CHAPTER 1

It was the beginning of the weekend.

Cloud yawned as he walked out of his last class and looked around at everyone that was nearby. People were walking home, groups of friends laughing, families meeting each other with a smile.

Cloud blinked as he checked his phone and started heading toward the large store on the other side of the city. Many people have gathered up near the store mumbling and whispering to each other as they saw a young girl with red hair inside the store which no one ever saw before.

Scarlet was the name of the girl, wearing a cape and a short dress under it. She turned around and noticed all the people glaring and staring at her. She slowly pulls the Cape's hood over her head and walked out quickly and suddenly bumped into a young guy and her hood slid down showing her beautiful hair ," ugh... Sorry" she said before quickly pulling the hood on and went on her way. "Huh?" he took a step back to keep his balance, after bumping into the person. He stopped for a moment and noticed the girl's hair.

"Hm, haven't seen you before..." And then the girl was off again, before he could react. He then blinked for a few moments and reached into his pocket, pulling out something that looked like a blue rock.

It was glowing.

He looked from the blue stone to the girl that was moving away and his expression turned serious.

He still hadn't gone to the store, but there was no time. There was something different about this girl. He had to find out.

Checking once more the glow of the small rock, he made his way through the crowds and began to follow the caped girl. She hardly managed to escape the crowded street and thought about finding a place to hide herself in until people stop stalking her.

She quietly walked between two buildings and blinks when she notice a strange glowing coming from the very small stone she was wearing around her neck and secretly hid under her cape while holding it.

"What would probably make it glow in such place..? I sense something strange about this town..." She whispered to herself. Cloud kept following the girl, but it was more and more difficult to keep up with her with the people all around. Eventually, he had lost track of her, but the small stone seemed to almost guide him in a certain direction.

Eventually he was able to catch up to her again. He then stopped where he was standing, a moderate distance between the two of them. He called out so she could hear him.

"Hey, wait!"

As he spoke these words though, he felt an odd presence coming from the direction behind him. For now, he ignored it and continued to face forward toward the girl up ahead. She slowly turned around but her face was half covered with her hood, so her face wasn't shown clearly. But the glowing stone rays can been seen through her fingers when she was holding the stone, she was slightly surprised when she also realized a very strong power in her surroundings.

"I recommend you to leave at once.. I don't want to hurt you..." She said, her voice was so soft and tender. Still he never had a chance to see her face as she was facing away. The male calling out to her had deep blue colored hair and some of it was black towards the back. Based on his clothing, it could be seen that he was a student. However, Cloud was no ordinary student.

"What? What are you talking about?!" As he heard the girl spoke, the blue rock he had continued to glow.

He was about to say something else when soon a dark energy seemed to appear behind him. Feeling the odd presence, he turned and saw two tall, shadow figures appearing from a portal. They had a dark aura coming from them.

A shadow figure was also appearing on the other side of where the girl was, as if they were trying to stop Cloud and the girl from leaving.

Cloud frowned as he faced the figures that looked like solid black shadows. "What the heck... what's going on..?" Cloud asked as he backed up, toward the caped girl, though now he had his back to her.

She was so calm and not surprised at all as if she went through this kind of scenes before, she reacted quickly by holding the back of the boy's shirt and gives herself a boost to jump highly and land on the top roof of the building they were near.

Her hood was still on, covering her face from others' view. But managed to take a peek at him quickly and noticed the rock in his hand, her eyes widen.

"Hey... Don't get caught no matter what happens..." Said calmly before she looked down the edge and noticed the shadows has vanished.

"They aren't so good at face the sun light ... Just stay out of dark places ..." Staring with a surprised look, when they landed on the roof, he had to catch his breath. He looked down the side of the building to see if he could see the shadow figures, but he didn't see them anywhere.

He then looked at the girl. "What's going on? Who are you?"

"I a—" before she had a chance to reply, some loud screams and shouts coming from the street. She blinked and walked over to the edge and saw the view of people panicking and running around while some dark shadows crawled through the streets.

She was shocked and feared something worse would happen if she didn't do anything about it," stay here..!" She said before jumping off the cliff and landing on the ground gently and lunges in front of the shadow making it swallow her inside of it.

The screams and noises of the people only gets louder and louder but the shadow have somehow stopped where it was.

"Wait!" Cloud went to the edge of the roof to see what was happening. He was about to try to get down to the street to try to help her, but before he could the shadow's movement seemed to have slowed down.

Standing on the roof, he stared to see what would happen.

His right hand opened once and closed and a small light started to glow there. "Is... is she okay?"

His lance weapon slowly started to form in his left hand, but he stayed on the roof for the time being. "I can't wait here much longer... I need to see if she's okay! Tell me she's okay!" The moment he shouted , a very strong rays of red light breaks through the dark shadows and started to shatter, all the people gasping in fear and surprised but then after the small dark pieces was blown away by the wind , a huge curved hole was made in the middle of the street and the girl laying there . Cloud's lance was now fully formed and he jumped down along the side of the building. Using the blade of the lance, he used the lance against the building to slow down his speed as he fell toward the ground.

When he was close to the ground he jumped and landed, before running toward the girl laying there.

The dark creature from before was completely gone. Many of the people were now staring, having seen Cloud going down the side of the building and the girl that had saved them. "Is she okay?" some people asked.

"What was that thing?"

Cloud laid a hand on the girl's shoulder and shook her gently. "Hey. Hey. Are you okay? Can you hear me...?" The ground beneath her turning into crystals of ice, the moment he came near her the stone in her hand started glowing strongly making her body heal instantly.

She slowly opened her eyes softly, found herself looking up at the blue sky "ugh... Where... Am I..?" Her hood slide off to her shoulder, her face was brightly shown and her hair caught all the people attention as they stood around the hole. "You're okay!" Cloud said, relieved.

"You saved us. There were some strange monsters that appeared and... Actually, don't worry about it. I'll explain later."

He was about to help her sit up when suddenly he got a good look at her face and her red hair. 'Who is this?' he thought to himself. 'Why do I feel like I've seen her before? A long time ago...? I must be imagining things.'

He started to help her up and decided they should go somewhere where she could rest and they could figure out why these things had appeared in the city.

"Alright, just follow me. I know it doesn't make sense right now but... Anyways, my name is Cloud. Nice to meet you." She was dozing off completely when he was speaking then slowly snapped out of it when she heard his last sentence and hardly balanced herself to stand on her feet.

"Thanks... The name is — "she got quiet and kind of surprised when she saw the people gathering around them and stayed silence slowly pulling her hood over her head. He looked at her briefly and then at the crowd. As they walked away, Cloud felt like he had something important to say.

"Hey... I..."

His stomach made a loud noise "I'm really hungry. "She was walking ahead into some random direction. And looks behind at him over her shoulder.

"You should probably go get something to eat..." she told him.

"Eh? And where are you going? Don't think you're going off on you own! Not after everything that's happened today!" He said before he jogged to catch up with her. "You're sticking with me until I understand what's going on," he said, crossing his arms stubbornly. She looked at him with a gaze and shrugs slightly then takes her stone necklace out and holds it as it was pitch-black.

"I used all my power during that moment ... I can't protect the citizens if something happened again... The shadows are after me so I cannot stay in this town for so long." She explained and wears the necklace around her neck again and hide it under her cape. He looked at her and blinked. "Oh... I get it then..." He thought about the blue stone he had in his pocket.

He looked forward for a moment before nodding. "Alright then. It's decided. I'll go with you until we can stop those shadow things. Maybe that's why I found you in the first place."

He walked in front of her so that she had to face him. "Well? What do you say?" She stopped and looked at him for a while, thoughtfully.

"I can't take you along.. You're not ready for this journey yet..., beside you have your friends and family around here. You can't simply just leave them behind, am I right..?" He blinked, thinking for a while. "Well, I was planning on playing video games this weekend, other than that I'm free!" He said with a determined, goofy smile. She facepalmed with a sigh, "this isn't a game.. Those shadows are dangerous... " .

She was kinda losing her balance but tried her best to stand still, pulling her hood over her face gently. "Let's just get some rest tonight and think over it and decide tomorrow morning ... How's that?" He put a hand on her shoulder to help steady her.

"Hmm... alright that sounds good." He went to get some food and offered her some as well. "Do you have a place to stay near here? You can rest at my place if you like." he faced him with a slight smile forming in her face. "Thank you for the offer.. But I am not really good at dealing with humans I prefer looking for my own place to stay in, so you would have some time with yourself to think about your decision.. "He frowned. Hopefully no more of the shadows would show up any time soon, but she would probably be okay. He nodded."Alright, but you better not try to leave tomorrow without me, got it? You can't do something like this by yourself "

She nodded and rest her hand on his that was on her shoulder and lower it down slowly.

"You better be careful though.. They come out during the night mostly ..." She looked at him solemnly.

"R-right..." He nodded. "Alright then, I'll meet you tomorrow at noon in front of the store I saw you at yesterday. See you then!" He waved happily. She waved back a bit and started to search for an inn to stay in for the night.

After few moments she found herself laying on a comfortable bed and got drifted into a deep sleep from tiredness to regain her power. As Cloud walked home, he tried to consider everything that had happened so far.

'Why did my stone lead me to her? And what was with those things from earlier...?'

As he walked home, he went by the store to get the things he had intended on getting before. He eventually arrived and tried to make sense of what was going on. Eventually he gave up though and went to sleep.

/ It's echo's first time posting one of her stories online desu~ so she hopes to hear some feedback about it *^* I hope it's good enough c: Chapter 2 will be done shortly after a while ~ Arigato!