※Contains Disturbing Content
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「You little brat!! Die!!」
What came flying at me struck my forehead and shattered. It was a glass cup today, and blood began to pour from the cut.
「Tch, don’t you dare dirty the floor! You hear me!!」
「Hhhi… uuh…」
He kicked me and stomped on me.
I curled up small and endured it.
Endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure, endure…
At some point, I had been thrown outside and was lying on the ground.
(Good… if it had been winter, I might’ve died…)
Slowly getting up, I staggered to my feet and began walking.
(I wonder if I can find something to eat today?)
I scavenged through garbage bins behind stores and convenience shops, finding my meal for the day.
The last time I went to a children’s cafeteria, I got taken into custody. That was a disaster.
Sitting in the park, I ate the bread I’d been given by someone at the shopping street. It stung my mouth, full of cuts, but I couldn’t worry about that. I washed it down with water from the faucet and finished eating.
(What should I do until Father’s mood gets better?)
Leaving the park, I slipped into alleyways so the police wouldn’t find me. The thought of being taken in made me shiver.
I huddled among scrap wood and drifted off to sleep. There was nothing else to do, and since I wasn’t allowed to sleep at night, this was my only chance to rest.
When evening came, I went back home to deal with the customers.
(If only I could just die already…)
As someone strangled me, that thought crossed my mind. When the man finally left, satisfied, I washed myself and took an emergency contraceptive, the only way to keep things from becoming worse.
While I did, Father counted the money he’d gotten from his customers with a pleased grin.
「Hey, you little shit. There’s another customer coming tonight. Get ready.」
His words stirred no emotion in me. I just did as I was told.
(Ah… how long will these days go on…)
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
One day, while living that same hopeless routine, I went scavenging for leftovers, and before I realized it, I had been taken aboard a ship.
「Where… am I?」
Looking around, I saw children about my age sleeping nearby. Every one of them had a gag in their mouth and their hands bound with handcuffs.
Just one glance was enough to understand. We had been kidnapped.
But strangely, my heart felt lighter. At least I didn’t have to go back to that hell.
After a while, when everyone started to wake up, the outside suddenly became noisy. Then, a man and a woman broke through the wall and entered.
「『——Appraise』… yeah, these kids were abducted.」
「As I thought… Yuuki-san, any explosives or traps?」
「It’s fine. I checked with Appraisal, nothing attached to their bodies or belongings.」
「UnderstooD. Then let’s get them ouT of here.」
「Right. Can everyone stand?」
They brought us up to the deck, and we were given sweets to eat together.
After a while, many more people arrived, and the two of them left.
(Ah… am I going to be taken back to that hell again…?)
That’s what I thought as we were blindfolded and loaded onto another vehicle.
After several days, we arrived at yet another gray room.
I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, but new people kept coming in. From time to time, a child would be taken away by an adult. Some came back crying, others never returned.
(Ah… so even here, I’m just something to be used up…)
Some of the children didn’t even understand what was happening. Others did, and those who did often lost their minds because of it.
Then one day, in this new hell, the same two people appeared again.
They spoke with an older boy, then told us to hold hands. The moment we did, my vision shifted, and suddenly we were in a large room somewhere else.
「Yuuki-sama!」
A woman threw herself into the man’s arms, and the two spoke joyfully, as if they were truly happy to be reunited.
After that, we were treated for our injuries and told them everything that had happened to us.
Some children broke down crying. Others relapsed into flashbacks and were taken away for isolation and care.
The man came to see me several times to heal me. Eventually, I found myself telling him everything that had happened to me.
「Unforgivable…」
He said that, and he became angry for my sake. He cried for me. I had only ever known the worst kind of father, but I wished, over and over, that he had been mine instead.
He had many wives, and they were all kind to me as well.
For the first time in so long, I remembered the warmth of the mother I had lost… and I cried and cried until I couldn’t anymore.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
One day, I was told that he wanted to see me, so I was taken from the facility and put into a car.
「Sorry for calling you so suddenly. But I can’t make my report without doing this first.」
The car stopped at that place, my old home, that hell.
The moment I saw the familiar gate, something sour rose from my stomach, and I ended up staining his clothes.
(Ah… I did it again…)
I wanted to run away. I didn’t want to make a mess in front of the one person I didn’t want to hate me. But instead, he gently pulled me into his arms and stroked my back.
All the fear and disgust that had filled me just melted away.
「I’m sorry… I’m sorry…」
「It’s alright. Calm down. I didn’t bring you here to send you back.」
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Author’s Note:
Sorry if this part was hard to read…
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