Chapter 2.1 "Self-Reproach"

Part 1

April 11

It all started when my grandfather said he was going to bring someone else to train and instruct me in various things. At first, I thought it would be one of those annoying and arrogant boys from a noble family again.

To my surprise, it was not. My grandfather went on a business trip for a few weeks, and upon his return, he brought a girl and a boy with him.

Despite some parts of their appearance, like their clothes and hair being perfectly neat and clean, their faces seemed different from the typical high-class kids.

The girl was extremely pale, as if she had never seen the sun in her life. Despite her beauty, there was something unsettling about her expression...

Her head hung low, the way she looked around, her own gaze, all of it expressed shyness, but there was something else, something deep in her eyes that expressed fear.

I asked her name, Takanashi Kyouka. I thought it was a very pretty name.

Then I turned to the boy, small and scrawny, but there was a certain arrogance in his face that I instantly disliked.

However, when I asked for his name, I decided to look at him closely. Then I saw something that made my skin crawl. Deep, dark circles, an almost lifeless gaze, his cheeks were scratched, and to make it worse, he was almost twice as pale as his sister, an almost absolute white.

But despite this cadaverous appearance, his eyes occasionally showed an expression that was not fully reflected in his face.

As if he wanted to hide it discreetly from others, or maybe he didn't even realize he was making it.

Between glances, an expression of immense and wrenching anger appeared on his face.

I froze when I saw it.

—Who is this boy? —I thought, looking at him almost terrified.

Suddenly, without me saying or asking anything, he lifted his head and told me his name.

—Takanashi Riochiro.

—I see.

They were siblings, although they didn't look like it, the differences between the boy and the girl were too obvious.

The color of their hair, their eyes, their physique, even their faces. They had no resemblance. Even so, I didn't think much about it; I just decided to ask my grandfather who I would be in charge of.

Previously, my grandfather told me that I would take care of the eldest, and by appearances, I thought the girl was the older one.

To my surprise, my grandfather said that I was to take care of the boy. But of course, that wasn't possible. How could the boy be the older one?

Compared to the girl, he was small and skinny, even smaller than me.

At first, I thought it was my grandfather again with his principles of chivalry. To make sure my dear grandfather's judgment wasn't mistaken, I asked for their ages.

It was true, Kyouka was 8 years old, and Riochiro was 9 years old, the same age as me! This was too surprising for me; at first, I thought he was 5 years old.

He seemed annoyed by my reaction of surprise, but I don't judge him. If I had been in his place, I would have felt offended too.

My grandfather and I started discussing the training in front of them, and although the girl didn't react, Riochiro asked a question with a tense look.

The grandfather explained how things were going to be, but he was clear and direct about one thing:

—We will have to separate his sister and him.

Riochiro didn't wait to react; he just lunged at my grandfather like an animal would.

My grandfather surely thought about immobilizing him quickly with the heel immobilization technique, but Riochiro jumped and separated from the ground as if he had foreseen it.

If my grandfather and he engaged in close combat, Riochiro would surely get hurt, so I simply transmitted a bit of electricity to my feet and quickly moved behind him with one stride.

I did everything I could to finish him in one blow, used super speed to get into his blind spot, stuck to the ground to hide my presence from the edges of his gaze, but even then, he detected me.

I only saw it for a fraction of a second, but he gave a look in my direction, the same look of anger I had seen in his expression a while ago.

Somehow, I felt threatened, my skin crawled again, and I acted reflexively, lunging at his neck where his nervous center was and giving him a slight charge of electricity.

The technique was effective. Once on the ground, Riochiro couldn't move.

At that moment, his sister started crying and tried to come towards us.

—Brother! Brother! —she cried, her voice choked with sobs.

I almost froze when I saw her cry like that. The scene was devastating; I felt terrible doing this.

To make things worse, Riochiro started trying to move while letting out roars and wails of the pain he was feeling.

I didn't understand any of it. The technique was supposed to make him pass out within 10 seconds, but he remained conscious.

—Why were they so desperate? —I thought. What kind of ordeal had these children gone through?

I felt tempted to let Riochiro go, but suddenly, he stopped moving. He had fainted from the intensity of the electricity.

At that same moment, Kyouka ran towards us and lunged at us, pushing me away from her brother.

I fell on my back, immobilized by the horrible scene.

Kyouka hugged her brother, leaning on him and crying inconsolably.

—Brother! —she cried again, repeating it several times.

What had just happened here? What we were doing seemed more like an abduction than a reorganization.

My grandfather approached them and tried to carry Kyouka, but every time he reached out his hands, she bit him, to the point of making his left palm bleed from a bite.

Unfazed, my grandfather simply moved with super speed behind her, charged a small charge in the tips of his fingers, and with a graceful touch on the back of Kyouka's neck, she fainted almost instantly.

Slowly, I got up from the ground and saw now the unconscious and defenseless boy I had just attacked.

—What have I done?

I stepped away from him with some uncertainty, but my grandfather seemed to have it clear. While carrying Kyouka in his arms, he called for the butlers to pick her up and take her to the mansion's infirmary.

Once they took her away, he approached Riochiro and lifted him in his arms, carefully making sure I hadn't left any injuries on his neck.

My grandfather looked at me.

—Follow me.

Without saying anything, I just followed him with my head down, not knowing how to feel about the situation or what I had done. I just felt bad.

I followed my grandfather to the entrance of the labyrinth, so out of curiosity about what he was going to do with Riochiro, I simply asked him:

—Where are we taking the boy?

—To the center of the labyrinth.

—Why would we take him there?

—Because that's where you're going to train him.

—Wait, what? Where is he going to sleep? In the gardener's room?

—Exactly.

—I don't... I don't understand, why so much insistence on separating the siblings.

—It was a favor their father asked me.

—What favor?

—That when neither he nor their mother were here for them, I would separate Riochiro and train him to protect his sister.

—When neither he nor the mother...?

At that moment, I understood the situation. They had lost their parents. That's why they looked so scared, that's why the crying, the aggression, the roars, and the screams of despair.

For them, they had no one else, only each other. My grandfather silently entered the labyrinth, and I followed him.

Still, in my mind, the same doubt had formed since I first saw them, something I couldn't hold back and simply asked my grandfather.

—Who are these children?

My grandfather stayed silent for a moment, but after a few seconds, he answered me.

—These are Rachel's children.

—Rachel? —I asked, surprised.

Rachel is one of my father's sisters. Although the Kisaragi family doesn't have much contact with each other to be considered close, every time my grandfather calls for a meeting, all family members attend to have dinner and share their stories.

But Rachel was considered missing by all the Kisaragi; she just disappeared one day, never to return.

Since then, ten years have passed, so this is what she had been doing all this time.

I looked at Riochiro again with new eyes. That meant he and I were family, right? He's my cousin.

Grandfather Ryougamine glanced at me quickly, but it only took him a few seconds to know what I was thinking.

—Rikka, you should know, this young man is not related to us in terms of family.

—What?

—This boy is the son of another woman who was with his father before Rachel, so...

—That explains the differences between him and his sister.

—Then what about him?

—Despite everything, I was unhappy with Rachel's decision to be with this boy's father. Time showed me that he was a good man, so much so that I now owe him a huge favor. That's why I'll treat this boy as my own grandson, and I'll be happy to do so. Besides —my grandfather added—, he seems like a good boy, don't you think?

I really don't know what to think about him. He gave me so many different impressions in such a short time that he seems too

Part 2

After that small talk, we reached the center of the labyrinth, as vast as always. In the middle of this area, the gardener was sitting at a table, having a cup of coffee. It seemed he was taking a short break before continuing his work in the labyrinth.

—Good morning, Kohei. How's everything going? —asked my grandfather courteously.

—Good morning, Mr. Ryugamine. As you can see, I'm taking my break. I just finished the left corridor, and it turned out perfect.

—Ah yes, I saw it while walking here. I see you plan to continue to the front corridor.

—That's right, sir. —The gardener glanced towards my grandfather's arms, focusing his gaze on Riochiro. —Is that the boy, my lord?

—Yes, he's the one I spoke to you about the week before last.

—Perfect, I'll start preparing the room in a moment.

The gardener went to one of the ivy-covered walls that surrounded the center of the labyrinth and reached into the greenery to open a door leading to a room.

He went inside, and the sounds of metal and things being dragged began to emerge from that place. After a few seconds, the gardener came out, albeit with some dust on his hat and overalls.

—It's ready; you can enter —he said with a certain tone of joy.

My grandfather and I entered the room, which seemed a bit small from my perspective. Inside, it had all the basic amenities for living.

A bed, a bathroom, a stove, and a table with a chair. Basic comforts, although the bed had neither a pillow nor sheets.

My grandfather carefully placed Riochiro on the bed while the gardener watched everything we were doing from the doorway.

—Rikka, take care of him while I fetch a pillow and sheets for this young man.

My grandfather left the room, and the gardener followed him, leaving only Riochiro and me in the room.

I stood in front of the bed, now observing the boy. My grandfather told me to take care of him, but I had no idea how.

I simply decided to fill a basin with water from the bathroom, took a cloth from the table, and started cleaning his body.

I tried to sit him up on the bed carefully so as not to hurt him, as he must have been stiff due to the electricity he had received.

With much effort, I managed to sit him up, although keeping him that way required a lot of strength from me. I hadn't thought lifting a person would be so exhausting.

I was able to take off his shirt, though I was left panting from the effort due to all the strength I had had to use. I laid him back on the bed and saw something that left me cold.

His body was covered in what seemed like bruises and welts, as if he had been beaten relentlessly. The area around his ribs was completely battered, and his chest and abdomen were no better. Moreover, he looked malnourished, as if he hadn't eaten for days.

Tears almost welled up in my eyes at the sight. How could a child have such injuries? What had happened to him?

I quickly understood that, despite not knowing his situation, Riochiro had been through a lot in a relatively short period of time.

His wounds looked "recently made," and the healing factor we "Homo Seres" have hadn't activated due to the lack of nutrients.

He needed urgent care. So, I decided to do one thing and one thing only:

Not only would I train him, but I would also try to introduce him into the Kisaragi family, so that he could become another member.