There are over eighty billion ordinary people on the earth living ordinary lives. The go to ordinary schools or have ordinary jobs, live in ordinary houses with ordinary families and have ordinary friends. There are also extraordinary people who live among the ordinary ones. We have passed them on the street almost every day of our lives unknowingly. They hide among the ordinary people, pretending to lead ordinary lives. Ordinary people fear extraordinary people, but at the same time wish they were extraordinary too. But what if one day you were given the chance to be extraordinary?

I am Tomoko Namikawa, my parents are Japanese immigrants and I am fluent in both languages. I am 15 years old and go to a highschool in eastern North Carolina, I have a little brother named Kaito, a fat white cat named Mochi, and a red goldfish named Fujimoto. After school I have kendo or karate classes every other day. Sounds normal, right? And for a while it was, but everything changed when the fire nation attack- I mean, when the war started. Of course, things change because of war anyway, but I doubt this has ever happened to anyone. This is the story of how I was roughly dragged into a new life, and had to take part in deciding the fate of the world. I know, it sounds like a pretty heavy story, and it is. But don't worry, it's also a very fun story. Along the way, I picked up the weirdest and most wonderful group of friends in the world, one of them in particular I will never forget. We faced some challenges, made some sacrifices, and thought that our efforts were hopeless, but most of us made it to the end. I will begin the story a few years back on the day my new life started, the proper way to begin a story is at the beginning, and when you get to the end, stop.

Friday morning, 7:00 AM, my alarm clock blared and I brought my fist down on top of it to silence the ringing. I slowly crawled out of my nest of blankets like a dragon emerging from its cave, I'm not a morning person. Grabbing my small blanket and draping it over my shoulders, I slid my feet into slippers shaped like pandas and went to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Ohayo gozaimasu Okasan (good morning mom)."

"Ohayo gozaimasu Tomoko."

The kettle boiled and whistled and I poured the water into two porcelain cups with green tea powder, one for me, and one for my mom. Later, Kaito came to the kitchen, with his dragon pajamas and his black hair in a rat's nest.

"Ohayo gozaimasu Oneesan."

Kaito loved dragons, so much that he wanted dragon everything. A dragon schoolbag, dragon shoes, dragon bedsheets, stuffed dragons, plastic dragons, etc. Kaito stood on his stool to get the fish food and fed Fujimoto, Mochi meowed at Kaito to feed him next. Now you're probably expecting a typical shoujo anime opening where the main character quickly puts on her school uniform, grabs her bag, and runs to school with a piece of toast in her mouth with cherry blossoms blowing everywhere. Well this isn't a shoujo anime, this is a light novel, and if it WERE an anime, it would be a shounen. First of all, my school doesn't have uniforms, I don't walk to school (Okasan drives me), I don't eat toast for breakfast (I have eggs), and I wasn't running late on that day anyway. Ahem, moving on. That day I wore black ripped up skinny jeans, a black camisole, brown leather boots with lots of zippers and buckles, and a green army jacket with black leather sleeves that matched my green schoolbag. I combed out my dark red hair and tied two mini pigtails, then put on Gyaru-style makeup. At 7:30 it was time to go, I slung my schoolbag over my shoulder, grabbed my laptop case, picked up my cup of tea from the kitchen, and walked outside to the car with Okasan.

Soon we pulled up at the big blue building, I jumped out of the car and ran to my first class, Pre-Algebra. Later, on my way to lunch, I ran into my best friend, Jasmine and her boyfriend, Den.

"Hi Tomoko!"

"Ohayo Jasmine-chan!"

"We were just on our way to the courtyard, wanna join us?"

"Hai, arigato! Did you see the new Kuroshitsuji episode last night?"

"I sure did, that plot twist was too much for me, poor Ciel didn't deserve that."

Den's friend Lukas greeted us in the courtyard, "hey guys! Guess what! I finally beat Ai in a Pokemon match!"

"Dude! That's awesome!"

Lukas and Den high-fived and my other friend, Jake looked up from a German book he was reading, "could you please keep it down? Danke."

Ai was watching Claire draw an intricate picture of a mermaid. Ai's parents are Japanese immigrants like mine and she is also fluent in both languages, we often have conversations in Japanese to confuse everyone else. "Konichiwa Tomoko-chan."

"Konichiwa Ai-chan."

"Ogenkidesuka? (How are you?)"

"Yoi, arigato (good, thanks) anata? (You?)"

"Akita (tired)."

"Konban watashinoie ni kimasuka? (Will you come over to my house this evening?)"

"Watashi wa dekimasen, watashi wa, kendō no ressun o motte iru (I can't, I have a kendo lesson)."

Claire looked up from her drawing, "I can't tell if you two are planning to take over the world or if you're discussing the weather." Ai laughed, "we were just conversing like normal people."

We spent the rest of lunch debating about what to do if we were stuck on a deserted island, specifically what we would eat. "There's always the fish," said Jake, "it is an island after all." "But what if you can't catch any?" Jasmine asked. "Cannibalism!" Lukas shouted, "we drown the weakest person in their sleep, then rip out their organs and roast them!" "Suppose," said Claire, "that we didn't drown them properly and they woke up while we were eating their internal organs?" Den cut her off, "let's not go quite that far, islands usually have fruit, right?" "That's true," I added, "if we can't catch any fish, we can always gather fruit, or hunt the animals on the island." "Or a Chinatown!" Said Ai.

"A what?"

"A Chinatown! They're everywhere so we might find one on the island!"

"You're crazy."

"What if we were attacked?" Said Jasmine. Jake laughed, "who would attack us on a deserted island?" "They might get mad if we eat s'mores without chocolate and attack, you can't have s'mores without chocolate!" Said Jasmine, "they might attack us with ladles and wok pans! Then what would we do?"

"Then we would wave white flags and hope a something random appears to confuse the enemy." Said Den. Lukas scratched his head, "this doesn't make sense anymore, where do you get these ideas anyway?"

The last class was World History, I sat in my desk next to Jasmine and took notes on Mr. Rondo's lesson on ancient Japan. "Edo was a small fishing village on the coast. The name Edo literally means 'estuary' as it was right on the coast, it was the center of military government under the shoguns from 1603 to 1867. It was renamed Tokyo in 1868 and replaced Kyoto as the imperial capitol. Can anyone tell me where in Japan Tokyo is located?"

I raised my hand and Mr. Rondo pointed at me. "Yes, Tomoko."

"Tokyo is located on the southeast part of the island Honshu."

"That is correct. Thank you, Tomoko."

The bell rang to mark the end of class and everyone made a mad dash for the door. Being significantly shorter than everyone else, I got lost in the sea of students until Jasmine pulled me out. We weaved our way through the stormy sea until we were safe outside. "Sometimes I hate being short."

"You're only 15, you'll grow taller."

"Have you seen the heights of my parents? I'm still going to be short."

"Then you can be like Levi or Edward Elric. Don't complain! You're really cute!"

"Thanks. Are you available on Saturday?"

"Sure am! I'll call you!"

Okasan's car pulled up to the school and I waved goodbye to Jasmine

"Konichiwa Tomoko! How was your day?"

"Konichiwa Okasan, it was good, I got a hundred on the English test."

"That's wonderful!"

I climbed into the shotgun seat of Okasan's car with my ototou (little brother) Kaito in the backseat, and we started for home. I put in my earbuds and listened to my favorite song, Doki Doki Morning by Babymetal. The radio was playing the news, there was a lot of tension between Japan and America. It was saying that Japanese troops were moving east through Europe for some unknown reason. We started down a big hill and the traffic got bad. There were people at the bottom of the hill checking the cars, a car would stop, someone would check the car, then the car would drive away. I assumed it was alcohol checking since it was Friday but as we got closer, I noticed that the people were soldiers wearing crisp white uniforms and carrying guns, the American army didn't wear white. I rolled down the window so I could hear what they were saying and try to identify the language, it didn't take long for me to figure it out. They were speaking Japanese.

"Anata no kuruma no soto ni suteppu shite kudasai." (Please step out of your car)

No one moved

"Ima!" (Now!)

Our car was checked by a soldier that looked slightly younger than the rest, his long black bangs hid his face, though something about him radiated power. He brushed his bangs aside and looked at me with his dark brown eyes full of wonder. Those eyes were like two endless pools of dark chocolate that looked like they had seen everything, as old as the earth yet still so young, and familiar somehow. He looked so familiar but I couldn't figure out why.

Another soldier marched up to the car, he was taller than the first and wore a badge identifying him as a colonel. "Honda!" The smaller soldier flinched at the sound of his name, "Naze korera no hitobito wa jibun no kuruma ni mada aru?" (Why are they still in the car?) "Gomenasai." Honda said timidly, "Watashi wa-" "Kuruma no suteppuauto!" (Step out of the car) the colonel was talking to us this time.

"Mate!" (Wait) Said Honda.

"Nani?" (What?)

"Sono onnanoko!" (That girl!)

"Hai?" (Yes?)

"Kanojo wa watashi no imōto!" (She's my sister!)

I couldn't believe my ears. Was he saying I was his sister to try to save me? Why me? What made me so special? Was it the fact that I was also Japanese? My train of thought wrecked as I was roughly pulled from the car. "Iie! Watashi wa anata ga watashi o toru koto wa dekimasen!" (No! I won't let you take me!) "Okasan! Kaito-kun!" The colonel restrained me while more soldiers forced Okasan and Kaito from the car, then the car was driven away by another soldier, joining the train of other confiscated cars. My family was told to go home, as I watched their backs disappear I was stabbed through with a long blade from behind. I saw the point of the blade protruding from my chest, my vision went blurry and I felt my breath slowing down. This is it, this is how I die.