[main character: Shion]
Once we arrived to the dining room two more people were there: Angelo and Carbon.
- Kay, are we the only ones here?
KAY: Of course not.
- So...
KAY: Well sweetie, we took a bit longer in our little discussion. Everybody already finished, except Carbon. I asked Angelo to wait for me here after stopping their little slip, am I right Lance?
LANCE: I was definitely going to win.
YUI: Oh my god! I am glad Kay was my master in the end.
LANCE: You just couldn't keep up with me.
YUI: I am not going to talk to you. Starting now.
KAY: Ladies, be a bit considerate with Shion. That's really the best impression you two can give to him?
LANCE: I'm starving. Let's sit wherever.
Wow, even though Yui already showed me the dining room, I am still shocked by its size.
We all sat down on one of the multiple round tables scattered across the room. Angelo, July, Kay, Lance, Yui, and I shared table, but Carbon was a few meters away from us eating lots of sugar cubes alone.
Why is Carbon eating so much sugar? I don't think that would be healthy for anyone.
ANGELO: Hey kid, are you okay?
- Yes!
ANGELO: Lance can be a bit noisy sometimes.
LANCE: I've heard you.
ANGELO: It's true! Anyways, why did you asked me to wait here, Master?
KAY: Well, it seems that you've taken the right decision again. This new girl might be the key to bring Coyote back.
ANGELO: Who? Yui?
KAY: No, the other "new" girl.
ANGELO: Really?
- But, who is Coyote?
ANGELO: She is the Tenth Entaku. But she is currently missing.
JULY: Not anymore...
ANGELO: Are you serious?
YUI: Yes, Mirai found her just now. I was returning from getting our belongings and I wanted to make her a visit. She just had the door opened and then I knew; Coyote's location has finally been discovered.
KAY: You did well, Angelo.
ANGELO: Thanks Master!
- But you guys haven't answered me yet... I mean, who IS Coyote?
LANCE: A really ungrateful person. That's who she is.
JULY: Watch your mouth Lance.
LANCE: Oh? Are you threatening me?
YUI: Stop! Let me explain. Tristan the Tenth, was one of the first Kishi. She, together with July, Lance, and Bors, are the ones that with Arthur, created 15 years ago what we know today as the Entaku no KISHI organization.
- Arthur...
YUI: Yes shion. I once met Arthur 6 years ago, he was a good man, but, one year after that, he decided to disappear. Arthur asked personally to Mirai not to search for him, so we can't convince her into doing otherwise.
LANCE: He will come back. I know he will.
JULY: ...
YUI: Returning to the point. After Arthur left, many things have changed, some for the better and some for the worst. Coyote thought of it as a betrayal and decided to impart justice in her own ways. But, before leaving, she threaten us. She was willing to take her life away using her own quirk if we try to stop her, so there was nothing left for us to do. Until now.
- Using her own quirk? What power does she have?
KAY: That's a secret honey. She's still one of the Twelve, I'm afraid we can't tell you about that just now.
- Why?
LANCE: Listen kid, if we had weapons of mass destruction walking around, will you make that information available to anyone that joined us?
- No... but, are the Twelve THAT strong?
KAY: Yes. Yes we are.
Wow, so are they all that strong? It is just a single one of them able to make the world tremble?
YUI: She is telling you the truth Shion.
- I see.
KAY: If you want to get involved into this, you would have to become an Entaku first!
JULY: ...
YUI: But Master! I think we...
KAY: You did well training your little brother. Now we need to focus on training this new girl. BUT! Between the youth, they are able to grow faster with a partner to look up to. While Shion possess higher combat skills, I'm convinced this girl has lots of initiative. And you are lacking a bit, Shion.
- Me?
KAY: You know you could have stopped your sister if you wanted to. Her red flames can't hurt you if you activate yours.
- I...
As the conversation was coming to an end, we all finished the delicious dinner that July prepared and then left. Carbon stayed. When we were on our way to the bedrooms, Kay explained me the final part of her plan.
KAY: One more thing Shion. Classes will begin in 3 days. Even though your training is complete, you will need to learn a thing or two about this world. Think of it as a teaching that will prepare you for entering the Twelve. If you still want to become one.
- I never said I wanted to become one. But... I want to help on bringing Coyote back. Doing justice in her own ways... that's not how the people with power should act.
KAY: Ooh! What beautiful words coming from someone as young as you. The youth melts my heart sometimes...
Why does she speak like that? She looks a bit older than my sister, isn't she part of "the youth" as well?
KAY: Also... I don't want to be rude Shion, but I think that you will need to take extra classes.
- Extra classes? What?
YUI: (looks away)
- Yui?
LANCE: I guess your sister only taught you how to use your power and some fighting, but you will also need to learn other things such as physics, mathematics, and of course, other languages. Or did you thought being a KISHI only requires brute strength and fancy swordsmanship?
I feel that she is not the best to speak about this.
- Okay... It makes sense. But... am I not going to learn this when classes start anyways?
ANGELO: She is trying to tell you that the girl we rescued today is more intelligent than you.
- Ah! Really?
YUI: Yes... I am sorry. It's my fault for only teaching you advanced quirk-based combat for 5 years.
KAY: Well well. Go to see Hadoc in his office tomorrow morning. He will be the teacher for the two of you and some other students along the way.
LANCE: Well, I am going to bed. I'll need to plan a new training for my apprentices tomorrow, so I need to get a good rest.
YUI: I am going as well. Your things are in my room Shion, you can come and get them.
KAY: Wait Lance!
JULY: I'll leave too.
ANGELO: Same here. Bye kid.
They went all went in different directions. As I was about to leave with Yui, I listened Kay's words to Lance. She had a smile on her face.
LANCE: What do you want?
KAY: You were definitely going to win, that's why I stopped you.
LANCE: Mph!
KAY: Hey! Don't walk that fast! Wait! It's not fair!
Was the difference between my sister and Lance that big? I can also see that the Twelve Kishi rooms are separate from the rest. Is it just for safety measures?
YUI: Come on Shion! You need to sleep as well.
- Yes!
After getting all my belongings to my own room and organizing a little bit I realized that I wasn't tired.
I shouldn't have slept that much! Now I am not sleepy at all.
Yui will be patrolling the house at this moment. I guess I can go take a little walk outside.
As I was leaving the house I thought like this could be the best moment to go figure out where I was, so I decided to jump to the rooftop.
It's really high up! But I guess I can make it from here.
- Let my soul be my body, and fire my strength.
(ZOOM!)
I've made it! Let's see: No lights in the horizon... here are the gardens... over there is where-.
JULY: What are you doing up here?
- AAAAH! July! I didn't see you there. I was just admiring the landscape.
JULY: You want to know where we are right?
- Well... yes.
JULY: But why you want to know?
- I... I don't really know. It was pure curiosity.
I can't think of a single good reason!
JULY: If it's just that, then you are better without knowing. There are things in this world that you shouldn't know just because you feel curiosity towards them.
- I... I'm sorry...
JULY: No problem Shion. Sit down here, the best views are from this spot.
As I sat down, I could feel a tense aura of sadness and frustration coming from him.
He looks so sad... was the Tenth someone important to him?
- July... Are you...?
JULY: Shion. Let me explain you the story about this place. I can't tell where we are but... I hope this will satisfy you curiosity.
- Sure.
JULY: Although is true that I am considered one of the founders of this place, I can only think of Arthur, Bors and Lance as the real ones. As you can see, this place is truly enormous. It has almost all cultures of the world, but still, it feels like it doesn't belong anywhere.
I have no idea about building houses, but it's true that it feels really diverse. The dinning room and bathroom they surely look apart, design-wise.
JULY: We are actually in a palace Shion. Arthur found this place that Bors was protecting back at the time. He served the old man that owned this place. As far as I know, he was a generous man that treated everyone with kindness, but he was alone in the family: he never got married, and didn't have any siblings that cared about him.
So is this a palace? It does not look like the one I saw in that movie when I was in the orphanage.
JULY: That man loved traveling, he loved this world. That's why he designed this palace with diversity. Sadly, age started to affect his movement and his dreams of seeing the world started to vanish. Bors, as he saw that his master's life was coming to an end, he revealed to him the powers that he had hidden for years. And then, he was able to travel anywhere at anytime thanks to Bors. He lived 2 more years after his inevitable death. Bors stayed by his side until his last moments. That man truly believed that we were blessed. That we could make a new world were the dreams of people could come to life.
- Is Bors one of the Twelve?
JULY: Yes. He is currently the Seventh.
Okay, so there is no point in asking exactly what power he has.
JULY: Bors is really strong, he endured a lot during this past years. Once he was left alone, this place became empty. It was so far away from civilization, and with that big of a maintenance work to be done, the Estate forgot about it. I can tell you where we are but... this place is meant for people like us. Only our abilities combined are able to maintain this place without financing.
- I see. But, how did Bors let Arthur be the new owner of his home?
JULY: Bors saw in Arthur's eyes the will and kindness his past master had. He immediately realized that if somebody could make the wish inherited by the past owner true, that person, would be Arthur. Lance and Tristan already were with him, but was not until we settled ourselves here that the organization was officially created.
- So, are you are one of the first person that was chosen by Arthur?
JULY: No... I was the Fourth. But this does not matter anymore, many strong people joined after that and became part of our growing family.
- So... was Tristan the first?
JULY: ...
I shouldn't have said that.
JULY: No, Lance was the first, Tristan was the second. She was so kind and formidable. I felt that she was always miles away from everyone else. I admired her so much...
- You don't need to explain further July. I know now, don't worry, we will definitely bring her back!
JULY: Thank you Shion. But I have the feeling that there will be no happy ending to this story. We push ourselves everyday to help the future generations of powerful individuals, but at what cost? Society still does not accept us, and it seems that they won't hesitate on erasing us from this planet if they could. I truly hate them.
- Uhm... But maybe, if we help them too... they will accept us as well.
JULY: Do you think we didn't tried that before? The only times we are in disposition of helping 'normals' is in the absolute anonymity. Even when we succeeded on saving many, they still...
As July was clenching his fist in anger, I realized that my ideas were useless, I didn't had any knowledge at all about the past doings of the leaders of this place.
I guess everything is more complicated than it seems. I need to learn more about this world, only then I will be truly useful to them.
- Sorry for making you talk about such things...
JULY: Don't worry, I feel that you deserve some sort of comprehension of your surroundings. I know we can trust you Shion, you are Yui's brother after all.
- Yeah, I guess... I am going to bed now, don't you need some rest as well? We heard Lance talk about her new...
JULY: Thanks Shion, but I will stay here a bit longer. Watching your sister's flames at night brings back so many memories.
- Okay then, Goodnight!
JULY: Goodnight. Be careful on your way down. And Shion! One more thing before you leave.
- What July?
JULY: The doors. Bors is the ones that controls them!
What doors...?
Oh! The DOORS! So Bors is the one that allows us to move around the world in an instant.
- July thank... you?
He disappeared!
I guess he gave me information I wasn't supposed to know yet. But now I can have an idea of the scale of the Twelve's powers. A quirk that allows you to move on a global scale... Amazing.
Well I guess I can go to sleep now. Tomorrow I will begin classes with Hadoc, I will take a little walk around the garden and then I'll head out.
As I kept thinking on July's words, my heart was telling me that I needed to fight alongside them.
They all seem good people, some more violent than others, but they seem trustful.
I saw in the distance a river flowing with clear water that mirrored the moon's brightness.
Is that a person swimming in the river?
As I approached to the water I realised that such person had long blond hair. The more I looked at it, the more dizzy I started to feel.
Who will take a swim on a river this late at night?
???: WHO'S THERE?!
- Uhm... Hi. My name is Shion. I am new here.
???: GET AWAY FROM ME!
My heart hurts... What is...
- What? Why...
It's a girl.
Her hair is long... and beautiful and...
- Sorry... I didn't want... to...
(POOF!)
???: NO! I told you to get away... Damn it! Not again.
Why I can't stand up...? My head... I...
My consciousness faded and I fell asleep. When I finally woke up, I was in my bed and all my memories were blurred out.
Wha... What!? How I ended up here?
I remember there was someone swimming in the river...
Argh! Only by thinking about who it was, makes my head start spinning.
Also... what time is it? Oh! It's already morning. So I really slept all night after collapsing... okay.
Anyways, I need to go see Hadoc, I don't know who he is, but Yui showed me his room before. I will go get something for breakfast and then my extra classes will begin.
Maybe Lilly has already recovered, I am going to check that out right now!
Lilly didn't open her eyes since I brought her here. The only thing I could've done was to prepare myself for the upcoming classes. I knew that due to my lack of knowledge and confidence my decision making and initiative were in poor conditions.
And so I did. For two days I attended extra classes with Hadoc. I was ready to meet Lilly and study alongside her.
Finally, that day arrived.