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Seita brought his hand to his beloved Setsuko's mouth like a bird flying to its nest. "I have grown up, brother! Do not treat me like that." said Setsuko, pouting. Seita giggled, "Grown up? My, my, the one in front of me was once a little whiny girl!" In frustration and denial, Setsuko crossed her arms. "Okay, honey, okay. I am sorry Setsuko, but we only have a quarter loaf for the whole day... Now, open wide." Seita looked straight into his inexperienced sister's eyes. The cruelty of the world had not yet beheld by her, that young little fellow...
Those gruesome times had confiscated the two's beautiful life clad with joy, together with their parents and everything. Every single day and night, Seita would hold her sister tightly in his arms, and they would pray that those loud unceasing explosion noises outside their cavern were the blasts of joy initiated by the firing of mesmerizing fireworks, denoting victory against the Allied Powers.
Rather than the sounds of bombs expelled, hitting the earth of Kobe.
It did not last long, the children's pitiful home. That night, the thumps of the soldiers on the march could be heard nearing the cavern. Seita knew, it was time to leave and start running away again as if he and his sister were fugitives.
"Quick, Setsuko! They are coming!" Seita uttered in a panic but noiseless voice. He bended his knees to piggyback Setsuko who was still munching her last bite of bread. Seita blew the candles lighting up the cavern. In the darkness, they tried to escape before...
"Going somewhere?" Standing ostentatiously at the lip of the cavern, a smirking soldier could be seen under the moonlight. "Uhh...We..." There were no other escape routes, the soldier struck the innocent children with his rifle to the ground. Kneeling, Setsuko started to burst into tears, "Brother, I am scared..." Seita held her to his chest, "No worries honey, you have grown up, remember? No matter what happens, I will always, always be there for you." Seita tousled Setsuko's hair and gave an encouraging smile. However Setsuko could feel, that smile was also interwoven with boundless fear. "Oh God! Stop with all those shitty touchy-feely love you guys got there." The soldier poked hard the children's heads and shoved their faces into the soil.
Be grateful, they should, because that was the last time they would ever touch Kobe's infertile yet memorable earth. They were then brought to a detention prison, a place they actually lived and breathed at a very young, inappropriate age. Seita was holding tight his sister's hand all along and this incomprehensibly infuriated the warden, so he purposely separated the children into two cells, facing each other. What fun would he get? Even Einstein would wonder.
Every night like always, Seita would tell Setsuko the same thing. Though starting from now on, they were physically separated, but not their souls. And, as the aftermath, Seita's love for his sister grew to that extent he desperately wished his sister to depart from this immortally cruel life as soon as possible. He did not want her to hear these disturbing distressing bombing and gunshots sounds anymore. He wanted Setsuko to die.
"BROTHER!"
Seita accidentally fell asleep for he was too tired. Setsuko's alarming scream woke him up in anxiety. He turned his eyes to his sister's cell in front of him. His eyes...enlarged.
"SETSUKO! SETSUKO!" Seita grabbed the human cage, quaking the iron bars with all his might. C'est la vie. While the brother struggled to break the bars, the sister trembled profoundly. Three soldiers entered her cell with such disgusting expression. Like starving wolves.
Whenever Seita yelled at them and ordered them to stop, they would just curl their lips. Just for the hell of it, that was the reason. Not even for a second, Seita stopped to take a breath or anything. He would quake and quake the invincible bars wishing to save her sister from being abused before his eyes.
Twisting the plot to a happy ending in a remorseful way, one day, an unknown group sabotaged the Allied Powers and the prison was set in fire in a blink of an eye. The wardens and guards could not put out the blazing fire, smoke was devouring every breathable air particles. Cruelty, one after another, all of Kobe's enemies evacuated themselves , leaving behind the Japanese prisoners.
The second Setsuko fell down, unconscious due to the suffocating smoke, Seita noticed that the warden happened to drop the keys in front of his cell. Seita used this opportunity to unlock his and save Setsuko.
A twist happened. Even from inside the prison, he could hear people screaming, gunshots and every distressing sound still playing. If one went outside, he would be stuck in a war and suffer. If one stayed, he would just...die.
"I am sorry Setsuko. You suffered enough. The least I can do now is, to leave you here, so that, the next time you open your eyes, you will be in heaven. That would be the happiest moment in my life, no more fears and worries for you, my dearest Setsuko."