Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The Girl Named Ryougi Shiki

"Master Ori, Master Kiryu. We're here."

Nanaya followed Ori out of the car and found that they had arrived at a general hospital.

Ori didn't explain much, but took Nanaya into the inpatient building which was a little away from the other buildings.

Nanaya didn't say anything either, just quietly followed behind Ori, but he did have some ideas in his mind.

Under Ori's guidance, the two came to a single room on the 18th floor of the inpatient building.

At the door of the ward, Ori stopped.

"Hey, senpai. Can you please not ask any questions later? I'll explain everything when we get out."

Ori said in a low voice. Because the other person lowered his head, Nanaya couldn't see the expression on his face clearly.

"I see."

"Thank you." Ori's mouth curled up slightly, and then he pushed open the door of the ward marked with Ryougi.

When Nanaya entered the ward, the first thing he saw was a young woman lying on a white bed. She looked like she was cast in the same mold as Ori, only thinner.

"Sister, I'm here to see you. This time I brought a friend with me, my senior brother Nanaya Kiryu who I told you about last year."

Ori placed the flowers and trophy on the bedside table in the ward, and then he gently stroked the other person's hair with his hand.

"It looks a bit long now, didn't Miss Saotome cut your hair?" Ori muttered to himself in loneliness, fiddling with the young woman's hair as if he were fiddling with a doll.

"Hey, sis. How do you want to cut it this time?"

Stroking the black hair gently, Ori asked the other person again.

However, no answer came out of the girl's tightly closed mouth. If it weren't for the instruments beside the bed showing that the young woman lying there was still alive, Nanaya would have thought that this was just a lifeless puppet.

Ori just sat quietly beside his sister, looking at her with a gaze mixed with expectation and longing, as if he was quietly waiting for something.

However, there was no reaction from the other party.

As if accepting his fate, Ori sighed. Then he stood up, took out a pair of scissors from the cabinet next to him, and quietly began to do the girl's hair.

The craftsmanship of Ori is very good.

This is the result of Nanaya's observation. It is obviously just a pair of scissors, but Ori uses it very smoothly.

Each time the scissors are closed, the hair is accurately cut to the appropriate length, and no broken hair is generated during the whole process.

Ori was very careful when cutting hair. He would carefully place each strand of cut hair on a piece of white cloth at the head of the bed.

"Hey, sister, did you know? The script I told you about has been made into a movie by a senior, and I'm the lead actor. It's incredible, right?"

"Sister, the movie has earned more than 3 billion yen at the box office so far, and it is the runner-up of Japan's live-action movies this year."

"Sister, Senior is really amazing. He was able to take such a beautiful picture of you."

"Elder sister..."

While cutting the other person's hair, Ori whispered about what had happened in the past year.

After cutting the hair, Ori carefully checked that there were no broken hair left, then carefully wrapped it in white cloth and put it away.

Then Ori picked up a book from the cupboard and began to read it to her sister on the hospital bed. The title of the book was Mark Twain's famous novel, which is also the originator of time-travel novels - "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".

After finishing a chapter, Ori gently closed the book in his hand.

"Well, sister. I'll stop reading here first. I'll come to see you again tomorrow."

Not surprisingly, the other person's mouth was still tightly closed like a "one".

Nanaya originally thought that Ori would cry, because when he said goodbye to his sister, there was already a hint of sadness in his words.

But Ori didn't. Although his eyes were very gloomy, he didn't cry.

"Let's go, senior."

Ori sighed and pulled Nanaya out of the ward.

Nanaya and Ori walked quietly in the hospital corridor, and neither of them spoke for a while.

"Senior, do you think I'm ridiculous?" Ori said suddenly without warning, "My sister is still alive and lying in the hospital, but I pretended to be her in front of mother to win her favor. Isn't this despicable and ridiculous?"

"I don't think so."

Nanaya felt that he had never seen anything less funny in his entire life.

Ori grabbed the railing by the wall with both hands, her whole body trembling non-stop: "My sister, her grades are better than mine, and her health is stronger than mine. She is always the best one. I am always the little transparent one, ignored by everyone and my mother."

"Is that why you want to pretend to be your sister?"

"I... I just don't want to see my mother... When my sister and I got into trouble, she completely collapsed. I just want to make my mother smile again. As long as my sister is still growing up healthily in her eyes, she won't be depressed anymore..." Ori's words were a little fragmented, and he didn't seem to know how to explain this.

"Even though she lost her other child?"

"Because it was my responsibility that my sister got into trouble! Anyway, I don't exist in my mother's eyes. If this can make her happy, I don't regret it. But when I stood in front of her as her sister, I knew I was wrong!"

Ori finally burst into tears, not sure whether it was because of regret for his past or because of his mother's indifference to him.

Nanaya put his hand on Ori's head.

"If you want to cry, just come out."

"I'm sorry, Senior, I——"

Ori finally burst into tears.

"After you finish crying, can you tell me the whole story?"

Ori, who was sobbing on Nanaya's shoulder, nodded silently.

Ori cried for a long, long time, so long that Nanaya felt his legs starting to go numb, and only then did Ori finally calm down a little.

After Ori was able to speak calmly, Nanaya took the initiative to pull Ori to sit on a bench in the hospital garden.

Although she was still sobbing, Ori still told Nanaya about the affairs of the Ryogi family in a slightly trembling voice.

Ori and his sister Shiki are twins, and they have had a good relationship since childhood. But in the eyes of Lady Ryogi, it seems that because Shiki is more outstanding, she always pays more attention to her daughter and often ignores Ori.

However, this incident did not have much impact on the Ryougi siblings. Shiki even often secretly asked Ori to pretend to be himself and hang around in front of their mother so that Ori could get close to her.

But one day six years ago, the siblings of the Ryougi family suddenly had an accident.

Ori described the accident process vaguely. It seemed that Ori wanted to go up the mountain behind Ryougi Mansion to pick something, but both the siblings fell down the hillside.

At that time, both Ori and his sister Shiki were injured, but Ori's injuries were relatively minor, with only some superficial wounds. However, his sister Ryougi Shiki was seriously injured because her head hit a stone.

Although Ryougi Shiki survived thanks to timely rescue in the hospital, for some reason she never woke up.

After learning that her two children were in trouble, Ryougi Kiyomi collapsed. It is said that she fainted at the time, and after waking up her mind was still a little abnormal.

Ori felt that it was entirely her responsibility that her mother became like this. If she had not suggested taking her sister up the mountain, this would not have happened, and her sister would not have been lying in the hospital without waking up.

In Ori's opinion, her mother Ryougi Kiyomi must be like this because she is worried about her sister. If her sister can stand in front of her in good health, then her mother's spirit will definitely recover.

So Ori imitated the way she used to play with her sister and acted like her sister in front of her mother, and lied that the person unconscious in the hospital was herself.

Originally, Ori thought that doing this would make his mother happy, but what he got was his mother hugging him and crying.

"I have never seen that look in my mother's eyes, and I have never thought that she would care about me. That was the first time I felt my mother's love for Ryougi Ori, but the person who received this love was not me." Ori looked at the hospital building with sadness in her eyes, "It was clearly my own fault, but my mother put all the blame on herself for the accident, thinking that it was because of her long-term indifference that I could only lie in the cold hospital."

"Has your mother never discovered that the person sleeping here is your sister?" Nanaya was a little curious. Although Ori could try her best to cover it up, if Ryougi Kiyomi came to visit Ryougi Shiki, she would have discovered that the person lying on the bed was not her son but her daughter.

Ori showed a faint smile with a hint of sadness on her face: "Actually, I originally planned to confront Mother when she came to visit me for the first time, but when Mother came to the hospital for the first time, she vomited as soon as she got off the car. Later, the doctor diagnosed that it seemed that Mother had a mental disorder because she blamed herself too much. She seemed unable to face her unconscious sister, or what she thought was "me". So, since that day, Mother has never approached the hospital again."

"Senior, do you know? At that time, I felt a little happy in my heart, because I finally knew that I was not dispensable in the eyes of my mother. But it's too late now. I am Ryougi Shiki, not Ryougi Ori. This should be God's punishment for me. No matter what, I can't get my mother's care. I will always be a loser!"

"Stupid Junior Brother, that's not the case!" Nanaya interrupted Ori's mumbling. He looked at his Junior Brother with a very serious look and said, "When you returned home today, didn't your mother come to greet you? Whether you are Ryougi Shiki or Ryougi Ori, you are your mother's child and you are loved by your mother. Don't you feel this yourself?!"

Ori's mouth opened slightly, and he looked at Nanaya in surprise.

"Really..."

After a long while, Ori slowly said, "Yes, if I had discovered it earlier, I would have been able to confess to my mother earlier. Unfortunately, I was a coward at that time and have been playing the role of Ryougi Shiki until now. As expected, I have been a hopeless existence from the beginning to the end."

"Hey, Ori." Nanaya looked at the pond in the hospital garden and said calmly, "I don't know Ryougi Shiki. I only know a little junior brother named Ryougi Ori. So, to me, Kiryu Nanaya, my little junior brother is a very reliable and skillful boy. He has never been hopeless. On the contrary, he is my indispensable assistant. So, I hope that no matter what, my junior brother Ryougi Ori, you must have confidence, because you are better than anyone else. This is what your senior brother, Kiryu Nanaya, thinks of you."

Ori held the hem of his kimono tightly with both hands. With tears in his eyes, he said, "Thank you, senior. Really, thank you."