LOST TIME MEMORY Vol. 1

Chapter 3.5

He managed to croak out a "hey" before she squeezed out all of his remaining breaths with her embrace. She'd clearly been overwhelmed with worry and expressed that through her hug, but all Shintaro could feel was pain.

"Momo... It hurts."

"Ah... Sorry!" She let go of him but placed her hands on his cheeks. "Are you hurt? Did you get shot? I'll call the ambulance right now!" She checked him for injuries and promptly picked up her phone.

"Already called the police," he told her through droopy eyes. Then he glanced at her. "You're not hurt, right?"

Her face went through a cycle of emotions. One that traveled from worry all the way to a wry smile, to almost crying. She buried her face in Shintaro's chest and hugged him again without waiting for an answer.

"You stupid idiot, you could've been killed... You haven't left the house in years, and suddenly you're buying boba, and then all of this happens, and then you yell at them and save me..."

She started sobbing. The last time she cried like this was at their father's funeral. He'd patted her head, rustled her hair, and told her it was fine. And he did the exact same thing this time as well. After a little while of him comforting her and her just calling him an idiot over and over, she eventually stopped her sobbing and wiped away her tears and snot while telling him "Don't you dare look". They went up the stairs together, and Momo let him lean on her for support as he really wasn't able to move by himself. He gazed down toward the first floor, but Konoha wasn't there anymore. In his place were two men strewn on top of broken concrete. He had to apologize to him for putting him in danger later.

"What happened to the men upstairs? I heard some shooting." Shintaro asked.

"My friends took care of the rest. Nice timing on the call, by the way. But how do you know Kano?"

"I see. No wait, they did what?" He got what she meant when they'd reached the third floor and witnessed four men lying down, unconscious. But some of them were bleeding. Were they bullet wounds? Did they shoot them? But how? Even the leader with the wild, brown hair was entirely out of it, his rifle stripped away, though he was twitching a little. "They did all this!?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later, though. I think we need to get out of here first."

"Why? Shouldn't we report this to the police?"

"Um, yeah. Sure. But... Not them. I don't think they would want to garner that kind of attention, onii-chan. I wouldn't want it, either. Let's wait till they're gone first, kay?" She gestured towards her friends. They were a peculiar assortment of teens. But what caught his eye first was the tall, green-haired girl from earlier.

"Um... Hi, err... Thanks for taking care of my sister," Shintaro said.

Although she at first seemed quite intimidating and cold, the girl was surprisingly almost as much at a loss for words as Shintaro and had to fumble out a sentence. "N-no, I should be thanking you for that save from before. You really got us out of that pinch even though I messed up..."

"Yeah, man. Thanks for that... How do you know me, though?" someone asked from beside the tall girl. It was a teenage boy, just a bit younger than Shintaro. He had light blonde hair and, apart from a white t-shirt, was just wearing black. He must've been 'Kano.' He was looking over with a smile, but Shintaro thought he could see just a hint of wariness on him.

"I don't know," he lied. He didn't know how to explain it, so he just left it at that. He'd thought Kano would press him further, though, but he just brushed it off instead.

"Well, we all have our secrets. We can just talk it out some other time," Kano said, giving him another smile, though this one was just a tad melancholic. "Maybe alone."