"Riku, do you know why red is bad?"
The redhead child turns his head from the snow. He was playing, alone in the middle of the snowy night and only that older woman is with him.
"No, why?"
The woman gives a sinister smile towards the redhead. She walks on slowly as she pats the redhead as if he will break if she put any force.
"Because red symbolises death. People hate death, they thought it was painful. But red... Can be a hero as well."
The redhead can only listen as he watches the older woman pass a smile to him.
"I love your hair, Riku. It symbolises the death I always wanted. Just like red spider lily."
"Red spider lily?"
She pats the redhead again and this time she gives the redhead a lollipop.
"Yes. A flower that is said to be the symbol of death but it be a hero too... A hero of the dead. It protects those who are dead by living with the dead."
"Mom... Are you saying that I can be a hero as well? Like Tenn-nii?" The redhead asks with eyes glimmering with respect.
She smiles again as she walks in the street. She's looking around the snowy night as couple walk with happiness.
"Of course, dear. So, can you be a hero of ours for the first time? Me and your dad?"
"Why?"
"Please deliver this message to your nii-san when you finally meet him. " We always love you, from the bottom of our heart. You've always been a hero for us, protecting us. We love you and this heart has nothing else in this world except you, our beloved, Tenn." Can you Riku?"
The redhead can only nod his head without understanding the meaning behind his mother words. Like a doll he always is, he accepts his mother request.
***
"Big news! A house from the XXX town has been burn. Apparently, no one has been injured but the family of three is said to be dead. The police suspect, it's the case of family suicide with the victim of a couple and a young child."
When Riku comes to his sense, he can see his house on fire. In this snowy day, even the coldness couldn't help the fire to be put down. He heard the ambulance and firefighter sounds from the distance. It as if he was in the water.
How ironic... He just recently in the house of fire and now he feels like in the water? He wanted to laugh but he remembered what his mother request to him.
"Please deliver this message to your nii-san when you finally meet him."
So he will live. He will live according to what his mother request to him, just like a hero. But one thing that keeps replaying in his mind when he in the house of fire.
"The fire... It's the colour of beautiful red of deep amber. Just like my eyes."
oOo
"I like red... The colour of a hero."
The redhead watches the snowy night with dull eyes. He has no intention of getting out of his room. He will lock himself in for a bit and will get out when it was time.
"That's right... I forgot about mom request..."
oOo
"Riku, you can't sleep like this. Get out from the bed, please..."
"..."
"... Nanase Riku!" She slaps the young redhead with force. Red all over her face with anger.
The redhead immediately raises from his deep slumber and face the older woman. He has this unknown face of why would he need to be scared of this lady.
The older woman who was panting hard come to her sense. She just shaped the redhead who knows nothing... The child she births and raises by her own hand.
"Ah... I'm sorry."
The redhead still keeps silence. He knows since long ago, at this moment he can't do anything except to let it all go.
"I'm so sorry, Tenn. Mom didn't do you a good job, didn't I? Mom loves you."
She smiles and takes the redhead hand with such gentle. She walks to the downstairs and let the redhead sit on the nearest seat with her.
"Tenn..." She hugs the redhead with a smile. Her eyes looking at the redhead with dullness.
The redhead can see what is reflecting on his mother rosy pink eyes. It was his older brother figure. The figure he loves with all his heart until it all broke.
"Tenn, mom will buy you a lot of clothes today that suites your rosy pink eyes. What do you think?"
The redhead didn't reply yet, the woman smiles with happiness as if he answering the woman's question.
It's as if... He was nothing in his mother's mind. He just her another child she needs to take care of when she intended to only have one child.
She loves both of them with the same love and smile. But after his brother is gone, he realizes, all his mother sees is his Tenn-nii.
"Tenn needs to be beautiful... Like an angel."
The redhead raises his head and eyes meet with her own. It as if he was asking a question that doesn't need to speak out loud. "I hate it."
***
His father didn't come home again. Probably with another woman at another hotel. He didn't know how long this has been going on but he just can't get this going on further.
"I need to... Get out."
When he thought of this, his room door being forced open. He faces his mother with wide eyes. She was panting hard and ear red with embarrassing?
"Riku!"
The first time she ever called his name after his brother is gone. It was shocking but what was the most shocking this is she hugs him and then she cries with happiness.
"You know, Riku... today! Today, I just got another man! He said he loves me no matter what I am!"
Ah... This type of things again. He got sick of it but nothing can be done. He will stay silent and hear what his mother gonna say to him.
***
"Riku... Let's play outside?"
His mother asks him with teary eyes. Maybe her said boyfriend finally leave her alone and break her broken heart. It just the same as his father.
When he agreed the woman raise with happiness. That is when all thing started to roll inside his mind when she said, she loves his red hair. But he still can't understand her words.
"It as if... I was left alone with a thousand pieces of the puzzle with a blank surface."
She rambling with so many things he can't understand. Even more, her request for his nii-san that has long gone from the world of Nanase.
The next day... His house was burned down. He found out that his mother pours some oil on the house and started the fire. She said... She wanted to die.
With both, his parents died in front of his eyes... He became the last member of Nanase family.
Someone said that he needs treatment for his mental state after watching such a cruel scene. But... It didn't leave him with any scars. Except... The one scar of his mother pours the hot boiling water on both his feet.
He loves that scar. The scar that his mother left to him because she loves him. He caresses it with love as he glances outside of his hospital room window.
"Mom loves you."**
"I love you too, mom."
oOo
"Nanase-san? Are you there?"
Iori at the door knocking as he asks the redhead from the outside. The redhead raises from his bed with a smile while rubbing his eyes with a wide yawn.
"I'm here!" He replies with his usual voice.
The raven head surprises and just leave it to the redhead didn't bother to think more of it.
"Nii-san has cooked for us and all of us need to eat together."
The redhead smiles again and hugs the raven head. "Okay~"
"N-Nanase-san!"
The redhead let go of the raven head and walking to the stairs. He turns around and gives a wicked smile while letting out his tongue.
oOo
"Riku-kun will start to live with us in this home* starting today! Everyone treats him well."
"Yes~"
The young redhead watches everyone around him with dull eyes. That is when he sat down the other kids fuming around him.
"Hey, hey. Riku, what do you like the most?" A kid from the orphanage asks the redhead with a smile.
The redhead tilts his head. He keeps asking himself. "Aren't it hurt to keep smiling like an idiot?"
But eventually, the redhead reply to the question. "I like heroes." The other kids smiling with happiness and start saying some stuff about the heroes on television.
"I like those heroes but I like the hero like me."
The other kids start asking. "Hero like you?"
The redhead nod. "Mom said... This hero only one in the world and she said I'm the hero."
"Really?! What kind of hero?!"
The redhead turns his head to face the kids who ask him about it. He smiles while his eyes shine with happiness even if those eyes can only be reflected with the figure of his mother in the snowy night.
"The hero... Of death."
oOo
"Riku! Are you okay?! You don't have a fever right?!" Mitsuki asks with concern.
The redhead only shakes his head and smile back to the orange head. He can't say anything bad to this person or him will be worried sick. He can't let the others be worried.
"Riku, you want some hot milk?" The oldest person in the room asks the redhead.
Yamato, the green head with glasses push his glasses back on the right place with his index finger. But in return to those question, he shakes his head again.
"I... Like milk but it's white. So, do you have strawberry milk?"
When he asks that, the blue head nod his head while eating the pudding he got from the fridge.
"That's right... Isn't Rikkun also said it before he likes strawberry cake?"
The redhead shakes his head again. He smiles and put both his hand on his cheek while squealing like a fanboy.
"Just like Omurice... I just love... The red colour of it." He said it with a huge smile on his face.
oOo
"Riku... You need to be a hero. For that... Started by us. Be the hero of the dead by accepting our request."
The young redhead watch as his mom keeps saying the same thing again under the same snowy night.
"By accepting our request... You can be the hero of your story. You can see "it" too."
The redhead didn't say anything, same as before. He keeps silent like all those talks will eventually eat his mother.
"So, Riku. Can you be a hero of the dead?"
The redhead smile. "I accept it." He replies. "Even though I disgusted by it." He thought.
In that snowy night, the small redhead accepts the deal with becoming the hero he always wanted. The hero he likes. And for the first time... He becomes a hero as his mother requested.
"You can't back off okay?"
The redhead nod with a smile.
"Once you see "it", you can't let it go again. You will forever see it... The people soul."
oOo
Trivia!
** "Mom loves you." = It's actually a saying from his mother words toward "Tenn"
* home = Referring to the orphanage.
• This chapter is supposedly a flashback to Riku's past
• This chapter also supposed to be a spoiler about I7: Time
• This chapter is created by author full of resolve of getting the idea
Extra!
Zis: arghh!! Even if I watch many anime opening this time... I don't get any idea!!!
Riku: how about from Japanese folk tale or proverb?
Zis: that's it!!! Red spider lily!! Riku red hair!! The intense colour of red that can be the colour of love and death!!!
Riku: somehow... Your idea from those only sentence is scary...
Zis: I need to write!!!! The story of love!!! Like Happy Sugar Life!!!! Or even... The new song Juby Phonic release about Love For Love!!!!
Riku: how many YouTube videos you actually search for this book? -_-'
Zis: from 90's anime to now.
Riku:...
!Truth!