“Now maybe we’ll have some peace and quiet,” he remarked quietly as he scanned the bodies of the policemen twitching amid the smoke.
Masako’s gun fell to the ground.
Perhaps Kanba was too far gone. Even then, she didn’t care. If he was willing to love her as his sister, if he needed her more than anyone else, then she would follow him to certain doom, cursed or crushed as the case may be.
“Kanba, please, answer me. What were you about to say just now? Will you let me be cursed alongside you?”
But as he turned back to speak, the opportunity was stolen from him once again.
“Masako!”
A hail fire of bullets shot out from the darkness, aiming squarely at them. Screaming, Masako watched as sparks flew like shooting stars. Oh, how dearly she wished they were stars instead. A beat later, everything went dark and quiet, as if a curtain fell on the stage.
Beneath the night sky, she could smell her beloved brother’s familiar scent. It took her back to the days when he cherished her as his sister. Was there once a time when he held her like this? His arms were warm, imbued with sweet, soft love that she couldn’t possibly oppose, even if what lay beyond was a hopeless future. When she opened her eyes a crack, she realized that she was somehow completely unharmed.
“Kanba?”
He was collapsed on top of her. Then her back started to ache, and she realized he must have tackled her to the ground. When she shook his shoulders, she felt something warm and wet.
“Kanba!”
With a shriek, she wriggled her way out from under him. His back bore the gunshots meant for her; his skin smelled of gunpowder, and blood was pooling beneath his body. Then his fingers twitched slightly, and she grabbed his hand in both of hers, squeezing tightly. He was still conscious.
“You cannot escape, Takakura Kanba! Cease all resistance!”
There was nowhere left for them to run. But if they surrendered, he might survive.
“We will give you ten seconds. If you do not surrender, we will open fire! Ten!”
Masako slowly rose to her feet. There, in her path, stood a group of men dressed in black. They surrounded her and Kanba, preventing their surrender.
“Move! Kanba’s going to die!” Masako shouted, pleading.
“It’s pointless. Our crimes can never be forgiven. If we go out there, they’ll execute us,” one of them muttered.
“No…!”
Either way, Kanba was going to lose his life. As he struggled to breathe, she reached out and cupped his cheek.
Nine. Eight.
“I’m sorry, Mario-san. I failed to save you.” As she spoke, she removed her trench coat. “I’ll be the decoy. You take Kanba and get out of here!”
Seven. Six. Five.
She peeled off his black jacket riddled with bullet holes and pulled it on, using the collar to conceal her gorgeous curls. Dressed like this, they might mistake her for Kanba.
Four.
“Move!”
As the men all hesitated, she shoved them out of the way and took off running.
Under the leadership of Natsume Sahee, the Natsume family was driven by greed. In this world, the ambitious took charge; anything less was unworthy of fruit. Masako believed that this was her grandfather’s curse, and so when her father threw it all away and went into hiding, she believed him to be a pure-hearted, selfless person. But then she saw his coffin, vague and formless and beautiful.
There could be no light without shadow. Kanba had rescued her and Mario from that shadow and sent them into the light—into the sunshine. But Masako was a mere child who couldn’t see that, just as Yuri had said. This time, however, she would be the one to save him. She wouldn’t let him die here in the dark.
“Goodness, I’d better crush them soon!”
She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the group of men scatter in all different directions—one of them carrying Kanba.
Three. Two.
His black military jacket carried a warm, reassuring scent that put her at ease.
One.
On an especially snowy day, Masako’s father took her and Mario by the hand and instructed them to say goodbye to Kanba.
“Masako, Mario, you’re going to stay here.”
Here was an apartment KIGA leased. Normally it was packed full of people who gave long speeches; Kanba and Masako always stood side by side, listening intently. She was convinced that her grandfather was a greedy tyrant while her father was a good person, so she always did her best to pay attention when he talked, even if she didn’t really enjoy the speeches. Still, she could tell it wasn’t an ordinary apartment.
“The two of you are going to help me with my work.”
The two of us? Then what about Kanba? Masako looked at her father anxiously.
“Dad, no! Let Masako and Mario go back home to the Natsume estate. Let them be normal kids! I’ll stay here instead!” young Kanba pleaded, clinging to his father’s legs.
Masako looked at the two of them and realized what was going on. She grabbed Mario’s mitten-clad hand; he blinked and looked at her.
Her father and brother were doing great work that their grandfather could never hope to replicate. Eventually they would come back to the Natsume estate to live with her and Mario, but for now, she needed to go back there and keep Mario safe until she finally managed to crush her accursed grandfather…or so she chose to believe, anyway. Otherwise she herself would have been crushed by the weight of her everyday life.
When she learned that Kanba was adopted by the Takakura family, Masako instinctively realized that their father must have died. As she watched him from a distance, Kanba’s face clouded over more and more. Oh, how she wished to one day clear up those clouds and live with him in the sunshine… At least, that was what she told herself. But perhaps it was never meant to be.
And so, on that fateful day, she was unceremoniously stuffed into a car her grandfather had sent. Through the window, she could see Kanba standing out in the snow. And as he disappeared into the distance, she made her teary farewell.
The city was draped in a blanket of snow, and it was so cold, it felt like her tears would crystallize on her cheeks. After that, her father and brother never came home.