A certain Sunday, Shinkuu woke up late in the morning, after a long meditation about what to do with Kiba. She knew there was no way to have Kiba living on the park like that forever, but she didn’t want to separate completely of who she considered her best friend. Kiba, to her, wasn’t simply “her dog”, after all. She made many researches on the net about many possibilities. Should her allow another family to adopt it? Should her take it to a shelter for animals and volunteer there to be close to her friend? Even after her awakening, Shinkuu was thinking about Kiba. A few seconds after she rose from her pillow, the sound of a thunder make her eyes wide open. Jumping from her bed, the girl ran towards the window, almost tearing up the curtains due to the violence used to open them. There was a storm running outside, rain heavily falling and thunders roaring in the background. After observing the stormy landscape, Shinkuu could think nothing but concern regarding Kiba: without losing any time, she put the first clothes she found, put on a heavy coat and ran down the stairs. She was about to leave home when her mother stopped her, asking where she was going with such weather. When Shinkuu, with trembling voice and desperate crying eyes explained to her mother the situation, begging her mother to allow Kiba at home just for that day to protect him from the storm, the woman refused to accept such thing. Her stepfather, hearing what was going on, came out from the kitchen to support the woman’s prohibition. Shinkuu, realizing her supposed family didn’t want to help her in such critical moments, felt like that was the end for whatever feelings she had towards both of them. With rage and anxiety, she pushed away her mother and ran outside home without looking back. Both the man and the woman she used to call ‘family’ shouted at her, ordering her return with angry voices, but she completely ignore them. She ran as fast as she could with her light and slender body, fighting to overcome the force of the wind and the rain. Fortunately, the park in which Kiba lived was near. In no time she was there, at the usual spot Kiba used to wait with waging tail and happy face. Instead, she found the little dog, trembling, terrorized by the thunders, and cold to the bone because of the heavy rain. Shinkuu took Kiba, enveloping it in a sweater she carried with her. Then, she thought hard about where she could take the dog. It was ill and weak, so the first place she could think of was the veterinary clinic of her town. It was far from where she was, but since she couldn’t go back home, that was her only option. She ran holding her dear friend on her chest, trying to warm him a little. As she ran, she noticed a bus that crossed near to the clinic was coming next to her. She rushed to the bus stop and jumped on the bus. Besides the driver, there was no one on the bus at the moment. She waited the right stop to get off the bus, cuddling her little dog. “Don’t worry, Kiba. Everything is gonna be fine, soon!”, she said more to herself than to the puppy. Fifteen minutes inside the bus seemed an eternity to the girl and, when finally outside the bus, she resumed her race. She ran so fast and felt so little pain, considering her previous experiences at school, Shinkuu thought that it was true that humans, when affront difficult and critical situations, show an incredible strength fueled by their will to overcome any crisis. Many times she fell to the ground, always protecting Kiba with her own body. After many struggles and a long rush, she was finally there, before the door of a little animal clinic. Gasping heavily, she stretched a hand to open the door. But the door didn’t move at all. Then she pushed, then she knocked as hard as she could, but no answer. Then, with her only eye covered by rain and tears, she realized that her most frightening fear was real: it was closed. “It… can be…” She looked up to the opening times in the sign attached to the door, trying to see if she just read the wrong day, or her eye was just too wet to read properly. She didn’t want to accept the truth. She wasn’t prepare for this. She tried to remember if there was another veterinarian near, but the anxiety grew stronger on her, making difficult any kind of thought. Her only hope then was to rush towards the animal shelter, though it was far from her location. Only at the thought of it, she felt her body weakening and her breath cut. She didn’t feel any more strength, and indeed, after a couple of meters running desperately, she felt again. With great pain and difficulty, she stood once again, but she could only walk limping, trying to avoid another fall. It was then when she felt a low bark, coming from the little puppy. Shinkuu stood to observe her little friend: its shape was even worse than when she found it in the park, its eyes almost closed, its breath becoming weaker with every second. Kiba licked Shinkuu’s hand, as if it tried to cheer up the girl even in such terrible situation. Another burst of tears ran down Shinkuu’s cheeks, as she could only see her best friend closing its eyes, falling into the eternal slumber with a happy face. She could felt the happiness of the dog, as she could felt its breathing eventually disappearing. She left herself falling into the ground again, kneeled and holding her best friend. She called it many times, shouted its name to the sky, to the ground, but there was no other answer than the trembling of the thunders. Only when Shinkuu let her pain out through screams of grief, some people approached her to see what happened. But she just closed her heart walked away from everyone, ignoring every calling at her back. It took her a long time to return home walking, and when she did, her mother and stepfather where even angrier than the last time she saw them. They shouted to her because disobeying their orders, also for the dirt she carried with her entering home like nothing. In fact, Shinkuu was completely wet from top to bottom, carrying all the rain and mud from the outside, dirtying the precious and expensive floor and carpets. She walked ignoring them, going straight to the back garden. Her mother tried to grab Shinkuu’s wrist, then again Shinkuu violently casted her mother away, pushing her back. At this, the man was truly furious.

- Do you think that’s the way to treat your own mother? – he shouted while helping Shinkuu’s mother to stand again – I will not tolerate any other insolence from you! Even if I have to be more drastic with you!

Rising his fist, the man wanted to make clear what was thinking. Even so, Shinkuu didn’t turn to him to watch him in the face. She continued to the garden closet and found what she was searching for: a shovel. The man repeated the threat but, this time, Shinkuu looked him in the eyes with her last one, with the coldest and terrible gaze she had.

- If you dare to touch me with your filthy hands, next time is you the one I’ll be burying.

A chill ran down the backs of both Shinkuu’s ‘parents’. As Shinkuu walked out from the house again, both adults remaining in their places, thinking about what was really happening. The rage for their precious house being dirtied was washed away by the realization Shinkuu was deadly serious about her warning. In that moment, they decided to forget about the issue, because they really believed she would something like that.

The grieving girl returned to the park, to the same spot in which, for almost a month, she could fine her best friend. She dug Kiba’s grave in silence, with no more tears to pour, under the restless rain. After putting the little puppy under the dirt, she placed a rock as its tomb. Then, she closed her eye and prayed as she was taught time ago when she was still in Japan. “Rest in peace, my adorable best friend. May your soul be in a better place”

For a whole week, Shinkuu was forced to be at bed due to a strong fever and cold. Due to the discussion they had before, her mother refused to take care of her. The man avoided the girl as much as he could for about a month, until he felt she was less ominous. Nonetheless, even if she didn’t show any more rage or anger, any kind of good feelings towards her mother and stepfather died together with Kiba. Since that day, she hated both of them from the bottom of her heart. Since that day, she lost her most and only precious friend she ever had.

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