Mayonaka no X Giten 26

Midnight Cross Method 26
(sorry this is late. again. i'm sure you're sick of me apologizing for this by this point, though...)

p1: ===================================
The clue that led us to the true culprit…
/ was my Cross Ability.

Cross Abilities are special powers that can be used only when body swapping.

When swapping into a body, one can make use of the unique ability
that reflects the body’s owner’s deepest desires.

p2: ===================================
For instance, with Mikuriya Mikuni,
/ her desire to know how the mother who abandoned her truly felt
gave her the power to read other’s minds, Silent Regret.

Kirishima Sachi,
fed up by the Kirishima Family’s deceitful ways, craved a world free of lies and falsehoods.
/ This gave him the power to determine a written passage’s truth, Judgment Fake.

p3: ===================================
In An’no Shion’s case,
/ since a certain idiot couldn’t take a hint and start calling her by her actual name,
she worried that, when he finally did, she wouldn’t be able to respond honestly. Hence, she gained the power to force someone to respond, Too Loose Name.

Kirishima Ai,
the subject of abuse that could come and go at any moment,
could obtain absolute security only when her abusers slept,
/ and so her power, Love Lullaby, sent the listener into a deep slumber.

p4: ===================================
What, then, was my own Power?

I had the strange ability to wake up instantly after falling asleep, but…
What desire could that possibly reflect?

The answer told me who it was who had killed my sister.
/ After all, I desired, always and forever…

p5: ===================================
To keep my sister safe.
Story / Yamaguchi Mikoto
Art / BAREISHO
Midnight Cross Method
Chapter 26: Tragedy, and Its Last Dregs

p6: ===================================
…Are you all right, Hiroki?

Y-Yeah.
*Huff*
*Huff*
…I’m sorry. You’re going to be late for school, and it’s all my fault, and…

Stop that!
Sick kids don’t get to worry about their big sisters.
[sfx]: Flick!
At times like this, just lie down and let me fuss over you.

Thank you.
…You…

p7: ===================================
You seem kind of like Mom.

Ahaha… Do I?
The other day, Dad said that I’m starting to look like her.

Oh yeah. Where is Dad?
Still out on his business trip, apparently. He probably won’t be home for a week.
He’s never around these days…

He can’t help it.
/ If he were around, he wouldn’t be able to keep from remembering.

p8: ===================================
I’m sure losing Mom hurt him the hardest.

Hey, Kamiya-kun…
/ Before, didn’t you say you wanted to become strong in order to protect your sister?
Yeah.

But why do you need to?
Your sister is already so strong.

p9: ===================================
…She certainly is, yeah.
I don’t know if I could give you a clear-cut reason.

However, lately, I’ve been feeling it even more strongly.

…I wonder why.

…I’m home.

…Huh?

Nee-san, you’re home early today.
/ Is work over already?

p10: ===================================
…Nee-san?

I quit my job.

Huh? Why?
Did something happen?

…It’s…
/ It’s not like it’s anything I could tell you.

…

p11: ===================================
Well, what’s so bad about that?
You’re in the adult world. I’m sure there’s lots of things you have to go through that I don’t understand.
[sfx]: Pat

…What… happened?

We fought, me and Dad.

p12: ===================================
…Where’s he now?
Out for work, I guess. He won’t be back for a while.

[sfx]: *Sigh*
Why did this have to happen again?

Dad’s been in a good mood lately,
/ so I thought maybe we could go back to living as a family, but now…

You said something that went a bit too far, didn’t you?
And you don’t even leave your room anymore…

Why don’t I call him, and we can apologize together?
Sh-
/ SHUT UP!

p13: ===================================
You could never understand.
Never understand my pain!

Of course I can’t.
/ You won’t tell me anything.

What happened?
…

There’s things a girl can’t tell a guy!
If only I were born a man, I wouldn’t even have to deal with any of this crap!

--Once I knew the answer,
/ I saw the truth behind my sister’s words.

p14: ===================================
Nee-san merged in your mind with our deceased mother…
into a single woman.

Eventually, you weren’t able to hold back your feelings any longer,
/ and so you wound up doing… something to her.

p15: ===================================
What that was, I won’t ask you. Not right now.
But that action left her soul scarred.

So scarred that she closed off her heart,
/ and withdrew within it.
…

[sfx]: Clench
How could I have been so blind?

I lived with her, so why didn’t I notice?
The answer was simple.

Father, you acted while I slept.

And not while I slept normally.
/ Whenever you did whatever it was you did to her, you drugged me, didn’t you?
At those key moments, when I should have kept her safe, you put me to sleep.

p16: ===================================
That’s why I have the Cross Ability to reject slumber,
/ Unsleeping Guardian.

My subconscious could probably sense how my sister’s spirits fell with each passing night.
That’s exactly why this power came to dwell in my body.

And what’s more, I’m sure you used that same drug on my sister.

She was too strong otherwise to go down without a fight.

…I had no idea, Father, that you knew so much about medicine.
In truth,

p17: ===================================
didn’t you use that drug to freeze your own body in place?
Weren’t you the seventh participant in the Cross Act, Father?
[graph, from top, counter clockwise]: An’no Shin’ichirou / Kirishima Ai (X) / Kamiya Daiki / ? / Kamiya Hiroki / Mikuriya Mikuni / Kamishiro Sachi / Furuyanagi Kou

You participated in the Cross Act that day for a certain reason,
[graph]: {
Eighth Participant
Kamiya Daiki
}
and entered the body of the eighth participant.

That reason…

was to kill me.

In other words, the eight participant
was the one person who could definitively kill me during that two-hour span:

p18: ===================================
My sister, Kamiya Yui.

[sfx]: Drowsy
By necessity, we then know that Nee-san must have entered my body.

With that, we now know the identities of everyone who participated in the Cross Act.
[graph]: Kamiya Daiki / Kamiya Yui / Kamiya Hiroki

p19: ===================================
In order to kill me,
you planned for both me and Nee-san to participate in the Cross Act.
Nee-san wanted to become a man, and so you lured her the same way you did me.

But that, Father, was when you were completely caught off guard.

You had drugged my body to sleep, and yet…

With the power of Unsleeping Guardian,
she awoke.

The two of you clashed.

But my sister was the more skilled fighter.
She stole the weapon from your hands...

p20: ===================================
And stabbed her own flesh.

…Nee-san… She killed herself with her own two hands.
In a manner of speaking, she committed suicide.

All to keep me safe!

p21: ===================================
…Why won’t you say anything?
Do you think you can just stay silent for two hours, go back to your body, and get away with this?

Not a chance.
At this very moment, the police are barging in on your room, Father,

where they will be securing both your body and Nee-san’s corpse, which you stole.

It’s high time you gave up and told us everything.
/ Everything I said is true, isn’t it?

…I’m sorry to say, but there is one thing you’re mistaken on.
I did not just want to kill you…

p22: ===================================
Not until I’d fucked up your face so bad I’d never have to see it again.

You what?

Now that I understand how you felt about my sister,
and knowing that you read my blog,
/ I can imagine what feelings you held for me.

But… It was that strong?
/ You hated me that much?

Yes… I loathed you,
detested you uncontrollably…

And envied you.

p23: ===================================
Yui, you see,
was my one and only hope.

When I was drowning in the despair of losing your mother Yuriko, it was Yui who did everything she could to cheer me up.
I wouldn’t have survived without her.

You are right. At some point, I don’t know when, she began to merge with Yuriko in my mind.
And so I loved her.

But she completely and utterly
/ rejected those feelings.

Well, I was willing to accept that.
My expression of love was perhaps a little twisted.

…But it didn’t make sense.
/ Why did she reject me…

p24: ===================================
When she let you stay by her side, you and your face that looks exactly like mine?!

You had no idea how much that meant.
/ Not only that, you even vilified Yui with every unbearable post you flung onto your blog!

I would have obeyed her every whim,
so why you? Why you, Hiroki?
/ I… I could never understand.

So I hated, hated…
and envied!

p25: ===================================
That, Hiroki, is why I sought to kill you.
I would destroy that face that looks so much like mine, and use Yui’s body to do it.

Yui would lose another person she cared about.
And what’s more, she would kill him with her own two hands. Who knows how much despair that would bring to her?

And then, wouldn’t she become like me? Wouldn’t you and I, Hiroki, overlap in her mind…
until she came to love me?
[sfx]: Hug

p26: ===================================
Like hell it would, you fucking pervert!

M-Mikuriya…?

A self-righteous piece of shit like you could never experience true love!

I’ve met enough assholes in my life
/ to be able to know one when I see him!

I’m not saying this twice, so you better clean that shit out of your ears and listen up…

p27: ===================================
YOU DON’T LOOK ONE BIT LIKE HIROKI!
SHE’D NEVER START THINKING YOU WERE HIM!

Hiroki’s always kind,
/ and willing to go on a limb for another.
[flashback]: {
SHUT UP!
/ Y—You haven’t been able to cry for ten years,
so I’m crying all the tears you couldn’t!!
[sfx]: Wipe x2

Ha ha… The hell?
/ That’s super lame, you idiot.
}
While you, you live only for yourself. You’re nothing like him.

He’s someone who’s been loved.

p28: ===================================
[insert]: Heh

Kamiya-kun.

We’ve received word from You-san.
/ She’s secured your father’s body.

…And your sister’s body really was there.

…I see…

p29: ===================================
And thus did the incident I’d been caught up in come to a close.

If I had one regret,
/ it’s that I wish I had come to understand…
how my deceased sister had truly felt.

…It’s finally over.
Yeah.

Sorry about this, about dragging you along the whole way.
…It’s fine.

…By the way,

p30: ===================================
Why are you crying, Mikuriya?
[sfx]: Drip

Shut up!
/ I’m crying all the tears you can’t! You’d better be thankful!

I get how much it hurts to lose family, after all.

…Yeah.
Thanks.

If only… If only lonely hearts could come together and become a family.
[sfx]: Squeeze
Haha. What’s that supposed to mean?
You sound so lame, you idiot.