-~*~-
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The next few days, Irene and Kazuto oversee the furniture coming in. Bit by bit, each piece of furniture is taken in and then spent the remaining time of the day going back to the shopping district to look for more furniture.
After days of moving heavy object, the bedroom for the children finally shine in completion. There are a total of eight rooms, two for each category. They are girls between the age of 4-10, 11-18 and boys aged 4-10 and 11-18.
"Things are looking lovely!" Irene gave her own two shots of happiness.
"Yup! I think we can look for a new owner of these beds tomorrow afternoon." Kazuto casually threw the sentence out as they looked over the new rooms.
"I can't wait for tomorrow." The girl beside her flashed a gentle smile to him. Full of appreciation. He returned it back.
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The next day,
As the clock strikes 12 noon, Kazuto and Irene stop what they are doing and ride the car towards the one place that they had previously visited. The alleyway slump.
Of course visiting this place required a great number of guards for a young master like Kazuto. But to keep their presence lower, they were hidden most of the time.
Just like before, Irene and Kazuto walk along the path of the alleyway. People of such nature are still around the block and they are more stench than ever.
Eventually they arrived at the center of the slump before taking a random road to who knows where to hopefully find any lost children. And she did.
She found not just one child but a group of them. All huddling together against the wall. Possibly to protect themselves from the cold. It is getting a bit chilly with the weather.
Looking across the small battered and skinny children, her heart felt a twinge of pain. Like it was being squeezed out of all its juice. That is when her eyes landed on a particularly small boy yet looked so strikingly similar.
He looks so similar to Eker.
The grey lock and yellow eyes.
Just a bit darker than the little boy back home.
Without waiting for anyone to give her cover she moved towards the little boy and squat down to his level. She didn't want to make any rash movements for fear that it might scare the little guy.
So she observed him.
Those dry lips and pale skin. As if he didn't receive enough water to survive.
Reaching into her bag, Irene pulled out a bottle of water and opened it before holding it before the boys. She gave the most gentle smile a person could ever see. Almost like a mother.
The boy seeing the plastic bottle before him slowly turns his head upwards before tilting it more to see Irene's face. "Here. It's yours." She said nearly as a whisper of comfort.
His hands that are jittering from the lack of energy reach for the water bottle. That is before it falls onto the ground out of the blue. Not because it's clumsy. Not because of Irene's own violation.
A tiny rock had hit her wrist causing her to lose grip and hiss in pain. The little boy shy away from shock.
That is when a shadow figure with a cloak jumps down from who knows where before her eyes. They grab the front of her collar and proceed to throw her to the back with all their might.
Thankfully, Irene didn't experience any pain as her landing was cushioned by Kazuto pillowing it, catching her in his arms. But his face is more than angry. He is furious and validly so.
His eyes are not on Irene but onto the cloaked figure. Irene looks towards the direction of where she once stood and before her very eyes are someone who is much smaller than her.
A petite,
Furious,
And beautiful.
The person before them is a girl. And this girl uses her own cloak to shield the little boy that Irene had tried to approach.
"Don't you DARE get near them!" she yelled with all of her might.
Irene didn't reason with her words and tries to reason with her. Slowly moving towards her in a less threatening – not even any threatening manner to begin with – towards the girl. "We are just trying to help you guys. We're trying to sav-!"
Before she could finish, a blur came before her eyes. It would have landed a clean hit to her head if it weren't for the block from Kazuto.
The girl tried to kick Irene.
Who would he be if he didn't get mad.
Kazuto, not wanting to play around anymore, uses violence against violence. He hit the girl's shin which brought her to pain before she stumbled back to where she once stood. Returning the distance between them.
Without thinking, he pulls out his signia and prepares to aim for the girl. "STOP!" The word from his partner in crime brought him back to reality.
Irene — "They are just children! We spent weeks trying to build a place for them to shelter! You are not pointing that thing to any of them! Understood?!"
Kazuto — "...Very well…"
Kazuto put back his signia before standing his ground behind Irene. Making sure that this brat of a girl will not try anything to hurt her.
Reusing her old approach, Irene slowly moves to the girl who has backed away to the wall just beside the little boy that she had offered water to.
Taking her sling bag, Irene took out two things, a bottle of water and a portable first aid kit. She first opened the water bottle before drinking some of them. Her hand then reached to the girl who sat before her.
She offered the drink she had taken.
The girl hesitates but seeing the little boy beside her eyeing the water, she concedes and takes the bottle and hands it to him. 'She had taken a sip. If it's poisonous then she would die first.'
Seeing her first step working, she moved on to opening the first aid and taking out a bandage and a soothing ointment. With a cotton ball, she dab a little bit of the soothing ointment onto the girl's injured leg before bandaging it up.
While all of this is going on, Irene starts to talk about their reason for arrival. "We are not here to hurt any of you. We are trying to help."
The girl didn't seem to buy it even scoffing at the statement.
Irene — "We have built an orphanage specifically to facilitate and house all of you. Children that live in this… slump…"
"Tch!"
Irene — "We have all the facilities to give you guys at least a normal life. There's enough bed, bountiful food and many activities and opportunities for you all to strive for your future. All under the care of the house of Ryuichi-!"
"Yeah right! All of the things you have just said are only to make you look good. If that noble house or the empire even cared in the first place, we wouldn't be living in this area at all!"
Irene — "I-!"
"All you guys will do is just abandon us in the future with no support or just ignore us completely to focus on the promising one only. There is no true equality in this world! Those like you don't know the feeling of being ABANDONED!!!"
Irene — "..."
"..."
Seeing Irene not responding, Kazuto is about to put some more sense into the girl's mind before Irene starts with "My mother abandoned me once…"
He stopped.
Irene — "I was 5 years old at the time. My mother went away to a place that I didn't know. She reassured me that she'll be back. Even my father did…"
"..."
Irene — "She did all of that without telling me at all. Leaving me behind when I was asleep… Just left a letter and that's it… When I asked my father, he said he didn't know either."
"..."
Irene — "She went missing on my birthday."
"..."
Irene — "Attached to my mother so much, I believe in her promise. And so I wait."
And wait,
And wait…
She never did return."
At the time, I hated my mother for that very reason. Leaving me behind without any hug, kiss…
Or a goodbye…
'She abandoned me' is all I thought.
But come my sixth birthday, I learn the truth. Every part of the truth.
She didn't abandon me. She had died on duty.
She was a special personnel tasked to investigate another kingdom. She died on that mission.
She had already given me everything before she left…
A hug,
A kiss,
A goodbye…
The last goodbye…"
"I-I didn't… know that…"
Irene — "No one knew about this part of my story. She had died from lack of survival materials when she fell down an impossible cliff deep in the best woods…
A broken leg,
Open wound,
Lack of water,
Lack of food,
Lack of medical treatment…
She died… not having anything to survive. And she has to wait for the impending death to come. She can't die at that very moment."
Kazuto — "Irene…"
Irene — "So… I grew up without a mother. I take it upon myself to learn everything I can. Every little survival skill I can. Because aside from my mother… I have other people I care for."
She took the hand of the girl before her own. Squeezing it hard in between her own. "I didn't want to see any of them suffer anything close to what she did… I want them to live… To survive…"
The girl stayed silent and didn't respond to Irene's sentence. She looked down onto the floor, eyes away from where Irene could see it.
Irene — "All of these children look towards you for survival… They depend on you…"
"I-I just search for food and water…"
Irene — "And that is what family do… Take care of each other. Think of each other. You did all of those not only for yourselves but for them too."
"Mhm…"
Irene — "They love you as much as you love them… So please, this big sister implored you to think carefully about this situation. Is it best to abandon the chance of having a better life for everyone?"
"We were abandoned in the past… How can we trust someone who had abandoned us before?!" She shouted, eyes still looking down. Irene can feel the tremble in her hands.
She is crying.
It is then the man behind her gave his own two pieces. He asks if the girl knew about the rehabilitation program that the empire has for drug addicts that had been found. She shook her head.
He then crouches down and explains in a simple way that the program is a means to help the people with such problems to have a better life. A second chance.
"Take this as a second chance for you guys and the empire. A true leader will never abandon their family. That is what all the people in Volenix are to the empire. Family…"
With that move, the girl slowly nodded in agreement.
She agreed to save her family.
Irene then squeezed the hands still in her grasp gently. She asked, "May I have your name?"
Silence.
"W-We don't have names… Most children here are abandoned without even having a name…"
Hearing this, Irene didn't give up and slowly asked the following. "What would you like to be named?" She is helping her to choose her own name.
A new name.
A new life.
A new chance.
"Kairene…" She whispers lightly.
She lifts her head and stares into Irene's emerald eyes.
"I want to be named Kairene!"
Irene was a bit shocked but it didn't last long. It turns into a lovely smile. A smile that belongs to her mother.
"Kairene… That's a lovely name!"
Kairene was mesmerized by that smile. A smile of a mother. A mother that she didn't have.
Irene then turned to the little boy who had been holding onto the water bottle like it was a little teddybear. He had been hearing the conversation but I doubt he understood any of them.
With a stuttered voice he said in a whisper. "Aren…" Again she smiled and patted the little guy's head. Gentle and smooth. The same one that Kairene often did.
Irene then turns to Kairene and asks her a favour. They wish to have every child in the slump move to the orphanage as soon as possible. If possible by the end of the afternoon.
She asks for her help to convince the rest of the children to trust them and live there too. She agreed but did reply that she wasn't sure if the boys would listen to her.
Kazuto reassured her that he will personally handle that. All she has to do is convince the groups with female leaders like her to come live in the orphanage.
If you want to have the chicks, you have to convince the mother hen.
And so the excursion for the recruitment of children all over the slump begins. Kazuto went alone along various alleyways and talked to the boy group one by one. Convincing them with the promise of receiving signia and guaranteed a spot to work as a soldier of the Ryuichi in the future.
Hearing this, they weren't persuaded much. But seeing that many of the young children that have yet to understand the cruelty of the world cheered, they eventually gave in.
Irene and Kairene did the same with Kazuto. The difference is only the gender of whom they are talking to.
Just before the sun sets for the day, they manage to convince all of the children in the slump to come and live in the orphanage that Irene and Kazuto had built.
They all ride the giant truck that belongs to Ryuichi not to go to the orphanage but to go and have some dinner first. An easy and simple dinner yet a fulfilling one.
It was only after dinner did they return home. The brand new orphanage is shining in the far distance.Located on a mountain cliff surrounded by forest. Not too far from the city and not too close to be disturbed by the noise.
They were all given the chance of choosing their own bed and personal lockers. Each of them were shown the basic facilities like toilets and dining area.
There are some complications with their personal toilets so they have to make do with the first and second floor bathroom for relief and hygiene. Irene did reassure them that it is a temporary fix only.
They decided to continue with the tour in the morning and even discussed the whole plan that they have for them later in the morning. For now, they will all rest in beds that are warm and clean.
Away from drug addicts.
Away from dirt.
Away from the cold.
A nice home.
Irene and Kazuto join them for the night.
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-~*~-