Fukushū e no kōgeki

Chapter 2: New Bonds

Weeks later...

Tano and Mika had been hanging out for the past couple weeks. They had become a lot closer. Tano noticed that she wore the beret he gave her every day. He's never seen her take it off once, which made him happy. At the moment the two were running around the district looking for things to do. Tano had just bought some bread from a nearby stand when he heard yelling from around the corner, and he quickly looked in the direction of which it came from.

"What's the matter?" Mika asked with a confused expression.

"You didn't hear the yelling? Come, let's go check it out." Tano replied, before running around the corner.

Mika followed quickly and as they turned the corner they spotted a boy getting beaten up by some older kids.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Tano shouted as he ran towards the bullies.

"What, you know this weirdo? I guess we'll have to teach you a lesson as well." One of the kids stated coldly.

Right as he said that, he was punched in the face by Tano. The boy who had been beaten up just stared at him. The older kid wiped the blood from his face and began to walk towards Tano but Mika knocked him along with his friends onto the ground before they could do anything. The older kids ran off immediately after. Tano walked back over to the boy and helped him up.

"Are you alright?" He asked the boy, concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine, thank you for helping." He replied with a smile.

"No problem, so what's your name?" Tano asked.

"My names Chris Arlert, what are your names?" He questioned.

"I'm Tano Yeager! You have a cool name Chris." He said before smiling widely.

"Mika Ackerman-" She replied.

"Say Chris, would you like to be friends with us?" Tano asked ever so quickly.

"I don't see why not." Chris replied.

"Great! Well let me show you where Mik and I always meet up." He said.

With that, Tano grabbed Chris and Mika's arms and dragged them to his favorite tree. They ended up sitting there for hours getting to know one another better and eventually they all headed home after a somewhat eventful day.

Around 2 weeks later...

Chris and Tano were walking to their meeting spot together knowing they kept Mika waiting on accident due to some older kids trying to pick on Chris again. Meanwhile Mika was sitting at the tree with her eyes closed. She was thinking about her mother who was now gone due to taking her own life, as well as thinking where she would go. All she knew was that she wasn't ready to tell the boys. Eventually, they got to the tree and sat down with her.

"Hey Mik!" Both the boys said.

She replied back in a somewhat sad tone "Hey guys-"

"Is something wrong Mika?" Chris asked after noticing the tone in her voice.

"Not really- My mother went missing the other day." Mika said before looking down at the grass.

Both the boys apologized and Tano gave her a hug which made a tiny smile appear on her face.

"So that means you have nowhere to live right? Why don't you come live with me!" Tano said with a sincere smile.

"No, it's alright really-" Mika replied.

After Tano heard that he bugged her for the next hour about coming to stay with him until she finally said yes. Chris was shaking his head in disappointment due to Tano's childish behavior the whole time. Tano then lead them to his house to tell his parents the news. As they arrived Tano burst through the door.

"Momma! I have news!" Tano said in a somewhat concerning tone.

"What is it, dear?" Carla asked while quickly coming to the door.

"Mik's mom went missing and she needs a place to live. Can she live with us please~?" He begged.

Carla laughed a bit. "I will have to talk to your father but I don't see why not. I'm sorry this happened to you Mika." She gave Mika a warming smile.

Chris asked to stay for dinner, to which Carla said yes and went back to cooking. 'I wonder how both Chris and Mik's parents both went missing' Tano thought to himself. He shook it off and went up to his room to play with Mika and Chris. Eventually they ate dinner and Chris left to go back home to his grandfather. Meanwhile Tano helped his mother prepare a room for Mika as his father had agreed to letting her move in. He was excited when he heard the news and had given both his parents huge hugs. Tano finished preparing her room and then went off to his own after saying goodnight to everyone. The house was silent afterwards as everyone had gone to sleep.

End...