Development

Alarm clock. Fright. Heart pounding on my chest. My heart. Air, flowing into my lungs. Surprise. Yet another day had begun. Upon opening my eyes, it was there. The picture of me and Rio, on my lock screen. Hesitation. Deep breaths. Alarm turned off successfully. Silence.

“Morning…”, I uttered to the nothingness that surrounded me.

Unknown forces — not above me, nor below me, but entirely parallel to me — compelled me to get out of bed. The hard wooden floor, still cool to the touch thanks to the night's air, made a stark contrast against the comfortable, warm mattress I had just left behind me.

I reenacted my morning routine, right up to the moment I went downstairs, now wearing my black school uniform and with my backpack in hand. I started getting breakfast ready, starting out with the coffee. I needed it, otherwise I'd be in a bad mood all day. That's the one thing in my routine I wasn't willing to sacrifice, not even for all the blessings in the world. 

Pot. Tap water. Stove. Burner, on. Coffee dripper, in the cupboard. Ground coffee, in the other cupboard. Paper filter. Combine. A veritable production line was set up on top of my personal mug. A pinch of salt to decrease the bitterness and two pinches of cinnamon for the added aroma. Then it was time for the bread. Bread, butter, put it on the frying pan. Let it brown. Meanwhile, the water for the coffee had boiled. Brew the coffee. Serve it at the table. Back to the frying pan, serve the contents on a plate. Bread is crunchy, as it should be. It was far, very far, from being a balanced and nutritious breakfast. It was, however, what my very limited patience had allowed me to do at that moment. I was the worst of us in the mornings, according to the family.

I glanced at Yukina's usual seat, though she wasn't there. Was this the beginning of a new great war between us siblings? I expected the worst: revenge. Revenge never came by.

Instead, a little sister with messy hair walked in, dressed in her school uniform with the buttons buttoned in the wrong spots, still rubbing her eyes because she was so sleepy. A by-the-book shirtlop. As soon as she stepped on the final step of the staircase, I moved out of breakfast preparation in order to help her out.

Buttons buttoned in the right places, one by one. It was a miracle she sat still for me to fix that mess. I found her hairbrush stuck on her hair, hidden within the many knots. Surprised at just how messy it was, I brushed her long, light brown hair, patiently, while she seated herself at the table, and ate the breakfast I had originally prepared for myself. Such is the life of a responsible older brother.

After properly combing Yukina's hair to societally acceptable levels, I prepared an exact replica of the breakfast from before, this time for my own consumption. I then realized, when I finally sat down at the table, that we had both been silent that whole time. Ah, mornings. Nothing to love about them. And I'm sure she would agree.

“Morning, Yuki”, I grumbled.

“Morning…”, she grumbled back with a mouthful of bread.

I did sit down to finally enjoy the breakfast I’d prepared — but I felt no hunger. No need to eat. No desire to, either. Yukina’s gaze, however, pierced me to the depths of my soul, and I felt an urge to find out why.

“Still in that phase where you want to kill your older brother?”, I asked, jokingly, despite knowing full well that her morning grumpiness was nothing to scoff at.

Her answer, however, was complete silence, interrupted only by the occasional crunches of the tasty bread and loud gulps of the warm, rich coffee.

“Thank you for the meal”, she finally replied, still avoiding my question.

I had finished eating way ahead of her and, thus, I was already halfway done with the dishes. She, on the other hand, remained seated, and I admired the stark contrast between her current mood and yesterday’s.

“Microwave…”, she murmured.

“What?”, I didn’t hear her properly.

“Your food… From yesterday…”, she continued on murmuring.

Upon inspecting the microwave’s inner compartment, there seated a sole, cold bowl of rice and sides. It wasn’t yet inedible, but it was surely not tasty at this point, as the poor thing had spent the night inside the microwave. For a second, I wondered why Yukina hadn’t put it in the fridge or eaten it before she went to bed. Still, it was undeniably my responsibility to come down and have dinner properly.

“Look, you…”, I was going to say something or another, but I stopped myself after a sudden realization. “You didn’t… Stay up, waiting for me to come down and have dinner… Right?”, I inquired.

She remained mostly silent, in terms of verbal language. However, she also shook her head in affirmation. I pat her on the head for a bit, running my fingers through her freshly-combed hair.

“Sorry… My mind was kinda full last night”, I apologized sincerely.

“You seem better today, Aki…”, she replied, finally able to lay down a complete sentence.

“Thanks… I think I am better”, I thanked her. Nothing better than a night spent resting to send away the mean spirits. “Let’s go, then?”, I proposed.

“Yeah…”, she nodded.

Thus, I put on my shoes and gave her time to do the same. There were still traces of yesterday's sand on them. I opened the door to go out. The Sun was shining, and the ground was still a bit damp from yesterday's heavy rain. It even seemed to have rained a bit more in the early hours of the morning, after I had fallen asleep.

Then, we walked. Street and sidewalk, in endless repetition. All the buildings looked the same, until we finally arrived at our school.

The ceaseless noise of the students, always so strangely vocal early in the morning, pushed my eardrums to their limit. Unlike me, however, my sister seemed to have the extraordinary ability to ignore them altogether. She walked calmly, looking for her new classroom, while I accompanied her, thanks to the habit acquired in previous years, when our classrooms were next to each other. That was, of course, after the customary ceremony the school held at the start of every semester.

I left Yukina in her classroom, saying goodbye with a simple wave. Time started ticking fast again, and I found myself in my classroom shortly afterwards. I greeted some classmates, some out of politeness, others out of obligation. I sat down. I survived first period.

During lunch break, I met up with Yukina again, as I was in possession of our lunchboxes. I was reminded, almost forcefully, that my sister's kyudo skills were recognised on campus, and she was something of a minor celebrity in her own class.

As per my older brother obligations, I dragged her away from her classmates, unminding to the conversation they were having. If I hadn't done so, she would probably have spent the whole break without eating a thing, pampering her needy classmates with attention. I sat her down on a bench outside the school building, near the baseball courts. Then, I gave her her lunchbox, and sat down next to her as I brought out my own lunch. 

“... Thanks for the food”, she said. “... You look different, you know? Your posture is better, your hair is all nice and shiny… And your face is relaxed. You seem happy. Did you have a good dream?”, she then asked.

“None that I can remember”, I replied.

“So… Did anything nice happen yesterday, then?”, she pressed on. “It better have, because you were away for the whole damn day…”.

“Well… He-hee”, my face gave it all away.

“Knew it!”, she remarked. “Was it a girl?”, then she asked.

Of course, I wasn’t about to simply reply that I’d gone out with a beautiful girl who likes maths and photography in the morning, then slept all day at a handsome vampire’s place. Well… I’d omit at least the vampire part.

“Remember Rio? The one who helped me cheat on the all-school exams?”, I asked. “We got some ice cream and hung out”, then I explained.

“It doesn’t take all day to hang out over some ice cream…”, she smirked as she looked at me with suspecting eyes.

“Hey! That’s not it… I…”, it took me a while to come up with something decent. “We took some pictures, then walked on the shoreline…”

“Eh? Romantic. I didn’t know you had a heart!”, she mocked me, in between bites of her lunch.

“Then… I went over to a friend’s place. We talked for a bit, went for a swim…”, I took some inspiration from my encounter with Akashi. “Also… How about you!? You didn't move, since when I left until I came back”, I tried making it her turn to explain herself.

“Huh? Me? Well… I practiced kyudo in the garden…”, she said. “Then I showered, and read some stuff”, then elaborated.

“Showered, and still put on the same shirt? Mine, no less? Ew…”, I joked.

“I changed before practice, dummy”, she rebutted. “Then I talked to some friends on the phone… And made dinner”, she then listed her remaining activities from yesterday. I felt bad, this was looking like an interrogation.

As the conversation went on, her day seemed to have been ordinary. Too ordinary. I couldn’t even bug her about it. It bothered me. Something unusual had to happen in this girl’s life, lest her be consumed by routine and boredom, kyudo practice and scrolling on her phone.

"What are you, twelve?", I joked. 

"I'm good with having a simple life, thank you", she replied, carefree as ever.

“Sis”, I called for her attention.

“Yes?”, she replied.

“I am immortal”, I revealed.

As expected, my glorious revelation summoned a karate chop to the very top of my forehead.

“Again with that crap?”, she was mad.

“I’m serious”, I insisted.

About a second or two — as I saw it — passed. Complete silence. 

“You should become a writer. Scatterbrain”, she mocked me yet again.

“I can prove it”, I affirmed.

“Prove it, then. We’re at a court of law, and you’re gonna represent yourself, in order to attest your own immortality”, she proposed, greatly inspired by our parents’ profession.

“I am immortal”, I repeated.

“You’re human. Thus, as all humans have ever been, and as is implied by law, you’re mortal”, she rebutted.

“I’ve never died before”, I argued.

“You’ve never been put in a situation where you would have died”, she argued back.

“I was, in fact, decapitated yesterday”, I revealed.

“Prove it”, she challenged me.

“You prove I wasn’t”, I attempted to reason.

“That’s probatio diabolica. The Devil's Proof. I can, however, argue that you’re a compulsive liar”, she proposed. “That should be enough to get the jury on my side”.

“Oh, yeah?”, I faced the challenge.

“The defendant is a liar, a charlatan. Here’s proof number one: he made his sister believe in Santa Claus for fourteen years!”, she exclaimed.

“Can’t believe you’re using that one…”, I whispered sadly.

“The defendant dressed up as Santa Claus, put on a funny voice, and made me sit on his lap on Christmas Eve, so that I'd reveal my desired gift. As soon as I spilled the beans, the defendant would text our parents, and they would purchase it and bring it over. Upon their arrival, the defendant pretended he was going out to fetch the gift from his supposed magic sleigh, and went to our parents' car to get it, while they prevented me from looking out the window", she went on to tell the whole story, practically without a pause for her entire monologue. I didn't think she would hold such a grudge against my attempts to preserve the childlike wonder in her heart.

"The jury thinks the story is cute, and attests to the warm-hearted nature of the defendant, as opposed to thinking he's a liar", I replied.

"You can't be the defendant and the jury, dumbass", she grumbled. "By the way, as if your crap didn't give me enough of a headache, now I’m seriously starting to think you’re hiding something", she added.

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"No one in their right mind would take this bit that far", she argued.

"Perhaps", I spoke only to avoid an awkward silence. "However... The truth, my sister, is that I was beheaded by a man named Braz Cubas, who is also a super powerful walking cadaver", I uttered, trying to take myself seriously for once. "I was then saved by a vampire named Akashi Asami, who taught me the ways of magic. Finally, I then learned that I was turned immortal because of a photograph of mine, which was taken with a magic camera", I then proceeded to reveal. "And, before you ask... Yes, that's all of yesterday's learnings".

"Where is the photograph, then?", she questioned.

"With Rio", I confessed.

"Inaccessible. It doesn’t count as evidence for the court", she concluded. "What about that magic camera?", she then asked.

"It was stolen by Braz Cubas after my beheading", I replied.

"Inaccessible. It doesn’t count as evidence, again", she grumbled. "What about this vampire, Akashi Asami?", she inquired further.

"It’s daytime. He can’t go out in the Sun’s light", I tried to explain.

"Your best bet with this story would be delaying the trial to a time when the so-called Akashi Asami could come testify in your favor", she commented. "It’s a weak case for you, huh?", she teased me.

"So... you could try killing me", I argued with an absent sense of reality.

"That would make me a convicted murderer. I don’t want to throw away my future just because my brother is a nutjob", she refused.

"Sure…”, I stood defeated. “Oh, I know. My wounds also regenerate fast. If I cut off a finger or something, and it grew back, would you accept that as proof?", , I had an idea, albeit a moronic one to say out loud.

"No. You’re forbidden from trying to kill yourself or hurt yourself", she said, almost as if asking me not to do something stupid.

On this occasion, I wondered why I had an inexplicable desire to reveal the truth to my sister. Was it simply because we shared a bond of blood? In a way, it felt almost like a training session, which was to be completed before I could reveal the truth to Rio. It also served as proof to myself that the previous day had not been a delusion or a fever dream.

My own obsession over proving it intrigued me. I concluded that it was probably derived from the subtle behavioral influence that had been passed down to us thanks to our parents' line of work. It was something that, I believed, only this particular pair of siblings could understand.

“Then I challenge you", I proposed. “I'll stand in front of your kyudo target, and you'll have to hit an apple on my head. Just like the tricks of ancient times”.

"What are you, a medieval buffoon?", she couldn't believe my words.

"Just a regular buffoon, ma'am", I replied, smiling but insisting on it. 

“...And what would I get out of it?”, Yukina asked.

“Simple. Miss the target, you kill me, just as you said you would if I were immortal”, I explained.

“I refuse. It's stupid", she said.

“Are you scared? Aren’t you the best shot in town? Heh...”, I teased her.

Siblings are, truly, impossible beings. There is something intrinsic in the sibling relationship that makes us extraordinarily prone to act on the most idiotic ideas ever witnessed by humankind. This is especially true when the older sibling is a male. Although it was a metaphoric low blow, I was sure that my childish provocation would work on her.

I could see Yukina clenching one of her fists, right after dropping her food back into the lunchbox. I could almost hear the veins in her temples popping. She stood up.

“You do know that kyudo isn't supposed to be about hitting the target, right?”, she explained, almost as if she were arguing with me. “Pretending it's a game, trying to put your life on the line... It's all nonsense, and it's disrespectful”.

“Sure. You'd be on the news as the sister who killed her brother in a stupid archery game. So I propose an alternative", I said confidently. “Use my slingshot", I then asked.

“That would still seriously hurt you if I missed the target...”, she complained. “But if it will finally shut you up... I'll do it, damn it", she finally agreed, though reluctant and angry at me.

That said, in the blink of an eye, we were at the school's kyudo field. She dressed up in all her usual training gear, but she wielded the humble hunting slingshot I had given her many years ago.

Yukina bowed and positioned herself in the proper place to shoot. As I walked toward the target with an apple in my hands, I seriously wondered if this little charade was a serious offense to one of the noblest arts of our culture. I placed the apple on top of my head while she pulled the elastic band of the slingshot, ready to shoot at me.

“First question", she said. “If you had really become immortal, why would you tell me?”, she asked.

“Because I've got no one else", I replied.

She fired the first pebble. I felt the wind blow through my hair. The apple fell, with a hole now in it, as if someone had taken a bite. 100 points to Yukina, an excellent shot. I picked it up from the ground and put it back on my head. “Best of three!”, I called.

“Second question", she continued. “What kind of drug did you take to even think that a corpse and a vampire approached you yesterday?”

“I took nothing. It's the truth", I replied.

She fired the second shot. The ammunition she was using — they were little spiky metal balls, for hunting small game. Surprisingly heavy, they could indeed cause me some serious head trauma if she missed the target. However, unlike kyudo arrows, they weren't exactly deadly. Still might knock me out cold, though.

This time, she missed her shot, the projectile flew over the apple.

“Come on... Are you scared to hit me? Is that why you aimed high?”, I asked, teasing her again. I put the apple back in place one last time. “We're tied, one to one. If you're gonna miss, you might as well hit me. Otherwise, our little exercise will be worthless", I commented.

“Third question. Who are you, and why do you look so much like my brother?”, she asked, catching me completely off guard.

Despite my surprise, however, my plan was already clear in my mind. “I am... What do you mean by that?”, I asked back, instead of answering.

Due to the conditioning of my previously given answers, I knew she would have the instinctive reaction to shoot as soon as I was done speaking. Because of this, I knew exactly what to do to prove my immortality. As soon as I finished my sentence, I brought one of my hands to my head as quickly as I could and grabbed the apple.

The slingshot crackled, and the projectile arrived in the blink of an eye. 200 points, a perfect shot, right on target, splitting the apple in half with its force and precision. My hand acted as a cushion to stop the pellet in its path. The little steel ball was now lodged in my hand, which was in turn bleeding profusely. In addition to the piercing, the blunt damage was powerful. Some of my metacarpals were probably in shambles.

It did hurt, yes. However, it was nowhere near being eviscerated by Akashi.

“Hey!”, she shouted, seeing where my hand was. "God damn it, Akito!". 

Yukina sprinted towards me, seriously concerned, trying to determine if my hand had indeed been pierced, or if I was pulling some sort of trick.

“It's okay. It's nothing", I told her calmly, disregarding the pain.

“Okay, my butt! I knew this wasn't a good idea…”, she yelled at me with tears forming in her eyes.

“Look here, look!”, I asked her, practically rubbing my bloody hand in her face.

To my surprise, she looked, albeit for a moment, trying to believe me. I removed the small metal sphere — the size of a marble — from the center of my palm.

My hand, in turn, regenerated almost immediately, as the projectile was probably blocking the rest of the cure. I made sure Yukina saw this happening right before her eyes, which, by the way, were absolutely wide open in shock.

I then let the pellet fall to the ground and gave her my hand to hold. She touched the spot where there had been a hole with her index finger, as if looking for evidence of makeup or special effects. Upon finding nothing, she sighed.

“The jury finds the defendant guilty of being immortal", Yukina admitted. "Even more than that, you're guilty of being an idiot", she concluded.

I was extraordinarily surprised by the normality of Yukina's reaction. It is worth mentioning that I reacted with the same calmness to the absurdity of waking up after being decapitated, but at least my lack of reaction could be attributed to simple confusion and being unsure. It's strange, since there are no precedents for what a normal reaction to magic should look like. Many argue that there should be screaming, shock, fainting, or running away, but I don't think that should always be the case.

“Thank you. Thank you, Yuki. For believing in me", I thanked her.

“Sorry for doubting you", she apologized.

“It's okay. Seriously. It's not every day that your idiot brother shows up with magical powers", I argued.

“Yeah...”, she agreed. “But, seriously, it's pretty cool. You don't have to worry about anything, and...”, she went on and on, fantasizing about the glory of my abilities, but I had to interrupt her.

“If you see a guy dressed all in white, pale, with black hair, carrying a cane...”, I described Cubas, and she looked at me with a confused look on her face. “Flee. Change sidewalks. Run away if you have to. Don't go near him, don't go near Braz Cubas”, I pleaded.

“... Okay...?”, she complied, but with a confused tone.

“He is also immortal, and he's after the photograph, which Rio has and I'm trying to retrieve”, I explained. “He decapitated me yesterday. I don't want you in danger, Yuki. This is very serious. Do you understand?”, I asked.

“Of course, Aki", she agreed.

“And, just for the record... The vampire, Akashi, is our ally. You might run into him, or he might come to our house... I don't know. What matters is that he wants to stop Braz Cubas as much as I do", I revealed.

“That's a lot to take in...”, she said, as if asking me to stop talking.

“I know. Sorry. Cubas is the enemy, Akashi is the ally. That's what matters for now", I simplified.

Conveniently, the school bell had just rung, signaling us to return to our respective classrooms.

“By the way... Why did you ask me that third question?”, I asked her.

“Haven't you looked in the mirror?”, she replied with another question.

“What do you mean?”, I was confused.

“Your face. Your posture. Your muscles. Your hair. You're different. I don't know how, but you're different. It's not exactly physical, it's more like... Oh, I don't know! Forget it!", she lost her train of thought.

Now, more than ever, I needed to look in the mirror.

“Shall we go back?”, I suggested.

“Yeah... Let's go", she replied.

I walked her, just as I had done in the morning, to her classroom, and went straight to the bathroom to admire my own reflection, filled with curiosity.

As I arrived, I was immensely surprised by what I saw.