Chapter 16:Their Pasts
"…iji… Sei….ji... Seiji..." A familiar voice is calling someone's name that also seems familiar.
"Ah…" The man calls Seiji half opens his eyes.
The woman smiles kindly to him, the typical smile of her, soft and peaceful. The man replies with his smile and a soft touch on her cheek. He explores her pink, soft cheek with his fingers. Once his fingers touch her chin, he stops and grabs softly her chin and draws her lips towards him. They share a soft kiss.
The woman awkwardly pushes the man. She covers her red cheeks with her both small hands.
"I-I'm still embarrassed…" She says.
The man's giggling and pats her head several times, "I like your tomato face. It's really cute." The man continues his small laugh.
The woman and that man prepare the breakfast together. They look really happy, especially her. Her smile is not like the one I see every time I help her. It's more cheerful. I envy that man who can make her smile so pure.
I look around this house. This house is twice bigger than her house now, it fills with books and their photos. I can feel love in this house. This is the perfect house to build a family. I'd love to live in here with her as my mother and him as my father. But I guarantee that they will force me to study hard every day.
I look away toward the window. The window is bigger, but it's not the window that attracts me. It's the outside scenery. It's really different from the snowfield. People are everywhere, they come and go, chattering and laughing, the street is very crowded. I really want to join them. Maybe if I ask her, she will give me her permit.
I call her name several times but it seems she can't hear me nor the man. Is this her past? Why can I look at her past? It is a dream right? But it seems real.
'Pro…ceed…'
I can hear that annoying voice again inside my head. I press my head firmly to prevent the aching. After it's gone, I stand up and see they're sitting at the dining room. I can see very delicious dishes on the table. It makes me hungry.
"Chitose…" calls the man while taking a slice of bread and spread butter on it, "I want to go to the library."
I raise my head, this is the chance for me to walk outside to the town. Although it's not real, but I still wish to know the feeling to walk with crowded. It's the first time I see so many people and not just white cold land with no life.
"Again? We just went there few days ago." She grabs the scramble egg and put it on to her plate.
"Well, I want to find the Fourth Devil Golem fast. If I find it, I can buy a descent house to start our new family. I want your family and my family live together. You will like lil' brother, Toya. He's five this year and he's so cute."
Cute… Pfft…
I shouldn't pout like that, but I can't control it. Well, maybe he's cute when he's 5, but now on his 11, he's so annoying.
The woman's chewing her slice of bacon and swallows it, "Ok, we will go there after we go to the festival."
"Oh, you mean the festival that celebrating the establishment of Yokohama City after the end of the Golem War? Of course, I'd love to every year with you in that festival."
The woman's smiling. And I also smile wider than ever. At last, I can go outside.
They finish their breakfast, and I wait for them to prepare. They really are fast. So I don't need to wait till I feel boring.
We go outside, I take a deep breath to feel the outside world. I can smell food everywhere! There's a pizza stand with a Crazy Pizza Golem offering pizza to people. There're also Prim Roses doing shopping for her masters. I'm so excited to see a real Golem for the first time. Although it's just a dream, but I'm content enough to see real Golems other than on the book.
We approach the festival area. It's more crowded than the plaza. I love it! Everything is better here, in Yokohama. I'll never get bored if we move here. I now know Toya's feeling about moving here.
At the festival, I can see more type of Golems, Crazy Pizza, Funny Clown, Angelina, and many more. Also, there're cops everywhere, even the City Force Golems. I'm SO happy right now. They also seem happy, the woman laughs a lot today. Seeing her happy makes me happy too. I know she always seems happy, but not this happy.
We're enjoying our moment at festival. I really want the balloons that hang at every corner at the festival, but I can't touch them. I can't touch anything in this dream, although it seems very real. It becomes transparent if I touch it. It's a bit disappointed, but I cheer myself with the atmosphere of the festival.
We ended at a university, a really big building called Enchant University Yokohama City. My heart skips a bit, this must be heaven for Toya, but not for me. I follow them to the third floor, to the library. The library is huge. No wonder Toya so eager to move. My sweats drip nonstop when I think about Toya's tutoring me.
"Ah, he hasn't arrived." The man says while searching books on the bookshelf.
"Who?" The woman places the books she took earlier on the table.
"Kou." The man also places some books on the table.
"Hmm… Maybe he's busy. You know after graduated he becomes part of Yokohama Elite Corps."
"Ah, yeah, that man. I don't think he'll become an Elite Corps, I thought he'll join us with our research. You know, we already doing this research since our time in high school." The man knits his brows and starts to flip the first page of the book.
"Well, at least Kou doesn't forget about your research. See, when you told him to come this morning, he promises you that he'll come. Although, he seems so late." The woman also starts flipping the book.
"Well, well, not talking about someone's bad thing, are you?" A cold and unfamiliar voice comes from our back.
"Kou!" The man jumps happily and greets his long haired friend with purple suit and eyeglasses.
"How are you, Kou?" Greets the woman.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking. Been a bit busy lately." He pulls the chair and sits next to the man. "The chief commander always gives me a lot and difficult tasks. Thus, it's my reason why I'm so late today." He continues.
"It's Okay. We know that being an Elite Corps is hard, you must always monitor other cities' activities every time, right Seiji?"
The man pouts and starts to complain, "You know Kou, I can't believe you join the Elite Corps. After these years, collecting data on the Fourth Devil Golem, yet you seem to forget about our passion to the Fourth Devil Golem. I really can't believe it, Kou."
"Seiji!" The woman warns the man.
The man's friend takes off his eyeglasses and wipes them off. With cold and calm voice he answers, "Seiji, We're friends since junior high school. But it seems you don't know me that well."
"Do you mean, you join the Elite Corps for… something?"
The purple suit man nods, put his glasses back and slightly smile. The smile is cold as his voice, "Something that only a High Elite Corps member can know."
The man and the woman look amazed.
"Do you know that there's a woman who lived for hundreds years by now and she lives in a place near your village called Sage's Tower?"
"I've heard about it. It says that the woman's name is Sage, she lives over hundreds near our Ancient Village. But in our village, elders describe her as a witch, who will hunt for the naughty children. Well, maybe they just don't want any naughty children around the village." He chuckles. "Anyway, after I've grown up, I hear that Sage is actually a blacksmith who forges tools and weapons for our village."
"It's not only that, she knows a lot about Devil Golems. In fact, maybe she knows everything about The Fourth Devil Golem." The purple suit man says.
"How come?" The woman asks.
They continue their chattering while I already get bored. I don't know what they're talking about. My mind still wants to go to the festival. I can't rely on them, I bet they'll be staying in here until night comes. So I decided to go by myself. I walk to the door, but before I go out, the last thing that I hear from them is , "It's the Ancient Script. It must be it." Then I go through the door and happily go to the festival.
Upon arrive outside the university, I take a deep breath, really refreshing. I jump happily to the festival not far from the university entrance. But I feel something odd. It's too quiet for the festival. I narrow my eyes to see what's happening in there. Yet, I can't see anything. It's dark and everything goes black. I'm panicking.
What's going on here?
I run back to the university. As I push the entrance door, the darkness already inside. I nowhere to run to, thus, the darkness swallow me.