Thanks, Alex, for having a medical emergency.

  One thing led to another. Sophos picked Alexander up from OU, and everyone went their separate ways. No matter how much Chunhua and Victor insisted on staying—as much as Kotone wanted them to stay—the next conversation had to be between the Crappy, Lazy Okano and the Smart, Rich Okano.

  So Kotone took her brother on a field-trip. They took the train to Angels Guild Headquarters, walked around a little bit, before heading toward the workshops. One of the doors was decorated with scratched-up anime stickers, which was against regulation (and this made-up thing called a "fire code") but the owner happened to have a great relationship with the Guild Masters.

  Kotone pressed her keycard against the scanner, the door clicked open, and they entered. The lights automatically flickered on, and behold, the average engineer’s workspace! It was kinda messed up that she was entering Chie’s personal space without asking, but this was where her [Psionic Pylons] were. Some funky stuff happened a couple days ago—there was a weird input delay—and Kotone had sent her babies in for maintenance.

  On the main table, there they were.

  All twelve [Pylons] laying next to each other.

  But Tsukasa was more concerned with the state of Chie’s workshop. He eyed her prototype [Yokais] on the adjacent tables. he asked in Japanese, in his perfect Tokyo dialect.

   replied Kotone, her Japanese thick with Kansai-ben.

  

  <’Speak normally!’ he says, he says. Nii-chan, born and raised in Kyoto—>

   Tsukasa said, scowling at his little sister and the [Yokais] on the tables.

   I really wanna go home and cry in my room.

  Tsukasa groaned and stood on the other side of the main table; they both were at a standoff, with the [Pylons] in the center like poker-chips.

   Before he threatened Dr. Nightingale and blacked out.

   Tsukasa said straight up, no lead-in, probably because he knew his sister would ramble and drive them both off-topic.

  

   Tsukasa gestured to the anime posters on the walls and figurines on a nearby shelf.

  Kotone slammed her hands on the table.

   () <—you always have treated everything lightly, Kotone! You’re using your team as an excuse to escape responsibility, again—>

   ()

  Tsukasa rolled his eyes and gripped the edge of the table.

  Kotone scoffed and threw her arms up, frustrated. ()

  

   Kotone shouted, her voice rattling the lights above.

  

   Kotone pointed at the same posters he’d lambasted earlier.

  

   Kotone kicked a heavy box underneath the table, her foot stinging from whatever was inside, yet she ignored the pain.

  Tsukasa walked around the table to confront her directly.

   Kotone pounded her chest multiple times, feeling tears build in her eyes.

   Tsukasa reached out—

  She slapped his hand away.

  Lightning struck.

  Kotone was knocked backwards a couple steps, her neck having been painfully twisted. Her cheek stung. She brushed her skin with a few fingers, feeling it welting already. Shaking, she looked up—

  Lightning struck again.

  Tsukasa was stronger than she remembered.

  

  He struck her for a third time, enough that she felt blood leaking down her lip.

   Kotone raised her arms and he tried striking around them but failed, and their hands scrambled together in a messy brawl.

   Tsukasa pushed her back, and she slammed against a table.

  Kotone sniffled and protected her face, unable to breathe. Her cheeks hurt. Her chest hurt. Her neck and wrists hurt. Everything was hurting again.

  The familiar feeling of suffocation wrapped around her throat.

  Tsukasa glared at her, his shadow casted over the wall and stretching toward the ceiling. Shut up… Shut up.

   Kotone’s hands were tangled in her hair, and the electricity in the room began tingling her skin.

  

  She pulled at her hair.

  

  Kotone was hunched over, hands clutching at her shirt. She was sobbing.

   Tsukasa reeled his head back, disgusted at the sound of tears and sniffling.

  Kotone looked up, finally, showing her hideous, soaking face to her brother.

  

   Before she knew it, she was clutching onto Tsukasa’s sleeves.

  

  

  

  Kotone shook her head, snot and tears running down her lips and chin.

  Tsukasa pushed her away, and she stumbled back, barely able to catch herself on the table; otherwise, she would’ve fallen on the hard floor.

   Kotone rubbed her face viciously with her sleeves.

  [Yokai No.0 - Temari]

  A ball flew in from the door and rammed into Tsukasa’s chest. He sputtered, eyes bulging from their socket for a split-second, and he was knocked backwards into a shelf. Painfully, he wheezed, his hands finding the support beams to keep himself upright.

  A small girl stood beside Kotone.

  Through blurry eyes, Kotone saw her.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  [Temari] returned to Chie, and for the first time in Kotone’s life, she saw murder in the eyes of the sweetest girl on the team.

  Tsukasa gasped for breath and held onto his chest—were his ribs fractured?—and he looked down at Chie.

  

  Kotone shook her head.

  Chie threw an arm out in front of her, as though saying, I have this handled.

  But Tsukasa wouldn’t let himself be intimidated by a small girl, even if she was a Slayer. He approached her, teeth and hands clenched.

  Despite how tall Tsukasa was compared to her, Chie wickedly grinned.

  The threat brought panic to Kotone, but no matter how much she wanted to speak out, her protests were caught in her throat.

  Hesitation somewhat extinguished the anger in Tsukasa’s eyes.

   Chie pressed a finger into his chest multiple times.

  She snapped her fingers. Multiple [Yokais] manifested around her, and together, they hovered over the deactivated [Pylons] on the table. Then, the [Yokais] began slamming themselves onto the [Pylons], brutally, like dropping a thousand anvils from the sky. Scrap flew off the table. A loose bolt struck Kotone in the shoulder, causing her to yelp more from the shock than the pain.

  Within a minute, all twelve [Pylons] were not just destroyed; they were freaking obliterated beyond repair. Heck, even the [Yokais] themselves had taken an extreme beating.

  Chie pointed behind the door.

  Tsukasa visibly seethed at the sight of his destroyed work, but he turned away.

  He walked past Chie and Kotone, the former shielding the latter so there wouldn’t be any further conflict. His burning blue eyes were painful to be held under, and Kotone didn’t have the courage to look at him for more than a second.

   he said, then looked at Chie.

  

  Tsukasa left.

  He actually left.

  They won. They actually won, right? Kotone could stay here and be with her friends, but why…? Why did she let Tsukasa get to her again? He was right—she was so fucked-up in the head that all it took was a few words to completely break her brain. She had to be rescued by a walking ray of sunshine, and she had the SS-Rank [Skill].

  Now, not even that.

  Her [Pylons] were gone.

  She couldn’t fight anymore.

  She couldn’t carry her weight in the team.

  She was a burden! Useless! Useless—useless—useless—useless—useless!

  

   Kotone slapped Chie away, and the lights above their heads flickered wildly. The TV at the back of the workshop turned on by itself. Several tools and machines purred with life. Chie suddenly yelped, suddenly throwing her phone on the ground. The screen automatically came on: a warning that the internal temperature was too high.

  What a fuck-up. She was useless without her [Pylons] but too crazy to be around anything that had an electrical pulse.

  Chie was staring at her like the freak she was.

  And Kotone hurt her.

  So Kotone ran far, far away.

  ***

  “—this time, I’m making dinner tonight—”

  “Leo—”

  “No, I know that tone very well. You can’t ‘Leo’ me.” Leo marched down the hall, spinning her keychain around a finger. “I’m in charge of your medication, alright? I have the brown-bag—”

  “That’s because you snatched it out of my hands—”

  “And because you’re a stubborn asshole who’d insist he’s fine even after getting his arms chopped off.”

  I looked at myself, specifically my fucked-up and scarred hands and my slightly less fucked-up but still scarred arms. “My arms are mostly attached. I think.”

  “Thank goodness for that.” The keys landed squarely in her calloused palm. “I’m still making dinner tonight.”

  “And poison me, probably.”

  “I know how to serve a damn good burger. Wonder who taught me that, hmm?” She unlocked the door to our (my) apartment. “Get your ass inside, honey. We’re home.”

  “Lucky I’m not dragging your cold corpse inside, babe…” I muttered under my breath, which earned a deserved (and soft) kick to my ass. I groaned and rolled my eyes. “If you’re frying up burgers, I’m expecting the whole nine: lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and whatever else I can’t name. I just went grocery shopping, so we should have them—”

  And my uncle was sitting at the dining room table, waiting for us.

  “Ali?” Leo was the first to say, closing the door behind her. “I-I thought you’d be out for the whole day. You didn’t tell us you were coming back—”

  “That’s my mistake. It escaped my mind,” he said, one hand on a half-empty beer-bottle and the other restlessly tapping the table. “I was just notified about what happened. Are you okay, Alex? You were prescribed medication, right?”

  “Right here, Sundrop's specialty.” Leo put the brown-bag on the table. “Sophos said he experienced, uh…” (“Something something Alternates.”) “That. For seven minutes, his identity was completely overwritten by his otherself. Fortunately, she ruled out long-term effects.”

  Uncle breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I’m assuming the pills help you ground your psyche better?”

  I answered, “And in case I’m about to experience another episode, the meds should theoretically break the dissociation. Hopefully. From now on, though, I’ll need to carry it around.”

  “Okay, but what I don’t understand is this: for two months, you were completely fine,” Uncle said. “You experienced zero side-effects from the Scare other than [The Fool’s Many Faces]; then, at that engineering conference in OU, we lost you for seven minutes? Why?”

  That…

  God, I wish I didn’t have to tell him.

  “I… Ah, dammit.” I pulled a chair up and sat down as my uncle nervously tapped the table with his free hand. “You know how I mentioned there was a special guest today?”

  Leo and Uncle nodded.

  “It was Evelyn.”

  Uncle stopped tapping.

  Leo raised an eyebrow, looking between the both of us. “Evelyn? Like Evelyn Nightingale? The old bitch who hates all things swords?”

  “There’s no one else…” Uncle solemnly muttered, staring at the reflective surface of the dining table. He licked his lips, and the muscles in his face coiled together as though twisted through a vice. “She ‘triggered’ an episode?”

  “I think so, yeah. One of my otherselves had…history with her,” I said, trying my best to not actively remember “his” memories nor disclosing too much information to Leo. Though, she was smart enough to start piecing together Uncle’s true background.

  “I see, I guess that explains it. Do you remember anyone else who might trigger an episode?”

  I shook my head. “I can barely remember what time I woke up this morning."

  "Alex—"

  "I'll monitor myself." I glanced at Leo. "We'll monitor myself. But another note, Dr. Nightingale didn't recognize me. She shouldn’t, anyway, but… Well, I basically told her she was a terrible fucking person without saying those words explicitly.”

  Leo sat on the edge of the table between us. “I’m not gonna ask how you know Dr. Nightingale—mostly because I can’t handle another groundbreaking revelation about your family—but are we good? No more health scares?” (“For now,” I said.) “No sudden family drama?” (“For now,” Uncle said.) “No random appearances of your mortal enemies?”

  Me and Uncle Ali looked at each other. At the same time, we said, “For now.”

  “Right.” Leo got off the table. “What else should I expect from your crazy-ass family? I’m just glad you guys are in a joking mood, because personally? There’d be so many beer-bottles on the floor that you could make snow-angels.”

  Uncle Ali chuckled and tapped his beer. “I’m limiting myself, don’t worry.”

  “Yeah, uhm…” Leo folded her hands, visibly stressing over her next words. “And uh—ugh, there’s no good way to say this, but Alex told me why you’re taking today off. I want to offer my condolences.”

  Uncle sadly smiled. “Thank you.”

  “If you want, we can drink and cry together. If you’re open to that, I mean. It’s your wife’s birthday, after all. We should celebrate her memory. Maybe Alex can share some himself?”

  “We definitely have a few stories,” I said, wiping my nose. “Mine aren’t that exciting. Typical aunt-nephew things.”

  “Mel loved Alex and Althea like they were her own children,” Uncle told her. "She spoiled them lots."

  With that one sentence, he opened the scars of his heart just for tonight. They would bleed, of course, but he had the salve of alcohol and good company. By tomorrow, the same wounds would heal and turn over into scars again, but hopefully they’d feel lighter.

  “Well…” Leo patted the table a couple times. “Before we continue further, this calls for beers and burgers. Keep talking. Or in fact, join me in the kitchen. I’ll be your chef tonight.”

  Uncle Ali raised a suspicious eyebrow at me.

  I sighed. “I was coerced.”

  ***

  “—she had a lot of your qualities, actually.”

  “Really?”

  “Mhm. She was endlessly concerned about everyone’s well-being…”

  As Uncle shared his favorite memories of Aunt Melissa with Leo, I was pulled from the conversation because of my damned phone. I thought it’d be Rector or someone from the team inquiring about my emergency, like Morgan out of morbid curiosity, but it was Victor.

  Being the massive fucking idiot I was, I’d forgotten about why I attended the convention in the first place. It was Kotone. In a way, you could say I intentionally became a clown to pile all the attention onto myself.

  Yapping aside, I answered as I stood near the balcony-doors. “Vic, sorry for not updating you sooner—”

  I heard sniffling on the other side.

  “Vic?”

  “Sorry, I… Fuck.” I heard Victor walking, then him shutting a door. “You still there, Alex?”

  “Yeah, no, of course. What’s going on? I hadn’t been monitoring our group-chats since, well—let’s not talk about my health scare. What’s up?”

  “It’s bad. It’s really fucking bad.” Victor was pacing around. “Kotone and her brother, they… they had a fight. Her [Pylons] are gone, like destroyed—”

  “What?” I said, then Leo’s laughter reminded me of the happy conversation taking place not even a few meters away. I turned my back and held my phone closer. “What happened to her [Pylons]? She needs them—”

  “I know! Just fuck, Chie can explain it better, trust me. She found them arguing, one thing led to another, and Kotone ported from HQ. We couldn’t find her for three hours, man.”

  A terrible chill went down my stomach. My heart pulsed inside my throat. “What…? What do you mean by that? She just went fucking missing—?”

  “Chill, it’s good now, chill. We found her, thankfully.”

  “Oh my fucking God.” I roughly rubbed my lips, feeling my teeth grind against the inner-flesh. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know—”

  “No, man, don’t apologize. You had your own thing going on. You couldn’t have known.”

  “But what about Kotone? Is she alright? Where’s Chunhua?”

  “I’m at their place right now and…” Victor hissed through his teeth. “Kotone locked herself in her room. Chunhua’s cycling between bawling her eyes out and threatening to disembowel Tsukasa.”

  Holy shit, how much did I miss? How much did we miss?

  “Okay, what should we do? I mean, there has to be something we can do, right? About Kotone? Her [Pylons]?” My obvious discomfort was finally noticed by Leo and Uncle Ali; they stood from their seats, attentively listening. “I—fuck, what about Rector and Seraph? What should I tell Overseer?”

  “Look, I… I don’t know what to do, man. I’m probably gonna stay the night at their place, and we can figure out our next steps tomorrow. Just call Chie and she’ll tell you the rest of the story. And Alex? Get some sleep, man. I got too many fucking questions about your drama, but one thing at a time. Okay? Think that’s a game-plan?”

  I loudly exhaled and looked up at the ceiling, doing my best to not think about the implications. Just the thought was bringing tears to my eyes. “No, fuck no, but I’ll call Chie. I’ll call her. Let me know if anything happens, alright?”

  “Yeah. G’night.”

  Vic hung up.

  Uncle and Leo continued watching me.

  I dropped my phone on the couch.

  I sat down, sinking into the soft cushions.

  I covered my mouth and stared at our ugly rug, thinking too much.

  Leo rested a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, lovely. I’ll call Chie.”

  Silently, I nodded and closed my eyes.