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ZERO. THE FALL OF SHIGANSHINA Home is the First Grave.
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Death is not a foreign concept to Kore Byrne.
She's been acquainted with Him since she was nine years old, and her mother never returned home from work. She can still see herself curled up on a chair facing the door, waiting for the familiar face of her mother to open it and rush to wrap her arms around her daughter's frail body. Her mother worked as a seamstress at a tailor shop an hour away from their house and Kore, never one to handle loneliness gracefully, had carefully timed how much time it took for her mother to walk back home. Sometimes, it'd take longer during the days after a military expedition outside the Walls, but overall, it never really surpassed the limit of two hours.
Kore stood there patiently waiting for two days. And on the night of the second day when the door opened again, it wasn't her mother.
After that, the little girl could pretty much feel death incoming like an old dog. The elderly couple that took her in after her mother's death, Mr. and Mrs. Zegler, were good people, but it was only a matter of time before they abandoned her as well. One day coming home after a long day of delivering newspapers, Kore could feel the shift in the air even before she entered the house, and her thoughts were confirmed upon seeing Doctor Yeager talking with an inconsolable Mr. Zegler.
"I want to go where my darling Lucia is," she'd sometimes hear Mr. Zegler whisper in his sleep when she'd enter his bedroom to refill his glass of water or put more wood inside the little furnace. And she somehow knew that sooner or later, he'd get his wish, even if it meant she would be alone again.
Shiganshina never truly felt like home to her, but it was the only place she had ever known. She had difficulty making friends, exchanging nothing but niceties with the other kids of the neighbourhood. Kore liked to blame her lack of friends on the fact she was too busy taking care of Mr. Zegler and his house-better than entertaining the idea that there was something wrong with her and everyone around her could see it. Still, this place, as boring, uneventful, and miserable as it was, it was still hers as much as it was anyone else's. No one could take that away from her.
That day started no different than any other. She found Mr. Zegler reading his newspaper in his bed and she pretended not to notice how lately, he would avoid getting out of bed as much as possible. "Good morning, Kore," he said, his voice neutral as ever. He was never as openly affectionate and caring as his late wife was, but she had figured that, despite his borderline cold behaviour, the fact he kept her in his house instead of kicking her out meant something. "Slept late last night?" he asked.
"No, I'm sorry I slept in, sir," she said. She had already gotten dressed and stood on the doorstep of the man's bedroom as if waiting for instructions. "Is there anything you want me to do today?" she asked. She had already finished that week's grocery shopping and done most of the housework, but she was waiting for the moment he'd mention they still hadn't resupplied on firewood. If there was anything she truly hated was carrying stuff.
