Prologue

"So, care to tell me about your memory?"

The interrogator sat at a chair facing the one-armed boy, between them was a clean, white desk.

"Your name? Family? Anything at all?"

He, the interrogator, is a detective with a receding hairline, but there's traces of gel in his hair, and his uniform is nice and tidy. He looks like he's in his mid thirties, with an understandable amount of wrinkles and eye bags. A man who takes his work seriously- that is the impression he's giving.

However, the room was far too cramped and the events were far too sudden for a boy that's still overwhelmed over the events last night to answer such questions. It happened too fast, in a flash, and in a daze. Presumably.

"... I guess there's still nothing. Did you have someone else with you, atleast?"

A flinch, and a brief scowl. It was a decent facial expression he could use to confirm that he had, but the detective knows he's not getting a direct 'yes', nor any answer really.

"You can go home for now, kid."

The child left with a blank face, and the detective said nothing about the matter except observe how he left.

"What did he say?"

It was an earpiece that spoke after the door closed, and the voice was eager.

"Nothing much. He's still unstable. Give him time, he's still a child."

"And that 'child' might have been the culprit of the incident. It was a goddamn tragedy, detective. A hundred and a half of people dead just because of one building on fire! And you think the higher ups are just gonna sit-"

The detective sighed and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He smoked one, and exhaled with an exasperated sigh. He is not in the mood to listen to that type of crappy song tonight.

"Ain't much I can do about that. The kid's still a kid, deal with it."

"As I said, Mister Santiago, I want-"

"Listen here pal, if you spend the night with your wife and wake up the next day to see that she's gone as well as your entire house and you can't remember anything, what would you do?"

"... I have no time for your riddles and excuses, detective. What I want is results. Tomorrow, you will either get that child or you will lose your job."

A sharp {Beep} ended the call.

The weary detective went out for some fresh air in the balcony. It was a good night in Manila, the roads are busy with traffic, and the buildings are still lit up despite 12:00am. Manila is an ugly place, but the lights make it look like it's Christmas even though it is still just September.

"A life without people complaining to me doesn't sound too bad. Can't eat shit though." He chuckled, smoking the cigarrete again and releasing the fumes in the cold, midnight breeze.

While pondering, Santiago spots the kid earlier up top. As expected, he was walking mindlessly, even through traffic.

"{Whistle} Hey! That's dangerous kid, you gotta-"

{BEEP!}

It's a dumpster truck frantically beeping over and over, and it was rushing towards him with great speed!

'Shit! At that speed, Inertia would prevent that truck from stopping on time!'

Hurriedly, the detective went down the stairs to rush to the roads and check on the child. As he went down, there was a loud {THUD!} that reverberated from the streets and throughout the city.

After clicking his tongue, he called the ambulance immediately. When he got there, a fully stopped truck that scattered filth everywhere along with an unconcious driver is sighted right away.

"Hey! Are you alright?" He slaps the cheeks lightly.

The driver's head was bleeding, but he's far more concerned about the child. He didn't expect him to be alive, but he still searched for the body in a dejected way.

Mysteriously, there was no body, and no child. When he looked around even further, he saw the child standing in the shadow of a tree in a small forest behind the street light, smiling and waving.

"Stay there!" He points at him sternly.

'Did he also gain mental damage from the incident? Well, atleast he's alive, but...'

Santiago patched the driver up using a cloth from the hems of his uniformbefore proceeding to investigate the truck.

"T-this doesn't make any sense..."

There are large markings in the truck that leads to a single point, but that wasn't the issue. The point was, an entire handprint was engraved into metal, indicating that the truck was stopped by hand.

When he averts his glance to the truck and into the boy, he was not there anymore.

He searched all night, even the next day, but the child was nowhere to be seen.