Chapter Text
~Yozakura Mansion~
The 9th Head of the Yozakura Family was killed and laid to rest. Though many of her children grieved in their own way within the mansion walls, one of them remained confined to their room and refused to leave.
"Onee-san," Mutsumi Yozakura, the new 10th Head of the Family, pressing her back against the front of her older sister's door, "I know you're hurt, we all are, but... It's been days since you've left your room, and we're getting worried about you... Can you let us know you're okay?"
No response, not even a knock from the other side. Mutsumi was feeling teary-eyed since, compared to her close relationships with the others, even Kyoichiro, to some extent. The deadly silence of this sister hurts as she's close to their mother and every other sibling.
After an hour and some sobbing, Mutsumi had fallen asleep, and Kyoichiro Yozakura, the eldest of the 10th Generation Children, walked in to see the tears of his beloved younger sister. He wouldn't say anything, just lifted Mutsumi onto his arms and carried her to her room.
Once she's all tucked in, Kyoichiro goes back to the locked door and stands firmly in front of it, "There's a limit to making Mutsumi cry with your utter silence, Hanae, and you've broken it for several days straight now."
Kyoichiro would've resorted to using his Steel Spider, and there were already weaving around at the ready, but being aware of the gauge between himself and Hanae's Abilities, Blooming, and Trauma.
He relents as he pulls Steel Spider away, but grows ever impatient for the tiniest sign of response from Hanae. There was nothing else to say, as he marched off and prepared for several measures to ensure Mutsumi's absolute safety. However, he wouldn't openly admit his worry for Hanae's well-being.
That same afternoon, Futaba passed by the hallway where Hanae's door was and started pounding against it. Though she controlled her strength, not only to keep it from breaking but to ensure she didn't frighten her, though she would've preferred to do so since she's been a victim of Hanae's childish pranks.
Still no response, Futaba was worried, even though she wouldn't show it. She has to be strong for the sake of the others, but it's often tough to hide such emotion. The points of welling tears in her eyes are proof of this fact. Because she doesn't know what to do as a sister without her...
Shinzo, ever the timid gun enthusiast of the family, expresses more concern even as he maintains his inventory in his Tank Number 3. He often wonders about how Hanae's faring every once in a while, and he misses how she'd help maintain his weapons besides him.
Inside Shion's room, she keeps typing away at her keyboard, not only saving recordings of their beloved mother but also constantly monitoring Hanae's vitals for several hours, if not days, straight. Even if they remain the same, Shion still monitors her vitals for even the slightest ping of change without breaks. She would've liked Hanae to be here and play games all day long.
Outside of Hanae's door, Kengo keeps up his happy-go-lucky attitude to encourage Hanae to come out or even get a response from her. But beneath this act is a grievance over his mother's death and Hanae's isolation from everyone else. He even thought of using a prank to smoke her out, but knew that Hanae would've sealed every crack of her door with her Blooming. Therefore, he left her alone, feeling disheartened beneath the happiness he kept wearing.
And finally, Nanao often leaves a variety of vitamins and sweets he's concocted in his laboratory. Even with a bucket on his head, the biochemical prodigy is literally shedding tears from the bucket and beneath it since he's still the youngest among them. Much like his older siblings, Hanae wasn't just afraid of his abnormal appearance; she embraced it, from being present during his laboratory experiments to being carried on his large shoulders.
It was a tragic thing for every sibling, even for Hanae herself, since she felt that her absence among them was a lapse of duty as a spy. But what enforced her tragic isolation further from them was in the form of black envelopes with a Platinum transparency seal of the Association's insignia sent to each sibling after a month had passed...
Rather than read the letter in their respective rooms, they gathered in the living room and opened it together. That's when shock appeared on their faces as the contents were copied and handwritten with her unique penmanship...
~Hanae Yozakura~
~In accordance with your last success and decision~
~You have been elevated from your status beyond a Gold-licensed Spy~
~As per procedure, all public records from your last mission to your birth have been purged, effective immediately.~
~You are now a Ghost of the Spy World~
After seconds had passed, their letters self-combusted into ash. Though it didn't hurt anyone, they've engraved the letter's contents into their mind...
"No way..." Mutsumi muttered,
Shion immediately looked into the Association's records and all other sources on her laptop, with Kengo leaning over the screen, "They're right... Everything about Hanae from top to bottom has been erased. Birth certificates, School records, Spy intelligence reports, not even a single digital print remained. Hanae Yozakura has ceased to exist..."
"To think that there's a rank higher than that of Gold... It feels so unreal," Nanao solemnly muttered. Shinzo shrank within his Tank Number 3 with a sad frown, and Futaba looked down with sober eyes,
"More importantly, she'd chosen this decision without even consulting us. The sheer nerve of her," Kyoichiro stated with detestation, then pulled out another letter from his blazer and placed it onto the table for all to see. "She also left this to me, and it summarizes the benefits of being a Ghost ."
They skimmed the list of benefits a Ghost received, and they were overwhelmed by how Hanao would operate in exchange for them.
After that letter burned up as well, the entire room was filled with a dreadful silence. Not even Kyoichiro dared to break the spell since Mutsumi and his other siblings' moods are far too bleak to state any criticism of Hanao's path as a spy.
Hence, they've reluctantly left her and any topic about her alone. But if they chose to do so, entry toward the mansion's West Wing had been effectively barred by Hanae's Blooming: Mirage; any Yozakura Sibling, from the tactical Kyoichiro to the kindhearted Mutsumi, even their loyal guard dog Goliath, walking through the hallway would wind up where they started, physically cementing her isolation to them.
Shion had tried using her vast digital knowledge and utilizing the mansion's surveillance system to track Hanae from the west wing to any common room of the mansion. She would be met with malfunctioning screens as the cameras lose their feed, but they would stop from one monitor to another. In Shion's thoughts, Hanae is digitally isolating herself as she loves.
Once it stopped showing only the empty hall towards the west wing, Shion learned that Hanae is serious about her isolation, so she deliberately caused the cameras to break signal with her blooming. Soon enough, she dejectedly dropped any means of surveillance in the West Wing.
Lastly, every sibling, whenever they come and go from missions to outings, they'd have this feeling that she's checking on them like an invisible shadow before returning to her room. Whether they turn around, glance in her direction, or even stand still, Hanae retreats to the west wing when finished. In short, she was simultaneously there and not there for them.
They believed their eldest sister was beyond reach as they went on with their lives as spies of the Yozakura Family. In the first few months, they'd sit together at the table and be reminded of the one empty seat reserved for Hanae. Mutsumi, as the 10th Family Head, felt powerless every time she sat at the table with a missing member.
If there was anything she could do, it was to mend the fracture of their familial bond just as she would to Taiyo after attending his family's funeral and assuring that he wasn't alone in the world, even if he wanted to...
~Hanae's Room...~
All the while, Hanae had her back against the door, legs closed to her body, and face on her knees. In this dark room, she was lamenting her absence in the kidnapping incident, the loss of her parents, and another tragic loss of a mission. As a result, her heart as a spy, a sister, and a person of this world had shattered into pieces and into the void.
On the surface, this was Hanae Yozakura. But the soul's origin within is Trivia Vanille, a.k.a. Neapolitan. Having discarded her harsh life, her desire for vengeance against her enemies and traumas within Remnant. She had ascended, and her soul was delivered to this world, with a family of legendary spies.
If she had retained the memories of her old life, this was the kind of life she had longed for: a mother who had accepted the unique aspects of being a mute and heterochromic eyes, siblings who seemed unique but appreciated, friends who she deserves to be with, and a life where she's free to be herself.
But the world had a sense of cruelty, regardless of presences or absences. Leading her to believe that her existence was a curse to those around her, and the heart never forgets, even after Ascension...
Thus, Hanae remained in her ’self-imposed exile’ to wallow over her guilt for this 'curse' she bears in her heart. Afraid of losing more people than she already should...
And that guilt was carried for years, even as the Yozakura Family physically moved without her in this world...