The Lost Child (2)

Reiji scratched his head as Sora kept punching the air with his tiny fists, one of which held a flower.

"You punched those monsters, and they went flying WHOOOSH, blood everywhere HAHA," the kid laughed with glee.

'....His imagination is pretty vivid.'

Reiji just stared blankly as Sora kept on chattering as if he didn't even realize how much he was bleeding, and he finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey little guy, we should get your leg patched up at the hospital. Can you stand up?"

"Eh? My leg?" Sora looked down at his knee and blinked a couple of times.

"AAAAGH MY LEG, ONII-CHAN THE DOGS BIT MY LEG OFF!"

The pain hit him all at once as the adrenaline wore down, and he started howling and pulling Reiji's trousers.

"W-Wait calm down, you'll be ok, stop crying! Please stop crying, strong boys don't cry," Reiji stuttered as he tried to soothe the hurt kid. He patted his hand and rubbed his back to try and calm him down, and Sora slowly started to breathe heavily and reigned it in a little.

The tears didn't really stop, but Reiji could tell he was doing his best to endure it.

"Wow, I've never seen any kid as brave as you! Are you sure you aren't the superhero?"

Reiji tried to distract him, lifting him up in a princess carry.

"Sniff...sniff...I'm brave?"

"No, you're the bravest! You should be called a Lionheart!"

"W-what's that?"

"A Lionheart is someone who is said to be very brave and courageous! Aren't lions the coolest and strongest animals? They're the kings of the jungle, and you have the heart of a lion!"

Reiji explained softly, continuously soothing the child who was calming down after the horrendous experience he just went through. They quickly reached the main road and Reiji signaled a taxi so that they could get to the hospital quickly.

"I'm a Lionheart! I'm brave! Right, Onii-Chan?" Sora's eyes started to sparkle again, excited at the prospect of being called a hero.

Reiji chuckled and reassured him as he ruffled his hair.

"Yep! When I was your age, I would have peed my pants if those dogs were chasing me. It's awesome that you could stay calm," he grinned, making Sora giggle at the thought of Reiji wetting himself.

Thankfully, they reached the hospital in just a few minutes. They quickly got off and rushed in, with Reiji still carrying the little one in his arms.

A nurse took them to a separate room and administered some first-aid, finishing it up by patching his knee with some bandages.

"He should be fine, but it will leave a small scar. Make sure to change the bandages regularly over the next few days, ok?"

"Thank you, I'll make sure to do that."

"Onii-chan, my knee will be scarred?" Sora teared up again.

"Huh? Why are you sad, you should be happy! A scar is a badge of honor, you can't be a true Lionheart without a battle mark, can you?" Reiji grinned and tapped his head.

"O-Ohhh, you're right! I am a Li-Lionheart, a scar is no big deal!"

Reiji couldn't help but smile at his innocence. He turned to thank the nurse again, but froze as he saw a predatory look in her eyes. She then looked at his school uniform and coughed, straightening herself and handing him a bag of bandages and cleaning tools.

"Erm, thanks again Nurse, we'll be leaving now..."

"Oh ok, hope he gets better soon."

Both of them bowed at the nurse and walked out. It was great that Sora's wound wasn't too serious, so he was able to avoid filling out forms and giving out his personal information either to the nurse or to the child. The first-aid was enough, so he could now drop him off at his kindergarten where they must be panicking right now.

"Onii-chan, look! It's an ice cream truck! Can we get some ice cream?"

Reiji glanced at the truck and looked down to refuse because he didn't want to keep him out for too long, but he swallowed his words when he saw the puppy-eyes Sora was giving him.

'Ah fuck it, the kid deserves some ice cream after what he went through.'

"Sure, what kind of ice cream do you want?"

"Yaaaayy! Vanilla dipped in chocolate!"

Reiji bought ice cream for both of them, getting a cookies and cream one for himself. They took their cones and walked to a bench nearby, settling down to enjoy the sweet goodness.

"Eat carefully, I'll take you to your kindergarten after this, ok? Do you know where it is?"

"Umm...I don't know the street but it's called Souhei Kindergarten."

'Oh right, since his sister attends Souhei High, it makes sense that her brother goes to the same branch. Hmm, looks like it's a 20 minute walk so we'll just take a taxi because of his knee.'

"Ok, we'll leave soon. Your family and your teachers must be worried right now."

"Ah! I forgot about that! I can't make Nee-san worry, let's go Onii-Chan."

'...How could you forget? Well, whatever.'

They hailed another taxi and left after they both finished their ice creams, heading to the school which was a few minutes away by car.

Reiji asked the taxi to stop outside of the school instead of entering the drop-off area, if possible he wanted to avoid meeting his teachers or his sister if she was there already.

As for why he was so determined to avoid her, Reiji knew that with his current image it would be questionable to bring her brother with an injury on his leg. She already thinks he's worse than garbage right now, so believing it might be an elaborate scheme that he hatched isn't that far-fetched.

In fact, in the game she got into an argument with the protagonist even if he had saved Sora, because in her pure panic she hyper focused on his injury and temporarily overlooked the fact that he saved him.

Of course they made up later, but imagine that same scenario but this time the savior is a well-known delinquent who's part of the Yakuza.

Of course, explaining it was possible, but it was too much of a hassle and it wouldn't be too late to reveal it later if he meets Sora again. Anyways he had no plans to interact with the heroines more than necessary for now at least.

"Onii-chan, look! That's my sister, let's go meet her!" Sora pulled his hand with joy.

Reiji looked at where he was pointing and saw a girl in the same uniform who looked like she was furious at an older woman who had her head down. Her long black hair in a ponytail and deep purple eyes matched her anger with every movement.

'Looks like she's giving the teacher a piece of her mind, that's just like Prez,' Reiji giggled internally. He knelt down so that he could be eye-level with Sora.

"Onii-chan is late for something, ok? Do you think you can walk to your sister by yourself?"

"B-But I wanted you to meet Nee-san.... Can't you come with me?"

"I'm sorry, Onii-chan really has to go. You're a Lionheart so you can do this for me right? Here take this bag of medicine and give it to your Nee-san."

"Sniff...Ok."

Sora looked really sad, so Reiji rubbed his head to calm him down and said goodbye. He watched for a second as the child waddled off, and walked away quickly.

'A good deed a day keeps the devil away! Wait, I did two good deeds today, does that change anything?'

***

"Are you telling me that you MISCOUNTED??? You had one job, and that was to keep the students safe, and you couldn't even do that? If anything happens to Sora I'll make sure you'll face the consequences, that is a promise!"

"I-I'm so sorry, I don't know how it happened. We've sent people to look for Sora and we'll do everything we can to fin-"

"NEE-SAN!!!"

Fujikawa Noa snapped her head around at the familiar voice and saw her little brother trotting towards her.

"SORA!"

She ran to him and pulled the bewildered kid into a tight hug.

"Sora where were you? Are you o- WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG?"

Noa started to freak out as she saw her brother's knee completely wrapped in bandages.

"I'm ok Nee-san, Onii-Chan took care of me! And I'm a Lionheart so it doesn't hurt!" Sora exclaimed proudly, with both hands at his hips.

"What? Onii-Chan? Lionheart? Wait let's go home for now and tell me what happened later."

She turned to glare at the teacher one last time, who looked relieved at the sight of Sora's return.

"This isn't over by the way, we'll continue this conversation later," she growled and took Sora's hand as they walked to the car parked near the entrance.

As scared as she was, Noa was now more curious than anything after seeing that Sora was safe for the most part. Whatever he went through, it clearly wasn't simple.