late at night, Yoichi sat up immediately. He couldn't sleep these days due to the bruises all over his body. His legs would barely work, but he launched himself at his brother.
Hisashi caught him in a bearhug. His voice was grim. "I've had enough of your tantrum. If you can't be trusted to look after your body, then I'll take control of it away from you."
Like you haven't done that already? Yoichi was too busy biting his brother's shoulder, or he'd curse him out.
An orangish light came from Hisashi's hands. Yoichi's entire body went limp. He could feel everything—including the bruises on his side and the thread of wool between his teeth—but he couldn't so much as twitch.
Hisashi picked Yoichi up and set him back down on the bed. His tone turned gentle. "I'll look after you from now on." He started smoothing out the tangles in Yoichi's hair.
"This feels different from the last time you paralyzed me." The metapower allowed Yoichi to speak this time. Only his face could move. His neck was frozen.
"You can't fight me this way." Hisashi tapped his brother's knee. It jumped. "Good, your reflexes remained. That's what the previous ability owner claimed. Your throat should swallow anything I put into it." A dark triumph lurked behind his voice. He pulled his little brother into a hug. One Yoichi could no longer fight.
Into his brother's hair, Hisashi whispered, "My, isn't this nice? Perhaps I should leave you like this forever. I can hire caretakers for when I'm gone." He booped Yoichi's nose. "Consider this next week a test of your obedience. If you ever want to be able to move again, you'd better convince me that you can be trusted to use that power responsibly."
Yoichi despaired. A choked sob escaped his lips. He'd lost even his meager ability to physically fight back. He had his doubts that he would win the mental battle, either. The vault had definitely broken him, even if it might not have broken him in precisely the way that his brother had desired. If given all the time in the world, then Hisashi would keep on breaking him down.
Even if Yoichi somehow escaped this hellhole, then what? His brother controlled large swaths of Japan and he had no means to fight back or hide. He'd always been easily recaptured in the past. When he'd successfully sent what information he knew to that vigilante organization, he'd fulfilled his last wish. Now he had nothing left.
Nothing but a bitter, spiteful desire to deny his brother what he wanted.
Let All for One take all of Japan or even the world. Let him control Yoichi's body, since he couldn't stop that. But Yoichi would never let his brother have his true self. He'd take that part far away.
Inhaling deeply, Hisashi enjoyed his first bite-free hug with his little brother in a long time.
He'd agonized over this decision, but it would be for the best. He had to stop Yoichi's constant struggles, or his bruised ribs would never heal. This measure was stringent, but definitely for his little brother's own good.
In Hisashi's mind, his plan had been working. The vault had ended Yoichi's hunger strikes and escape attempts. Surely it had only been a matter of time before Yoichi would have broken and begged for his big brother to come back to him. Then they could have started the caretaking phase.
Instead, the guard had beaten Yoichi and ruined all his progress, bringing back his little brother's irrational rage and self-destructive violence. Hisashi wished he'd killed the man more slowly.
Where had his little brother gotten the ridiculous notion that Hisashi would ever order a guard to hurt him? True, Hisashi had been planning on drugging Yoichi's food more heavily and using that as an excuse to start the caretaking stage if Yoichi had gone much longer without giving in and asking to be let out. But he'd never, ever beat his precious little brother! Why didn't Yoichi understand that?
Hisashi tucked his younger brother's head under his chin and held on tighter, determined to comfort the other. This next part would be much more pleasant. He'd get a chance to spoil his little brother and show him the benefits of staying by his side. Equally importantly, he'd no longer be denied hearing Yoichi's voice or hugging him. The separation period had been hard on them both.
Even after being let out of the vault, Yoichi had denied Hisashi any contact without turning it into a fight, but Hisashi suspected his little brother was resisting so hard because he knew full well that kindness had the power to break him. So he'd taken away any choice.
When Yoichi had nearly broken down crying, Hisashi's suspicions had been confirmed. He was on the cusp of victory.
Hisashi had taken a vacation off work to ensure that he'd be able to spend the next week entirely looking after Yoichi. And this time, Yoichi wouldn't be able to resist him.
While his little brother lay on the bed, still paralyzed, Hisashi laid out a spread for lunch. Chicken quesadillas with a side of nachos and lime soda.
He returned to the bed and picked up his brother. "Yoichi? It's time to eat."
Yoichi's eyes opened. But he didn't speak. Still sulking, perhaps? He'd lost and he didn't want to admit it. How like him.
Enjoying the rare chance to carry his little brother without a fight, Hisashi placed him down in the chair, with a blanket still wrapped around him.
Yoichi stared at the food on the table as if not seeing it.
"I guess you need me to feed you," Hisashi spoke teasingly, expecting an explosive reaction.
Yoichi said nothing.
Hisashi picked up a quesadilla and said, "Open up."
To his surprise, Yoichi opened his mouth and took a bite.
Hisashi jerked his hand back, afraid his little brother might be trying to bite off his finger. He'd allowed Yoichi control of his mouth because he wanted to hear his brother's voice, but he could take that away too if need be.
But no attack manifested. Yoichi only stared off at nothing as he chewed.
This was a nice change of pace. He'd been hoping the paralyzation would make Yoichi more compliant. His plan was working.
Yoichi didn't fight or protest in the slightest as Hisashi fed him lunch, then wiped his face with a napkin. Hisashi said, "You're doing so well. I'm proud of you." Frequent compliments were an important part of the love-bombing stage.
Yoichi might have twitched in response, or he might have only imagined that.
Hisashi asked, "What would you like for dessert? I have ice cream, cookies, or pudding."
At this point, the lack of reply didn't surprise him. Hisashi laughed. "Then do you want all three? How gluttonous! Today is a special occasion, so I'll let you try a bit of all of them."
Yoichi ate what was placed in his mouth with no sign of enjoyment. It was a bit disappointing. Hisashi had gotten his brother's favorite pecan ice cream, a selection of gourmet cookies, and a Mexican rice pudding that neither of them had tried before.
Licking a grain off his own lip, Hisashi said, "The pudding wasn't bad, but I still preferred the cookies or ice cream. I bet you did, too. You always had a sweet tooth."
Yoichi seemed to stare straight through him.
Walking over to the chair, Hisashi picked his brother up again. "Do you want to watch a movie? Silence means yes!"
Sitting down on the bed facing the TV screen, Hisashi put an arm around Yoichi and drew him close.
There was no fight, no resistance. That was nice, but…it was like hugging a sack of flour. Yoichi's arms hung completely limp.
Of course, that was a side-effect of the paralyzation. It couldn't be helped. Certainly this was better than getting bitten or scratched every time he tried to hug his little brother. But the paralyzation didn't completely explain the lack of reaction on Yoichi's face. He didn't seem to be paying attention to his big brother at all. Even though Hisashi was so carefully taking care of him, Yoichi barely seemed aware of his presence.
Wasn't this compliance supposed to be what he wanted? Hisashi wondered why he felt so irritated.
It had been three days since Hisashi had last heard the sound of his brother's voice. Hadn't he left his brother's ability to talk for a reason? Didn't Yoichi appreciate this mercy?
He'd filled the bedroom with comic books and movies. Yoichi would watch whatever he placed on the screen and listen while he read out loud, but he never once reacted. Where was Hisashi's rightful gratitude for all his gifts?
Hisashi had tried to provoke a reaction by letting his brother's food get cold. Yoichi ate it all without complaint.
Next, Hisashi had drawn on all his annoying brother tactics from their childhood: name-calling, waking Yoichi up early in the morning, and spoiling every movie partway through watching. He'd yet to make his little brother change his blank expression.
He'd turned down the temperature of the room to nearly freezing at night, his cruelest tactic yet. Depressingly, even this didn't make his little brother call for him to come.
After consulting with a doctor under his employ, Hisashi had slipped some antidepressants into Yoichi's food. But he would swear his little brother only got more lethargic. He'd experimented with a several mixes of drugs before the doctor had expressed concern about side-effects, and since this was the man who'd signed off on the force-feeding without hesitation, Hisashi reluctantly took the warning seriously. Even though he'd been convinced the right combination of chemicals would surely fix his little brother.
Finally, he'd offered to remove the paralyzation if Yoichi would ask for it, convinced that would surely work. But Yoichi still didn't speak a word.
While they'd been separated by steel walls, Hisashi had longed for his brother's company. Now he felt like the brother in front of him could be replaced by a life-sized dummy with no particular difference.
This was starting to get worrying. Hisashi had wanted Yoichi to be more compliant, yes, but he couldn't mold the opinions of someone who wouldn't communicate with him. And he'd never wanted to turn his little brother cationic.
Waving two movies before Yoichi, Hisashi asked, "Which would you like to see?" Despite his efforts to stay positive (one of the brainwashing tips) irritation had slipped into his voice. "If you don't pick, then I'll make you watch a documentary on coin collectors."
Yoichi didn't twitch a muscle on his face. He stared at a point just above Hisashi's shoulder.
"Stop ignoring me!" Hisashi threw the movies on the ground. "Are you still sulking, you baby?" As soon as he spoke, he regretted the words. He was supposed to be in the love-bombing stage, when he stayed encouraging as long as Yoichi wasn't fighting against him.
Triumph flashed across Yoichi's face. Just a brief moment, then it was gone. But Hisashi knew what he'd seen.
He grabbed his little brother's collar and dragged him closer. "You're doing this on-purpose, aren't you?"
Yoichi closed his eyes and pretended he couldn't hear.
"You're the one who forced me to do this to you," Hisashi growled. "I repeatedly tried to compromise with you. You wouldn't even listen to me. While I'm attempting to build a better long-term future for both of us, you're playing petty games to annoy me. I feel like I'm the only one trying to fix our relationship."
Yoichi's gaze was blank, as if unaware. But Hisashi wasn't falling for his act any longer.
"You always did have a knack for driving your big brother insane, you little brat." Hisashi released his brother. "Fine, then. I'll leave you to sit in here by yourself. But I'm taking all the comic books and movies with me. You won't be able to do anything except lie there and stare at the ceiling. We'll see if you don't appreciate me a bit more then."
Hisashi stomped out of the room, trying not to feel like he'd been defeated.
To be honest, Hisashi had no excuse at all for the mistake he made next.
He'd known about the time limit when paralyzation wore off. He'd even glanced at the clock as it had passed. But he'd consciously made the decision not to go back to his brother's room.
Partly, Hisashi didn't want to see Yoichi at the moment. Partly, he wanted to see what Yoichi would do when given freedom of movement back. Even having meals thrown at his expensive suits might be better than this passiveness.
Hisashi was sitting at his desk catching up on work when his phone alarm sounded. A code red. He kept cameras on his brother's room at all times. Cameras the guard who'd attacked Yoichi hadn't known about. Since that attack, he'd also ensured the cameras were watched by someone trustworthy at all times. He didn't know what had triggered this alarm, but it must be a serious threat to Yoichi's health. He leapt to his feet and ran.
Instead of bothering with the lock, Hisashi burned off the doorknob and flung open the door.
Yoichi hung from the ceiling fan, dangling from a noose made of blankets.
OMAKE TIME!
Yoichi: Since I know full well that my brother arranges accidents to befall me so he can "look after me," from now on I'm going to assume whenever something bad happens to me, it's his fault.
Hisashi: That's extremely unfair! It's only me maybe half the time! The other times it's my disobedient minions or my enemies.
#Yoichi is starting to get paranoid this chapter #Which is 100% Hisashi's fault for arranging for accidents to befall his little brother and then lying about it
Author's Note: To be clear, Yoichi isn't dead. This story is following canon, and he hasn't even gotten the stockpiling quirk forced on him yet.
This ought to be a wakeup call for Hisashi, but again knowing canon, it will not be.
Here we see Hisashi forming his own version of this story: he tried repeatedly to compromise but his very foolish, very stubborn little brother wouldn't even hear him out. Sadly, he actually believes that. Of course, he wants to "compromise" on things like basic morality and Yoichi's human rights. And his offer is that he'll stop hurting Yoichi after he gets everything he wants. But Hisashi would probably say that's still a better deal than he gives most people who oppose him.