The sky was at a brilliant orange colour. It had almost been dusk. Len had just left school and was walking home alone as he had always done. But something felt... off this time. He had this uncanny feel in his heart that he couldn't just-... just shrug off.

Len picked up his pace, adrenaline was rushing through his veins for no apparent reason. He'd sped through the area and ignored the greetings that came his way... they never really cared for him anyway.

When he'd arrived, he felt a ghostly aura around his home. He could almost swear on the fact that the wood looked a darker, almost haunted colour.

His heart paced faster as he walked up and pushed his door open. it was dark and quiet. 'as usual' Len thought. But it still didn't feel right.

No, it couldn't be!

Len rushed towards the room next to his and with a whiz, the door slid open. Rin was there, lying on her bed... lifeless-like... her skin visibly paler than normal.

"Rin?" Len asked breathily in desperation. His tears at the verge of escaping his eyes.

She... didn't answer.

Len placed his ear onto her chest, desperately looking for a pulse... but he was met with silence.

At this point he could take it no more. The only person he cared about, his sister, was gone. And it came with a surprise. Just yesterday, she had been talking with him, chatting with him, laughing with him, though she had been bedridden. It was unthinkable that she would just drop dead on that very day. Len felt tears coming after tears. He hadn't seriously cried for the past two years, not that he didn't want to, but he couldn't. But it was all released that day, all the tears he had piling up from all the sad moments in his life flooded out. He was overwhelemed by the news.

"This can't be true!" A part of Len refused to believe. But the other, simply accepted it as another one of his many unfortunate events.

After a whole hour of crying. He rubbed his eyes and looked at her once more. What does one do with his sister's dead body? This wasn't something an almost-fourteen year old would typically handle. Should he call the police? No, it wasn't a murder. Should he call the hospital? What would they do?

Len was lost without an adult. But that won't stop him. He'd lived without one since he was 10, he was sure he could solve this little problem without any of them either.

After a quick moment of thoughts. Len covered her in blankets and carried her outside. He gently brought her to the open space behind his house. Len thought of a fitting place to bury her. We can't get a proper tombstone so maybe that huge stone would work... no, it'd be too difficult to carve a name into. How about a tree?

Len pondered on his choices and in the end, he chose the orange tree. It was, after all, the tree of his sister's favourite fruit.

Len dug a hole with his own bare hands, just long enough to fit Rin's height, and just deep enough to cover her. Len placed her body in the self-made hole and with deep sorrow, he covered her lifeless body with earth.

Still in tears, Len picked a sharp stone from his side and carved into the tree, her name: 「鏡音リン」 in large characters.

"I'm sorry." Len said in a grieving tone, "I should've tried harder."

With his heart still in the pained state. He walked back into his house. What would change now if I left this miserable world?

Len thought about it.

Again...

And again...

No, he couldn't. But why couldn't he? After all, the answer to that question was obviously 'nothing' and with the way things were going, it looked like it would stay that way. Perhaps he still wasn't all hopeless. Perhaps he did have some hope in him that things would get better. But what?

Len laid his head on his soft pillow. He gazed out to the starry night sky, pondering on different subjects from life after death to his future... that is, if he did have one.