19 Starving

"Mom is dead, and now there is only the both of us left. Please, Shiro, don't do anything on impulse, okay?", Sera begged Shiro.

Shiro kept his mouth shut. He had just realized he no longer had a mother. Shiro felt a sharp pain in his heart, almost as if a knife was stabbing him repeatedly.

Shiro looked down at his hands. They were covered in blood, and he was still holding onto the rusty knife he used to stab the man.

Shiro tried rubbing the blood off his hand, but the stain wouldn't come off. He rubbed it even harder, which made his hand turn red instead.

"Shiro, stop it.", Sera said as she grabbed Shiro's hand.

Suddenly, they heard a few masculine voices screaming in the background.

"Where are they?!"

"Those pesky little b*stards! I'll kill them the minute I get my hands on them."

"Let's split up to search for them! No one leaves the place until those b*stards die."

"Okay!"

Sera inhaled sharply. The men were so adamant to look for them. Now that they were here, it meant they would be found sooner or later.

"Shiro, listen to me.", Sera said seriously, in the least audible voice.

Shiro looked up at Sera in confusion.

"Don't worry sister, they won't find us here.", he said, trying to ease her mind a bit.

"Listen to me, Shiro.", Sera said as she grabbed Shiro's shoulders.

"Never, I repeat, never tell anyone that you've killed someone. It'll ruin your entire future. Blame it on me instead, okay?"

Shiro raised his eyebrows when he heard that.

"Why would anyone ask me?"

"Also, those people have already seen me. They will definitely spread the rumors…", Shiro retaliated.

"Whether they spread the rumors or not, it doesn't matter…"

"You have to promise me, Shiro. I want you to be able to enjoy life without the burden of being a murderer."

Sera squeezed Shiro's shoulders which made Shiro flinch in pain.

"Alright, alright. I promise you, sister."

Sera nodded as she let go of her hands. Then, she stood up.

"Remember Shiro, I love you. Mom used to love you a lot too. No matter what happens, you need to survive..."

Shiro looked at her in shock as she ran out of the rocks.

"HEY! Over here!", Sera yelled after going to a safe distance, away from the rocks.

Shiro, unable to understand what Sera was doing, tried to walk towards her, only to find himself being tied by something.

He turned back only to find a rope tied around his leg and the rock, making him unable to move forward.

'What…?'

'When…?'

Shiro was confused. He looked at Sera, who only looked back at Shiro one last time, and with a faint smile, ran away.

From the creaks in between the rocks, Shiro saw all the men who were chasing them, now running towards Sera.

Sera ran in the opposite direction as all of the men chased after her.

Shiro realized Sera was distracting the men for him. His eyes became watery yet again.

.

.

.

Four days had passed since Sera and Loyola left Shiro. Shiro was still hiding behind the rocks, unsure of what to do. Sera had told him to continue living, but she did not tell him how.

Shiro had been starving for 4 days. He couldn't come out of his hiding place because the Anti-Pirate Federation officers were still there. Once in a while, Shiro had seen some of them roaming around the area.

Hence, Shiro did not dare to move an inch from his hiding place. He had been living on seawater only for the past few days. Of course, he didn't know drinking seawater was dangerous. Otherwise, he wouldn't have drunk a single drop at all.

By moving the rope now and then and rubbing it against the rock and sometimes biting it with his teeth, he was able to break free. But, he was still hiding, so being free wasn't exactly a scenario here.

"Damn, that boy! If not for him we would have left long ago!", one of the officers grumbled.

"Exactly!"

"If I get my hands on that damn boy, I will tear him apart, limb by limb."

Shiro trembled. When he heard those words, he thought of how his sister and mother were killed.

Four days ago, after his sister ran, he prayed hard for her safety. He wanted his sister to escape those officers alive.

However, not more than an hour later, he heard a few officers guffawing.

"HAHAHA, I can't believe that little girl thought she could run away from us!"

"She's so gorgeous and barely has any stamina."

"But her body was pretty good for a teenager…", an officer said as he winked.

The rest of them laughed. Shiro, who was peeping in between the rocks, could not help but sob softly.

"Well, if she was present here any longer, I would have helped myself relieve more of my stress. But she decided to kill herself by jumping into the sea…"

"What a foolish girl…"

"Well, look at the good thing, one down, one more to go.", said another officer.

"The little boy can't hide for long. Soon, we'll be able to kill him too!"

"We need to do it as painfully as possible. We need to avenge our fallen colleague!"

"Well, it's an order from the boss as well. We can't let someone like him roam around and be happy when one of the members was killed, especially when the one who died was the boss's nephew…", said an officer.

The boss that they were referring to was the Group captain, not any higher.

Those words made Shiro nervous and scared. He knew that they were looking for him. This means he would not be able to leave this place for a while.

Shiro made up his mind that he would not go anywhere unless those officers leave first! Sera had told him to continue to survive, so he will uphold that promise!

Unfortunately, he had no clue that he'll still be at the same hiding spot for 4 days.

Shiro blinked back to reality. He was thirsty again and wanted to drink some seawater to quench his thirst. Hunger knew not the time to knock at his stomach doors, poor him, he couldn't even catch a fish.

He did think about eating the crabs nearby, but unlucky him, he couldn't even catch one – his body didn't have even an ounce of strength left, needless to say, his desire to live slowly started faint as well.