Part One: The Truth About The World

Day: 001

The day started just like any other normal Saturday. The smell of chlorine rose from the surface of the pool and the splashing of water as my cousin and I raced towards the other end of the pool. I reached out my hand as fast as I could to reach the rim of the swimming pool, the finish line. All of a sudden another hand rushed even faster to the end of the pool. Crap! I thought as I reached for the rim, then touched it. My head shot out of the water. "Yes!" I cried. "I beat you this time Kyle!" "Fine," he murmured, "this time." We both hopped out of the pool. This is the first time in a long time that I've beat him in a long time, I thought in my mind.

I met my mom outside of the aquatic center I'd just swam at with my cousin. "What took you so long?" My younger brother Ben complained. He was 10 years old, but he still acted like a little child. "Yeah yeah," I replied not really listening to him ramble on about how long he'd waited with my mom. I always felt that my life was so boring. It was like a cycle of never ending repetitive events. Weekdays were exactly like other weekdays and weekends were the exact same thing as other weekends, boring. And it wasn't like I didn't fit in at school or anything like that, I had all the friends that I could ever hope for, but the problem was that they couldn't understand me… the real me. While they were in love with the fact that their lives were so normal and laid back I hated it. I wanted a life with something much more. Maybe like the life of someone inside an amazing adventure book. I was weird and different. I knew that full well.

t

At four pm I got out of my aunt's gold van and walked to the front door of my church. I pulled out my uniform that indicated I was a leader/teacher from my large green and white striped purse and put it on over my normal clothes. When I got into the church I made my way to the first floor of the building and sigh, "C'mon Sephiria! You've got to smile as big as you can today." I mumble to myself, "you got to." When I walk in, many little kids at the age of four or five hug my legs. I almost fall down from shock. "Play with us!" They all beg in Chinese. I smiled the way I told myself to before I entered the room. "Okay," I replied. They all smiled and ran to a table at the center of the room and sat down. "They really have taken a liking to you, Sephiria," the secretary said to me. "Yeah, I guess," I responded. After a few games, the kids cleaned up and began to listen to biblical stories. "Hey Sephiria!" my partner Chelsea cried, "can you do these crafts in the back room for me? I have to leave early today." "Sure!" I said.

I went into the back room and shut the door behind me. I sat down in front of a row of paper crowns that had "Happy Birthday!" written across each of them. Next week was when all the monthly birthday celebrations would occur. I was sure it was going to be a busy day. I picked up a bottle of glue off the wooden shelf behind me and grabbed a few assorted vials of glitter

After a while, I ran out of glue. I had to decorate one more crown and I'd be finished. I tossed the empty glue bottle into the trash bin and went back to the wooden shelf to grab a new bottle of glue. While I walked to the back, I checked the time, it was 5:45PM. I had a half an hour left until I could leave. I was bored, like I always was. It was going to just be a normal day…again. I grabbed the bottle of glue and sat myself in front of the finished crowns. I twisted open the orange nib to the glue and started drawing a squiggle pattern across the top of the crown and then poured glitter on the glue trail. I sighed as I dumped the excess glitter in a blue plastic bin. I watched as the glitter fluttered into the blue plastic bin, glittering and shimmering in all its glory.

t

What felt like an hour passed and I had finally finished all of the crowns. "Finally!" I cried aloud without meaning to. My cheeks flushed at my own stupidity. Playful screams rang out from the other side of the door. They sound like they were having fun, I thought to myself with a smile. All of a sudden the playful screams stopped dead in their tracks and silence pierced the air. My stomach tied into a knot. The silence was almost scary. Screams broke the silence soon enough, but this time they were not playful screams. Children howled and bawled and I could hear other leaders screaming with horror in their voices.

I took off towards the door and reached for the handle to see what was happening, but before my hand even touched the knob a shock of pain ran up my legs and caused me to stumble back and fall to the ground. When my body hit the ground pain shot through my whole body. The pain reminded me of ripples in a pool of water when something was thrown in to it, and the place where the object collided with the water was the center of the distortion. My ankles wrists and the back of my neck sent pain coursing through my body. I tried to cry out but it felt as if a saw was tearing the back of my neck apart and it caused me not to be able to speak. Heavy tears poured out of my eyes, I managed to turn my head slightly to the right to see a cross carved on to the palm side of my wrist. I checked my ankles and it was the same. I leaned on the wall and curled in to the best ball that I could for someone in a great amount of pain. More sobs were released from my throat.

A chorus of explosions tore across the second floor knocking tiny particles of ceiling to the ground below. I was afraid that the ceiling would cave in on me. All of a sudden I felt my aching joints tear sending blood splattering all over the wall and carpet. I screamed the smallest I could, it came out more like a squeal than a scream, but it was all I could get out. The tears in my eyes became even heavier and came out much faster than before. Worst of all was that the blood wouldn't stop, my loss of blood was causing me to slip out of consciousness and I felt my eyelids get heavy. I was tired, I wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. I wanted to escape the pain as soon as I could. as my eyes slowly closed I heard a small part of me scream, DANGER but it was too late, I had already been engulfed by a deep sleep, and I never wanted to wake up… never.

I was in a dream. The world was bathed in white. It was snowing but it wasn't cold at all, it was more like the snow was warm. Like it was a soft white blanket that covered the earth to preserve it's heat. The world was beautiful, I loved it. Then I spotted another person standing a couple hundred feet away from me. "Sephiria Sephiria," the person called with a voice full of purity and strength. It was the voice of a girl. I was surprised that I could hear the girl's voice so clearly from so far away, but I heard it as clear as a bell. almost like it was echoing in my mind.

I took long strides towards the girl to confront her and ask her why she was calling for me. "Wake up," I heard someone else say. This time it was the voice of a boy. "Hey wake up!" the voice came from the sky. That beautiful milky white sky. I shook my head and continued on towards the girl.

What felt like forever passed and I finally reached the mystery girl that stood so far away from me before. "Hey," I said. She looked at me with glassy eyes that had the strength to pierce right through your heart. She had perfect chestnut colored brown hair and pale white skin that every girl dreamed of. She had a body that was not to skinny and not to fat (in other words she was the perfect size). This girl looked so fragile, like a porcelain doll, but most importantly… the girl and I shared the same face. "Who are you?" I asked. " I am you." she replied. I wasn't that surprised with her answer, it seemed so cliché that she would say that. "What's your name?" "My name is-," then she stopped, looked at me, and smiled.

Suddenly her body began to melt away in to the snow. "That's for you to find out, not for me to tell you along with who I really am." then she disappeared . The boy's voice called out to me once again. "Wake up!" A bottomless hole opened up beneath my feet and the next thing I knew I was falling

Falling

Falling

I jolted up from the wall I was laying on. It almost felt like I had just returned to my own body. Even though I was finally awake I could still only see white, but this time it was different. Instead of the white looking like a blanket it looked like silk. I looked beyond that silky white and saw a face, a boy's face. Ha had platinum blue (basically silver) eyes and a slightly paled face with a red colored scar coming down across his left eye and stopping at the bottom of his face. The scar started from a red upside down scar on the left side of his forehead above his eye. "Thank God you're okay," he spoke. "Where am I?" I mumbled. Then I remembered everything. "The blood!" I cried. The boy grabbed my arm and looked at me with those beautiful, straightforward, and kind eyes. "It's okay," he said calmly, "there's no blood." He repeated those words to me until my eyes had lost the paranoia in them and until my breathing was evenly paced again.

"Are you okay?" The boy asked me. "Yeah, I think so," I replied. Then he released his grip on my arm. I looked across the room and saw a huge sword laying on the ground. It had the height of a person at the least 5'8 and the width of a man's chest. The edges of the sword were jet black and a cross in the middle of it was the same color, the rest of the sword was white. The hilt of the sword was gold with a tannish yellow grip wrapped around it, it was about a foot in length and two inches in width, at the end of the hilt was a small golden chain holding a golden cross that dangled at the end of it.

The white haired boy picked up the huge sword that was at the least an inch taller than him like it was nothing at all. My heartbeat sped up, maybe I thought that he might turn around and cut me in to pieces with that colossal thing, but I knew in my heart that he wouldn't. "What's your name?" I asked. He turned around looking a little surprised. "It's Allen Walker," he replied with a smile.

I felt my cheeks get hot. He had a beautiful smile. I began noticing how perfect he was. Even the scar on his face was perfectly and evenly shaped. I shook the redness out of my face and breathed out. He walked over to me and looked at me. "Stay here for me." Then he made his way towards the door. "Wait, I want to go with you," I protested. He stared at me wide eyed. "Trust me you don't want to go out there." "No, I want to go," I said firmly. "But-" he began but then I cut him off. "I'm coming." I got to my feet and realized that my ankles really didn't hurt anymore. I looked down at my ankles and saw two red rings circling them, then checked my wrists which were the same. I reached up to touch my neck and felt the sting of cold glass. The rings were like jade except they were red. My eyes caught a glance of a thick red liquid that churned inside of the glass.

"What's wrong?" Allen asked me. Then he saw my wrists and it almost looked like a shockwave went through him. "Innocence?" I heard him mumble. "What's innocence," I asked him. "Innocence is the most strongest weapon in the world. It has the power to kill demons." He told me. "Demons? You're joking right?" I gave him a look that said you're crazy. "No" he said, "I'm not joking at all." "Is that innocence?" I pointed to his huge sword that he was carrying. He looked at his sword and he chuckled. "Yeah this is a parasitic type innocence. It's actually my left arm." "What's parasitic type innocence?" I asked. "There are two main types of innocence. Parasitic type and equipment type," he said, "Parasitic type is when the weapon is a part of your body and eats away at your life span. People with parasitic type innocence usually eat a lot," he laughed. "For an example, me." "I can't imagine you eating a lot," I said in awe. Allen was very skinny, it almost looked impossible for him to eat a lot. "So what type is mine?" I asked intrigued by the thought that I could kill demons. "Yours is a new type of innocence called Crystal Type. It's a type between equipment and parasitic type only one other person besides you has it. It's made out of your blood." He explained. I shuddered at the thought of blood. "So, what attacked my church? Was it a… demon?" I asked. "Yes," he answered darkly. "Where is everyone? Are they okay?" I wondered aloud. Allen turned around and went towards the door. "C'mon, you wanted to come with me right?"

I nodded and followed behind him, not wanting to be alone. He pushed the handle and opened the door with a creak. When I got out of the room all I could see was ash and blood. The whole room had been demolished. Chairs were flipped over and papers littered the floor, but what really caught my eye was the ash and blood. I fell to my knees, beneath me the ground was covered with little black stars. "Those are pentacles, they're the result of a demon's blood curse, along with the rest of this mess." I felt tears sting at my eyes, I wanted that demon to die for all it had done. "I can kill that thing right?" I asked choking back salty tears. "What?" Allen sounded surprised. "I can kill that demon because I have innocence right?" I repeated. "Yeah, but you don't know how to use it yet so it's dangerous," he protested. I ignored all of his words. All I needed to know was if I could kill it or not.

I rushed out of the room and Allen followed after me. I was sure that he already knew what I wanted to do. The both of us hurried up the stairs, but I stopped when I heard the whirring of gears. My head shot back and I saw Allen holding his left eye and looking like he was in a great deal of pain. "What's wrong," I said. "Oh it's nothing," he smiled. "It's just that whenever I sense a demon my left eye begins to hurt." when I heard him say that my blood began to boil. "Where is it?" I demanded an answer, but all of a sudden I felt a tugging in my chest and I knew where the demon was. I ran up the stairs leaving Allen behind me. Somehow I knew the exact location of the demon, I could almost feel how close my mind was to the demon. I ran to the commons area of my church and suddenly the feeling evaporated. "Psst hey Sephiria, over here!" I heard the voice of my older sister. "Dora!" I exclaimed, and hugged her tightly. "Are you okay?" She sounded worried. "That's what I should be asking you!" I told her. "I'm okay, I don't know about them though." She turned her attention to a group of kids behind her. "We're the only ones left." I spotted my brother within the crowd and sighed a sigh of relief.

All of a sudden the feeling returned to me and I turned towards my sister. "Stay here okay. I have to do something." "Where are you going?" my sister went in to overprotective big sister mode. "I'll be fine you don't have to worry. I'll explain later. Anyways you've got to take care of these kids." "Okay," my sister said uneasily.

I ran into the sanctuary and there it was. A fleshy ball with a face right in the middle. It had a star on it's forehead, the same as the ones on the floor, and huge cannons sticking out of it's sides. My hatred rose, but even in that situation I didn't know what to do. The thing looked at me and sent chills up my spine. Then an evil grin stretched across it's ugly inhuman face. "Innocence," it groaned with an evil voice that cried out with sadness at the same time. "Innocence… have to bring innocence to… the Millennium Earl." It raised it's weapon up at me and I felt a wave of fear wash over me. I didn't know what I had to do. How could I not know though? "That thing killed my friends, so why can't I do anything?" I asked my self aloud.

The demon got ready to fire, but then all of a sudden I saw black clothes. The same black clothes that Allen was wearing. Then the demon fired a missile type bullet. Allen's sword came and sliced the missiles in half, then he threw it and it hit the demon like a boomerang and landed back in to Allen's hand. The demon exploded and it was gone. "Allen?" I whispered. He turned to look at me, "you okay?" I nodded in reply. "I'm really sorry." "No problem," he smiled.

"Thanks, I owe you one," I let out a relieved sigh. "It's okay. I already told that it wasn't a problem," he replied. "I was so stupid for running off without a plan like that." I sighed at my own idiocy. "Well I better go to my sister now. See ya' thanks for everyth-" "Watch out!" Allen cried and jumped in front of me. Then I heard a huge shot fired. I looked at Allen worried and asked, "uhhhm, Allen are you okay?" At that moment pentacles began popping up all over Allen's body and blood dripped on the floor. My eyes grew wide. I looked at Allen and Allen looked at me and through all the pain he seemed to be in, still managed to smile weakly and say, "it's okay, I'm okay," the pentacles on his body began to disappear one by one and he gripped his sword tightly. I was amazed that even though he was so wounded he could still hold that sword so freely. Then I realized there was something behind Allen. It was a huge demon, but this one was different than the first one. This demon had legs and arms like a human being and stood like a human, except for the fact that it looked like a huge robot type thing.

Allen turned around and got ready to fight. White cloth that came from nowhere appeared and began to wrap around his arm and soon became a long white cloak. Then came the silver mask that had all sorts of engravings on it. It looked like a mask from a masquerade ball. Allen leapt towards the huge demon's head, and it was the highest I'd ever seen anyone jump, it looked almost like he was flying. Allen's strength was inhuman, and I had to admit that his strength definitely scared me.

"You can stop staring in to space now girl," I turned and I almost stopped breathing from shock. Another demon, this one had almost an animal like body with the features of a machine. I felt sweat stick to my clothing, and breathed in hard. "You're mine girlie," the demon cackled. Then my wrists began to throb again, only this time it seemed like it was screaming activate me. No matter how scared I was I knew that I had to be brave, I had to trust the innocence. The demon charged towards me raising it's firearms. "Please innocence, please," I whispered. "Activate!"

The red crystal bracelets on my wrists deconstructed and reformed on my arm as it crawled up turning anywhere it touched a silvery color until it finally built two twin blades on either sides of my hands. My arms moved quickly, even though the weight on my arms should've increased it almost felt as if it had decreased. I felt the blades made out of my rings tear the demon apart. After my arms reached the endpoint of the demon it exploded like a bomb. I shut my eyes when it blew up and stood in place waiting for the smoke to clear.

I heard another evil laugh, but I couldn't see through the thick smoke. I turned my head to both sides, and turned around trying to catch even the faintest glimpse of the demon. Then the stomach turning feeling returned to me and I was sure that it was a demon, but I couldn't see it so I couldn't kill it. "I've got you now innocence girl!" The demon screamed with joy. I spun around a second too late and I knew it was all over, at least I thought it was all over. All of a sudden a girl wearing a black uniform like Allen's flew towards the demon and impaled it with her legs. The demon exploded like the one before it.

The girl leapt towards me and picked me up, then she took one good leap and we were out of the sanctuary. She set me on the ground and asked, "are you okay?" I nodded slowly in reply. The girl was really pretty, she had very short black hair and almost violet looking eyes. I looked at her boots. They were very abnormal and seemed complicated. They were heavily guarded, but somehow looked easy to move around in. "Is that your innocence?" I asked her. She nodded and deactivated it, "we're the same, see." I looked at her deactivated innocence and saw two red rings that almost matched my own. "but I guess you have a lot more than me," she continued and pointed at my rings. I followed her and deactivated my own innocence. "Yeah I guess so." I shrugged, "you're the other girl with crystal type that Allen mentioned aren't you?" "Yup!" she smiled cheerily. "I'm Lenalee Lee! What's your name?" "Sephiria Liang," I answered. "Chinese huh? Well then we really are the same, it just so happens that I am too." "Is Allen still in there," I looked at the sanctuary. "Yeah, but there's no need to worry about Allen he'll be fine. He can beat a level three demon no sweat!," Lenalee assured. "What exactly are leveled demons?" I asked. "Well each leveled demon is stronger than he other, depending on jow high the number is. A level one is the first demon that struck here, a level two is the one that I just destroyed, and a level three is the one that Allen's fighting in there. The highest level we've seen so far would be a level four and thank God that a level four didn't strike here because then even Allen and I wouldn't be able to help you guys!"

Lenalee stared at me for a while. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?" I asked. "No it's just that I think that you'd make a great exorcist Sephiria. You should think about coming with Allen and I." "Uh, I don't know about that," I replied. "Well give it some thought okay? The organization we work for is really in need of exorcists right now. So please think about it," Lenalee said looking a little disappointed.

Another explosion rang out from the sanctuary and Allen walked out looking totally unscathed. "C'mon Lenalee we've got to go to the North American Branch and report to HQ." Allen said. "Okay," Lenalee agreed stepping towards the front doors. "See ya'," she smiled, then she picked up Allen invocated her innocence and was out the door in the speed of light. Then they were gone.

I ran in to the common area and looked under the table where I had left my big sister and the group of kids. "Are you all right you guys?" Dora looked at me weirdly , then nodded. I heard medical, fire truck, and police sirens sounding outside of the church. Someone must've called them, I thought. I took a good look at my rings and thought about what Lenalee had said. Did I really want to become an exorcist? I didn't know. My future was still undecided, but what would I do now that I knew of all the evils in the world? How would I be able to act like a normal girl now that I knew what I was? All of a sudden a wave of dizziness hit me smack in the face and the next thing I knew I was falling to the ground.

Sephiria Liang

Age: 12 years old

Height: 5'4 ½

Birthday: June 23rd

Innocence: Red rings on her ankles wrists and neck that can transform in to any kind of weapon attached or detached from the body.

Favorite Things: food, sleeping, friends, family, her dog, etc.