A New Family

Breakdown

Walking back home from the station was one of the hardest walks I've ever taken. I tried to listen to Tsukiyomi's advice, but every now and then a stray tear would dampen my cheek. My teammates would discreetly glace at me sometimes - I don't think they knew I could see them looking at me - but they never did anything but look. They were all in their own conversations, and I was off to the side sulking.

Once we neared the city, I decided to secretly break off from the group to run home so I could finally stop hiding my emotions. Before I could get 10 meters away, I was noticed.

"Sachi, where are you going?" Yuu called curiously. I just shook my head and sped up a bit.

"I'm sorry, Yuu-chan," I whispered. 

I kept running until I finally got home. I threw the door open and collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath. As I tried to regulate my breathing, I peered around in search of Shinya. Or, more exactly, hoping not to see him. I loved Shinya to death, but I desperately wanted to be alone. 

Once I was sure he wasn't home and my breathing was back to normal, I headed directly to my room and shut and locked the door. I piled up all my pillows in the corner of my bed that was against the two windowless walls and started searching for a throw blanket.

Almost 10 minutes of searching brought up nothing. I flopped down onto my bed and scooted back to lean against my pillow pile. The bottled up emotions from earlier paired with the frustration of not being able to find something as simple as a blanket caused hot tears to fill my eyes yet again. With that, it all came out.

The tears came more and more until I was full-out silently sobbing. Why did Yuuichirou have to bring up our past? Our family? Sanguinem? Memories played out in my head like old movies.

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Mika held my hand again and led me down into the room I was brought into last night when the director saved me. Lots of little kids were standing around, seeming to be waiting for something. "Hey, everyone!" Mika called. "This is Sachiko! She'll be living with us from now on, okay?"

The kids started cheering and calling out their names as introductions. The noise was all a bit much for me, so I hid slightly behind Mika, who started chuckling.

"They've all had their troubles as well," he whispered in my ear. He started pointing at the various children. "Parents committed suicide, abuse, parents left, abuse again..." he listed. "Point is, all of us are happy together. We're each other's support."

I grinned and nodded.

Mika smiled at me yet again. "Welcome to the family, Sachi-chan!"

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The director was staring off into space as blood dripped from her mouth and nose.

"Director?!" I screamed. She looked vaguely in my direction before falling heavily to the floor, right on her face. The children screamed and hid behind Yuu, Mika, and I, while the three of us were starting to notice the chaos going on outside. People were screaming, cars were careening all over the roads, a plane crashed off in the distance near the horizon. I snapped back to reality and ran over to the director.

"Please be okay, please be okay, please........" I muttered frantically as I placed two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. I sat in tense silence for a moment before dropping my hand. There was no sign of life at all; even her body heat was slowly fading away.

"Sachiko, come here......." Mika whispered seriously. He never called me by my full name, so I knew something was very, very wrong. I went and stood by him and followed his line of sight. He was staring out into the streets, where a crowd of hooded figures was following a small girl with pink hair. Suddenly, a voice filled the air.