Mystery Saja's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Baby Saja backed toward the apartment block at the edge of the ice. Mystery Saja followed, hair swinging over his face again. The blue-haired boy knew a face now, but that was all. A face on a poster. A stranger the judges hunted. Mystery Saja had shown himself and gained nothing. Being seen meant nothing until Baby Saja knew who he truly was. "Wait," Mystery Saja said. "Let me explain." Baby Saja stopped at the door of the tall building. "Explain what? You lied. You snuck in. Now the judges want us both." A calico cat slipped out through the gap in the door and wound around his ankles. Baby Saja scooped it up like a shield. "Go away before someone sees you." "The song you sang in the first round," Mystery Saja said. "Your mother's song. I know it." Baby Saja went still. The cat squirmed in his arms. "I know it because she taught it to me too," Mystery Saja said. "Before you were old enough to sing. She taught me to push the air from my belly. Same as you taught me on the ice." He pulled the purple hair back with one hand. "They banned me because I sang it here first, and the judges said it belonged to no one but themselves." Baby Saja stared at the bare face. His mouth opened, then closed. "You never told me your name," Baby Saja whispered. "But I remember that song's voice. It lived in our apartment." "I'm your brother," Mystery Saja said. "That's who you're really looking at." The cat leaped from Baby Saja's arms and darted back inside. Baby Saja did not chase it. He reached out and touched Mystery Saja's cheek, the one part of him no one had ever been allowed to see. "You came back for the showcase," Baby Saja said slowly. "Not to win. To finish her song where they stopped you." "Yes," Mystery Saja said. His voice did not crack. "And I wanted you to know it was me singing it. Not a stranger. Not a poster." Baby Saja's shock melted. He gripped his brother's sleeve. "Then they can't see your face on that stage. If they find you, they pull us both." "I know," Mystery Saja said. Baby Saja glanced up at the rows of bright windows above them. Then back at the ice, where the glacier stage waited beyond. "You made it to the final round with me," he said. "So we hide the face and we finish it together. But you follow what I say. No questions." Mystery Saja let the purple hair fall back across his eyes. For once he did it gladly. "No questions," he said. Baby Saja finally saw him, not just the face, but the brother behind it. And now the judges could not.