Chapter Text
Hiiro’s voice was like that of a red-throated bird. Strong and clear, but most of all, earnest.
It was obvious that he was trying to make it sound flashier, more mature. That part didn’t suit him at all. However, it wasn’t that part which made Rinne’s heart freeze with dread.
It was that it sounded beautiful.
“Where did you learn to sing like that?” Rinne growled.
Hiiro turned around, hands clasped in front of his small chest and white shirt billowing in the manufactured breeze. The picture of innocence. “I don’t understand Nii-san, I learned how to sing here like everyone else.” He tilted his head, something akin to anxiousness flitting across his features. “Is it that I sound bad?”
Rinne fell silent, his brother’s pleading stare banishing the barbed words on his tongue. As much as he hated his brother’s gift, he couldn’t bring himself to lie and deny it.
“No Hiiro, you’re a natural,” Rinne said brokenly. “But where did you learn to sing like….”
Like you’re fighting for something other than survival, something that the aliens haven’t tainted.
Where did you learn to sing like me?
Hiiro blinked owlishly at him before breaking into a smile. “I just followed your example, Nii-san!” He said proudly. “You used to sing to me all the time and I liked it a lot so I guess that made me sing better now too.”
“That’s ridiculous, I only did that because you begged me to like a pesky mongrel. Do you even like singing?”
Hiiro nodded slowly. I like singing because Nii-san loves singing. And Nii-san is going to be an idol. And I’m gonna be an idol too to protect you from the mean aliens, so yes”, Hiiro said, squaring his shoulders, “I like singing.”
Rinne twisted his face into the ugliest snarl he could muster and roughly shoved his brother’s shoulders. Hiiro, ever the resilient little leech he was, didn’t move an inch. Since when did Hiiro become so strong? Rinne wondered, violently banishing the distant realization that his shove came out weaker than he intended it to be. He turned his face away, hiding the trembling at the corners of his lips. He could feel Hiiro’s gaze boring into him with that piercing, unblinking stare, stalwart and steady.
“That’s disappointing,” he gritted out, watching Hiiro’s face finally fall. “I thought I’d taught you to grow a goddamn head of your own. Are you still a brainless baby? Ever since you came around my life has become a series of rotten luck. Don’t you get it? I never wanted you here.”
“Niisan—”
Rinne shoved him again, and this time, Hiiro stumbled backward.
“And stop following me around,” Rinne snapped, stomping across the grass that was too green, the sky that was too blue, and away from a boy who was too bright, too innocent to belong to a place like Anakt Garden.
______________
When the aliens brought Hiiro into the dancing practice pod, Rinne watched from a distance, pressing his hands on the glass walls. He watched each cable click into the harness, each strap fastening his brother’s limbs to track his movement down to the smallest twitch. He watched as Hiiro took a step, tentative at first, and then spinning into a gliding swing, throwing his arms outward and swooping them into a graceful arc.
It was mesmerizing, with a determined edge to his finishing steps and a bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face, partially obscured by the heavy headset and goggles clamped over his temples. He watched as the wires of the machine looped over Hiiro’s arms as he spun, tangling and tangling until they looked painfully tight. Shackles.
Rinne clenched his fist and thunked it against the glass wall. It didn’t budge.
______________
Until only a month prior, Rinne had walked hand in hand with Lady Luck. In fact, he had grabbed her wrist, held it up, and slapped her own face with it. He knew his gift was an unfortunate one when the aliens sought talented singers and dancers for their newest hit hunger-games-ass idol survival show. Alien Stage was a sick joke, he realized when he had seen it on his owner’s television screen, watching those sparkling young contestants soar and fall into pools of their own blood.
And yet, to fly so high, to fall so low…wasn’t there a sort of thrill to it all?
Rinne moved closer to the screen. The sequins on the idol’s silver jacket glittered, catching the overhead lights and reflecting them across the walls. The blood of his opponent glittered too, garnet red, seeping into his satin pants.
It was sickening. It was horrifying. It was exciting .
It seemed far better than growing old as a mere pet, no better than a family dog. He knew he had it better than most, some humans were treated like slaves, abused, beaten, and despised. But such a stagnant life…wasn’t it just as good as being dead?
And then Hiiro, only eight years old at the time, came to sit by Rinne’s side. “Nii-san,” he had said, blue eyes blown wide, “What’s that?”
Rinne stiffened, blocking Hiiro’s view. “Don’t look lil bro. It’s the Alien Stage and it’s not good for young squirts like you to watch. But one day,” he said with a grin. “It’s gonna be my stage. I’ll take it from those bastards cuz I’m gonna be the biggest, brightest idol they’ve ever seen. I’ll blow em all away like this!” He flicked Hiiro’s forehead and made an explosion noise with his lips.
Normally, Hiiro would giggle and swat his hands away. This time though, his brother looked grave. “But Nii-san,” he said, “what if you end up like that one?” He pointed to the fallen idol clothed in ivory, blood turning his pristine jacket a deep burgundy.
Rinne sighed. “Even my cute baby brother doesn’t believe in me huh? Well ya won’t have to worry because your big bro never loses! Obviously I’d win the Alien Stage, clearly that poor sucker up there wasn’t 100% in his A-game.”
Somehow, this only made Hiiro look more anxious. After a minute of biting his lip however, a lightbulb popped over his head and he perked up. “Nii-san loves idols,” Hiiro realized, a bright smile growing on his small face.
Rinne sputtered, a heated blush crawling over his cheeks. “I don’t love ‘em!” he said indignantly. “Ya made it sound like a childish pipe dream. But yeah," he admitted. “They’re pretty cool. Wouldn’t it be something to stand on a stage like that while the whole world is watching? Even if it was just for a moment?”
Hiiro, to his credit, gave the question a good amount of serious thought. He was, however, only eight years old. “I don’t understand Nii-san,” he said apologetically. “They don’t look very happy. But if Nii-san wants to be an idol one day, I want to be one too! Then we could stand on the stage together.”
Rinne’s blood turned cold. “No Hiiro,” he said sternly. “You must promise to never, ever become an idol–not to follow me. You are the only one who can dictate your own life. Didn’t ya want to be a puppy-shop owner when you grew up?”
He could practically see Hiiro’s brain jiggling from the strain. Hiiro crinkled his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “I like puppies,” was all he managed. “But I like Nii-san more.”
Rinne’s breath stuttered. He turned away roughly and sighed, folding his arms over his knees. “Ya little sap,” he said. “What am I gonna do with you?”
From then on, Rinne made sure to sing in front of his owner, so much in fact that it was probably getting annoying. So annoying in fact that within a year, his owner promptly sent him to Anakt Garden, one of the best music education systems in the world. And Rinne had sung so hard, so determinedly that somewhere along the way, he must have missed the starry-eyed way Hiiro looked at him, drinking in each note, mouthing along each melody, until a second, tiny voice slowly began to join his own.
He only realized his mistake a full year later, when he bumped straight into Anakt Garden’s newest student, Amagi Hiiro.
Lady Luck must have snatched her hand back.
_________
“Nii-san?”
A tentative whisper in the dark. A familiar one.
Rinne grumbled and rolled over on his bunk, turning away from the noise.
Hiiro, ever the undeterred little leech, took that as his signal to climb into Rinne’s bunk and violently shake him by the shoulders.
“Okay, okay, geez I’m up,” Rinne groaned, running a hand over his face. “Did your candy ass have another nightmare?” he said, the words coming out harsher than he intended.
“Nii-san shouldn’t use such crass language,” Hiiro whispered. “The other students are sleeping. But, come look! There’s a broken panel in the main field.”
“Huh?”
“You can see some of the sky,” Hiiro whispered excitedly. Rinne sat up, feeling his mouth curl upwards into a boyish grin. It had been so long since they had seen the actual sky, and though it had turned red and smoky since the aliens had taken over, it was real .
He let Hiiro take him by the hand and the two of them walked across the too-green grass to peer at a single hole in the ceiling where a panel had broken off and fallen to the ground, scattering large pieces of glass across the field.
The two of them sat down and stared in awe at the sliver of crimson clouds curling into the dark. Somewhere in the distance, a single star shot across the night sky.
Hesitantly, Hiiro scooted closer and ever so subtly curled into Rinne’s side, the feather-light touch of a soft, curly red mop brushing his shoulders. Rinne went rigid and cast a glance at his brother. Never before had he looked so small; a thrush whose wings were tied to its fragile body.
Rinne raised his hand to place on his brother’s head. It was trembling. Soundlessly, he placed it back on the grass.
“Hiiro-kun,” Rinne whispered, “have you ever wanted to be a star?”
“Is this one of your strange riddles again, Nii-san? You know I have a hard time understanding those.”
“Have you ever wanted to be free? To see the world from a place where no one, not even the aliens, could touch you?”
“I’m…not sure what you mean,” Hiiro said bashfully. “I’m an idiot so I have a hard time answering questions like that. I’m happy if Nii-san is happy, but when I am here Nii-san always seems angry.” Hiiro curled a little deeper into his side. “I’m sorry for always making you upset, I just wanted to make sure Nii-san could be free and not…” Hiiro trailed off, bowing his head.
Rinne sighed. “This isn’t about me lil bro, I asked ya if you ever wanted to be free.”
Hiiro looked taken aback for a moment before frowning in concentration. “It might be nice to see the sky every day,” he said at last. “Oh! And,” he said brightly, “if I was free all the time, I’d get to eat omurice way more often!”
“Heh,” Rinne cracked a smile. “That’s more like it. Maybe one or two things I told ya might’ve actually gotten into that skull of yours eh?”
“I always try to listen the best I can, Nii-san.”
“I know ya do, so listen to me very closely, Hiiro. Your future is in your hand, it always has been, and just like that star, it’s shining with infinite possibilities. So, more than anything else, I want you to grow up into the person you want to be. Can you do that for me?”
Hiiro blinked. “You always make things so complicated, Nii-san,” he said. “I don’t know if I fully get it but you’re telling me to choose the star I want to be right?” He smiled triumphantly. “I think I got it now! I’ll do my best to shine brighter than even the moon.”
Rinne looked up through the broken ceiling and saw a second star twinkle into view. He lifted his hand from the grass and let the tremors slowly fade away before nestling it into his baby brother’s hair.
“I’ll hold ya to it then, kid.” He whispered. “I’ll make sure of it.”
________________
It was a peaceful night when the ground began to shake.
A couple of the students stirred, blearily sitting up and rubbing their eyes. There hadn’t been any sort of earthquake for years ever since the aliens messed with the earth’s core.
Ever so faintly, a cacophony of alien cries could be heard in the distance.
The ground shook harder.
More students began to rise and tiptoe cautiously out of their bunks. No one dared to open the door.
The distinct boom of an explosion shook the room. It sounded closer. Muffled, angry shouts of aliens quickly followed. The students shrunk back.
Hiiro, who might as well have been a rock, slept through the entire racket. Rinne climbed up to his brother’s bunk and roughly shook him by the shoulder.
“Hiiro, wake up,” he hissed, “somethin’ big is happening.”
Hiiro muzzily cracked an eye open. “Nii-san? What’s going on?”
“Not sure myself but it sounds like someone’s bombin’ the place.”
By now, a cluster of students had gathered by the door. Cautiously, Rinne took Hiiro’s hand and the two walked into the center of the crowd. Closest to the door, there was the scrape of metal against wood and a thump as one of the students, Kaname Tojou, if Rinne was remembering correctly, climbed atop a stray nightstand and faced the others grimly. Beneath his feet, the nightstand wobbled, one leg slightly shorter than the rest.
A nervous sort of silence fell over the room as fifty pairs of eyes turned to the small boy with light blue hair and golden eyes. Rinne automatically felt his own gaze drawn to the little twerp. It seemed merely having an extra two feet of height could command instant attention in a freak situation like this. Kaname scanned the crowd nervously, counting quietly under his breath before drawing himself up and holding his chin high.
“Everyone!” He said, “I can’t explain the full details but right now, a group of humans are storming Anakt garden.” A surprised string of murmurs rippled across the room. Kaname faltered before squaring his shoulders and steeling his gaze.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t warn you all sooner, but the operation needed to proceed in as much secrecy as possible. All you need to know is that they’re coming to this room in about ten minutes to get as many of us out of here as possible.” He said, speaking progressively faster.
“When that time comes, those of you who want to flee need to be prepared to run like absolute hell. I’m talking death nipping at your very heels. Does everyone understand?”
Kaname was met with a room of flabbergasted stares. Rinne felt his mouth falling agape and Hiiro’s eyes were blown wider than saucers.
“We’re gonna be freed?” Rinne choked out.
“I know it’s a bit of a shock,” Kaname said gravely, “but yes. Keep in mind though that in order for this to work, we need to move quickly. I will say it again, is everyone ready to run like hell?”
One by one, the students began snapping out of their dazed stupor.
“What the fuck?!”
“Like, now?”
“You really couldn’t have told us any sooner?”
“Can we trust these people?”
“Shouldn’t we bring a canteen of water or something?”
“Shit, I don’t know about this–”
Suddenly, the door burst open and a heavy gust of hot wind flooded through, reeking of alien slime and gunpowder. In the middle of the doorframe stood a rather meek looking young man with ashy, mint green hair.
“Hello,” he said gently through heaving breaths. “My name is Kazehaya Tatsumi and I have come to bring you all to the promised land. Please, hurry and follow me.”
“Tatsumi-senpai, you came early,” Kaname said, looking relieved. He sucked in a deep breath and pointed forward. “You heard him!” Kaname yelled. “Everyone run!”
A third explosion sounded from almost directly behind Tatsumi, snapping the students into a wave of panic. A stray chunk of concrete falling from the ceiling was the final trigger and a terrified mob of students began flooding out the door.
“Follow me!” Tatsumi called from the head of the crowd, “stay close and move quickly!”
As a suffocating wave of bodies shot past him, Rinne jolted out of his daze and fell into step with the thundering warpath, pulling Hiiro closer to his side. A manic grin spread across his face.
Feeling a rush of exhilaration, he ran faster, squeezing tighter onto Hiiro’s wrist. Was this actually happening? Were they actually being taken away from the Aliens? Where the fuck was the “promised land”? It all felt like some sort of crazy dream. Rinne narrowed his gaze and pushed further into the smoky corridor, explosions booming from behind. Maybe all of this was a dream but if this delusion was real, he would keep his eyes forward the whole way.
If Rinne had cast a glance behind him, perhaps he would have seen a shock of light blue hair missing from the crowd. Perhaps he would have seen the crumpled body of Kaname Tojou still lying in the bunkroom, trampled by the very students he had worked to set free.
Perhaps he would have seen the errant troop of alien guards coming straight towards the group, capturing students from the rear one by one.
By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. A slimy hand seized him by the arm and forced it behind his back. Rinne gasped, more in surprise than in pain, and forcefully let go of Hiiro’s wrist to shove him forward with his remaining free hand.
“Fuck!” He growled, struggling as hard as he could. The guard’s grip clamped down tighter. His blood turned cold. He couldn’t move.
Hiiro was frozen, horror growing on his face.
“Go, Hiiro!” Rinne shouted desperately. “Run!”
“Nii-san!”
“Don’t worry about me!” Rinne shouted, “Go! You need to get out of here!”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“Goddammit Hiiro!” Rinne snarled. “Listen to me!” He could hear the rapid footsteps of more alien guards approaching. Hiiro was running out of time. Rinne lifted his eyes to meet his brother’s own for the last time. He tried to remember every thread of bitterness woven into his memory, every time he wished Hiiro had never been born into this unkind world.
“I’ve always hated you!” he yelled with all the force he could muster. “I never wanted a brother like you! All you’ve ever done is drag me down!”
I want to give you everything I have, everything I hold dear…I’m sorry Hiiro, I’m a pathetic big brother, and this little freedom is all I can give you
“So leave!” Rinne shouted, voice cracking. “I never want to see you again!” He hung his head, hiding the tears spilling miserably from the corners of his eyes.
“You don’t mean that…do you Nii-san?” Hiiro whispered brokenly. “You can’t…I need you.”
He didn't want to look up, didn’t want to see the crushed look on Hiiro’s face–the signs that the last thing he would ever do for him was break his heart.
So Rinne never saw his baby brother angrily wipe his eyes and stand straight with a new, frightening determination filling his gaze.
“I understand, Nii-san.” Hiiro said, eerily calm. “I need to go now so I can come back to rescue you later.” He smiled bravely, pushing past his wobbling features. “I promise I won’t be long. And even if you don’t,” a sob finally tore past his lips, “I love you!”
With that, he turned and ran, disappearing into the dense haze of smoke and flames.
“No!” Rinne screamed desperately into the fog, “Hiiro! You can’t come back! Swear to me you’ll never come back! Please, Hiiro!”
But it was too late. His brother was nowhere to be seen.
___________
Five years ago, a small group of resistance fighters escaped with twenty students from Anakt Garden.
Five years ago, Amagi Rinne decided to become the greatest idol in Alien Stage history and invite death to her own dance, tethered to no soul but his own.
Five years ago, Amagi Rinne figured it was time to set himself free.