Torishi Yuuto, age 16, stared out the airplane window, watching the ocean so far below them. Behind him, his five classmates laughed at Jirou's stupid jokes. The six of them had been over in America as exchange students for the semester and now that summer had come, it was time to return to Japan.

"Thinking about your cute girlfriend?" haruna elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ah! No, I'm not. Can't you just leave me alone for a few minutes?" he immediately regretted the spout of anger, but he could see the damage had been done. She frowned at him, hurt by his words.

"Fine, you stupid stone-head. I will leave you alone. For the rest of the trip in fact." She turned away from him and didn't look back. He grimaced and looked back out the window.

He was thinking about the girl he'd gone out with for the few months they'd been there. But not in a fashion they'd be expecting. His time in America had changed him in a way he'd never be able to explain, even to his childhood friend, Haruna Kiria. He touched his jacket pocket, feeling the small pouch holding a few special items Aly had given him: A picture of them and two of her friends, a ring and fountain pen.

Someone else in the plane yelled, "Shit, what's with that huge thunderstorm?" Torishi looked out the window again. Ahead of them, a black mass of clouds surged forward towards the plane. Glitters of light sparked Torishi's interest and he looked deeper. What looked like letters at one moment grew blurry as if hiding behind a veil. The plane entered the storm in the next moment and the air outside turned dark as night. Thunder could be heard outside and the plane shook from the turbulence. The gay mood sunk as people settled down to endure a hard ride. Torishi reached a hand into his pocket and touched the pouch again. The light he'd seen earlier made him uneasy.

The turbulence didn't get any better, in fact it got worse. The captain radioed to the passengers to assure them there would be no problems, but most people didn't believe him. Torishi listened idly to the chatter about whether they'd make it or not. His friends tried to distract themselves by looking at photos, but they're conversation halted at any big bump. Torishi looked out the window just as a lightning bolt flashed outside. The plane shook its worst. Torishi barely noticed the shaking. Outside he'd seen what he'd feared to be true. Illuminated in the moment of the flash, he had seen a rune circle. He unbuckled and leapt to his feet. Jumping past Haruna and Fiero he ran to the cockpit. Another shake made him lose balance and he stumbled into one of the cabin assistants.

"Please sit down, young man," she said after regaining her balance.

"I have to speak to the pilot. Its urgent."

"Riding through this awful storm is highest priority right now. Please return to your seat."

"he has to get out of this cloud right away! Turn this plane around!"

"Young man, please return to your seat."

"Yuuto, we'll be fine, come back and sit down."

"We won't be fine. We're gonna die!" the woman blocking his path grabbed his shoulders and turned him around by force. Then the plane vibrated violently. Outside the windows, a storm of lightly surged by. Torishi felt a familiar pull on his awareness. He dropped to all fours as the vibration turned into something worse. The plane started to drop and the world spun. He heard some people screaming. Including the worker behind him. The plane plummeted out of the cloud. Torishi grabbed the nearest seat and held on as best he could.

He didn't remember the crash after waking up. Shadows played across his face. The sound of wind in trees, a monkey call, something like a cricket next to his ear. He opened his eyes and saw a canopy of leaves ten feet above him. He was lying sprawled out on his back. He sat up and cringed at the complaints of broken ribs.

"Ah… gah." He tasted blood in his mouth. After spitting out the blood he looked around slowly. He sat on a large boulder. A huge trench and trail of distruction went past the boulder. A bit of the wing from the plane swung from a thick branch. The trees looked familiar, but he couldn't place the memory. They didn't match anything he'd seen in japan or America though.

"The plane… Haruna!" Torishi dropped to the ground and pressed a hand against his side. The pain made it hard to move fast. Using trees nearby as support to rest, he slowly progressed down the trench. Human voices caught his ears as the tail of the plane came in sight. The whole plane however shocked him. The front had been smashed up in the landing, and one side torn open.

"That explains me getting thrown." He grunted and continued.

Rustling to his left warned him. A male voice said, "Ah, another survivor? Are you alright?"

Torishi turned and saw a man in a suit badly torn. He recognized the person to have been sitting in the row in front of him "Oh," the man said, "You're the one that made that huge fuss."

"That's not important now," Torishi muttered and slugged on and started searching faces. Most of the crew had been either killed or mortally wounded.

"Torishi!" two of his classmates rushed towards him. Akira Shiro and Sazan Rei had never been close friends, but they'd talked a few times. "We thought you'd be dead," Akira clapped a hand to Torishi's shoulder and he winced as pain flared again.

Sazan frowned. "You hurt?"

"My ribs… its fine though. Not bad."

"There's a doctor here, you should get checked out."

"Sazan, there's nothing to do about broken ribs. Let him deal with more urgent needs. Where's the others?"

"Haruna-san got thrown out. Darai is dead, Fiero is getting a cut on his leg looked at right now."

Torishi gulped and turned around. "I'm gonna look for Haruna."

Akira grabbed his arm. "You're not in any condition to go looking for her. We were about to head out. You stay here and rest."

"But…"

"Injured people should be careful not to make things worse. Don't worry, we'll be fine." The two boys smiled at Torishi and jogged into the brush.

"Wait…" Torishi started and trailed off. They were right, he should rest. He slowly walked to where Fiero sat with an older man tending to his leg. "hey, Fiero."

"Torishi! You're okay."

"Yea, I'm okay. How's the leg?"

"Hurts like hell. I should be able to move around just fine though." Torishi looked at the wound. A ragged cut started above the kneecap and stretched nearly a foot up his thigh. The doctor finished stitching the opening closed and started wrapping bandages around it.

"Even so, take it easy. It would be better not to make it tear open," the doctor said. "Did you get injured in the crash?"

Torishi touched his side. "My ribs might be broken, but there's nothing you can do about that."

"You might be right about that. I'll take a look at it after I'm done with your friend."

"You really shouldn't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Maybe, but I should make sure of your injury anyway."

"Then do it after everyone else is looked after. Just a couple broken ribs I can handle."

"Torishi…" Fiero stared at him. "Since when have you not complained about an injury? Last semester you whined about your broken nose so much it gave me a headache."

"Fiero. Things happened in America that I can't explain properly. I used to be like that. I'm not anymore. I'm gonna see about my belongings." Torishi turned to where some people were unloading the luggage. He found one of his bags already out on the ground. His clothes. His other bag hadn't been unloaded yet. Waiting for them to find it, he looked over the area. A flight of maybe three hundred people and a third of them dead. One of his friends among them. They'd only known each other for a semester, but they'd grown close.

Darai had his own special quality of being an expert photographer. He had loved math and didn't have much for athleticism, but he had been popular with the girls. Torishi remembered having to wait for him after school ended while he made appointments to take pictures of girls in school. He also helped out in a modeling center in the evenings. Darai never stopped smiling. A fun idiotic guy with a face that girls thought was cute and a brain that made him even more attractive.

"Torishi, you're looking depressed," Fiero came up beside him. "Is it Haruna?"

"Haruna will be fine. The other two are looking for her. No, I was thinking about Darai."

"Ah, yea, pity he didn't make it. everyone will be devastated when we get home."

"If we get home."

"Huh?" Fiero looked at Torishi, confused. "Of course we'll get home. You're just being depressing."

"Fiero?"

"What?"

"Do you even recognize this place? Have you ever seen trees like these? There's something bothering me about it. something out of place."

"So? It's a strange place we've never been. Of course we wouldn't recognize any of it."

"…"

"Cheer up. A couple days here and we'll be home safe and sound." Fiero clapped a hand to his shoulder and left him there as someone called out to him. Torishi's feeling of discomfort didn't abandon him at all.

Night came and they'd built several fires. Akira and Sazan had found Haruna sure enough. She had a broken arm and a head injury but otherwise fine. The five of them sat together at one fire. However, only Akira and Sazan talked. It sounded to Torishi as if they just didn't want to sit in awkward silence.

Torishi finally got up. "I'm gonna be right back."

"Where you going, Torishi?" Akira asked.

"I need some privacy… you know." Understanding dawned and he nodded. Torishi headed away from the fires into the darker parts of the forest. He just wanted to get away from the people. He wandered through a thick wall of feathery soft bushes and froze at the sound of voices. Peeking around a thick tree he spied a crowd of men in uniform gathered in a circle. Some of them held torches. They spoke in lowered voices using a language that Torishi recognized to not be English nor Japanese, but he somehow understand what they spoke of.

"Tell the others to surround the location. We can't risk any escaping. Squad two and four will cover the left side. Squad one and three the right. The rest of us will provide a back line to prevent escapees. You two, go inform them of the plan."

"Yes, sir!" two of the men broke away, one of them passed by Torishi. He held his breath as the man passed and let it out when he wasn't discovered. They had to be talking about the plane crash. There wasn't anyone else in this area. The commander continued to talk to the his men. Torishi backed up to sneak back to the camp.

Snap. A twig cracked under his foot. He froze.

"Selon, go check what that was."

Torishi panicked as one of the men with a torch appeared around the tree. He lashed out, flipping the man into the air and on his back. He then turned and broke through the bushes. Shouts and crunching leaves followed him. He didn't look back, merely ran as fast as he could despite his ribs grinding inside him.

He then noticed someone else yelling, yelling his name. Four people appeared in torch light ahead. His friends. He tripped over a root and fell face first into the dirt. His ribs screamed in new agony, leaving him unable to move for a moment. In that moment his pursurers caught up, but instead of him saw his friends.

"Halt!" he heard one of the soldiers say. Five of them now formed a semi-circle around the four. Torishi saw confusion on Haruna's face. "Which one of you was spying just now?"

Haruna looked at Akira. "What is he saying? Do you understand him?"

Akira shook his head. "I've never heard this language before."

The soldier frowned. "You do not understand?" seeing their confused looks seemed to confirm it for him. "Then it would seem questions are unnessary. Kill them." He signaled to his compatriots. Torishi reached into his pocket and slipped on the ring. His friend noticed the intent to kill quickly enough and dodged best they could. The soldiers carried what looked like swords. Akira grabbed Fiero and yanked him away from his attacker. Haruna stepped in and threw the man attacking her. Sazan ducked and rolled between two of the soldiers. Those two turned, following his movement only to have their heads cracked by Akira.

Akira already was considered a prodigy in the boxing realm. He didn't have the muscles most did, but he didn't lack in power at all. The two soldiers dropped like rocks. Haruna had gained a black belt in Aikido just a year ago. While Akira checked the two he had taken out, she disarmed a second soldier and neatly pinned him to a tree with it. She quickly regrouped with Fiero and faced the last enemy. The one who had spoken the orders watched the kids with a look of frustration.

"Didn't expect that for sure. I'll have to do this myself." He sheathed his blade and started writing on the air. Torishi leapt to his feet. A rune circle. His ribs screamed from the movement. He ignored it and surged forward.

"Get down!" he yelled, jumping onto the guy's back locking his arms around his throat. The rune circle glowed and transformed into a stream of fire. Torishi's friends ducked out of the way. The soldier scrabbled at torishi's arms and then stepped backward and slammed into a tree. Torishi lost his grip as his ribs took a third beating. He gasped for breath, kneeling on the ground. He heard a thud of someone hitting the ground and then Fiero saying his name.

"Torishi, hey you okay?"

Torishi looked up and grabbed the outstretched hand. His sight went blurry and his knees buckled. Akira wrapped an arm around him and kept him upright.

"Thanks for the save buddy. Would've been torched if you hadn't jumped in there."

"Not like I did much."

"Hey, Yuuto. How'd you know it was dangerous?"

"I'll explain some other time. We need to hide. Now. Those guys were part of a bigger group and they're gonna kill the others at the plane wreck."

"Then we should go warn them, not hide."

"Are you stupid? No one will believe us. We don't have time to argue."

Haruna folded her arms and scowled at him. Sazan spoke up.

"He's probably right. Even if others can fight, that guy used an interesting ability and I don't think they can deal with that. For now we'll hide till it's all over."

"But what about the doctor? And Yamina san? We can't just abandon them?"

"Haruna…"

"I don't think they'd go down without a fight. If they get lucky and escape, we can meet up again." Fiero tried to sound hopeful, but his face said anything but. Haruna looked at the four boys and then stared at Torishi. His eyes looked heavy.

"Fine. Torishi needs to rest anyway. He doesn't look good."

Torishi barely even noticed anything that happened for the rest of the night. He was aware that Akira carried him a distance till they found a spot to hide. A hole in the ground covered by tree roots and bushes. He fell asleep a little bit after that.