"Hey Mama, Papa is a superhero, right?" The silver-head jerked her head downwards at her daughter, who was an exact imitation of hers, except for her blue orbs.

"Why, honey?"

"You told me he saves people. That's what superheroes do, right?" Her eyes glossed under the luster of the thousand stars that elucidated the sky alongside the moon, fastened on a blanket of the black night. The little girl propped against her mother's chest, the warmth of her large and gentle body seeping into hers.

"I guess you are right, Asami." The lady smiled and so did Asami, as she rocked back and forth on her mother's legs.

"Mama, as long as Papa is there, no one will get hurt, right?" Her little jaw dropped in awe as she took the nightly view into her memories.

"I think so," she smiled, but her eyes dropped. Asami always knew her mother was beautiful. When she pictured the angels from the night time stories that her mother used to read her, she couldn't think of anything other than the green orbs, one draped behind locks of white silk yarns. If her mother had wings, she would definitely have looked like an angel. But recently, her mother's angelic halo seemed weaker. The dark circles highlighting her eyes had hidden a story she knew she would not be told.

"What about me, Mama? If Papa will protect other people, how will he protect me? And you?" She asked, somehow more desperately than a question should have sounded. The imagery of breaking a family was heartbreaking. She decided not to imagine it and continued waiting for her mother to speak.

"You will not need protection. Papa and I will make you strong, and if you still face danger in the future, and Papa is not there, then I will protect you, even if it has to be with my life."

"No, Mama!" Asami screamed in distress, burying her face in her mother's chest, "you will not leave me alone. Promise me, you will not leave me alone. Never. I-," she drew in deep breaths, "I and Papa will protect you too. No matter what, Papa will be there. He is a superhero, right? He will be there. And I will become a superhero too. So, we will not let you go away from us." She broke into sobs until she realized something wet dropping on her forehead.

Her eyes glanced up at her mother's tear-stained face, and her own eyes widened, as she reached out her small fingers to wipe them off, "Don't cry, Mama. Don't be scared. See, Asami is a brave girl too." She said, as she wiped off her own tears and her mother whispered, "I promise. I promise to never leave you alone." She tightly wrapped her arms around her daughter's little body.

The next day, she saw the same face, smeared not with tears but blood. Her green orbs were lifeless, her intestines falling out through her torn-apart stomach.

"I promise to never leave you alone," the words rung in the four-year-old girl's head, her body freezing on the ground. She broke the promise. She left. All alone, Asami watched the corpse being carried to a van, as her father ran up to her and embraced her, just like her mother did the previous day. But why was he embracing her when she was not crying? And why wasn't she crying? The tears vanished; faded somewhere she didn't know. Dry eyes only leaked of anguish, sorrow, darkness, and most of all, loneliness. Where was her voice that made the promise to always protect her?

Nature would have been mocking her thoughts, or why would it rain just then, filling her dry eyes with tears she didn't cry. Her eyes were open, but they saw nothing. All she could see was the comparison between the too similar faces she remembers; one smiling wide as she ate her favourite ice-creams with her, another frowning when Asami refused to eat her vegetables, the one tired and covered in tears for a reason unknown to the 4-year-old, and the last, torn apart and smeared in blood. How could a person show so many different faces? What a mystery her mother was?

"Father," Asami spoke, with a tone that made her seem a couple years mature than she was the previous day, as he startled, at her daughter's usage of the word 'father' and not 'Papa', "Why didn't you save her?"

A long silence, distinguishable from the commotion beside them, followed.

"I am sorry." He spoke at last, and this time Asami was silent.

A while later, she spoke again.

"So, when are we...?" Her gaze didn't move an inch from the spot she was staring at for what seemed like an eternity.

"What?" Her father turned to her side, his face, though may seem nonchalant to others, was filled with deep pain and a feeling of losing something really important.

Her jaw clenched and her dead eyes looked subtly determined, and completely contrasting to her previously petrified expressions, "When are we avenging her?"

_____________________________________________________________

Sorry for the short update. I don't have time to write because of exams. So I made a short extra chapter. Thanks for reading.

Vote. Comment. Share.

Love you xoxo