Character: Kaoru Sasaki
Summary: People say that every cloud has a silver lining. Having a long-lost sister from the Satellite is like having the cloud and the silver lining in one.
Kaoru
I've probably lost count of the amount of times I've come downstairs late at night and found my own mother crying over an almost empty bottle of wine. Most of the time, she doesn't notice me. When she does, she shushes me and tells me to go to bed.
I know why.
I was supposed to have little sister. She was born, there's photos of me with her as a baby. I doubt I even counted as a toddler at the time. I was just told she died in the Zero Reverse. I later learned, when I was old enough to pay attention to the adults in my family talking, that my mom actually gave her up for adoption. My aunt Kyoko was the one who adopted her, and died with her in the Zero Reverse.
She may not be dead, I argued, there's plenty of people in the Satellite. I get told that sometimes it's better not to get your hopes up. I think that means my mom would rather have a dead baby than one from the Satellite.
That's where the problem starts.
My mom picks me up from school one day, everything seems normal. That is until she doesn't start the car. Her hands are gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles are turning white. She's practically shaking. She takes a deep breath.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Kaoru, I have to tell you something." She exhales through her nose. She folds her hands neatly in her lap. My first thought is that someone died. Then I realised that she would probably be crying if that was the case.
"Yeah?" I mutter, prodding her to continue.
"They found your sister." She sighs after finally getting the words out. "They found her in the Satellite, and she's going to come and live with us."
"Okay," is all I can manage to say. I don't know what else I can say. There's no doubt that everything will change. I've lived in the uncomfortable bliss that is being an only child with separated parents. People reckon that my sister is the reason they split up in the first place, five years after she supposedly died. People say that I'm lucky that I even still see my dad, and I suppose they're right. I've never had a good relationship with him, and now they found my sister, I doubt it's going to get any better.
"We're going to go to the Public Maintenance Bureau to pick her up, okay?" She finally starts driving. "I don't know what we're going to do after that, but we'll figure it out."
I mumble a response, and we drive in silence.
"Are you excited?" She asks as we pull into the car park.
"Yeah," I respond. I suppose actually having a sibling would be nice, maybe I'll be a little less lonely.
We walk into the Public Maintenance Bureau lobby. Nancy, my dad's new fiancee, is already waiting there for us. While they don't absolutely loathe each other, my mom and Nancy don't exactly want to interact with each other. I imagine that they tolerate each other for my sake.
"She's waiting in a room for you, I'll bring her down now." Nancy says. "The Director of the Bureau, Rex Godwin, has given her special permission to remain in the City, and he is also dropping all charges against her."
"Charges?" I echo.
"She was arrested for disrespecting an officer." Nancy answers. "Going by her account, she was arrested under false charges. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do about the mark. The process we use means that the mark is permanent."
"You didn't tell me she was marked." My mom glares at Nancy.
"Kasumi, it's common procedure. Immediately after arrest, all Satellite citizens are marked." My mom stops dead in her tracks as her face falls. It sounds harsh. If it's permanent, it must be like getting a tattoo but worse. Nancy turns to look down the corridor. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Nancy hurries down the hallway, and we're left in silence for a few minutes.
It's not that long before I see her walking towards us again. As soon as she reaches the lobby again, stepping aside so we can see the girl trailing behind her. She looks nothing like I imagined her.
She's fourteen or fifteen, my brain can't remember at this exact moment, but she's looks younger. From the looks of it, I doubt she'd even reach my shoulder. She's scrawny, and very thin. All that time in the Satellite would do that to you. The one thing I'm surprised about is how light her hair is. She had dark hair in the few pictures I've seen of her. Her washed-out, sandy blonde hair blends into her deathly pale skin. This only makes her bright magenta eyes stand out more.
"Yuuka, this is your mother." Nancy gestures to our mom. "And this is your brother, Kaoru." Yuuka stays silent. Her eyes move slightly between our faces. Her eyes are rimmed with red. The skin around her criminal marker looks red and irritated. I even spot traces of dried blood around it.
"Yuuka?" My mom asks softly. She nods in response. "It's good to see you." Yuuka still doesn't say anything. I'm starting to think that she doesn't talk. "We have a lot of catching up to do."
"Come on, Yuuka." Nancy says. "You're going home with your mother and brother." She doesn't move. It doesn't even look like she's breathing. Her eyes just flicker back and forth, looking at everyone in the room. "There's no need to be afraid."
I didn't consider the fact she could be scared. Surely she would have known about us, it can't be that much of a shock that she'll be living with us. She should be grateful that she's leaving the Satellite. From what I've heard, the conditions there are beyond savage.
Yuuka doesn't say another word, and begins to walk towards us a little more. Nancy and my mom whisper quietly, as my mom starts to fill out paperwork at the front desk. Yuuka and I sit on some chairs, waiting for them to finish. It's about as silent as you can probably imagine. At this point, I'm just suspecting that she's mute. Then again, she did give her account of what happened.
My mom talks for the entire ride home, and during dinner. She promises to bring us out for dinner tomorrow, to celebrate Yuuka coming home. She tells Yuuka about the City, and all of the things we can do together. Yuuka barely gets to mumble a response. I don't think she's managed to form a single word all day.
"I never knew you existed," Yuuka finally says as there's a moment of silence. "My mother never told me about you."
The silence only continues. My mom just stares at her. Yuuka's eyes focus on her now-empty plate. I notice that the plate almost looks completely clean. She refers to our aunt as her mother. I suppose that makes sense. She thought that she only had a mother all this time.
She was arrested this morning, I realise. Her entire world has been turned upside down in less than twelve hours. I feel bad for her. Originally, I thought she should feel lucky that she gets to leave the Satellite and have a family. I was wrong. Yuuka looks like she'd give anything to go back. Maybe, she had a family back there too. Maybe, she'd rather them instead of us. After all, we're just strangers to her.
"Well," my mom begins. "I'm sorry. Kyoko probably had her reasons." I think Aunt Kyoko knew that the chances of getting out of the Satellite were slim to none, and telling her would only make her upset. I don't know if that choice worked out in the long run, but I suppose it doesn't matter now.
My mom starts to clean the dishes. We have a dishwasher, not even three paces away from where she's standing at the sink. Sometimes she likes to wash things by hand, she says that it helps her think.
We go back to silence, and it's so awkward that it actually hurts. I excuse myself, and go to my room as fast as I can. I start my homework for the weekend since it's a Friday. I start with maths, since I find that easiest.
After a few minutes, I hear my mom talking with Yuuka outside my door.
"It's been a long day," my mom says. "You should probably take a shower. The bathroom's there, the towels are in the cabinet. That's your room there, it's pretty bare since it was used as a spare room but we'll get more stuff for it later."
I hear footsteps going back downstairs, and then there's silence. Then, a door opens. Judging by the sound, it's Yuuka's bedroom door. It closes again softly. There's light footsteps and then the bathroom door opens. More light footsteps.
Then, there's a knock on my door. I sigh before getting up from my desk. I open my door to see Yuuka looking absolutely terrified.
"Can you show me how to-"
"Turn on the shower?" She nods slowly. "Did you not have running water in the Satellite?"
"Not really," she answers. I walk to the bathroom with her. I open the cabinet and take out a red towel for her.
"That button is on and off. Turn this dial left for colder water, and right for warmer. That dial is for water strength." Yuuka nods quickly at every sentence. "Any questions?" She shakes her head. "I'll leave a pair of my old pyjamas in your room for you when you get out. Y'know, considering you don't have any other clothes. You okay with that?"
"Yeah, thank you Kaoru." My name sounds weird coming from her mouth, especially since it's the first time I've heard her say it.
"Don't worry about it, we'll have to get used to this." Her small smile fades. "Can I ask you a question?" She nods slowly. "What did you leave behind in the Satellite?"
"I had four friends, we all lived in this abandoned building together. It wasn't much, but it was great. You kind of remind me of one of my friends. His name's Jack. He was the closest thing I had to a brother."
"Now, you have an actual brother."
"Yeah, I guess." Her eyebrows are furrowed and she looks like she's about to burst into tears. I shouldn't have said that.
"I'm sorry," I say quickly. "I know it must be hard, but people say that all things happen for a reason. If your friends care about you, they'll come find you."
"I suppose you're right." She chuckles with a sad smile on her face.
"Right, I'll leave to it then." I nod quickly and leave the bathroom.
I return to the desk in my room, and find myself staring at the wall instead of doing work. Despite how horrible the Satellite seems, Yuuka's acting like that's where she'd rather be. Could the City really be that bad in her eyes? Surely the better living conditions here would outweigh whatever family she had in the Satellite.
My mom brings Yuuka out for clothes shopping the next day. They arrive home with bags and bags of clothes. There's also bags under Yuuka's eyes, she looks like she didn't sleep a wink. She tells me that she used to sleep on an old couch underneath a scratchy blanket back in the Satellite. It definitely wasn't the comfy double bed in her room that kept her awake.
Emiko, my best friend, demands that she come over and meet Yuuka when I tell her about her. My mom thinks we should leave it awhile, let her adjust to the City before we start introducing her to people. I'm pretty sure that's what you do with new puppies, but I don't question her.
Within the month, Yuuka starts attending Duel Academy. Between me being year behind in school and Yuuka being a year younger than me, we end up in the same class. It's horrendously awkward explaining why my long lost sister has just appeared, why she has a mark, and why she goes by our mother's last name rather than our father's like me.
Emiko meets her for the first time during the lunch break. Yuuka doesn't say much, but I can tell she's grateful for someone actually talking to her rather than staring and judging. People actively flinch when they see her marker. It's only a small marker, an arrow-shape underneath her right eye.
She shouldn't have it at all, she tells me. She says she was arrested for insisting that she's a human being. The charges were dropped, so she has no criminal record, but she still has the marker. That's pretty harsh. Are Security really that cruel towards the Satellites?
The first week of school is uneventful. No one knows what to make of her. Except Emiko that is. Emiko has already taken a liking to Yuuka. I mean, I didn't doubt otherwise. Emiko and I were each other's only friends before Yuuka showed up. And considering Yuuka never leaves my side when we're at school, it was inevitable that she'd become friends with Emiko too. This is made clear by the countless sleepovers that they have on the weekends, I swear they're once a week at this point.
It's true that Yuuka never leaves my side. We sit beside each other in every class. It's better than sitting alone, I guess. Emiko is in the year below us, so we don't have classes together. I ask Yuuka why. She tells me that she's too scared to be alone. I suppose that's fair. It seems like there's constantly news reports of people with markers living just outside the City's borders getting murdered. Though, I'm not sure I'm the best person to hang out around with for protection. Especially with how frequently I get beaten up, because some assholes think I'm gay. I don't get it, so what if I was gay? There's worse things to be. I could be a psychic.
At least no one's tried to pick a fight with her, yet. Yuuka's scrawny and barely reaches my shoulder, picking a fight with her would be pointless.
So instead, Yuuka decides to pick fights with teachers.
The first time, I admit, wasn't her fault. A girl was chatting away to her friend in the row behind us. The teacher immediately blamed Yuuka, and much to everyone's surprise, gave her detention. Our school normally works on a three strike system. Yuuka tries to tell the teacher this, but he doesn't listen.
She gets sent to the principal's office to go explain herself. In the few moments afterwards, I hear the whispers. They say that she deserves it. They say that she probably tried to kill someone, and that's why she has a mark.
I want to speak up.
But I know if I do, I'm only going to get into trouble. So, I don't.
"I know it must be hard for you to adjust, Yuuka." I overhear my mother that night. "But could you at least try to fit in?"
A different teacher sends her to detention for tapping her pencil on her desk, while the class was working on maths exercises. She doesn't fight. She just takes her stuff and goes to the principal's office again.
That night, our mom yells at her. She begs her to act normal. I don't want to let her know that I eavesdrop on their arguments, it's not hard when the walls are thin. I want to argue that Yuuka doesn't know what normal is. The only reason Yuuka is in the same class as me is because she's a good duelist. She struggles with practically everything else. Math is the one thing that she absolutely cannot understand, outside of basic arithmetic. It's gotten to the point where I've started to help her do her homework.
Yuuka continuously gets sent to detention for the most minor of things. Unbuttoning the top buttons on her shirt because it was a warm day. Not paying attention for a split second. It's unreasonable.
"They're only sending me to detention because of my mark," she tells me when our mom leaves the house. "It's because I don't belong there."
"Don't say that," I respond. "You deserve to be there, just as much as everyone else. Everyone has the right to education."
"Supposedly."
One upside of Yuuka going to school with me was that the bullies left me alone for a while. Mostly because Yuuka was new and interesting. I doubt most people at our school had seen a marked person before, in real life.
Eventually, their attention went right back to me.
I walk down an empty corridor after with Yuuka at my side. I was foolish to assume that I wouldn't have been a target. Before Yuuka showed up, I would never have dared to walk down an empty corridor.
The same crowd of three bullies stop in front of us, and block the hallway. I see Yuuka tense beside me. They don't even say anything. One immediately aims a punch at my head. Another tries to restrain so I can't dodge. The other one kicks me in the stomach. I get thrown to the ground, but no one pays attention. Then, I realise why. All of them are staring at Yuuka, there's a splatter of blood on the ground, and it's smeared on Yuuka's clenched fist. One of them steps forward to you, and punches her in the face so hard that she flies and hits the wall.
That's when the fight gets broken up. We all get dragged into the principal's office. Yuuka's given a tissue for her bloody nose. I think Yuuka broke that guy's nose, since it looks crooked and it's bleeding a lot.
The three guys and Yuuka get two weeks of detention, I get off scot free.
I ask her why she defended me, she didn't have to after all. She put herself in the line of fire, just to help me.
"Because it's unfair, Kaoru." She says. "You've done nothing, and these guys decide it's their right to punish you. They're beating you up because they think you're gay. That's not fair. So what if you're gay or not, it doesn't matter. They feel entitled to do that. This City feel entitled to do that."
While Yuuka is in detention for that incident, some psychic blows a hole in the roof. They've been hurting people in duels for a while. If you're a psychic, why are you even going to Duel Academy anyway? Are they just hurting people for the sake of it? How could someone be that vile?
Yuuka figures out little details about them, mostly from eavesdropping on teacher's conversations. She's the daughter of a senator, sent here by her father. They want to expel her, but her father is too important. She's two years below us. Emiko knows about the same from being a year above her. Aki Izayoi, the name burns into my mind.
Yuuka and Izayoi spend a lot of detentions together, but never speak. I suppose those two would understand each other best out of everyone here. Yuuka says Izayoi gives the impression that she doesn't want to be spoken to.
Yuuka goes to detention a lot. The same group of boys come back to beat me up. Before they even reach me, Yuuka's already got a punch in. She gets the biggest sentence for starting the fight, technically.
It's almost like something has changed in her. She's started tying her jacket around her waist, she calls it a giant middle finger to the school. It gets her in lots of trouble, like expected. She likes to point out to the teachers that she's not the only one not wearing a jacket. She just stands up and leaves at that point. The teachers don't need to tell her to go to the principal's office anymore. The arguments between her and our mom are only getting more aggressive.
If you hate it here so much, go back and rot in the Satellite!
Yuuka just slams her bedroom door in our mom's face.
I think about stepping in, so many times. But, I was always hesitate. I know why. I don't want my own mother lashing out at me because I'm trying to help my sister. I love Yuuka, but I can't face that.
The next time the bullies pick a fight with me, I throw a punch. The first time I've ever thrown a punch in my life. I tell the principal that I threw a punch, and he looks shocked, but I don't get in trouble. Why? Because Yuuka said that she threw that punch instead.
"Why?" She repeats back to me. "This isn't your fight anymore. You're getting angry with me because I got in the way of your one act of rebellion. This is my life now. You think this City is so just and perfect that injustice can't exist here, and I'm just an edge case. You're wrong, and you'll never understand that."
I think of the girl that I first met in the Maintenance Bureau headquarters, too scared to even say a word. Then, I think of the girl who's getting up into my face, her face red with anger. They're so far separated that I'm starting to doubt that they're the same person.
She's wrong. They don't call this City a utopia for nothing.
Satellites have their place in the world. I've been told that Satellites are nothing but criminals. They're primal people at their core. Yuuka isn't proving this wrong. She's a marked criminal herself. She's hot blooded, she picks fights with anyone that so much as looks at her. She's proving everyone right.
Yuuka tells me that psychics don't deserve the shit that they get, they can't help who they are. Then why do psychics attack people? Why does Aki Izayoi duel when she knows that people will get hurt? Psychics are monsters. They don't have to duel and hurt people, but they do it anyway. I'm sure if they tried hard enough, they could stop being psychics. It can't be that hard.
That starts to cause a rift between us. She does her homework alone in her room. She stops sitting with me in class. She spends all of her time with Emiko, despite Emiko's efforts to make us spend time together.
The bullies don't even target me anymore. They just go straight for Yuuka. They call her Satellite trash. They say she should be locked up in the Facility. They ask her did she murder someone for that mark. They tell her to go back to the Satellite where she belongs. They say horrible, nasty things to her. And yet, I do nothing to stop her. Like she said, it's her fight. My one act of rebellion doesn't matter. I don't understand Yuuka, and I never will.
Maybe that's why it happens.
I try to make things up to her, a friendly duel in the back garden. Yuuka and I have a pretty even win record against each other. I see our mom looking out the window at us as she washes dishes. It was another harsh argument last night. Yuuka straight up told a teacher to fuck off. I don't think our mom has ever been that angry. Even considering all of the horrible things she's said in the past.
Maybe that's why when Yuuka declares her first attack, everything changes.
I see it in her face. Undeniable panic. Everything feels different. The air around me as her monster charges towards mine. Her hand scrambles to pull back, but she fails. I put my arms up to shield my face. The attack makes contact with my monster, it gets destroyed. The impact continues, and my entire body shudders. Then, I feel the unmistakable crunch of a bone breaking. I feel the warm crimson blood pumping from the wound. I'm faced with the truth.
Yuuka is a psychic.
My sister is a monster. She's the very thing I fear. Our mom runs out to me once she sees the blood. Yuuka just stares at me, and I stare right back. She does the only thing she can, she runs.
Yuuka left for good that day. She was right to. She's a monster, and she knows that. She drops out of Duel Academy altogether. They had wanted to expel her anyway, but Godwin wanted her to stay, so they never went through with it. I suppose I should feel bad, but I don't. Yuuka wanted to leave, and now she has an excuse. Whatever silver lining Yuuka's presence brought is now negated by the fact that the mere cloud is now a storm cloud, bringing harm to everything around it.
A/N: Today, September 2nd, is Kaoru's birthday! This oneshot is also celebrating the fact that Kaoru was the winner of the popularity poll, and this is for his win!