"21 gatekeepers in the world
15 actively involved
6 of the 15 are currently in Japan..."
6 of the 21 are inactive. Or they have turned evil.
Or their whereabouts are no longer known.
Title: Just one
Chapter 1: Living on
Apparently, it was never on the news, so I never knew about it. I'm a straightforward kind of person, and usually, if it isn't there, I don't bother to seek it out. Whatever "it" is. I don't even know. Everything is like what they always say, just a blur. Nothing is clear, nothing is visible.
I used to know them. What were we called at that time...? Team Hokage, yeah, that was it. Hokage..that mysterious group of Ninjas. The Madougu...the fights and battles we had...Domon...Fuko...Koganei...Recca...and of course, Yanagi. Where did they go?
I used to know them. They had changed me in all sorts of ways. I had been blinded totally by the ruthless thing called "revenge", and they had pulled me out of it. Unknowingly, the reason for my fighting in the tournament...was not solely for revenge. It had not just been because of that. There were other reasons.
Those people, they had changed me, and deep inside, I was grateful for that. However, they are gone now. Dead? No, those friends of mine, they wouldn't die so easily. Not normally, anyway. Somehow, they were just gone. Disappeared? No, not likely. This is the real world, people don't disappear for no reason. But I don't know where they are, so I can't give you any explanation regarding their whereabouts. None at all.
They will always be in my memory, forever, and no matter what, I can't forget them. But I will never be able to find them as well. Too faraway, someone once told me. I can't remember who, but I just know it...it was someone...someone from a long time ago.
My Ensui, the madougu I had always relied on in battles. It was my life-time companion. It had been by my side for the longest time since I ever could remember. Well, not really, Big Sister gave it to me, and ever since, it's... Gone now, though. Yeah, vanished, just like all the other madougu. Hokage hardly exists now; only in memories. In our memories.
But it's still there.
I don't know when, but it has always been there. That familiar smell...the smell of freshwater- smell coming from a crystal clear lake. The refreshing, sweet smell of water. It has always been there, even after Ensui had been 'destroyed'. I don't know why it always surrounds me, still, and I guess I never got around to find out why. Never bothered, maybe...or was I just tired. Tired of all those battles...tired of running around, travelling, training, being strong...
Yeah, and about the "news" that I was talking about at the beginning? I seem to be growing old, side-tracking and all...haha, what a stupid joke. I'm still only twenty-one. Back to 'it' though...never on the news, yeah, it never was. I only heard about it from some fortune teller at some silly amusement park. Never used to go to those kind of places, but suddenly, Tokiya has changed, and I acutally went. Maybe something inside me was hoping to find those guys over there. After all, they all loved amusement parks. In fact, it was at some sort of an amusement park where I first met them. In a mirror maze or something, and I fought with Recca, and...
Stop it, Tokiya, don't go there.
So anyway, that weird woman beckoned me to go into her suspicious-looking tent. At first, of course, I didn't want to go in, but that kind of tempting feeling overcame me, and I couldn't resist. It was the first time I felt what it was like to give in to temptation. I realised I had totally sealed up my emotions, heart and mind...just for revenge. Fortunately...
Why do you keep thinking about those times?!
The so-called fortune teller told me that I was more than I thought I was. Which I thought was bull-shit, since, well, they always say that. Having a lot of time on my hands, I waited for her to continue, and she said something that really shocked me. Until now, which is a week later, I still keep thinking about what she said.
"I know 'bout your past, boy, and I know you've had some tough times, eh?! But lemme tell ya somethin, you will still have to continue fightin'. Ever heard of them aliens? Believe in 'em? Haha, if ya don't, you better. Invaders, that's the official name they give. AEGIS...yeah, they call themselves that. Some earth-defendin' corporation- sound cool to ya, boy?! Those people who defend our Earth, they called Gatekeepers. They got them special powers that they draw from gates, heh heh, pretty cool, eh boy? Ah, I see ya now interest'd... You gotta go find 'em people, or they'll find ya, I tell ya, they'll find ya sooner or later! Fight fer our planet, boy! Use ya ability 'n' fight!"
What rubbish, I thought. It was nonsensical, stupid, lame, impossible...plain dumb. But when those initial reactions faded, I heard that small voice inside of me, screaming at me, shrieking madly that what this old lady was saying was the truth. And nothing but the truth. I hadn't heard a single thing about what she was talking about, though...what AEGIS, Gatekeepers...invaders... Those things were really 'alien' to me. But yet, they seemed so damn familiar. Why? I asked myself. Actually, I was asking that small voice, but I got no answer anyway. Nothing at all. Just silence.
Of course- since when do small voices in people's heads reply when you ask them anything? It never happens. Such shit never happens.
It's funny, though, how coincidental everything else was, after my encounter with that strange woman. I was walking through a dark alley, and a drunkard was mumbling some gibberish. He was muttering things like "Gate Open", and "invaders are coming". I could have just heard wrongly, but it was so similar to what the fortune teller had told me. No, it wasn't simliar...it was familiar.
So I just walked away.
And again, while I was at a ramen shop, some grey-haired teenage guy came over to me, and asked me to follow him somewhere. He was wearing a suit-like outfit, with a red tie and black jacket. He looked very worn down, and I had thought he was madman. But most obviously, he didn't think so. I turned him down, not wanting to be involved in whatever he was trying to do, and he didn't give up. He told me even if I was not ready, if I just agreed to meet him, I would understand.
And like I said, it's funny how everything fell into place, because that small voice resurfaced, and bugged me persistently to say 'yes'. And while pondering over it, I realised that I had not agreed because I was afraid, and not because I didn't want to be involved. No...I had been invovled with so many things, it was normal if I got invovled in something else. But this time, it was fear. I was afraid of finding something out. Maybe it was something that I didn't want to know.
After all, I said it before, I am tired of fighting.
But I agreed in the end, and now I remember why I am here. Standing in the rain, with my white shirt soaked thoroughly. My black pants so wet, they stick to my skin. And my shoes are heavy; there's water in them. But somehow, I'm still waiting.
Still waiting for him. What was his name again...?
Reiji Kageyama.
-end of ch1-
15 actively involved
6 of the 15 are currently in Japan..."
6 of the 21 are inactive. Or they have turned evil.
Or their whereabouts are no longer known.
Title: Just one
Chapter 1: Living on
Apparently, it was never on the news, so I never knew about it. I'm a straightforward kind of person, and usually, if it isn't there, I don't bother to seek it out. Whatever "it" is. I don't even know. Everything is like what they always say, just a blur. Nothing is clear, nothing is visible.
I used to know them. What were we called at that time...? Team Hokage, yeah, that was it. Hokage..that mysterious group of Ninjas. The Madougu...the fights and battles we had...Domon...Fuko...Koganei...Recca...and of course, Yanagi. Where did they go?
I used to know them. They had changed me in all sorts of ways. I had been blinded totally by the ruthless thing called "revenge", and they had pulled me out of it. Unknowingly, the reason for my fighting in the tournament...was not solely for revenge. It had not just been because of that. There were other reasons.
Those people, they had changed me, and deep inside, I was grateful for that. However, they are gone now. Dead? No, those friends of mine, they wouldn't die so easily. Not normally, anyway. Somehow, they were just gone. Disappeared? No, not likely. This is the real world, people don't disappear for no reason. But I don't know where they are, so I can't give you any explanation regarding their whereabouts. None at all.
They will always be in my memory, forever, and no matter what, I can't forget them. But I will never be able to find them as well. Too faraway, someone once told me. I can't remember who, but I just know it...it was someone...someone from a long time ago.
My Ensui, the madougu I had always relied on in battles. It was my life-time companion. It had been by my side for the longest time since I ever could remember. Well, not really, Big Sister gave it to me, and ever since, it's... Gone now, though. Yeah, vanished, just like all the other madougu. Hokage hardly exists now; only in memories. In our memories.
But it's still there.
I don't know when, but it has always been there. That familiar smell...the smell of freshwater- smell coming from a crystal clear lake. The refreshing, sweet smell of water. It has always been there, even after Ensui had been 'destroyed'. I don't know why it always surrounds me, still, and I guess I never got around to find out why. Never bothered, maybe...or was I just tired. Tired of all those battles...tired of running around, travelling, training, being strong...
Yeah, and about the "news" that I was talking about at the beginning? I seem to be growing old, side-tracking and all...haha, what a stupid joke. I'm still only twenty-one. Back to 'it' though...never on the news, yeah, it never was. I only heard about it from some fortune teller at some silly amusement park. Never used to go to those kind of places, but suddenly, Tokiya has changed, and I acutally went. Maybe something inside me was hoping to find those guys over there. After all, they all loved amusement parks. In fact, it was at some sort of an amusement park where I first met them. In a mirror maze or something, and I fought with Recca, and...
Stop it, Tokiya, don't go there.
So anyway, that weird woman beckoned me to go into her suspicious-looking tent. At first, of course, I didn't want to go in, but that kind of tempting feeling overcame me, and I couldn't resist. It was the first time I felt what it was like to give in to temptation. I realised I had totally sealed up my emotions, heart and mind...just for revenge. Fortunately...
Why do you keep thinking about those times?!
The so-called fortune teller told me that I was more than I thought I was. Which I thought was bull-shit, since, well, they always say that. Having a lot of time on my hands, I waited for her to continue, and she said something that really shocked me. Until now, which is a week later, I still keep thinking about what she said.
"I know 'bout your past, boy, and I know you've had some tough times, eh?! But lemme tell ya somethin, you will still have to continue fightin'. Ever heard of them aliens? Believe in 'em? Haha, if ya don't, you better. Invaders, that's the official name they give. AEGIS...yeah, they call themselves that. Some earth-defendin' corporation- sound cool to ya, boy?! Those people who defend our Earth, they called Gatekeepers. They got them special powers that they draw from gates, heh heh, pretty cool, eh boy? Ah, I see ya now interest'd... You gotta go find 'em people, or they'll find ya, I tell ya, they'll find ya sooner or later! Fight fer our planet, boy! Use ya ability 'n' fight!"
What rubbish, I thought. It was nonsensical, stupid, lame, impossible...plain dumb. But when those initial reactions faded, I heard that small voice inside of me, screaming at me, shrieking madly that what this old lady was saying was the truth. And nothing but the truth. I hadn't heard a single thing about what she was talking about, though...what AEGIS, Gatekeepers...invaders... Those things were really 'alien' to me. But yet, they seemed so damn familiar. Why? I asked myself. Actually, I was asking that small voice, but I got no answer anyway. Nothing at all. Just silence.
Of course- since when do small voices in people's heads reply when you ask them anything? It never happens. Such shit never happens.
It's funny, though, how coincidental everything else was, after my encounter with that strange woman. I was walking through a dark alley, and a drunkard was mumbling some gibberish. He was muttering things like "Gate Open", and "invaders are coming". I could have just heard wrongly, but it was so similar to what the fortune teller had told me. No, it wasn't simliar...it was familiar.
So I just walked away.
And again, while I was at a ramen shop, some grey-haired teenage guy came over to me, and asked me to follow him somewhere. He was wearing a suit-like outfit, with a red tie and black jacket. He looked very worn down, and I had thought he was madman. But most obviously, he didn't think so. I turned him down, not wanting to be involved in whatever he was trying to do, and he didn't give up. He told me even if I was not ready, if I just agreed to meet him, I would understand.
And like I said, it's funny how everything fell into place, because that small voice resurfaced, and bugged me persistently to say 'yes'. And while pondering over it, I realised that I had not agreed because I was afraid, and not because I didn't want to be involved. No...I had been invovled with so many things, it was normal if I got invovled in something else. But this time, it was fear. I was afraid of finding something out. Maybe it was something that I didn't want to know.
After all, I said it before, I am tired of fighting.
But I agreed in the end, and now I remember why I am here. Standing in the rain, with my white shirt soaked thoroughly. My black pants so wet, they stick to my skin. And my shoes are heavy; there's water in them. But somehow, I'm still waiting.
Still waiting for him. What was his name again...?
Reiji Kageyama.
-end of ch1-