#Ambitious Hero [Honorisen]

[sakurarisen]

He’s just a child, Sera couldn’t help but think, lips parted despite the lack of sound escaping from them. He was no more than three, gleefully roaming about the scrap just outside of Midgar’s walls; it was something he could make stuff with, he continued to tell her, completely unaware to the oversized, pizza slice-shaped gap in the city above them. He could take it home and build things with it, and as much as she wanted to reassure him he’d build something incredible, she couldn’t.

More than anything, she wanted to tell him whatever he built, it’d be perfect. She wanted to take him home and deliver him to parents who were likely terrified for him, but all it took was a glance around them at the wreckage, some still smoldering and letting off smoke, to know that would be closer to an impossible task. If he’d lived in the sector, then... Shiva, the thought made her heart sink even further into her gut. He was outside, a little trip that had likely saved his life, but anyone inside... Did... Did he even realize an entire section of the plate was...?

Slowly, her lips pressed together, view of the boy she’d found and the world around him blurring. She’d been in Kalm when it’d happened; preparing to leave her ‘hideout’ with Zack for the long trek home, she’d been busy packing her bag when the news had rolled through the town a plate had fallen in Midgar. The devestation had been horrible, and yet, even despite her begging to at least let her try to call old friends before they left again, she hadn’t been any too prepared for just how much of it there was. Never prepared for the remnants of houses spilled outside of city limits, metal and brick crumbled and twisted into something unrecognizable.

Never ready for the lone boy she’d found, picking through scrap like nothing had happened, nor for how much the sight broke her heart.

He’s just a kid, she reminded herself as she stepped forward, crouching down to sit beside him while he rooted through a pile of rubble. His name was Yuga, she learned in the following few minutes; he was from Sector Seven, a slum kid who liked building things. It was never much just yet, but he wanted to build something grand, invent something new - He wanted to make something amazing for everyone in the slums to have fun with, a dream that’d see her smiling along with him. He was so much like Zack, she decided, full of life and spirit and spunk...

So much spirit that she actually hated having to point out the rubble blocking the entrance to the sector, watching bright eyes dim and giving her the answer he needed: He wasn’t aware of the plate’s fall, nor did he quite grasp what it meant. He was but a child, she knew, and... Honestly, she didn’t have it in her to tell him the truth: The sector didn’t exist, anymore.

And when he looked up to her, questioning what he should do, she couldn’t hold back the tears.

It was an hour of slow and careful talks before she rejoined Zack away from the city, holding a tired Yuga close, settled against her hip. She’d wrapped him up in her jacket, the cropped fabric big enough to cover him while he used her shoulder as a pillow, but even that didn’t feel like enough, especially under her fiance’s questioning look.

“He’s just a kid,” Sera finally spoke aloud, voice strained and choked with emotions she could barely hold back.

And for the first time since she’d begged and pleaded to see the city, the Ex-SOLDIER only nodded, reaching out to pull both Sera and Yuga close to him.

This world has to change.

[sakurarisen]

Tag drop~