Chapter One

I wanted to be normal…

When I was little I wanted a family. Let me tell you, if you think all abandoned children are cared for, think again. Being and orphan is not fun at all, first off the place where I live sucks. It is a three story building in the middle of Tokyo, and there are so many of us that we have to triple or even quadrupled on people to a room.

Second the head mistress is a major pain in the neck. Seriously she has no fashion sense and she thinks the sun rises and sets around her.

And third, when you a fifteen year old who has issues with their temper, nobody wants to adopt you.

My mother abandoned me at the orphanage when I was a baby. You would think that a small baby would have been adopted right away right? Wrong. I was never wanted because of the color of my hair. It was always changing colors according to my emotion.

Until I learned how to control it I was always teased because of how easily my emotions change (no surprise that I have anger issues right?). Now I keep my hair a deep black color and it is super long.

I always thought that if Head Mistress Lily, (who everyone at the orphanage kindly referred to her as Akuma) left then we would be happier and feel more at home than as though we were slaves.

She called me into her office on a drizzly autumn afternoon. I entered and she was sitting at her desk wearing the worst dress anyone could think of. It was hot pink with a frilled skirt and a huge bow that went from shoulder to shoulder of her huge frame.

When I got closed it was all I could do no to walk away. She has on lime green eye shadow that she took up to the brow line, purple eye liner that she put down about three quarter inches below her eyes and blue mascara. She was also wearing her gaudy apricot lipstick and had huge umbrella earrings on, and her hair was in a frizzy pony tail. She gestured for me to sit down. The small chair creaked as I sat down.

"Good afternoon Yuki."

"Good after noon Head Mistress Lily."

"I have good news for you Yuki; there are two people here who actually want to adopt you!" She faked enthusiasm; I knew she was just disappointed that she was losing a worker.

"Really? What are they like?"

"They are wonderful people. Now go and pack your things."

I left, glad that I didn't have to stay in the room with that tacky woman. I went to my room and my friend Chikyu came in, and saw my suit case open with several T-shirts in it.

"So, you're finally getting out of here huh?"

"Yea. I hope that Akuma doesn't kill everyone."

"Do you know who's adopting you?"

"No. She didn't tell me." He just looked around. I could tell he didn't want me to leave. I finished packing, and walked out the door.

"I am sorry if this hurts you Chikyu." He didn't answer me. I just walked back to the Akuma's lair. She greeted me again with a fake smile.

"Yuki, these are the people who will be adopting you. Their names are Mr. and Mrs. Matsiu."

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Matsiu. I'm pleased to meet you." The woman came forward and looked me in the eyes.

"You don't need to be so straight forward Yuki. You may call us Mom and Dad."

"H-Hai…" Akuma interrupted me.

"Yes, yes, yes. This is all fun and games but Mr. and Mrs. Matsiu need to sign the papers and you will acknowledge them as Mr. and Mrs. Matsiu. Understand Yuki?"

"H-H-Hai Head Mistress Lily."

It was over in a few moments and my small suit case was loaded into the trunk of the Matsiu's car. They were kind people. As we passed the fence I saw Chikyu running alongside the car as far as he could. Mrs. Matsiu noticed him and the look on both of our faces.

"Is that boy a good friend of yours?"

"Yes. He's my only friend."

"Why? You are a great girl and I don't see why people wouldn't like you."

"I don't want to tell you. Every time someone who adopts me finds out they take me back."

"Well tell us and let's see what we do." I sighed.

"My hair changes color according to my emotion or to what I want it to be."

"Now I doubt that." I changed my hair to a bright yellow. She froze for a moment.

"That is really cool!" I looked up in surprise. No one but Chikyu had ever called my strange hair cool. She continued.

"You will have to show our son that!"

"Your son?"

"Oh yes. Out son is the same age as you and you look just like him… or so we thought. His name is Umi."

The rest of the ride was filled with idle chatter. We left Tokyo where the orphanage was and we traveled for hours. We finally came to a small town. Mr. Matsiu said over his shoulder to me,

"Welcome to you new home town, Karakura. And you knew address, 9730 Enjeru Hana Road."

It was a beautiful place. I was introduced to their son, now my brother and I was lead to my room. I had never had one to myself before; I was used to sharing with someone else. I was happy there. I fell asleep quickly and once asleep I had a dream about a place and people that I thought was fiction. It was something else.

The next morning I got up and talked with my new family. They were great people much better than the Akuma would ever be.

I went for a walk in the park after breakfast. I went through the woods and could hear something in the trees. I heard a screech and something launched at me. I screamed and ducked. I stood up and was face to face with the ugliest thing I had ever seen. I started to back off and turned around. I bumped into something I couldn't see. I watched as the thing I bumped into revealed itself.

It had a spear in its hand and threw it at the creature. Once the creature was dead it turned its attention to me. It grabbed my arm and half drug; half carried me to the middle of a field, where a huge ship was. It shoved me into the ship and I saw more creatures like the one behind me. They all seemed to stare at me.

The one that took me pushed me into a room with another creature in it. The one standing in the center of the room turned around and it did not have a mask on. I looked at its face and thought. It didn't scare me but it was strange. The creature behind me growled and the one in front of me nodded. It started to speak to me which surprised me. I thought it would be the same as the one behind me, but I could understand it.

"My friend tells me that you were fast enough to dodge an Alien and his razors." I didn't know what to say. What was it talking about?

"What is an Alien and what razors?"

"The creature that attacked you, we call them Serpents. Your kind calls them Aliens. As for razors this is what I mean." He pulled out a round object and shook it in a down ward motion. Five blades came out of the small object.

"Okay. Why am I here?"

"Because we want to ask you to help us."

"How?"

"We want you to take these. When you see a serpent kill it. If you see many of them signal us. We want to destroy these things."

"Okay, I'm with you so far. Who are you?"

"Our people call ourselves Predators."

"Okay. How can I hide these from my family and who is going to show me how to use these?"

They spent three hours training me. I got a phone call from my family asking me where I was. I told them that I was walking around in the wooded area of the park. They seemed relieved they told me to bring back anything interesting. The Predators showed me how to hide the weapons quite easily.

They released me to the woods and showed me how to destroy the evidence of the Serpents. After that I went back to my walk. I returned home after about thirty minutes. I walked in the door and was greeted by my parents. They wanted to see what I had collected. They were interested in the rocks, pine cones, leaves, and flowers I had collected. Once they were done telling me that I was going school shopping with them tomorrow I went to my room and put the supplied the Predators had given me, in my suite case.

I laid in my bed and thought about what had happened and suddenly felt like something heavy was crushing me. I didn't understand what was happening, until I heard the voices. They were outside and when I looked out the window, I saw two figures standing in the tree across the street from the house. One of them was a man and the other a girl. The girl spoke to the man, I don't know what they were saying, but the man didn't seem interested.

They disappeared. I was officially creped out. I just stood at my window and finally I went to my bed and managed to fall asleep. The same dream with the strange place and strange people, but they were dressed the same way the two outside my window were… who were those people?

I woke up and hour later and stretched. I walked down the stairs and heard quiet whispering. Umi, Mom and Dad were talking I tried to listen but I could barely make out what they were saying.

"I don't see why you had to drag me into this. I would have been happier watching over the others instead of Szayel."

"You are here because he ordered it."

"Don't worry yourselves. Everything is going according to my plan."

I didn't understand what they were talking about. I didn't have time to start to comprehend what it was about. I heard them coming and scurried up the stairs.

I was thinking about what I heard that night and I couldn't help but wonder, Why does everything happen to me? I just wanted to be normal…"

I fell asleep where I was chased by hideous monsters. They kept chasing me through the trees. One of them swiped at my arm and cut it. The next thing I knew three people like the ones outside my window saved me. I woke with a start. I was out of breath and my arm hurt. I looked at it and saw three horizontal cuts on my arm where the monster had taken a swipe at me.

I got up and got medical supplies out of the bathroom and bandaged my arm in my room. I hid the supplies and went to my window. There were three figures outside. There looked like they were whispering to each other. One looked at my window. I saw his eyes land on my bandaged arm and I suddenly felt a chilled breeze come through my window.

I went back to bed and did my best to go back to sleep without dreaming of those things again. I asked myself several times, who are those people? Why are they outside? Was my dream real? I would look for answers in the morning. They must leave some kind of evidence in the tree or on the ground. I would have to search fast though; I had to go school shopping tomorrow… fun.

Chapter Two

What is going on?