Chapter 4

As Kaoru becomes more adjusted to his new life as Taiki Kuroda, he learns more about his situation... and then his mission truly starts.

When Taiki finally got a moment alone with Patch, it was back at home in his bedroom. Mother had grilled him on his school day once he’d gotten home, and cooed over Patch’s new orange corded collar, and the shining silver tag hanging from it. Patch proudly showed it off and lavished under Mother’s ministrations.

When they’d finally broken away, Taiki ran up to his bedroom and Patch followed him.

Taiki explained to Patch about his conversation with Yuzuki and the sound he’d heard just afterwards. Patch listened with careful attention, then yipped when Taiki was done. 

“Ah, I know what happened!” Patch exclaimed. 

It summoned forth the blue screen around itself, the two IDs Taiki had seen before entering the world appearing. Patch nosed the image of Taiki Kuroda and the screen blipped with a bright light, before showing an entirely new screen. One with much more information than the little card held.

Taiki read through it, discovering his blood type, favorite foods, height, general activities, his relationship with his parents, and the like. All of it was written in dark blue, easy to see on the pale blue screen. But down at the bottom, written in white, was:

·         Gay, closeted

·         Crush: (n/a)

·         Type: older men, ???

“That wasn’t part of the original character,” Taiki said, pointing to the white words. “Those are what I said to Tamura.” Patch nodded.

“You are Taiki Kuroda right now,” Patch explained. “Whatever you say and how you act influences who he is. When you leave this world, he’ll continue on wherever you left him.” Patch wagged its tail. “While text is white, it’s not permanent. For example, if you eat lots of chocolate for a few weeks, it might give Taiki the trait ‘likes chocolate’ or ‘likes sweets’. But if you stop eating the chocolate suddenly, it’ll disappear given enough time.”

Taiki nodded. “Okay… But will it stay white? Do I have to keep coming out to people to keep the trait around?” Taiki really didn’t want to do that. As established earlier, he hadn’t had the best experiences with it. 

Patch barked, putting its head in Taiki’s lap until Taiki started scratching its ears. “You shouldn’t have to. It’s something that’s just part of you and now that you vocalized it, it should just stick around. But if you’re worried about it, let’s go back to the chocolate example. If you continue to eat the chocolate, the words will turn light blue, which means they’re a little more permanent. When you leave, Taiki would choose chocolate over any other treat, but might not go searching it out. The only way it would disappear is if you actively avoided it, which would then turn it white, and then that would disappear normally.”

Taiki rubbed behind Patch’s ears, looking over the list and eyes landing on one of the bullet points, one that miffed Taiki the most.

·         Abysmal student

“How do I change the blue?”

Patch’s tail began to wag. “Going from light blue to dark blue is just like going from white to light blue! Just keep doing what you’re doing. Changing dark blue to light blue is harder, because the system actively works to keep those character traits. This is in case you’re stuck on what to do or zone out or end up injured, you’ll have a fall back. Most of the time, these won’t impede you, but you chose a difficult route for this world, Master!”

Its barking sounded like it was laughing at Taiki. Taiki drew his lips into a thin, wry line and pushed Patch away. 

“Yeah yeah, just means I’ll have to work a little harder,” he said, grabbing his school bag from the ground. He took one last look at the screen before closing it out. Changing Taiki’s study habits to make it easier to get into a good university and also his ‘lazy’ trait were top priorities.

…Actively changing the lazy trait was going to be difficult. Taiki wasn’t necessarily lazy, but he also didn’t prefer being active regularly.

With that, Taiki began the waiting game. 

When he’d entered Taiki’s body, Mother had barely found out she was pregnant. Taiki had very quickly become very protective of her, never letting her overexert herself or even volunteering to go with her if she was going on an outing. The pure joy on Mother’s face when Taiki, and by extension Patch, joined her showed just how rare that had been before. 

Taiki tried hard to fight through the character’s natural disposition to not studying, and doing badly on schoolwork when he did do it. Instead of holing up in his bedroom where it was easy to get distracted, he forced himself into the dining room where either Mother or Father could keep him on track. It was like fighting a losing battle every night, and it got on Taiki’s nerves most of all. Though it quickly became clear to Mother and Father how hard he was trying, but simply struggling. They tried helping, but there was only so much they could do when Taiki’s own head was working against him.

The result had been that the dark blue words that read Abysmal Student taunted Taiki by not changing even a single, half shade. 

But Taiki had, slowly, become more accustomed to being friends with Yuzuki, Megumi, Haichirou, and Akimitsu. Yuzuki also tried to help Taiki the few times she saw him studying, but that felt humiliating, so he’d avoided it when he could. 

It was strange, at first, but he felt like he’d become Taiki Kuroda entirely after a while. There were some parts of him that refused to unlink himself from the 25-year-old man he had been and let him simply exist as a 16-year-old boy. But the doting nature of Mother, and the somewhat distant but still affectionate care of Father, was something Taiki coveted. His memories of Taiki’s former life filled him with rage after enough time spent in the world. How could he be so cruel and distant from people who loved him so much? Teenagers were expected to act like that, of course, but for the previous Taiki, it had been how he acted his entire life.

This life and family, so picturesque, was something Taiki sorely missed.

Mother was six months along when the Takeuchi family moved into the nice house next door. Taiki was sitting up in his bedroom at the desk by the window overlooking the side of the house, Patch curled up on the bed, when the moving truck pulled up, a nice silver car right behind it. Taiki stood from his seat, moving the green curtains out of the way and pushing the glass up to give himself a better view of the going ons.

A tall, handsome man with dark brown hair and sharp, glass black eyes stepped out of the driver’s seat. He immediately went to the passenger seat and opened the door, revealing an alluring woman with long, bleached brown hair and shimmering green eyes. She took a small newborn out of the back of the car as the movers began taking things into the house. Takuya, Natsumi, and Makoto Takeuchi.

Taiki idly fiddled with his pen as he sat back down, watching the family. It wasn’t even the character setting that had him distracted, but his own thoughts drawn by his mission. His sister was going to be born, very soon. And then he had to raise her. But the boy, that little baby in his mother’s arms, would be indirectly responsible for her death.

Patch let out a grumbled “Ruff!” from the bed and Taiki looked over his shoulder. Patch’s front paws were folded over each other. Its tail smacked the bed a few times. “You got distracted again,” Patch said.

Taiki sighed and hummed as he turned back to his worksheet. Asking Patch to keep him on track worked, usually, but trying to explain it hadn’t been the character and instead Taiki who’d gotten distracted would have resulted in at least some chiding. Taiki was already berating himself for the misstep, wondering just how many paces he’d put himself backwards.

A week later, Mother immediately shooed Taiki up the stairs as soon as he came home from school. “Go clean up,” she ordered sternly, one hand trying to be intimidating on her hip but the other supporting her large belly. “And put on something nice. We have guests coming over for dinner and you need to look presentable.”

Taiki quirked an eyebrow. “The new neighbors?” he guessed.

Mother nodded. “Yes, so hurry it up! It won’t take them long to arrive.”

Taiki sighed, slumping his shoulders dramatically as he leaned against the stairwell. “Mother, I don’t think a baby’s going to care much about what I look like.”

Mother swatted his shoulder. “But I care very much, and I want you to make a good first impression on the parents,” she stated, shooing him up the stairs. “Don’t take too long, you hear me?”

“Yes, Mother,” Taiki said, running up the stairs and to his private bathroom, Patch at his heels. Taiki pet its head. “Guess who’s also going to get groomed?”

Patch let out a yip. “Master! There’s no need-!”

“Too late!” Taiki exclaimed, scooping his arms under Patch’s legs and lifting it up.

Just in time, Taiki was freshly dressed in a nice suit, a purple so dark it was almost black, with his hair combed back. He had no tie, because that appeared to be one of the things Taiki rejected, and the top button was torn off, preventing him from doing it up. While he otherwise looked good, those two missing pieces gave him a bit of a roguish appearance. He couldn’t decide if the plum color Megumi had applied to his nails when he’d fallen asleep at lunch aided in that or not, but they did look very nice.

Taiki frowned at himself in the mirror, hands on his hips. “He’s trying too hard to be cool,” he stated with a huff at the end.

Patch cackled, though much of the effect was lost due to the fact Taiki had known Patch didn’t have anything presentable in a ‘fancy’ way and had bought Patch a bowtie with the rest of its supplies, and the orange ribbon was fastened around its neck proudly.

“Well, he was an edgy teenager. He grew out of it,” Patch said when Taiki sent it a look.

Taiki sighed, and immediately decided he was going to go out on the weekend to the family’s regular tailor. A larger variety of suits was in order, as well as in a more suitable fit that Taiki preferred. Maybe he’d take Megumi and get her opinion as a future fashion empress, or the whole gang and make an outing of it.

With a final press down of his jacket, Taiki headed out of the room and downstairs. 

Mr. and Mrs. Takeuchi were already talking with Father and Mother in the parlor. 

“Ah, our eldest, Taiki,” Father said, standing and placing a hand on Taiki’s shoulder and leading him to the seating area. Taiki bowed formally to the new couple. 

“I apologize for my late arrival and unkempt appearance,” he said. He stood and adjusted his collar. “I am Taiki Kuroda. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“To you as well, Kuroda-kun,” Mr. Takeuchi said. Taiki’s eyes swept over to the man. From a distance, he’d looked cold and stern, all sharp points and harsh shadows. But upon closer inspection, his face was warm and inviting, the soft smile on his features charming. He held his young son with such care.

Taiki slowly sat down and looked over at Mrs. Takeuchi. She looked miserable, very much like she didn’t want to be there but didn’t quite want to show it. Her back was to Mr. Takeuchi and Makoto, but it was pressed up against Mr. Takeuchi’s arm. 

“Your parents were just talking to me about their business,” Mr. Takeuchi said. “Electronics is very ambitious in our current society. There’s already so many large brands.”

Father chuckled. “We’re no small up-and-comer, either. We’ve been at this for four generations already, looking into a fifth.”

He smacked Taiki’s back and Taiki’s eyes went wide as he coughed. Right. That was a thing. He was the eldest, and only, son, and he was expected to take over the company. Taiki had, in the original. Taiki had been so focused on his goal he’d forgotten about that, or even mentioning the change of plans to his parents.

Well, better late than never…

Taiki cleared his throat. “Actually, I was thinking of becoming a doctor,” he said, folding his hands in his lap. “A pediatrician, specifically.”

Both Mother and Father looked at Taiki with understandable shock. He heard a ding in the back of his head loud and clear and Patch nudged his ankle with its nose. His parents shared a look that Taiki understood to mean But he’s such a bad student, and if he took over the company he wouldn't have to do anything and just delegate the work to other people…

And, honestly, they weren’t necessarily wrong.

Taiki shifted in his seat, trying to hide his nerves. He looked over at Mr. Takeuchi. “So, uh, Oji-san, Oba-san, what is it you do?” he asked, moving the subject away from himself.

“I am a professor over at Y University,” Mr. Takeuchi explained. “I special in literature and science, though I dabbled a bit in industrial history.”

Mrs. Takeuchi looked over her shoulder at the baby drooling on Mr. Takeuchi’s shoulder. “I don’t do much since Makoto was born.”

Mother clapped her hands excitedly, her expression immediately lightening up. “Oh, a professor! This is perfect!” she said. She placed her hands down in her lap. “Would you be willing to tutor Tai-kun a few hours a week? Just a few hours when you’ve got the chance. Of course, I’m not asking you to do it for free! I’m sure Taiki-kun would be so grateful for your help and be willing to babysit for you.”

Taiki froze. “What.”

Mother gave Taiki a pointed smile, daring him to argue with her. Taiki coughed and cleared his throat, trying to mask his shock at her suggestion. 

“Right, uh, yes,” Taiki said, idly looking at his mother through the corner of his eye. “I was… going to offer the same thing. Mother simply got to it first.”

Mr. Takeuchi didn’t seem fooled by their actions at all, instead he seemed amused. “I believe I could work that in,” he said. “But be warned, I’m not an easy teacher.”

Taiki gulped. “Alright…” he said, his voice squeaking just a bit. Yeah, no, Mr. Takeuchi was married and Taiki’s body was sixteen, but that smirk was unfairly handsome. Jesus, who designed that man?

“I’ll be expecting you on Saturday then. I’ll have to assess you before we can go forward with any study session.”

Taiki inwardly sighed. There went his Saturday plans…

The moment Taiki walked through the Takeuchi door that Saturday after school, he was handed a test which he, obviously, did abysmal on. He’d managed to force himself to answer the easiest of the questions correctly, but the rest of it refused to cooperate with him.

Mr. Takeuchi graded the test with Taiki kneeling on the floor, fidgeting nervously, expression becoming graver the more he graded. 

“Well, you have your work cut out for you, Kuroda-kun,” Mr. Takeuchi said. 

And that was how it was decided that Monday through Saturday, Taiki would go to the Takeuchi residence after school. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday would be his study sessions, while Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday he would babysit Makoto to give Mrs. Takeuchi a bit of a break.

Mr. Takeuchi was, as he’d promised, a stern teacher. Taiki had no hope of slacking off for even a moment in his presence. But it didn’t make the words on the page right themselves out, which often led Taiki to getting frustrated even quicker. 

Something Mr. Takeuchi was quick to pick up on. When he’d read the question aloud to Taiki, Taiki could spout off the answers correctly in a rapid fashion, going so far as to explain the work for his math problems. So his math classes had been useful for something after all, huh. 

Well, technically they were being used in more math classes of the same vein, but that was neither here nor there.

It was nearing the end of three weeks of study sessions when Mr. Takeuchi looked down at the completed, and entirely correct, worksheet. Taiki hadn’t touched it, but had answered Mr. Takeuchi’s questions. Mr. Takeuchi scratched his neck.

“Kuroda-kun, do you require glasses?” he asked, looking up. “To help you read your papers?”

Taiki frowned. It wasn’t a problem of eyesight. It was a problem with the character itself. “It’s not blurry,” he said instead. “It’s… they’re incomprehensible. They’re not in an order they should be in, but I can’t put them in the right order. Sometimes they scramble so bad they don’t even look like words anymore, or parts float off the page.”

Mr. Takeuchi removed his wire frame glasses and placed them on the table. He folded his hands under his chin and met Taiki’s eyes. “Kuroda-kun, it sounds like you have dyslexia.”

“…Huh.”

Taiki found himself speechless. Because it wasn’t that either. It was that stupid character trait! He’d worked with dyslexic kids at the daycare before, and felt it would be trivializing it if he agreed with Mr. Takeuchi, but… well, what else was he supposed to say?

A ding sounded in the back of Taiki’s head. 

“Of course, I can’t say for sure right now,” Mr. Takeuchi continued. “But it seems likely. I do have a few methods we can try to help you. I would also suggest getting an eye appointment, just in case.”

“Right…” Taiki said. “I’ll do that soon.”

“Good,” Mr. Takeuchi said, standing up. “You run along home, now. I’m going to make some adjustments to our study plans, so this’ll be the end for us tonight. Have a good Sunday, Kuroda-kun.”

Without wasting another moment, Taiki grabbed his school bag and shooed Patch out of the Takeuchi house.

Separating the two houses was a large, slightly yellowed fence covered in vines. Hidden behind the vines was a wooden door that led into the Kuroda backyard. Taiki quickly went through it, moonlight already bathing the entire backyard. 

Taiki stopped once the door was closed behind him, eyes falling on the large tree with long branches, vines from it so long they brushed the ground as the wind gently blew. The tree Eri fell from and died.

Taiki pulled his gaze away from the tree and to Patch. Patch yipped and summoned forth the screen. Taiki clicked through options until he came to Taiki’s character screen. Down at the bottom in white was Dyslexic but up near the top… ‘Abysmal Student’ had turned light blue.

Taiki let out a triumphant cheer, though immediately clamped his hands over his mouth.

“Taiki? Is that you?” came the call from Mother near the house.

“Yes, Mother!” Taiki said, grinning at Patch and running for the house.

Less than a month later, Mother went into labor. 

It was a Sunday, so Taiki had the day off from all responsibilities and had decided to join Mother on her outing. They’d barely returned home when she let out a sharp, pained gasp and started to collapse. Taiki caught her, and her grip was iron tight on his arms.

“My water broke,” she whimpered.

Taiki felt his blood run cold. She was only seven months along. That was way too early. Was the baby going to be okay-?

Mother let out a cry and pain, holding even tighter to Taiki. Well, neither of them were going to be okay, not if Mother didn’t get to the hospital soon.

The ride was a bit of a blur, Taiki trying to reassure Mother the entire time that things were going to be okay. She was taken to the delivery room immediately upon arrival and Taiki struggled to find his phone on his person to call Father. 

Father arrived quickly, but had barely given Taiki his jacket and briefcase when he rushed off to be by Mother’s side. Taiki paced in the waiting room for a long time. No nurse or doctor could tell him what was going on. 

Eventually his legs felt too weak to continue and he sat in a chair, the stiff cushions uncomfortable. He bounced his leg, biting at his nails. 

“Patch?” he called out mentally.

“I am here, Master.”

“Can you come in here?” Within seconds, Patch had appeared, sitting by Taiki’s side. 

“I am invisible right now to everyone but you, so you won’t get in trouble,” Patch said, putting its head on Taiki’s knee.

Taiki pulled the dog into his lap, though it was a bit awkward because of Patch’s size. Still, Taiki held Patch and ran his fingers through its fur. 

“Patch?” he said. “Is she… are they going to be okay?”

Patch gave an affirmative huff. “This happened in the original timeline as well, Master. They will make it through.”

Taiki gave a sigh of relief. He pet Patch’s head and allowed the dog to jump down. 

Hours started to go by, a doctor coming out to explain to Taiki that deliveries could take a very long time and urging Taiki to go home. He refused. The doctor let him be.

Sometime around midnight, Taiki fell asleep in his chair and woke up maybe an hour later with a rough hospital blanket on him. Around five in the morning, a nurse came to tell Taiki that his little sister had been born and his mother was ready to see him. 

Taiki jumped to his feet and followed after the nurse to Mother’s room. He sagged in relief when he saw her sitting up but exhausted on the bed, Father sitting by her and holding her hand tightly. But Taiki didn’t see the baby anywhere.

Mother smiled sadly at his worried, confused expression and pointed to the other side of the room. “Why don’t you go say hello to your little sister?”

Taiki slowly turned and trudged over to the other side of the room, where a big, clear box sat on a stand with wheels. Inside, slightly fussing, was an absolutely tiny baby, barely there whisps of silver white hair on top of her head. 

Taiki placed his hand on the incubator, heart beating erratically. She was so small… 

“I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get attached.” Taiki looked over his shoulder at Mother’s doctor as the elderly man walked into the room. “Her body is weak, underdeveloped. Even if we keep her incubated, she won’t live long.”

Taiki’s heart lodged in his throat. Did he fail already? What else could he have done? Then he remembered Patch’s words. This happened in the original timeline too.

“No,” Taiki said. “She’ll be fine.” He turned back to the baby. “She’s going to live and go home and live a long, happy life.”

The doctor sighed heavily, disapproving, but moved from Taiki to talk to Mother and Father. 

When the doctor finally left, Mother looked back to her two children. Taiki still hovered over his sister’s incubator, looking at her with all sorts of wonder, love, and worry. Mother’s arms felt empty, but her heart felt full.

Taiki cast a worried look over his shoulder, and Mother took the opportunity to open her arms wide in invitation. It didn’t take Taiki long to come over and allow her to hug him tight. When was the last time he’d done that? He’d changed, recently. Not so recently, it had been months in the making after all, but Mother had known. But she’d been too happy to accept it to comment on the change.

Mother brushed Taiki’s hair out of his face. His ruby eyes were hazy and bloodshot from exhaustion, and he seemed paler than usual. Mother pressed a kiss to his forehead. 

“You should go home and get some rest,” she murmured. 

Taiki immediately shook his head. “I… No. I have to stay here. I’m going to keep an eye on you and her.”

Mother smiled, brushing her thumb over his cheek. “You’ll be such an amazing big brother for Eri-chan, won’t you?” she said, voice still soft. 

Taiki only smiled at her, and suddenly she felt like he wasn’t her little boy anymore. He was growing into a young man. And Mother was so, so proud of him for it.

When Father returned with a cup of water for himself and Taiki, Taiki was fast asleep on the couch on the side of the room, though his lanky form barely fit it. Mother smiled fondly at the boy before taking the extra cup from Father. 

“Let him sleep,” she said. Father pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“You sleep too.”

Mother hummed and laid down, closing her eyes without argument. It had, after all, been a very long day for them all. 

And so, on a muggy, hot summer day, on August 4th, Eri Kuroda had been born.