Muternal Twins

A Big Turn

A Spin-Off

~Muternal Twins~

*Warning: Characters May Be Completely Different*

A young Hina, around nine years of age, crawled out of bed. She looked across the room to her brother. He was still sleeping soundly. She rolled her eyes. Their parents had given up mostly on trying to make them more feminine or masculine but that only opened the door to hobbies.

After watching a child prodigy play the violin a few weeks before their father pulled a few strings and got them both a violin and told them that they were off to learn to play. Hina had to admit, it was better than crochet.

She walked up to her brother’s bedside with a pillow in hand. The pillow came down with a whomp! on Naru’s head. She smiled mischievously as Naru pulled the pillow off his head. He glared at her a few moments before getting out of bed. It was a look that said, ‘I’ll get you back. You won’t know when or where but I’ll get you.’

“Mom already has breakfast ready,” Hina said. She didn’t know for sure but she could smell food.

“I don’t want to learn the violin,” Naru muttered, “I’m already really good at the piano. I think their just doing this for you so you won’t feel so bad that I have talent and you don’t.”

“Take that back!” Hina jumped onto her brother.

Being the stronger of the two of them, it wasn’t hard getting her brother into headlocks. The trouble was keeping him in one. One moment you had him securely in the nook of your arm and then suddenly he was gone, halfway across the room.

Naru opened the bedroom door and ran down the stairs, his sister hot on his tail. He knew that as long as he was within his mother’s sight, Hina couldn’t get away with anything and vice versa. He was mama’s boy and she was daddy’s girl.

“Hi mom, can I help you with anything?” Naru ran into the kitchen.

Hina pouted a moment before walking over to the dining room table where her father was reading the morning paper.

They are breakfast peacefully for the most part. After that, their mother sent them upstairs to change their clothes. There was a short wrestling match that took place behind closed doors. Hina won of course but only because she gripped onto her brothers leg at one point to prevent him from running. After that, with their backs turned to each other, they changed clothes.

Hina wore a headband to keep her long black hair out of her face. She wore a white button up shirt and a navy blue skirt, white socks and tiny black shoes. A red ribbon was wrapped around her neck.

Naru on the other hand had much shorter hair. He wore similar clothes minus the skirt and ribbon. He did have black shoes though.

Together they walked down stairs to succumb to lengthy photo op that their mother enjoyed doing. They posed for pictures until their cheeks hurt. After a big hug from their father, with their new old violins in hand, they walked out to the corner. They waited patiently. A bus eventually rounded the corner. They boarded the bus and sat down next to each other.

As the bus drove on, the bus grew louder with chatter. Hina talked to her friends while Naru talked to his. The bus entered a busier section of the city. They were stationary at a stop light. As the bus was permitted to start moving again Naru looked back at his sister, as she always liked the window seat.

Naru’s eyes looked past her momentarily. The blood seemed to drain from his face. Hina looked at him, the smile on her face slowly disappearing. Then came the impact.

An enormous truck slammed into the side of the bus. Naru felt himself falling backwards. He could only watch as the glass window shattered behind his sister as she was pushed forward by the impact. She reached out a hand to him as the buss started to fall to its side. Naru grabbed her hand. Together they fell to the other side of the bus. The bus slid several feet. The hot pavement seared Naru’s skin through the broken window. Glass fell from above on top of everyone. That was when Naru fell unconscious.

He heard something that stirred him awake. His slowly eyes slid open. The first thing he saw was his sister. Her face was turned away from him so he could see if she was alright. Something stirred behind her and Naru’s eyes focused on a man with a helmet. He gripped Hina’s shoulder then looked up at Naru. He reached for Naru instead. The man called behind him before grabbing Naru in his arms.

Naru felt himself being lifted off the ground; his unfocused mind wondering why the man didn’t help his sister. He tried to look around the man’s body as he walked away. His sister’s eyes stared blankly at nothing, a pool of blood around her head. Something inside of him suddenly hurt. Every scratch, every bruise, every inch of him was in pain. He screamed his sister’s name but of course she couldn’t hear him, not anymore at least.

The man set him in the back of an ambulance where several people crowded his vision. They seemed in a hurry and worried about something but Naru ceased caring.

He grew tired. It was a deep seeded tiredness that he just didn’t have the strength to fight off. All he could think about was his sister. She was always the stronger one. How could he expect to keep living if his own sister couldn’t? It seemed so much easier to just close his eyes and fall asleep. His body was tired, he mind was tired, every fiber of his being longed for rest. Naru’s eyes lulled shut against the protest of the EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians).

Moments after, his heart stopped.

Naru felt himself floating in a thick liquid. He felt it swirling around him and through him. His eyes were too heavy to open but he didn’t feel so tired anymore. It was like there was something stirring inside of him, awakening for the first time. He felt it flowing from his core outward. It moved slowly like molasses or thick honey, exploring every inch of him. He didn’t mind it. In a way, he welcomed it.

When it finished flowing through him, a radiating pain shot through his body. Naru opened his mouth to scream but he found he couldn’t move. The pain grew and grew in radiating waves. During one of the more painful waves, Naru opened his eyes.

The EMTs did all they could. They used the defibrillator but after several minutes it was apparent that the boy was gone. The ambulance drove to the hospital in regretful silence. Suddenly, Naru gasped for air. The EMTs immediately went to work again.

Later in the day at the hospital, Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki ran into the hospital demanding to see their child. Against the doctor’s protests, Mrs. Sasaki ran through the hospital looking for her children. She came across a room and walked in.

Naru looked up from his hospital bed. He had several cuts and bruises on his face. He sat up in bed as his mother ran toward him. She scooped him up in her arms and held him close to her body. His father ran in just then. He walked quickly up to them and hugged his wife and child. They hugged and held each other as they cried for their reunion and for their loss.

The very next day, strictly against doctors’ orders, the Sasaki’s brought Naru to the morgue to allow him one last look at his sister. He stood against the window, his mother and father both stood on either side of him. Naru watched as they pulled his sister on a slab from the wall of freezers. She was covered in a white cloth as they set her on a small table.

As they uncovered her face, Mrs. Sasaki nearly fell to her knees. Her husband rushed to her side. Naru stared at his sister’s lifeless body. He couldn’t bring himself to look away.

Naru pressed his forehead against the window so he could see her better without the glare of the glass. Suddenly, he thought he saw something. Sure enough he did.

“Mom! Dad! Look!” Naru called out.

His parents looked through the window and gasped.

Hina turned her head to look at the window. She opened her eyes slowly as if she woke from a long sleep.

Mrs. Sasaki slammed the glass window, calling her daughter’s name. Mr. Sasaki rounded the corner and forced his way into the room. The room burst into a frenzy as they tried to get her to the hospital. Her father wrapped her in the white cloth and carried her out of the room. Hina and Naru’s eyes met momentarily, each seeing the subtle changes in their eyes that their parents wouldn’t see until weeks later.

They were sibling. They were brother and sister. They were Others. They were twins. They had each other and that was all that mattered.