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Amidst the bookshelves, there was a single figure blocking my view of the fantasy aisle.
However, I was unable to make out its shape.

I snapped my fingers, and light was summoned, albeit for a brief moment.
I could feel the magic flowing from within me, and escaping at the very tip of my fingers.

The figure ahead of me looked like a three-dimensional shadow... Approximately two meters tall, maybe a little more. As wide as a full-grown adult male. Appendages on its back, similar to butterfly wings.

I snapped my fingers again, trying to make out more detail.

Bright red eyes, which were now wide-open, looking in my direction.
Pitch-black fur covering the front.

No, no. Surely, my eyes were deceiving me. Surely it must have been a simple moth that looked bigger due to an optical illusion. Maybe a projection of its shadow on the wall.

Yukina, still beside me, was paralyzed. She saw what I saw.
And she believed it.

Suddenly, I saw a small moth, illuminated only by the light from the window, and I reached out one hand to point it out.

“Ah, see?”, I said in a soft tone. “It was nothing...”. I then let the moth land on my right hand.

Suddenly, my arm disappeared. I took a step back. Sharp pain. Blood spurting everywhere.

“AAAAAAAAARGH”, I screamed, staggering backwards, and my sister covered her mouth in shock. I grabbed what was left of my right arm, trying to squeeze it tight to lessen the agonizing pain.

I fell with my back to the floor, slipping on my own blood.

However, I realized I couldn't afford to waste my free hand.

I let go of my now-recovering arm and snapped my remaining fingers.
The vapor from my own blood, which flowed back into my body, made it so the light dimmed, and a subtle red tone tainted the insides of the library.

Just above me, suspended in the air, it was visible. A dark figure, covered in black fur, bright-red jewels instead of eyes, and dark butterfly wings with various mesmerizing patterns and designs. The monster roared, leaping over me, and toward my sister.

As the flash of light faded, only the pale artificial light of the city seeped through the window and illuminated my sister's expression of terror.

I made my arm grow back just in time to grab the leg of the creature jumping over me, preventing it from reaching her. Its fall to the floor kicked up dust, and I managed to get back on my feet.

The creature growled again, a mixture of bat and lion noises.

“That's...”, my sister trembled, but still tried to draw her bow as she attempted to get up.

“Run!”, I shouted at her, grabbing the creature's second leg with my other hand.

The mysterious being flapped its wings, knocking over one of the bookshelves. Thanks to that, the light from the window illuminated our surroundings a little more. I could see the Apparition more clearly and at least make out its man-like silhouette.

A mothman. A well-known urban legend from the west. What in the world was it doing here!?

Still clinging to its legs, I forced myself to get up and spun around, drawing inspiration from the time Akashi threw my head onto the sea. I hurled the creature at one of the bookshelves.
100 points. A direct hit.

One bookshelf knocked over the next, in an extraordinarily noisy chain reaction. The creature grunted again, flapping its wings and slowly climbing toward the library's second floor.

As it climbed, I could see its details. It was clearly a moth-man, just as it had been described in the forums' sightings. Its eyes glowed like red gemstones, staring directly at me, like a moth to an open flame.

And so, an idea was born. Could I attract it with my flashes of light? There was only one way to find out.

I snapped my fingers repeatedly, trying to keep the environment lit for as long as possible. It was surprisingly easier to see when it was constant light, instead of random flashbangs. The constant nouse from my snapping was starting to bother me, though.

So, I thought. Maybe I could feel my way to keeping the light for a little longer.

Yukina , meanwhile, had finally managed to wield her bow and arrow and took aim at the Mothman.

An arrow was fired, and iI could hear it cutting through the wind.

To my surprise, my sister was braver than she let on.

“Take that!”, she shouted, and the arrow pierced one of the creature's wings, tearing it from side to side.

The small hole, however, was not enough to prevent the Mothman from flying.

Nevertheless, it had been enough to attract the creature's attention.

Propelling himself with his insectoid legs on the ceiling, the creature flew toward Yukina.
It was fast.

I felt magic surging inside of me. Then, I snapped my fingers once more. This time, however, I kept my hand on a finger gun form, the natural shape it took after the snap.

The Mothman nimbly averted its course to me, and I couldn't react in time. It grabbed me with both of its massive hands, holding onto my torso and pushing me as we flew towards the wall.

My back was first to hit the wall. I nearly lost consciousness. The Mothman stood in front of me.
A punch to the gut. I felt it. Pain struck and flew across every sensor neuron in my body. I felt like vomiting my own insides. Yet, the power of the Photographed kept me whole.

"Brother!", Yukina yelled.

It had been a while since she had unironically called me that. I was almost a little happy.
She pulled the string on her bow again, taking aim for yet another shot.

The Mothman's sharp claws etched themselves under my skin. My stomach was now a bloody mess. Damn it.

"For a western Apparition... You're pretty far away from home, aren't you?", I tried talking to it.

It replied only with a roar, and beat its wings. The subsequent wind felt like several blades cutting through my whole body.

For a moment, I was incapacitated.

Yukina shot an arrow at the Mothman, hitting it on its back.

Then, it turned its back to me, the arrow having clearly struck a nerve.

And it flew fast. Tremendously fast. Towards Yukina.

However, not as fast as Akashi or Cubas. I thought that maybe I could catch up with him.

I ran.

What was that? That feeling? Time passed by so slowly.

My eyes were able to see everything.

With simple calculations, I realized it. I wouldn't make it in time.

I was still regenerating, after all. I wasn't like Cubas. For a moment, it struck me just how powerful his invulnerability truly was. It allowed him to be at his peak, at all times.

I was, truly, a pathetic Apparition.

What would happen if I didn't make it in time? Was my sister's life in danger? Would I fail, just like that, to save her, and lose her forever? Just like I had failed to save Rio!? Akashi wasn't here as a back-up plan. Losing here meant losing my sister. Mortality terrified me more than I ever imagined.

“Yukina! No!”, I shouted. “Stop!”, I turned my sights to my sister, witnessing her bold, brave face fade away.

And I yelled from the deepest pit of my being.
In that very same pit, there lied magic.
It coursed through my body and into my eyes.

That very instant, everything around me seemed to freeze. I had been careless. Immature. Even though I was aware of Yukina’s mortality, I had let her accompany me. I, and no one else, had put her life at risk. I thought I was enough to protect her, but I wasn't. It wasn't enough. I ran as fast as I could, but I knew I wouldn't catch up with them. A second-rate, weak, non-verbal Apparition would take something away from me, something that I could never get back.

I kept running anyway.
Halfway there, I blinked.

When I opened my eyes, everything in front of me had frozen in time.
Then, everything started moving again, and the creature was inches away from Yukina.

I blinked again.
When I opened my eyes, I had caught up with them.

One of the monster's paws was scratching Yukina's face.

I lunged at the Mothman, taking hold of it in a bear hug, and putting my body weight on it in order to divert it from its course.

I could feel the weight of its body. It was strangely light. Its exterior, beneath the fur, was hard. It felt like holding an insect. The texture was, frankly, gross.

We hit the ground hard enough to break my bones. The pain shot up my spine like lightning. I felt like I was just a passenger, and the momentum would carry us wherever we were going.

We collided with one of the fallen bookshelves, rolled, and I ended up on top of the Mothman.

“Akito!”, Yukina shouted my name.

“Are you okay?”, I shouted back.

When I turned around during the scream, however, I could see it on her face. Going from one side of her nose to the edge of her cheek, there was a bleeding cut. Deep enough to bleed profusely. I couldn't believe she was talking to me as if nothing had happened.

“Yuki! Your face!”, I shouted.

“Oops! I didn't even feel it...”, she said, putting her hand on the wound, and flinching from the pain. “It's okay! It doesn't hurt as much!”, she said. “I'm glad you got to me in time. . .”, she sighed.

I was still standing over the Mothman. Turning back to it under the dim light that emanated in beams through the thin windows, I felt that I could better understand the nature of this sad creature, who stared at me intently.

He was like an animal. Not only that, but the only one of his kind.
Hated, rejected, and invisible to many.
He was truly far away from home. Alone.

Unable to make anyone understand him. Unable to show his inner self to others. Unable to understand himself. A mixture of the surreal, the absurd, and the mundane.

He was an insect in the shape of a man. Perhaps he was a man with the greatness of an insect. And there he was, in front of me. Beneath me.

Perilous, yet pathetic. It pained me to think that I was a far superior Apparition. Leagues beyond. And, yet, I retained more humanity than it did.

Who could have been the pathetic soul who, in their inner fantasies, gave rise to a creature as pitiful as a Mothman?

Probably the new Franz Kafka or something like that.

By that moment, I understood that not all Apparitions were fantastic, powerful, and superior beings. Not all were born equal.

The creature waved its arms, trying to scratch me.

I blinked.

“Careful!”, Yukina exclaimed, pulling another arrow from her quiver, staining the bow with the blood in her hand.

When I opened my eyes, it was easy to identify the directions from which the moth-man's blows would be coming.

I pushed its two arms to the ground and tugged on them hard.
So hard, in fact, I ended up ripping them off.
A kind of black sludge spurted from within its insectoid shell.

The creature kicked, growling in pain, and threw me aside as it took flight once again. I grunted as I got up once more to face it.

My sister shot another arrow in its direction, her face stoic and a smile escaping her lips. Must have been the adrenaline. That instant, I knew she would trust me with her life. Little did she know that I had just saved her thanks to sheer luck.

The arrow ripped through the air, and landed squarely on the Mothman's chest. He roared in anger, trying to gain impulse off the ceiling again, charging in my direction.

I took my trusty slingshot from my pocket.

I pointed. I aimed. I blinked.

There was the moth, frozen in midair. Small, insignificant.

Just an ordinary moth.

I opened my eyes.

I let the projectile fly. 500 points, bull's-eye.

The Mothman lost his course, the pellet had already ripped through the area between his large red eyes.

That made sense, since he was part insect, and certainly had a chitinous exoskeleton beneath his dark fur. Cracks started to appear all over his body.

The monster fell beside me, completely disoriented. It was already dead.

His wings spread out on the ground.

“Nice shot, Aki!”, Yukina exclaimed.

“Whew”, I sighed.

The creature writhed for the last time, its synapses firing their final symphony.

Attentive, I approached its body.

"I can't believe I did it...", I whispered.

"Aki, you're amazing! Your powers... They're really impressive!", my sister exclaimed, seeminly unnaware of how much of a close call it had been.

“Now, how do we get rid of this...”, I said, staring at it.

However, as I uttered my words, the creature began to dissolve into the shadows. Black sludge and particles washed the library's ground. Eventually, its corpse was reduced to a single small moth, and the sludge turned to vapor, dissipating slowly.

“Oh. Isn't that convenient?”, Yukina observed ironically, a timid smile covering her face.

“Indeed”, I remarked, picking up the moth's corpse with one hand and letting it rest on my palm. “Who would have thought that such a small insect would give rise to such big rumors...”, I commented.

We were about to leave the library, allowing the mess we made to be cleaned up the next day by the poor student council, of which I, fortunately, was not a member. Neither was my sister.

“... So, are you okay?”, I asked Yukina.

“I'm... thanks to you, Aki”, she replied, coming closer.

“Are you hurt?”, I asked again. “Anywhere else, I mean...”.

“No, no. But...”, she teared up.

Then she walked up to me and hugged me.

“I was so scared...”, she finally admitted, her face buried in my chest.

So, I stroked her hair. She really was silly, this little sister of mine.

“I told you it would be dangerous...”, I whispered.

“I know!”, she exclaimed, still crying on my chest.

“And I told you you didn't need to come...”, I added.

“I know...”, she replied.

“And I can't say I'm happy you came. You almost scared me to death!”, I added.

“I know...”, she repeated, filling my shirt with tears and snot, which soon dried out thanks to the power of the photograph.

“And I couldn't be happier that I was able to protect you”, I finally concluded.

“...What?”, she looked up, and I hugged her. I almost squeezed her.

“Seriously... I'm so glad you're okay...”, I started sobbing along with her. “If you had been hurt, or worse, over such a weak Apparition, I... I don't know what would have become of me...”, I confessed.

“Akito?”, my human frailty seemed to surprise her.

“For a moment, I thought I was going to lose you... Father would have killed me...”, I blurted out.

“... Oh! So that's what this is about!”, she yelled at me, pushing me away slightly.

“Huh!?”, I exclaimed.

“You're only relieved to see me alive because father would have wanted to kill you! And he would have succeeded, even though you're immortal! You idiot!”, she continued ranting, and my tears dried up.

Instead, I started laughing. Once again, the brothers were proving themselves impossible.

“Honestly... He'll kill me anyway if he sees that mess on your face”, I said.

“That's true... Ow. It stings a little, but it's no big deal...”, she said.

“You're impressive, you know?", I remarked, much to her satisfaction. "Maybe Akashi can fix it. If not, we have a first aid kit at home”, I explained.

“You're right...”, she said, turning toward the moonlight.

“If Dad wants to kill me, you say it happened in kyudo. Deal?”, I proposed.

“Okay, okay... You know how our deals work”, she replied.

“Sure... I'll owe you one”, I reminded her.

“You'll owe me a big one”, she emphasized.

“Okay, okay... Anything for you, Lady Yukina Itabashi”, I forced a little politeness in order to try to get some wiggle room in our deal.

“Seriously... All this work and no sign of Braz Cubas”, she then commented.

“Yeah... Wouldn't it have been easier to just run away from the Mothman?”, I asked.

“No. I wanted to get rid of him...”, Yukina said, albeit quietly.

“For what he did to your colleague?”, I asked.

“Yeah. If there are no laws in the world to judge these things...”, she said.

“Hey. Don’t call them things. I’m one of them, remember?”, I pointed out.

That's true, I'm sorry, but... That one was definitely just a thing. And, until proven otherwise, it's evident that he killed someone. That's unforgivable", she expressed her feelings clearly.

“I get it, I get it”, I replied conclusively, stroking the top of her head once more. “Let's go home. You deserve a break from Apparitions”, I ended the discussion.

“Okay...”, she finally agreed, holding the bow close to her body. “Wait!”, she shouted desperately. "The arrows I shot in the library! We have to dispose of the evidence!", she shouted, her lawyer spirit taking over.

Amid lots of laughter, I helped her retrieve her arrows, making full use of my immortal abilities to reach unusual spots. When we were done, we took the same old route back home.

Jumping over the gate, followed by streets and sidewalks in a never-ending cycle.

Eventually, we made it home. Rio was waiting for us at the door. Her eyes widened at the large cut across Yukina's face.

“Akito! Yukina! What happened!?”, she exclaimed, running towards us.

“It's nothing...”, I said, as she ran straight to my sister and hugged her tightly.

“Akito! How irresponsible!”, she yelled at me. “You took your sister with you!? What were you thinking!?”.

“Dee, she wanted to...”, I began to justify myself.

“I insisted on going with him, Rio...”, she said.

“That's no excuse. He's your older brother, he should have been taught to say no”, she continued to blame me, but in her eyes there was only tenderness.

She looked at me and winked. At that moment, I understood what she was after. It was obvious, but I hadn't thought of it. My poor sister, a young girl, had suffered a deep cut on her face. It was possible that even after healing, a scar would remain. Would this permanently affect her self-esteem? It was impossible to know at that moment. However, it was important to think about it. The memory she would have of this moment, of this scar, needed to be one of support, welcoming and comfort. That was what Rio was trying to tell me.

So, as they hugged, I rested a hand on my sister's head and stroked her hair.

“It's true. You have a very irresponsible brother, Yukina. I'm sorry”, I said, in a tone that only I could have spoken to her.

"I'm sorry too, Aki... For insisting on going... And for being such a bother... And for not helping in the fight...", she said softly, her voice muffled by Rio's chest.

“It's okay. Besides, you did help. Don't worry about it. Now go upstairs and get the first aid kit, okay?”, I asked her.

She let go of Rio.

“Okay!”, she exclaimed, smiling.

Her smile, however, was asymmetrical, as she didn't want to move the cheek where the cut was. Surely, it would hurt quite a bit. Silently and happily, she went into the house and looked for the kit.

“And you, Dee?”, I crossed my arms and tried striking up a conversation.

“Oh, nothing much... There was an apparition on the bridge, but...”, she said.

“Was it weak?”, I assumed.

“Yes. It was. One bite, a little draining of its vital energy... And it was over”, she explained.

“In our case, a slingshot shot to the head was enough. After a few arrows to the body, that is”, I told her our story.

“Mine was like the spirit of some sailor... Yours?”, Rio asked.

“It was a Mothman”, I summarized.

“Fascinating...”, she commented.

“Fascinating my ass, Yukina almost died! But... Look! I learned how to do this!”, I exclaimed, snapping my fingers, causing a flash of light to appear for a moment.

“Wow!”, she closed her eyes, taken aback by the excessive brightness. “It's... Magic”, she whispered. "Like, an actual spell!".

“And you? Have you mastered the shadows and blood? What's it like for you?”, I asked, curious.

“Well... Not exactly, but... I can feel it. My blood and my shadow... They're like living beings. In fact, they're like parts of my body, ones that I can consciously control. It's difficult, like learning to ride a bike for the first time, but...”, she elaborated.

“Interesting. I just snap my fingers, while thinking of making light”, I said.

“Don't you get tired? Not even a little?”, Rio then asked, surprised.

“No...”, I replied, somewhat confused.

“Fascinating... Controlling blood and shadows consumes a lot of my energy”, she revealed. “I bet it's the same for Akashi”.

“In my case, then...”, I said.

“Although you don't seem to have inherently powerful skills, perhaps being the photographed also keeps your energy constant”, she concluded. "Meaning you get infinite stamina".

“Perhaps...”, I agreed with her reasoning.

“And that thing Akashi had mentioned? About stopping time itself...”, she asked.

“I don't know if it is what I think it is”, I replied immediately. “But I felt like time had stopped while I blinked in the fight against the Mothman”, I said.

“... Really? Just blinking?”, she asked, surprised.

“Not exactly... It has to be with the intention of making the world stop”, I said.

“What an absurd power...”, she concluded quickly.

“But it's not like that! It's only for, I don't know, half a second after I open my eyes. Then everything starts moving again”, I tried to explain.

“Even so!”, she argued. “It's too powerful! I'm so jealous...”, she confessed.

“I don't know how to control it yet... I'm worried it will fail when I need it the most...”, I admitted. “I might have also done it before, during my fight against Akashi, but I can’t tell…”.

Then, she put her hand on my shoulder.

“Don't worry. If it ever fails, I’ve got your back!”, for a second, she actually looked pretty cool saying that.

“I sure hope so...”, I said. “By the way, speaking of backup... Where's Akashi? He should be back by now", I commented immediately afterwards.

“That's true... I hope he's okay”, Rio seemed to share my concerns.

The moon, in turn, showered us with its light. At that moment, however, what I felt was not the usual indifference. Everything was very interesting, and very beautiful. I couldn't explain the exact reasoning behind this phenomena; it was just a self-evident truth.

My sister returned with the first aid kit, and Rio and I immediately began to treat her wound, together.