ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ᴏɴᴇ

୨⎯ Color Me Crimson, a Dash of Blood ⎯୧

Heavy footsteps reverberate on the metallic platform. Each step cracks a heartbeat that no other human can recover as death is getting closer and closer. The grim reaper is poisoning the corrupted soul to powdered dust. Death does not show shame nor mercy as if this is an objective to fulfill his condemned body.

"You don't deserve an easy death. I can see it," He says, no emotions surface in his cold tone. The hanging corpse displays in front of him. "So I gave it to you. A slumber you have always asked for in the back of your mind."

He then proceeds to take his katana in hand and continues his honoring speech, "Now, this is to satisfy your wish. Thank you for making my life easier." He smiles, his eyes craze and his pulse frantic. A manic laugh escapes from him as blood sprays onto his face, hands, and chest.

"Humans are so easy to comprehend, but why can't I read mine if I am one?"

"Rin! Wanna join me back home or are you staying?" I shout for him to hear inside the dressing room. He replies with a second delay, "Wait for me by the entrance. I'm just, uhm, fixing something!"

"Alright. I'll be waiting!" I say back.

We have a few scenes left to film before we can finally be free from this experiment of a film. I will be missing it, but starting a new chapter with Rindou will be worth it after all these years of silence and in pain. I can finally achieve my happy ending. Right?

"Oh! Ms. Akashi, hello." Rain says to me while gesturing a greeting wave. "Are you heading home already?"

I force a grin. "Yes. I have no business left here, so it's best to take my rest."

"I feel you! By the way, I'm really happy that you and Rindou are now official. Congratulations!" She exclaims, excitement fills her tone as she delivers her message. "Filming the new movie must be easy now for you, right?"

"Why are you sticking around the studio, Ms. Homura? As far as I know, there is not much going on around here except for the busy production team of ours." I speak in a peeved yet polite manner.

"Oh, no! Poor thing...Haven't you heard from the head of the company? They are replacing you with me!" Rain answers with a sneer. "They just cannot handle your attitude and you are such a handful. I didn't say that. It all came from them."

"Y/n, let's go?" Rindou then softly grasps my hand from behind and stands by my side. "It's turning dark outside. We have to get home soon." I look at him as realization hits me. He's different. This feeling of 'I seriously don't care' is here because of him.

I then look back at Rain and reply to her spiteful catch with that force grin, "Good luck then! I hope you get what you deserve. Just don't come crying to me begging for a switch in position. This company is much more of a handful than I am."

Rindou and I both leave while she stands in the same position, shutdown and speechless with a buffering mind. Homura Rain is crossed off from us. She no longer has the guts to collide with our paths due to feeling inferior.

As Rindou takes me inside his car, he leans towards my face from the driver's seat and whispers to me, "Where do you get all this confidence in you? Mind if I search for myself?" I chuckle and answer, "Inside the car though?"

"You know I love kissing you on the neck." He teases as he proceeds to do so. His gentleness has taken over his bold and smug expression. "Will this stop you from having nightmares, Y/n?" Rindou asks as he places his eyes back at mine.

I respond, "I don't know how to answer that question. My dreams have become vivid and odd. It feels out of place that I cannot perfectly describe it to you."

His gaze lowers as he takes my hand and softly rubs it. Rindou exhales a breath before saying, "Actually, there is something that's been bugging me for the past week. Do you...have a brother that you haven't talked to for a long time?"

"Yeah. I have two. I'm sure you remember him." I answer honestly, tilting my head in an angle as I figure out where this is headed. I thought he already knew about Takeomi and... Oh. Haruchiyo...

I then point out to him, "I remember telling you about Takeomi, but I haven't told you about Haruchiyo. He is my second older brother."

"I know where he is...!" He says almost abruptly in tone which surprised me greatly out of its randomness. I pause for a while, doubting him, but I ask myself, Why would he tell his concerns to me, especially about my brother when it's not that big of a deal?

"Do you wanna go see him?" Rindou asks with a tiny hesitation to his voice as he speaks. I can see he is not too sure about his own question, but I reply, thinking lightly of it, "Sure! He is my brother, of course. I have a lot of things to say to him...catching up from all the times we missed."

"Y/n." Rindou quietly utters as he stares with dreary eyes. His hand travels to my jaw and then to the side of my face, tucking my hair behind my ear as he says, "I'll take you to him, but I won't leave you there, so you won't feel skeptical or afraid with your decisions."

I give him a quick kiss, letting him feel my gratitude instead of my words. Rindou steps on the pedal as we ride to this destination full of mystery. It is about time for me to talk to him, to see him at least before I could forget how he looks. Haruchiyo, how I miss you so much...I miss our childhood a lot.

We then arrive at a vintage house not too isolated but enough to be hidden from the crowd. It is mostly trees and plants surrounding the house with a heavy gate welcoming us. So this is where my brother lives. I wonder how he reached this level when he left us as he was only turning 18 years old at that time.

Walking as visitors, we enter through the front door with Rindou leading the way. He seems to be pretty familiar with this place, knowing where to look for my brother in this big of a house. Is he friends with him? That is...weird.

The music playing in the background is familiar to me as if I have heard of it before but I can't put my finger on it. Rindou stops walking as we enter a specific room with barely any furniture. That music is coming from here, its violin sound is loud but pleasant.

My eyes then fixate on this man dancing carefree with a skeleton. This room is a ballroom for him to enjoy a lovely dance. But why is he dancing with a skeleton? I hope it's a fake kind...

The man has pink mullet hair and is wearing a suit with a pink vest on top of his white collared shirt. He looks quite pale up close. Have I...seen him before?

The dancing man then stops along with the music in a sudden pause and he hums a question to himself. He approaches me and stays in place with a certain talking distance between us. I then gasp as my eyes glimpse the scars on the side of his lips.

"Are you asking yourself just now if you have seen me before?" He asks in an eerie tone. I gulp, afraid of his presence. He slightly bows his head in my direction and continues to speak with a grin, "Why did you come here in the first place?"

Rindou slides his pinky finger to mine as a reminder that I am not alone and he won't leave me here. I find my voice and answer, "Are you my brother...Sanzu? You have been appearing in my dream. Is this the reason why?"

He lightly scoffs, "You are indeed my sister. Our minds are alike, fast and sharp. Though, I cannot tell whether these reflected dreams are just your intuition calling because I don't have any dreams, Y/n. I don't know what you are implying."

"In one of my dreams, you mentioned your katana being your other half. You were referring to me, weren't you?" I continue to ask, proving myself that I am not going crazy as he debunks what I have seen with my own eyes.

"Hmm. I understand now." Sanzu replies, composing himself as his stance becomes proper with his hands relaxed at his back. His appearance turns to a poker face as if he is scanning my emotions. "I haven't told anyone about that story yet. Why do you seem so agitated right now, Y/n?"

"B-Because you could have been straightforward with me...!" I answer with hurt crumpling my chest. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

Sanzu simply replies, "I wanted you to know it's real. That I am real. Your brother is still here with you. Telling it in your dream will just make you forget, like what you were feeling before I approached you."

He then freely roams around as he continues, "You see, it is so easy to forget someone when you aren't too sure whether he is worthy of your attention or not, and you just proved that to me."

I close the distance he is creating as I reply in a firm tone, "You're testing me again, Sanzu. Can't you be straightforward with me now as your sister? I want you to answer all of my questions this time."

Sanzu stops moving and faces me once more. "Alright then." He smirks. "As your big brother, I will answer your questions. Anything that will satisfy you."

"Why are you going with the name 'Sanzu'? Have you abandoned your real surname?"

His expression doesn't change as he answers my first question. "I think deep down you know the answer to that. We were living in the same situation, right? You abandoned yours too, so you should have already guessed my answer to that."

"That time...Why did you leave?"

"Huh, why did I leave? Well, it's simple. To test life. To know whether I am worthy of living the life given to me." My brother's face turns melancholic. "Ever since I was born, I felt like I was already dead, a ghost just roaming around a household I do not belong in."

"No, that's not right!" I exclaim, raising my voice because of being deeply hurt. "I was there for you all the time. Why didn't you take me with you when you left?! I wanted to leave as well but I always felt unsure because I was scared I can't ever come back. Why did you choose solitude when you could have brought me with you?"

"I knew ahead of my future that I would turn out this way. I simply didn't want to corrupt my little sister. Let me guess. When I first appeared in your dream, you were afraid right from the beginning, weren't you?"

My silence gives him my answer. I can see Sanzu's facial expression slightly changing through his eyes. He feels a sense of pain just now by getting a yes from me. "I have lived a life of crime, Y/n. I don't want you to turn out like me."

I shortly gasp, shock and disbelief contorts my face as I blurt out, "Because I will slowly rot away 'til I no longer want to continue living. Y-You...mentioned that in my dream."

"And what did you feel?"

My throat falters to speak. "...Terrified... like I was-!"

He continues for me, "Like you were about to be killed? Y/n, nothing will change with how my life is. I am beyond saving because this is my fate and I have already accepted that fact." His hand conceals half of his face as fright eats him. "Just like what they say, I am a monster."

I rush to him and grip his face with both of my hands. Desperation fuels me as I say to him, "Look at me! You are not a monster. You are the brother that I love, Haruchiyo. That feeling will never change."

"Am I really a human...?" He whimpers as his eyes twitch and his voice breaks. "Do I deserve your love, Y/n? ...Why?"

I gently smile at him and respond, "We're family, Haruchiyo. You will always be my older brother in every universe. If we do get separated, we will always find each other back because we did right now." At that moment, I hug him tightly to the point I don't want to let go of my brother.

He gradually hugs me back, his hands slowly placing on my easing back. My mind ruptures as I wonder just how long did he endure being all by himself with no other choice but to take every risk he can to feel alive.

I no longer feel scared when he's around. I don't want to because it breaks my heart thinking that he is hurt due to a stupid reason of being terrified solely of his presence. Family is about acceptance and love. No family member should be scared of another. If I am his only family, then I shouldn't fail him.

"Hey, Y/n." Sanzu says as he pulls back to look me in the eyes. "Are you interested in hearing my plan I have been working on?"

"What's your plan?"

His eyes narrow as he answers with a serious expression planted on his face, "I plan to put an end to our older brother. Will you stop me?"

"You want to...kill him?" I ask, taking a deep breath right after. He doesn't say anything to me, silence treats me fairly. Instead, Sanzu holds the eye contact we have. "Is this what you have been doing ever since you left the house?"

"No. It was only when I found out the real reason behind our parents' disappearance."

Confusion fogs my face. "You make it sound like they just vanished. They left a note for us, didn't they? Mom and dad left us because they got divorced."

He shakes his head, further elaborating his point, "With my connection to Bonten, there I found hidden files about a certain case that involves Takeomi. He is the reason why our parents suddenly left us. Think about it, Y/n. You were the only one who was truly loved by them. Takeomi and I were just nothing."

"I did kinda realize that the treatment between the three of us wasn't balanced. Dad dislikes how Takeomi is living a delinquent life and Mom hates him for wasting money."

"Takeomi killed them, Y/n." He says. "He stole a huge stash of money from Mom's drawer to pay witnesses who saw him. I saw it all in that file. Takeomi made it look like a car accident to the public but a divorce to us."

"Why?" I utter in pure disbelief. Sanzu simply answers, "So that you would turn against them. To feel the kind of hatred that Takeomi felt when he watches you getting lathered in happiness while he burns to death."

"Then why...do you want to kill him when you have the same feeling as Takeomi? Being treated unfairly by our parents."

"Because he robbed your happiness. I was fine with how things are as long as you were smiling together with our parents but after they disappeared, your spirit wasn't there anymore. We all fell apart because Takeomi dragged us down with him."

I cannot find my voice to speak another word. How does one feel this kind of betrayal? For half of my life, I just keep getting lied to. I knew Takeomi is a terrible person, but to kill our own parents? He is beyond insane! My heart hurts upon intaking this at once. It hurts from being furious and also miserable. The Akashi household is just full of broken human beings.

"I won't stop you, Sanzu. I want to watch you burn our world to ashes."

♥ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇᴅ...