♥Dissonance♥Prince of tennis♥Shitenhouji♥

♥26♥ The light after dawn

Chinami kept her eyes closed, unable to meet any scary sight in front of her. She heard a 'clang' noise before the sound of the police bursting into her door can be heard. Her Dad started to shout to the police that Shiraishi struck him in the head but the police took him away instead. 

"Are you two okay?" A female officer asked them. 

"Ah, we're okay." Shiraishi's voice sounded perfectly okay.

Shiraishi was okay? The confused Chinami opened her eyes and she saw the bandages on Shiraishi's left arm started to loosen, revealing a golden gauntlet covering his forearm. He tried to pick up the loosening bandages but he would need a new one since the bat torn off quite a bit from him. 

The female officer was called by her colleagues because the group of people standing outside the house were getting out of control the moment they escorted Chinami's Dad out of the house. The female officer apologized to them and she quickly went out to help her colleagues to control the situation. 

"Buchou..." She was crying because she thought she was going to lose him. Chinami sat on her knees, trying to get up but was finding much struggle to do so. She was badly injured here and there, but she still tried to reach a hand out to Shiraishi. 

Shiraishi held her hand with his left hand, the golden gauntlet in her vision. He smiled sadly before pulling her into a gentle embrace. "You're finally in my arms..." Shiraishi would never forgive himself if her Dad had beaten her to death. He's very happy to know she's still breathing and has reached a hand out in the very end. He's very proud of her for reaching a hand out in the very end. 

He felt her tremble against him as her silent tears landed on his shoulder. He can only imagine she's in great physical and emotional pain despite the fearless outburst earlier; she couldn't hold onto her only family member, she's forced to break herself free in the very end. Shiraishi hugged her tighter, letting her know everything was over now and there's nothing for her to fear anymore. 

"I'm sorry..." Chinami whispered to him. 

"Why are you apologizing?" 

"Making you all worry about me...I'm sorry..." 

"Chinami..." What's right and what's wrong can differ from person to person; as long as a person believe in their choice, regardless it was a good choice or a bad choice, that person will stand by it without letting anyone influence them. Shiraishi doesn't have any rights to lecture her about her choice so he kept silent about it; she has her choice of doing things and he has his choice to do things, the choice he and the others made was the choice to keep her safe from further harm. "Do you have first-aid kit?" Shiraishi asked her. 

"Hm." She pointed to the drawers for him and he went to get them himself. Once she took it out, he started to do wrap the bandages around the golden gauntlet. "So this is the secret behind poison hand..." 

"Ah. I have to use it to control Kin-chan. Keep it a secret for me, won't you?" 

Chinami smiled at the mention of Kintarou. She wondered how everyone was...

"Shiraishi-buchou, what's going to happen to me now? I don't want to be put in a children's home...I don't want to be further away from Shitenhouji...what am I going to do? Where will I go?" So what if she's finally away from her Father? If she will be further away from Shitenhouji, further away from everyone, what meaning will there be? 

Before tears can fall freely, Shiraishi suddenly picked her up like a bride after re-bandaging his left arm. 

"Let's go..." He walked out of her room slowly so he wouldn't drop her.