Silence poured over the house. No one moved, painted with a heavy oppressive stroke. Blood covered walls slowly shrank away. The end finally arrived.

  Momoko snapped back to attention as the shock of everything drained away. She moved the body of the fner off her. His breathing remairong, though clearly in pain. “Yuki!” Looking around for her brother, she jumped over all of the debris of their furniture to get to his side.

  “Yuki! you hear me?” Grabbing his body up into her arms, she noticed the bleeding right arm. Only the upper arm remained sliced ly off. Taking off her blouse, Momoko tore at the edges and ed it tightly around the stump. “Yuki…”

  “So they struck here too…” noted a slightly out of breath Ayumi.

  “Ayumi?! What happeo you? You’re covered in blood…” Momoko trailed off as the young girl marched in, sprayed in blood from head to toe, but clearly not her own. Ayumi k down beside her, pletely unphased by her shog appearanbsp; “Do you have your phone on you? We o call an ambunce immediately!”

  “He’s still breathing…” She gnced over to che the dition of the enemy. Standing up, she marched over to the unknown man and materialized a blue transparent sword. “You should have killed him. Finish the job, don’t leave the enemy alive.” She pluhe sword straight into the skull of the man with the ease of a khrough bread.

  The moment after she released the sword and it disappeared. A blue ripple expahrough the whole house as the dead body slowly began to rip apart atom by atom. She returned back to Yuki’s side and pulled off the makeshift tour. Before Momoko could resist, the bleeding ceased and bone grew.

  In moments, his arm restored and the pulse in his body stronger, Momoko looked up to the girl fused about what she witnessed. While grateful, she wanted some answers as well. “What’s going on, Ayumi? That man attacked us and then…and then…” Suddenly, her eyes felt heavy. She couldn’t keep herself upright.

  Sleep cimed her.

  Ayumi stood up staring down at the two and then across at the younger children. “This is going to be even more trouble than I pnned for…”

  Chapter 7 - Iance

  A dull hum slowly drained out of his head. Strength built steadily bato his body. “Ugh…” Yuki opened his eyes and stared bnkly out at the ceiling. A few moments ter, he snapped up. “I’m alive!” He looked around a little fused.

  “You’re awake!” shouted Ken jumping up onto the couch to sit on his brother.

  Taking a few more seds, Yuki looked around trying to piece everything together. The living room looked normal, no blood, not even a broken table. The window he remembered specifically breaking, restored. Nothing out of pce, everything was as he remembered before the attabsp; “Was it a dream?”

  “It was no dream, Yuki,” Ayumi answered, entering the room having heard his shout. “You hit your head pretty hard ing dowairs. Momo took you to the ER, while I watched over these two spiders.”

  Ken bounced and nodded vigorously. “We pyed lots of games with Big Sis Ayumi! I won the most!”

  “I swear your luck is like magibsp; ime, I’ll win!” She picked up Ken and put him on the floor.

  He crossed his arms over his hand. “I’m the gamemaster! You’ll never defeat me!”

  “Oh is that right? I’m going to train and bee the gamemaster!” She tickled him and then patted him on the back, sending him off to the kit. Jun grabbed Yuki’s hand quietly, receiving an assuring nod before he followed. “Let’s go up stairs.”

  Everything moved so fast, he had trouble keeping things straight. His memory of the events before he passed out remained very clear. That tall ftacked him, Momo injured, blood everywhere, none of it faded from memory. Yet Ayumi told a different tale. The fear he remembered in Ken’s eyes didn’t eveo be a hint.

  He slowly nodded while looking at her. A sehat all would be expined drew over her fabsp; Trusting the liar for answers, it gave him pause. Yet he still followed her as she already reached the stairs. No answers awaited in the living room.

  A secret.

  Invited into his own room felt strange, even if his mind said it hadn’t been the first time for her. They navigated the spires of books on his floor. She closed the door while he went over to his bed to y down, partly in anticipation and to rest his body.

  A blue ripple briefly expanded from Ayumi’s feet, though nothing seemed to ge as a result. “We talk now without eavesdropping.”

  “Hitting my head?”

  “A fabrication.”

  “And they believed that?”

  “They believe everything, because that’s what happened.”

  “They believe a lie? What? Did you brainwash them or something?”

  “Nothing so crude and unreliable. You’re acquainted with it as well.”

  “You did this to me?!” Yuki searched his mind frantically trying to figure out when or how it happened. Cims of falsehoods darted quickly through shuffling thoughts. Yet if even a piece of her asserti true, would he even notibsp; His body ran cold with such ideas. At least at first, he thought harder about facts and lies. “Our entire childhood? Is anything about us real?”

  “Impressive, you got there faster than I ted on. I figured you would have rejected it for longer without much proof.”

  “Why all the lies as? What’s going on, Ayumi?”

  “Going to listen with an open mind this time?”

  He felt the daggers from her eyes stabbing him. Refleg ba the afternoon and the fight, even what he saw ing from himself, denial could no longer be an option. Yuki saw his world repainted before his eyes. After everythinessed, his only hope now was uanding. “ you holy bme me? Lived all my life thinking I lived in a normal world where Shounen battle rules don’t apply. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Regardless, this is the truth of the world.”

  “And it’s just a massive secret that no one knows about? How?”

  “That’s because we don’t live in your modern society, outside of some exceptions.”

  “Like yourself?”

  “To a degree. To be clear, this is my first time leaving my home and I’ve only been here for a week.”

  “A week?! But…the memories…they’re so vague…” Like trying to hold onto sand, it all poured through his fingers. He k was sand and it existed, but the more he tried to hold it in his palm the faster it ran out. All that remained in his hand was enough to know that it existed and little more.

  Ayumi nodded. “The memories I gave you aren’t meant to be detailed. Focus too hard and the cracks will show, but the imprint is strong enough that unless someone forces you to think about it, the appearance holds.”

  “And what have you been doing with all that time? Not killing every day I hope.”

  Her brow pinched again as he had witnessed before. “I’m not a killer. I’m a soldier.”

  “Child soldier…that’s not grim…”

  “Just listen to me.”

  “Fine. Go on.”

  “As I expined before, you’re the key figure in a political struggle. My home was ruled by a strong and kind King. Unfortunately, poor health has cimed him and we are in need of someoo bee our new King.” Watg her go into more details, Yuki could see a warmth in her face as she spoke. It cracked through the hard shell she gave him in every guarded moment. A simir expression when she wore her fa?ade, yet uhat o didn’t appear to lie.

  “Publicly, the King had no heir. His wife died not long after he became King. Thus we all believed he had no offspring. His death has thrown our people into a panibsp; Unfortunately, though he was a good King, not all were happy with his rule. Within the court, there’s a divide. The Loyalist, who want to maintain the work he began and the Traditionalist, who are tied to the past and tear dowhing he’s done.

  “Having no heir, the Traditionalists pushed to elect a new King by vote from the cil. As is our tradition if this happens. However, after the King’s death I was given a letter that a secret child did exist. While he was a good man, he wasn’t blind to the corruption and made pns i.”

  “And I’m said cliché bastard child, huh?” He pondered everything she id out for him. Part of him still wao believe that she made it all up because it was the sort of trashy, yet reliably enjoyable plotlihat would be a fun read for him. ‘There’s still a lot of things that need expining and I don’t know how much more I take. But if weird reality ing powers are real, I guess I have to give her the be of the doubt. Until I have reason otherwise to not believe her…’

  Rubbing his hand against his face, he sighed. His eyes stared up at the ceiling. A normal and calm image, a little f against the vas of blood and melodrama that sought him. “Accepting for now what you’re telling me. Your pn is to have me bee your new King?”

  “Affirmative. If not, a puppet ruler will be put in pd the corruption will spread beyond the pace.”

  “What’s the timeline?”

  “Then you will e with me?”

  “Let’s not go that far. I need more information first. Not to mention what you’re asking of me.”

  “Of course. So long as those greedy men don’t break with the traditions they cim to follow, we have six weeks before the ing of the new King.”

  “Six weeks…” Fshes of his friends and family, school and his home, it squeezed his heart a little. Even with the time to think about it, he didn’t know what sort of answer beyond the obvious he would reabsp; Perhaps only a ce to say goodbye.

  Goodbye.

  “Just about time for summer vacation. Good timing I guess.”

  Ayumi stepped forward to break his wandering gaze. “There’s oher thing you o know.”

  “Those two people that tried to kill me are from the Traditionalist Fa?”

  “Affirmative. I naively made the mistake telling them about your existehinking that it would silehem. Since you’re untrained in our ways, unlike your father, they see it as the perfect ce to take trol.”

  “Typical bad guy behavior. Which means your pn is to protect me and teach me your ways?”

  “Gd you pick things up quickly.”

  He shrugged and sat up, but regretted it almost immediately. The lightheadedness from blood loss dropped him back to the bed. “Easy plot to follow. And since I’m going for a bingo, my power is really strong?”

  “I’m not sure. Your father was the stro one of us iuries. It’s my hope that you are.”

  “Close enough to t it! When do we get started?”