Aftermath

"I am home!"

Home. Yuki still felt a bit strange at how easily that word rolled off his tongue. Just a month ago he tried so hard to reject the existence of this place, still thinking that everything that happened to him was a dream. However, it didn't take a long time for him to accept this place, especially after meeting its residents.

"Yuki-nii, you are finally back!"

"Aiko-obaasan has been waiting for you!"

"Yeah! Come on, dinner will be ready in ten minutes!"

The children who greeted him were Hiko and Hina, a pair of twins about ten years old who were also the victims of the disaster. Unlike him though, they were not that lucky. Hiko, the boy and the younger one of the twins had to lose both legs as the ruins of the building fell straight into his lower body part. As for Hina, she lost her right eye forever in that disaster, blinded by something that hit her face which was also the cause of scars stretched all over her place.

It still amazed Yuki how they both could stay cheerful even after losing so much like that.

"Well, Hina-chan, can you help me bring this bag to the dining room?" Yuki smiled. It was at that time the twins noticed two plastic bags full of things that their big brother figure brought.

"What is that?" Hina tried to peek inside the bag curiously, yet was prevented by Yuki quickly.

"Nope! We can see it together with the others in the dining room, okay?" He smiled playfully.

Hina pouted slightly, yet complied with his order. She took the two plastic bags from his hand and ran quickly to the dining room, leaving her twin alone with Yuki. Hiko had his face darkened a bit as he cursed his sister for forgetting about him.

"Don't worry, let me do this," Yuki chuckled, pushing Hiko's wheelchair.

The so-called dining room was just a medium-sized room, about 8 X 5 meters square with the addition of a long table and eleven old wooden chairs provided for everyone to be able to sit. For a dining room, that size was pretty big. But since it also became one with the kitchen and it had to be able to be filled by all the eleven children who lived under that roof, it became a bit crowded whenever dinner time arrived.

The moment Yuki and Hiko arrived, they were greeted by a small girl who jumped straight to Yuki's tight, squealing happily, "Yuki-nii! You are back!"

Yuki smiled softly, chuckling silently when he saw the little girl smiling brightly at him, her face was messy with rice still stuck in the corner of her mouth.

"Hello, Mai-chan." He greeted the girl. "Don't you want to watch what I bring back for you?"

The girl's eyes widened as if she just realized something before flying away from his grasp, peeking around curiously at the other children who were also doing the same, waiting impatiently for Yuki to open up the bag.

When they received a nod from Yuki, they didn't need to be told anymore as within a second, the plastic bag was on the floor already. Looking at the box wrapped with old paper, they tore it apart immediately, curiosity had been taking over by now. Yuki smiled when he saw the eight children had their eyes lightened up when they saw behind the wrapped paper, it was a huge plastic box with a cute Doraemon image on the front as the cover image while what was inside could also be seen from outside.

"It is crayons!" Hina squealed happily.

Indeed, it was a set of crayons with 32 colors that usually was used by kids who started to learn how to paint. Yuki remembered Hina begged to Aiko-obaasan several times last week that she wanted to learn how to draw. Since her sentiment was shared by all the children here, Yuki decided to buy it for them the moment he got the money in his pocket.

"Thank you, Yuki-nii!"

Yuki laughed cheerfully when he was surrounded by all the children there, everyone tried to have a piece of him.

"Isn't it the set from that expensive merch?" Aiko's voice suddenly attracted their full attention, she seemed worried. "From where did you get the money to buy this?"

Yuki smiled, knowing why the matron was full of concern. This orphanage was pretty new, founded only a month ago by Aiko to accommodate orphan children who had to flee from their hometown after the disaster. Since it took a long time to deal with the paperwork, the orphanage had been surviving only from the society's donation, hadn't been deemed eligible to receive the government fund until now.

For them, every yen mattered, so spending so much money just for a set of crayons seemed to be a bit too much.

"Don't worry, Aiko-obaasan. I didn't get the money illegally." Yuki reassured the woman. "It is like this…."

-A little flashback-

"Son, are you sure you have never received proper training in the past?" Akira Shinji, the coach of the volleyball team in his school asked, his eyes full of disbelief.

It was after Yuki finished the challenge when he was called by the teacher, being interrogated in front of all the players. Everyone stared at him in awe as if he was the next Michael Jordan of basketball graced from heaven.

Well, their reaction was understandable. This cycle challenge was a method of training formed by their head coach to ensure their basic was above the standard. For any rookies to subpar players, they would already have a hard time dealing with the first two, and the most they could go was at the third challenge. However, not only did Yuki destroy the first four challenges, but he also obliterated the last one, sending the head coach a wet dream for the prospect of the team.

Honestly, no one expected him to be successful in that challenge. It was designed to find a player who could specialize in blocking, something the school seemed lacking by their reaction. At first, Yuki had to face a hitter one-on-one, blocking a simple spike without any deception. After he managed to do that, the number of attackers increased to three people and he had to judge where the ball would go and who would be the one who attacked him. Finally, the same challenge as before, but the number of players was increased to five, making it a full-team offense against him.

It was a crazy challenge that was almost impossible to deal with, yet Yuki was able to read the play well and blocked all three attempts successfully, making him the only one who was able to finish the cycle.

That was probably why the head coach couldn't believe he was a rookie in this game.

"Yeah, I am sure I have never received any practice yet in the past." Yuki nodded at the question. "Well, except if you counted the PE class when they thought the basics of it, I guess."

"Kuso!" Akira cursed loudly. As a head coach with years of experience, this was the first time he heard something outrageous like that. "And you have never joined any team before? Was your middle school stupid?!"

Yuki's face hardened as he replied, "Well, I studied in a small school in Fukushima and it had no sports club before, so I would appreciate it if you don't badmouth my alma mater like that."

If he didn't explain his condition first, everyone would be surprised by his cold tone when talking to a teacher or the threat implied behind his words. However, when his hometown was mentioned, silence dropped around them, everyone was shocked and some looked at him with pity.

Riku who didn't know anything about it grew impatient and asked, "Why are you all suddenly so silent like that? Is there anything wrong with what he said?"

"Shut up and be more sensitive, Riku!" Akira glared, his expression turned solemn. "Fukushima was probably the prefecture that suffered the most in the chain of disaster a month ago. At least more than 1000 people are declared to be dead with more than 200 people are still missing, their couldn't be found until now."

'Including my parents.' Yuki added in his mind, his thought was dark.

What the coach didn't say was the aftermath only Fukushima had to suffer. As one of the few prefectures with a nuclear reactor, the moment Fukushima suffered from the disaster, it was crucial to check whether there was an anomaly or not in it. And true to what most people feared, there was some problem there as almost all of the power plant's backup energy sources were damaged due to the disaster. Because of that, almost all of the people there had to flee from their hometowns while the other places started to do their reconstruction.

Even though Riku seemed to be new in this country, he still read the news and knew about the disaster a month ago. He stared at Yuki with pity, didn't know what to say.

"Where do you live now?" Akira asked softly, his tone changed a lot.

"The Hope Orphanage," Yuki said casually. Yet once again, it made everyone cringed as they realized that he lost his parents in that disaster.

Meanwhile, Akira furrowed his brows tightly, unfamiliar with the place. "I have never heard of an orphanage called that before, so if you don't mind, can you tell me where is that?"

"Just fifteen minutes walking to the south, it was pretty close to the port. The orphanage itself is new, created to help orphans like us who don't know where to go, so you shouldn't know about it."

Akira nodded, accepting the explanation.

"Anyway, can I get the prize now?" Yuki asked impatiently. "It is late already and I want to go back as soon as possible."

"Oh, sure!" One of the players suddenly pulled 10 pieces of 1000-yen money from his wallet. Even though no one predicted someone would win, they still prepared the money in case something like this happened. "Thank you for participating!"

"Thanks." Yuki bowed, full of gratitude. "Can I go home now?"

"Yeah."

"Then, bye!"

All of the members of the volleyball team sighed as they stared at Yuki until the boy disappeared from their sight. That was when one of them suddenly cursed, attracting the other's attention.

"Shit! We forget to ask his name and from which class he is! And more importantly, we forget to invite him to the club!"

That was the time they all realized the fatal mistake they had just made.

"DAMN!"

-End of the flashback-

"Wow…" Aiko had her mouth gaped wide in disbelief. "So, you completed the challenge the volleyball team held and did it successfully, a challenge which no one was able to do that if I am not wrong, and the prize is 10000-yen?"

It wasn't just her who was shocked, but almost all the kids who listened to his story. Mai who sat on his lap just nodded her head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world while saying, "Yuki-nii is the best."

"Yup! I am the best!" Yuki smiled smugly, tickling the girl playfully.

"Ow, stop it, Yuki-nii!"

"Is it okay, though?" Aiko asked again, still worried. "10000-yen is a lot of money for a high school student, right? Which club in their right mind to offer that amount as a prize for challenge?"

Yuki shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know, but I won it fair and square, so it should be okay."

"Don't worry, Obaasan. If Yuki-nii said it is okay, it should be okay." Hina said innocently. "Hey, don't grab the red one! That's mine!"

"What do you mean it is yours?! Yuki-nii said this is for us to use it together!"

"But it was me who asked for the crayons!"

Yuki chuckled before separating the children from their arguments. "Okay, Kids. The crayons are for us to use together, don't fight over it. Hina, we can share it with the others. Miyu, if Hina still used the crayons, wait patiently or ask politely if you could borrow them or not. No snatching from each other, okay?"

The two girls who were about to fight over one crayon looked at each other grudgingly before they said, "Gomen, Yuki-nii."

"Don't worry about it." He smiled, patting their heads fondly. "Oh, by the way, Aiko-san, here is the rest of the money. I only use 1200 yen for the crayons." He pulled out a stack of money from his pocket.

The matron widened her eyes in shock before she shook her head immediately. "This is the money you got from your effort. Just use it wisely, okay?"

Hearing that refusal, Yuki furrowed his brows. "Well, this is me spending it wisely. With this money, we can at least eat something decent for the rest of the week and you can also buy something that you need for this orphanage."

Aiko wanted to refuse again, yet she was wilted under the puppy-dog eyes she received from all the kids. After battling against her dilemma, the matron of the orphanage finally sighed, smiling helplessly. "Well, I will accept it this time. But there will be no next time, okay? You will save the money you get by yourself. No need to worry about this orphanage, I am not that helpless outside."

Yuki grinned a little as he nodded. "Sure!"

----------------------------------------------------

It was the next day and Yuki came pretty early. To his surprise, he found out one familiar blonde boy was sitting already in the back row as if he was an anime protagonist, trying to look cool while all the girls in the classroom squealed like fangirls. He blinked a few times, trying to check whether he entered the right room or not.

'It is 1-B, I am not wrong.'

He stared at the blonde boy for a moment until the latter finally noticed his presence. They had eye contact for a second before finally, the blonde boy reacted.

"You are here?! Wait, does that mean we are going to be a classmate?!"

Yuki facepalmed, groaned inwardly. "Man, this will be a long year.." He sighed.