“Mom, I have something very important to show you, come quickly !”

Rei paused, shampoo bottle in hand, straining her ear to hear the rest.

“Yes, Fuyumi ? What's the matter ?”

When the little girl didn't answer, Rei sighed humorously and put the bottle back on the edge of the shower.

“Have children they said, huh?”

She slipped in through the open door.

“Keep an eye on your brother Touya, will you?”

The little boy gave her a big smile, his eyes shining.

“Don't worry, Mom, take your time!”

I barely noticed them, too busy playing with the glittering mermaid I held. She had an awesome tail that shimmered like a rainbow underwater : colorful reflections, like sunspots, danced on the acrylic surface of the tub.

“Shoto, do you want more water?

I shrugged.

The water was barely up to my knees and I was already sitting in the tub.

It is not as if I am going to die with water up to my belly button.

The boy turned the faucet on full blast and whistled happily. His fingers slid over the bottles of product lined up in the plastic container. He chose a purple one.

“It's not the day I wash my hair", I said.

His smile was that of a conspirator.

“We'll do it anyway to make Mom happy”

I gave him a doubtful pout, but decided to let him do it. He seemed to be in a good mood lately. In fact, he had been in a good mood ever since he came to apologize to me last time.

Since we often trained together without Enji, I got to know him better and he moved up in my ranking of least favorite kids in the world.

Touya patted the tub in front of him with his back to the door.

“Here, sit just there”

I did as he asked, still holding my little mermaid. The novelty of it had worn off and I had her jump out of the water into the depths of the bathtub after only a few moments of play.

Touya crushed the bottle of shampoo with one hand and poured the product into the other one.

He laughed out loud.

“Did you heard that? It made a fart sound”

He generously applied the shampoo to my hair and rubbed my head with an intensity that almost scared me.

“Hey, that hurts !”

I yanked away from him. The ghost of his fingers floated on my shoulders as he tried to keep me in my place.

“Sorry”

When I frowned at him, he shrugged and added:

“I always do it that way for myself”

He sighed.

“Come on, otherwise Mom will get angry”

I sat down reluctantly, my arms crossed. I had lost the mermaid in my stunt.

He began to rub my hair again, but this time much gentler. The water was still running, in the background, and steam was coming out. I lay back against the tub wall, my shoulders relaxing in spite of myself

My eyelids suddenly became very heavy. I wondered if it wasn't time for my nap.

I barely noticed when he put a hand on my neck.

I felt myself slipping into the water, not aware of what was happening around me.

“Hey, Touya, don't you think there's a lot of water in this bath ?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was so hot that I felt dizzy. My tongue was pasty, and my arms weighed tons.

“Hmm ? No, I always wash myself with lots of water. Now take a deep breath while I wash you down...”

He gently pushed my head under the water.

Her fingers stroked my hair for a moment to remove the soap.

The air was quickly leaving my lungs, but I forced myself to remain calm until he was through with my cleaning. I remember being furious with myself for not inhaling harder so he could wash me off once and for all. I stood there for a while, waiting for him to let me back up to the surface.

But he wouldn't let me surface again.

I tried to sit up, feeling out of breath. I tried to push his hand - he only held me with one - away from mine, feeling my nails digging into his skin.

I panicked and opened my eyes wide. The soap burned me, but I didn't close them. There was far too much water, so much that if it weren't for his hand on my neck, I would be floating.

My feet throbbed in the water as I tried to find some kind of support to lift myself up - but I was too small, too weak, and the tub was slippery.

Suddenly, my toe tapped against a wire that reminded me of a string of tiny beads.

I saw one of his hands reach into the water to put the shower trap back in place, but I had two feet and he only had one hand free. He slapped my feet with his hand. I redoubled my efforts and hit his hand as hard as I could, trying to get a hook in the wire between my toes so I could pull it out. His elbow dug into my shins as he tried to keep me from wiggling. I kept hitting him as hard as I could, pulling on the wire with everything I had, trying to get the water to flow down the drain.

Enough water flowed down that I managed to swallow a gulp of air by turning slightly to the side.

And then he turned the faucet on again.

I kicked his hand with my feet in an attempt to turn off the faucet with my foot.

He took the opportunity to close the shower trap. I tried to open it again. He turned on the faucet.

I felt like I was dying from the inside out. The lack of air made my mind foggy, but the adrenaline was making me fight like crazy, my legs hitting his hand in the hopes of hurting him enough to make him let go.

The water was rolling back and forth, and when I managed to catch him off guard, I was able to pop an ear or a piece of nose above the surface. I could hear the water splashing on the bathroom floor and hoped that if I moved hard enough I could get enough out to breathe.

But his hand was like bricks on my neck. For every millimeter I gained by moving closer to the surface, he pushed my head an inch deeper. His nails dug into my flesh until diluted blood replaced the bubbling bath water.

He pushed me so hard that my forehead hit the tub floor, momentarily disorienting me.

For a second I thought about freezing the water. It didn't take long to realize that he would use his Alter to boil me alive.

I felt helpless. I was powerless.

I could feel the pressure building on my lungs to the point where I knew they would soon explode. I struggled, kicked, scratched. My head felt like it was about to burst.

Inhaling was the simple solution. Open my mouth, let the water in...

My lungs wanted it. My throat begged me to do it.

A fate worse than death.

I opened my mouth.

For a split second, breathing in the water gave me relief. My lungs expanded, my throat stopped burning...

My eyes widened as I realized: My lungs were indeed expanding and my throat was no longer burning. I only had to inhale twice before my lungs were full.

After that, I couldn't even breathe in the water.

I felt my muscles relax. My mouth was open, my throat constricted. My torso was bent so that my belly button was in contact with the bottom of the tub, but my arms and legs were floating as if I were in space.

My eyes looked straight ahead, piercing the shimmering surf of the water.

His face was bent over mine.

The contours of his body were blurred out. The light bulb behind his head created an angelic halo around his white hair and obscured his face.

I could see the faint lines of his hair blending into the pristine ceiling before regaining its shape, but I couldn't see his expression. The water was a moving barrier that made the contours of his face unclear, as if he were melting into the background before suddenly reassembling himself.

He moved, blended, reformed, melted again.

He no longer looked human.

I breathed out a bubble of air, a bubble I didn't even know I still had in me.

I watched with envy as it swirled freely in the water, rising and rising and rising.

I raised a finger to catch it. To take me along. It stood still, rolling around my finger as if contemplating the idea of actually taking me with it. I tried to catch it in my fist. It slipped through the gap between my fingers and escaped without ever turning back.

I watched it until it broke through the surface of the water.

Then I closed my eyes.

I was just so, so tired.

His left hand was still on my throat. It was shaking.

The water was cold in my lungs, but on my skin it was warm, comforting.

My eyelids were weighed down with stones. My arms were as hard as marble. My thoughts were frayed, as light and inconsistent as wind.

This is the second time we’ve drowned.

My eyes rolled back.

And then a hand grabbed me by the neck and pulled me out of the water.

I immediately threw up all the water I had swallowed. I got a slap on the back to help me get rid of everything that I had just swallowed.

A sour taste ran down my throat. My nostrils were on fire and my eyes stung.

I saw Touya with his back to the tiled wall of the bathroom, as far away from me as possible, his eyes wide open. He looked terrified.

I was crying.

Someone screamed.

“Look at this damned bath, Rei ! Look at it and tell me he just wanted to play with his brother !”

I hadn't even seen her come back.

The corners of her mouth were quivering as she laid troubled eyes on the bathtub.

“Touya, why did you put so much water in the tub ?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the boy turn his face to me. I was physically unable to meet his gaze.

He started to cry as well.

“Shoto said I could, and-and-and (his voice was weak) and I wanted you to be happy that he was all clean...”

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to ignore everything going on around me.

It was only when my father's steady, comforting hand was wrapped around me that I realized I was shaking.

“Shut up”

There was no more noise.

Enji held me tighter. He left the bathroom. I was still crying quietly.

*