Darik

"So you three have come here… why?" Raiutski had been straightening everything out with the foreign group for the past hour.

"Corruption in the highest commanders started from the south and then worked north to where we lived. From there it headed east." Scott sighed. "We've tried to settle somewhere a few times, but that only cost lives. This time we've gone much farther than we needed to."

Raiutski nodded and asked for details. He, Max, and Scott leaned closer together as the story got more intense.

"Hey, what took ya so long?" Akemi yawned and flicked the ear of Affton… who hadn't arrived until moments ago.

"Ugh, I'm tired of people appearing out of nowhere!" I rolled my eyes and looked at Sari.

"He's… got blood on his mouth…" she whispered.

"What?" I looked up just in time to see him brush his lips with his fingers and then assume that overprotective stance he and Scott kept trading off while they hovered around Akemi.

"Hey."

"Bwaa!" I panicked and almost fell backwards. Akemi's face was inches from mine. I could feel her long black hair tickling my skin. She smelled so nice. She giggled and pulled back a little.

"So what are your guys' powers, huh? Like how do they work together?"

"Well," I began, pleased that she had asked me. "There's always the smart one. That's Raiutski."

"What makes him so smart?"

"He can read people's minds. And sometimes speak telepathically. Once he even moved stuff with his mind."

"And then there's me, the muscle of the group." Sari flexed her arm and gave a smug grin. "So strong I could easily lift a house."

I rolled my eyes. She was only trying to show off to Affton, and even I knew it. I snuck a peek at him and was pleased to see he was intently paying attention to everything but Sari. She sighed and lay back in the grass.

"Then there's Max and me," I continued. "And I guess I'm good for defense and emergency defense kinda things, like walls of fire. And Max could do anything, really."

"Shape-shifter?" Akemi looked like she was sizing him up.

"Yeah, but not everything all the time. Mostly it's only bits and pieces of certain animals."

She nodded and then stared at Raiutski, Max, and Scott. They looked up and came to join us. I guess they finished their conversation.

"Well, what about you guys?" I asked, not wanting the conversation to end. "What are your powers?"

She scoffed and turned her attention back to me. "Nothing as interesting as controlling fire."

"You didn't answer the question." Max said quietly. "You're avoiding it."

Akemi flinched and looked to Scott and Ashton for help.

"You're right, but…" she sighed. "There's a reason. It's not that we don't trust you or anything…"

"No, no, we owe them." Scott interrupted. "If they weren't there we would've been found out. And then they would know where we were." He turned to my group with arms open and a pleading look on his face. "Truth is, we are 'vokin te aribel'."

We sat silently and looked to Raiutski. He blushed and scratched his head. "Sorry, we don't really have a word for that that I know of," he explained.

Akemi nodded and thought for a moment. "Does 'demon' work for you?"

Sari and Max leaped to their feet. "Demons!" they hissed together. Even Raiutski looked a little alarmed, which set me on edge.

But then again…

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes. "Yeah right, demons are powerful and scary-looking. None of you fit that description." I opened my eyes again.

Akemi frowned. "Maybe I didn't describe it right,"

"Darik!" Raiutski hissed. "Demons doesn't mean the little devils with horns!"

"Heh? Then what other kinds of demons are there?" Ugh my brain hurt. Talking to Raiutski always gave me headaches.

"The legends, Darik. Think about the legends." Raiutski was extremely wary now. "From the war hundreds of years ago."

"The one with the people of the west. I remember."

The people to the west of our island lived halfway across the world, yet they sent armies to the east to challenge us. We were a small island, yet no one could measure up to our inherited ability of transformation. Of course they lost, and retreated back to their homelands.

But they left traces of the war that extended beyond destruction of homes and lives. People began to change. Ones who had fought in the war began to go insane, craving people as their choice of food. Others had extremely testy tempers, and if angered enough, they would change their shape and become some other beast entirely. This was the origin for fairy tales about 'vampires' and 'werewolves'. They were hated symbols, many believed they represented the devil.

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "You can't really think they're like vampires or werewolves!" Raiutski looked at me sternly.

"Think about it, Darik," he rose to his feet. "Affton. He's extremely fast and strong, and he has those red hypnotic eyes. Plus the obvious—his fangs."

"Eh. Ok. You got me there. But Scott and Akemi?"

"Scott. He's got a good sense of smell, amazing hearing, and has a hard time controlling his temper. He also has fangs of a sort, but mostly a canine resemblance, unlike Affton's." Raiutski's gaze shifted for just a moment to Akemi. "She lied. She's not a demon. They're keeping her a captive for some reason."

"How did you know half of those?! I never told you I could hear and smell well! And the anger issue--," Scott looked amazed.

"He's a mind-reader, Scott. We have very few secrets hidden from him now." Akemi looked strangely happy about this. "Raiutski," she said softly, "if you know their abilities, then you also know that they are inherited abilities."

"Inherit that!" Sari burst out. "But inherited abilities—you usually only have one extra power!"

She was right. The inherited abilities were passed down from generation to generation. Each family had its own special ability and these could be combined in order to form a sort of hybrid child commonly called Ikiru. Of course, even if both parents had powers, the child was not guaranteed anything.

In our town the majority of the Ikiru had the shape-shifting power like Max. Sari and I were rare, with fire and strength powers. And Raiutski was one of the three people on the whole island. He had inherited three abilities, earning him the title of Saniru, or three powers.

But the group of teenagers facing us… they each seemed to have inherited at least five! The power they each had… they would be able to defeat us all without even trying!

Scott stepped forward again and spread his arms further. Akemi quickly followed suit, her eyes wide and pleading. I melted right on the spot.

"I trust them," I blurted out.

"No, you trust her." Raiutski corrected me. I could tell he was having a hard time resisting her innocent expression.

Who cares! She's gorgeous and she's looking at me like that? How could I disagree with anything she said?

Scott suddenly burst out in speech.

"Raiutski, tere ta lember! Wimin yuno harmplea! Dat us!..." Raiutski had no time to translate for us.

"You know what I just realized?" Max muttered next to me. I glanced over to show I was interested. "How do they understand what we're saying? Akemi is the only one that can speak it, and Raiutski can't get into their minds well to tell them what our words mean."

"One of them must have Raiutski's mind-reading power." Sari joined us.

"Yeah. I'm betting it's Affton…"

"Raiutski!" a stranger's voice called out. "Raiutski! It's urgent!" a messenger sprinted by us, skidded into a turn and stood in front of Raiutski. "Your group has been given a new job." He panted and pulled out a bulky envelope.

"You are to protect the foreigners at all costs. The details are in there." He bowed and left us at a much slower pace than he had arrived.

Raiutski frowned and read the ltter. He sighed and tossed it to Max, who shook his head and handed it to me.

"Oh, hey, so this all works out!" I grinned. "We protect them!" the envelope held pictures and vague background checks of three people. All three pictures matched the people standing in front of me. I read on, scanning through the details. Of course my eyes were magnetized to the one line that read confidential.

I furtively looked at Raiutski and read the few words listed underneath it.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOSE TRACK OF THE PEOPLE IDENTIFIED HERE. DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE ELSE TO EXTERMINATE OR DESTROY THEM. MOST IMPORTANTLY TO OKITATKE, AKEMI.

Hmm. So Akemi was very important… so important that her home country chased her halfway around the world, and two legendary-powered Ikiru were her bodyguards.

"That settles it." Max relaxed from his fight stance and yawned. Sari followed suit and all three of us looked to Raiutski for directions on what to do now.

"All right, we'll get you guys set up with a place to stay. Then we'll each pick up shifts for a night watch."

"Sweet! A balcony!" Akemi opened the door to her room and went straight to the open doorway that led out to a small balcony that overlooked downtown. She leaned over the railing and lifted her feet off the ground. "There's so many people!" she looked down and leaned even further.

"Akemi!" Scott rushed forward and caught her before she fell. He wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her parallel to the ground back into the room. "Don't do stuff like that! You know it scares me!" he moved to put her down and froze. "WHERE IS SHE NOW?!" he darted around the room looking for her.

Akemi stood patiently behind him while Scott continued to search.

Affton looked worn out, like he had had to deal with this sort of thing for a long, long time.

"Scott tends to take his protection job… too seriously…" he explained as we all watched the two fuss over what things Akemi could and couldn't do.