3. Step into Godhood.

That Same Morning Before Harugi Arrived.

I have studied every thread of science I could acquire, every natural law and phenomena. Yet I chose to believe in some scribbled rubbish my delusional ancestor couldn't shut up about.

What a waste of my time.

I sat in my study, squeezing the white key I had spent so much time and energy to acquire. Last night after the ritual I hopelessly flopped, I kept unlocking the supposed miracle door, which was actually our wine cellar door all night long, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"Hatchew!!"

I only caught a cold instead.

I stared at my own journal, all the scribbled equations I had written over the last year covered the page in a rather disgusting manner, even the ink itself looked like it couldn't keep up. Sigh, I really was stupid.

"Now I'm really done for." I said in a sigh and slammed the book close.

"What's going on? I can't see a thing!" the sound of shattering plates rang out just outside my room door, with some little white pieces sliding in through the little gap underneath.

"Not again." I dragged myself to my feet. I recognized the voice almost immediately, it was one of the new house maidens, the four eyed one.

"I don't need this right—" my words faded into the jarring darkness I met on the other side of the door. I spotted the maid struggling on the ground just beside the mess, the walls were totally black, so black it looked less of a shadow and more of the color itself.

I looked down but couldn't see myself, I moved my fingers in my face but still couldn't spot a single thing, for some reason, all I could see was the maid crawling on the floor.

What's this, how is this possible. It's meant to be sunrise!

The darkness brought a sudden chill I didn't fully feel, yet I shivered.

"Ow!" She winced having scraped a finger on a sharp edge of a broken piece.

"Stop moving that way." I said and she stopped, more like paused instantly, no yes young master, no stammer, just immediate obedience. But the uncanny setting didn't allow me to give it much thought.

"Are you okay? Go clean yourself up." I said.

"Yes." Her voice got deeper as she replied, she dragged herself up until she faced me on her two feet. A pale expression covered her face as she stared at me.

"Why are you staring at me that way?"

She didn't reply. But made her way down the passage with precise steps, not minding that she couldn't see a thing. She walked in a straight line without her glasses. I'm sure cause I was stepping in them.

Weird.

I brushed the whole thing off my mind as I faced the anomaly again, the darkness that swallowed my sights.

What could this be?

"Unexpected booting delay of twelve hours sixteen minutes. System is functioning safely at seventy-six percent."

"What the?" My entire body shivered to the words spoken in my head. It was so clear yet cracked like nothing I've heard before, it was definitely not a human.

"Who said that?" I asked, turning left and right even though I knew it didn't come from an external body.

"Remaining time twenty-four minutes."

No way. There's no way!

I rushed back into my room only to meet it just the way I left it, not pitch black like the passage, but warm to the skin like the sanctuary it always was.

No way, no way, no way. . .

I kept chanting with tight lips as I ravaged my study table for my ancestor's journal. My skin instantly grew goosebumps while adrenaline tore my eyes open. Could it really be?

Seconds later, I held the ragged journal in my own hands, I skimmed through the pages as fast as I could without missing a single one.

"Where is it? Where did that beautiful genius scribble down the rules?!" My eyeballs turned with the pages.

Wait.

A great idea hit me while I slowly let down the journal.

If it really is happening, then there should be no limitations.

"I fully understand everything happening to me right now." I said into the open space with more morale than a little kid who just won a huge toy.

Immediately, images flashed into my head in milliseconds, more like they weren't there actually. Or were always there. I could see them fit into my life, feel them, and by the next second I was fully aware—

"Is that so?" I couldn't help but release a wide smile, or frown, I didn't care.

Because I'm now aware...

Of my very own Godhood.

I had dreamt of this day for so long that I began to believe it would just remain a dream, a goal which I'll undeniably fail to reach. But as I stood firm in my study, with the sovereignty of a god — I just can't hold back the tears.

Ah — first things first.

I quickly wiped the little teardrops forming at my eye holes as I held up my left wrist.

"Extend the time limit indefinitely." I said with a grin but nothing happened. I really hoped that would work.

"My time is extended by twenty-four hours."

"Request Pending Approval." The same obscure voice said right in my head and I sighed.

I looked up at the ceiling, "Approval from who? Commands on the time limit doesn't work, just like the journal said."

I stood still for a while, just letting my time pass by. I had pursued this for years, and now I have it. So why do I still feel — the same.

"What do I do now? How do I get my family to recognize me now?" I pondered, lost.

"Young master Harugi Shoniko has arrived!" A series of ringing bells accompanied the usually echoing announcer's voice as it sipped through the walls, and everything else automatically ceased to matter to me in that single moment.

"Big brother!" I leaped for joy.

My beloved elder brother was back, it was at times like this I could relax and be a bit happy in his shadow which managed to mask me from my family's spite.

But this time will be very different.

"What are you still doing here white paper? Surely you must have heard the bells, the useful son is here to visit." My elder sister slid into my view through the door I mistakenly left ajar.

"Of course I heard it. I'll be out soon." I replied blandly and she gave me a really dirty look.

White paper is what she's been calling me for more than a year now, but I never really got used to the way it stirred me up. Though I hid it well.

"Hah?..." She leaned forward into my room, "What are you doing in here that gives you the right to reply 'soon' to father?"

That's it.

"Jinoke, shut your vile mouth." I said and her gums slammed against each other instantly, my lips curl up into a smirk but I quickly wiped it as I watched her struggle to curse me one more time.

"Bbbhhbbbh" she mumbled sounds with her lips.

As much as it was fun to watch, I just couldn't stand her struggling that way, she was family after all. So I undid it the next minute, then wiped her memory of it clean. To her, she just called me white paper few seconds ago.

Nevertheless, I followed her to the entrance gate where Harugi would be welcomed, only then did I notice the walls right outside my study was now back to normal. There was still much about this anomaly I hadn't figured out yet, but I plan to live in the moment for now. Yes, in my omnipotent moment, with my family.

** **** **

The sound of the door speedily sliding open took my attention away from Musashi's burnt corpse.

"Wha-" I watched Harugi struggle to speak as he paused with one foot already in the room. His eyes were fixed on the vile corpse and they widened in shock.

"We were family, Harugi-san." I said and his eyes slowly drifted to my position. The horror in his face boiled my skin, how could he fake such a face?

Someone who was ready to kill his own brother should have a heart like stone!

"Come!" I gnashed my teeth so hard as the air sucked Harugi towards me.

A second ago he was at the door, now, my left palm was spread across his face while he knelt before me. With his eyes shaking like hell.

Yes. How worthless do you feel under my grip?

I've felt that way my whole life!

"Please. No." He pleaded, but it just got me angrier.

"System functioning steadily at eighty one percent."

The voice in my head made me smile inside.

"Does Yuta know what you all had planned?" I asked.

"No." Harugi's face shook under my grip.

"Harugi-san, say the truth." I said and Harugi quickly said the plain truth.

"Yes but he's against—"

"That's all I need to know." I hushed him.

That little brat knew I was going to be killed like an animal, and he didn't even allow me little peace by throwing the ritual yesterday. He has a heart of stone too.

"Please, he's just a boy."

"So am I brother." I stared at him one last time.

Whatever you say won't matter, I've already decided to be the villain that brings this joke of a family down.

Father, Jinoke, Yuta, you. You all will—

"Burn!" I declared.