An App?

Silence, emptiness, and void. A mysterious, black-hooded figure sat silently in the void, looking at his reflection in the mirror.  

After a while, a hand holding a sword suddenly emerged from inside the mirror. The hand was covered in dark red blood spots.

As the sword was raised, the person in the black hood remained silent and unmoved, drowning in buried emotions. The echo of a man's voice, seemingly holding back tears was heard.

“As broken as you are, I will always—”

ZWOOSH!

A sword instantly swung toward the top of the black-hooded head, The view became dark, but in an instant it turned into a very dazzling light.

Gasp

“Huaaa!”

My breath caught as if I were being chased by a ghost. I suddenly woke up from my nightmare and unconsciously, stood up from the bench where I was sitting— the worst choice at the moment.

I just remembered that I was still at school, in class. even worse, I had fallen asleep in the middle of class.

Suddenly, a whiteboard eraser shot out and hit my head. It was quite painful.

CTACK! The loud sound of the whiteboard eraser hitting my head.

"O-ouch! Who did th—"

As I looked ahead, I saw my teacher. My teacher has a scary look on her face, and I swear, now she looked like she was about to kill me!

"It was me, so what? Lein, haven't I reminded you million times?"

"Ahahaha... well..."

This wasn't the first time I'd been caught sleeping in class, so I knew I was in trouble. My teacher approached me, grabbed my shoulders, and gave me a creepy, demon-possessed expression. I couldn't make any excuses.

"After class, please come to the counseling room, o... kay?"

"Y-yes ma'am..."

My teacher glared at me as if her eyes could pop out. I could only submit and remain silent when my teacher spoke.

"Ugh... that dream again. when will it end?"

My name is Lein Arasaka, and I'm a high school student who recently regained consciousness after a one-year coma. lately, I've been having the same nightmare, which makes it difficult for me to sleep well!

The coma was terrible. I was conscious but couldn't move, hear, see, or feel anything. I felt like a stone!

It's been four months since I woke up from coma. I don't remember what happened before I fell into it. Luckily, I still remember all the times when I was in junior high school.

After class ended and I went to the counseling room to be "enlightened," I walked home. Even though my house was quite far from school, it was good for me to walk.

While I was walking home, I also gave out the poster I had brought with me. The poster showed a picture of my little sister, Rui Arasaka, who had gone missing while I was still in a coma.

After a few minutes of walking, I arrived at the front door of a two-story, ordinary house that was big enough for a family to live in.

I opened the door with the key I had brought and went inside. it was strangely quiet in the house, it was quieter than usual.

“Mom, I'm home! Are you home? Mom!?” I shouted while looking around.

POP!

The sound of confetti suddenly sounded loud right next to me. I turned my head and saw my mother. She was wearing a birthday hat and welcoming me. She had a plate of cake with candles on it.

“Happy birthday, my son! let's blow out the candles and make a wish!”

“Oh my! thanks mom! i didn't think you'd remember my birthday.”

My mom was rubbing my head, but she looked kind of annoyed. “Gosh... how could your mom forget that!?”

Honestly, I wasn't too bothered about celebrating my birthday. But, of course, I was happy when my mom still made an effort to celebrate it. It was my first birthday after being in a coma, and it wasn't bad at all.

I blew out the candles on the cake, made a wish, and didn't ask for much. I just wanted my little sister, Rui, to be okay and be back to home already.

At home, it's just me and my mom now. My dad passed away a long time ago, and Rui is still missing.

Now my mom's the head of the family, working from home as an editor for a writer, so she still has time to take care of the house. I've been trying to find Rui for three months, but I haven't been able to locate her.

After blowing out the candles and having a piece of cake, I was about to head to my room on the second floor to change my clothes.

But just as I was about to go up the stairs, I saw my mom. She looked really sad after looking at the family photo for a second. Mom tried to stay cheerful in front of me, but I knew she was worried about Rui all the time.

"Mom... Rui will be fine. I'll keep looking for him, even if I have to go to the ends of the earth!" I muttered, clenching my fists with determination.

I continued walking toward the second floor, but I kept remembering Rui and unconsciously walked into his room. It was still the same, not changed at all.

"Always clean. not even a speck of dust to be seen here." I said with a smile as I looked at my little sister's picture frame displayed on a small shelf.

I knew that Rui's room was always cleaned by Mom. I assumed that she did it because she still believed that Rui would return.

As I looked around, my gaze fixed on Rui's computer. I realized that I had never seen what was on it, so I became curious.

"Rui rarely uses her computer. I guess there will only be a few pictures." I started to turn on the computer.

As expected, I found many photos of Rui with her friends stored in the computer's files.

"Hm? What's this?"

I didn't expect to find a locked folder with a password. fortunately, as his older brother, I knew what passwords she usually used. Rui never uses complicated passwords, even his smartphone pattern password used to be just a regular L alphabet pattern.

"This file was locked with a number password. heh, I know the password is." I said with a small grin.

I easily opened the folder, the password was a Rui's birth date. Inside, I saw several photos and a familiar application file.

"This is the application Rui and I created back then!"

The name of the application was 'Create.' It was used to create a three-dimensional avatar that could chat with live voice.

I created an app to help Rui practice communicating with strangers, something she struggled with. She helped me too, because she didn't want to be a burden. Of course, Mom and Dad didn't know about it at the time.

 The results were quite satisfying; the application could help my little sister— Rui practice communicating.

When I tried to install the app from Rui's computer, the installation was successful. However when I opened it, only a few words appeared, explaining that the app only works on smartphones. it says, 'failed to install, the app only works on smartphones.'

“Wasn't this app I made supposed to work on computers too?!”

I was obviously confused, but also pretty curious. I quickly connected my smartphone to Rui's computer to get the application file and tried to install it through my phone. 

“Nice, it worked! It looks like Rui did manage to add a little update to this app.” I thought.

After a bit of trouble, I finally got the app on my phone. But when I opened it, all I saw was a blank white screen.

“Huh? what now? did the app have a bug?”

Out of nowhere, the white screen just got way brighter, and it made my eyes hurt like they were staring at the sun.

“Ugh! what the heck! I thought I was going blind!”

I was relieved that my eyes were still fine, but then I heard my mom calling from downstairs.

“Lein! The food's ready, so let's eat dinner downstairs! Your favorite food is waiting for you!”

“O-okay mom! I'll be right down!”

I went straight downstairs for dinner after shoving my smartphone into my pants pocket and turning off Rui's computer.

I met Mom downstairs, precisely at the dining room. I finally got to eat dinner with mom. it was kind of sad— because it was always so quiet without Rui, who was always so noisy and excited.

I felt like I had to say something to make the awkward situation less uncomfortable. So, I started the conversation by talking about some stories from my childhood. I remembered that when I was a kid, my friend and I were chased by a monkey in the zoo.

I started to feel more relaxed, and I had a hard time staying silent.

“Mom, back then, my friend even peed his pants hahaha!”

“Haha, and that time you even took cover behind the zookeeper, right?” My mother chuckled.

"M-mom! don't talk about that part!"

I felt embarrassed, but I was glad the situation wasn't silent and awkward anymore. I remembered the application I had just found on Rui's computer and told my Mom about it.

“Mom, do you remember the app Rui and I made back then?”

After hearing my story, something strange happened. Mom was stunned, and her gaze became uneasy.

"A-an app?!" Her face immediately began to turn pale.

"I found it on Rui's computer, but it doesn't seem to be working anymore. Uhh ... Mom?"

She didn't focus on my story. I became very confused. Her body seemed to be shaking violently, and her gaze was as if she was afraid of something.

"No way ... i thought i'd cleaned everything up, this can't be happening! why is this happening to him?! i-i can't!” My Mom covered her pale face with her hands.

Suddenly, my Mom stood up from the chair, slowly walked over to the sink, and picked up a kitchen knife.

"Lein, can you come here for a second?"

My mom's face was down when she called me. Of course, as her child, I did what she said. But the closer I got, the more uneasy I felt. There was strange about my mom's behavior.

"Mom? what's going on? what's wrong with you, Mom!?"

I stopped in my tracks. Suddenly, my Mom ran. At that moment, time seemed to stop. I was shocked to death when the Mom that I loved so much suddenly stabbed me with the kitchen knife.

"M-mom?"

My body felt frozen, tears began to run down my Mom face. drops of blood began to splatter from the stab wound on my body. My Mom immediately pulled out the knife, and I immediately fell to the floor, blood on my wound continuing to flow out.

My Mom's emotions were all over the place, and her mouth was stammering with tears. I just stood there, blank, trying to process what was happening.

“Lein, p-please forgive me, hiks... I'm sorry, I had to do this for yourself...”

I didn't feel any pain anymore, and strangely, my body felt warm, but then my vision got blurry. At that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

With a limp, I used the last of my energy to take the phone out of my pocket. While looking at the phone screen, I saw that the application I'd opened earlier was still active and displayed a few words.

[ User registration successful, user registered. starting the transfer process... ]

Unexpected, a light popped up below the surface where I was lying. My mom, who was crying, was totally shocked and just sat there, totally numb.

"No way, I was too late ... from the start?"

My vision started to go blurry and dark. after a few seconds, my eyes closed, and I started thinking about all the questions. like, why did my mom stab me with a knife? what happened to me? that light? and that app?

I'm not sure what's going on in my head right now, but it feels like I've stepped into a another world.

....