How could this be? Father… dead? Masaru as well?

  Noriko stopped halfway up the gang plank, hand to her breast. She felt numb, but in this moment it all seemed to hit her. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. What would she do now?

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  She was alone. She had no family left. None. She had no country. What would she do now?

  Warmth enveloped her hand atop the rope hold. She turned, found Mika there.

  “Oh Princess. I’m so, so sorry.”

  The next she knew she was in Mika’s arms. Noriko felt some small comfort there, as if the girl were a stone-walled bastion keeping everything else out.

  But only a little.