# 937 Days Later
What’s changed since then? A whole lot. So many things it’s hard to count.
What hasn’t changed? The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. The day-night cycle.
Haruhiro fed a branch into the campfire.
Oh, right. The color of these flames too. And the stars. The red moon.
“I’m grateful to you, Ranta.”
“What’re you saying, out of nowhere? You’re grossing me out, man.” Ranta was sitting diagonally across from Haruhiro with his knees up, bending and snapping little branches to keep his hands busy.
Haruhiro tried to make some sort of expression with his face, but couldn’t seem to do it. “You know, when Ruon was born, it made me happy. Yume being a mother didn’t feel all that far out there, surprisingly. But you as a father, man? It’s still hard to believe.” He had emotions. It wasn’t like they were all gone. He just couldn’t express them well.
“Oh, shut up.” Ranta let out a nasal laugh. “We did the deed, and she got knocked up, that’s all.”
“I was just thinking, even with things the way they are, I can still feel happy.”
“Yeah...”
“We’ve gotta protect Ruon until he gets bigger, huh? Yume ought to stay by his side until then, at least.”
“Yeah, even I know that much.”
“Don’t you go and bite it on us, okay, man?”
“There’s no way I’m gonna kick the bucket, leaving the woman I love and my son without me, and you know it.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Haruhiro, I oughta say...”
“What?”
“Nah...” Ranta looked away, sniffling. “It’s nothing.”
The flames flickered. Beasts cried out into the night, far off in the distance. Were those even the voices of animals? They might have been something else. Haruhiro reached toward a pelt wrapped around an object. If need be, he’d use it. If those voices or some other presence approached them.
“I’m gonna get it all back.”
“Any idea how?” Ranta asked, dubious. He was always keeping an eye on Haruhiro, never sure when the thief might go off the rails and he’d need to be the one to stop him.
Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?
If Haruhiro could have put on a strained smile, he would have. But right now, that was too hard for him. It seemed he’d forgotten how to smile at all.
“I’ll find a way. Definitely. There’s gotta be one. Relics must be the key.”
Ranta started to open his mouth. But all he did was take a single breath. He didn’t say anything.
I’ll find a way.
Haruhiro repeatedly muttered, “I swear I’m going to find a way.”
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