"A plan has been made. The God Code must be harnessed. For that, a vessel will be built."

ln 18, page 45, Astral Project Journal 2. Author lost.

Mother had been...agitated that morning. Pacing back and forth. Constantly flipping her fingers through her hair, scrunching up the strands between her hands and leaving her pale hair a frizzy mess. Kaito wasn't sure if he should tell her or not. She had been muttering to herself, too—in her native language, one that Kaito had never really learned, so he could only pick up a few scattered words that made little sense out of context. He had approached her from the stairs, biting down on his tongue to where she was pacing back and forth across the marble floor of the entry hall.

"Mother? Is everything all right?"

She had stopped, then, in the middle of her pacing. Her face angled in the vague direction of Kaito's voice, and a half smile dragged her lips across her cheeks. She looked even more radiant than usual despite the frizz of her hair, with the beautiful black dress that swirled around her feet, scattered with tiny glimmers of white stone that looked like the dusting of stars in a night sky. She was wearing the choker that father had given to her for their tenth anniversary, the black ribbon one with the strings of white stones that draped along the edges.

"I'm fine, love," she had said, reaching out towards him. He had stepped forward automatically so that her hand could find his head, and she stroked his hair gently. "I'm fine. Don't worry yourself. Just a little anxious about this party, is all. Your father is getting me a little worked up; he's very stressed."

And with that, his father's voice had echoed down the hallway asking if anyone had seen his ties, and his mother had turned around to shout back that they were on the dresser, and the conversation was over.

Now, Kaito wasn't even sure where his mother and father were. He sat at the back of the room, bouncing Haruto on his knee as the little boy sucked on his fingers, eyes staring at anything and everything. He didn't know why he and Haruto had had to come to this party. It was a grown-up party, full of scientists and businessmen and even some celebrities, and Kaito felt out of place.

Haruto tugged on Kaito's tie and he grimaced.

"You're gonna choke me," he said. "Come on, Haruto, stop it."

Haruto just grinned widely with his teeth half missing, and kept tugging on Kaito's tie.

"Kai," he said. "Kai."

"Yeah, okay," Kaito said.

He looked again over the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of either his mother or his father. Everyone looked the same from his vantage, in tiny knots of elegantly dress and affected speech, the clink of wine glasses as people filled them again or picked up another one from a circulating waiter. He saw a million colors of sleek evening dresses, but not his mother's starry black dress. He had thought she would be easy to pick out, with her skin several shades darker than the rest and her pale hair almost a glowing beacon in the dim, atmospheric lightning of candles and chandeliers. His father would blend into the rest of the too-pale scientific men in suits that didn't fit their scrawny frames, but his mother should have been easily visible. This room was too rich, with marble floors, paneled walls with sweeping, carved pillars that swept up into the dark, faraway ceiling, tall windows that looked out into darkened gardens outlined in the silver of moonlight. But no sign of his parents.

Over the light buzz of chatter, he couldn't even hear the click of his mother's guide cane. She was probably with his father, talking to one of father's scientist colleagues. They had gotten separated almost an hour ago, and Kaito had thought it was for the best that he take Haruto somewhere where he wouldn't get into trouble. After all of this, mother and father couldn't have even gotten a babysitter for the two of them? Haruto wasn't going to have any fun at this stuffy party. Well, if Kaito was honest, Haruto was having plenty of fun bothering Kaito by pulling on his tie or his ears or his hair or anything else his tiny fingers could get a hold of. Kaito was the one who was bored out of his skull.

Kaito sighed, hefting Haruto better onto his lap before the boy leaned too far out and tumbled onto the floor. He was currently fascinated with the shiny things on the trays of the waiters that circled a few feet away from the chair that Kaito had pulled into the corner, and Kaito had to keep a tight grip on the squirming child to prevent him from running off and getting under someone's feet.

Kaito strained his neck again, trying to peer over heads to find his parents. It probably wasn't going to be long before Haruto needed help going to the bathroom and he didn't even know where to find one.

"Sit—still—Haruto—" he muttered as Haruto strained even harder to get out of Kaito's lap.

His grip slipped. Kaito felt a swear word that he wasn't supposed to know forming on his lips as in slow motion Haruto went tumbling forward, head first toward the marble.

A hand snapped out and caught Haruto under the chest.

"Whoa! Safe!"

It was a woman's voice, one Kaito didn't recognize. Foreign, too, something about the way she pronounced her syllables with a bit too much emphasis. Kaito's brain processed this information automatically as his hands snapped forward to get Haruto under the arms and make sure he wasn't going to fall. The other hand supporting Haruto helped Kaito push the little boy into his arms as Kaito turned him around and hefted him up.

"Careful!" he said, frowning at his brother. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Haruto didn't seem to get it because he kept squirming.

"Bit of a adventurous type, huh?"

Kaito finally had a breath to look up at Haruto's rescuer. It was one of the waitresses, still balancing a tray with one hand even as she had caught Haruto. At least she hadn't lost any of those little sandwiches. She was slender, with her blond hair tied into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. She flashed Kaito a smile before rubbing briefly at the side of her eye.

"He's a little...curious right now," Kaito said. "Ugh, stop squirming, Haruto..."

The woman laughed softly. She swung her tray down in front of her.

"Are either of you hungry? These should be easy enough for him to eat; they're soft."

"O-oh, thanks..."

He tentatively picked up one of the tiny sandwiches and showed it to Haruto. Haruto's lips made a big O as he stared at it for a moment, and then he tried to grip it in his tiny baby hands.

"You're gonna crush it like that," Kaito said. "Come on, just eat it."

Haruto eventually got the sandwich in his mouth, sans a bunch of crumbs that were now all over Kaito's lap. He found himself blushing a little bit, or at least, his ears felt hot.

"Sorry. He's a mess."

"He's a kid, it's fine," the woman said. "Reminds me of some of my little ones. I've got a few around his age."

"Oh, really?" Kaito said. This was awkward, and he was really just saying it to be polite. He didn't really know how to continue this conversation, and he wished he could just find his parents. "Oh, um...sorry, but you haven't seen a woman with a black dress anywhere have you? She's got a white cane, too."

"Oh, Ms. Tenjo, right? She's back that way," the woman said, pointing. "Just rounded her and her husband...those your parents?"

"Y-yeah. I kinda got lost in the room."

She laughed softly, but it wasn't unkind.

"Why don't you follow me, I'll get you over to them."

"Thanks," Kaito said, feeling a rush of relief as he stood up with Haruto in his arms. At least now Haruto wasn't trying to get away. Instead, he had wrapped his arms around Kaito's neck and was kind of choking him by pulling on the back of Kaito's collar. Well, at least he wasn't falling.

The woman resituated her tray in one hand and nodded in the direction they were going. Kaito got his grip settled on Haruto and then hurried after her.

"Last I saw them, they were talking with that mascot guy," she said. "The one always in the green suit, never remember his name."

"Mr. Heartland?" Kaito said. The name stabbed him in the stomach and he suddenly felt sick. That man was here tonight, too? Wasn't it bad enough that he was always around the house?

"Yeah, that's the one—don't know why I can never remember the name, it's the same as the city. Guess I've got too much else on my mind," she said, laughing. "I heard your dad worked with him to plan the design for the city, right?"

"I...I guess."

Father never talked about his work, and Kaito never asked. He knew that father had become very well off with his work on Heartland City, mostly for the energy saving systems he had helped plot into the city plan, but he had learned that from newspaper articles. The stuff that father did in the basement laboratory didn't look like run of the mill environmental experiments at all...

"Ah!" the woman said. "Straight over there."

She nodded to her right, and Kaito's eyes peeked around her. He felt a sigh of relief bubbling up in his throat as he saw his mother's shimmering star dress, his father's suit that never seemed to fit him right. They stood in a small group, which, unfortunately, did contain Mr. Heartland, but Kaito could get over the knot of automatic revulsion if he had to. Another pair of men stood a little closer to his parents, between Heartland and them. They looked nicer, one of them with a silvery-blond braid over his shoulder, the other a shorter man with slicked back hair, who reached up to fix the man with the braid's flipped coat collar. There were a few other richly dressed men that looked vaguely familiar, faces that Kaito might have seen in the news, businessmen or politicians probably. It didn't matter, he just needed to get to his parents so that he could find someplace quieter and less boring to stay with Haruto until this party was over.

"Thank you," he said to the woman, moving around her to start towards his parents.

"Have a good night, kids," she called to them.

Kaito gave her a brief smile as he passed, and then his eyes slid back over to his parents.

He caught only the barest glimpse of his mother's shimmering dress as she turned, her face moving towards the sound of his feet against the marble, caught the sight of her clouded eyes once.

And then suddenly he heard the woman's tray clatter to the ground and her hand grabbed his shoulder and whipped him back behind her, bending herself over him and that was when the light exploded over Kaito's vision.

The light was immediately followed by a crack, a roar of an explosion and a rush of heat that washed over him. It was a blur, chaos. The woman shoved him and Haruto to the ground as another blast of heat rushed over their heads and the world went white and red and there was dust and something else crashing loudly to the ground near his head and there might have been screams but his ears were ringing from the first screeching explosion and he couldn't see or hear or smell anything but burning fabric and skin and hair and Haruto's hands were knotting into Kaito's tie and he couldn't breathe either from the smoke or the dust or Haruto's hands he didn't know but he couldn't even think past the

At some point, he blacked out.

At some point, the silence took him. Sent him spiraling down into the black, knowing that he wasn't supposed to be conscious and yet noticing the stars that spread out all around him anyway, floating in a space between planets and galaxies. It was a dream, and only a dream. But he felt like something was watching him. A pair of eyes that shone and swirled with a thousand stars, a claw that cradled him gently from falling endlessly through the black. A hum, a song that danced on the edge of his senses and told him that it was going to be okay. His mother's song...a lullaby that she had once sung when he was too young to really remember.

He woke up to a world of dust, darkness, and red and blue lights flashing against faraway walls. There were stars overhead. Why were their stars overhead? His throat was dry, coated with dust. He coughed. Why couldn't he move? There was someone on top of him. His head spun and then everything snapped into focus as he realized it was Haruto.

He tried to cry out for Haruto, make sure his brother was still moving because oh god, what had just happened, why was he on the floor and why did he feel so heavy? But he couldn't speak, the dust was too thick in his throat and it was like trying to talk through molasses.

And then Haruto stirred against him and he found the strength in his arms to tighten his grip on the boy because thank god. He could feel Haruto shaking. He was crying—why couldn't Kaito hear it? He couldn't hear anything except for a whine that echoed in his ears.

There were lights cutting through the dark. Beams of white that illuminated the strands of dust. He could see shapes moving through the room—wrecked, he realized with a cold hand running down his back. The lights were illuminating the edges of broken walls and collapsed pillars that carpeted the room. Kaito managed to turn his head despite the scream of protest.

Nothing hit us, he thought dizzily. It all fell around us.

He could see a human shape, the edges outlined in white, crawling through the wreckage. He swallowed, tried to call out, but only a squeak came. He managed to get an arm free of Haruto and waved once, his arm feeling weighted. It collapsed to the ground after one wave.

But he had gotten lucky—a searchlight swung towards him and he groaned, closing his eyes against the glare. He still couldn't hear anything even as boots hurried over into his line of vision and a visored face appeared over him. Kaito couldn't see the eyes behind it, but their hands were gentle as they prodded at him and then Haruto briefly. They said something, and Kaito tried to squint to read the lips, but couldn't make it out. He shook his head, fluttered his hand at his ears. They nodded briefly, and then put their hands gently on Haruto. They tried to lift him free of Kaito's arms, but Haruto's hands knotted into Kaito's tie and shirt and even though Kaito couldn't hear, he could see Haruto sobbing and screaming, see his lips saying Kai Kai Kai Kai Kai.

It's okay...Haruto, it's okay, they're not taking you, I promise, no one will take you, I promise, I promise, I promise—

He didn't really remember being helped up, being moved onto a stretcher and pulled towards and ambulance. He didn't remember getting to the hospital, his ears and eyes going in and out, in and out. He remembered waking up once, asking for Haruto. They told him his brother was fine, minor injuries, miracle, and that he was going to be fine too, he just needed to rest and they had to check to make sure he hadn't fractured his skull on the fall.

He didn't know how long it was before he was fully conscious again, and he didn't want to ask.

He was even more afraid of asking what had happened to his parents.

They were calling it a terrorist attack. Twenty six people dead. Kaito had read the names five times, trying to pretend that one of them wasn't there.

But it was. It was there. The tiny black letters glared at him from the page, clear even though his hands were shaking so badly that it vibrated the whole newspaper, screaming at him to accept.

He could hear his father sobbing in the other room, screaming. He had been at it for several hours now, audible even though he was two hospital rooms down.

"Where are they? Where's my family? Don't fucking talk to me like that, you're lying, she's not dead—where is Kaito? Where is Haruto? No, I will not sit back down, not until I've spoken with my wife—where is Sitara? Where is Sitara!"

Kaito ripped the newspaper in half.