AN
Hello, this is my entry for the Writer's Challenge: Price of Life.
Tsunayoshi Sawada was an average high school student in Namimori, Japan. He was a nice enough person even if with somewhat low grades. The brown-haired teenager always walked to school with his friends since it was close for them. But before that, he walked his little siblings to their elementary; each and every school-day like the clock.
Tsuna was excited on his oncoming trip. His grandfather - who lived in Italy - had been feeling a little under the weather and his mother had suggested that he went to make the man company. Tsuna had never gone out of Japan so he was understandably eager.
"Have a good day, Lambo, Fuuta, I-pin." The brunet said, ushering his three younger siblings to the entrance gates. The two boys and girl squirmed out of his reach before returning to tackle the brunet in a hug.
"Tsuna we'll miss you!" "Tsuna-nii be careful!" "Have a good trip!" The three babbled at the same time as they squeezed their older brother figure to death. They made sure to say their farewells effusively enough since Tsuna already needed to head to the airport.
"Alright, alright! Go to class already!" The oldest of the four laughed as he pried little hands and arms off him.
As the brunet made sure all three kids entered the school, Tsuna smiled to himself with a giddy sort of joy.
In three hours!
In three hours his plane would be departing!
(x)
James Abrami was a twenty-year old male with a mess of a heritage. His English name contrasted greatly with his Scottish looks and his Italian birthplace. Not to mention he most likely had relatives all across Europe.
Back to the point, the Scottish-looking redhead had been on an investigation-driven trip to Namimori Japan; wanting to meet a doctor in the medical field for a thesis of his. Unbeknown to his girlfriend he had also taken advantage of his trip to buy a ring.
Yes, upon returning to Sicily he was going to propose to Bella!
The diamond-ring case nestled snuggly against his thigh, the cheerful redhead tried his best to curb his grin as he waited in the airport.
Two hours and forty-nine minutes and he'd be in the plane, heading home.
Fourteen hours from now and he could kiss Bella hello…
(x)
Hana Kurokawa had entered an exchange-student program of her school for the first time, having been convinced by her best friend and the latest pictures of Sicily she had seen in the web.
The black-haired teen re-checked her luggage for the umpteenth time as her mother raced them to the airport.
One hour and she still had to go through customs. She hoped she made it in time.
(x)
The lithe framed girl that sat in silence at the back of the airplane was called Nagi. The one-eyed girl was nervously texting his uncle whom she was now going to be living with. The purple-haired child had just been through her parents' divorce and her uncle had offered a place for her there. She had practically jumped at the opportunity, not minding the fact that she had never flown before, much less spend hours on end in a plane.
Nagi hoped whoever sat beside her wouldn't be too bad though.
(x)
Nezu Dohachiro sighed once more, his stomach settling once the airplane stabilized in a horizontal position oh-so-high off the ground. He discreetly looked around and his face soured every so slightly at seeing how many brats were on board-
The middle-aged man mentally chastised himself at the thought. He had cheated and became a teacher with no credentials once, but once he had been discovered, Nezu at first had fumed at the fact before despairing. What was he going to do? He had thought, as he leafed through his former student's papers and found what they all were striving for. So many wishes and futures and dreams had made something inside the man spark to life.
And so he had tried to make a path for himself, just like them, even if a bit older. A kind man had noticed him and he was currently on his way to a mentorship with said person.
As the former teacher sank back in his seat with a reassured sigh, the brunet that had shrunk out of the way when he noticed Nezu relaxed as well. Tsuna was not sure how would Nezu take seeing the one who had basically tattled on him. Surely not good.
Tsuna glanced one last time at the man –to make sure he wouldn't turn— before he turned to gaze at the ocean far far below them. As the sun started to set somewhere to his right where he couldn't see it, both the sky and the sea started to darken in turn. Mesmerized by the view, the student forgot about his twisting stomach and didn't notice the flight attendant calling him.
"-Sir?" Tsuna's neck snapped around, only for his face to heat at the slightly annoyed look on the English-speaking blonde woman. The uniform-decked lady pointed to the cart she was bringing. "Would you care for anything to drink?"
The young male was suddenly glad he had been working extra hard in his English classes. "I uh… Orange juice?"
The woman's features relaxed as a smile tipped her lips to Tsuna's mortification. Had he spoken wrongly or something? Oh no, had he said something ridiculous? He mussed as he lowered his tray in silence.
"Here you go." The blonde set the cup down before pushing the cart to the next set of seats.
(y)
James sipped at his coffee, trying to ignore the slight tang of disgust airplane-drinks always seemed to bring. His eyes trailed the crossword puzzle he had gotten out and at finding another word he uncapped his pen and jotted the word down. From his rear-sight he noticed his fellow passenger shyly giving the crossword a quick look in curiosity. The red-haired man slowly inclined his head, managing to catch her gaze before the bashful girl averted her gaze, shrinking in on herself.
Feeling a bit paternal, the man smiled at her when she glanced at him again and then looked at the crossword, moving it a little towards her.
"Would it bother you greatly to help me with this? I must say I find it too difficult for me." The girl's single visible violet eye widened in surprise before a blush surfaced on her face. Before the shyness could win over her, James prompted her by introducing himself.
"Sorry, my name is James, James Abrami. Don't pay attention to my name, I'm Italian. Nice to meet you." He then semi-bowed in the Japanese-way. The girl lowered her gaze before speaking.
"I-I'm Nagi…" Here her face dropped a little, before she forged on, "Right now, just Nagi. Nice to meet you James-san."
"Alright, Nagi-san. What do you say about that crossword?" James said; here the girl smiled a little before nodding. And they set off to work.
(y)
Hana looked up from her book when she felt a soft pressure on her right shoulder. She blinked at the dozing child that had slid sideways. Normally she wasn't one to like little kids, but this girl, Yuni Giglio Nero, had been very polite and didn't whine a single time since she had sat beside the high school student.
The older female merely rolled her eyes, made sure the other wasn't hurting her neck before returning to her lecture. She had already turned on her reading light overhead, as it had grown too dark soon. She was about to submerge herself in the middle of a drama before her attention was once again diverted when a passenger noisily stood up and made his way to the front—most likely to the bathroom.
For some reason, dread started pooling in her stomach.
(y)
Tsuna's seatmate had ended up being a black young adult who had been quick to doze off before Tsuna had had a chance to present himself— though he was thankful that he hadn't been awake to see Tsuna's embarrassing tries at English.
The man had been quick to wake up however, once the man that had been walking to the front stopped in the division to the first class, and started to shout about him being a terrorist and having hidden a bomb somewhere in the plane.
Cries and shouts had been quick to suffocate the air, waking up most if not all of the passengers. Tsuna, after the initial scare, had promptly entered in shock, as he detachedly watched Nezu-sensei demand proof from the man at the front in a shaky voice.
"That's right! You're lying! There's no bomb!" Someone else in the back yelled and the present terrorist merely shrugged with a twisted grin.
"Is that so? Well, we'll know soon enough, won't we?"
"What do you want?" The black man sitting beside Tsuna spoke, fear written all over him, even as many others jumped to their feet to apprehend the extremist.
The white man, already sporting a split lip smiled as the words managed to resound all over the plane.
As the cacophony of fear reached a crescendo, the intercom came to life and their captain spoke in a firm tone.
"I need everyone to calm down this instant. Could some gentlemen be so helpful as to keep the terrorist immobile? Please get out of him the placement of the explosives. Dear Nancy and Gloria, please do me the favor of checking every single compartment. If you could pick some volunteers to help, that-that would be great. Everyone else, please remain seated."
Hana would have wanted to raise a hand to help but both her own fear and the shaky death-grip Yuni had on her arm kept her grounded. As the livid staff and the volunteers started sweeping in search of the presumed bomb from the back to the front, Hana felt the plane starting to descend as well as shift to a particular angle. The raven licked her lips, grasping the oh-so-small girl's hand before managing a weak smile in her direction.
"E-everything's going to be alright, Y-Yuni-chan…"
Watery eyes stare at her, nodding mutely as tears streamed down her face in silence. Instead of breaking down crying, the girl bent over and started scanning her seat's underside, pulling out the safety equipment. Hana's chest felt a surge of something at that before squeezing the girl's shoulder and following her example and searching from their spot. Only some of the rest of the sitting crew followed their actions with shaky hands and dropped tears.
(y)
James did his best to comfort the young girl bawling her eyes out in fearpanicdread, whispering words of comfort he had trouble believing himself. He felt sick as the plane lurched even lower probably following some sort of protocol— or planning on water-landing. The redhead looked down to the engagement ring's velvety box in Nagi's trembling hands since he had been showing it off to her when the terrorist had made himself noticed.
James suppressed a cry at picturing his dear, dear Bella's face. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to, but the thought emerged nonetheless-
Would he ever see her again?
(z)
A tense lull had fallen over the whole plane, with the muffled sounds of people crying echoing everywhere. Tsuna braced himself against a seat as a more violent turbulence shook the plane —which was still still diving, trying to go down down.
Tsuna then stepped on a seat to push himself up to scan the upper levels of the luggage compartment. He idly thought he surely must look ridiculous but he was too out of it, too afraid to really pay much attention to that. After being shaken out of his semi-shocked state via a slap by his seatmate, Tsuna had suddenly found himself being one of the volunteers, seriously pushing himself to his best, straining his eyes to see something, his ears to hear something, preparing to shout a warning.
A different kind of tremor started with a very different noise overpowering everything else. Tsuna's tears were wiped away and Tsuna saw a black figure jumping to push him down and the pain blossomed as he hit the ground and he thought he was hearing something and that it must be Lambo, his dear brother Lambo playing a trick on him, placing another toy in his way and that his mother would get angry at them for being so lou-
Neither Hana nor Yuni had found anything and had returned to clutching each other in a comforting way. Yuni was trembling violently against her and Hana thought that the only reason she wasn't doing the same was precisely because the barely ten year old girl needed someone to reassure her.
"Yuni-chan, come one girl, be strong. They will find that bomb. Tell me instead, what is it you want to do once we land in Italy? I'm going t-there for studies, you see?" A sob interrupted her words, before she gulped and forged on, "I'm going to study for a semester and-and learn a lot, and Kyoko-chan told me to send her pictures because she always thought Sicily was such a pretty place, and she wants to visit it-"A deafening silent outburst shut her up and Hana squeezed the other girl closer to her in a way that surely must be painful. Why was this happening to them?
Nagi cried in James-san shirt even as part of herself wanted to console the older male. "James-san, you're going to be alright. Bella-san is waiting for you so you'll come out of this alive. God won't let you g-go just like that, right?" She managed to whisper, eliciting a chocked off sob from him.
(X)
For reasons unknown yet, the airplane Kingfisher 564 never reached its destination. The quite big crowd awaiting their sons, daughters, uncles, disciples, lovers, they were all notified of the single transmission that managed to reach the tower of communication.
"…-plosive…far…forced…"
When the new emerged that the plane had been taken out, its remains scattered in the vast ocean, Bella broke down crying, as well as most of the still waiting crowd.
Several days later, the whole story started to emerge and they all discovered, that it had been a terrorist assault. The black box had been retrieved but…
No survivors were found. In the flight with 276 passengers, not one had survived. Old men, young girls, studying teens, married couples, recent mothers, working people, people that tried to survive, that tried to keep everyone alive.
The terrorist had spared no one and they all had died in that plane.
Was this what life was worth?
Was this what James's life amounted too?
Were Nezu's sins too condemning for him to live on?
Was 1880 dollars the price for Nagi's life?
Life is precious. Terrorist and similar monsters take away what isn't theirs as if it were some sort of prize. Lives are lost all the time by accidents, by murders, by attempts by suicides and more.
But the thing is, life has no price. The lives that were lost are lost forever in this world.
Pray for the hearts that stopped beating before their time.
"The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... "
AN
Last line is a quote from brainyquotes dot com. The terrorist attack was made-up of course since I didn't want to unintentionally offend someone but I'd like to honor all lives lost in every attack. Thank you for reading. Now I can silently panic as I haven't done my homework XD. Ciao