It was raining again. Of course it was. Ren Saeki always used to think rain was calming—white noise for the soul. Tonight it sounded like nails tapping on glass. Annoying.
His drink was slipping in his hand. Whiskey. Expensive stuff too, and he couldn't even taste it. His fingers weren't listening. His body wasn't listening.
Poison.
Not the movie kind, either. No choking, no dramatic thrashing. Just this slow crawl under the skin, like frost spreading on a window.
"…Hah."
The lights in the room smeared together. His desk looked like it was melting. He tried to stand, but the floor decided it was a good time to tilt. His knees gave up.
Who was it? Enemy list was endless. Half the world hated him. But only a handful had access to his food, his medicine, his wine—
Footsteps.
Soft. Familiar.
"Brother."
That voice stopped him colder than the poison ever could.
Ren forced his head to turn. And there he was. Akio. His little brother. The one he bled for, starved for, carried through every hell.
"…You?" His voice cracked.
Akio didn't even look guilty. Just… calm. Maybe sad. He stepped closer, knelt down, like this was some bedtime story.
"I'm sorry," Akio said. "But you were always going to be in my way. Everything you built—I need it. I deserve it."
Ren's chest heaved, but the words never came. Only blood.
Akio smiled. Not cruel. Just soft. That made it worse.
"Sleep well, Brother."
And Ren sank into black.
chapter 1- welcome back to the cage
Pain. Not sharp. Not clean. Just this dull throb in his skull, like someone stuffed cotton in his brain and lit it on fire anyway.
Ren groaned and blinked. Ceiling fan. Beige plastic. Spinning lazy circles like it had nowhere better to be.
He sat up too fast and froze.
The room was wrong. Too small. Too familiar. Posters on the wall—anime trash from when he was a kid. Sheets cheap enough to scratch. The air carried that weird mix of detergent and old textbooks.
A dorm room. His dorm room.
His chest clenched. He scanned the desk. The old cracked phone. The cheap calendar tacked to the wall.
March 5th, 2060.
Fifteen years ago.
"…No." His throat scraped. He staggered to the mirror.
The reflection almost knocked the breath out of him.
Younger. Skin smooth, no scars. No gray in the hair. His eyes weren't dead yet. They almost looked… alive.
He gripped the sink. His hands were shaking, his pulse hammering in his ears. And then the memory hit like a blade: Akio's face. That voice. That smile.
I deserve it.
His stomach lurched. He almost laughed, almost puked. Maybe both. He swallowed it all down.
Silence. Cold. Heavy.
Ren forced his breath steady. Stared until the kid in the mirror stopped looking so soft. Until the eyes hardened into something else.
"So… I died," he whispered. No question in it. "And the one I trusted most put the knife in."
He held the thought, let it bite.
Then his mouth curved, not a smile, not really. Something sharper.
"Fine."
The fan ticked above, mocking.
"You took everything from me once, Akio. This time—I'll take it all. And when I'm finished, you won't even have ashes left to cling to."
The room was quiet. The boy in the mirror wasn't a boy anymore.
He was something else.