Chapter 4--Mirage Island

‘In Mirage Island.’ A lady appeared before them. She had long, silvery blond hair and warm blue eyes. She wore a pure white silk dress and smelled like roses. She was simply breathtaking.

‘Mirage Island? I’ve never heard of a place like this, it’s not even in the world atlas.’ Tsi Inn was staring at the lady with suspicion, she might be an accomplice of Hoi Fong and thought that she could trick them by making up such a ridiculous place.

‘Ah, my dear, this place could not be found anywhere in the atlas of your dimension.’ said the lady, as if she was talking to a kid who was asking where Fairyland is.

‘Our dimension?’ asked Fuyuda.

‘Yes, my boy. Mirage Island is in a separate dimension from yours.’ said the lady with a smile. The five just stared at her with a look that told her that they could not comprehend what she had just told them.

‘There are three separate dimensions: Your dimension, the dimension of talents. The dimension of the dead, and Mirage Island, the dimension for those that are talentless.’ the lady explained, but there was still no response. The lady was getting impatient.

‘If all of you don’t believe me, then let’s ask this orange-eyed girl here to prove that I’m right.’ said the lady, referring to Natsuki, who sat between Tsi Inn and Yan, looking bewildered.

‘Me?’

‘Yes, you, my dear.’

Aaron, Fuyuda, Natsuki, Tsi Inn and Yan went to the hospital’s park outside. Mirage Hospital Park was surrounded by trees, which respond to Natsuki’s question.

‘The trees wouldn’t talk to me.’ said Natsuki.

‘These trees aren’t the same as those from your dimension. This ability of yours won’t work here in Mirage Island.’ was the lady’s explanation.

‘Who are you anyway?’ asked Natsuki, realizing that the lady had not told them her name.

‘Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Ying Yu.’
***
‘Do you think she’s speaking the truth?’ asked Aaron after they had returned to their ward.

‘I guess she must be. If not, why wouldn’t the trees respond? But how did she know that I could communicate with trees?’ wondered Natsuki.

‘She seems so nice. She let us stay in the hospital until we’re fully recovered. I don’t think she would cause any harm to us.’ said Yan.

‘But her husband seemed like the kind of people who wanted to harm us. Didn’t you see the deadly look on his face when he knew we have talents?’ said Tsi Inn.

While the five were taking a stroll in the park with Ying Yu, a man came up to them and scolded Ying Yu. He had the same hair colour as Natsuki and bore leaf-green eyes. He pulled Ying Yu to a spot where he thought that the five could not overhear their conversations and started scolding. Apparently, that spot was not so far from the five and they were shouting.

‘Why did you need to save them?’

‘They were being attacked at that time, and he’s going to kill her!’

‘That didn’t mean you could bring them in here. You know that very clearly that no one there should know of the existence of Mirage Island.’

‘They are just little kids, even if they were to tell others about this place, no one would believe them.’

‘Little kids?! They are little kids?! They are already fifteen!’

‘Shen, trust me. Nobody would trust them, even if they do. They still couldn’t travel between dimensions. No one in the talent dimension could come here unless they have the…’

That’s all they could eavesdrop. After that, the so-called Shen and Ying Yu stopped shouting, and left.

‘Unless what? Why didn’t she finish the sentence?’ asked Tsi Inn.

‘At least we knew that we didn’t enter this dimension by chance. Ying Yu let us in, and she was not supposed to do so.’ said Fuyuda.

‘That means no one in our world could enter Mirage Island, unless someone let us in, or we must have something, like a key to enter Mirage Island.’ said Yan.

‘But why did she let us enter here in the first place? We aren’t people who are important to her.’ asked Natsuki.

‘Maybe she is an extremely kind lady who couldn’t even bear seeing a fly being squashed.’ guessed Aaron.

‘They already said that they weren’t allowed to let people like us in. If she is an extremely kind person, she would have let lots of people like us into Mirage Island.’ said Tsi Inn.

This discussion about how they entered Mirage Island continued for hours until a nurse entered their ward, carrying a trolley with their dinner on it and told them to keep their voices down as it would disturb the other patients that they stopped talking and ate their dinner in silence.

Everything was white, but Natsuki could tell that she was in a forest. Wait, someone was waving at her not far away, as if beckoning her to follow him, or her. Natsuki followed him, or her. Colours started to appear, and Natsuki was in a meadow. In the middle of this meadow, stood Hoi Fong, beckoning her to come closer. Natsuki raised her fist and charged towards him. She was inches from him when lightning struck.

The blinding light awoke Natsuki. She got up and looked at her surroundings, the others were still asleep. Natsuki looked at both her hands, recalling what had happened before she came to Mirage Island. Her friends and she were attacked by Hoi Fong, the guy whom the trees told Natsuki was her parents’ murderer. Natsuki remembered how Hoi Fong released her suddenly, as if something had stung his hand. What caused him to loosen his grasp on her neck? Is it… Natsuki’s talent?

There’s only one way to find out. Natsuki got up from her bed and changed into a set of clothes prepared by Ying Yu. Then she went out to the empty misty garden and found a spot which was surrounded by trees, a spot where no one would notice her.

Natsuki took a deep breath, held out her right hand and stare at it, while trying to remember the scene when she was held by the thoart by Hoi Fong, how she felt at that moment. But it was hard, all she could remember was the urge to make Hoi Fong let go. There must be something that I missed, thought Natsuki. She searched high and low in her memories for the missing thing, the key to her talent. After minutes of searching, Natsuki finally found the key. It all happened a year after she met her brother…

Natsuki was staring at her lunch with a sulky face, after umpteenth attempts to find out what her talent was. She had eliminated the possibilities that she was a warrior, trainer and a mutant, and was left with the talent roots elementra and sorcerer. Natsuki tried focusing on making all her talent flow through her hand, like what Hi said, but since she did not know how does talent felt like, she gave up on that plan after a few hours trying it. Then she tried making up all kinds of spells, just in case one of them work. But those two plans were a failure. To console herself, she went back home and made lunch. But she found the food not appetizing, so she stared at it until her brother returned home.

‘The food won’t disappear if you stare at it,’ said Kishirou, ‘What’s the matter? You looked down.’ Natsuki did not reply. ‘Is it about your talent?’ he asked. Natsuki continued to stare at her lunch. But Kishirou already knew the answer.

‘It’s not easy to realize one’s talent. It takes determination, strong will, which is just the same, motivation, and most of all reason.’ said Kishirou. His words seemed to catch Natsuki’s attention, because she stopped staring at her lunch at stared at her brother, who was standing beside her, instead.

‘What do you mean “reason”?’ she asked. Kishirou adjusted his sunglasses and looked at the kitchen. But he looked as if he was staring at the faraway land behind the kitchen.

‘Why do you want to realize your talent? Is it to be famous, to make money, to prove that you are worthy, or to protect?’ said Kishirou, still looking at the faraway land.

Why did I want to realize my talent? Natsuki asked herself. She tried to think of an answer. Is it to be famous? No. Is it to make money? No. To prove myself to others? No. To protect? Who?

Yes, who did I want to protect? Natsuki asked herself again. She thought of her deceased parents, they died because she could not protect them. She thought of her friends, who were hurt because she could not protect them. It was because Natsuki did not realize her talent, so she could not protect those she loved. This made her felt bad. She really wanted to realize her talent, to make sure that those around her were safe.

While Natsuki felt all these, she felt something surged through her, and she knew that this is it, her talent. Natsuki tried to channel this feeling to her hand, sweating while focusing to do so. It finally happened, she finally realized her talent. Natsuki could see sparks from her hand. It excited her to see this phenomenon. She quickly returned to her ward and woke up her friends.

‘Aaron, wake up.’ Natsuki shook his shoulder. Aaron pushed her hand away and pulled his comforter up until it covered his face.

‘Fuyuda, wake up.’ After her first unsuccessful attempt to wake Aaron, Natsuki gave up and turned to Fuyuda instead. Fuyuda did not wake up and mumbled whether or not they had returned to Ninken Village. Next, Natsuki woke Tsi Inn up. She got up, looked at Natsuki, and returned to her dream. Natsuki was infuriated, so she pulled up the curtains and shouted, ‘WAKE UP!’

Aaron dropped from his bed, whereas Fuyuda, Tsi Inn and Yan woke up with a start. 'Don't wake us up like that!' The four of them shouted. Suddenly, a nurse who passed by called them to be quiet as they were disturbing the other patients. The five apologized and promised not to repeat it again.

'Is there anything wrong?' asked Yan. Natsuki shook her head.

'If there isn't any, I'm resuming my n--'

'Wait, don't go to bed yet. I want to show you something,' Natsuki interrupted Aaron before he could finish his sentence, 'Watch.' And Natsuki showed her right hand and focused hard on the feeling she had when she was at the hospital's garden. She felt it and directed it to her right hand.

'Watch what?' asked Aaron.

'Huh? You didn't see anything? Not even a spark?' Everyone shook their head. Natsuki was surprised, she was sure she saw sparks when she was at the garden trying to realize her talent.

'Not even a spark?' Natsuki sought reassurance from her friends. To her disappointment, they shook their heads again.