I hate the rain, it soaks through everything, every crack, every crevice, and chills me to the bone. But it does have its benefits, I suppose, it prevents the enemy from seeing your tears. Of course that doesn't mean that I still want to be standing in it, even now the rain causes me to return to the battlefield, the battlefield that took everything away from me, and left me a broken, hollow girl.
Pushing these thoughts to the back of my mind, I decided to enter café in front of me. Standing out in the rain all day and night wouldn't accomplish anything. The atmosphere of the café was as usual, dank and dreary without a dash of hope anywhere. I shook myself off in the doorway, not wanting to take the rain drops in with me, and further my lament. I walked up to the barstool and with a jump reached the top, and quickly spun around. Even after all these years my height had never changed, which left me at a disadvantage, the world wasn't built for us destroyers. I removed my hat, and set it in front of me, before flagging the waitress over.
"Oh Verniy!" the waitress shouted with a smile trying in vain in her own way to lighten the dark mood that permeated the air.
"Hey Houshou", I mumbled not even raising my eyes. After the war, those of us who remained had to take new jobs, to try and live in the peace that we helped to create. Some of us like Houshou, were able to adapt quite well, others weren't able to handle the peace that they had desired so much. But at least they survived.
After noticing my pause, Houshou finally spoke up. "What would you like to order sweetie?"
I looked up, and for the first time really paid attention to Houshou's face, it showed obvious signs of stress, and her eyes, were the eyes of someone who had seen too much. I imagine my eyes look the same. I rarely ever look in my mirror anymore.
"I'll take the usual, a large helping of bauxite, if you will." I tried to normalize my voice, and use the tone that so often filled my mouth when I was with my family.
Houshou quietly brought me my bauxite, and scampered off to help another customer. Leaving me alone with my thoughts, a place I was very familiar with.
As I sat staring into my bauxite I wondered where it all went wrong, it seems just like yesterday that I was at home lounging around with my sisters, without a care in the world.
"Moooooooom!" the shrill cry filled the air. My eldest sister Akatsuki always did have a strong voice, and after having such a cutting voice fill the air, our mother had to burst into the room and see what was going on.
"The twins are fighting again. I figured as the Elder Sister, it was my job to try and stop the situation from escalating." Akatsuki said very matter of factly.
"Ah yes, leave it to their big sister to worry about their safety!" Mom gestured warmly and quietly rubbed Akatsuki's hair, which resulted in a look of happiness that quickly shifted into one of disgust.
"I'm not a kid anymore, mom! You don't need to give me such praise." Akatsuki said before quickly turning her head. Her cheeks were flushed, my sister was never very good at letting people know her true intentions, especially when it came down to acting like a child.
Mom looked around the room, and noticed the twins, Ikazuchi, and Inazuma wrestling on the floor. It seemed that Inazuma had a toy sailboat, and Ikazuchi thought it was her turn, so she tackled her twin.
Mom picked up Ikazuchi who had succeeding in taking the toy away from Inazuma who began to cry on the floor. Ikazuchi seemed nonplussed by this fact as she had become the victor. She hoisted the toy over her head which caused the scene to become even more comical considering that our mother had placed Ikazuchi over her shoulder.
"You should try and share the toy, play games that allow you both to be able to play with it. If not I'll take it away and give it to Hibiki!" Mom said with a knowing smile. Inazuma stopped crying, and Ikazuchi became quiet as well, which was a very strange occurrence by any account.
I was sitting in the corner of the room not saying a word. I was never one to speak very much, and I suppose that is something that has followed me even to this day. Not much changed when my name was changed from Hibiki to Verniy.
Despite the fact that all this craziness was going on, I felt content. I couldn't really control myself, and before I knew it, I was beginning to chuckle. The laughs came harder the more I thought about the chaotic life I lived. Although I was constantly surrounded by conflict, and arguments among my elder sisters, I was happy with the life I was living, and I never wanted it to change.
Mom loved all of us equally, I know all parents say stuff like that, but my mother lived it. She would always spend time with us either altogether, or one on one depending on whether we wanted to or not.
Our father was never in the picture. Mom often said that he was an Admiral, and she was one of the ships who worked under him. They had fallen in love, and decided to get married. They were able to live in peace after their service was up, and together they bought the house we lived in growing up.
However, shortly after I was born, our father was recalled into the Navy, and he never returned. Mom would never give us the details, but she kept a picture of him in her bedroom, and would gently caress his face, with a forlorn look in her eye. Judging by the way she treated the photo as a semi-religious artifact, my sisters, and I concluded that he was probably no longer alive. I never really felt saddened by this fact because I never really got to know him.
I know that children are supposed to feel saddened by the destruction of their family, but how could I feel emotion for a man I had never known? I would often catch mom crying while looking at his photo. My heart ached for her, but never for the man in the photo.
Only Akatsuki really remembered him, a fact that she would very rarely allow us to forget. She would boast about it when we were together and out of the prying ears of mom.
"I remember him", she said full of pride, putting extra emphasis on the I, "he was a man of about medium height and he kept his hair short. He was very clean cut, and proper looking, and had very kind eyes."
Ikazuchi, and Inazuma ate up her accounts. I sat to the side and let her speak, I knew it stroked her ego, even though she was only recounting the details in the picture that I would often catch her sneaking looks at. I knew that she was unable to really feel any emotion in his demise as well, but she acted like she did to try and keep up her image of the "eldest sister." I didn't want to crush her dreams, I knew that was how she coped with the stresses, and lack of a father figure.
Ikazuchi and Inazuma always wanted to hear about father, not because of a desire to establish an emotional connection with him, but largely to try and figure out who inherited what features from him.
It wasn't uncommon to hear arguments between the two of them.
"Well I got his height!" Ikazuchi would shout loudly while standing on her tip toes to try and appear taller than Inazuma.
"Umm…ummm well I got his eyes…" Inazuma trailed off, and shifted her eyes away. She seemed embarrassed to be claiming that she inherited our fathers, "kind eyes". But then again, Inazuma was always so shy, the total opposite of her twin sister, who would rarely stop talking and bouncing off the walls, both figuratively, and literally.
I often enjoyed coming up behind them and shouted, "Well I got his prim and proper looks!" This wasn't really a bold claim, because most people I had met throughout my life often said that I looked like a very elegant person more so than my sisters. I loved interacting with my family, we were always incredibly close.
I would rarely speak up, it wasn't that I was shy like Inazuma, I just didn't usually have anything worth saying. I would keep everything to myself.
Then the day came when everything changed. It started with one attack, and before long my family was pulled into a conflict that we had no chance of surviving, a conflict that resulted in the decimation of over half the world's population.