But upon entering the family room, the five couldn't help feeling something weird about the atmosphere inside. It was somewhere between tense and overly scary—for the lack of a better word.
What could have possibly made this kind of atmosphere?
"Mou! Dad, you should've told us you're here all along," Eichirou was the first to talk which gradually lessened the tension.
But Hideoki didn't falter. He was still looking at the youngsters with a serious expression that even Eichirou considered weird.
"Dad... Are we in trouble?"
"Wow! He asked that to the point," Itsuki commented.
"Onii-chan!" Erika hissed. Itsuki did shut up.
Hideoki sighed. "Just take a seat and I'll tell you the reason soon."
The youngsters obliged and sat on the cushions laid in front of Hideoki and Nanami.
"This is going to take a while so I want you to listen. And please, you must listen to me carefully," Hideoki said with hints of plea in his voice.
The rest, though completely confused about Hideoki's actions, just nodded to assure the man. This was a completely different Hideoki for the five of them and, to be honest, this was the first time they saw him like this.
"I don't know if you're aware of the truth but I believe I told you that I was your parents' friend. But I guess it's time for me to tell you the real reason why your parents died that night 10 years ago. And it's time for me to tell you the truth about why Eisuke and I had desperately saved the four of you from that fire," Hideoki started.
Of course, it surprised Shuichi, Misae, Itsuki, and Erika upon hearing that. Eichirou only eyed his father in confusion. If that was the case, then he must have nothing to do with the issue since he wasn't at the hotel fire that night.
"You're still involved in the issue, Eichirou, if you're thinking of leaving—" Nanami paused. "—since it was your mother who predicted the deaths of your friends from that fire."
Eichirou froze at those words. His mother? "Auntie... What do you mean she predicted their deaths?"
Hideoki heaved a sigh before he started talking. "Mariko's last wish to me was to save Shuichi, Misae, Itsuki, and Erika from dying in that fire. It was supposed to be the fire that will end everything that those who knew the truth had fought for in the last 5,000 years. Those people include us and your parents."
"Mariko predicted the deaths of this world's last hope to defeat the enemy that will destroy us if we don't do something to stop it," Nanami added.
"Hideoki-san, I don't understand what you mean," Misae remarked.
"You're telling us that our parents died for us to continue... whatever they were fighting for?" Shuichi queried in confusion.
"You're talking as if we're some world savior here," Itsuki said in slight disbelief.
But the others couldn't see even the slightest hint of a joke from Hideoki's words. They couldn't tell if he was starting to go crazy or what.
"Vessels..." Erika suddenly muttered which caught everyone's attention. "Could it be that... you're talking about the Vessels of the Heavenly Spirit Guardians' Powers?"
"You know about it, Erika-chan?" Nanami inquired. Erika hesitantly nodded. "But how?"
"It's actually... from a dream..."
Hideoki frowned. "What do you mean 'from a dream'?"
"A woman... spoke to me in my dream... about the fate of the world if we died. She looked a lot like..." Erika trailed off.
"A lot like who?" Itsuki asked even though he couldn't help feeling frustrated that his sister never mentioned anything about that to him at all.
Erika looked around as if she was trying to remember something by looking for something from her surroundings. It was like that for a few moments until her eyes widened at the sight of a portrait that she had only seen at the moment.
"Like her!" Erika exclaimed as she pointed at the portrait of a regal woman wearing an elegant celestial robe. It was painted in a scroll that was hanging above Mariko's framed picture.
The others looked at the portrait. Confusion filled the four youths, but extreme surprise appeared on both Hideoki and Nanami's faces upon seeing that.
"It can't be..."
= = = = = =
As the discussion was going on, they had no idea that a sinister plan was about to be put into action in continuation to the terror that was released during the devastating mountain incident.
"Daytime... that should be the perfect spotlight for me to do what I have to do," Siriso mumbled as he stood on the rooftop of the tallest building in the area.
He was eyeing the peaceful town with a grin.
"Juman!" he growled as he called the name.
Soon after, a rune circle appeared behind Siriso followed by a black-armored monster materializing in the middle of it.
"You called for me, Siriso-sama?" Juman politely inquired as he bowed.
"We'll proceed... as soon as the sun rises. I want to hear everyone's screams of despair, fear, and pain the moment they start their days."
A maniacal laugh soon followed it as thunder roared and lightning struck through the sky.
= = = = = =
"Now that I think about it, who is that woman, anyway?" Eichirou asked as he eyed the portrait on the scroll. "I've seen you and Mom hanging that portrait near the family shrine for as long as I can remember. But I never really knew who she was."
"Come to think of it, I had a similar dream the night before the fire," Misae suddenly declared. "But it wasn't a woman who told me about the Vessels."
"Then who did?" Nanami asked.
"It was a falcon."
Well, that wasn't exactly the answer they were expecting.
"A falcon? Are you serious?" Eichirou asked incredulously.
Now even Itsuki and Shuichi tried to recall the events before the fire that might have been similar to what had happened to Misae and Erika.
"Would ripples of water be considered as a message giver?" Eichirou queried all of a sudden.
Itsuki groaned, which made him slap his forehead. "Great! Now Mother Nature could talk to you. How is it possible for water to give you a message about these Vessels whatsoever?"
"I'm serious!" Eichirou insisted.
"Since when?" Itsuki retorted.
Eichirou exhaled before he got close to exploding and beating up Itsuki. "I had that weird dream the night before Mom's 2nd death anniversary. I think I even heard Mom's voice from the ripples."
Hideoki listened carefully to what the kids were saying. As he listened to them, most of the questions he had tried his best to look for answers were slowly being... well, answered. "What about you two, Shuichi, Itsuki?"
The two boys didn't say a word for a few moments. Until...
"The fire surrounding me and Misae that night..." Shuichi answered in a soft tone. He closed his eyes, perhaps trying to get a clear picture of the event. "They were increasingly hot. But instead of scorching us as it did to the others, the fire only surrounded the two of us. It was as if... it was forming a circle to protect us. I don't know how, but I think I even heard voices saying 'we will protect both of you, so do not worry...' or something like that."
Hideoki nodded as if saying he understood. Then he faced Itsuki. "It seems to me you've also experienced weird things similar to this before the fire."
To Itsuki, he felt that the way Hideoki said those words was a statement that the man knew about it. "The trees... particularly those that were near Kawazumi Hall and Prince Palace Hotel... The way they rustled with the wind made it as if they were talking to me."
"Did they say something in particular?" Erika asked.
"They all sounded muffled to me. I don't know. I can't tell." Of course, that was when Itsuki noticed something. "Wait a minute... If all of these weird events happened before and during the fire ten years ago, how come we only remember it now?"
Realizing that Itsuki had a point, the other four youngsters exchanged glances at each other before trying their luck in finding answers to the person whom they felt could provide it for them.
"They were deliberately blocked from your memories... until such time that the truth about your destiny and its accompanying responsibility shall be revealed to the five of you," Nanami was the one who chose to speak for Hideoki. "Your dreams, your visions—they were all warnings to all of you about the life that you are destined to face when the time comes."
"Then those dreams, visions, and whatever weird events that had happened to us before and during the fire..."
"Nanami-san said that our visions are warnings about our destiny. That means... the five of us are the current chosen Vessels of the Heavenly Spirit Guardians' Powers..." Misae finished Itsuki's words.
Hideoki nodded as soon as he sighed. "Your parents discovered ahead of time the future that lies ahead of you. They were told about your destinies the same way you learned about the Vessels' existence. And it is those destinies that made them do what they all could to protect you. It even includes risking their lives to make sure you wouldn't die."
Having all that information absorbed by their brains was an overloaded task for them. But the five of them knew one thing. Hideoki wasn't showing on his face that everything he was telling them was a mere joke. To be honest, they didn't know what to think about all of the revelations.
"Why did our parents have to do that? What could happen if we did die along with them?" Itsuki still managed to ask the older man despite the confusion he felt from the entire information overload.
"If the five of you did die before the formal awakening—" Nanami paused as she emphasized on the word 'die'. "—the passing of the souls and powers will not happen anymore. The cycle will be cut. There has been a legend that if the chosen Vessels die before the awakening, it will become the end of everything that our ancestors and your predecessors had fought for and protected for the past 5,000 years."
No one could tell why, but somehow, the youngsters could feel the fear coming from Nanami's voice. But even though they could feel it, it wasn't going to help them at all. If they wanted to know the whole truth, they had to deal with this.
"It's the powers that came from the Heavenly Spirit Guardians that chose you as Vessels. They're informing us about it through various visions of your destinies. That's how your parents knew that you're the chosen Vessels," Nanami answered.
"Was that the reason... they all died that night?" Shuichi softly uttered. "The fact that they knew we're the so-called Vessels... they died to allow us to fulfill it?"
No one said a word to answer Shuichi's question. At the time, no one could tell if that was the reason for their parents' deaths or if there was more to what Nanami and Hideoki had already known.
"Hideoki-san, why tell this to us now? And why at this particular point in time?" Itsuki managed to ask.
It took a while for Hideoki to decide on the matter of answering the composer's question. But since it already came to this, he might as well tell the truth. The situation called for it. He took a deep breath before speaking. "You all have watched the news about the recent incident, right?"
The five youngsters frowned in confusion as to why Hideoki would ask such a random question. They nodded, anyway.
"But what would that have something to do with what we're discussing now, Dad?" Eichirou inquired.
"Someone... or something in that mountain broke one of the five seals that had imprisoned the dark force that once threatened to destroy our world 5,000 years ago," Nanami informed.
It wasn't long for the five of them to realize what exactly was going on for the two elders to decide on telling them about their destinies as the chosen Vessels.
"Though we still want you to continue living peacefully and far from danger, the current situation refused to let us allow all of you to do so," Hideoki said before any of the five could say anything.
The finality in the tone of Hideoki's voice had told them that the two elders were already in a pinch. Accepting the situation or not was the option anymore. None of them would be able to do something as declining the task that would go with the revelation.
Soon after, Nanami took something that was placed a few paces behind her. It was a chest box that had a silhouette of a lotus flower painted on it. The colors of the five visible large petals of the flower were shown in red, blue, green, yellow, and white representing the elements of fire, water, earth, wind, and light respectively.
"Isn't this... Mom's chest box?" Eichirou uttered in confusion and slight surprise.
Hideoki took it from Nanami's hold and placed it in front of him. After that, he opened it for the five Vessels to see its contents. A deep frown was the only visible expression on their faces upon seeing that. There were two sets of items laid in that particular chest box—one looked cylindrical and the other was a set of wrist braces—and all were bearing the same symbol that was on the chest box, only gold in color.
"They're called Celestial Shifters, and Mariko made them using the last of her life force to protect the Heaven's Medallions inside each of them," Nanami explained.
Of course, hearing Mariko's involvement in the creation of those items caused another surprised reaction from Eichirou. "Why would Mom do that? Use the last of her life force to create those things?"
"Just like what we told you a while back, Mariko predicted the deaths of the next chosen Vessels before the awakening. Eichirou, your mother only wanted to prevent that from happening," Nanami stated gravely.
Hideoki pushed the opened chest box towards Eichirou and his friends. "Please... I know it will be hard. But I'm begging you. Assume your responsibilities as the new chosen Vessels."
What surprised the five youngsters was the fact that Hideoki wasn't only begging them to do the task, but he also bowed deeply to convince them further. They couldn't tell if it was done out of desperation or something more. But the sight was indeed surprising. Even Nanami did the same.
Reluctance was still evident on each of the Vessels' faces. But to assure their guardians who had taken care of them all this time, they took what they felt was their respective Celestial Shifters.
The five of them knew that accepting these Celestial Shifters meant that they had accepted the responsibility that went with it—and that was to become the new Vessels. It was the responsibility—and most of all, the destiny—that their loved ones had protected with their lives.
But somehow, having that kind of thought in their minds seemed to be a heavy one for them to bear.
What could happen now that they chose to do this?