Cubs
dark heroAkane remained bowed for several seconds after the apology had left her lips.
Neither Nezu nor Segu immediately knew what to do with it.
Segu had imagined this conversation more times than she cared to admit. In some versions she had shouted. In others, Akane had finally explained everything and somehow produced an answer that made the last two years reasonable. There had even been a few particularly unpleasant versions where Segu had simply walked away.
None of those imaginary conversations had included Akane bowing in the middle of Brown Mansion while a woman with animal ears waited patiently behind her.
“Raise your head,” Segu finally said.
Akane did.
“I’m still angry with you.”
“I know.”
“But I want answers more than I want another apology.”
Akane nodded slowly. “That’s fair.”
She returned to the sofa, and Rin immediately reclaimed her.
There was no better word for it.
Akane had barely sat down before Rin’s arms circled her again, pulling her back until Akane’s head rested against her left shoulder. Akane offered only the smallest sigh of resistance before settling there, apparently having accepted that this was simply where she lived now.
Rin’s tail resumed its lazy movement behind them, occasionally brushing against the side of the sofa, while her ears shifted toward whichever sibling happened to be speaking.
Segu sat opposite them beside Nezu. Riku and Jin remained farther back, neither appearing particularly interested in joining the conversation.
Akane looked between the siblings.
“I’ll answer what I can,” she said. “But I meant what I said before. There are things I can’t tell you.”
“How many?” Segu asked.
Akane hesitated.
“A lot.”
“That’s already a terrible start.”
“I know.”
Nezu leaned forward slightly.
“Riku can become invisible.”
Akane blinked.
Segu looked at him. “We’re starting there?”
“It is the simplest confirmed abnormality.”
“Of course it is.”
“Yes,” Akane said. “Riku can become invisible.”
“Actually invisible?” Segu asked.
“Yes.”
“Not camouflage?”
“No.”
“Some kind of technology?”
“No.”
Segu frowned.
“Completely invisible?”
“Yes.”
“His clothes too?”
“Yes.”
Nezu interrupted before Segu could continue.
“Can he see himself?”
Akane stared at him.
“Yes.”
“Does he cast a shadow?”
“No.”
“If he eats something, can you see the food inside him?”
Akane’s eyebrows rose.
Segu slowly turned toward Nezu.
“What?”
“It establishes whether the effect is applied to his body or merely its surface.”
“It establishes that there is something wrong with you.”
Akane covered her mouth, but the smile had already escaped.
“You wouldn’t see it.”
Nezu’s attention sharpened.
“Why?”
“Because Riku isn’t making his body invisible.”
That stopped both siblings.
Akane raised one hand and traced a rough circle through the air around herself and Rin.
“Think of it like a sphere around you. You make the sphere invisible, and everything inside becomes invisible with you. Your body, your clothes, whatever you’re carrying.”
Segu looked toward Riku.
“So you could be carrying something enormous and we wouldn’t know?”
“The sphere has limits,” Akane said. “The larger you make it, the more difficult it is to maintain.”
Segu thought back to their escape.
“So that’s what you did when you went ahead to check the corridor.”
“Yes.”
“And it works the same way for Riku?”
Akane nodded. “Exactly the same.”
Segu pointed at Rin.
“She can do it too?”
“Yes.”
“Jin?”
“Yes.”
Segu lowered her hand.
“So it isn’t something specific to any of you.”
“No. It’s something we can all learn to do.”
Nezu caught the wording immediately.
“We?”
Akane looked at him.
“You and Segu too.”
Silence.
Segu blinked.
“What?”
“You can both do it.”
Segu pointed at herself.
“I can turn invisible?”
“With some training.”
Segu stared at her for several seconds.
Then her expression changed.
“That would have been useful information two years ago!”
“It wouldn’t have helped.”
Segu frowned. “Why not?”
“Because neither of you had awak—”
Riku coughed.
Akane stopped.
The sound was ordinary enough that nobody reacted immediately.
Riku covered his mouth.
“Excuse me.”
Akane glanced at him, then back at Segu.
“You couldn’t do it at the time.”
“Why?”
“You just couldn’t.”
Segu stared at her.
“That sounded like it was going somewhere.”
“It wasn’t.”
“It definitely was.”
Nezu looked toward Riku for a moment before returning his attention to Akane.
“So we can do it now?”
“Yes.”
“How much training?” Segu asked.
“It depends on the person. Once you learn how to form and maintain the sphere properly, it becomes much easier.”
Segu sat back, apparently reconsidering the entire conversation.
“That is extremely cool.”
“It is useful,” Nezu corrected.
“It can be both.”
Nezu returned to the important matter.
“Can the sphere include another person?”
“Yes, but it’s harder. You have to extend it around them and keep the whole thing stable.”
“How long can you remain invisible?”
“That depends on the person and how practiced they are.”
“Can you move?”
“Of course.”
“Run?”
“Yes.”
“Fight?”
“Yes.”
“Sleep?”
Akane paused.
Segu closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“I am determining the limitations.”
“You asked whether invisible Riku’s food was visible.”
“It was relevant.”
“It was horrifying.”
Akane laughed softly.
“You could probably fall asleep while invisible, but you’d stop maintaining it once you were actually asleep.”
Nezu nodded, apparently satisfied.
“How do we learn?”
Akane shifted slightly in Rin’s arms.
“First you need to learn how to control—”
Riku coughed.
Akane stopped again.
This time Segu glanced at him.
Riku cleared his throat and looked away.
Akane’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“You need training.”
Segu looked back at her.
“That explanation became considerably shorter.”
“It covered the important part.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“It covered the part I can tell you.”
Nezu watched Riku again.
He said nothing.
Not yet.
Segu’s attention wandered from him to Rin.
More specifically, to the two ears protruding from her hair.
One of them twitched.
Segu pointed.
“Those.”
Rin looked at her.
“Those what?” Akane asked.
“The ears.”
Akane looked upward as though she could somehow see them from where her head rested.
“Oh.”
“And the tail.”
Rin’s tail flicked across Akane’s legs.
Segu nodded.
“Right. Stupid question, but they’re real?”
“Yes,” Akane said.
“Can she actually hear through them?”
“Yes.”
Nezu tilted his head.
“Are her human ears still present?”
Rin stared at him.
Nezu stared back.
Very slowly, Segu leaned sideways, trying to see through Rin’s hair.
Both of Rin’s ears flattened.
“Don’t.”
Segu immediately returned to her original position.
“Sorry.”
Akane was smiling again.
“Physical changes can happen.”
“Like growing cat ears?” Segu asked.
“And a tail.”
The tail moved again, apparently pleased to have been acknowledged.
“Why?”
Akane hesitated.
“It has to do with what someone chooses when they—”
Riku coughed.
Akane’s mouth closed.
Her eyes moved toward him.
Riku looked entirely innocent.
There was a pause.
Segu looked from one to the other.
Akane tried again.
“Some people change physically.”
“That is not what you were about to say.”
“It answers the question.”
“Barely.”
Nezu’s gaze remained on Riku.
Three times.
Rin lowered her head while everyone’s attention was elsewhere.
Her tongue ran slowly across the top of Akane’s hair.
Akane froze.
Segu froze.
Nezu stopped watching Riku.
Jin closed his eyes.
“Rin.”
Rin gave Akane another deliberate lick.
“Rin!”
Akane tried to pull away, but the arms around her tightened.
“Stop grooming me!”
“You needed it.”
“I did not!”
Rin inspected the section of hair she had just groomed.
“You did.”
“I am not a kitten!”
Rin’s ears tilted forward.
“You are small.”
“That doesn’t make me a kitten!”
“It helps.”
Segu pressed both lips together.
Akane noticed.
“Don’t.”
Segu’s shoulders began shaking.
“Don’t laugh.”
That made it considerably harder.
Akane attempted to escape Rin’s arms again and accomplished nothing except making the tail behind them wag faster.
“Why do you keep doing this?!”
Rin finally looked past Akane.
Directly at Jin.
“Because Jin refuses to give me cubs.”
Silence.
Jin’s eyes opened.
Segu lost the battle.
She folded forward, laughing into both hands while Akane’s face turned bright red.
Riku suddenly found something near the window worthy of his complete attention.
Jin sighed.
“We have discussed this.”
“Yes.”
“The answer has not changed.”
“I know.”
“Then stop telling people.”
“No.”
Akane buried her face in her hands.
“I hate all of you.”
Rin affectionately rubbed her cheek against the top of Akane’s head.
“No, you don’t.”
Akane did not answer.
It took a while for Segu to stop laughing, and considerably longer for Akane to stop glaring at everyone in the room. Rin, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content with herself, her tail continuing its slow movement behind the sofa as though she had contributed nothing unusual to the conversation.
Eventually, Segu managed to compose herself.
“Okay.” She took a breath. “Back to the ears before Rin decides to explain anything else about her family plans.”
“Please,” Akane muttered.
Segu glanced at Rin’s ears again.
“You said physical changes can happen. Is that common?”
“Common enough.”
“And it can be anything?”
“Not anything. It depends on what someone chooses when they—”
Riku coughed.
Akane stopped.
Her eyes immediately moved toward him.
This time, Segu noticed as well.
Akane carefully tried again.
“It depends on the person.”
“That is not what you were about to say.”
“No.”
“At least you admit it now.”
Akane sighed.
Segu considered what little she had managed to extract.
“So there are a lot of people with changes like Rin’s?”
“Some more obvious than others.”
“How many people are we talking about?”
Akane hesitated.
“A lot.”
“How many is a lot?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Thousands?”
Akane said nothing.
“Millions?”
Still nothing.
Segu frowned.
“And where exactly are all these people with tails, horns or whatever else hiding?”
“Not exactly hiding.”
“Then where are they?”
Akane hesitated.
“There are certain places where people like us—”
She stopped herself.
Her eyes moved toward Riku.
Riku looked back.
Akane considered her words carefully.
“—live.”
Riku remained silent.
Akane smiled, visibly pleased with herself.
Segu stared at her.
“You’re proud of that?”
“A little.”
“Where are these places?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not supposed to know about them yet.”
“Yet?”
Akane froze.
Riku coughed.
Akane glared at him.
Segu slowly turned toward Riku, then back toward Akane.
“That one was definitely deliberate.”
“He has a cough.”
“He only has a cough when you’re talking.”
“I have noticed,” Akane muttered.
Riku ignored her.
Nezu spoke next.
“The school attack.”
The lightness that had slowly returned to the room diminished.
Rin’s tail stopped moving.
“The men who attacked the school knew about people like you.”
“Yes.”
“The person who organized it?”
Akane looked toward Riku.
He remained silent.
“Yes.”
“And Riku was there because of you.”
“Yes.”
Segu’s expression tightened.
“And afterward you disappeared.”
Akane lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Because of them?”
“Partly.”
“Who are they?”
Akane took a moment before answering.
“What happened at the school crossed lines that should never have been crossed. Afterward, there were people asking questions, people blaming each other and people trying to determine exactly who was responsible. There are agreements between—”
Riku coughed.
Akane stopped.
Her head turned very slowly.
Riku met her eyes.
“Seriously?”
“I coughed.”
“You have only coughed while I’m explaining things!”
“Coincidence.”
“No, it isn’t!”
Segu looked between them.
“You’re censoring her.”
“No,” Riku said.
Nezu finally spoke.
“He is.”
Riku looked at him.
“The coughing consistently occurs immediately before Akane provides information beyond a particular threshold. The probability of repeated accidental interruptions occurring at those exact moments is extremely low.”
Riku considered this.
Then nodded once.
“Correct.”
Akane threw both hands into the air.
“You could at least pretend!”
“I did.”
“Badly!”
Segu leaned forward.
“So there are agreements.”
Riku remained silent.
“Between groups of people like you.”
Nothing.
“Organizations?”
Nothing.
“Countries?”
Still nothing.
Segu’s eyes narrowed.
“Secret magical kingdoms?”
Riku coughed.
Everyone looked at him.
Riku stared back.
Segu grinned.
“Oh, this is useful.”
“It is not.”
“Aliens?”
Nothing.
“Underground cities?”
Nothing.
“People living on the moon?”
Nothing.
“Atlantis?”
Riku coughed.
Akane made a small choking noise.
For the first time, Riku’s expression changed.
Barely.
But it changed.
Nezu noticed.
Segu noticed Nezu noticing.
Riku cleared his throat.
“That one was an actual cough.”
“Sure,” Segu said.
Akane suddenly became extremely interested in Rin’s tail.
For the first time in two years, Nezu and Segu had answers.
Not many.
Possibly not even the important ones.
But enough to know that the things they had seen were real, that Akane and the people around her belonged to something much larger than either of them had imagined, and that whatever had happened during the explosion had somehow pulled them into it as well.
Nezu remained silent for several seconds.
“Can I do anything else?”
The room became quiet.
Segu turned toward him.
Akane’s expression changed.
Rin’s ears rose slightly.
“Besides becoming invisible,” Nezu continued. “Can I do something else?”
Akane stared at him.
For once, she did not glance toward Riku before answering.
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?” Segu asked.
“Because I can’t.”
“That explains nothing.”
“I know.”
Akane shifted slightly against Rin.
“There is something else.”
Segu immediately frowned.
Those words had never introduced anything pleasant.
“What?”
Akane took a breath.
“I have to leave again.”
The silence that followed was different from all the others.
Segu stared at her.
“No.”
“Segu—”
“No.”
“I haven’t finished.”
“You disappeared for two years, came back, refused to explain half of anything, and now you’re telling us you’re leaving again?”
“After Nezu’s birthday.”
That stopped her.
Akane continued before Segu could interrupt again.
“I’m not leaving immediately. I’ll be here until then.”
Nezu looked at her.
“For how long afterward?”
“A few months.”
“Why?”
Akane’s expression tightened slightly.
“Because of what happened at the school that night.”
Segu’s anger faltered.
“What happened?”
Akane glanced toward Riku.
“I can’t tell you.”
Segu stared at her.
“You can’t even tell us why you have to leave?”
“I can tell you that something happened after you were gone, and I still have to deal with the consequences of it.”
Nezu watched her carefully.
“What happened after we left?”
Akane opened her mouth.
Riku coughed.
She closed it again.
“Something I can’t explain.”
Segu groaned.
“Of course.”
“I’m sorry.”
“How long will dealing with it take?”
“A few months, hopefully.”
“And then?”
Akane hesitated.
That hesitation bothered Segu considerably more than everything before it.
“Then I come back.”
Segu waited.
Akane did not continue.
“And?”
Akane’s fingers curled slightly against her leg.
“And you come with me.”
Segu blinked.
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Riku did not cough.
“For how long?”
Akane remained quiet.
Segu’s expression slowly changed.
“Akane.”
“It isn’t a visit.”
The room became still.
Nezu watched her.
Segu unfolded her arms.
“What do you mean?”
Akane looked between them.
“When I come back, both of you have to leave with me.”
Segu gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“No.”
Akane did not smile.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“I know.”
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“You are.”
Segu stared at her.
There was no anger in Akane’s answer. No threat.
That somehow made it worse.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then whoever did can come here and ask us themselves.”
“They won’t ask.”
The last traces of humour disappeared from the room.
Segu looked toward Riku.
He remained silent.
“This isn’t a request?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
Akane lowered her eyes for a moment.
“Normally, you would already be gone.”
Segu’s anger faltered.
“What?”
“You wouldn’t be sitting here. You wouldn’t be going back to school. You wouldn’t be staying in this house.”
“Why?”
Akane looked at Nezu, then at Segu.
“Because what happened to you wasn’t normal.”
“The explosion?” Segu asked.
“Yes. And what happened afterward.”
Nezu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“What happened afterward?”
Akane hesitated.
“You changed.”
“So did Kuro,” Nezu said immediately.
Akane paused.
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
“I can’t tell you that yet.”
“Why?”
This time Akane glanced toward Riku.
He remained silent.
Surprisingly, she answered.
“Because knowing too much before you’ve been taught properly would make things more dangerous, not less.”
Segu frowned.
“Knowing something can make it dangerous?”
“Yes.”
Nezu leaned forward.
“How?”
“No.”
Akane answered so quickly that he stopped.
“No?”
“I know exactly where that question is going.”
“I only asked—”
“You’re going to ask me enough questions to work out what changed, and then you’re going to start trying things until you discover how it works.”
Nezu was silent.
Segu looked at him.
“He absolutely would.”
“Yes,” Akane said. “That’s why I’m not telling him.”
“I am sitting here.”
“I know.”
Nezu considered the problem.
“What is the probability of serious injury?”
“Nezu.”
“Death?”
“NEZU.”
Akane pointed at him.
“That. Exactly that.”
Segu covered her face.
Akane lowered her hand.
“You both need to be taught before you understand what happened to you. Until then, there are things I deliberately won’t explain.”
Nezu looked dissatisfied.
That, more than anything, confirmed Akane had made the correct decision.
Segu returned to the more immediate problem.
“And because of whatever happened to us, we have to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Akane’s expression became serious again.
“Because right now, you can be dangerous.”
“To who?”
“To the people around you.”
A pause.
“And to yourselves.”
Segu looked down at her hands.
She opened and closed her fingers once.
Nothing happened.
Nothing felt different.
“So we’re dangerous now.”
“You can be.”
“That’s not much better.”
“I know.”
Nezu asked the question Segu had not.
“Why are we still here?”
Akane went quiet.
Then she shifted forward, finally slipping out of Rin’s embrace. Rin allowed it this time.
“Because I asked for time.”
Segu looked up.
“Normally, you would have had to leave immediately. I convinced them to wait.”
“Until you come back?”
“Yes.”
Segu stared at her.
Akane continued.
“I know what you’re being told to leave behind. Your school. Your friends. This house. Your parents.”
Segu’s face changed at the last word.
“That’s why I asked them to give you time to settle things with the Browns first.”
“You said this wasn’t a request.”
“It isn’t.”
Akane’s voice remained quiet.
“The favour was the time.”
Neither sibling answered.
“I got you these months. Enough for Nezu to have his birthday here. Enough for me to deal with what happened at the school that night. Enough for both of you to spend time with your family and decide what you want to tell them.”
Segu stared at her.
“And after that?”
Akane held her gaze.
“After that, I come back for you.”
Segu shook her head.
“And if we refuse?”
Akane did not answer.
She didn’t need to.
Riku remained silent.
Jin remained silent.
Even Rin’s tail had stopped moving.
Only a short while earlier Segu had been laughing about cubs.
Now, sitting in a room where almost everyone knew more about her future than she did, the word no longer seemed quite as funny.
They were being protected because they supposedly did not know enough.
Kept ignorant because knowing was supposedly dangerous.
Given a few months with their family because someone else had decided that afterward they would leave.
For their own good.
Like children too young to understand the danger around them.
Or cubs being carried somewhere safer before they were old enough to choose where they wanted to go.
Segu hated the comparison the moment it occurred to her.
Perhaps because it fit too well.
Nezu looked toward the closed door, then back at Akane.
“A few months.”
Akane nodded.
“After my birthday.”
“Yes.”
“And then we leave.”
“Yes.”
Nezu was silent for several seconds.
“Where?”
Akane gave him an apologetic look.
“I still can’t tell you that.”
Riku coughed.
Akane’s head snapped toward him.
“I DIDN’T TELL THEM!”
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Segu laughed.
It was quieter than before, and it did nothing to remove the weight that had settled over the room.
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