Sky King II: Reborn

Chapter II

Downstairs, Kuujiro could hear Lillian explaining everything that happened in the shopping district to both Ed and the old man. She had taken the next few days off of work, not by her own volition but due to her work telling her to stay home, to recover from the attack. A few days didn't seem like enough at all and Kuu knew it would take longer than that to put the memories of the bleeding, bullet holed bodies out of her own mind. When she went back down after washing her face and changing into the black dress, Ed hugged her and made sure she was okay, the black haired woman nodding as assurance. He told her she was welcome to anything in the house and took Lillian upstairs to their room, probably to get more details other than a short synopsis.

Kuu stood alone in the dining room, looking past the entryway and to the living room where the gruff old man now sat by the fireplace, pipe in mouth, staring into the flame. He had a dark green blanket around his body, covering the pajamas he had on underneath. Kuu wasn't sure how he could be cold with how big he was and the fact that he was next to the fire, but to each their own she supposed. The young woman sat at the edge of the smooth, black leather couch so she could be close to the man, who was seated in the only single chair of the room. Remembering what she wanted to talk to him about, Kuu opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the words to articulate the questions she had.

They were simple questions really. Who was this guy, why did he know her dad, how much did he know about him, those kinds of things, and yet the words were lost to her tongue, only present in her mind. To make everything even more uncomfortable, the old man didn't pay her any attention, softly smoking his pipe and watching the bouncing flames in the fireplace. Hell, she wasn't even sure if he knew she was there or not, now causing Kuu confusion on top of the awkwardness. Maybe he was deep in thought about what Lillian said happened, and if that was the case, how would she break the ice to start a conversation?

Eventually the old man cocked his head slightly to peer at the struggling woman, freezing her body completely in place, back straightening as if standing at attention for boot camp.

"Glad you're okay," he said, his voice deep but not guttural. She could tell if he were to shout, the house would probably shake.

"Th-thank you," Kuu stuttered back, overwhelmingly relieved that he spoke first. She was about to ask what his name was when he continued talking, much to her surprise.

"Those kinds of shootings have been happening more and more these past years. Bunch of rowdy, wound up islanders in gangs with illegal weapons wreaking havoc on anyone they want," he released a large plume of smoke from his mouth, the smell faint of wild berries, "back in the day this kind of thing would never have happened. At least not by our own citizens,"

Kuu kept silent while he spoke, wanting to gather as much information as she could from what he was saying before asking specifically what she wanted to.

"Back before the war, before you were born I'm fairly certain, the Syncaire Kingdom only suffered one of these attacks, which coincidentally was what started the war in the first place. Hellot planes bombed the princess's estate during a banquet and killed not only her, but most of the country's politicians and leaders. With nobody that had experience leading a country in charge, the war was short and ended in only a few days," the old man sighed, trailing off his thought before starting up a new one, "I spoke to your mother once before she died. I think it was eighteen years ago now, you were still just a baby. She was the last person who deserved what happened to her, I can promise you that,"

"You knew her?" Kuu asked, listening so intently to him talk she didn't even realize there was a small trail of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. She quickly wiped it away, hoping the old man didn't notice it.