The Remainings

Trink

The sound of the bell. It was coming closer every second. Both Mio and Itsuki darted out of the room hurriedly, with Itsuki leading in the front. The boy was quite a runner, since Mio had a hard time catching up with him. The darkness in the hall was blinding her view; she couldn't focus on where she was going. Suddenly, she stumbled on the loose wooden floor beneath her and landed on a ground with a thud.

"Itai..." she muttered while getting up slowly. She squinted her eyes, trying to see the white-haired boy who was previously running not too far in front of her, only to find that he was nowhere in sight.

"Matte, Itsuki!" Mio called out, but she heard no reply. She stood upright and was ready to run after him, but unfortunately, something had stopped her from doing so. No, someone had stopped her feet from doing so. She froze on her spot when she felt a pair of cold hands was holding onto her right leg for dear life. Very slowly, she turned her head around to see what was holding onto her. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw what she was not supposed to see. And then, she screamed her lungs out.

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Itsuki halted abruptly as he heard a loud screaming coming from a distant. He looked behind him and realized that Mio was no longer following him.

"Mio-chan!" the white-haired boy yelled out while running back to where his companion supposed to be. He stopped around the corner when he saw the terrified girl was being pulled by an angered spirit from underneath the floor.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Itsuki yelled, making both Mio and the spirit turned their gazes at him.

The spirit slowly loosen its grip on Mio's leg, and Mio quickly staggered toward Itsuki, but collapsed on the floor before she could even reach him.

"Mio-chan!" Itsuki called out, running toward the whimpering girl. He knelt down beside her and put a hand on her trembling shoulder. "Daijoubu desuka?"

Mio managed to nod slowly in response. She looked up at Itsuki and crooked a small smile at him. "Pathetic, huh?"

Itsuki raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about?"

Mio looked away from the boy's gaze and stared at the floor below them. "I always thought about... how Mayu would live through all of this without me by her side."

Itsuki kept quiet and waited for her to continue.

"I thought that... I thought that she would be helpless without me. But now I know that I was wrong." She started sobbing. "I never thought that I am the one who's truly miserable without her..." she cried.

Itsuki couldn't stand seeing her cry like this. The last time he saw someone crying was when Chitose accidentally fell off the stairs when she was playing with both him and Mutsuki. He believed seeing Mio in this kind of state was worse than seeing his sister cried, since he knew that Mio had always been the strongest one of the twins.

Hesitantly, he put his arms around the crying girl and pulled her into a warm embrace. "There, there, Mio-chan. There's no need to be upset about it." Itsuki whispered, stroking Mio's dark hair softly. "I used to think like that also when Mutsuki was still alive. Believe me, I understand your pain."

Mio looked up at the white-haired boy. Her eyes showed a hint of confusion. "No, there's no way someone like you could ever-"

"I'm telling the truth, Mio-chan." Itsuki cut her off. "We went into the same misery. We both had performed the ritual, and we both had lost our dearest twin. Then only difference is that your sister managed to become a butterfly, while my brother did not."

Mio's head fell down slightly, hearing what the boy just said. "Hai... but you still have Chitose!" she contradicted, slightly pouncing on Itsuki's chest.

The handsome boy chuckled in response. "Yes, but not anymore since we have lost track of her." He got up, pulling Mio with him and held her hand tightly in his. "I'll make sure you stay close with me, so you won't get caught by another ghost in the house... Aside from my self, that is." Itsuki smiled warmly at her.

Mio's face flushed darkly, almost matching the color of the bow tie that she was wearing. "H-Hai. Arigato, Itsuki." She said, tightening her grip on Itsuki's pale hand.

The boy grinned at her, earning a small smile in return.

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They had been walking in the house for hours. They went upstairs and downstairs, and even under the ground. Still, there was no sign of Chitose anywhere.

"I don't get it." Mio said. "We've looked everywhere, where could your sister possibly be?"

Itsuki shrugged. "I have no idea..."

They both decided to stop and rest for a little while in the small corridor, near the entrance of the Tachibana's house. The place was empty, silent, and dead.

"Is this place always like this when you were still alive?" Mio asked.

Itsuki seemed to be thinking for a bit. "No, not really. I don't really know what had happened to this place... I mean, I was dead before it all happened." He laughed lightly.

"Still, I can't stop thinking why you are still alive now, though." Mio said, looking at Itsuki who was sitting beside her.

Silence fell upon both of them right after Mio spoke her mind out. Itsuki then raised his right hand slowly placed in on Mio's right cheek.

"Do I... Do I feel cold to you?" he asked.

"N-No..." the girl answered while staring into Itsuki's blue orbs, slowly getting lost into it.

Itsuki's own gaze fell upon a pair of soft pink lips which was only 8 inches away from his face. Oh, how he had longed for his first kiss. He hadn't had a single one when he was still alive years ago. Even his twin brother had shared his first kiss with Sae.

Very slowly and hesitantly, he leaned closer to Mio's now pink face. He could feel her tensing up at the close distant between the two of them, her breathing got caught up in her lungs. Itsuki was only a millimeter away from her delicate face, and was ready to close the gap between them, when suddenly; a sound of a sliding door was heard from the closet next to him, making both Mio and him backed up in surprise. Both of their heartbeats increased dramatically because of the sudden jolt of the noise.

Itsuki turned to his right, his eyes widened when he saw who was coming out of the closet. "CHITOSE!"

The little crimson kimono girl jumped out in surprise as she heard someone calling her name. Her face immediately brightened when she realized whose voice it belonged to. "Itsuki nii-san!"

Chitose ran up to her brother's welcoming arms and hugged him tightly by his neck. Itsuki pulled his little sister closer to his body protectively, preventing her from falling onto the floor as he stood up.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Chitose. We were looking allover the house for you!" Itsuki said, smiling down at his dear sister.

"We?" the little girl asked him confusedly before she spotted Mio who was sitting on the floor next to her and his brother. She immediately jumped out from his brother embrace and surprisingly, ran toward the startled Mio and quickly hugged her by the neck. "Yae nee-chan! You did it!" she yelled.

Mio stared at Chitose's smiling face and asked blankly. "I did... what?"

"You came back! You came back for me and Itsuki nii-san! Thanks to you, I don't feel cold anymore!" Chitose exclaimed happily.

Mio mentally slapped herself on the face. She forgot that Chitose didn't know anything about the ritual and her dead brothers. And again, she had been mistaken as Yae.

"Um... Chitose-chan, I did come back for you. But I'm not Yae."

Hearing what Mio had said, Chitose immediately pulled away from the hug and stared at the face of Yae confusedly.

"She's not Yae, Chitose." Itsuki added. "She's Mio Amakura. Don't worry, she's a friend of mine."

Chitose suddenly ran back to Itsuki and hid behind his legs. Mio giggled at the girl's embarrassment and slowly approached her. "I may be a stranger to you, Chitose-chan. But I'm not going to hurt you."

Chitose still didn't move from her hiding spot, making her brother sighed deeply. "She's very shy around new people, Mio-chan. Gomen ne."

Mio quickly shook her head at him. "Don't worry about it, Itsuki." She said while blushing a bit. "So... shall we go and search for Mutsuki then?"