Chapter Text
A wish was realized.
Rin remembered none of it.
He sat in front of the Dark Altar in a state of shock. It felt as if all of his already low amount of energy was sapped from him. How did he get here? What wish was his mind thinking of just before this?
Last he remembered, he was watching Brother through the mirror Huey left behind. The boy was going to his third year of elementary school, facing bullying for his lack of family. I’m here, Rin wished he could tell him whenever Brother would cry and hit someone. I’ve always been here.
He stood up and realized he was much shorter than before. Was he his brother’s height?
“Rin?”
His legs were already unsteady, but he fell back when he realized his brother was much bigger than before. His back hit the ground, but he still stared up at Brother even with the pain shooting up his spine.
“You look like a kid.” Brother said while staring down at him.
“Do I…?” His voice sounded unfamiliar. When did he ever sound like this before?
Brother smiled kindly at him. “Sound like one too. Far less intimidating.”
This had to be a dream, not that he had those.
When he was offered a hand, Rin only took it to confirm it was real. He was brought to his feet and felt far more steady this time around, especially with Brother holding his hand. It was so large, wrapping around his easily.
“Why are you… old?” Then a far more pressing question came to mind. “Why are you here!? You’re supposed to be living a happy life in the other world!”
“You lost your memories?” Brother blurted out before he shook his head negatively. His face was screwed up in confusion in a way lots of older humans from his world expressed it. “Wait, no. If you forgot everything you wouldn’t even know I’m from a different world. How much do you know?”
Rin fell silent, considering what he should tell this person. He was unsure of Brother being their true identity until he inched closer. The essence he could feel shook him to his core, since it was unmistakably Huey’s. It was weakened by it being used, sure, but he found it hard to believe this could be an imposter.
“Brother was going to class in… the other world.” Rin struggled to remember. “You were eight. You shouldn’t be… here.”
“You do sort of look like me when I was that age.” Brother pointedly ignored Rin’s last comment, but it wasn’t as if that deterred him from being persistent about it.
“We need to send you back! W-We need—!”
His brother squeezed his smaller hand. “Rin? I need you to look at me.”
A face similar to how he used to look gazed down at him with pity. Those eyes were different though. They were soft brown that calmed Rin’s racing heart, looking upon him with pity. “See? I’m fine. I don’t need or want to go back. I’m happy here with everyone.”
“E-Everyone?” Rin’s heart rate picked up again. “Who’s everyone…?”
“Right, you don’t remember. Huey’s familiars and clan. Do you know about them?”
Vaguely. Huey’s memories were a finicky resource, but he knew there certainly were familiars and clan members left behind after the Grand Sorcerer split his being. Rin never went to investigate those remnants, that was never his task.
Rin shook his head no. “I was focused on you. You need to live a happy life in the human world… and I need to stay here to watch you.”
“I’m not letting you stay in this cave anymore.”
Rin’s hands felt tingly. Why could he feel remnants of essence within him? He should’ve been empty. Was he using it before this? “But… this cave is where I’m meant to be. I’m meant to watch over Brother.”
“You can do that by coming with me instead, can’t you?” Brother started walking out of the cave slowly while holding his hand. “Come on, let’s leave.”
The casualness this older version of brother was utilizing—maybe as a way of calming him down—got on Rin’s nerves. This wasn’t being taken seriously enough, and he would not be pulled away from his purpose so easily.
Using the essence left inside of him, Rin forced his brother’s hand away with a shock of power. It wasn’t enough to seriously damage a human hand, but it was enough to hurt. Brother let out a grunt of pain and let go. There was hurt in his expression, but at least he seemed to take Rin more seriously now.
“What’s wrong?”
Rin shrunk in on himself. “Why would I leave my entire life’s purpose behind…? Why would you want to leave your world? I… Huey gave this responsibility to me…”
“Huey?” A voice purred from above. The two turned to look up at a fox yokai’s smirk. He laid on top of a rock formation, his head tilted. “If you’re acting in accordance with his wishes, I’m unsure if you’re understanding them accurately. His whim is surely why you look the way you do now, after all.”
“Kuya?”
Kuya teleported down to where the two were standing in a flash, brushing some dust off his shoulder. “Young Master, you and your little half’s detection skills leave much to be desired.”
Rin wasn’t sure what to think of him just yet, but he could feel how dangerous the clan member was. The yokai essence from Kuya was overwhelming. If he tried to harvest it, it would surely drown him. He was powerless against this foe, and would likely die if they fought. Still, he dared to question Kuya.
His life didn’t hold much importance if he couldn’t get Brother back to the other world anyway.
“What… did you mean by that?” Rin struggled to get the words out.
Kuya looked down at him with a look alike to disdain, making him inch behind his brother’s legs as a way to hide. The man let out an awkward chuckle and patted his head.
“I knew Huey well.” Kuya glanced at the altar. “Despite having no feelings, there were always whims somehow peeking through the surface. His essence corresponds with his will. If Young Master and you were allowed to fix this altar to save the continent, and you were turned into a younger self, what does that say about Huey’s thoughts?”
“I don’t… know”
“He was always full of wonderful mysteries.” Kuya opened his mouth to say more before snapping it closed as more people rushed into the cave. He turned to them. “You all took so long to get here that I made the decision to go ahead.”
The peculiar group was only half recognizable. Half of Huey was still Rin, so he could understand all but one of these people were contacts Huey had in life.
“The Dark Territory is not easy to traverse.” An ashen-haired man said in annoyance.
A shorter clan member dashed past him, a tail wagging behind him to signify he was a wolf yokai. He made a beeline for Brother, hugging him around the chest as soon as they made contact. The familiars of Huey followed—though they were in their smaller forms.
“Master!” The three clingy beings started rambling, trying to talk over each other to get a word in with Rin’s other half.
Rin was left standing there, awkwardly ungreeted. He hated his brother not paying attention to him, but that smile on his face was not an expression he could ignore. How many times did he get to see Brother smile before this?
“You shrunk!”
Nevermind not being greeted. When he turned his head, he was met with sharp teeth. He swallowed down a yelp, his form trembling when he realized how close this guy got without him noticing. Did he even breathe? Rin couldn’t hear it.
“Um… Yes. I did.” Rin said hesitantly. He’d go hide behind Brother again, but the man was preoccupied with the utterly annoying people.
“Well, Fake Darling, your nickname fits less now but I’ll use it while coming up with a new one for you! Is that okay~?”
“S-Sure.”
“Don’t treat him so charitably, he still kidnapped me!” One of the familiars exclaimed, turning into his larger form to approach Rin. Rin took steps back, completely unaware of what the man was talking about.
His brother swooped in to save him, grabbing the incubus’s arm. “Morvay, he lost his memory.”
Morvay growled, turning to the half of his former master he liked more. “How do we know that? He could be lying!”
“Just look at him. Even if he was, he’s pretty harmless now.” His brother tilted his head. “Just let him be? You don’t have to even interact with him, I’ll handle it.”
“He lost his memory?” The wolf yokai asked. He was at his master’s side one moment, and then Rin’s the next. His blue eyes were wide as he looked at Rin, circling him. Rin tried turning to keep up eye contact, but made himself dizzy in the process.
“Aw, you’re so cute now! Do I need to tell you our names again?”
Rin nodded slowly, assuming our referred to the clan and familiars.
“I’m Garu, and the other guy who shares my body is Karu! I’ll tell him to introduce himself to you!”
Definitely not what he expected, but it wasn’t an insane concept to him. He and his brother used to be one, after all.
“I’ll try to remember… that.” What was he saying? He shouldn’t even be getting to know these people! Only Brother and his correct world mattered.
Garu patted his head cheerfully, which Rin froze up during. The ashen-haired man, who had only spoken once so far, walked over to the wolf yokai’s side.
“Call me Rei.” Rei turned his head to the fellow clan member, who was still patting. “That’s enough, Garu. Is Blade rubbing off on you?”
Garu did stop, giving Rin room to breathe, only for the shark-teethed guy to waltz over to pat him too. The three were crowded around him, and he kept his head down. If only he were as powerful as Brother, he would have gotten rid of all of these distractions.
Speaking of Brother, he opened his eyes when the patting stopped to see him holding Shark Teeth’s wrist.
“You’re overwhelming him. Let’s save all of this for when we get out of this cave, okay? I’m exhausted, and he probably is too.”
“I could carry you both!” The man offered cheerfully.
Rin eyed him suspiciously. Could those skinny looking arms really carry him and his brother? He doubted it.
“Do you want Blade to carry you?”
The question surprised him. Why ask for his opinion? How do you word it? How does one even form an opinion? Never before did he have to consider questions like that. Watching over Brother was a simple job, one that didn’t require much thought.
“Um.” Rin said to fill the silence. “Not unless he’s carrying you too…?”
That seemed correct enough for his brother, who took his hand again.
“We’re walking then, and no zapping me this time!”
“Why should I not?” The question was simple enough, but the people around him froze when they heard it. He tried to explain more, to get them to understand. “I can’t let you live here…”
His brother stopped walking, looking back at him with a neutral expression. “Who are you to stop me from choosing to?”
“I’m your brother!”
A pink bat—one of the familiars—started nudging his back with their body. “Heyy, that doesn’t mean you own him, now does it? Come on now, get moving!”
Rin let out a shaky breath. These people were being nice for now, but refusing more than he already had could lead to frustration that they wouldn’t hesitate to take out on him. After all, he did apparently kidnap someone…
He could convince his brother to leave this world and guide him back here to do it, Rin told himself. Everything would be okay.
That reassurance he gave himself led him yo following the group all the way to the outskirts of the Dark Territory. They holed themselves up in a tiny house, which they somehow managed with.
“There’s only one bed…” Rin pointed out. It was a large bed, but only one nonetheless. “How do you all manage with just one…?”
“Kuya and Rei sleep elsewhere while the rest of us share it. It’s fine with us.” The pink bat familiar—who he only just recently learned was named Aster—said casually.
He was curious why those two didn’t join, but assumed it was because of space issues and didn’t question it. For now, he sat on the bed.
When he would watch Brother through the mirror, he’d go to sleep when the boy on the other side did. He’d wake up to his brother’s voice usually, his body jolting awake and his mind being brought back to attention.
The world felt much different now that his Brother was on the wrong side of that mirror he watched. It felt odd to touch the bedsheets on the single big bed with his small hands, burying them before pulling them into a firm grip. The texture felt far away, like how people felt things in dreams.
It’d be nice if this were one of those. Believing this situation wasn’t real would just be a delusion on his part, though.
“Are you okay?”
Brother was checking on him while everyone else was either attending to something, staring, or both. They all didn’t deserve him, he firmly believed that.
Rin nodded. Watching relief come over his brother’s face after was worth the lie.
“Do you need to go outside?” Garu sat down on the bed next to him, tail wagging. “Sometimes I like running around until I get tired, and then that helps me sleep! Maybe that will work for you?”
“I don’t… know where I would even sleep.”
Kuya was sitting on the windowsill, smoking. The smoke trail led outside, thankfully. Rin didn’t want to smell it. “The floor is always an option. Though with how small you have become, I wouldn’t blame anyone for accidentally stepping on you and breaking a few ribs.”
Though Kuya smiled, the yokai felt dangerous. Every action and word felt like a threat when Rin saw a person as frightening.
“Ignore the fox.” Rei spoke up, moving from where he was leaned up on a wall. “I’ll request another lodging. After regulating the Dark Altar, it’s the least they could do.”
“Now now, Master Rei.” Kuya gestured with his pipe. “Wouldn’t it be better for the Tiny Nuisance to get used to resting around the clan members and familiars?”
“It’s too early for that.” Rei left without any more words.
Those two really didn’t seem like they liked each other. Some part of Huey’s memories tingled in his mind when he realized that. A faint image of the two clan members mid-argument was in the deepest recesses.
“I’ll go help with the convincing.” Aster stood up from where he was sitting at a small desk and followed in Rei’s footsteps.
Rin stared down at his shoes once things got quiet again. The clothes he wore had miraculously shrank with him. He wondered if they were tied to his essence—however small—since his form was created with them already on.
“What do you think? Wanna go outside?” The wolf yokai still insisted on bothering him, leaning into his personal space.
Rin’s hand twitched. He wanted to shove Garu away and refuse, but those begging eyes worked well on him. “...Sure, but can Brother come too?”
“Yeah. I can supervise.” His brother’s vocal cords were audibly strained, and he ran a hand over his face as he headed outside with the two. Three? Rin wasn’t sure how the Garu and Karu thing worked.
Garu started talking his brother’s ear off as the two halves of Huey sat down on the steps leading indoors. It was obvious who was favored here, and should Rin have expected anything different? Compared to Brother, he was nothing. An accessory, at most. At worst, he was no one to his brother and anyone else.
“Do you wanna play a game?”
For a moment, Rin thought the question wasn’t for him. But no, Garu did approach him with that proposal. He was standing right in front of him, so it was hard to ignore.
Games? His brother would play those all the time, at the orphanage and in school, but Rin would forget the rules of them fast. Why pay attention to instructions when he would never have to adhere to them? His brain could be used to store what crayons his brother liked using the most instead.
He wondered if his brother still enjoyed coloring.
“What would we play…?” Rin asked hesitantly. “I’m still not used to this body.”
“Let’s do something that doesn’t make you move a lot then!” Garu plopped down in between him and Brother. Rin wanted to shove him to the side as he felt anger boiling, but decided against it. This yokai was so much bigger than he was and had abs. He was no match for that.
“I know! We’ll play rock paper scissors!”
Rin was unfamiliar with the game, and his face showed off just how perplexed he was.
“It’s a game where you basically do this.” Garu hit his fist with his palm a few times, saying the name of the game, and then held two fingers out. “We do this at the same time and make our choice of rock, paper, or scissors!”
He showed off the different hand signals, then they attempted to play the game. A small smile came over Rin’s face when he attempted it, but it fell when Garu frowned at him.
“No, no. You don’t wait until I make my choice. We have to do it at the same time.”
“I’m going inside, you two.” His brother’s voice sounded behind Garu as he stood up. “Have fun, don’t do anything risky.”
Rin watched helplessly as his brother went back inside. Though he desperately wished to follow, it didn’t feel like that’s what Brother wished.
He doesn’t like me.
He wants to stay away.
He would be better off if I was gone.
It wasn’t hard to notice how exhausted Brother was, or how he looked when Rin looked at him from the corner of his eye.
“He hates me…” Rin mumbled, not at all focused on Garu’s instructions anymore. “But I want to be with him forever. How would I…?”
“You don’t—oh. Wait. You don’t remember that conversation now, do you?”
He nodded. Garu seemed like he was saying nonsense at the moment.
“You don’t want to become one with Master, or do anything drastic like that.” Garu grabbed a stick from the ground and started drawing in the dirt. “It would be sad, and lonely.”
The art in the dirt looked like Garu, but with sharper eyes.
“Karu and I are separate people, and I like it that way. I like having a friend to talk to. If you end up not existing anymore, you wouldn’t be able to talk to Master.” He added an open, happy mouth to the drawing. “Don’t you want to get to know him?”
“I’d… know him if we did combine.” Rin tried to reason.
“But Master wouldn’t be himself if you did that!” Garu moved the stick over the drawing, swirling the sand to erase the image. “You two would mix together. You’d lose him and yourself.”
How did this wolf yokai go from wide-eyed and easily excited to focused on arguing? Rin blinked at the man. He held multitudes, parts of himself that would only come out in certain circumstances. Did Rin have those at all? Should he find out?
Drawing his knees to his chest, Rin hugged his legs and stared at the scratched out drawing. Maybe identity was worth exploring.