Out of all the magnificent skyscrapers towering throughout the city of Tokyo, the Sitara Mansion is among one of the most well-known. A two-story marvel of architecture that exuded class and resonated with tradition with its wooden walls and marble interior. However, the mansion was nothing if not for the family that lived there. A husband, wife and two young girls resided within the mansion’s walls. Most well-known among them was the wife, Arienne: who served in the Japanese Imperial Army as a Colonel and, upon retirement, began a new career path as a police officer. Arienne was a hero not just to the people of Tokyo, but to her elder daughter, Minerva.
Ever since she could open her eyes, Minerva’s attention was always on her mother. Bearing witness to the acts of bravery and kindness performed by her for the people. Saving lives and bringing justice to anyone deserving of it. She watched her mom from within the mansion walls with stars in her eyes, a spark in her chest slowly burning into a flame of hope starting from when she could watch the television. From the safety of her home, her hopes of becoming just like her mom continued to grow.
It was only four days after her sixth birthday when Minerva bid her mother goodbye, watching her leave the safety of the mansion for her nightly patrol. The evening was rather quiet, the light breeze brushing through Minerva’s long ebony locks through the open window as she gazed upon her mother’s car disappearing over the horizon. Sighing, she curled up into the collection of star pillows and fluffy blankets piled onto the windowsill. Dozens of books had accumulated within the area of the window over the course of months, as Minerva had always refused to leave that spot until she saw her mother pulling into the driveway. For hours, the little girl would flip through book after book, staying up until either one of the maids of her father coerced her into going to bed with the promise of her mother returning when the sun rose.
That promise was broken when Minerva woke up the next morning, her mother nowhere to be found. She ran to her father, demanding to know why he broke their promise with tears streaming down her reddened cheeks. He looked down at his daughter with an emptiness in his black eyes, stating blankly that she was overreacting and that her mom should be back at any time. Minerva watched her dad walk away from her to tend to her little sister before returning to her window. She stared through the glass panels of the mansion, determined to be the first one to see her hero pulling in the driveway. However, the car she witnessed pulling up to her home was not the one she was hoping for.
The young girl wasn’t sure who the two burly men at her front door were, but they were wearing very important looking golden badges as they asked for her father. Confused, she called out to her father and was immediately dismissed to let the adults talk. She strained her ear around the corner to try and eavesdrop on the conversation, wondering what they could be discussing. She could only make out a couple of simpler words, as a lot of the vocabulary was much too complex for a six-year-old girl to comprehend.
It seemed like hours before the two strange men left their home, her father closing the front door and turning towards the direction of his room with a sunken look in his eyes. Minerva ran up to him with fire in her eyes.
“Daddy? Who were those men? Did they say anything about mama?” She jabbered to him, pulling on the leg of his pants to get his attention. It seemed like a thousand questions had begun spilling from behind her lips. Her father rubbed his forehead and sighed.
“Not now, Minerva. It’s late, you need to go to bed- “
“Do you know when mama’s coming back? I miss her so much. Do you know where she is?”
“She’s not coming back, Minerva! Your mother isn’t coming back!”
The sudden booming of her father’s voice silenced her question vomit. Her grip on her father’s leg loosened considerable, violet eyes widening as she looked up at her dad. Her bottom lip quivered. “Wh-what? Daddy, where’s mama?”
“Enough, Minerva! I said that’s enough! Now go to your room right now before I drag you up there myself!”
Her father’s yelling had caused her sister to wake up crying, with him pushing Minerva off of his leg to tend to her. The young girl stood at the doorway, paralyzed with fear and anguish. She couldn’t be gone; he was just scaring her like he always would. Her mom would be home anytime now, all she had to do was be patient.
Young Minerva was patient for many weeks, which gradually turned into months. Then, before she knew it, those months turned into years. She realized quite early on that what her father told her when she was six was true, but even at age thirteen she couldn’t bring herself to stop waiting by her window for her mother. The piles of books that littered the floor hadn’t moved from their spot, even after she learned to understand higher vocabulary. She refused to let the maids clean the spot up; she was always there to stop them.
As the years went by, Minerva found herself spending days at a time curled up in her windowsill. Her father didn’t even bother to move her, he left her to wallow in favor of spoiling her sister. Arienne’s name was hardly ever mentioned at that point anymore, the Sitara home had lost their brightest light. The mansion was no longer the structure holding a hero, but an empty husk of architecture that maintained a façade of a hero’s memory. The only spark of Arienne that remained within the marble walls of the mansion resided within her eldest daughter, but that glowing flame of hope had begun to die out many years prior. There were only embers within her heart, the loss of her mother destroying any hope of Minerva living a happy life. She simply gazed from her windowsill as her family continued forward without her, the embers still barely emitting that hint of hope that her mother could miraculously come home to her.
She never learned what happened to her mother that night. However, she had heard rumors that she had gotten into a fatal fight with two men in black. The only item that was visible on the figures was a golden badge, pinned on the left side of their shirts.
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