Obligation

Sayaka stared at Ren through narrowed eyes.

"I'm back," Ren said.

Her stance stayed firm as he closed the door behind him.

He slipped off his shoes, placing them neatly together against the wall, then lifted his eyes to meet hers. Her posture told him she was waiting for answers.

Before he could speak, a loud sigh escaped Sayaka. Her face softened as she lowered her arms and stepped toward him, wrapping them around his torso.

"I'm so glad you're safe," she whispered. "You could have at least told me you were going out.

"I'm sorry," Ren said quietly.

Time seemed to slow as Sayaka pressed her ear against his chest, listening for his heartbeat. Steady. Alive. Relief washed through her, heavy and fragile. She was grateful she did not have to bury the last of her family.

"Where did you go?" she asked, pulling herself away from him.

Ren hesitated.

His gaze drifted away from hers.

Sayaka studied him from head to toe. There were no visible injuries. Even if he had healed from leveling up, there should have been signs of battle. Torn fabric. Dirt. Blood. These things don't disappear with the Spatial Zones. Instead, he looked relatively clean, as if he had just put on clothes to simply step out for air.

"I went to hunt," Ren finally said. "There was a disturbance nearby. I went to investigate."

Sayaka tilted her head slightly. "What do you mean, disturbance?"

Ren gestured toward the living room. "I think it would be better if we sat."

As they moved together, Sayaka instinctively lowered herself onto her favorite spot on the couch. Ren crossed by her toward the portable heating unit and turned it on, angling it toward them before taking his seat nearby.

"So," she said, folding her arms, "what kind of disturbance?" 

Ren exhaled. "An active Spatial Zone."

"What?"

He leaned over with fingers locked and elbows resting on his thigh. His gaze found her feet. 

"At least that's what I confirmed when I was face to face with it."

"That," Sayaka hesitated. "Doesn't make any sense. You were able to detect them? Is that even possible?"

"I'm not quite sure myself," Ren murmured. "But I assume it's a skill I gained from the Seraph system."

His gaze lifted, finding hers.

"So, I went in," he continued. "It was indeed a Spatial Zone. I could no longer leave."

Sayaka leaned closer with narrowed eyes. "So you're saying you fought a demon?" 

Her gaze bounced off every inch of his figure once more, as if there was some hidden mark she couldn't see. "But your wardrobe, you don't look like you were even inconvenienced."

"There was another Seraph in there fighting it," he said. "And I was able to see the battle's end."

Sayaka leaned back. 

Her expression softened at the news. 

"So he killed the demon, huh?" she said. "That's a relief."

Ren shook his head.

"He lost."

Sayaka shifted in her seat with arms crossed tight around her chest.

Ren's gaze followed her motions.

"Don't worry," he said. "Although I couldn't save him, I did manage to avenge him."

"So a surprise attack," her voice cracked.

She tilted her head backward, her gaze lost on the roof. "I guess that makes sense, but did all that really take hours?"

"No," he said. "I went to find more active zones afterwards, and before I knew it, it was nighttime."

Her head snapped toward his gaze. 

"I can sense things now, " he continued. "Much clearer than this morning. Not just the zones. Distortions. Presences. Movement."

"What is your current level?" she asked.

"Eight."

Sayaka reeled backward with a sharp breath. 

How was he already a level above her? The thought of his progression stung more than she expected.

"What did you even put your points in?" she continued, leaning closer to him.

Ren looked away. "I can’t tell you that."

"What?" she snapped.

"Not because I don’t trust you," he added quickly. "But because if other Seraphs ever use you to get information from me, I can’t risk your safety."

Sayaka stood abruptly. "I’m the older one, Ren. I’m supposed to protect my little brother."

"And you’re the last family I have left," he replied. His voice lowered. "It’s my responsibility to protect you. That comes before age."

She stared at him, stunned.

He sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Honestly, I would rather you not be in harm’s way at all. This is my burden alone."

The room fell silent. The only sound was the faint hum of the heater in the corner.

"You must be hungry," Ren said at last, rising to his feet. "I’ll make dinner. You can relax. Do normal things. The kind of things that used to matter before everything changed."

He started toward the kitchen, halting before he stepped out of the living room. 

"It's okay to be normal, Sayaka," he said without turning around. "If I can't be, at least you should be able to."

He continued pass the threshold, disappearing into the kitchen.

Sayaka clenched her hands tightly. What was wrong with wanting to protect her little brother? 

She didn't understand it.

The grief was not his alone. She had lost their parents too.

She wished Ren could honestly hear her out as well.  

The sound of pots and pans drowned out her thoughts. She lifted the folded sheet that laid next to her and wrapped it around herself. She closed her eyes to the tune of oil sizzling on iron.

From the kitchen, Ren could hear her heartbeat over the frying meat. Steady, but uncertain. Beneath it pulsed with a quiet helplessness. 

However, her fear of helplessness couldn't compare to his.

__________

Ren laid on his bed with his door cracked open. 

The house had grown cold after they ate, not from temperature, but from the continued weight of loss that lingered between them. Moonlight slipped through the curtains, pale and gentle. Calm. Serene. Like a gentle hand trying to cradle him to sleep.

And after awhile...

He did.

With each passing second, he drifted deeper. 

It was then he realized something was off.

He wasn't drifting into unconsciousness. The more his heart calmed, the more his mind took another step outward.

At first, he thought it was a dream. The familiar weight of his body pressed into the mattress. The slow rise and fall of his chest. The quiet house settling around him.

It was all too clear.

Ren became aware of the hallway outside his room. The faint hum of electricity in the walls. The refrigerator cycling in the kitchen. Sayaka’s breathing from the other room, slow and uneven, her heart steady beneath it.

His eyes were closed.

He knew they were.

Yet nothing had gone dark.

Ren’s breath caught.

He wasn’t imagining the house.

He wasn’t recalling it.

He was perceiving it.

"I’m…" His lips didn’t move. His chest didn’t tighten. The thought formed fully intact. "…awake?"

Panic flared, sharp and instinctive. Ren tried to move. Tried to open his eyes. His body didn’t respond. It lay heavy and distant, obedient to sleep while his mind stood apart from it.

"Aira," he thought.

She appeared beside him instantly, not as a figure in the room, but as a presence folded into his awareness.

"You’re conscious," she said.

Her pitch had lifted. It seemed even she was shocked.

"That's not possible," Ren replied. "I know I'm asleep."

A pause.

"It seems you're still sensing."

Her words settled quickly. The emotion he was feeling wasn't fear; it was surprise.

"This must be the next stage of my skill," he finally said.

Ren widened his range with little effort. It was one thing to perceive beyond oneself while he was awake, but now he could do it while asleep.

Noises flooded his mind. Some were of passion, others mixed in with the voices and sounds from left-on electronics.

He heard them all.

He hesitated, then continued further, stopping sharply some distance away. There, two points of presence lingered, still in the night. Except they weren't in his world. They watched from beyond the veil. 

Faceless.

Thin.

The distortion they hid in partially blocked their appearances. Like shapes half-submerged beneath water. But he knew he would never have been able to even detect them the previous morning.

His breath went shallow.

They looked uninterested in the regular humans living withing their perimeter. That would mean they were probably hunting for Seraphs. 

Ren's body shook.

What if they killed his mom because he was there? What if they mistook her for a Seraph they were hunting?

A wave of guilt washed over him.

His attention drifted instinctively toward Sayaka’s room. Her presence glowed warm and vulnerable in his awareness. 

The implication pressed down on him, sudden and unwelcome, pointing toward a truth he wasn’t ready to name.

But that thought had surfaced too quickly.

__________

Another hour passed.

Ren's jaw tightened.

"They haven't moved from their positions," he said. "They shouldn’t be this close to her."

"No," Aira agreed.

"Are they waiting for me?" 

Ren made his decision without ceremony.

"I’m going to greet them."

His eyes opened.

__________

Moonlight spilled in from a different angle across his room, pale and calm. It was the only thing unchanging and unaffected by the chaos below.

Ren's hands shook. 

He needed to act, now.

He quietly slipped on outerwear. 

A faint noise of feet pressing against the ground echoed through the silence. 

A moment later, the hallway light turned on. Sayaka stood in front of his bedroom door.

"You were going to leave again," she said.

"Yes," Ren said with a sigh. "Something out there is too close to my liking."

"I’m coming with you."

Ren opened his mouth to refuse.

"No."

But it wasn't him who said that, it was her.

"No," she continued. "I will not allow you to say no. I am not staying behind without knowing where you are. Not again."

Ren hesitated. He knew Sayaka had heard him get up. He simply thought he could just talk her down when it came to it.

"It will be dangerous," he said finally.

"Doesn't matter." Her gazed pierced through his. Sharp. Unwavering.

Ren lifted his fingers to his chin. He couldn't risk her leaving afterwards or being attacked while he was gone. Maybe the best way to protect her was to bring her.

He lowered his hand and exhaled. 

"Fine, let's go."

This was exactly what he said he wouldn’t allow.
And yet, leaving her behind felt worse.

__________

Fun Fact: The strongest demons are not always the most detached. Some still act on emotion.