Huh, what was going on here, all of a sudden ? .
That was the only question i currently have in mind, my whole body suddenly tensed then once again relaxed almost instantly, the scene in my vision suddenly changed, i was now in a blue like world, a world where everything was coloured blue like the waters of the sea, a dark blue not like the waters of the lake close to the institute, i was on the ground staring in wonder at the blue ceiling now in front of my eyes .
A second ago, i was staring into a different ceiling than the one now in front of me, something very weird must be at work here, i sat up and was able to see that everything that was in my sight was blue in color but my clothes were still the same and the background around me was still also the same, i was now in the new room that i was moved into .
The mechanical doors of my new room was still there, but they were twisting as if they were glitching or something like that .
What was gnawing my interest, was the feeling of someone standing behind me, was he the owner of the voice from before, how weird, i was weirded out because even though i believe that i had never heard this tone of voice before, i can feel that it was dangerously familiar, but that shouldn't be possible .
The amount of things that shouldn't have been possible to happen didn't stop here, even before i tilted my head to see to whom was that shadow behind me belonged to, he spoke again confirming that there was indeed someone behind me, saying in a playful tone :
It's quite rude for you not to turn and face the one talking to you, don't you know that .
I tilted my head to my left a little as if to try and see who was talking to me from the corner of my eye, but i found no one there, not even the shadow from before, then i was suddenly engulfed in the shadow of a silhouette who was now surprisingly standing in front of me and once again his playful voice sounded, saying :
Just kidding, you didn't have someone to teach you manners, but you do have manners, manners that was pre installed into you, oh right, you have them, but you can't use them, or to be more accurate you don't feel like using them, maybe the loss of manners was due to you not able to feel anything at all, won't that be right, clone .
I didn't understand who or what was in front of me clearly, all i know was that it know quite a lot of things about me, i raised my head in try of seeing the face of the one speaking to me, but other than the shadow of his face, i wasn't able to clearly see anything else, but i still nodded my head at his words, after all he was indeed right .
Seeing me nod my head didn't appease him in the slightest, if anything it angered him even more, i was able to notice that from his scornful and angry tone he used to continue saying :
What an unthinkable thing which they did to all of you, those guys really deserve to die .
At his words, i just stared at him and fell into deep thought, wondering what feeling something was really like, was the thing in front of me angry for us, was he pitying us, does he know the full content of what the researchers did to us, who exactly was he ?.
He was taller than me, but he was clad in pure darkness, something that would have made other tense a bit if they were to witness it, but not me, his appearance fueled my curiosity like never before .
I was unsure of how to respond to the words he said, but i determined that it was the perfect time to ask about what exactly was going on, i wanted to start by asking him to identify himself, but no words came out of my mouth, no matter how hard i tried something was stopping me from saying a single word .
That something was with me for almost my entire life now, i can't converse with others even though i have all the skills needed, i just can't seem to be able to put my vocabularies into words, the researches were asked not to talk to me much than needed .
Morinaga-san was an exception at least for the half year she was with me here, she got a job somewhere else and she told me that she can't refuse, i didn't feel much at her departing, but i did wave my hands at her in goodbye, something that had her in tears for some reason, i hadn't talked with her much, either, i wondered about this problem of mine for quite some time, but i hadn't found an answer thus far .
Oh, so you have been wondering about this a lot, that was all my doing, sorry, if you are wondering about my identity, then let's just say that I'm you, no that would be a wrong way to put it, what a predicament, yeah i found the best way to describe it, i'm not you, instead you are me .
The shadow silhouette in front of me began to recede and in its place stood a guy that was evaluated by the information i had in mind as the most beautiful male or was he a she, either way he or she had an unparalleled appearance that was as if his facial features was sculpted for one goal and that goal was to give the people the chance to feast their eyes on an unparalleled and incomprehensible beauty standards .
The normal expression on anyone who would have witnessed that one of a kind face would probably be awestruck, but i was more nonchalant about this, since i didn't feel much about it and my mind was occupied racing through the rush of thoughts that were unstoppable and unending, what did he mean by he is me, no he said i was him .
My mind was racing to find an answer, in the meantime i came to the conclusion that he really might be telling the truth, the reason that i was sure that he at least have some close connection with me was his unique eyes shape, they were exactly the same as mine but more piercing .
I stood up and now that i was standing, the difference in height between the two of us wasn't that big as i thought, he might be a 4 to 5 years older than me, my head was only able to reach his torso, i tried to reach his face to have a more clear look and as if he read my thoughts he leaned a bit and allowed me to take a more closer look on his eyes and face, the moment i tried to touch them, he flinched and widened the distance between the two of us .
I looked at him with a bewildered look as if not understanding the reason for his sudden movement, i wasn't going to attack him or something like that, i was just going to check if he was really real but pinching his cheeks, something that Morinaga-san kept on doing to me for all the time we spent with each other, as i was deeply in thought reminiscing about this, i suddenly felt my mind screaming at me and telling me to retreat at once .
I did retreat and looked up to see that the guy from before was now standing in my original place while pointing at where my forehead would have been with his forefinger, then he nodded at me and said :
You touch me, i disappear .
I touch you, you disappear, so no touching, okey ? .
I nodded my head in understanding and then pointed at my head, he nodded in reply and i confirmed that he was indeed able to read my thoughts, at least with that we will be somehow able to communicate with one another, i thought about one of the particular sentences he said before about i being him, but he wasn't me and what could that even possibly mean .
He nodded as if he understood what i wanted and said directly :
I'm Ryuu, the original Ryuu who you guys were all cloned of, even without waiting for me to act surprised, not that i would have been able to, he continued to say :
Thanks to you keeping an eye on the outside for me, i was able to know of my identity as a Yotsuba family member, so thanks a lot for that .
I nodded my head at his words then shook my head a little as if indicating that he doesn't need to thank me or anything, he chuckled at my response and he seemed to be quite amused seeing my reaction, then i thought about how was he able to know that his name was Ryuu .
He without taking any offense said :
You are wondering about that, i heard that this name was given to me by my aunt, she was the one who named me and waited for my mom to wake up and see what will her reaction be, for some reason my aunt seemed to be poking fun at my mom with that name, but sadly i passed away before she woke up from her coma, but i heard her loud and clear saying that my name is Ryuu .
I once again nodded my head, but asked in my mind, how was he here and why ?.
How, huh, my superpower was a unique mental interface type of magic, one that allowed me to store all my information on anything and enable me to restore the said information after a certain period of time, i called it REINCARNATION, i used Reincarnation to store a copy of my magic calculation area together with all of my information in the only thing that was available to leave a copy on at that time, my flesh .
When they tried with the previous batches of clones, i was awoken but without conscious which in return ended up in making the clones go mad and take their own lives, for that i'm very sorry, but i had no say in the matter, y'know .
I was only able to regain conscious for one second before being forced to die over and over again, it was tormenting .
Then your batch of clones arrived when i had lost all hope of being able to come back to life, then you a miracle happened, even though you and your other siblings came from the same batch, your existence was unique from the head start .
I was able to awoke a lot faster than i did before, i have been conscious for over 9 months now and for that i'm eternally grateful to you .
After he said that he suddenly bowed in my direction and didn't get up until i crouched under him and shook both of my hands randomly as if telling him to not do so and rise up, he understood my thought and released a soft chuckle and closed the distance between us and said :
Do you want to know what those guys outside did to you and your siblings ? .
I can already determine what they did, but here i was presented with a chance to actually know what really happened and what kind of augmentation did those devices back then have done to me and my siblings, but now that i was met with the said chance, i found myself unsure of what to do .
In the end, i decided that after a whole year and already grasping most of what had taken place, i decided to decline the chance of knowing about our past and instead decided that from now on, i will look forward for the future, my future i looked into the eyes of my origin and my future, towards Ryuu and thought about the way he mentioned before, the one that he said will come back to life after using .
I motioned for him to come forward while thinking that it was fine, it was completely fine, after all i was nothing more than a clone, a lucky one that gained a consciousness and a little bit of uniqueness, i was already satisfied with the year i had, satisfied yeah that was what i was feeling, my very first feeling was satisfaction, i was able to feel something after all .
He then came in front of me and asked in a deep and unwavering voice :
You got what needed to be done, didn't you .
I nodded as he began to close the distance between the two of us, until we become opposite to each other, he was smiling a bit and i was expressionless and nonchalant as always, he seeing me like this gave me a compliment, saying :
How admirable .
And outstretched his forefinger towards me, i closed my eyes seeing that my end was near, but 5 seconds later, i was still standing in the same place, nothing happened, another 5 seconds still nothing happened, i finally decided to open my eyes and the moment i opened my eyes, he flicked my forehead and directly burst out laughing, while saying :
Hahaha, you fell for such a lame joke, you actually fell for such a lame joke, hahaha .
A joke, what was, i wondered in my mind about which part of what he had said was the joke ? .
He reading my thoughts replied after he finally stopped his hysterical state of laughter, saying :
The joke was about if any of us touched the other, the other will disappear, that was a blatant lie i made to make fun of you and maybe test you too, you passed with a full marks .
But what about reincarnation, i thought and he replied :
Thatwas another lie i made, but this was a lie i made to make fun of myself, at most my superpower can affect the information dimensions and create all illusions of sorts, i can also seem to be able to use it to stop all the prying eyes from probing me, but this superpower of mine is quite consuming to use, if we weren't in the subconscious now, i wouldn't have been able to even use it, as for the effects i told you there's no way such a fate defying superpower exist, my superpower is called Fabrication .
One last thing and then i will leave you be for good this time, i really really like you, little Ryuu, i hope you become a bit greedy and more attached to life, you keep shackling yourself with the shackles that came with the fate of you being a clone, but you aren't a mere clone, your reaction just now wasn't anything a mere clone can make, from today on forth you are no longer number 40, you are my dear little brother Ryuu, don't ever forget about this .
He said this and his voice was beginning to become faint and his body was fading at fast speed, yet the smile on his face keep widening, i reached for his hand and held it and asked in my mind, what was going on and he replied saying while smiling even more :
Don'tworryaboutitlittle Ryuu, i saw some shackles in your way and i became determined to broke them for you, a one final gift from your reliable Big Brother .
I squeezed his hand even more and for the first time since our conversation started, i was actually able to finally squeeze a few words out of my mouth, saying :
Don't go .
Oh, you finally spoke up, huh, don't worry i will always be with you here and here, he pointed at both my heart and mind then began to sobb, while asking me for a favor :
My mom, i want you to inform my mom of what took place here between the two of us, i want you to take care of her as well, for both of our sake, all i want her to know is that i once existed and i want her to at least be aware of that and acknowledge it, will you able to carry this heavy burden, little bro .
I nodded and sobbed as well, i cried for the first time in my life, then i felt that his hand which i was holding in my hand suddenly faded, i looked up and saw his smile was still there shining brightly as ever on me, i was about to say my goodbyes when he beated me to it and said :
That's my little brother, alright, how manly, Ryuu remember having dreams is not a bad thing, y'know, goodbye my dear little brother, i enjoyed those last 9 months, i will be keeping an eye on you from now on, i also hope you will get as handsome as me in the future, no i hope you will become even more handsome than.... .
My big brother Ryuu had completely faded .
Ch8 : The Sudden Emergence Of Big Brother Ryuu And Gifts .