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Yor Briar woke up slowly, letting out a large yawn as she got off the couch she slept on. She brushed her hair out from her face, before moving towards the mirror and examining her appearance. Her hair was messy, and she had a bit of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth, but beyond that, she was satisfied. From the small wicker basket to the mirror’s side, she withdrew a small hair brush and began her work on straightening and styling her hair into her signature style. Once that was done, she went through the motions of getting up; throwing on any outfit she had, brushing her teeth, making a small breakfast for herself and her little brother, the usual.
After preparing everything for the day, she quietly strode into the only bedroom of the apartment. She stood at the foot of the bed for a long moment, staring down at Yuri as he snored. He’s the reason why, she thought to herself. I need to keep killing for him to live a good life, at least for a while. But . . . Yor shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her head as she gently shook Yuri’s foot. “Yuri, you need to wake up for school.”
Yuri groaned, “Gimme 5 more mins.”
Yor smiled lightly, before shaking his leg a bit more forcefully, “Yuri, it’s time for school.”
He again refused, “5 minutes, please.”
Yor’s face sobered as she gave him a deadly calm stare, “This is your last warning, Yuri. It’s time to wake up.” The boy refused to answer, turning over to the other side of the pillow, and Yor simply gripped the edge of his covers. “Alright, Yuri.”
She suddenly pulled, ripping it right off the bed and leaving Yuri exposed, his neon orange button-up pajamas with biplanes contrasting sharply with the gray sheets. “Ah!” The boy leapt up, looking around the room desperately. “I’m up. I’m up!” Yuri looked at the small clock beside his bed, before groaning, “Yor, school doesn’t start for a little longer.”
Yor gave him a small, apologetic smile, “I have to go interview at the library early this morning, so I couldn’t walk you to school at the normal time. I was just planning on walking you there earlier, but I-I guess that you’re a growing boy, so if you don’t-”
“I-It’s fine!” Yuri rushed to reply, before he relaxed a little. “I’ll be out to eat in a little bit, sis.” Yor smiled, before leaving the room and eating her breakfast.
X X X (An Hour Later)
Yor stood in front of the newly slammed door to the Head Librarian’s office, stiff as stone as she tried to process what’d just happened. I talked a little about how I wasn’t able to finish school because of Mom and Dad and how I needed to take care of Yuri . . .then . . . then she asked about how I was able to support both of us. But when I said that I gave massages to some older men, she started shooing me out of her office . . . is giving massages a bad thing? She frowned, before turning around as she rubbed her temples. I’ll need to tell Yuri about how I couldn’t get-
While she was distracted, she accidentally slammed into a blonde boy about her age, making him drop the books he was carrying. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed as she bent down to pick up his books, missing the brief moment of total shock flash across his face. “I should have been looking where I was going, but I was a little distracted, so-”
“You . . .” The boy interrupted, the words coming out slowly, as if he hadn’t spoken in a very long time, “You can see me?”
“. . . Yeah.” Yor gave him an odd look as he started to laugh hysterically, before she looked around them embarrassedly. “Stop! Everyone can see . . .” She trailed off. No one is looking at us.
“They won’t see,” the boy stated, slightly winded from his fit of laughter but still looking exhilarated. “They’ve never seen me before.”
“But . . . how?” Yor asked in shock, her task forgotten.
He shrugged, before leaning down to gather up the fallen books, “I’ve been asking myself that question the past . . . 3 or 4 years. Maybe I could figure out how to fix myself if I knew what was causing all this, but I . . .” He let out a sigh, before continuing, “I don’t have a clue as to what’s happening.”
“Can’t you ask someone?” She winced after the words left her lips, “I’m sorry! I guess if no one can see you, it’d be hard to ask for help.”
He waved her off, “It’s fine. I actually did have a few opportunities to talk to some scientists or counselors, back when it first started, but . . .” He sighed again, placing another book on the pile before he continued, “I used to think it was just some useful quirk - I worked as a . . . psychiatrist, so being able to observe my patients without them knowing it would be highly beneficial. Besides, I could deal with not being seen for a day or two at a time. But . . .” He trailed off as he picked up another book, staring at its cover. “My bosses and coworkers stopped being able to see me at all; I waited for months for them to finally see me, but it never happened, so I just left the hospital and I haven’t seen any of them since.”
That’s so sad. Yor gave him a sympathetic look, “I’m sor-”
He waved her off as he picked up the final book from the pile, “It’s fine. I’ve come to terms with my disability.” He placed it atop the pile, before lifting the entire collection up into his arms. “Well, do you have anything going on today?”
What?! Why does he want to know that?! Yor took a step back before smacking her cheeks. I need to-
“If you do, that’s fine. I was just thinking tha-”
“You can read at my home!” Yor covered her mouth, blushing red at her sudden boldness in inviting a man into her home. Why did I do that?! “I mean only you wa- only if you want to!”
He smiled. “Thank you for offering . . .”
“Yor. Yor Briar.”
He extended a hand to her, smile still firmly in place, “. . . Loid Forger.”
She took the offered hand, shaking it slightly as she stared into Loid’s face. There’s something different about him. But I can’t quite pick it out.
He withdrew his hand slowly, “I’d love to come over to your house, Yor.”
X X X (A Few Hours Later)
Twilight stared down into the book he was reading, The Secret of Invisibility, his thoughts whirling. Someone can actually see me? Why now, after a couple years, is someone able to see me? Not only that, but why just her? The past few times people could see me, everyone around me could, but now it’s just her. He reached to the side and sipped at the cup of tea Yor had made, before placing it back down. Besides, what am I even doing? I don’t know if it’s even invisibility rather than camouflage, or what suddenly caused me to do this? Let alone how to stop or even control it!
He felt like slamming the book down, breaking it in half, and then shoving it into Yor’s stove. Instead, he calmly closed it and placed it down on the small table where he sat, his hands shaking with frustration, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He let out a sigh, rubbing at his temples and trying to fight off the budding headache. “Are you okay, Loid?”
He smiled. Still . . . It’s nice to be able to talk with someone else for once. “Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you, Yor.”
She gave him a small smile in return, “It’s no issue, Loid.” There was a long pause as she seemed to consider whether to return to her book, before she asked, “Do you want to talk?”
He looked down at his book, before shaking his head. This wasn’t helping anyway. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”
There was a short pause as Yor seemed to debate what she wanted to talk about, before she asked, “What . . . what was it like to have no one see you? To be totally invisible?”
He paused for a second collecting his thoughts, “It was fun at first - I could literally do anything at all and I couldn’t get caught. I got a lot of work done extremely fast, and since I was able to help people by doing it, I didn’t mind it at first. But then, when everyone stopped being able to see me . . . it was fine for a bit. I was able to research more of my patients, and do some good with them, but then after a couple weeks it got bad.”
“What happened?”
He sat back in his chair, leaning his head back as he stared at the ceiling, “I started to break down. I had always been fairly quiet and content to be an observer, but after weeks of having people ignore you and everything you do . . . it gets to you after a while. It made me think that maybe I didn’t ever exist, that maybe I wouldn’t ever find a way out of my situation.”
Yor reached out, placing a hand over his own, “Are you feeling better now?”
He took a moment to stare down at their hands, pondering. Why am I speaking honestly? Have I really been that starved for attention that I can’t lie to anyone anymore? Damn it, get yourself straight, Twil-
Suddenly, Yor withdrew her hand, blushing deeply as she prompted, “Loid?”
He looked back to her, a soft smile making its way onto his face despite himself. “Yeah, I feel a lot better now.” There was a moment of silence, before he asked, “What about you?”
“Me?!”
Twilight nodded. “You can’t be more than a year or two younger than me, so why aren’t you in school or anything?” She looked down slightly, making him worry slightly. Did I do something wrong?
Suddenly, she looked up at him, a fire burning in her eyes. “I had to drop out of school so that my younger brother, Yuri, could live a good life!”
Her goals . . .
Yor calmed down a bit, looking down as she began to speak again. “Back in the bombings, we were caught up in it - my brother and I survived. Our parents didn’t. Someone had to make money for us to survive, and he was just a little kid, so I started doing odd jobs around the city to make some money for us.” She let out a small breath. “I was supposed to get another job today, but they kicked me out.”
Twilight gave her a perceptive glance. “Was it to be a librarian?” She nodded. “I’m sorry, Yor.”
She shrugged. “It’s fine, I suppose. I’ll just have to keep running errands like before, I guess.” She waited for a second, before continuing the conversation, “And what about you? How come you’re a psychiatrist this early?”
Twilight felt a brief moment of surprise, before he opened his mouth. “I was a highly adva-”
“SIS! I’M HOME!” He was saved from answering as a small kid entered the house, slamming the door closed as he came in. “Sis, I got the highest score on my-” He stopped, eyes darting around the room as he took in the changes.
“Welcome back, Yuri!” Yor exclaimed, a large smile adorning her face as she rushed towards him, sweeping him up in a hug.
Twilight couldn’t help a small smile from forming on his face. Such cute siblings.
Yor let Yuri go, before asking, “Do you want any tea? I have a pot warmed up.”
He shook his head, before staring at the pile of books, “I’m good, but . . . who’s the creep at our table?”
Twilight comically fell off his seat. HE CAN SEE ME?! And . . . ‘creep’? He shook his head, “You can see me too?”
Yuri gave him an odd look, eerily similar to Yor’s. “Can’t everyone?”
Twilight let out a short bout of relieved laughter. 3 years, absolutely no one could see me - 1 day, and suddenly there are two people that can see me. What the hell!
“Yuri! You shouldn’t be so rude!” Yor chided softly.
“It’s fine,” Twilight waved her off. “After no one could talk to me, having someone be rude is like a breath of fresh air.”
Yuri gave him another odd look, before turning to Yor, “What’s he talking about, sis?”
Before Yor could speak, Twilight interrupted, “Until I met your sister earlier today, no one has been able to see me in years. And now, you can see me too.”
Yuri looked back to his sister, who nodded, before looking back to Twilight. “Why is that? You aren’t invisible, otherwise everyone could see you since our eyes don’t perceive different types of photons from others.”
That’s it! Twilight couldn’t help himself - he jumped up off the floor, giving Yuri a brilliant smile as he ran forward and grabbed his shoulders. “That’s brilliant! I’m not invisible; something’s just keeping people from seeing me!” He turned around and began pacing quickly, “I don’t know what it is, but this is a start!”
Yor gave Yuri a tight hug, “Good job, Yuri!”
Twilight continued pacing, his mind racing faster than his feet could take him. If it’s not invisibility, then I just need to find what’s shielding me from everyone else. Once I do, I could either convince or force it to stop doing that and then get back to work. But now the question is how to find it. Maybe I could use one of WISE’s informants, give Yor my code and ask them for info . . . maybe. He stopped pacing, looking over the two siblings. I don’t want to involve either of them in my search, but . . .
“Do you think it may be . . . Adolescence Syndrome?”
Twilight’s thoughts crashed to a halt as he focused on Yuri. “What?”
Yuri shifted a bit, “I heard a few of my friends talking about it. Apparently, it’s when a teenager is dealing with some emotional trauma or event, and something about them changes.” Both teenagers stared at the boy incredulously, so Yuri continued, “They’ve been known to split into two separate bodies, relive the same day, switching bodies with another person, and fading out of both existence and everyone’s memories.”
Twilight’s eyebrow rose. Although the parallels exist, I don’t think that that’s it. As far as I’m aware, all the victims of Adolescence Syndrome had some underlying issue regarding their emotions that caused the change. And although I do admittedly have some emotional baggage, none of that came or escalated when this started. He shrugged, humming lowly before he asked, “Why do you think that, Yuri?”
“It’s nothing natural that’s stopping people from seeing you, so it has to be something unnatural. And Adolescence Syndrome is known for causing unnatural effects in the lives of its victims,” Yuri stated matter-of-factly.
Twilight nodded. A fairly reasonable assumption, I suppose. But that still doesn’t get past the issue of me not having any emotional event happen when it started. He hummed, before smiling good-naturedly and said, “Thank you for the info, Yuri! I’m going to go ahead and try to get more stuff out of the library.” Without another word, he rushed to collect all the books on invisibility he’d taken from the library earlier, lifted them up, and began to cart them across the room. I’ll need to get as much information as possible on Adolescence Syndrome and what eliminated their symptoms.
X X X (A Couple Nights Later)
Yor quietly opened the door to her apartment, looking behind her to make sure that she hadn’t woken up Yuri or Loid. I don’t know why Shopkeeper felt the need to give me a sudden contract, but I guess I can’t turn down the money for it. When she had sufficiently confirmed her stealth, she silently stepped through the doorway, not looking back as she carefully closed the door behind her.
Shortly after she began her journey, she darted into an alley. Someone’s watching me. But . . . who could it be? She shook her head, before running through the alley, taking several sharp turns and occasionally doubling back on her path and moving in random directions, before coming to a stop about a block away from her target’s home. I still get that feeling, but there’s no way someone could have followed me . . . I must be imagining it. She shook her head, rubbing at her temples to relieve some tension. You need to calm down, Yor. Not everything’s a trap.
She stuck to the shadows as she made her way down the block, her black dress helping to avoid much attention from the few midnight joggers she came across before she entered the building. As she entered the grounds, avoiding the admittedly few guards she saw patrolling the grounds, she snuck up to the house itself, before slipping into an open window, frowning as she landed lightly on the ground. This is too easy - usually, these traitors know they have secrets to protect and enemies to defend against, but there haven’t been hardly any guards and the window was just open. Maybe this one’s an idiot, but even idiots have some sense of self-preservation, especially the traitorous idiots . . . I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
She shook her head, picking herself up and creeping down the hallway, keeping her senses sharp and pointedly ignoring the pit forming in her stomach as she peered down each corner she came to. Eventually, she made her way through the house, gripping her gilded needles tightly when she came within sight of a few guards standing guard in front of a large double door. She took care of them quickly - a single needle to the heart each was all that was needed to take them out - before striding forward, grabbing the needles and taking a deep breath, before kicking down the doors. There, standing directly in her was her target, “Senator Banks . . . may I have the honor of taking your life?”
Before Yor could take another step forward, she heard her target call out, “I wouldn’t take another step forward, Thorn Princess.” Her stride hitched for a second, before she continued forward. “Boys, kindly reveal yourselves.” To her sides, almost a dozen men stepped out of the shadows, their guns pointed directly at her, and she suddenly felt terror clawing at her heart.
I’m sorry, Yuri.
“Now, Thorn Princess, you’ve got yourself a choice here : stand down and I’ll report you to the Secret Police, where you’ve got a chance of living, or move your body an inch and my men will open fire, and you. Will. Die.” She could taste the smug air the senator projected.
What should I do? Yuri . . . I might not see you again.
Without a word, she knelt down, dropping her needles and letting them clang on the linoleum flooring. “Alright boys, bind her wrists and ankles - tightly! We don’t want her escaping now, do we?”
The men came forward, one with a dozen or so zip-ties, which they rapidly had fastened around the mentioned joints. Suddenly, one of the guards exclaimed, “My gun! Someone took my-”
A gunshot rang out of the darkness of the hallway, stopping the man’s panicked exclamations forever. “Who the hel-”
Another gunshot. Another man fell.
Senator Banks yelled out, “Fire! Fire anywhere!”
In spite of all the bullets flying into the darkness, men continued to fall to the floor, bullets buried deep within their hearts. While the men were distracted, Yor twisted her body until she could reach her needles, grabbing them and cutting her bonds. She leapt out of the line of fire, before standing and slowly making her way to Senator Banks as the men behind her fell, one by one. “Senator Banks . . . may I have the honor of taking your life?”
Before he could react, Yor rushed towards him, slitting his throat and stabbing his chest to the wall in one swift movement. As the man choked to death on his own blood, Yor stared into his eyes while the light slowly left them. May you rot in Hell, you traitorous scum!
Behind her, she noted the gunfire slow, before finally stopping for good. “Well, that was an exciting night, right Yor?”
Yor turned on her heel, “Loid?! What are you doing here?”
He gave her a quick shrug before answering, “I saw you leave in the middle of the night, got a little worried, and followed you here.” He gave her a quick once-over, “How about you? Why’re you here?”
She looked down, suddenly ashamed of herself as she tried not to look at him, before she answered. “I . . . I’m an assassin. I’ve been one since I was little . . .”
“Those odd jobs that you mentioned doing, to support both you and Yuri, they’re actually . . .” He trailed off, gesturing to their general surroundings, and she reluctantly nodded. “That’s . . . actually really admirable, Yor.”
WHAT?!
X X X (Same Time)
Twilight looked back to Yor, smiling sympathetically, “That’s . . . actually really admirable, Yor.” Her head darted up, eyes searching him for honesty, but to both of their complete surprise, there wasn’t an ounce of deception within his words.
“Do you mean that, Loid?”
He looked into her eyes, which were already red from tiredness, and he couldn’t help himself from blurting out, “Of course, Yor.” Control yourself, Twilight. He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before continuing, “To give up your own innocence, your safety, for the safety of someone else, that someone else can live a prosperous life . . . that’s the most admirable thing someone can do, at least to me.” As he spoke, he couldn’t help but imagine himself and his childhood friends, their names all forgotten by him, enlisting almost a decade ago.
Before he could blink, Yor had wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly, excruciatingly so. “. . . Thank you, Loid.”
As they stood together, Twilight slowly felt his chest warm, and try as he might, he couldn’t stuff those feelings down. Unconsciously, his arms came up and wrapped themselves around Yor’s shoulders, as his mind began to race. What’s going on?
“Loid . . .” His train of thoughts crashed as she began to speak, “I’m glad that I could see you.”
She’s glad . . . to have seen me? Loid couldn’t help the blush that flared up across his body. I . . . I’m glad that we met too, Yor. I love . . . He shook his head, before saying out loud, “I’m glad that we met too, Yor.”
She looked up at him, blushing hard enough for the blood to almost blend into her face, before asking, “Can you let go, Loid? We shouldn’t stay too long.”
Loid continued blushing as he released her, “Of course. I’ll follow you out, I guess.” She nodded, stowing her needles away in a holster along her thigh, before taking the lead and leading him out of the building. I think . . . I think I like being Loid Forger. Maybe I’ll stay here for a while, in order to give WISE a contact within Ostania . . . sure.
X X X (The Next Day)
Loid exited Yor’s apartment with both her and Yuri, some blood still splattered across the cotton shirt he was wearing. “Are you ready, Yuri? You’ve got everything that you’ll need?” Yor asked, giving him a quick check up to check if he looked okay.
He waved her off, blushing as he stated, “I’m almost a grown-man, sis! I can dress myself!” He strode ahead, making Yor and Loid both begin moving as well.
Loid looked down at him, smiling good-naturedly as he casually commented, “If you’re almost fully grown, then that’s a little unfortunate.”
Yuri stopped taking steps as he turned, “I’m not done yet!” Loid shrugged, putting up his hands in a gesture of peace as he let out a small chuckle and beside him, Yor giggled a bit. “You’re lucky I have school today, Loid, otherwise I would pummel you.” Yuri hmphed, before turning around again and moving forward.
From beside him, Yor quietly stated, “You’re a good influence on him, Loid. And he likes you, despite what he says.”
Good influence? I mean, I guess.
Loid shrugged and opened his mouth to say something in response, but before he could say anything, one of Yor’s neighbors cut in, “Young man, I’m sorry to butt in on your conversation with Ms. Briar here, but you have something on your shirt.”
For half a second, Loid’s mind continued functioning like a normal human, before he stopped mid-step, falling over on his face. SHE CAN SEE ME TOO?! Loid picked himself off the ground, before turning back to the elderly woman, “Excuse me?”
“Your shirt. It’s covered in some dried ketchup, or something of the like.”
For a full second, he struggled to force himself to move, before he smiled, “Thank you for letting me know, ma’am.” He walked forward with Yor and Yuri, his mind racing with each step he took. I’ve passed that woman several times over the past week, and she hasn’t reacted to me once, but now . . . Can people see me now? Is the nightmare finally over?
“Loid, are you okay?” Yor asked, bringing him out of his own head. “I know it must be a shock to find out that someone else can see you.”
Loid smiled warmly at Yor as they moved, “I’m okay. In fact, I think things are about to get much better.”