Intertwining Path

A Premonition

Hotel Suite Room: Kujou Tenn Pov.

Tenn slowly flutters his eyes open. He finds himself lying on the lush green grasses that were swaying from the gentle spring breeze. He looks up to see the clear blue sky without a single cloud in the air. He then hears the sound of children giggling nearby. One of them sounds vaguely familiar to him. Curious, he decides to search around listening for where the voice came from the loudest.

Luckily, It doesn't take him long to find the two children playing and laughing on the grass with one another. A gentle smile appears on his face when he recognizes the red-haired child. "Riku"

The children were the younger version of him and his brother playing house. Since Riku, had weak health he couldn't afford to play any physically strenuous games without it sending him straight to the hospital. So instead they often played games like house.

He remembers his younger brother often pouting how unfair it was he wasn't able to run around like the other children. On bad days he would sulk in the corner of his bed crying about how he must be a bad child if the gods didn't deem him fit enough to give him a healthy body.

He would do it silently so as to not make sure their parents overheard him. It only made him feel worse seeing them worry over him so much. He hated how he was a constant burden to everyone in his family. If only he was never born then he wouldn't have had to trouble his family so much...

Tenn's heart broke hearing his brother mumble those words out amidst his high fever delirium.

The young child kept wondering why the heavens were so cruel to rob his brother the one thing everyone had and took for granted including him. He sometimes wondered if it was his fault. If the heavens were punishing him for being a bad child through his younger brother.

He had read about the stories of parasitic twins online when he had heard about them in a TV documentary run by the nearby electronic's shop. They latched onto the healthy twin and kept leeching off of them slowly draining their lifeforce away one by one as they grew bigger and more heinous by the years.

The older twin asked his parents if he was the one who was at fault. If the reason his brother's health was so weak was that he sucked all of it away from him while they were in their mother's womb. His tired mother shook her head saying that it wasn't either of their faults. If anyone was at fault it was her for not being able to properly give birth to Riku. So, she owed it to him to look after him to his end.

Tenn didn't like the way his mother said it. It was as if she had long given up on her son ever becoming healthy. That Riku was a hopeless case beyond their hands of salvation...

Later when their family business fell into bankruptcy, the young child witnessed their crying mother hugging his younger brother and apologizing to him for not being able to bring him into this world as a healthy child. Riku smiled saying he didn't mind that he was just happy being born as their parent's child and that if anything he should be the one apologizing for all the burdens he made his entire family shoulder.

He told them it was ok for them to let him go now. That he didn't mind. They've done more than enough for him. He wasn't scared of dying. What he was more scared of was seeing his family suffering because of him. If letting him go meant that he could alleviate their suffering even a bit then he'll be happy for finally having been of use to them...

His parents were tempted to do just that until Tenn managed to convince them to keep on continuing Riku's treatment.

He told them he would go follow Kujou in exchange for having him pay off not only all of their debts but also Riku's medical bills. His mother screamed no that she couldn't possibly let her own son sacrifice himself to pay for their mistakes. But then again isn't that what they were doing right now? His parents were willing to let Riku sacrifice himself to make their lives even a bit easier.