Illusion Report

Damian already had everything in the world.

He had Uncle Kai, he had his mother, he had a Path, and a future where any dream he could imagine could be made real. As long as he wished it, every door in the world was open to him. As long as Uncle Kai let Chaisi stay in the Kai Family, no matter what Damian wanted to do, Chaisi would do everything in his power to clear the way for him, to see him through.

But Chaisi had never imagined that Damian could take away even the things he had already lost.

His younger brother gave a slightly helpless laugh and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, as if waiting for a reaction.

When none came, Damian turned his head and said to their mother, "No, you can’t kill Brother Chaisi either."

"Of course not. Don’t be angry,"

Daiju Monroe smiled at Chaisi, as if he were a child throwing a tantrum after being denied candy. "Mom really wants to come into the human world and stay with you all."

’She’s not my mother.’

’...She said "with you all."’

’She’s not my mother.’

Even the last, the only person in the world who would always belong to Chaisi, had turned away tonight. Her gaze brushed lightly past him and landed on Damian.

’I don’t have a Path. I’m insignificant.’

"...You’re not my mother."

The tears stopped. Nothing should flow from a void that contained nothing in the first place.

"Yes, didn’t I tell you that a long time ago?"

As if she thought he was stupid, Daiju Monroe shook her head and said, "But if you let me stay, I’m willing to keep being your mother—where are you going?"

Chaisi didn’t spare her a single glance. His eyes were fixed on the piece of cloth snagged on a wooden splinter, floating in mid-air.

’If a Path can be opened, it can be closed. And a mother like this... I’m better off without her.’

"Chaisi," Damian said in a low voice.

He rarely used that tone.

As Chaisi had said, Damian knew Chaisi was in no position to refuse him, but he didn’t often use that to force his hand. This was one of those rare times.

When Damian’s voice turned cold, his tone and cadence were nearly identical to Uncle Kai’s.

"Don’t take it down."

Chaisi stopped in his tracks instinctively. His muscles had already developed a habitual reaction to Damian’s commands.

"...Why?"

Damian didn’t answer him. Instead, he said to their mother, "Can you reach your hand outside the ’corridor’ now?"

Daiju Monroe seemed not to have considered this. She tried raising a hand and reaching out, then let out a small, delighted laugh.

"I can," she said, her gaze soft and bright as she looked at Chaisi. She reached out her hand again. "See? Mom can touch you now. I can hold you in my arms again... Are you happy?"

Perhaps a person is just a collection of countless contradictory, disjointed fragments pieced together.

In that moment, Chaisi’s greatest desire was to surrender to the fear his mother instilled, to give up all resistance, walk to her side, and let her arms wrap around him once more—even if it meant accepting that, in the next second, she would pierce his heart.

So what if she was a resident? So what if she cherished Damian more? He had nothing to begin with.

But Chaisi still clung to a shred of reason.

He was still two steps away from the cloth. He asked his brother again, "Why won’t you let me close the Path? She’s not my mother."

"I don’t want to keep her because she might be your mom. Of course I know she isn’t."

Damian was getting annoyed; Chaisi could hear it in his voice. "I have things to discuss with it. Don’t touch my Path."

He turned his head and asked, "As a resident, what happens after you enter the human world? Do you stay here forever?"

"Oh, that’s not possible," Daiju Monroe said sorrowfully. "Hunters can’t stay in a Nest forever, can they? It’s the same for residents. I have to return to the Nest from time to time just to survive... That’s why I said you are the one person in the whole world who must not be harmed. Your value is irreplaceable. To us, you are the world’s most important monarch."

"Monarch"—

Chaisi subconsciously glanced at the wooden medieval fortress.

Daiju Monroe had chosen a word that was precision-engineered to make Damian flush and his eyes light up.

"Then... if I make a request of you, you’ll do it, right? It’s helping each other out, isn’t it?"

"Of course. We understand the principle of reciprocity."

"What if I asked you to bring me Illusions from the Nest?"

Daiju Monroe asked, "What do you want? I can have someone go get it for you right now. Residents have no use for Illusions. Whatever we bring out is yours. What are you lacking?"

’What is he lacking?’

For a second, Chaisi almost wanted to laugh.

"Umm... I want to be taller than Brother Chaisi," Damian piped up, giggling. "And stronger than him!"

This flash of almost endearing childishness was fleeting—because Damian immediately changed his mind.

"Wait, let me think... I want something that can make both humans and residents stay loyal to me. Do you have that?"

Of course Daiju Monroe would nod. How could she not?

Damian sniffled, an unconscious habit of his when he was excited. "So, I... I can have an army of residents in the human world? You’ll all listen to me?"

Daiju Monroe looked at him like a mother and said, "Yes."

’Wait. What?’

Damian suddenly looked up at Chaisi and smiled at him. "Don’t worry, I won’t use it on you, Bro."

"...You believe her?" Chaisi asked, his voice dry.

"Might as well try," Damian shrugged. "It can’t hurt me, anyway."

Damian had a strange talent; he always seemed to know what he could trust.

"Then—what about Uncle Kai? He wouldn’t agree to—"

Damian shot him a look. "Do you think my dad would want me to close the Path? Dad would be ecstatic if he knew he could possess the Nest."

Even though the thirteen-year-old Chaisi could sense that Damian’s plan was naive, that he was imagining everything going far too smoothly, beneath that naivete, his younger brother had still grasped a truth that he had not.

No, perhaps it was simply a truth he was unwilling to consider.

"With my Path, the Nest’s Illusions will belong to our family. And then we’ll have an army of residents..." Damian was so happy that a sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead. "I’m going to bring in all the most terrifying and powerful residents!"

Chaisi dimly recalled that night when he was five, when he had stood up from his mother’s side, his gaze following a rope until he saw a massive dark shadow at the end of the road.

Chaisi had never thought there was something in this world that he wouldn’t allow, even if it was Damian who wanted to do it.

He broke free from Damian’s command.

Chaisi lunged forward, raised his arm, and snatched at the tattered piece of cloth snagged on the wooden splinter. His fingertips seemed to graze the fabric—or maybe they didn’t, he didn’t know.

Because in the next second, his mother was standing beside him.

A heavy force unlike anything he had ever felt in his life slammed into his gut like a locomotive, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying through the air like a rag doll. Daiju Monroe stood in place, her unnaturally long torso arched high in the light and shadows.

Her face, his mother’s face, was watching Chaisi with an inscrutable expression, somewhere between surprise and a smile.

’...So it could have come out all along.’

The thought flashed through his mind as Chaisi slammed into the corner where the bed frame met the wall, shaking loose a shower of dust. The air was knocked from his lungs, and his vision went black for a moment.

’Mom.’

When he was five, Uncle Kai had picked him up. He’d wanted to look back at his mother, but a large hand had covered his eyes. It was the same then—a gentle, safe darkness that made him want to close his eyes and sink into it forever.

He forgot what Damian had been doing at that moment.

He only remembered struggling to his feet, keeping his mother—no, that resident—in his peripheral vision as he lunged onto Damian’s bed, stretched out his hand, and reached the nightstand.

He had two choices.

’The phone, or the lamp?’

After a moment’s hesitation, Chaisi’s fingers closed around the base of the lamp.

Hearing the rush of air behind him, he twisted his body while still on the bed. The lamp, yanking its cord, swung through a wide arc and smashed viciously into Daiju Monroe’s skull as she lunged at him.

Though he was only thirteen at the time, his height and strength were already on par with an adult’s.

She staggered backward and fell, desperately choking back a cry of pain.

Chaisi didn’t realize it then; it only occurred to him later: Daiju Monroe didn’t want anyone to hear the commotion in this room.

Damian was furious.

A few seconds later, the still-dazed Chaisi realized that his brother’s fury was directed at him.

"Didn’t I tell you? Don’t touch my Path! Get out! I have no use for you here!"