"Fifteen years ago, I was fourteen, just like Shinji and the others."
Mirror Knight and Jean-bot listened in silence, both eager to hear what came next.
"After the Second Impact, the whole world fell into chaos..."
"You probably can't imagine it... cities were destroyed, people had nowhere to live, food was scarce, and the casualties were beyond counting..."
"My parents died too, leaving me and my brother, who was four years younger, with only each other."
"Mr. Kaji..."
Jean-bot had just started to offer some comfort when Mirror Knight raised a finger to his lips, signaling him to stay quiet.
Still, Mirror Knight was a little curious about why Kaji showed no grief as he spoke.
Kaji seemed to pay no attention to their reactions and continued:
"There were countless children who'd suffered the same fate as us."
"Of course, the government couldn't just abandon us kids. Eventually, they began taking steps to place us in the Adoption Center."
"But think about it. There were hundreds of thousands of orphans across the country back then. Those little orphanages filled up immediately. There wasn't enough food, clothing, or supplies. We even had to fight over places to sleep."
"There weren't enough people to look after us, so some of the rules they made were... pretty unusual."
Mirror Knight and Jean-bot could picture the scene.
After all, when Belial's Ginga Empire had run rampant through their universe, the planets he destroyed had left countless refugees and orphans.
Even Princess Emerana of Esmeralda had been forced to flee across the universe, never mind ordinary people.
"Anyway, eventually we couldn't take it anymore, so a few of us ran away. There were six of us, including me and my brother."
"To fill our stomachs, we had to... you probably get the idea." Kaji shrugged