MYSTERY II: Home?

Cradled in his arms, uncaring of the murky smoke that escaped the funeral house's chimney and mixed with the air, the young child blurred the reality in his mind.

“Saqib.. How was your home life?” Innocently, young Kaito asked. His fist gripped on Saqib's shirt, fear crowded the child's mind. Suddenly he didn't want to hear the story. Saqib leaned down and nuzzled his nose against Kaito’s squishy cheek. “Why the sudden curiosity, young master?”

Kaito shook his head vigorously, he squeezed his eyes shut with frustration. “Don't change the subject. And I told you to not call me that, we are friends! We are supposed to be on equal grounds!” Saqib sighed at the complaining young boy. Saqib observed the escaping remains through the chimney, memories of the past flashed before his eyes. “My home is a place I never want to return to.. Kaito. I don't have any fond memories of that place.” Kaito watched Saqib with utmost focus as Saqib mumbled the story of his past. He wrapped his small arms around Saqib's neck in a tight hug, to comfort him while he told his tale to the little boy.

“My mother loved me dearly but her love was suffocating. She tried to control my every action, to be the perfect ningyo was all she wanted from me. But…” Saqib looked down at the boy in his arms, his eyes twinkled with curiosity and a hue of sadness. “But what?” Kaito urged, unaware that he was digging buried memories of Saqib. However Saqib did not mind, he chose Kaito to be his master after all. “She was the only home I had. She was the only love I've had known. When I finally left home, I realized I couldn't truly really run away from it because the shadow of my mother followed me in ways I can't even describe it. I could never really escape that lake, both your family and mine..”

Kaito's memories burned fresh in his mind, as a child he was not able to understand the significance of the lake or Saqib's past but now when he was gone, things were ringing back into place. So many unanswered questions and so many answers that Kaito didn't understand. Forty-one hours since Saqib and Yukio disappeared.

This has dragged on for far too long. I will put an end to this. This will end right where it had  started.

This was the message Kaito found in his phone while searching for traces of Saqib. The ningyo had left behind nothing to track him down with. The only person who had any answers was the woman sitting right in front of him. For the first time in a while, Kira did not smirk like the all knowing she was but frowned, as if she was made to compromise something she wished not to.

Kaito banged his hand on the desk of her office, Kira did not flinch. “Stop sitting there like some stone statue! What are you hiding this time, Kira!? You never tell me anything and I never questioned you about it, I know that you would never harm me but Saqib is non-negotiable, I will not let you bargain him for your benefit-” Kira cut Kaito off by throwing a glass mug at him. The coffee inside splattered on the white marble when Kaito dodged it, this was not the first time Kira had displayed an action of aggression, Kaito was accustomed to her tendencies and he was definitely not afraid of it. His sister was crazy but she was still his sister.

“I didn't want to involve Saqib in this either, alright! I wouldn't have involved him if it didn't involve your safety!”

The room fell silent, Kaname and Hikari that stood outside Kira’s office, waiting for the commotion to calm down- even they knew none of this sounded good. Kaito's knuckles whitened and his eyes hooded in grief. “So you gambled him away in exchange for my safety? Just what is so dangerous out there that you and Saqib never want to consult me about decisions regarding me? What are you hiding, sister? Why did Saqib and Yukio disappeared at the same time?” Kaito bombarded Kira with questions that he held on to his whole life, he respected the decisions of his people, he believed that one day they would trust him enough to confide. Kaito bit his lower lip in frustration, the sweated beaded on their skin because of the height of summer. Kaito frowned, anxiety was settling in his chest.

The pure horror in Kaito's eyes didn't waver Kira, the siblings glared in silence. Until finally Kaito spoke of the thing Kira wanted to avoid the most. “Is it related to the lake?” Kira’s eyes widened, surprise gnawing at her chest. “How do you know about it?” Only at the mention of the lake did Kira opened her lips.

A chortle of disbelief left Kaito’s lips, he ran a hand through his sweaty silver locks. The anxiety and disappointed glistened his eyes but he bite back the tears. “How do you think mom and dad died? Saqib didn't just get rid of them because he was feeling it in the mood, sister. It was because he couldn't watch the abuse anymore! Despite him choosing me as his master, the only thing our parents cared about was the damn lake, never us. He freed us of those monster! We owe him at least this much, we can’t just-..” Kaito’s voice cracked and the tears finally fell from his eyes. “Please Kira, tell me what's going on…”

Kira was one heartless woman but the tears in her brother's eyes was where she always drew the line. She released one long exhausted breath. “Do you think our parents really died? That ningyo may be inhuman but he had more humanity in him than anyone of us.” She mumbled the truth, Kaito wiped his tears but the colour from his face vanished. “What-t?” Kaito did not want to believe it, he stumbled a foot back.

“Father is alive. Saqib let him go when he begged. Father still roams free. The one committing all these horrendous murders is none other than… father. The only reason I hadn't gone after the jester is not because it didn't concern us but because that murderer was our father… I don't want face him, Kaito..” Kira turned in her chair, she didn't want to show Kaito that his evil big sister was in fact afraid of something. “I asked Kaname to identify if he was human or not because I wanted to know if he was still human or if he found a way to become immortal… He killed Layla because he had been long since obsessed with her. I am one terrible cousin for always leading Yukio astray but I would rather him not know the truth. But look where that got me? He's gone after the exact thing I wanted to keep him away from. He are trying to lure that monster there.”

Hikari couldn't believe her eyes, it was far too much to take in. She thought she was the messed up one for loving Hiroshi, not knowing that the craze runs in everyone's blood around her. Kaito asked the only question that mattered to him in that moment. “The ningyo's lake, only a ningyo's master is allowed to go to there. I will bring them back.”

Kira didn't turn around to see Kaito walk away with his friends when he left. She was far too terrified. How could she face him when she lied to him about the truth... Once again, she knew by the time Kaito would find Saqib again, it would be too late.

“How could I tell you the truth? You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you knew that Yukio's curse was meant to be yours. The only reason Saqib let our father go was because he knew father would kill Layla. Because he knew the curse would fall to Layla's blood. But with how things are… father will definitely kill Yukio and the curse will circle back to you, my sweet innocent brother. It is all to protect you, even if it means killing my biggest investment.”

Kira didn't cry, she only hoped for the day to pass and bring about a new era.