Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Ai did not even look at the two dead men after they died. She went over to her father and prepared him to be moved. She figured it was best to do this on her own so that Mai would not be too traumatized by the sight of her parents being mutilated. Although, in the future, she would see such things, it was different when it was your own parents. Ai slowly went to work bringing all the bodies of her's and Mai's parents to her back yard where she dutifully began digging a hole. She knew digging multiple graves would take too long and the longer she was out the more chances of being seen by a machina so she could only work on one grave pit. 

The moon in the sky shined down illuminating the surroundings as Ai finally finished digging the hole deep and wide enough to allow for the four bodies to be placed inside. She carefully brought down each body and placed them next to each other. Before climbing out of the hole, Ai knelt down and gently caressed her mother's and father's faces giving them another moment of silence. A single tear ran down her cheek as she got up and climbed out of the grave pit and began filling the hole back up. 

By time morning's first light crept up over the horizon, Ai had finally placed a large rock at the head of the freshly packed earth and had already chiseled in the names of her parents and Mai's parents into the gravestone.

Ai's whole body felt heavy. She had not slept or ate anything since the day before. She had not only shuffled through the library moving heavy objects but she also fought with a first type machina, dealt with two men with bad intentions, and buried her parents. She was beyond exhausted. But she still moved her body towards the bunker hatch and knocked on it. 

"Mai it's me." Ai said only to hear scrambling from inside the bunker. Very quickly the hatch was opened and a swollen, red-eyed Mai came into view. 

"Ai!" Mai saw Ai and quickly looked around before looking back at Ai with a questioning look. Ai lowered her head and shook it back and forth causing Mai's tears to rain down again. 

"Mai, let's get inside first" Ai decided it would be best to let Mai settle down before taking her to the grave so she can say goodbye. 

Mai nodded her head and went to climb down the ladder but stopped when she saw how covered in blood and mud Ai was. Mai became frantic as she worriedly asked: "Ai are you okay!?" 

"I'm fine. It's not my blood. Let's go down, I'm tired and am about to collapse." Ai answered urging Mai to let her inside. Mai nodded her head again and climbed down the ladder, finally allowing Ai to climb down. 

After securing the hatch and climbing down, Ai quickly stripped her clothes off and used a bucket of rain water to wash up a bit before changing clothes. Mai patiently waited until Ai was done as she sat on the couch. Many thoughts were going through her head. The idea that her parents were no longer alive had not really hit home yet. She sat in a daze just staring at the wall. 

Seeing Mai all spaced out, Ai walked over and sat down next to Mai and pulled her into a hug. When her parents died in her last life she was the same. She was in a daze not understanding the reality of things for almost three days. If not for the pains in her stomach that came from not eating for three days did she finally pull herself out of her daze to go and find food. 

When Ai pulled Mai into a hug it was like a dam broke loose and tears began to rain down from Mai's eyes. She buried her head into Ai's chest and cried. Mai hugged Ai tightly as she cried. Ai could only hold her as her own tears rolled down her cheek, onto her chin, and then dripped down into Mai's hair. As she cried, Ai gently rubbed Mai's back, not saying a word.

The two girls who grew up as sisters even though they were not blood-related, cried in each others arms. Ai did not even have this in her past life. She stayed in the spot her father left her for three days before finally coming out of hiding. During the time she was hidden she did nothing, just stared off into space. Even though she had her parents die on her in her previous life, it was not something one would get used to. She had thought, this time, this time she could keep her parents alive and live a few years more together. She never expected five machina to be roaming around. 

The arms she had around Mai grew tighter as Ai cried even harder.

A day later….

Standing out in the sun staring down at the freshly made grave, Ai and Mai held a small funeral for their parents. The two girls held hands and leaned against each other as they stood in silence. They had been there since the early morning and it was now noon. The sun hung high in the sky as the heat of the day kicked into overdrive.

"Come… We should go try to reclaim the things that were dropped. We have many things we need to do... If we are sparse with our food we can last almost three years. But we can also go around and scavenge for food as well. We can take the next few years, to train, and to learn the things we need to learn. Maybe I will even have a chance to build an artificial eye." Ai spoke breaking the silence. 

"Mmm… We only have each other to rely on now. We will need to pull ourselves together. I am sure that is what our parents would want." Mai said as she gave another look at the gravestone. She then looked at Ai and said: "Ai, Thank you… I probably would have been in a state of shock if I saw my parents' conditions. You took the brunt of it all for me and even buried our parents along with making a tombstone for them. It would have pained me more if they were just left for dead out on the streets to rot away under the sun and become food for some stray animal."

Ai, let out a sigh as she said: "In my past life I had to do just that. But you are right we have only ourselves to rely on now. I will watch your back and you will watch mine." 

"Mmm… Let the two of us survive until either we die of old age or we regain control over the world."

Ai and Mai's journey in this new apocalyptic world had just begun...

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