Thanks for actually picking out this story to read. I hope you actually enjoy it, I don't know if anyone will truly like it. It gets better in the next chapter (coughcoughfighting) so please review!
Guardians of Alchemy
Chapter One: Broken Glass
"Haruka! Haruka!" A voice was screaming from downstairs. Haruka, a 15 year old teenage girl, was still asleep in her bed since she had school off today. She was lazy in the morning, not exactly being a morning person that is always cheerful as soon as they woke up. Her dark green eyes opened irritated from the interruption of her sleep as her little sister burst through the door.
"You do realize you're late meeting your friends, don't you?" Tomoka exclaimed as she confronted her sleeping older sister. Tomoka was 12 years old and always loved bossing people around and making them look dumb even. She had short black hair with bangs covering her blue eyes. Her hands were placed on her hips showing authority and she was staring down at the messed up bed her older sister was residing in.
"What, I am?!" Haruka said jumping out of her bed and looking at the time. It was already 10:30 and she was supposed to meet her friends a half 'n hour ago at Mikoto Avenue.
"Yeah, I tried to wake you up earlier but you didn't budge." Tomoka said as she left the room leaving a hurrying Haruka to get ready.
"Damn, where is that Haruka." Ryuu said looking down at his watch which read 10:40. He was getting irritated along with everyone else. Four teenagers were sitting outside during this April afternoon, having off for some teacher conference. Ryuu's dirty blonde hair covered his blue eyes as he looked over to his other friends.
"You know her, sleeps in way too late and never realizes it." Mai said as she sighed. Her long black hair moved with the warm breeze, and her glasses reflected in the sun's rays.
"Yeah, I swear if she isn't here in another five minutes we should just leave and see what happens if she ever gets here." Kazuki mischievously suggested with a big grin etched in his face. Kazuki's brown eyes light up with a thought of seeing Haruka react but soon ended when Naomi interfered.
"No, we're not abandoning her you jerk!" Naomi exclaimed as she slapped him across the face for punishment. Her blue eyes flared under her light blonde hair as she went after him again for more punishment. Kazuki ran from her repeatedly saying, "I was only joking!" Nothing worked though, Naomi kept after him. She was very loyal to her friends and took things a little too seriously sometimes.
"When will those two ever stop fighting…" Ryuu said sighing under his breath. They have always fought, and would never stop.
"Beats me…" Mai said watching the fight as well when she started to hear footsteps behind her and Ryuu. The both of them turned to see Haruka finally appear with a fatigued look on her face.
"Well, it's about time you lazy-!" Ryuu exclaimed angrily for waiting so long before Mai kept him shut with a glare. Mai and Haruka were the best of friends along with Naomi. The three of them were like sisters, sticking together no matter what.
"Heh, yeah sorry I slept in too late…" Haruka said nervously smiling at Mai and the quiet Ryuu. She scratched the back of her head, hoping not to be yelled at like Ryuu attempted.
"Of course, that's what you always do when there's no school." Mai said as she got up along with Ryuu. "Kazuki, Naomi! Let's go, Haruka's finally here!" Mai exclaimed over their fight.
Naomi looked up as she let go of Kazuki's brown hair, which was almost on the verge of crying with pain. "Haruka!" Naomi yelled happily as she went over and hugged Haruka as if they haven't seen each other for years.
"Hey Naomi." Haruka said as Naomi embraced her in a breath taking hug. "I can't breath, I just saw you last night." She said as her face started to go a little blue.
"Oh yeah, sorry." Naomi said letting go to let Haruka breath in air.
"So, where are we going?" Kazuki asked catching up with everyone else.
The five friends were walking around their small town of Fuka in Japan, with a nice long road of small shops and restaurants. Everyone in the town loved Mikoto Avenue, it was a great place to hang out for anyone. There was a small cinema theatre, an arcade, family owned shops and restaurants and even sports stores. It was never too crowded but there were always people walking around.
"I heard there was a cool new antique shop that just opened up, why don't we go there and check it out?" Naomi suggested to everyone else who nodded with agreement except for one.
"No way, there's only a bunch of old stuff in there." Kazuki said complaining with a discontent look across his face.
"What, you've already been there?" Ryuu asked him curiously. Of course, Kazuki didn't answer knowing that he has never been in the antique shop.
"Exactly." Mai said to Kazuki making him pout. He didn't exactly act like he was 15 either, he was just too stubborn.
"How do we even handle you…" Haruka said as they continued through Mikoto Avenue.
"Hey, I heard that!" Kazuki exclaimed.
"That's the point." Haruka said smiling which made Mai and Naomi hide their smiles.
"So, what exactly is the place's name?" Ryuu asked getting tired of the constant taunting.
"It's called Alchemy I think." Naomi answered, "And there it is!" She exclaimed pointing to an old shop at the corner of the street. It was actually quite big, taking place of an old ramen shop and another antique store.
"Wow, it looks pretty cool." Ryuu said seeing the fancy sign and a strange insignia flag falling from it. Ryuu stared at it for awhile before Haruka said, "C'mon Ryuu," and knocked him out of his trance.
A bell rang through the store as Naomi and Haruka entered first and looked around. It wasn't as old as the other one, but still showed signs of it. They looked around and saw tables full of weapons and interesting jewelry. There were a couple of samurai swords placed up on shelves and a nice clear aisle between everything. The store wasn't crowded with junk at all; it was nice and neat unlike the other one.
Everyone started looking around. Ryuu by himself, and Mai and Haruka together and then Naomi and Kazuki off again begging for a fight. Everyone actually kept their voices down for once.
Haruka placed her hands in her black jeans and started looking up at the samurai swords. She loved sword fighting, until her dad prohibited it and she had to quit. It was hard for her, but she got through it.
"I know what you're thinking. Don't buy one your dad will only take it away." Mai suggested smiling.
Haruka turned around surprised, "What are you talking about?! Why would I want another sword?! They're dumb and meaningless!" She tried to hide that Mai had just read her thoughts but Mai just smirked and continued along with looking at the jewelry.
Haruka's eyes lead downwards with disappointment; she was really skilled at swords and missed the rush of thrusting one and training. Mai looked at the necklaces, seeing that all of them had very intricate designs and fashions. That's when her eyes met a necklace put off to the side and in the dust. It had a mesmerizing pearl with a black thick string holding it up. She looked at it more closely while she picked it up and started to see the inside of the pearl seem to beckon to her. She shook her head thinking she was hallucinating.
"Hey, that's a pretty cool necklace. You should get it." Haruka said coming up behind Mai, startling her a little. Haruka took a glance at it, seeing nothing in the middle of the pearl and then spotted something else.
"Look at this cool wrist band!" Haruka exclaimed picking up a silver wrist band. It had black stones wrapping around a hard silver stone band. It seemed to catch Haruka's attention a lot because she kept staring at it before slipping it on her right hand. "Hey, perfect fit." She said smiling to Mai and holding her hand up to show Mai.
"Hey, check out my cool band!" Kazuki said across the room to Mai and Haruka. Both of them looked over to see that he had pulled up his shirt sleeve to show a silver shoulder band that was placed up high up on his arm, near his shoulder obviously. It had engraved carving of unknown language and pictures in it which caught the attention to Kazuki. "Doesn't it make me look stronger?!" He said smiling.
"No, it makes your arm look pitiful." Haruka said keeping a straight expression. Mai put her hand over her mouth keeping back a laugh as Kazuki's jaw dropped to the ground.
"Yeah, well, well…you stink!" Kazuki said walking off with his arms crossed.
"Yeah, that made no sense at all." Haruka said turning to Mai who controlled her laughing now.
Kazuki returned to Naomi with a discontent look across his face and his arms crossed. He murmured something to himself before looking at the rest of the store. He spotted Naomi looking at two earrings that caught her attention fondly.
"Ooo…you gonna get it?" Kazuki said with a glistening look in his eyes. Naomi was holding two very nice earrings, both earrings being silver with a very fond design. They both had two aqua blue pears in them which made them glitter with fashion.
"Of course! They're so awesome!" Naomi said smiling with her choice. She was very fond of them and had sort of an attraction to them. The blue pearls made her get lost in them, they were hypnotizing to her and it wasn't until Kazuki snapped her out of it that she noticed.
Ryuu walked around bored with the whole place when Haruka walked over. "You don't look too interested in anything. Your so dense sometimes, Ryuu." She said smiling at him making Ryuu know she was playfully teasing.
"Yeah, yeah, all I really like in this store is that dragon ring over there." Ryuu said pointing at it. It was just like the other jewelry, put off to the side in the dust. Haruka saw it and grabbed it. The dragon in the middle was a ferocious color of green with deep red eyes. It was a black stone ring, and the green dragon made it look very luscious and attractive.
"This is pretty cool, why not get it if you like it so much?" Haruka asked placing the ring in the palm of his hand. Ryuu looked down at it with mysterious eyes, there was something about the ring that seemed to be calling to him.
"She is right you know. I'll give it to you for free if you really like it that much."
Haruka and Ryuu turned around to the unknown voice to see a man walking down the aisle, presumably the owner of the store. He had thick black hair that covered his mesmerizing green eyes. He couldn't have been any older than twenty-eight, thirty being the most. He had the features of a young attractive male as he walked down in his kimono. The kimono was a color of dark red and white, and the neck cut down fairly long.
"Uhh…hi?" Haruka managed out, surprised by the sudden appearance of the mysterious man.
"Oh yeah, sorry, where are my manners?" The man said playfully as he smiled brightly. "My name is Akashi Yadashi, I'm the owner of this store."
Haruka and Ryuu stared at him for what seemed to be an eternity. There was something about this guy that made them seem a little uneasy. He had this energy flowing from him like he was keeping a deep dark secret, and they couldn't figure out what it was.
"Sorry, I'm Haruka Ishitaka and this is my friend Ryuu Yourika. The other three teens are our friends also." Haruka said breaking the awkward silence.
"Nice to meet you." Ryuu said politely trying to make up for the staring.
"Oh please, when did teens get so nice all of a sudden? I know you two were staring at me." Akashi said teasingly. Haruka and Ryuu got annoyed looks on their faces from the insult and just kept their cool. Besides, they probably would never see the guy again after buying the stuff.
"Okay, well I like this wrist band a lot so do I get if for free?" Haruka said trying to leave as soon as possible. She was getting annoyed by the guy and wanted to leave and go to the movies.
"Nope." Akashi said smiling.
"What?! But you just said-" Haruka said before getting interrupted.
"If you were listening I was offering it to him, not to you." Akashi said grinning and looking down at Haruka.
"Fine…" Haruka mumbled under her hot breath and handed him a bunch of money.
"Thanks even though this is double the money I was going to offer." He said before walking off with the money.
"What?! Hey!" Haruka said freaking out from her just getting ripped off.
"Just let it go, that guys a creeper anyways." Ryuu said as they walked over to their friends waiting by the door.
"Cool wrist band, Haruka." Naomi commented as they left the store.
"Thanks, same with your earrings." Haruka said as the rest of them walked out of the store with Akashi watching them.
Akashi went past the cashier counter with mysterious eyes as he went through a sliding old style Japanese door into an interesting room. There was a tea table in the middle, along with cushions around it to sit down upon. Sitting on one of them was a girl, no older than sixteen, drinking a cup of tea. She looked up curiously as Akashi walked in.
"So, has any alchemy been sold?" The girl said placing the tea cup on the table and looking up to Akashi.
"Yes, the alchemy has been attained by their masters, and now the golden era will emerge once again…"
"Finally, schools over!" Haruka said as she met up with her friends in the hallway at school. The bell rang throughout the school at 2:00 and she had met up with Mai and Naomi in the hallway. Naomi and she lived close by so they always walked together as did Kazuki and Ryuu. Unfortunately, Mai had to take the bus to get home.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I love Fridays!" Naomi said as they continued down the hallway.
"So, did you hear about Ms. Nigormi?" Mai said as they stopped near the front entrance of the school.
"No, what happened?" Naomi asked interested.
"I'll text you later about it, I have to get to my bus otherwise I will have to walk three miles home." Mai said getting out her phone to check the time.
"Okay, we'll see you tomorrow Mai!" Haruka said as she and Naomi walked out of the door.
"Bye Mai!" Naomi said one last time before going outside.
Mai stood for a second and shook her head. "I swear, my friends are the craziest people I will ever meet, but probably the best too…" She muttered under her breath as she started to walk the other way to her bus.
"There was this really hot substitute for Mr. Ushida today." Ryuu said smiling to Kazuki as the two of them walked down the street towards their houses.
"You're such a perv, Ryuu." Kazuki said annoyed. He hated it when Ryuu started to talk about hot girls. It made him feel uncomfortable and insecure in ways, and he just didn't like talking about it. It seemed wrong.
"Aw, fine, you're no fun anyways." Ryuu said continuing to walk.
"What?! I so am!" Kazuki exclaimed. "Oh did you hear?"
"Hear what?" Ryuu asked.
"That Kyoto was asking Akane out when he threw up from the pressure." Kazuki said smiling from the humor of the story.
"Seriously? That nerdy kid asked Akane out?!"
"Yeah, I swear I saw it in the hallway. It was so funny. She screamed and ran away after he threw up. You should have seen it, it was so priceless!"
"Man, I missed the story of the day!" Ryuu said disappointed about missing the humorous scene.
That's when an unknown teenager accidentally bumped into Ryuu causing him to trip and fall. Ryuu was surprised; he and Kazuki hadn't seen the teenager walking down the street until now. The teenager had pale skin and very dark eyes, so dark it made Ryuu and Kazuki shiver.
"Sorry man didn't see ya there." Ryuu said offering him his hand to help him up.
The mysterious teenager didn't say anything which made Ryuu feel uncomfortable as did Kazuki. "That ring on your hand." The teenager seethed out making Ryuu draw back his hand immediately. "It's alchemy, and I am suppose to destroy all alchemists!" The teenager shot his head back up showing his white skin and the a tattoo on his left cheek depicting something unknown.
Then he grabbed Ryuu by his wrist, he was too shocked to even move as Kazuki was. Then there was a ray of black light and then nothingness…
Finally I got it all written down and figured out the Japanese names. Thanks for reading, and please review about what you think and if I should continue!
