Fragment 15. Meet the (1st) Sister Part 2

“Wait—then why don’t you know? You can read my thoughts, can’t you?”

“Since when could I read your mind?”

“Then how did you know I hated you all?”

“Didn’t you say it yourself when we were little?”

“I—”

My words got stuck in my throat. I wanted to say that I never said that. But it's was my memory. It's possible that I did say that in the past.

“Did I really say that?”

“Yeah. Right in front of all of us.”

The anger I had been feeling slowly turned into guilt. Wait—why did I feel guilty? They were the ones at fault.

“It’s your own fault for going on rampages whenever you feel like it.”

“I told you already—we didn’t do it on purpose.”

“What do you mean ‘not on purpose’?!”

I stood up in anger. My emotions exploded when she casually said "not on purpose" after everything they had done. After all the unforgivable things they caused, she said it wasn’t intentional? Don’t joke with me.

I had destroyed the house I lived in over and over again. I had hurt the people I loved again and again. Every time I lost control, I caused trouble for everyone around me.

My head filled with the scenes I always saw after I—or rather, they—went on a rampage. When the image of my grandfather covered in wounds and blood when he unconscious atop a pile of rubble flashed through my mind, I bit my lip so hard that I didn’t even notice it was bleeding.

Just as I was about to let all my emotions spill out, I saw Chinatsu’s expression and hesitated.

What was with that look?

Chinatsu looked guilty. But not just that. Her eyes looked like she was pitying me.

I don’t need your pity! If only you didn’t exist, then I—

“I’m sorry, Main Personality. No—Haruno.”

Chinatsu’s sudden apology stopped my anger in its tracks.

“I know we’ve messed up your life. Ever since you said you hated us all those years ago, we planned to apologize. But you never came back after that day. So we shut ourselves away in our own rooms. I thought that after all this time, maybe we could fix things and go back to how it used to be. But… looks like that’s impossible.”

Chinatsu stood up from the zabuton and walked over to the hearth. She picked up the iron poker used to stir the fire and pushed it into the flames.

Once the tip of the iron turned red, she walked toward me. For a moment, I was scared of what she was planning to do with it. But to my surprise, she handed it to me instead.

“I thought that if we were gone, your life would be better. But no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t take my own life—at least not in this realm. But if it’s you, I’m sure you could do it.”

Seeing someone offer themselves up to be killed made me step back.

She had to be joking. No one would willingly ask to be killed. But when I looked into her eyes, I knew she was serious.

As if hypnotized, I took the fire poker from Chinatsu’s hand. My hands trembled as I stared at the one-meter-long iron rod. My head started spinning, and my vision felt like a camera lens zooming in and out.

When I lifted my head, Chinatsu was smiling. She spread her arms wide, as if inviting me.

I gripped the fire poker with both hands like a baseball bat. Seeing that I was ready to take her life, Chinatsu closed her eyes.

My breathing turned ragged, sweat pouring down my body. I hadn’t done any physical activity, yet my heart was pounding violently. After steeling myself—both physically and mentally—I swung the iron rod downward.

“Hyaaaaa!!!!”

Instead of blood splattering, only the sound of something crunching echoed. The fire poker ended up buried in the wooden floor.

Chinatsu, who never received what she had been waiting for, opened her eyes. She lowered her arms, knowing that I couldn’t deliver the finishing blow she had expected.

Placing her hand over mine, still gripping the fire poker, Chinatsu said, “Let’s talk this out, okay?”

Her face was pleading—when she should have been the one looking down on me. Yet she didn’t mock me even once, despite how pathetic I must have looked. Instead, she gently pulled me into an embrace and slowly helped me release my grip on the now-cold iron rod.

After that, we sat together. I told her all my frustrations about my other personalities, while Chinatsu listened in silence.

Then, when it was her turn to speak, she told me a story I had no memory of.

“Do you remember when you were little, when some boys messed with you? You got angry and wanted to get back at them—that’s when you called me out. But I couldn’t control my power back then. I went too far and ended up hurting them. Their parents came to the house afterward, and your grandfather had to take responsibility.”

My mouth opened and closed, unable to say anything. Chinatsu’s story felt new and familiar at the same time. I didn’t remember it, yet it felt like something that had really happened.

She continued.

“Not long after that, when you got lost in the forest because you were bored while your grandfather was preparing a ritual, you cried in fear and called Fuyuki out. Just like before, a lot of people got hurt trying to stop you.”

“Then, when you got curious about the phone your father always used, your power activated again and summoned Akira. That kid has terrifying electric abilities. There were no casualties that time, but the entire village lost power for a while because of him.”

“After all that, your grandfather decided to teach you how to control your power. We were only three years old back then—far too young. But he insisted, because your power awakened earlier than it should have. At first, things went smoothly. We could meet and talk in the dining room. Still, synchronizing our power with your body wasn’t easy. We often lost control, and the same things kept happening.”

“The breaking point was when we tried to draw out your full potential—summoning all of us at once. Normally, your grandfather could restrain us when things got out of hand. But that time, even he couldn’t handle it. He was severely injured and rushed to the hospital, where he remained hospitalized for days in critical condition.”

“That was when you came to us and said you hated us, and that you wished we didn’t exist. After that, you stopped coming. And that’s how we ended up where my story began.”

When Chinatsu finished speaking, my chest ached. There were no bruises or blood—just a heart shattered by learning the truth about my past.

Both of my hands clutched my chest as my head felt like it was about to explode. I didn’t remember everything all at once, but little by little, memories began returning like puzzle pieces falling into place. Things I had never understood finally started to make sense, and without realizing it, tears began to stream down my cheeks.

I curled up, overwhelmed by pain and emotion. Then, as I heard her voice, warmth and calm washed over me as Chinatsu let me cry in her arms, gently stroking my head.