The days seemed to whip by in a blur that made little sense. They were filled with watching idly as the city was virtually remade. Construction seemed to be a top priority, as many buildings had been damaged during the Holy Day, and new houses were being built from the ground up for any Western District people that chose to say. Many people had died during the event, Shion quickly learned. Those that had passed would leave their empty job positions open to new residents that fit the bill.
And while the city completely changed around him, becoming livelier and freer than the white-haired boy could ever even hope to recall, his own life turned upside down, altering from quiet days of reading in the library, and warm hours out washing Dogkeeper's dogs, to busy days taking care of the baby. He had plenty of help from his mother, who constantly offered words of wisdom, smiling all the while as she recalled when he was that small.
At first Shion had been at a lost for what to name the infant. He tried to think of what matched the little girl, but nothing seemed to work. She was only a baby, after all. Her personality was much harder to grasp than that of an adult. But as Shion continued to recount what he could to his mother, the shadowed look in her eyes at hearing Safu's death were a direct answer to his plight.
"We'll call her Safu," he said without consulting his mother, bouncing the baby in his lap. He felt a pang for his friend's lost life as he thought of her. He remembered her voice waking him from that deep dark sleep he had fallen into, calling him back into awareness. Perhaps naming this baby after her would bring back but a bit of her loss. It was a wonderful token of remembrance he felt, if anything.
His mother paused as he announced the baby's name. Surprise coursed through her eyes for the briefest of moments before something akin to pride replaced the emotion. She leaned over and threw her arm around Shion's shoulder, gripping him tight as she stared down at the small child rested in his lap. "That's a wonderful name," she said.
Shion enjoyed raising the baby, he really did, but he couldn't help but wonder why Dogkeeper had denied the child, sending her back. Past that fact, the dog that had carried the baby refused to leave him now. At first Shion wondered if the dog just liked him that much, or if Dogkeeper had maybe ordered the dog to stay with them, but the dog didn't seem burdened in any way by remaining there, and she seemed much more keen on being near the baby than Shion. Shion was a little lost on names for the creature, as he wasn't really set on the idea that the dog was theirs, so he simply called the beast Dog.
They had purchased a nice little crib for the baby and every night Dog would rest by the legs of the bed, curled up tight on a warm little blanket Shion had placed there for her.
"Want to go for a walk?" Shion asked Dog one day during the baby's nap, hoping to pull her away from her patient waiting.
The dog seemed torn between staying with the baby at first, but couldn't resist the gesture. She wagged her tail and bounced up to Shion's side, barking happily. Shion didn't even need to bother with a leash as they left his house and started down the street towards the markets. The dog was well trained enough to know to stick with him.
Shion never seemed to get tired of walking down the streets these days. There were so many new and interesting faces bouncing about, moving through the crowds. An air of breathless, newfound wonder clung around them still. There were still the obvious differences, but the two civilizations, the people of what once was No. 6 and the Western District, were slowly merging into a solid body. It was true that there was some violence as those new members of the city applied to and took jobs, as those people offered work for lodgings before they could make sufficient pay to support themselves, but that would go away with time. Shion only waited for the day that he could stop mentally thinking of the people as two separate beginnings, and resolve them as a single ending.
Shion turned around the corner with Dog and heard the instant cacophony of men hammering away at the new structure of a large apartment building that was slowly rising up into the sky. Most of the workers, he noticed with a smile, were actually Western District people.
Interested by the sight, Shion wound his way around a cluster of cars and moved along the cones and caution signs towards the structure. He looked up, craning his neck to watch as several men set in the flooring of yet another story. How many stories was the building? More than five? He wondered just how high it would manage to go. They definitely needed more houses now that the city's population had gained many more people. This apartment building would surely help with that number once it was complete.
"Oi, move away from there, kid!" a man suddenly shouted at Shion.
Shion snapped his attention back to ground level, spotting a man in some sort of inspector's uniform moving towards him. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to see," he told the man, taking several steps back to the other side of the street.
The man wrinkled up his face in frustration, nearly growling at him. "It's fine to watch, but please keep some distance. And would you control your dog?"
Shion opened his mouth to argue that Dog was well trained and standing close to him, but looked down to find the dog missing from her usual spot by his heels. Glancing around, he found the dog with her nose stuck near the base of a makeshift wooden wall that was blocking off the main focus of the construction, lying beside a large scaffold with many bricks and boards tumbled around it.
"Dog!" he called to the mutt, racing forward to yank her back by the scruff. "I'm sorry, sir, she's normally not like this." The dog didn't seem to want to obey him this time. She whined and tugged her head forward, persistently snuffling at the wall's base.
The man started shouting something about kids interrupting his work, but Shion hardly heard him as he gave up tugging on Dog's neck and crouched down to her level. The minute he let go, Dog started to scrabble at the dirt and grass beneath the board, whining and barking in excitement.
"What is it now?" Shion asked with a sigh.
There must be something that smelled good to her under there if she was being this persistent. Maybe a worker had dropped some lunch on the other side or something. He watched as she quickly dug a small hole and forced her nose in, upturning a small brick that had become partially buried in the loose soil. Shion was about to start tugging at her scruff again, as the worker man was beginning to bellow angrily at him for not stopping his dog and looked ready to call animal control, but the white-haired boy was happy to find that the dog gave a last bark and pulled back with what looked like a little scrap of a cloth in her mouth.
"You wanted this?" Shion asked her. He held out his hand with a sigh, wondering what the beast was up to.
Dog dropped the scrap into his hand and bounced around, happily wagging her tail. She seemed very pleased with herself. At first Shion wondered if the dog was just being silly, but realization struck him as the item wriggled in his hands.
"I'm sorry for bothering you," Shion said quickly, closing his hands around the dog's find. "We'll be going now—come on, Dog!"
Before the man could scold them further, Shion bolted in the opposite direction, running with Dog at his heels. Though he had planned a long walk with Dog, he quickly turned to run home, not stopping to even catch his breath for a second.
Karan had left while he was gone, leaving a note saying that she would be back soon and Hamlet was keeping an eye on the baby for her. With her gone and the baby still quietly sleeping, the house was completely quiet as Shion quickly raced through the front door, hastily closing it after dog. His mind was running in a blur—his thoughts were completely jumbled. He first turned around on the spot, thinking to run into the baby's room to grab Hamlet, but decided that that could wait and flopped down onto the couch.
Very gently, Shion set down Dog's find onto the coffee table. The thing was dusty and slightly damp from Dog's slobber, but the little brown form of Cravat hopped up excitedly with large black eyes to stare fondly at Shion.
The mouse's fur was sticking up in all directions, and his tail looked slightly smushed. Shion wondered at first what could have happened to the poor thing, but remembered that Dog had shoved a brick out of the way in her digging. Maybe it had fallen on him.
"What were you doing?" Shion asked the mouse quietly, stroking his back to fix the form of his fur. "Shouldn't you be back with…" Shion stopped himself, feeling a pang rush through him. He had been doing his best to avoid saying Nezumi's name. It was so strange speaking of Nezumi with him gone—gone who knows where.
Cravat scratched at his ears and gave a few sharp, urgent squeaks. He shoved Shion's hand away with a little poke of his nose and spun around in a sharp circle, turning his head this way and that. The mouse gave another sharp squeak and scuffled at the table with his little paws, still looking around in a quick manner.
"You lose something?" Shion asked, tipping his head as he observed the little mouse's strange behavior.
Before the mouse could do anything more, there was another little squeak as Hamlet raced across the living room floor, scrambled up the leg of the table, and ran to meet his friend. They touched noses briefly, greeting each other with friendly little sounds before Cravat returned to his sharp, persistent squeaks. Hamlet sat back, listening to him intently before turning with Cravat in sync to squeak at him, waving their paws.
"What…?" Shion asked them meekly. He really wished that he could understand them. Or that Cravat at least had some sort of message with him if something was so important… "Wait… do you have a message for me?"
Shion felt his heart begin to pound at a terribly fast rate as Cravat nodded, bouncing up and down. A message from Nezumi? For him? But… where was the capsule that Nezumi always sent those messages in?
"You didn't… lose it?" Shion asked him. His spirits felt crushed as he thought of the mouse losing a note from Nezumi. He couldn't blame the creature, but it was a terribly disappointing thought.
But Cravat didn't shake his head. He bobbed his little body up and down, still squeaking. Hamlet joined in, standing tall beside Cravat, tapping his paws on the brown mouse's head.
Suddenly Shion recalled the map scans that he had seen played out through the eyes of the mice before. Nezumi had set them aside, allowing a bright projection to show on the flat surface of the wall.
Gingerly, Shion picked Cravat up and turned him around to face the wall. In the split second that it took to tap down gently on the mouse with his fingers, Shion thought intensely of what it could show. Please let it be something from Nezumi, he thought. Please. Anything. A picture even. He had no pictures, after all.
There was a little clicking sound and Cravat held his head up as his eyes beamed a vibrant blue light. The light struck the wall, giving off a brilliant flash before a picture formed itself upon the stone surface.
What came up across the wall was a vibrant picture of a thick, lush forest with decrepit stone walls resting in amongst the moss. It appeared to be raining, dripping down from the leaves all around. Sitting in the center of the picture was Nezumi, giving a wide smile. It took Shion a minute to see it but, scratched into a stone section before Nezumi were the words: "MISS YOU."