Hero for a day

<sub>Kayin had spoken to Eiji, his best and probably only friend, on the phone at least twice within the last hour.
Harsh japanese words she did not understood, never had learned it. But the sound was far from comforting and even that Kayin half whispered could not hide the obvious anger in his voice. And she was utterly confused. But when he finally turned the headset of and looked down on her, nothing betrayed his emotions. "You're fine, sweetie?“ he asked soft. "I know you are exhausted, you even haven't had breakfast. Damn, look, why don't you sit down for a while?" Naru was more than thankful, every break from the endless running was good.

He woke her early today, his hand pressed firm against her mouth. "We'll play a game, okay?" he said then while his face was hidden in the dark. "We'll play hide and seek. You and me will hide. But we have to hurry now." And Naru trusted him, regardless the fact that he brought strange weapons, he usually never wore in front of her and that they were heading to Belfast, a place she was strictly told to avoid. And when the remaining of the town had always looked so intriguing in the past, they had already lost their charm over Naru.

The air tasted strange and burned, the sky looked wrong, pale and somehow sick, as if infested with a poison nobody had a cure for . And it WAS exhausting to walk around the ruins with her lungs burning and her skin starting to get sticky. So she sat. But her young father behaved even more strange then, taking the sword out as if he had to prepare for a fight, his eyes scanning the area more careful then before.

And she was suddenly afraid. Whatever this hide and seek game was, she did not want to play it anymore but somehow, she knew, that she had no other choice. Minutes passed, stretching to what felt more like hours. Finally Kayin sighted. "We have to walk again, I'm sorry. But I promise you, it is not far and when we have made it out of the town, I'll get you something unhealthy sweet and sticky, a deep fried Wunderbar or something."
"I am afraid." she finally admitted, looking at the dangerous weapons, that he held so tight. Kayins face darkened for a second. "I know." he started, kneeling down to be on eye-level with her. "But I am here with you. I protect you and I will not leave. I promise, you will never be alone." And Naru believed him, her small heart fluttering with relief and trust.
Maybe it was the aftertaste of Belfast, that made the heartbreak even worse, when he brought her to the housing institute only one month later.</sub>
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Part 7 of Blood Society

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for those that might find this stuff interesting:
characters face shapes and Kayins Body sculpted in Zbrush
Jacket and accesoirs Blender and Zbrush with a not so pretty rigging
all UV textures done in Zbrush/Photoshop
texture resource material photographed with Olympus camera in studio
360 HDR illumination panorama done outside last year with Olympus, stiched in photoshop
postwork in photoshop

No need to ask about the render engine...won't answer
it has taken 20 hours to render dif/ref and ao pass