Chapter 4 - A Place To Call Home

Kibou makes his way back to his home with Myu cradled in his arms, will Akemi be comfortable with Myu staying at their home?

As Kibou makes his way down the dimly lit streets, continuing to cradle Myu who is sleeping in his arms, he eventually arrives at the front door of his home, he reaches out with his right hand and pulls down the handle on the door. His mother stumbles out of the living room with a face of worry.

 

“Kibou! Are you alright? I’ve been worried sick!”

 

“A-Ah, shhh! I’ll explain everything in a moment! Let me just put Myu in a comfortable place to sleep”

 

“Myu?”

 

As Akemi questions Kibou, she then looks down in Kibou’s arms and sees Myu sound asleep, with one hand firmly gripped onto Kibou’s shirt.

 

“O-oh… uhm… sure… please go right ahead”

 

Kibou makes his way up into his bedroom and lays Myu down on his bed.

 

“Guess I’ll sleep on the floor tonight”

 

Kibou lays Myu down softly under his bed sheet and slowly covers her up with the blanket again, she looks as if she is at peace, she didn’t make any noise, and no one could blame her, she had had a terrible night. Kibou heads back downstairs into the living room where his mother is sitting, watching the news.

 

“Sorry I was out so late, I got caught up in something”

 

“I know what you got caught up in, and honestly I’m torn between being proud and distraught”

 

“Wait, how do you know what I got caught up in?”

 

“Are you kidding? It’s all over the news”

 

Akemi points to the television screen, causing Kibou to direct his attention to the television.

 

“Breaking news! Three masked kidnappers were taken down by a lone boy! Just take a look at the security footage that was taken from the building surveillance cameras!”

 

Footage of the scene that only took place about 30 minutes ago is being displayed right before Kibou’s eyes, it shows blurry footage of Kibou smashing a rock over the masked man’s head, it then cuts to Kibou delivering his punch to the other masked man and then slamming the final masked man into the ground.

 

“We were able to deduct that the hero of this crime was a young boy named Kibou from the local village of Cygnus!”

 

Kibou sits in his seat with his face flushed with a bright red colour.

 

“T-This can’t b-be h-happening, I had n-no idea that t-there were security cameras watching my every move”

 

Kibou looks pale to the bone as he thinks about the sudden attention he was receiving, it all seemed so surreal to him, and it was certainly something that he wasn’t used to.

 

“When I think about it… I guess I really am proud of you, that was an incredibly heroic thing you did, and I couldn’t be any more proud of you”

 

Akemi gets up and embraces Kibou with a hug which causes him to come back to his senses.

 

“Ah… Thanks mum, sorry I worried you though”

 

Kibou says rubbing the back of my head.

 

“Please don’t worry about any of that, I was worried, as any mother would be, but seeing you safe here is enough to drive that all away and just fill me with pride”

 

A few cheerful tears come to Kibou’s eyes as he embraces his mother’s warm hug.

 

“So... What about that girl?”

 

“Huh? Oh right, she was one of the people captured by those kidnappers but when the villagers all ran back to the village for safety, they all must of forgotten to untie her, I will admit that her small size may have caused her to go unnoticed though, I knew I couldn’t just leave her, so I had to think of something quickly, but when one of the men told her that she was never gonna be saved, something in my mind just clicked, and then that’s when I punched him and somehow managed to floor the other man. After I had saved her I started talking to her, and as it turns out she’s actually an orphan who doesn’t even know how to speak properly, she didn’t have a place to go back home and she doesn’t have any relatives, so then I kinda sorta told her that she could come back to our home, and that she could stay here… you don’t mind… do you?”

 

“Of course not! I’m so thrilled that you made such a big decision all by yourself! As your mother it makes me so happy to see how much you’ve grown in different aspects of your life!”

 

“Really? That’s great to hear!”

 

Kibou lets out a sigh of relief thanks to his mother’s optimistic words.

 

“I’m so glad you understand!”

 

Kibou once again hugs Akemi.

 

After Kibou had given more in-depth details of what happened to his mother, they both decide to go to bed and get some rest. Kibou grabs some spare sheets and makes himself a makeshift bed on his bedroom floor, he looks at Myu to make sure that she is still sleeping soundly and the small string of drool falling from her mouth certainly put Kibou at ease.. Kibou gets into his makeshift bed and closes his eyes.

 

‘Tomorrow is gonna be a weird day for sure...’

 

With this thought firmly imprinted into Kibou’s mind he falls asleep just seconds later, it seems as though the night had also drained Kibou, both mentally and physically.

 

[The following morning]

 

“Ki… Kib…”

 

‘Huh?... is someone calling my name?’

 

“Kib…”

 

Someone was calling his name, and that someone was Myu, who was shaking Kibou back and forth as much as her small arms could muster, it seems like Myu had abbreviated his name to ‘Kib’ to make it easier for herself, Akemi probably taught her Kibou’s name. Slowly opening his eyes to a worried looking Myu, Kibou responds to Myu.

 

“...uh… oh!... Myu, I see you’re awake, how’re you feeling?”

 

Almost as if she had ignored his question Myu’s face lights up as she gives a small smile, she reached out to Kibou and gives him a small hug, once again rubbing her face into his shirt, Kibou rubs his eyes to try and properly wake himself up. He softly pats her head.

 

“Well this is a very warm welcome”

 

Kibou looks up and notices Akemi in the door peeking in with a smile spread across her face.

 

“Uhm… mum? What are you doing?”

 

“Just observing, aren’t her clothes adorable Kibou? After I saw the state that her clothes were in last night I decided to give them a clean earlier this morning, aren’t they cute?”

 

Kibou scans Myu’s clothes as she stands in front of him, holding her hands behind her back, she was wearing a blue jumper with a lighter blue skirt that went down to her knees, she also wore blue tights which were the same colour as her jumper, everything about her seemed to scream blue, but it didn’t seem to matter because none of it seemed out of place, it all seemed to work well together.

 

“Hmmm”

 

Kibou nods his head.

 

“Very cute… very cute indeed”

 

Myu blushes, this seemed like the type of comment she was hoping for and hides her flushed face with her hair. Kibou gets up out of his bed and decides to head downsatairs for some of Akemi’s delightfully made breakfast. Myu grabs onto Kibou’s trouser leg and tugs on it.

 

“Hmm? Whats up?”

 

“...Hand”

 

“Hmm? Oh!”

 

Kibou reaches out his hand to Myu and she reaches into his, they both take one step of the stairs at a time, Kibou making sure not to get too ahead of himself. After they reach the bottom Kibou praises Myu.

 

“Good job Myu! That was amazing!”

 

Myu smiled with the praise she received from Kibou. As they take a seat in the living room the doorbell rings.

 

“Oh, I’ll get it!”

 

Shouted Kibou.

 

He opens the door to several villagers on his door step.

 

“Hmm? Oh hey aren’t you guys the-”

 

“We’re so glad we found you! Before, we didn’t even express our gratitude properly to you!”

 

Without even being able to finish his sentence of the older woman expresses her gratitude from when Kibou saved them from the kidnappers from the night that had just passed.

 

“Ah! You don’t have to go through the trouble, honestly!”

 

“No no, we insist, it’s the least we can do to show you how thankful we are”

 

As a man replies the villagers all get down on their knees and bow their heads.

 

“THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAVING US, WE ARE FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT”

 

They all say in complete synchronisation with each other, Kibou’s face goes red from embarrassment.

 

“Ehhhh… Please get up! I accept your gratitude, please stand!”

 

The villagers all stand up and a few wipe their eyes due to the tears. Kibou is thankful of this show of appreciation, but he also didn’t forget that they left Myu behind, although, he did think that things sort of worked out for the best, with Myu now living with him and all. In return for their appreciation, Kibou instead proposes that instead of their lives being in debt to him, instead they should live out the rest of the lives with the utmost care and always be willing to help others.

 

“You can consider it done young man! Once again… thank you ever so much!”

 

“You’re most welcome”

 

After they had expressed their gratitude to Kibou they all then leave and go back to their jobs or back home.

 

‘Phew, it seems like I was right in thinking that today was gonna be a weird day… and it’s only the morning!

 

Kibou lets out a small sigh and then heads back inside where he then spots Myu peeking around the corner of the living room.

 

“Do… do you remember who those people are Myu?”

 

Myu slowly nods her head.

 

“I see… well you don’t need to even think about them because I made them promise that they would never do what they did to you again”

 

Though it was quite a roundabout way of doing it. Kibou smiles at Myu and gives a thumbs up, Myu runs to Kibou and hugs his leg, she seems to have grown quite fond of Kibou, despite their short time of knowing each other, Myu sees Kibou as someone who would always protect and look after her, a hero.

 

They both head to the living room where Akemi then walks in with breakfast for the two of them, Myu sits almost suffocatingly close to Kibou as she munches on her toast, Kibou also eats his toast, acknowledging Myu sat next to him and having flashbacks to when he saved her.

 

‘Yep, this is definitely something that I want to protect, something I want everyone to share with each other... this happiness.

 

Kibou gives a nod in agreement with himself.

 

“There all done”

 

Kibou finishes his food and decides that he should head upstairs and get changed into some more fresh clothes. Myu looks at Kibou and she looks a little saddened that she wasn’t able to keep up with Kibou when eating her food.

 

“Slow…”

 

Kibou notices Myu staring at him with a sad look on her face and he rubs her head.

 

“Don’t worry, everyone has their own pace and yours is fine”

 

Myu’s eyes sparkle as she then gives an adorable smile.

 

“Right, I’m off to get changed”

 

Heading into his bedroom, Kibou puts on his favourite black shirt and navy trousers, he picks up his phone which had been charging all night and has been bombarded with an abundance of messages, mainly from Yui, but there were different messages from media outlets who wanted to get in touch with Kibou about his recent heroic actions.

 

“...eh?”

 

Speechless, Kibou decides to ring Yui instead of messaging back.

 

“I wonder if she’s too busy to ans-”

 

“KIBOU”

 

“Woah, why’re you so loud?!”

 

“Are you kidding?! I saw what you did on the news last night, that’s incredible Kibou, I’m so happy for you!”

 

“Oh yeh, thanks, you don’t have to make a big deal out of it, I just got lucky”

 

Kibou was always modest when speaking to Yui, but she most definitely thought differently of him.

 

“No way! What you did was incredible and even you’ve gotta admit that!”

 

“...Okay yeah, I was pretty cool”

 

The two of them begin to laugh.

 

“So… I saw that you were chosen to be a Hero candidate, Yui…”

 

“Yeah, the praise I received was pretty amazing, although I can already feel the responsibilities that come with it, how about you?, it’s sad that you didn’t get the symbol of the Hero”

 

“Well… There’s something I have to tell you… but it’s a secret so you mustn’t tell anyone yet”

 

Yui’s heart began to flutter.

 

“Is it finally happening…”

 

“What?... Never mind about whatever you’re going on about but, the truth is… I-”

“Kib!”

 

The faint sound of Myu calling Kibou’s name could be heard in the background.

 

“Who was that?”

 

Asked Yui.

 

“Oh, uhm, no one really, talk to you soon Yui!”

 

“Wait! You didn’t tell me what you wanted to s-”

 

Kibou had hung up the call.

 

“That… That sounded like a girl’s voice… don’t tell me… someone’s trying to steal my precious Kibou away from me!”

 

Yui mistook Myu’s voice as some girl who seemed close enough with Kibou to be allowed over his home. As she thought this she became overcome with jealousy, she knew that she had to see Kibou as soon as possible but with the Hero Candidates being sent to the academy in under a month she was restricted on time.