Under The Veil of Night

"I’m just going for a walk. Don’t you have any work today?"

"Nah," Laura shrugged. "I already finished most of them yesterday, so I want to spend today with cooking a bit. There’s a new recipe that I wish to try."

"Oh? Then I want to borrow the kitchen too. I haven’t been using it at all lately."

"Don’t!"

"Why not?"

"You’re just going to destroy the kitchen, Sis!"

Kanae still recalled the previous mess she had created in the kitchen before. She sighed to herself. "How about if I just make fried egg? That’s just a simple dish, right?"

"Are you hungry?" Laura looked at Kanae with doubts. "If you want, I can cook you something."

"I just want to try a bit."

"...Fine."

Kanae cheered up and moved to the refrigerator to pick up an egg. She proceeded to prepare the pan and put it on the stove before turning the fire on. Afterwards, she poured a bit of oil.

"You seem to be doing well so far."

"Uh huh."

Kanae waited until the oil turned hot by washing the egg. Before she could crack the egg on top of the pan, Laura’s voice interrupted her.

"Lower the fire temperature. You’re just going to cook an egg. It doesn’t really require a long time to cook."

"Alright."

Lowering the temperature, Kanae cracked the egg open. At the very least, she had learned how to crack the egg by her sister. Though, she might still doubt herself that she would be able to do so well in cooking it.

Splash!

Even though the oil was not that much, it was too hot. Adding with the water dripped from her hand as she put down the egg, the oil splattered out of the pan, reaching her own hand.

’That’s hurt.’

"Sis! Don’t crack the egg with your hand still wet! You!" Laura felt exhausted when she saw her sister didn’t pay attention to her hand. Splashing water in hot oil will result in the oil splattered out. It was not much because the amount of the oil was only around two tablespoons, but if it was a lot, even the floor won’t be spared.

"I forgot."

"What forgot? Th..."

Ring! Ring!

Laura hurriedly walked out to pick up the call. When she returned, she saw that her sister was trying to turn over the egg. Her face turned ashen. It was already five minutes!

"Sis, you don’t need to wait that long to turn it over! See, it has turned black!"

"It’s brown!"

"It’s the same! TURN IT OVER NOW!"

After scolding her sister for some time, the fried egg was finished. However, Laura felt like crying when she saw the partially black egg on the table. It was an insult to the fried egg to call her sister’s cooking as fried egg. Even children might be able to do better.

Kanae scratched the back of her head. "At least, it’s finished."

"Sis, you can’t eat this...."

"It’s just partially burnt. Don’t worry about it."

Laura’s face darkened. She had underestimated her sister’s poor cooking skill. Even cooking something as simple as fried egg was impossible for her. She sighed to herself and passed a cloth to her sister.

"Clean up the mess. I don’t want to see any stain."

"Alright," Kanae picked it up and started wiping. She grinned. "You have become more patient with me, Laura. You usually scold me until I’m not allowed to stay here."

"That’s because I thought you can do better," Laura shrugged. "But you’re still as bad as in the past, Sis. If only we can return back to the past, I’ll surely remind myself that I won’t allow you to step into the kitchen no matter what happened anymore."

"How rude, I can improve."

"I can’t believe you after seeing this burnt egg."

"It’s just partially burnt!"

"It’s the same!"

....

The next day Laura woke up early and headed to the company. On the other hand, Kanae got out and visited Shiro’s clinic. She had promised him that they would ’play’ on the street today.

"I haven’t finished working yet, Kanae," Shiro frowned.

Kanae grinned. "But I have finished reviewing the report for today, so I come to ask you to go to the street."

"Fine," Shiro took out a sports bag and looked in Kanae’s direction. "Where do you want to go now?"

"Just hanging around."

"Got it."

The two of them headed to the black street and walked on the street until they could reach one of the high abandoned buildings. From that position, they could see to faraway place.

"I already prepare several paint bullet," Shiro handed over some of them to Kanae. "What do you want to be the target this time?"

"How about that bird over there?"

"Bird?"

Looking in the direction where Kanae pointed at, Shiro could see a bird was flying at slightly lower elevation. Shiro raised his gun with one of his eyes near the rear sight and the other one closed. His finger touched the trigger softly as he moved the tip of the gun around.

Bang!

The bird was shocked by the sudden interruption and fell right away.

"You should have worn the silencer," Kanae handed the silencer to Shiro, who placed it on the front of his gun. It was a long rifle, which was usually used by a sniper.

Shiro shrugged. "I just forget."

"Let’s continue. I’ll search for further targets for you."

"Wait, let me set up the gun first. It’s uncomfortable to hold it up like this."

"But you can do it, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

For the next few hours, the two of them spent their time shooting using the paint bullet. At high speed even paint bullet could be dangerous, so they didn’t aim at human. At most, just birds.

"I’m still astonished by the distance you can cover, Shiro," Kanae looked at the several kilometers away building that Shiro just shot using binoculars. It was too far away to see with naked eyes.

"I have trained myself for years, so I don’t think it’s that strange," Shiro replied plainly. "In any case, you’re not bad either."

"Nah, compared to you, it’s nothing much," Kanae giggled and sat down on the floor. "Are you going to spend the time to stay in your clinic? Don’t you want to work in a hospital or anything?"

Shiro shook his head and looked through the rear view of his gun. "It’s not going to happen. When they read my resume, they’ll find out about my past and didn’t accept someone with an ambiguous background to their company."

"You can just hide the fact that you’re working in Black Street."

"Don’t want to," Shiro pulled the trigger and the bullet was shot once more. "It’s more fun to stay here too. Living a live under the light completely is not fun at all. This is my secret enjoyment."

"I pity whoever is going to be your wife."

"Don’t worry, I can always stay with my gun."

"You gun freak."

"Thank you for your compliment."

In the end, the two of them continued to stay on the Black Street until it was late at night.