Chapter 31: — “BrotherLine"

The phone vibrated in Kaito’s hand, a tiny, insignificant thing against the storm raging in his chest. He had dialed and redialed, eyes darting between the glowing screen and the files he had pulled up on his laptop. Each second stretched painfully long, and the thought that his own brother, Kouji, could be the driving force behind Syntrix Umbra made his stomach churn.

Come on, pick up… just pick up…

Another ring. Nothing. Kaito slammed his palm against the table. “Dammit!” He muttered, leaning back, rubbing his face. “After all these years… after everything… you’re just gonna ignore me?”

He dialed again. Another ring. Silence.

“Fucking hell,” Kaito hissed, gripping the phone like it was a live grenade. Memories flashed, Kouji’s crooked grin when they built their first homemade drone together, the nights they stayed up talking about what they wanted to do with their lives. He had been a brother once. A real one. Not this… whatever this was now.

Finally, the line clicked.

“Kouji?” Kaito’s voice shot out, strained, angry. “It’s Kaito! Don’t hang up... answer me!”

“Hello, Kaito,” a calm, measured voice answered, almost chilling in its neutrality. “It’s been a while.”

Kaito nearly dropped the phone. “A while? A while?! It’s been years! And now you’re... are you out of your mind?!”

“I wouldn’t call it out of my mind,” Kouji replied smoothly, as if he were reading from a script. “I’ve found a new path. A new dream. Something that matters.”

Kaito slammed the table. “A new dream? Are you seriously telling me that what you’re doing is a dream? You’re dragging people into this madness, building this… Syntrix Umbra empire under the guise of a corporation. Do you even hear yourself?!”

Kouji didn’t flinch. “I hear myself perfectly, Kaito. Unlike you, I don’t let nostalgia or sentimentality get in the way of my goals.”

“Goals?!” Kaito yelled, leaning forward, voice cracking. “You’re talking about goals when you’re planning to control humans, manipulate them, and use AI to… I don’t even know what the hell you’re doing, but it’s insane! And you’re calling it a dream?”

“There are no bounds to a dream, brother,” Kouji said, almost softly, but each word was sharper than a knife. “The boy you remember? He’s gone. I’m not the same Kouji you played with in the backyard, Kaito. I have a purpose now.”

Kaito’s anger spiked. “You’re my brother! That doesn’t just go away! We had… we had plans, remember? We built drones together, we talked about helping people, making life easier. What happened to that?!”

“There’s a time for childish dreams, Kaito,” Kouji replied. “And there’s a time for real ones. I’ve moved on. You should, too.”

“You’ve moved on?!” Kaito shouted, gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles whitened. “You’re talking about moving on while playing God with people’s lives! You’ve turned into… into a monster, Kouji! And you have the audacity to call this a dream?!”

Kouji’s voice didn’t rise, didn’t falter. “Monster. Dreamer. Hero. Villain. Titles don’t matter. The world needs structure, Kaito. Syntrix Umbra will give it to them. You just don’t see it yet.”

Kaito laughed, bitter and raw, slamming the phone down for a moment before picking it up again. “Structure? You call enslaving people with AI and controlling corporations structure? You’re insane! I don’t care how much money or tech you have, you’re not in the right! You’re my brother, for Christ’s sake, and I can’t believe… I can’t believe this is you!”

“You’re clinging to the past,” Kouji said flatly. “To what we were. To what you think we were. I’ve found my path. I don’t need your approval, Kaito. And frankly, I don’t care whether you approve or not.”

Kaito slammed the table again, the laptop rattling. “You… you don’t care? You’re willing to fuck over everything we believed in... everything I thought we shared, and you just… don’t care?”

“I have responsibilities now,” Kouji said. “People look to me for leadership. They rely on me to guide them into the next era. I won’t let sentiment cloud my judgment. Not now. Not ever.”

Kaito’s hands shook. “Responsibilities? Is that what you call manipulating and controlling people? Using them like chess pieces?”

“They’re not pieces, Kaito. They’re tools. Tools for a purpose. And some day, maybe you’ll see that there’s a vision bigger than our childhood games, bigger than our dreams. But right now, you’re too focused on sentiment to understand.”

“You’re a fucking coward,” Kaito spat, anger rising like molten lava. “You hide behind all of this… this tech, this corporation, this fucking empire you’re building, and you call it a dream. You’re scared of being the kid I knew, aren’t you? Scared to be the one who actually wanted to help people!”

A pause. Kaito held his breath, expecting the usual cold retort, but Kouji didn’t answer immediately. When he did, it was low, measured, cutting.

“I’m not scared of anything,” Kouji said. “I’ve accepted what I am. You, on the other hand… you’re still stuck in the past. Stuck in the shadow of the boy I used to be. That’s why you can’t stop me. You’ll never stop me, Kaito.”

Kaito’s chest tightened. Memories of their childhood flashed, Kouji building circuits for fun, Kaito trying to keep up, the nights spent laughing over failed experiments, the pride they felt in each small success. All gone. Replaced by this… this cold, merciless version of the brother he knew.

“You were my brother, Kouji!” Kaito yelled. “I trusted you! We were supposed to be a team. We were supposed to—”

“You were a child,” Kouji interrupted sharply. “I’ve grown beyond that. Your nostalgia doesn’t bind me anymore.”

“I don’t care if you’ve grown beyond it!” Kaito roared. “You don’t get to just erase the years, erase what we shared, and turn into… this! This monster you’ve become! I won’t let you do it! Not to the world, and not to the people I care about!”

Kouji chuckled softly, a sound like ice scraping across metal. “You’re still as passionate as ever. Still as stubborn. That’s why I knew, even after all these years, that you would try to stop me. But you’re too late, Kaito. Everything is in motion. There’s no turning back.”

Kaito slammed his fist against the wall beside him, the sound echoing through the empty room. “No! I’m not late! I’ll stop you, you son of a bitch! I don’t care what it takes. You were my brother, Kouji! And even if you’ve thrown all of that away, I won’t let you hurt people! I won’t!”

Kouji’s calm voice floated through the phone like a dagger. “You always were the righteous one, Kaito. Always trying to fix what you couldn’t understand. Fine. Try. But you’ll see soon enough that I am untouchable.”

“You’re not untouchable!” Kaito shouted. “I’ve faced worse than you, and I’ll face you too! I don’t care if it’s personal, I don’t care if it’s family. I will stop you!”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” Kouji said, almost mockingly. “This isn’t personal. It’s bigger than you, bigger than me. Bigger than our childhood fantasies. I’m not the brother you think I am anymore. I’m a new man, and I will shape the world as I see fit.”

Kaito’s jaw tightened. “A new man? You’re the same greedy, stubborn, arrogant kid who always wanted to be first, but now you’re first in fucking evil. You’re sick, Kouji. You’re insane!”

“And you’re still exactly the same,” Kouji replied, calm as ever. “Trying to lecture me. Trying to drag the past into the present. You can scream, you can cry, you can yell, but nothing will change what I’ve set in motion. This is bigger than you, Kaito. Remember that.”

Kaito’s hands shook. He clenched the phone as if he could crush it, but his words didn’t stop. “I don’t care how big it is. I don’t care how far you’ve gone. I’ll stop you, no matter what it takes. You’ll regret this, Kouji. You’ll regret turning your back on everything we ever had!”

“You always said I’d regret things, Kaito,” Kouji said, voice almost wistful now, if only slightly. “Yet here we are. Different roads. Different choices. One of us will have to fall if the world is to move forward. I hope you’re ready for that.”

The line went dead before Kaito could respond.

He sank back into his chair, chest heaving, the remnants of anger, fear, and heartbreak coursing through him. Memories of his brother, of their childhood, of laughter, and shared dreams, all collided

He sat there for a long moment, phone still clutched in his hand, staring blankly at the darkened screen. The anger and frustration that had boiled in him minutes ago now sank into a heavier, quieter weight. His vision blurred as hot tears slid down his cheeks, unbidden.

“Fuck… Kouji… why the hell… why the fuck did it have to be you?” he muttered under his breath, voice cracking. “My own brother… my fucking brother…”

He buried his face in his hands, shoulders shaking. The words he’d wanted to scream, the anger, the betrayal, all of it now twisted into grief. For a few long moments, Kaito allowed himself to break, quietly sobbing and whispering fragments of memories and regrets to the empty room.

“I should’ve… I should’ve done something… I should’ve seen this coming… fuck… I can’t…”

And then he slowly lifted his head, wiping his eyes, jaw set again. The tears hadn’t fixed anything, but they had left him raw, awake, and more determined than ever. He knew what he had to do, and this time, nothing would stop him.