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“Kai… Once the Chidouins have left for their vacation, I need you to come back to the facility immediately.” his father commuted before hanging up the phone.
Kai sighed, beginning to pack his clothes and cooking utensils that Mr. Chidouin had graciously gifted him.
Kai Satou was not a simple man. His entire existence was just as another cog in the hegemonic machine that ASU-NARO had created. He was an assassin, but did not live up to his role and thus was delegated to merely watching over the Chidouin family as their housekeeper.
At some point, he grew fond of the new family he had become a part of. Even if he had never met their daughter, Sara, he still took pride in being able to name all her favourite foods and books. He looked back on his memories with the Chidouins fondly, twirling his hair as a smile found its way onto his face. Perhaps it was this affection that caused a parasitical worry to fester in the back of his mind. A worry concerning what business ASU-NARO had in the lives of a seemingly normal family. Those thoughts were stuffed into the deep recesses of his mind, as he scanned his ID Card along the card reader in front of him and entered the facility.
—-
“Hmm? Ah yes, Kai. Come in to the office, please.” his father’s proper voice boomed through the door. On guard, Kai slowly entered the room. On several occasions when Kai had been called to his father’s office, he had left with his ears ringing from shouts and complaints. It wasn’t like this when Sei was here.
Scanning his eyes around the office as usual, he found his father with baggy eyes and a straight posture as always. But next to him was… a small black-haired girl with a purple cardigan and a plain dress. Intently looking at her, Kai guessed she couldn’t be any older than seven years old, around the same age Sara was when Kai first began his home-making career.
“Who is..?” Kai began before being immediately cut off by his impatient father.
“She? Well, Ms. Hiyori from the Cognitive Neurological Department decided to get her awful son a little pet a few years back. They’re out on a special trip to America so they hoisted this child onto me.” his father seemed especially annoyed by the circumstances which was unusual considering his usual strict personality. The girl had not said anything so far, merely looking at the ground and keeping her hands together on her lap.
“I assume you have experience caring for Chidouin’s daughter for your mission, so I want you to take care of the child while I do my work.” the man before him stated bluntly, although he was incorrect in assuming Kai had experience taking care of children. When Kai spent his time in the Chidouin household, Sara was usually at school or playing at the park with her mother. Despite this, Kai did have a fondness for the small things she did around the house, the ‘Thank You’ gift cards she would make for the housekeeper she had never met. The girl standing before him was only seven, so he assumed it wouldn’t be too much work.
“Of course, Father.” he nodded at his father before the man took his briefcase and departed, leaving the two alone. However the next few seconds would surprise Kai as the girl quickly blew a raspberry at the door as soon as it shut.
Stifling a small laugh, Kai gasped and quickly moved to cover the girl’s mouth. “Don’t let him hear that.” Kai lightly scolded before a small smile appeared on him and he removed his hand.
“He’s mean.” the child bluntly stated disapprovingly. Kai supposed he understood, his father could be quite prickly at times, but he didn’t see him as a bad person. Not until what happened to Sei.
“He’s just tired and busy… Having the responsibility of having to look after you must have inconvenienced him quite a bit.” Kai explained to his new babysittee.
The girl looked at him inquisitively before a small frown appeared on her round face. “You use big words.” she pouted.
Kai then realised he was talking to someone who couldn’t be older than seven or eight years old. He let out a small laugh before introducing himself to the child. “My name is Kai Satou. It’s nice to meet you, child.”
“K..Kai..” the girl repeated his name, her eyes becoming more focused as if she was trying to say the name properly although she already had done so. Upon realising this, she grinned. “Easy name.” she stated.
“Indeed it is…” Kai responded, smiling back at this child. “And what is yours, may I ask?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the child’s smile faltered and a solemn look overtook her instead. Kai felt guilty, wondering if he did or said something wrong.
“Don’t have one.” she said, breaking her gaze and playing with her fingers.
“You don’t have a name? Then, what does Ms. Hiyori or her son refer to you as?” Kai inquisitively probed. In hindsight, Kai thought it more obvious considering the girl was raised in one of ASU-NARO’s countless orphanages.
“Brat.” an angry expression was worn as her face as the word rolled off her tongue. Kai’s mouth slowly curved into an ‘O’ before he took her tiny hand which seemingly startled her.
“Come. Let us go to the kitchen to eat something together. Perhaps there we can make up a new name for you.” Kai offered to the child.
“New…name?” her eyes sparkled at the possibility given to her. “Okay, K-Kai-senpai.” she slowly smiled as the two departed from the old office and made her way to the kitchen.
—-
“What would you like to eat?” Kai asked the girl as he rummaged through the cupboards of the facility’s only kitchen. Surprisingly, it was stocked with all sorts of foods, drinks and ingredients and all though Kai felt the need to cook something for both of them, he decided to let the girl choose her own meal.
The child in question was currently seated on the table, swinging her legs back and forth while waiting for her babysitter to finish looking through the kitchen’s many cupboards. “Cheese sticks!” she stated with no prior thinking needed.
Luckily for Kai, one of the cupboards did in fact have a pack of mozzarella sticks. “And anything you’d like to drink?” he added as he began getting the ingredients necessary to prepare his own meal of Eggs Benedict.
“Umm…” the girl thought for a bit. “Hot cocoa…?” the girl said reluctantly.
“Of course.” Kai nodded and took some sugar, chocolate, milk and the other ingredients for making hot cocoa before handing over the cheese sticks to the child.
As he began preparing his Eggs Benedict and the girl’s hot cocoa, Kai struck up some small talk with her. “So, have you decided on a name yet?” Kai probed.
“Um…No.” she replied, guiltily covering her hands behind her back. “Sorry…”
“No need for apologies. Take as much time as you need.” Kai patted the girl on her head, as he brought her hot cocoa and setting down his own plate on the table.
She took a tiny sip from her cup of cocoa before recoiling, probably from the heat of the liquid. “Hot.” she bluntly stated before her lips curved into a small smile. “I like hot things.”
“Oh?” Kai looked at the girl intriguingly. For all the things a child could be interested in, heat? “And why is that?” he prodded.
“Sou gave me a lighter. Fun to play with.” she explained, taking a bite from one of her cheese sticks.
“Sou?” Kai frowned before recalling some obscure memory that made him realise that she was referring to Ms. Hiyori’s son. He then realised the absurd irresponsibility of giving a lighter to a young child. “Lighters are quite dangerous aren’t they? It’s quite irresponsible to be handing them out to young children such as yourself.” he lectured the girl. He hoped that she hadn’t got any particularly nasty burns in the past as she looked at him, quite confused.
“Irre..ir…” the girl seemed to be trying to pronounce the word Kai had stated just seconds ago. “Irre-spawn-sipple…What’s irre-spawn-sipple?” She questioned after being able to properly pronounce the word.
Finishing his food, he grabbed the empty dish and went over to the counter to begin cleaning it. “Being irresponsible is when someone does things that they aren’t supposed to or are quite hazardous.” Kai explained to the youthling behind him.
Sitting back down at the table, Kai noticed the child had an even more confused expression on her face. “But Ms. Hiyori says Sou’s allowed to give me dangerous things.” she added on.
“Regardless, giving out dangerous items is not a good thing to do. You could get injured severely.” Kai put forth while allowing his free index finger to twirl his hair.
The youngster sat back down, seemingly have run out of arguments before she looked towards the running tap which was dripping small drops of water. “Ah, I must’ve let the tap on. My apologies.” Kai confessed, before going to turn it off.
“Mizu.” the girl stated abruptly. “New name.” she explained, crossing her arms proudly.
Kai looked back at her with a bit of confusion. Why be named after water, of all things? Especially considering she had an affinity for hot things. But Kai didn’t need to question the mind of a child and simply applauded her while twirling his hair. “Well, Miss Mizu. That’s a very nice name.”
‘Mizu’ smiled at Kai before another inquisitive look overtook her face. “Why…why black hair?” she asked.
Kai seemed taken aback by this question before he let out a soft chuckle before ruffling her own hair. “Don’t you have black hair as well?” he pointed out to her.
“I…I do?” she stood up and walked to the nearest mirror, before gasping at her own reflection. “I…I thought hair was green.”
“Hmm?” Kai was once again was flabbergasted by the child’s thinking. “And why is that?” he asked. Although the question and answer conversation was getting a bit repetitive, Kai still enjoyed it as a change of pace to his usual routine. It was almost like talking and playing with Sei again.
“Sou has green hair. Ms. Hiyori too.” Mizu explained her line of reasoning to her sitter.
“Ah, but that’s because they must have dyed their hair that colour. They weren’t born with it.” Kai explained to Mizu how hair colour worked.
Mizu gasped as a twinkle shined in her eyes. “S-so…you can…change it?” she looked up at Kai with almost puppy dog eyes.
“What colour did you have in mind?” Kai laughed.
“Pink!” Mizu exclaimed happily. “I….I want pink hair.” she said to Kai.
“Perhaps when you’re older you can dye your hair pink.” Kai smiled at the young girl, it was nice talking to someone younger than him for once. He happened a glance at the mirror behind Mizu and noticed his hair was a bit dishevelled.
“My apologies, Miss Mizu. I must go to the restroom. Wait here for me, alright?” Kai explained to the young girl.
“Okay.” she agreed, sitting back down and taking one of the cheese sticks to nibble on.
—-
Kai brushed his hair while looking into the mirror, trying to clean it before he could neaten it up a bit. That was until he saw him behind himself. Immediately, Kai dropped the brush as it collided against the floor. He was used to the hallucinations by now yet it still took him by shock and fear every time he saw Sei standing behind him in the mirror.
“Heeeeey…little brudder. Don’t ignore me now, you bastard.” the darkened mimicry of Sei mocked him, grinning at him viciously.
“You… You are not Sei.” Kai forced out, both to the hallucination and to his own self-conscious.
“Ahaha…That’s what you tell yourself. But you’re jus too afraid to face me, aren’tcha?” he attacked Kai, his poison words etching deep into Kai’s mind.
“Stop this… I can’t…” Kai gasped out for air, his breathing increasing to a fast pace.
“Hey…How about instead of talking about something old like how you left me to die, we talk about something new like the girl you’ve gotten attached to!!” ‘Sei’ laughed out as Kai gripped the sink violently.
“Wha…What?” Kai blanched in confusion. This hallucination was just a creation of his own mind, so what was he…?
“That girl’s probably gonna die some humiliating death. You know how it is in ASU-NARO!! Maybe she’ll be poisoned or drilled to bits!! Hahahah!” the hallucination took pleasure in torturing Kai with images of not only Sei’s death but possible scenarios of Sara’s death and Mizu’s death.
“ Ever wonder why ASU-NARO asked you to keep an eye on the Chidouin family? They probably want you to kill them or worse, they want you to keep them safe until they murder them themselves!! ” the bloody dark figure made Kai suffers relentlessly, making him think of the deaths of those he loved over and over again.
“Stop it… STOP!!” Kai shouted out as he dug his nails into his hair and palms, drawing blood from his mouth as he bit his lips.
“MISTER KAI!!” the door swung open immediately as Mizu rushed in, colliding against Kai’s leg like a football and hugging it with all her might.
“M-Miss Mizu..!? What are you..?!” Kai was caught off-guard by Mizu’s sudden entrance before looking up and seeing that the hallucination of Sei had disappeared.
“I…I heard you shouting, Kai-senpai!” Mizu didn’t let go of Kai’s leg at all while having her eyes closed.
Regaining his senses and his breathing slowing down to a steady pace, Kai looked down on the small girl and gave her a gentle pat on the head. “It’s alright, Miss Mizu. I’m alright.” he reassured her before kneeling down and wrapping his own arms around her tiny frame.
It had been years since Sei’s death yet Kai hadn’t truly moved on. But perhaps, he could learn to open up his heart to people like Mizu and maybe in the future, Sara.
For a moment, Kai Satou felt peaceful.
—- —-
Hinako kicked the dirt beneath her feet, bored out of her mind. The others had gone up to the control room on the fifth floor in order to find a way to save Keiji from being cremated by the coffin system while she was left with him, Mai and Q-Taro since they were injured and she was bound to Keiji by the pairing system.
It was just like Midori to pair her up with a former policeman, someone who had both brains and brawns. She was his ‘little assistant’ that his mother had given to him all those years ago. Nevertheless, she had to play by his rules in order to gain her freedom. In order to live.
Sighing, she twirled her hair while being bored from the lack of stimulation. Keiji and Q-Taro didn’t seem all willing to talk and Mai was unconscious.
“Heh.. The way you twirl yer hair.. Reminds me of Kai.” Q-Taro finally spoke up from his position slouched against Hayasaka’s coffin.
“…Kai?” For some reason, the name seemed eerily familiar to Hinako like it was the name of someone she should be remembering yet couldn’t.
“Yup. A swell guy, he was! I…I ain’t ever liked a guy like I liked him…” Q-Taro wore a solemn look of regret on his face.
“Huh. Tell me about him, got nothing better to do here.” Hinako inquired. What better way to pass the time then with a story?
“Heh, sure!!” Q-Taro agreed as he began to describe the story of a man who enshrouded himself in the darkness, who longed to love others yet was bound by the system he was born into. Hinako thought he sounded a bit like her, born into ASU-NARO’s horrible machine.
As Q-Taro recounted his past experiences, for the first time in years, Mizu smiled.