Load I: Resolve
-Skyefinal


Choose. A voice whispered around me, it tugged me into consciousness.

I opened my eyes and saw black.

"Well, can't choose anything if it's pitch black." Yes, I do speak out loud to random voices in the air. Helps me collect my thoughts. "Okay, random voice in the air. I'm floating or in a liquid medium that lets me breathe air. Conclusion: this is a dream."

I twisted my head around to find anything as a clue. Even if this is a dream, still a pretty cool dream… besides the whole dark thing.

Choose.

"Uh…Did you not hear me?" For some reason I tilted my head upwards. Voices tend to be above you right? "There's nothing to choose, except nothing. So…I choose nothing?"

Show me your resolve.

Seven lights flickered into life in front of me and nearly destroyed my retinas. "Ow…" I dropped my hand and stared at the assortment of colours. "Pretty…"

Orange, red, blue, yellow, green, purple and a blue-purple light blazed in a semi-circle surrounding me. No, not blue-purple, indigo? I corrected in my head.

"Okay…I got a rainbow of fire going on. Chemistry is so involved here." I placed my hands on my hips. "Iodine makes purple flames, right? Ugh, wish I remembered what the other ones are."

Are you the sky? Or are you a phenomena?

"I'm human?" I stupidly answered. I received no answer back just like I expected. I glanced at the flames. Lifting a hand towards the orange flame, I was surprised at the lack of pain, but incredible warmth engulfing my hand. Normally, flames would be uncontrollable and consume everything into ashes, but this one felt calm, accepting. The red flame was the opposite; I snatched my hand back from the intensity of it. "Okay, red is not calm. Don't touch that one."

I dubbed the flames based on their colours, so original right? "Green is crackling over there like electricity, definitely not touching that one. Yellow is way too bright, kinda hurts to look at it actually." I mused. "Purple seems okay, I think." I reached out a hand to purple and before I could touch it the flames burst into smaller clouds of flames and dodged my hands. "Okay, purple doesn't like being touched."

"How about indigo?" I extended my hand to poke at indigo, but missed. "Huh?" I kept trying to lightly poke at indigo, but every time I misjudged the distance and missed. I rubbed my eyes, "I know I have glasses, but I don't think my depth perception is that bad…" I gave up touching indigo, it felt like the flame was toying around with me.

"That leaves blue?" Wearily approaching the last flame, I was surprised to find it just floating there as I gently cupped it in my hands. I raised an eyebrow, this one felt cool instead of warm. Well, not like the other fires were normal. This one is feels calm, a different kind of calm from the orange one.

So you have chosen. Not the one that encompasses all but the one that washes everything away.

Snapping my head back up, I shouted angrily. "So mind explaining to me what you want with me? Flames are cool and all, but this is kind of weird."

Be the tranquil rain that settles conflicts and washes everything away.

The monotone voiced was replaced by a warmer, happier voice.

This one wishes you luck!

"Wait! What do you mean?"

Before I could shout anymore into thin air, the blue flames in my hand roared into life and flew straight into my chest. It knocked me back despite the fact I was floating beforehand and I felt myself fall into the dark abyss. Warm hazel eyes were the last thing I saw before blacking out.


"Hey, did you read the thing I sent to you online last night?"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool! Thanks by the way, just what I wanted to read after obsessing about the series for so long."

"Maybe you could write one when you have time, after finals and assignments and other school related things."

"Haha, but who would read it?"

"I would."

"Heh, thanks!"


A muffled conversation woke me up from my sleep. I kept my eyes closed and tried to keep my breathing steady as footsteps walked away from where I was sleeping. Weird, if it was my family coming to wake me up they wouldn't talk like that. They would shake me, or in my sister's case, scream obnoxiously loud to scare the crap out of me. Also, my bed wasn't this hard before was it?

I got kidnapped by some nice kidnappers, I guess. They didn't bind my hands or feet, but let me sleep on something soft. Time to wake up, grab something that could be a weapon, break my way out, and get home.

I groaned, feeling stiff and groggy. "Yeah, like that's going to happen." I sat up and surveyed the room. It wasn't too small or too large, it was quite homey actually. Beige walls, a wooden dresser, tatami mats and sliding doors made up the room. "Wait, tatami mats? I've never seen a house in Canada that had tatami mats before."

My hands bumped into an object next to my head. Seeing it was my black-framed glasses I put those on. Yay for HD vision! I stood up, and feeling that I should show some politeness, fixed up the bed that I was sleeping on, which was a futon mat. "Okay, I'm definitely in a Japanese-style house."

I carefully slid open the door and tiptoed downstairs. My walk led me to an empty living room. "Hello?" I called out, noticing sounds like a chair scraping against a floor behind a door, I opened it to find a restaurant. It was a decent-sized restaurant, maybe catering towards families as I noticed the cute pictures and colour pencils in a box next to me.

A young voice piped up and I finally noticed the pair sitting on the counter. The older, the father most likely, stood up and asked a question. It took me a few seconds to realize they were speaking in Japanese. Duh, I mean, there were tatami mats and a futon, of course they speak Japanese!

"Sorry," I stammered in my hesitant Japanese. I took one university course to learn Japanese, but it's been so long since I've spoken it. Well, seriously that is. I remembered eating dim sum with my cousins and the ridiculous phrases my sister and my eldest cousin would say to me to 'test' my vocabulary. "Thank you for, um, letting me sleep? In your house?"

Ahh, my good old broken style of speaking Japanese rises once more.

The elder chuckled, thank goodness he noticed I wasn't fluent in Japanese. He spoke slowly but not too slow to treat me as if I was stupid. "You don't have to thank us. Are you alright? No pains?"

I shook my head. I felt groggy, but I felt no pain.

"It's good to see you up! You gave us a scare, sleeping on the streets like that!" The younger said to me. I smiled at him before backtracking what he said.

"I was sleeping on the streets?" I panicked. Was I walking by myself and just fainted on the spot? That's embarrassing.

"Haha, yeah! Luckily my dad found you." He grinned at his father. "He would've brought you to the hospital but it was all filled up because of Hibari. He found an entire underground gang selling drugs and put them all in the hospital. Dad said you didn't have any injuries so he felt you could just sleep it off here. Today's a Sunday so it's the shop's day-off."

I stared at him, my mind trying really, really hard to figure out what he just said. I heard hospital, Hibari, gang, full, and Sunday equals a day-off for this shop. But I was able to figure out what he meant. "I understand." I bowed to both of them, "Thank you for your hospitality."

"So polite," The elder laughed, he gently brought me out of bow. "Would you like to use the phone to call your parents?"

"Yes please." He brought out a wireless phone. I dialed my home number and heard a string of…not my mother language explaining something. I held the phone to the older, "I don't understand."

He listened to the string of words and his face went grave. "Which country were you calling to?"

I tilted my head, confused. "Canada, why?"

He shook his head. "You're in Namimori, Japan."

Fuck.


The younger man led me to their living room and we both sat down. I dropped my head into my hands. "How the hell did I get from Canada to Japan!?" I yelled into my hands. I didn't have my passport on me, last I remembered, so I traveled illegally. Great, how much trouble am I with my country that I had to resort to illegal traveling?

"Haha," I peeked through my fingers to stare at the male. "I forgot to introduce myself to you before. My name is Yamamoto Takeshi! Nice to meet ya!"

I smiled. "Nice to meet you, Yamamoto-san."

Wait, where did I hear that name before?

We chatted for a few minutes. It was relatively successful, I paused a few times to collect my thoughts and trying to not screw up my Japanese. It also gave me time to figure out where I heard Yamamoto's name.

Hibari. Namimori. Yamamoto Takeshi. Calm down, calm down. Just because those three names popped up doesn't mean its true. They're pretty common names. I think. Is Namimori even real? It must be. It's not like I could randomly pop into an anime world right?

"Your Japanese is pretty good! Where did you learn?"

"I took a course in university."

"Eh!? You're in university?" Yamamoto exclaimed. "How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"Man, I thought you were still in high school. You definitely don't need to add the 'san' then. I'm still in my last year of elementary." I laughed, thanking him for his compliment. It was rare to be mistaken for being younger, most people would think I was older for some reason.

"Then Yamamoto-kun."

Yeah! There's no way, he's still in elementary. If I remember, the series started during their middle school year.

I took my time to look at Yamamoto. He had typical Asian looks: short, black hair and warm, hazel eyes. He was pretty tall too, I had to slightly tilt my head to face him and if he's still in elementary then he'll keep growing. I silently cursed my short height. Hmm, if he was in my high school all the girls would be crushing on him. Although aged, Yamamoto-san looked very similar to Yamamoto. Maybe if he was younger they could be twins.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"My name is…" I stilled. I couldn't remember my name. It wouldn't pop into my head. "I can't remember…"

I bit my lip, slipping back into English. "Okay, calm down. Think carefully. You can't be an amnesiac and forget your name only right? What's ga je's name? Wait, I still remember Cantonese so that's good right? Ah shit, I can't remember her name. Shit shit, flipin' shit."

Did I mention that I swear a lot when I'm stressed?

"No swearing in my house young lady." Elder Yamamoto sternly reprimanded.

Eep. "Sorry."

"I called your home number again, luckily I had a long-distance card." He sighed, "But the number doesn't call to anywhere. In short, no one has that phone number."

"Could I try?" Yamamoto-san handed me the card and showed me how to dial. I tried my dad's cell, my mom's, and my sister's. In desperation, I even dialed my cousin's number but all resulted in a Japanese lady telling me that the number is not in use.

"Well, crap." I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Please head, now is not the time to get a headache. "Okay, thank you Yamamoto-san for calling. I shouldn't, um, cause you another more trouble." Speaking formal Japanese is so hard. Those hours watching idol variety shows and learning more slang and informal way of speaking is so not helping now. Why can I remember the unimportant things, but not my name or my family's? "I'll head out now."

"Where will you go?" Yamamoto-san asked, crossing his arms. "A young lady like you, who can't speak Japanese, wandering without any money or a destination?"

"Er. Well I was hoping to go to…" I paused, trying to find the proper word. When in doubt, trying saying the word in English. "Embassy?"

"Do you even have identification?" He asked, before gently. "Or even a home to go to?"

"…"

He was right. Even if I went to an embassy, I would need some form of ID, my airplane ticket and other things. How could I explain that I just woke up one day in Japan when I came from Canada? And if the numbers I dialed aren't in use…does that mean my family doesn't exist?

That I shouldn't even exist now?

"Hey dad, why not let her stay with us?" Yamamoto suddenly asked. "She's too old to go to a kojiin. She could help you with the shop too!"

"Whoa, I can't do that!" I protested. I just met them today! And what if they really are who I think they are, it would be even more awkward! "What is a kojiin anyways? Why can't I go there?"

"It's a place for children who don't have parents." Yamamoto-san explained.

Oh, an orphanage.

"But, I can't just suddenly live with you!" I continued to argue.

"Why not? It'll be fun!" I suddenly envisioned a tall, brown-haired basketball player. No, nope, not going there.

"I'll be a bother!" In desperation, I tried another approach. "For all you know, I could be a killer!" Thank you anime, for teaching me that vocabulary.

"Actually, it might be a good idea." Yamamoto and I whipped our heads to the adult in the room.

"What?"

"Knew you would say yes."

The two proceeded to have a conversation that I could not follow at all. Dang, fluent people are really fast in speaking Japanese. The younger smiled and laughed as if he won the conversation. The elder sighed and turned to me.

"You can earn your keep here." Yamamoto-san bargained. "Earn enough to travel back to Canada and find your family. We're the only ones to understand your situation, not everyone in Namimori is that understanding and willing to help a complete stranger."

He let me digest all that information before continuing. "Also, this is quite sudden but I have been wanting to hire a person to help with the shop and home." He gestured me to look around the room. It wasn't dirty, but books and clothing were strewn around and dust was starting to pile up. "As two males, we're not that good cleaning. My son here is into baseball while I'm only good for is running our sushi shop."

I wanted to ask what happened to the female of the house, but I held my tongue. It wasn't any of my business. I went over my choices in my head. Yamamoto-san made a compelling argument, they knew my situation and they're nice. So very nice. I have no home, I can't reach my family, what's there to lose? I felt sudden warmth in my chest, I instantly felt calm. My fears of the Yamamoto family being serial murderers or suspicious people faded away. I decided to trust my instincts.

"Okay." I gave a tiny grin. "You win."

Yamamoto cheered.

"I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Yamamoto Tsuyoshi. You can call me Tsuyoshi, I look forward to working with you."

I spluttered out my own words in return, trying hard to convey my gratitude for allowing me to live in his house. His smile told me he understood what my limited Japanese was trying to say. "And your name?"

I deflated. "I don't remember it."

"Shall we give you a name?" Yamamoto suggested. "Until you remember yours."

"Okay," I shrugged. "Do you have a suggestion?"

"We found you in the rain last night." Yamamoto made a thinking pose. "So…Amaya? Haha, I can give you a nickname too!" He grabbed a nearby pen and pad. "Here, this is how you write it."

He turned the pad so I could see, the characters for rain and night made up Amaya.

"Not a very bright name though," Tsuyoshi commented.

"It's perfect." I smiled. "I'm also not a bright person."

"With that done, we can say that you are a distant relative working at the shop. No one would ask for more details." I nodded, a pretty simply cover story." Tsuyoshi stretched, "Time to go shopping then."

"Eh?"

"You didn't have any bags with you when we found you. You can't live on only one set of clothing." I looked down at what I was wearing, realizing now I was wearing a large shirt and shorts. They were obviously men's. Yeah, I needed more clothes. "Just checking, who changed me?"

Yamamoto blushed. "Our family friend, female friend, Mizuki-san! Of course we wouldn't change your clothes."

I laughed. "Just checking."

"Your clothes are in the washroom, it's probably dry by now." I went upstairs and found a brown sweater, green shorts, and black tights hanging on the shower curtain rod. Yeah, I was correct in saying I wasn't a bright person, even my clothes are kinda bland. Meh, they were comfortable and that's all that matters. Checking the pockets, I found my purple bead bracelet and slipped that on my left wrist. I remember it was my aunt who gave me this as a ghost-warding Asian charm thing, but it became my good-luck charm instead.

I changed, putting the male clothing into the hamper and looked into the mirror. Mid back-length black hair and side bangs and brown eyes stared back at me. No one would question if I was really a distant relative, one of the perks about being Asian I assumed. I weaved a hand through my hair, trying my best to untangle it. "I need a haircut." I went down back to the shop.

"Takeshi, could you watch the shop? We'll be back in time for our guest."

"Isn't the shop closed today?" I asked, as all three of us walked towards the backdoor. I found my brown boots and slipped those on.

"Ah, we always have a Sunday guest."

"Oh."

Waving goodbye to Yamamoto, Tsuyoshi and I headed down to the streets. Shopping with Tsuyoshi wasn't that awkward as I thought. He explained that there weren't any malls, but street stores were available to buy clothing. That suited me just fine, it reminded me of Hong Kong. I insisted that I get the bare minimum, but Tsuyoshi fought back, arguing that females should own more clothing, and he actually had a better fashion sense then me. I got jeans, sweaters, t-shirts, socks, and embarrassingly enough, female-specific clothing (he stood outside the shop this time) and bathroom necessities. I cringed at the price tag and held my ground when I said I would work for the clothing to pay Tsuyoshi back.

While Tsuyoshi led me around Namimori, I tried to compare the town to what I remember. If I had to compare it with another town, I would say it reminded me of Sha Tin, my aunt's village in Hong Kong. Tsuyoshi pointed out the residential area, shopping area, the parks and other administrative buildings. It was quite similar with its layout, even the large land of forest-y area past the residents' zone. While we were strolling back to Tsuyoshi's shop, voices called out to Tsuyoshi. Greetings and introductions were passed around as Tsuyoshi clarified who I was to his friends and acquaintances. I smiled awkwardly and kept bowing my head, trying hard to understand their words. Finally they went away and it was just us to walking in a comfortable silence.

"So this is what shopping with a daughter feels like." Tsuyoshi mused, carrying half of my bags. "Not a bad feeling."

"Believe me, it could be a lot worse." I remember shopping with my sister and she would take forever choosing her clothes. "Thank you for the clothes."

"Ah, but you're going to be paying me back." Tsuyoshi's eyes twinkled. "So technically, they are yours."

"True." I laughed. Grinning up at Tsuyoshi, I teased him a bit. "You sound like the type of father to spoil their daughters."

"I envisioned a son and a daughter." Tsuyoshi admitted. "Even Takeshi wanted a sister. I have to say though, Takeshi is friendly but he doesn't really stick to people." He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes. "This is the first time he has approved of someone helping me in the shop. All the other applicants he didn't like."

I didn't have a reply. I just ducked my head and murmured something about Tsuyoshi exaggerating and that his son is just really kind.

"Be his friend, please." Tsuyoshi faced me, his eyes a bit pained. "There's only so much I can do as a father."

I nodded, staring back at those eyes. Tsuyoshi smiled, patting me on the head. We rounded the corner and saw the sushi shop, this time I was able to see the name, TakeSushi. Okay, well it's kinda common. The sushi shop near where I lived had the same name. I slid open the door, "Yamamoto-kun, we've returned!"

"Too noisy." A grumpy voice responded and I saw a glint of silver. Oh my god are those tonfas!? "Who are you, soushokujuu?"

"Now now, Hibari-kun." Tsuyoshi clamped a hand onto my shoulder, grounding me. I realized that I was shivering, those eyes are scary! "This is my distant relative's daughter. She's going to help out at the shop now."

"Hmph." Hibari turned away. "I want the assorted sushi today."

"Okay." Tsuyoshi replied. "Let me just get my niece settled in and I'll make your order."

Carefully treading to make no noise, I toed off my boots and rushed to the living room in the back. Tsuyoshi chuckled and led me back to the room where I was sleeping earlier. "This is your room now, after you're done putting your clothes away head back down. Hibari-kun's not that bad, he won't attack females."

I nodded, slightly reassured. It didn't take me long to put all my clothes away, since I made sure to not buy so much, I padded back downstairs.

Okay, so there's a Yamamoto Takeshi, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, their shop TakeSushi, a Hibari person, and I'm in Namimori, Japan. How on earth did I get transported into an anime world!? Wait, maybe they got inspired by the anime and made the shop. I mean Yamamoto is a common family name right? RIGHT? And Hibari could be a common family name too.

I stopped before the door to the restaurant, taking deep breathes. Okay, if Hibari's first name is Kyouya, then I'll accept the fact that I may have ended up in the world of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

"Maya! Come meet Hibari." Maya? My nickname for now I guess, he did say he could give me one. Yamamoto waved me over. He slung an arm over Hibari and I could literally feel the killing intent from the other. "This is Hibari Kyouya, if you're ever in trouble this is the guy to go to in Namimori. He's kinda like the police guy around here."

Shit.

"O-okay…" I watched as Hibari flung Yamamoto's arm off and bonked him on the head with his tonfa. His metal tonfa.

"Yamamoto-kun!" I quickly inspected his head while the he just laughed. He waved me off saying it was Hibari's way of expressing his love. "I don't know about that…"

"Soushokujuu, don't touch me." Hibari hissed out. I looked confused at the soushokujuu word and Yamamoto explained what it was. Oh right, Hibari refers to everyone has herbivores.

Yamamoto continued his introductions. "And this is Amaya, or Maya for short! She's still learning Japanese, so be patient with her okay Hibari?" He didn't respond, but I didn't care, he's like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and unleash his fury on everyone. "By the way Maya, how come you don't call me by my first name?"

"Uh well…" Why did I not call Yamamoto his first name, I thought. "Isn't it rude?"

"We're relatives, remember?" Tsuyoshi came out with a platter of assorted sushi, placing the dish in front of Hibari. Were Yamamoto and Hibari friends before?

"Takeshi-kun." I tried out the name.

Takeshi smiled, seeing his grin called me to smile as well. Maybe living in this world might not be so bad.

If only I knew why and how I got here, and for what?


AN: In the middle of the night this popped up in my head. We'll see how this goes, I need to re-read the Daily Life Arcs again to make sure I don't miss any important events. Well, I'm still in the prologue stage so that'll be maybe 2-3 more chapters? I'll try to change things up a bit so it's not that predictable.

Edit: fixed up my weird habit of inserting random words that aren't needed.