Chapter Four: Morino

Dachii and Marachii were visibly shocked by their mother's revelation. Dachii eyed her and asked the big question: "Huh? How?"

Kia tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she spoke. "My job has fired me. I...don't have enough time to pay the bills. I'm...sorry..."

She nearly collapsed in her seat as Dachii used his right arm to pat her on the back. "Don't we have anywhere else to go, Mom?"

Dachii had a hopeful look on his face, but Kia just shook her head. "Not...exactly..." The two brothers looked at each other, the weight of the situation sinking in. Marachii had a thought but was reluctant to say it.

When Kia nearly fainted from all the stress, he decided to speak up.

"What about Grandfather?"

Dachii rubbed his chin and nodded. "Yeah, doesn't he have a house...that we've never seen?" Dachii hadn't seen their grandfather for quite a few months, but when he did, it was always at their house.

Kia's eyes went wide.

"Children---!"

They seemed confused. Dachii rubbed his head, twisting one of his dreads. "What? Did he get hurt? Did he move or something?"

"No, but---"

She stopped instantly when she heard Marachii calling someone. "Hey Grandfather, we need your help, it's urgent..." A voice was heard on the other end, and then Marachii said bye and hung the phone up. "He's on his way, Mom."

"SON!" Her nervousness was evident, but she tried to hide it. "I mean, that's kind of you to ask, but really, it's okay---"

"Well, he says he'll be here in 20 minutes. How close does he stay?"

Kia fainted. When she came to, she'd found that Dachii and Marachii had laid her in the backseat. Marachii handed her some water. "Mother, are you okay?"

"Ugh. Please don't tell me…" Her worst fears came true. A tap on the window, and she saw his face. "Hello, hello!"

Marachii rolled down the front window.

"Grandfather!" An older, toned, fancy-dressing man was giving the kids a friendly wave. Kia slowly sat up, rubbing her head. "Oh. Hi, dad…"

"Is that my little Kia? You look stressed, dear. Have you been doing yoga? Your face is all—-"

"Anyways! Father, glad to see you, but some stuff came up, so I need the time to figure it all out, so…"

She attempted to get out of the car and get back to the driver's seat, but her father stopped her. "Hey, I know about the house. If you want, you know my place is still open." As he put his hand on her shoulders, waves of terrible memories flooded her. The pain, the abuse, the torture.

She stumbled back and nearly fell over, and as her dad caught her, Dachii poked his head out the window. "Mom, you seem scared. Why?" She managed to stand.

"Kids, look. Just know, there are places you should under NO circumstances visit." Marachii and Dachii just looked at her in confusion, and then they looked at their grandfather: Morino.

"Grandfather, do you know what she's talking about?"

Morino simply pressed a button and his car rolled up. A nice car, it seemed to be a mix of a Lamborghini and a Porsche. The fact that it automatically rolled up at the press of a button slightly surprised Dachii, but he didn't know much about cars, so he let it go.

"Come on you guys. Let's take a trip."

Morino got in his car, and after much effort, Dachii was put in the backseat and Kia was convinced to get in. "You guys want some food?" The boys nodded, so they went off to get some pizza. Kia was in the front seat, just staring.

Earlier that day...

Kia Jones had been working her shift at Silver Oak's top seafood joint: Seafood Chophouse. Her boss, Noriya Mitaku, was watching her as she prepared their customers' food. Today, she was moving slower than usual; it was almost like she'd been through hell.

"Kia! Honey, you gotta pick up the pace! I got a full lobby of hungry people right now!" His gruff voice pulled her out of her trance.

"Yes, sir!" She started to pick up the pace, but her worry for her son was still fresh on her mind. She had to work nearly every day for 14 hours, just to take care of him.

The day before, Dachii's doctor, Nida Kawatsu, visited him for his routine checkup. He had examined the muscle strength, coordination, and mobility of Dachii's limbs, and while he told Dachii everything was fine, he led his mother into her room to speak privately with her.

"Dachii seems optimistic, and I like that, but his lack of usage on his limbs is making them worse. While he can slightly move his legs, he can't support much weight on them, and he can use his arms to an extent, but they lack the core strength they should. Maybe, instead of having you guys support him, he could try using a walker?"

Kia sighed. "I tried to buy him one last year, and he tripped and broke it." Nida rubbed his chin.

"I could try to have a special one sent over for him, for people with extreme disabilities..." Kia sat on her bed. "Fine, I guess it couldn't hurt, but don't be surprised if that one doesn't help either. He needs a real solution. He's had to deal with this for years."

Nida nodded. "I know, I know." While they were busy discussing this, none other than Dachii himself crawled into the room, remarking:

"Mom. I'm hungry."

This morning, after she went to clean Dachii's room for him, she found the broken walker on the ground. No surprise, she had thought. Not only had she tried to tell the doctor, but she also saw her son leave without it. She threw it away and went to work. She didn't get much sleep last night, which left her exhausted and a bit crazy.

She'd been worried about Dachii getting worse, and she also had to pay for the interests of her other son. Marachii loved his technology; he aspired to open a tech company one day. To help both her kids, she needed to make money, but she was unable to do her job properly, and after her boss reprimanded her, she tried to get it together.

But she got a notification saying her son was missing, so she had to take her leave. When she asked her boss to allow her to leave early, however:

"WHAT?!? NOW? Again? You see how busy we are, Kia?" His face almost looked like a balloon that could pop. She gave a nervous smile and tried to keep her composure.

"Yeah, it's my son again."

As she sat with her hands in her lap, Noriya just put a hand on his head. He looked deep in thought for a moment, and then he delivered the news.

"Kia, I'm sorry, but we'll have to let you go." Kia stood up abruptly, mouth hanging wide open in shock.

"WHAT?"

He sat down. "You've missed too many days. Called out too many times. We are way too busy to have our best cook be in and out of the store." The news shattered Kia, and since she wouldn't have a paycheck this week, she couldn't pay the rent, and if she couldn't pay the rent...

"Sorry. If you can't make it, I have to remove you from the property."

The landlord, Minao Misuzu, gave her a dose of reality. No matter her situation, no matter how badly she needed to take care of her kids, no one would give her a pass. She argued with him and pleaded, but he simply asked her to have her stuff out by tomorrow.

She didn't know what to do. She felt lost.

Back in the present, Kia was brought back to attention after her son, Dachii, handed her a slice of pizza. "Here, Mom." You looked hungry. She took the pizza, cracking a little smile. "Thanks, dear." But it didn't do much to ease her worries, and what she worried more about was the place her father wanted them to go.

Morino spoke up. "Well, if you have no other choices, we can pick up your stuff and head off to my place!" Kia was terrified of the thought.

"Dad, that trashy spawn of HELL?" While Marachii and Dachii looked between the two, Morino patted Kia on the shoulder.

"Sweetheart, I promise, it won't be like last time. They've changed."

Kia, defeated, just turned in her seat. "Kids, are you sure your friends have no spots open?"

They both shook their heads. Marachii showed her the messages. "The twins said their mother wouldn't allow it, and Mihina has been dealing with her parents since she left the school, so..." Morino gave Kia a shrug. She finally decided her answer.

"Fine, whatever!"

Dachii noticed clear as day that something was odd. At first, he assumed his grandfather lived in the trenches, but the way Kia was acting, it seemed almost as if they were on the way to jail or something.

The car raced to their house, and to Kia's annoyance, all their stuff had been callously dumped across the yard. Only the landlord could have done this, and she knew it.

"That bastard!"

As Morino went to pick it all up, with Marachii following to help, Kia angrily put her head on the dash. Dachii just watched. And watched. He was thinking of saying something, but he decided to leave her be.

He got a text from Mihina, however, who was worried if he actually had to move.

He thought it was cute she cared, and he did feel a bit nervous about leaving her and the others. But he remembered her annoying boyfriend and he simply texted her:

"Yeah, we're gonna live with my grandfather."

After a bit more back and forth between the two, Morino and Marachii came back and put all the stuff in the trunk. "Thanks, Marachii! These old bones needed the extra help!" Marachii didn't see any strain or discomfort out of him, however, despite him being well into his 60s. But they had bigger issues, so he just got in the car.

"Alright! Next stop, get the HELL out of here!"

The car sped off again, towards the border of the town, but as they got to the middle, Dachii and Marachii saw their friends in the middle of the street, waiting for them. Mihina was on the verge of tears, and Chiho was holding a...?

"What is he doing with that giant sign, oh gosh..."

Dachii used all the energy he could muster to slap his head, and Morino gave a not-so-subtle chuckle as he pulled up right next to the kids, who all seemed sad to various degrees. Morino rolled the windows down, and all three pulled Dachii and Marachii out of the backseat.

"Bros, don't go! Who's gonna be the hangout buddies?" Of course, that's all Zentaruo cared about, with Chiho sharing the same views. The sign he had was in his left hand, reading: "Don't dashboard out the party!"

They were hugging so tight that Dachii felt like his ribs would break. Marachii also was annoyed by the tightness of their hugs, and he wasn't even the crippled one. Mihina pulled them both close to her. "You guys are really gonna go? Like go and never come back?"

She was crying flowing rivers now, but while Dachii found it a bit nice she was crying over him, the pain from her hug dwarfed it all.

"Uh, well, we might come back, depends on where we go...OW!"

She jumped back, and both boys fell to the floor. "Sorry! I just don't know what to do without you guys..." Dachii looked around, but he didn't see her boyfriend anywhere. He couldn't be far, he was never far, the thing that ticked off Dachii the most.

But at least he had his moment with her, and he figured he would come back one day when she'd dumped the guy.

"Uh, well, I guess you'll have Chiho, Zentaruo, and...Okuda to keep you company for now."

Dachii thought he helped, but she just cried even more. "But I'll miss you! You both better promise to call and text me every day!" Marachii scratched his head. "Now EVERY DAY might be a stretch..."

"I said EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!"

This surprised them both, and they quickly nodded. "Yeah, okay!"

They got back in the car, and Mihina tearfully waved at them, while the twins made funny faces, which must have been what they thought was a cool sendoff. Dachii kept staring at Mihina. Her pink hair, her green eyes, her entire appearance, her kindness, he would miss it all.

While OKUDA would get to see and touch her every day. His time would come.

But for now, they drove off, towards the borders of the city. After they were out of sight, Zentaruo, Chiho, and Mihina turned and walked the other way. Mihina looked at Zentauro. "How did you know they were coming this way?"

"Easy. I put a tracker on Dachii ever since we first met."

She stared daggers at him. "What?! Where was this when we thought he was missing?"

Zentaruo just gave a nonchalant shrug. "I forgot about it. And now I remembered." She gave him a mildly aggravated shove, and Okuda walked up to the three. "What are you doing here, bae?"

She hung her head. "Well, my two best friends just left town, so, a pretty big reason to come and see them one last time." He wrapped his arms around her and led her off. "Ehh, they'll probably show up eventually. They aren't dead, are they?"

Mihina waved goodbye to the twins, as she looked back one last time in the direction Morino's car went in. "I wonder where they are going. Stay safe...Dachii."

She looked sad and was quiet for the rest of the walk home.

Meanwhile, the car had raced through multiple cities. Sanbu. Natsuno. Mekone. Yuara. In just two hours, they were at one of Estrium's borders. A gate guard stood nearby, holding his hand out to stop the car. "Where you going, pal?"

Marachii looked around and realized just where they were. "Yeah, where ARE we going? This is one of the exits to the NATION, Grandfather!"

Dachii was attempting to sleep at this point, but he looked up and slightly stirred. Morino looked at the backseat and gave a wink. Kia just remained eerily silent as he spoke to the guard.

"I'm going home, sir!" Remember how I came in earlier?"

The gate guard looked at him for a second, recognition on his face. "Oh! YOU! Crazy Old Man Morino! The guy who claims he lives outside the borders! Ha! Well, go on, you crazy old bat. Don't get the whole family killed as well!" He burst into laughter and allowed them to pass through the gate.

"Now, everyone! Prepare for the best trip of your lives!"

He raced the car down the roads leading from Estrium. He raced even when there were no more roads left and only signs that read:

"TURN BACK," "HAZARDS AHEAD," and "HOSTILE TERRITORY."

Eventually, they hit the Atlantic Ocean.

Dachii was wide awake now and saw they were at the edge of Estrium territory. "Grandfather, on that other side, it's the Unknown Side!" He looked at the vast ocean, water for miles and miles. No one had ever gone there and came back.

Morino laughed and got out of the car. He motioned for them to do the same. Kia just walked out and stood with her arms crossed, while Marachii helped Dachii sit on the ground.

The man pressed a button on his key, and the car shifted. It changed. The parts moved around. The color changed. It spawned new machinery. It went from a car to a CAR-BOAT. Dachii and Marachii stared in shock, while Kia just turned away, conflicted. Morino got in the vehicle and invited them to do the same.

"Come on guys, it's time to cross the Ocean!"

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