It had been at least three hours since Lanfen and Kai-Ming departed the memorial service of their late parents. Neither of the two attended classes for today. And even if their respective schools hadn't permitted their absence, both sisters surely wouldn't have bothered focusing on anything their teachers were even saying. All of it would've only felt like harsh, white noise to their uncaring ears.
With only half an hour left till 6 o'clock, the setting sun shone its luminescent rays through the windows of the Jiang household's kitchen, casting a soft, yellow glow upon Lanfen's back as she tended to an active stove before her. Sinigang. A childhood favourite of both Kai-Ming and Lanfen. While this was the latter's first ever attempt at recreating the Filipino soup, the recipes their father had written down in an old notebook of his provided Lanfen all the necessary steps she needed in order to make it even partially edible. Such knowledge - of course - couldn't prevent the kitchen counter from transforming into a mess of chopped ingredients, scattered utensils, and dirty, used cooking pans.
Even so, Lanfen found it difficult to even care about such a small issue. The complete silence of the Jiang household was all she could think about.
Last she checked, Kai was in the living room. The girl had dropped herself onto their couch the moment they came back home. And even though Kai constantly insisted that she was alright, Lanfen did not fail to notice the way her sister's shoulders trembled when they had stepped through the front door. A subsequent suggestion for Kai-Ming to head upstairs for a much-deserved bath was postponed in favour of a short nap. But up until now, Lanfen had yet to hear any audible footsteps from their house's creaking, wooden staircase.
It would be a miracle if the soup tasted even mildly similar to the way it often turned out underneath their father's hands. After closing up the boiling pot with a nearby lid, Lanfen deactivated the electric stove and wiped her forehead clean of its accumulating sweat. She then rinsed a pair of tired hands underneath the kitchen's crowded sink. With a small huff, Lanfen dumped her apron onto the backrest of a kitchen chair and headed into the dining room, a solemn gaze examining her quiet surroundings the entire time. The framed pictures on the walls were now just distant memories of people they would never see again. And nobody else except the two sisters would ever find themselves sitting at the dining table in front of her.
Slowly, Lanfen rubbed her eyes with the back of one hand, setting herself down on one side of the long table as her shoulders ached from a recent back-alley brawl. She soon directed a tired gaze over to a waiting chess set, its pieces still in the middle of an unfinished match which would never see its end now that their father wasn't around. Since Lanfen hadn't dared to disturb the chess set while it sat next to a pile of homework from Lydian, a layer of dust was already building up on the chessboard and its numerous black-and-white pieces. She could still clearly remember how their parents had been suddenly called up for work when it was already a quarter to 11 PM at the time.
The pat on the head which Lanfen received from their mother became the last parental gesture Jiang Pao-Lin ever gave before the departing pair forever stepped out of the household.
Glancing over to the farthest end of the dining table, their mother's rope dart still laid there, completely undisturbed since it had also been dropped in a hurry like so many other things. At this point, even the surface of the metal dart was already beginning to get dusty. And if Lanfen's mother was still here, she would've instantly reminded them to tidy up all of their belongings. But the teenage girl couldn't bear to return the item to her mother's training room. Not until she came back home to remind them. Lanfen knew it was a childish thought. And yet, she stubbornly reasoned that it would only be rude to put away an instrument which someone else was currently in the middle of using.
The gaze Lanfen held on the mementos of her parents was then torn away without another thought. With her twitching hand at one side, she finally dragged herself over to the living room, her footfalls barely audible even with the surrounding silence. As Lanfen approached the couch from behind, she wondered what she was supposed to say in order to break the silence, only to soon ponder on whether or not she should even be dispelling it in the first place. Lanfen couldn't hear anything from Kai while the younger of the two lied down on the couch. And when Lanfen walked around it in order to face her sister, she could see that Kai was still in the middle of a deep, long slumber. The tear stains on the little girl's cheeks were as clear as the setting sun outside.
She even looked almost peaceful, Lanfen thought to herself.
After taking note of the smartphone which peeked out from underneath her sister's hand, Lanfen went over to one of the living room's closets and quietly went through the shelves for Kai's favourite blanket. While the older sibling made sure to not generate any noise that could wake up the girl, Lanfen headed back over to the couch and gently draped a cotton blanket over Kai's form, prompting a few noises to escape from the girl's lips in the middle of her sleep. Dinner wasn't going to be ready until the rice cooker gave out its distinctive ring. With nothing else to do, an exhausted Lanfen allowed herself to drop onto the floor so she could lean against the couch's soft cushions, providing her some respite from the swirling thoughts within her aching head.
It was just the two of them now. And it was mainly up to Lanfen to decide what they were going to do from here on out.
Running one hand through the locks of her growing, black hair, Lanfen listened to Kai's soft breathing as her little sister slept behind her. There had to be something which they could do in order to make the coming days just a bit brighter. The London concert featuring Kazanari Tsubasa and Maria Cadenzavna Eve was about to air tomorrow night, so a watch-party for just the two of them didn't particularly sound like a bad idea. Lanfen would have to head down to the supermarket tomorrow for some suitable snacks if that was the case. Money wasn't going to be a problem for the two orphaned sisters anyway.
Should she also keep this a secret for now? Or should she tell Kai the moment it was convenient? It was hard to decide when almost nothing made sense right now.
Carefully, Lanfen brushed the back of two fingers against Kai's sleeping face and wordlessly hoped that she was dreaming of a pleasant reality. The eldest of the two could barely sleep without falling into the depths of an intrusive nightmare. It was something Lanfen herself was used to, at least. Letting loose a hush sigh, she proceeded to rest her head against the couch's cushions again before staring emptily at the ceilings above them. Lanfen couldn't care about the tears which were freely running down her cheeks at this point.
"I'll take care of you, Mei," she whispered to the cold, barren air, finally shattering the oppressive silence of the Jiang household, "no matter what happens."
As soon as Lanfen's promise left her dry, cracking lips, the uncaring tides of silence flowed back into their living room. It was never like this back then. Lanfen wished to hear the stories their father would always tell them. The music their mother would attempt to play whenever an instrument piqued her wandering interest. The joyous yells that Kai would let out whenever Lanfen sat down with her to watch their usual Sunday morning shows. All of them, now mere remembrances of events long-gone. Lanfen was now the oldest person in the house and she barely even trusted in her own ability to take care of herself. The sheer thought of the responsibilities which pressed down on her shoulders made Lanfen's heart quiver. But she held on to whatever bravery she could muster, all for the sake of her little sister.
If it was for Kai, then Lanfen believed she could do anything.
"Jie? Jie, wake up."
The soft nudge Lanfen felt on her shoulder partially roused her from a much-needed nap. A subsequent, playful jab aimed at her sensitive waist instead caused Lanfen to instantly shoot open her eyes and reflexively jump in her bus seat, decisively pulling the woman out of her deep slumber. As Lanfen held back a low grunt of discomfort, she directed an unamused stare at the younger sibling who was hiding a mischievous laugh behind her hands. Lanfen desired to grill her sister for her usual shenanigans. But the attention Kai would be receiving was most likely the very reaction she desired in the first place. And so, the eldest of the two simply turned her attention towards the windows of the public transport they were riding, wordlessly taking in the tall buildings, rising apartment complexes, and brightly-lit shopping centers of Yamaku City.
Judging by the streets they were passing by, the two were now only a few minutes away from their intended stop.
At their feet, several bags of brand-new scarves and Valkyranger toys could be seen sitting between their legs and the back of the bus chairs in front of them. While Lanfen gazed out of the windows, ready to hit a nearby Stop button, Kai relaxed beside her with a pair of headphones in her ears. The faint noise which was leaking out from her sister's small headphones pretty much informed Lanfen that Kai's usual music had been set to max volume. Since any suggestions to lower it down would only fall on deaf ears, Lanfen focused on the familiar streets to her right, and pressed one of the holographic 'Stop' buttons upon noticing a couple distinctive convenience stores.
Lanfen plucked out one of her sister's headphones from the younger girl's ears before she started hoisting up some of their bags off the bus floor. "We've arrived."
Leading the way towards the front of a halting, near-empty bus, Lanfen deposited a pair of tickets alongside a few coins into the vehicle's fare machine, letting them step onto the snowy sidewalk with all of their items in hand. Standing for up to ten floors before them was a large apartment complex alongside several other buildings of similar height as Lanfen shielded the lower half of her face with a black-and-white scarf. The city of Yamaku was hardly any different from places like Mitakihara and Kazamino, its high-rise buildings all reaching towards the skies while people crowded out its snow-covered sidewalks. A second could hardly pass by without hearing some sort of car horn coming from the vehicles on the busy roads.
Shivering underneath her black jacket, the two entered the apartment complex's lobby to escape the December winds, its sliding doors welcoming them like it always did as Kai loudly hummed a tune at her side. 'Enter the elevator, head up to the eighth floor, take a right, and stop in front of the fourth door you see,' they carried out these steps without needing to think much on it. And once Lanfen had unlocked the front door to their apartment, Kai became the first to rush into the warmth of their humble abode. They placed down their bags at the hallway entrance before taking off their shoes. The lights above them flickered to life the second Lanfen closed up the front door behind them without looking.
"We have returned home!" Kai dramatically declared, zooming ahead into the living room with all of their bags gathered up in her hands.
Storing their footwear inside a nearby shoe closet, Lanfen gave an amused smile and walked by the bathrooms to catch up with her sister. Grateful to finally be free from the cold again despite years of having stayed in Japan, she undid the scarf which was wrapped around her neck, placing it back on a rack that hung on to the walls of the hallway entrance. Unsurprisingly, by the time Lanfen had stepped into the living room, Kai was already standing before the television with its remote in her hands. All of their plastic bags could be seen sitting underneath the room's dining table while an episode of Valkyranger popped up on the screen, prompting Lanfen to address her sibling before Kai could even slip into the kotatsu table.
"Mei, go and take a bath first," she said, turning on the room's ceiling lights by flipping a few switches on their walls. "You can watch your shows after you've cleaned yourself up."
Kai barely had one foot inside the kotatsu when she was forced to rise back up to her feet. "But we barely even got ourselves dirty-" She noticed the way Lanfen crossed her arms over her chest and instantly held back a complaint. "Yeah, I guess a hot bath doesn't sound so bad." With that immediate change in her tune, Kai left her smartphone on top of the kotatsu, switched off the TV, and slid past her older sibling for the nearby bathrooms. She made sure to deliver Lanfen another playful jab in her ticklish waist when Kai passed by her, earning the younger sibling an exasperated complaint which was cut off by the sound of a bathroom door closing itself shut.
"And somehow she insists she's more 'hands-on' with her friends," Lanfen dryly grumbled to no one in particular.
After she habitually dusted her hands together, Lanfen proceeded to carry out her usual home rituals now that they were back. First, she approached the holo-player stationed next to their television and clicked on a few buttons, filling the apartment with a calming jazz tune which chased away the oppressive silence. She then headed into their small kitchen through a nearby door so she could prepare the necessary ingredients for dinner later. Once Lanfen made sure that her pots, knives, pork, and vegetables were all ready, she exited the kitchen and went over to the shelf next to their dining table. Her hand ran through the spines of multiple books until Lanfen found her father's cookbook in the lower shelves. The words that were written onto its back by means of simple ink had yet to fade away even after all these years.
"Ownership of Keith S. and Margaret Jiang P. Lin."
Leaving the thick book atop their counter for later, Lanfen finally undertook the concluding step of her daily rituals.
The small family shrine they had set up on one side of the living room possessed a single cushion before it for Lanfen to comfortably kneel on. As her back faced the three doors which lead to the siblings' respective bedrooms alongside Lanfen's personal practice room, she looked down on the shrine's small table, and gazed at the chess set that laid on top of its translucent glass. The pieces were still arranged in the same way they've been for half a decade now, the pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, kings, and queens all frozen in an ongoing battle which would never see its conclusive end. Even if they were just inanimate objects, a part of Lanfen almost sympathized with the chess pieces she had chosen to leave in such a way, all to purely satisfy her own sentimental desires.
Slowly, Lanfen drew in a practiced breath and redirected her gaze back to the shrine. A framed picture of Kai, Lanfen, and their parents could be seen peacefully resting right in its center.
'Keith Silverstein', 'Margaret Jiang Pao-Lin', 'Cassandra Jiang Lanfen', and 'Cynthia Jiang Kai-Ming'.
"We enjoyed ourselves at this new mall today," Lanfen began, a pair of hands gripping tightly on to her knees. "It was at Mitakihara. Mei Mei almost ate too much, but I managed to stop her before she could throw up," she said with a laugh. Lanfen then cleared her throat and narrowed her purple eyes. "She also just turned 17 yesterday. It's been... a while since either of you could attend our celebrations, hasn't it?" She paused to stare at the framed image. Nobody answered her back, of course. "... I'm still... struggling to hold on to a steady job, but the money we're receiving from your old workplace is allowing us to get by. Hopefully I can find something that-" Lanfen halted her words again. The soothing music that was flowing out of the room's holo-player became all she could hear.
It was all Lanfen would ever hear no matter how long she waited.
"... I hope I'm doing enough to make you both proud. And I hope that Mei Mei can have a future I myself never could. Please watch over us, as always."
Tightening her lips together, Lanfen's tired eyes continued staring into the picture which reminded her of how happy they all used to be. A part of her wished they could reply to her words - even for just a second - but Lanfen knew it would be ridiculous of her to even expect that. It had been over half a decade since they were gone. And yet, here she was, still hoping that they would one day come back into their lives. No explanation needed to be given for why Lanfen only sat down to converse with their parents like this when Kai was obviously out of earshot. As the eldest of the two Jiang siblings, she had an essential image to keep up with.
Lanfen subsequently flinched when she heard a bathroom door down the hall burst open, a noise soon followed up by a satisfied sigh from her little sister. "A shower cleared with no Continues! Jie, it's your turn! Haul your ass in there already!"
Getting off the small cushion beneath her, Lanfen dusted her dark winter clothes while Kai re-entered the living room in a pair of colourful pajamas. With a loud war-cry, Kai dove into the kotatsu with the grace of a rushing cheetah, making herself comfortable within its warm embrace. Lanfen could only click her tongue in a mixture of annoyance and amusement as Lanfen turned off the room's holo-player and headed for her bedroom. It certainly was an average weekend for them. Kai's usual re-watch of Valkyranger was practically a universal constant of it.
Stepping inside her tidy bedroom, Lanfen took out her smartphone and left it beside her laptop on a clean bedside desk. Sitting on her bed was a pile of shark plushies which had been neatly organized in a single-file while a pink, white, and light-blue flag hung above the head of her bed. The old Zwei Wing poster Lanfen had been keeping for years was stationed right next to the flag, barely showcasing any visible signs of aging due to the lengths she took to keep it pristine. Fetching a dry towel from her closet, Lanfen closed its door shut, and looked out her bedroom window to briefly admire the falling snow outside. Even though her brown skin could never stand the cold, there was always a beauty in the colour of the freezing weather beyond the frosted glass.
A strange flicker of red lights subsequently appeared in the clouds high above.
It was brief, but it was apparent enough to notice as Lanfen got closer to the window for a better look.
"What was-?"
The distinctive, bombastic opening music of Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger suddenly blared from the living room behind her, causing Lanfen's skin to nearly jump off her bones right as the volume immediately turned itself down. A quick, "Whoops, my bad!" could be heard from the living room before Lanfen even managed to raise her voice at her sibling.
Comforting her aching temples with two fingers, Lanfen hoped that wasn't going to earn them a complaint from their neighbours. Still, she could only be grateful to have someone like Kai around. Even with all the quirks her little sister had accumulated over the years, Lanfen felt lucky to have a sibling as supportive as Kai always was in the end. There were worse things her sibling could've turned out to be. A tokusatsu nerd was admittedly - or unfortunately - one of the better results. With her towel draped over one arm, Lanfen promptly exited her bedroom and headed down the hall for a hot soak in the baths. Spending a bit of time in the tub never failed to ease her worries. And if she was still feeling troubled afterwards, then a bit of time in their apartment's practice room sounded like the perfect follow-up.
As a small, metal dart whipped through the air of the practice room, the rays of a setting sun peeked through the nearby windows, and reflected off the weapon's polished surface. Tethered to a rope that was wrapped around Lanfen's forearm, the rope dart snaked left and right before impaling the aluminum can which hung from the ceiling by a thin piece of string. The metal dart then withdrew itself from the ravaged metal while the brown woman danced across the room, wrapping the weapon's entire rope around her thigh using sheer, controlled momentum. Through an act of pure, practiced finesse, Lanfen's right hand snatched the whipping dart from the air and grasped on to its thin, chrome handle.
Her acrobatic form soon came to a halt, ending Lanfen's training session for the day.
Letting loose a few tired gasps for air, Lanfen glanced over to the hanging metal can, and allowed herself to make a satisfied smirk at the lack of injuries she inflicted on herself today. She subsequently undid the rope she had wrapped around her forearm and thigh, and stored the memento of her mother back inside a small, wooden chest that awaited her in the corner of the empty room. As her heart continued pounding within her ribcage, Lanfen turned around to gaze at a picture of their parents she had taped on to the wall. Her palms were undeniably crying at her sides due to sustained rope-burn. But all of the pain was ignored in favour of waiting for her mother's praise.
Nothing. Just like always. Obviously.
After dismissing herself from the practice room through a formal bow in front the photograph, a sweaty Lanfen stepped outside in her sportswear, her tank top and shorts still sticking to her clammy skin while she made her way through the living room. Kai had noticeably returned to her bedroom - most likely to organize all the toys she had bought earlier - so a blanket of quiet managed to settle itself in their living room after several hours which were comprised of nothing but nonstop Valkyranger episodes. This allowed Lanfen to turn the living room's holo-player back on, filling their apartment this time with the relaxing tunes of lo-fi music before she went over to the apartment's kitchen area.
Humming along to the calming tunes that gently occupied their abode's atmosphere, Lanfen stepped in front of the stove and turned up the temperature into a light simmer. A batch of ensuing steam flowed out of the large pot when she took off its lid, a ladle already held in her other hand so she could scoop up a small amount of the stew Lanfen had been cooking up for dinner. Kai was definitely going to be happy to have some sinigang for the weekend. Upon taking a sip of the sample in her ladle, Lanfen smiled at its nostalgic, sour, and savoury taste. A flavour she had taken some time to perfect over the passing years.
"Mei, dinner's ready!" she called over to her sibling, switching off the stove and taking out a pair of bowls to split the soup between the two sisters. "Set the table!"
By the time Lanfen came out of the kitchen with a tray of pork soup in her palms, Kai had already finished placing down the plates and utensils on top of their dining table. "Oh, nice!" Kai's eyes essentially glimmered with excitement at the sight of the meal Lanfen carefully brought over. Eagerly rubbing her two hands together, Kai reached over to the rice cooker on their table and popped open its lid, revealing the steaming white rice within it. "See?" she boasted with a dramatic pose for effect. "I got it done perfectly this time."
"Making edible rice is not an achievement, Mei," Lanfen dryly added, placing a pair of bowls on the table before she started scooping up some rice onto their plates. While Kai turned up the volume of the holo-player on the wall, Lanfen made sure to put just enough on Kai's plate, essentially fulfilling the growing hunger of a teenage girl. Lanfen, on the other hand, essentially served herself half the amount of rice she initially settled on Kai's plate. "Do be sure to eat your vegetables."
Kai gave an exaggerated gag as she pulled up her dining chair. "Oh, the horror," she muttered, cheekily resting her chin in one hand.
After handing Kai her serving, Lanfen sat down with her own plate, allowing dinner to finally commence while the last rays of sunlight disappeared into the horizon. They could see a city of flashing colours outside their windows as they ate, the honking of cars from down the streets below faintly audible every now and then. A hot stew like sinigang was perfect for the cold weather, and while the stew's sour taste always reminded Lanfen of times long past, the unbridled glee she could see on Kai's face as she happily dug into her food was far more satisfying to witness. It was almost hard to believe that Kai nearly threw up the first time Lanfen attempted to manifest this very same meal years ago.
She honestly didn't blame her little sister for reacting the way she did.
"So, how has Yaman Academy been?" Lanfen began, pushing aside the black braid on her shoulder before holding up a bowl of soup to her lips.
Swallowing down a large clump of rice in one go, Kai shielded a loud burp behind one hand, answering, "Oh, you know. Just the usual stuff. A bit of homework here. Some annoying group projects there," she said, hesitantly prodding the vegetables in her stew with the two ends of her chopsticks. "I got a love letter telling me to meet up with this girl underneath the school's biggest tree, but I think she chickened out in the end." Kai gave a casual shrug. "Oh well."
"Doesn't mean she won't try again, to be fair," Lanfen chuckled. This was probably the fourth time this year that someone had shown any interest in her little sister. If any of Kai's stories rang true, then Yaman Academy didn't sound too different from Lydian Academy, even if they were located in completely different prefectures. She definitely needed to prepare for the day when Kai would bring over a possible partner to their apartment. "Aside from those things, how have your results been?" Lanfen inquired with a raised brow this time.
As if she was drawing a revolver in the middle of a duel, Kai reached for the pockets of her pants, pulling out her smartphone to bring up a PDF she had evidently prepared. With a smug grin, she raised her phone in front of Lanfen's face and revealed a report card of results that Lanfen herself struggled to even partially achieve back when she was Kai's current age. "Ta-da! See? I told you I could do better than last time," Kai chirped, putting her device down next to her plate. "Although it was kinda hard, nothing's really impossible for us sisters, am I right?"
"Of course," Lanfen nodded, smiling. "I did somewhat expect this, but it's good to see that you're actually taking your studies seriously. And because of that..." She placed down her spoon and chopsticks, and walked over to a selection of drawers next to their bookshelf. After rummaging through a few drawers filled with various paper documents, Lanfen pulled out a small plastic gift and turned around to show it to her sister. "... I thought this would be a good reward for your efforts."
Settling down her own utensils as well, Kai looked closely at the colourful item in her sibling's hand before letting out an excited yell which made Lanfen wince slightly. Held between the older sibling's fingers was a green-and-red, grasshopper-themed superhero with a pair of distinct, glowing compound eyes on its mask. "How?! You can't even get this thing without selling your kidney or something!" Kai exclaimed, surprise written clear on her face while Lanfen placed the item in her outstretched, open hands.
"You could say it was 'fate' that I came across it," Lanfen answered with a small laugh. Sitting back down at the table to continue her dinner, the woman smiled to herself as Kai excitedly held up the small keychain above her head. "It had just arrived in the mail today, for one thing. I expected you to do better this semester, so I thought I'd buy you something like this as a reward. Since your grades were key to your reward, it would be fitting that you'd receive a keychain for it." Lanfen smirked at her own wordplay. But all her jest did was earn her a groan of pain from her little sister.
She definitely was not as good as their father when it came to making someone laugh.
Clipping the keychain on to her smartphone, Kai held up the device above her head before flashing a grateful smile at her older sibling. "Thanks, Jie. I honestly didn't think you'd get me something like this," she said with a tone that was far more softer than it usually sounded. It made Lanfen pause her meal before sharing a genuine smile with the teenage girl from across the dining table. "Anyway," Kai continued, shoving another mountain of rice into her mouth, "when are you going to bring back a lover?"
Lanfen immediately choked on her meal.
Accidentally hitting the bottom of the wooden table with her own rising knees, the brown woman scrambled over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a tissue to loudly cough into. "That's-!" Her throat now cleared up, Lanfen took a deep breath while she wiped her mouth clean with another drawn tissue. She found herself to be at a loss for words. "What even brought this up...?" Lanfen asked bewilderedly, shaking her head at the grinning girl over at the table.
"I mean. You know..." Kai rocked left and right in her seat, purple eyes staring directly at Lanfen with a glint of clear mischief. "You've turned down a lot of people over the years, haven't you? Guys, gals, and lotta pals in-between. I can't help but wonder why that'd be the case when you clearly don't have any issues catching a person's eye." Sticking the ends of her chopsticks between her lips, Kai let out a playful hum as the teenager's eyes scanned Lanfen's toned body from head-to-toe. "I wonder...?"
Tossing the used tissues in her hands straight into a nearby dustbin, Lanfen clicked her tongue and sat back down with her elbows on the table. "I just..." She pursed her lips together and stared down at a half-finished plate of rice. It had been a while now since Kai had asked her this sort of question. Perhaps it was time to finally stop avoiding it. "I just want to make sure that your future is certain before I can try and settle down with someone," Lanfen slowly explained, picking up her own chopsticks again to finish up her dinner. "It's as simple as that."
Kai shot her an almost-pensive glance. "You should think about yourself more, you know?"
Those soft words sharply made their way right into Lanfen's tightening chest. It was rare to hear audible concern in Kai's voice like this. Then again, she was no longer a kid anymore. Those times have long gone by, along with countless other memories. "... But I did get what I wanted, didn't I?" Lanfen retorted in a low voice. She then turned her head over to the small window beside their dining table, and fixated a narrowed gaze on the faint reflection she witnessed within the frosted glass. Lanfen sometimes couldn't believe the image that was right there before her. "I got the body I wished for. Even though it wasn't exactly easy."
"I mean... Fair. But you can still try to achieve more than that," Kai insisted with a shrug, drumming her fingers on the dining table as she clearly scrambled to compose her next few sentences out of thin air. "A better... social life for one thing. I'm grateful for everything you've done for us, but you know-" The girl scratched the rear of her black, tomboyish hair and sighed. "I'd like you to also have some friends of your own. Find someone you like. I'm doing just fine myself, so you don't have to keep doing everything for me at the expense of yourself, Jie."
There was something amusing about this conversation. Kai was only one year away now from turning eighteen-years old. Even so, Lanfen was already conversing with her like this. Lanfen guessed that the absence of their parents had affected more than just the eldest of the two siblings in a way. Then again, Kai always did possess the determined streak their father was always known for. Even with both of their parents gone, parts of them still lived on within the two sisters, whether or not either of them actually noticed it to begin with. While Lanfen appreciated the sentiment Kai was earnestly showcasing, she felt her throat subtly tighten up, blocking out whatever words Lanfen intended on transmitting.
The ceiling bulbs subsequently flickered, catching the attention of the pair at the dining table as Lanfen stared at the blinking lights above them.
This was not something which regularly occurred.
"Maybe there's just something wrong with the power?" Kai wondered out loud, turning her sights over to the holo-player the moment its gentle music abruptly halted.
The living room's television switched itself on and the two swung their gazes over to the appliance while static covered its entire screen. Lanfen got up and grabbed the remote to switch off the television. But repeatedly tapping its buttons did nothing to prevent the hissing of static imagery from filling up their flickering room. The older Jiang sibling subsequently shivered when Kai wordlessly tugged her arm, showing that the screens of their smartphones were also showcasing an unchanging display of distorted imagery. A cold chill made its presence well-known down the length of Lanfen's spine. It was a feeling she had not experienced ever since the world event which had occurred almost five years ago.
Amidst the roars of static, the two heard a voice slowly arise from the speakers of their electrical appliances. It was a distorted, garbled voice that spoke through their devices in a tongue neither of them had even heard of. As Lanfen's heartbeat began to rise within her chest, Kai pointed towards the static which flooded the television, allowing them to make out the faint shape of an armoured figure slowly taking form on their screens. While its syllables seemingly adjusted themselves into a language both of them could understand, the monochrome image of a knight-like figure made itself visible with both arms folded behind its back, and a single, glowing dot for an eye in the middle of its jagged helmet.
"We have arrived," the figure declared, holding up a gauntlet with claw-like fingertips, "and we have come to claim what is rightfully ours. You may run. You may hide. But until the last drop of blood from the final human moistens this world's rich soil, this planet shall be an eternal battleground for the ownership of this thriving earth." The disdain in its distorted voice was clear for all to hear. "Make peace with the coming end and prepare your armies, for the crusade against Humanity begins today."
Kai's trembling hand tightly held on to Lanfen's wrist. "We'll be okay... right?" The younger girl's words came out in the form of a shaky whisper.
Slowly, Lanfen drew in a steady breath and forced herself to nod, all while putting her faith in the same powers who had saved their world time and time again.
As the television screen shut itself off once again, the ceiling lights shattered apart above them, forcing Lanfen to shield her shrieking sister from the falling shards with her own body. Crouching in the subsequent darkness of their apartment, Lanfen made sure that Kai was completely alright before she tried moving over to the bookshelves for some sort of emergency light source. But before Lanfen could even take three steps forward, Kai had suddenly grabbed on to her shoulder, the younger girl's gaze noticeably directed at something outside their window. Hesitantly, Lanfen followed the direction of Kai's wide-open eyes, and subsequently felt her breath escape her at the sight of growing, glowing 'cracks' which were emerging across Yamaku's darkened skyline.
The fabric of reality was seemingly being torn apart.
And when these cracks expanded into glowing, pulsing rifts, Lanfen seized Kai by the hand before they prepared to run for the city's underground shelters.