Chapter 1:A New Beginning
Some days your better off staying in bed. That day was one of them. This story may sound crazy, but hey it happened to my brother and me. Anyway, let me get to the story.
It's a Sunday, and today is nothing more than my birthday. I'm finally fifteen years old. I woke up, and felt ecstatic. I got off of my bed and changed into my uniform, or in this case my casual clothing that I wear when I'm working at the shrine, which was nothing more than a long sleeved, plain, white shirt, loose, black plants, and white sneakers. For the finishing touch I tied my long, midnight black hair back.
I don't care what people ever tell me. It never botherd me, but when people began to talk about my mother, that is when I would get so moody. But I shouldn't be talking about that right now. So, I'll continue on with the story.
I folded my pajamas and set them nicely on my pillow. After that I fixed my bed, and went downstairs. The first person who I saw was my father, cooking breakfast. He looked up at me and gave a slight smile."Happy birthday my 'victorious beauty'." "Dad, I told you before to stop calling me that." I said as I folded my arms. We both heard a laugh from behind us, and a voice, who we knew, and who I find a real major pain. "Give him a break sis. Ya' know he's only congratulating you on your birthday." I turned around as I heard my father,"Now, now, Masahiko. It's her birthday."I stared at my twenty one year old brother as our father continued,"Besides, we can not celebrate right now. It must be tonight." Right away, I turned back at my father and screamed,"WHAT!" Masahiko hit me on the back of my head hard as he yelled at me,"Idiot! Calm down! Do you want the neighbors to hear you?" "But why do we have to work on my birthday?" "Dad told us that he needs the extra money to pay off the bill of the house, remember?" I let out a sigh and gave in,"Fine, I'll work."
It's already five o' clock, and I felt my arms ache as I just put away a huge box of jars of ashes. I hate the fact that we're getting ready for the New Year's festival, which isn't for another two months and thirteen days. He loves to be prepared. What my father believed was that if you throw the ashes in the fire, the people who passed away, who you cared about, will be by your side to guide you when your in situation.
Masahiko was putting some supplies away, and I was sweeping the floor. While I was sweeping the floor, I noticed the tombstone in the middle of the shrine. I then noticed that it had some weird words on it, and I can tell you right now that it is not Japanese. I looked at the words of the tombstone, which are in a weird language, and began to wonder.
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and gasped. I slapped the person behind me, and heard a familiar voice yelp. I looked to see who it was, and saw Masahiko rubbing his cheek. "Geez Katsumi! What's the big idea?" "Oh, sorry." "Hmph, you better be." I looked back at the strange language on the tombstone, and saw it morph. "What's going on?" I said to myself in my head. I looked back at my brother and panicked,"Do you see that?" I pointed towards the words on the tombstone. He looked at me bewildered and asked if I'm going insane,"Mind telling me what I'm supposed to be seeing besides the tombstone." I looked back at the tombstone and wondered,"Why can't he see the words change?" The language changed into my language, which is Japanese. It now said,"Say this word and you shall enter into the world of the Universe of the Four Gods." I gazed upon it as I saw the word, which said,"Paragon" "A 'Paragon'? What's a 'Paragon'." I felt Masahiko's hand on my forehead. "Do you need medication or something?" I jerked his hand away. Just as I was about to speak, a strange, purple light appeared on the tombstone, and it hit me. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?" My brother bellowed. He grabbed my wrist and yelled my name. We were pulled into the tombstone as the light began to disappear. The last thing I heard was my brother's voice calling out for me as I drifted off, letting the darkness consume me.