Chapter 358: Little Atsu and Tasuke
In a single night, everything was gone. The village where she was born had been burned to ruins; her parents lay collapsed on the ground, their breath gone. Even for an adult, this would be an unbearable blow.
Atsu was still a child, and there were many things she perhaps did not yet understand. However, she was already capable of realizing the desperation of their current situation. Holding her younger brother Tasuke, she bowed three times before her parents' grave, for she already understood that once a person is buried in the earth, they can never be seen again.
As for what "death" specifically entailed? She might not have known how to explain it, but in her heart, she knew that from now on, she and her brother Tasuke were the only ones left in the village.
To put her parents' minds at ease within the soil, she promised them that she would take good care of her brother and see him grow up.
However, these were mere words of bravado. She had seen how adults performed farm work, but that did not mean she had the strength to wield farming tools or knew what should be planted. Ahead lay a terrifying and unpredictable future.
Natural disasters, man-made calamities... earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, droughts, and floods; when they occur, they always catch people off guard. No matter how much one prepares, there will still be victims who are injured or killed.
In the face of nature, humanity is so small. Humans conquer this and conquer that, seemingly ruling the Earth, but in truth, there is an existence humans can never conquer: Nature.
Some things happen simply because they happen, and there is nothing to be done. They are not common occurrences, but they are not impossible either...
That is why the White Deity desired to transfer all victims to another world, allowing them to survive without affecting the original world.
But this time, it seemed that due to the intervention of Shirou and Alaya, the Deity did not appear.
Therefore, once people in this world met with disaster, they simply died.
In such a cruel world, the helpless young girl Atsu held the swaddled infant Tasuke. When she heard Shirou's invitation to take them away, it sounded like heavenly music—perhaps it was a child's instinct for survival.
She and the infant raised their heads at the same time, staring only at Shirou, their eyes filled with hope.
"Eh? Is it okay? Then, what should we call you?" Atsu looked piteously at Shirou, the light of hope blooming in her eyes. Fearing that a wrong word might cause Shirou to go back on his word, she asked with great caution.
Faced with those tiny eyes that wanted to entrust their hope for life entirely to him, how could Shirou have the heart to refuse?
"Let's see, we really should decide on a name," Shirou mused. For a moment, he was a bit conflicted, unsure of what would be best.
"Big brother?" Atsu said tentatively.
"No." Shirou waved his hand. Although he had decided to take care of them, he could not stay by their side forever in the capacity of an elder brother. He preferred to teach them as a guardian, or rather, as a mentor.
"Uncle?" Atsu tilted her head and asked.
"No, no~!" Shirou thought for a moment, suddenly remembering what he used to call Kiritsugu back then. He said to the child: "My age is much greater than it looks. You should call me Grandpa."
"We understand! Grandpa!" Atsu agreed with a smile.
"Ya ya!" The infant held in the girl's arms also spoke with a smile.
"Mm! Since you've chosen to come with me, you must be good and listen to what I say," Shirou said.
"Understood! Grandpa!"
"Ya ya!"
The girl and the infant answered once again.
And so, Shirou led the girl and the infant, one behind the other, walking out of the village to find a place where they could settle down.
Now a question arose: how exactly should he educate the orphans he had taken in? Based on Shirou's experiences from his previous life, he had a certain amount of experience. Precisely because both Kiritsugu and Fuji-nee were negative examples, Shirou was all the more qualified to voice his own opinions.
Although he had no experience raising children, how should one care for and educate them? At the very least, he fully understood the feelings a child carries while growing up after losing their family.
At the same time, in this life, Shirou had lived in a complete family and had thus felt the warmth and happiness a family ought to have.
Of course, he could not replace the children's parents, nor could he stay by their side forever.
Even though the children had experienced such a tragedy, lost their parents, and had no other relatives—and in this era, not even orphanages existed.
The two children had lost their sense of security in this world. At the thought of how they had survived the great fire, Shirou felt a piercing pain in his heart.
Shirou had to use a strict method of education; a gentle approach would actually be bad for them. The protection of a hypothetical greenhouse was already meaningless; they had already witnessed the cruelty of this world, so they had to learn to face it with strength.
Though he would not hit or scold them, he had to make Atsu learn to do everything within her power, such as cooking, making tea, and performing lighter chores. Naturally, her brother Tasuke would also have to be cared for by her alone.
"Let's go." Shirou scavenged some money and valuables from a few relatively intact houses, found a piece of cloth to wrap the items into a bundle, held it in his hand, and spoke to the girl and the infant.
"Um... Grandpa, what will happen to the village here?" Atsu looked back at the ruined village and her own home, asking with reluctance.
"The village is gone. Only bandits and wolves remain here. Unless an adult brings you here to pay your respects, you are not allowed to come here alone. Keep up, we're going home!" Shirou stopped his pace but did not look back. He spoke with a cold voice and continued walking forward.
"..." The girl's eyes welled with tears. However, she looked at Tasuke in her arms and found her brother smiling at her, his tiny hands clenched into fists and raised as if cheering her on.
"Ya ya~!" the infant cried out.
"Thank you! Tasuke, Big Sister has decided that from today on, I won't cry anymore!" Atsu wiped away her tears and returned a brilliant smile, though the voice coming from her throat still held a trace of a sob.
"Ah! Grandpa, wait for us!" Atsu shifted the carrier to adjust Tasuke's position onto her back and chased after him on her small legs.
Shirou said nothing, only pausing at the village entrance to look back at the settlement.
The houses here and the land here would, from this day forth, become a wasteland that no one cared about. It was cruel, but that was reality. For a long time to come, it would remain in ruins; in less than a month, it would be overgrown with weeds. With no one to maintain the houses, they would peel and collapse in less than ten years.
Atsu caught up, carrying her brother on her back, and said: "Grandpa, where is our home?"
"Well, first let's find a safe place, trade these ornaments for some money, and buy some daily necessities." Shirou thought for a long while before finally making a plan.
If he were alone, he could go anywhere; even using the sky as a blanket and the earth as a mat, he could endure. But he could not let children suffer such hardships with him. It was necessary now to find a safe place to settle, and build a house for the two children to live in.
Afterwards, he would have to save a sum of money to ensure that, even after he left this place, the two children could live without worry for food and clothing until they reached an age where they could support themselves.
Mm... just like Kiritsugu had done for him back then...
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