Chapter Text
Ichiro stares at his feet as the train ride slowly tries to sway him to sleep. It’s tempting to let slumber take him, but his little brother is already asleep on his shoulder and he needs to look after him. Todohiro looks peaceful with the little bit of drool gathering at the corner of his mouth and his right hand still open as if he were holding the phone that Ichiro was sure to take away before it fell to the floor. The older couldn’t resist resting his cheek on top of his twin’s head with a happy sigh: even if they argue often and like to be shitty to each other, his little brother is who he is living for. No matter how independent Todohiro always tries to act, he still needs his big brother and it gives Ichiro some purpose in his boring life.
Carrying something heavy? Guarding the bathroom stall? Someone to walk him in the dark? Someone to hold during a scary movie? Chasing jerks away? Cooking and cleaning? Exacting revenge? Ichiro was there to do it; even if he isn’t always the best at some of those things, he is still there. Being Todohiro’s big brother is his purpose in life and he is happy with that humble role.
Scaring bullies or assholes was usually not too hard however, thanks to the nasty scar on Ichiro’s face that ran from his hairline to his cheek and over his eye, splitting his left eyebrow in half. Not to mention that his face was slightly asymmetrical from having part of his skull shatter in the same incident. He always finds funny how it intimidates people, considering he got it from a car accident when he was a baby. Which is far from any intimidating scenario they seem to come up with in their mind.
The gentle rocking of the train and the comforting smell of strawberry shampoo try to pull Ichiro into slumber again. thankfully, the voice on the intercom announcing that they arrived at their destination keeps him from falling asleep. He wakes up his little brother immediately, who pushes him away with a whiny “Ew” that Ichiro knows not to be sincere at all. The younger is given his phone before Ichiro picks up his backpack and his little brother’s luggage as they get off the train.
They were the only ones to debark in such a tiny town. Ichiro notes the only three streets on which the entirety of the town's buildings lie; in fact, he can count on both hands just how many businesses there are. The few remaining buildings are seemingly abandoned, old, dusty houses.Outside of a small town hall, a police station that also serves as a fire station, a chapel and a tiny school, there are only a few houses and a cemetery in view before everything is engulfed into large fields, some covered in nearly ripe crops while others are dotted with cows.
Ichiro hears numerous clics from his little brother’s phone camera and he sits down on the bench at the station to let him take his pictures. Despite still hiding his face under his face mask, he is soon dragged into them. He hates being photographed.
“So, where do we go?” he finally asks as Todohiro sorts through the pictures he just took. The younger shrugs absentmindedly, clearly not caring enough about the task at hand to even bother looking up from his phone at all. Ichiro wasn't surprised though, Todohiro often got like that when absorbed into something on his phone. Ichiro looks around, habitually scratching his scar as he has taken to doing when he feels nervous.
“Let’s start with city hall...” he hesitantly decides, making his way there with Todohiro in tow, who keeps staring at his phone for a few minutes before deciding he should maybe be paying attention to what is going on around him.
“Wow, this place is creepy. Sooo quiet...” the younger comments his purposefully soft voice echoing down the empty streets regardless of the effort he put in to keep his volume minimal. If there weren’t cars and trucks in the parking lots of the few buildings making up the town, one could have easily mistaken it for a ghost town.
“I like it,” Ichiro comments as he feels comfortable enough from the emptiness to walk with his back a little straighter than usual. There are even birds flying around and singing to each other as they weave through the buildings and disappear into the clouds, accompanied by the distinct sound of chirping crickets in the overgrown yards all around them. It feels almost as if the small town was built in the center of a wildlife garden with just how much nature there is all around them.
When they arrive to the city hall, Ichiro looks up at the tall building. It looks as though it was once a grand monument to the small town, but now it has been overgrown with vines, left to rot until it collapses in on itself. He lets his little brother walk in first before following in carefully. It’s almost as empty as the rest of the town itself outside of a mousey woman sitting behind a heavy desk with a fat dog lying by her feet. The big animal raises his head when the brothers step in and lazily approaches them to welcome them, smelling their hands cautiously.
“Good afternoon, welcome to...” As she raises her eyes from the screen they were previously glued on, the receptionist pales at the sight of the twins, eyeing them carefully before continuing in a hesitant tone, “Dokonimo town hall… how may I help you boys?” Her dog sneezes, making her jump. The animal immediately goes to stand in front of her desk, keeping a close eye on the brothers as they approach and making sure to stay between them and his master.
“Um, hi. We were adopted and are looking for our biological family. We were able to track our lineage down to this town after a lot of research but that’s kind of our dead-end. We came anyways since we figured that in such a small place, it couldn't be too hard to figure out the rest just by asking around,” Todohiro explains plainly.
The receptionist looks them over again, her gaze lingering on Ichiro who is quietly standing behind his little brother, averting his eyes from hers whenever she tries to make eye contact.
Ichiro puts down their belongings before taking out a newspaper clipping from his backpack. One about the accident they were in as babies where someone unrelated to them got hit by a car and passed away, leaving them on their own. As he steps forward to hand the paper to the woman, the dog immediately growls at him, making him jump back with a pang of sadness hitting his heart. “S-sorry...”
“It’s okay Boy, sit,” the receptionist orders the dog as she gets up to step around her desk to take the paper from Ichiro who keeps looking at the dog with a hurt expression. “I’m sorry about this, he’s usually a good boy. You probably just caught a smell he doesn’t like on your way here,” the woman reassures. Ichiro dumbly nods as he offers her the paper, though he feels she isn’t telling the truth at all.
“It’s uh… all we know of our past...” Ichiro shyly explains as she reads the paper over, the uncertain expression on her face growing to concern.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything that could help you,” she dryly replies as she shoves the paper back in Ichiro’s hands, slightly crumpling the paper he'd worked so hard to keep preserved.
“Really? But this is town hall. I’m sure there has to be birth registry or something like that where we can look up who gave birth to a pair of twins twenty-two years ago,” Todohiro replies, a small pout appearing on his face.
“I told you already: I’m sorry, but I can’t help you,” the receptionist replies, not sounding sorry at all as she steps back behind her desk. The brothers exchange a look, agreeing that the woman is willingly withholding information from them.
“Is there somewhere else in town we can go for help?” Todohiro asks, his tone matching the one of the receptionist.
She seems hesitant to answer, clearly pondering what she should tell them. “The police station. Now I will ask you to please leave me to my work,” she says simply before sitting behind her desk with a defiant glare.
“Geez, fine… thanks anyways...” Todohiro sighs before dragging his feet back outside, Ichiro following him with their belongings after giving the woman a small bow. “What was that all about?” the younger asks to no one in particular with an exasperated shake of the head.
Ichiro shrugs. “Probably wanted to play Solitaire all day,” he mumbles, which makes his little brother cackle in response.
“Talk about rude. I hope the officers are nicer than she was...” the younger complains as they head to the station barely a hundred meters from the town hall. When they enter, the only officer at the reception is on the phone.
“... don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it. I have to let you go now. Talk to you later,” the man says as he stares at the brothers, not taking his eyes off of them for even a second, as though he thought they might try and jump him if he let his guard down he puts the receiver down.
“Something I can help you kids with?” the middle-aged man asks the twins as he gets up from his chair to greet the two men.
“Good afternoon, officer. We came into town to look for our biological parents and town hall told us we should address you about it,” Todohiro politely explains, which is answered by a polite nod from the officer.
“I see. I guess Aiko didn’t have the heart to tell you boys...” the officer starts with a sigh.
“Tell us what?” Todohiro asks skeptically. “So you know something about our family?”
The officer nods gravely. “Yes. You have the looks of them alright. I’m sorry to tell you boys that there is no family for you to come home to. Or house for that matter. Everything and everyone went up in flames 'bout a decade or so ago,” The officer explains. Todohiro’s expression melts into sadness and Ichiro can see his eyes fill with tears.
“Now I’m sorry, but I have to kick you boys out as I have to go help the person who just called and I’m the only officer on shift,” the man explains as he gently pushes the twins outside of the station.
“Wait… wait!” Todohiro shouts as the man is heading to his car. “Can’t you tells us the family name?” he calls, only to be ignored as the officer shuts his car door and turns on the sirens as he leaves. Todohiro sighs in frustration. “What’s with people being so rude around here?” He looks at Ichiro who only frowns in response. If he’s honest, he finds it extremely suspicious, but he doesn’t dare tell Todohiro how he feels about the whole deal yet.
“I guess we can at least go visit them at the cemetery...” the younger pouts as he drags his feet in that direction, Ichiro following without a word.
They push the small metal gate to the cemetery open, Ichiro drops their belongings at the entrance as Todohiro goes to find their family’s grave.
“Can I check something on your phone?” Ichiro mumbles to Todohiro who gives him a confused look. “Got an idea to find them,” he explains in a mumble, which grants him his little brother’s phone.
Immediately, he looks up the town name in the news: even if it was a small, faraway town, a fire that kills a whole family and burns down their house would certainly make the news somewhere. Indeed, he does find a single account of a farm burning to the ground, though the story does not match what the officer told them as the fire happened seventeen years ago and only killed a widower. Still thinking it could match, Ichiro looks up for obituaries and indeed finds the man’s wife who died twenty-three years ago while they both are only twenty-two. It makes no sense at all. It even states in the article that she was a good wife despite not being able to have children. Ichiro wondered if they perhaps were bastard children, which could explain the officer’s and the receptionist’s attitude.
At least, from the article about the fire, he knew which street they needed to go down to. “Hey, Totty, come look,” he calls his little brother, sharing the strange evidence with him.
“They lied to us! What’s wrong with these people...” the younger repeats with a pout, which makes his big brother put a hand on his shoulder.
“S’okay, we can go look at the house now. Maybe there’s clues there or something,” Ichiro encourages. His little brother nods in approval and they gather their things to be on their way.
After walking two hours on the empty roads, they pass a small country house. They decide to sit down on some rocks nearby to take a break, taking out some water bottles to hydrate themselves before continuing.
“Do you think we passed it? I mean, it must be overgrown now since it’s been seventeen years.”
Ichiro shrugs before looking behind him at the house about a hundred meters from them. “Think we should ask?” he mumbles, only to receive a grimace from his little brother.
“I guess we better try. Maybe they won’t be as rude as the other people,” Todohiro comments as he puts his bottle away. They decide to hide their belongings behind the rock they were sitting on as they track up to the house.
The place is rather quaint: a small wooden house, a big red barn that looks straight out of a cartoon, a small garden between the two, and a large field of yam spreading beyond on one side and soja on the other. There is also a large, plain building on the far side of the barn, though it doesn’t look in great shape and it isn’t possible to tell what it is for.
The brothers head to the house when a man suddenly comes out from behind the barn, walking quickly enough in their direction that Ichiro feels the need to step in front of his little brother. When the man is close enough for his face to be distinguishable, Ichiro finds his jaw growing slack.
“HOLY SHIT!” the man yells as he now starts running towards the brothers, this time his demeanor is playful rather than threatening. The man that looks just the same as Todohiro and Ichiro jumps on the latter and hugs him tight with an embrace much stronger than Ichiro could ever dream of being able to fight against. “LITTLE BROS! LITTLE BROS!” the man shouts with a big goofy smile on his face as he holds Ichiro at arm length to take a good look at him. He then turns to Todohiro and attempts to hug him just the same, only to have his embrace avoided.
“Awe, come on, give Onii-san a big hug!” the man whines as Todohiro hides behind Ichiro who is still frozen in shock.
“We… we’re triplets?!” Ichiro asks dumbfoundedly as he stares at his newfound brother who beams him another huge smile.
“Better than that, actually! Sextuplets! And we’re finally reunited too! C’mon, follow me, I gotta show you to the others!” he says gleefully as he grabs Ichiro’s wrist.
Immediately, Ichiro pulls away and takes a step back now that he is past the initial shock. The man seems a bit disappointed, if not annoyed.
“I...We don’t know you,” Ichiro protests with as much confidence as he can muster, which isn’t a lot.
“Oh… yeah… Matsuno Osomatsu, nice to meetcha! But you gotta call me ‘Onii-san,' that’s the law,” Osomatsu orders with a playful wag of the finger. “And you two?”
“Ichiro and Todohiro Mezumi,” Todohiro replies from behind his big brother. Osomatsu frowns for an instant before beaming again.
A man in yellow and dirty overalls appears from the yam field holding a basket. As Ichi and Todo look at him, Osomatsu looks over his shoulder then beams. “JYUSHIMATSU! GO FETCH EVERYONE! OUR LITTLE BROS ARE HOME!” Immediately, Jyushimatsu darts away at an inhuman speed.
“You came just in time, we’re going to be dining soon. You should join us: Momma’s gonna be so happy to see your cute little faces again!” Osomatsu cooes. That’s when something clicks within Ichiro.
“Is… our father here too?” Todohiro hesitantly asks, clearly getting the same idea as Ichiro. Osomatsu’s smile fades and his expression sombers.
“He passed five years ago. We don’t talk about Pops.” A heavy moment of silence passes between them, and before Ichiro or Todohiro can ask any more questions, Osomatsu gestures for them to follow them inside. “Now come on, don’t make Momma wait any longer.”
With one last glance between each other, the twin-who-are-sextuplets end up following their newfound brother into the country house, Ichiro still making sure to stand between his little brother and the strange man.