Episode 3
真実
Tell me the truth
Everything is shrouded in dark grey fog, but I can make out the shapes. It is the bedroom of a newborn. A baby is crying. A feminine voice coming from a black figure yells at another black figure who is leaning over the baby's bed. A deep masculine voice coming from yet another black figure speaks as the second figure goes back to standing.
"Stop! Let go of my son! Give him back!"
The second figure speaks, but it is incomprehensible. The feminine figure begins to cry like the baby. The masculine figure tries to take the baby back, and while he fights with the second figure, pots fall to the ground and shatter. The second figure breaks free of the masculine figure and walks out of the room. The feminine figures yells between sobs.
"NOOOOO! MY..."
The masculine figure goes to the feminine figure and tries to comfort her.
"Don't worry, honey. We'll get him back."
Everything begins to swirl.
My alarm clock rang, causing me to wake up and fall to the ground. I was covered with sweat. I moaned in pain as my face was now flat against the cold wooden floor of my bedroom. I got up, quickly made my bed, put on my uniform and sat down at my desk. I grabbed my notepad and a pencil. I opened my notepad to the last entry, which was three days ago, and made a new entry with the date, the time and everything new about my dream.
"Hey sleep head! Come down or I eat your breakfast."
I put down my pencil and growled. My brother can be a real pain at times. I read what I wrote down in my notepad one more time before closing it and leaving my room with my notepad. I went down the stairs and walked in the dining room where my brother had just put down my breakfast on the table. I sat down and looked around.
"Where's Dad?"
"He left early. He had some big conference at the university. Don't you read the board sometimes?"
I looked at the white board where we wrote down what we had planned for the day. I saw what Markus meant. On the board besides our father's name was written 'Conference at the university. Will leave early and come back late. Dad.'
"Any idea on how late he will come back home?" I asked.
"Nope."
I ate my breakfast quickly. Once I was finished, I took my plate and brought it to the sink. I went back in the dining room and stopped in front of the white board. Beside Markus' name was written 'No school today. Will be home all day.'
"So, you're home all day?"
"Yeah. And if you don't hurry, YOU will be late for school, slow poke."
I looked at the clock and almost gasped at the sight of the time. I grabbed my notepad and rushed to the door. I put my shoes on, left the house and took my bicycle. I travelled the same path I always take everyday of the week. Tony was waiting at his usual spot, but this time, Sakura was there as well. I stopped in front of them.
"Hi!" I said.
"Hi!" Tony and Sakura answered, but out of sync, Tony saying it a little before Sakura.
"My dream was WAY clearer this time. I'll show you my notepad at school."
Tony nodded and hopped on his bicycle. Sakura got ready to follow us. We took the shortcut through the park. Once we were on the other side, Tony and I put our bicycles with the other bicycles. We then went inside to our respective lockers.
We were sitting at our desks, waiting for Mr. Thompson to arrive. Some of the students were talking to each other while some other were either drawing, reading or sleeping. Then, the classroom door opened on a tired-looking Mr. Thompson. He walked in, his bag in his left hand, a coffee in his right hand. He went to his desk and put his bag beside the desk and his coffee on the desk.
"Good Morning, students."
"Good morning Mr. Thompson." We all chanted in perfect synchronization.
"Today, we will start with mathematics. Take out your..."
As Mr. Thompson spoke, one of his arm hit his coffee and it spilled all over the desk. He looked at the spilled coffee and then around him as if someone was watching him and making him nervous. I looked around myself, and I saw a man wearing a black suit just outside our classroom. That man was wearing a golden pendant.
"Take out your math book and open it on page twenty-seven."
I took out my math book and when I looked out of the classroom again, the man was gone. I opened my math book on page twenty-seven and looked at the problem.
It was a fairly easy algebra problem with several variables. I took out a sheet of paper and a pencil and I began to solve the problem. Mr. Thompson began to solve the problem on the blackboard. He attributed letters to each of the variables and he also wrote down the clues in the form of equations. However, he made a mistake in one of the equations.
"Mr. Thompson?"
"Yes Carlos?"
"It's not fifty-five 'z', it's THIRTY-FIVE 'z'."
Mr. Thompson looked at what he had written, then at what was written in the book. He let out a sigh, and he corrected his mistake. He kept solving the problem without anymore mistakes until he had to solve the second equation.
"Why doesn't it work?" Mr. Thompson said with anger.
"Mr. Thompson, you didn't properly simplify the equation." A girl said.
Mr. Thompson looked at the equation he was at, then he let out a sigh. He corrected his mistake and finished solving the problem.
The bell announcing the lunch rang. Tony, Sakura and I went outside in the schoolyard to eat. Markus had prepared a lunch for me. We sat down under a tree. We took out our respective lunch.
"This looks good!" Tony said to Sakura, almost drooling on her lunch.
"Stop it! You're almost drooling on my lunch!"
"Tony! Read that." I said as I handed my notepad to Tony.
He took it, opened it to the latest entry and read it.
"We're finally going somewhere. We now know it's about your parents."
"Actually, I am not sure of that. The man I heard speaking wasn't sounding like my father at all. As for my mother, I don't know."
"Maybe you were adopted."
"Cut it out, Tony. That's ridiculous." Sakura said before eating some rice.
"Noah. Ask Markus if you were adopted."
"I'll do that. And did you notice something wrong about Mr. Thompson?"
"Yeah. He seemed... Distracted..." Sakura said.
I ate a little before I spoke again.
"I saw a man in a black suit outside the classroom this morning while we were in class. He looked like he was with The River."
"You sure?" Tony asked, his mouth full of food.
"Yes. But he was also wearing a golden pendant similar to your pendant, Sakura."
As I said that, Sakura slightly tried to make herself smaller.
"Is everything okay, Sakura?"
"Yes." She said, her eyes avoiding mine.
I knew she was hiding something, but I didn't try to learn what it was. We finished eating our lunch, and we made our way back to the classroom.
On our way back, we saw Mr. Thompson surrounded by five men in black suits. They were all wearing golden pendants. Suddenly, the right hand of one of the men was surrounded by a mint green aura. He lifted his arm and aimed at Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was pushed against the wall with force.
"Okay. These men are definitely part of The River." Tony whispered.
"Nice deduction, Sherlock." I whispered to Tony.
Sakura let out a whimper. The men in black suits then left Mr. Thompson, and we continued our way to the classroom.
The bell signaling the end of the day rang, and Sakura, Tony and I made our way to my house. We traveled in silence. We arrived and I opened the door.
"Markus! I'm home! And I brought some friends, too!"
Markus came, and looked at the three of us.
"You finally have a girlfriend. It's about time, slow poke. I already had a girlfriend when I turned sixteen."
I saw Sakura blush slightly. She smiled shyly and turned her head away.
"Shut up, Markus. Sakura is not my girlfriend. She's just a friend."
What I said seemed to have saddened Sakura. Markus shrugged and went back to what he was doing. I took off my shoes and went upstairs to my room, followed by Sakura. While I was going up the stairs, I heard Markus tell Tony to take his shoes off, answered with a big Tony-style groan. He joined Sakura and I a few minutes later.
"We all agree that the men we saw around Mr. Thompson are with The River. But why were they wearing a golden pendant similar to Sakura's?" Tony said as he paced back and forth in my room.
"I don't know." Sakura said while she was sitting on my chair.
"Me neither." I said while I was laying on my bed and looking at the ceiling. "And now that I think of it, Miss Hikari also has a golden pendant similar to Sakura's."
"What do you mean, Noah?" Tony asked.
I sat so I was looking at Tony and Sakura.
"I mean that it is weird. And Hikary told me that coincidences do not exist."
"Hikari-san is not part of The River!" Sakura said quickly and with anger.
"That's not what Noah meant! Right, Noah?"
"Yes, but now that Sakura spoke about the possibility of Miss Hikari being part of The River... She is, or rather WAS, part of The River. Right Sakura?"
Sakura's face showed defeat.
"Yes. She was part of The River. And so was I. But before any of you starts to send wild accusations, I am NOT after the source of magic. I came to Earth to have a fresh start, far from The River. But it seems it will always come back after me."
Tony's jaw hit the floor. He shook his head.
"This means the two branches of The River are here. We have to be really careful."
"And you should start by making sure no one listens to what you say."
We all looked at the open door of my room. Hikari was there, leaning against the door frame.
"HIKARI-SAN!" Sakura said as she ran to hug Hikari.
"Hey there, Sakura-chan. How are you?"
"I'm fine."
"My brother's new girlfriend?" I asked.
Hikari smiled and nodded.
"So you know about our little secret."
Tony and I nodded.
"I will tell you why Sakura-chan and I know each other. Her parents were also part of The River in Equestria, and they were my friends. When they were killed because they no longer wanted to be part of The River, Sakura and I searched for a way to leave Equestria. We found one, but we were separated in Japan. I reappeared in a small coastal village while she reappeared in Tokyo."
"Everything that is going on is so weird... What's that smell?" Tony said.
"My brother's cooking. This means dinner is almost ready."
As if to prove me right, Markus called us from the kitchen.
"Hikari! Slow poke! Slow poke's friends! Dinner's almost ready!"
After the dinner, Tony and Sakura went back home, leaving me and Hikari with my brother. We were sitting in the living room when I took a deep breath. I looked at Markus.
"Markus?"
"Yeah? What is it, slow poke?"
"Was I adopted?"
Markus shifted his weight out of discomfort. Hikari listened with interest.
"Well... Um..." Markus said as he scratched the back of his head. "I guess it serves nothing to lie to you, right?"
I smiled in triumph and I nodded.
"Yes, you were. I was six at the time, so I remember when Mom and Dad went to the orphanage to adopt you. And for three years, we were a happy family until Mom and Dad broke up and got divorced. But it changes nothing to the fact that you are my little brother."
Markus got up and came to me from behind. He grabbed me and he rubbed his fist on my head, making my hair even messier. He tried to free myself from his grasp but to no avail. Hikari squealed.
"Kawaii! The two of you are so cute together."
I felt my cheeks burn. Markus stopped rubbing my head with his fist and let go of me. He went back to sit beside Hikari.
"And how did you discover you were adopted?"
"You know the dream I keep having?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, it is supposed to be something about my past. Although I can't properly see how the people in my dream look like, I can still hear them. One of them is supposed to be my father, but he does not sound like Dad. And when I talked about that with Tony, he suggested that I might have been adopted. He also suggested that I asked you if I was adopted."
"So, your dream is clearer, huh? I hope you find out who your parents were... And tomorrow, tell your joke of a friend to stop caring about other people's stuff. One day, it will backfire at him and cause him trouble."
Hikari then yawned, which made me yawn.
"I guess it's time for you to go to bed, Noah. And Dad won't be here tomorrow. The conference will last longer than initially planned. And I won't be here either. I have a basketball practice early in the morning. Hikari will be here, though. So she will take care of your breakfast, slow poke. And Hikari, don't be afraid to shake him awake. He's a heavy sleeper."
"Hey!"
Hikari snickered.
"You can count on me." She said.
I got up and walked towards the stairs. As soon as I put a foot on the first step, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Hikari.
"What you think as the truth might alter your judgment and memories. Be sure to clear your head of everything you take for granted. Good luck."
Hikari then went back to sit beside Markus. I went upstairs to my room, got ready for the night and crawled in my bed, Hikari's words making me uneasy. As I drifted away into dreamland, I had the feeling I might have been wrong about my birth place for my entire life.
Next episode: "The hell is going on?! Why is The River attacking me and Sakura?! At least Hikari is there to get us out of trouble. Sakura should probably take some magic lessons with her. And why is that weird old sage insisting that I followed him to a shrine? I hope it has something to do with my past... Next episode:
Episode 4
実権
Enter my true power!
Don't miss it!"
(c) 2014 The master of the game
