I walked to the park and sat on a park bench. I watched all the happy families playing. Mothers, fathers, and children playing together ad being all happy like a happy family should be. Like how mom, dad and I should be like, but no mom decided otherwise. Tears started to fall. I couldn't take the fact that mom would lie to me rather than tell me the truth about who my father is. My own mother lied to protect me. Protect me from what exactly. From everything I heard about him, he truly cared for women. That he'd protect them. Not hurt them in any way shape or form.

I sat there crying softly. I wasn't about to let strangers see me cry.

There was a tap on my shoulder.

"What is it?" I asked without lifting my head.

"Akira, what's the matter? Did you and your mother have an argument?" Someone asked me.

"I guess you could call it that," I muttered. I didn't quite feel like talking to anyone.

"Akira," a neighbor called out.

I looked over towards the voice. "What now?" I asked coldly. "Did my mom send you to find me? It's no use. I'm not going back there. Tell her I'm going to find my father." I started to dislike my mother for deceiving me. Even deceiving father about being dead. She never thought about how I would feel about meeting my father. When that's all I ever wanted. My one wish was to meet him and get to know my father that's been absent in my life.

"It's not that," the neighbor started. "Your house is on fire. I'm not even sure if your mother made it out safely."

I looked at him in disbelief. "That's not true is it?"

He nodded.

My eyes went wide with shock. "Impossible! I was there three hours ago. There's no way that a fire could have spread that quickly in the time that I was gone." I jumped off the bench and bounded for home.

When I got there, the house was a blaze. A crowd had gathered outside. Some members of the crowd tried to fight off the flames. I pushed my way through the crowd to the front. Once there I watched as the scene in front of me. Flames growing, shrinking, and people fighting them back to make sure that they don't spread.

"Who could have done this?" Someone whispered.

"Do you think that Karen did this? Did she do it on purpose?" Another whispered.

"What about her daughter, Akira? Isn't it her birthday today? I hope and pray that she's not in there. It'd be a shame to see a young beauty die like this."

"I'm not in there," I answered them.

They looked at me somewhat relieved.

I watched the flames die out. I was a bit curious if mom even made it out alive. I got looks from the crowd members. They were mostly sad, I-wish-I-could-do-something-for-you type of looks. Some were I-hope-your-mom-is-safe looks. I ignored them all. I would be fine. I can take care of myself.

The flames died, which let people look throughout the wreckage to see if anything, and my mother survived. After a while of searching a group of men found a corpse laying in the middle of the wreckage. No autopsy was needed. Everyone knew that it was my mother, Karen, that was in the fire.

I clenched my fists. I was determined than ever to find my father.

One of my neighbors had pulled me aside and gave me gifts that my mother had given her to give to me. She believed that I wouldn't want to accept anything from her and gave them to our neighbor to give to me. One gift very much interested me. It was a train ticket to a stop to where Blue Pegasus was. Mom even drew a map for me to where it was from the train station. I smiled at the gift she left me.

I know I posted this in chapter one, but here it is again. This is the last time this appears. Chapter 1 takes place during the night and a little bit of the next day. The morning spans about 2-4 hours before Aika goes to the park. Chapter 2 spans about 4-6 hours before Akira leaves to find her father, Hibiki, at Blue Pegasus. Aika and Hibiki share the same birthday.