Ito Ai: A New Dawn

"Step in and then push your palm out like this, leveraging your body so that it's like an unmovable object. This will use the opponent's momentum against them making this palm strike more powerful." Ai was giving strict training to everyone. Each person had backpacks full of rocks and weights on their wrist and ankles. She was getting everyone ready for the times to come.

Inside the bunker, Shizune sat on the couch staring at the heap of metal in front of her that was once a first type machina. Remembering the eyepatch on her daughter's eye caused Shizune's heart to hurt. "Why? Why must Ai go through all of this? Why must she deal with all this pain? She should just grow up like a normal young girl but now… her eye..."

Coming down the ladder to grab some drinks, Seiji heard Shizune's words and knew his wife was feeling useless and helpless. "Nene… If you want to help Ai then I would suggest you start training with her. Grow stronger so you can protect her if the situation calls for it. Out of everyone in this world we are the luckiest parents in the world to have a daughter who did so much in order for us to survive. Although it hurts to know she had to go through ten years of living hell only to die. But at least she was able to come back to us in the past and is able to help us get through the days ahead. I am sure that during her past life she was just like us now, helpless not knowing what to do. Going through hardship after hardship in order to survive.

"Us as parents can only do one thing. Grow stronger and do our best to support the child we brought into this world. Ai is someone who will protect those close to us. She had already put her life on the line twice today to protect us. I think it would be best if we grew stronger so we can be there for her so she does not need to always protect us." Seiji had decided this after watching Ai fight the first type machina. He would make sure his daughter was not let alone to fight on the front line all by herself. He would do his best to stand in front of her and take any pain she would have to endure.

"Seiji do you think Ai will be willing to train one more person?" Shizune asked. The look in her eyes was now different than they were before. Before they looked as if she had lost all hope but now they were filled with unwavering determination. Seiji's words had really hit home with her. She realized she was nothing but a mess at this time only complaining and not doing. If she truly wished to protect her child she had to do as Seiji had said and actually do whatever she can to become strong.

Seiji smiled and pulled Shizune into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "I am sure Ai would be more than happy to train you as well."

Out in the back alley, Ai was still instructing everyone when she saw her father walking back with another person behind him. Seeing her mother now looking much different than before, Ai let out a sigh of relief as she walked over to her mom and wrapped her arms around her. "Sorry for being so harsh."

"No, I should say sorry for not realizing what I need to do. Ai, I wish to train as well so I can help you in the days to come." Shizune said as she hugged Ai.

"Training is no problem but remember this training is not easy and I will not let up even if you say you are tired." Ai would not go easy on anyone no matter who they were. If she was going to train someone she would do so in her own way which was very harsh but brought about good results.

"No matter what I have to go through, I will put up with it no matter what."

---

Ai had decided to take a day's rest the next day and only helped train everyone. With Mai's and her mother's help, she was able to get her wounds cleaned out properly and fresh bandages placed over them. This was a delicate task since the duct tape she had used to seal the wound, the glue from it had sunk into the wound causing it to bleed again when they took it off but this time it was not as bad. After a full day of training, Ai had everyone go back and rest as she sat down on one of the collapsed beams of her house looking up at the sky. The clouds overhead were starting to look a little ominous as if they would let loose a downfall of rain at any time.

She quickly ran over to the hatch and opened it before yelling down: "Get the rain buckets ready!"

She would not let a single chance go by for collecting water. Very quickly her father and Yasuhide both came up the ladder with buckets in hand, lined with plastic bags. "Ai is this done right?"

Ai had taught everyone to line the buckets with plastic in order to keep the sides from being contaminated if the rainwater was radioactive. This was to keep the radioactive materials from soaking into the buckets themselves. "Yes, that's right. We just need to fill the buckets. Even if there are a little bit of radioactive materials in the water, as long as it is a low amount we can still use it to bathe."

"But how are we going to wash ourselves with such little water?" Yasuhide asked.

"That is the next course of training. Later on, we will have no choice but to bathe out in the open among many people. If you wish to get clean you will strip naked and wash your body. If you were lucky you would have at least a few minutes of decent rain to get clean. you might find it uncomfortable at first but over time you will get used to it. By that time people would not care too much about nakedness since those things no longer mattered. What was more important was survival." Ai explained.

Yasuhide and her father both looked at her wide-eyed. "So you're saying we will be practicing this?"

"Mhm. Of course, we will start off wearing underwear and slowly work our way into things until you are comfortable. For me, I do not care but right now I can not wash in any radioactive water. So unless it is clean I can not bathe in it until my wounds heal... I will be with you guys though since I can still wash myself with a cloth. I just can't wash my arm or around my eye." Ai wanted to take a shower herself but with her wounds, she did not dare to let them get infected. It was like the rules of old, if you are injured, stay away from water unless it has been sterilized. Otherwise, you risk gaining an infection which there are no hospitals around to prescribe any antibiotics. Ai suddenly realized she had forgotten an important thing.

"Dad, Uncle, Which one of you wishes to go out on a raid tonight?" Ai asked.

"What do you mean?" Seiji looked at Ai, his expression showing his confusion.

"I forgot to stock up on prescription drugs such as antibiotics and other things that will come in handy later on. Medicine for radiation poison and such. These drugs can also be used for trading later on so it will be helpful to take everything we can."

"So you're saying you want to rob a drug store?" Yasuhide spoke up.

"Yep exactly! I will be bringing Mai with me and one more but we need one male here to protect the bunker and to protect my mother and aunt. I will let the two of you decide who stays and who goes." Ai said.

"I would like to go. I wish to gain the experience. I have never actually robbed a place before so in order to know what I need to do in the future this would be a very good experience for me." Yasuhide was the first to speak up. He wanted to gain firsthand experience of what it meant to live in this new day and age.

"That's fine I will stay here and guard the base and protect Nene and Sister. Brother, you can go. I already went with Ai the other day." Seiji had no problem letting Yasuhide go. Yasuhide was once in the military so he had more experience with fighting than himself.

"Alright, then it is decided. Let's get ourselves ready. We will be bringing both pistols. Mai will have one and Uncle you will have the other. Bring a second clip with you as well. But do not shoot unless it is necessary. It would be best to use melee weapons first. Also, wear black clothes." Ai wanted to conserve ammunition as much as possible since they did not have many bullets and the black clothes were to keep them hidden in the dark.

That night the rain came down hard, luckily when Ai tested the water to see if it was radioactive it seemed to be safe since the geiger counter did not give off a reading. Ai wrapped her wounded arm with a plastic bag and put on a hat to keep her eye from getting wet. She had already donned her black clothes so she could blend in with the night. Mai and Yasuhide also did the same. As they were about to leave, Ai was stopped by Shizune.

"Ai are you sure you will be okay?" Shizune asked. Although she decided to become strong for her daughter she still couldn't help herself from worrying.

"Don't worry mom the machina are not out in groups right now this is the perfect time to gather what we need. This time though, if I find anything suspicious about the building, we will back out right away. Even I am not dumb enough to fight in this condition unless my life is on the line." Ai tried to reassure her mother that she was going to be okay. She figured as long as she did not run into any machina's there wouldn't be an issue.

"Okay as long as you stay safe do not come home missing a limb or something." Shizune cupped Ai's cheek as she looked at her with a worried expression before hugging Ai tightly.

"I will be careful. We will all come back safe and sound, I promise." Ai said as she pushed herself out of her mother's embrace and picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. After giving her father a few more instructions. Ai, Mai, and Yasuhide all climbed the ladder into the darkness of the night above.