It was early morning before the sun had even risen over the horizon that Sora woke his sister up out of a dead sleep. “Ai, I need to head out for a while. I will be back as fast as I can, and I promise I will have something really good for you when I get back.”

“Hmm? Brother?” Ai had really not heard a word Sora had said because she had just woken up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and began nodding off again.

Seeing this, Sora felt helpless and could only smile. He gently picked his sister up and moved the cardboard boxes so that he could place her underneath them to hide her. Once he laid her down, he placed the roll of bread he got yesterday next to her head and covered her up so she could not be seen. Only then did he clench his fist and rush out in the darkness in hopes of coming back as quickly as possible. 

As the sun finally rose over the horizon, the light of day shined down, bouncing off the buildings’ walls. Sora rushed to where the food was going to be served only to find a large line had already formed. He couldn’t help but curse himself for not coming earlier. He knew these kinds of events were limited. 

Sora had to wait in line for almost two hours before the trucks with the food even showed up. There were two large kitchen trucks, and they had already started cooking the food on the way to the location. People in line could smell the delicious food and began pushing forward wanting to be one of the first ones. The sudden push almost toppled Sora over, but he used this chance to move further forward in line. He knew the soldiers who were doing the handout would soon push the people back. And this was his best chance to move closer to the front of the line and ensure his sister could get something tasty to eat.

Sure enough, not long later, the soldiers finally began shouting for everyone to form a line. Sora couldn’t help but smile as he had pushed at least halfway closer to the front of the line than he was before. This did not mean that the person behind him would be happy about it. “You little shit, where did you come from!? How dare you cut me!” 

Sora turned to see a middle aged man wearing rags reaching out towards him to throw him out of line. But instead of being scared, Sora only smiled at him and turned around. Why? Because just before the man’s hand could touch Sora, a guard had already grabbed it and yanked the man out of line. “You can go to the back of the line! How dare you try to assault someone in our presence!”

This was the exact reason why Sora did not move. The guards were very strict about how people acted in line. He had learned this from the person who gave him the ticket. Otherwise, he would have had to dodge and may have even lost his place. The man who was pulled out of line tried to argue with the guards, but this only ended up with him getting his meal ticket taken from him and kicked out of the line altogether. The guard then turned and shoved the meal ticket to Sora. “Here, kid. You need it more than he does.”

Sora looked at The guard, who smiled back at him dumbfounded. He could feel his eyes beginning to well up with tears as he bowed his head. “Thank you!” He truly felt gratitude to this guard who gave him this extra meal ticket. Now he could really spoil his little sister.

After getting both meal sets to go, Sora quickly made haste back to his hut. This took much longer than he had expected, and it was already late morning. He couldn’t wait to see the look on his little sister’s face when she saw the two meals full of hot yummy food. Even if his stomach was growling, he already steeled himself to not eat even a single bite. He would save it all for her so she could grow up healthy. 

He made sure to take a longer route as he knew that that guy from earlier would probably be waiting for him. He had already prepared a knife just in case something like this did happen. He was willing to kill someone if it meant getting this food to his sister. 

When the slum streets came into view, Sora's eyes lit up as he quickly made his way to his hut. After a few lefts and rights through the dirty streets, the smile that was plastered on his face instantly changed. “No! Let go of me!”

“You little bitch you dare bite me!?” A man’s voice yelled out.”

When Sora turned the corner, what filled his eyes was a tall, muscular man grabbing his sister by the hand and slamming her onto the ground. His sister's frail little body heavily hit the ground, and her head slammed off the rocks. The other man who was standing there angrily kicked the muscular man. “What the hell are you doing!? Why would you damage the merchandise!? Look, she's bleeding something bad! You friggin killed her!”

Sora’s eyes turned red with rage. He tossed the food in his arms to the ground and pulled out his knife as he rushed forward. “You bastard! You dare hurt my sister. I will kill you!”

He did not care at all about his own life. All he cared about was avenging his sister. He jumped in the air and brought his knife down as he slammed into the muscular man. The muscular man was caught off guard and lost his foot, toppling over. Sora’s knife stabbed right into his shoulder, causing the muscular man to yell out in pain. “Ahh!”

“You little shit!” The other man ran over and kicked Sora in the stomach, kicking him off his partner, sending him sliding across the filth covered ground. He then proceeded to kick and punch Sora over and over a few times before walking over to help the muscular man up. “Come on, let's go!” 

Sora felt powerless. He could only watch helplessly as the two men ran away. He gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the pain as he rolled over and looked towards the others who were watching the show. He saw them look away, and even some were picking the food up that he tossed away. He laughed bitterly to himself as he knew this was how things were here.  No one would help them even if they died. Someone would just toss their bodies into a pit somewhere. His eyes then landed on his little sister, who was lying lifelessly on the ground. 

Using what little strength he had left, he made his way over to Ai. He gently shook her shoulder in hopes that she was just asleep. “Ai… Your big brother is here. You’re safe now, Ai… You don’t need to pretend anymore.”

“Ai… Come on...” Tears rolled down his cheek as he pulled his sister into his arms. He felt like all he had lived for had truly come to an end. He held the little girl and rocked back and forth. He blamed himself. If he had only taken her with him this one time, she would have been safe. If only… 

“Ahhh! Ahhh...” His eyes were like a dam breaking as the tears rained down. His clothes were now soaked in the blood that was coming out of the back of his sister’s head. He repressed his forehead against hers. His reason for even living had now been taken away. First, it was his parents who abandoned them, and now, he had failed to protect his baby sister.

Sora wiped the tears from his eyes. His eyes no longer held the innocence of a young teen boy but that of someone who had lost everything. Only one thought was going through his mind at this time. Kill the people who killed his sister.