Sapphire String

Memory Weaver

We spoke on the way back, and he spoke about a group called Procellarum. From what he said, I could guess they were his teammates. I nodded and filed away all the information he said about himself–things I probably would have known if I was truly his sister.

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Kai took me to the third floor of a building. I suppose this was the dorm he was talking about. His eyes didn't look even a little confused anymore, which made me wonder how many of his memories were now stained with me. There were a total of eleven people who were waiting for him. Oh no. Could I really weave myself into the memories of this many people?

"Kai, welcome back," a white haired man stood up and walked over. He glanced at me. "And who is this?"

"This is my sister," said Kai, as exclamations of shock ran across the room. The white haired man gave me a hard look.

"But Kai, I don't recall you having a sister who looked like this," said another black haired man, from the couch. I'm going to assume this means Kai does have siblings.

"What do you mean, Hajime? She's right here."

The black haired man–Hajime, I assume–walked over and stood beside Shun. A green haired boy walked over to Kai and pulled his sleeve, while everyone else stood up, most of them giving me suspicious glances.

I took a deep breath, my heart breaking. I didn't want to do this, but I didn't have a choice. I need to survive. Perhaps it would've been better if I found had another random passerby instead of getting myself into this mess.

"Now, now. Calm down everyone," a blond haired boy said. He looked at me. "What's your name?"

"Mayim Fuduki."

"I'm Haru Yayoi. Even though you share a last name, perhaps you mistook Kai for someone else?" I wonder if 'Fuduki' is really that common of a name.

"No." I said, spinning magic into my words. "I'm his little sister." I looked into everyone's eyes in turn. Their eyes glazed over immediately, except for the white haired man, whose eyes narrowed instead. My heart skipped a beat, but then his glazed over as well. I let out a breath, as familiarity washed over their faces.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Mayim," another blond haired boy said. Now there was the problem of learning everyone's names.

"We've only met her once though, Aoi," said another black haired boy, who I assumed was his friend. If anyone asked me when we met, I'd be done for.

"Should we reintroduce ourselves then?"

"Yes," said Hajime, as I nodded. The problem just sorted itself out. He turned to me. "I'm Hajime Mutsuki, leader of Six Gravity." Ah, Procella's sibling group. I recalled Kai mentioning them. "And my team-" he gestured with a wave.

"Aoi Satsuki," the blond haired nodded.

"Arata Uduki."

"Koi Kisaragi!" The energy the little pink haired boy had was interesting.

"Kakeru Shiwasu," a blond haired smiled.

"Shun Shimotsuki, leader of Procellarum," the white haired man gave me a very hard look, and I could've sworn that was a smile full of suspicion. I made a mental note to avoid him as much as possible.

"Yoru Nagatsuki," a kid with messy black hair nodded.

"You Haduki," an orange haired boy nodded from beside Yoru.

"Iku Kannaduki," another brown haired boy nodded.

"Rui Minnaduki," said the green haired boy who was clinging to Kai's sleeve. He seemed close to Kai. I wonder what history they have between them.

"I'm Mayim Fuduki. It's nice to see you all... again," I added as an afterthought.

Haru walked over and took my hand. "You're covered in scrapes, did something happen?"

"She went missing last night. I don't really know what happened though." Kai turned to me. "Are you really alright? And I don't mean just physically."

"I'm fine, could I just get some bandages?"

Kai nodded and started walking to a room as I followed. He gestured to the bed and I sat down, as he pulled a first aid kit from a shelf.

He sat down next to me and cleaned out the cuts and bandaged them, as guilt overrode my heart, knowing this affection was for someone who didn't even exist and these skills were gained by looking after people who did exist.

"Thank you," I said as he finished tightening the bandages.

"No need to thank me."

His smile was full of so much warmth and kindness that I had to look away.

"So what happened? I heard from mom that you didn't come back home last night." Okay, so he has a mom, who I am apparently supposed to know. I started to wonder just how many people he has around him.

"I got caught up in something. Nothing major happened."

He still looked worried, and I didn't know what to say. Saying too many lies will make it hard to defend myself later when I have to. Someone knocked on the door.

"Kai, Mayim, dinner's ready," Yoru called.

"I've eaten already!" I called back, as Kai stood up.

"Then you should sleep. Take the bed okay? We'll get the spare room cleaned out for you tomorrow."

I nodded as Kai walked out.

I lifted my hand and took a good look at it. I counted the number of strings curled around my finger. Eleven. My heart stopped. There were twelve people in this dorm. I counted again. It was still eleven. This means I failed to manipulate someone; I failed to weave myself into their memories. That's never happened before. I bit my lip, trying to think. Everyone's eyes had glazed over, so how?

I put it out of my head. As long as whoever it was didn't expose me, I'd be fine. And there's no way they would be able to either, seeing as everyone firmly believed that I was Kai's sister. But I was gonna find out who it was that I couldn't mess with; who had escaped the webs I'd weaved.

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