Forgotten Child 2

'Everyone's terrified… who is this person?' Saki started from the middle of her cell as the dark figure came closer into the pathway between the two rows of cells. As they approached it became clear to Saki that one was being carried or dragged along when they were unable to keep up with the leading figure. When the large figure finally came into a pool of light that illuminated their face Saki tried to trap her gasp of surprise from seeing what was coming towards her.

The figure that had to be a man from the shape of his body masked his face away behind a twist of vines and flowers. The moving plants wrapped around his head leaving only small slits for eyes. Along his shoulders, the vines thinned out undulating along his body draped each with a life of their own slowly migrating over the surface of a white shirt and pants. A thick vine wrapped around the man's left arm extending behind him covering up the other almost beyond recognition.

Saki could only manage to catch small amounts of the person exposed through the vine that tightly held on. It was in continual movement over the person's body changing every few seconds what she could see. She stared on trying not to look at the man hoping to know who the person was. 'That's our school uniform!' Saki had seen enough that put it together for her, but she had still not been able to see the person's face. 'Hitomi!' she thought nearly shouting when she saw the vines move away from her face long enough to be seen. Saki rushed to the edge of her cell, still several cells away from Hitomi, pressing against the bars trying to see if she was hurt. Once Hitomi was within reach of Saki she stretched out her arm through the bars trying to get to the unconscious Hitomi. "Hitomi! Can you hear me?"

Her actions drew the attention of the man that was dragging her through the floor. He turned his hand towards her and stretched out his fingers letting vines suddenly grow from down his arm towards Saki. She drew back, but not in time to avoid all of the vines that were grabbing at her. The plants took her by the arms tying them together and picking her up by the waist. Saki futilely struggled against the thick vines until they threw her against the back of the cell releasing to fall to the ground. Battered and bruised more Saki could barely move feeling fuzzy from the impact. "Hitomi…"

The man continued on dragging Hitomi behind him with her unable to keep up the pace. When he came to an empty cell the vines opened the door for him and those holding her tossed her inside unceremoniously. She slid without resistance across the cement coming to a stop after faint ripping of cloth was heard. All that left her lips was a dull cough as though she was not awake. The cell door closed behind and the man left the warehouse.

Saki dragged herself across the floor to the cell bars that were closer to Hitomi. She struggled to lift her head up to see Hitomi, but she felt a little better seeing that Hitomi was still breathing. 'She looks so drained. What did he do to her? Did he do this to all of them? What is with those vines…it's like he can control them…' Saki's eyes had opened wide when her thoughts finally came together piecing the images of the assassin that attacked Yuki in the schoolyard and the man with the vines. 'Their clothes are the same and that circle emblem on their shoulder too. Then he is like that assassin. Why is he not going after Yuki? Is he preparing since the other one lost?' The questions that were spinning in her head made her feel weak again suddenly. She dropped her head to the floor no longer able to keep the strength up. '…Yuki…'

'Back then it was different. I was so helpless that I couldn't do anything to protect myself from the bullies. They always seemed to pick on me for the stupidest reasons. It was usually because I was different looking than they were. My father is Japanese, but my mother is American. Children can find anything to fight about.'

"Are you hurt Saki?" Yuki, age six, said after he beat up the bullies, age seven. He helped Saki stand back up and returned her toy back to her that the other boys had taken.

"Thank you, Yuki! I'm fine." Saki turned around after nodding to Yuki and walked back to her sister, age five. "Here, Noriko. Yuki got back your doll!" She bent over showing it to Noriko who had been crying the entire time. Saki wiped away her tears when she stopped crying after seeing it in front of her.

'I had tried to get her doll back from the bullies, but they were older than me. All I had was my mouth and it easily got me into trouble. But Yuki protected me as he did every time I got into trouble. Ever since we first met he was always standing between them and me so I didn't get hurt. I never understood until later why he did it.'

As the sun went down they finished playing and stood up having been free to play without interruption. Saki and Noriko began walking back to their apartment with Yuki following alongside them. He walked with them to the fork in the street and then turned with them. Saki quickly came to a stop staring at him confused. "Did you forget, your house is up there, Yuki."

"I want to go home with you!"

"Is it okay?"