A.N.- ovo Here's the long awaited chapter~
Disclaimer: You know the routine.
Anrya's P.O.V.
Done. I closed my notebook and put away my writing utensils, indicating that I had finished my homework. Stretching, I looked around at the others who were beginning to finish their homework or were already finished with their homework. On normal days, we'd do our homework in our own rooms or at the lounge, and sometimes in the living room, but on days that Ren was to give us a lesson on something, we gathered on the top floor: the library.
"Ah, finished," I said with a smile.
"Me too," Crystal said, putting her pencil down.
"Same," Jasmine said, chewing on a piece of gum.
"Finishing in a moment," Esa said, writing rapidly. Around her, Selina, Ryo, Rai, and Darke were all done. "Ok, finished!" Esa hurriedly put away her homework and belongings.
"Now all we have to do is wait for Ren to arrive," Jasmine said with a sigh. "We have an hour to kill."
"Well, it's better than training with that demon of a Phys. Ed. teacher, Ace," Esa commented while putting away the last of her things.
"I thought Hiroshi-sama was more of demon," Selina said.
"They're both demons," Esa replied, "it's just that one is more sadistic than the other in some ways…"
"Thank goodness he's gone now," Crystal said, and we all nodded in agreement.
"When I think of my life back then, and then I think of my life now," Jasmine said out of the blue, "I think: Wow, I've got one messed up life. Back then, all this wouldn't have been too normal, but now it kind of is…"
"Well, if you think about it, it's not that different from normal," Esa said, "we still go to school, do stuff, do some abnormal stuff, but that's about it. It's been about ten months since we first stepped foot into this place, so it's not abnormal that we got used to things."
"I guess you're right," Jasmine said.
"I think living like this isn't too bad," Rai said with his usual smile, "It's pretty fun and interesting. Plus there's Esa-chan and the others too~" Rai gave Esa a playful poke on the shoulder. In turn, Esa swatted away Rai's hand.
I smiled. Looks like everyone really did get used to each other. In the past Esa would always glare at Rai for any flirtatious act or whatnot, but now she seemed ok with it. We all got used to each other's presence…or absence.
"Since we have time to kill, how about you tell us a story Anrya-chan~?" Rai said.
"Eh? What story?"
"Hm…like the story of how this family started? Like when you were first asked to form this family."
"I want to know that too," Selina said.
"Seems pretty interesting," Esa said.
"Yay, story time with Anrya-chan," Crystal said.
I looked at the clock, then at the others, and sighed. "Ok, ok, I tell you guys while we're waiting." I got comfortable and prepared myself to tell the story. "So this is how it started. It was the last day of sixth grade …"
I woke up to a normal school day. It was the last day of school and all I had to do is go to school, take my finals test and come back home. After that, summer vacation. So I went to school by school bus and went to my assigned testing room.
"The test will be started in just five minutes, so please sit down on your assigned seats."
I sat down on a seat, neatly arranged my pens and pencils, and waited for the test to start. As I waited, my mind drifted off and I soon stared out the window. Blankly staring out into the school field, my eyes drifted around the scenery. At one point in my staring-out-the-window, I saw out of the corner of my eye that two figures were standing far off in the field. I took curiosity to this and focused my vision back on the figure…only they were no longer there. Huh? Maybe that was just my imagination? I doubted that I would imagine such, but before I could elaborate on the thought, the proctor called attention to the students, saying that the test would be starting. Ah the test is starting! A bit curious on what I saw before, but finding more importance in the test, I dismissed the previous thought and took my test.
-After the test-
I headed towards the school bus feeling happy to be finished with the finals and school.
"Hey Anrya, how'd you do on the test?"
"I think I did pretty well though I'm not sure about the answer to some questions like question #48."
"Yeah, same. But for #48 I got 'D' as my choice."
"Me too! Phew, I feel more relieved now."
"Good! Well, I've got to head to my bus now…bye Anrya!"
"Bye!" I waved a friend of mine goodbye. Then I looked around the bus circle for my bus, found it, and sat inside. For a while I sat down quietly and relaxed, but as I waited for the school bus to take off, I got impatient, took out my cell phone and found a text message in it. Unable to tell whose number this was, I took curiosity in the new message. In my inbox, I opened up the message, read it, and found the contents to be quite disturbing. It mentioned stuff about a mafia, a family, a flame, being the boss, and a lot more. I read the whole content, and took all the information in. Most of the content I understood, but some I did not. Basically, the message told me about the mafia life, its system, some kind of flames, and asked me to be the boss of a new family that I would supposedly create. What kind of prank this was, I didn't know, but uneasy about the message, I thought of erasing it just like I did to other pranks, creepy, anonymous, or advertising messages. Strangely enough though, something about this message made me keep it in my inbox. Not erasing the message, I put away my phone and tried to keep my mind off of it on the bus ride home. When I got home, I put away all my stuff, kicked back and relaxed…or at least tried to. My mind kept drifting back to the text message that I received. Calm down Anrya, it's probably just a prank or something…yeah, the contents were really fictional… Assuring myself, but not quite, I was able to relax somewhat. In order to fully get my mind off the matter, I turned on the TV and watched some shows. After a while, my mind did get off the message, and I was calm. For another week I felt some unease with the text message, but by the end of the week, I put the matter to the back of my mind and stopped paying attention to it. And so I lived blissfully for a while, until I received an anonymous email one day. The email had the same contents as the text message that I received on the last day of school with a bolded message asking me to be the boss of a new family I was supposed to create. It didn't even give me a choice on the matter! Feeling really creeped out, I contemplated the idea of informing my parents and/or the police, but dismissed the thought because it was too extreme. Besides, I didn't want my parents or the police to interfere with my personal life, so taking a chance I replied to the email with the question: "Who are you?" What I'm doing is so unsafe. What if the other person is a kidnapper or a blackmailer or a murderer…if that wasn't bad enough, now they know my cell phone number, my email, my name, and possibly more…ohhh…this is bad. Set on edge, I was about to log off when a chat box of someone I didn't know popped up. Should I answer it…? Knowing what I was doing was unsafe, but curiosity getting the better of me, I opened up the chat box and read it.
00Lotus: Who am I? Well, that would be giving away information to a stranger~
Anrya: …Well, you know my name already and probably more, so it would be unfair to not tell me what your name is…
I shouldn't be conversing with this person...He/she is probably not going to tell me their name; what cyber-predator would? Well if he or she does something to me or threatens me…I'll…tell my parents or call the police. Knowing I didn't have the guts or the will to really do so, I continued to find ways to reassure myself. Thankfully I had a good poker face and a really good composure, since my parents couldn't tell the turmoil going on in my head as they passed by me.
00Lotus: Hmhmhm~ I guess you have a point there. Well since I do know much about you as you said, I tell you a little bit about me…well technically it's the two of us. My name is Zero and my partner here is Ren; hence the username 00Lotus~
Anrya: That's not much considering what you know about me. Anyways, no one would have a name such as Zero, and also, Lotus has nothing to do with Ren. You're probably lying.
00Lotus: You're quite sharp in some aspects, but no, I'm not lying. As for the name Ren, it does have to do with a lotus. The name Ren has the meaning of lotus in it in Japanese, so I am not lying. Anyways, your username has no discreetness in it, so it would be wrong to blame us for knowing your name.
"…" This person was quite snarky in some ways, but he seemed pretty intelligent too. Just in curiosity, I looked up the name Ren on Google and found that what this person Zero said was true. But even though what he said was true, he could still be lying… Struggling with the thought, I continued to converse with this mysterious person.
Anrya: Tell me one more thing. How old are you two? AND DON'T LIE!
00Lotus: …Well Anrya-chan, we're both in the mid-teens~
Anrya: …
00Lotus: Anyways back on the matter. By now you know some things about us, so do you mind cooperating with us~?
Anrya: What! What makes you think I'd trust or cooperate with you so easily? I still don't really know you guys, nor do I trust you.
00Lotus: Person change Anrya-chan. Hello, this is Ren. I understand your distrust, but please understand us. We are not bad people. You probably have the idea of us being cyber-predators, but we are not. We merely wish to gain your trust and cooperation on the matter.
"…" What they've been saying so far was pretty reliable and believable, but I was still cautious of them and there was no way was I going to put my trust in them. What I'm doing is probably breaking all the safety rules of internet usage. Deciding to risk it, I took their bait.
Anrya: …I guess…I'll hear you out online, but not today. Also, if you ever do anything funny, I'll tell the authorities.
00Lotus: Thank you.
00Lotus: (Zero) Hmhmhm~ I know as well as you do that you wouldn't do that~
00Lotus has logged off.
Hmph, what an arrogant guy. Though I was uneasy about the two people, I couldn't help feel that they weren't too bad… and so every day of the week, I went online at a certain time and conversed with them. The two told me about many interesting thing, some of which I accepted, others in which I could not. I still didn't trust them much, and sometimes I outright doubted them. What unfolded before my eyes was an extraordinary event that happened only in stories and rarely in life. One day, I decided to ask them the question that was circling in my mind.
Anrya: Hey Zero, Ren, what did you mean by me becoming a boss?
00Lotus: Hm~? Well that's something we can't fully tell you about until you whole-heartedly decide to join us.
Anrya: …Well, it's not like you're giving me a choice. -_-
00Lotus: True, but your cooperation is still required~
Anrya: …I'll think about it.
"Anrya!" my mom called out from the kitchen, "get off the computer and get some fresh air outside. You need to rest your eyes and breathe in some fresh air. I don't want you cooped up in the house by the computer all summer long!"
"Yeah, ok mom," I said rolling my eyes.
Anrya: I've got to go now. My mom wants me to take a break from the computer and go outside.
I logged off my email and got off the computer. Walking upstairs to my room, I picked out a book, took my iPod, and headed outside.
Where should I go…Outside of my house, I shifted back and forth and pondered where I would go to kill some time outside. I guess I'll walk around the block or around the neighborhood and then go to the park. So putting on my earphones and turning on my iPod, I started to walk around the neighborhood. First I went around my block, then around another block, and then I started to wander a bit. At one point during my wandering, I thought I saw two people up on a pine tree, but when I looked back on it, I only saw two black birds on the tree branch. I shrugged and walked on. Now heading towards the park, I navigated my way through the neighborhood. I walked on the sidewalk with a good rhythm in my ear as I took turns here and there. When I got near the park, I saw two peculiar teenage boys up ahead. One was a white haired boy and the other was a boy with long deep blue hair. Weird, I've never seen those two around here. Maybe they just came to hang out? Either way I went towards the park. Inside the park, there were two sets of playgrounds, one on woodchips, and the other on sand. The playground on the woodchips was ideally more interesting and fun because it was meant for the younger kids, but since I wasn't in the playing mood, I headed for the playground on the sand. On the playground on the sand, there was a swing set; two regular swings and two baby swings. Heading for the swings, I sat down on one of them, took out my book and started to read. Though there were benches around the park, I found it more comfortable sitting on the swings. The park was peacefully quiet. There were no games going on in the baseball diamond, or on the soccer field, or anywhere else; it was just me, the book, the park, and two random teenage boys that I saw earlier. Peeking out of my book, I glanced at what the two boys were doing. Currently they were on the other playground talking to each other. Nothing out of the ordinary from them. Usually I was wary of teenagers who came to the park because it meant trouble, but these two teenage boys seemed ok. So continuing to read, I gently swung on the swings. For a while I read and swung quietly until a light breeze blew my bookmark to the sand. Keeping a finger on the page I was on, I got off the swings and retrieved my bookmark. As I did this, I observed that the two boys were now climbing the maple tree by the other playground. What they were doing was pretty cool, but it was also dangerous. I tsked in my mind at the two boys' recklessness, but when the white haired boy climbed the tree and came back down lithely, swiftly and skillfully; I had to admit that they were very good at climbing trees. I wish I knew how to climb trees like that I thought a bit enviously, but I kept to myself and resumed my reading. By this time, the two boys where relaxing by the tree; the white haired boy on the branches and the long blue haired boy on the base of the tree. For a moment I wondered what would happen if that boy fell off the tree, but quickly dismissed that thought and continued to read my book. Soon I was deeply into the book as I swung forward and back evenly. Ten to fifteen minutes went by without any incident. Then my attention was taken away from the book. The white haired boy had jumped down from the tree and headed towards the swing seat next to me. I was impressed and even amazed how the boy jumped so lithely from the tree to the ground, but continued to pay no mind to him as he came to the swing seat next to me and sat down. There the boy swung forward and back, forward and back, until he got high in the air and jumped off. Then the long blue haired boy would get on, swing back and forth until he got high enough in the air and jumped off too. This went on for a while until the two felt bored with it and complicated their game. This time the white haired boy stood on the seat and swung forward and back until he got high enough in the air to jump off. What came next astounded me. The white haired jumped off the swing, flipped in the air and landed neatly in the sand. Something that would be seen in gymnastics was done by this boy. Shocked and unable to contain my amazement I asked, "Woah, where did you learn to do that?"
The two turned to look at me. The white haired boy answered. "Hm~? Oh that. I learned how to do that on my own," he said, looking away. His face was void of expression, but when he turned to look at me again, he flashed a wicked smile. "Jealous~?"
I smiled a bit and shrugged. "It was pretty cool." Then a moment later I asked, "Are you guys from around here? I haven't seen you guys here before, but a lot of teenagers like to come to this park and I haven't been here in a while…" My voice trailed off.
"No, we don't live in this area of this neighborhood," said the long blue haired boy. "Like you said, we just came here because this park was large."
"Oh, ok…Hey, how old are you guys? (If you don't mind me asking)"
"We're both fifteen," replied the white haired boy. "And you?"
"Twelve."
"Hm~ I'm guessing you're a sixth grader."
I nodded. "Going into seventh grade next year. And you must be…in ninth grade?"
The two nodded. Just then I got a call from my mom. I picked it up. "Yeah mom?...Come home?...You need to go to a meeting?...Uh huh…Uh huh…Ok…I guess I can babysit my baby brother…ok coming…bye." Closing my phone I got off the swing seat and collected my stuff. "I have to go now~" The two waved me goodbye, and I left.
For the rest of the day, I spent my time at home babysitting my baby brother and going on the internet.
00Lotus: Ah I see you're back Anrya~
Anrya: Why? You've been waiting for me online? That's creepy.
I didn't get an answer.
Anrya: So what now.
00Lotus: (Ren) Do you have an answer on the matter of joining us yet?
Anrya: I told you. I don't and won't trust you guys until you give us more information.
00Lotus: …
00Lotus: Fine. I will give a bit of information right now, but in return you must meet us tomorrow at your neighborhood park and talk with us. That would be the best way to explain things. A piece of information I can give you is that Zero and I belong to an organization that we technically created. For years we've been trying to form families that were to thrive in the mafia world, but we failed many times… Anyways, we have something called Frammenti Rings that are to be given to a compatible family. This was a…deal we made with our master in exchange for him teaching us. We haven't succeeded in forming a family that lasted long with these rings yet, but we believe you may be able to achieve this. When I saw you had a sky flame, I believed that you would be able to do something with these rings.
Anrya: Woah wait a moment! I'm not meeting a random stranger anywhere! Plus, if I have this so called sky flame, why can't you find anyone else with this sky flame? After all, you've been trying out many people, why not try again?
00Lotus: Because we do not wish to make a mistake again. Most of the people I chose before, I must say, were not the best of choice looking back. I hadn't checked out their flames, yet I placed them in a position of authority. That was a mistake on my part.
Anrya: -_-…I have mixed feelings about all this. Like, what would happen to me if I were to fail like the others, why drag others into all this, where do I find these people, how do I know if they'll listen, etc.
00Lotus: …I see, well that I can explain to you in person tomorrow. We'll see you at the park tomorrow. Bye.
00Lotus has logged off.
Anrya: Wait!
"Ugh," I muttered. I logged out of my email and turned off my computer. For a while I took care of my baby brother and played with him, but when he fell asleep and I had free time on my hand, my mind wandered to the proposal Zero and Ren made me. Should I meet them tomorrow? Should I not? Well meeting strangers is dangerous so I shouldn't… but I'm curious on what they have to tell me…Ugh, what if I get into trouble with them? What if they stalk me to my house—wait they know where I live—so what if they blackmail me or-or-or My mind was in turmoil for a while. It was not until my mom came home that I felt safer and came to a conclusion. Ok, if my mom tells me to go to the park tomorrow, I'll go. If she says no, then I have an excuse…sort of. If I do go, I'll make sure to talk with people around and keep my phone on 911…But I think I don't have the choice to not go because no matter how many times I postpone it, the two can invade my house or something or… I rested my head on the wall as my mind began to spin again.
In the end, I ended up in the park the next day.
"Looks like I'm here," I sighed to myself. Now where are these people… I looked around the park to see if there were any signs of the two people that I talked with online, but found none. I felt nervous on the inside, but made sure it didn't show on the outside. I always disliked whenever the main character of any story showed signs of weakness right in front of their enemy in a pathetic way, but why I was comparing myself to that main characters beats me. I must read too much like my friends say.
"He-ey~!" cried out a person from the swings. I looked to see who it was and found it to be the white haired boy from yesterday. I saw that he was with his friend as well. Still busy looking for Zero and Ren, and not quite friendly with those two boys, I smiled and waved at them silently. When I was about to turn away though, the white haired boy motioned for me to come to the swings. I sighed. I was reluctant to go over to them. It wasn't because they were bad people (I knew that since I can tell from how they acted yesterday in the park), it was just that I didn't know them that well and plus I was looking for Zero and Ren. Maybe Zero and Ren are late…I guess I can play with those two over there for a while… I headed towards the two and when I got to them I started off by saying: "Hey—" I stopped short, realizing I didn't know the names of the two boys. "Uh, sorry for not asking yesterday but what are your names?"
"Hmhmhm~ Glad you asked Anrya," said the white haired boy. I stiffened for a moment. How did he know my name? Did I mention it yesterday? "My name is Zero and the person next to me is Ren~"
My mouth went dry. These two were Zero and Ren? Well that was a surprise, though I should've realized or at least considered that. For a split second I wondered if I should walk away, but I felt no malice or bad intentions from the two, so I casually sat down on a free swing and swayed on it. "So, are you going to tell me anything on what I want to know?" I was glad to hear that I sounded casual and undaunted by the way the two got to me.
"Before that, we require your commitment," Ren said to me.
I remained silent for a while, but then answered, "Fine, I will, but the things that I am to do will not be forced upon me, ok?"
"Hm~ Agreed, but that doesn't mean you'll avoid responsibility~" Zero said.
I just grunted in response. And so the two began to tell me in detail about the mafia. Of course they couldn't tell me everything, but I was content with the information that I received.
"So wait, your saying these flames are like some kind of special power thing?" I said in the middle of Zero and Ren's explanations.
"Yes, but not quite in the way you think of it. It is not really a mystical thing, but more of an…embodiment of your attribute…"
I nodded in understanding. "Oh ok, I get it. It's kind of like an aura, but not really…but I do understand what you are saying." Then after listening more to their talking I interrupted them once more. "Do you mind showing me this flame you're talking about? I mean, I understand that I can't see all of them, but I still would like to see the proof of them."
"Very well." Zero and Ren both took out a ring and lit it up with a flame. Ren's flame was rain and Zero's was mist.
I looked at the flames in awe. It was like seeing something out of a story book or a movie. A part of me knew that what I was going into would change my life forever and that I should back out before things got complicated, but a bigger part of me wanted to embrace this new exciting truth and be a part of it. "Um, I know you mentioned the properties of each flame, but do you mind demonstrating your flame Zero?" I asked shyly. Illusion making must be really cool…
"Hmhmhm~" Zero agreed to my request and demonstrated the art of illusions. It was really quite amazing. They talked, I listen and sometimes asked questions, until nearly two hours had passed in the park and I had to go home. There were so many other questions I wanted to ask that I was surprisingly reluctant to go back home, but we planned to meet online and at the park whenever it was possible, so I agreed and went home. And as I went home I thought I guess not everyone in the mafia are bad or scary… of course I knew they could just act like they were nice to me to get my cooperation and such, but for now, things were fine with me.
"So wait," Crystal interrupted, "how did this lead up to you stalking us?"
"I wasn't stalking you guys, I was just getting to know people better," I muttered.
"I wanna hear the rest of the story," Selina said.
"Sure you did," Jasmine said, ignoring Selina's comment, "From what I remember on the day we met at this mansion, you were clearly being a stalker."
*FLASHBACK*
"Hehehe, shocker huh. Well, sit down guys," Anrya said, sitting back down. The group, excluding Ace, took a seat on the available couches. "Ok, before anyone can ask any questions, I'm just gonna give you a little summary on what's going on. Ok…um…I'm the boss, your boss, of this family. My name is Anrya. About a year and a half ago, a random guy just came up to me and placed the position of family boss on me. I still have no idea why, but yeah…So anyways, I needed guardians, so I traveled around to look for some skillful and potential people. And this is how I found you guys." Turning towards Esa and Jasmine, Anrya said, "For one year, I went to your middle school as a seventh grader and hung out with you guys. Then I moved." Turning away from the two girls, Anrya looked at Crystal. "During the summer break of my seventh grade, I went to Korea with another person and found you. I passed by you a couple of times somewhere, but other than that, you didn't notice me." Glancing at the maroon haired boy behind Crystal, Anrya continued, saying, "During that same summer vacation, I came to Japan. One day while walking around the neighborhood, I saw you Rai. I followed you around for some time to see what you were like." Looking away from Rai, Anrya focused her eyes on the brown haired girl. "Selina, I came to your school as an eighth grade transfer student. I've crossed paths with you a couple of times and was surprised when one day, you casted an illusion." Anrya grinned. Facing toward the last unmentioned person in the room, Anrya said, "Darke…" then glanced at the pink haired boy and added, "…and Ryo, I saw you guys… about three months ago in a library. It was interesting to see that you two knew how to use your flames. I was lucky enough one day to see you guys show some interesting teamwork, skills, and abilities…" Anrya trailed off. "Well that's basically what happened so far. Are there any questions, comments, concerns?"
*END OF FLASHBACK*
Esa nodded in agreement with Jasmine. "Yeah, thinking back to that day, the way you told us how you knew us was really stalker-like."
"It was nice to know that I had a secret admirer following me around," Rai said jokingly.
I just rolled my eye and waved off the comment. "Fine, whatever~ Think whatever you like, but let me continue my story. I'm getting to the part of how I met you guys anyways."
Tap…tap…tap… I woke to the sound of tiny tapping noises to my window, or more correctly, I was about to fall asleep when I heard distinct tapping noises at my window. Tired, I just ignored the sound for a while. Tap…tap…tap… The tapping noises continued. Oh my God, that sound is so annoying. It sounded like something was repetitively hitting my window. For a while, the sound irritated me as I tried to fall asleep, but as it continued in its repetitive rhythm, my brain soon wired itself to use that repetitive sound to lull me to sleep. I began to fall asleep once more. Tap…tap…tap…tap…thunk…tap…tap…tap….tap…thunk… The sound of something heavier than the previous taps woke me up once more. What the heck is that? At first I thought it was the neighbor next door making all the noise (since they could be noisy at times and there house is just 3-4 meters away from ours), but quickly rejected that thought since I believed something was directly hitting my glass window. I sighed heavily and pulled the covers snuggly over my head and tried to go back to sleep. Tap…tap…tap…thunk…thunk…thunk…tap…thunk…THWAP! I sat up in bed. "What the heck!" Getting out of my bed I headed toward my window and lifted the curtains.
—STARE—
I jumped. There was a floating upside down head at my window. I was shocked and speechless for a moment, but thawed out from it quickly. Opening my window I talked through the bug screen to a Zero who looked down at me from the roof with a piercing stare. "What are you doing on my roof?" I said, inclining my head upward for a better view.
Zero smiled and his mismatched eyes glittered in the dark. I shivered at his stare. I still hadn't gotten used to his mismatched eyes. Ever since he revealed that to me at the park, I wasn't able to stop staring at those abnormal eyes. "Just stopping by to tell you some things~"
"What is it?" I asked.
"Can I tell you inside?"
"What!" The thought of having a guy in my room in the middle of the night was unheard of. If my parents found a fifteen year old teenager in my room in the middle of the night…what they would think, I don't know. Just the thought of it made my face go red. Thankfully it was dark and no one could see my reaction. I sighed. "Fine, you can come in, but keep your shoes off my room floor." I opened the bug screen and stuck my head out. Down below I saw that Ren was standing around with pinecones, pebbles, and a water bottle in hand. I pulled my head back into my room and Zero came in through the window. Taking off his shoes and placing them on the ledge of my window, he got himself comfortable and began to talk. What he talked about was of finding recruits to my to-be family. Self-conscious on my appearance, I sat down hugging my knees while listening. After Zero briefly said what he had to, I spoke. "Wait a minute, I have to literally go around the world to find recruits? No way!"
"It's the only way. Just step out of your comfort zone for a while and take responsibility Anrya~"
"What, no! Anyways, how do I explain traveling around the world to my parents? No way will they allow it!"
"Hmhmhm~ Leave that to us. You do the rest." With that Zero got up and put on his shoes. Before he left though, he tossed me a packet of names with information of some people in the mafia. "If you can't decide who to add to your family, you can pick and choose from that list." And with that, Zero jumped out the window and landed safely on the ground. Then he and Ren walked away.
"Hmph." But with him and Ren gone, I peacefully skimmed through the packet and looked through a list of names with information of that person on the side. I thought of picking random people on the list, but remembered that these people would always be with me and thought better of it. I wouldn't want people I didn't like to be a part of my to-be family. So I sat there and looked through the list for most of the night before I fell asleep.
-SEVENTH GRADE YEAR-
I walked through the halls of a middle school located in the five borough area of New York. During the summer of my sixth grade year, I struggled with the decision of choosing people for my family. I asked Zero and Ren about choosing members and they told me that a family could have any age group, but having an adult could be advantageous. I didn't feel quite right with having an adult in my to-be family, so I settled with people around my age. I searched through the packet of mafia people and looked to see if they had any children my age. When I found some, I decided to actually go meet/see them and decide if I liked them. And that's what I was doing at this new middle school. Thankfully it wasn't too far from my own home, so my mom was somehow fine with it (I still don't know how Zero and Ren convinced her but oh well).
"Hey Anrya!" said one of my friends at this school named Esa. She came along with her friend Jasmine as usual.
"Hey guys." Though these two were one year younger than me, we became good friends. When school first started, I searched them out and began to talk to them. We soon became friends when we realized both our families were involved with the mafia (of course that wasn't so true on my part). We hung out a lot and had fun. I decided that I wanted them in my to-be family.
-SUMMER OF SEVENTH GRADE YEAR-
I was in Korea visiting my grandparents. Well the real reason was to find a girl named Crystal and see if she was fit to join my family, but of course my parents did not know that. To put a long story short, I saw her, followed her around a bit, and took note of her. When I was fully convinced that she was a decent person, I put her on my list of members to recruit. Then I went to Japan.
In Japan, I went looking around for potential people. Though I had no real purpose there, I thought it would be good to look around (but I mostly went there to relax and sight see). Zero and Ren had told me that Japan would be where my family base would be, so I wanted to see how the country of Japan was like. One day I saw Rai at the park. He was fit and athletic and played around a lot. I found myself considering him to my family. Though he wasn't part of the mafia, I was still allowed to add him in. From my observation, he seemed like a potential person. I needed a guy in my family anyways.
-EIGHTH GRADE YEAR-
In the beginning of my eighth grade year, I transferred to a school in Canada. My goal was at first to find the person I saw on the list. When I actually met that person though, I immediately disliked him. Feeling disappointed at my find, I planned to leave Canada and search elsewhere, but one day I saw a normal girl my age casting an illusion. Her name was Selina. She was the same age as me, the same grade, and to my delight; she had the same birthday as me. I crossed paths with her, talked to her several times, and learned of her background a bit while I stayed at that school. Then I went to England to find one last member to fit into my family.
Towards the middle of my eighth grade year, I transferred yet again to a school in England. There I searched for a person to be the last member of my family. I was determined to find a guy this time. So far my list of who were going to be in my to-be family was all girls except for one guy, so it seemed a bit unbalanced (plus I felt bad for that one guy). So I looked around England for a while quite unsuccessfully, when one day I came across Darke and Ryo. I wasn't really within their vicinity, but I was close enough to see Darke and Ryo use flame. I was astounded and amazed. This was only my second (or was it considered my third?) time seeing flame. I immediately decided to add these them to the family, so I followed them to the orphanage they apparently lived at and got their information.
"And that," I said, "is the end of my story." With that, conversation started around me.
"So that's how this all started," Esa commented.
"Fun story," Selina said.
"Looks like you and Zero had something going on back then~" Jasmine said in a teasing voice.
"Oh, shut up," I said with a smile.
We all teased, joked around, and talk for a while we waited for Ren. Then finally, Ren came in.
"The lesson will now commence," Ren said.
Next to me I saw Esa grin. "You know it's hard to see you the same way after Anrya's story."
Ren just raised an eyebrow.
So how was my first backstory thing?