Akihiko paced back and forth in his father’s chambers, the weight of the letters he’d read still heavy in his mind. While he didnt want to truly believe that the Kaito mentioned in the letters was the Kaito he knew, it had unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.. He clenched his fists, his mind racing as he struggled to make sense of it all.

Finally, unable to contain the turmoil any longer, Aki stopped in his tracks and opened the shoji door. Accosting a servant, he barked out , "Bring Kaito to me!" 

The servant quickly bowed and hurried off to fetch Kaito. Aki resumed his pacing, every step heavy with anticipation and the unresolved anger brewing inside him. The moments stretched out, the silence in the room amplifying the intensity of what was to come.

When the door finally opened, Kaito entered with a calm demeanour, though there was a flicker of concern in his eyes as he saw the state Akihiko was in, the stiff posture.  He could tell something was wrong. "Aki?" he asked, his voice steady but cautious. "What’s going on?"

Akihiko halted abruptly, turning to face Kaito while gesturing for him to enter. As Kaito stepped inside, Akihiko activated the tightest privacy wards—ones that allowed sound to enter but ensured no sound could escape. Both Akihiko and Kaito knew that these wards also prevented anyone but their owner from leaving once they were set. Kaito halted for a second and turned towards the door, seemingly deciding to stay or attempt to flee. 

As Kaito slid the door shut, Akihiko’s eyes bored into him, and for a moment, he struggled to find the right words. The anger, confusion, and hurt all churned together, making it hard to focus. But then,  looking down at the letters, his resolve hardened, his hands trembling with a mix of anger and dread, wishing against hope that father’s letters were lying, that he was taking about another Kaito. The words on the page blurred as a rush of emotions threatened to overwhelm him, tears welling in his eyes.

Akihiko raised his eyes, trying to steady himself, but the fury inside him was like a wildfire, burning hotter with each passing second. His gaze locked onto Kaito, who stood across the room, his expression puzzled, oblivious to the storm brewing in Akihiko’s heart.

"I found something unnerving," Akihiko forced the words out, his voice strained, betraying the turmoil within. "In those letters." He saw Kaito’s confusion deepen, but it did nothing to quell the fury rising within him.

"What was Father talking about?" Kaito asked, his voice innocent, almost childlike. The sound of it twisted something in Akihiko’s gut. The way Kaito still referred to him as Father—it was like a knife twisting in an already deep wound.

He felt the weight of betrayal sink deep into his chest, a heavy, suffocating pressure that made it hard to breathe. How could this have been kept from him? And worse—how could Kaito, the one he had sworn to protect, have been a part of it?

Akihiko’s restraint snapped. "You dare call him Father?" he spat, his voice rising, cracking with the weight of his grief and rage. "I know who, or rather, what you are!”

He saw the shock flash across Kaito’s face, the way his eyes widened in fear, but it only drove Akihiko further. How dare Kaito still pretend? How dare he try to maintain this illusion when the truth was now so painfully clear?

"Brother..." Kaito’s voice was soft, pleading, trying to bridge the chasm that was opening between them. But to Akihiko, it felt like mockery, a cruel reminder of the lie he had been living.

"Brother?" Akihiko advanced on him, each step heavy with the weight of his emotions. "Can you even call me that now?" His voice trembled, the anger mingling with a bone deep sorrow. "Why now, of all times? Why pretend, when I know what you truly are... Human."

The word came out like poison, laced with all the hurt, all the betrayal he felt. He watched as Kaito recoiled, his eyes filling with dread, and a part of Akihiko hated himself for it—but the pain was too much, too raw. Kaito,was not truly his blood, not truly his brother. He stared into Kaito’s eyes, searching for something—some sign that this wasn’t true, that the brother he had loved existed somewhere beneath the surface, that it was not an illusion or a cruel joke. But all he saw was fear reflected in Kaito’s warm yellow eyes. 

Akihiko leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper that carried the weight of his heartbreak. "I thought you could trust me," he said, his voice trembling, "and in turn, I thought I could trust you too...."

Kaito turned towards the door,

Emotions overtaking him, in a moment of raw anger, Akihiko’s nails raked across Kaito’s cheek, leaving deep, stinging cuts. The sharpness of the claws drew blood immediately, which trickled down Kaito’s face. Kaito flinched violently, his eyes widening in a mix of shock and intense pain. The blood was a vivid and distressing marker of the severity of their confrontation, staining both Kaito’s skin and Akihiko’s hands.

Akihiko's fury was barely contained as he glared at Kaito, his voice trembling with a mix of anger and disbelief. "One question I have in all of this," he seethed, "is how did Father hide this? You look like me, like you're full-blooded. How did you hide it from me? Father said something about a mask from kitsune…."

Kaito opened his mouth to respond, perhaps to apologise, but the words caught in his throat. Something was wrong. The fur on Kaito’s face, where Akihiko had struck him, began to glitch back together, the wounds closing as if they had never been, he watched in disbelief as Kaito’s face flickered and reformed, like a mirage being distorted by heat. While he could still feel the warm green-black blood roll down his fingers, it seemed that he had no injury. 

Kaito’s eyes, wide with a mixture of fear and resignation, locked onto Akihiko’s. The pain from the cuts was evident in his trembling body.

Kaito’s voice, choked with emotion, barely managed to break the tense silence. "I’m sorry," he whispered, tears welling up in his eyes. The genuine sorrow in Kaito’s voice was like a dagger to Akihiko’s heart, but it did nothing to quell the turmoil inside him.

Driven by a surge of anger and confusion, Akihiko acted on impulse. His hands moved quickly, reaching out with a determined force. Without thinking, he wrenched at Kaito’s face, tearing away at the illusion that seemed to curl behind the ears, at the illusion that had been hiding his true appearance. There was a feeling of metal struts, one side slick with blood. The action was rough and desperate, and Kaito let out a pained yell as the veil was forcibly pulled away.

The mask, which had been barely visible behind the illusion, was now fully exposed, the wire struts making a mock up of Kaito’s normal face. Kaito’s true face came into view, an entirely human face, a dramatic and unsettling revelation. The sight was jarring, a raw contrast to the familiar face Akihiko had known. The sudden exposure left Kaito wincing and shouting in pain.

As the mask was ripped away, Kaito’s real face showed a raw vulnerability that was both heartbreaking and alarming, his weird black eyes were filled with a mix of fear, hurt, and anger, the pain from the cut and the sudden loss of his concealment making him visibly tremble. Akihiko’s own emotions were a tangled mess of guilt, regret, anger and shock.

Kaito’s face was strikingly pallid, the skin a strange, almost translucent colour with barely any fur. His eyes were the most startling aspect—large, completely black, set against sclerae that were a ghostly, unnatural light grey. The nose was an unusual, narrow protrusion that was slightly turned up, with much smaller nostrils. Kaito’s mouth displayed a set of short, mostly blunt teeth, no elongated tusks Akihiko was familiar with. The teeth were small and unassuming, less than a fingernail in size. 

The long, black hair cascading down from his head added an extra layer of strangeness to the scene, it seemed softer but less useful than Akihiko’s toughened bristles that could harden like thorns. It framed his face in a way that contrasted sharply with the stark pallor of his skin, giving him a ghostly, almost spectral appearance, making him think of the Yurei father had told him about.

Overall, Kaito’s face was an unsettling amalgam of features that Akihiko had never encountered before. Fury surged through Akihiko, a raw, visceral response to the disorienting sight before him. He shouted  “What have you done with my brother?”

Kaito screeched in desperation “I am still your brother!”

Kaito backed up towards the wall, eyes flickering towards the door. Just before it happened, Akihiko saw that he was going to trip over the tea table. He lept, arms grasping the loose edges of his Kimono, unsure if he was lunging to help Kaito or to catch him and stop him running away. As Kaito raised his hands in a desperate, instinctive defence,  Akihiko was momentarily stunned by the sight of Kaito’s hands.He grabbed them harshly and examined the small nails which were devoid of claws or any sign of the fierce strength Akihiko had anticipated from the tales of humans from the mainland that Saito told him about. The hands were delicate and seemed almost fragile against the harshness of his own claws.

The unexpected vulnerability of Kaito’s hands, juxtaposed with his strange and unfamiliar face, sparked a shift in Akihiko’s emotions. His anger began to wane, replaced by a profound curiosity. He remembered Nagi’s words “As the elder brother you need to keep him safe” and realised something. Was this what he was meant to protect? 

The thought of protecting a human troubled him deeply, yet it also kindled a fierce determination within him. If Kaito was this vulnerable, then Akihiko’s role was more crucial than ever. He would have to be even more vigilant, more unyielding in his duty to safeguard Kaito from the world and, perhaps, from himself.

Before he could say anything, a knock sounded on the shoji screen. Saito’s voice called from the other side, “Lord Akihiko, I need to speak with you.”

Akihiko glanced at the door, his mind still spinning from the revelation. As Kaito mentally pleaded with him, to throw him the mask. He quickly grabbed the metal ball that had been Kaito’s mask, still surprisingly warm, and tossed it back to Kaito. Kaito’s eyes widened as the metal ball landed at Kaito’s feet.

Kaito,. As Kaito pressed the ball against his face, it  magically reformed, the wires curling and twisting into place to recreate the illusion that had concealed his true appearance.