Disclaimer: I do not hold any copyright to the original storyline/characters/etc.

Warnings: Vague reference to chapter 18.

A/N: Suzune's a kid… a kid. -sighs- Let's not think too hard about that and just read… or something. Hrm… yeah.

Locked in a Cage
22
(Come On To The Future)

Suzune could see the strings of time. He never thought it strange – it was something he had been born with, after all – but after the first few times of mentioning it to his peers, he soon learnt that there was something… different about him. When he asked his mama, she only shook her head in wonder, although she did try her best to explain his unique ability.

When he was sent back in time by his mama, he met her again as a younger child – a happy individual whose enthusiasm for life contrasted strongly against what he'd seen in his present. Not only that, but the man he took after was there as well (one could not explain Suzune's joy of seeing his papa: he could only remember an individual clad in white).

Then there were the other two – the ones the child had dubbed 'Uncle Jin' and 'Uncle Micchi', who doted on him when they were around the house, or when his mama and papa were too busy to take care of him.

Not only that, but there was also Big Sister Himeka, who was as kind and sweet as he remembered her to be; yet he also noticed that her past self had more of a 'glow' to her than the one he had been brought up with.

He loved them; all of them. They were family in his eyes (blood relations or not) and, despite being a child, he wanted to help: the very reason his mama had sent him back in the first place.

But he was a messenger – not a fighter – and could only do so much. But when the time came, when he wished nothing more than to protect his papa from the dangers that surrounded them, he found it; that little light deep inside.

Suzune wanted to see his family together back in the present (he could not see why his papa would ever leave his mama) and would do what he could in the past for just that.