Prologue: Once Upon a Time - Lost
Dawn.
A person is on his bed staring at the circular, incandescent lamp on the ceiling. Of course it is currently off.
The only person in this room opens his eyes and shows no hint of tiredness. His eyes are wide awake as if he did not sleep a second ago.
He is a young man who looks around the age of 14 or 15 with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. One would say his facial expression looks inattentive, but that is just because he just woke up.
A very basic thought that pops up in everyone's mind at this consciousness, after disconnecting from time in a process called sleep, is 'what time is it?'
He lifts his head upwards while lying down, slightly burying his head deeper into the pillow, to take a look at the digital clock that is located on the study desk. If the head of the bed is where the pillow resides, then the desk is located beside the head of the bed.
00:9
For those who are not familiar with this time system, it may take a short while to get the right time. However, for Shimizu Keita, who always woken up in this ritual, he knows the real time is 6:00 am.
A good number of students would consider waking up at this time of day to be the worse part of the morning, giving excuses like 'just another 5 more minutes' and slips out of consciousness.
But for Keita, he is disciplined enough to not require the aide of an alarm clock to wake up. It has become part of his daily routine.
His room is neither big nor small but just right for the necessities such as a dresser, desk, chair, and bed. There is even room for an extra appliance, a medium sized LED TV. But even with all these objects placed around the room, there seems to be extra space here and there. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the room is clean; no trash, no clothes on the ground.
The room is still dark, with a faint glow of light coming from the window.
Keita gets out of his bed and turns the lights on with a remote control on the desk. He then exits his bedroom, walks straight down the hall, and enters the bathroom.
Unlike the small student dorms, he lives in an apartment with two rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. It is quite the luxury for any student.
After getting done with his morning clean up, he heads to the bedroom door located next to his bedroom door.
*Gok gok.*
"Oi Rika, it's time to get up. I am done with the bathroom."
No respond, but he knew his efforts are fruitless to begin with.
After announcing the vacancy of the bathroom, he goes to the kitchen and starts looking in the fridge for the leftover sushi from last night's dinner.
The amount of the sushi is not much though, only 6 pieces.
He peaks his head over the fridge door, exposing only his eyes.
"Oi Rika, do you want some toast?"
Still no respond; guess it is time to go wake her up.
Keita goes to the sleeping person and enters, this time without knocking.
"Geh.."
His entry is cut short as he could not decide where to move from there on.
Simply put, the room is a disaster. Magazines took refuge around the floor, DVDs and games found a bed on some clothing, a saucer with that seems like remnants of a slice of cake and an empty glass rests on the dresser, a pillow sits in front of the game console hooked to the television, and etcetera.
Simply put, the room is a disaster.
How in the world this happen?
What is surprising to Keita is not how the room got so 'disheveled', but it is-
"And she just cleaned her room yesterday. This little sister of mine…"
His sight directed at the 'thing' on the bed. That 'thing' is like a wrap with a fat middle and he could see some dark brown hair sticking out of one end.
After a sigh, he proceeds towards the rolled up human wrap on the bed and stands beside it.
"Oi Rika, it's time to wake up."
"…uunnn…" responds the human wrap.
For Keita, he knows how this will go on. He'll keep calling and calling but the result would be the same. He has to do that again.
"Ah well, I did want to share with you some cake I bought. I guess I'll just have to finish them u-"
"Cake?!"
The human wrap quickly sits up and turns to the direction of Keita. Her head to her nose is visible; everything else is wrapped up by the blanket. Her hair is quite the mess as well with a few bumps here and there.
"You have to share it with me!" said the food-item-wannabe.
Keita chuckles and stretches his hand out to her forehead and he gently pushes her head back.
"Uwa!"
"Stupid, we don't have any left. You've ate them all."
He pulls his hand back and rests it on his hip, smiling at his little sister.
By now you should already know her name. If not, then here is her name again, Shimizu Rika.
She scans around the room, turning her blanket wrapped body around, getting her bearings and information. For a person like her, she is clueless at the early hour and often wonders what time or age she is in, or wonders if this is a dream or reality. She then looks at her big brother.
"Eh, Keita-nii?
"Good morning. You better wake up, if not I'll leave you here." says the big brother as he heads out of Rika's room.
Even with that quick burst of energy, her consciousness dwindles to half as she feels the pull of sleep. "Oh…" she responds to her brother's advice.
Keita stops out of the bedroom door and turns to look at Rika again.
"By the way, do you want some toast and half boiled eggs?"
She nods while saying yes, and Keita proceeds to the kitchen.
Rika turns her whole body to the side of her bed and stand up, even though she is still wrapped in blanket. She hops towards the door, releasing a 'hut' word for every hop…
"Uah!"
…and she slips on a magazine and falls to the floor.
On the kitchen counter are some toast, half boiled egg, and a cup of milk prepared for Rika. Keita is washing his own dish after finishing his meal.
Rika skips towards the counter and stand there with her arms up, picking up the toast.
Comparing her height to Keita's, Keita is about one head taller than Rika. She has the same hair and eye color as her brother, and comparing the height of the counter to Rika, the counter's height stops slightly below Rika's neck.
She takes a bite from the toast and looks at her brother.
"Delicious~"
He turns his head far enough to see Rika enjoying the food he prepared for her and smiles. He then keeps the now clean dishes in the cupboard and goes to join Rika on the other side of the counter.
"Middle school is not too far off now, excited?"
"Mmm!" responds Rika with her mouth full.
He pets her on her head, not too hard but pushing her head down to create a nodding motion.
"My little sister is growing up and Oba-san even agreed to get you your own dorm."
Rika has crumbs on the side of her mouth and even though she is still chewing, she responds to Keita. A little unsightly perhaps, depends on the person.
"Because I am getting bigger so I need my private space."
He rocks her head in a circular motion. Rika getting a little dizzy from this motion and lets out a 'waawoo-waawoo' noise.
"Yes yes, but big people don't usually talk with their mouths full." Then he lets go of her head.
The freed captive just tilts her head a little and smiles, holding her toast with both hands, then continued eating. She somewhat daydreams of her future; going to middle school and having her own dorm.
Another question came to her mind as she thought of living in her own dorm.
"Eh? Then, Keita-nii is going to live here?"
He shakes his head in response and added, "No, I'll be getting my own dorm as well. It's cheaper that way so we don't have to cause too much trouble for Oba-san, she has taken good care of us so far."
"Mmm! I love Oba-san very much. Helping her will make Rika happy as well."
The proud big brother smiles at his little sister for showing such love for their guardian.
"Well enough talk for now, if we keep talking you won't finish your toast."
"Mm-hmm." She continues eating.
It is almost time for Keita to leave, he picks his bag up that was on the couch in the living room.
"So do you want me to pick you up after school?"
Rika turns around to look at her brother, with the toast close to her mouth.
"No~ Rika is a big girl now; I can walk home by myself."
"Hahaha, alright."
While it may sound like he trusts his sister to her own safety, Keita is a very protective big brother. When they arrived at Academy City, Keita has always walked Rika from and back to school until she was in fifth grade. It was until her sixth grade, this year, which he is much more lax on protecting his little sister.
He walks towards the front door and said, "I'm off."
Rika waves half her left arm and sees him off, "see you later, onii-chan." and says her good bye.
Today's school day is just like every other ordinary day for the third year middle school student named Shimizu Keita. He talked with some friends, took notes given by teachers, had some cafeteria sandwiches, and waited for school to end.
One of his friends recommended him a pastry shop; she was absolutely enthusiastic and insists on Keita going.
The idea is not all that bad, after all the shop is located very close to Rika's school.
I can pick Rika up on the way and take her to the shop for some cake.
A very considerate and loving brother indeed.
Before he approaches Rika's school, he needs to cross a four way intersection. After that cross, it is just a few meters away to school grounds. However, he notices a commotion not far away from the intersection. All he need is to walk straight and he'll be at the school grounds, the commotion however is to the right of that intersection.
Looks like that guy is being harassed.
On the other side of the street, two high school students have a timid middle school student surrounded; blocking the front and back path.
"Oh yeah? You have some guts to bump into me kid. Do you think a simple sorry will get you out of this?"
"S-sorry..!" says the timid student while bowing. Anyone can tell he is in a pinch.
At this time of hour, students are dismissing from school and going to their next destination. But at this particular street, it is not used by many so Keita could only see the three students there; two bullies and the one being bullied. Why is it empty? Because at the end of the street is a dead end, stopped by a river.
Feeling of anger swells up within Keita and he did not hide it at all. He looks at that situation with fangs showing and eyes full of hate.
"More assholes.. They just keep coming back."
He starts to move closer towards them with an unpleasant look on his face.
"If you're really sorry, then you have to show us how sorry you are."
Close, Keita is about 15 meters away from them.
"Yea, today is a tiresome day. I'd like it if we don't have to beat you."
Closer, the distance is reducing to 9 meters. He takes out a metallic-like stick from his right pocket.
"S-s-sorry, I don't have any money on me..!"
Much closer, about 5 meters away. With a push of a button the stick extends to four times its normal length. When extending, it produce three clicking sound that drowns onto each other and creating a single click.
"Haa… no choice then, we'll just have to.. eh?"
There, the bully blocking the rear path of the student notices a figure behind his buddy. His buddy notices his look and turns around to check.
Keita stood behind him, about a meter away, with his head down. They stare at him with confused-looks, slightly irritated. He drops his school bag beside his feet.
From a distant view point, the notable difference between the bullies and Keita is their height; they are about a head's height taller than Keita. Needless to say, it made them look bigger and stronger.
"What's the matt-"
"You guys sure do like to pick on people don't you?"
The bully in front of Keita turns around with a questioned-look that describes, 'do you know this guy?' to his buddy. His buddy responds back with a shrug. They look back at Keita.
"Then I guess you don't mind if the people picked back on you, right?"
Just as the sentence ends, Keita steps forward with his baton in his right hand ready; holding it over the left side of his body.
*Fuu! Pak! Pak! Fuu! Tak!* the sound of the baton whistling through the air, two blows in succession to the bully's right arm, and finally a blow on his left shoulder.
The bully did not even have enough time to react to that three hit combo and now he is on his knees, gripping parts of his body that has been attacked with both arms crossed.
"Aaaah…!"
He didn't even have enough time to recover from the pain as he looks up at Keita, the expressionless baton user.
Keita lifts his left fist up and throws it to the bully's face, lunging his whole body forward as he did it.
It got his forehead and the bully falls backwards on the ground, rolling back and forth while holding his face in agony, crying.
"Ahh! My head! It hurts! Gaah!"
"Kaya- Ugh!"
Before his buddy is able to start, Keita threw his baton at the bully's head and scored a direct hit.
He takes a step back with his right hand over his face, trying to ease the pain.
Easing the pain, however, is short lived as Keita runs towards the last bully and jumps in the air, feet stretch forward and body facing the ground.
"Pu-owh!"
Both Keita's feet lands on the bully's stomach, instantly knocking him backwards and hitting the ground on his ass. Keita's transferred momentum made him fall after connecting that attack. He lands on all fours and stood right back up, picking his baton on the way.
Now the other bully is on the ground, holding his stomach like he has a bad diarrhea.
Keita stares down at both of them with not the slightest sympathy in the pain he caused them.
"You threaten to beat people up while you're so bad at it; you people are all the same."
The first downed bully got up slowly, Keita's quick look made him frighten immediately. He wanted to regroup with his buddy but he is blocked by the mere presence of Keita.
He slowly walks around Keita at a distance, keeping an eye on him and worrying when he might attack, and regroups with his buddy on the ground.
"O-oi, let's get out of here."
"A- ah." He agrees and stands up with the help of his friend.
They then did the same distance technique again and got around Keita, all this while with Keita glaring at them.
Finally, after they think they have a safe enough distance, one of the bullies wanted some payback.
"We'll get you next time!"
"Rghh!" Keita bare his fangs once more.
"Eep!" his plan backfires and they both start to run towards the intersection, turning right and disappearing after a building.
Dealing with bullies has been something he did ever since he started school. Now, it has become somewhat like a routine for him. Why does he do it? Simple, he hates crime.
Keita puts his baton back in his pocket and turns to the bullied student. Keita's face lightens as he asks, "Are you alright?"
The student who is still awe stuck blinks a few times, and then finally realizes he is saved.
"Aah, thank you ver-"
"Move outta the way!" A shout from around the intersection, no doubt it is the voice of one of the bullies.
Keita looks towards the intersection with the question of 'what now?' in his mind. The student pays attention to the shout as well.
"Kyaa!" a girl's cry follows after the shout.
From the intersection, Keita sees a car crossing the intersection.
*PON-POON! Screeeee-*
!
This is bad.
Keita quickly ran towards the intersection, picking his school bag up on the way.
"Ahhhhh!" a female voice screams in terror.
At the intersection, Keita turns right and ran a little further. He then slows down before reaching the scene. From his sight, there are several students frozen in motion not far from a red car. Some of the students had their mouths covered with single or both hands, and others completely cover their face with both hands. Most of them are girls, around 11 to 13.
However, amongst them stood two high school bullies staring at the red car. More specifically, at what's in front of the red car.
Keita's pace is about that of a brisk walk as he pays a closer attention on what is in front of the car. Since the car is obscuring what's in front of it, he could only see a head with brown hair. It is a girl with the facial expressions painfully familiar to Keita. It looks like…
"Ri… RIKA!"
He drops his bag and dashes towards his little sister.
No, no, no, NO!
The distance from Keita to Rika is not far at all, about 20 meters. A quick run would cover that ground in less than 15 seconds. However, throughout the run Keita is sweating, his heart is pounding, and his mind is in shock.
What happen? How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why? Why!
"Rika!"
He drops on all fours in front of Rika, his expression terrorized. Rika, who is lying on the ground sideways facing the car, is limp and weak. Her face shows a pained expression but is too weak to show the full extent of the pain; whatever pain she shows now is all she could muster up at her weakened state.
She slowly opens her eyes to see who called out to her and sees her brother up close. He doesn't look good as well; his eyes full of fear and swelling with tears, and his mouth opened as if he is trying to say something but can't.
"..k..Kei..ta..n…nii…"
"Hang in there Rika!"
He sees her hand inching forward like a snail, shaking, trying to reach for her big brother. He quickly grabs hold of her hand with both his hands, keeping her cold hand warm.
"Hello, there has been an accident…"
Keita looks left and sees a student calling for an ambulance. He looks back at Rika who is still staring at him with half closed eyes.
"You're going to be okay, you will be okay...!"
*Thud.* a sound made by someone falling on their butt.
"I- it can't- happen."
Keita looks forward and sees the two bullies, one on the ground and the other standing. Both of them shocked and paralyzed. One can infer that they shouted 'Get outta the way' and pushed Rika towards the street, and the evidence is their own reaction at this moment.
He puts Rika's hand down and slowly stands up, shaking along the way.
"You…," his face starts to turn fierce, "You did this..!"
*K-k-rk!* the metal baton extends in his hand.
"YOU BASTARD!"
"Hii! R-r-run!" the one standing quickly pulls his buddy by his collar and started to run away.
"Wait!- huh?"
As he is about to chase them down, he feels a very faint thug at his pants. It is Rika who has a hold of his pant, giving all she got just to do it.
"…ni…nii…chan… don't..go…"
Keita's terrorized expression soon came back, realizing his sister is still knocking on death's door. Rika's half open eyes try to make contact with his.
"…don't…leave…ri…Rika…"
The baton falls from his weaken grip and he kneels in front of her. He holds her hand with both of his hands and looks at Rika with a pained expression.
"…nii…chan…I… I'm..scared…"
Tears start to flow out of his eyes. He lowers his head towards Rika's hand, which he had in his hands, and cries on it.
"…Sorry… sorry… I'm so sorry… I couldn't protect… sorry…!"
*Weee-Wooo-Weee-Wooo-Weee-Wooo…* and the sound of a siren approaches, drowning most of the noise in the area.