3 Chapter 3: Dreams

Sora walked into an apartment with a traveling box behind him. He locked the door behind him once he was in, taking a quick glance around before sighing.

'So this is it.' This was his new home that Kaito, the man who took him to the hospital, had given him. He could have stayed in his former home where he and his mother were living but simply stepping into the house brought back memories that made him shake.

With that said, that didn't mean that he would give up the house. With his mother dead, the ownership of the house went straight to him and he could never bring himself to sell the house. It was one of the things he had in memory of his mother.

He dropped his bag beside the couch in the middle of the room and took a tour around. It was a modest apartment with an open kitchen and two bedrooms. He had no idea why he needed two bedrooms but it wasn't that big of a deal.

The apartment was already furnished so he didn't need to bother about that either. All of these pointed at a question in his mind.

'To be able to buy this place and pay rent comfortably, what does he do for a living?' He pondered before putting that at the back of his mind.

The bedrooms were simple, a single bed with a full mirror opposite it. A small stand was positioned beside the bed and at the corner beside the window was a small shelf filled with different kinds of books.

'There is no way he furnished this place in just a day. Or was it already like this when he paid for it?' He thought as he walked to the small shelf.

'At least with these here, I won't need to find a library to test it out.' He picked up a random book and frowned before putting it back in place.

He continued this for a moment and went through many books until it finally happened. An electronic sound rang in his head as a notification popped up.

[Do you want to learn 'Art of Seduction']

[Yes] or [No]

'So it works! Although this is a template system, I'm able to learn skills.' He rejoiced in his head. He vaguely remembered something similar to this in a comic book from his previous life and wanted to test it out.

He calmed down from his temporary joy only for his face to turn ugly as he re-read the notification. He then looked at the cover of the book.

'How to talk to women? Who puts this kind of books on a shelf?' He thought as he chucked the book into the small trash bin in the room.

He went through the stacks of books on the shelf, looking for anything useful to learn. He sighed as he dropped the last book back on the shelf.

'It looks like I'll need to go to the library after all. That'll be later. For now, I need to rest.' He thought as he fell unto the bed and closed his eyes.

It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep. Before agreeing to move here, he spent one night in his home to pack all his stuff to move. He couldn't sleep much due to the nightmares which led to him being tired at the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora walked into a candy store with a smile on his face. Although he wasn't here to buy a snack for himself, he was smiling.

'Mom has been overworking lately. Sometimes I wish she'd take a break to relax.' His mother had been working overtime lately and was now always tired. She didn't even have time to get her favorite snack.

Like her son, she had a sweet tooth and loved the chocolate sold in this very store. She hadn't had the time or energy to come and get it for some time so Sora took it upon himself to surprise her with it.

He quickly found the chocolate bars and took a small amount to the register. The man looked at the boy and the chocolate in his hand for a brief moment before speaking.

"That'll be 94¥." They were cheap so Sora didn't delay in bringing out the amount and quickly paid. With that, he walked out of the store in the direction of the local children's hospital.

'It's getting dark. Mom should be done with her shift for today by now.' He thought as he sped up his walking.

He was close to the hospital when he noticed a few men standing beside the building, discussing in hushed voices that were too low for him to hear. One of them wore a black jacket with a small golden pin on the shoulder of it. The surrounding was too dark to see the rest of his companions clearly.

Suddenly, he had a bad feeling. He didn't know why but he felt tense all over. He was just outside the range of sight of anyone around the hospital. He saw the group of men suddenly split up, with half of them on opposite sides of the street, seemingly waiting for something.

For some reason, the streets seemed devoid of people. The roads were filled with cars that were enough to hid behind. Following his gut, Sora kept his distance and hid.

In a few minutes he heard the entrance door of the hospital open and peeked out from his hiding place. A middle aged but young looking woman with a gentle smile walked out. Her exact features were hidden by the night and the nose mask she wore.

The moment she was in the middle of the streets a shot had been fired.

*Bang!*

Sora watched in shock as the woman clutched at her bleeding chest as she fell to the floor. As she fell, more shots were fired but this time it was from both sides. A few more bullets grazed her in her way down and the rest kept flying in all directions.

Still frozen in shock, he realized that they continued shooting at each other. What he noticed was that they didn't aim for each other, instead they aimed for the surroundings.

Having seen enough, Sora ran out of his hiding place and back to his house. He was fortunate that his hiding place was well out of sight of the men.

Upon reaching his house, he locked himself in. His breathing hadn't relaxed from when he was running. He tried to calm himself but failed. It had hit him that had he not listened to his gut, he might be dead.

His mind then remembered the reason he went there.

'Mom!' He screams in his head as he rushed to the landline and dialed in her office number. The phone rang but nobody picked up and that scared him.

He went to the living room and turned on the tv to distract himself but became even more stressed as the channel that popped up was the news channel. They were already talking about a gang shootout in front of the hospital.

'That was no gang shootout! That was planned.' Just as he thought that, the doorbell rang. He rushed to the door with hope.

'Mom! She was able to get out!' He thought as he hurriedly opened he door. His hopes died immediately as he saw who was at the door. He didn't recognize them but he recognized the police badge on their uniform.

"Are you Sora Makoto?" The police officer asked causing a pit to form in the young boy's stomach before he continued as Sora nodded.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this but…your mother…" the rest of his words drowned out of Sora's hearing.

His mother…was dead. The woman who was shot on that street was his mother. He thought of it at first but chose to deny it. After all, there could be someone else who looks similar to her and he didn't see her exact features. Now he had no choice but to accept it. Just as his mind seemed to crash, he let out a violent gasp as he woke up.