CHAPTER 46: MIORI — THE DISGRACE OF THE YUKINAGA FAMILY (1)

«Shin, do you seriously think this is an hour you can walk in? Mom told you not to come home any later than one, and it’s almost three! But forget that — what the hell happened to your face?!» Miori exclaims the moment she sees her brother with a full-on black eye and a tissue soaked in blood pressed against his nose.

Like Mom and Dad told her to, Miori stayed up to wait for him, sitting on the couch with her textbooks open as she studied for her upcoming university exams.

«Mind your own damn business, Miori. Seriously. And besides, if Mom actually cared about what time I came home, she’d be the one waiting up instead of sticking you with it,» Shin snaps back, kicking off his shoes and sending them flying before tossing his jacket onto the couch.

«You still haven’t told me what happened. Did someone hit you?» Miori insists, clearly worried. In the meantime, she picks his shoes up from the floor, setting them neatly by the entrance before hanging his jacket on the coat rack.

«And I already told you to stay out of it,» he fires back, irritated, heading toward the bathroom — only for Miori to intercept him, stepping in front of him to block his path.

«If someone hurt my brother, then damn right it’s my business!» Miori growls. «Tell me who did this. Now.»

Shin rolls his eyes, throwing his arms out in exasperation.

«It was some waiter from the Moonlight Club — satisfied now?» Shin snaps, trying to slip past her and finally make it to the bathroom — but of course that answer doesn’t even come close to satisfying Miori.

«That place has like ten waiters! Tell me his name, or at least describe him! And listen, if you don’t tell me, I swear I’m going there myself tomorrow and causing a scene you can’t even imagine!» Miori insists, getting more fired up by the second.

Shin lets out a long, defeated sigh.

No way in hell I’m letting this lunatic embarrass me in public — I’d look like the biggest loser alive if word got out that I needed my sister to bail me out. And why the hell does this bitch always have to shove herself into my business? Doesn’t she have a life? Ugh... guess I’ll have to throw her a bone if I don’t want her to pull some stupid stunt — knowing her, she totally would.

«I dunno... Aoshi, or something like that — that’s what his boss called him, I think. Now can I go to the bathroom? I’m two seconds away from pissing myself, and if you don’t move, I swear I’ll pee on your feet!» Shin blurts out, lowering his voice despite the outburst — waking their parents at almost three in the morning while looking like that is the last thing he wants.

The moment she hears that name, Miori’s eyes fly wide open in disbelief.

«A-Aoshi, you said...?» she repeats, confused. «Are you sure...?»

«Yeah, pretty sure — a guy with a dumb-looking face, super skinny, about ten centimeters taller than me, brown hair,» Shin replies.

The description fits Aoshi Toya to perfection — except, of course, for the "dumb-looking" part, which is subjective... but honestly, Miori shares that opinion too.

Aoshi Toya... that idiot really beat up my brother? But he’s never hurt a fly in his life... Did he get back at me by going after Shin instead?

If that’s the case, that moron is fucking done for!

«Why did Aoshi hit you?» Miori asks, anxious, her voice edged with tension at the idea that someone like Aoshi would dare lay a hand on her precious little brother — the only person she genuinely loves.

Shin instinctively stiffens at her question — a reaction that doesn’t go unnoticed by his sister’s sharp eyes.

«W-Well, uh... I-I don’t know what got into him — I swear! I was at the Moonlight Club drinking with Rikuto and Gaku, and that idiot just walked up and hit me for no reason!» Shin stammers, trying desperately to sound even remotely convincing.

«Bullshit,» Miori snaps, instantly catching that hesitation — the classic tone of someone scrambling to invent an excuse on the spot. «I know Aoshi very well — he’s in my university class, and he’s a very close friend of mine. We see each other every afternoon, and he’s definitely not the type to throw a punch out of nowhere. In fact, I haven’t seen him throw a single one in almost three years of knowing him. I’ll ask you again, Shin: why did Aoshi hit you? Tell me now, or I’ll just go ask him myself tomorrow at university.»

A cold shiver runs down Shin’s spine once more, locking him in place.

Goddammit — all this just because that idiot Gaku talked me into going to that shitty dump instead of our usual spot downtown. And now what the hell am I even supposed to do?! Tomorrow that damn waiter is gonna tell her everything, so lying’s pointless... I might as well spit it out now, get it off my chest, and maybe smooth it over a bit. I don’t have any other choice unless I want that psycho to kill me. I’ll say... yeah, I’ll say someone forced me, threatened me. She’s dumb enough — maybe she’ll buy it.

«He hit me because...» Shin hesitates, stalling — even when burying the truth under a mountain of lies, finding the right words for what he’s about to tell her isn’t easy. «Basically, Gaku forced me.... yeah, he forced me to take a picture of you... n-naked... He said that if I didn’t, things would get worse for me. So what happened is, Gaku had my phone in his hand and was looking at the picture I took of you without you noticing, and right then that waiter walked by, saw the photo, got pissed, and punched me. At least his boss wasn’t a total idiot and fired him on the spot — you could hear that fat bastard screaming from outside the club.»

Shin starts to sob — his gaze drops to the floor. His eyes are glossy, but only from fear of Miori’s reaction, not guilt or remorse.

«I... I didn’t want to do it, I swear, Miori... but I was scared Gaku might hurt me, or even worse, hurt you. But I swear on my life that besides him and Rikuto — and okay, obviously that waiter too — no one else saw it, and I definitely didn’t send it to anyone! I deleted it a minute after showing it to him — so it’s basically like it never even happened!»

Shin lifts his gaze slightly after receiving nothing but dead silence from Miori — but he immediately looks down again, terrified, the moment he meets his sister’s eyes: those sharp, tear-rimmed eyes overflowing with a fury ready to blow at any second, her teeth clenched, her fists tight at her sides.

And yet, in that bottomless sea of rage flooding her heart, there’s a tiny corner occupied by something she can’t understand.

Aoshi threw away the only job a loser like him could ever hope to get in his life, just to go after my brother who — knowing him — obviously took that photo himself just to show off in front of those pathetic friends of his. But why? Why did that idiot bother defending me, after what I did to him? He really is a hopeless idiot...

«M-Miori... are you mad at me...?» Shin asks in a trembling voice, stepping back.

«Mad...?» she repeats in a chilling calm — a calm shattered by that very question, lighting the fuse inside her. «You fucking bastard... you take a naked picture of me behind my back and you have the nerve to ask if I’m mad?!»

«B-But I told you, I didn’t want to — Gaku forced me!» Shin babbles, retreating even further.

«Cut the bullshit!» Miori explodes, shouting with every ounce of voice she has, tears spilling down her cheeks. «I know damn well you did it just to show off to those assholes you hang out with! A-After everything I’ve done for you... after all those times you locked yourself in my room crying because you couldn’t handle Mom’s pressure anymore — and I, like a complete idiot, comforted you and took the blame for your screwups because I didn’t want Mom yelling at you... this is how you thank me?! You disgust me, Shin — you really disgust me! You and that pathetic pack of useless losers you call friends — you’re nothing but a bunch of failures!»

Miori breaks into a strangled, desperate sob that turns into violent coughs.

«H-How could you do something like this to me, Shin... how could you...?!»

Shin backs away again, but it’s pointless — Miori closes the distance in a flash, grabs him by the arm, and slams him to the floor with a martial-arts throw executed so effortlessly it’s like she was tossing around a feather pillow.

«Ow! That hurt, you stupid slut!» Shin cries out, clutching his shoulder from the impact.

«W-What did you just say?!» she roars, yanking him face-to-face by the collar of his hoodie.

«I-I said you’re a slut! A psychotic slut — that’s what Mom says all the time! She says you’re the disgrace of the family and that she should’ve aborted you! A-And... and she’s right! You’re crazy, Miori! Crazy!» Shin screams, furious from the pain and from everything Miori screamed at him — and he even spits in her face.

Suddenly, the stairwell light snaps on — a woman in a white nightgown rushes down, skipping steps like she’s in freefall.

Kagura Yukinaga — their mother — stands there.