" Sasaku, I want these items; 2 large tuna, 1 loaf of bread, and 1 bottle of sasaki tea.", said the
mother as she wrote them down.
Sasaku grabbed the list and yen from the table and walked outside. With the door still open, she
turned around and said, " I'll be back in a little while".
She then closed the door and started to walk in the direction of the store. It took fifteen minutes to
get to the store at sasaku's pace. As she walked in she was greeted by a bell ringing above her. The
clerk then faced sasaku's direction from behind the counter. He wore a bloody apron, probably
from cutting me in the next room. He also wore a blue shirt under his apron. " Hello, can I help
you?", asked the clerk with a smile.
" I'm fine for now, domo arigato", replied sasaku.
Sasaku continued to stare at the clerk. He was about twenty-five and about 6"2', because he was
behind the counter, sasaku couldn't tell his weight at that moment. " Have I met you before?" asked
sasaku as she tilted her head to the right.
The clerk smiled and replied, " No, I don't think we have miss".
Sasaku smiled back and headed through the isles. She then found the bread in the fourth isle and the
sasaki tea in the eighth. She then headed to the counter. " Do you have any tuna?", asked sasaku
polightly.
" Ah, yes we do. How many would you like?", replied the clerk.
" Only two please", said sasaku as she looked the the glass window of the store.
The clerk then went in the back room and came out a few moments later with a few good sized
tuna. He then placed the tuna in a separate bag and asked," Will that be all miss?"
Sasaku nodded her head. " That will be 1650 yen please", said the clerk.
Sasaku handed the yen over, and as she dropped the yen into the clerks hand, a huge roar came
from over head. Then proceeding the roar came a large explosion. Sasaku then turned and stared
out the window to see a large mushroom shape cloud of smoke and death in the horizon. As she
stared out the window, the clerk ran into the back room. The clicking sound of a lock proceeded
the closing of the back room door. Sasaku then ran behind the counter where the clerk was and sat
down. She sat for five minutes trying not to make a sound or breath. All she wanted now was to go
home to her mother. She then gathered her courage, and stood up. She walked to the window and
looked outside. Everything seemed to be " normal". She gathered her things and went outside. As
she took a right she bumped into a Federation officer." I...I...I'm sorry about that sir.", stuttered the
nervous sasaku.
The Federation officer glared at sasaku. " What are you doing out here? If you stay out here, you'll
be mistaken for a TAF officer even if you're not wearing their colors", scolded the TAF soldier as
he shook his head, his hand still clasping his gun.
" Sir I---".
" Leave now before I have to arrest you", screamed the irate soldier.
Without saying another word sasaku went around the soldier and headed home. Before the soldier
was out of sight, sasaku turned her head to get one llast look at the soldier. She then sped up her
pace, trying to get home quicker.
" Holy Mother of God!", yelled saragui out loud. He stares wide eyed at the large mushroom
cloud of death ahead of him. " I'll have to find a place to land".
He then lent over to see if he can find a place to land with his hands still clutching the controls. He
then notices an open field a half a mile ahead of him; he decides to land. Saragui slowed the jet
down and it starts to descend. " I hope i can land this thing", muttered saragui.
The tires of the jet hit the ground, causing indentations of where the jets hit the ground. The plane
then slows to a halt. Saragui then takes off his oxygen mask and opens the cockpit. He stands and
starts to get out. A shining flash streaks across saragui's eyes, which startles him. He tries to figure
out where it came from. He moves his head slightly, the flash then appears again. It's coming from
under his seat. He reaches under the seat and pulls out an 21st century 9mm pistol. His dad had
something like it so he knew how to use it already. He would sometimes take the gun and go in the
woods for target practicing. He then checked if the safety was on; it was. He put the gun between
his uniform and his belt and then puts the uniform over it to conceal it. " Yokohama is right through
those woods", said saragui as he stared at his obstacle. he then walks into the woods.
It only took fifteen minutes to get all the way through. " Wow, that was quicker then i thought", said
saragui.
Realizing that he wasn't far from sasaku's house, He begins to walk down the street. He then turns
the corner. he wasn't half way around the corner when he had to dive back. Five Federation
vehicles were there about one hundred yards down the street. , but only three soldiers. " Wait a
minute, if there is five vehicles, where are the other two soldiers?", pondered saragui.
After surveying the area he came to the conclusion that is wasn't safe to go to sasaku's, even if he
did have a gun. He turned around and ran back in the direction of his jet. He then begin to think, "
Why did I even come here? I can't go see sasaku and i can't help fight. This is useless".
While trying to figure out the answer to his own question, he continued to run back to the jet. After
ten minutes of running and thinking he reached the end of the woods. As he moved a bush out of his
way, he stopped. Letting the bush snap back into position. He then sits down and peaks through an
opening in the bush. He sees his jet and the two missing Federation soldiers scrutinizing his jet. He
knew that they were part of the Federation because of their colors; blue and white. The TAF all
wore green with a black outlining.He then looked at what he was wearing...he was wearing the TAF
colors. If they saw saragui, they would shurely kill him. He then lied down on the ground to wait for
the soldiers to leave. His eyelids involuntarily shut and he fell into a beautiful world of slumber.
Saragui is seven years old now, he's living with his father. He is at school and in recess at the
moment. " Saragui, race to the swings?", asked sasaku.
Sasaku is six and she lives with her mother. Her father went to America to continue his neurological
studies. Saragui ran up to sasaku. " OK, I'll count though. We race on three", said sasaku.
" One...two..". Soon as she said two, she began to run to the swings across the playground.
" Hey, you cheated", said saragui. Because he was only seven, he was instantly forgiving and he ran
to catch up with sasaku. At this moment his dream changes. He is now thirteen and he has been
going through some tough times with is father. Saragui is in his room sulking. Then there is a knock
at the door. " Saragui, you have a visitor", said his rarely sober father.
By the tone of his fathers voice, saragui knew he was depressed. Saragui said nothing and he
continued to sulk. The door slowly opens and sasaku peaks her head inside. She steps into the
room and slowly closes the door behind her. Still standing by the door, sasaku speaks, " Saragui...".
She then walks to the side of the bed. Then she puts her hand on his back. With her hand on his
back she sits down next to saragui and begins to rub it, trying to console him. Sasaku is twelve, her
emotions for saragui grew over the years. Saragui lifted his head, his face littered with tears. Sasaku
moves closer to saragui, saragui then burrows his face in sasaku's right shoulder. He the begins to
sulk again. Sasaku then hugs saragui and as a delayed reaction, saragui hugs her too. His dream is
then interrupted by the snapping to twigs nearby. His eyes snap open and he reaches slowly for his
gun. Saragui then gets into crouching position. The two Federation soldiers from before cautiously
came through the bushes in front of saragui. One of the soldiers sees saragui. " Hey, there's a kid
over there".
He then points to saragui. As the two soldiers walk towards saragui, saragui stands up with the gun
off of safety and in his hands. Saragui then slowly lifts the gun and aims at one of the soldiers. "
Whoa! wait a minute kid, don;t play with that thing. You can hurt someone with that", said the
nervous one of the two.
" You don't have the balls to do it kid", said the cocky one.
Saragui then moved his aim to the cocky one, he then cocked his gun. " Hey, wait a minute, he's
wearing the colors of --".
The rest of his sentence was cut off by one shot that went through the cocky one's throat and out
the back. He then fell to the ground while gurgling blood limply. The other soldier became more
nervous then before. He starts into a panic, he fumbles for his gun which is in his holster on his right
side. Saragui cocks the gun one more time. The Federation soldier continued to struggle to release
his gun from the holster. Another shot rang through the air. The last Federation soldier hit the ground
limply with a bullet would to the side of temple. Saragui drops the smoking gun and begins to search
the soldiers for any use full items. In one of the pockets of the Federation soldiers he found a key
card that might be useful. He then searches through the other soldiers belongings. When he was
patting him down, he felt something on his leg. It was a combat knife in a holster. He takes the
holster and the combat knife and tries it on. The holster fits perfectly and he places the knife in the
holster. H begins to walk to the jet. The he turns around to get one last glimpse of the soldiers
corpses. He turns around and walks the rest of the way to the jet. He starts the jet not knowing that
he just killed the same soldier that talked to sasaku earlier.
Sasaku walks up to the door of her house. Still holding the groceries she turns the door handle;
the door was locked. " This is strange, mom doesn't usually lock the door", mumbled sasaku.
Then she remembered that there was a key under the rug by the back door. She walked down the
stairs and opened the gate to the back yard. She put the groceries down by the rug and lifted the
rug; the key was there.
She then opens the door and and puts the key back in its original position. She picks up the
groceries and heads indoors, closing the door behind her. " Mom, are you home?", asked sasaku.
There was no reply. She the headed into the kitchen to find that there was no note on the fridge. As
she placed the groceries on the table she was startled by a creaking sound. It was the door to the
basement. She turned around and went to the basement door. She looked down the stairs and the
lights were off. She then turned the lights on and began walking down the stairs. Every step would
creak as she stepped on it, creating a rhythm for sasaku to follow. She reached the bottom of the
stairs and turned to her left to see that her mother was crying in the corner. Sasaku's mother lifted
her head and turned to sasaku. Still crying, she smiled. Sasaku ran to her mother and put her arms
around her. " Mom, why are you down here?", asked sasaku with a caring voice.
" Well, I...I...I heard the news that a bomb exploded near where you were. I thought you might
have been caught or killed and i was really worried", said the mother.
Sasaku said nothing, she continued to stare at her mother with a loving expression on her face. One
tear went down sasaku's right cheek. Sasaku then noticed that her mother was holding a wooden
framed picture. " What's that?", asked sasaku as she let go of her mother.
" Oh, this? It's a picture of you, me, and your father", replied sasaku's mother.
" I remember this picture...we went to America that summer. We went to see the monuments of the
9/11 attack. We had fun and i remember when dad lifted me in his arms ans swung me around".
Sasaku began to giggle. Her happy memories where interrupted by a load roar of a jet above them.
Both of them stayed perfectly still. The noise reached it's climax and then it faded away. " Let's go
up stairs, i made strawberry mouchi while you left", said the mother.
" My favorite!", said the enthusiastic sasaku.
They both stood up and went upstairs. Turning off the lights and closing the door behind them.