Aina Aoki
"Aina, my dear, why don't you help me prepare dinner before your father's arrival"
A dream? Why now? I don't care. This feels too pleasant...
"Ok, Mum!"
My father would make his appearance at a later time, closer to midnight.
"Father! Father! hehe, how was work?"
"How is my little angel?"
My question was never awarded a response even once...
What was work? I was always astonished on the subject. I was only ten years old and had grown with a strong affinity towards this concept.
When my father makes his arrival, my mother makes her departure?
She always left in the dead coldest of nights, in the big deep dark city illuminated by no more than street lights...
My parents did not interact nor show any sign of contact towards each other.
They were strangers.
However, I preferred this much more...even though it was an appalling way of life, why did I support it?...
One night where I truly felt restricted from sleep...
"If you had never allowed your foolish older brother to attain such large capital under your name, we wouldn't be in such a mess!"
Please don't show me this...
"Don't you think I know that! What do you expect me to do now? Accept reality. We have no other choice!!"
I don't want to see it...
"Say that to Your daughter; how about her life? Her future? Her happiness? Do you think she is pleased to see her parents work like zombies day and ...night...She's ten years old right now, and eventually, she will grow older, finding out what a truly disgusting disgraceful mother I am."
Why couldn't I have a happy ending...
..."You can still reach out to authorities, we can get this registered under a legal court, we could seek help from officials, who might be able to provide relief on the debts and end this crisis once in for all!"
Was that an option for my father?
My father's bother, my uncle, was a famous individual amongst the black market, a renowned mafia boss.
One day my mother attempted to file for a divorce, taking myself with her under the current threat of debt.
Why did she never attempt to take action before? Well, it was simple to keep higher authorities and legal matters away for the safety of the family due to backgrounds, including my uncle.
"Attempted"
My father, who was in desperate need of a solution, went to none other than his bigger brother...explaining the situation of my mother's will to leave him.
I would finally meet my uncle for the first time...
At the cost of my parent's lives.
"What is he doing here! What were you thinking! Are you out of your mind! What about Aina!"
"Oh, so that's your woman? Wait a minute...aren't you...I see, to make money... hahaha. Well, my dear little brother, you have nothing to worry about. This can be solved very easily, in the simplest of ways."
"Really? You can sort this out for us? Please help us, brother! please!"
Swiftly, without hesitation and no mercy insight, my uncle proceeds to unstrap his pistol...and...
I wonder, what was going through my father's head at that moment?
He screamed upon my mother's bloodied body for a full minute. Not at all being able to process the consequence of his action before him. Is this how people react to a stranger's death...who they never chose to associate to?
"See? You can always rely on your bigger brother. I'm always here for you."
"Go to hell..."
"What was that I could not quite hear you?"
"Go to hell... YOU SPAWN OF THE DEVIL!"
My dad's fate...as any could tell was also summarised by his words, this straightforward yet mindless reason.
"Spawn of the devil, you say? Well, doesn't that make you one as well? Especially considering all the things you have sold for me?"
..." Both you and that shameless woman can join each other once again, in hell."
Before my very eyes, at ten years old...the ones closest to me had been murdered.
"A brat? They had a child? So he tried to keep this one a secret from me, haha, out of all the things...Kid, what's your name?"
"Aina"
"I see. From this day forward, I will raise you as my own until the day you are able to fend for yourself. Just know, this is not out of my compassion nor regret."
Even if it was, does it make a difference?...my parents were brutally murdered by your hands that day. This will never change. I am and will always be scarred.
Logically thinking, he could not have left me. He had no other option. I myself proved the very evidence he required for safekeeping.
If that really were the case...killing me would have no less sufficed.
After he made all arrangements to handle the corpses before him, it was a strenuous task, one which he struggled not at all to grasp.
The bloodshed did not end that specific day, not to mention from then...
A boy...he was despairing, by his looks his age was around that of thirteen years old if I were to assume, unlike myself who has always been thought of younger than my present age of fourteen.- cough cough: by Satori
Bumping in my uncle with tears on his face and...he was not frightened even one bit by the very figure before him.
But my uncle felt challenged...
He felt pressured...
Like my parents, he had the intention of murder. As he attempted to do so...
Again "Attempted"
I witnessed the most beautiful display of humanity in my entire life that day... an individual before the merciless gun of my uncle...gave his life up for the boy before him. Pushing the boy away from the path towards the afterlife by occupying his very place. He was only at the age of what looked like eighteen with a whole life before him, so why?... Why did I do nothing but watch as my very parents were annihilated?
From that day forward...
Blood...
Deaths...
Suffering...
Were nothing but a common environment to be witnessed by these fouled eyes of mine.
Warmth?
What Is this unusual Warmth I feel beside me?
It's soft...a person?
"Satori? Satori!, Satori where are you! please don't leave me!"
"Oh, you're awake. Sorry for sleeping next to you, I couldn't help it, After seeing how well you were sleeping. I kind of fell asleep as well, haha..."
Who is this? A girl? I did not know, but the voice was so pretty and kind.
"You can call me Yukina. You know you are so cute when you sleep...Aina"
"How do you know my name?"
"Let's not worry about that right now, you see...my life won't be the same after a little while longer. I will lose the bit of freedom I have. So for my last days of being free, why don't you be my little sister!"
"Sister, me?"
"Is that a no?..."
Wow, she sounds so desperate, I can't see her, but this person...has a pure heart of an angel.
In my years of suffering, I have learned to tell the personality of most individuals from their voices. Satori was not one of those cases. However, she...
If I can at least be of use to even one person out there...
"Ok, big sister Yukina."
The bed was soft. It felt lavish, with the highest quality of duvets...
Where am I? Where is Satori? Why does this person...
"Thank you, Aina."
The one who only sees darkness, Ainu, and the one who is destined to lose her freedom, Princess Yukina finally meet...
-do you believe?-
Continued in the Next Chapter..