"Who are you?! Assaulting an officer is a serious offense! Hands on your head, on the ground, now!"
The officer with the pistol leveled it at the approaching figure and barked his warning.
The one beside him drew his own weapon and trained it on the same target.
Facing two gun barrels, the young man didn't even slow down. He took one step and vanished.
"Where did he go?!"
"That's impossible!"
They spun around frantically, scanning every corner of the abandoned building.
"Hurting a child that small. What kind of people are you?"
The voice came from directly behind them, quiet and unhurried.
"When did he..."
"How is he over there?!"
They wheeled around. The young man was standing right in front of them.
"I don't have time for garbage like you."
He raised his hand. A shockwave tore through the air and sent both of them crashing into a stone pillar.
"Bang!"
"Thud!"
"Aaagh!"
They hit the ground and didn't get up.
"I'll deal with you properly later."
Kaito turned away from them and crouched beside the small figure on the ground. The girl was barely holding on, her body covered in wounds. He pulled out a vial of healing medicine and sprinkled it over her without hesitation.
A soft blue light bloomed across her skin. The wounds began to close, one by one. Her breathing steadied.
He picked up the battered brown hat that had fallen nearby and gently set it back on her head. Then he lifted her carefully and sat down on the ground, holding her.
"Whimper..."
Color slowly returned to her face. Her eyes opened.
Looking back at her was a calm, smiling face.
"Hehe. You're awake."
The warmth that had settled over her body, the gentle expression looking down at her, for a moment the girl could only blink.
"Is this... heaven? It's so warm. I guess after you die, the pain really does stop."
"Hate to ruin the mood, but you're still very much alive."
"What?!"
She shot upright.
"Thump!"
"Itai)!"
Her head had caught him square on the chin. She grabbed her own head and winced.
"Easy, easy. No need to launch yourself at me."
Seeing she was mostly recovered, Kaito loosened his hold.
The girl scrambled out of his arms immediately and put distance between them, eyeing him warily.
"Who are you? Why am I not dead?"
Kaito tilted his chin up with a mildly self-satisfied air.
"Name's Kaito. And since I'm older than you, you can call me Kaito nii. Also, when you're asking someone who they are, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"
"Nii-chan?" She stared at him. "You're not scared of me? I'm a Cursed Child."
There was a flicker behind her eyes when she said it, something cautious, something that had been hurt by that answer before.
"Why would I be scared? You're a cute kid. If anything I like you too much to be scared."
The girl's eyes went wide. She took two quick steps back, arms crossing over her chest.
"You, you, hey! Don't come near me!"
"Ah, no, that came out wrong, wait..."
'My goodness. If the divine beast hears this I'm finished.'
"What I meant was, I like kids, no, that's not it either, children, I mean, in general, not like that, the point is, it's not what you're thinking!"
The girl stared at him fumbling through his own explanation, and despite everything, her face cracked.
"Pfft, hahaha! Kaito-nii, you're really something!"
'Ahh, too bright! That smile is going to blind me (＞ω･)ﾉ'*
Seeing her finally laugh, Kaito let the act drop and smiled back at her properly.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah. Thank you, Kaito-nii." She straightened up a little. "My name is Ririka. I don't use a surname."
(Ririka, a name she was given here, since the original novel never even got around to introducing her before she was gone!)
Ririka held out her small hand.
Kaito took it in his and shook it gently.
"Ririka-chan it is, then. And you can call me Nii-chan, or Kaito-nii, whichever feels right."
"Okay! Kaito-nii!"
"Good."
She glanced around at the crumbling concrete walls, and something shifted in her expression.
"Kaito-nii... you're the one who saved me?"
"That's right. And look, there are two pieces of trash still lying over there."
Ririka followed where he was pointing. Her eyes landed on the two officers, crumpled and unmoving.
"Kaito-nii, we should go! If someone finds us here..."
She tugged urgently at his sleeve.
"It's fine. They're not dead. After what they did to you, letting them off that easy would feel wrong."
He covered her hand on his sleeve with his own, and when he looked toward the two on the ground, his voice went quiet.
"As long as I'm here, you don't have to be afraid of anyone. Every person who's ever hurt you is going to answer for it."
Ririka looked up at him. Her eyes had gone red.
"...Is that true?"
Kaito reached out and rested his hand gently on top of her head.
"Of course. From now on, you've got a Nii-chan looking out for you. So just leave it all to me, alright?"
"Wuwuwu..."
Her breath hitched. Then it hitched again.
And then she grabbed onto him and started crying in earnest.
"Waaahhhh!"
"Waaahhhh!"
"They wouldn't even give us leftover food, not even scraps, what did we ever do to them?! What did we ever do wrong?!"
"So many of my friends just... disappeared. Gone, one by one, for no reason, even though we all promised, we promised we'd work hard and stay together..."
"Why does it have to be like this?! Why?!"
"Wuwuwu..."
Kaito held her and didn't say anything for a moment. He just let her cry.
His own eyes had gone quiet in a way that had nothing to do with calm.
"It isn't Ririka-chan's fault," he said at last, low and steady. "You didn't do anything wrong. The fault is with this world. With the people in it who stopped deserving to be called human a long time ago."
He let his gaze drift back to the two still shapes on the ground. The killing intent in his eyes was colder than it had ever been.
"Alright. Stop crying, or you're going to end up looking like a little calico cat."
"Wuwu... I'm not a calico cat!"
She pulled back to glare at him through her tears. But the crying had already softened into sniffles.
"Right, right. Ririka-chan isn't a calico cat. She's a little beauty. I can see that."
"I already know that!"
"Hehe. Alright then."
The smile faded from Kaito's face.
He set Ririka gently down, stood up, and turned toward the two unconscious figures. His footsteps were slow and deliberate as he crossed the floor toward them.