Miyu watched, stunned, at how quickly Amara reacted when the elderly man had a heart attack right in the cafeteria. She immediately rushed to help: she began chest compressions and urgently asked someone to run to the shelter's infirmary for help.
Miyu didn't need to be told twice. She ran there and explained what had happened to the paramedics. However, before they moved, one of them dared to ask:
"Is the elderly man from Aokai?"
For a moment, Miyu froze, feeling a spark of rage rise through her body. She knew very well what the medic meant between the lines… If the old man was a foreigner or a half-blood, they wouldn't help him. And judging by his appearance, he could only be from Khalawa.
Knowing this, Miyu lied without hesitation. She took a deep breath and answered:
"Yes."
The paramedics rushed off with a stretcher toward the cafeteria, and she followed right behind.
Miyu watched their expressions as they arrived and saw that the man was a foreigner. They looked disappointed and even shot her a scathing glare.
Miyu just glared back and crossed her arms while Amara, desperate, shouted at them, begging for speed.
The paramedics proceeded with the procedures, though clearly against their will.
Amina and Mr. Hisakawa had disappeared from the cafeteria. Miyu assumed they had returned to the dormitory, like the others.
Back at the small shelter hospital, the old man was admitted, and Amara entered with him to assist as a nurse — much to the medical team's disapproval.
Now, Miyu sat with Mrs. Lina and the elderly man's sobbing wife in the hospital reception. Mrs. Lina comforted the woman, holding her hands tightly. She, too, had shouted at the doctors, overtaken by a fury Miyu had never witnessed before.
Miyu understood why when she saw the tears in Lina's eyes.
The man and his wife were both from Khalawa, Lina's home country. And being elderly, they must have resembled her own parents, whom she hadn't seen in years.
Miyu realized that perhaps she would never see them again, considering her terminal cancer — and that thought made her feel deeply powerless. Her friends' mother had become like a mother to her too, far more present than her own.
Like the twins, Miyu couldn't bear the thought of losing Lina to cancer. She was willing to contribute financially to the treatment, even with the little money she had — even if the Hisakawa family opposed it.
Then her phone buzzed in her pocket, pulling her out of her thoughts. On the screen, the caller ID read: "Absent Mother."
Miyu rolled her eyes. It was the fifth call from her mother that day. Fed up, she finally picked up with a loud sigh:
"Hello, Mrs. Saito."
"What's with 'Mrs. Saito,' girl? I'm your mother! Show some respect!" came the shrill voice on the other end.
"What do you want? I'm busy."
"Busy all day and can't answer your own mother? I thought something had happened to you, gave me heart palpitations!"
Miyu stepped out of the hospital reception to speak in private.
"Did you have heart palpitations the day Mizuki was attacked? Why weren't you this frantic when you called me a whole day after everything happened?"
"I already told you I don't watch TV. I only found out the next day. You're so bitter, you know that?"
Miyu took a deep breath to keep her composure.
"Anyway, mommy... what's so important that it dragged you away from your luxurious life with your sugar daddy in the capital?"
"MIYU SAITO! Watch your mouth, young lady!" her mother snapped with a firm tone. "I just wanted to tell you I convinced Takashi to let you live with us. Mizuki's become too dangerous, and I'd rather have you live with me in the capital. That way, I can find you a good husband. With your pretty face, it'll be a breeze! Even Takashi said he'd help. He's got rich friends who—"
"That's enough!" Miyu was red with anger. "I don't need to freeload in your house, let alone submit to an arranged marriage with some decrepit old man like your husband!"
"You ungrateful brat!" Naomi Saito raised her voice. "You've been playing lawyer in that town long enough. It's time to do what I say!"
"You seriously think my job is just a game?" Miyu's fury boiled over. "I'm not a gold digger like you. I chose to build a real career."
"A career? What a joke. You'll end up pregnant and abandoned like I was, and then you'll have to raise your kid without a dime."
Her mother's words struck Miyu like a whip. She opened her mouth to reply with something just as bitter, but instead, she said:
"Goodbye. Don't call me again."
She hung up before her mother could answer.
With a tight throat and blurry eyes, Miyu blocked the number. The tears, stubborn as ever, didn't fall — but they weighed more than any scream. Since childhood, Naomi had blamed her for all the hardships they'd gone through.
She had even blamed her for her father leaving — and never once told her who the man was. Not his name. Nothing.
At the first chance to marry a wealthy man from the capital, Naomi Saito had taken it instantly.
But Takashi didn't want Miyu living with them, and her mother didn't see anything wrong with that.
Before she knew it, Miyu had been abandoned alone in the house she'd always shared with her mother. Thankfully, she had incredible friends to help her — the Hisakawa family.
A family she considered her own and would always protect, no matter what.
Miyu lifted her tear-filled eyes from the phone and was startled to see Amina appear down the hallway.
Her clothes were in tatters, her once-braided hair now loose in wild strands, her steps unsteady — and on her body, a sinister mix of red and black blood. Most shocking of all: a rifle in her right hand.
Miyu ran to her friend and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at her lips to read them:
"Amina, what happened to you? Is that Sombro blood? Where were you, and why do you have a guard's weapon?"
Amina's gaze was full of exhaustion, and she couldn't even look at Miyu.
A sudden flash of light from Amina's body startled Miyu, making her step back.
Then, Amina's veins turned white and luminous for a moment, pulsing beneath her exposed skin.
It took Miyu a few seconds to comprehend what she was seeing. She was utterly shocked and asked, even though Amina wasn't looking directly at her:
"Y-you awakened the Lumen, Amina??"
At that moment, the veins glowed once more — and then everything went dark.
Miyu caught her before she fell and screamed, frantic, holding Amina in her arms:
"Aunt Lina… Aunt Lina? Someone, please, help here!"