Me: Helloooooooow!

Kariya: Finally! I thought you forgot about this story!

Me: That's not true, I just... I was really scared to upload this chapter. It seemed like a great idea when I was cycling home a few months ago (yes, I made this up while cycling home from school... It takes me an hour, so it's not like I have anything better to do), but now I'm doubting... What if the readers don't like it? What if they think I'm crazy?!

Kariya: *rolls eyes* Oh, brother!

Tenma: *pats my back* Don't worry, Att-chan! I'm sure they already know you're crazy!^^

Kariya: *sweatdrop* Oi Tenma, that's not really hearteni-

Me: Arigatou, Tenma, that really made me feel better :) Kariya, can you do the disclaimer, please? :3

Kariya: ...I'm surrounded by idiots! Lotus Sword doesn't own Inazuma Eleven GO. She does kind of own this story, so if you dislike it or even hate it, please flame in the reviews! *smirk*

Tenma: KARIYA! That's really mean, you know?

They hesitantly followed Taiyou out of the cage. The people who had surrounded them during the trial now turned away and went back to their own business, like nothing ever happened. Even the children resumed their joyful game of tag.

Taiyou and Shuu led them to the biggest hut, which they slowly entered to let their eyes adjust to the dimness. The hut consisted of one circular room with a fireplace in the middle. Though the walls were made of beams of wood, Shindou noted that the ceiling was made of canvas. He figured that these people had laid branches and malm on top of it to make the whole building fully waterproof. The roof was pointed in the center, and the tip was not directly connected to the other part of the roof. It was slightly raised with sticks, so that it formed an opening through which the smoke of the fire could escape, but which wouldn't let in any water when it was raining. Strong beams were attached to where the walls and the ceiling met, and there were a few candle holders hanging from those beams. They looked a bit like lanterns, though there wasn't any glass or paper around the wooden frame.

Shindou's eyes drifted to the rest of the room, which was sparingly furnished. Around the fireplace were mats of wicker where people could sit, and there were a few boxes near the walls. On the opposite from the entrance, which was covered by a hide to keep out the cold and curious eyes, laid a still figure on a mat. It didn't take Shindou very long to figure out who that was.

Tenma.

He hurried over to his injured junior, with the others right behind him. Shindou instantly sank to his knees and placed his hand on Tenma's face. Relief washed over him when he realized that the boy's fever had decreased. Tenma looked stronger too, just tired. A healthy glow was on his face and his lips formed a relaxed smile.

"I wasn't lying, you know, when I told you that he was fine," Shuu calmly smiled. He and Taiyou stood side by side near the fireplace, watching the reunion from a polite distance.

"I never thought you were lying," Shindou defended while turning to the two boys.

"Then why did you hurry so much to check your friend's temperature?"

"I just wanted to..." His voice trailed away. What was he supposed to answer? He had done it unconsciously, but now that Shuu mentioned it, he had really wanted to check whether Tenma was really alright or not.

"...make sure I wasn't lying," Shuu finished the sentence for him. Shindou looked at the ground, shame decorating his face in the form of a blush. Shuu's laughter made him look up again, and he met the kind gazes from both boys. "It's alright," Shuu chuckled. "Trust takes a long time to build up, don't worry about it. You must be hungry after not eating today, so allow us to prepare you something."

Before anyone could object - which they wouldn't do because the prospect of a meal was rather promising - Taiyou and Shuu turned around and exited the hut, leaving them alone with their sleeping comrade. Speaking about Tenma, he gradually seemed to realize he wasn't alone anymore, because his eyes fluttered open after a minute or two. He looked confused.

"Minna? Where am I?" Glances were exchanged before everyone turned their heads back to the laying brunette.

"That's a long story," Kirino chuckled as he helped Tenma to sit upright. Luckily, the latter didn't have any trouble with keeping his balance anymore. The four big holes in his neck had fully closed up, though one could still see four red markings. In time, they would turn white and become less noticable, but the scars would never disappear. Shindou gritted his teeth when he thought about the rough way Tsurugi had treated Tenma, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside. There were more important matters right now.

And the most important one of all were Taiyou and Shuu, who re-entered the hut, each carrying three plates with fruit, vegetables and a small piece of meat. All six sat down around the extinguished fireplace and after they said their thanks, they happily started to fill their empty stomachs.

Shuu joined them after he tied the hide in front of the door to the poles, so it wouldn't flap too much in the wind. Taiyou completed the circle and then he put on some lights, since the sun had already set during the end of the trial. He made a circular motion with his right hand - for as far as Shindou could see it in the darkness that surrounded them - covered it with his left hand and brought it too his mouth, like he was praying. But instead of praying, he blew into his folded hands and when he opened them afterwards, Shindou was met with the most amazing sight he had ever seen.

A small bird, about the size of a robin, which was completely made of fire, took flight from Taiyou's hands. The flaming bird calmly flew to the first candle holder and sat down, eagerly pecking at the wick of the candle as if it were a worm. As soon as the beak of flames set the candle on fire, the bird flew to a next candle. It continued until all the candles were burning. Then it flew to Taiyou and landed on his shoulder. It remained there for three seconds, but it transformed into a snake of fire when Taiyou extended his arm and pointed to the fireplace. The snake crawled around Taiyou's arm on the way down and curled up once it reached the fireplace, effectively setting the wood on fire.

Tenma, who sat right next to Taiyou, dropped the piece of meat he was currently holding between his chopsticks. It landed on his plate with a small sound, but he didn't seem to notice it. With wide open eyes and mouth, he stared at the orange-haired boy, who replied with a cheeky smile. "What was that?" Tenma blurted out after he found his voice again.

Taiyou chuckled slightly. "No big deal."

Shuu, on his other side, rolled his eyes. "False modesty is not honorable, Taiyou. You know as well as I do that that is not something everyone can do," he scolded in a neutral tone of voice. Turning to the still perplexed humans - and merman - he smiled apologetically and said: "I understand that you must have a lot of questions by now. Taiyou and I will do our best to tell you what is happening, but feel free to ask if you don't understand anything."

"For starters," Taiyou took over. "How much do you already know?" He directed his question to Shindou, who was the obvious leader.

"That's a hard question to answer when we don't know how much there is to know," the latter smiled uncomfortably. "All we know is what we told you during the trial." Shuu and Taiyou exchanged a long glance before they nodded. Shuu bent forward and started talking.

"As I told you this afternoon already, and as you had already guessed, we are not humans. I said that I was a shadow, which is someone with two physical forms. Right now, I am in my solid form, which means that I can touch and grab things. My other form is my shadow form, which allows me to get through areas without being noticed. We can change between our forms at will, which can be highly convenient in given situations."

"Then, when you disappeared and reappeared in the cage this afternoon..." Shinsuke started.

"Yes, I was changing between forms."

"As for me," Taiyou spoke up, "I'm a fire nymph, like about half of this village."

"A fire... nymph?" Hikaru repeated slowly. When he was younger, his mother used to tell him stories about a faraway land that was filled with flowers. Young girls in summer dresses carelessly sang and danced and laughed all day, while playing in the lake or resting between the flowers. Those girls were called nymphs, if he recalled the stories correctly. He was just about to open his mouth to voice his thoughts, but Taiyou was faster.

"As you saw this afternoon, I get a little... hot-headed when I get angry. And there is nothing that makes me more angry than stupid creatures, no matter from what species, who think that nymphs are singing young maidens in a flowerbed." He gave everyone a stern look and Hikaru hurriedly closed his mouth again, gulping down the words. His actions didn't go unnoticed by the others, but the fire nymph decided to dismiss it.

"I know how you feel," Kirino sighed while thinking back to his first meeting with humans, who he still called 'doubletailers' back then. They had also mistaken him for a girl, since they hadn't known that there was a male equivalent of a mermaid. Tenma, Shinsuke, Shindou, Kariya and Hikaru shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, but all the awkwardness was forgotten when Taiyou resumed his explanation.

"Our powers are dependent from our mood. Intense feelings call out the fire in our hearts, which causes our hair to catch fire. In time, we learn to use our powers as we like, like I just did with lighting up the room."

"Taiyou and I are chosen as our people's representatives because our powers are much greater than anyone else's in this village. Taiyou is already more skilled in controlling fire than most of our people, and I am the wisest of all shadows here." He smiled a bit at the looks they were giving him. "As I said before, false modesty is not honorable. But I'll explain myself in a minute. Before that, I need to tell you something else. What do you know about the origin of your kind?"

"The... origin of our kind?" Kariya muttered. "What do you mean by that?" Shuu didn't reply, but instead took Kariya's question as an answer to his own.

Taiyou spoke again. "I need you to listen carefully to what I'll tell you next, since this will be a lot of new information. First of all, there are more species like humans, as you already deduced. They share lots of similarities, apart from a few differences, since they have a common ancestor. We have a common ancestor," he said, emphasizing the word 'we'.

"Let's start at the beginning," Shuu took over. "Thousands of years ago, before any of our species existed, the earth and its inhabitants were guarded by one mighty creature, a dragon. The dragon's body was covered in scales, which were harder than an armor and shone in the light of the sun. It had wings, razor-sharp claws, a long tail and the ability to breath fire. It was the job of the dragon to keep the harmony on earth. But even though the dragon was the wisest, fastest and strongest of all, it could not be everywhere at the same time. So, while thinking of a way to overcome this high inconvenience, the dragon decided to split itself up in five portions. The five kinds of creatures that descended from it, would each cover a part of the earth to look after."

Taiyou accounted for the next part of the story. "The merfolk descends from the tail of the dragon, that's why they don't have legs. You probably agree with me, Kirino, when I say that you keep the oceans clean and safe for all creatures, right? That was the merfolk's original task: they took care of the seas and oceans, slowly adjusting further to their new environment. We fire nymphs descend from the dragon's heart. The dragon's ability to breath fire came from the fire in his heart, just like with us. Our job was to take care of the forests."

"As for the shadows," Shuu said, "we descend from the dragon's mind and consciousness, which is probably why we are the only ones who actually remember the true history of the earth. We have a great knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants, but also of animals and flowers. We, too, were appointed to look after the life in the forests."

"Why is it that two species ended up in the forests?" Kirino inquired. "And why were those species the shadows and the fire nymphs? Aren't you two complete opposites of each other?"

"An understandable question," Shuu nodded. "I take it you see us as opposites because we are light and dark? Warm and cold?" He waited a short moment before he added: "Good and evil?"

"I never said that!" Kirino said.

"That's true, you didn't," Shuu agreed. "Many people forget that good doesn't always equal light, and that evil isn't always dark. They made that up to create some order for themselves in this world of chaos. Humans can't see in the dark. Therefore, everything that is in the dark is unknown to them, while they know everything in the light. Light and dark shouldn't be associated with 'good' and 'evil', but with 'known' and 'unknown'. People hate the things they don't know or understand, which is why they see darkness often as evil. I'm glad that you're not that simple-minded."

Shindou processed Shuu's words again in his mind. Now that he thought about it, he had always naturally assumed that the darkness was uncomfortable and he always preferred the light. He might not have believed that darkness is always the same as evil, but he could clearly understand how people could group those things together.

"Anyways, I'm straying away from the point," Shuu reprimanded himself. "You see shadows and fire nymphs as opposites, right Kirino? But the truth is that we are connected to each other. Shadows may descend from the dragon's mind, but we're the embodiment of the smoke that was caused by the fire. Though we may be opposites, we can't exist without each other. No lights means no darkness, and vice versa."

"That's... an interesting way to look at it," Tenma murmured out loud. Taiyou flashed him a smile and hit him on the back in a friendly manner.

"Don't think too much about it. If you plan on walking all the paths in the mind of a shadow, you probably end up getting lost!" The tension was briefly broken by a moment of laughter, before Shindou turned back to Shuu.

"So the merfolk went to the sea and the shadows and fire nymphs went to the forests. What about the other creatures, there's still two more to go, right?"

"Indeed. The vampires descended from the dragon's legs, where the scales were the thickest and the strongest. Because of this, vampires are nearly invincible. They are faster than the eye can follow, stronger than any other creature and their pointy fangs resemble the razor-sharp claws of the dragon. Their task was to look after the earth at nighttime. You see, since the dragon's legs were always hidden underneath the body, whether it was walking or flying, there wasn't much sunlight to reach them. This resulted in the vampires' only weakness: they can't stand fire or the sun. Since they hide during the day, they're at their best during the night."

"The last species are the angels," Taiyou told them. "Angels look much like humans, but they have a pair of feathery wings growing from their backs. Obviously, they descend from the section with the dragon's back and wings. They had to protect the skies and settled on mountains. Though they can be very prideful, their loyalty is endless. Their appointed target might be the skies, but they won't hesitate to help a creature on the ground or in the water."

Silence followed as they tried to process all this new information. Taiyou and Shuu politely waited for questions that would surely follow. And as expected, Kariya soon found something to ask. "You said that the dragon split in five species," he started and Shuu nodded in return. "Then what do the humans originate from?"

"Well," Shuu started as he closed his eyes to pick the right words. "Some things went differently from the original plan. The dragon's body didn't split into five species, but six. The sixth species, known as the humans, descended from the dragon's neck, which is the dragon's only weak spot. Since it wasn't planned, humans weren't appointed with a specific area to look after."

"So you are saying that our kind is merely a mistake?" Shindou asked incredulously.

"No, I am saying that it wasn't originally planned. There are no mistakes, just unexpected turns that all life forms need to cope with. Another thing that wasn't planned, was that the species forgot. As I said before, shadows descended from the dragon's mind and kept on remembering everything, but the others forgot it in time. The fire nymphs only know it because the shadows shared the information with them. By my knowledge, vampires and angels know that the other species exist, but they don't contact them. Since the merfolk is so hard to reach, they never encountered any other species and thus forgot about it completely."

Another silence followed, but it was broken by Kirino this time. "Okay, I think I get it, but why are you telling this to us? What does this have to do with everything?"

Taiyou and Shuu exchanged glances, before Taiyou eventually sighed and spoke up. "We think- No, we are pretty sure after what you told us this afternoon, that the man you call the Leader is trying to resurrect the dragon."

"What?!" Shindou exclaimed. "Is that possible?"

"Apparently, the Leader believes it is. You said that he takes people's energy, right? If you compare the different species, humans are obviously the weakest," Shuu said while making an apologetic gesture towards the others. "My theory is that the Leader wants to let the dragon revive in his own body. That means that if he can somehow absorb the energy of all five other species in his own body at the same time, he will change into a dragon himself. He won't be nearly as strong as the original dragon, but if he succeeds, I doubt that anyone can stop him."

Shinsuke jumped to his feet, his fists clenched in determination. "But then we need to stop him!" he exclaimed. Shuu smiled gently at him.

"Tomorrow," he said. "You have all had a couple of hectic days and it won't be good for anyone if you are exhausted. Tomorrow, we'll decide on what we should do about this matter." Both he and Taiyou stood up and exited the hut after bidding the other's good night.

Shindou, who was as sleepy as the others, laid down at the ground and enjoyed the embrace of the warmth of the fire. The words of Shuu and Taiyou replayed in his mind, but he was too sleepy to go through it again.

It has been only sixteen days since we left the army, he thought as sleep invaded his mind and made his thoughts slower. Sixteen days... And it was only four days ago that Kirino's tail split up. And two days s-since... since Akane... No, he couldn't think about that! Not yet, it was still too fresh! Only one day ago since Tsurugi attacked Tenma... It all feels like it happened a lifetime ago!

Closing his eyes, he forced those unhappy thoughts out of his mind. It has been thirty days since I first met Kirino. I barely know anything about him. Like when he was a prince, he only told me that yesterday! It has been only thirty days, so why... why... He was so sleepy that he could barely finish his thought before he was pulled into the warm embrace of sleep.

Why do I feel so at ease when I'm around him?

Me: Pfiew, these things just keep getting longer and longer! I'm really sorry for not updating sooner, but school wants to kill me (I know, cliché excuse, but it's true! My final test week starts soon and all my teachers think: well, she hasn't got much to do, so let's bombard her with homework! /.\)

Shindou: I hope you liked it, minna! *yawn*

Me: Mou, Shindou-kun! You make me feel sleepy!

Kirino: Reviews pleazzzzzzzzz *sleeps*

Me: Not you too! /.\ *yawn* Byebye! *sleeps, jolts awake* B-by the way, what did you th-think, minna? *trembles*

Kariya: *rolls eyes* Here we go again! -.-