"You useless little shit, look what you've done!" A tall woman with long blonde hair, acne scars, and deep purple bags under her tired eyes yelled. She pointed to the white porcelain fragments of a shattered coffee mug.
A scared little boy with golden hair that matched his eyes stood cowering in front of the cruel woman he called his mother. He hadn't meant to knock the mug off the table; he had been trying to reach his cereal.
She hit him. "What are you gonna do about this?" She continued to point to the mug, them hit him again, her fists moving quickly and powerfully at him. He winced with every punch, too scared to move. If he tried to dodge, she would only become angrier and hit harder.
She stopped and stomped out of the room, walking into the bathroom. He winced when she slammed the door. Taking one last look at the stained porcelain pieces, he grabbed the spare keys off the hook and ran out the front door, carefully closing and locking it without making a sound.
He ran out of the apartment building and down the street to the park, keeping his head down and the hood of his thin white jacket over it. He hoped his mother wouldn't recognize him if she looked out the window. If she saw where he was going, she would chase him down and beat him again.
He didn't stop until he was hidden behind a tree, his arms and legs throbbing with pain. Her punches would leave more bruises on his fragile, pale skin. He would have to hide them again. e couldn't let anybody know about his mother.
Kano felt tears streaming down his face. He deserved the beatings, he thought. He made so many mistakes. He just couldn't do anything right.
"Mph." The short, high-pitched cry interrupted his thoughts. Wiping the tears off his face, he leaned around the trunk of the tree, carefully peering out. The only other person in the park was a little girl who seemed to be a few years older than him. She had short brown hair and was wearing a red scarf despite the warm breeze that flew through the park. She was playing on horizontal balance bars, trying to hold herself up. Each time she fell, she landed with a thump and a soft "Mph."
Kano watched her fall one more time before taking action. He wanted to help her, to hold her up so she wouldn't get hurt. He wanted to prove he isn't useless after all.
He ran forward, heading towards her. The sand was soft beneath his feet; his tennis shoes sinking easily into the ground. He was unbalanced, unable to find proper footing and he ran. He started to lean further and further forward until his right slipped from beneath him and he fell to the ground, his bruised knees hitting the ground at the same time as his throbbing red hands.
Tears came back to his eyes, threatening to spill out as he sat on the ground. He really was useless; he couldn't even help someone who was struggling. He couldn't do anything. Why was he even alive?
"You alright ?" The voice matched the high-pitched cries he had heard until a few seconds ago. A shadow cast over the ground in front of him, darkening the sand at his fingers.
He looked up. A red string hung directly in front of his face, connected to the edge of the scarf being worn by the young girl he had seen earlier. Her brown hair hung in front of her eyes. He could barely tell that their color matched her brown locks.
She held out a small, thin hand. "You okay?" She repeated.
Kano panicked. He looked so lame having fallen on his butt like that! A laugh came out, stammering and nervous. "Yeah, yeah, I was just practicing a super skill that can defeat bad guys in one strike." STUPID. Why did he say that? Why did he say something so dumb?! She would laugh at him, mock him, make fun of him. She would call him dumb. He deserved that too.
"OOH, that's cool!" She said, smiling at him and still holding out her hand. She was serious; she really believed him. She believed his lie. He had successfully deceived her... Was he good at deceiving people?
He took her hand, wrapping his cold fingers around her warm, thin ones. She pulled him upwards, taking a step back to help him stand. He let go of her hand once both his feet were on the uneven ground.
She didn't drop it. "Ayano Tateyana." She said, introducing herself. She smiled at him, an innocent smile that proved she knew nothing of the cruelty of the rest of the world.
"Shuuya Kano." he responded, taking her hand and shaking it with a smile that mirrored hers.
She turned around and looked towards the entrance of the park. A man stood there, waiting for her, smiling. "I gotta go!" She said, facing Kano again with a joyful expression. "It was nice meeting you!" She started running towards the entrance. Standing in front of the man, she turned around and yelled, "See you soon Shuuya-kun!" She waved, not waiting for him to wave back before turning around and heading in the direction opposite from where he had come.
He waited for her to be long gone before leaving the park and heading off in the same direction.
He walked until he reached a small convenience store. The automatic doors opened to greet him, allowing access to the many aisles of snacks and fresh bento boxes. Towards the back were aisles of shelves stocked with random items from plates to chopsticks to cups. He headed for the shelves lined with coffee mugs.
The mug he had broken was s plain white one, stained by years of coffee. He picked out a clean, brand-new one. He carefully hooked the finger of his right hand around the handle of the mug. He would not break this one. He walked slowly towards the counter and put the mug down. The teenage girl at the cash register gave him a strange look before scanning the mug. He probably looked nervous or she thought he was too young to be out buying mugs by himself.
"That'll be three hundred yen." She said, an apathetic expression now residing on her face. Her long black hair was tied into a ponytail behind her head. She was impatiently tapping her fingers on the counter as she waited for Kano to pull coins out of his pocket. His mother never gave him any allowance so the only money he had was that which he had found on the ground going and coming from school. He barely had enough to buy the mug. The teenager, clearly annoyed, droned out a "Thank you. Please come again." while she put the mug in a bag and sealed it with a "Paid." sticker.
He walked home very carefully, staring at his feet and holding the mug in both of his hands. He walked up the stairs of the apartment, one step at a time, releasing the mug with one hand so he could hold onto the railing.
When he arrived on his floor, there was only a short distance left to his apartment. If he made it that far, he was safe. His mother would forgive him. Maybe she would even be happy.
He pulled his keys out of his pocket before realizing the door was open. His mother must have come home early. She was supposed to work until late at night, but if she was sick, she came home early. He would make her a cup of her favorite coffee in the new mug. That would make her happy.
He walked in and the mug shattered on the floor for the second time. His mother was lying on the floor, her hands bound behind her back by a think rope. Her thick blonde hair was a tangled mess, lying in a ring on the ground around her head. A dark bruise was forming around her right eye.
She looked up when she heard him open the door. Her muffled screams sound like protests. She desperately tries to warn him, to get him to leave.
He doesn't. He runs to her, pulling the black gag off her mouth. "Get out of here!" she whispers harshly, struggling to get away from him. She knows she needs to push him away, to scare him off and get him to leave, otherwise he'll get hurt. Despite being useless, he's still her son. She doesn't want to outlive him. "Go, now!" She glares at him, trying to look as hateful and menacing as possible.
Kano got up, scared. He didn't want to be hit again, especially not now that he broke another mug. He was going to make her happy, but then he dropped it. He dropped his one chance at doing something nice for his mother.
He would not lose the chance when it came around once more.
As he was walking backwards, slowly, away from his mother while still looking at her to see if she would change her mind, he saw his chance. A large, dark shape moved in his peripheral vision. He turned towards it, startled. He hadn't even thought of why his mother was tied up or who could have hurt her. He had been so focused on trying to help her that he hadn't even thought of the danger level of his presence in the apartment.
The shape turned out to be a man, dressed in a large, ill-fitting black shirt. He wore baggy pants and a Halloween mask resembling Freddy Krueger. His hair was long and frizzy, though that appeared to be a wig.
Kano stared, frightened. There was a monster in his apartment. The hideous monster had hurt his mother. The hideous monster was stuffing his mother's jewelry into a bag.
The monster was stealing his mother's jewelry. It was taking away the small happiness his mother had. Every time she had saved up enough to buy a necklace or bracelet she really loved, she would be so happy. She would come home wearing a smile and she would ruffle his hair, telling him that hard work paid off. Those were the happiest days in his life. Those were the only days his mother loved him.
He wouldn't let the monster take those days away.
Despite his mother yelling at him to leave, he ran towards the monster, gathering up all the courage he could. The monster turned to face him as he ran, alerted by the screams coming from the woman he had gagged and bound only three minutes earlier.
The monster stared at the little boy running at him. What a bother.
He pulled out a knife, trying to scare the kid away before he could get any closer.
Kano kept running. He knew he could dodge a hit from the monster. He had gotten good at predicting his mother's movements. He had also gotten good at ignoring her voice when she shouted abuse at him. He could barely here her screams of protest as he disappeared into the room with the robber.
Noticing that the knife did nothing, the robber resorted to pushing Kano away, throwing him back and getting him out of the room. Kano couldn't dodge the large blow to his stomach. He flew backwards through the doorway and hit the ground on his side, crushing his arm. He heard a loud CRACK and a searing pain spread through his arm, reaching all the way up his shoulder to his neck. He felt as though he had caught on fire.
Kano's screams drowned out his mother's voice. He couldn't control his vocal chords.
"SHUT UP YOU DAMN BRAT!" the robber said, clearly irritated by the high-pitched shrieking. Kano couldn't. His mouth stayed wide open, screams escaping one at a time.
Even as the robber came towards him, knife out, the blade glinting in the sunlight, he couldn't stop. The knife got closer and closer to him. H e couldn't move; he couldn't dodge. Was he going to due here, like this? It doesn't matter; he was never more than a disappointment anyways.
He never saw her get up. He didn't see her as she stumbled a few steps with her feet tied together before lunging at him. He felt the weight of her body as she landed on his stomach, further crushing his arm. He screamed louder, the pain intensifying with each second.
His screams finally died when he saw the blood. It spurted out of her back then soaked through her shirt. A moment later it dripped on his good arm, staining his jacket crimson. His mother coughed and more blood came out.
Why? he wondered. Why did she protect him? Why is she bleeding, dying for him? He couldn't even get her jewelry back or protect her. Why would she protect a useless, incompetent idiot like him?
She said something to him, but he couldn't hear her. The knife was approaching him again, getting closer and closer to his exposed collar bone. His mother lay motionless, a weight he could not escape.
He barely felt the pain and the blade plunged into him, burying itself deep within his skin. He barely felt the warm blood slipping through his fingers as his hand moved to cover the hole left by the knife's absence.
His sight was enveloped in darkness, hissing deafening his hearing. Something coiled around his body. It tore through the hole and slithered into him.
He awoke some time later. The blood that had soaked through his shirt was still wet. He must not have been asleep long. His mother's corpse was still sprawled over him, shielding him from a danger that had long disappeared.
Why am I alive? he questioned. I was stabbed, I was bleeding; I was dying.
His stomach lurched when the stench of the blood, his and his mother's, reached his nose. He felt sick, nauseous even. He got up, pushing his mother's heavy body off him. He stumbled into the bathroom, leaning over the sink. Bile escaped out of his mouth and washed down he drain. Bile mixed with blood.
His flushed face looked up, his eyes finding the mirror.
His mother looked back at him. Her face was red and sweaty, her lips coated with bitter bile. She reeled back like Kano when she saw her reflection.
Kano reached forward. His mother did too. Their hands met on the mirror's surface, separated by the thin glass.
Kano touched his face. His mother did the same. He touched his hair. It was still short. He pulled it, watching as his mother held something invisible in the air. Her hair did not move. She seemed to be holding something at the same height as Kano held his hair.
He understood. He appeared as his mother though he was still himself physically. What he saw was only an illusion.
Those illusions would become him. They would take over his life, as would this day. This day would only foreshadow the day that would cost him everything.
