Having jumped out of the parking lot of the abandoned building, Koutarou set his eyes straight at the site of the accident where his mother had died. He didn't look around him. He ignored traffic lights and he bumped into people; he ignored all of that and pressed forward. The time was already 7PM. Koutarou's memories told him that the accident had occurred shortly after 7. Since he wasn't sure of the exact time, he couldn't say if he'd make it or not. That's why Koutarou bet everything on that small chance that she was still alive.
That corner, it's just around that corner!!
Koutarou was now just a little bit away from the site of the accident. His heart was racing, his lungs screamed for oxygen and his legs were slowing down from exhaustion. The sound of his pulse was so noisy that he could barely hear anything else. However, Koutarou pushed all of that aside and continued forward. Just around the corner, his mother was about to die in an accident. It wasn't the time to worry about his own worry.
Alright, I just turn here!!
Koutarou slowed down a little to turn the corner. As he did, he could hear the loud screech of a siren behind him and a large white van was approaching. The van turned the corner at the same time as Koutarou did and passed him.
'Harukaze City Hospital'
That was what was written on the side of the white van. A red warning light shone at the top of the van that had sirens blaring. There was no doubting it, that was an ambulance.
There was a large crowd gathered in the direction that the ambulance was heading. The people were gathered around something. In the middle of the crowd there was a stopped car that had slammed into the guard rail. Right next to it was a lone boy. The boy was embracing a half-knit sweater and was sitting down on the road. Around him was a basket woven out of bamboo and the knitting tools in it had been scattered around. A woman lay collapsed in front of the boy. The woman looked like she was floating as she lay on top of a red pool of liquid.
“Ah...”
The moment Koutarou saw that, he stopped. Strength left his body and he froze. Koutarou simply stood there and watched the development. The emergency personnel passed by the boy and rushed towards the fallen woman. The crowd continued growing and Koutarou could no longer see the boy, the woman or the emergency personnel.
“Bertorion...”
A woman appeared next to Koutarou's side. She was wearing glasses and a long dress.
“I am very sorry... by the time I got here, it was already...”
Like she had said, Clan had an apologetic expression on her face.
After Clan had guided Koutarou to the abandoned building, she followed his simple directions in search for the site of the accident. However, she had a hard time finding it with the short description she had gotten, and by the time she finally found it, the accident had already happened.
Hearing Clan's apology, Koutarou lost all strength and sat down where he was standing. He looked the same as the boy who was embracing the half-knit sweater.
“Onii-chan! Onee-chan!”
That was when Kii caught up. Koutarou had left Kii to Clan's observation device and rushed on ahead. Because of that, she had appeared a little later.
“What happened to your mom!?”
Kii still didn't know what had happened. But she had gotten a bad feeling when she saw Koutarou sitting down. But she didn't want to believe in that feeling.
“...We didn't make it in time...”
Clan spoke to Kii in a sorrowful tone and shook her head.
“No!! Then did Onii-chan's mom die!?”
Kii screamed out and tears filled her eyes. She didn't want to accept that Koutarou's mother had died.
I didn't make it... mom died... again...
Kii's scream carved the reality into the frozen Koutarou's heart. And then the memories of the days after his mother had died surged into his head all at once.
Koutarou's mother had died leaving behind a half-knit sweater. Like Kii, Koutarou searched for his mother, and his father took to alcohol to drown out his sorrows. Koutarou's relationship with his father grew worse, and it took a long time to repair that relationship. They were fine now, but Koutarou had to mature before that could happen.
One could say that Koutarou's childhood was lonely. Once he got home, he would be all alone. Being all alone in a house full of memories of his mother was hard. His father didn't get back until the night. Both Koutarou and his father had a hard time adjusting to the fact that they had suddenly lost their mother and wife respectively. As a result, a long time passed before they could properly reconcile. Before time and his friends could heal his heart, Koutarou spent a long time alone. This was also one of the reasons for why he had devoted himself to baseball.