Disclaimer: (looks around for lawyers and sees none) Yep, I own it!

Chapter 1

(A.N) In this fic, Mimori's mother is dead. I don't know if she's alive in the show, or manga, but here, she is dead. Also, something I forgot to mention: Naria is Mimori's mother's sister.

Mimori's P.O.V...

I am beginning to hate my aunt. At least in the mornings.

Everyday, it's the same thing. She grabs me while I sleep, and throws me out the window. Yes, out the window. Then, as if that wasn't enough, freezing water follows my expulsion, usually drenching me. So not only do I gain new cuts and bruises from the wake-up call alone, I also get a nice, icy shower.

Not.

But Aunt Naria is teaching me a great deal, that is for certain. Every day, I can go farther, run faster, strike harder. I've learned how to strategize, and how to fight up-close and a far. Each night, I fell asleep knowing that I was getting closer to how I needed to be. Who would've thought that such a small woman could know so much?

And small she was. At 4'11", she was delicately built with thin wrists and ankles. She has black hair, which she keeps cropped short, and light green eyes.

It had been six months since I had broken out of HOLY, and I was improving at a fast pace, so that even Aunt Naria was surprised. She told me my drive was remarkable, if nothing else.

After drying off and slipping into a loose tan shirt and some dark brown pants, I padded bare-foot outside to what I had dubbed the "torture area". Here was where Ria, which she insisted I call her during training, would manually stretch my body into a different assortment of pretzels, or that is at least how it felt to me.

"Mornin'," I greeted, less than cheerful. I was a morning person, but with the mornings I'd been having here... Enough said.

She gestured to the rocky ground and replied, "Sit."

I did, separating my legs until I was positioned in a full-strattle. My body didn't even protest to most of the stretches anymore. Ria sat in front of me, putting her feet just above my knees and pushed against my legs. Then, she took both my wrists into her hands and pulled my upper-body forward.

As we went through the motions of stretching legs, arms, shoulders, and torsos, Ria said, "I have been meaning to ask you Mori, what do you plan to do against HOLY?"

I frowned as completed a walk-over. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, HOLY is made up of Alter-users. How are you planning to fight against them with out an Alter your self?" Ria asked sharply.

I sighed exasperatedly, "I haven't gotten that far yet."

"I see."

We finished the rest of our warm ups in thirty minutes. I was heading toward the ten mile trail that we usually ran, but a brown, restraining hand held my elbow.

"Not today," my aunt told me. "Today, we are going to see if you can pass a final...test." Her eyes had clouded over with something I couldn't place. Apprehension, maybe? Her face was a blank mask that I couldn't decipher as well.

"Where are we going then?" I asked cautiously. The last test she had put me though had involved explosives, unstable rock, and a very steep cliff. I had barely lived though it and living meant passing.

The small woman led me to another pass, on that led down instead of up. "How much do you know about your mother, Mori?" Before I could answer, however, she began talking again. It appears the question was rhetorical. "She was a wonderful woman, and in many ways, you are just like her. But there is something that I bet your father never mentioned about mine and hers side of the family."

"What?"

She stopped and looked at me hard. Suddenly, chunks of rock disappeared as my aunt glowed with a spectrum of colors. And just as suddenly, a...golem...I guess you could call it was standing at her shoulder. Brown as the rock it came from, it was huge, well over ten feet tall, and was as wide as three middle-sized humans.

"I'm an Alter-user, Mimori."

My gaping mouth closed, and formed a small smile. "That's seems pretty obvious."

She smiled back at me. "Yes...it is...now." She glowed briefly, and then the golem was gone. "I call it Guardian Rock," she told me. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but she held up a hand, "Your mother was what I call a latent user. She had no visible Alter ability, but the genes were there. Which means you might have them too."

I digested this. "And this pertains to where we're going...how?"

"We're going to the Alter Forest, Mimori. If you possess an Alter, then that is where it can be drawn out. There is a cave there that I found many years ago... It is something like a cloister of trials," she explained.

"And if I don't have an Alter?"

"It will most likely kill you," Ria said, "but don't worry, it hasn't killed anyone in years, I think."

I knew it. I knew that this was going to kill me... NO! I have to stop Jigmar first. I have to... I have to do something about it before I die.

I have to see him again.

Ryuhou's P.O.V...

"Have you found her yet?" Commander Jigmar demanded.

"No, sir, no yet. Dr. Kiryu has completely disappeared. There is no record of her on any planes the Mainland, nor has she been seen in the City. We are still covering the towns and villages beyond the walls," I reported, stotic.

We had looked everywhere for Miss Kiryu. Everywhere. Eilian can't find her, and, if anyone's seen her, we haven't heard about it. Where could she have gone? Why would she run from HOLY?

Everyone in HOLY was on the alert. Mimori had been declared an enemy of our organization, but no one knew why. Rumors were flying that she had been spying for the Native Alters, and being caught, had fled. Others were that she just switched sides on a whim and went to join their "cause".

And me? I didn't know what to think, but if she ran, then it means she has something to hide. And when people want to hide things from HOLY, then it was usually something pertaining to the Native Alters...to Kazuma. If she was protecting him...

My hands clenched in anger. No... That couldn't be it. It just didn't make sense...

"I want her found, Ryuhou. That is a direct order."

"Yes, sir."

"Take a patrol out; scour every single crevice, every town, every farm, and every hiding place imaginable. From this moment, the hunting of Native Alters is a secondary concern. Mimori Kiryu is a threat to all we stand for. That threat must be neutralized."

I nodded curtly, already calculating how long it would take to get the usual team together. "And if and when we find her?"

"Bring her back here under arrest. If she is resistant, then you have permission to use deadly force. That is all," he said. The dismissal was clear. So was the threat.

I saluted him, "Yes, sir."

The hunt was on.

(A.N.) So, like it? Hate it? If your wondering where the romance part is... I'm getting there. Or at least, I'm trying to. So be patient with me! Oh, and how do you spell the blue-haired girl's name? I have found about five different ways, and I don't know which is the correct way.