Book Two of Tales of Mahora: A Human's Heart
What was left on the battle field between the Istanbul Magic Association and the Ala Alba was furious continuous burning flames and wrecked buildings. Victory was in the Ala Alba's hands, as Fate retreated to left the world at peace. But what about his followers? One, who had betrayed him and had taken the good side, was left with serious injuries and a near death situation. Although no one knew this, it would soon change when a prince of another country unexpectedly save this girl's life.
Chapter 1: Completed Resurrection
"Hey… Are you all right?!" A voice called out to the unconscious wounded girl lying on the dirt field. Her vision was unclear and all she could see was a blur shadow.
"W-who…who's t-there…?" Her voice trembled as bits of words could be heard.
"Hang on!" The shadow spoke once again, carrying the girl in his arms as he ran to a place where she could be saved.
In a silent tone, she whispered the only name she remembered, although it was left unheard by anyone as her voice died out and her eyes began to close completely.
"Set…Setsuna-sem…pai…."
Full unconsciousness fell upon the girl whose fate was in her savior's hands. What would become of Tsukuyomi?
Morning fell upon the Kingdom of Negiha, a kingdom just separated by a long river from its neighboring country, the Mahora. A lonely prince was working on something he thought he would never be able to lay his hands on: a resurrection machine, a technology that could bring back life to one person. Compensation was given in return. Whose life was he saving? Of course, it was none other than the Shinmeiryu warrior, Tsukuyomi, whom he had rescued from the last remaining bits from the battle between the world's two great forces. There were only a few steps left until the process of resurrection was complete.
"This is it…" He whispered, wiping the sweat drops of from his hot forehead and ruffling his short raven hair. The only hope he had in mind at that time was to save this girl's life. After all, this project had been held over thirteen months. Now all that was left was to wait for this girl to finally open her eyes.
The girl's body was laid on a bed with nothing but a white sheet to cover her. The prince walked over to Tsukuyomi and called out to her. He crouched down, placing his lips just a few inches away from the girl's ear.
"It's time for you wake up now," He said in a silent tone.
The girl's eyes began to peel open after thirteen months of unconsciousness. Her vision was once again clear as a figure in front of her watched as his project turned out to be a great success. He slumped down from the chair nearby and gave out a sigh of relieve.
"Where…am I?" The girl finally spoke up with her usual normal tone.
"Landwell's Secret Underground Laboratory, in other words, my lab," He replied as he looked at the confused girl who did not understand a single word he just said. He gave out a sigh and asked, "Do you remember who you are?"
It took her a moment, but she recognized the face of the person who was talking to her. Rapidly, she sat up from where she was laying and called out a name she believed to be that person's, causing a jolt from the prince, "Setsuna-sempai!?"
Not noticing what she was wearing, the white sheet fell from her body, revealing 'everything'. The man looked away, covering his blushing face.
"I don't who you are talking about but cover yourself first," He said, trying not to peek at the girl's pale naked body.
Tsukuyomi didn't seem to care and she didn't have the slightest bit of shock when the sheet fell down. She nudged it up to cover her body so that the man would face her… so that's he could make sure he was the one.
"Are you Setsuna-sempai?" She asked bluntly.
"Who are you…talking about-" Something struck him as a memory flashed back into his mind. He grabbed onto her shoulders roughly, "You know Setsuna?!"
"Well yes. She is my upperclassman…" Tsukuyomi replied, feeling a bit pain from the sudden grasp.
"That's all…?" He asked expecting more. He let go as soon as he saw that Tsukuyomi's expression.
"Yes," She answered.
The prince gave out yet another sigh.
"So you are not Setsuna-sempai?" She asked once again.
"No. My face may resemble her, but I'm not Setsuna," The prince said, having a little thought, 'Unfortunately…'
"Well I see…" Tsukuyomi was disappointed that the person was not her dear sempai.
"Anything else you remember?" He asked, ruffling through his short spiked raven hair.
"No…that's all I remember."
"Do you know your name?"
She nodded and gave him a reply, "Tsukuyomi."
"I see," The prince smiled and reached out his hand, "My name is Ichikawa Setsuki. I'm the prince of this Negiha Kingdom. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tsukuyomi-san."
Tsukuyomi looked at his hands then take another look at his face. Such a resemblance, it was almost as though this was a miracle. She let him see her true smile as she took his hand and shook it.
"Same here, Ichikawa-kun."
The prince returned the smile. Tsukuyomi did not notice her heart skipped a beat as she stared at his flawless face. She laid herself down again on the bed.
"Rest for a while. I'll go get you a change of clothing," Setsuki walked away, turning off the lights in his laboratory, leaving only one single lamp on. He closed the door and left it unlock.
The prince used a special machinery to go to his room. This was a secret laboratory, and the only way to go here was by knowing the password to work this machine. All the technology here in this castle was created by him, the Magister Magi with a mind of intellectual knowledge. He went up to his room, which was neat and organized, by him alone. Anyone who dared to touch his personal items would be immediately directed to penalty. That was how this castle worked.
The prince walked up to one of his maid and asked a rather blunt question, "Oshiba-san, would you like to go help me pick out some girls' clothings?"
There was a rather surprise expression on the maid's face as she laughed at the prince's question. "For a girlfriend, Setsuki-sama?"
"You can say that," The prince jokingly replied.
Back at the lab, Tsukuyomi could not sleep, but instead, she tried to recall all of her memories. What had happen to her and why did she end up here? All those questions stormed through her head.
About a few hours later, the prince returned with bags of brand new clothes. He turned some of the lights back on but left some unlit, afraid that he would ruin the sleeping beauty's nap. Setsuki placed the clothes he was going to give Tsukuyomi on a chair. He then walked over the peacefully asleep Tsukuyomi and crouched down next to the bed. He carefully removed the strand of hair that was covering her eye.
"Welcome back," Tsukuyomi said, still keeping her eyes shut. Setsuki quickly removed his hands from her hair.
"Sorry, did I wake you up?" He apologized. She shook her head and smiled at him.
"No, I just couldn't sleep."
Setsuki gave out a sigh and grinned back at her. "Well, it's time to get up anyway. You need to take a bath. After that, I'll tell you about what happened," Setsuki explained, standing up from where he was. He then handed her the bags of clothes. "The bathroom is over there. If you need anything, just call out to me," Setsuki said, directing where she should go.
Tsukuyomi nodded and grabbed hold of the bags. She took a peek inside and giggled.
"Don't tell me you bought all these without embarrassing yourself," Tsukuyomi stated, teasing Setsuki.
"Of course not! I asked my maid to help me out… I couldn't possibly go in that kind of store…" Setsuki replied covering his blushing face with his hand.
After a few seconds of teasing, she glared up at Setsuki, hinting onto into something. Setsuki blushed when he noticed what he should be doing. "R-right. Sorry…" The prince walked away, with a face of a tomato. Tsukuyomi snickered a bit at Setsuki's reaction and stood up from the bed. It felt kind of odd somehow, feeling the touch of the ground from her small feet. It has been quite a long while since she had walk. It took her a while before she could balance herself and trying to keep her body covered by the white sheet.
The bathroom was extremely clean, neat, and organized. Tsukuyomi locked the door behind her and hanged her new clothes on a silver bar. It was a sleeveless pink and white shirt with frills on the collar and at the edges that went along with a matching style skirt. Tsukuyomi was surprised, this was exactly how she liked her clothes to be, loli type. She lit up a smile and went inside the tub to take a nice, long, relaxing bath.
Setsuki was outside in his lab, looking through files and accessing information from other countries and his own. He searched for the name Tsukuyomi under citizens but nothing revealed of such person, or either that, the photos of the person did not resemble the girl he had saved. The prince leaned back onto his chair and massaged his forehead to ease the headache.
'Just who is this girl anyway…?'
This question was still left unanswered. Setsuki did many researches about Tsukuyomi ever since he found her at the battle scene but nothing came up. Not even the slightest clue of who she was or where she came from. What made matters worst were the temporary amnesia that Tsukuyomi had. Although, these were not the things that bothered him, there were something more to that. What irritated him most was… the relation to Sakurazaki Setsuna.
Sorry for the sudden one month break! There were a lot of things that happened and I was in a writer's block's situation haha ^^;
Well finally, Book 2 of Tales of Mahora, the pairing is SeTsuku ^^
I favored this pairing, they warm my heart somehow lol
There are some odd similiarities between these two. They both have someone they love and it is unrequited. They're both... somewhat stalkers... And they both schemeful ---- Is this even a word? O.o
I hope you enjoyed it so far. Again, I apologize for my very poor grammars and language skills ^^;
Negima belongs to Ken Akamatsu and Setsuki belongs to me ^^
PLEASE REVIEW!
-Seiren