Chapter 5: Desperation
Shun quickly approached his mother and exclaimed with much concern:
"¿¡Mother are you okay!? What happened!? Where is Jiro!?" He asked all the questions he could think of.
He quickly inspected her mother and knew that she still had a pulse, so he relaxed a little, but he noticed that her forehead was very hot, so she had a high fever and this surely caused her to faint.
Aiko hearing Shun's cries slowly opened her eyes in great pain and replied:
"S-shun-kun I don't know cof... what happened, out of nowhere cof... I fainted it was from one moment to another, where is Jiro?" she asked noticing the absence of the little boy.
"Calm down mother, take this remedy I bought at Matsumoto's store" As he said this Shun prepared the remedy quickly and gave it to his Mother.
Aiko took the remedy and in a few minutes she was feeling a little better, but it was still hard for her to stand, so she was still lying down.
"Shun-kun where is Jiro? It's getting very late and he's still not back from school, he always comes back alone, but today he's taking longer than usual" Aiko asked with a lot of concern on her face.
"I'll go look for him, you be alert, that in your condition if you are alone it will be hard to defend yourself" This time Shun answered him and passed her a knife to defend herself while he was gone.
Aiko nodded, as Shun rushed out of the hut to look for Jiro, *Luckily no bastard entered the hut when mother was passed out* thought Shun.
He didn't know where to start looking so the only thing he could think of was to seek help from old Matsumoto. He threw open the doors of the store abruptly and shouted:
"Old Matsumoto, ¿Have you seen my little brother Jiro!?"
Matsumoto was startled by the sudden arrival and was surprised at Shun's state, he was always calm and composed, but now he was very nervous.
Matsumoto mulled over the question quickly and answered:
"I haven't seen little Jiro, ¿why?"
"He's disappeared, he hasn't shown up since school ended, old man help me look, will you?" replied Shun.
Matsumoto was surprised by 2 things one by little Jiro's disappearance and the other by Shun's request for help, he never thought that this stubborn boy would ever ask him for help. He felt comforted since if he asked him for help it was because he trusts him.
"Leave it to me, you search the northern and eastern part, of the wasteland, I'll take care of searching the south and west" Matsumoto replied in a serious tone as he prepared to go look for Jiro.
"Okay, thank you" Shun nodded, as he headed north as the first destination to find Jiro.
The wasteland was divided into 4 zones: south, north, west, and east. The south zone is the residential zone where Shun and his family live, the west zone is the commercial zone, in the east zone there are only abandoned and destroyed huts because of a conflict that zone was destroyed and the north zone is where the coal mines and most of the heavy works are located.
Matsumoto assigned these zones because he knows the west zone like the back of his hand since his business is located there and in the south zone he lived all his life, much more than Shun so he will know more where to look.
Also, the north and east zones are more dangerous Matsumoto is an old businessman and he knows that Shun has experience fighting and always goes through those zones when he goes to the forest of wild beasts.
Shun understood this reasoning and nodded, they split up and each headed to a different area.
Shun headed to the eastern area first, as he knew a shortcut to get there faster from here. It took him about 20 minutes to get there as he ran at full speed.
He spent about 20 minutes inspecting the whole area, threatening the odd wanderer and asking for information, but there was no sign of Jiro. So he ruled out that Jiro had ended up in this area.
He quickly went to the northern area, raised his head, and saw that it would soon start to rain, so he had to hurry to find Jiro, since it was night and with the rain it would be more dangerous to be outside.
After about 15 minutes, he reached the northern area and began to search everywhere.
Even so, he still found no trace of Jiro in this area. Shun began to despair, but he calmed down, thinking that maybe Matsumoto had already found him.
It began to rain heavily, and even so, he decided to look in the last place, which was behind the entrance of the mines, this was a wasteland.
When he arrived at the place Shun was out of breath from running back and forth without stopping and all wet from the rain.
He quickly pulled himself together and began to inspect the place well, when he turned his eyes his expression was blank, and not far from him he saw 3 small bodies. Inside he had a small hope that this was not his little brother Jiro and that they were other children.
He approached slowly, not wanting to check whose bodies they were, but still, he advanced.
1 step, 2 steps, 3 steps, 4 steps...
When he was close enough he saw the faces of the bodies and fell to his knees on the rain-soaked ground.
"W-why...? why...? why...? sniff...Why?" Shun asked repeatedly as he cried uncontrollably and the rain poured down on him.
"¿¡¡WHY!!?" He shouted furiously with his eyes rolling.
After this furious cry, an invisible wave came out, which shook the earth and knocked several animals nearby unconscious.
Shun didn't notice this and looked back at his little brother with a broken and tearful look, indeed one of the bodies was his brother Jiro.
The more he looked, the more was his fury, as his brother had all his bones broken and it was seen that they tortured him before killing him.
He averted her gaze and it was the same with the other two children, even one was missing an arm. His fury increased with every passing second and worst of all, he didn't know who to direct this fury at.
After about 15 minutes where he continued crying, he managed to calm down a little and start thinking about some things.
*Who did it? why? for fun? why was Jiro so far away from his school? Are these kids Jiro's schoolmates? so many questions so few answers. Shun didn't even know where to start directing his anger.
His composure was short-lived and he began to cry desolately back, after all, he was a 12-year-old boy.
It didn't bother him to see dead bodies as it was the everyday thing to do, but seeing his little brother, with all the broken bones and a face of suffering the last minutes of his life, broke the serene Shun.
In a moment he stopped feeling the rain falling on him, he raised his head and saw old man Matsumoto, holding an umbrella, with a sad and angry face.
"Shun..." Matsumoto said not knowing what to say to the boy.
"O-Old man..." Shun said in a hoarse voice.
Matsumoto bent down and hugged the boy. Shun started crying again in Matsumoto's arms.
When he finally regained some composure, Shun got up and lifted Jiro's body.
"Hey Shun, let me carry him" Matsumoto said to him.
"Leave my brother's body to me, you take care of the other two bodies, we must find the parents" Shun said in a sad tone, but with an icy gaze. His blue eyes showed a cold glint.
"O-okay" said Matsumoto surprised by Shun's look, he quickly lifted the other two bodies in his hands, acknowledged these two children gave his prayers, and started to walk together with Shun back to the residential area.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone