At the other end of the portal there was a beach enclosed by a thick forest. Slightly hidden by trees was a house on a small hill, right outside the forest. Kaito took her hand and waved his head in that direction, letting her know that is their destination.
Whe approaching the house, Ayame noticed a human shape standing by the door. As they got closer the figure got clear, it was a woman with short orange hair smoking a cigarette while looking at the sea.
"Welcome!" Said the woman. "My name is Natsuki. I am helping the Academy from time to time. They told me you would came here. Let's get inside to introduce you!" Explained as she throw her cigarette and opened the door.
Behind the door was a small hallway. After they entered, Ayame could hear multiple lively voices coming from the room at the end of the hallway. As they reached the room, she saw a big room with a gigant wall library, a tv and couch but her eyes stopped on the round table in the left side of the room. There were children her age that laughed and talked. She felt much more relaxed not being surrounded by adults like those in Team V.
The table got quiter arter they noticed new people have entered the room. All the eyes were staring at her.
Natsuki broke the silence and introduced Ayame to the group: "She is going to stay with us for the time being, so be nice!"
After hearing this, the cildren started introducing themselves as the hidden team: Hifumi with water element, Honoka with the fire, Midori with the earth, Sora with the air, with the electricity, Yamato with the sound, Eichi with the light, Kaede with the dark, Mai with the soul, and Tsun, the leader with the void.
"We are a special team that needs to be hidden due to our powers to transform into dragons. Many evil people tried to get us in order to acomplish various bad dreams of theirs. The best ting was that the Academy took us in and gave us a home, training and knowledge to protect ourseles. What about you? What happened to you?" The leader asked.
Ayame starts to tell them about her father, the fire and how team V took her in and trained her. She still feels like they were family to her, but it pains her that Fujisaki only wanted to study the stone and never cared about her. As she was saying all these, tears started falling from her small orange eyes. The other children conforted her and assured that no one will take advantage of her here, so she can stay until she feels ready to go.
Just as she finished sobbing, wiping her eyes and smiling to the others, another boy entered the house. He had orange eyes just like her and a dark brown ruffled hair. He stopped for a few seconds, processing the whole gathering at the dining table. The other team members welcomed him and he waved back.
As he realised that Ayame was the center of this event, he intoduced himself: "My name is Xen and I somehow live here. Nice to meet you, Ayame!" Smirks at the end of her name and takes off to the stairs, right to his room.
"Don't mind him, he is not bad, just weird with strangers." Says one of the kids laughing at Xen's reaction.
"Let's present you the house!" Said a girl as she grabbed Ayame's hand and dragged her off the chair.
As the tour concluded, Ayame felt a nostalgia about the house. It reminded her of the days when she used to stay with her father.
Althrough he was a busy scientist, he alwaus took her out on walks and loved to spend time with her. She missed her father so much and realised that all those years never stopped to proper grieve for the loss. She was just pulled in all directions by the trainings and missions from Fujisaki that she did not think of what she wants or needs.
The children from Natsuki's home taught her lots of stuff and helped her whenever she asked something. They felt like real sibilings to her and she loves them all. It even turned out that Xen was the biggest help she had, as he helped her learn more about the stone and how to use it's powers. Also, Xen become her favourite big brother and over the 6 years she spent in there, he got more attached to her than he thought.