Chapter CXI: Double-Trouble
A loud "plop!" echoes through the bathroom as a bar of soap hits the tiled floor.
Steam fills the air, curling up toward the ceiling in elegant wisps. Inside, Hina stands under the gentle spray of warm water, her eyes closed, humming the jingle of a snack commercial. Her hair, tied tightly into a ballerina-style bun, remains stubbornly dry as she tilts her head backward.
"♪Where to Lean? There's Mr. Clean, All for the Beam and good bye to the dean♪"
She giggles to herself. "Genius songwriting."
Fifteen minutes and several off-key ad jingles later, she steps out, towel wrapped around her, and tiptoes over a puddle like it's a lava trap. She dries off quickly, then pulls on a fuzzy cream-colored jacket that makes her resemble a walking marshmallow with style. With pajama shorts and socks that say "Don't Touch My Fries," she pads her way over to the hotel window.
Outside: a glowing panorama of the city. Kyoto's skyline glimmers like a galaxy of dreams—towering skyscrapers, blinking lights, tiny ant-like cars in the morning rush. It's the kind of view you post on YourBook with the caption "blessed (heart and sparkling emoji)"
She presses her cheek against the cool glass. "So pretty," she whispers, fogging it up slightly.
A voice echoes from behind her.
"Hina, have you finished showering?"
She turns to see her identical twin, Hana, standing in matching strawberry pajamas, her messy bedhead threatening the laws of gravity.
Hina raises a peace sign. "Just a while ago. The water's still warm. Go before it turns evil."
Hana yawns, grabs her towel, and mumbles, "If I step on your soap again, you're replacing my ankles."
"Fair."
As Hana walks in, Hina turns back to the glass, admiring the city. Just then, a voice—older, thinner, and mildly sarcastic—catches her off guard.
"What are you looking at there?"
She almost drops her phone from the surprise. "Wha—oh! Hatsune nee-san!"
Their older sister, Hatsune, stands by the minibar, dressed in a simple blazer and jeans, combing her thin hair with her fingers. Her skin glows with a mix of professional polish and some stress. She holds a mug that says "#NurseLife" in Comic Sans.
"We'll head out soon," she says, placing her mug down. "But before anything, let's get breakfast. And let's wait for your twin first."
Hina nods, adjusting her fluffy jacket collar. "Sure, nee-san. You choosing the restaurant?"
"No. I'm choosing peace."
As they wait, Hatsune sits on the sofa and pulls out her phone. The blue-white glow of YourBook reflects on her face as she scrolls.
"Ah, look," she murmurs. "Nursing memes."
"Another one with a vein joke?"
"Yes. 'You can't IV without me.'"
Hina groans. "Painful."
But the laughter fades when Hatsune suddenly goes silent. Her brows furrow, and her fingers stop scrolling.
"...What the—"
"What is it, nee-san?"
She gasps. "Oh my God... Akiko..."
Hina whirls around. "Wait, what? What happened to her?"
At that moment, Hana exits the bathroom, towel-wrapped and shivering. "Who screamed? Is BTS here?"
But she stops dead in her tracks when she sees Hatsune's face.
"What's going on?" Hana asks, still dripping water on the carpet.
Hatsune turns her phone around.
There on the screen: a Missing Persons post shared by someone in Akiko's school, tagging her name with another.
MISSING: Akiko Chisai & Kota Mizushiro
Last seen four days ago, suspected to be involved in local robbery incident.
If seen, report immediately.
"No... no way," Hana mutters, drying her hair with a towel.
"Is this a prank?" Hina adds.
Hatsune immediately calls their mom. On the other line on speaker,
"I—I don't know," their mom says, panic rising in her voice. "I didn't... I haven't seen Akiko for four days now. I should've told you girls—"
"Four days?!" Hana squeaks. "And you failed to mention that?"
"I'm so sorry," their mom says. "I already called the police and reported her missing."
Hina sits on the bed, pulling the blanket over her lap. "We're already worried now, nee-san..."
Hana throws on her matching furry jacket and sits beside her.
"I'm so sorry," their mom says. "I already called the police and reported her missing."
Hatsune rubs her temples. "We'll figure this out."
"Wherever she is, I hope she's safe," their mom says softly.
They end the call.
Despite the heaviness, Hatsune insists they still need to eat before they fall over from hunger and stress. The three of them walk down to a small but stylish restaurant called Restaurant 456, where a robot waiter greets them with, "Good Morning, How May I Help You?"
The robot nearly knocks over a chair while offering complimentary pickles.
"I relate to that robot more than any living person," Hana deadpans.
They sit down and order pancakes, miso soup, and a triple-shot coffee that could probably raise the dead.
Still, their appetite is weak. Hatsune keeps glancing at her phone. The twins poke at their pancakes like they're solving a puzzle.
"Let's go to a shrine," Hatsune finally says. "Let's pray for their safety."
Hina nods. "Yeah. Good idea."
They begin the 1.4-kilometer trek to a nearby hilltop shrine.
The roads slope like a rollercoaster designed by someone with a grudge. Hana dramatically wheezes with every step.
"If I collapse and roll down this hill, bury me next to a vending machine," she says.
Hina snorts. "You're so dramatic."
"Seriously, I think my calves just resigned."
As they walk, the twins talk quietly.
"You think this is connected?" Hina asks.
"To that weird incident at the school?" Hana replies. "It's possible. There were those rumors... the lockdown, the missing guards..."
"According to Akiko, those weren't true"
"The footage we saw... I'm scared."
"I know," Hana murmurs. "But Akiko's smart. And Kota's smart also—well, he has the strength of an innocent puppy raised on anime morals."
"Nah, I think that's Akiko you're talking about."
"Oh yeah, they're just the same. Introverted to ambiverts as sociable as us."
Behind them, Hatsune trails a little, visibly shaken. She pulls out her phone and dials Akiko's brother. No answer. She tries again.
Still nothing.
She presses the phone to her chest and closes her eyes.
They finally reach the foot of the shrine.
The stairs loom above them, seemingly endless.
"Is this a shrine or the stairway to heaven?" Hana whimpers.
"We go up," Hatsune says. "All of us."
Step by step, they climb. Slowly. Quietly. Each footfall seems heavier than the last. When they reach the top, the city view is breathtaking—but none of them are looking.
They approach the offering box.
All three take out coins and toss them in. Clink. Clink. Clink.
They press their hands together.
Eyes close.
Silence.
Wind blows through the shrine's tori gates.
They stand together, united in hope.
But in the silence, a small sob breaks through.
The twins' eyes flutter open, and they turn.
Hatsune is crying.
Tears fall freely from her closed eyes, her hands still pressed together.
She whispers something they can't quite hear—maybe Akiko's name. Maybe a silent prayer. Maybe both.
The twins don't speak.
Instead, they reach out and each take one of her hands.
Three women.
Three sisters.
Praying not just for answers—but for a miracle.
Hatsune's sobs break the silence.
Her hands are still pressed tightly together in front of her chest. Her shoulders tremble as tears stream down her cheeks. She doesn't even try to hide it.
Behind her, Hina and Hana glance at each other. In all their years—even during Hatsune's stress-driven breakdown in nursing school, even during their hilarious near-death experience of eating expired wasabi—they've never seen their sister cry this hard.
Hina gently places a hand on Hatsune's shoulder, while Hana wordlessly wraps an arm around her waist.
"Sis..." Hana whispers.
Hatsune doesn't respond. She just keeps her eyes closed, as if prayer is the only thing holding her together.
"Let it out," Hina says softly. "We're here."
They stay like that in a warm circle of sibling support, but as they close their eyes again, memories from years ago—years filled with noise, chaos, love, and hard lessons—come rushing in.
Back then when they are still at grade school, a plastic chair flies across the living room.
"No running inside the house!" shouts their mom, chasing after two blurs of energy zipping around in matching watermelon pajamas.
"Too late!" shouts Hana, diving onto the couch and knocking over a bag of oranges.
"You'll kill someone!" their mother wails.
"Just each other!" Hina adds from behind the curtain, popping out like a cartoon ghost.
The house is a certified warzone. Crayons on the walls. Melted candy stuck to the electric fan. A cat with a sock on its head fleeing the premises.
Meanwhile, in a locked room upstairs, Hatsune, then 18 years old, sits with her nursing books stacked like towers of doom. She's in full cram mode, hair tied in a high bun, glasses sliding down her nose.
She hears the chaos but chooses peace.
"They'll wear themselves out," she mumbles, highlighting a paragraph on liver function.
Downstairs, their mom is one spark away from volcanic eruption.
"Hina! Hana! Do you want to sleep outside with the goats?!"
"We'll ride them to school!" they shout back in unison.
But for all their naughty nonsense at home, things are very different when they're at school.
Hina and Hana, identical twins in neat pigtails and oversized uniforms, are the definition of quiet mice in class. Their classroom is filled with noisy kids trading Bokémon cards, slapping hands in Janken matches, and hiding snacks under their desks.
But not them.
Hina, slightly taller, usually hides behind her thick book—"The Boy with the 12 AM Bedtime"—while Hana draws anime girls with sparkly eyes and overly dramatic hair in her notebook.
They don't speak unless called. They sit beside each other. No friends. No games.
Just... them.
Then one day...
It's recess. They stay in the classroom again, not hungry enough to brave the canteen.
"Ne, Hina... Should I add more sparkles?" Hana asks, tilting her drawing.
Hina peers over the book. "She already looks like a magical disco ball."
"I'm going for a 'kawaii explosion.'"
Suddenly, a shadow looms over their desk.
A boy, twice their size, known around campus as a small-time bully, leers at them.
"Well, well, quiet girls. You hiding snacks or hiding secrets?"
He reaches for Hana's pencil case.
"Don't touch that," Hana says, voice flat.
"Oh? Is the little mouse talking?"
He snatches the case.
Wrong move. Click.
Out of nowhere, Hina and Hana pull out ballpoint pens—each one with a hidden tiny blade. Safety-first martial arts pens. Hatsune gave it to them as a joke after their cat scratched her face.
But they took it seriously.
The boy lunges. The twins jab in sync, catching his sleeve and wrist—not deep, but sharp enough to say "back off."
"AY!" he yells, stumbling back and crashing into the blackboard.
"Don't mess with twin energy," Hina murmurs.
Right as a voice behind them bellows: "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"
It's Principal Tomaru, a tall man with a bowl haircut and eyes like ping pong balls. He glares at the trio.
"Who's bleeding? Why are there weapons?!"
"They started it," Hana says, pointing.
"They stabbed a student!" Tomaru barks.
"He grabbed my pencils! That's stealing!" Hana yells.
"They stabbed a student with a weapon!"
"It's not a weapon! It's tactical stationery!"
Tomaru isn't convinced. In fact, he's the same Assistant Principal of Shinomiya High now—only younger, with less patience and the same unfortunate haircut.
Hina stays quiet. Hana fumes.
Eventually, the words "call your parents" and "expulsion" are dropped.
Their mom arrives, mortified. Two weeks later, they're expelled.
No goodbye party. No second chances.
The twins return to their old mischief for a while, but something changes.
No more school means no more future. They see the stress on their mom's face as she juggles laundry, food, and part-time work.
They quit messing around.
They begin helping at home. Cleaning the bathrooms, cooking lunch, helping in gardening, feeding the chickens in the backyard, and dusting Hatsune's old nursing trophies.
Then one day...
Their mom gets a phone call, and it's Hatsune, who is now at the metropolitan general hospital.
The twins and their mom rushes to the highway to get a taxi and took them nearly 10 minutes to get one until they get to the hospital.
In the bustling city hospital, Hatsune gives birth to a tiny baby girl with chubby cheeks and a scream that echoes through the halls like a siren.
"Akiko," she says softly, holding her baby with trembling hands. "Welcome to this world, sweetheart."
But shortly after birth, Hatsune needs to fly abroad for work since she already finished her college and was once a health worker in their town.
Akiko's brother, too busy with school and a part-time job in Tokyo, can't be there full time.
So the duty falls to Hina and Hana.
They raise Akiko like she's their own baby. They spoil her senseless.
Baby shoes? Check.
All cartoon channels on? Check.
Pocky in every corner of the house? Triple check.
"She wants boba?" Hana asks.
"She gets three," Hina replies.
They're the best auntie-moms in town, and for a long time, everything is perfect.
Until... the pandemic hits.
Everyone's locked at home. And Akiko changes.
She starts gaming all day. Yelling at teammates. Breaking controllers. Then locking herself in the bathroom after every match.
Hina notices it first.
"Akiko? Everything okay?"
Silence.
One day, Hina waits outside and asks gently.
Akiko, then 15, finally answers.
"I hate myself."
"What?"
"Do you remember the time I ordered online that costed 50,000 Yen worth of merch and grandma had to salvaged and return to a blasted guy just 11.6km away from here?"
"Yeah"
"And that time I berated mom's Arab boyfriend for not getting what I want?"
"Yeah, we were there the whole time", says Hina then reflectively pause for a bit, "But we can't do anything there because if we say something, your mouth will speak senseless again and berate us like The Fuhrer in WWII, just because we only wanted what's best for you that's why we calm you down yet at that time, we can't because on you, history repeats itself."
"I'm...sorry. I didn't realized how harsh I was. I pushed people away... I treated them like they were replaceable. Especially you, my guardians."
It's the first time Hina sees Akiko cry.
"You know what's the hard part? I didn't understand what love is. I friendzoned Kota back in 2019. He was so kind. He help me in many ways. But I thought I was too cool for someone kind. He was so clingy back then that's why I had no choice than to do it. But I hope, our new connection, even in this pandemic, might heal the gaps and cracks back then. I'm such an idiot."
Hina holds her hand. "That's okay. We all make mistakes."
"We just need to learn from them," Hana adds, entering with a towel on her head.
That day, they begin to teach Akiko about empathy. About values. About how strength comes with humility.
Not long after, Hatsune returns from abroad, surprised but proud at how her daughter is cared for—and how the twins matured.
They rebuild a bond as a family.
However, one day, their mom's sister arrives at the house and wants to live there. Due to constant yelling of the old hag, the twins are just patient with it, and to make things even worse, their mom's sister made them wear maid outfits since according to her, it's how she sees them.
6 days ago, the three sisters, now fully grown, decide to go on a business trip-slash-vacation to Kyoto.
"Let's mix work and play," Hatsune had said.
"Let's not fall in a river again," Hana had added.
They had explored temples. Ate matcha ice cream. Argued over whether samurai hats were a worthy souvenir.
But now, standing at the shrine, all of it feels like a dream.
The flashback fades. The sun is higher now, casting soft gold over the hill.
Hatsune finally lowers her hands and wipes her face.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't mean to fall apart."
"We all fall apart," Hana says.
"But you've been holding this family up for years," Hina adds.
"Let us hold you this time."
They sit on a bench nearby, quietly watching the clouds.
Then Hana suddenly gasps.
"What?" Hina asks.
"I forgot to cancel our samurai hat order!"
Hatsune chuckles through her sniffles. "You better wear that thing to work."
Hina smiles softly. "Wherever Akiko is... she knows we're thinking about her."
"Praying," Hatsune adds.
And together, they sit.
Three sisters. One hope.