Archimedes merely stared at the godly figure in front of her all while she processed exactly what it is that he meant by "…show a little determination…"
"The contest will consist of you being able to accurately hit these nine targets." Zhu Rong starts to explain the details as nine circle targets appear with a wave of his hands.
A smirk stretches across his face before he reveals, "Your opponent will be the archer…Houyi."
A rather handsome young man suddenly materializes right next to her with two bows in his hands.
"He was banned from the Heavens because he killed nine of the Sun-bird or Dijun's children and was stripped of his immortality. He will be the perfect opponent to test your caliber." He purposely reveals in order to see the raven haired child's reaction.
'I don't think I will be able to return home if I say no…' She figures while she peers up at the deity.
The teen eagerly accepts the challenge as she politely removes the bow from her opponent's grasp.
"Feel free to start," Zhou officially declares the start of the match after he randomly thrusts each of the targets in their line of vision.
Archimedes prepared to release her arrow when she realized that the man already destroyed two targets with ease and aimed for a third one next.
'I barely launched an arrow and yet he's already on the third target!' She solemnly thinks as she observes him hit yet another target. 'He might even be better than, Akane-sensei.'
'I don't understand this feeling…am I really lacking faith in my skills or in me?"
'How am I supposed to win this match if it already has been predetermined?!' The teen starts to cave in to her insecurities as her mind flashes back to a memory.
Archimedes casually collected her books that was assigned for homework. She then heads in the direction of the front courtyard of the school.
She unknowingly bumps in to a group of girls that currently bully a meek and smaller student in the middle of the hallway.
'Why doesn't she fight back?' The raven haired teen ponders right before she hears a cry of "help" from the girl in the middle of group.
'I don't even know why I stepped in to help. I didn't even personally know the girl yet I felt the need to help her.'
"You better be lucky that the Ice Queen bailed you out this time." One of the girls irritably grumbles as the group disperses after her comment, "Don't you have something else better to do than bully her?!"
Archimedes unexpectedly hears a voice surfaces her from her thoughts, "It appears as if you have a huge burden on your shoulders."
She peeked upward only to realize that her foe halted in the middle of their competition in order to converse with her, "You should become more confident and trust in your abilities as an archer and a human being."
He recognizes a faint blush that surfaces against her cheek, nervously scratches the side of his cheek, and abruptly downplays, "Besides, a lopsided contest such as this isn't quite fun for either of us. So stand up and fire your arrows mortal child!"
The teen nods her head a "yes" as she swiftly stands to her feet. She then spots the last target that they must hit.
'It's only one target left.' The two share the same thoughts at the same time, 'I must hit it.'
Houyi wastes no time and rapidly fires off his arrow while his opponent deeply draws in her breath and swiftly locates her target.
She deliberately tracks it current path until she accurately predicts the next potential movement. The teen then quickly releases her grip on the arrow and the string.
They watch closely as the two arrows were now on course to the target. Archimedes silently prays, 'I've entrusted not just my feelings but my sensei's as well in that arrow.'
Her arrow soon picks up speed, breaks through Houyi's arrow, and pierces the last target at the farthest end of the course.
A smile appears on Houyi's face before he faces his opponent, bows at the waist and compliments her, "Well done, child."
A voraciously bout of laughter could be heard once Zhou Rong approaches the duo on his tiger with the same smirk from earlier.
"Excellent display of will, child." He congratulates her with a rough pat on the back, which forces her to stumble forward.
She could only watch as she was being sent face forward in to what she assumes was the exit right before she overhears, "Once you return back to your world, you will see your prize well in tow."
Archimedes tightly closes her eyes and braces for impact, which never comes as she slowly pops one of her eyes open.
'It looks normal enough.' She deems until tourists stroll pass her with smiles on their faces. The raven hair teen feels something soft land in her hand.
Her obsidian eyes behold a red phoenix feather in the palm of her hands before she proclaims, 'I will become more confident and trusting in my feelings.'
Archimedes crushes the feather when a bright light emits from the palm of her hands and molds in to a bit chip.
"Good job," Akane's voice rings in her ears, which prompts her to peer over to her teacher before she thanks her, "Thank you,"
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"He has become a bit…aggressive." Kenny suddenly utters after the blue haired male disappears inside of the house.
Max faces the group of boys and adds, "Did you see what he did to my Draciel?!"
"I know this might sound a bit weird but he has been extremely focused and distracted at the same time." Rei surmises while he folds his arms in front of his chest and closes his eyes.
Kai cuts his eyes toward the door and asserts, "I've already made it known that he will be benched if he continues to display those kinds of actions."
'I think I'll need to do some more digging on my own and I know just the right person to answer my questions.' Hiro determines after he hears the boys' conversation about his little brother.
Meanwhile,
Takao trudges inside of his room, removes his vest and cap, and places them on his chair.
He aimlessly plops down in the seat and rests his chin against the palm of his hand while he releases a deep sigh.
'Practice was pretty boring…' The blue haired teen deemed as his eyes lazily swept the surface of his desk until a white envelope captured his attention.
Takao grabs it, reads his name across the front of it, flips it backwards, and removes the sheet of paper from inside of the envelope.
"Dear Takao,
By the time you read this letter, I will be on my way to the airport on a plane heading to Beijing, China. I know it sounds a bit cliché but it was the very first thing that came to mind when I wrote this letter. I decided to head out on my own journey in order to figure out who I am as an individual. Thank you for being that last push that I needed in order to start my first step. I know deep down in my heart, we will reunite once again.
Goodbye,
Hiromi"
Takao returns the letter back inside of the envelope, slides it back in the book, and peers over to a picture.
He then vows to bring her back, 'No matter who gets in my way whether friend or foe, I will bring Hiromi back.'
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Audrey hysterically laughs while she continues to watch her teacher proceeds with yet another victory dance to celebrate her accomplishment.
The pond unexpectedly captures her attention so the teen shuffles back over to the murky waters. She was observing the Koi fishes happily swimming about in the fishpond.
The dirty blonde reaches out for the guard rail that protects the area once she recalls, "I think you will do well on your journey."
"Lanying," Audrey promptly calls out to her teacher and briefly waits for her response, "Yeah, what is?"
She unintentionally tightens her hold around the rail and inquisitively inquires, "When I first got here you said that I was blessed with good fortune, correct?"
The purple haired woman ceases her victory dance in order to provide an answer to her question, "That's because you are."
"Do any of your fishing people worship a god?" The dirty blonde curiously poses since she knows little to nothing about foreign gods and goddesses let alone their culture.
"What makes you ask?" Lanying asks since it was rare for Audrey to show interest in countries other than her own.
The teen uses her free hand to scratch the back of her head, releases her grip from the rail and admits, "I honestly don't know how I inherited good fortune so I was just trying to understand it a bit more."
"There is a couple but the one I more familiar with is Mazu or Matsu, depending on your region." She honestly confesses until she studies the expression on her face, which urges her to continue with her story.
"My father would tell me that she was an authoritative deity that was extremely compassionate about fishermen/fisherwoman. He even had a medium size idol of her garbed in a red robe, clothed in jewel-festooned robes of an empress holding a ceremonial tablet or a jeweled staff while wearing a flat-topped imperial cap with hanging beads in the front and back of her face in our shack."
Her green eyes widen from the description of the goddess Mazu/Matsu, 'And to think that I would end up being caught by her.'
"I see." Audrey shockingly concludes as her mind processes the fact that she was able to have met said goddess.
"So do you want to explore some more since you completed your portion?" Lanying keenly requests, which earns a nod in agreement.
'...only if it means I can avoid being fish bait for a while.'
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"Could we explore the temple a bit more? It will allow us to kill some time, too." Wenling desperately pleas with an eager expression present on her face before she receives the go ahead.
'I'm still shock that she even opened up about her childhood.' Lin thinks in disbelief.
'Even still, I wonder why a young woman with such a prestigious background has gone hidden for so long?' She ponders while she watches the brunette pauses in front of the walls to read.
'If she truly claims who she is shouldn't her family have sent someone after her?' The goldenrod blonde surmised since it seems as if the child sort of ran away from home.
She closely watches as Wenling merrily ventures around the temple with wide eyes and explanations behind certain artifacts.
They round back to the wall where she hangs back and observes her read each of the walls. 'Even still…to not lift so much as finger to take their daughter back is a bit odd.'
The image of the curly orange hair woman with brown eyes and a wide smile materializes in her thoughts. 'I wonder if Inoue has connections to the Royal family?'
On the other end of China, Inoue sneezes, wipes a tissue underneath her nose and pencils in some clues on a sheet of paper.
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Hiromi thoughts suddenly continue to swirl around her sensei's love life. 'Has Meifeng ever been in love?'
When she opens her mouth to ask her question, the scenery drastically changes around her.
Her ruby red eyes carefully study her new surroundings while she climbs up to the top of a rocky cliff.
Below in the valley, there were various size nests filled with eggs and above her were a sky full of dragons.
A dragon instantly senses her presence and intentionally fires a ball of fire at her but connects with the cliff instead. The recoil of the blast causes her to fall down in to the nesting grounds.
That same dragon swiftly circles around and carefully fires a volley of fire balls toward her while she screams, "I don't want any of your eggs!"
Hiromi unknowingly dashss pass a woman with a wooden staff, who simply extends her hand outward to the dragon.
"Calm down, my child." Hiromi closely watches as the woman calmly soothes the dragon with some words and sends it on it way.
"I'm sorry about that child. They really have been on the fritz since the start of breeding season." The woman sincerely apologizes for the dragon's hostile actions toward her.
'These are real dragons!' Hiromi realizes once she was finally able to get an up close look at the scaly creature.
"I assume you haven't seen a dragon before, hm?" The woman alleges based on the brunette's shock expression and reaction.
Hiromi nervously nods her head before she introduces herself and thanks the woman, "I'm so sorry, where are manners? My name is Tachibana Hiromi. Thank you for helping with the dragon."
'A respectable child with manners,' The woman determined in awe before she hears her speak up, "I understand that they thought I was a threat to their children so I apologize to them too."
"Did you all hear that? She apologized." Five dragons suddenly land next to the woman while the child completely bugs out at the sight of them.
"Now what do you do when someone sincerely apologizes?" The dragons then politely bow their heads out of respect, which instantly freaks her out even more.
"Now the better question is…how did you get here?" The woman curiously wondered about how the girl unexpectedly arrived at their home.
"I'm here on a mission…to find my purpose." Hiromi honestly reveals as her eyes constantly watches for any sudden movements from the once irate dragon and now its buddies.
'Oh…that's an interesting proclamation.'
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Author's Note:
04.29.17 Major editing revisions
