Shino sat in the taxi which waited for Kazuto. She had packed all of her clothes and other things she considered important, leaving her kendo equipment and archery equipment behind. Kazuto brought everything, including his equipment, but only because he wasn't allowed to leave anything behind.
Shino's eyes were filled with an empty expression, like she was sitting somewhere far behind where her eyes were seeing, trying to forget the memory at the bank. Kazuto seemed to be in pain enough that he might have been in the car when his parents died. Shiro was still crying like mad, trying to stop them from leaving, but not even Shino's parents would stop her from going with Kazuto. He was offered a place to live with his cousin Suguha's family. They would also allow Shino after they heard her reasoning.
"Onee-chan! Please don't go! Not right now! I can't get through this without either of you. Kazu-nii, please convince her to stay! Please...!"
He flailed against his parents holding him back from joining them leaving. He didn't want them to go. He felt a desperate need to be with them after witnessing what he did. He was more than willing to give up on pushing for their relationship if he could keep them home.
When Kazuto waved a farewell to the Asada parents, Shiro started screaming in protest. Kazuto finally started crying, the tears streaming down his face as he heard and watched Shiro flail against the hold of his parents.
Kazuto sat in the back seat of the taxi with Shino on the other end, and the taxi left. Shiro fell to the ground when his parents finally let go of him.
The sky was dark as if it were nearly night, but it was really just a miserable day which was raining off and on. The ground was wet, and Shiro didn't even bother noticing as his pants were getting soaked from the moisture soaking through to his legs, making his pants stick to him.
"Mom, Dad, why didn't you stop her?! Onee-chan needs us more than anything right now! Kazu-nii needs us now too! Why won't you say anything?!"
"They need each other right now. We would only get in the way of them growing from this. Kazuto-chan needs his own family. Shino needs some time away from us. She might come back home in a few years. Kazuto-chan...he has to stay with family until he's ready to live alone."
Shino and Shiro's mother couldn't bring herself to say anything. It was their father who explained what kind of situation it was. Shiro still couldn't understand. The two people he cared about most were going and leaving him behind. After seeing Kazuto's parents die right in front of him, it was absolutely devastating. It were as if he lost all four of them in the accident.
He continued to stare in the direction the taxi drove off even long after it was out of sight. His parents went back into the house, letting him return inside when he had enough of being soaked by the rain that began pouring down again.
Shino was like a shell as she sat and swayed in the seat of the taxi on the trip to their new home. Kazuto stared at her as if she was medicine. He didn't even see it, but his parents were gone and weren't coming back. When he heard it from the police, he denied it completely until someone else from the government showed up and told him he had to move in with other family, and that Suguha's parents were offering that he could move in with them. Otherwise, he would have to go in with child protective services. Be housed by foster parents.
He never answered, but it ended up being a confirmation he would move in with Suguha's family. He barely said anything in the two weeks since it happened. He lived in the house alone, walked with Shino holding her hand to school when he could find the strength to go, and even while they were in class. They didn't separate except for when they would go to their own houses. They needed each other. He stared at his medicine, and her mind was trying to delete the memory of what happened.
To Kazuto, Shino was the person he loved as much as his parents. It made him glad that she decided to leave with him when she heard about him leaving to move in with Suguha's family. Because neither would talk outside of that after everything that happened, it ended up that Suguha's parents gave permission for her to move in as well, and her parents also accepted that. The two finally were ready and moving in exactly twenty days after the day their lives changed.
Both were completely quiet, and the taxi driver picked up on the mood. The whole way through the pounding rain, it was the only sound that could be heard. Even their breathing was drowned out from the sound of the rain. Between Kazuto and Shino on the seat was bags of their clothes. Many were clothes that both of them had worn when they were younger. Plenty were outgrown. Some were more recent clothes. The trunk behind them had Kazuto's equipment bags, video game equipment, boxes of manga and other literature they liked, and their bedding. The front passenger seat had Shino's equipment which Kazuto convinced to bring along while she wasn't paying attention.
They had everything they needed when they could finally pick themselves and each other back up that they could get back into the habits of their lives, however, the attraction of the false worlds in video games were beginning to seem extraordinarily attractive.
When the taxi stopped and the driver turned and nodded his head to Kazuto, it was time to get out. The rain had let up for the moment, but he put his hood up to protect him from the rain regardless and grabbed as many bags of clothes as possible. Shino followed his lead and grabbed the rest of the bags of clothes from the back seat between where they sat. Suguha and her parents helped as soon as they noticed the vehicle was carrying Kazuto Shino and their belongings. Suguha's parents paid the taxi driver for the service and grabbed the heavier equipment from the trunk. In minutes, everything was placed down in the entrance hall.
Suguha tried getting Kazuto's attention, but as soon as her parents showed him where his room would be, he was occupied. Shino was another case. She would be moving in beside Suguha, so she helped carry Shino's belongings to the room. Kazuto finished moving his belongings to his room before them, so Suguha decided it would be better to try and be better friends with Shino while they would be living together.
"Shino...so, how would you like to arrange the stuff in your room? Do you have a lot of plushies too?"
No response. Shino just moved and started unpacking her belongings as soon as everything was finished being delivered to the new room.
"You have a big home...thank you for letting me stay too..."
Those were the only words she offered, eventually accepting the help of passing something from the current open box. It seemed they were done after a short time. Suguha was disappointed with two things when Shino sat on the bed and stopped doing anything else. She was disappointed that Shino wouldn't do anything else, and that so little was brought. Only one plushy of what she imagined to be many back in her original room decorated her bed. The rest of her belongings were boring. Her equipment Kazuto insisted on bringing, manga and other books as well as any portable gaming stuff she had. There was hardly any feminine belongings among what she brought with her.
When Suguha became tired of waiting for Shino to stop sitting on the bed doing nothing, she walked out of the room to check on Kazuto. His room was filled. He had to bring everything from his own room so of course it would be filled more. Her surprise though...he was already finished unpacking, his bed sorted and sheets and blankets in place, everything that made him him.
Kazuto had a laptop and many manga and other books on the desk, a collapsible platform for his console gaming equipment and a small television on the corner of the desk for the consoles. There was a large pink bean chair with a design of a cute monster character from an anime she thought she could recognize. He was holding onto something, crying and leaning against the large window frame where his bed was placed. The small space where there was window frame and the bed wasn't occupying the space of the wall, he was standing there and tears flowed down his face.
"Onii-chan..."
Suguha walked into the room and closed the distance to him. When he turned and looked at her, his eyes were puffy from crying, as if he hadn't stopped crying for hours. He mouthed Sugu, but the sound wouldn't come for his mouth. She grabbed hold of him as he dragged her to their knees and cried on her shoulder. He sobbed hard and without sound against her. It hurt her heart to see him like that. To feel how hard he was hurt by what happened. He was with family again, but all he could be reminded was that his own parents were gone. No matter how much Suguha could treat him like an older brother, he was a cousin. Her parents were just an aunt and uncle. They were only a small part of his life, and most of all, his mother who had been the person who gave him the most strength was gone. He didn't even get the chance to see them after that morning. Hearing that they were having an argument just before the crash from Shiro must have been all the more devastating.
Suguha joined him in crying, holding back from making a sound as much as possible.
"Onii-chan..."
Whenever she had a chance to do a little more than breathe, she would call him the same way she always had. Maybe it would help him, but being able to hold him in her arms felt selfish. She had what she always wanted, but at the cost of his parents. She didn't enjoy it at all.
She was reminded that Shino was in the other room, and she knew that they cared about each other deeply. She was jealous, but this wasn't the time for those kind of feelings. She needed to be supportive, and not selfish. Not jealous. She reminded herself of what her role should be in the situation, and squeezed Kazuto tight in a hug. He eventually stopped crying, but it was because he fell asleep.
Suguha moved him to his bed and almost shook her head at how many cute plushies he had. After tucking him in, she turned off the light and put her opposite hand on the shoulder he cried on. Those were a sign he wasn't the person she barely stood next to in kendo. He was another person who could hurt and feel sad. He wasn't a perfect master of his emotions. He was just a child like her, and he was only in her life more because of the biggest tragedy of his life. There was nothing to gain from the situation. It was a weight on her shoulder, not just tears.
