First Memories
Everything felt cold and dark and painful. Forcing her eyes open, a grayish blur of a world appear before her. She was dazed and her senses seem to only slowly comeback to her. Once her vision began to focus her surroundings transformed from fuzzy shapes to a dark alleyway with snow fluttering down. There was still a pain and coldness that assaulted the girl, but, as she lulled her head up from the trash can it was leaned up against, she looked up at the sky to see the snow gently fall from the gray sky above like cherry blossom petals.
Beautiful.
Letting her head fall to look at her body, she came to notice that her clothes - her rags - were drenched in blood. Her blood. She could smell it. The smell of blood was repulsive. She wanted to throw up but there was nothing in her stomach, which growled in starvation. She then looked down at her right hand to see it gripping what looked to be a sword. Why did she carry such a thing? But such a trifling question led to the bigger issue at hand: who was she and how did she get there? The girl thought to herself long and hard.
Sh-Shira. Um. Shiro. That sounds right… maybe. That's my name. I think.
A pain in her head began to form so Shiro ceased to continue to try to recall her own name further. A numbness began to infiltrate her very being so looking for somewhere warm and someone to help her became her motivation to move. But, as soon as Shiro made her way to stand, an excruciating pain washed over the child and she proceeded to cough up a liquid. The substance that left her body tasted like iron and stained the lovely white snow on the ground a crimson red. Her blood was staining what was once pure and beautiful. It had been tainted with a red-black puddle of her own blood. Then tears began to drop and dissolve the snow beneath her. It hurt. So much pain and confusion flooded Shiro and threatened to drown her. She was now gripping the katana in her hand with such force that her knuckles had become as white as the snow she had yet to defile. Realizing that standing was futile, Shiro crawled her way to what seemed to be the end of the alleyway. As she made it to the end the brightness blinded for a second before her eyes adjusted and focused on the strange world around her. Beings that looked like her but smelled differently began to stop and stare at her. One middle aged female screamed and fainted at the sight of Shiro. Another, a young male, rushed up to her and began to speak to her quickly in a panic. She could not speak right away though. His words had no meaning to her as she stared at the strangeness around her.
"Human. You are a human." Shiro said blankly without fully understanding what she herself was saying as she pointed at the man that was kneeled in front of her.
"Um… Are you okay?! What happened to you?! Where are your parents?!" The young man said worriedly, slightly taken aback from the strange comment from the albino-looking child in rags with little animal like ears atop her head.
"I can't remember." Tears once again flooded Shiro's eyes as she stared up at the strange human male who seemed to be wearing a uniform of some sort and had deep concern in his eyes. Her eyes became heavy.
"Hey stay with me! Somebody call an ambulance now!" The young man yelled over his shoulder as he took his jacket and draped it over the youkai's shoulders.
Suddenly the world was becoming dark again. Fear began to settle in Shiro's heart. What would happen the next time she opened her eyes? What would happen to her?