red string || sano manjiro/ mikey

chapter lii: small change of plans

"come on, mikey! i told you so many times because he's also your half-brother!" emma scolded, then turned to kazua. "and didn't i literally talk about him to you when i got here?"

"uhm..." kazua awkwardly looked away, whistling as she scratched the back of her head in an attempt to avoid the girl's light glare. she didn't remember anything at all. all she ever recalled from their first meeting was mikey and baji pushing her to emma to comfort her when she was crying.

"my original name was kurokawa and i have a brother by that name!"

"eh...really?" mikey sweat dropped. draken, however, only rested his folded arms on the backrest of the sofa and eyed emma's older brother.

"jeez you never listen to anyone!"

"ah! now, i remember!"

"you liar." draken snickered, obviously seeing through mikey's attempt to redeem himself.

"emma-chan, do you remember anything else about your brother, kurokawa izana?"

"i'm not really sure. i was really young when we separated, but he seemed to be really close with big bro shin!"

"with shinichiro?" mikey and kazua asked at the same time.

the raven looked at takemichi, silently asking him for any explanation, but she only received a shrug back in return. he wants her to figure it all out on her own. after all, even he's still confused about kurokawa izana's identity. if there is anyone who can quickly decipher situations such as this, then it should be kazua.

"wait here." emma stands from the floor and headed out the garage, fetching something from the main household.

when she returned, she dropped a medium-sized box on the ground and presented it to the four.

"it's a memento from big bro shin. i found them when i was cleaning his belongings." emma says, letting the four open the box and see tons of letters neatly bundled with rubber bands.

"they're all letters from kurokawa izana." kazua mumbled, picking up a stack and taking the rubber band off to read them one-by-one. reading since she was really young allowed her to read and understand quick at the same time. she didn't take long until she finished one stack, and the others haven't even finished talking.

"i never read them, but just look at the amount of those letters. i'm pretty sure they get along well."

"get along?" draken asked, reading a letter he picked up from the ones kazua already read. "this shit is creepy. don't you think, kaz?"

"it's borderline creepy." she muttered. "but we should be considerate of kurokawa izana's situation too. it looks like he lived in an orphanage. it must have been lonely for him, and meeting a blood family like shinichiro-niisan may have given him hope that he has family."

"oh, he lived in an orphanage?" emma frowns.

"it looks like he's just writing about what happened in his daily life."

"eh? he knows about kaz too."

kazua scanned through more letters, picking up another after she finishes one. and every letter she read, the more she understood the situation. this was something that shinichiro never told anyone else, not even his own siblings.