APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 29 - A brother and a Sister

Resolutely, she approached the door and knocked on the wooden surface. At the mere sound of her own fingers knocking against the wood, she felt her heart pounding in her chest several times as hard.

Or maybe she shouldn't have...? Maybe... Maybe it would be better if she just held back? Why did she have to knock now...?!

She couldn't finish her thoughts. The door slowly opened, revealing the surprised Japanese's face right in front of her...

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A moment lasted an eternity, and eternity turned out to be a moment. Brown eyes with real surprise stared into blue irises, whose pupils alternately contracted and expanded, as if they wanted to say much more than the newcomer's lips.

Emiko's heart was beating unnaturally fast and she felt as if it had suddenly risen to her throat. She had so many thoughts running through her mind that she forgot her name for a moment...

"Yes...? How can I help you?" A male's voice spoke up, making her even more terrified. She struggled to swallow the heavy lump in her throat, and then with all the strength she had left, she managed to open her mouth.

"I..."

Emptiness. In an instant, there was a total emptiness in her mind. Unable to cope with the situation in any way, she managed to stutter out only one word.

"お... おにいーちゃん..." (Big... Big brother...)

Pure, fluent Japanese. Just one word managed to make Kenzo Tenma completely stunned. Now he has lost the ability to speak.

Standing in front of him was a short young woman with blue eyes, long brown hair and a look of terror on her face... He knew all too well what that meant. He swallowed, too confused to make any move; his heart started pounding like crazy too. Why... Why here...? Shouldn't she... Shouldn't she be somewhere else? In a completely different place...?

Tears suddenly flowed from the eyes of the two people. They both knew what had to happen before they could even utter any more words. The man stretched out his arm and in one movement hugged his sister, who at this gesture began to sob loudly, and a moment later also tightly embraced him with her arms.

They stood there for a long time, holding each other tight, feeling as if they had to make up for all their time apart in this one moment. All lived in the distance from each other years. All those years they followed one as two units. Now they've finally managed to become a whole...

Finally, after a few... or maybe a dozen or so minutes, they managed to look each other in the eye again. Blue reflected in brown, and brown reflected in blue. His sister's lips parted slightly in the shape of a smile, and his whispered an invitation. So they entered the room. They both knew that once the door closed with them on the other side, all mysteries would be revealed. Doubts will die. They will finally find what they have been looking for for so long. What did they need for so long.

Everything.

"Emiko... what... are you doing here? You... I... What I am saying..." The man couldn't put together a single sentence correctly. And it wasn't because of the emptiness in his mind, no, on the contrary - too many questions were swirling around in his head.

"Onii-chan..." She gently took his larger hand in hers, trying to reassure him as she saw how much her arrival affected his well-being. "I had to... I had to arrive... I knew I didn't want to regret anything..." There was silence in the room for a few seconds.

"You do not regret?" Kenzo finally spoke up.

"No." She smiled softly at him, squeezing his hand a little tighter.