Akihito yawned, rising from his comforter and looking out his window toward the dawn light that filtered through. It was that day.

  His room was quite sparse, usually, with little more than a bookshelf, a desk, a dresser, and a comforter in the center. Typically, he also displayed many of the odd spiritual artifacts that he liked to study on his walls and atop his dresser, but many were packed into his bags, and others had been taken to his family’s storage room.

  He rose up, dressing himself in practical clothes that he’d set out the day before and picking his staff up as it rested against the wall beside his door. He then saddled his backpack onto his shoulders and left his room.

  His home was a sprawling, ‘traditional’ Japanese home. Light filtered through it on all sides through whiteish, translucent windows, which made the red wood used to build and repair the house over many generations almost seem to glow.

  As he walked to the front door, the creaks of each step he took resounded through the silent home like a bird calling its flock.

  A door opened as he reached it.

  “You’re not leaving without saying goodbye, are you!?” someone said in Japanese, suddenly throwing their sliding door open, opposite his room.

  It was his sister, Akane, already fully dressed in her traditional red and white robes, whose hair was long and black, tied back with a bell that jingled as she softly stepped toward her twin brother, who had begun putting on his old, worn-down shoes.

  He looked up at his sister, who looked down at him as he sat to do so. “I knew you wouldn’t miss my leave for the life of you,” he said. “It looks like you’re already ready to see me off.”

  She frowned, nervously spinning the end of her hair. “You never know...maybe I...overslept?”

  He smiled as he rose up. “Well, get your shoes on.” He jingled the bells on his staff. “I suppose you want to pray together before I leave?”

  She nodded, and he opened the door for her after she had put her own shoes on.

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  Their home was situated far from the bulk of the town, high up on a thickly forested hill.

  Something about the forest unsettled Akihito today. He gripped his staff tightly as if it were his only anchor to the present moment.

  It was...quiet. It was so quiet since their mother left. Their father didn’t remain, even after the funeral, continuing to work all across Japan, which left Akihito and Akane all alone in their solitary shrine, with Akane moving into their mother’s room. Nobody visited their shrine anymore, either, making it a lonely place. Caretaking the shrine and the home at the same time, without their father or their mother to help, was...difficult.

  As he looked across the lonely forest, he saw Akane hold her right hand out to him, smiling. He took her hand, gripping it sentimentally and smiling back for only a moment before both their faces fell to the stairs below.

  “Are you really going to be fine?” he asked, guilt in his chest.

  “Of course,” she responded cheerfully. “Mai-Sama said she would help me take care of the shrine and our home.”

  “That...isn’t what I meant,” he said as they stepped off the stairs and onto the terrace which the shinto shrine sat upon.

  After a moment, his sister responded, her voice without enthusiasm. “Do you really have to leave?” she asked, something like anger lacing her voice.

  “Of course I do, Akane,” he responded seriously as they stepped before the miniature shrine, enshrined within a red and black, ornamental, elevated wooden structure. “I’ve always wanted to perform exorcisms just like Dad.”

  Akihito set his staff lengthwise upon a rest made for it just under the Kamidama, the miniature home which had a number of flowers set before it, some had wilted and others were very new. Then, they knelt before it, their hands peacefully resting on their thighs.

  He and his sister didn’t move an inch, yet she spoke with words that twisted with sadness. “Why? Why do you always have to make these selfish decisions, Shen?” she asked, to no response. “You’re always stepping ahead of me...leaving me behind?”

  Shen Akihito remained silent for a few minutes before responding. “That’s just the way it is...Somebody always needs to take the first step. Somebody needs to be the first to leave.” He then leaned over and wrapped his arms around his sister, his eyes somberly closed as he pressed his head onto her shoulder.

  Then, he slowly stood and retrieved his staff.

  “I have to go,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

  He heard his sister sob as he walked away, but he held back his own sadness, wiping away his tears.

  She might need me, but I need to do this. Even if I’m gone...I’m sure she’s strong enough to push on.