Hey guys. Please don't kill me for the late update. This week has been pretty hectic. However, here I am, updating. Because I love you guys.
Left in the Dark
Ryuusei sat in his office alone for the first time that day. A week had passed since he first started taking appointments from the students at Arcadia Academy, and every day that week he had been harassed and violated in so many different ways by the majority of the female population in the school, and even some of the boys too.
"I'm going crazy." He muttered to himself as he stared at the fresh sign up sheet he had printed to put up on his door for the next school day.
He started to reach for the paper, but it was snatched up by a pale, slender, familiar hand. Ryuusei looked up to see Shimotsuki Setsuka standing in front of him, holding his form of misery in her hand loosely.
"You need a break." Setsuka stated plainly. Ryuusei didn't even bother arguing. She was right.
"How-?" Ryuusei started to speak, but Setsuka put up a hand as she sat down in the chair on the opposite side of his desk.
"This school is full of hormonal teenagers, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you're being run ragged by the girls here. The same has been happening to me." She explained coolly, with an edge of sarcasm at the appropriate moments. Setsuka started to fold the page in her hand, not seeming focused on the current discussed topic.
"Why are you here?" Ryuusei asked bluntly, knowing Setsuka most likely wanted to get straight to the point of her visit.
Setsuka looked up from the folded paper and sat up a bit. "Your mother has bigger plans for the students here than just giving them a safe school." Setsuka began.
Ryuusei shifted in his seat, leaning forward a little in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
Setsuka conjured up a file that Ryuusei hadn't noticed and handed it to him. "She's managed to assemble some of the most gifted psychics of our generation and stuffed them all in this school." Setsuka continued as Ryuusei opened the file.
The file had the profiles of 6 students, Ryuusei and Setsuka, and 1 person who was transferring to Arcadia Academy as soon as possible.
"Who's Sigi Jones?" Ryuusei asked Setsuka, who seemed to be in the know of this secret situation.
"She's a clairaudient and an extremely powerful psychic. Your mother must have discovered her last week, after the school term had started." Setsuka answered.
Ryuusei scanned over some of the profiles in the folder. Hino Kizana, Xerxes Hydro, Kheika Muenoru, Takeshi Ishihara, Cleotra Jennings and Jeff Hollander. The profiles included extremely personal information that Ryuusei felt uncomfortable even just glancing over. They had all their medical histories, personality profiles, even information about their relatives and sexual history was encompassed in the profiles. But most glaringly, a page each dedicated to a study of their psychic abilities.
"Why are these profiles so in depth? Why do they even exist?" Ryuusei demanded of Setsuka.
"That's why I'm here. Since this involves both of us, I'm not considering this a favour from you, but more so a collaborated effort. Are you in?" She asked, her icy gaze never breaking contact with his own stoic view.
Ryuusei thought about it, or at least tried to under the Ice Princess' stare. This seemed incredibly suspicious. Why have a folder with only certain student's profiles in it that completely violate any semblance of privacy they ever had? Why these 9 people singled out? Then again, this was his mother, someone he had spent his life trusting…
Until just recently when he found out his conception had been a lie.
"I'm in." he declared. Setsuka nodded and gave a small smile at the new partnership.
"Any ideas? Izayoi is your mother." Setsuka ventured.
Ryuusei returned his focus to the file while he pondered the possibilities of what his mother's intention could be. At the moment, nothing came to mind. "I'll have to go over the profiles and think about it. Right now, I can't be sure." Ryuusei admitted.
Setsuka nodded before starting to stand up. "Fair enough. Just drop by my room if you figure anything out." She instructed before leaving the office.
Ryuusei watched his new accomplice leave the room before looking back down to the file in his hand. His own profile caught his attention, and seemed to be the most in depth, detailed profile of the bunch. He read it over, not surprised at any of the information there. He came to the page with his psychic abilities detailed on it and read it over.
Ryuusei has the ability to manipulate plant growth and activity. He needs a limiter to keep his powers in check. There are no restriction on which plants he can manipulate. Power level: 9/10. POSSIBLE MORIO.
"Possible Morio?" Ryuusei thought out loud almost inaudibly. "What's a 'Morio'?"
Ryuusei put the file down and pulled up his laptop, preparing to do some serious research.
/
Hino was starting to get extremely annoyed. Not only were Jeff and Kheika still together, but they made out in her dorm room all the time! She couldn't ever go back to her room because there was always a tie on the doorknob or a note that said 'Don't Disturb'.
Today she found herself staring at a purple tie with little orchids all over it, hung loosely on the doorknob. It was as if the tie was chanting 'Nah nah nah nah nah!' at her while she stood there, helpless.
Xerxes walked up to her friend and followed Hino's line of sight to the tie.
"Again?" the bluenette drawled.
Hino nodded extremely silently. She looked like she might burst into tears at any moment.
Xerxes rolled her eyes. "Oh for the love of-!"
Xerxes burst into the dorm room to find Kheika and Jeff making out on her bed, hair messed up and knotted, clothes wrinkled. Xerxes walked right up to Jeff and grabbed him by his shirt collar.
"What the-?!" he exclaimed as Xerxes literally threw him out of the room.
Xerxes turned back to Kheika, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the room. Xerxes then took the tie off the doorknob and flung it at Jeff.
"Go make out in your dorm room for a change." Xerxes commanded Jeff as she grabbed Hino's wrist and pulled her into the dorm room, slamming the door after both were inside.
Hino stared at her younger friend blankly as the icy haired girl plopped down on Hino's bed.
"Thank you." Hino thanked as she sat down next to Xerxes.
Xerxes nodded. "No problem."
A few moments passed while both girls just blinked before Hino burst into tears.
Caught off guard, Xerxes freaked a little, not knowing what to do about her now-hysterical friend. Hino dropped her head into Xerxes' lap and curled up as she hugged herself.
Xerxes began to pet her friends hair, not really knowing what else to do in the current situation.
Hino kept crying and tried to explain through her sobs why she was so upset. "I just- I'm starting to really like him- y'know? Y'know how that happens when a person just grows on you? Especially when they know how to reassure you? Even when you doubt yourself they just- They feed you confidence! He does that! He did that during psychic abilities class-"
Xerxes clamped a hand over Hino's mouth as it dawned on her: She could use her powers.
Xerxes started to focus on Hino and felt Hino's stresses start to seep into her own body. Hino's eyes went wide in shock and panic, not knowing what Xerxes was doing. For all she knew, Xerxes could be trying to kill her.
After a while, however, Hino just seemed to relax. She didn't care about Jeff. She didn't worry about what Xerxes was doing to her. She was just calm.
Xerxes lifted her hand off of Hino's mouth and slumped a little in exhaustion from using her powers so intensely. Hino sat up and turned to her friend to thank her, but was distracted when she saw Xerxes start to tear up.
"What's wrong?" Hino asked, concerned but not as much as she usually would be since she was so relaxed and calm.
Xerxes let a few tears leak out of her frozen eyes. "How the hell do you get out of bed in the morning?" Xerxes whispered through chokes of sadness before going into a full on melt down.
Hino worriedly embraced her friend who clamped onto Hino's arm and sobbed for 20 minutes straight. It was weird to see Xerxes cry, since she seemed so strong and confident all the time. Hino didn't even know what her friend was so upset about, especially since she had been completely fine not 5 minutes ago.
Once Xerxes finally settled down, Hino straightened her up. "Why are you so sad?"
"I'm not. I took your stress away." Xerxes answered as she wiped some remaining tears away.
"You can do that?" Hino asked in disbelief, to which Xerxes nodded and sniffed a couple times.
Hino unexpectedly hugged her friend, thankful for what she had done for her. "I'm so lucky I have you as a friend."
Xerxes returned the embrace upon hearing Hino's words. She'd never forget that sentence for the rest of her life.
/
"That's it? That's all you guys did? You just talked?" Stephanie asked her friend in disbelief.
Takeshi simply nodded.
"And you've been doing the exact same thing everyday for a week now?" Stephanie asked again, still having a hard time believing it.
Takeshi nodded again.
Stephanie blinked.
She blinked again.
"DO YOU WANT TO BE FRIEND ZONED?" She exclaimed at her friend.
Takeshi raised an eyebrow at her. She was clearly over exaggerating.
"What should I do then..?" Takeshi asked slowly.
Stephanie crossed her arms and gave him a look that read 'are you really that stupid?'
"What..?"
"KISS HER!" Stephanie exclaimed and threw her arms up at the same time.
Takeshi turned a slight shade of red at her instruction. "Say it louder, I don't think the rest of the school quite heard you!" he said sarcastically and a little quicker.
"Sorry. But you should still do it!" Stephanie informed him.
Takeshi shook his head. "Why would I do that?"
"Because you like her, she's pretty, funny and spunky, and she likes you." Stephanie explained as she counted the reasons off on her fingers.
Takeshi turned even redder. "You think she likes me..?" he asked, getting a tiny bit excited.
Stephanie nodded at him like he was the dumbest guy in the world. "YEAH! Do you really think she'd have lunch with you on daily basis if she didn't? She has a bunch of other friends she could eat with. She's pretty popular. AND she even sits with you during class sometimes. That there is a girl who likes you." Stephanie explained, getting a little annoyed with Takeshi's romantic stupidity.
Takeshi shook his head again. "I don't know Steph…"
"I do. Tomorrow when you have lunch with her again, you are going to kiss her. Alright?" Stephanie instructed.
"I'll think about it. I got to go do some homework, I'll see you later Steph." Takeshi dismissed and quickly walked away.
/
Ryuusei had spent 4 hours researching the word 'Morio' and ended up on two websites: A Baby Names website and a website about ancient folk tales and legends. On the Baby Names website, 'Morio' came up as a name for a boy that meant 'forest son'. But that wasn't what intrigued him.
The folk tale website showed 'Morio' as an Elemental Magic user, who wielded the power of nature. He was one of nine users, and they were all referred to as Sages. They were highly respected among society and had a temple built in their honour. However, the nine users quarrelled constantly and were usually divided amongst each other in loyalty. The only one who could never choose a side was the Spirit Child, said to be the most powerful user of the bunch. It was arguable that the Light and Dark users were the most powerful, but most thought the Spirit Child held the most power.
One day, the Spirit Child had had enough of the fighting and left the Elemental Sages. Her name was Tamika. She went to a temple in another nearby city and prayed to the Crimson Dragon, asking it to show her the solution of all the quarrels. Kurayami, the Sage of Darkness popped out while Tamika was praying and blasted her with dark magic in an attempt to kill her. The Crimson Dragon managed to reach down and save a sixth of Tamika's soul, sparing her life. However, the five other pieces of her soul blasted out and turned into five other people, all of whom were evil and tried to destroy the city. In the end, Tamika sacrificed herself to destroy the five evil pieces of herself and saved the city. The eight other Sages all disappeared after her sacrifice and were never seen again.
Most believed that the eight other Sages couldn't live without Tamika and withered away within days of her death. Some simply thought that they mourned Tamika for eternity, alone in some deserted land, far away from civilization. All held great power and are believed to be the Gods of the Elements.
Ryuusei pondered the legend. Could this be what his mother was interested in? Was he one of the nine Elemental Sages?
It was a possibility. He'd have to tell Setsuka in the morning. For the time being, he went back to his room and fell unconscious as soon as he plopped on his bed.
'What are hiding, mother?'
END.
Cliff hanger. WOOT. Review please!