She looks out the window at the destruction. Houses in pieces, windows in cars shattered, smoke in the distance spiraling into the sky. She blinks and a single tear slides down her face as she turns and leaves the apartment.
"How could this have happened?" she thinks out loud, a habit she picked up from her father.
She looks around her as she walks down the street, surveying the damage.
"It's even worse when you're in the thick of it," she mumbles, a nail puncturing her shoe.
She kneels down and tries to pull the nail out, to no avail. A shadow approaches her and she looks up quickly.
"Freya?" the shadow says.
Immediately, she's on the move. She starts running in the opposite direction of the mysterious figure who knew her name.
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Panting, Freya rests at the broken down building that used to be Yamatani Bookstore, her hideaway when things started getting bad.
"I wonder how it fared," she whispers.
Stepping inside, her stomach clenches at the ruin that was her favorite place. Bookcases toppled and books half burned, if not completely destroyed, litter the store. She trudges through the mess and almost instantly trips and falls.
"Ow!" she cries, putting her hand to her now-bruised cheek.
As she sits up, she sees a familiar looking corner of a book poking out of under a collapsed beam. She crawls over and tugs the book out gently. Blowing on the cover to remove the dust, she gasps at the title.
"'A City With No People,'" she says. "One of mother's books."
A crunching noise alerts her of an intruder and she quickly hides behind a bookcase that managed to stay upright.
"Freya?" a voice calls out.
Startled, she quickly stifles her breathing in her scarf, recognizing the voice from the street.
"Freya," the voice says again. "Come out, it's me."
Puzzled, she chances a peek around the corner. The person is facing away from her, peering under a table with two broken legs.
"Don't you remember me?" the voice continues, now turning around. "You used to play at my house with Yuzuki."
A flood of memories quickly surfaces and Freya, so surprised, loses her footing and falls forward into a pile of books.
The person, seeing her fall, rushes to help her out of the clutter. She coughs at all the dust and quickly stands up, facing the man. His black hair falls in front of his dark brown eyes, covering most of his face, but does not hide the deep intelligence kept locked away inside the mind.
"Minoru?" she gasps, almost hesitantly.
He looks relieved and smiles. "Yes!"
She releases her pent up air and throws herself into his arms.
"I was so scared!" she says. "I didn't know who you were!"
"That's what I figured," he replies, holding her tightly.
Letting go of each other, they stand at arms length. She looks at him in slight puzzlement and he looks at her, obviously at ease.
"What…"
A loud crash interrupts her and she turns at the sound. The front of the store has completely collapsed and the beams closet to them start cracking loudly.
"Come on," she shouts, grabbing his arm.
She runs towards the back of the store as the first beams snap in half making the roof sink a few inches. Seeing the back door barred by a single bookcase, she moves to start pushing it. Minoru pulls her back and grabs a round object from his small pack.
"Get behind me!" he cries, throwing the ball.
The bookshelf, along with half the back wall, explodes into flames and he pulls her throw them. As they clear the building, the turn to watch. The roof holds for a moment and then caves in, making the flames leap higher.
As sirens sound in the distance, Minoru reaches for Freya's hand. She clasps it and her eyes fill with tears.
"Let's go," he says, and leads her away.