Family

“….thinking? We can’t risk taking a random person…”

Asuka’s drifts in and out of consciousness.

“She’s just a young girl don’t be so…”

She tries to open her eyes to see who’s talking, but they feel like lead.

“…for a little while…”

She feels her body being moved, but she’s too exhausted to do anything about it and goes back to sleep.

Asuka once again finds herself in an unfamiliar place. She turns her head to the side; it’s all she can muster. Her cheek touches a cool pillow. The hardness against her back suggests she may be on the floor. Her movement alerts the person who was watching her by her bedside.

“Mommy she’s awake!” A child screeches excitedly in her ear. Asuka hears small footsteps thump away, still calling for her mother. She looks at the door she exited through and tries to get up from the futon. A wave of nausea overwhelms her, making her sweat.

While she is propped up on her elbow, she feebly lifts her head up to see a woman walking into the room. “Hi there, how are you feeling?” The woman speaks in a gentle, spirited voice. Moans gurgle from Asuka’s mouth in response, unable to form proper words.

“Oh, poor thing, you must be so hungry!” She helps Asuka up until she slumps forward, her chin hangs against her chest. She holds up something towards Asuka’s mouth and weakly takes a bite without bothering to look at what it was. She eats it all until there’s no more; her stomach has trouble accepting it after an entire day of no food, but she keeps it down.

The woman then puts a bottle to her lips. Asuka drinks it gratefully, the water coats her throat, and she can feel it pooling pleasantly in her belly.

The feeling in her body comes back in waves, making her feel prickly as nourishment spreads through her body. “Rest as long as you need,” the woman says. Asuka looks at her as she lays back down onto the futon. Her child hides behind her, peering at Asuka with curiosity.

Asuka can only oblige. She closes her eyes again and falls back into slumber.

It’s dark the next time Asuka awakens. The room she was in is illuminated by a light in the hallway. She tests her strength by moving her fingers. She’s not fully recovered, but unlike before, she manages to keep herself upright on her own. Her breathing is still shallow, but she stands up to leave the room. She walks across the tatami to the sliding door that had been left open.

Peering out, she sees that the house feels rather large from what she can see, and it is a mix of modern and traditional Japanese architecture. Hesitantly, she walks around until she can hear people talking and moves towards the sound. Coming around the door frame, she sees two people, a woman and a man, standing in the kitchen. Recognizing the woman as the one who’d fed her, Asuka speaks up. “Um, excuse me….”

The man jumps at her voice and snaps around to look her with wide eyes. She raises up her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry,” she says, “I-I wanted to apologize for taking your time with me,” she looks between the two of them.

The woman comes up to her with a smile on her face. “Don’t even worry about it! When we saw you on the road there’s no way we could’ve just left you there to die,” she assures her. Moving them out of the kitchen into the dining room she and her husband sit with Asuka at the table.

“My name is Nishimura Yukiko, and this is my husband Kenta,” she introduces the both of them. He nods to Asuka (the strong, silent type she supposes). Yukiko explains how the two of them were driving into town for a supply run when they saw her lying against that pillar. Asuka feels like she remembers them talking over her before passing out again.

She stands from the table and bows deeply at her waist. “Thank you for saving me, I owe you my life.” Yukiko waves this away. “I’m telling you it’s fine! I wouldn’t have been able to live the rest of my life if we’d just passed on by.” She smiles pleasantly.

“Now, how about you go upstairs and take a bath,” Yukiko prompts. “We were just getting started on dinner in here.” Asuka feels a bit embarrassed but she had been going to take a bath herself so she can’t complain. Yukiko stands up and walks to the staircase and calls from the bottom, “Hotaru, come down for a minute, please!”

That name grabs Asuka’s attention. “Hotaru…”

A familiar feeling seeps into her chest as the girl comes down the stairs. “What?” she has headphones around her neck like she was listening to something before being called down. When Asuka sees the girl it hits her.

Yukiko tells Hotaru, “Can you find some clothes to lend for Asuka-chan to change into? You’re both about the same size.” The girl’s eyes narrow as they move to Asuka, peering at her behind her round glasses. She looks as if she’s trying to melt her with her gaze. Asuka’s brain starts to race as they lock their eyes, filing through memories. What are the odds…?

Asuka relishes the feeling of hot water pelting her skin. It’s been quite a while since she was able to clean herself like this. The soap she lathers onto skin feels like heaven. It’s a bit difficult washing up with only one hand, though. The best part is when she soaks into the tub after rinsing herself off. Yukiko had wrapped a plastic bag around her cast for her, but she still tries not to get it wet. Asuka had never taken a more luxurious bath. 

She isn’t able to fully enjoy it though. The girl who had come downstairs, Hotaru, keeps her mind racing. She remembers her face from a dream she’d had. The small figure who bore holes into her with her eyes as Asuka stood in the back. It was enough to feel the hot bath feel like ice water. If she is who she thinks she is, it makes putting on her clothes significantly more awkward. She had given her a black T-shirt with a stylized skull decal on the front, and light blue striped pajama pants.

Asuka exits the bath. A delectable smell wafts up from downstairs as Asuka dries her hair with a towel. Lightly passing the hairdryer over her head. Asuka makes her way downstairs. Yukiko, her husband, Hotaru and the child she had seen earlier were sitting at the table. Asuka is mortified when Yukiko tells her they had been waiting for it to start eating and hurriedly takes a seat to not take any more of their time. Asuka’s mouth waters at the curry in front of her.

She hesitates before thanking them for the food with her hands pressed together, she takes a bite. Energy flows more smoothly than when she was half-starved before. She eats until she can feel her stomach bulging and cleans her plate, scraping the bottom with her spoon.

She feels the family staring at her, and embarrassment envelops her. “T-thank you, it was delicious…” she tried to salvage their impression of her by being polite. Yukiko and her husband just laugh, “that’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone look like they enjoy eating my cooking so much!” he says with a small smile.

After dinner Asuka insists on washing the dishes. Then, they all sit her down in the living room and have her tell them about how she’d gotten where she was when they found her. She tells them about the hot air balloon crashing and the explosion at the hospital and that she had been wandering around since escaping. They listen to her attentively until she finishes. “You’ve been through quite a lot…!” Kenta looks like he’s thinking about what she talked about, and the little girl just looks at her with wide eyes.

“If you have nowhere else to stay, please feel free to stay here with us.” When Asuka tries to refuse Yukiko insists that it’s too dangerous nowadays for a girl to be wandering outside especially with this meteor business. She tells her about how they haven’t left the house for anything except when absolutely necessary since they heard the news a few months ago. Asuka hesitantly accepts the offer for now, not wanting to impose but not wanting to spit in Yukiko’s face. Asuka spends the rest of the night getting to know the family and playing with the little girl, answering her numerous questions.