A Brother's Sacrifice

My eyes reflected the image of Kinoshita Ken's pained expression of his face. He stared right into my eyes with such killing intent, but all he could do was flailing his hands like a little bird in an attempt to get rid of my hand off his neck.

Seeing his pitiful and weakened state, I thought that it was time to start the brainwashing process on him. The first step to turn him into my complete submission is to criticize all his bad points.

"See Kinoshita! See your own strength! It is completely non-existent! That's why you are like this! Powerless! Unable to do a thing against me! Don't you find it quite painful that you can't do anything to hurt me, or even protect yourself!?"

He stayed silent but his expression was telling me all the things that I want to know. He was in agony and he himself knew what I was talking about. His resistance towards me started to decrease.

It was a good sign for me as it showed how effective the action that I took was. I don't want to sympathize with Kinoshita for being a victim of bullying and console him.

No!

Instead, what I want is his flame of hatred to be lit violently inside of him. I want those flames of darkness to come out from him and change himself into a new and strong Kinoshita Ken.

As I started to criticise him for his bad aspects, the flames of darkness has been instilled in him by me. Now all I need to do is to grow this flame bigger and bigger.

And to do that, the second thing I need to do is to revive his feelings which he had when he was bullied. The hell that he was in when he was in his third year of middle school. And I exactly know what I need to do.

I retracted all my strength in my hand which was starting to choke Kinoshita's neck. I stepped back a bit while watching Kinoshita breathing harshly because he needed some air immediately.

"*cough*.....*cough*....haaa...haa..."

Staring at me with less killing intent than before towards me, accompanied by an irritating feeling in his mind, he was doing nothing to go against me.

He was annoyed. Annoyed at how, even though I was chatting shit about him, I was telling the truth. He was powerless and he still is. That hasn't changed for him.

He didn't try to go against me to defy my accusations as he knows it very well. I was smiling when I was watching him grieving over his own weakness, that is his strength, which he lacks in every way.

"It must have been hell for you."

Kinoshita looked down to his room's floor when I spoke to him slowly and calmly. He was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists even harder.

".....What....."

Murmuring that word, he lifted his head in an instant. The tears rolling down his slightly rounded cheeks was shown to me, and...

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!"

...an angry howl from him pierced my ears. You could tell by his face how much sufferings he had been enduring during his tough times.

"It's not about what I know. It's about you."

I pointed at him when I said the last sentence.

"What do YOU know about it? The times when you started getting bullied. The times that you had to go to school every day, knowing that it is gonna be another hellish day like any other days for you. The times you were hoping that all of this would end."

His face started to change from maddening to being somewhat guilty. Guilty of something. Guilty of being this kind of person that he is.

"It wasn't about me, Kinoshita. From the very start, it was about you and you only. Only you are able to know, to remember those sorrowful and worst moments of your life."

"...I....."

I calmly sat down on his chair which was near me while observing the state of Kinoshita. As I sat down, I thought of a great idea to speed up this brainwashing process or whatever this is called.

"Say, Kinoshita, if you happen to see your two little cute sisters being s.e.x.u.a.lly harassed, what would you do?"

Angry. Kinoshita stared at me furiously and yelled,

"Of course I would go save them!"

"No, you wouldn't."

I rejected his answer to my question. He was taken aback and couldn't understand why I denied his obvious answer.

"Instead, you would have run away, wouldn't you? You would have let them be instead of meddling in their life, seeing how much of a powerless man that you are."

"That's not true!!" He yelled as he punched the wall of his room.

I got up his chair while saying,

"Well then let me ask you something simple to you."

I approached him step by step and started to talk in a serious tone.

"Can you protect the radiant smiles of Mai and Machi?"

He frowned when I said that.

"How about your other sister. Was it, Anzu? Will you protect her or, can you even protect her?"

I smirked as I said that in a jokingly manner.

"Or how about your mother? What if the happy smiles that she showed us downstairs, disappeared like she never showed it her entire life. All because you couldn't protect that."

He became scared when I said that. He really did not want his mother to be sad. He wants to protect her, Anzu, Mai and Machi. All of them were precious to him.

Now, the brainwashing process was in its final phase. It was time for the third step. I went near his ear while he was still thinking about what I said.

"Kinoshita."

Hearing his name being called near his ear made him snap out of his mind.

"Don't you hate them? The ones who made you suffered?"

His eyebrows twitched and his line of sight didn't change. He didn't turn his head towards me but instead, he pondered over the question.

The ones who bullied him, the ones who enjoyed bullying the weak Kinoshita were still out there, living in a different and peaceful life of their own. While Kinoshita, the victim, was traumatized and couldn't live a normal life.

Of course, he would feel anger. But most of all, hatred. Yes. The third step was to use the feeling of hatred as a motivation to become not only my pawn but also strong.

"Do you know why you got bullied by those pieces of trash? It is because you are weak! Your weakness was and still is the root of all the problems that have been acting as thorns in your life."

He closed his eyes firmly and blocked his ears with both his hands, for the purpose of not wanting to hear it.

As if I'm gonna let him do that! I grabbed one of his arms, which was blocking one of his ears, and pinned him to the wall with that.

"Listen carefully to what I'm saying Kinoshita! You are weak! Accept it! You can't do a thing, especially in a cruel world like this!"

"...Again with that...."

I let him continued and wanted to know what kind of actions he would take.

"....weak....."

"Yes. You are. That's wh-"

In a moment, a hand in the form of a fist was in front of my face. It was an inch away from my nose. It was Kinoshita's other arm which I haven't grabbed.

If I hadn't stopped his hand from hitting me, I would have suffered quite the blow to my face. Across me, Kinoshita looked at me with his tears still rolling down his eyes, but this time, with resolve.

"Make me strong."

"...Hehe, that's what I intended on doing. But for that, there is one condition."

"What is it?"

"You do everything I say and I'll make you strong."

"Yes. I agree."

He replied me quickly with the same face he had when he was close to punching me. I said with a smirk,

"Agreeing so fast? Aren't you being impatient? Didn't you hear what my condition was?"

"I don't care about that. Just make me strong."

He was pretty stupid to agree on that condition. I thought that he would at least change it but no. I guess the emotions of a human being really can change the person's senses drastically.

"Then, I'll be looking at your resolve."

Two boys, one with tears rolling down his determined face, and one with a sneer on his average-looking face were staring at each other in a room.