Opening boxes

After her shower, as usual, Hoshina finds Uncle Ge waiting to help with maintenance.

The process is routine: he removes the implant and disinfects the socket while she wipes down her joint. Then they repeat the steps two more times.

This time, however…

"I should start doing this on my own. Please teach me how to disconnect the arm."

"Hmm… sure, I can do that. But you should still let me handle the reattaching. You don't want to mess up and have to reconnect the nerves twice."

"I don't mind the pain, I'll just keep trying until I get it right."

Uncle's brow furrows. "If you aren't comfortable with me, we can go ask your brother."

"No, it's alright. You don't need to keep bothering yourselves with me."

Uncle takes a moment to respond. "Okay. For your arm, first you need to reach the switch that opens the external plate…"

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

A shock worse than a thunderbolt strikes her and she winces while laying on the bed. Hoshina's sweating so much she'd benefit from an additional shower.

And despite all the effort, the mechanical arm is still crooked on the joint, and won't do the movements she commands.

How many times does this make?

She detaches it again. Although it also stings, the disconnection of the nerves is not as bad, and at this point she wouldn't even categorize it as painful. Once more, she positions herself on the bed, the socket of the prosthetic facing her joint.

"It's fine, this time I'll land it, and then…" She'll have to do the same for each leg.

She shakes her head, grabs the prosthetic and drags it towards her.

"Ah!" She barely holds the scream and detaches her arm again.

The bed cover got caught between the joint, which transformed the usually short shockwave into an extended sensation of having a knife being twisted in.

She remains quiet for a while, breathing heavily.

Then, she takes a deep breath. "Alright, let's—"

"Enough." Kaji barges in.

"Brother? What are you doing?"

"Hold still." He picks up her prosthetic.

"Wait! You don't need to do this."

"Because you're too proud to ask for help?"

"No, it's nothing like that."

"Then why the hell do you insist on hurting yourself like this?"

"I don't want to force you two to deal with me. I-I… please, just stay out of it, I promise I won't meddle in your affairs anymore."

Kaji takes a step back, still holding onto her prosthetic.

"I think I finally get it." He leaves it on the table, then reaches to the back of his right shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

His face twitches as he disconnects his own arm. He places it next to hers and points at his joint.

Burn scars cover the whole joint, extending until the center of his chest.

"Tell me, Hoshina, am I a freak?"

"No, of course not."

"So that means you aren't one either."

"It's not the same, I'm much more hideous and my personality—"

"Your personality is fine."

"No it's not, I'm—" He takes a forceful step.

"You are earnest, kind and entertaining! You risked everything to save me, and you are one of the few people whose teasing doesn't make me want to punch you in the face."

"I'm also dense as a rock. I can never get social cues so you'll eventually start hating me, and I won't notice until it's too late."

Kaji ruffles his hair, and his voice is now softer. "Is that why you made up the whole brother and uncle thing?"

"I-I…" She lowers her gaze. "Perhaps."

He sighs. "So what? You thought that by forcing me to see you as a sister I would never reach the point where I hate you?"

She lifts her head again. "Of course not, I'm not that delusional." She looks down again. "I just hoped it would delay the inevitable."

"Now tell me one single instance in which I haven't said what my opinion of you is."

"I… umm…"

"If you do something that truly irritates me I'll make sure you get it. I won't start hating you out of the blue, I promise."

She's trying to come up with something to say, but nothing comes to mind.

"Besides…" Kaji starts stuttering. "I-I've already learned that…" He clenches his fists and raises his voice again. "That you are an amazing person! And I'm so thickheaded I hardly ever change my mind!"

Again, words refuse to come out. Either Kaji is right or she's too dumb to argue with him.

"Also," he continues, "from now on, I'm going to be helping with your maintenance."

"You shouldn't bother—"

"Brother. And I'm not doing it as a favor. In exchange you'll help with mine." Him using her own dumb joke is both embarrassing and paints a smile on her face.

"Fine, you win again. Unlike in fights, I might never beat you in a discussion."

His brow twitches. "You little…" He then smiles as well. "That's more like it. Now get up and help me reattach my arm so I can do the same for you."

Behind Kaji, at the entrance of the room, she can see Mr. Ge smiling.

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

Don't expect a great story out of me, alright? This is just a tale about a stupid kid who didn't know better and trusted the wrong person. I'll try not to make it too boring.

When I was young, there was a time when I was... let's say soft-hearted. I smiled a lot, had friends, played, pulled pranks— all the stupid shit kids do.

There's a man named Giaro who, nowadays, I want to punch more than anyone in the world. However, back then he was my father, and we got along quite well. He taught me a lot of stuff, including ways to make a living when you're at the lowest part of the social tree.

At that time I didn't know he got most of the rice for our family by deceiving people. The only reason he didn't get arrested was because he bribed the guards.

The first time I punched someone was when they talked bad about my father.

One day, I came across a piece of metal that was sticking out of the ground. Since any type of ore is valuable, I tried digging, and it turned out to be one of those dog machines we saw in that box.

It still worked, and somehow I figured out how to turn it on, so it became my little magic pet. And then… Ugh! It irritates me to think about it.

I'm gonna be brief: I foolishly told Giaro that I had found a new pet, and that I kept it hidden in the forest. Next time I went to see it, the dog was gone, along with the bastard that I trusted the most in the world.

That asshole stole it and ran away with the profits, and I was left having to take care of my family as a ten-year-old. If I ever find him I'm leaving him toothless.

Then, over time, people started seeing me as the son of the conman who abandoned his family, often saying the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and all that bullshit.

And that about sums up the story of how I stopped being so naive.