Chapter 1--The Queen's Last Request (part 2)

Twelve Years Later…

‘Wake up…Wake up, Natsuki,’ called a voice which seemed very distant. It kept reverberate in her mind, calling her. Natsuki tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t. Thus, to put her mind to rest, she opened her eyes by a millimeter, just to check things out.

The first image that reflected on her retina was a woman with brown hair, smiling, holding a clock. The second image was a clock, with its longer hand pointing at the number “12” and its shorter hand pointing at “7”.

7…7…7…. It sounded so familiar… School starts at seven…

Natsuki woke up immediately. Her conscious was shouting, ‘Wake up! You are late!’ And she was late, late for her first class.

‘Mum, why didn’t you wake me up!’ cried Natsuki, she can’t believe it, her mother just sat there and watched her sleep, wearing that ‘oh you are so cute!’ look. Natsuki quickly jumped out of bed and brushed her teeth and put on her uniform. Her mother just looked at her, thinking deeply.

Natsuki did not want to have breakfast, but her parents insisted upon it, so she had a piece of bread. Her parents just love her sooooo much, and never want to leave her out of their sight. Wherever she went, they followed her. Natsuki just hate it. She was twelve, and big enough to take care of herself, and yet they treated her like she was a newborn baby.

Their house was situated in the woods of Ninken Village, the place they just moved to. The Irazumi had lived like nomads, moving to a new place annually. And each house was built in the woods, built in just one day.

As usual, Natsuki put out a sour look. Her parents had to accompany her to school. They said that the forest is a dangerous place, huge, man-eating animals just loved to prey little girls… But it’s not true; Natsuki had asked the trees, there are no man-eating animals in the woods, just cute little squirrels.

‘Why do they need to follow me everywhere?’ asked Natsuki in her mind, addressing to the closest tree.

It’s a parent’s nature to…

‘Yeah, I know. But they were overdoing it!’ grumbled Natsuki, in her mind. She had the same answer no matter which tree she asked, it’s like listening to a broken recorder, which kept repeating “it’s a parent’s nature to…”

After a fifteen minutes journey, Natsuki reached Ninken Primary School. It was small, with only one three-storey building present.

‘Bye! Take care! We would be fetching you at 1 o’ clock!’ said Natsuki’s mother while waving a hand towards her. Natsuki waved back and enter the school building. According to the directory in the entrance (as if a small building needed one), her classroom was situated at the right end of the building. Natsuki walked and walked, until she reached a wooden door with the sign “6”. Natsuki was going to knock on the door, when suddenly, it swung open with full force.

Natsuki was forced to retreat a few steps back because of the force. Now, in front of her, stood a figure with some kind of eerie aura. He was holding a book, and stared at Natsuki with a look which seemed to make Natsuki frightened.

‘Come in. You are late.’ said the teacher in a strict tone. Natsuki entered the classroom. Inside the classroom, were ten tables arranged in two rows, each with five tables, and nine students.

‘Students, I would like you to meet Irazumi Natsuki, your new classmate.’ introduced the teacher to the nine classmates-to-be.

‘Nice to meet you, everyone.’ greeted Natsuki, she was taught to say so by her parents. They said that this makes her look like a lady...

A boy who sat at the very back of the class raised up his hand, smiling. ‘What do you want now, Wai Dan?’ asked the teacher, with one of his eyebrows raised.

‘May I ask Irazumi a question?’

‘Yes, you may.’

‘Do you have your talent yet?’

Natsuki stood frozen. Her mouth was as dry as parchment, she wanted to speak, but it was as though she had lost her voice.

‘Is the answer “no”?’ asked Wai Dan menacingly.

‘Yes.’ Natsuki summed up all of her courage to say it. It felt humiliating to say “Yes”, but she could not tell a lie.

The instant she said so, laughter rang in both Natsuki’s ears, it was as if she was drowned in the world of ‘Ha! Ha!’ unable to return to the normal world.

Luckily, the laughter ceased. The teacher had disappeared. He was not beside Natsuki anymore. Instead, he was behind Wai Dan, with a face between happy and shocked. The teacher bent down, so that he was face to face with Wai Dan. He stared at Wai Dan with a strict look.

‘Whassup, Mr. Tunnel?’ greeted Wai Dan as if they met in the streets in a Sunday morning.

‘It’s not right to laugh at people, Wai Dan. The realization of talent varies from people to people.’ lectured Mr. Tunnel, ‘What truly counts is how you use you talent. This includes you, Wai Dan.’ Mr. Tunnel walked towards the row facing the window, and pointed at the second last table, ‘This will be your seat. Tsi Inn, show Irazumi around later.’

‘Yes, Mr. Tunnel.’ said a girl in front.

‘Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!’ After three hours of teaching, the school bell rang. The residents of the building exit their classrooms, to enjoy twenty minutes of bliss.

Natsuki stared outside of the window, thinking deeply. Reminiscing the days when she first went to school, all with the same ending.

‘It’s already recess, aren’t you leaving yet?’

Natsuki immediately return to Earth. She looked at the girl standing beside her. She had dark blue hair and olive green eyes. But the most prominent feature of hers is her protruding cat ears. ‘Hi, my name is Miao Tsi Inn. Nice to meet you!’ introduced Tsi Inn.

‘Quit the introduction, Tsi Inn. I’m starving.’ said Natsuki’s classmate-to-be. He was starving, because she heard his stomach grumbling. The boy with not so tidy hair was Aaron Saber, according to Tsi Inn.

‘Why don’t you show her around while we eat.’ suggested Aaron.

Tsi Inn showed the location of each class, laboratory, workshop and office available in the three- storey school building. Natsuki was accompanied by Aaron and two other classmates. They were Menomoto Fu yuda and Wan Yan. Fuyuda was what Natsuki called as snow, he had snowy white hair, eyes and teeth, he also had pale complexion, so he looked like snow. Yan, on the other hand, had big, sky-blue eyes and curly hair.

After showing the whole building in five minutes (Aaron suggested looking at the directory, which would only take less than one minute. But Tsi Inn stepped on his foot.), they headed to the canteen.

‘Just ignore what Wai Dan said just now, he’s just an arrogant jerk.’ said Tsi Inn. She seemed to know what Natsuki thought, for she was thinking of that whole incident since recess started. ‘Just because he had his talent at the age of one, he had to tease everyone who doesn’t.’ said Tsi Inn.

‘Well, at least you should know what your talent’s root is.’ said Aaron.

‘Talent’s root?’ asked Natsuki. Oh no, she could see another storm coming.

‘A family belongs to a clan which belongs to a talent’s root.’ explained Yan.

‘Don’t you even know your talent’s root?’ asked Fuyuda.

‘There are many kinds of talents in this world. They are divided into five talent’s root.’ explained Tsi Inn with the air of a teacher.

‘Elementras are people talented in the manipulation of certain substance, energy or mass. For example, an Elementra of fire.’ explained Tsi Inn, ‘Sorcerers have magical powers of specified purpose. Yan is a sorcerer of illusion.’

‘Warrior, on the other hand, wields a weapon, which possesses extraordinary powers.’ Tsi Inn explained, pointing to Aaron, ‘Only warriors can wield such weapons.’

‘Trainers, like me, are able to communicate with certain species of animal, and thus have command over them.’ Continued Tsi Inn, ‘Mutants, like Fuyuda, differ from other talent’s roots because their talent is their body part themselves. Fuyuda’s eyes can overcome limits of our eyes.’

‘So Irazumi, what’s your talent’s root?’ repeated Aaron.

‘I don’t know.’ answered Natsuki truthfully, ‘They never tell me my talent’s root. I’ve never seen them perform their talent too.’ There was a cold gust of wind. Nobody spoke.

‘Never mind, you’re bound to have it soon, and then you would know what your talent’s root is.’ said Tsi Inn.

‘Yeah, Hi had his talent recently.’ said Fuyuda, pointing outside the building. Outside there, was a boy with curly, flaming red hair. He was juggling what seemed to be fireballs. Yet, his hand did not sustain any burns from the fire.

‘Hi burnt his hand to have it,’ said Fuyuda, referring to Hi’s talent. Then he explained about how Hi accidentally “burnt” his hand in the science laboratory.

‘Since then, he tries hard to impress the girls,’ said Aaron. There were a group of girls surrounding Hi like flies. Two of the girls came from Natsuki’s class.

Recess flew past quickly, so did school lessons.

Just outside the school gates, stood Natsuki’s parents.

‘You need your parents to fetch you?’ exclaimed Aaron in disbelief. He was just about to ask why, but Natsuki had already run towards her parents.

‘How’s your first day in school?’ asked Natsuki’s father, he had snowy white hair, with signs of turning grey.

Natsuki told them about her new classmates (omitting the part where she was laughed at). ‘…There was one boy called Hi, he was a fire Elementra, and he was juggling fire balls, but I think I saw him dropped one of the balls…Hey! Stop bullying him!’

Down the streets, Natsuki saw a man holding an old man by his collar, and then turn him upside down and shook him like shaking a piggy bank to take out the coins in it. The man took the objects that fell off the old man and walked away.

Natsuki was just about to walk forward and lecture the man when her mother held her back. ‘Natsuki, it’s their business.’ said her mother, shaking her head.

‘But…’

But it was no use, how can a little girl fight two gigantic adults?

Natsuki and her parents walked through the woods. Natsuki was told that someone was following them. She kept looking back, but all she saw were trees and squirrels.

‘Look out!’ cried Natsuki when she saw water charging straight towards them.

The next thing Natsuki knew, she had a black out, and her parents laid on the ground lifelessly. They were dead.