Separated

Chapter 15 - Minori

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What I want is for you to stop pretending to be someone you're not.

We both know you are actually more like a lioness and want to break, bend, and remake all the rules.

Ugh, why are his words repeating in my head like some haunting music in horror movies or haunted house theme parks?

Over and over again.

I wanted nothing more than to break his neck. Why would he utter such nonsense? What does he mean I pretending to be someone I'm not?

You know very well what that means. Stop lying to yourself.

I ignore the voice in my head. They never helped.

And he touched me. Again. He touched a part of my face. Again. And I felt nothing. Again.

No, it didn't feel like nothing. It felt . . . warm. Warm? Why did it feel warm?

"Mino?"

Why hadn't I flinched? What didn't I pull away immediately after?

"Mino?!"

I absentmindedly turn my head around towards the voice and come face to face with my brother. I get startled a little not expecting his face to be quite literally in mine.

"What's going on? You've been in a daze and the only thing you're doing is touching your left cheek. Do you have dental pain or something?"

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I was not touching my cheek. No, why was I touching my cheek?

"Just because she's touching her cheek, doesn't mean she has a toothache." Kaito chimes in from the front passenger seat as we were driving back to our own home. Kaito was always the person who would bring normal conscious to the table. Because my brother for the most part lack it and I have skewed sense of normal. "Although I must say, you seemed to be in a trance, and I can't quite tell if it's bad or if it's good."

"I'm fine. I guess I'm a bit tired. I need to build my stamina." I chose to reply. It wasn't a complete lie so it shouldn't show on my face that, that was not actually what was on my mind.

"Don't use that phrase." My brother sternly tells me off, but I was just glad that was the only part he was bothered about. Otherwise he would probably grill me until I was confessing what I was actually thinking about – or rather who I was thinking about.

The phrase 'I'm fine' was something he had always detested. He had never liked it and it had nothing to do with what happened to me. Something tells me it has some relation with Kaya – my father's second in command's daughter and his childhood friend, but there was no concrete evidence and pushing my brother for answers was something I usually stayed away from.

"Sorry, it just came out."

"I know. Just try not to say it. Speaking of stamina, you could go hiking or something. I heard they were good to build them. And once you get high and far enough, you could probably refine your snipping skills."

"I'm not going to kill animals for my benefit or gain." I say. I wasn't a vegetarian or a vegan, but I was not going to do hunting to improve my skill set. Those animals are different from farm animals, they don't exist for us to kill.

"I know that." Ryo says like I was dense, which to him I probably was. "I mean that you can bring a few useless ceramics or glassware as your target and hang them with a rope from a tree. Hence why I said far enough. I'm sure the sound of those objects shattering would be an ear sore." He explains.

"You need to say that first. Not everyone has a genius brain like yours."

"Thank you for the compliment that sounds like insult. Take Kaito with you, he can use some stamina gaining activities."

"Well, thank you for the clear insult." Kaito mutters and I couldn't help but laugh. That was their friendship dynamic, insulting each other. Although unfortunately for Kaito, Ryo makes more of them and they usually stab you where it hurts most.

However, my brother ordering Kaito to go with me wasn't for him to gain stamina because he had enough of those, but it was for protection and safety reasons. I can defend myself and Ryo is aware that, hence why I was alone a few hours earlier, but precautions were precautions. And besides, I wouldn't want to be alone in some forest far away from civilization anyway. You can never really know what can happen in the wild.

"Kaito, when are you free?" I ask as I try to think of a suitable day to go out. Going out in nature to refine my skills would be a good opportunity to clear out my head. I needed that, urgently. 

"This week will be a little busy but if your annoying workaholic brother lets me off sometime next week, I should be free."

I turn to my brother and plead with my eyes. He never likes it, but it works every time.

"Fine. Tuesday or Wednesday. Discuss amongst yourselves and then inform me of the relevant information." Ryo caves in and I smile to myself. See? It works like a charm every time.

"Thank you!" I say now giving him a smile. He liked it when I wore my emotions on my sleeves, mainly because he didn't have to analyse.

Perhaps if this hiking and shooting session works out well, I can incorporate it into one of my purging methods. As much as I love martial arts and kendo, I needed someone to do it with and that was not something I wanted when I wanted my mind out of things. Kyudo was my current best purging system, but the target was always the same, the distance was interchangeable to a certain degree, but controllable change was something I needed.

If like Ryo suggested I used ceramics or glass bottles, they would be different every time, the location will always be different, and there would be more other conditions I would have to factor in when surrounded by nature. Not to mention that with a rifle, I can place a target almost 300 yards away from me and still have the potential to shoot at my aim.

Previously I trained with my brother and father with . . . people. But in our defence, they stole our profit, lied to our faces, and ran away, thinking that they would be able to get away with it. They committed more than one sin and so shamelessly at that, so it was fair that they died from my bullets. In all honesty, their lives ended by me was a much better option than that of my brother or father anyway.

Anyhow, even though I know I am skilled with the skill of utilising long-distance weapons, my experience with my rifle was still quite limited, so the idea that I would be able to use it soon and possibly more often was a wonderful thought.

I hoped that from this I could further enjoy the art of sniping.