The Deceiving

by Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)

  “Ugh. That…? I dunno, I think we should probably ask someone…”

  Tears began to well into Seto’s eyes.

  (Ha-ha-ha! Never mind, never mind. But we can’t really go blabbing about this to everyone, you know?)

  “I—I guess not…I’m too scared.”

  We had gone over this topic in previous postmortems—people thought we were “monsters” because, quite frankly, we had some pretty inhuman powers.

  All we knew about our own abilities came from our attempts to harness them. We certainly weren’t experts, and while I couldn’t speak about myself, I knew that Seto and Kido still had trouble fully controlling their powers.

  If we all could, that’d probably cut the bad rumors by at least half or so.

  We had also considered speaking with a grown-up, of course. But a drama on TV we happened to be watching quashed that idea pretty quickly.

  By sheer coincidence, the show starred a guy called a “psychometrer” who could read people’s minds. We laughed about it at first—“Hey, Seto, they did a biopic of you!”—but then he was captured by some terror group, subjected to hideous experiments, and ultimately died.

  Our expressions then, especially Seto’s, made us look like someone had stashed us in the freezer for a few hours: “People with powers like ours get experimented upon and killed.” It said so on TV, so it had to be true.

  Several minutes later, Seto began shaking, crept into his bunk, and didn’t come out again for another twenty-four hours.

  The word “psychometrer” was forbidden around Seto from that point forward. Kido had taken the habit of using it like a magic word, whispering it into Seto’s ear now and again to see how he’d react.

  So, for now at least, our three powers were still a secret that never ventured beyond this room.

  (I’m sure you are, but…I mean, we have no idea where these powers came from. We don’t know what they mean. I think that’s a lot scarier.)

  “That’s true, yeah. Mine and Kido’s just kind of come out at random, so…”

  Seto sighed. His power to read what people were thinking seemed to vary in length and strength from instance to instance. When it came in strong enough, he claimed, he could even read people’s feelings and past memories.

  On the other hand, during sudden little jags like this one, the best he could hope for was to pick up on words his target consciously thought of in his brain.

  Seto explained all of that to us in simple terms once. But unless you’re the one experiencing it, a lot of the logic behind it didn’t make much sense to us.

  (Yeah, that’s really a drag. With Kido in particular, you can spot her right out when it’s happening.)

  She had it more under control than what she had to deal with a while ago, but Kido still wasn’t in full grasp of her “invisibility” powers.

  The way she put it, it happened whenever something “ticked her off.” That didn’t sound very scientific, but we had nothing else to go on.

  Fortunately, it hadn’t resulted in any serious disasters…or I’d like to believe it hadn’t, at least. She really needed to learn how to harness it before things got even worse for us, though.

  There had to be some kind of trick, right?

  “It’d be nice if I could at least, like, keep it from triggering…”

  (Keep it from triggering, huh? I think we need to keep you from crying all the time first, Seto.)

  I grinned at Seto. He blushed. “Yeah.”

  (But all joking aside, that might actually be related. You and Kido, your powers never come out much when you aren’t crying, right?)

  “B-but I don’t how much I can do about—I mean, I’m trying to change, but it’s kind of hard to…”

  Seto shrugged at me, crestfallen.

  (And you keep apologizing, too.)

  “Ngh…Yeah. Sorry.”

  Then he looked even more crestfallen. Clearly, he wasn’t doing that on purpose. I’m sure Kido knew that, too, but she never let up on him on that score.

  It was strange. Something about the general lack of control they had over their powers—their emotions, really—made me feel really well put together by comparison.

  Though, really, that extended to every other kid in this building. They all seemed kind of awkward, blundering their way through life, and they always had to me. I felt like my powers gave me an insider’s view of how people grow and mature as human beings, and I hated myself a lot for it.

  “But I gotta admit, Kano, I really look up to you. You can use your ability at will like it’s nothing. You’re always trying to help us out, too.”

  Seto smiled as he said it, but something about the glowing review failed to cheer me up.

  (Huh? Oh, I do not! I’m exactly the same as you guys. There’s a ton I don’t get about this, and everything’s just as scary for me, so…)

  “…Oh?”

  I’m presuming the words I pictured came through to him loud and clear, but they seemed to throw Seto off a bit. He tilted his head at me, and as I looked up to meet his gaze, I found that his eyes were back to normal, not a hint of red to them.

  “…Oh! I think it’s died down! Whew…Sorry I keep putting you through this.”

  He bowed his head at me a few times in apology. I formed a smile on my face.

  “Mm? Ahh, don’t worry about it! It’s really not a big deal at all.”

  “But that last thing you thought right then, Kano…I, I don’t think I got it fully…”

  “…Oh! Is that it? Guess you lost your power too fast to catch it all, huh? Maybe that mixed up a few wires in your brain.”

  “M-maybe,” Seto said, shoulders drooping down. “Oof…It just comes and goes as it pleases, you know? It’s really mean to me.”

  “Yeah…Well, it’s cool. Besides, it’s kind of fun, Seto…Watching your power mess around with you like that.”

  I was only half-joking.

  “Oh, stop picking on me like that,” he replied, cheeks puffed out. “I really need to work on changing that! It’s hard for me to keep causing trouble for all of you like this, so…”

  His limp-wristedness was gone now. In its place was what seemed to be genuine resolve, something I hoped I could count on someday.

  “Hee-hee! Well, no need to rush it. Take your time. You don’t have to try and force yourself to—”

  “Yes, he does.”

  Kido interrupted me midsentence.

  That innocent cuteness she demonstrated while asleep was gone. Now her face was back to her usual sharp, be-fanged self as she glared at Seto.

  “Are you ever gonna stop apologizing?” she whispered.

  “Eep,” Seto replied weakly. I should have been used to this exchange by now, but this time, it really annoyed me for some reason. I couldn’t help but speak up.

  “…Hey, you don’t have to be like that, okay?”

  Kido, not bothering to move, shifted her eyes from Seto to me. “Like what?” she said as she began to sit up.

  Normally, at a time like this, I’d try to defuse the situation with a laugh. Right now, I couldn’t. This was getting too frustrating.

  “Well, didn’t you hear Seto? He’s trying to change, you know.”

  “Yeah,” she spat out, “but he isn’t. I tell him over and over again…”

  Not willing to bend an inch, was she?

  “Umm…”

  Seto attempted to interject. But there was no stopping me now.

  “…You know, you’re really pissing me off.”

  I should have just shut up, but I couldn’t. I had to give her the truth. And I was gaining momentum.

  “You never think about other people’s feelings. All you think about every day is yourself. Like, who do you think you are? ’Cause I’m seriously having trouble putting up with that act any longer. Besides, Kido, you’re—”

  Once I reached that point, I felt a violent shock to the right side of my face, my vision blurring.

  It came so suddenly that my brain shut
off for a moment. But, hearing Seto’s silent scream next to me, I finally realized that Kido just gave me a full-palm slap.

  “Ow…”

  I glared at Kido. Something dark and ugly within me welled up from parts unknown, filling my heart to the brim.

  Kido must have been the same way. A snarl of hostility erupted across her face.

  “Who’s the one not thinking about other people’s feelings here, huh? You have no idea what I’m going through at all.”

  Kido’s eyes were glowing redder and redder by the moment. As if on cue, the right hand she used to brutally slap me began to fade into the background. I’d seen that unfold dozens of times before, but tonight I was out of words to comfort her with.

  “Ha! How should I know? You’re too busy beating the crap out of me all the time to say. I’m not Seto, you know. And, what, you’re disappearing on me again? Man, good thing you got that get-out-of-jail-free card whenever someone actually calls you out on your crap, huh?”

  I probably could have phrased it more eloquently, but I meant what I said. I wanted to knock her down a peg, and my emotions were running at full capacity.

  Kido was awestruck for a moment. Then her face reddened like a tomato. Then she grabbed me.

  “You goddamn…!”

  I fell back, unable to bear the full brunt of her weight. Struggling, I tried to push her off, but I failed to turn the tables on her. Pathetic, I know, but Kido had me completely outclassed physically.

  Now fully on top of me, Kido laid another full-force slap on my head. The sharpness of it made Seto eject a powerless whimper.

  “Oww…What’s with you? You’re just trying to—”

  “Shut up! Stop talking!”

  Kido covered my mouth with both hands. Unable to speak, I began kicking my legs into the air as I moaned and groaned at her. The tears from her eyes dropped down onto my own reddened cheeks.

  “I…I hate you, Kano!”

  The statement made my heart writhe in pain. I couldn’t even summon the energy to whip my legs around anymore.

  Now I was experiencing a dull, cold pain, different from the burning I felt when she slapped me. It was like someone forced me to swallow an ice cube. That pain, engineered by Kido’s words, bound my heart tighter and tighter the more I comprehended what they meant.

  The emotion from both of us was to the point that, once I finally brushed Kido’s hands off my head, she brought them up to her own face and started to sob.

  I had no words for her as Kido broke down in front of me.

  What should I say? Now that she said she hated me, what else would she want from me? As my brain scrambled for a killer comeback, a pair of unexpected words wandered out from my lips.

  “…Yeah, great.”

  The statement left me intensely bewildered. I had no intention of saying anything like that. Why did that come out?

  I looked at Kido. Her expression showed her dismay, telling me that I just did something I could never take back.

  To be honest, I would’ve preferred it if she just slapped me again, as per usual.

  If that helped her settle down—if that kept her from hating me—I wouldn’t mind being scarred from head to toe as a result.

  But Kido made no move. Wiping the tears with her right hand, she got up off of me and moved away from my bed.

  “W-wait a sec, Kido! I’m s—”

  “…It’s fine. Don’t talk to me.”

  She didn’t even turn around as she replied. I was still in shock over the coldness of it all when Seto joined her off the bed, shouting, “I’m sorry! This is all my fault!” as he did. He then covered his mouth in a panic. Oops. Did it again. His constant clumsiness was even starting to get on my nerves.

  But Kido didn’t bother to reproach him for it this time. “It’s fine, Seto,” she quietly replied. “Also, I’m leaving.”

  Seto and I froze.

  “Wh-what are you—?”

  “I had a meeting with the superintendent. He said there’s someone willing to take me in…I was thinking I’d say no, but I think I’ll go after all.”

  It was all so sudden, it left me feeling faint. It made too much sense to be a joke, and Kido never told jokes, anyway. Plus, I knew Seto would pinch-hit for me in a moment.

  “Y-you’re kidding, right?! I’m sorry…”

  There we go. At least it was enough to make Kido turn toward us again.

  “I’m not. Also, you have to…ahh, never mind.”

  She looked a tad repentant for a moment, but quickly turned her heels and burrowed herself into her bunk. “The next time you talk to me,” she said, “I’ll hit you for real.” Then she fell silent.

  Those weren’t “for real” just now?

  …Silence reigned for a while.

  Seto and I stared at Kido’s bed, not even bothering to exchange glances with each other. In an extremely rare showing for Seto, he wasn’t crying. It didn’t seem like he was bottling anything up, either. The shock of it all must have fried his brain circuits.

  I wasn’t one to talk, either. My own brain felt like a bowl full of mush.

  Being told that she hated me and to not talk to her left me with pretty much nothing to work with.

  Kido must have known that. That was why she took that strategy. If you wanted someone you “hate” out of your life, that was a pretty effective way to do it.

  “What’s gonna happen to us now…?”

  “…I dunno.”

  There was little else I could give to Seto’s sudden question. I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes. If I didn’t, I felt like I’d wind up taking my anger out on Seto instead.

  Seto attempted a few “ums…” and “heys” after that. But, realizing I was done for the night, he gave a final “I’m really sorry about this” and climbed up to the top bunk.

  I heard sobs from above me a little while later, but it wasn’t too long before the room was silent again.

  My mind ran over a few theories, a few possibilities in the quiet. A few memories, too. But I wasn’t about to discover a miracle method that’d bring back the fun times we had up to yesterday, and sooner or later, I fell asleep.

  Kido’s adoptive parents came over exactly a week later. For the whole seven days, she never spoke to us.

  “Wow, this weather’s really great! It makes me wanna go out on a picnic or something!”

  A jovial voice popped up from the driver’s seat, attempting to break through the oppressive environment inside the car.

  Seated directly behind the driver, I just responded with a light sigh.

  It wasn’t that I was setting out to be rude.

  The people walking up and the down the sidewalks we drove past all had heavy coats on. Things looked brutal out there. If we really wanted to load up the picnic basket and head to the park right now, both our food and ourselves would freeze to death within the hour.

  But I didn’t want to act all contrarian, either. The kid who didn’t know how to act around others. That’d make things seriously rough for me.

  So, corking all of those thoughts up, I just sighed.

  Seto, unable to take the silence in the front passenger seat, chuckled a little.

  “But…but don’t you think it’s a little cold for a picnic?”

  I was afraid he was reading my mind again, but the color of his eyes indicated otherwise.

  “Oh, no way! You guys’re all kids—you can deal with a little bit of nippiness to the air. Right? We can get everything packed up once we’re home!”

  The driver sounded as blissfully carefree as always.

  “Ah-ha-hah…”

  Seto must’ve not had any better response at the ready.

  Despite his personality, Seto liked to spend a surprisingly large amount of time outdoors.

  He’d regularly go out by himself, only to come back with his clothes all dirty after chasing forest animals around or whatever.

  Even a month ago, he spent the entire winter’s day outdoors while I was curle
d into a ball in my room, attempting to keep icicles from forming on me.

  So his take just now didn’t make sense.

  Having him suggest that it was too cold to go outside was absolutely unnatural for him. But I couldn’t blame him for his little white lie, either. After all, we couldn’t have been in a worse social situation right now.

  I took a quick glance to my left. My eyes met with Kido’s as she sat there. She immediately grumped at me and turned her eyes away, toward the window. I was hoping for a little more when we locked eyes, but I shrugged in resignation (and more than a bit of anger) and turned toward my own window.

  The two of us had been like this since our fight at last week’s postmortem.

  Living in the same room, we couldn’t help but look at each other now and again. But despite how hard it was to keep a grudge going in our circumstances, we still adamantly refused to talk to each other.

  Seto acted like he was in a panic the whole time, but—maybe because he realized anything he’d do would just make it worse—he didn’t comment about it much.

  Not that I didn’t want to talk to Kido. In fact, I tried to make peace with her in my own way, in an effort to mend things as soon as possible. But whenever I made any kind of move toward her, she’d glare at me and refuse any of my advances.

  She told me not to talk to her, so there wasn’t much else I could do. The days of agonizing over it in my mind continued.

  “But hey, um, sorry about the suddenness and all, you know? I guess maybe the superintendent didn’t tell you we were adopting all three of you?”

  That was the thing about it. The sudden and completely unexpected thing.

  It turns out that the Tateyamas, the family that agreed to take Kido, had actually meant to adopt all three of us from the start.

  Seto and I hadn’t heard anything about that, of course. We were completely in the dark about it until the superintendent called us in two days ago.

  I didn’t think this could happen—not meeting the family beforehand, not being brought into the loop at all, just, “Okay, your new family’s coming over in a couple days.” Whether they saw us more as monsters than children by now or not, that was just cruel.