1
Kisaragi was patient with Kaede, and this would be very needed indeed.
"There's a thing called suggestion. It's something we investigators try to avoid doing, either to our clients, or to ourselves. Do you understand what that is, Kaede?"
Kaede was certain she didn't.
"Yuka and I make suggestions about what to do with Kanae. Then Mama glares, and Papa just rolls his eyes."
Mama glared just then, but also shook her head.
"She wants you to tell her what you know about your parents, anything at all, first. This is so that her questions and how she speaks and phrases them doesn't make you say or not say something inaccurate."
Kisaragi nodded.
"Sometimes, how we say questions can change how a person answers them. They may feel like they shouldn't say something, or only answer the particulars of that question. Kind of like this old joke."
Kisaragi smiled, and it was a sweet disarming smile, even to Kaede. She began her joke.
"A man sees a boy with a dog. He wants to pet the dog, and he asks the boy 'Does Your Dog Bite?' To which the boy says 'No, He Doesn't Bite'."
She at least had Kaede's interest, so she kept on.
"The man goes to pet the dog, and promptly gets bitten. Angry, he turns to the boy and says 'I thought you said your dog didn't bite!'. The boy then says 'That's Not My Dog'. Get it? So before I start framing my questions, give me however little you have, even to the smallest thing."
Kaede bit down, just for a moment, before saying her first words.
"I like the joke. Did you write it yourself?"
2
Yuka waited on Kouta, who seemed to dread approaching the place.
"Is it because you got beat up here?"
Kouta picked up his pace, if only a bit.
"Maybe. But it's mostly that, sometimes in Kaede's eyes, and sometimes in her words, I can feel how much this place took from her."
If Kouta feared some jealousy from Yuka by saying this, her sympathetic nod shut that down.
"I saw it firsthand, remember? They wasted no time leering at her, whispering-in that obnoxious way that you're supposed to hear, then if you say anything, they act all haughty because you're listening in...I never went through that, but I know people who have, and now one of them is my little sister."
She sniffed, teared up a bit, and he held her. Yuka looked at him.
"See? I'm not poison. You don't have to avoid me."
He pulled away.
"I made a promise to Mama and Papa. All I did was hold my sister. Nothing more."
Yuka wiped her tears, and shook her head.
"Nothing more for awhile now. Are you even still a boy?"
He then pushed past her, almost looking to be in a snarl.
"I am a boy, and you should be happy for that, because boys don't hit girls. But they do maybe hit them back, so don't get any ideas. I'm not in a good mood, Yuka."
She was now not in a good mood, either.
"Well, just whose fault is that?"
He threw up his arms in a shrug.
"Mine, all right? Always all my fault. Happy, now?"
But rather than attacking him in any way, she began crying once more.
"Was Papa that rough on you? Do you hate us, now?"
Kouta stopped, deciding it was time.
"This is what I was trying to avoid. Makes sense I'd just walk right back into it, in the other direction."
So he explained his reasons for pulling back from their recent activities.
"Do you see? I was making Kanae jealous, you nervous about playing around, and I was risking Kaede thinking-what I guess both of you may now think, anyway."
She waited a moment, then she did lightly slap him.
"So it's all you making us this way, huh? I guess it must be, because Kanae was never jealous of other girls before this. I've never acted like a little fool either. Also, I didn't know you were responsible for Kaede's pain and doubts. Hmmph. Guess we should just toss you in the street."
He looked down, and now she really did feel like a fool.
"So even when I try to do the right thing, I screw it up?"
Yuka tried to clear this up. The sun was leaving the sky, and seeing him like this was romantic but also unsettling.
"We girls are tougher than you think. Almost as tough as our big brother. You worry you might break Kaede's heart. Maybe you will. But that's a part of life, Kouta. Now, do you really need me to make a long speech or can we get to what's left of that orphanage?"
He perked up, but laid down a condition as well.
"If we get past this whole private investigator thing without any problems, then I'll talk to Kaede, and we all can decide on how we go from there-while still respecting Mama and Papa's wishes."
Kouta had thrown in that last bit deliberately, invoking the obedient Yuka's propriety.
"Oh, of course. But give her a chance-and...oh, the fire department's leaving. Let's run for it, so we can catch them!"
At that, they did run, and in so doing saw the completely gutted ruin that was the hateful place of their new sister's worst times. Kouta gasped.
"Wow, this is a lot worse than I thought! A day old, but it looks like Hiroshima."
Yuka did not correct him.
"It's like the sins of this place rose up to chew on it before sending it to Hell. Oh! The firemen are pulling out. Hurry, Kouta!"
But while they were fast and the fire truck was slow to pull away, the distance was just enough to only give them time to hear some telling last words from the firemen.
"Arson, again?"
"That's what they're saying. Same pattern as at the school."
Kouta watched them drive off, soon picking up the main road.
"Arson? The school, too? Does Kamakura have a firebug?"
Yuka could only stare at the shell of the orphanage.
"Kouta? Maybe you should be careful around Kaede, after all."
Kouta had been accused of being dense, but this was simply not in him to fathom.
"Huh?"
Yuka shook her head.
"After we all made up after the soup project, Kaede-chan told me-that she sometimes really wanted to hurt the people here, for the way they treated her. Now, I don't think she would do this-but I hate this place, and you hate it, and Mama and Papa too-and we were only here for a short time. Imagine growing up here."
Kouta wanted to shout at her. But he couldn't.
"It would twist around like glass in your stomach. Yuka? Could she, with her arms, make a fire that looks like a real one-and not even leave any fingerprints?"
Yuka breathed in, closed and then opened her eyes.
"We should be ashamed of ourselves!"
Kouta nodded firmly.
"You're right. The Kaede we know wouldn't do this kind of violent horrible thing. Besides, even if she hates this place, she loves the school, and the firemen said it was probably the same person both times."
Yuka was ready to slap herself for so easily forgetting that, in addition to suspecting her sister.
"So stupid of me. But-Kouta? Since we know it wasn't Kaede, but Kaede is one of the only connections between the two-could whoever did this have been trying to get to her? Maybe hurt her or send a message to her?"
Kouta felt the same chill as before.
"We better tell Dad about this. He'll know what to do-I mean besides ask Mom."
As they quickly headed home, Yuka couldn't shake the unintended implications of Kouta's words.
*The Kaede we know wouldn't do this. So-is there a Kaede we don't know? How deeply does her pain run, and if someone that hurt has super-powers-would they use them for payback?*
Repeatedly, she admonished herself for having these thoughts, but never could she erase them from her mind entirely.
Nor could Kouta.
3
"Mariko likes playing with Kanae Onee-Chan!"
Kanae liked the younger child, but for her, the real kick was being 'Onee-Chan' to anyone. The baby of a household didn't see this sort of thing very often.
"Kanae enjoys playing with Mariko Imouto as well. Now-I'll move three spaces, and it's your turn again."
"Yay!"
But the little girl's enthusiasm wasn't infectious for everyone. Her older sister glared at the scene, and to Kanae's eyes, she seemed capable of little else.
"You're being loud."
Kanae gained a huffy look, hardly unknown for her, but little Mariko looked badly upset.
"Please, Hana Onee-Chan! Mariko will try and play quieter. I meant no harm."
Hana merely shook her head, closed her eyes and sat down. Kanae knew she should let it go, but this dour figure was annoying her.
"We weren't being loud. You're just a sourpuss."
Kanae suddenly felt herself fall forward where she sat. Hana was grinning.
"And you're so clumsy, you tripped over your own feet sitting down."
Mariko nodded.
"Hana Onee-Chan is right. Mariko is clumsy like that, too. I don't know why."
Kanae didn't look at Hana again, in part because she didn't have to.
"It's alright, Mariko-Chan. Kanae has-seen-this sort of thing before."
Now, though, the young girl was getting suspicious of why they were all really there.
4
Kaede thought back.
"They said I was found, naked in a field and abandoned."
Emiko shook her head.
"Orphanage workers revealed this to a child?"
Kisaragi seemed on the verge of politely chastising Emiko's interruption, but held off.
"That does seem at least an impropriety-possibly illegal before a certain age. Some are never even permitted to inquire about their birth parents. Kaede, do you recall who told you this and when?"
Kaede did indeed, and it was clear that this was not among her few pleasant memories.
"There had been a fight. I hadn't started it-but when the food worker broke it up, a teacher came up and said that someone like me, dumped like trash on the beach, shouldn't be so much trouble. I asked what she meant, and then someone else later told me about how was I found."
Kaede stopped.
"That's really all I know. So I guess it won't be possible to find my birth parents just from that, huh?"
Emiko was about to reluctantly concede this point, when Kisaragi revealed a hidden ace.
"Kaede, you were not left abandoned in a field as an infant. You were found when you were already about three years old, naked and bleeding from some kind of head wound, on Yuigahama Beach. You-well, you had washed up on the shore."
There was of course a question of how Kisaragi had learned this, but Kaede had a much more direct one.
"If all that happened, then how come I don't remember any of it?"
Emiko actually seconded this.
"You were pretty young, but something like that, you tend to have some recall of. Also, wouldn't something like that have been in the papers?"
Kisaragi seemed reluctant to go further, but just as quickly continued.
"As I said, my husband, Doctor Kurama, was set to begin work at an island research facility, run by a friend's family. Before it was shut down, this group had a lot of pull. Things only got out if they wished it."
Emiko was now having her own doubts about this visit.
"Oh? Was there an evil organization planning world domination on that island? Maybe we should refer this to Connery, Moore and Dalton?"
Kisaragi, sensing that she was losing her clients, pushed back.
"In any event, I now believe that Kaede possibly came from that facility. The timeframe and the prevailing currents lead me to this conclusion."
Kaede began to look pale.
"Are you saying that I'm an experiment of some kind? That somebody made me like this?"
Kaede looked at Emiko.
"Mama? Maybe, if they made me this way, we can learn who did it-and I can become Human again!"
Emiko's face twisted in anger.
"YOU ARE HUMAN! Haven't I told you that? Hasn't your brother and your sisters and your father told you that, simply by our love?"
Kaede was calmer, but still shook her head.
"You know what I mean. You all can walk around without a cap. You don't have to make up stories about why your hair looks like Chibi-Usagi's. You don't have to live in a world made of cardboard. Afraid to ever get upset, or someone could die. Maybe if I wasn't always like this, none of that would be a concern if I could be cured."
Kisaragi threw her two cents in.
"Actually, Kaede, my husband, after analyzing your medical tests, seems to think your appearance and abilities are congenital-a condition with you from birth. You may even be something beyond Human."
Emiko, her eyes wide, turned and looked at her daughter, then stood up.
"Kaede, find your little sister. We are getting out of here. Right now!"
Kaede was confused.
"Mama, if I was disrespectful before..."
"You weren't. It was nothing you did. It's this woman. We've been tricked."
Kisaragi now looked less sure, almost like a clumsy girl from some TV show.
"Wait, please. How is it I'm supposed to have tricked you?"
Emiko folded her arms.
"Oh, let's discuss that, alright? I only told you about Kaede's horns, and her hair, and what little we knew about where she came from. I kept to myself her special abilities, yet you just mentioned them. And don't try telling me about how she fears those powers-her words were vague, and could have meant anything."
Kaede realized what her mother was saying, and got up as well.
"That's right! And just how is it you learned about where they found me, if that group shut the whole thing up? Maybe Kanae's old detective movies aren't so weird after all."
Kisaragi spread out her arms.
"Please don't go! It's true, I haven't been entirely honest with you. But I have two things to show you if you stay. Both very important."
Emiko affected a very bad Bogart impression.
"Spill, sweetheart. The meter's running."
Kisaragi buzzed her partner/secretary/husband.
"Mister Kurama, bring the pendant."
Walking with a bit more surety this time, the unemployed scientist was indeed holding a pendant bound to a gold chain. He looked at the girl.
"This, according to police, was clutched in your hand when you were found washed up on Enoshima. You were, for six months after, in an infantile state, till you progressed to being a normal three-year-old in development."
She took it, held it, and looked at an engraving on the pendant.
"Kaede? Then that is my name? I always thought it was just one the orphanage gave me."
Emiko briefly forgot her anger about the detective's deception.
"Honey? Look at it, really look at it. See if it brings back any memories."
Kaede was already doing that. Suddenly, she began to shake, and then, she began to cry.
"All-all I can see is cold-and red. The whole world is red."
She cried out loudly.
"THE WORLD IS RED! WHY IS THERE SO MUCH RED, MAMA? WHAT DID I DO?"
As the two concerned women walked up, Kaede pushed them back with her unseen arms. Kisaragi hit the wall nearest her.
"OWWW!"
At these cries and shouts, the other children came running in. Hana looked at Kaede, fit to kill.
"Why did you hurt my Mama?"
Kaede was calming, but glared right back at Hana.
"Don't push me!"
For her part, Hana raised her arms and gestured.
"Push!"
Kaede went flying back over the chair, yet Hana had never touched her-or perhaps she had.
"How did you do that?"
Hana was still fuming.
"You ever touch my Mama again-or any member of my family, and I will cut you into pieces!"
Kisaragi grabbed her daughter.
"Hana, she was having a waking nightmare, like you sometimes do. Her unseen arms lashed out at everyone here. She didn't mean to hurt me."
Kaede now knew what she had felt since arriving in that place.
"But I did mean to do this."
Gesturing, she knocked off Hana's hat, revealing the now-obvious. But though Kaede pointed, it was not in anger.
"She's like me. That's how you knew all that stuff. I never knew there was anyone like me."
Kurama ended the deception cleanly.
"My wife and I have desperately sought information to aid Hana and learn of her origins. When you told us about Kaede, we had to jump at the lead. You see, while there have been other horned people before, they were not empowered, merely people with a scalp oddity. We had to be certain Kaede was like Hana."
The two horned girls were now past regarding each other as threats, but were still badly wary. Kaede made a leap of logic.
"Hana-San, could you maybe be my older sister, if we're so much alike?"
Hana shook her head.
"The people who gave me up were my birth parents, and I have no sister by blood. Anyway, even if we were related, you'd be my older sister."
Kanae shook her head.
"How does that work? You're a teenager. Kaede's in grade school."
Mariko pulled at Kanae's hand.
"Hana Onee-Chan does not go to school, because she is sick. But she is the most special member of our family, because while Mariko was only chosen by Mama to be adopted, Hana-Onee was chosen by both Mama and Papa."
Hana rolled her eyes at the awkward explanation, but immediately grabbed Mariko up and hugged her.
"I am a very lucky older sister, to have a Mariko."
Emiko was still confused.
"How is she sick? And how is Kaede the older of the two?"
Kisaragi hugged both her children.
"Hana's aging is almost doubled. She is not the age she appears. You see-Hana is Seven."
As this shock sank in, Kaede turned to Kurama.
"Doctor, if you as a scientist conduct more tests on me, can this help Hana-chan?"
Kurama smiled.
"Kaede is a very responsible and generous young person. I believe these tests can only help the both of you, especially if we learn why she ages so quickly and you don't. Also, we can test the limits of your telekinesis-if it is just telekinesis."
He seemed to shudder with anticipation.
"You all have no idea what this study could mean to science. It could lead to outstanding developments in the field of science! Ummm, that is to say-errr-"
Kisaragi kissed him on the cheek.
"Go buy coffee, dear."
"Yes-uuhhh-buying coffee. Then-science!"
After he left, Kisaragi turned back to her clients.
"Please understand. Just as you would do anything to aid Kaede, so it is for ourselves and Hana."
Emiko saw that Kaede had forgiven all this, and sighed.
"Alright. But no more tricks, or traps. Also-are there any other horned girls-or boys?"
The mention of horned boys seemed to cause a tremor in Kaede she couldn't identify. Kisaragi shook her head.
"Honestly, Kaede is the first we've found after Hana. We know that her birth-father worked on that island, but he and his wife divorced and we have no idea of their whereabouts. We had to pursue every lead. We now feel that, with your aid, we can finally begin to crack some of the larger mysteries of our girls' lives."
Decidedly friendlier goodbyes were said, with a promise to exchange whatever information either family found. On the train ride home, Kanae nudged a contemplative Kaede.
"Are you disappointed she's not your sister?"
Kaede pulled her close.
"Nah. I've got two, and they're a handful as it is. But there is another like me. That's sort of like a sister."
Kanae nodded as their mother napped a bit.
"So with Mariko, that's four sisters and one brother."
When Kanae said the word brother, that same cold tremor hit Kaede.
*It's like my mind is trying to think of something, but it also really doesn't want to think about it. What do they call that?*
That thought on hold (but far from gone), the three arrived home, where Junichiro had prepared Mixed Bag Soup, a strong-smelling combination of all their leftover batches from the school lunch program. As she prepared for dinner, Kaede found two people in her room.
"Kouta? Yuka?"
The two were on their knees before her, and looked almost tearful.
"Kaede-Imouto, I am an unworthy pig of an older brother."
Yuka took her turn before Kaede could object.
"Kaede-Imouto, I am an unworthy pig of an older sister."
They rose up, embraced her, and kept on, Kouta first.
"The orphanage has burned down. The one who did it left no traces of evidence. Like they never touched it."
Yuka continued.
"Just before this, four children were murdered. They were children who had gone out of their way to give Kaede a hard time. No one can figure out how it was done, or who did it."
Kouta found his faltering voice again.
"Knowing how much you hate that place, and how hateful it was towards you, we sank lower than dutiful siblings ever should."
Yuka finished up.
"We allowed ourselves to suspect our wonderful Kaede, and so treated her like those horrible kids once did, all because our beautiful sister is different."
They spoke together as one.
"We ask Kaede's forgiveness, and will understand if she hates us forever instead."
In that moment, Kaede said the one thing neither penitent could have expected.
"If I ever were to become the sort of person you suspected, would the two of you be willing to stop me?"
For if her older siblings had banished these suspicions, this was something Kaede Kanbe herself felt she could no longer afford to do.