Nevertheless, the Satomobile ride home had been traumatizing. My new family, the people who were supposed to love and protect me, had merely used me as a ploy to get their housework done, to be some sort of servant to them. So much for fate finding a way in the end. Hope was slowly filtered out by hatred and fury. I wanted to lash out at these heartless creatures who had seemingly pulled me out of the abyss of orphan-hood only to plunge me back into a loveless sea of wistful longing for things that would never be. But as much as I wanted to punch these people square in the mouth, I knew better. Anywhere was better than Zhixu's orphanage, and the streets. As the wheels of the Satomobile moved ever so slowly, my rage simmered down, for fate had failed me, and that was something that had to be accepted. A teardrop slid down my cheek. At that point, tears had become a part of my daily life. I had forgotten that I never used to cry as a child, that I used to be the happiest little girl in the world before everything changed.
"It's not fair" I thought to myself.
"It's not fair"
"It's not fair"
The voices in my head continued to echo across the crevices of my conscience, of my very essence.
"IT'S NOT FA-" "Stop Akira!" another voice interrupted. I gulped. The voice was as refreshing as seeing the sun emerge from billows of storm clouds. It was like being resurrected from some sort of catatonic state. The voice was light, like the tunes of a flute dancing on a breeze. Her voice. I had forgotten the sound of it, yet for some reason, I felt as if it had never disappeared from my memory.
"Don't give up...your destiny will reveal itself to you. Just have faith" Faith. The word seemed foreign to me, yet it felt sweet on the tip of my tongue. The idea of faith was tantalizing to succumb to; after all, it was faith that allowed Akash and I to survive Seiji. It was faith that got Butahka's greedy ass to present at the exact time I needed him to be. It was faith that called Mr. Nakano to my rescue down in those terrible sewers. So I gave in. After all, it was Momma telling me. And I had to honor her. I pushed my ill feelings to the recesses of my heart and was about to doze off when suddenly I heard, "Get up you lazy girl," snarled Onna, my new "mother."
I scowled at her as I made my way to the house. It was a small flat in the residential sector of the industrial grounds, situated right near a huge power plant, from where a man approached Mr. Norio.
"How is the electricity generation going today, Raju?" inquired my new "father."
Raju began twiddling his fingers, nervously weaving them in and out of each other.
"W-w-well si-sir, um, we didn't have enough manpower t-t-t-today..." He spat out.
"And WHY in the world was that, Raju?" questioned Mr. Norio sinisterly. Raju gulped.
"A-a-alot of our b-boys were with their wives, welcoming chil-children into their fam-fam-families..." Raju explained.
The ice cold glare he was getting from Mr. Norio was less than welcoming to the news.
"After all, this y-year was a big one for babies according to Aunt Wu's book! You see sir, according to the book by the wise Aunt Wu, rest her soul, every 35 years there is a baby boo-"
"ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE!" boomed Mr. Norio, causing Raju to jump back a bit. He jabbed his finger into Raju's chest and glared deeply into his eyes.
"Now you listen here and listen good. I want a list of those who disobeyed my orders and decided to leave work willy-nilly, and I am going to personally fire each and every one of them, do you understand?" he shouted, spittle spurting from his mouth onto the poor man's nose.
"B-b-b-b-b-but sir, they have nowhere else to g-"
"SILENCE!" interjected Mr. Norio. Raju whimpered in response.
"If I don't have a list by tomorrow, I am going to start firing people willy-nilly whether they were here today or not. And that is going to continue for a week before I fire you. And even once you're gone, I will still continue to fire people until I have my list. So unless you want to be responsible for ruining the lives of hundreds of people, I suggest you quit arguing and follow my ORDERS!" warned Norio.
Raju nodded defeatedly. But as he was about to return to the plant, Norio grabbed him again. "And don't even think about pulling a fast one on me because I WILL find out on my own who disobeyed me, and if the people I find out about don't match the people on the list-if your list is missing people-I"ll not only fire everybody in this damn plant, I will see to it that they can never get a job anywhere else in this CITY. Now ARE WE CLEAR?!" he shouted. With a quick bow, Raju retreated, horror embedded on his features.
I cringed. The man was disgusting; so willing to break families apart for his own sadistic pleasure.
"Your employees are so insufficient!" Mrs. Onna exclaimed, rolling her eyes. It took all the energy in my soul to keep my clenched fists by my side and not in her teeth.