"Mommy!"
Izumina shouted as she landed harshly on the cement of the sidewalk.
A woman spoke through a television in a store window. "The villain known as Destructo, who has been rampaging along downtown, has just been apprehended by the pro hero known as Fleur De Lis. Authorities are taking him into custody now."
With that being said the crowds began to die down. The cars slowly drove away from the scene, and pedestrians made their ways back into shops or towards their homes. Not many people had realized there was a woman lying unconscious in the middle of the road.
As the crowds along the sidewalk, and traffic began to dissipate, Izumina was the only one to notice the woman.
"Mommy!" She cried out as she ran towards the woman's body.
There were no cars on the road now, aside from the few that had been crushed by debris. People along the sidewalk turned their heads towards the little girl, finally realizing the situation.
Izumina collapsed next to her mother's figure. There was blood dripping from the wound on Miyuna's abdomen.
Izumina began to apply pressure to the injury as she cried out to the people watching nearby.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
The boy from the ice cream parlour came outside and ran towards the woman's unconscious figure.
"Oh my god!" He gasped when he saw the woman's wounded stature. She had her eyes closed. The gash on her forehead was dripping blood down her face, and she lay in a puddle of red liquid. With an impact injury from that truck, she was bound to have multiple fractures, broken bones, not to mention the visible gash on her stomach.
"I'll call an ambulance!" The boy stated while fumbling to pull his phone from his pocket.
"Please hurry!" Izumina shouted back. She hadn't meant to yell at the teenager, but in that moment the only thing allowing her to hold her mother's wound was the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
"Hello?! I'm calling to report an injury from the villain attack. I need an ambulance right away!"
With that the boy put his phone back into his pocket and stepped closer to Izumina.
"The paramedics will be here soon. They said to continue applying pressure to the gash, and to start CPR."
Izumina nodded, and pressed on her mother's stomach harder.
"My names Chase by the way. I recognize you and your mom from earlier. This must be really scary for you. Just hang on till the ambulance gets here."
Izumina looked up at the curly haired boy through teary eyes. Then nodded and placed her attention back on her mother's figure.
Chase took a breath before moving across from Izumina. He kneeled down next to Miyuna's body, and placed his balled up hands over Miyuna's chest.
"I'm going to starts giving her compressions now," he explained to Izumina, who nodded in response.
Chase began pushing against Miyuna's chest, which caused blood to gush from the wound on Miyuna's side. This caused Izumina to gasp slightly and loosen her grip on the injury.
"Hey!" Chase said, startling Izumina and getting her attention.
"I'm sure everything will be fine, but you have to keep putting pressure on that wound." He paused for a second, thinking of ways to calm down the little girl, before continuing. "Why don't we sing staying alive? You know that song?" Chase asked hopefully.
Izumina only raised an eyebrow in confusion at the boy. 'Singing at a time like this?'
"The paramedics said it's a good song to sing while doing compressions."
Izumina nodded her head and Chase began singing quietly, while continuing to push against Miyuna's chest to the beat of the song.
"Staying alive. Staying alive, ah, ah, ah, ah. Staying alive."
Izumina began muttering the words along with him.
"Staying alive. Staying alive, ah, ah, ah, ah. Staying alive."
Both sang quietly until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later.
Two paramedics ran towards Miyuna and pulled her into a stretcher, leaving Chase and Izumina kneeling on the cement road.
Police cars began showing up on the scene as well. A red headed woman ran from one of the cars and towards Chase and Izumina. She embraced Chase in a tight hug and said, "I'm so happy you're okay!"
"I'm fine Mom. Don't worry," Chase responded into the woman's shoulder.
Both the teenager and woman stood and were guided away by a police officer.
Izumina's gaze followed the two until they were safely in a police cruiser, being driven away.
"You okay sweetie?" A woman officer asked Izumina from behind.
Izumina turned around and noticed the woman's outstretched arm. Izumina reached out her hand but stopped when she noticed the blood drenching her palm.
The woman, noticing Izumina's hesitation, said, "Was that your mom?"
Izumina nodded as she lowered her hand.
"Why don't you come with me? I'll take you to the hospital to see her. Can you stand up for me?"
Izumina nodded once again and stood from her kneeling position.
Following the officer to a car parked next to an ambulance, which was pulling away from the side of the road, Izumina kept her eyes locked on the ground. The officer pulled the cruiser door open and signaled for Izumina to get into the passenger seat.
Izumina did as told and hopped into the car. The officer then walked around the vehicle and got into the driver's seat.
The cruiser pulled away from the side of the road and drove towards the hospital.
~At the hospital~
Izumina was guided down a white hallway by a nurse and told to sit in a chair outside her mother's room.
Due to the severity of Miyuna's injuries she was admitted to the hospital as soon as her condition had stabilized. She was diagnosed with a couple broken ribs, multiple fractures, and had developed a blood clot during emergency surgery.
Izumina sat in the hallway as doctors rushed around her mother, bringing Miyuna to and from the OR.
Izumina didn't know what would happen to her mother. In that moment her mind was focused on one thing... her hands.
Her hands were still drenched in her mother's blood. Along with that, Izumina had been left alone, with nothing but her thoughts, in the depressing hallway of the intensive care unit.
Memories of the events from that day flashed through Izumina's mind.
'Why did this happen? Why was it Mom and not me? It should have been me.'
From behind the nurse station counter two doctors discussed the little girl sitting in the hall chair.
A woman with dark brown hair spoke first. "Poor thing."
The other doctor, with blonde hair, replied while pulling a pair of rubber gloves off his hands. "Indeed. It's tragic really. My guess is the mom won't live through the night."
"Awful." The brunette doctor replied.
The blonde threw his gloves into a disposable bin and said to the brunette, "Be sure to give child services a call. They're gonna have to find a place for the kid to stay once this is all over."
"Yes sir," The brunette responded with a playful salute. She then proceeded to dial the child services extension on the office's wall phone.
A couple hours later the same nurse approached Izumina, with a glass of ice chips in her hand. "Have these sweetie," she said, holding the glass out to the little girl.
"Thanks," Izumina mumbled as she reached for the cup. However, she stopped midway when she noticed the dried blood still on her hands. In that instant, Izumina had forgotten about the red liquid she had been staring at for so long.
The nurse, noticing this, withdrew the cup and instead asked, "why don't we get you washed up? Then afterwards I can take you to go see your mother. Sound good?"
Izumina thought about this for a second before nodding, and following the nurse down the hallway, towards the staff bathroom.
She walked to the sink and lathered her hands in soap from the dispenser on the wall. Once she had finished completely washing the blood off her hands she met up with the nurse. The nurse handed Izumina the cup of ice chips and guided her towards her mother's room.
When they arrived at the hospital room Izumina walked over to her mother's bedside and intertwined their hands.
'I'm sorry Mommy... It should have been me."
Suddenly, the monitors on the vital machines started beeping like crazy. Doctors began rushing into the hospital room, pushing Izumina further and further away from her mother.
"She's seizing up!" One of the doctor's yelled.
"Prepare a chest tube!" Another shouted back, while passing their colleague a bag of medical equipment.
Then one of the doctors noticed Izumina.
"What is she still doing here?! Somebody get her out of this room!"
The nurse from before tugged on Izumina's sleeve and guided her out the door of the crowded room.
"MOMMY!" Izumina yelled as she was dragged from the room, and towards the large waiting area at the front of the hospital. Out of sight from her mother's room.
A couple hours later a child service representative, dressed in a formal black suit, arrived at the hospital. Along with a man dressed in a royal blue hero costume.
"I was alerted of the situation," the man in the suit stated. "How is the mother's condition?"
A doctor pulled a pair of latex surgical gloves off their hands, and threw them in a biohazard disposal bin. Shaking their head the doctor replied, "we lost her in surgery just now."
The man in the costume gasped slightly, the stoic man in the suit next to him.
"I guess I'll get started on finding the child a suitable home. For the time being, why don't you go sit with her, Fleur?" The child services representative walked down the hallway and towards a small office to look at the case file, and gestured for the man next to him to go to the waiting room.
"Alright." The man in the costume replied.
Izumina sat in the waiting room, on an uncomfortable chair staring at her hands. Although she had washed off all the blood from the accident she couldn't help but feel like it was still there. She couldn't get rid of the lingering feeling.
A man in a blue costume approached her and sat in the chair next to her, pulling his cape to the side slightly as to not get caught on anything.
"Hey there young lady," the man spoke to Izumina.
"Hi," Izumina responded.
The man took in a breath before speaking again. "Do you know who I am?"
Izumina looked up and started at the man. "No. Should I?"
"My name is Fleur-de-Lis, I'm the pro hero who was fighting that monster today."
That caught Izumina's attention.
"The monster that caused all the panic and destruction downtown?"
"That's the one," Fleur-de-Lis stated solemnly.
"Oh."
"I'm regretful to say this but, your mother has died in surgery. I figured I should be the one to tell you."
Tears welled up in Izumina's eyes. "Oh."
"My associate Charles is working on finding a good place for you to stay, but I wanted to sit with you while we wait. If that's okay with you?"
Izumina nodded and a depressing silence fell over the two.
"You're a very strong girl, to have gone through all that. As a hero I feel it was my responsibility. Everything that happened is my fault."
Izumina turned in her chair to face Fleur-de-Lis.
"If only I could have stopped Destructo before he could hurt anybody. I'm a pathetic excuse for a hero!"
"No!" Izumina spoke loudly, which caused the man to look up in shock at the seemingly quiet girl.
"My mom died because of that truck driver and Destructo! If you act like this every time a civilian dies than you shouldn't have become a hero in the first place!"
Fleur-de-Lis stared at the girl in utter bewilderment.
"My Mommy was a hero! She was MY hero!"
Fleur-de-Lis sat with a blank expression on his face before leaning over the armrest of the chairs and hugging Izumina.
"You're right," he stated before pulling back slightly. "You're going to make a great hero someday. That is if you want to be."
Izumina stared wide eyed at the man before swiftly embracing him once again, and burying her head against his shoulder.
"Thank you," she whispered.