“I have a sister.”
Rin’s expression changed, but he said nothing.
Shigure let out a long, trembling sigh, her eyes distant as she stared out over the valley.
“I was very little. I remember being happy. We had a good family. A dad, a mom... and a twin sister.”
A faint smile appeared on Shigure’s face. “We fought all the time.” She let out a soft laugh. “She used to steal food from my plate whenever my parents weren't looking. I'd yell at her, and she'd pretend she had no idea what I was talking about.”
“We shared everything. Toys. Clothes. Secrets. Sometimes we annoyed each other so much I wished she'd leave me alone for a day.”
“But whenever I was scared, she was there. Whenever I was lonely, she was there.”
She lowered her gaze. “I always thought we'd have more time together.”
After a moment of silence, she continued. “I remember that day clearly. We went to the beach. While we were there, I found this beautiful glass flower in a souvenir shop. It was made of pure white crystal. I loved it so much that I couldn't stop staring at it. The shopkeeper noticed and asked if I liked it. When I said yes, she pressed a little button on the bottom, and the crystal began to glow. I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling.”
“When we got home, my sister kept looking at the glass flower. I ran straight to my room, closed the door, and turned off the lights just to watch it glow. It was so amazing that I rushed out to find my parents so they could see it too. But my dad had gone to the market to buy groceries for dinner, and my mom was busy working. She told me to wait a few minutes.”
“So, I went back to my room. But when I opened the door... the flower was broken. I didn't know what had happened. Mom came up behind me and asked what was wrong. She went into my sister's room. She was sitting there reading a book. When my mom confronted her, my sister admitted she broke it by mistake. She said she was sorry.”
“I didn't say anything back to her. I just cried a lot. I was so angry that I refused to eat dinner that night.” Shigure took a shaky breath. “When I woke up in the middle of the night, I was starving. I walked out into the dark hallway. I stopped and looked at my sister's closed door for a long time.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I almost knocked.”
Rin remained silent.
“I remember standing there and thinking I should apologize. I thought about telling her I wasn't angry anymore.”
She laughed bitterly. “I told myself I'd do it in the morning. I thought there would be time.”
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Her hands tightened into fists in her lap.
“But I was still hungry, so I walked away from her door and went to the kitchen to find something to eat. There wasn't anything ready. I just stood there for a moment... then filled a glass with water, hoping it would dull the hunger for a little while.”
Rin felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach.
“I took one sip.” Shigure's voice fell almost to a whisper. “And everything suddenly became still.”
“I didn't understand what was happening. My chest felt heavy. It was so hard to breathe, like something was crushing my lungs. I dropped to the floor, clutching my chest. And then... I heard a sound. A deep, echoing bell.”
Rin remembered the deep, metallic hum when the apartment vanished.
“Then, everything went back to normal,” Shigure said. “I was terrified, but the house was quiet. I went to my parents' room, but they were fast asleep. I didn't want to disturb them, so I decided to tell them in the morning. I walked back down the hallway, gave one last look at my sister's door, and went to sleep.”
Shigure looked down at her hands, and when she spoke, her voice was unsteady.
“When morning came, I walked into the dining room. My dad was eating breakfast, and my mom was at the stove making an omelet. I told my dad about the heavy feeling in my chest last night, and he looked worried and asked if I was feeling sick. Then my mom brought the food to the table. I looked at the plates, and I asked her... ‘Mom, why didn't you make a plate for my sister?’”
The wind howled around the shrine, filling the heavy silence.
“They just looked at me. Confused. My mom asked, ‘Who are you talking about?’ I told them to stop joking. I was still mad about the flower, but the joke wasn't funny anymore. But they... they didn't understand.”
Shigure looked up at Rin, her eyes wide with remembered panic.
“I shouted her name. I yelled that she could come out, that I wasn't angry anymore. My parents looked terrified. They asked if I was feeling okay. I stood up, screaming that the joke had to stop, and I ran to her room.”
Shigure grabbed her own arms, hugging herself tightly against the freezing wind.
“Her room was gone. It was just a storage closet filled with my dad's old stuff. All of her clothes, her books, her bed... gone. I ran through the house. Every family photo on the walls had changed. Every picture she was in... it was like she had been erased from existence. I called all our family friends. Nobody knew her.”
“My parents were so worried they drove me to a doctor. I was crying uncontrollably, screaming her name over and over. ‘She's my sister! Why don't you remember her?’”
Shigure let out a bitter, broken laugh.
“In the end, our relatives, our neighbors, the doctors... even the psychiatrists. They all said the same thing. ‘You don't have a sister.’ Those words echoed in my head non-stop. Everyone tried to convince me I was crazy. Everyone tried to convince me she never existed.”
Shigure slowly reached toward her left sleeve and pulled it back, exposing her pale wrist.
“So, I wrote it on my hand permanently. So I would never forget the truth.”
Rin stared at the jagged, faded scar carved into her flesh.
I Have a Sister.
Rin's hands began to tremble. He stared at Shigure, unable to process what he had just heard.
Buildings. Textbooks. Street colors. Until now, Rin had always believed it could only affect things that had no life. The thought that it could erase a person had never even crossed his mind. Not just the person, but everything that proved they had ever existed.
Shigure looked up at him. Rin couldn't hide it. She let her sleeve fall, covering the scar. She leaned back against the stone railing, exhausted.
He took a step back. For once, Rin didn't know what to say.
The two of them sat there as the sun finally sank below the mountains, plunging the shrine into darkness. The only sound was the howling wind.
After a long, suffocating silence, Shigure's voice cut through the dark.
“Now,” she whispered. “Tell me how much you know. And how long you've known it.”