Shattering Humanity-Chapter 83: Never. Again.

{8 Years Before the landing of Leviathan and the Icemen}

In a large public park in Hanabi City, people are throwing a frisbee, some are riding bikes on the paved walkway, and children are playing in the playground.

An 8 year old Saku with a football, is sitting by himself on a large flat rock watching the other kids play with their friends.Saku looks upset while looking at an empty swing and sighs.

Two twins with shit-eating grins come over and begin snickering at Saku with his football.

Twin 1: "Hehe, hey kid, you wanna play?!"

Twin 2: "Hehe, yea, we just moved here and we’re looking for friends. We love football!"

Saku looks at them in suspicion, gets up and tosses over the ball in a perfect spiral. One of the twins catches it and laughs with his brother.

Twin 2: "Hehe, thanks dumbass, later!"

They begin walking away with Saku’s football and their obnoxious giggling. Saku stands there for a second, then gets angry.

In a comedic scene Saku leaves the rock, the sounds of punching and "ows" are heard and Saku returns to the rock with the ball, unharmed. A clear sign they were messing with the wrong person.

The beaten twins are running away crying.

Twin 1: "Mamaaa!"

Twin 2: "Papaaa, help meee!"

Saku shakes his head and looks back at the empty swing slightly rocking from a gust of wind.

Saku: "Every single time, it’s never different. How are people just okay being that type of person? Taking from others, just for their own happiness. Isn’t there ONE person who will be cool to me? Just one that won’t steal my ball or ’try’ to bully me."

A small pair of legs with dirty sneakers approaches and stops behind Saku.

Child Voice: "That ball looks funny, like an egg, how does it bounce!?"

A surprised Saku turns around and for the first time, sees a 7 year old Katsu, smiling with rosey cheeks. He’s wearing a shirt with two ninjas fighting on them, one of the ninjas is controlling the winds and the other, controlling lightning.

Saku: "What?"

Katsu: "How do you bounce that ball? It looks like it needs more air to be round."

Saku looks at the stupidity of his future friend but then grins at the sincerity behind the question.

Saku: "It’s not that type of ball dummy, you don’t want this ball to touch the ground, ever. You pass and catch it, sometimes you kick it. It’s a football."

Katsu: "Foot- ball? Is it as big as a person’s foot? Is that why it’s called that? What are those white things on the side? That ball looks brand new. Did your dad just buy it for you? I’m gunna ask my dad for one too. Do you throw it with your PaPa?"

Saku, for the first time, experiences the "consequences" of not being careful of what he asked for. He gets really annoyed at Katsu’s barrage of questions that went to a completely different subject instead of wanting to play, until...

Katsu: "Throw it over, can I feel it? It looks like it feels like my grandpa’s old leather chair."

Saku gets wide eyed and looks over, down at the ball, then back at Katsu, he gets up from the rock.

Katsu: "I’m Katsu by the way! What’s your name?"

Saku looks at his target with a straight face and winds up.

Saku: "I’m Saku, nice to meet you."

He brings the ball, in his hand over his shoulder and as his arm releases the ball, he’s smiling.

The oblong shaped ball spins as it sails through the air, it’s apex, above all the other fun being had in that park. It begins coming down and hits a now older 9 year old Katsu in the chest and through his arms.

He’s now wearing a shirt with just a plain strawhat design and the football lands to the ground, bouncing wildly.

Katsu: "Dang it. Anyway, I guess the daughter of one of my dad’s friends is gunna be living with me for a while. I’ve met her a couple times before, she’s nice and she’s never mean to me."

Katsu picks it up and looks at a 10 year old Saku, breathing heavily. He wipes sweat from his forehead as he jogs back to his quarterback.

Saku: "Ok, I wanna try running ’out routes’ today."

Katsu looks confused.

Katsu: "Out routes?"

Saku: "Haven’t you been watching games more?"

Katsu: "I have, I swear, it’s just the announcers don’t use certain terms like that a lot. What is it? Do you run out to the sideline on your route?"

Saku: "Lucky guess. 7 to 8 yards then I take a 90° angle right towards the sidelines."

Katsu: "What’s a 90° angle? I haven’t learned that yet in school."

Saku gets caught off guard and looks disgruntled.

Saku: "I don’t know either. Whatever, I’ll run 8 yards then turn right to the sideline."

He points at the small 3 foot long white line, spray painted onto the grass left by a construction crew. Katsu nods and gets in a slight squat with the ball in front of him.

Katsu: "Ready, set, hike!"Saku yells as he starts the route.

Saku: "It’s ’GO’ not ’hike’!"

Saku runs the 8 yards then takes the right angle to the white line. He looks back and Katsu has already released the ball into the air. It’s falling right for the spot Saku is running to.

Saku catches it but as soon as he does, a 9 year old version of the same bully Saku and Friend would one day face, tackles a defenseless Saku, hard.

Katsu: "Saku!"

The bully, bigger than both Saku and Katsu, laughs as he gets up. The twins that Saku had beaten up before are giggling as they approach the scene.

Twin 1: "Hehe, nice one Clarence."

Twin 2 hits his brother in anger and they both stop laughing.

Twin 2: "He told us to call him ’Boss’ you dumbass."

The bully named Clarence looks over at his goons.

Clarence: "You seen that? I put him in a goddamn body bag!"

From behind the cocky bully Saku can be heard.

Saku: "Still caught the ball and got up, bitch."

The three look and see Saku with the ball held tight to his chest with one arm, giving him the 1000 yard stare. Without turning away he talks to Katsu behind him.

Saku: "Katsu, we’ll cut practice short today. Get outta here and get home. I’ll see ya tomorrow."

Katsu: "But Saku."

Saku: "Go!"

The scared and worried Katsu can be seen running away behind a smiling Saku.

Saku(to himself): "Because, if they end up hurting your arm, I’ll have nobody else to throw the ball with."

Katsu looks back as Saku dodges Clarence’s fist and return one that lands on the side of the bully’s head.

Katsu thinks about the situation, looks down at the strawhat on his chest.

The impressionable 9 year old gets upset and cries.

Katsu: "I’m not the hero after all. None of the heroes run from bullies. They stand up for themselves... but Dad says fighting is wrong, and I’m scared. I’m sorry, Saku. All I am is a weakling you have to protect."

He runs out of the park in tears.

Voice of Future Katsu: "And that was the last day me and Saku saw each other until the day we were put on Squad 40."

Back in Sanpaku Katsu, Saku, and Daisuki are in what appears to be a hotel room.

There are two doors on two different walls, one is the exit to the hallway the other a door that connects to an empty room, exactly the same size and look with two twin sized beds.

There are lamps on book stands next to the beds, a ceiling fan on medium speed, and a closed closet.

A little more luxurious than the other residents.

The two beds in the room, containing Katsu sitting on the bedside and Saku laying back, with his hands between his head and pillow, asleep soundly and smiling.

Daisuki sits in a chair between the beds. He’s sitting on the chair backwards, with his arms between his resting head and the back of the chair.

He yawns and then comedically, looks annoyed at the sleeping young man.

Daisuki: "Thanks for finishing the story, Katsu. Unbelievable, he actually fell asleep while talking about the first time you two met. (yawns) And halfway through."

Katsu smiles at his Mentor’s comment, then looks at his smiling Squadmate from falling asleep thinking about the first time he threw the ball to a friend.

Katsu: "It’s fine, Big Bro. He’s gone through a lot today. I don’t blame him. He would probably end up mad and have to go to bed angry, haha."

Daisuki(chuckles and yawns): "Ya you’re probably right."

Katsu leans back on his bed, same position as Saku, looking at the ceiling, thinking back.

Katsu: "As soon as I got home, Shelly had already arrived and she was completely broken. I saw her, unable to talk, afraid of everything and everyone. Her blue eyes were different from the Shelly I first met and had played with. They were a sad ’dead’ blue that made something in my head ’spark’. I thought about Saku, being a hero like the characters I looked up to. He was saving me physically from bullies. I wasn’t raised as a fighter, but I was raised as someone who cares for others. I made a vow to never see her eyes like that. Never again."

There’s a snore heard and Katsu sits back up to see Daisuki, asleep in the backwards chair.

Katsu lets out a slight laugh but then his smile goes away turning back to Saku, Katsu is clenching his teeth in anger.

Katsu: "Never. Again."