December 23rd, 2968, a young woman named Kazuki Yue gives birth to a baby, a visibly mixed-race baby. Her husband Kazuki Sato, goes into a blind rage seeing she clearly cheated on him.

Yue cries hysterically as her husband storms out and demands a divorce. Yue remains in the hospital in a blank daze; the day Yue is about to be discharged Ryota is brought to her room in preparation for their departure waiting for a doctor to come.

The doctor arrives to give Yue a shot to aid her recovery, when it all went wrong for poor Ryota. Yue takes the needle and attempts to stab Ryota. Seeing him as the reason for her husband leaving her as well as a loss of a proper future with everyone knowing about her scandalous ways, the doctor grabs her hand but is unsuccessful in preventing harm to Ryota. Ultimately the needle gives him a deep cut under his left eye.

Yue is tackled to the ground by security and is then taken into police custody. The doctor takes Ryota, completely horrified at seeing the excesses amount of blood. Ryota is rushed to the emergency room to have surgery.

They swiftly begin the operation, finding working on a baby increasingly difficult with his small size. Trying to keep his vitals stable with the amount of blood lost was increasingly difficult but eventually he pulls through, leading to the relief of the operating team.

Baby Ryota recovers from the operation and he is then taken to an orphanage where he would stay till he turned eight; then he'll transferred to a foster home. This orphanage was a very harsh place to live although most of the children living there had normal lives as normal as it could be at least. Ryota had to face a difficult lead in the orphanage, his caretaker had lost interest in him when he was a baby. She was personally responsible for all the children under the age of 2 but she often neglected Ryota forgetting to feed him sometimes for days straight just for being mixed race. He would often share what little food he had with his friends or some nights sneak into the kitchen, which if he was caught he would be punished.

By the time Ryota was four he was no longer under that woman’s care. He was now being watched by the head of the house herself, who had an unreasonable disdain for Ryota from the very beginning. She was not a normal person; her name was Kazuki Sakura, the sister of Kazuki Sato.

She had heard about the incident at the hospital and held hatred toward the child going out of her way to punish him more severely than the other children, making up fake incidents just to justify a punishment and depriving him of privileges the other children had for no reason, he was the only child in the orphanage with his own room which was located in a basement only having an old thin mattress and a single lamp, she would often refer to him as thing and told him his scar made him the ugliest child in the entire orphanage.

Through all that there was one person who genuinely cared for Ryota, his best friend Asumi. Out of everyone she was the only one who ever remembered his birthday and always celebrated with him no matter how small, this year Ryota promises to himself to celebrate her birthday just like she does for him seeing this is the last year they’ll be in the orphanage as they’ll both be turning 8 the same year.

On November 31st, 2976, Asumi turned 8 and Ryota had gone all out, by working extra hard he was allowed to have some ingredients to make something for Asumi a chocolate birthday cake. Asumi bursts into tears as this is the first time she had ever felt so loved; she gives Ryota a kiss on the cheek. As he grabs his face in pure shock he cannot stop smiling, she tells him to sit down as they begin to eat the cake together, little did he know his last year at the orphanage would be the worst experience of his life.

On the 30th of December all the 8-year-olds from the orphanage was transferred to a different orphanage but not this year. Sakura is eager to spite Ryota one last time before he leaves, she gets an evil grin on her face as she concocts her plan.

On the day they were to be transferred, Sakura had stopped Ryota informing him he is not going with them he will be going with a different bus. He’s confused as he has never heard of another bus coming to pick them up, she says this is something new and just informs him to wait, Asumi rushes out and says she wants to stay with Ryota and says she’ll go with him but is forced back on the bus as Ryota ensures they’ll meet up later.

After the bus pulls off the façade fades and Ryota is kicked out onto the streets, he asks questions in confusion until its laid out in front of him that he is hated be ever single person in his family and has be resented since birth and she emphasizes that she doesn’t want him there and tell him to leave Ryota in this moment can’t even cry he turns his back and walks off as he does he is taunted by the head of the orphanage he cracks and runs at her, she kicks him his stomach and onto some barbed wire left on the ground from the fence.

Ryota cries out in pain as he is left with a deep cut across his back, Sakura walks up to him picks him up and throws him to ground and chases him off. As he walks off it begins to rain and he takes shelter in a street alley where a group of teenagers try to rob him not knowing his lack of possessions, they beat him up and leave him there.

He continues to aimlessly wonder around till he hears a familiar voice in the distance he looks for who it could be then, Asumi tackles him to the ground worry in her eyes. She had been confused as she had never seen him when they arrived, so she snuck out and went looking for him, she asked what happened and he explained everything to her. She grows furious to the point she feels physically hot she slams her fist and the ground, and a flame comes out.

They both look at each other in amazement so happy to find out Asumi can use magic, they come with the idea that they’ll have to take care of each other, Ryota promises to protect he no matter what even without magic and Asumi looks up to him and says to do anything to support him.

They live on the streets doing whatever it takes to survive often getting lucky as adults feel pity and give them money, they often sell bottles to earn money for food, they lived this way for a total of 5 months, in the beginning they found it hard to live such a life but soon grew use to it when they met a group of homeless people who showed them the ropes and even allowed them to stay in their camp with them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ryota and Asumi had never been so happy in their lives even with no mother, father, or home to speak of, they had each other which was all the family they needed. One day they bring in a massive haul of cash.

Ryota and Asumi were given money by multiple people and sold tons of bottles that day gathering a total of 25,000 yen, they jumped in joy as they thought about how to spend it. That night Ryota cannot sleep sitting still contemplating what was next for them.

That very same night, Asumi and Ryota were about to go to sleep in their little shack. Unable to sleep, Asumi woke up Ryota to talk a bit.

“Hey Ryota, sorry to wake you up, but do you ever think we’ll make enough money to move out of this shack one day and eat good food and sweets?”

“Of course we will. I promise I’ll keep working hard and I’ll buy a big house for us to live in with all the cake you could ever want. It’ll just take some time to get there. Sorry if it takes too long.”

Asumi’s face turned beet red before replying to Ryota, “It’s okay, Ryota. I know you’re doing your best, but can you do me one favor?”

“Whatever you want, I’ll try my best to do it.”

Asumi looked straight into Ryota’s eyes with a cheeky smile on her face as she asked, “When we grow up, can you buy a wedding cake for us to have together?”

She turns to him and asks what if she were his wife he blushes uncontrollably and says, if he did marry her, he would be sure to have a happy future. She then smiles and tells him to go to bed as they still must figure out what to do with the money. Ryota suggests only using some and saving the rest turns to her and say they will save it for their future, she gives a big smile and they both go to sleep.

The next morning, they go on their normal routine and decide to take the money from today and the money from yesterday to buy something special today. They are then confronted by a group of thugs ranging from 16-19 who demand they give them their money as they heard from someone yesterday, they had gathered 25,000 yen and demanded they handed it over or else.

Ryota had tried to protect Asumi instructing her to run away, she tries to take off but one of boys calls to her threatening to kill Ryota using his earth magic as he holds a stone knife to his neck. She trembles in fear as Ryota tells her to keep running, she looks at him and brings herself to leave, she uses her magic and burns them with fire accidentally getting Ryota in the crosshair.

The boy loses his grip and Ryota runs as Asumi apologizes for burning him, he says it is ok and tries to run the boy who used earth magic swiftly recovers and uses his magic to block their way. The boy grabs the girl in case she uses magic again as they continue to beat Ryota relentlessly, Asumi cries and agrees to give them the money, not being able to watch Ryota in such pain anymore.

He puts her down and as she takes out the money, she uses her magic to burn his face, the sudden attack makes him attack randomly as he hits her into the sky with a pillar of stone. Ryota stares as she falls to the ground and crashes heavily. The boys sacredly grab their blinded friend and run off from the fear of accidentally killing a child.

Ryota crawls over to her in tears he tries to wake her up, his eyes show increasing worry. He musters any strength he must pick her up and runs to the nearest hospital, he tries to beg for their help but soon passes out as well.

Ryota wakes up 2 days later in a hospital bed, as soon as he wakes up, he gets out of his bed looking for her. A doctor sees him and recognizes him as the boy who came in with the little girl and instantly his mood drops as he called out to him.

The doctor inquires if he’s looking for the little girl, he came in with Ryota replies excitedly and asks for her room number, the doctor puts his hands and looks Ryota dead in the eyes and tells him that Asumi didn’t even make the night, her injuries were too severe suffering with a broken arm, leg, a fractured skull, broken ribs and internal bleeding with all the time it took him to get her to the hospital there wasn’t anything they could do to save her and sadly she passed.

Ryota’s pupils shrank from the shock, he pushes the doctor away from him blaming them for not saving his best friend, he thinks back on all their memories together as he continues to shout and runs out of the hospital. Ryota runs even with the physical pain he is in till he cannot run anymore and soon passes out at the side of the road again, where an old woman finds him breathing heavily with a fever.

The old woman takes him home to treat him, as she moves him, Ryota slightly opens his eyes to notice he was being moved but too tired to react. The next day Ryota awakened but the woman who he first saw as a threat as he kicked her to the ground and tried to run away, he thinks to himself this might be the last time he gets something good to eat as he ransacks her fridge.

Ryota then has a moment of clarity think about how he is robbing an old woman as he shames himself for his actions he walks back to the room where he sees the old woman sitting on the bed. He tries to apologize for what he did, but she cuts him off and tells him it is all right, she saw the state he was in being on the verge of death for someone his age, she does not blame him for his actions.

Ryota tries to plead with her to shout, yell, be angry or anything as he has done something wrong and deserves something as he cannot be let off the hook just like that. The woman grabs her chin as she thinks of something, she gets an idea and tells him, from now on to make sure and behave as she will be taking him in. Ryota stands there shocked not knowing how to react, he then snaps out of it and says she’s too kind and he’ll find some way to pay her rent, she cuts him off and tells him that there is no rent as children should not have to worry about that all he needs to worry about is making sure he eats plenty, get lots of sleep and make good friends.

Ryota looks at her with shock all over his face. She walks up to him and gives him a deep embrace as she tells him it is ok cause he has someone to take care of him now and tells him that her name was Rita. Up to that point Ryota had only ever seen the bad side of people abusive, manipulative, greedy and some, downright evil people but Rita was the only person other than his late friend Asumi to ever treat him so kindly as he clings to her and cries.

One-week later Ryota and Rita goes to Asumi’s funeral where he could not stop crying, on the way back home Rita observes how devastated he was by her death as she knew that was his best friend but never knew how close they were.

At home Rita prepares dinner as Ryota sets the table, she asks Ryota how close he was and Asumi he says she was his best friend; Rita asks if it would be ok for him to tell her stories he slumps his head down and says it doesn’t matter as she’s dead. Rita tells him that no one was truly dead till forgotten as they live on in someone’s heart, she tells him the fact that he still holds cherished memories of her means she is still here.

Ryota does not take in her words but agrees to tell her some stories, but something strange happens, the more he talks about her the happier he gets and before he knows it, he is laughing. Bedtime arrives as Ryota goes to bed he hugs Rita and thanks her for helping him cheer up as he goes to bed and calls her granny Rita.

As the years pass Ryota’s dark past becomes nothing more than a memory, granny Rita continued to support Ryota in any path he took.

When he decided to become a police officer, she was his number one supporter. Even when she was on her deathbed, she made sure to see her grandson graduate from the police academy and expressed how proud she was as he grew up into the fine young man she saw today.

In the year 2998, on September 16th, Ryota is at the training facilities before he must go on duty. He goes to the showers and talks to his friend about a rumor about someone going around taking down thugs and just leaving. His friend replies that something is strange as no one has a description of the person who did the takedown. Ryota goes to leave the shower as his friend looks at his scars that make him feel pity every time he sees them.

Ryota changes and gets ready to go on duty and gets a call for a large-scale gang making a move. He rushes there only to see most of the gang members already taken out and helps his fellow officers to round up the others trying to escape. One of the gang members that was caught continued to freak out and asked them to get him away from “him,” not knowing who he was talking about.

Ryota looked around for any clues where he came across a 10-year-old boy in rags covered in injuries breathing heavily, leaning against a wall. Ryota calls to the boy, and when he turns, he looks into the boy’s eye and sees himself. Ryota stretches his arm out, offering aid to the young boy the same way Granny Rita did for him all those years ago.

image [https://i.imgur.com/jKEDLeQ.png]