Prologue
My perfect life how I imagined it, I knew that imagination was just completely pointless unless you force it to be real. If you ever wanted something to happen, but it never does because you do not make it happen. Nothing will ever come to you if you do not put the effort into it, or so I thought at first. My perfect life, the way I wanted it had changed, no one can prepare you for what is to come, but the best you can do is act, what is the point of even thinking about it?
Anyways, the change in my life started two weeks into the start of high school for me…
"Daisuke-kun," said a tall girl stand over my desk looking down at me as I read a book I picked up from home.
The shadow had been over me for a short, but this had prevented me from reading my book. Looking up into the face of the girl; the long hair had landed on my face making me lean on the back of my chair upright. The girl had placed her hands on my desk and stared at me with squinting eyes.
"Can I borrow your homework again?" she pleaded with both her hands clasped together head down.
"I knew you would forget it again," I said mockingly.
"You should really learn to do your work on your own."
I had gone into my bag to fetch my papers for yesterday's homework; the neat writing page as well as the undamaged paper had been placed in her hands as she manages to crumple the paper in such a fashion that would seem like it was fiercely torn out of a book.
"Wow, your writing is as need as always, it is like it was written by a girl," she replied in a complimentary fashion.
Her name is Aika Moriyama, freshmen high school and same class as me, we have been friends for three years and nothing much has changed about her, not even her laziness has changed much either. She always like to do athletic sports which probably explains most of the reason why she never likes to do much of anything else, but when we first met she used to hate sports because she believed she could never have the skill to compete.
"I always try to work, but it's just that I have so much activities I have to do that I can never get any work done," said Moriyama-chan.
"You were always number one in the whole grade."
She quickly sat down and feverishly copied all my work as fast as she could, from a distance it looked like the pencil was on fire by how fast it was moving. As she worked on copying down all my answers, I felt a push on my back and someone calling my name, I turned around to see a guy standing with a stupid smile across his face and eyes looking like they were excited for something to happen.
"Daisuke, do you have your homework? I need to copy it down," said the guy kneeling down and begging with eyes which started to cry a huge pool of tears, I was slightly annoyed by this guy doing as I edged away point at Moriyama-chan, by the time I pointed in that direction he had already gotten out his books and started to copy as well.
That guy was Takumi Hoshiagki, apart from the fact he is perverted and lazy, there is nothing much to say about him because I have only known him since school started, but there was never a dull moment with him as he tries to hit on every girl he comes across (except for Moriyama-chan). The painful sting of rejection he gets every time he goes up to a girl, the slap across his face could be felt by every guy across the universe and even I get the feeling that I am being slapped when he does.
The two of them where fighting over my papers trying not to rip them or they would have to do their homework on their own. Even though it seems like I have a horrible school life, the reason why it is bearable to a point of perfection is because of my other friend Masamsi Ishimoto. She unlike the rest is smart and kind, she is the second smartest in the grade, but the truth is our marks are the exact same so neither of us are smarter than each other. She is kind to others, she never gets angry when someone breaks something of hers or loses it, but no one ever dares to do such a thing to her because all the guys in the school are in love with her with the exception of me.
The reason why I do not have any feelings for her is because every time I am around her I feel a strong friendship between us (even though there are many rumors spreading about us). The two of us are always there for each other when needed, such as when she gets surrounded by the guys, I help her escape or when I ever needed someone to give me support. We could never be broken away from each other because it will never happen. I felt a small vibration in my pocket, my Portable Software Device or PSD for short had received an e-mail from someone. The PSD had many functions such as a phone (in Japan people use their e-mails as phone numbers), music player, internet browser, money holder (similar to how a credit card works) and many more. It even has space for a keyboard when open and a chip for playing games which are sold separately. This device will make more sense when used instead of explaining it. The message received was from Ishimoto-san, the message read, 'Meet me at the mall after school.' It seemed odd to me for her to contact me in such a fashion if she sits a few seats away unless she had a reason. I looked in her direction to see something dark shadow around her with chains, clearing my eyes and looking back, there was nothing.
After school had ended, Ishimoto-san had run off out of the classroom, I tried to follow her, but as soon as I got to the hallway, she had disappeared. When walking to the direction of the mall, the endless rain pouring from the sky, the roaring thundering in the clouded sky, the strike of lightning flashing and the heavy wind rushing. If I knew nature was calling me to turn around I would have, but I was too naïve. I had walked across the parking lot when a car came screaming by and stopped right in front of me.
"Sorry!" I yelled at the driver in the dark of the car, unable to see who it was.
I was drenched from the rain, my school clothing had absorbed a large amount of water, and it was odd because there had not been a report of any kind of rain. I had scoped around the mall looking for her siting all alone at a table in the food court which looked completely deserted. Walking up, she did not have a single drop of water on her from the pouring rain as if the rain was targeting me, but the concept of rain chasing after me sounded stupid as I took a seat.
"Hey, I was wondering why you texted me," I said taking out my PSD showing her the text.
She started at me and my PSD and looked back at me, there were small flashes of chains and darkness around her, and it faded and reappeared. I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me as if it was trying to make Ishimoto-san seem dangerous. She had opened her mouth and I could feel the whole mall get dark and dark as if the mall was closing itself.
"I…I don't want to be close to you anymore can you stay away from me," she said in a sinister tone as she got up and walked out the door.
My mind raced as I sat down thinking of the reason as she walked away in a slow fashion as if time had slowed down for me. My heart was pulsing and my mind was rolling looking for the answer and the reason for all of this. Before I realized it, I got up and ran out the door of the mall to see her bounded by chains, I heard screaming from her as if the chains got tighter and tighter, the shadowy figure started to become real and moved around. I froze in place looking around and not a single soul to be seen. The thing that was happening I could not understand everything around me went black.
"D-d-daisuke..." a voice called to me.
The moment I had opened my eyes, I could see nothing, but darkness. The floating feeling I had while in this feeling, I thought I was dead. I was unable to see anything around me or even myself as I moved around to get a feel for my surroundings.
"D-d-daisuke..." called the voice again.
"Who is there?" I called out looking around to see who or what it was that called upon me.
"What is your wish?" called the voice completely ignoring my call.
What I wish for? What should I wish for, everything in my head was completely clouded and was unable to understand what was going on, I could not think nor could I see. My lips trembled for a bit before I had opened my mouth and shout.
"I-I wish to protect her!" I called closing my eyes as every memory of Ishimoto-san ran through my mind.
A light so bright shine around me, the warm feeling made me smile with happiness; my mind had cleared up as I returned to the place where I was last standing. I heard a loud clash of metal right in front of me, opening my eyes, I saw a girl holding off the monster with a staff of sorts. She looked to be my age, but was a bit smaller than me. Her fierce look stared right at the monster as it backed away getting ready to attack.
"Why are you just standing there, aren't you going to help?" called the girl in front of me swinging her staff around to strike at the monster.
"W-w-what can I do?" I asked in the mist of confusion.
"A reason... a reason to fight," said the voice from before.
Looking at my hands, I thought for a moment, a reason to fight? What was my reason? As I looked up to see Ishimoto lying on the ground unconscious and for that moment I thought of the worst possible that had happened. Anger and rage started to build up inside, I quickly turned to the monster and ran at hit hoping to punch it in the face. The surprised face of the girl watched as my punch went right through the monster and so did as I landed on the other side.
The monster raised its hand ready to strike down onto me, my pulse raced as I raised my hand to defend myself; a blinding light had cover all over my hand. Then, from the light came a glint of a sword as the monster had backed up away from me. Getting to my feet and examining the sword, the silvery blade shined through the dark sky, the hilt had a cross like design, and the guard had a wave like design to it. I felt stronger; I felt power in my hands as I ran forward toward the monster cutting off its arm.
"Idiot! They all have high-speed regeneration," said the girl as the arm grew back knocking me to the ground as I turned my head.
The girl had run forward with her staff waving it in a sword like fashion, crystals appeared in the air where the staff had slashed. These crystals hung in the air and moved forward when she did and as she struck across the air again the crystals fired at the monster like projectiles towards the enemy cutting off multiple parts of its body.
"Diamond Crystal," she said calling out the attack.
I quickly got to my feet, my back was screaming in pain from being launched in the air. I could not focus on the monster with all the pain that was shooting back and forth through my body. Everything was starting to get blurry, my vision started to become impaired and I can feel blood dripping down my hand. This is it, I thought to myself knowing I would die.
"What's the matter, I thought you were stronger than that?" said a different voice in my head.
I am strong; I thought to myself, I wanted to protect Ishimoto-san. I wanted to protect her. I got up on my feet staring straight at the monster. I could not feel the pain that was in my legs or my arms, but I knew that they were covered in blood. I had to force myself to push past my limit seeing the girl get knocked back as well. The monster had struck at her with its hand hoping to kill her. I had raised my sword in the air and slashed it down sending a wave of wind cutting the arm of the monster off. Then, stabbed it with my sword right through its body and it had faded into nothingness.
The sword which I carried had vanished and so has the girl's weapon as well. The quiet atmosphere announced the end of the battle. Ishimoto-san's chains had faded away as she lied unconsciously on the ground. Beside her, the girl also was on the ground trying to get on her feet. I caught my breath and was able think properly again. The two of us stared at each other briefly before talking.
"She will wake up eventually, but first since you aren't experienced with what happen, you will collapse," the girl said.
She was right; everything started to become blurry again, I could not see straight and collapsed on the ground. As I fell, I could see Ishimoto-san watching me as I collapse to the ground, she called for you, but it was barely audible. My head was moving all too quickly, I could not grasp what was going on around me. The images I experienced flashed through my head, one after another, in each of the images there was a shadowy figure which I did not notice before and then the shadow got bigger and bigger until I had woke up with a startle.
I realized as I caught my breath I was in my room in bed. I had thought everything that had happened was just a dream. Falling back down to my bed, I realized the girl was sitting in a chair right beside my bed. Quickly, I sat up looking around, the walls were plain as white, the window shined with light and the place was clean was it always was. I am a hundred percent sure I am in my room, I thought as I looked around the room.
"Good Morning Sleepyhead!" the girl said extremely loudly that anyone inside the house would wake up suddenly.
I freaked out and jumped to cover her mouth in fear of my parents noticing, she seemed to be smiling still as I looked around silently looking to hear footsteps or any noise. I only noticed a ticking noise as time slowly past minutes and seconds fly by with every tick. I started to feel my hand cover with something wet as if…
"Argh!" I yelled taking my hand off the girl's face.
She had stuck her tongue out onto my hand making it covered in saliva; she looked like she was having fun. The smile on her face showed that what happened was funny to her. Shaking off all the saliva that was on my hand, I remembered what happened before I blackout in an instant. The images flashed through my mind.
"Ishimoto-san, is she alright?" I asked worrying about Ishimoto-san.
"Oh! She is fine, as soon as you collapsed she was up, she has no clue what happened," said the girl.
"That's a relief, wait what are you doing in my house?" I asked.
"I had to carry you home from the battle; your parents did not notice me coming in," she said happily.
I was shocked how my parent did not realized that a stranger is in their house right now, I was more shocked by how I was carried all the way from the mall. She explained what had happened after I collapsed, how she found my house from Ishimoto-san, how she got into my house through the window. It all seemed to be very crazy for a girl to do such a thing in the first place, but her face was not lying to me.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Choko Imaizumi," she said, "I came from the past, about 500 years ago!"
500 years ago!I thought. I had a short moment to collect my thoughts before Imaizumi-san started to explain the situation and what I had just been involved with since the incident yesterday. It was the first time I felt something was not right in my life and I thought it was not going to be any worse. There are a lot of things which start to cause the crazy cycle of my life.
"What are those things that we were fighting," I asked.
"They are called SINs, the manifestation of the human desire into monsters; these monsters vary from animals to humans. People had tried to fight back using the link of the bracelet like the one attached to the both of us allowing us to fighting using weapons such as this one," she said bringing out her weapon out of thin air.
The weapon was like a white metal rod with a crystal on one side of the rod and the other side had a spear design. The crystal shined off the sunlight, inside you could see the magical properties twist about in a destructive way. The end of the staff gleam as well at the sharp tip which could be used to pierce anything and I could not help to noticed how the spear appeared out of a shining light. As I looked across the staff I saw a bracelet attached to Imaizumi-san's wrist which is connected by a chain all the way to my wrist.
"The bracelet won't affect you at all because it is more or less imaginary, only the people who are chained like us can see it and touch it," she said making her staff disappear, "The SINs in the past were also chained to the person because of their evil desires; it is more like fighting imagination with imagination. A large group of us were sent to your time period to prevent these SINs from destroying the world."
"Now then, since there is no actual way of removing the chain, you have to fight alongside me."
There was no way to remove the chain, I thought. There was no way that could be possible so I started to pull on the bracelet hoping it will come off. Imaizumi-san stared at me with the blandest expression as if she knew this would happen. I looked like an idiot to her as she sees me bite and pull on the bracelet. There was something that caught my attention as I was fighting to get free a glow of green from both bracelets appeared it was flashing.
"A SIN!" she said, "We have to go!"
It was too late for me to say anything as I was dragged out of bed and across the sidewalk, many people we passed by stared at me as I am being dragged. Some of the people exchanged glances with me saying 'can't you control your women', it was impossible for me to get free from her tight grip. We ended up at a location where a person was down on the ground being wrapped by chains from above. There stood a creature in black, it resembled lion as it roared at us, and it looked like it was ready to attack.
"The SINs target people with strong desires like ours," said Imaizumi-san.
The SIN dashed at us with its claws and fangs, striking at me with full force. Imaizumi-san moved in front of me to block with her staff. I could not react as fast as her, if she missed by a single second, I would have died. I stood there helpless realising that I never have fought in such a battle before and there was nothing I could do now.
"Idiot, help me, I can't fight this alone," said Imaizumi-san pushing back the SIN.
I saw the person on the ground; she looked like she was in pain. What can I do? I thought. The words came to me in a call, a familiar voice telling me the words 'protect', I thought of what I wanted to protect. What did I want to protect? What should I protect? Who should I protect? The scream of Imaizumi-san move through the air, there was no time to think and I had just run towards the SIN striking at Imaizumi-san.
"You ok?" I asked blocking the SIN with my sword appearing out of thin air.
"What took you forever," she asked.
"I didn't know how to bring out my sword," I said.
I had force the SIN back off as I cut its front legs off. I thought it could stop the SIN from move so I could finish it off, but then I remembered. Shit! It can regenerate, I thought as I watched both of the front legs grow back and claw at me. Imazumi-san had blocked the attack getting on her feet, the both of us stared at each other and nodded. There was a connection I felt, both of us were fighting as one.
"Circle around," said Imaizumi-san.
The both of us flanked the SIN from both sides, the SIN, it did not realise what is going probably because of its low intelligence. Running towards it, I had slashed the side of the SIN while Imaizumi-san stabbed it with the end of the staff. The SIN had vanished into thin air as well as the chain attached to the girl. I had looked around to see if anyone saw what happened.
"Don't worry, they wouldn't be able to see what happened because of the chains," said Imaizumi-san, "She will wake up eventually and anyways, shall we head back home."
"Home, you have a home here?" I asked.
"Of course, your house," she said with her big smile.
"My house! How would you be able to stay at my house I mean…?" I said walked back to my house with her.
When we got back, Imaizumi-san had convinced my parents to take her in as their child. I had no idea of what I was more shocked of, my parents allowing her or fighting a SIN. The day grew late as the both of us sat in my room. As long as this does not affect my life that much I was fine with it, but I had no clue that the next time I see her would be so soon.