Some years after Amos's disappearance..

"RUON YOU FORGOT THE MONEY AGAIN !" Konoe shouts from the doorstep.

A bit further out, a boy with blue hair and dark skin stops running and makes his way back to his mother, a small grin on his face.

"Oopsie.."

"Oopsie indeed, do I really have to repeat it every time I send you shopping for me ?" she asks the boy, raising her eyebrows as she puts her hands on her hips. The child simply stares at his feet in defeated silence.

Konoe sighs, carressing his hair tenderly, crouching to his level "Here, and this time try to avoid fighting with your friends, can you do that for me ?" she asks worriedly, sticking her little finger in front of him.

He hesitates a bit, then nods "Pinkie promise !"

He turns around before getting into a full sprint again into the main alley, as she looks at him go.

"He looks so much like you..please come back soon to see him." she whispers, closing the door behind her.

Since the day Amos left, Konoe never stopped hoping and praying for him to come back. She's certain that his absence is only temporary. Only now she can't tell anymore if she's believing because she feels it, or because it gives her strength and helps her maintain her sane ?

She raises her child Ruon all alone, trying to teach him a minimum of good manners, and make him avoid any sort of violence whatsoever. Of course, people's commentaries don't help, whenever the boy is outside, he receives insults due to his skin color combined with such unique hair, while she's treated like a dirty whore because she gave birth of a "bastard" with a man that left both of them behind. At least that's what people think.

But she doesn't know that the boy's suffering goes farther than that..

As he makes his way with all sorts of vegetables and fruits in hands, a gang of kids, taller and physically larger than him, block his path, a common situation for the boy. Ruon shivers, already imagining where he'll end up being hurt this time. His legs are shaking as he anticipates the pain, although his body is already covered by bruises here and there from the previous confrontation. Right as the other kids start stepping towards him, his mother's words echo in his head. He takes a deep breath before talking, clutching the things he bought against his heaving chest.

"I'm..not here to fight today ! I promised my mom !"

The kids look at each other before mocking him, pointing their fingers. Soon enough, the crowd surrounding the street focus on them, wondering what's happening.

Ruon takes a step back, as all eyes are starring at his small stature, sweat dripping down his neck. The leader of the kids approaches him and lifts up his fist, making the blue haired boy instinctively close his eyes, as he waits for the blow to send him flying, letting go of what he was holding as he falls on the ground. The adults around watch the scene in amusement, cheering the bullies.

But the blow never comes, and the cheers are suddenly replaced by gasps. He opens his eyes again.

Before him stands a girl with short dark hair, wearing a red kimono with its sleeves slided off her shoulders. She stopped the boy's fist with her own caloused hand.

The bully's eyes widen in shock, as the tall girl dares him to approach one more time with a defiant posture. The kids, being for the first time confronted by someone for their violent behavior, flee to the opposite direction faster than they came. The girl then turns her head towards the adults. With a growling voice she shouts at them "You guys are as stupid as them, are you sure you're all adults ?"

The men and women all stay silent, as if intimidated, returning to their own businesses. She clicks her tongue, cracking her fingers "Kill yourselves, seriously."

Turning around to face little Ruon, who still can't process what just happened, she smiles.

Did someone just defend him ?!

"Are you alright there ? God damn those assholes, I'm fed up with their stupid games !" she declares, spitting on the ground.

Ruon looks at her in complete loss of words. A girl with a neglected appearance, violent vocabulary and rude behavior just stood up for him and waved everyone off. Is it a dream, or even a nightmare ? He looks at her from head to toe, trying to understand why she'd do that. Maybe she has ulterior motives. But somehow, her features contrast totally with her personality. Her round face looks softer than what she appears to be, her big eyes devoided of any sort of malice. As short as her hair is, it still looks messy as if she just woke up. Although she's taller than the other kids, she seems to be the same age as Ruon. But the somewhat revealing clothes look kind of off on her, especially because of the red tone..

She notices his stare longing in curiosity on her outfit.

"What ? Oh, my kimono..right, red is the color of the Maids in Red Light District. Have you been there before ?" she asks innocently, as he shakes his head. "Well, that's a really cool place where dudes can go and drink some tea with girls ! I live there actually, in one of those houses full of women ! The owner is scaring everyone but to me she's like my mom, I really like her." she continues excitedly.

Ruon nods, not knowing what else to do. Never before has he been confronted to socialization. Everyone just straight up hated him from the very moment of his birth, and the only person he could ever talk to without hesitating was his mom.

"By the way, the name's Furukane, but you can call me Furu !" she holds out her hand, waiting patiently for him to take it.

"Ok." he says without shaking her hand, his face absolutely cold, picking up the fruits and vegetables before walking again. She looks at him in surprise before pouting, her cheeks rounded up.

"Tough cookie huh, I see. Well, it won't stop me from being your friend, wether you like it or not !!" she shouts to him, turning around as well.

Throughout the years, Ruon's personality became gradually harder to deciphere, but his mother Konoe stayed the only person with whom he left his guard down.

He understood pretty quickly that the other villagers would never change their opinion on him and Konoe, and made sure to keep his distances with everyone. The exception being Furukane, who never gave up trying to officially be friends with him, and as such was always sticking around whenever he was out (although he didn't particularly appreciate her presence, nor gave her much attention). She even dyed her hair to try and look "different" as well so he would feel more comfortable..

Ruon's cold eyes combined with Furukane's intimidating aura was efficient enough to stop any more bullying for him and his mother, but they were still as hated as before. As he grew up, Ruon despised more and more his father, and often got into arguments with Konoe whenever she talked about him, as she still believed he was a good man and that he'd eventually return home. Seeing his mother, a person whom he considered to be an amazingly strong woman, waste all her energy on someone that totally forgot long ago about her, pained him more than anything. He couldn't stand listening to any "good reason" she would have not to give up on him, and he eventually started thinking that maybe she was going crazy.

He felt thankful for all the efforts she made to raise him, and responsible for her poor mental state, so he started doing more chores in her place. The hard work was divised between the two of them, with sometimes Furukane's help as well for activities that required strength and energy. They finally started gaining enough money to not have to worry about their everyday meal's budget. Life was getting better yet again.

..

......

.............

Present day~

Ruon wakes up to the sun's warmth, rubbing his eyes as he slowly stands up and gets dressed.

"Hi mom.." he lazily manages to say as he comes out of his room. He stops in his track, surprised by his mother's absolute silence. He turns around and sees her frozen, a letter in her hand, while the other is held in front of her mouth in shock. Her eyes are shining, as if she could start tearing up any second.

"Mom ?" Konoe suddenly turns around, startled. She probably didn't notice her son was already awake. She folds the letter in a rush and places it back in her kimono, before finaly smiling sweetly at him.

"Ruon my baby bear, I got notified that some delivery arrived yesterday in that shop outside of town, you know, the one we used to go to together ?" he nods.

"That's awefully far though.." he scratches the back of his head. Konoe fiddles with her hands, a weird habit she has whenever she's anxious.

"Yes, it's a pretty urgent delivery, that's why I need you to go there very quickly, you should prepare a horse and some food for the trip right away !!" she says, barely articulating as she talks so fast. She rushes to the kitchen's furnitures, starting to gather some fruits and sweets in a used bag.

Ruon stares for a few seconds, before placing his hand on hers in an attempt to slow her down. "Can you at least tell me what it is ?" but all she does is shake her head.

He insists, now holding her wrists, stopping her from being so energetic "Don't be like that mom, I'm not going if you don't tell me !" he says teasingly, but Konoe violently shoves off his hands and starts shouting.

"I NEED YOU TO GO THERE, THAT'S ALL, JUST DO AS I SAY ALRIGHT ?!"

He staggers back. She never shouted like that before and it did frighten him for a few seconds, but he shrugs it off, thinking that maybe he's the one at fault there and he somehow did something wrong. Even if that's not the case, it doesn't matter, all he wants is for her to be happy, so if it takes a weirdly long trip, then so be it.

He goes out and starts preparing the horse. In the process he notices Furukane approaching in the corner of his eye.

"I'm warning you, you won't come with me." he simply states.

"Says who ?" she replies back, a small grin on her face "So what are we doing today ?" she places herself against the nearing wall, crossing her legs comfortably.

He sighs heavily "I need to retrieve some delivery further away from here, apparently it's something very important." Furukane analyzes him, noticing that he's pouting a bit.

"Are you mad about something ?"

He closes his eyes "Nonsense."

He finishes preparing the small carriage and starts putting bags of food in the back, while Furukane stares intensely at the horse, watching its every moves.

"Please tell me we're not riding that horse." at those words, Ruon lifts up his head.

"I forgot you don't like horses. Would you give up following me if I said yes ?"

She violently slaps his arm and he moans in pain as the spot turns red "You jerk ! I-It's not like I don't like them, but I'm scared of being on their back..." she looks at Ruon's arm, and a small red hallow covers her cheeks as she smirks.

"You gained some muscles huh..I bet you do push-ups everyday ?"

"How the hell did you-- no nevermind I don't want to know." he sighs yet again.

She walks up to him, lifting both her arm and his to compare, while Ruon frowns hard at her. Of course, Ruon being a guy makes his features a bit larger than hers, but she still seems in better shape.

"Ahh, but I guess you're not training the right way huh. I could help you if you want.." she flexes her arm proudly, as he stares at her in a mix of disgust and curiosity.

"I guess I could use some advices.. it's not like you'd listen to me if I said no, right ?"

***

Konoe comes out from the door and quickly puts a folded letter in Ruon's pockets.

"What's that ?"

"Just take it with you, you might need it." her smile looks somewhat sad, and Ruon is starting to be concerned. Since this morning his mother is acting very strangely, but she won't explain what happened.

"Mom, you--" he doesn't have the time to talk to her, as she simply embraces him, patting his head as he lowers himself to let her do so. She hugs him so tight that it feels like he could fall if she let him go.

"I love you baby bear, always." she gently pushes him back, showing him her brightest smile while caressing his cheeks.

"I'm 20 years old you know ? I'm not that much a baby bear anymore !" he holds Konoe's hands with a small smile, an expression that Furukane doesn't see often, if ever.

They leave the village, Ruon riding the horse, while Furukane sits back on the carriage, kicking the air with her feet.

A few hours of annoying songs sang by Furukane and her horrible chords of steel later, they arrive in the shop. Ruon jumps off, lifting the small curtain at the entrance to meet the shop-keeper, instructing Furukane to dismount the bags of crops they brought to sell them in the meantime.

"What can I do for ye lad ?" the man says, his glass eye ticking top to bottom as he turns to greet his customer.

"I have something to retrieve. Does the name 'Oyama' ring a bell ?" Ruon asks. The man in front of him checks under his desk the packages. He lifts himself back up a few seconds after, shaking his head.

"Sorry, I see no 'Oyama' here."

Ruon scratches his small goatee. He did see a letter in his mom's hands though, and by the looks of it, it seemed like it had to do with that delivery. Putting his hand in his pocket, lost in thoughts, he suddenly remembers that she gave him another letter. Maybe it was meant to be given to him.

"In that case, I have a letter that I believe is destined to you."

The man carefully grabs the envelop and looks at it with an intense glare, to which the young man assumes is the result of bad eyesight. He shakes his head after reading it, returning it to him.

"It's in your name though. A crappy handwriting for sure, but that's clearly meant for you, Bear-boy." the man grins, calling Ruon by his usual nickname.

Ruon stares for a while at the letter. What was the purpose of that whole trip ? There is no package, and the letter is for him..

He darts out of the store, gesturing for Furukane to finish quickly. After selling everything, she hops back in the carriage.

"What's wrong, did he treat you like a small kid again ?"

"No." he answers right away. "Rather something's wrong with that delivery. Either the package got lost, or mom tricked us for her own reasons."

"..What ?" she blurts out in a squeaky voice "You're saying that your mom possibly led us to a fake chore just for the fun of it."

"Why are you always misinterpreting everything I say !" he slaps the palm of his hand on his face in disbelief. "I know her, she wouldn't give me something to do for nothing, especially because it seemed rather urgent. Now that I think about it, she even got mad when I said I wouldn't go.." 

Deep in his thoughts, he tries to remember what happened this morning before they left.

After some minutes on the road at high speed, Furukane is starting to feel really nauseus because of the carriage's movements. She turns to Ruon, still riding the horse in utter silence.

"Can we stop for just a....hold on..where's that smoke coming from ?" She points her finger towards the sky from behind Ruon. He follows it and watches in horror...