"... In the meantime, I'll take care of him"

From my hand, a sleeping pill wrapper is taken away.

No more.

It's over, everything.

"... hey, come here"

My brother draws my hand and takes me somewhere.

Where the hell...?

... wherever you want.

It's all over now...

What was brought in was the space in the store where no one was present.

It's just so dark with all the lights coming from the back.

Perfect for my mood right now.

"... you wait here"

Leaving it behind, my brother goes back to the living space.

A little, I heard voices.

"You guys, eat some meshi first. I need to talk to Kelfa for a minute."

"With Kelfa? Again?

"Man, that's a private guy there. Don't ask me deeply."

Talk to me...

I just wanted to be scared of what they'd say and what they'd look like.

I want to get out of here now.

But I don't even have the courage to escape.

Until my brother came back, all I could do was wait sifted to regret and fear.

"... you kept me waiting, Kelfa"

…………

My brother comes out from behind the counter and stops in front of me.

I can't look at my face because I'm scared of what kind of eyes I'm being turned away.

"... eh"

"Uh, and. First of all, this medicine..."

"... Huh... Huh..."

I remember those days when the researchers looked me in the eye, and my breathing was disturbed.

Days when they were not treated human, called by numbers, treated as failures, and not needed by anyone.

Desperate to be put in a narrow dungeon and just wait for disposal......

"Ha... ha, ha... ha!

What if my brother turned that eye away?

Just thinking about it makes my fingertips numb, my tears abound, and I want to die straight away.

"Oh, hey, Kelfa...? What's up, calm down!

"Ha, ha, ha!

My brother knows my secret, and he knows I betrayed everyone, and I'm sure he'll dump me.

Lose everything, get turned away by your brother, everyone, like you see another creature......!

"Kelfa!

Gashi, my brother grabs me on both shoulders.

For the first time then, I looked into my current brother's eyes.

Eyes that look worried from the bottom of my heart and look straight at me.

It's like different from those fellows, kind eyes.

He rescued me from the dungeon where there was nothing but despair, the same eyes as my brother then.

"It's okay, you don't have to be scared. I'm on your side."

"... ooh, brother, sa... ooh, brother..."

Oh, well.

This man is someone you can trust.

Only this guy won't abandon me no matter what's sure to happen or if he finds out who I am.

He's been my brother for a long time.

"Brother, come on. Huh! Uhhhhhh!

"Oops......!

Hold me in your brother's chest and cry as loudly as you can.

This is probably the first time I've ever been born (made) to cry like this...

"... have you calmed down, Kelfa"

"... yeah, sorry brother. Disturb me like that."

"I'm the one apologizing. I was kind of guessing something was wrong with you."

... Huh?

I've been hiding it from you, and your brother just found out?

"Crazy, you got something blown into that Soma bastard that night."

"How do you even know that...?

"I get it. I'm your aniki."

Pong, and I can get my head in.

I've never felt this warm before.

"I was watching in silence, but if this were happening, I should have turned to you from the front sooner. I'm sorry."

"It's up to me... I betrayed everyone and tried to sell my people...?

"... you're not the kind of guy who sells his people for no reason, I know that much. What the hell drove you that far?

... I just didn't want my brother to know about this all the time.

Even though it's a connection that I finally made, if they found out, they'd hate me, they'd throw me away, because that's what I thought.

But I'm pretty sure your brother's not like that now.

"... okay, I'll tell you. Tell my brother my secret."

"Secrets..."

Be this guy, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Believing that, I revealed a secret that I had kept quiet for so long.

"I'm not a normal person. It's a replicated human (clone), cultured and created from part of the skin of the Virgin Reacher. And of the failures..."

"... uh, and. Wait, I can't keep up with my understanding. I'm sorry, but can you talk to me from scratch?

"... right, you suddenly don't know wack to be told this. First --"

—— As a prerequisite, I told my brother about Reacher's plan.

Tell me why you want the Virgin's sister and about the artificial Empireo.

"Hey, my God...... I don't think there's a mastermind between the Archbishop and Sama the Virgin..."

Looks like he was just in shock.

I'm desperately organizing information with one hand.

"... keep talking. From the beginning, Reacher wasn't after Mr. Beato. I mean, I didn't know she had the power of the Virgin in the first place."

"But we need the Virgin as a living part to complete the artificial empireo...... I see. Is that where you are?"

"Yes. Leiche first tried to make a copy of herself and make it a biological part. But technology is incomplete..."

I spoke so much, I was just stuck with words.

Because from here on out, if I say it, I really won't be able to turn back.

………… … as a result of the use of incomplete technology, was born a failure that only left a grudge thanks to the Virgin Reache "

"I can't... you say? I don't know --"

"I can't... The Virgin cannot be without being a woman. And yet, I'm not a woman. I'm not even a man."

"... what do you mean?

Because of this, researchers were told it was a daily failure.

They only feed animals like they do, they wear crude bollocks, and they're barely kept alive in the ori because of it.

Face-to-face humans were never treated as humans, turning a blind eye to me to see a different creature.

"The words are right. I'm not a man or a woman. Neither gender is evident to me. Nothing on my chest, either."

That's why.

As soon as I bathe with my brother, I'll find out.

Sleep together, you might find out with some clap.

No matter how much I was invited or really wanted to be with you, this is why I kept avoiding contact.