My name is Yuri.
To put it simply, I'm a ninja.
That's the number one rule of being a warrior of the night, you can't hold anything back. Normally, people would go through long explanations before actually breaking the truth to someone else. Not a ninja.
The way of the ninja is incredibly simple, protect under any circumstance. That's about all you need to know…
Sure, there's the rule on not using your skills for selfish needs…
And there is a rule on not revealing your identity…
Oh, and you can't forget the rule on not getting any blood on the carpets…
I was just joking, by the way. Don't give me that look.
I knew the day that I was going to be sent away from my clan was going to come. I just didn't expect it to come so soon. I was fourteen years old, but I was a pretty qualified ninja. I don't mean to brag, but I made a pretty awesome ninja.
My parents, teachers, friends all agreed that my skills were probably higher than the average teenager, that might have been the reason why I had to leave my clan at such a young age. Naturally, my parents weren't very happy about me leaving, but they could visit and call me as much as they wanted. It's a good thing I knew, I could prepare myself for surprise calls in the middle of the night without freaking out…
The people I was going to protect? Well, I have no idea who the heck they were. I was only told that they needed protection, they had a secret that only the head ninjas knew. If someone horrible found out about it, it wouldn't exactly be a pretty picture…
I was traveling from my training camp over somewhere in North California. That's halfway across the world! Something told me I was going to get jetlagged. I did ask the head ninjas if I needed to do anything special for these people and they simply told me one thing…
Be yourself and don't get killed.
Oh, that's very helpful.
I know, ninjas are supposed to be strong. But I am leaving my family and traveling across the world to live with two strangers. But still, something at the back of my mind kept nagging me that this was going to be an adventure.
A taxi was called to pick Yuri up from the airport. The driver didn't have to think twice when he looked at her long, black hair to realize that the girl he was picking up was definitely foreign.
"Welcome to America." He smiled, treating the girl as if she didn't know any English.
"Thank you very much, sir. But you don't have to worry, I can speak English fluently." Yuri smiled brightly, inside she was quiet irritated. She was Asian, yes, but she grew up studying English.
…This might have been another reason why they decided to pick her.
"Oh, that's great." The driver smiled, relieved that the girl could understand some English. This made his job easier.
Yuri smiled as she climbed into the taxi. She stared out of the window and watched the palm trees roll by. They sure didn't have these kinds of trees near her training camp. Soon enough, the taxi stopped by a big, but normal looking house. Although it was average, Yuri still looked at the house as though it was like a palace. She got out of the taxi, paid the driver and stared again at the house.
She stood at the front door for a few seconds, this was her new life, after she went through this door the people inside were automatically like her family. She didn't know how long she was going to live here, but she knew that once she entered the house, nothing was ever going to be the same.
She rang the doorbell after taking a deep breath. The door swung open by itself, Yuri peeked in and looked around. That was strange. Doors normally didn't open by themselves. But this was America, they probably had automatic doors.
"Oh, hi!" A boy's head poked around the corner as he gave her his friendliest smile. Yuri raised an eyebrow, this boy looked at least one year older than her, she didn't expect to have to protect anyone close to her age.
"I guess you're our babysitter, huh?" The boy smiled as he held out his hand to Yuri, she blinked at it. "I'm Chris."
"My name's Yuri." Yuri gulped as she shook his hand. "And don't worry, I can speak English perfectly fine."
"I'm impressed." Chris smiled. "I thought you probably studied Japanese all your life, since you lived most of your life in Japan."
"I did, but I'm not Japanese." Yuri told Chris, who seemed very surprised. "Everyone in my clan spoke English. I grew up with that language." Yuri said.
"You are one weird ninja." Chris laughed, Yuri laughed as well. At least Chris knows what I am, that means that I don't have to go through all the trouble of hiding my secret identity.
"Um…are your parents home?" Yuri asked.
"Parents? Now you really sound like a babysitter," Chris laughed before smiling once again, "no, they're not home."
"When are they getting home?" Yuri asked.
"They never are." Chris answered, his smile slowly fading, but his personality still as friendly. "You see, mum died one year ago and dad…"
"He died too?" Yuri asked, regretting it instantly as Chris's smile permanently faded.
"He abandoned us." Chris said.
"I'm sorry…" Yuri muttered, guiltily. "I didn't realize you were orphans."
"It's alright, it's not your fault." Chris sighed, his smile immediately brightened up. "Hey, you want to meet Mikey? He's honestly the biggest ball of energy that you would ever meet."
"Is he your friend?" Yuri asked.
"No," Chris laughed, "he's my brother."
"Why not?" Yuri smiled as Chris waved for her to follow him. She obeyed as she followed him to the kitchen, where Yuri assumed Mikey was. Once she got there, Yuri was convinced that her life was not going to be the same.
Things were flying around the kitchen, and in the middle of it all, it looked like an eleven year old boy was controlling all the levitating objects with his hands. He laughed as his hands swayed in all directions.
"Hey, Mikey." Chris smiled as he turned around. The boy spun around and smiled at his brother, his grin slowly dropped as he looked at Yuri's shocked expression.
"Um…dinner is served?" Mikey laughed innocently, his sunny blonde hair falling over his eyes. Chris sighed as he waved his hand once, and everything stopped in mid air. Yuri looked from Mikey to Chris, these boys were not normal.
"Allow me to introduce Yuri, the newest addition to our insane family." Chris smiled as he pushed a very surprised Yuri towards Mikey. The small boy just jumped up and pulled Yuri into a hug.
"Hi!" He chimed.
"Don't let Mikey fool you," Chris told Yuri, "he may act five, but he's really eleven."
"I'm Mikey! What's your name?" Mikey chirped. It took a while for Yuri to regain her sanity.
"I-I'm confused." Yuri stammered. "What are you?"
"Oh, the ninja council or whatever they're called didn't brief you on that? Hmm…" Chris shrugged. "Well, long story short, we're members of a realm beyond mortal eyes. In other words…"
"We're magic!" Mikey smiled.
"What he said." Chris winked. "Our dad was perfectly human, but it was our mum who was the witch. We have a sister overseas, she was the one who arranged for you to come over."
"You see, our powers are supposed to be kept secret!" Mikey laughed, as if this whole thing was a game to him. "Some people have found out, and we had to go in hiding a couple of times already. This is the tenth time we had to move in five months and I guess we're all pretty sick of it."
"A-ah, that's g-great." Yuri said, nervously, still not believing the predicament she was in. "Is there anything else I should know?"
"Oh yeah! There is something!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Almost everything in the house is-" Chris said before another voice called from across the room.
"Hey, kid, are you going to let us hang here all day, or are you going to make dinner?" A stirring spoon called out in mid-air. Yuri's eyes widened.
"Enchanted!" Mikey cheered.
"Come on, Chris. Less looking, more cooking." A frying pan complained.
"Hey, why's that girl staring at us like that?" The stove asked as it looked at Yuri's horrified face.
"She doesn't look so good…" The plates near the stove said. Chris and Mikey turned to Yuri to see that she was blacking out.
"She's gonna give way!" The kitchen sink exclaimed.
"Timber!" A cup called out as Yuri fell unconsciously to the floor.
Much later, Yuri awoke to find herself looking straight at the concerned faces of two boys. She didn't feel as though she was still on the kitchen floor, she felt as though she was laid on a couch.
"She's ok!" Mikey breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good morning, sunshine." Chris smiled down at her.
"She's awake? Finally…" The couch managed to say. "She's heavier than she looks."
Yuri would have passed out again, but she figured out that if she had to live in this house, she had to deal with all the talking inanimate objects.
"You ok, missy?" The couch asked Yuri. She sat up, rubbing her head.
"Yeah, I think so," Yuri answered weakly, "I'm still a little dazed about what happened, but I'll survive."
"That's the spirit, now up you go." The couch said as it bounced a little bit, helping Yuri sit up.
"Ninja training didn't prepare us for anything like this." Yuri sighed.
"Ninja? You're a ninja?!" Mikey asked, surprised. "I thought ninja's didn't exist!"
"Says the boy who lives with talking furniture…" Yuri raised an eyebrow. "Still, that does explain how the door opened by itself…"
"Since you're going to be staying with us for a while," Chris continued, "how about we get along, huh?"
"Let's be friends!" Mikey grinned as he wrapped his arms around Yuri's shoulders. "What do you say?"
"I say," Yuri smiled at the both of them, "of course!"
The house filled of laughter as the boys helped their newest friend up to her feet and to her room.
The moonlight shined on Yuri's face after the first day of Yuri's job came to an end. Yuri always felt better in higher places, which would explain just what she was doing on the roof of their house. Just as she predicted, on the stroke of midnight, her cellphone rang. She picked it up and her friends and family from the Ninja clan all tried to talk to her through the phone.
"Guys, one at a time!" Yuri laughed silently. Sure enough, her mum came to talk to her on the phone.
"Yuriko, are you alright? Are you safe?" Her mum asked her.
"Mum, I'm fine. Don't worry." Yuri reassured her mother.
"Good. I'm sure you had a lot of fun on your first day." Her mum replied. "Gotta go, love you. Take care of yourself."
"Love you too, and I will." Yuri smiled as she hung up.
I'm sure you had a lot of fun on your first day… Yuri's mum's words echoed through her head. She had no idea…