Chapter 157 - Leftovers

Finn fumbled his way down the slope, using the rocky walls to support him. He couldn’t see a thing, but even so he knew he was heading in the right direction.

All he had to do was follow the sobbing below.

He picked up the pace, the gravel and dirt tumbling down noisily as he half slid, half ran into the darkness.

The glow of a soft blue light made itself visible as he reached the bottom of the stairwell. His feet landed awkwardly on a pile of wooden steps and he stumbled forward, barely keeping his balance.

“Hurry!” The soft voice of the maiden said to him in his mind. Her voice was wrought with urgency.

“On it!” He grumbled.

The source of the blue light was blocked by the silhouette of a weeping figure crouched over top of the light. As Finn rushed forward he saw that it was Zwei, trembling and whimpering over a pile of glowing blue crystals.

“Get him away from the sarira.” The soft voice said. “Don’t touch them with your bare skin.”

Finn didn’t know the term, but he didn’t need further explanation. He grabbed Zwei by the shoulders and pulled him away from the glowing crystals. As soon as this happened Zwei seemed to ‘wake up’, as if he had been trapped in his mind prior to Finn’s interruption. His entire body started spasming as he screamed out in pain.

Finn dragged Zwei a few metres away, but suddenly let go as Zwei’s arm suddenly dissolved into a mass of writhing shadows. Zwei let out a blood curdling scream as splotches of black began to erupt all over his body.

“What in Lord Noga’s name-“ Finn stepped back, eyes wide as he instinctively held out his pistol toward Zwei.

“There’s no need.” The soft illusory voice calmly spoke into his ears. “I’ll try to save him.”

~

At this time Zwei wasn’t aware of his surroundings. He was completely disconnected from the world around him as his consciousness sunk deep into his mind.

He found himself standing on a rocky grey cliff looking out at a dull grey sea. The frothy waves were rough, and the clouds on the horizon were dark and brooding.

The weather had been like this since they’d arrived on the island. Gloomy, chilly. There wasn’t anything to do here, and even the ‘mansion’ that they were staying at was disappointingly sparse.

“What a crappy vacation…” He sighed.

No, wait… His eyes narrowed and he frowned as he felt that something wasn’t right. Shouldn’t I be in the middle of an investigation?

“Zwei!” A cheerful voice called out from behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Zwei look what I found!”

Yuzu clambered up the steps, her eyes beaming with excitement as she held up something in her hands. Her shoulder length hair bounced off her shoulders as she ran over to Zwei and showed him a seashell that was the size of a melon.

“Woah, that’s huge! Where did you find that?” Zwei smiled, receiving the smooth shell from his sister.

“Just down there, by the shore.” Yuzu pointed back toward the way she came, “This isn’t even the biggest one. I wonder what kind of creature lived inside a shell like this.”

“A snail, I guess.” Zwei turned it over. It was impressively heavy and lined with soft, evenly spaced bumps.

“I was thinking a six clawed crab.” Yuzu grinned, plopping down beside Zwei. Her legs and hands were covered in mud, as well as her dress - she’d obviously been scrambling around the rocks for some time.

“Mom’s going to scold you for dirtying your dress.” Zwei said, “Also, crabs only have two claws.”

“Yeah, normal crabs.” Yuzu laughed, rocking back and forth on her butt, “But for a shell this huge it must be a special crab, don’t you think.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Zwei shook his head, “Just because the shell is bigger doesn’t mean it’s going to have more claws.”

“Hmph! Char Char would agree with me.” Yuzu pouted, reaching out to take back the shell.

Zwei was about to jerk the shell out of her reach, but something on the horizon suddenly grabbed his attention.

Far in the distance, where the water met the sky, a dark shadow was growing. It twisted in strange geometrical patterns, dissolving the water and clouds in a thick inky darkness.

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“D-do you see that?” Zwei frowned as Yuzu yanked the shell out of his grasp.

“That’s not going to work on me!” Yuzu laughed triumphantly.

“No, seriously. Out in the distance, do you see that shadow?” Zwei pointed.

Yuzu looked over, squinting her eyes before looking up at Zwei with a confused look, “There’s nothing there.”

Zwei blinked several times as he looked out at the shadow. It shifted in strange, unpredictable shapes as it spread out across the line of the horizon.

“I’m not falling for that, Zwei!” Yuzu proclaimed, standing up, “Oh, mom said it’s almost dinner time, we should go back.”

The sound of Yuzu’s footsteps faded in the distance as Zwei’s mouth went dry.

“That shadow wasn’t there in the past.” Zwei said softly, his eyes hardening as he looked down at his hands.

They were smaller hands, from before he had his growth spurt. His voice too, was just starting to deepen.

At this point Zwei remembered who he presently was.

“This is a memory from six years ago…” Zwei muttered, turning to where Yuzu had left. A nostalgic feeling welled up in his throat as he went over their interaction. It had been a long, long time since he had heard Yuzu laugh.

“That shadow on the horizon wasn’t there in my memories…” Zwei frowned as he looked over to the creeping darkness, “Does this have to do with the psychic infection?”

“That’s right.” A soft illusory voice spoke in his mind, “It’s currently eroding your consciousness.”

Zwei blinked as he was startled by the voice. He looked around, but there was no one else around him.

“Who are you?” He asked loudly.

“A friend.” The voice said, “You need to find the source of the corruption in your subconscious and fight against it. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise…?”

“Otherwise you’ll lose yourself.” The voice replied. “I don’t have the power to help you find it, but it should be somewhere in this memory.”

“Zwei!” Yuzu’s head peaked up over the ridge as she waved to him, “Come on, mom’s calling us!”

Yuzu turned and disappeared once more. A nostalgic feeling filled Zwei as he hesitated.

“If it’s somewhere in this memory, then I should act according to how I remember it, right?”

This was a memory that was both very precious and painful to him. One that he had not recalled for many years.

With a heavy feeling in his heart he headed down the hill back to the mansion where his parents were waiting for him.

~

At this moment in the physical world, Yuzu was at home standing outside Zwei’s room.

Her hand was on the door frame as she stood in the hallway looking in. Her brother’s room was clean and organized. The covers on the mid-sized bed were neatly folded, the desk in the corner had a small stack of books related to his police officer studies. His clothes were neatly arranged in a small closet next to the door. There were several pairs of sandals and slippers tucked under the bed.

Next to the desk was a standing shelf that was filled with various items neatly arranged and organized. They were a mishmash of items - cups, pieces of jewelry, various tools. There was a weathered pair of large boots and an old leather bound journal. There an old frying pan that was burned black and an empty bottle of perfume. Most of them weren’t his own belongings, but belonged to their parents.

Though they hadn’t been used in a long time, they had been regular dusted and cared for.

This collection was almost all that was left of their past life. Xiang had gotten rid of most of the old belongings over the years, saying that there was “no sense in keeping old, broken things around”. As for Yuzu, she’d only kept a few pieces of jewelry from her mother, which were in a small trinket box on her dresser.

Xiang had once tried to get Zwei to throw out the contents of the shelf. They got in a big argument that turned into an actual fight. Both brothers ended up with bruises all over. After that, Xiang didn’t step foot in Zwei’s room again.

Yuzu stood in the doorway for a long time, a concerned look on her face as she looked around.

Zwei’s golden string was nowhere in sight.

Last night, or rather early this morning, Char Char had come up to Yuzu’s room and Yuzu had warned Char Char not to search out Hakuya.

After that Char Char left, and Yuzu had been so exhausted that she promptly went to bed and fell asleep.

The last time she’d seen Zwei he was sitting in the kitchen with Xiang, looking like something was bothering him. However Yuzu had other things on her mind and didn’t pay attention to his state.

Then when she woke this morning, she couldn’t find any trace of Zwei. The only strings in the house were hers and Xiang’s. From Yuzu’s past experiences, she knew that the threads of fate allowed her to look several hours into the future. The further into the future the vision, the more faint the strings were, but she could still see and access them if she concentrated.

She glanced at Xiang’s strings, focusing her attention on the faintest strings in the hallway. Though she didn’t have any specific way of telling the exact time in the threads, her intuition told her that the faintest ones were at least two or three days out.

As for the solidified strings of the past, they faded quickly. Yuzu could see at most several hours into the past.

No matter where she looked she could not find any trace of Zwei.

“This means… he’s not coming back here in the future…?” Yuzu muttered to herself.

A feeling of worry and concern filled her as she stepped into Zwei’s room, reaching out with her spiritual intuition to try to find any trace of her brother.

In the end, she couldn’t find a single clue to his whereabouts.

“YUZU!” A voice boomed out from the first floor.

Yuzu’s entire body tensed as she jumped in surprise. A look of intense irritation crossed her face as she resisted the urge to yell back.

Heavy footsteps bounded up the stairs before Xiang appeared in the doorway. He checked Yuzu’s room before popping his head into Zwei’s, “What are you doing in here?”

“Looking for Zwei.” Yuzu replied curtly.

“He’s probably at work.” Xiang grunted, “Doing whatever menial tasks the police give to junior officers. Probably regretting his decision.”

Xiang snorted, shaking his head, “Anyways! I’ve closed the shop today. How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” Yuzu frowned.

“If you’re feeling fine, let’s go out for lunch.” Xiang said.

“Why? We have leftovers.” Yuzu replied, “Didn’t you say we’re low on money?”

“That doesn’t matter.” Xiang stepped in and put his arm around yuzu’s shoulder, guiding her out of Zwei’s room, “How about we go to Tye Ann? Isn’t there a noodle shop you like there?”

“Yes, but you’ve never wanted to go before.”

“Okay, then let’s go today.” Xiang said. “My treat.”

Yuzu raised an eyebrow as she let herself be ushered down the stairs. Xiang’s behaviour was weirding her out. Xiang had always been miserly with money, she couldn’t remember the last time they had gone out to eat somewhere.

Yuzu cast a glance back at Zwei’s room. If her vision was correct, Zwei wouldn’t return home for the next few days. The bad feeling in her gut wouldn’t go away as she suddenly recalled something.

“Isn’t the main police station close to Tye Ann?”

“Yeah.” Xiang said, “Why?”

“Nothing.” Yuzu said, no longer hesitating, “Okay, let’s go out.”