Substitution
青の祓魔師© 加藤 和恵; Beta-ed by AlixNight
If it was your fault that someone died, then all you had to do was just to replace his very existence.

My brother was everything to me.

He was like the sunshine, bringing life to everything around him. He was like a magnet, pulling people easily into his pace and flow. He was like roses, pretty on the outside yet unbearably tough on the inside.

Rin was my older brother – the lone person who was most similar to me genetically, yet so very different. He was the only person I had and will ever look up to, and also the one person who I would give anything to be able to protect.

I ran a hand through my tousled hair, checking again to make sure that every strand was dyed pitch black, before I traded my long, exorcist coat for a plain, blue hoodie from my brother's closet. It was difficult for anyone to pull off Rin's style without appearing forced, but I could probably do it.

I have already made up my mind, and we were twins after all.

I could not go back in time to stop myself from acting rashly out on the field. I could not go back in time to make sure that my reflexes would be fast enough to yank Rin out of the way before it was too late, but at least I would make sure that he still existed somewhere on this planet.

There had to be a reason for God to allow me to be rescued instead, and this was definitely it. I knew it when I stepped out of my brother's bedroom and Shiemi rushed over to my side, hugging me tearfully and chanting Rin's name in hushed whispers repeatedly into my ear.

No, I was not impersonating my brother because someone by the name Okumura Yukio had never existed. It had never been 'us' but simply 'him'. Now it was my turn to become that him. Because we should, and had always been one in the same – a lone pinprick in the mass existence of this bitter world.

I am Rin.