In the training room.
Ever since Kaori took Haru in as her shinki, she became more regular in her trainings and started to carry out every task of Kazuma satisfactorily. Of course, the credit goes to Haru's skill of strict supervision on her. If it wasn't under his care, Kaori would still be up to slacking off.
Today, Haru and Kaori were here to practice like any other day. While Haru attacked, Kaori was the one to try and block and fight back as well as usual.
It was when Kaori jumped in the air and landed a kick on Haru's shoulder, that I had entered the room. After watching the two practice for some time, I became rather bored.
"Is that how you teach her, Haru?" I spoke up finally.
Hearing my voice suddenly from the back, both Haru and Kaori jolted and turned around to look at me. They must've been really focused on their work that they hadn't noticed me coming in.
Haru shook his head as the answer, "I don't teach her, I help her train."
I shrugged, "Well, a trainer trains a trainee and a teacher teaches a student. It's quite similar. Anyway, I doubt your help is coming to any use, my dear boy. This weak girl is as weak as ever."
"Huh?" Kaori scoffed sarcastically, "Did you see that kick just now?"
"That?" I smirked, "It was merely a feeble pound."
Kaori was taken aback. To her, Haru had looked much pained by it.
"Why don't you have a match with me, instead? Let's see if your kicks are really strong enough," I proposed, "It's been a while since I trained you."
"I already know all the moves you pull," Kaori said confidently, "I can dodge them all."
I asked in a challenging tone, "Confident much? If you loose, you know the deal, right?"
"Done," Kaori said with an air of pride, "I'll bring you down."
I took off my overcoat, hanging it to a coat stand and then changed into a training suit.
"Headmaster," Haru stood before me, "I don't think provoking her is going to help."
I smiled lightly and gave a pat on Haru's shoulder, "Provoking her is the way to push her to her limits and make her grow. She still has a lot to learn." I came out of the changing room.
Afterwards, Kaori and I faced each other to fight in the middle of the room. Haru was to be our supervisor.
When he said, "Begin," We started.
The very first mistake of Kaori was using the same kick on me which she had used on Haru just a while ago. I dodged it right away and sneaked an attack on her from behind. She didn't expect it, as I had thought she wouldn't and I was about to wrap my arm around her neck but she was quick enough to turn around and kick me in the abdomen.
As I backed off, she jumped away from me and tried to use another kick which I blocked again. She jumped away from me before I could pull any move on her this time.
"Like I said, you are weak," I repeated. "But you've quicken your pace up. Though it's still not enough to match me," I smirked, "What are you waiting for? Show me all you've got."
"In that case," Kaori smirked back, "I'm not holding back anymore."
As she dashed towards me, I saw glints of metal sparkling and I knew what was coming at me.
Blocking her attack, I rounded my leg at her forcefully which was successfully dodged by Kaori. Then she attacked me from the back again but I caught both of her wrists and twisted them to loosen her grip on the knives. They fell on the floor with a noise and then began the fist fight.
She kicked me and I evaded, I punched her and she dodged. Things kept going like this until I finally managed to take Kaori down by jumping up in the air and kicking her away to the other side.
Haru announced the winner right away. As I landed on the ground, Kaori stood up panting from exhaustion.
"See?" I smiled, "You are still way far from being called strong."
Kaori made a sound of displease with her tongue, not meeting my eyes.
I let out a quiet sigh, saying, "Work hard."
I left the training room without another word, being the mess as I was from the fight.
"Kaori," Haru tried to begin but was cut off midway.
"I have to train more," Kaori said in determination, "I guess I'll be coming here more often from now on."
Haru narrowed his eyes, "Why do you push yourself so much these days?"
Kaori's clear dark brown eyes met Haru's blue ones, "There's not even a single time I could win against him. I want to defeat him and I will."
**********************************************
The next day was the day from which everything had started to change.
At the time of noon, my father made an unexpected visit to the clan. Since I had received him personally and directly brought him to my office, there wasn't any chance that Kaori would run into us as she was probably in class back then.
After we took our seats, I asked him his reason for suddenly coming to visit.
"I came to see how you were holding everything up.." He trailed of.
"And?" I enquired, knowing he had more to say.
"You had gone to the funeral," He said quietly, "What happened there?"
I sighed, "Nothing much than me facing that child all alone and showing her excuses why her grandparents couldn't show up."
I saw my father gulp and say gravely, "She's here, right? I heard you took her in as her guardian."
I scoffed, "Guardian, eh? She thinks of herself too grown up for me to be her guardian."
He didn't seem to understand what I was saying, "What?" He asked.
"I meant, guardian is just a fancy word," I shrugged, "I'm more of just an uncle like I used to be. She lives here in the dorms with other students and takes classes like other students. Just the difference is that her mom and dad aren't here anymore and that her lifestyle has changed completely."
All of a sudden, I could hear sounds of sobs. I looked up with wide eyes to see my father crying before me.
"My daughter," He sobbed, "My precious daughter. I- I still can't forgive myself, Kazuma. I am reminded of her every day. But all I can do now is cry from grief."
I silently watched as he shed his tears. I couldn't believe my eyes since I didn't see him cry this heavily in a while. But there wasn't anything left to do now, nor could anything be undone.
"Is she well?" He asked me, "The child.. How is she?"
"She's... Fine," I said uncertainly, "She's holding up with everything pretty well."
"Does she.." He asked slowly with hesitation, "Look like her mother? Like Kariu?"
Remembering Kaori's face, I answered with a small smile, "Without her personality, she looks nothing like Kariu. Kaori is also a very beautiful child, but she doesn't look much like her mother. She has dark short messy hair, she's very skinny and she has the beautiful eyes akin her father's."
".... So she was named Kaori.."
"Do you want to meet her?" I blurted.
Father declined immediately, "No. She must loathe me for my wrongdoings. I mustn't meet her, I can't face her."
After a short silence, I decided to ask about how everyone in the family was doing. He said that everyone was well and healthy and that mother wanted to come with father but he didn't take her with him.
"What about Touma?" I asked.
"What about him?" He asked back.
"Doesn't he plan of attending this school for training?" I shrugged, "It's been a while since he awoke his abilities."
Father shook his head side to side, "He won't attend this school. I heard you took Kaori as your disciple?"
My eyes widened slightly as I sensed a dread in his voice. "Yes," I answered truthfully and boldly, "Kaori is my disciple."
"You broke the tradition, my son," He said, closing his eyes, "The news is all over the world of abilities that the new headmaster of Power Clan has taken an orphan girl as his disciple."
"There isn't a rule that you can't take a female as your disciple," I argued sternly.
My father opened his eyes, "If something has been done in a way for a long time, it becomes an unwritten rule. And when it happens otherwise, the world sees it differently."
I stayed silent.
"I will take Touma as my last disciple."
I looked at my father with wide eyes.
𝘐𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘛𝘰𝘶𝘮𝘢, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘭𝘺.
"Yes, I'll turn him into something otherworldly," My father said as if he could read my mind, "Because he is someone important, who will have his name written in history."
My eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"
"You know that he is one of the fire section. Don't you know about the prophecy?" My father asked me.
"Prophecy?" I asked, clueless, "What prophecy?" Then I remembered something, "Is it that one you always used to tell me and Kariu about when we were younger?"
"Yes," He replied, "The one in that prophecy might be Touma. So I have to train him to make him strong."
"You are making assumptions," I said, "What if it's not him?"
"It's most likely to be him. He's also someone from one of the very first sections."
"No, no, what if this whole prophecy is just bogus?" I said obliviously.
"It isn't!" He said firmly, "This, is the proof." He pushed something like a diary toward me.
Still having my eyes set on my father, I took the diary like thing and opened it. I went through page after page that had been scribbled on by its owner. Then at last, I saw a page which caught my eyes.
There was a black paper attached on the old page of the diary and the long slanted writings in white ink which were by a fountain pen had left a mark of age and magic on the page.
"𝙁𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙗𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙖𝙘𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝, 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜; 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙; 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙪𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙚𝙖 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙."
After reading, I looked up at father, "What does it mean?"
"I don't know either," He shrugged helplessly, "All I know that there is fire and there is the chosen one. It indicates to Touma!"
I slapped myself on the forehead in my mind for his naivety.
I suddenly noticed something, "Wait, who was the one that made this prophecy? How did you find this diary?"
My father gave a sad but nostalgic smile, "This is the diary of your great great grandfather. He was a priest. At the last ages of his life, he had foreseen the happenings that'd take place in the future in the world of abilities. So he left his prophecy, for us to find our right path."
"I see," I nodded, thinking about the prophecy. "Does anyone know about this?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Of course," He said bluntly, "Everybody knows about the famous prophecy that was made to let the world of abilities know that the chosen one shall rewrite our fate and save us by making everything equal in this universe."
"Huh?"
**********************************************
"You all know what the legends say, don't you?" Asked Ms. Mars in her class.
Kaori was resting her face in her palm as usual and had her eyes closed while the teacher went on about her class. She didn't really like history class since it's all about who was the founder of the clan and how he found it, things to know about your abilities, how the different sections of the clan were formed and other theoretical stuff about the world of abilities. She didn't really enjoy digging up the past nor messing with the future. So all she actually enjoyed was the class in which students were practically trained for action.
"𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯," Was what Kaori thought when Ms. Mars asked the question to the class and then she started to doze off.
While she was dozing off, Haru kept poking her from directions to snap out of it and be attentive to the class. But she was much more relaxed in ignoring him.
"The legends says that there had been made a prophecy," As soon as the teacher said the sentence, the whole class broke into a humming.
A girl at the front said, "I know all about it."
"Do you, now?" Ms. Mars smiled. "Why don't you share with us?"
"We all know it, sensei!" Everyone yelled in unison.
Ms. Mars made a gesture of silencing the class, "Shush! Let's hear it from her even if we know it already. There might be some who don't know. Please, begin."
The girl stood up at her seat and started for the whole class, "Despite using the word 'legend', we are not sure if it really is legend or not. I believe it's true. But I shall say like any other - legend says that there was made a prophecy. It is a prophecy which talks of a chosen one by the heavens, who will be bestowed with the power to protect this clan in its need and he will lead this clan in the future. It also says that the world of abilities might face danger in the future but the chosen one will make the final right choice and save the clan from destruction by making everything equal in the universe. However, we haven't met anyone with any extraordinary power yet." She smiled, "I'm still waiting to meet him one day."
The girl sat down after finishing her part and Ms. Mars encouraged her with some light claps.
She praised her student, "You summed it up nicely."
Then she turned to the class, "We all are waiting for that brilliant day to come when we will be able to meet our saviour. Let's receive him with great honour when the time comes. I look forward to it much!"
"Yes," The class replied in unison except two - Haru and Kaori.
"What if it's a girl?"
"Hm?" The teacher asked, confused. "Who was that?"
Opening her eyes for the first time in the whole class, Kaori's bored glare met the teacher's surprised eyes.
"What if it's a girl and not a 'him'?" She repeated dully, "You are all addressing the so called chosen one as a male but what if it happens to be a female instead?"
The teacher was too taken by her words to be able to reply to her demand. She was literally stunned in her position.
Maximum students were now eyeing Kaori over their shoulders, some were whispering to each other, too. Haru quietly watched her from the corner of his eyes.
Kaori didn't stop her knives of a word, "Now you are talking of receiving him with grandeur. If it happens to be a girl, I wonder what you'll do?"
"Then again," Kaori continued, "Even if it's a girl, it'll be the chosen one. Maybe in that case, the usual rule might not be put used to, huh. Nobody would have the guts to mess with that person like they do when a girl gets to be taken as a disciple of the headmaster."
A smirk appeared on Haru's face, "𝘚𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳? 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘥."
The class was suddenly engulfed in a big, awkward silence. Nobody dared to talk because everyone here was equally blamed for what Kaori was holding grudge against.
"What do you mean, miss Kaori?" Ms. Mars finally spoke. "Listening to your last words, it seems to indicate to yourself. Did anyone ever cause trouble with you?"
Kaori stared at Ms. Mara for three long minutes before smiling with stars and flowers blooming and shining around her, "Nope, no one made trouble with me. It was just a figure of speech. Please continue your class, sensei."
"I see, I got worried back there," With a small nod, Ms. Mars looked back at the class, "So back to class. One of the first sections was the fire section..."
As the class continued, Kaori let out a sigh and looked out the window, putting her face in her palm again.
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳?
**********************************************
I was left in shock, "Everyone already knew about this? How could this be?"
Father replied, "Yes and the reason why I want to be Touma's master is also because of this. If Touma really is the chosen one, he has to be in the hands of a best."
"I see," I said thoughtfully, "But dad, what did you mean by him being the clan's saviour?"
He sighed a deep one this time, "Generations after generations, the world of abilities hold a different power than those of the nornal human beings. We see thing that they don't, we can do things that they can't. History says that at the beginning, we and the normal human beings used to live hand in hand even knowing what the ability users were capable of. We were great friends. But the difference after all, remained in the heart. The normal used to envy our power without expressing it and we used to envy their freedom in life without expressing it. Although we were friends at first, with such views in our hearts, we were bound to get in a conflict. And we did."
"We did?"
"Yes. It is said that the normal human beings attacked an ability user one day and tried to take his blood away to inject it into themselves so that they could have powers like us. Since the ability user had objected to cooperate, he was murdered. The news reached the rest of us and a war broke out. Many people of ours as well as theirs had died in that battle. After that, we had decided to keep our capabilities a secret from the outer world and so this is how we live now. Inequality bestows upon us, though nobody knows except us and some of us have come to think of this abilities to be a gift from the heavens to a curse from the hell. It says in the prophecy that this inequality will be broken and the universe will be made equal by the chosen one's right choice."
I was listening to him so eagerly that I reacted when he stopped, "Why'd you stop?"
"That is the end of it," He laughed lightly, "However, it is said that the chosen one will just be someone among the ability users who also will be humane. So he could get diverted in his choices of life. So he has to have a great trainer to guide him to the right path."
I couldn't help smiling, "You seem proud."
"I am," He grinned, "I might have the chance to be the grandfather of the chosen one. Hurray!"
"You're so childish," I laughed.
𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘶. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘯. 𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.
**********************************************
As soon as I re-entered my office, the door opened behind me, revealing Kaori.
She shut the door behind her, "Who was that? I saw someone leaving from the gate and you are also coming back from somewhere."
She plopped down on the only sofa of the room, "Was it someone who came to visit you?"
I tried to avoid the subject, "Yeah, someone like that. How was class?"
"Boring as usual!" She stretched her arms, making a sound of content. But her face turned bitter the next second, "Specially the histroy class. The teacher's all about - the prophecy this, the prophecy that. She's so full of it, ugh."
"The histroy teacher?" I asked, "Ms. Mars, was it?"
"Yup," She yawned, "She's the one. Can't you just let me off the hooks of these classes? I literally want to fall asleep in the class but I can't show that much disrespect."
"You are showing enough by dozing off in the class," I snapped coldly.
She laughed sheepishly, "So you get all the news from the teachers, huh? When will you stop spying on me?"
"Never," I rolled my eyes, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be training with Haru right now?"
"Haru went to his dorm," She yawned, "He said he was feeling down the weather today. Now that I think about it, he did seem a little pale. Old man, check on him for me, will you?" She layed herself straight on the sofa with her legs over the handle.
"Who's your old man?" I snapped, "I'm not much older than you either! You were born when I was still in high school!"
"I know, I know," Kaori closed her eyes, "G'night."
I began again in a furious tone, "Now's not night! You-!" But I was left to be silent when I saw her heavily breathing already. It meant she had fallen asleep for real.
I let out a sigh, "Why is she like this?"
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵. 𝘐𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳? 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.
**********************************************
*Knock knock*
The door opened, making me face Haru.
"Hey," I said, "May I come in?"
He left the door ajar for me to enter and went inside. I went in, shutting the door behind me.
I entered the small room and took a seat on a chair while he quietly sat down on the edge of his bed.
But he quickly stood up again and rushed towards the fridge.
I guessed he was trying to offer me refreshments so I said, "It's okay. You don't have to work yourself. Just come here and sit down. I want to talk to you."
He came back again as I declined to have anything to eat or drink and sat down before me again.
"Are you sick?" I asked him in worry, "Kaori said you cancelled the training, wanting to rest for today and that you looked a little pale to her, too."
He tried to put on a smile for me, "I feel a little tired today. I don't know why. Maybe I've been making Kaori overwork and so I also ended up overworking with her. You should stay with her than coming here to check on me. She might also fall sick like this."
I said calmly, "I left Kuruha to watch over her, I will go back. But I have to check on you, too. You are one of my disciple's trainer as well as someone important to me. I have to see if you're okay, too."
Haru's eyes widened in surprise and I could tell he was touched.
"Don't work too hard," I told him, "Have some rest, both of you. You've done a lot. I'll leave you now. If you need anything, dont fret to inform me."
As I stood up, Haru stood up with me. So I said, "You don't have to see me off. You should lie down and rest. See you later."
He bowed to me, "Thank you for your visit."
I smiled, "Get well soon."
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