Akemi looked straight at me with a smile that could melt any man's composure with its sheer beauty and purity. It seemed like an eternity that she and I gazed at each other from afar before she finally said something.
"Good morning sleepy-head",she said in a sweet tone. "Did you sleep well?"
"Good morning", I replied. "I did sleep pretty well,aside from a bad dream I had".
"Oh yes",Akemi responded,"I remember shortly after I woke up this morning,when I passed your room on my way outside,I heard you talking and shouting in your sleep. You were really caught up in your dream because you were twisting and moving about,and you were sweating as well. It must have been quite a scary dream".
"It was,though it was just as ridiculous as it was scary",I said. "By the way,where's Hibiki?"
"He went into the forest not too long ago to get something for breakfast and gather firewood".
"He went into the forest to get some breakfast?!",I asked in surprise and confusion.
"Yes. Why is that surprising to you?"
"Um,I don't know where to start..."
"Do people not hunt for food in your world,Gary?"
"Well...some of them do,but most people simply buy food from grocery stores or markets".
"Gro-ce-ry store?",Akemi inquired with difficulty.
"A grocery store is a place where people buy many different kinds of food,such as chicken,beef,pork,vegetables,fruits,bread,cereals,and a bunch of others as well",I explained.
"So do they keep the animals in some sort of pen,or do they simply let them run about the store and let people choose which one they want to buy and then a hunter or butcher comes and kills that animal so they can eat it?"
If I were a real anime character,I would have fallen down in a stereotypical manner in response to Akemi's crazy question right then and there,but of course I didn't. Still,I was at a loss for words after hearing that.
Fortunately for me,I didn't have to reply to that question because Akemi was about to speak again.
"Never mind Gary. You can try to explain that to me later,but right now,I need to talk to you about a lot of serious and important things. Come over here and sit down next to me. This will take a while to explain,so please make yourself comfortable".
Akemi raised her left arm and patted the ground next to her,motioning for me to sit next to her.
What is this all about? This is an abrupt change in her body language and demeanor. What does she want to tell me? Is something wrong?
I walk over to where Akemi is sitting,and sit down next to her on her left side. I look at Akemi and see her facial expression change from her usual happy,pleasant self to one of utmost seriousness and even a hint of anger.
After a few minutes of silence in which she seemed to be gathering her thoughts,she began to speak.
"That song that you heard me play on my flute just now...it was a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me before I went to sleep when I was little. My mother taught me how to play the flute a long time ago. This was her flute...she gave it to me as a present one day and ever since,I've kept it with me,playing it every day;I made it a ritual to play my mother's lullaby
song with this flute every day,as a way to remember and honor her".
"Where is your mother now?", I asked.
Akemi had a more solemn look on her face now than she did before. She answered in a cold,emotionless tone: "My mother has been dead for 10 years,as has my father. They were murdered."
Her answer stunned me. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked such a personal question. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. I wanted you to know."
"Why?"
"You need to know,Gary. You need to know everything about me as well as Hibiki. There are a lot of things that I have to tell you before the situation gets complicated and things get dangerous. So I need you to listen very closely to everything that I'm about to tell you."
"Okay,I'm listening".
"Since the beginning of time,people have lived on this planet. Every person was regarded as equal to other people,regardless of gender,physical appearance,economic status,popularity,or any other factor. All over the world,there was nothing but peace and prosperity. War was an unknown concept at the time,and as a result of all those years of peace and stability,the collective knowledge and technology of the world's people flourished and evolved,which led to many important and groundbreaking discoveries,most important of all,was the discovery of the universe and the magical elements that it contains.
It was discovered that the universe was comprised of two basic,overarching energies;light matter and dark matter. These two infinitely powerful energy forces created the universe and reality as we know it,and they are both constantly active throughout the entire universe. These forces,light matter,and dark matter,are the sources of all of the elements that exist in the universe. Light matter is the source of fire,water,wind,and earth,while dark matter is the source of metal,wood,psychic energy,and electricity.
As if that wasn't amazing enough,it was also discovered that certain people within specific family bloodlines had the ability to tap into the magic energies of the universe and use those energies for a variety of things,such as using the element of fire to cook meals faster and easier,or using psychic powers to convert and transmute pebbles and other rocks into gold and then sell them for huge profits. But at the time,all of the magic abilities that those gifted people had were used for peaceful and positive purposes,and never as a means to hurt or bring suffering unto others.
These special people were called magi,meaning users of magic,and over time,they began to be worshiped as gods by the common people. They were held in the highest regard amongst everyone;even the kings of the many different nations respected and idolized them. However,this would not last forever,because a century or two later,an incident involving a mage and a regular person would drastically change the course of history and the world.
Two young boys were playing together outside of a small village. One of them was a mage,the other was not. They were just having fun and running around. Everything seemed to be fine,but as time went on,the boys started to get carried away and began playing rough,wrestling each other in a friendly game of strength,as boys often do. The mage boy,whose name was Keiichiro,was losing against his friend,and was being pinned down. The pressure that his friend was exerting on him was getting too painful,and so Keiichiro told the boy to stop and that he didn't want to wrestle anymore.
But his friend didn't believe him,and thought that he was just joking around and taunting him,so he kept pinning him down,and even pushed him harder and harder,all the while Keiichiro's pain grew worse and worse. He begged him to stop,but his friend would not relent,and then,tragedy struck.
Since he was fairly young,Keiichiro still hadn't completely learned how to control his magic powers,and as a result,his physical pain initiated an involuntary magic attack which knocked back his friend off of him and forcefully slammed the boy against the ground. After overcoming his initial shock,Keiichiro got up and ran over to his friend. His body was mangled and twisted in an irregular angle,as his spine and most of his ribs were broken,and he was also suffering from internal bleeding.
Keiichiro was frozen in fear and grief,and he didn't want to leave his friend's side. He watched as his friend died right before his eyes. Not long afterwards,Keiichiro was running through the village with his dead friend in his arms,crying hysterically the whole way. Once he reached his friend's family house,he handed over the boy's lifeless body to his mother,and explained everything that had happened to the boy's family,and apologized profusely over and over again,trying his best not to let his grief overcome him.
The family was understandably very upset,and as soon as Keiichiro was done explaining everything,he was kicked out of the house. Deciding that there was nothing more he could do,Keiichiro headed home to his own family. Later that night,Keiichiro was awakened by the sound of a loud commotion outside his house. When he went to check the front window of the house,he saw that a big,angry mob was congregated outside the front door. Amongst the droves of people were dozens of torches and swords. Scared for his life,Keiichiro quickly woke up his mother and father,and alerted them to the situation at hand.
By this time,the mob had set the house on fire with their torches,and were waiting for the family to exit the front door so they could ambush them. But Keiichiro's mother and father knew better,and told Keiichiro to leave the house through his bedroom window in the back. But he did not want to leave without his parents. No matter how much he begged them to come,they wouldn't budge.
In the end,Keiichiro's father picked him up and forcibly pushed him out of his bedroom window. But Keiichiro couldn't bring himself to run away,and instead,he ran to the front of the house and stood behind the mob,their backs turned to him. He then witnessed his father and mother come out of their burning house,and defend themselves against their numerous attackers. Keiichiro's father,a mage himself,attacked the left half of the mob one by one with powerful magic spells,while his mother,a skilled martial artist,dealt with the right half of the mob. Though they managed to defeat many of them,they were overcome with overwhelming might in the end,as Keiichiro watched in horror.
After brutally killing his parents,what remained of the mob turned their attention on Keiichiro himself. He desperately tried to escape,running as fast as he could,but eventually his feet grew tired,his legs buckled,and he collapsed to the ground in sheer exhaustion. It wasn't very long before the mob caught up to him,and despite his desperate pleas,Keiichiro was killed. His body was found a few days later inside a deep well. It was savagely beaten and mutilated beyond belief.
The father of Keiichiro's friend was found to be responsible for orchestrating the mob attack,and was soon put to death for his crimes,as well as the remaining survivors of the mob. But the damage to mage-common people relations was done. News of the terrible events that had unfolded in that small village quickly reached every corner of the world,and tensions rose between mages and common people alike. They began to hate each other,and thus an age of discrimination and evil began. Eventually,the common people had had enough of the status quo,and petitioned the kings in their respective countries to declare war on all mages everywhere,and the kings of all nations unanimously agreed to do so,and thus,the first of two devastating wars began.
Neither commoners nor mages won the war,with both sides sustaining heavy casualties. In the end,a truce was called and a peace treaty was agreed upon and signed,ending the war and bringing peace and stability back to the world. From that day on,peace reigned supreme over all nations,as kingdoms and citizens rebuilt their cities and villages,and slowly life returned to normal. Relations between commoners and mages healed over the years,and soon,it wasn't long before people forgot about the war and began looking toward the future.
And that brings it back to Hibiki and I. Hibiki was born 17 years ago,and I was born 2 years later. Our mother was a homemaker;she took care of us and our home while our father was away on business. He was a mage,just like me. He worked as a member of the International Council of Mages,an organization that was created after the war to protect mages and their rights,as well as encouraging the promotion of mage-commoner dialog.
One of the Council's greatest achievements was the creation and implementation of the scepter. A scepter is an instrument through which magic can be regulated and discharged,but can only be activated by vocal commands,and only those of the mage that the scepter is entrusted to. In other words,no longer could mages wield their magic at will with their body,mind,and soul. All mages would be required to have a scepter in order to use their magical abilities. This was done in order to prevent a re-occurrence of the tragedy that had befallen Keiichiro and his friend which in turn sparked the mage-commoner war that had taken so many lives and caused a great deal of destruction.
To ensure that all newly born mages were compliant with the new regulations,the mother and father or legal guardians were bound by law to bring their mage child to the International Council of Mages,where the baby's magic powers were sealed and bounded to a scepter through an advanced alchemical incantation ceremony,thus ensuring that all mages would be forced to use a scepter in order to use magic,and that in turn,kept their power in check and drastically reduced the risk of either accidental death or intentional misuse through any magic at the hands of all mages in the world.
However,despite these new regulations,there were still those who managed to slip under the eyes of the law;mages who refused to bound their power to a scepter,for a variety of reasons. Some of them saw the new law as condescending to mages,while others simply didn't want to be constrained by anything and wanted to keep their freedom to be able to use their magic abilities whenever and however they desired. These mage families decided to flee from their countries and start new lives in ungoverned territories,where they established their own villages and governments. As time went by,more and more of these outcast villages were founded,and eventually there became so many,it was necessary to consolidate several villages that were scattered across the lands and merge them into unified states.
In the end,three different states were created;the kingdom of Shukumei,the kingdom of Songen,and the kingdom of Shinsei. Not long after this,consensus amongst the mages and their families and the rulers of the three states grew in favor of unifying the states into one nation,and so,only a few months after the states were established,they were combined together into a single large country which was given the name Buryoutougen. The dissident mages of this new kingdom wanted to create an organization equal in power to the International Council of Mages,which had representatives and members in every country in the world,and as a result,the Order of Magical Dominion was born.
The mission of the Order of Magical Dominion was to counter the policies and ideals of the International Council of Mages in any way possible. The corrupted mages of this organization conspired to destroy the International Council of Mages and kill all non-mage people in the world. They also sought to destroy all scepters in existence,which would eliminate the only threat to what they saw as their personal freedoms as mages.
After the other nations of the world learned of the newly formed country of Buryoutougen and the intentions of the Order of Magical Dominion,they sought to avoid another global war by appeasing the wants and needs of the country,such as paying tribute in the form of food,resources,money,and weapons,and in return,the mages of Buryoutougen and the Order of Magical Dominion vowed not to attack the other kingdoms of the world. In fact,a peace agreement was signed by all nations,and it seemed as though the efforts to avoid another war were successful. However,that would not turn out to be the case.
One day,four years before Hibiki was born,the Order of Magical Dominion sent a spy to infiltrate the headquarters of the International Council of Mages in the capital city of Isamashii Kingdom,Guruzan. This spy was a skilled mage named Osamu Kurosawa. He was also a brilliant scientist and alchemist,being able to cast spells and create potions and elixirs that no other mage could. His mission was to integrate into the inner workings of the Council and conduct surveillance on their activities as well as study the depth of their knowledge on magic,the elements,and the properties of the universe.
Osamu succeeded in acquiring membership into the Council,and with his magic skills and scientific and alchemical genius,it wasn't long before he rose through the ranks to become the Council's Chief Officer of Magic & Alchemy Sciences,and it was in that position that he met my father,who was the Executive Director of Mage-Commoner Diplomacy. From that moment on,my father and him became fast friends,exchanging ideas and talking about projects that they were working on in their respective fields.
But unknown to my father and the rest of the Council members,Osamu was hard at work using his magical and alchemical prowess and the tools he had access to in the Council building's laboratory to conduct various experiments,all of which involved the use of forbidden spells and potions. Utilizing everything he had learned throughout his career,he attempted to conduct these experiments in order to prove a long-debated and controversial theory which states that there are many universes,not just one,and in each universe,there are different dimensions and alternate realities which exist and that these other universes and alternate realities can be reached by manipulating light and dark matter in certain patterns or even using magic to fuse light matter and dark matter together and create origin,the theorized source of all matter and all existence;in other words,the beginning of the beginning,the existence of existence,the force that instigated the formation of matter which led to the creation of the universe and life itself.
Though it was only a theory and had never been confirmed to be true,Osamu was convinced that it was all true and that he could prove it to the world. For four years,Osamu managed to keep his project a secret from the Council,as he toiled away relentlessly in his quest. But Osamu never succeeded in his numerous attempts to fuse light and dark matter together and consequentially failed to create origin. A few weeks after Hibiki was born,our father discovered Osamu's project when he arrived at the Council building late at night in order to finish some extra work that he had to do;Osamu was not working or present in the Council at that late hour,so our father stumbled upon the hidden tools and notes in the laboratory by sheer chance.
Needless to say,father brought the disturbing evidence to light the next day during a special meeting of the full Council which he had requested and was granted by the Council President. Due to the overwhelming,incontrovertible evidence against Osamu and our father's testimony against him,the Council unanimously voted to permanently expel Osamu from the organization and revoke his membership. Shortly after his departure,the Council discovered that he was a spy from the Order of Magical Dominion,and in light of this revelation,they immediately petitioned the king of Isamashii Kingdom,who in turn related the information to the other kings of the world's nations,and once the information had been fully circulated to everyone,the many nations decided to form a military alliance with each other as well as the independent International Council of Mages and uniformly declared war on the country of Buryoutougen and the Order of Magical Dominion,thus initiating the second and final war before the end of the era.
The combined might of the commoner armies and the mages of the Council proved to be more than the mages of Buryoutougen and the Order could handle,and with this realization setting in,the surviving mages of the Order retreated from the battlefront and managed to escape into the wilderness,but Osamu was not among them and was nowhere to be seen throughout the course of the entire war. After the fall of Buryoutougen and the dissolution of the Order of Magical Dominion,groups of mages and soldiers set out searching for the escaped mages of the Order,but month after month went by,and there was still no sign of them or where they had gone to,and after a whole year had passed,the massive search efforts were called off indefinitely,and the whereabouts of Osamu and the other rebel mages remained a mystery.
Two years after the war,I was born. Those were peaceful times;Osamu and the others were still missing,and so life was fairly normal. Hibiki was already 2 years-old,and had not shown any signs of being a mage,so when I was born,being a girl,my mother and father's hopes of having a mage child were dashed,as girl mages were very rare historically;female mages were born on average once every eight generations;in terms of time,that's at least every 500 years. So naturally,my mother and father were very surprised and extremely overjoyed when I began to exhibit magical abilities when I was around 16 months old. After they took me to the Council to have my power sealed and bounded to a scepter,they waited until I was 4 years-old before they began to address my magehood again;this time in the form of training.
My father,being the only other mage in the family,taught me all about mages and the powers they have,and trained me to control my magic and use my scepter to cast spells and attacks,and I remember my father telling me I was a fast learner and if I kept practicing hard every day,I would become a great and powerful mage. But he also taught me that the responsibility of having and using magic is as great as the magic itself,and that mages should always use their magic for good and only use magic as a weapon in self-defense and in situations when your family and friends or innocent bystanders are in danger.
At the time,I could never have imagined what would happen to my mother and father only a year later. When I was just 5 years-old and Hibiki was 7,our mother and father took us to a special family gathering at the Council where they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Council. Every mage of the Council and their families were there,and people were dancing,eating delicious food,and chatting with each other. It was a happy occasion,and everyone was enjoying it. I remember every second of what happened next.
There was a sudden loud explosion outside the building,which caused everyone inside to stop what they were doing and stare at the door entryway. Then,the front wall of the building blew up and smoke covered the entire area. When the smoke cleared,I saw hundreds of people dressed in black robes from head to toe standing where the wall and door had been. Then,one of the robed people walked up in front of the others,and pulled the hood from his head,revealing his face. It was Osamu. Taking advantage of everyone's shock and surprise,he spoke to everyone in the room. I remember him saying that we would all pay with our lives for what the Council and mages did to him and his country. After that,everything is a blur. The next thing I know is that a huge fight is going on,with the Council mages fighting against the Order mages,and I saw my father fighting too,while our mother held Hibiki and I close to her.
Father defeated a lot of mages,but then Osamu approached him,and they started to fight each other,but it quickly became apparent to mother,Hibiki,and I that father was no match for Osamu. The last words I ever heard from my father were spoken at that moment when he said,"Hibiki,take your sister now and go! You'll be able to escape through the back entrance of the building. Go now! Hurry!"
Then,I heard the last words from my mother. She said,"Do as your father told you Hibiki! You have to run away right now! Take good care of Akemi for us. I love you Hibiki,and I love you too Akemi."
Hibiki grabbed me tightly by the arm and we ran for our lives. We kept running and running,never looking back. But I remember we were both crying and shaking with fear the whole time. It seemed like forever that we were still running but we were able to make it out of the building through the back doorway and escaped with our lives. We kept on running and running and running long after we left the Council building. We didn't stop running until we were both completely out of breath and drained,and then we just fell to the ground and cried ourselves to sleep.
When we woke up the next morning,we realized that we had run deep into a thick forest,and we didn't know how to get out. I was afraid and confused,but Hibiki took charge of the situation and somehow got us out of the forest and we eventually found ourselves back in the capital city and at what remained of the Council building. What we saw inside I'll never forget. Hundreds of dead bodies strewn all over the place,some burned,others slashed,and still others covered in blood. We found our mother and father's bodies close to each other. They weren't as horribly beaten as the others,but they were still dead. Osamu was still alive,because his body was nowhere to be seen,and somehow,we both could sense his presence even though he had left the city by that time.
Osamu had murdered our parents,as well as almost every other mage in the world,and he did it in just one night. From that day onward,Hibiki and I vowed to avenge the deaths of our father and mother,as well as all of the other mages who were killed. Over the past 10 years,Hibiki and I have trained ourselves to become stronger,Hibiki became a master swordsman,and I grew into the strong and capable mage you see right before your eyes. When we weren't training,we were busy fighting and destroying Osamu's many henchmen and mutant creatures. We've been able to save many lives from Osamu's tyranny,but many more lost their lives all over the world.
Despite everything that we have done to combat him,Osamu has still managed to become much more powerful over the decade since he took control over the world. We're nothing but insects compared to him. For every servant of his we take down,five new ones appear. Its a never ending battle against him. We've both come so far,yet sometimes I feel like everything we do is in vain."
Akemi's account of her world's history and her personal past overwhelmed me. What am I supposed to say after hearing all of that? Somehow saying I'm sorry just won't cut it.
"Wait a minute",I said. "Why did you have to tell me your life story and all of that history. What good will that do? What exactly do you want from me?"
"I told you all of that because you're going to be staying with us for a long time,and eventually,we're going to leave this house and travel to another area where we can live for a while. Hibiki and I do this every few months to ensure we aren't detected by any of Osamu's mutant creatures or henchmen who constantly patrol the world,looking for us and maintaining order across the lands that Osamu now controls with an iron fist",answered Akemi.
"Also",Akemi continued,"Hibiki and I talked it over last night while you were sleeping,and we decided to help you get back home through another dimensional portal. But in return for this favor and also for your own safety,you will have to learn how to fight,with both your bare hands and with weapons. Hibiki has agreed to train you in basic self-defense and sword-fighting. You'll be starting your training tomorrow. What do you think? Will you accept our offer?"
"Well...I don't like the idea of me having to fight these crazy enemies of yours but...I don't want to be stranded here in this world forever either. I guess I don't have a choice. Fine,I accept."
"Alright then! We're all set now!",Akemi replied cheerfully. She was back to her normal happy self again,as if her long explanation of history was never spoken.
And right at that moment,Hibiki came out of the forest on my right side,carrying a large deer in his left hand and his sword,stained with blood,in his right hand. On his back was a bag filled to the top with logs,to be used as firewood.
After piling up all of the logs in a circular mound,Hibiki sat down while Akemi stood up and faced the mound of logs. Now the only thing that was missing was the fire itself.
"Um,aren't you guys going to find a rock or some sort of chisel to light a fire?",I asked without thinking.
"Don't tell me you've already forgotten about what I am",Akemi quipped. "I've got this under control;just watch."
And with that said,Akemi pulled out her scepter from her back strap and pointed it at the log mound. "Ember Spark!" Immediately a small stream of fire discharged from the scepter and made contact with the log mound,creating a nice,warm fire.
Hibiki placed the deer on the campfire,and after around 10 minutes or so of waiting,Hibiki took the deer off the fire and went inside the cabin while Akemi doused the fire with a water spell.
A few minutes later,Hibiki,Akemi,and I were all sitting on the kitchen floor around a wooden "table" which looked more like an over sized surfboard to me. "Breakfast" was served,and as the siblings began to eat their slices,I couldn't help contemplating the fact that for the very first time in my life,I was about to eat deer for breakfast. Uh...yeah.