Midnight. Under a shootig star, one wish was made true for Hyder and his beautiful wife, Jasmine. They had their first baby after multiple years of hardships.
'' Jasmine'' cried her husband with blue stary eyes and long black hair' '' We finaly can become a family! ''
'' Hubby, we always were family! '' said the tired young lady sweetly ''It's a boy, how should we name him? ''
'' Ash, lets name him Ash. '' Hyder, with unusual calmness suggested, looking at the void with blank expression.
Seeing his masculine, but blank face, the beautiful mother with dark blue hair , blinked her black and deep eyes in confusion before opening her mouth to say something, but just before she could say anything, she fell asleep mysteriously.
The baby in her hands suddenly opened it's dark blue eyes, looked at its parents for a minute or two, and then closed them like nothing happened. It felt tired after its first cry and fell asleep.
.....
14 years later, a little before noon, in a three storey house near the beach.
'' Congratulations to our cute little Ash for making it to the most prestigious highschool in the Cloud Empire !'' said Jasmine in high spirits, feeling proud of her son. Her figure back to normal from the pregnancy, but with a more carying and mature touch to it, seeming like a perfect beauty.
'' Perfect as always... '' thought Ash to himself, looking at her with a wide grin.
'' Not to mention you enrolled with perfect score, but i guess that's to be expected from my son! '' Hyder added as a compliment, not only to his son, but to himself too, to feel better for making a bet with him.
'' Hope you didn't forget our bet. You said that if i manage to enter Cloud highschool with perfect score you will get me an apartment and let me live on my own. '' commented Ash with a joyful smile.He realy didn't wish to live in the dorms with a bunch of people packed in a small room.
'' Good and intelligent ,yet I wonder how did he make such results with his lazyness. I always thought he was a lazy student and he has never gotten results higher than 80%.He always lacked interest in studying and had no ambitions, yet today he surprised us with this score... '' saddened by the fact that he got scammed by his son, Hyder thought.
On the other hand Jasmine was worrying about him being all alone, but knew that once her son made his mind, he would follow it through deserts and mountains without hesitation.
.....
"I welcome eveyone on this joyous day to announce the start of a new year... '' the principal of Cloud highschool started with his speech. It was an hour long before he continued with" This year is very special because in 10 years we have for the first time a student enrolling at our highschool with a perfect score, not only that, but there are two such students. Let me introduce to you Bai Ling, from the Fire Empire and Ash Heartfallen from Wind city"
An elegant, but also innocent looking girl next to Ash stood up and went to make her speech. Her calm black eyes in total contrast with her fiery red hair and yet givimg her a unique charm, to fall in love with. While giving the speech everyone in the hall was dazzled by her figure and serene and sweet voice, that could make even the most battle hardened soldier melt like ice on a sunny summer day.
"A true beauty... I wonder how will she look when she develops a bit?" Judging her from the side, Ash thought. Hormones were getting the best of him at this age.
"I guess rebirth realy does exist... Nothing to lose though... new life, new possibilities. May as well enjoy it." suddenly he remembered his past while in a daze. Was it greed that killed him, or someone else's greed?
Soon the young lady finished her speech and it was time for Ash to stand up. Looking at the still dazzled crowd he inwardly sighed and continued with a simple speech, expressing his gratitude to the teachers and principal, after which he went back to his seat.
Turning his head to the right, Ash saw the beauty with a foreign name staring at him with a bright smile.
Not knowing about her thoughts, he smiled back at her and turned his head to the crowd.
.....
"Uncle Lee, what do you think about him?" a little miss standing next to an elegant looking, red haired middle aged man asked with a mysterious smile on her face.
"You are interested in him, Bai? What about his character, and most important, what about his tallent?" asked instead the elegant uncle while watching Ash's back fading in the distance. "Also, I can't seem to see his talent."
"I have a hunch that he is a good guy and he is also decent looking, as for talent..." stopping for a second she continued "Remember father's words? If i don't find a boyfriend untill 18 I will be forced to marry that arrogant uncle from the Xia family. He gisgusts me." answered with a frown Bai Ling.
"I don't like Xia Hong too, but he is just 20 years old, still a newborn and I can't deny that he is handsome. As for your hunch.. " paused uncle Lee for a second "I will believe in you, but how do you intend to persuade him to become your 'partner'?"he made a hand gesture as he emphasized on the word 'partner'.
.....
As he walked down the road to his appartment, Ash was oblivious to the conversation the little miss and elegant uncle had.
He went straight to his appartment and started preparing for tomorrow.
After the finishing touch was made for the decorations and furniture, he went straight to bed, but instead of sleeping he tried to recover his memory from his past life.
Lying deep in his subconscious mind, there were bead like objects with different sizes and colors. The black was the biggest, after which there was the white, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
He remembered fragments of his unimaginably long life and how he died eating the violet heart of a unique monster, rumored to be extremely poisonous and deadly. Sealing his deepest secrets in 9 beads, binded to the soul.
However, he couldn't break those beads and neither did he knew what these beads held for him. After years of trying, his will and curiosity gradually turned to frustration and a feeling of helplesness.
"It seems i've tried everything i could...life can be cruel sometimes." thought Ash dejectedly. "It would be cool if i got some cool super powers after i manage to find a way to break them. " he immersed himself in immagination.
Knowing he could do little, after a while, Ash relaxed his mind and emptied his thoughts.
Sometimes its better to just let problems you can't solve now for the future 'you' to deal with.
Looking at the ceiling with his eyes, one could see a tinge of emptiness in them. Ash lied on the comfy bed with only pants covering him and after some time he closed his eyes.
The weather outside was warm and had an unusual calmness.