Chapter 1-4: A new student.

Footsteps echoed through the silent area as a few people were running towards a house. They barged in, and woke up a sleeping priest.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to ask Miya if anything happened in school," Melissa answered calmly.

"Then, where's Miya?" the sage inquired.

Melissa shrugged.

"Haven't you mailed her yet?" he added.

"I did. I even went to the academy, but she disappeared," she replied.

"Damn it," Sam cursed before he stomped up the stairs. He knocked on Axial's room.

"Open up!"

No response. He knocked harder.

"I said open up!"

He lost his patience and twisted the knob. It wasn't locked… he quickly went into her room. No one was inside.

"Melissa!" he shouted out with anger. "You said she's here!"

"She is there!" she said as she came up the stairs. When she arrived in the room, her mouth was agape.

The whole room was a mess. Papers and clothes were thrown everywhere; her bed… her bed was cut into pieces. The window was open as a short breeze entered the room.

"She went out through the window?" she whispered.

Sam walked towards the window and looked out from there. No silhouettes were even in view. So, obviously, she ran away quite some time ago.

"Jeez… Where's everyone when we need them?" he asked himself within his mind.

He turned around and began to walk out of the room.

"What do you plan to do?" Melissa asked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" he stated as he went down the stairs.

"Damn it, where the hell did she go?" Vincent groaned as he went through some thick bushes.

"This is going to kill me," he said before he finally ended up at a clear path.

When he was about to give up and return home, he heard some noise – it was from a bush. Someone… no, something's got to be nearby!

Without delay, he headed towards the direction of the noise. He continued wandering towards it; the noise didn't grow fainter nor did it grow louder. It was always at a constant volume, and was always from a single direction.

After minutes that seemed like hours, he emerged out from the natural maze and onto a cliff. At the edge was a person. A long, silver-blue-haired person… Axial.

"Hey, Axial!" he called out, waving his hand towards her.

She turned around, and took a step backwards. Backwards, as in even closer to the edge.

"Oi, be careful!" He warned as he walked to her at an even greater pace.

She held both of her hands at her chest and closed her eyes. She shook her head before she turned around.

What the hell is she trying to do? The worried bard took out an arrow from his quiver and tied a rope around it. He then approached the nearest tree and tied the robe around it and made a dead knot. From there he ran towards Axial – who then leaned forward and dropped down from the cliff.

As soon as he saw her did it, he ran even faster and immediately dived down, falling right behind her. He held his hands close and straightened his posture so that he would fall faster.

When he was within reach, he outstretched his hand and caught hold of her leg – and a split second later, they stopped dropping. The rope was extended to its fullest.

The dancer kept on struggling, hoping that Vincent would let go of her. Well, he did – and she landed softly on the sandy beach, which was only about 2 meters below their position compared to the edge of the cliff. He then pulled himself up and cut the ropes apart using a switchblade that he hid within his loose clothing. From there, he landed safely on the beach – on his legs.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he shouted at her, which seemed like he was scolding her. After he calmed down and approached her, he saw her crying.

He backed off a few steps away, feeling guilty because he thought he made her cry. He went closer to her and crouched down.

"Um…" he hesitated. His mind became blank the moment he wanted to comfort her. "Chill, okay?" he then patted her back. She immediately pulled herself closer to his chest, crying over it.

"Ah, there goes my clothes…" he thought as he stroked her head gently, allowing her to cry her hearts out.

"Miya!" Sam's voice travelled throughout the whole academy. Melissa was behind him, staring at him.

"It was obvious to what someone would normally do, but it is never obvious to what you will do," she remarked, probably to herself.

A dancer suddenly landed from the level above. She stood straight up, and looked at Sam in the eye.

"Yes, Dad?"

"What the hell happened to Axial?" he asked.

"She was angry,"

"About what?"

"She was… well, she IS angry at me,"

"What did you do?"

"I didn't tell her earlier that Zero was leaving,"

Sam stopped asking questions. He was thinking about the answers that Miya just provided him.

While he was thinking, though, Melissa approached her and whispered to her, "Where were you before this?"

"Out,"

"Where?"

"It's none of your business," she replied sternly, and Sam budged in.

"So, she's freaking out because Zero isn't here anymore?"

Miya nodded.

"Ok, that's dumb,"

Miya glared at him. "In what way is that dumb?"

"To cry over spilt milk,"

"Dad, you really don't get it, do you?"

Sam crossed his arms. He scratched his chin for a short while, and then began leaving the academy.

"What're you going to do?" Melissa inquired.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"It isn't!" she hissed at him before following closely behind him.

"Are you okay now?" Vincent asked Axial politely.

She merely smiled at him.

Vincent sighed. "Why the hell did you even bother to jump down from that cliff?"

Axial looked away.

The bard scratched his head. "I'll take that as a 'I don't want to tell you',"

The dancer gave him a brief hug, which made the bard blush. She then stood up and began walking towards the sea, which worried Vincent again.

"Hey, don't go killing yourself again!"

She turned around and gave him a smile before she ran towards the ocean.

"Hey!" Vincent then gave chase. They kept on going on and on until the water level was just below their chest.

"Damn it Axial, it's not funny anymore!" Vincent groaned, but immediately after that, the dancer turned around and splashed water at him.

"Noo!" he raised his voice at her, but she just continued splashing water at him. He was finally losing his patience.

"Fine!" He then took as much water as he could and flung all of them towards the dancer. Well, at least he tried to – but the water flew everywhere except in the direction of the dancer.

She giggled silently before she approached him slowly.

"Oh no you don't," the annoyed bard said out loud before he began to back away from her.

She smirked slyly at him, which made him yelp "No!" before he turned around and began running back towards dry land. The dancer just followed slowly.

When both of them reached the dry land, Vincent took of his shirt and his cape. "Jeez… they're ruined! All ruined!"

The dancer stood beside him and patted his back. He gave a mean stare at her, which frightened her for a bit.

Vincent sighed. "I'll let you go, but only this time, you hear me!" he told her… more like, he warned her before he started returning back to his home. "It really was useless following you, after all…" he said to himself as he walked slowly.

The dancer merely gazed at him.

The bard turned around. "Oh yeah, you heard about the new transfer student?" he questioned her.

She shook her head.

"Well, attend class tomorrow and you'll see,"

She nodded and waved towards him.

He returned by waving back at her before he continued returning back to his house.

The dancer, too, decided to return back to her home. But, she knew very it won't be lots of warm welcomes.

At home, everyone was busy having dinner.

Rachael returned from her meeting with her friends, Natsumi brought her boyfriend back as usual; Aya was just her usual self – hyper active and all. Miya was silent and barely took a scoop of her food, which Sam noticed clearly.

An empty seat was beside Miya. The warm food and dishes made for Axial were already served on the table and it will remain there until she returns to eat it. If she doesn't eat it when she returns, everyone will force her to – that's what used to happen when she was younger.

"What's wrong?" Rachael asked.

"Nothing,"

"But Miya dear, you barely took a bite," she stated as she pointed at her food.

"I'm not hungry,"

"Face it – You're always hungry," Sam remarked.

She rolled her eyes.

An awkward silence crept in. Only the sounds of their cutleries coming in contact with their plates and bowls could be heard. The slurping of their water followed when they were done with their meals.

Out of the blue, the sound of a key being inserted into the keyhole of a door was made. Everyone turned their attention to the front door. The knob twisted, and a silver-blue-haired dancer entered.

She took a glance of everything… everyone around her before she closed the door and locked it. She moved to the dining table and sat at the only seat available – her seat, located right beside Miya.

"Where have you been, Axi dear?" Rachael asked.

Axial simply smiled at her.

"Have you found someone else?" Ayla asked slyly. Axial glared furiously at her.

"Just kidding. I thought you went to have fun with your brand new special someone," she said sarcastically before she took in the last spoonful of her food.

Natsumi was too busy feeding Kazuya to even bother about Axial. The crusader, however, tried to make Natsumi say something comforting to her very own sister but he failed miserably as she took complete control over the situation between both of them.

"Sorry," Miya whispered timidly to Axial.

She looked at Miya, her face expressed nothing.

"Don't you want to eat?" Sam asked grimly.

Axial didn't respond. She just gazed at her food.

"It's either a yes, or a no," he added.

A grim expression implanted itself onto Axial's face.

"Well?"

She shook her head.

"Was that a yes?"

She shook her head again.

"Come on, it's not like you lost your voice!"

She was taken aback, but remained silent.

"That's enough, dear! She shook her head, which means she doesn't want to have her meal," Rachael suddenly interrupted and told Sam right in his face. She then turned towards Axial. "Don't worry, you're excused for today," she assured Axial with a smile. The silver-blue-haired dancer stood up and bowed towards everyone before she went up the stairs.

"Don't you think she's rather quiet now?" Sam remarked.

"Who?" Natsumi asked her father.

"Axial," Kazuya whispered faintly into her ear.

"Oh," she then withdrew from the conversation. After all, she didn't even notice her sister who came, sat down, stood up and went up the stairs.

In Axial's room, she noticed that every thing was repaired and rearranged neatly. She couldn't be more grateful… she jumped onto her new bed – and found out the wood was actually steel in disguised. Ugh, she resisted the pain without making any single noise at all.

She went to her documents that were arranged neatly on the table. One of them was actually a note. Great, another one. She sighed before she began reading it.

Axial,

I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner about Zero leaving. I thought you would've known earlier because I did him a favour and left his note on the table this morning. Unfortunately, he made me swear and promise that I won't reveal his location to you, so I have no choice but to do so.

I don't think you've heard about it, but there's a new student transferring over directly from the archer's village in Payon. He will be introduced to the class tomorrow, but there's something about him that I think you should know before hand…

She continued reading until the last sentence and then turned it into a paper ball, and threw it into the trash can.

She turned off the lights, and went straight to bed.

And a night has passed, just like that.

Axial was already wide awake. She had already worn the standardized uniform of the Bards and Dancers Academy of Comodo and had already packed her bags – which was only a few small note books along with her pencil case.

Today, she was really into going to the academy. She was looking forward to something, since she actually skipped breakfast so that she would have enough time to take a slow walk towards her destination.

As she slowly took her small steps, one at a time, she observed all the bards who were entering the academy. She couldn't find someone, but she didn't panic at all. Well, that person is going to be transferring into her class, after all, so she's bound to meet him.

"Axial!" A feminine voice called out to her. She turned around and smiled.

It was her close friend, Rins. Short, grin hair that was slightly above shoulder-length with lovely amethyst eyes. Pale, perfect skin complexion, great body figure but short. That was her only "disadvantage" – she always have to look up to people because they're always taller than her. However, her dance is fabulous as she got the 3rd place in the class.

"Daijoubu-kah?" She asked her. Axial nodded. Daijoubu-kah means "Are you okay?"

"Ah, that's great," she added. "You've heard about the new student, right?" she questioned her again.

Axial nodded again, of course.

"Man, I can't wait to meet him!" she said enthusiastically with a large grin. Axial merely scratched her head as both of them entered their classrooms and went to their own respective seats.

Shortly after, the bells rang loudly and everyone was seated. The noise died down, and Miya entered the class.

"Good morning, everyone!"

"Good morning, Miss Miya!"

She smiled happily, but it faded after her eyes came in contact with Axial's. She cleared her throat before she continued. "As most of you know, today someone new is transferring in directly from the Payon Archer Village. Are you guys excited?"

The whole class cheered and applauded.

"Okay, let's have a warm welcome for"

The class started hitting their laps, imitating the drum roll effect.

"Keiro Lunafang!" and everyone began applauding. When the new student stepped in, the applause died down in an instant and everyone gasped.

"Hey, isn't that Zero?" One of them said out loud.

Axial had already seen it coming, as she recalled the last sentence that her sister wrote in the note.

… He looks exactly like Zero. I don't know if Zero has planned this, but even if he does look like Zero, I'm pretty much sure you know that no one is exactly alike. Please… be careful..

She took out her personal notebook and, with her left hand and a pencil, wrote down his name, just in-case she forgets how to spell his name.

At the same time, as she wrote down his name, a small blue mark began glowing faintly on her upper left arm. But, why is it that no one notices it?