He sat in front of his window, watching the rain quietly strike the glass.
The image that had appeared in his memory refused to leave him.
A little boy...
A girl laughing beside him.
And a small flower.
"Don't forget me when you grow up."
Sako closed his eyes.
He tried to remember.
This time...
His memory did not resist.
Instead, it pulled him back into the past.
Years Ago...
Sako was five years old.
He lived with his mother in a small house far from the city.
He knew nothing about monsters.
Nothing about the P.S.A.
And nothing about experiments.
His world was simple.
His mother...
His home...
And a few people he had grown accustomed to playing with.
Every morning, his mother woke him the same way.
"Sako, wake up."
He hid beneath the blanket.
"Five more minutes."
She laughed.
"You said that yesterday."
"But today I'm tired."
She pulled the blanket away.
"Come on."
Sako opened his eyes reluctantly.
Then he walked downstairs to the kitchen.
The smell of toasted bread filled the room.
It was his favorite thing.
He sat across from his mother as she placed the food in front of him.
"Eat slowly."
"Okay."
She smiled.
"When you grow up, I want you to become a kind person."
Sako looked at her in confusion.
"Why?"
She placed her hand on his head.
"Because the world needs kind people."
Sako didn't understand what she meant back then.
But he never forgot it.
That afternoon...
Sako went outside to play near the house.
There was a little girl there.
She was slightly older than him.
And she always dragged him into playing with her.
"Sako!"
He turned toward her.
"What?"
"Come on!"
"Where?"
"Just come!"
He followed her without asking questions.
They ran between the trees, raced each other, and argued over the smallest things.
Then, one day...
The girl found a tiny flower.
She handed it to him.
"This is for you."
"Why?"
"Because you're always sad."
Sako stared at her.
"I'm not sad."
She laughed.
"You're lying."
Then she sat beside him.
"When we grow up..."
She paused for a moment.
"We'll still be friends, right?"
Sako nodded.
"Yeah."
She held out her hand.
"Promise?"
Little Sako shook her hand.
"Promise."
Years passed.
But the world began to change.
News reports started appearing about a strange illness.
People would develop fevers...
Then become aggressive.
Then disappear.
Sako's mother began to grow afraid.
One night...
Sako was awake because of shouting outside.
He approached the window.
He saw the lights of cars.
Strangers.
Then his mother suddenly entered the room.
"Sako."
She looked frightened.
She grabbed his hand.
"Don't go outside."
"What's happening?"
"Nothing."
But her voice was trembling.
Sako looked at her.
"Mom... are you scared?"
She smiled through her tears.
"A little."
Then she hugged him.
"No matter what happens..."
"Don't be afraid."
The next morning...
His mother went outside.
Sako waited for her.
He waited for a long time.
But she never came back.
The news came later.
A car accident.
His mother was dead.
Sako was only five years old.
The little boy sat alone inside the house.
In front of a plate of toast.
Cold.
He didn't eat.
He simply stared at it.
And from that day onward...
Everything changed.
Years Later...
Sako was living in a facility belonging to the P.S.A.
He didn't know why they had taken him.
They told him:
"We will take care of you."
But he never felt safe.
White rooms.
Doctors.
Injections.
Machines.
And the same questions, over and over.
"Do you remember your mother?"
"Yes."
"Do you feel pain?"
"Yes."
"What do you see when you sleep?"
He didn't understand.
Until the experiments began.
At first...
He cried.
Then he became silent.
Then he stopped crying altogether.
Inside one of the rooms...
There was another child.
Sako didn't know his name.
But on the other side of the glass...
There was something written.
SUBJECT 0
He didn't know what the number meant.
He didn't know that the number was connected to him.
And he didn't know that those years would become the reason for all the pain he would carry later.
Sako returned to the present.
His eyes opened.
The rain was still falling.
He placed a hand against his chest.
His heart was beating rapidly.
Then he remembered something else.
The girl.
The flower.
And the promise.
But her face was still blurry.
"...Who are you?"
There was no answer.
Elsewhere...
The old photograph was still in the hands of the person watching Sako's house.
They turned the photograph over.
On the back was a name written in a child's handwriting:
Sako & Mia
The person stopped smiling.
"He has started remembering."
They slipped the photograph into their pocket.
"But not everything."
That night...
Sako's forgotten memories began to return.
And the past he thought had died...
Was about to awaken once again.
Comments (7)
See all