Hiro sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. His eyes wouldn’t shift off of hers. Those sparkling eyes of his mother were some that he hadn’t seen in so long. It almost made him forget the last time he saw her. Her pale eyes, her drained skin and her lifeless body were completely reversed. Was it all a dream?

He finally let his eyes release from the sight of his mother as he allowed them to widen even more at the sight before him. His face was hit with the golden glow of the sun as he looked down at his village. The same village destroyed all those years ago, it was exactly how he remembered it. The children playing, half the village seemed to be in the market and the small rickety tavern was full as always.

A fresh tear rolled down his cheek as he looked back at his mother who was as always forever smiling. She leaned in and wiped the tear from his face. She gently kissed his forehead and stood up. She was far taller than he remembered. She looked down at him and ruffled his hair. There was a young girl beside him, her hair blonde and her eyes glittering blue. She blushes standing beside him and she cries. He couldn’t understand why she was crying but she was.

The girl ran to him and pulled him in tightly. He couldn’t even react as they fell to the grass. She laughed and again hugged him tightly. Kyoko was never this clingy, was she? Eventually his mother lifted her off laughing.

They laughed and joked with one another, but it was muffled. As much as he tried he couldn’t hear Kyoko’s voice. He couldn’t remember what it sounded like. Hatsuho, his mother, swiftly turned to him and picked him up. He hadn’t even realised it but he was a child. She smiled once more and began walking him down the hill. Kyoko’s ocean blue eyes wouldn’t stop staring at him, tears constantly streaming down her face. Why was she crying?

Asahi sat by the water with his head in his hands trying to think of a way to get them out. He watched as they’re bodies would occasionally rise to the surface of the water. This water had a pull to it. Occasionally he would feel it himself but would shake it off. The man sat alone by a small run-down building. He stared longingly in the windows to the empty interior. Asahi looked on seeing a man clearly broken by his circumstances. He began to think that maybe these powers they were handed by the gods wasn’t always a gift.

Asahi sighs as he looks back towards the water. His face glowed as he looked down at it. All of a sudden the man is behind him breathing against his neck.

“You seem to be deep in thought… don’t you want to go in?”

Asahi raises an eyebrow in suspicion

“And here I thought you didn’t want anyone else to fall in?”

The man flashed a crooked smile, but his eyes seemed genuine as he nodded and left. Asahi left somewhat confused, slowly stood up. The man was once again staring into what looked to be a home, used to be anyway. He would just stare in for hours as Asahi watched over the empty husks floating in the water. Every now and then a flash of life would garner a look of hope but as the sun slowly fell nothing looked to be happening.

Hiro stood by his old home. His mother stood beside him holding his small frail hand and hanging out the window was his father, smiling and waving as he often did. Kyoko stood a few feet in front of him still crying. The confusion hadn’t left Hiro’s face as looked at her puzzled.

“Why are you crying?”

She didn’t have anything to say.

No words reached his ears, there was just a wide smile and a sparkle in her tear-filled eyes. She reached out to him and placed her tiny hand on his cheek. Her voice was muffled once more before he instinctively began to run. He turned to see Hatsuho chasing after both him and Kyoko, running around in the grass as his father clapped. His voice felt distant too.

None of it felt real. It was like a dream or a distant memory. One that he didn’t want to end. There was one thing that radiated warmth. One thing that felt truly real to him and that was his mother. Every time she would clasp his hand or hold him tight it felt real. It was real. Every time he would see Kyoko’s eyes reflecting the blue above there was something odd about her, not like anyone else, it was like she was almost there but not quite.

Hatsuho lifted him up on her shoulders once more and sat him down atop the hill. Kyoko sat beside him with her head resting on his small shoulder. Hatsuho leant him against her as she sighed.

“Did I ever tell you the story of how I got here Hiro?”

Her voice was delicate like an angel. It almost made Hiro feel like he was floating.

“No”

She placed her hand softly against his cheek as she looked down at him smiling.

The sun was casting a golden glow on one side of her face. The one cast in shadow made her eye glimmer ever so slightly with white.

“I was in a dark place… really dark”

Hiro hadn’t really ever heard his mother speak like this, whenever she was around she never stopped smiling.

“I had escaped something… tough. And when I made it here it was raining and my belly was real big”

She laughs as she sees Hiro’s eyes flick to her stomach and back towards her

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“I had nowhere to go and even though I was saved from that prison I was still caged up… I didn’t know what happiness felt like and I had no idea how to smile. Until I seen you Hiro.”

She turns her whole body to give him her full attention.

“You became my one and only reason to live and if I ever lost you then I don’t think I could’ve. I was selfish you know…”

Hiro looked around confused and began to smell burning. Hatsuho turned his head back towards her

“It doesn’t have to be like that for you. You don’t need me to survive”

“What are you talking about?”

His voice was shaking and his eyes shifting.

“Hiro no matter what happens in the next little while I want you to know th-“

“What are you saying mother I can smell fire”

She smiles softly

“I know you can. But just focus on me, ok?”

That golden glow of the sunset begins to flicker into a deeper fiery red. He can’t help but look over at the village as muffled screams surround him and his eyes begin tearing up.

His mother just smiles as she brings him closer.

“I want you to know that you’re allowed to keep going without me… well actually I’ll always be within you one way or another, but you’ll find that out soon enough”

Hiro begins to cry as he buries his face into his mother

“Please don’t leave me again”

“Hiro you have someone out there you must find. I’m sure she’s out there I’m just sure of it.”

Hatsuho lifts Kyoko up onto her other knee as she sits atop the hill watching her village burn to the ground and her friends and family slaughtered before her.

“There weren’t many people here who wanted me, I was always sitting alone in a pile of misery but once I had you everything changed. But I always felt guilty. You had me of course but I could tell you were a little lonely”

Hatsuho brings her knees together as Hiro and Kyoko bump shoulders.

“Then we met you, Kyoko. I know I wasn’t your mother but sometimes it felt like I had two little morons running around sharing memories and both of you made my burdens feel lighter.”

Kyoko can’t help but burst into tears as smoke hangs over head and the sounds of screaming begins to fade into the distance.

“Find one another… please. You need each other. I don’t know how far apart you are but I know that you’ll find one another soon.”

Kyoko screams something out but Hiro cant hear her.

Hiro’s grip on his mother begins to loosen involuntarily. He tries his best to hold on but it’s like something is pulling him away. Kyoko tries to pull him back but it isn’t enough.

His vision begins to darken as Kyoko shouts after him. He looks up to the sky as the smoke comes down on him in a flash.

Hiro stands in a dark plain as the black colour around him seems to be swirling with the wind. This was a familiar place within his dreams. He looks down at his hands as he recognises that he is back to normal. He looks up to see a woman standing in the mist. Only her figure can be made out.

“Mother…?”

Her eyes give off a white glint from the darkness.

Hiro begins to feel the warm touch of his mother’s arms around him and tightening. He feels a breath on his neck but something is stopping him from turning around and looking at her face.

“I’ll always protect you… my baby boy”

Asahi slowly wakes up to the tapping of snow against the window. He fell asleep in one of the unused homes in the town. Nothing had changed. Zero and Hiro still were floating in what looked like an endless abyss beneath the glowing surface. Thoughts of leaving would occasionally cross his mind but he had already let them both down a few times before and he wouldn’t let it happen again.

He looked closely at the older man as he was similarly sitting by the lake watching his daughter and his wife. Asahi could see the parallel but chose to trust that they could somehow get out of whatever world that they were in.

He slowly limped over to the makeshift campfire that sat just before the pier. It had a small plate of meat that simmered on the metal. He ate in complete silence occasionally glancing towards the water every now and then.

The man sat beside him not saying a word. He outstretched his hand as if asking for food. Asahi raised an eyebrow before giving him a small portion.

“Your name. I never got your name”

Asahi wasn’t all that hopeful about getting any answer back but he’d try nonetheless.

“Mare… my name is Mare”

Asahi hadn’t ever heard of a name like it but could tell he was probably from King Alexanders region.

“And you ran away from your family?”

He nodded unable or maybe unwilling to give up the story.

The man looked at Asahi as the darkened pink colour swirled around in his eyes. Asahi sighed as he looked back towards Hiro and Zero.

“No one’s ever gotten out?”

He shook his head.

Asahi took a bite as he looked to the ground.

“They can. I’m sure they can”

Hiro stood as his eyes shook. But he was still unable to move. The woman’s arms were still wrapped tightly around his chest as he could feel her head nestling between his shoulder and his neck.

“You know that I’ll protect you right? Just give your body to me and everything will be ok”

Her voice felt so close and yet distant at the same time. It felt recognisable and like it was his first time hearing it. Her warmth felt one with his own as he slowly breathed.

He looked forward as he seen a familiar small shack sitting alone in the darkness barely visible.

“Just let me in Hiro… I promise I can protect you”

Hiro begins to step towards the building as the mist begins to swirl around him. Every footstep seems heavier as he closes in on the horrible sight he saw. The door barely holds on to the hinges as he slowly reaches out. The black hand reaches out alongside his almost veering him in the direction of the handle.

His breathing becomes heavier as the voice goads him on. His hand shakes as his finger caresses the rusted handle of the door slowly putting more weight on it. A terrifying smile sits atop his shoulder growing ever more present as the door handle slowly turns.

The crackling of his village begins to grow louder around hm as he turns the handle, the screaming, the crying and the explosions ring around him as his breathing is staggered. The voice is almost screaming at him to open the door as the creature that destroyed his home that day flies overhead its blue glow not averting Hiro’s gaze from the door.

The handle twists with a creek as it all stops. All the noise ceases. Even the feeling of warmth goes and it’s just him and the door. Nothing else. The door slowly swings open. He instinctively closes his eyes unable to open them.

He feels a slight warmth against his hand. He manages to look down as a small Kyoko stands beside him. Her huge blue eyes still swelling with tears stares up at him. Her voice still muffled. She points towards the door and pulls his arm.

He looks up.

“Go Hiro. Welcome your mother back into your heart”

The black arm pushes him slightly as he lets go of Kyoko’s hand. He stands alone in the small shack staring downwards at the one sight he never wanted to lay eyes on again.

Tears fall as his hands shake. Kyoko stands beside him shaking in terror.

The woman, completely engulfed in a black mist, places her hand on Hiro’s shoulder and leans in close to his ear.

She whispers.

“Wake up”