Chapter 1-5: Keiro.
"You may have a seat, Keiro," Miya told him as she pointed at the empty seat beside Axial. That was where Zero used to seat, but it didn't bother her little sister.
The… so-called-clone did so timidly. All eyes were on him, and he was sweating like a melting ice.
"Okay, we shall continue the lesson. Keiro, get to know your classmates, and you guys. Don't be yourself just for today," she said sternly before she took out her white chalk and began writing on the board.
The boy seemed to be lost. He brought only his pencil case and nothing else. He just looked at what Miya was writing while everyone else was taking them down. Apparently, Miya was writing notes on the board.
When he turned to his left, he was surprised to find a book floating right in front of him. Well, he thought so, before he noticed the dancer who was holding the book.
He gazed at her expressionless, not knowing what to do.
She just smiled, leaned further over and placed the book on his table. She quickly resumed her notes after that.
The bard opened his pencil case and took out a Payon traditional ink pen. He opened the book, and saw a small, separate piece of paper with words on them. He examined the paper, held it closer and read it.
I'm Axial, nice to meet you. Let's get in touch later, okay?
Oh, and please don't even try to return me a favour just because I gave you a book.
The note was ended with a smiling face drawn at the bottom. Keiro shook his head and crushed the paper, before he finally began copying the notes. Axial noticed and her heart smiled.
The bell rang once again. It was afternoon… about 5 past 3.
Axial was sitting on one of the benches outside the academy, patiently waiting. Her eyes weren't, though – as she screened through every single bard looking for Zero… more like, Keiro.
A few minutes later, she gave up and just waited. She went over her notes, brushed her hair with the compact brush she had, even tried multiple ways of tying her hair up. In the end, she decided to let her hair down anyway. And, after all that, Keiro still hasn't arrived. She was probably the only person left outside the academy, sitting on the bench.
"He is so much more different than Zero when it comes to punctuality," her mind commented as she stood up with her things. She turned towards the gate, and a lone bard was walking slowly out of the academy. Finally.
She waved her hand at him. He saw her, but didn't increase his pace. In fact he maintained it and added a faint smile on his face, as if he wasn't that happy to see her. But she pushed all of these aside. She wants to take this slowly, and hopefully – everything will be better again.
"What took you so long?" she asked the bard.
He blushed the very moment he heard her voice.
"Well?"
"I… uh, got lost," he answered timidly. The dancer giggled and began pulling him towards a destination.
"W-What're you doing?" he asked nervously.
"Bringing you to the beach,"
"I don't want to go to the beach,"
"Don't worry," she said as she smiled at him. "Just to let you know, everyone gets lost at the academy on their first day, so don't be ashamed,"
"O…Oh…" he replied slowly.
"Daijoubu-kah? Transferring right from the Payon Archer's Village to this place," she questioned him. "Not many people get to do this," she added. Daijoubu-kah means Are you okay? or How are you?
"Daijoubu desu," he answered, and right after that both of them arrived at the beach.
Daijoubu desu means I'm fine.
"Ah, here it is," Axial said out loud.
She jumped down from the low ledge and ran onto the sandy beach. After turning around, she signalled him to come down, but he backed off.
"Come on!" she exclaimed and grinned.
He shook his head and took another step backwards.
She returned back and jumped up, landing on the ledge again. It surprised Keiro, though.
"H-How did you jump up so high?" He questioned her hesitantly.
"Oh, this?" she said as she turned back. "This isn't high at all. Many people in the academy can jump up from there, especially dancers,"
"S…souka…" he replied. Souka means I see…
Axial ran behind him and began pushing him. "Come on, this is simple compared to what my sister will force us to do!" she told him as she kept on pushing him closer and closer to the ledge.
Keiro remained silent.
When they were on the ledge, Axial jumped down first. "Okay, your turn," she said as she held her hands out.
The bard sat on the ledge. From there he slid himself down and grabbed hold of her outstretched hand – which she used to keep him on his feet.
"No fair, you slid down instead," she remarked. Keiro just scratched his head.
The dancer went to further down the beach and sat on the warm sand. Keiro followed slowly, and as he sat, he asked: "Who's your sister?"
"Our teacher,"
"What?"
"Shh, your voice was very loud," she said. "Yes, Miya onee-san is my sister,"
"I… see," the bard then gazed up at the sky.
"Do you have any relatives here?"
Keiro then looked down on the beach. He closed his eyes. Axial was waiting for her answer, but she already got them when she saw a single tear making its way out of his eyes.
"H-Hey!" She went closer to him. "What's wrong? Did I say something I shouldn't have said?"
The bard shook his head. "All my relatives…" was all he could say before he began sobbing.
Axial's mouth was wide agape. It can't be.
"All of them left,"
"L…Left?"
He wiped away his tears and nodded.
"Gomen," she apologized and patted his back. "Then where will you be staying here?"
"The Payon officials were kind enough to provide me with the living necessities over here in Comodo, so I'm alright," he relieved Axial on his current status. "But, its lonely… you know?"
"Don't worry," she said.
Keiro looked at her with his eyes wide opened.
"I'll always be here… zutto," she told him, and then gazed at the ocean again. Zutto translates to Always
At that very moment, the rays of light pierced through the dark clouds.
The dancer reacted with a "Huh?" as she covered her eyes. Slowly more and more light began to shine on Comodo.
"Hmm… the Sun," Keiro said monotonously.
"Yeah, it's just the sun… but, it has been years since I've seen it," Axial told him. "Things are going to be a bit sticky now,"
"Why?"
"Because the villagers are going to begin investigating on whether is this suppose to bring forth fortune or demise,"
"…"
"But, it's beautiful, isn't it?" She looked up at the bright sky, where the sun was proudly showering everyone with its ray of light.
"As beautiful as it is," Keiro said and began to think of how it was back in Payon. "It has also caused a lot of suffering,"
"Everything makes something suffer," she followed up his sentence without delay. "Remember that,"
"Does that mean I'll make you suffer?"
"That doesn't mean I won't make you suffer, too,"
"You're weird, you know,"
The dancer closed her eyes, and then looked at him. "Yeah, I know…" she said proudly.
She then stood up. Keiro, being the curious innocent bard he is right now, asked "What're you going to do now?"
"Going home. I have some… things to do," she told him before she turned around and began walking back to her house.
"Can I follow you?"
She turned her head around. "Doushite?" Doushite means Why?
"Um… I have lots of spare time," he answered while scratching his head.
Axial sighed. "Fine,"
Keiro stood up and followed closely behind her.
As they made their way towards Axial's house, they passed by a cliff… the cliff that she jumped down from. She paused and looked at it blankly.
"Now that I think about it, unless I land head first, I probably won't die from that fall anyway," her mind said.
"Axial?" And she was successfully pulled back from her thoughts. "Something wrong?" he added.
"Uh… not really," she told him, still gazing at the cliff. "Let's continue,"
"Okay,"
They both followed up a narrow, straightforward passage that eventually led to a house.
"Here?" he said out loud.
The silver-haired dancer nodded.
"Nice…" he commented, and noticed that the dancer was looking at him. Their eyes met, but the eye contact was broke off when Keiro 'accidentally' mumbled out "What?"
She had a really faint smile before she took out her keys and slotted one of them into the keyhole of the door.
"Axial, can I"
"Please, call me Axi,"
Keiro blinked his eyes. "O-okay then, Axi. What's the colour of your eyes?"
She looked at him.
"No offence, but grey eyes?" he asked.
Axial remained speechless. She opened the door and went in.
Inside, she found Ayla's eyes looking at her with wonder. She glared sternly at her as she walked in. She turned around, and invited Keiro in.
"Oh, Zero!" Ayla called out.
Keiro simply looked at her. "Who?"
"I thought you left? This poor girl…" she stopped when she noticed Axial still glaring sternly at her. "Well, this poor girl thought you left too,"
"Ayla onee-sama, he isn't Zero,"
"LIES!"
"Ano…" Keiro interrupted. "My name is Keiro," Ano basically means something like Um…
"No way!"
"Yes way,"
Ayla rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Gang up on me, huh? I'll show you, one day. I WILL!" she cursed and continued to do whatever she was doing.
"But…"
"Enough," Axial cut in. "Let's go upstairs, okay?"
And immediately, a "WoooOoOo" came from Ayla.
"If you disturb us," Axial said as she turned around. "I WILL kill you,"
"Hey, hey, don't be grumpy! I'm just…" she stopped talking when she saw Axial held out her whip that has been hidden under her clothes, wrapped at her waist all these time.
"Okay. Have fun,"
The two then went up the stairs.
"Uh oh," Ayla said out loud to herself.
"Sorry about that," Axial told hem as she made a cup of tea. "Do you want one?"
"No thanks," he said. She placed the cup of tea on a saucer and sat on the only chair in the room.
"Have a seat," she told him.
"Where?" he asked while he scratched his cheek.
"Anywhere you like. Even the bed, if you want to,"
He looked around the average-sized room. He made a decision – to sit beside her. So, on the floor he sat. Right beside her, too.
A really uncomfortable silence followed. The only sound present was the sipping of tea, and that didn't make any of them feel better at all.
"Who's Zero?" Keiro suddenly ended that silence.
Axial immediately took another sip of her cup of tea.
"Please?"
"Well, aren't you a gentleman," she remarked and placed her cup on her table.
"Zero is someone who looks exactly like you,"
"E-exactly like… ME?" He said in a raised tone while pointing at his own face.
She nodded.
"Impossible!" he exclaimed. "That can not be possible! Tell me! Tell me it isn't possible!"
"Don't make me punch you,"
"Sorry,"
She sighed. Her mind was fretting up itself. Not that a day together with the new student who looks like Zero, in her house too, would ease her up a bit. The fact that Ayla is home today makes me raged.
But, enough about that.
"It's true, but I don't know how,"
"That's bad,"
"Yeah,"
Keiro then scratched his chin. He was sorting out all the things that have just entered his ocean of memories.
"He's a nice guy though,"
Keiro had nothing to say. "Is he… gone?"
Axial closed her eyes. "He left,"
Keiro didn't bother to go deeper into the subject, but there was one thing he was really curious about – her eyes. Not just her eyes, her grey eyes.
"Did he take away the colour of your eyes at the same time?"
"I don't know,"
"How long has it been since you've the colour of your eyes?"
"I… really don't know,"
"Do you even know the colour of your eyes?"
"Can you stop asking me about my eyes?" She raised her voice at him.
"Okay, I'm sorry,"
The dancer sighed.
How did I lose the colour of my eyes? I didn't even know my eyes were supposed to have colours! And this hair… sometimes I just wish I could've dyed my hair some common colour so that I can be… more normal.
"Axial?"
"Uh…? Yes?"
"You day dream a lot, don't you?"
"I don't!" she said as she shook her head hard, blushing ever so slightly.
The boy laughed. She stared at him, only praying to Lord Odin that he'd stop.
From below, the door of the house opened and closed. Hmm, someone returned.
"You seem to have a large family,"
"Yeah…" she agreed, but after that she murmured softly, "And to think we aren't related by blood,"
"What did you say?"
"Did I say anything?"
From below, a very familiar voice called out, "Axial!"
"Oh, Miss Miya is back?"
The silver-blue-haired dancer stood up and went out of her room. "Yes, Onee-san?"
"Come down for a minute," Miya requested.
Axial turned towards Keiro. "You want to stay up here?"
"I think I'll just follow you down. Besides, I might need to look around Comodo for a bit,"
Both of them came down from the stairs. Miya came out from the kitchen, and was wondering why Keiro was standing beside Axial.
"Is he real?"
"DUH!" Axial hissed at her.
"Okay, my apologies," Miya said while bowing slightly.
"So, why did you ask me to come down?"
"It's some private issues," Miya told her sister, but diverted her eyes onto Keiro.
He noticed, and immediately informed her that he was about to leave anyway. Axial did the honour of opening the door for him, and he left – waving his hands towards the dancer.
