{Nao, high school age}

“GET AWAY FROM HERRRRRRRRRR!”

Following that distorted scream was an atmosphere so heavy and cold, much colder than the rainstorm outside the warehouse, that my body wracked and shivered in chills. The instant that atmosphere was dropped, Takora, who was looming over me, suddenly disappeared, and the sound of boys getting toppled to the floor with yelps of surprise happened seconds later. The two that were pinning my arms to the floor lost their grip, since their own limbs bent in ways they shouldn’t with very audible sounds of breaking bones. Before I could process what was going on, I was suddenly moved to a new spot, finding myself sitting up against one of the boxes in the building. It was when I saw the boys who were pinning me down earlier, crying in pain from their broken arms, that I realized I was set free.

I suddenly found myself looking down and saw Ma-chi’s black hair. I couldn’t see his face, but his arms were around my waist, holding me with a strength I could never expect a boy his age could wield, yet he was so gentle and careful with me at the same time. I would be relieved that Ma-chi was here with me, holding me like that, but there was an ominous air coming off him that starkly contrasted the cute and sweet little bro I adored.

“Ma … chi?” I couldn’t help but mutter his name dumbly.

“What the hell happened?!” Takora yelled, “How was I thrown, and why is that brat holding my bitch over there?!”

“I don’t know, but something broke my arm!” one of the boys who pinned me down cried in pain.

“M-Mine, too!” the other added.

Takora clicked his tongue, “Whatever! The bitch broke the promise, so get a hold of the brat and—”

“GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.”

The distorted growl that interrupted Takora was like a beast’s that came from hell out of rage, and it took me a moment to realize that it was Ma-chi who made that noise. Moreover, he turned his attention to the boys while keeping me behind him, as if I was a great treasure that he wouldn’t dare let anyone steal away, and it was when I saw a glimpse of his face that I thought my heart dropped to my stomach.

Ma-chi’s eyes had gone pitch black, with only a small pinprick-sized white dot that I guessed marked where his pupil was. It was like everything I thought was good about him wasn’t there, and in its place was an unknown monster that was possessing his body. What scared me the most at that moment wasn’t the pure anger and malice in his inhumane eyes, nor was it the ominous air that seemed to have wafted from his body like bad steam. It was the thought that the young, innocent little brother I took a liking to disappeared from this world that made me despaired, and that it was my fault that he turned out like this.

“W-What’s up with that kid?!” 

“It’s like he’s possessed!”

“A monster, no … a d-demon.”

The boys in the background said those things and more as they watched this demonized boy with the greatest caution as he scanned his enemies.

Whatever condescending, dominating attitude Takora had moments ago was totally gone, and in its place was that of a pitiful, broken man, as death was staring him straight in the eye. The guy was sweating buckets, and I was pretty sure the crotch area of his pants wasn’t wet from the rain outside.

“A-Alright, you caught us!” Takora exclaimed, the shake in his voice interfered with how he tried to play it cool, “This was all a prank! Yeah! W-We just wanted t-to give her a scare and—”

“YOU CALL THAT A PRANK?!” Ma-chi yelled distortedly.

Convinced that Ma-chi wasn’t up for games, Takora lost all composure, “Okay! I admit that was dumb! We seriously hurt you both and we’re sorry! You want your big sister?! She’s all yours, kid! We’ll leave you both alone from now on! J-Just please let us go!”

“You … made Aneki cry. You … made her sad, all this time. She asked you to stop, you did not listen. Now, you want me to let you go?”

The more Ma-chi spoke, the angrier he got with his ominous air growing bigger. The boys in the warehouse were shivering in place.

“You made Aneki suffer. Now, I … WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER!”

With Ma-chi’s blood-curdling declaration, he rushed to the two boys with broken arms at inhumane speeds, grabbed both of their collars, and quickly dragged them away from the spot before easily tossing them to the rest of the boys, crashing into them like bowling pins. I’m pretty sure he did the same to get Takora away from me earlier.

After that, even though it was one versus ten—I might be exaggerating in the numbers, but it was too tense a moment for me to really keep track—it was more of a torture session than a typical brawl between boys. Anguished cries of pain, fear, and despair rang through the warehouse as Ma-chi followed through on his promise. The way he let out distorted, sadistic laughs at that time clearly showed that what started out as a way to get revenge turned into a funny, entertaining pastime for him. The fact that those laughs still had childish innocence behind them made me wonder if I was in a slasher horror movie at one point with how eerie the atmosphere became. 

Ma-chi broke more bones, knocked teeth and blood out from the boys’ bodies with his punches, even tearing skin on occasion with his gruesome bites or scratches from his fingernails. When it was convenient, he picked up one of the heavy-looking iron pipes with ease and beat their bodies with it. One tried to crawl away to escape, trying to take advantage of Ma-chi’s blind spot, but he made sure no one could leave his gaze, dragging that guy back before throwing him against another dude like a rag doll against a punching bag.

That whole time, I sat there and watched it all, a strange mix of fear and excitement welled inside me, the latter probably out of seeing my ex finally getting his just desserts. That was partially why I didn’t consider stopping Ma-chi ripping those guys a new one, another was whether he may hurt me if I tried to stop him. Somewhere in my conscience told me that something about this way of thinking was wrong and it still bugged me for a bit since then. It wasn’t until later that I learned this inner conflict between my own ‘angels and demons’ was due to a curse.

Minutes later, all the boys were bloodied and looked to be on the brink of death. Ma-chi was in a mess of their blood with a crazed smile on his face, and he was about to deal the finishing blow when two unexpected people showed up in the scene.

“That’s enough, Jin-chan.”

With that calm, but authoritative call, Ma-chi’s mother, Kan-chi, suddenly appeared from out of thin air and delivered a karate chop to her son’s nape. Ma-chi didn’t react fast enough before the hit landed, knocking him unconscious. Kan-chi caught him just before his body hit the floor.

“Ma-chi?!” I yelled in fright.

“Relax, this isn’t the first ‘incident’ Mikan-chan has dealt with. Jinma-kun will be fine.”

The second woman that showed up in the scene out of thin air was Kan-chi’s closest friend and one of Ma-chi’s aunts, Mitsuko Toka. She suddenly showed up at my side and stopped me from running over to him.

“How does it look?” Ko-chi—the nickname I called her—asked Kan-chi.

“Mm … they look like shit, but they’ll live,” Kan-chi said bluntly, “How’s Nao-chan?”

“Ah, her uniform’s gonna need to be fixed in places. There’s a bit of bruising, but she’s okay,” Ko-chi answered.

“Th-Thank you!” Takora exclaimed as he clambered out of the pile before prostrating to Kan-chi in gratitude, “Th-Thank you for saving us from this hellspawn! I thought we were goners!”

“This ‘hellspawn’ … happens to be my son.”

The last word spoken with a distorted tone shook all the boys to their cores. They and Takora looked up to their savior, only to find the hellspawn’s parent, whose eyes have also changed to be like Ma-chi’s earlier, only her irises shined a brilliant orange, like a bright, raging fire lighting the darkness around it.

A sadistic grin spread through her face as she eyed the boys beneath her like bugs she’s itching to squash, “I’d say ‘sorry’ for the trouble he may have caused, but I know he wouldn’t get like this unless something really agitated him. Don’t think you’re out of the woods yet, you little pieces of shit.”

The boys blubbered and clung onto each other for dear life as they waited for their fate.

From that point on, Kan-chi said something to Ko-chi before the latter tied up the boys with the rope that was lying around the warehouse and had them moved to someplace else where no one would find them. That was when I found out Ko-chi was also like Kan-chi of someone being non-human, except her eyes still had the white scleras while her iris changed to the same brilliant orange color as the latter’s. I didn’t know until later that she was the ‘First Pact’ Kan-chi made within her own ‘family’.

After Ko-chi left with the boys, Kan-chi made a phone call to have someone clean up the mess in the warehouse before she carried me and Ma-chi in her arms with ease and ran back to her home. I’ll be honest, that was the second most terrifying thing that happened to me that day, with how Kan-chi sprinted and jumped between buildings at superhuman speeds.

When we got back to Ma-chi’s home, Kan-chi grabbed some towels and clothes for us. Once we calmed down, with Ma-chi getting his head petted while resting on his mother’s lap, she had me explain what happened. I had some questions of my own, but I owed it to her for getting her son involved with my troubles, so I tried to explain everything as concisely as possible.

“I see … I bet that was a terrifying experience for you,” Ma-chi said, “While I’d rather you call me about the situation, I understand that you had to take it in your own hands under the circumstances. I thank you for putting yourself on the line to save my son.” She showed her gratitude while lowering her head.

Flustered, I shook my hands, “N-No, please, I was the one that got him in this mess, and … as crazy as it was, he did save me back there. I should be the one to thank you and apologize for the inconvenience I caused you and Ma-chi.”

“Even so, you’ve been with Jin-chan from his loneliest time up to now. The kind of company he needed during that time was something I couldn’t provide as his mother. I’m grateful that you’ve taken the time out of the days in your high school life to play with him,” she said.

“It’s no big deal, really. I’ve had fun playing with Ma-chi, too, and—”

“Which is why it pains me to ask that you stay away from Jin-chan from now on.”

The words Kan-chi spoke at that moment, I thought my heart stopped, “C-Come again?”

“I’ll pay what’s necessary to fix your uniform, and I’ll let your school know that you’ll be absent tomorrow so you can rest from this ordeal,” Kan-chi continued, “I’ll also make sure those boys will be out of your hair for good, and that I’ll give you enough money to make up for the times you spent with my son. All I ask in return is that you don’t speak of what happened today to anyone, and that you cut yourself off from Jin-chan’s life for good.”

The request was so crazy to me that I went hysterical, “W-Wait a minute! You can’t do that! No, more importantly, what was that back there?! What happened to Ma-chi?! How did you—”

“This is a very confidential matter that stays within my family,” Kan-chi interrupted, her gaze now stern, “It’s risky enough that I’m letting you leave out of this alive. Honestly, if you hadn’t treated Jin-chan as well as you had, I wouldn’t have minded taking you out right there in that warehouse with those boys.”

Hearing that, knowing Kan-chi has the same kind of power as Ma-chi, I thought I’d puke out my stomach for a moment. That was how scared I was.

“What’s happening with Jin-chan is beyond what you can understand, and I can’t risk letting you see more than what you have already,” Kan-chi continued, “If you value your life, you should stop pressing into this matter now and do as I say.”

If Kan-chi bringing me and Ma-chi to her home the way she did was the second scariest thing that happened to me that day, then this moment would be put at the very top of that list. I was scared enough of losing Ma-chi from how beat up he was—which, by the way, has all healed up on its own, thanks to his demon powers—now I couldn’t see him anymore because of some complicated family matter that I have next to no knowledge of. Part of me thought this might be for the better. I was ready to cut ties with him after Takora and his boys had their way with me out of shame, after all, and who knows if that would be the last time something like that has happened.

Despite what might have been best for Ma-chi … I just couldn’t do it. Not when there’s so many more things I wanted to do with him, not when there’s so much I still didn’t know about him. My life up to that point was already fucked up as it was, I couldn’t back down from Kan-chi’s threat back then, not when there’s an option for me to still stay with him.

“... No.” I really had to dig into myself to pull up the courage to say that much.

“What was that?” Kan-chi asked sternly.

“I said, no!” I exclaimed, standing from my seat, “Whatever freaky powers he’s got going on, Ma-chi is still Ma-chi! Despite how I was about to be defiled right in front of him, he saved me! He has saved me in times before that, too! How could I possibly cut myself off from him without ever properly paying him back after all that?! No, more than that, I want to play with Ma-chi more because I like him! Because I’m his big sister!

“I know I failed to stick up for him properly back there, but please, you have to give me another chance! Let me prove to you that I can protect Ma-chi from now on as his big sister! Let me be a part of his life for just a little while longer!” I yelled before I caught my breath.

Kan-chi watched me closely as I spouted every word, and when I finished, she took a moment to think seriously. The seconds of silence in that room seemed like they grew longer exponentially the more time passed.

“... Do you really like spending time with my son that much?” Kan-chi asked, her tone serious.

“Yes!”

“Are you prepared to do what it takes to protect him, and the secret that surrounds him and my family?”

“Yes! I’ll do whatever it takes!”

“... Even if it means killing someone with your own hands?”

Kan-chi’s last question startled me, but I only nodded erratically in response.

Kan-chi’s eyes looked deep into my soul. Despite the power she held that’s likely much stronger than Ma-chi’s, it took everything I had to not tear my gaze away from her own.

After the long stare-off, Kan-chi sighed frustratingly, “I wondered when he’d get a hold of another girl, but a high school gyaru, of all things?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

~~

{Komi, present}

“And that was how Kan-chi got me to make a pact with her and become a D-Human, filling me in on the Kurokichi Clan's secrets and affairs that I needed to know to become Ma-chi's 'proper' big sister,” Nao-chi said before hugging herself with a nostalgic smile, “When Ma-chi woke up later, you wouldn’t believe how much he cried asking if I was okay. Most adorable I’ve seen of him to date, for sure. Ko-chi then came back with pizza that we had for dinner before Ma-chi and I bathed and slept together later that night. Couldn’t leave my side the whole time, saying ‘I won’t let those bullies take my aneki ever again!’ Aaaah! Just thinking about it makes my heart burst!”

… Restrain yourself, Komi. This is Jin-chi’s big sister we’re talking about. Can’t have him asking questions of where she’s gone if something happened to her. This is not out of jealousy that he never got that cuddly with me when I always had to take initiative to get physical. Nope. Not at all.

I had to clear my throat to try to get us back on track, “So, from the sound of things, Jin-chi had no memory of what happened in the warehouse?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess he blacked out around the time his [Devil Eyes] activated,” Nao-chi answered, “We played it off with one of the boys knocking him out cold when he resisted further, and Kan-chi and Ko-chi came to the rescue to beat their asses after that.”

“And what happened to your ex and those boys that antagonized you both?” I asked.

“Weeeell, when I was able to harness my own demon powers, Kan-chi had me learn how to use it while proving my loyalty to her … by using those boys as my test dummies. I think you can figure out what happened to them after that. They’ve been on the news as missing since then, and I have never regretted taking that initiative to this day,” Nao-chi said before taking another sip of her tea, “Ah, it’s gone cold. Excuse me! Can I get another tea, please?!”

Well, there wasn't anything fishy with her story, at least. If she really did put in the work to prove her worth to the clan, even if it's just Mikan and Mitsuki who she reports to, then I think she can be trusted. Not to mention, she stared death in the face opposing Mikan's demands, just because she wanted to keep being with Jin-chi, big sister or otherwise. Not even Hyo-chi could question her loyalty by that point if she were here, though I wonder if she'll be 'threatened' the same way I'm feeling in regards to relations with Jin-chi?

While I still love and care for Jin-chi deeply, I have to pity him for the trouble our little rivalry will likely cause him once we're all reunited. It may be hopeless to think so, but it would be nice if Hyo-chi didn't go overboard seeing him again.

Orange_Rain

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