The 2445 hostage situation [How Yumi lost her voice]

2445, Earth. Within the bustling streets of a small city, a happy little family, husband, wife, and daughter, walk down the market area for the weekly groceries.

The wife suggests they buy their daughter some new clothes since she has been a good girl the past month. The husband agrees, and they enter the local clothing store.

While the husband and wife walk off to look at the clothes, their daughter wanders off to the children's area to play with the various toys available.

Yumi didn't have a care in the world as she played with the toys in the store. It was a veritable playground - A slide, a swing, even some bouncing horses and a see-saw.

All kid sized, of course, but to the little five year old Yumi, they were nothing but fun things to play on while her parents were shopping. First, she went on the slide a few times, before trying out the swing for several minutes. Not many people were around this area, but Yumi didn'tcare. She wanted to play with the see-saw, but since that was something for 2 people, she couldn't, so she decided to play on one of the bouncing horse instead. Suddenly, from the crowd of people still shopping, two black-clad men appeared and started walking to the playground. Yumi waved to the men, thinking they wanted to play with the toys too. Suddenly, she is hoisted up by a third man,

also clad in black, and a sharp knife is held to her throat. Yumi knew knives were bad, her mother imprinted into her mind to never play with them. Yumi called out for her parents. "Mama! Pap-" She was interrupted as the knife was suddenly pushed against her throat and she could feel the sharpness on her skin. "Shut up, you little rat."

The man holding her said, but a few people had already seen what happened, and screams were uttered, and suddenly the entire store had their focus on the men,

with Yumi as their hostage.

Yumi had no idea what was going on, but she didn't dare to speak. She tried to squirm, but only found either the sharpness of the knife again or a slap against her head from the men. She didn't know how much time went by, but her parents never came to help her. She was scared, she was alone. The entire store was just watching, unable or unwilling to do anything. She heard some sirens, but Yumi had no idea what those meant yet. Yumi started crying, only to receive another slap, upon which she started to cry even more. She could see her parents in the crowd of people, her father red in anger, and her mother white in fear. Suddenly, eight men with light blue uniforms with dark blue caps came pushing through the crowd, armed with pistols, which they aimed at the men. They started talking to the men, and they talked back, but Yumi had no idea about what, she was too preoccupied with the knife pushing against her throat. The men holding her started to gesture aggressively, while one of the store clerks walked to the desk to do something. Yumi didn't understand what was going on at all. She felt so alone, with no one to help her.Then, suddenly, there was movement everywhere. She felt the man holding her get grabbed from behind, but as that happened, she felt a burning pain along her throat. She tried to scream,

but all that came out was gurgling. She heard loud bangs, and the bad men holding her all fell to the ground around her. Then she suddenly saw her parents above her,

sick with worry. She tried to go up to hug them, but couldn't really get her arms up there. She started to have a little trouble breathing, and her throat hurt and felt wet.

She felt really dizzy and sleepy. Everything was scary, she wanted it to end. She heard yelling, and screaming, but she really wanted to take a nap...

Yumi woke up in a white room. Everything was white. The walls, the windows, the ceiling, her bed - everything. She blinked. Why did her throat hurt so much? Se tried to sit up, and with a surprising amount of effort, she succeeded. She breathed heavily from it, and something was... Off, but Yumi couldn't determine what it was. Where were her mama and papa? She tried calling out to them, but no sound came out of her mouth. She tried again, again, again... Until she realized, she couldn't speak.

Her eyes widened as she remembered what happened, and she started crying. Minutes later, the door opened, and a man in a white coat walked in. "Oh dear. You're awake already? My, you're resilient. What's wrong, little girl?" The man asked. Yumi tried to explain, she tried to ask for her parents... But no sound. At all. The man tapped his chin. "Yes, I believe your parents should be here for this." The man said, before walking out of the room, to come back with her parents a minute later. Yumi saw them and started crying again, stretching out her arms, desperately needing to be hugged. Her arms weren't stretched out fully yet when both her parents were next to her,

hugging her. Yumi cried, she still hurt, but she felt safe again, her parents were there. The man coughed. "Ahem. If I can have all three of your attention for a moment.

Yumi will be fine, she may need a bit of rest, but you can take her home now. However..." The man spoke, getting a serious look in his eyes. "Her vocal chords were irreparably damaged. We had to surgically remove them lest they become an issue later. Yumi... Cannot speak anymore, for the rest of her life." While Yumi couldn't follow the last part, she was shocked at the affirmation the man gave to her earlier discovery. Her mother and father also looked shocked and hugged her tighter.

Her mother told her that everything will be alright, and her father asked the man to speak to him outside of the room. Yumi, her face wet from tear, suddenly felt very tired from the shock and the excitement and then shock again. She gave her mother a goodnight hug, before resting her head on her mother's shoulder and falling asleep. Little Yumi Yotin had lost her voice that day.