21 years ago...

Marcia came home from school on the tram like any other day, not aware that her entire world was about to be turned upside down.

She was an interesting child... not well liked. She was different... too boyish. Too interested in sports that girls shouldn't like, too messy, too quick to get physical if someone bothered her.

Everyone told her to be more feminine, more lady-like, more like the other girls.

She told them all to fuck off.

So, it wasn't surprising when she sat alone on the tram, and walked without wishing a single student farewell despite how many others took the same tram after the school day ended. The truth was, she didn't have a single friend.

"I'm home," she declared quietly when she walked in the front door, not really expecting anyone to respond even if they were home.

"Good," her mother's voice drew her surprised gaze toward the sitting room.

The man sitting with her, though, put her instantly on alert.

"Come and sit Marcia, we've had an interesting day," the woman sighed, patting the spot beside her.

"This man is from the police," she explained after Marcia had sat cautiously beside her, her gaze darting to the uniformed man with the stern expression across from them, "A couple died in an accident a few days ago, and their daughter was left behind. They ran her DNA through the system... and discovered she is my daughter."

Marcia blinked, her confused gaze snapping to her mother.

"You... have another daughter?" she asked, furrowing her brow, "That... you didn't know about? How is that even possible?"

"Not exactly," the man explained, nodding toward the papers on the table between them, "We ran your DNA through the system with your parents' permission. You are not their daughter, you are the daughter of the couple that died. We believe a mix-up must have happened at the hospital the day the two of you were born."

Marcia's breath disappeared instantly from her lungs. She might have only been 8 years old, but she understood enough. Her mom wasn't her real mom... and her real mom was dead.

"Your parents have decided to keep you both," the man explained easily, "So while this seems like a lot, it mostly just means you will be gaining a sister. Your father is with her now, and I'm sure they'll be arriving shortly."

Marcia looked at her mother, who nodded comfortingly.

As long as her mom said everything was fine she supposed it was. She was confused, sure - but the only thing that really mattered, like the police officer said, was that she had gained a sister.

The rest... well, she wasn't really sure what to think about the rest of it. It didn't really make a whole lot of sense to her, so she ended up brushing it aside when she heard her father arriving.

"Marcia, meet Emilia. She is your sister," Marcia's father said, guiding the young girl that looked just like her mother in.

"Hi!" Marcia greeted with a smile, "I'm Marcia. Do you like gardening? We have a community garden here. I could take you?"

"Okay," the girl seemed shy but alert, a sadness etched into her brows and lingering in her eyes.

"Why don't you give her a bit of time to settle in Marcia," her mother said gently, "Emilia has had a very difficult week. She will be sharing your room with you. Uncle Lukas is coming by with another bed in a bit. Why don't you show her to your room and let her settle in?"

"Okay," Marcia agreed easily, guiding the girl forward and leading her into their room.

It wasn't huge, if she was honest, but it would fit the two of them relatively well. Marcia wasn't one for dolls or many outfits, but she had a toybox filled with trucks and airplanes.

She wanted to be an engineer like her father someday.

She figured Emilia could have the space for all the clothes and dolls everyone wanted her to want. It would work out great, she figured. Maybe people could stop trying to make her be more girly, and they could focus on Emilia instead!

She had just left the quiet girl in her room, walking down the hallway when she overheard the end of a conversation she didn't fully understand.

"You should know that the girl's parents were involved in some criminal activities," the police officer was saying, "We believe their accident may have been orchestrated by those they've crossed. We don't anticipate issues for the girl, and we are investigating to bring those involved to justice... but if you see anything suspicious, call us right away to be safe."

"Thank you," Marcia's mother said, nervousness clear in her voice, "we appreciate you letting us know."

None of them expected that the very next night the misdeeds of the parents Marcia would never meet would become her burden to bear.

A knock at the door had Marcia's father rising from the couch where he had been reading without much of a thought. Marcia and Emilia were going over homework together - they were in the same grade, but Emilia was quite a bit behind. Eager to help, Marcia had volunteered to guide Emilia through the assignment.

Marcia's mother had been sitting next to her husband before he got up, watching the two girls fondly as she came to terms with suddenly having two little girls instead of one.

The door slammed open and Marcia's father grunted in pain, drawing all three pairs of eyes from the sitting room as the man was dragged in by an intimidating man in black and two of his goons. He threw the man at his wife, drawing a cry of pain and surprise when the impact left her dazed.

Emilia jumped up in fear, pointing at Marcia, "I'm not their daughter! She is! We were mixed up at birth! It's not me! You don't want me, you want her!"

Three sets of venomous gazes landed on the stunned Marcia who was blinking in fear and confusion, and it wasn't difficult to believe Emilia's claims when Marcia was the spitting image of her father. Without a second thought, the man in front walked forward and smacked Marcia so hard it knocked the girl out instantly.

Marcia was a pretty little thing, and they accepted her lineage from the mouth of the child they'd come to collect without question because it didn't really matter. The men didn't care if Emilia's claims were true or not. The man had promised them her daughter, and any girl would do.

They were out the door and speeding away before her mother and father had even stood from where they were still recovering from their collision, screaming after her in a desperate panic.

That was the last time she would ever speak with them, though many years later when she took revenge for the girl that had been stolen from her home on the words of a stranger she'd welcomed with open arms... she saw them in the distance. They looked like they had aged twice the years that had passed, their eyes heavy with a sadness that never seemed to fade.

They had raised the girl that destroyed their family, but not out of love... out of responsibility. The moment she was of age, they kicked her out and cut her off. They had done their job as the parents that brought the girl into the world, but they couldn't stand to face her one more day after she was old enough to fend for herself.

Emilia, a child of 8 at the time that she panicked and shouted out in fear of being taken after enduring years of abuse at the hands of people that weren't even her parents, never knew the love of a parent. The short day of warmth she'd received was chilled to ice almost instantly, and only grew colder as each day passed without news of where Marcia had been taken.

They learned a couple of years later that she had ended up in a suspected trafficking circle in Asia and died at the hands of her abductors, but they didn't even have ashes for them to collect by then because they had been misplaced years ago.

Emilia carried the weight of what she had done like a cross she'd carved herself, and it ate away at her mind and her heart until she was bitter, hateful, and filled with resentment at the world that never showed her kindness.

She had smiled at Marcus when he had come and ended her suffering, a crooked thing filed with an anger Marcus understood. He had chosen to make her end swift despite his burning hatred.

After all, she had been a child at the time and truly had no concept of the full scope of the consequences of her actions.

When Marcia woke in a room with a concrete wall with a glass-less, tiny window and a cot bolted to the floor... she didn't know any of that yet. All she knew was that she had been at home, her new sister had betrayed her, and then pain exploded across her face and in her head before the world went black.

The moment she woke up she cried for help, a quiet, pitiful thing that she didn't believe anyone would hear.

"Uh... Wie... Wie geht's?" an accented voice came from the other side of the wall, and Marcia gasped - excitement and hope exploding in her.

She immediately began to explain who she was, what had happened, and to beg for the person to get help. If they could just call her parents, she explained, the police would come. They just needed to let them know!

"Es... tut mir leid," the voice interrupted awkwardly, "Ich... uh... Ich spreche... kleines?"

She blinked, furrowing her brow and tilting her head.

Kleines? Wait... did he mean 'ein bisschen' as in... he didn't speak much German? Well... crap.

"Welches Sprachen sprechen Sie?" she asked tentative, clearly trying to speak slowly and enunciate.

There was a long enough pause that Marcia almost tried to come up with another way to ask before the boy spoke again.

"Sprechen Sie Japanisch?" he asked excitedly.

"Japanisch?!" she asked in shock before giggling a little, "Nein... aber... ich kann lernen. Lehre mich?"

She'd always wanted to learn Japanese... what was he doing in Germany? It was kind of exciting to meet a Japanese boy, and for half a moment she forgot herself as she thought about becoming the boy's friend.

"English?" he asked before she could ask another question, breaking her from her little mental spiral.

She was only a year or so into her English studies at school, and it was definitely not her best subject, so she grimaced and scolded herself internally for not taking it more seriously before.

"Ja," she said hesitantly, thinking of the words she wanted in German and translating them one by one into English, "My English... is not great. I know not many words."

She vaguely remembered that English words were ordered weird, but couldn't quite remember how to do it properly.

"That's okay," he said softly, his English seeming better than his German, "I will teach you."

"You teach me... Japanisch? And English? And I teach you German!" she giggled again, excited at having made a friend that spoke so many languages.

"How old are you?" he asked, the sound of metal scraping softly barely drawing her attention.

Her smile faded as reality slowly started to settle back in.

"8," she said quietly, "und Sie?"

"10, I think," he sighed, "I might be 11 now."

Oh, she thought, she didn't need to be so formal then.

She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed that the boy on the other side of the wall was around her age.

Except... what did he say? He might be 11 now? What did that mean?!

"How... how long... have you here been?" she asked in a voice just above a whisper, dread settling in the air between them.

"A very long time," he admitted.

"Can... can we escape?" she asked fearfully, the small hope and excitement at hearing his voice earlier bleeding away fast.

"I have not found a way yet," he said slowly, "but together... maybe."

Marcia's stomach dropped, and tears welled in her eyes at the realization that Emilia's betrayal might mean she couldn't go home... unless this boy managed to be the savior she so desperately needed.

"Together," she whispered.

She hadn't known what to expect when she dozed off in the same cot she had woken up in, her stomach rumbling and her mouth dry... but when she woke up, the brutality of her new reality nearly destroyed her.

Each day was worse, and she found the only thing that kept her going was the voice of the boy on the other side of the wall. When she laid in the cot, bruised and bloody, she'd talk to him to try and forget... to escape into her mind for a little while.

She poured her focus into the plans they made. The boy was clever, but lacked a mind for logistics - so she helped him refine his plan and explain things, like how to pick locks, with a scientific lens. They both knew their plan wasn't great, but it was the best they could come up with.

"Bist du bereit?" he whispered, the nervousness clear in the way his voice waivered.

She had counted the days with scratches in the wall, and she estimated she had been there for nearly a year by the time they decided to try and escape. Long enough to have done their best, and to have convinced their jailors they weren't going to try anything.

It was time.

"Ja!" she said quietly, trying to force her confidence into her voice and reassure him with it.

It felt like it was taking forever, but she heard the soft scraping of metal and didn't dare interrupt. Instead, she counted her breaths in an attempt to stay patient.

Then the sounds stopped, and a few seconds later she heard the lock of her door click.

She scrambled to her feet and stood on the other side, waiting with her breath held to see the face of the boy she couldn't live without.

The second she saw him her eyes went wide.

He was perfect.

His black hair was long and shaggy, an absolute mess and in need of a cut, but she still loved it. His skin was porcelain white - she had never seen someone so pale - and it made his dark eyes stand out even more on his perfect face. His lips were full and his features were soft...

She had never seen anyone so beautiful in her entire life. She could hardly believe he was real.

When he reached out his hand, cautious like he might scare her, she took it without hesitation.

They just had to find the exit, she kept telling herself mentally, if they could just get to the car then the rest of the plan would work out no matter which route they took.

A shout yanked her from her thoughts and had both of their heads snapping toward a large, heavily tattooed, bald Japanese man glaring at the two of them openly. Marcia's breath caught when she saw a metal bar in his hand and the snarl on his lips as he rushed at them.

"Lauf!" she yelled, pulling him behind her and bolting forward without any idea of where to run - just knowing they had to if they wanted to survive.

She didn't look back, but she heard the sounds of the man's crashing through the stuff all over the floor getting further and further behind them. She had just dared to risk a glance behind as she turned a corner when she ran face-first into what felt like a soft wall.

"OOF!"

Marcia instinctively reached out to protect the boy behind her even as she shook her head and looked up to see what she'd run into.

Her breath caught as fingers wrapped around her neck, her eyes going wide when she realized they'd miscalculated.

There was more than one of them here at night.

"彼女を解放して (Kanojo o kaihō shite)," the boy screamed, thrusting a metal shard upward into the arm of the man currently holding her above the ground.

The man's scream as the shard plunged deep then ripped free in a single, smooth strike rang through air. Marcia dropped the second his grip loosened, gasping and coughing even as she stood and reached blindly for the boy.

"Run!" he yelled, grabbing her hand and tugging her along as they sprinted forward.

They didn't get far before the first man they saw was standing before them, metal pipe still in hand. Turning, they froze and watch the bleeding and cursing one walk up quickly from behind.

Marcia glimpsed a window just past the man with the metal pipe, and she pressed her lips together as she came up with an idea. Her eyes flicked toward the boy, praying desperately that he'd survive... she wouldn't, but she wanted him to.

That would be enough.

"Remember your promise, お兄ちゃん[Onii-chan]," she said suddenly, drawing his confused look.

She darted forward and kissed his cheek then, blushing a deep rose color and avoiding his eyes, she grabbed the shard from his hand. She dragged him, stumbling, behind her and rushed toward the man with the pipe with a few, quick strides.

Just before they were within distance of the swinging pipe, she shoved the boy to the side and leapt up - taking the full brunt of the strike to her ribs with a blood-curdling scream even as she buried the shard deep in the man's neck.

The pain exploded, but she managed to get just enough breath to scream.

"Run Kaito! Through the window! Go! NOW!"

He hesitated too long, and the man spun away from where Marcia had landed at his feet, his pipe flying toward the only reason her eyes were still open.

She forced herself to her feet with a strength she didn't know she had and lunged at the boy, knocking him out of the way so the pipe hit the wall behind where he had been standing instead.

Marcia's face paled when he stumbled, tripped... and fell backward through the window of the factory with a cry of surprise.

"KAITO!"

The last thing she saw before pain exploded in the side of her head was his face - filled with horror and fear as he fell who knew how far.

Live, she begged. Please, live.

The next thing she knew was panic. She couldn't get any air, her bones were freezing, her joints were locked, and...

She was under water.

They had dumped her in the river that ran near to the factory, either believing she was dead or near death enough to be treated as dead.

She tried to kick upward, but the water fought against her so hard she couldn't seem to make it to the surface. Instead she was thrown against rocks and dragged along the sharp stones along the ground as the water pulled her where ever it was it was dragging her.

The water bloomed with red as she clawed at the ground, the rocks, and anything else she could grab at in a desperate attempt to make it stop. Nothing worked quite right, though, and it would be much later when she discovered she'd experienced an extremely serious injury to her brain that was affecting her ability to think, see, and even move properly.

Black dots where swimming in front of her eyes and her lungs were on fire when she managed to grab hold of a rock that was just the right size and shape to finally stop being dragged forward. She made her way to the surface, coughing water out as she gulped air down greedily, barely holding on to consciousness as she tried to scream out for help.

She couldn't get words out, and barely any sounds - but it was enough to draw an old man from nearby in a strange pointed hat she had never seen before.

She didn't know how long it had taken for them to get her out of the river, but the second she felt solid ground the darkness swallowed her completely.