Jin's hands were still locked around her wrists.
Not tight enough to hurt but enough so that she couldn't move.
Nene was thrashing anyway. Her body hadn't gotten the message that resistance was useless.
Her breath came out in short, and broken gasps, words were tumbling from her mouth without shape or sense.
"Not there. The walls are wrong. He's under the floor, he's—no—no, don't look at me like that—"
Her eyes darted wildly until they landed on Jin's face.
She froze.
For a split second, the room tilted.
His eyes were empty. Dark. Too still for a child's face. They stared at her with a flat patience she recognized in her bones.
Osano.
Her pulse spiked so violently it hurt.
She screamed and jerked harder, nails scraped uselessly against Jin's arms.
"No—no, you're him, you're him—"
Jin laughed.
It was light.
"Mama," he said, sing-song, as if soothing a child instead of pinning down his own mother. "You're shaking again?"
She sobbed, the sound tearing out of her chest. "You're not real. None of you are real. You're all me. You're all him."
Jin tilted his head. The smile never left his face.
"You're seeing double again," he said pleasantly. "That happens."
Then his grip tightened just a little.
"Do you wanna do it again, mama?" he asked, still smiling. "The thing you did to big brother?"
Her breath caught.
"Do you want to kill me too?"
The memory slammed into her without mercy.
Small hands. Too small.
Yozora crying, confused, blood soaking through his sleeve.
The sound his body made when he hit the stairs.
The way the house had gone quiet afterward.
The sickening sound when he reached the bottom.
Six years old. He had been six. Just barely.
"I didn't—" Her voice cracked into something unrecognizable. "I didn't mean to. I didn't know it was him. I thought—!"
She couldn't even finish the thought. There were no words for what her mind had turned him into back then. Only the aftermath remained. The scar that just didn't quite heal right
The look in Osano's eyes when he realized what she had done.
Jin hummed, rocking slightly as if this were boring.
"You pushed him pretty hard," he said. "Papa was mad."
Her vision blurred. "Stop. Please stop."
"But big brother's fine now," Jin continued, cheerful as ever.
Nene's body went limp, all the strength draining out of her at once. She stared up at the ceiling, tears sliding silently into her hair.
Jin leaned closer, his shadow falling over her face.
"You don't have to worry," he said softly. "I won't let you hurt anyone today."
His eyes didn't change.
Not even a little.
Nene didn't know if that was a promise or a threat...