Chapter 2: A New Roommate
When the clock hanging above the television set suddenly played the music of 'When You Wish Upon a Star', Haruka lifts her head up to see that the time is now 8 o' clock at night. She frowns worriedly as not only is this the eleventh night in the row she had dinner without the presence of her son, but it seems tonight, Shu has been away from home much later than usual.
She made several attempts to call Shu's phone, but all to no avail. She also contacted the supermarket he worked at, only to be told by the manager that he had checked out at approximately 6:01 pm and had no idea where he had left to afterwards. Clearly, her son had finished work, but why is he taking so long to return home? Did he choose to go somewhere after work? She prays hard that it better not be the bar again as she got him out of trouble from the law just two weeks ago. Sadly, all she could do now is to continue her attempts in making contact with him. And if all else fails, she has no choice but to call the police.
When her phone failed to reach Shu again, Haruka looks down at the screen to dial his number once more. She lets out a worried sigh as she places her phone against her ear again.
"Oh God, Shu. Where are you?" Haruka murmured.
Suddenly, as if God has miraculously chosen her to quell all her worries, her home's main door swings open to reveal Shu and Inori, causing Haruka to gasp and drop her phone.
"Shu!" Haruka cried as the two teenagers step in. After closing the door behind them, Shu holds up his hands to his mother as she hastily gets up from the couch and walks over to him.
"Haruka, listen to me." Shu tried to explain. "You won't believe what-"
Without warning, Haruka delivers a hard slap across his right cheek, and Shu yelps in pain.
"Where the hell have you been?! I was so worried, you know that?!" Haruka scolded as Shu gently strokes his hand across the area where she slapped. "Did you drown yourself with liquor at the bar again?!"
"No, I did not!" Shu snapped at her. "I just…have some complications on my way back home!"
"Don't bullshit me! What complications?! And why do you have a bruise on your cheek?"
"Because you slapped me?"
"No, God dammit! Your other cheek! Did you get into a fight again?!"
"No! I didn't! I just…fell on a rock!"
"Fell on a rock, right." Haruka rolls her eyes. "And I once had a bruise on my elbow from a shark bite. Tell me the God damn truth!"
"It was-"
"A group of men attacked your son in an alleyway." Inori flatly explained as she steps towards Haruka, causing her and Shu to fall silent. "Your son would have been killed if I had not shown up in time to deal with them personally. That is the truth behind his injury."
As Haruka stares blankly at her, wondering who this mysterious girl her son had invited into their home is, Shu places his hand on Inori's shoulder, turning her to face him.
"Inori, I told you to stay quiet and let me handle this." Shu frowned at her.
"But your mother wanted the truth. It is my duty to deliver it to her." Inori said calmly.
"Because Haruka is your asset too?" Shu asked.
"Yes." Inori nodded. Shu strokes his hair and lets out a heavy sigh.
"I know what you did was right but…" Shu trails off and shakes his head. "Never mind."
"Excuse me but…who is she?" Haruka asked her son as she regains her senses. Shu turns to his mother and stuffs his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
"Haruka, this is Inori Yuzuriha." Shu said, gesturing her to the pink-haired girl. Inori closes her eyes and bows her head solemnly to Haruka.
"Haruka Ouma…" Inori said before looking back up at her. "Your husband, Kurosu Ouma-"
Upon hearing her husband's name, Haruka's jaw plummeted, and her eyes grew wide in shock.
"Kurosu?" Haruka asked. "How do you know him?"
Shu holds up his hand to her. "Let her explain."
As Haruka's eyes softened, Inori explained to her, "Haruka Ouma…your husband, Kurosu Ouma, gave me an important mission to deliver his phone to you." She proceeds to open her pouch bag and takes out the seal bag containing Kurosu's phone. Haruka gasps upon recognizing the smartphone that once belonged to her late husband. "He wanted you, his wife, to see the last eleven videos he recorded into this phone."
Haruka quietly takes the seal bag from Inori and stares down at it for a few moments. The model, the color, and even the size of it. There is no doubt in her mind at all. This phone was definitely once owned by Kurosu.
"After Inori saved me from the guys who beat me up, I'm just as shocked as you are when she told me she knew Dad, and that he ordered her to find me and you. Unfortunately, my bicycle isn't made to hold more than one person, so we spent about an hour around the city looking for someone who drives a pickup truck and is kind enough to drive us home. That's another reason why I'm late." Shu explained.
"We apologize for the delay, ma'am." Inori said as she bows her head to Haruka again. Shu briefly widens his eyes at the pink-haired girl before grimly turning his head away from her and his mother. Haruka didn't realize she is crying until she sees a tear splashing onto the seal bag. Upon seeing this, Inori asked her asset, "Have I made a mistake, ma'am?"
After wiping away her tears, Haruka looks up at Inori and replied with a weak smile, "No…you didn't. I just…never thought I would see this again." She paused as she takes a gulp. "Tell me…how do you know Kurosu Ouma?"
"He was my superior. He helped created me into becoming the perfect soldier to bring peace and stability to the world." Inori said. Haruka's mouth gaped open again.
"Inori told me about herself during our ride home. How she was one of the many people trained and created by Dad and other scientists to become soldiers…in Matou Industries' facility in Germany." Shu said grimly.
Haruka frowns and looks down at her late husband's phone again. "So, the stories about Matou Industries turning humans into living weapons were true after all." She murmured.
"Not living weapons." Inori shakes her head. "We are soldiers trained and created to bring peace and stability to the world."
"What have they been telling you?" Shu frowned with a mixture of fear and worry as he wondered what she and the other abducted children had been learning from the now disgraced company.
"They told us how we-" Inori was about to explain as she turned to Shu, but the brown-haired boy shakes his hands at her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I don't mean you to tell me now. Not yet." Shu said. 'Man, does she act like a machine. Freaky.'
"Still, regardless of what they did to you back there, thank you…" Haruka said, bowing her head to the pink-haired girl. "For bringing my husband's phone back to me."
"You're welcome." Inori said flatly as she bows back to her. "With that, I must be going."
"Oh? You're leaving now?" Haruka asked with her eyes wide.
"Yes." Inori quickly replied.
"But…you know, it's getting dark out there and…there's still so much that I want to learn from you since you knew my husband well." Haruka chuckled. "So, why not stay with us for a while-"
"No." Inori shakes her head. "I can't."
"Why not?" Haruka asked.
"My first objective is complete. Now, I must move on to my second objective." Inori explained.
"What second objective?" Shu asked perplexed.
"As he drew his final breaths, Kurosu Ouma gave me two objectives. The first is to find Haruka Ouma and Shu Ouma and deliver his phone to his wife. The second is for me to live normally and live free. Once I've done that, I can return to Matou Industries and give them my final report." Inori explained.
Shu and Haruka silently stare at Inori in shock and bewilderment as the pink-haired girl solemnly bows to them once more.
"Now then, I must be going." Inori said flatly. But as she turns to the main door and makes her exit, Shu stops her by grabbing her right arm.
"Wait!" Shu cried. As if she has been given an order, Inori stops at her tracks and turns her head back to him. "Didn't you know? Matou Industries has ceased to exist."
"I don't understand." Inori replied.
"Seriously." Shu said as he and Inori adjust their bodies and face each other. "Matou Industries, the company you and Kurosu worked for, no longer exists. They've completely disappeared from the face of the Earth seven years ago."
"Even their founder, Zouken Matou?" Inori inquired.
"Yes." Shu nodded. "He was found dead."
Inori stays silent and stares blankly at him for a few moments before speaking up, "If that is the case, I should be disposed of."
"What?" Shu and Haruka said incredulously. Inori looked around the house for a moment until her vision lands on some knives arranged neatly in a wooden block-shaped holder placed beside the kitchen sink. Without saying a word, Inori walks away from Shu and Haruka and over to the knives.
"Where are you going?" Shu asked dumbfounded. Soon, the boy and his mother gasp and widen their eyes in horror as Inori takes a knife out from the holder and turns it around.
"OH MY GOD! SHU! STOP HER!" Haruka screamed as Shu makes a mad dash over to her.
"INORI! STOP!" Shu shouted at the girl as he quickly grabs her right wrist to stop her from stabbing her own chest. However, Shu could feel Inori trying to break free, and so he wraps his other hand around her wrist as well as he struggles to maintain his grip on her.
"Shu Ouma, please let go." Inori said flatly, staring back at him with her lifeless eyes.
"And please don't kill yourself in front of us for God's sake!" Shu cried frantically.
"But I must be disposed of. My superiors told me in the event that they are no longer around, I must-"
"No, you can't!" Shu screamed. "Don't EVER kill yourself!"
"But I must. Matou Industries is lost."
"Yeah, but-"
"Then I must be disposed of."
"You can't!"
"I must."
"No, you can't!"
"Yes. I must."
"Can't you say anything else besides 'I must'?!"
"Why?"
"Ugh! Y-y-you just…can't do this!" Shu barely managed to respond as he is struggling to prevent the girl from committing suicide.
"I must."
"I-Inori…" Shu grits his teeth at her. "If you kill yourself, how are you going to fulfil your second objective?"
"I can't. Kurosu Ouma is no more, and so is the rest of Matou Industries."
Shu momentarily closes his eyes as he tries to think of any idea to convince Inori to stop what she is doing. He soon remembers what happened between him and Inori during her fight with his attackers back at the alleyway. And since he is biologically related to her former superior, he hopes that his logic will work on her. It better works as he only has one shot at this.
"T-That's…not true!" Shu replied wearily as he looks back at her. "Kurosu may be dead…but his son and wife aren't!"
"What do you mean?" Inori asked.
"Inori…you stopped yourself from killing that man back in that alleyway because I told you to stop, right?"
"Because you were my asset, yes."
"If you can obey my father, why can't you obey me now?"
Inori remained silent as the knife in her hand is slowly nearing her chest. Shu groans and closes his eyes again as he is nearly losing all his strength to pull it back.
"If my father and Matou Industries are gone, that makes me and his wife, Haruka, your superiors now, right? So please…ugh…d-d-don't kill yourself…d-drop the knife…n-now…"
After staying quiet for a few seconds to thoroughly comprehend what Shu had said to her, Inori nods her head to him.
"That makes sense." She said before finally unwrapping her fingers and dropping the knife onto the floor. Shu sighs heavily and falls on his knees in relief, staying there for a few moments to rest and regain his strength.
'My God…she really is a machine.' Shu thought miserably to himself before picking up the knife.
Inori watched idly as Shu holds onto the sink as support to get himself back up on his feet and inserts the knife back into the holder. The brown-haired boy turned to her and asked, "So, before he died, my father told you to-"
"Live my life normally. Live free." Inori said flatly.
Shu turns his head away from her and frowns for a moment, wondering what his father meant with those words. Kurosu was the man who raised him since birth, and Shu had shown him love and admiration in return. But after the news about his father and uncle having been working for Matou Industries broke out, his thoughts of Kurosu became conflicted ever since. Since his father had been working for a company that had been abducting children and turning them into living weapons just like Inori, then there is a possibility that the man he used to love was a monster all along. But hearing those words from Inori may finally put a lot of ease to what has been troubling his mind for the last seven years. If Kurosu wanted her to live her life free and normal like any other human being, maybe the father he knew is the same man he had known and loved during his younger days after all. He needs to keep Inori here for the time being. He needs to know more information from her. And he knows that the only way for him to do that, is to help her fulfil his father's final order to her.
Shu looked back at Inori and grabs her arms tightly as he stares into her eyes with dead seriousness.
"Inori, now that Haruka and I are your superiors, will you obey everything that we tell you to do?" Shu asked.
"Yes." Inori replied calmly as she nods her head.
"Good. If that is the case, I want you to live your life free and normal, by staying here with me and Haruka. Got it?" Shu asked.
"Understood." Inori nodded again.
"And by living your life free and normal," Shu said flatly as he leans his face closer to her. "I mean don't…ever…kill anyone…and yourself. Understand?"
"Yes." Inori nods one last time. Shu lets out another sigh before releasing her arms and backing away.
"Good." Shu said, nodding back to her. He places his hand on her back and escorts her over to Haruka.
"So, now that you'll be living with us for the time being, we should prepare an extra bed for you." Haruka said to Inori smiling.
"That won't be necessary." Inori replied. "Back in the facility, we were trained to sleep by wrapping our arms around our legs and resting our heads against our knees."
"Well, you're not in the facility anymore and I order you to sleep properly by lying on a mattress." Shu said.
"But what if someone were to attack this household? How can I be fully prepared to fight back the enemy in time?" Inori inquired.
"You are in one of the most peaceful neighborhoods in all of Bali." Shu said reassuringly as he places his hand on her shoulder. "Nothing bad will happen."
"Is that so?" Inori asked.
"Yes." Shu nodded.
"Are you sure?" Inori asked again.
"Yes." Shu frowned, now looking ticked off.
"Why do you think so?" Inori asked once more.
"Because I said so." Shu muttered through his gritted teeth.
"Fair enough." Inori nodded. Shu groans and rubs his temples while Haruka manages to suppress a chuckle as she watched.
"Alright." Shu places his hand on Inori's back again. "Let's take you upstairs. Haruka has a spare mattress and blanket in her wardrobe, but my room is much bigger for you to sleep in."
The Oumas escort Inori up the staircase and over to the door of Haruka's room. While the woman goes inside her room to grab the spare mattress and blanket from the top of her wardrobe, both Shu and Inori wait outside. As they stand beside each other, Shu takes a moment to look at Inori's hair and clothes. Her hair is extremely long, having grown all the way down to the back of her waist, and many parts of it are tangled and stained with dirt and mud. Her sleeveless bright turquoise dress is also covered from top to bottom with cuts, blemishes and mysterious stains which made Shu wonder what strange parts of the world Inori have travelled through. As he slowly looks down to the bottom of the left side and back of her dress, he notices two cuts which exposes the beautiful skin of her left thigh and hip, and a small portion of her bu-
As Shu could feel his face and chest heating up, he shuts his eyes and frantically shakes his head to eradicate the crude thoughts forming inside his mind. Inori turns her head to him and asked emotionlessly, "Something wrong?"
"N-n-no! Of course not!" Shu cried as he frantically waves his hands at her.
"Understood." Inori said flatly, nodding her head to Shu and looking back at the door. Shu clutches his chest and sighs heavily before the door finally opens to reveal Haruka holding up the mattress and slowly maneuvering her way through the doorway.
"Here it is." Haruka said as Shu goes over to help her.
"Inori, would you mind opening the door to my room for me?" Shu asked the pink-haired girl as he grabs the mattress from his mother. Inori obliged as she walks over to the door beside Haruka's room and opens it wide.
"I'll take it from here." Shu said to Haruka. "Have a good night, Haruka."
"You too, both. And please Shu, don't do anything funny to her." Haruka said sternly to him.
"Why would I ever do that?!" Shu cried exasperatedly at her. He grumbles under his breath as he turns the mattress horizontally and carefully enters through the doorway to his room.
After grabbing the spare blanket from her bed, Haruka walks over to Inori and passes it to her.
"Please take good care of him." Haruka said to her softly. "He may seem troubled…but he's still my son."
"I will, ma'am." Inori responded, giving a final bow to Haruka before entering Shu's room and closing the door behind her. Haruka smiled weakly as she turns around and walks back into her own room.
After closing the door and walking past her bed, Haruka takes a seat in front of her work desk placed at the left end corner of her room. She carefully opens the seal bag and removes Kurosu's phone from it. She takes a minute to examine the screen and all sides of the phone and is amazed that the girl is able to keep it safe in excellent condition after all these years. She felt something bulky underneath its case, so she removes it to discover that hidden inside is a small piece of paper with four different numbers written on it. Immediately knowing that it is the password to unlocking her late husband's phone, Haruka places the case aside, grabs the charging cable from the extension socket at the front of her desk, and inserts it into the bottom slot of the phone. The woman gave a soft gasp as the phone boots up, and a portrait of Kurosu, Haruka and Shu appears on screen a few seconds later. In the photo, Kurosu and Haruka are wrapping their arms around each other's shoulders while the woman places her left hand on the left shoulder of Shu, who is standing in front of them. All three have huge smiles on their faces as the father takes a shot of this moment in time with his phone.
'You were always thinking of us.' Haruka thought sadly. After typing the password to unlock the phone, she taps and opens the gallery to see all the photos and videos Kurosu had taken before his death are still intact. She opens the video folder and sees the thumbnails of the last eleven videos that Inori and Kurosu wanted her to see. But Haruka wanted to see one particular video first before doing so. She briefly scrolls up and soon finds what she is looking for. It was one of the videos Kurosu filmed of him, Haruka and Shu spending their last family trip together in Tottori before making his departure to Germany a few days later. This one was made during their visit to the prefecture's famous sand dunes.
She taps on the thumbnail to enlarge and play the video. It starts off with a ten-year-old Shu Ouma smiling and puffing out his chest proudly as he holds up a sled beside him. Kurosu crouches down to his level to take a good view of him with his phone while his wife stood beside him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, representing Japan, please welcome the world's future Olympic gold medalist for the sled category in sandboarding…Shu Ouma!" Kurosu exclaimed.
"Yaaaaaayyyyyy!" Haruka cheered and applauded as Shu solemnly bows his head to the camera.
"Are you ready, Shu?" Kurosu asked.
"Yes I am." Shu said confidently.
"Then participant…get into your position!" Kurosu announced to Shu, continuing his imitation as a sports commentator.
Shu turns around and places the sled down on the sand. As Shu sits down on his sled and holds onto the handlebars at his sides, Kurosu goes closer to his son from behind to reveal how high the Oumas are positioned from the bottom of the sand dune. Haruka goes over to Shu from behind as well and places her hands on the back of his shoulders.
"3…2…1…" The Oumas count together. "GO!"
Haruka delivers a gentle push on Shu, sending his son sliding down the sand dune. The brown-haired boy whooped excitedly as he enjoys the ride while Haruka and Kurosu cheer rambunctiously for their son.
"YEAH! WAY A GO, SHU!" Haruka shouted as she claps her hands and throws her fists up in the air. "WHOOOOOOO!"
"GO FOR IT, SHU! GO FOR THE OLYMPIC GOLD! MAKE YOUR COUNTRY PROUD! YEAH!" Kurosu yelled. When Shu's sled grounded to a halt at the bottom of the dune, the boy gets up, turns around to look up at his parents, and pumps his fists up in the air. Kurosu and Haruka cheered and gave an applause to their son again before the boy picks up his sled.
"You want me to help you out?!" Haruka cried at Shu.
"No! I'll be fine!" Shu responded as he slowly climbs his way back up.
"Okay then!"
"Shu is growing up so fast." Kurosu chuckled as he now stands back up and turns to his wife who walks over to him.
"I don't know if sandboarding will ever be an Olympic sport, honey." Haruka said to her husband as she places her hands on the sides of her hip.
"Well, if golf can become one, anything is possible." Kurosu replied. Haruka laughed for a moment before her smile quickly disappeared.
"Do you think I can do this?" Haruka asked in concern.
Kurosu chuckled in response. "We already talked about this back at the hotel, remember?"
"I know but…" Haruka paused for a moment. "I'm not the one who gave birth to him."
"Hey, come on now." Kurosu said tenderly as he gently places his hand on Haruka's right cheek. "You're stronger than this. I want you to say it."
As Haruka shifts her eyes downward and remains silent, Kurosu said firmly to her, "Say it, Haruka."
The woman looks back at her husband again and nods her head to him. "I'm stronger than this."
"Arigatou." Kurosu smiled back at her and removes his hand. "Now look here."
As the couple turn their heads, the man adjusts and holds out his phone so that his face now appears on camera alongside his wife. Haruka chuckled as she and Kurosu briefly smile for the camera and turn their heads to plant a kiss on each other's lips. When they are done, Kurosu lowers his phone and ends the recording.
Haruka places the phone down on her desk and leans back in her chair when she could feel an irrepressible sob escaping her throat. As her vision began to blur, she lowers her head and buries her face in her hands. Her tears roll down her cheeks like tiny rivers as she sobs uncontrollably over the loss of Kurosu.
The emotions she felt after watching the video were conflicting. Grief due to the fact that the man she could rely on the most is no longer around. Shame because she is still unable to fulfil his final wish for her to this day. But there was also some joy from being able to relive and reminisce that precious moment which she, Kurosu and Shu spent together again.
Despite the amount of sorrow inside her right now, she knows she cannot spend the rest of the night pitying herself either. And by taking what Kurosu said to her that day to heart, Haruka manages to bring her emotional sobs to a halt and regain full control of her body. She lifts her head back up and sniffled before wiping away the tears from her eyes and cheeks. She drags her chair and herself nearer to her desk, and after taking a deep breath, Haruka picks up and unlocks the phone, ready to uncover what secrets Kurosu have in store for her.
While holding a clean set of clothes in his arms, Shu quietly sat on the right side of his bed and gazed at the floor as he waited for Inori to finish bathing. After helping to place the mattress down on the floor and beside his bed on the other side a few minutes ago, Shu passed her some clothes from his wardrobe and ordered her to take a shower in the bathroom across the hallway. He patiently waited for her until he hears the door opening behind him. Shu turns around and sees the pink-haired girl now standing across the other side of his room while closing the door behind her.
"I am done, Shu Ouma." Inori said as she faces him.
Shu frowns as he sees how large and wide his red t-shirt and black gym shorts look on her slim and smaller body just as he predicted, which is why he had advised her to tie the laces around his shorts after putting them on. He wished he could give her something smaller and more fitting to wear. But not wanting to disturb Haruka for some spare clothes from her wardrobe right now, this is currently the best he could lend to her. Besides, at least they still look a lot more modest on her than that torn and short dress she had worn for God knows how long. But what does not still look modest about her appearance however is that her long hair remains tangled and unkempt. He gets up from his bed and walks over to her.
"You did not comb your hair, didn't you?" Shu asked.
"What does it mean to 'comb your hair'?" Inori asked.
Shu sighs heavily while drooping his shoulders. "Just wait for a while. I'll be back."
As the girl obliged, Shu leaves and goes into the bathroom. He spends ten minutes taking a warm shower and putting on his new set of clothes which consists of a plain light-yellow shirt and blue shorts. It took a few more minutes for him to tidy his hair and brush his teeth before taking another comb that belongs to Haruka from the cabinet and leaving the bathroom. He reenters his room to see Inori still standing at the same spot he had last saw her. After commanding her to sit down on his bed, Shu sat beside her and began using Haruka's comb to tidy and straighten her long hair.
"I assume they never taught you how to groom and tidy your appearance back in the facility, huh?" Shu asked.
"What is that?" Inori asked.
"It means, you know, basic things to clean yourselves every day like bathing and changing your clothes." Shu said.
"The only times we change our clothes are when we are called by our superiors, and before, during and after training." Inori said. "As for bathing, does resting inside tanks containing liquid that helps cleanse our bodies of possible bacteria counts?"
Shu frowned uncomfortably for a moment before nodding his head.
"Yeah, I guess so." He replied. Shu places the comb aside on his bed when he is done and smiles as he examines her hair. "There. Your hair is all fixed up. Nice and beautiful."
Inori looks over her shoulders as she strokes and runs her fingers through her now smooth and straightened hair. She turns to Shu and bows her head to him.
"Thank you, Shu Ouma." Inori said.
"Yeah…you're welcome." Shu murmured with his head lowered. The two teenagers sat in awkward silence for a few moments until the boy finally looks back up at her. "Well, it's been a long day for the both of us so, let's get some sleep."
Inori nodded to him before getting off his bed and lying down on her new mattress. Shu lies down on his own bed and gets his body underneath his blanket. He turns to Inori and sees her lying flat on her mattress, but also above her blanket.
"Inori, you're supposed to lie under the blanket. You don't want to catch a cold throughout the night." Shu advised her.
The girl turns her head to observe how her new superior is resting underneath his blanket and replied, "I see."
Shu frowns again as he watches Inori getting her body underneath the sheets. He could not help but feel sorry for her that despite her age, the girl clearly has little knowledge of how an average person spend their lives each day. It seems evident that whatever ways Matou Industries used to train Inori and many others like her into becoming perfect soldiers were intense and unforgiving.
"Tell me, Inori. How are you feeling right now?" Shu inquired.
"My condition seems fine. I feel no sign of dizziness or physical pain whatsoever. Though I must say that it feels…surreal…to be resting by lying down." Inori responded.
"How do you rest back in the facility? Do you ever lie down?"
"The tool we often used for resting are the liquid tanks they provided for us. The only times we ever lie down are when they needed us to extract our blood or inject serums into our bodies."
Shu stares wordlessly at Inori for a few moments before removing the blanket off his body and sitting back up on the side of his bed.
"Shu?" Inori asked curiously as she sees him sitting above her.
"Inori, why don't we switch places?" Shu asked. Inori obliged as she gets up from her mattress. Shu gets off his bed and gestures her to lie down on it. Inori did as she was told, and Shu gently places his blanket over her body. The boy later lies down on the mattress and gets under the sheets.
"Are you sure about this, Shu Ouma?" Inori asked.
"Yeah. You deserve it more than I do." Shu replied. "Good night, Inori."
"What's 'good night'?" Inori asked.
"It's a way of telling someone to have a good rest." Shu explained. "It would also be polite if the other person says the same thing back."
"Then…good night…Shu Ouma." Inori said before closing her eyes and sealing her lips.
A wan smile appears on Shu's face for a few seconds before he grabs the remote on the floor beside him and the mattress and aims it at the lights on the ceiling. He presses a button to turn them off and the entire room turns black.
Sovereign: I would like to thank Darth Necron, Allfather-Ford, LayLay lives and wockhearts for reviewing. Thanks guys! Hopefully, I'll be a lot faster in bringing up the next chapter.