Wings of Freedom - BSD x AOT

Chapter 5

The Underground City was a place beneath the capital city of Wall Sina, a place with no sunlight, polluted air, dirty streets and criminals behind every corner. The citizens suffered from hunger, from illnesses, from the lack of sunlight and – most and reason of all – the lack of money. But there was one more thing that Akutagawa despised more about the poor excuse of a city than anything else – the bad smell. Everything stunk abominably. The dilapidated houses stunk, the shitten streets stunk, the people with decayed teeth and rotten skin stunk, the decaying corpses lying in every alley stunk, the dirty rags that were half-eaten by moths stunk. And amidst this stinking city with its stinking people, Akutagawa grew up alongside his younger sister, Gin.

He did not remember his parents; he didn't even know whether he even had parents, what had happened to them, whether they died or just abandoned their children. All he knew was the brutality of life, the fight to stay alive, the feeling of slowly rotting without any food. Yet he was luckier than his sister who was in such a bad condition that she couldn't even move. Her limbs were too small and too thin, her skin too pale. Every day was a fight – Akutagawa would try to steal any kind of food that he could get his tiny hands on, getting beaten up afterwards because he wasn't fast enough on his bare feet, but he would always escape somehow in the end. Most of what he could retrieve he gave to his sister, but she would throw up a big portion right after. In this dark city, their lives had no meaning.

However, there was a time when things got lighter for the siblings when Akutagawa joined a street gang of kids, getting involved in illegal activities as a result which enabled him to get more food and reside in an actual house instead of living on the streets with smelly corpses to their sides. Even Gin's condition improved to the point that she was able to walk again. Life seemed to have become at least a bit less terrible for them. Even though Akutagawa would hardly show any emotion at all, he felt a tinge contented at heart. Raiding the market stalls for food with his new comrades became like a hobby for him. He also stole new clothes for himself, burning the old rags that he had worn until then. Despite his frequent coughs and weak physical condition, he was getting faster on his feet and felt a vague sense of relief when getting home and feeding his younger sister his loot. If there was anything Akutagawa truly cared for, it was his sister Gin, so seeing her slowly getting better with each day and throwing up less and less lifted his spirits so that he looked almost hopeful into the future. Maybe someday, he would actually find a meaning to his life?

Too bad that the gang culture had its downside. And those were rival gangs. Especially if it included a rival gang that was secretly supported by the Military Police. Other than the common people of the Underground City, who would deserve to have more food in general, this gang received somewhat of a ‘special treatment' by the Military Police due to thriving corruption amongst MP members. Out of pure misfortune, Akutagawa and his companions had overheard the location and time for the gang's receipt of a secret cargo by the Military Police. Of course the gang feared that this could mean the end of their cooperation with the Military Police if word got out and the corrupt MP members would decide to stop with the secret support as a result to secure their own position…

Akutagawa had been on his own that day, unnoticeably sneaking through the market and pickpocketing everything he could get his hands on. It had been a day like any other, but when he got to their headquarters, he let all of the food fall down onto the contaminated ground, his dark eyes widened in horror as he witnessed the most dreadful scene in his entire life, causing a high scream to erupt from his throat. Before him lay the bloody corpses of what had been his companions just this morning, now reduced to nothing but lifeless bodies. He stood there paralyzed for several minutes, not wanting to believe what he saw. How could he lose his entire family from one moment to the next? This was when his heartbeat stopped.