"Reunion"

[bloodysnowabumi]

Who: Zaku, Karin, and a bunch of random people 8D
When: Wednesday afternoon to Wednesday night
What: Zaku, alone and nearly dead, follows the lead of Shige, the creature who has been appearing to him for a few weeks now. After running away from home after the fight against Kidoumaru and Sai two days earlier... and accidentally injuring Karin, Zaku's

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[bloodysnowabumi]

Karin’s eyes had opened quickly and she found herself lying on her mattress at home, all the covers pushed off in what could looked somewhat like a struggle, and she was soaking wet from the sweat from the nightmares that had plagued her sleep. She placed both of her elbows at her side and pushed herself up, wincing with the sensation in her right arm and pulling her braced arm to her chest quickly as she sat up. Looking down to the brace, Karin had been hit with the sudden realization that most of her nightmares were a terrible reality that haunted her even into her near restless slumber

[bloodysnowabumi]

The bus stop outside of Karin’s neighborhood was empty once she arrived, taking a seat and waiting for the bus. One thing Karin had felt for certain after all the searching was done last night, Zaku had not been in the city limits of Tokyo. While she knew very well she could be wrong and missed him last night in passing, it didn’t feel right to her. Something inside her wanted to believe that she’d know when he was around, that their hearts would beat like metal detectors until they found one another, but she knew things were not going to be easy. Pessimistic thoughts clouded her mind, I’ll never find him, and she wondered if he had gone some place he could never be found. Or worse, which Karin began to feel after hearing what had happened to his arm due to kids picking on him. His tough exterior made him easy to spot, and made people want to whisper and pick on him, and Zaku would snap and the people would enjoy getting a rise out of him. That was Kidoumaru’s problem with Zaku after all, he was too easy to pick on. The thought made

[bloodysnowabumi]

She watched a mother walk past, holding the hand of her little boy that was about eleven or twelve, “See, Akira? I told you the train ride wouldn’t be bad. Mommy takes it every day when she goes to work and she still makes it back home to see you in the evenings. Now, let’s come along, we don’t want to miss our bus. Daddy’s waiting for us at the hospital.”

Yes, a train… Karin nodded, looking back to the map to see which bus routes would get her to the train station. Finding the closest one, she ran over as the doors began to close, and the driver grumbled a little but opened the door and let her on. Would Zaku have done all this? Karin asked herself, trying to think of what Zaku might have been thinking when he ran away. But he might not have been thinking… No matter what, she knew this was going to be a long, rough road of hope.

When she arrived at the train station, Karin’s face fell when she looked at all the options she had laid out before her. Now this is depressing… There, standing at the main entrance way of the train

[bloodysnowabumi]

Karin blinked a few times, trying to remember how and why she had come over to the ticket office with no assurance that Zaku would be on the other side of any of these trains. Her mouth spoke up though, before her brain could pick up on the signals, “One trip to Hayama, please.”

The lady inside rang Karin up for a ticket, and soon Karin was standing on the platform waiting for the train to come in. 10 minutes, tops, was the estimated time. Looking along the platform, her eyes constantly scanning in hopes of finding a glimpse of Zaku anywhere, noticed that the guy from earlier had been standing there, waiting on the same train. Karin rubbed her shoulder again, That really hurt earlier, you jack ass. Deciding she wouldn’t say anything about it though, Karin finished off her bottle of water and tossed it into a recycling bin as the bells started ringing along the platform to let everyone know the train was coming in.

Something feels right, Karin nodded and got on board, taking her seat and closing her eyes for a moment and resting her

[bloodysnowabumi]

Away from the train station, Karin could easily find the busiest part of town… and so she turned and walked in the opposite direction. Every now and again, someone would walk past, and Karin stopped them, “Excuse me, have you seen a male teenager, not from around here, missing an arm?” But no one seemed to have seen anyone like that. The hours went on and on and she checked all the different parks and secluded areas she found along the way. Eventually, the sun began to take its descent back to the horizon and Karin sighed away the knowledge that soon, all of her light would be gone and another day would come up short