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When Nanami opens the door to her brother's room to bring him his dinner for the evening, she finds him in the same state he's been in for the last few days -- sitting slumped in his chair, unmoving and unspeaking and unresponsive, with the only sure sign of life being the quiet rise and fall of his chest.
She doesn't expect that he's going to eat anything tonight, either; he'll probably finish the glass of water, but he's barely been touching his food at all. He's lost weight in these last few days, and Nanami can see that even from the doorway.
He's never been like this before, as far as she recalls; she's ignoring the ways in which his current state seems even slightly familiar to her, dismissing them as mere products of her imagination borne from her concern for him. She remembers the brother who used to smile for her when they'd both been children, and thinks of the many photographs of them being happy together that she has in the family album.
It's the duel he lost that's made him like this. It's all that Utena Tenjou's fault, and it's all that Anthy Himemiya's fault as well. Nanami thinks of how things have changed since the beginning of the school year -- Anthy drawing the attention of everyone in the student council, Touga included; her brother becoming interested in that girl in the boy's uniform, more so than any girl he's gone out with before; Nanami herself being brought into the duelling game that's been tying them all together in secret. They've been taking my big brother away from me and ruining him. I'll never forgive them for that.
In her mind, it has to be the fault of those other girls. She refuses to believe otherwise.
Biting her lip, she steps into her brother's room just enough to set the tray with his dinner down on the floor nearby for him, then retreats back again to continue watching him from just outside for a moment longer.
I wish you'd look this way, big brother. I wish you'd see me now.
Nanami is wearing the same yellow uniform she had on for her recent duel. Now that she's a part of the duelling game as well, it effectively makes her another member of the student council; while her brother is refusing to go to school at all, it's her intention to fill in as student council president in his place.
She watches Touga for just a little longer, even though he hasn't moved a muscle in this entire time; he hasn't even acknowledged her presence at all, which weighs on her heart with an unpleasant chill. There's been sombre classical music playing in his room tonight, but now her thoughts are drifting to what her brother had playing in here a few nights ago -- a single line from what she's sure is one of his speeches as student council president, repeating over and over again as if the record had been skipping.
If we don’t break the world's shell, we will die without being born.
It had been so ominous to her then, even filling her with a fleeting fear that her beloved brother might disappear on her and never come back. Now, though she only has her own uncertain guess as to the true meaning of that line and the full speech that it's from, all she can think of with a more rational mind is that breaking this world's shell must be something her brother wants to achieve no matter what, and that she ought to do all she can for him so he'll be able to do it.
With her concern for her brother reforming into resolve, she finally closes the door on him for the night. If she's going to take over his role as student council president in the next day or so, there's still a few things that she knows she needs to prepare beforehand -- her own self being chief among them.
Perhaps that'll form the first crack in the world's shell needed to break it. Whether it's the shell of the world in general, the shell of her brother's world, or even the shell of her own world, Nanami has yet to have any way of knowing for certain.