Chapter Text
Inukawa Aneko was a serious person. She was raised by serious people, and thus it was in her nature. She worked at a bank, was married to a firefighter, and had a son who recently turned 15. Her parents were proud of their daughter, and she in turn was proud of herself. By all accounts, she was successful in having a normal life.
Except for the fact that she was the older sister of a criminal scam artist. At least, that’s how she thought of him. Aneko hadn’t spoken to Arataka in years, and she preferred to keep it that way. She never introduced him to her husband (his brother-in-law) or her son (his nephew). He was a no-good, 2-bit conman who paraded himself around as a so-called “psychic”.
Aneko had to admit that she had witnessed things in this world that did not have a logical or scientific explanation, but she did not allow those events to dismantle her firm stance that the paranormal did not exist. She had seen the press conference on TV. She had seen the incident that occurred. Yet, she refused to accept it. At least, she refused to accept that it had been the result of her younger brother’s “powers” he claimed to have. She lived with him from the day he was born until the day she moved out at 18. He was only 11 at the time. She never once witnessed any of these “powers”. She had, however, witnessed his tendency to lie, even when he didn’t really need to.
Unlike the rest of the Reigen family, Arataka was not a serious person. He had always been loud, disruptive, and could never sit still. The rate at which he moved his hands when he spoke was undeniably annoying. Wanting to minimize the chaos he surely would bring into her life, Aneko limited the contact he got with her. When she got married at 20 to Inukawa Kentaro, she made sure to plan the small service to align with a week that Arataka would be out of town on some trip or camp or wherever. She couldn’t really remember. She just knew that she couldn’t afford her, at the time, 12 year old brother to ruin that day for her with his volume and antics. Their parents, of course, agreed with this idea. They were both serious like Aneko, after all. When her son Mameta was born the following year, she did not tell Arataka. She had already decided to not let him be a part of her son’s life. He was 13.
Had the realization that it was ridiculous of her to decide to push her brother out of her life when he was barely even a teenager at the time ever dawned on Aneko? The answer was yes, but she had begun to justify that choice for herself as the years went on and she saw what he had become. When Arataka was in his early 20s, she considered reconnecting with him, as he worked at a reputable company and was a plain old office worker. She thought his days of impulsivity and reckless behaviour were over, until he quit his job one day and opened up some strange exorcism consultation office. She decided that Arataka was only ever going to lie. Aneko did not want that sort of person in her life.
Ironically enough, she too would lie. She never spoke of Arataka to her son, and only did so to her husband when she felt the need to complain about her brother. When asked by her young son if she had any brothers or sisters, she answered by saying she did, but that her brother was estranged from the family and was not a good man. Little Mameta didn’t press on the issue much as he was just a child and didn’t really think it was worth his time. He’d rather play games with his friends.
But as much as Aneko tried to keep Arataka out of her life, she couldn’t help but find him creeping in. Not the actual him, of course, but things that reminded her of him. When Mameta was a little kid, Aneko came to the realization that he looked strikingly like the way Arataka did at that age, so she began styling his hair differently, parting it down the middle. Mameta had worn his hair like that ever since, never really questioning why. It’s just how his hair was, for him. It didn’t help Aneko that Arataka and she looked shockingly alike. Despite being 7 years older than him, as adults, the two Reigen siblings could have the potential of being mistaken for twins, if, by some impossible feat, the two were ever in the same room together.
On occasion, now that Mameta was getting older, she’d hear him speak and hear the voice of her brother. It unnerved her. It didn’t affect the love she felt for her son. It somehow only furthered her disdain for her brother. Arataka was affecting her, even now.
Arataka had tried reaching out a few times over the years, but Aneko always shut him down. The last time they had spoken, Aneko bluntly told her brother to hurry up and turn himself in to the cops. She was convinced he was a conman.
She knew, of course, that her brother’s relationship with their parents didn’t fare much better. Their mother was under the impression that Arataka was being tricked by someone into doing his current “job”, while their father considered him to be unemployed. Arataka hadn’t shown his face around his family in years, and Aneko believed it was better that way.
Despite her brother being who he was, Aneko tried to lead that normal life. But then he was on the news for being a scam artist…and then there was the press conference…then terrorists attacked, and that giant broccoli appeared out of nowhere…and then disappeared. Her memory of that time felt wrong and fuzzy.
But then she lost a chunk of time. She remembered around the time of New Year’s Eve…and then her memories seemed to resume over a week later. The same went for her husband. Her son seemed unaffected, but by his accounts, everything had just been normal. She never brought up her memory gaps to her son directly, moreso asking him how the new year had been for him so far. He replied as he usually did, saying he’s had fun with his friends and that he didn’t want school to resume. Something about him had changed, however. She couldn’t figure it out, but something was…off with Mameta.
She had dreams sometimes of that lost chunk of time, with the dreams always being the same. Her son was missing and she was trying to locate him…but according to Mameta, life had been normal. After the city was once again destroyed by some unexplainable event filled with earthquakes and power outages, Aneko had to continue rationalizing the world around her to fit back into the scientific and logical view she had always held.
But then?...Life resumed as normal. There hadn’t been another unexplainable astronomical occurrence since then, and she found herself staying the same as she had always been: A serious person with no time for things like that. Although the nagging reminders of her brother affected her greatly, as much as she tried to hide and ignore them.