This is based off the story 'My brother Sam is dead', where times are harsh and war between the British and the patriots broke out. This oneshot has almost nothing to do with the plot, just the cruelty and harshness of the war.
If you do not know when that happened or why it happened, please refrain from reading this. You are probably too young to understand.
Neve wandered around, trying to find a food dealer in the gloomy area.
Civil war broke out not long ago, and since then places to buy food were very scarce, and almost everyone was skinny, their skin clinging to their bones. Neve was very careful not to look too neat, because people would kill you and take your possessions. Even wearing a clean shirt was considered a luxury.
Neve sighed, sitting on a pile of worn out bricks and looked around. The place was barren, almost everyone had gone into hiding. It smelled like rotting blood, and gunshots could be heard in the distance. All the buildings were slowly crumbled, if not already obliterated by bombs. Neve grunted, getting up and giving up on scavenging for food, and went home on an empty stomach.
As Neve made his way home, he did his best to avoid the rotting corpses. All of the dead bodies looked similar, skinny, dirty clothes, looking like teenagers or adults, but one caught his eye.
A very small blue haired boy, on the ground, clearly dead. His death seemed recent, the skin not rotting. Neve felt the sight pulling at his heart strings. Another child who would never grow up to see the world. He bent over the blueberry starting to mourn for the poor boy, tears dripping on the boy's closed eyes, whispering a prayer that the boy would be safe in the heavens above.
Realizing that the sun was starting to set, he got up, weakened by all the crying, and said one last goodbye to the dead child before staggering to his home.
Neve gently opened the door, not wanting to break it. The door was starting to become fragile.
"I'm ho-" Neve stopped in mid sentence to gape at the sight in front of him, his eyes widening in horror.
His mother, the only relative of his that was still alive, was dying on the floor, blood pooling on the concrete ground.
"Mother!" Neve cried, running over to the woman, and lifting her head up.
"Mother! Please, speak to me!" He sobbed.
"Phillip.."
Neve opened his watery eyes. His mother was alive. She smiled.
"I'm so glad that you're safe.." She whispered, cupping his face gently, her breath smelling like fresh blood.
"Mother... Don't talk. Save your strength." Neve croaked, trying to speak through the large lump in his throat, taking off his torn shirt and trying to wipe the wound, but a shaky hand clasped on his wrist, and he looked at his mother, confused.
"No, Neve. Don't worry about me." She whispered. "Do not let this bring you down."
"What happened here?" Neve agonized, looking into her eyes desperately.
"They took everything. The rug, the bowls. Everything." She explained weakly. Neve could not widen his eyes because his eye muscles ached from weeping, so he just squeezed his eyes shut, forcing more tears to fall out.
His mother gave him a gentle smile and put a finger to his lips. "Shh, don't cry."
"Mother..." He breathed.
She gave him a warm smile. "You said you've been to the forest before?"
Neve nodded.
"Tell me about it."
Neve started describing the forest, the rich green of the leaves hanging over his head, bright colored fruits on trees, and filled with wildlife, nothing like the miserable urban dump.
"And the sunset was beautiful-" Neve was interrupted by his mother putting a gentle finger on his lips again.
"Neve..." she whispered harshly, her sides shaking as if she was forcing out the words. "Go far away from this place.. Go to.. The forest."
With that, her eyes closed and her hand drooped as her body grew heavier. Neve slumped his head, gently placing his dead mother down, starting to weep again, this time his heart feeling like it was being slapped by a hot coal.
He stopped weeping because he was now becoming tired by fatigue, his eyes and nose swollen and puffy, and he got up. There was nothing to pack, because everything was gone.
Neve suddenly remembered his blanket he received when he was a small baby.
He had always kept it hidden under a wooden plank, and he went to the same location, gently lifting up the piece of wood in the ground, afraid that his last treasure would be gone.
It was still there.
Neve sighed in relief, picking up the blanket and opening the door gently. It was night, a time where almost no one came out everyone feared that they would get killed. However, only Neve knew that he had no problem because since everyone feared that they would die in the shadows, no one would come out, and he silently slipped into the shadows, his silhouette lined by the gentle shine of the moon.
Neve arrived at the forest, finding some branches and propping up his large blanket so it made a tent, and he started collecting the surrounding twigs and branches to try and make a fire.
I will live for you, mother. And someday, I will stop this war.
ZzZzZzZ
It had now been seven years since Neve lost his mother, making a home in a cabin in the woods after finally ending the brutal civil war. He glanced at his blanket on the bed, hugging it, the now worn out blanket smelling like himself and wildlife.
Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. This surprised Neve. He usually never got visitors, and he opened the door, nearly forgetting how to breathe.
A boy with blue hair was standing at the door.
And he looked exactly like the little boy that died seven years ago.
"Who are you?" He interrogated, narrowing his eyes.
"My name is Sendou Aichi. You are Phillip Neve, I presume?" He responded, cocking his head.
I allowed him inside, to let himself explain why he had come. I found out he was the savior of the world, the one who stopped Link Joker. He was recruiting four strong fighters, and he had already recruited my good friend and rival, Olivier Gaillard.
He offered his hand, giving me a gentle smile. I stiffened.
It was like the smile of my mother.
I just stared at his palm, unsure what to do. I didn't want to go and leave my country, but something was telling me to take his hand.
And so I took it, and I felt like I reunited with my mother once again.