White.
White squares.
A white ceiling.
For a teen who has just woken up, that is all he can see right now. If he kept staring at it any longer, he would have started counting the individual squares in the ceiling.
Haruko Matsumoto.
He groaned as he turned his head to his side.
A bed.
That was what he was laying on at the moment. Beside the light beeping in the room, everything was quiet.
Laying on the bed, Haruko began looking around the room.
There was a little sunlight peeking through the half-closed curtains in the dim room. His eyes glanced over several machines in the room that, by this point in his life, he was very familiar with.
A hospital room.
Sighing, Haruko pushed himself upward with his elbows to sit up on the bed.
Wearing a dark green hospital shirt and pants, his hair undone, he began looking at the name tag wrapped around his right wrist.
(A hospital… when the hell did I get here? What the hell happened?)
As Haruko pondered that thought, the door to the room had slid open, causing Haruko to turn his head to the doorway to see the head doctor standing there.
Antonio walked in.
"Ah, you are up; it seems that you're doing well, Mr. Matsumoto"
Haruko stared at the man.
"I'm in the hospital; when did I get here, and what the hell happened to me?"
Antonio looked at Haruko with a puzzled look.
"That's what I was hoping you would be able to tell me—they found you unconscious in a park a few days ago"
"A few days ago, how much is a few days?"
Antonio walked to a dresser in the room and placed a clipboard on it.
"About two to three days. Today is the 1st of June"
"Three days!" Haruko shouted out. "What the hell happened?"
"You honestly don't remember anything between you and Aoi"
"Aoi" Haruko repeated slowly.
Haruko's eyes shot open.
"AOI, what happened to her?" Haruko shouted out as he turned to Antonio. He looked at the head doctor with concern on his face. "Is she okay? Is she even alive? And what happened to the guy who took her?" Haruko questioned.
"I am not sure about the person who took her, but you two were the only ones brought in that night. As for the Aoi, she is alright in what would be considered good health"
Haruko looked down to his knees, which were covered by the bed cover.
"You said that it had been three days, right? That means right now she is in the custody of the city" Haruko said.
Antonio looked at the teen.
"Not quite"
Haruko turned his head toward the man. "What does that mean?"
"The situation regarding the girl has changed; as such, while she is in the city, she is not in its custody. It is difficult for me to explain, so I will let her tell you"
"Let….her tell me" Haruko repeated.
As he said that, a girl walked into the room causing Haruko's eyes to open when he saw her. Multicolored hair of blue and black, with the black portion of her hair coming down to her ankles even though her hair was in a ponytail. Her skin was a light brown, with a scar on her left cheek. She was wearing a white dress with a dark blue jacket over it that came to her waist. There was a necklace with a bright, light blue crystal hanging from it, resting just under her chest.
"You…." Haruko said surprised "….Aoi"
The person that stood before was Aoi, the girl he met a few days ago, and also an individual who was a Crystal Guardian, a GOD over the element of water.
She stood just a few inches from the hospital bed Haruko was sitting on, her dark blue eyes meeting his light blue eyes before shyly drifting to her right. Haruko quickly examined her.
After noticing no visible injuries at a surface level, Haruko spoke "You're okay?"
Aoi did not reply.
A cat-like smile slowly appeared on her face, which Haruko noticed.
"Hey, are you oka-" Haruko was cut off as Aoi jumped towards him. "Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoa!!!" Haruko shouted out as she jumped on him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Gah…are you crazy?" Haruko said he was trying to free himself from her tight grip, but to no avail.
"You're alright" Aoi said softly, which caused Haruko to stop struggling.
"Huh?"
"I was so scared that you were never going to wake up" Aoi said with tears in her eyes, still hugging Haruko. "You're the only person that I know in this city; if you perish and leave me alone, I don't know what I would do"
Taking what she said in with a light smile, Haruko placed his right hand on her back.
"You didn't have to worry about me that much; this sort of thing happens a lot for me" Haruko said.
"That is not something to be proud of, Mr. Matsumoto" Antonio said, walking up to the bed with his hands in his white lab jacket.
"You almost died; promise me you won't try to do anything stupid like that again" Aoi said as she was still holding on to Haruko.
"What, trying to save you or others? I'm sorry that not a promise that I can ever ma-ktatatatatatatatatatatatatatata-" suddenly Aoi squeezed tighten her hold on Haruko's neck, suffocating him and causing Haruko to rapidly tap her back.
The sound of desperate gasps for air filled the hospital room.
"Please, no violence in the hospital" Antonio said, looking on.
Aoi released her hold on Haruko, took a step back, and turned away, letting him catch his breath.
"I only did that because I felt that was the only way I could get to you and because you're an idiot" Aoi said to Haruko as he coughed.
Throughout his mad coughing, Haruko realized her words were what he said to her.
"Oh, you have jokes" Haruko said with tears in his eyes, grinning. "It's nice to know that you're doing well and haven't changed much" he said as he wiped his eyes.
"Doing well" Aoi said before turning around and startling Haruko, which caused him to tense up on the bed "I haven't been doing well; after you defeated that guy, they brought me to a room, and a scary large man started asking me a bunch of questions. Who am I? Where did I come from? How did I get here?" Aoi said, waving her arms frantically.
(They interrogated her) Haruko thought.
"And that wasn't even the worst part; the food that they had to serve me wasn't as good as the food you gave me, so that is why I had hoped that you would wake up and feed me, but now that you are awake and okay, you can now fully take care of and pamper me"
Silence.
There was silence in the room.
Haruko's left eyebrow twitched as he could feel himself losing brain cells by listening to her.
"What the hell do you mean take care of you?"
Aoi cleared her throat.
"This city has designated you, Haruko Matsumoto, as my legal guardian" Aoi said with a smile.
Silence.
Now there was a really loud silence in the room.
It took a while for Haruko to process this information; the more he looked away from the smiling girl, the more his eyes drifted back to her.
Her expression never changed.
"What the hell? I can't become a legal guardian for another person. I'm fiftte-" He paused for a second. "Sixteen. How the hell did a decision like this get made?" Haruko shouted out.
"When I was asked those questions, a man dressed in white came into the room and said that I should stay with you as the best option due to the fact that it was better to keep two Crystal Guardians together" Aoi said softly.
Blank.
Haruko just stared at her.
"What kind of reason is tha-" Haruko shouted out, but stomped himself. "Wait, you said two Crystal Guardians?"
"Yup" Aoi cheerfully replied, still smiling.
This was new information to the teen; he knew that the girl before him was a Crystal Guardian, and now, according to her, there was another one.
"Another Crystal Guardian' Haruko said it in a soft tone. "Who is the other one?"
"You" Aoi said without hesitation.
There was silence as Haruko stared at Aoi.
"Me….what are you talking about?"
Haruko Matsumoto was just a normal sixteen-year-old; he enjoyed watching anime and playing video games. He was a student who was barely passing all of his classes; now according to the girl that stood before him, he was now a Crystal Guardian, an individual with control over the elements at the highest level.
Him.
"Hey, you're joking, right?" Haruko said it with his voice shaking. "There is no way that I can be a Crystal Guardian"
Aoi placed her hands on her hips.
"Don't you remember anything about that night?" Aoi asked.
"Please be easy with him; at the moment, he seems to have some lapse in his memory regarding that night" Antonio said.
"Maybe this will convince you" Aoi said.
Without a second thought, Aoi quickly placed her hand inside the neck hole of Haruko's hospital shirt.
"What the hell are you doin-so cold" Haruko blurted out as he shivered at her touch.
Slowly, Aoi pulled her hand out with her index finger pointed at Haruko. Hanging off that finger was a small red, six-sided crystal that was attached to a piece of string around his neck.
Aoi let the crystal slip off her finger, causing Haruko to catch it with both palms. He looked at the crystal.
"You're a Crystal Guardian over the element of lightning" Aoi said, which caused Haruko to widen his eyes and look up to her.
"Wha…."
Haruko lowered his head to take a look at the crystal in his palms. As he examined it closer, he could see small galaxies floating in the small crystal.
It was the same as hers when he saw it.
"How?" Haruko questioned whether something like this was impossible for him.
Aoi sat on the hospital bed.
"Is it not obvious that crystal awakened because it answered the call of your soul"
"My…soul" Haruko said as he stared at Aoi.
(Every living being has a soul)
(This necklace is not connected to my body but to my soul)
Both Nereus and Aoi's words rang out in his mind.
"My soul awakened... when did that happen?"
Aoi stared at Haruko with a puzzled look on her face.
"Do you honestly not remember anything that happened a few days ago?"
Haruko raised his head to look at Aoi.
"No, at least not all of it. I remember bits of it, then everything sort of went white, then I woke up here"
"I see" Antonio said as Aoi sat on the hospital bed near Haruko's feet.
"I'm sorry, I can't give you a definite answer. I am still trying to wrap my head around all this" Haruko said, looking at the crystal in his palm.
Antonio stared at the teen.
"Well, you appear to be in good health with no visible injuries. I will prepare the paperwork for your discharge" Antonio said as he walked to the open door.
There was silence in the room as Antonio left, leaving the two Crystal Guardians together.
"Who would've thought that what I was looking for…." Aoi started to speak, breaking the silence in the room as she rested her head on Haruko's legs. "Would be you?" Aoi said as she smiled at Haruko.
"Me?" Haruko asked.
"It is a story for another time. I will answer later, but answer me this: ignoring you awaking the powers aside, how did you even come into possession of this particular crystal? Possessing one of the six crystals is rare enough, but possessing an element—one that has never been seen before—is a one in a billion chance"
Haruko stared at the red crystal in his palms.
"I.." he started. "I'm not sure. I have had this crystal necklace since I was three; the last I heard of it was that it was a family heirloom. The crystal was always covered up, so I did not notice that it was anything out of the ordinary with it; this was the last thing she gave to me right before she died" Haruko said with a tone of sadness in his voice.
Noticing this, Aoi thought it was best to change the subject.
"So, how does it feel to be a Crystal Guardian?" Aoi asked bluntly.
Haruko did not respond, causing Aoi to look up to the teen; she could tell that he had trouble processing the information before him.
"Are you okay?"
"A Crystal Guardian... like you….A GOD and I have to..."
Aoi pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed, her back facing Haruko.
"That is what you are worried about. I know this is a lot to take in now, and it's going to be even more difficult going forward with now understanding both yourself and your powers-"
"That is not what I was worried about" Haruko said as he bluntly cut her off, causing her to look back at him.
"Huh"
'You said that I was supposed to be your legal guardian, which means that in any case scenario, you are going to be staying with me. You aren't really the ideal guest"
"Wha" Aoi said, her voice almost squeaking as a blush appeared on her face.
"Well, for starters, you have zero regard for people's property, for example, my balcony"
Aoi's face got red.
"You are difficult to try and reason with"
Aoi's face got redder.
With every statement Haruko made, her face lit up with embarrassment.
"And we're not even going to talk about your eating habits"
That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
With a cry, Aoi pushed Haruko back down into the bed.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? What happens if I have to stay here because of your recklessness?" Haruko shouted out.
Aoi sat over his waist with tears in her eyes.
"Take it back!"
"Huh" Haruko replied.
"Take it back, take it back, take it back!!" Aoi said, whining, as she was banging her fists into Haruko's chest.
"Hey, calm down, will you"
Outside the room, in the hallway, stood the head doctor.
"Well, they seem like a rowdy bunch, the both of them" Antonio said as he could hear the both of them. "I'm sure you heard them, right? How do you feel about this?"
He turned around and saw the trio of women standing in the hallway with him.
Reiko Matsumoto, Alexis Matsumoto, and Emi Takahara.
There was silence from all three as they were trying to process the information they had just heard.
With her arms folded, leaning against the green wall that separated the hallway from the room Haruko and Aoi were currently in, she lowered her head.
"Haruko…." Emi said under her breath.
Inside the hospital room, Aoi was still weakly hitting Haruko with her fist, causing him to smile.
His life was about to get a little more hectic.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
(At the time, looking back at it, I don't know why I let that bit of information escape me. Perhaps it was because I was excited about becoming a Crystal Guardian or because I was scared and did not want to accept what the answer would be had I pressed forward)
(Six crystals were created, but five were given out; the last one was kept with his family)
(I had this crystal necklace since I was three; the last I heard of it was that it was a family heirloom)
(They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty, and I guess that there is some truth to it now. If I could weigh the choices I made then and the choices I made going forward, that decision not to press forward with it was probably the worst one I made. If I had followed up on what he said, even just a little bit, it probably would have prevented all the deaths, despair, and destruction that would later await all of us)
(I'm sorry)
(The second sage was the individual who created and was the first user of The Crystal Guardian powers…..)
(If only I had acknowledged that little bit of information earlier….)
(And that person name was…..)
(Considering that…..)
(…Alex Gabriel DeLeon)
(...Was my name)