Shion's POV
I've been waiting for Nezumi to return for 2 years now. The last words he'd said to me, I will never forget. Those words are the only reason why I'm looking forward to living another day. Sometimes I find myself looking up at the stars and wondering if he is looking towards the stars, too. I would always wonder if he'll ever come back.
It had only been about a year since the No.6 system collapsed. At the beginning, when the wall collapsed, everyone still alive were panicking and chaos was everywhere. But as time passed, everyone calmed down a bit, but it was still true that they needed a system to keep everything under control.
Since there was no particular leader, and no one stepped up to take leadership for months, the people decided to make a voting for who would be most suitable to be their new leader. I never entered for it, but they still ended up taking me in as a candidate. In the end, majority of the people had voted for me just because I was the one who had created a "miracle". I can't quite agree though, after all, it was all because of Nezumi that stopped Elyurias from spreading anymore bees. I had no part in helping at all, so I really don't understand why they had chosen me, but they did.
It's almost been a year since I've been elected, and everything is quite stable for the most part. Well, I sort of need to emphasize for the most part because there are still some times where my mom and I are sort of in a situation that is not the best for our safety.
"Hey, Shion!" My mom called through the phone. I see her her hair tied up in a messy bun with wild strands dangling down to her shoulders. From the background, I can tell she is standing at the kitchen counter of our new house making something.
Since everyone had nominated me to be the leader of what was known as No.6, my mom and I were asked to move to a bigger house outside of the Lost Town, and into the central area. My mom kept the bakery opened and asked someone else to look after it while she stayed close to me. She still occasionally visits the bakery to check up on how everything is once in a while when she doesn't have much to do.
"Yeah?" I answered the call.
"Your friends are here."
"My friends?" Who? Could it be? The only friends I have that I can actually call friends are... Inukashi! I know many people that I work with, but I wouldn't exactly call them my friends; they're more like acquaintances and co-workers. "Coming!" I yelled to my mom as I closed the laptop screen and head down the stairs to the front door. "Hey," I greeted seeing Inukashi's hair being played with.
"Why do you look so excited? Did something good happen?" Inukashi said with her arms holding onto little Shion.
I give a little chuckle. "Yes, you're here with little Shion."
"Wait, are you happy that Shion is here or are you happy that I'm here?"
"Well, just so you don't get jealous, I'll say both of you." I say playfully. Inukashi gave a little glare but in a playful way. "Anyways, come in." I open the door way for them to come in.
"He's coming later." Inukashi said as she sat down on the couch and my mom came in from the kitchen to give the both of them drinks.
"Who?" I asked.
"Oh, don't act so dumb. You know who." She said and played with little Shion's hair. I half expected her to say Nezumi, but I guess that's just wishful thinking.
"Rikiga?" I ask, knowing that it's definitely him.
"Duh, who else?" Inukashi pauses for a moment and adds, "I understand. No matter how irritating he was, I miss him too."
I right away know that she's talking about Nezumi and that she noticed my sad eyes. I stand there in silence, taking a second to remember the warmth of Nezumi.
The last kiss he gave me before going, I can still feel the tingling feeling he left behind. His soft lips that pressed against mine as tears rolled down my cheeks. His promise. Our promise. I won't forget it.
"Reunion will come."
"So, how's Shion doing so far these days?" I ask trying to push the longing feeling to the back of my head and storing those precious memories in the back of my heart.
"He's fine so far, it's just that it gets a bit hard to take care of him sometimes. He nearly got kidnapped by some old man on the streets. Thank goodness my dogs were with him at the time." Inukashi says with a sigh. "Plus, he's quite the ball of sunshine when it comes to playing in the woods. He got lost and it took my dogs and I quite some time to find him. In the end, he was just playing with some chipmunks."
I give a low chuckle. "Oh, then you better keep your dogs beside him at all times. It's good that your dogs were able to chase those men away." I sat on the couch as Shion left Inukashi's arms and ran into mine. "Well, either way, it's good that animals like him, or else he might have been in real danger."
"Yeah, I guess. It's probably because he's playing with my dogs all the time, he's used to getting along with animals. I recently started to notice that he understands what my dogs say sometimes just like me. I guess it's a good thing to be able to communicate with animals, though I get really anxious since he's still so little. I also had to deal with this other annoying old man trying to sneak into my hotel. Tried to steal some of my coins in the office so I couldn't watch over Shion at that time."
"Must have been fun." I say, petting Shion's brown hair, a pigment that used to be in my hair. From the corner of my eyes, I see my mom walking back in and Shion runs towards her, giggling.
"Very."
My mom scoops Shion into her arms and heads into the kitchen with him, both of them with smiles plastered across their faces.
"So, what brings you here today?" I ask, remembering that she randomly rang the doorbell. It's not that I mind her randomly popping up out of nowhere, but it's just that she usually writes a letter to me saying that she'll be over before she comes. So her popping out of the blue gets me worried that something had happened.
"It's actually about Nezumi." Inukashi says in a soft voice, but my heart stiffens. I try to take a few breaths before she continues but they come out as shallow ones that doesn't calm me. "He wrote a letter to me. I guess he didn't send you the letter because he doesn't know where you live now, but he did write a letter."
She takes out an envelop and it says To: Shion and From: Nezumi. My heart beat pounds in my ears and I extend my arms out to take the letter into my hands. I hold onto it for a moment longer and ask, "When did you get this?"
"It came this morning, actually." Inukashi says and she leans back onto the sofa. "Thought you would like to see this as soon as possible." Her eyes seem somewhat distant right now. I wonder what she's thinking.
"I'll read it later when I feel a bit more calm. I guess there's a bit too much going on in this city right now that I need to take care of." I say as an excuse so I don't have to read the letter in front of Inukashi and start bawling randomly out of nowhere. I place the letter safely in my pocket.
The doorbell rings, startling the both of us and I walk to the door to get it, revealing Rikiga's sweating face.
"Good afternoon, Shion." He says and I make way for him to step in.
"Good afternoon," I say. I notice that he shaved himself clean today, and he doesn't smell like alcohol and cigarettes. Guess he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of mom; he's always really conscious of her.
He guides himself to the couch where Inukashi is and he sits down. "Where's your mom?" Rikiga finally asks after taking a few glances at the interior of my new home.
"In the kitchen with little Shion," I say and gesture towards the kitchen. I walk over to the couches after locking the front door and sit down.
"Oh, you're not that big either. You're still a little Shion yourself, don't you think?" He says which ticks me off. I don't quite like people teasing me about my height.
"I'm not that little! I grew like maybe 7 centimeters this year. No, round that up to 8 'cause it was 7.6cm." Inukashi and Rikiga laughs which also brings a smile to my face. "So, what brings you here today, Rikiga?"
"I just wanted to stop by and see how Karen has been doing. Nothing much really."
"You like her or something?" Inukashi says and gives a sly smirk to Rikiga.
"No no no no." He pauses then adds, "Well yes, I like her. Just not in the romantic kind of way."
"Riiiigght" Inukashi says in a mocking tone, obviously not believing him.
Then, a deafening BANG! makes the three of us jump in our seat and we turned towards where the sound came from. Definitely a gun shooting. The kitchen. That's where mom and Shion is!
I curse to myself and run towards the kitchen and find Shion's eyes filled with tears and terror. I look around to find the window of our kitchen broken with fragments of pieces spread out on the floor. And in front of little Shion lay my mom, blood flowing out from her sides. Panic and adrenaline takes root at the bottom of my stomach, and I have trouble breathing.
"What the hell just happened?!" Inukashi says and rush over to mom's side. Rikiga joins her.
"She's shot." Rikiga says and turns to look at me.
Fear overwhelms me and both my feet stays planted on where I'm standing. The blood pools around my mother's body and I'm paralyzed in fear. She's going to be gone. I'm afraid to move a single muscle. Maybe if I stay still and not move, I'll wake up from this dream. I mean, this has to be a dream, right? A wave of dizziness floods me and I nearly end up falling face down onto the tiled floors.
"Shion!" Inukashi grabs onto my arm and I snap into action, running to get a phone. I call the ambulance and inform them about the current condition of my mom.
Inukashi takes my mother into her arms and press down on the wound, trying to slow down the bleeding.
I feel so pathetic, standing there, unable to do anything other than watch the whole damn thing play out.
Rikiga paces around, constantly rubbing his eyes as if he's trying to hold his tears in.
Moments later, sirens blare down the street and soon arrive at the front of my house. Inukashi hurried to open the door with her bloody hands and lets the police do their job.
The officers quickly move my mom onto a stretcher and put her in the ambulance. Some officers stay behind to investigate the scene, but I don't stay behind. I step into the ambulance with Inukashi and Rikiga, worry plastered over our faces.
We don't say anything to each other on our way to the hospital. Tension builds in the air as the siren of the ambulance keeps playing over and over in ears.
I hold my mother's hand in hopes that she'll be fine.
She'll be fine. She'll be fine. She'll be fine. It's going to be okay, she's going to be fine.
I keep telling myself that in order to control panic attack that I can feel coming.
Author's Note
I'm not sure if I can do a good job, but I'll try my best! *awkward laughing*
This is legit my first fanfic so like... yeah
This chapter has been edited. Original chapter had around 1450 words and the edited version has around 2100.
Enjoy~~