Chapter 4: Kiku

"Ki…ku!"

Cough cough.

"Wa…ke up…"

Cough.

"Wake up! Wake up, Kiku!"

Kiku's unsteady breathing and random outbreaks of coughing came to a short halt as he groggily opened his eyes. His eyesight was completely blurred, but someone was sitting next to him.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay Kiku!" the other gave him a quick hug. Kiku felt a trail of water collide with his skin as he was hugged. This person was crying.

"D-do you think you can stand? Here, I'll help you." A hand reached over to Kiku's wrist, and helped him stand up. Kiku recognized that voice. It was his older brother's Yao!

After a couple of blinks, Kiku's vision cleared up a bit. The first thing he noticed was the smeared gray marks across parts of his hand. Yao also had smeared gray on him. Smoke? "What—" Kiku began coughing, but he continued with what he was saying, "—what happened?" None of their other siblings were around. It was just them.

"…I'll explain later. It's dangerous where we're at!" Yao held onto Kiku's hand, helping him move forward.

Kiku didn't want to trouble his brother with him having to help him like this, but oddly his right ankle felt pained as soon as he stood up.

Yao seemed intent on getting them away from the area they were at. Loud shrieks of death and calls for help echoed all around in the distance, causing Kiku to start to shake and cough again.

Yao knew Kiku would need to rest again, so he helped him sit back down.

Kiku was confused. Just this morning his sister Mei had been making him try on some of her 'cute' (as she said it) clothes she had designed just for him. Leon and Yong Soo were quarreling over some video game like the pointless things they would regulary fight over. Somehow like always, Kiku's parents would sleep in despite the morning ruckus. An annoyed Lien would sit with Yao and the two would eat breakfast together.

"…K-Kiku, they're dead! W-we're the only ones left!" Yao frantically cried out. "Our parents! Our siblings! Leon, Yong, Lien, and Mei are…gone…"

"T-that's impossible!" Kiku coughed out, trying to calm himself. "We were all just together minutes ago!"

"Hours ago!" Yao looked as if he was about to have a major panic attack at any moment.

Hours? Kiku last remembered waving goodbye to Yao as his brother left to get groceries. Afterwards he went to his room to work on a research project. Kiku couldn't remember anything past that.

Yao's breathing sped up as he tried explaining what happened. "As I walked to the grocery, I-I noticed how empty the area was unlike usually. When I got to the store…there was…there was blood! Blood everywhere! I heard people screaming and shouting, 'the government has turned on us! The government has turned on us!' I panicked and ran straight back home." Yao had paused with his explanation. His left hand began to shake rapidly, and wasn't showing any indication of stopping.

Kiku remained silent. He tried to keep a straight face, but hearing all of this was completely horrifying,

"When I got back home, our house was on fire! Every house in the neighborhood was on fire! The fire s-strangely didn't spread…it just stayed in a circle around the house. I-I couldn't just watch, I had to get inside…"

Now that Kiku looked closely, he noticed some burn marks on Yao's arms, and the bottom of his pants were also burned, leading to his ankles having burns.

"When I was in, it was awful! The stairs had collapsed and it was impossible to get to the back of our house. The only rooms I could get to was yours and Leon's. I rushed into Leon's and luckily he was in there. He was under his bed, cowering."

This was a lot to take in, but Kiku nodded.

"Leon needed to get out of the house! Who knew how much smoke he breathed in, but I couldn't leave you! I picked him up and made it to your room. You were unconscious on the ground, and a ceiling board fell on your foot," at the time Yao didn't even know if Kiku was alive or not, but he didn't want to risk anything. "so I picked you up, b-but I couldn't hold you and Leon at the same time."

Leon was the youngest of the family at eight years old. Yao was probably able to hold him easily being fifteen and all, but holding another person who was eleven? That would be some trouble.

"'Do you think you can walk for a moment?' I asked Leon. He nodded and I picked you up and slumped you over my shoulder."

Yao explained how he had gotten both Kiku and Leon out of the house safe and fine. But what Kiku didn't understand was if Leon also had gotten out safe with them, just what happened to their younger sibling?

So, Kiku asked just that. "T-then what happened to Leon?"

Yao paused for a moment before small whimpers emitted from his closed mouth. His mouth then opened up, but nothing came out.

"I-if you can't talk about it, it's o-okay!"

"…No, there was this thing! I don't even know what the hell it was! We had to move away from our house, but then this creature thing that looked like a dog attacked us! It was huge- bigger than any normal dog! I-it went straight after Leon, biting his leg! Leon fell down, and then it…I-I tried…" Yao broke down, not being able to continue on with his story. He squeezed onto his little brother as tight as he could. "I was so scared when you weren't moving, Kiku! I didn't even know what to do! Everyone was gone! Everyone was gone! D-don't ever leave me… Okay?" By this point, Yao's voice sounded muffled as he dug his face into his little brother's shoulder.

Kiku had always acted quite mature for his age, but not even he could hold back tears. This couldn't be real right? All of this sounded absurd! Or maybe it was a dream. A cruel twisted dream filled with horrors. A nightmare. Everyone he once knew and loved were still alive, and Kiku was soon to wake up. If only that was true.

"I-I won't, I promise! We'll protect each other!"

Yao slowly raised his head back up, forcing a smile. "Y-yeah," he sniffled, "we should move on now. Just in case."

Kiku allowed Yao to grab onto his hand, and they held hands as the two walked. Yao slowed his pace so Kiku could walk a lot better, and he even offered to try picking him up. Kiku declined. Yeah, his ankle was hurt but he wasn't a baby, and didn't want to be too much of a pain.

Before the two knew it, it was already getting dark. Kiku was really thirsty after inhaling lots of smoke from earlier, but they couldn't worry about that. Yao had found them a small tree to rest under.

"Are you cold?" Yao asked. Kiku shook his head, saying he was fine and 'thank you for asking'.

The night sky was clear, and it was easy to see all the stars stretched across the sky, like a canvas of paint.

"I remember when we were both little, I think I was nine, and you were only five or six. Mom and Dad finally convinced me to take you outside, and we could just…talk." Yao suddenly started telling a story from multiple years back.

"I guess we never really got along that well. I remember saying something like, 'Kiku's out to get me! Stop him!'"

Quite the opposite from Yao, Kiku couldn't remember that many things from when he was little. The oldest thing he really could remember was eating some salted pickles when he was seven.

Kiku tilted his head, "Really?" Him not getting along with his brother felt strange.

Yao nodded. "Yep! I decided to take you out at night, so we could just look at the moon. Our parents wouldn't let us go anywhere else at night, so we sat in our front yard. Sadly it wasn't as clear as it is right now, so it was hard to see the moon. We ended up looking at the stars."

Kiku glanced up at the balls of gas in the sky. Some were little, some were big. Some glowed brighter than others.

"I pointed out a big star that glowed brightly. Guess what you said in response to that!" Yao told Kiku, grinning sheepishly.

Kiku didn't have a clue. "What?"

"You said something like, 'Since you pointed at that star, it's going to die!'"

Kiku's face flushed pink from embarrassment, but luckily it wasn't easy to tell. Yao chuckled and began telling some other stories. Kiku eventually joined in, telling him things he did with Mei all the time, or sometimes how Yong Soo would do things that annoyed him badly. He told him how Mei and Lien would go have a 'girl's day', and yet Mei would always invite Kiku to join them, and sometimes even Leon.

Eventually the two fell asleep, leaning on each other. Such a horrid day, but at least the night was okay.

"K-Kiku."

Kiku woke up with a small yawn once the nervous voice of Yao got through to him.

"What…?"

Yao didn't say anything. He stayed silent, wanting Kiku to listen. A faint howling came from the distance. "I-it sounds like the same thing that attacked Leon."

Kiku stiffened. Was it following them? "W-we should probably go now." Both of them were hungry and thirsty, and had no idea where they were going. Where they were at was so empty and full of no life.

Yao nodded, "Yeah we should." Before they could even set foot, a dot appeared. Each second that went by, the dot grew bigger and bigger. That dog thing was after them!

Immediately by instinct, Yao picked up Kiku. It was hard to hold him up for long, but he couldn't just leave Kiku to run on his own!

"Y-Yao, put me down! This isn't going to work!"

Yao didn't respond. He swiftly ran as fast as could with the weight of Kiku and his tired legs. Yao had seen enough proof that one of those things can rip somebody apart. He managed to get a small distance from it, until the older lost his footing, causing them both to tumble down a hill.

Thud.

"Ugh. Kiku! Are you alright?" Yao forced himself to stand up despite the impact of the fall. He quickly rushed over to Kiku, and helped him stand up.

Kiku nodded. "I-I'm fine." Even though they couldn't see anything from the back of the hill, sniffing noises were heard. Slowly a head popped into view, and the black beady eyes of the creature were staring at Kiku and Yao intently. It then growled and charged straight at them.

'We'll protect each other!'

Yao pushed Kiku behind him, blocking him off with one of his arms. "When I say run, run, okay?" Yao was fully aware that Kiku had an injured ankle, but Kiku would have to give with his best.

The creature jumped straight at them, its large jaw opened wide, snapping. Yao blocked it off with his other arm. "Run, now!" he managed to say before a pained squeal escaped his lips once the large teeth of the creature dug into his arm straight to his humerus.

"Y-Yao!" Kiku didn't move. He had to do something!

"Kiku, go!" Yao gritted through his teeth, trying to kick it away.

"B-but—"

"Go!"

Kiku backed up, and hesitantly turned away from Yao. He got away from the area, but couldn't help but look back, expecting Yao to be behind him each time. Yao would come back, right? He had too! Kiku found a rocky area, and even a large rock that had enough space for the two siblings to squeeze under and hide. It'd be a tight fit, but better than nothing.

Kiku couldn't wait with no Yao for too long; it worried him too much. "Y-Yao?" Kiku slowly and cautiously walked back to where he had last seen his brother. The monster that had attacked them didn't seem to be anywhere. In fact, Yao wasn't there, but a large spot of blood. Kiku gasped, covering his mouth.

Where did his brother go? "I'm…over here, Kiku."

Kiku turned his head to see Yao lying down on the ground. When he looked closely, Kiku actually noticed the large spot of blood faintly dragged over right to where Yao was. Kiku quickly limped over to him. Yao's arm was bleeding terribly. Blood was sneaking its way from Yao's neck, and even his mouth from coughing it up.

"…Don't worry… The dog is gone."

Kiku tried ripping pieces of his clothing off, but had no luck. He wasn't strong enough. "D-don't speak, your throat is wounded!"

What if something happened to Yao? What would Kiku do with himself? Just the thought was awful!

Anything to stop the bleeding, who'd care if it was embarrassing. Kiku would have to use his garments then if he had to! Kiku began to take off his kimono slowly until Yao spoke up.

"No…don't. Just don't leave me…okay?"

Kiku nodded frantically over and over. "Like I promised, I won't! I-I won't ever leave you alone!"

Yao began coughing up more blood, but he just smiled. His coughs came to an end, but he still warmly smiled at Kiku, not saying a word.

"I still should wrap your wounds up, so you don't get sick." Kiku explained. He was about to continue with taking off his kimono until he noticed that Yao was still happily smiling at him, but not saying anything.

"…Yao? Are you alright?"

Yao still didn't say anything.

"Y-Yao?"

Once Kiku looked closely, Yao was looking at Kiku with a blank stare while smiling at him. Not moving at all. Not breathing at all.

Kiku gasped and stammered backwards, falling over. He got back to his senses, but immediately began crying. "S-Somebody help us! Please!" he shouted. Kiku let out a wail, covering his face. What was he supposed to do? Kiku quickly crawled over to Yao, and began shaking him. "Yao, please say something! Please!" Kiku begged, but Yao still didn't say anything.

"He's dead."

Kiku jumped when a much older man appeared behind him. His hair was a sandy-blond color and also long—not as long as Yao's—and had light blue eyes.

"What? H-he can't be!" At this point Kiku knew his brother had passed on, meaning he was alone. He was the only one left of their family.

The man sighed, looking away from Kiku for a moment. "…I'm sorry." And you're so little too.

The man crouched down to Kiku's level, pulling out a hand for him to grab. "Come on. We should leave this area. It's not safe."

Kiku shook his head, not looking at the other man anymore. "I'm not leaving him until he gets up! I promised I wouldn't leave him alone." Yao is dead! Kiku mentally yelled at himself.

The man didn't say anything else. He picked up Kiku against his will, hauling him somewhere. "N-no!" Kiku wildly thrashed in his arms, trying to escape so the younger could head back to his brother.

That never happened. The man succeeded in taking Kiku literally underground. There were people everywhere. Some seemed panicked, while some seemed just fine. "You'll be a lot safer here." The man sighed, slowly running a hand through his shoulder-length hair. Something seemed to be bothering him.

"B-but what about Yao? I promised him—"

"Do you think he would want you to die out there like that?"

Kiku slowly glanced down. He already knew the answer to that; Yao surely wouldn't.

The man gave Kiku a look of pity, slowly patting Kiku's head for a moment. "I must go for now, but if you ever need me again, ask for somebody named Francis Bonnefoy." He waved a small wave to Kiku, turning around.

Kiku watched Francis walk away until he disappeared from his eyesight. He just stood there for awhile, not even knowing what to do. This place looked safe, but he still felt wary.

People were flooding in and out of the area, so Kiku ended up nuzzling in a small corner, wanting to be by himself. This was just terrible! Kiku wanted to bawl his eyes out, but then that wouldn't mean he was strong right? He wrapped his arms around his legs, putting his head down.

"Hey, you're not going to stay there all day, are you?" a voice asked him. It definitely didn't sound like Francis's.

Why couldn't Kiku just be left alone? He slowly raised his head up. Another boy that looked about his age or a year younger had his head tilted right at Kiku. The first thing Kiku noticed was how he had a hair curl sticking out of his head that literally defied logic.

Kiku shrugged. He honestly didn't know if he was, but he didn't feel like moving at all at the time.

"…Then come on! You should at least meet my friend Ludwig! He's really nice!" The other boy hinted that Kiku should get up and follow him.

"O-okay…" Kiku forced himself to get up, and slowly followed after the other. He led them to a small table where another boy (who looked quite impatient for some reason) had been waiting.

"Sorry, Ludwig!" apologized the boy, "I just saw him by himself so I couldn't just leave him!" The boy sat across from Ludwig, scooting over so Kiku could sit next to him.

Kiku looked at where he was supposed sit, and did so. "Oh, um, thank you."

The boy nodded. "So what's your name? I'm Feliciano Vargas!" Feliciano introduced, giving Kiku a bright beam.

"My name? Kiku Honda." Kiku straightforwardly answered.

"And I'm Ludwig Beilschmidt," Ludwig spoke up. "My apologies if Feliciano bothered you."

Kiku shook his head, "Oh, no it's alright."

"Really? Okay! You looked sad earlier, did something happen?"

"Feliciano!"

Even though Ludwig also looked to be around Kiku and Feliciano's age, he reminded him of some sort of motherly figure.

Kiku looked away for a moment. He swallowed, and looked back to Feliciano. "…Y-yeah. All of my family members are gone."

Feliciano looked like he felt bad for asking. "Oh…I'm sorry! It's awful to lose family members, it really is…" Ludwig didn't say anything. Kiku didn't respond, not wanting to talk about what happened to his family. After a couple minutes of silence from the three, and only the ruckus of other people being around heard, Feliciano finally began to speak up again.

"Mama died when she gave birth to me. Shortly after, our papa died in a car accident. That just left me and my older brother Lovino alone. We were taken to an orphanage since no else could take care of us. After some years, the orphanage closed down and Lovino and I lived on the streets."

Kiku quickly glanced to Feliciano with a surprised face. "You don't have to tell me this!" By the looks of it, Ludwig had already heard this story from Feliciano, as his eyes were closed as he listened.

Feliciano shook his head, "One day Lovino got really…really sick. So sick that none of us could do anything about it. And…a-and he eventually passed away. At least he doesn't have to see what's going on right now, r-right? I'm so sorry for asking if something happened!"

"It's really okay!" Kiku nodded. This whole time he had just been feeling bad for himself, and not thinking about problems other people could possibly be going through also. What was wrong with him?

"Hey Ludwig, can we go somewhere else? Like to the second level of the Infirmary?" they were currently in the first where older people could make their decision for something, and wounded people could be rested and healed. Level two actually had multiple beds laid across the ground. They were flat and thin, but it was better than nothing.

Ludwig nodded. "Alright then. Would you like to come?" he glanced over to Kiku. It sounded like Kiku would be at this place for awhile, so he might as well see the other areas. He nodded.

After being in the second level for awhile, Feliciano and Ludwig were talking about some decision that Ludwig had a chance to begin early training for. It was said at the age of eighteen, you had the choice to join a resistance group called the United Resistance of the People to overthrow the government. Some minors had a special opportunity that if they were full-fledged with the idea of joining, they could start early training (but of course not go outside and any of that stuff). Becoming apart of the resistance was risky. Death was an easy thing to happen.

Kiku silently listened to them speak. Despite a pleading Feliciano telling Ludwig not to do it, it already seemed like the blond had decided to do it. He could always back out later if needed.

Eventually (from quite the time) the conversation shifted into other things. Feliciano invited Kiku to join in multiple times, and eventually it was time for dinner. Steamed potatoes. Feliciano showed Kiku how getting food worked. It was pretty much like a buffet!

Once it was supposedly nighttime, Kiku got a bed next to Feliciano and Ludwig. It was quite surprising that he managed to get at least some sleep that night.

"Ludwig!" Kiku quickly bounded over to Ludwig. What would Feliciano think of this? Finally after some years, Kiku felt like he could handle his katana pretty well. When he was eleven six years ago, he remembered when he first requested to be able to start training early with Ludwig. If he were allowed to, he would first get to choose a weapon to use if available. Kiku wanted to join the UR for Yao. For anyone who went through something similar to him. To help people like how Francis had helped him. And…just to protect others.

"I-I'm in?" Kiku was at first astonished that he was able to train early from requesting. Feliciano always told them to be careful. If anything ever had happened to Ludwig or Kiku, what would he do?

"Did you see the rankings?" Kiku asked once Ludwig turned his head to him. They were both on them and even pretty high, somewhere in the forty's. It was surprising for them to be on the rankings due to the two both being seventeen (though Ludwig's eighteenth birthday was upcoming).

Ludwig nodded. "I did." None of them had any ideas how, or why they were so high up. Whatever it was, Head Leader surely had his or her reasons.

"Anyways," Ludwig spoke up, "we should get going to the Diner. Feliciano is waiting for us."

They walked back to the Diner, and like Ludwig had said, Feliciano was there. "Hey guys!" he called, waving over to them. He was sitting at a table with two other seats. It looked like he already ate by the dirty plate that was in front of him.

Kiku sat down, along with Ludwig. Feliciano began explaining what he was doing while they were gone (like he always does) and then asked if they were also going to eat. Kiku shook his head, not really being hungry, while Ludwig decided to go get something real quickly.

"So, did you learn anything new today?" Feliciano tilted his head. He hated thinking about having to train almost everyday and getting up early every morning.

Kiku was about to shake his head until he did remember something he was informed about that he didn't like too well. Was Feliciano even supposed to know yet? "W-well, I heard that people that are being killed out there are being cloned…" It was hard for Kiku to continue on. All that really made him think of was what happened to Yao after Kiku had last seen him, and even what happened to the rest of his family.

Feliciano blinked a couple of times, understanding. Kiku sighed, looking away for a moment. He then looked back to Feliciano. "Um Feliciano? How are you always so happy? E-even after everything that has happened?" When something bad happens, Feliciano is always the one to lighten up the mood.

"Well," Feliciano paused for a moment. "I think about my brother Lovino a lot. I-I miss him, but I always think of this: would he really be happy about me being upset about him all the time? Sometimes Lovino would yell at me, but we always cared about each other. I know he wouldn't like me being sad! And when other things are bad, it'll always get better eventually! Plus I met Ludwig, and then you. I…I want to even smile in death."

Kiku stared at Feliciano, and nodded. He could even think about the same with Yao and the rest of his family. None of them would want to see him mourning over them all the time. "I see. Thank you, Feliciano."

"Of course!" Feliciano happily beamed. As if on cue, Ludwig came back right after their conversation. Kiku still didn't want to eat anything, so the three conversed for some time.

"We're going out again, are you ready?" Elizabeta questioned Kiku. "Ivan already had left."

Kiku had always been busy as soon as he placed in the top three of the ranks. He actually hadn't been able to speak with Feliciano and even Ludwig despite him being placed as fourth in the ranks. Kiku had been known to be a lone worker, and usually did things without anyone's help. Kiku nodded. "Yes."

He grabbed his katana and headed outside to an opposite direction. Ivan and Elizabeta (and Kiku of course) started their scouting outside first, before more people would venture outside with different duties.

"S-shit!"

The next thing Kiku knew was that somebody who looked about his age landed flat on the ground with a dog AMO snapping right at him. Without even thinking, Kiku quickly ran over to him and immediately cut off the head of the AMO attacking him.

"Let's hurry, before it regenerates." Kiku said, helping him stand. The boy's leg was injured. He was way taller than him (but then again who wasn't?) but Kiku managed to reach an arm over him to help him stand.

Kiku immediately started looking for a way to get back underground. "Sorry to bother whatever you're doing, bro, but won't that AMO come back any second?"

It took some time for Kiku to respond. "Yes… Ah there it is." He kicked away enough dirt and grass for a wooden board to appear. Once removing the board, there was a hole for them to climb down.

Surprisingly some time had gone by. Both of them had gotten down safely, and Kiku had to cover up the entrance they came from so no one would see it. Afterwards he had to go around to get back to the boy he had saved. After speaking to Ivan about what had happened, Kiku took care of Alfred's leg.

"By the way," Alfred started, "what's your name?"

Kiku was still wrapping up Alfred's leg, but he couldn't just ignore him! "My name is Kiku Honda. May I ask what your name is?"

The other nodded right away. "Of course, dude! Name's Alfred Jones!"

Kiku nodded at Alfred. "Oh, then it is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Jones." Alfred immediately started asking him questions about what was going on, and where he was at, but Kiku calmly answered each question. That was until he explained the resistance to Alfred and Alfred chose to join literally right away. His words shot Kiku with force, and yet it didn't seem to bother Kiku too much.

"…As soon as my leg is good, you're going to be my partner!"

Just that sentence caused Kiku to fumble for words. He didn't even think he could work with Ludwig for too long! But by the sound of it, Kiku was stuck with Alfred. They quickly spoke about something else until Kiku dismissed himself.

With a small smile, Kiku said, "I should go and help cook tonight's dinner. I assume I'll see you later? And I guess welcome to the United Resistance of the People." Kiku quickly did a wave to Alfred, before heading over to the Diner. He couldn't help but smile a bit longer. Why? Maybe because he just felt happy for some reason. He even remembered about what Feliciano had told him a long time ago. And he would follow just that.

Even smiling in death.

A/N: Woo, this is the longest chapter I've ever written for something! As soon as I finished the last chapter, I began working on this one so it wouldn't be late. I reread over it a couple of times, so hopefully no typos had slipped past me. Anyways, in case you don't know all the names of Kiku's siblings:

Mei- Taiwan

Lien- Vietnam

[Im] Yong Soo- South Korea

Leon- Hong Kong

So, you all of you next chapter!