Chapter One

    "What do you mean again?!!!" I quickly moved the phone away from my ear as my best friend, Kirihara Akaya, called with his usual exaggerated loud voice and reactions.

    "Calm down okay, no need to scream into my ears." I complained, a little intimidated, before putting the phone next to my ear again. Inhaling, I told him my decision, "I am going to the well tomorrow to find out. I am so sick and tired of this dream that has been haunting me."

    "Alright," Akaya gave a sigh at my decision. "But you know there are many unpleasant tales and myths about that old well." Clearing his throat he concluded. "Tomorrow I will come with you to make sure nothing happens."

I grinned when I could imagine the look on his face right now, so, on purpose, I said, "You don't have to come if you don't want to. You sounded pretty scared."

Almost immediately, Akaya denied, "What?! Sca—scared?! I am not scared! I am a 'demon' myself remember?! Who can scare me?!"

    "Akaya, are you still on the phone? It is time for the next take!" On the other end of the receiver, I heard someone calling to Akaya from the background.

    "Sorry, are you at the studio?" I apologised quickly.

    "Yeah, they called me in for some extra shots, I better go now."

    "Okay, thanks for listening to my problems when you were so busy." Despite teasing Akaya a few seconds back, I still thanked him for being there for me.

To my surprise I did not hear a response from him, until after a few seconds of delay. "If I don't listen, who else will?"

I felt my heart warmed up with those words. Akaya and I have been friends since we were five. We were lucky enough to go to the same primary school, high school and even now the same university. Blessed with unusual good looks, Akaya worked part time as a model. His selling point was apparently that wavy hair, which sat on him like a large clump of seaweed. It was rather funny just to think about it, that the seaweed I used to tease him about had actually made him famous.

Anyway, that was enough about Akaya. Let me spend a little time introducing myself.

I, , who through many years of hard work and labour, went through tuitions while everyone else have gone to parties, had finally managed to pass the university entrance exam and enrolled into this traditional university as a Combined Bachelor of Commerce/International Studies student, majoring in Political Science for International Studies.

Yes, call me a nerd all you'd like, but in all fairness, I went through a pretty grey high school life to get here. I have never experienced romance, and the only guy that I was really close to was no one but Akaya.

Now I rejoice, however, thanks to the educational systems in Japan. Good universities are impossible to get in, but once I am in, it's an easy way through to graduation. So I know somewhere in the next five years of university life to come, there will be romances waiting for me!

Unfortunately good things never happen to good people like me. Ever since my university life started three month ago, I have heard constant rumours relating to the famous urban legend that was associated with this old traditional school. It was none other than what Akaya had mentioned before; the scary myths and tales related to the old well situated at lower campus.

Being a realistic person, the legend did not really interest me until recently, mainly because for a whole month now, I have had the same dream. In that dream, there was a person that was calling to me.

    "Hime, it is time...come to the well..."

    "Hime, as in princess?" Akaya asked while we were walking towards the well the next day, as planned.

    "I know, it is really strange," I answered and paused, and then started to giggle to myself. "Could it be my prince calling for me?"

Nearly choking while drinking from a can of cola held in his hand, Akaya replied, "Maybe it is a curse or something? Having the same dream every night for one month is quite freaky, really."

Absorbing what he said, I glared at him, hoping he should have really choked to death on that can of coke, "You seem to be enjoying my misery?"

    "Nah," Grinning, Akaya gulped down the rest of the contents in that can in one go. "It just makes more sense to me that you were haunted by a curse than being a princess waiting to be rescued by a prince riding on a white horse."

While we were talking, closer and closer we came to the mysterious well. I felt my heart pumping faster when I saw that it was the exact same well that appeared many times in my dream.

    "It looks like a normal well..." Akaya said as he walked to the other side of it.

I felt my body relax a little, for I too, agreed it looked like a normal well. Then abruptly, the lid moved a little, and my whole body jumped as I stepped back in fear. Immediately I looked up at Akaya and complained. "Don't touch the well with your fidgeting hands, you nearly freaked me out!"

Akaya replied to me in an even more stunned look. "What are you talking about? I thought you were the one who touched it?"

My heart thumped faster with Akaya's words, he did not touch the well? Does this mean the lid had just moved by itself?! With this unpleasant, creepy thought, both Akaya and I gulped in fear.

    "I think we better leave, I don't have a good feeling about this..." I felt my hands turning cold with fear, slowly trying to back away.

    "Hime, finally you are here...it is time..."

This voice?! It was the same as the one that has been calling me in the past few days! Out of nowhere there was suddenly a strong whirl of wind that gushed out from the well. As a reflex both Akaya and I closed our eyes and felt the wind sucking us toward the well and our breath being taken away.

---

Didn't know how long time went past until I felt someone tapping me. "Get up, get up, can you hear me?"

Slowly, I opened my eyes, and found Akaya staring at me with concern. Behind him, the sky was already dark. "Akaya...? What had happened?" I sat up and held my head. Looking around, the well was still there, and still it was just me and Akaya being the only people around. I was surprised that I have fainted for so long, and from the stars in the sky, I can not believe it was already night!

    "I don't know, I just woke up as well." Akaya answered my question as he helped me up.

    "Finally you are here, my Hime..."

I turned around, alert, when I heard the same deep voice that had appeared in my dreams again and again. This time it was no longer illusion, as there was a man who stood before me and Akaya. He had the same voice as the man in my dreams, however, the odd thing was that he was wearing an ancient outfit in which would not be considered a normal piece of clothing, unless you were cosplaying or in a movie. Underneath his right eye was a mole, and for some reason the mole emphasised an alluring beauty of his appearance.

    "Hime...?" I frowned. Why was he calling me that?

    "Yes, you are the Hime who has been chosen to call out the guardian creature. Come to me now, for you belong to me." The stranger smirked and spoke with an arrogance and confidence that I have never seen. In a charismatic pose that reminded me of escorts in host clubs, the stranger ran his hand through his hair and asked, or more like demanded, "Isn't that right, Kabaji?"

    "Usu." Coming from behind him was a deep low voice. With a closer look I found a giant standing behind the first stranger, also wearing an ancient outfit.

    "What are you on about? Her name is not 'Hime' and she does not belong to anyone. We all have to get up early tomorrow for class, so see you later." Akaya replied coldly, not seeming to notice the unusualness of their appearance, as he started to pull me away.

Before we could get far, five people suddenly emerged out of no where, just in front of us, like how you would see in movies, where they cut and paste the film to make it seem like people appear and then suddenly disappear. Both Akaya and I rubbed our eyes to clarify if was just an illusion.

However it was no illusion. There were still five telepathists standing there, four men and one little girl. The weirdest thing was, like the sexy man with the mole, all of them were also in ancient outfits. Since none of these made any sense in my brain, I concluded that I was in the middle of a movie making.

    "There is no way we will give the Hime to you, Atobe Keigo. The Hakkenshi will protect her." declared the little girl, her voice, although soft, was strong and bold.

The sexy mole man, who seemed to possess the name of Atobe, laughed maliciously at her words. "Hakkenshi? You seem to be missing a few?"

The little girl was not taken back by Atobe's mocking, as she replied with honour and pride. "The Hime will have, for herself, eight warriors to assist her, and although we only have four at the moment, we believe the Hime will lead us to the rest."

    "In that case," Atobe smirked and lifted up his arm. "There is no way you can fight me with only the four of you."

After Atobe finished his sentence, he looked towards me, and I felt myself lifted up into the air, as if an invisible arm was pulling me away from Akaya and towards Atobe.

Wait a minute, am I flying and floating in mid-air?! Isn't this a set for a movie? How are they making this scientifically possible?! Everything that just happened was too much of a shock to me, and since logic could not explain the things happening before my eyes, which was a blow on my behalf for I believed in logic, I closed my eyes and screamed in fear. "No!! Let me down!! I am wearing a skirt, people can see my undies!" (Well, what else was I meant to say? I wasn't thinking right!)

All of a sudden I felt an enormous power released from me, and with distress, I opened my eyes and saw eight shining pearls, all with the colours of the rainbow, flew straight out of my body.

    "The Hime Pearls!" The little girl's face brightened up with joy the moment she saw the eight pearls. While everyone was appreciating the beauty of the pearls, the eight pearls came together and produced a great light, causing Atobe to be in serious pain. At the same time four of the eight pearls flew respectively into the four men who accompanied the little girl, and one fixated itself onto Akaya. The remaining three soared off, and I later found out that it was to find the ones who were worthy of their possession.

    "I will retreat now, but eventually the Hime will be mine!" Atobe left us with the typical villain line and suddenly disappeared. How come people can perform telepathy in real life?!!

After Atobe took off, the invisible power that was controlling me suddenly vanished as quickly. With a scream I felt myself falling downwards with the pull of gravity, and I knew I was going to land quite hard onto the ground. Suddenly, I felt a pair of strong arms catch me, and with amazement, I looked up and saw a pair of extremely mesmerising hazel golden eyes.

    "You have done well, little girl." He comforted me in a profound and handsome voice, at the same time accompanied with a charming smile.

Before I had time to wonder who this person was, I felt an extreme sleepiness that came over me. It was as if my entire energy had been drained when the eight pearls emerged from me. Slowly closing my eyes, I felt myself entering deep into dreamland.

---

    "What is this?!" I called with shock when I woke up and found myself dressed in an ancient Japanese outfit. Not only so, looking around me I was in a totally unfamiliar environment, with the tatami straw mats, solid wooden sliding doors, beautiful painting on rice paper that formed a divider between the rooms, splitting the building into numerous rooms.  Not only so, there were no light bulbs, only oil lamps to keep the place bright.

I have seen this kind of building and clothing before. I studied ancient history in high school, and the garment I am wearing, the beautiful landscaped gardens and construction of the building were from the Heian Era, a peaceful age of Japan around a thousand years ago. The most likely explanation for this occurrence was that I was kidnapped to the Palace in Kyoto and someone was only playing a joke on me. Knowing that was not possible, because the Kyoto Palace was not open for public renting, I really could not explain the situation rationally to myself.

Knowing I was never going to get an answer sitting here panicking, I walked out of the room, and to my surprise, a person was kneeling before me.

    "You are awake, Hime-sama."

I recognised her being the little girl that I had seen before I lost consciousness. The way she knelt before me made me feel like a Queen or, like the word Hime implies, a real princess. Quickly, I moved forward and helped her up, "Please don't do that. I am not Hime, you must be looking for someone else."

She looked up at me with a respectful smile and replied. "You are indeed the Hime chosen to save our nation from the invasion of evil. You have even chosen for yourself the Hakkenshi to accompany and assist you to call out the guardian creature."

    "Guardian creature...Hakkenshi...?" I felt my head spinning with the earth along the axis. How come it felt as if she was speaking a foreign language to me?

    "Yes, the guardian creature only appears once every hundred years! It has also chosen for itself a priestess who is called the 'Hime', and this time it has chosen you. I must say I am so privileged to be chosen as your assistant..." The little girl continued to blabber on in excitement.

    "Wait...wait..." I quickly waved my hands to stop her. "Can you explain that slowly in a way I can understand?" I emphasised the word 'slowly'.

    "Sakuno, I think you have confused our Hime instead." Unexpectedly, a charming laughter joined us when a tall man entered the room. Looking up at him, I recognised him as the man who caught me just before I fainted. Wow! My memory did not play a trick on me; indeed this man was so handsome and attractive. Most of all, the confidence he had, the deep lingering suave voice, and worst of all, he seemed to know his charisma, for he used it well as he beamed at me.

Immediately I felt my cheeks burning hot and my heart racing, shyly I lowered my head to avoid eye contact with this drop dead sexy man, whose attractiveness seemed to be shooting out from him like rays of sunlight from everything he did and said.

    "General Niou, I thought you have gone to report the news to his majesty?" The little girl named Sakuno asked the charismatic gentleman.

    "I was on my way there, but..." He paused and came up to me. Already I felt my heartbeat increasing again as he came closer to me, making me a slave to his charm. "I am more interested in the Hime."

Sakuno frowned with a sigh and replied. "General Niou, when will you ever take your job seriously?"

Niou chuckled at Sakuno's words and replied, although his eyes still fixed on me. "I am serious in everything I do. Most of all I know who to give my priorities to."

Knowing he had about taken away 80% of my soberness, I quickly gave a dry cough to avoid that happy bashfulness from appearing on my face. "Excuse me, who are you?"

Before he answered, Sakuno cut in and explained. "Pardon us, Hime-sama, General Niou meant no harm. He always talks like this, never serious and seems to be carefree all the time, but I can assure you that he is actually a very capable person and that is why he has been selected by you to be one of the Hakkenshi!"

Niou continued to grin when he heard Sakuno's defence. "Sakuno, I didn't know you actually have such high opinions of me?"

Unfortunately, Sakuno was not willing to play along with him, and so gave Niou a cold stare, "Apologise to Hime-sama immediately!"

Obviously taking no heed to Sakuno's threat, Niou was not at all repentant. Instead he came up even closer to me, picking up a lock of my hair, leaning close and whispering into my ear with his deep, hoarse voice, "Hair of a fragrance that I have never known, that is interesting."

    "General Niou! Be respectful to Hime-sama!" Sakuno cried in horror, upon Niou's wicked action.

Niou chuckled again while twirling the lock of my hair with his fingers. "Why, this is the way I show my deepest respect to the finest of ladies."

Okay...deep breaths now, . Do not lose your mind here! I must admit I have never met a man like him who has such a fatal charm. However, I bet he knew it as well, and that he must have been so used to every girl falling for him, and so I told myself there was no way I am going to become one of those weak-minded women.

    "I see, that to you, I am more important than the emperor, and may I ask why?" Calmly pulling the lock of my hair out from his hand, I returned his charming challenge with a smile of confidence showing him that I was not enchanted by him and I have a brain.

From the reaction on Niou's face, I knew immediately my words have amazed him, but in a pleasant way. However, he was indeed rather clever, his confident smilenever wavering from his face, and he replied calmly, "When I was first informed that I must perform my duty as a Hakkenshi for the loyalty of my country, I was not at all enthusiastic. Although many may envy the privilege and honour that I have as a selected warrior." To my surprise, Niou continued with a proud look, which was different from the charismatic signals he had been sending me. "However no one could make me do things I do not want to do, not even the emperor."

    "General Niou?! How can you say that?" Sakuno was clearly shocked by Niou's extremely bold statement.

Niou laughed and before he left the room, he turned to me again, "However if this girl was the chosen Hime, she might be able to make me change my mind."

After Niou left the room, I knew although I have acted as if I was not attracted by him, but to be honest, there should be no women in this world who would not recognise his magnetism. That is, if all women thought on the same wavelength as I...

    "Hime, I do apologise on General Niou's behalf..." Sakuno sighed and gave me a most polite bow.

I smiled and shook my head, "Can you tell me more about the Hakkenshi?" If Niou was one of the chosen Hakkenshi, it stirred up my interest to know the rest.

Sakuno nodded quickly with excitement, "Certainly, as it is my duty. I am Ryuuzaki Sakuno; I have been chosen to assist you, the Hime, to call out the guardian creature that will bring peace and prosperity to our nation. 'Hakkenshi' are eight warriors who were selected by you to assist you and protect you in order to call forth the guardian creature."

    "But, I have not chosen anyone..." I interrupted.

    "You have indeed, Hime-sama." Sakuno explained with a gentle smile. "When the eight pearls were released from you, already you have selected for yourself the right warriors. So far we have only found five of them and I believe your pearls will lead the other three to us. For no one can deny the call of such honour."

    "Five?" I asked as I tried to picture back the scene that happened last night. I remembered four men that accompanied Sakuno last night all received a pearl each, and the fifth one actually flew into Akaya...Wait, does that mean he is the fifth one?!

    "Where is my friend Akaya?!" I asked Sakuno, finally remembering the presence of my friend (it took awhile, but what the hey).

The moment I asked the question, Akaya rushed into the room, yelling in his loud voice again, "What is going on here?! Where are we?!"

I burst out laughing when I saw how he too, was wearing an ancient Japanese tunic.

    "Not bad, you remind me of Ushiwakamaru^[1]..." I teased.

    "Ushiwakamaru ..." Akaya crossed his arms while his eyes moved up and down, studying me. "If I look like Ushiwakamaru, then you look like one of those Japanese dolls that sit on shelves at day time but comes out and murder people at night."

I started laughing when I heard that comparison, "That's a good one, I never thought of that!" While we were both laughing, I noticed something odd on Akaya's right arm, for attached to it was a pearl, deep into his skin. "What happened to your arm?! It looks painful..." I asked with care, fighting the desire to touch it.

Akaya shrugged his shoulders, "When one of the eight pearls flew into me, it just appeared on my arm instead. The funny thing was, it doesn't hurt and I can not really feel the pearl on my arm."

    "You are also a selected Hakkenshi, Kirihara-sama." Sakuno smiled and gave Akaya a respectful bow.

Not used to this kind of treatment as well, Akaya blushed a little with Sakuno's extreme tone of respect. "Kirihara-sama...please just call me Akaya. Also, what is 'Hakkenshi'?"

Sakuno smiled and replied calmly, as she had mentioned before, this was her duty. "The 'Hakkenshi' are eight warriors chosen to protect the Hime, They are categorised respectively into the north pair, east pair, west pair and south pair. As for you, Kirihara-sama, you belong to the east pair."

"North, east...what?" Akaya scratched his head, trying to take in all the information.

Sakuno gave a sigh, "Unfortunately at the moment, we are still missing three of the Hakkenshi. We believe however that the respective Hakkenshi will find their partner soon as time comes."

"Wait," Akaya stopped Sakuno from going further. "By now I have noticed that for some reason we have stepped back into time, as ridiculous as that may be. Both of us do not belong here; she is not the 'Hime', but only a normal university student like me. We have our mid-session exams coming up in two weeks time, so we have to go back!"

Akaya's words reminded me of the reality of real life pressure as a student. We have exams that were soon coming up, and to be honest, I have no time to waste here, I need to go back and study! "Sakuno, Akaya is right, I am not capable to save a nation! I am just a normal everyday girl, I can not fight, I don't know anything regarding warfare! Please send Akaya and me back to our world!" I turned to Sakuno too, and pleaded.

Although seeing the pleading and begging in my eyes, Sakuno shook her head, "Hime-sama, I can not do that. Atobe stole the power of the guardian creature to bring you here, and unless we could produce such a power again, the path between the two worlds will not appear."

What....what...what?!!!!!!! Screaming secretly, I held onto my head in panic.

    "How do we produce such power again?" Akaya asked quickly not noticing how ridiculous this whole thing sounded.

Sakuno gave another sigh, "Only if the Hime calls out the guardian creature..."

    "We can not wait that long! Everyone will be worried about us!" Akaya called. Turning to me, Akaya grabbed my arm, "We have to find our own way back."

    "Our own way? How...?"

    "I don't know! But it is better than standing here and do nothing!" not thinking straight, Akaya started to pull me away with him.

    "Wait, please don't go! Where are you taking the Hime?" Sakuno called out and quickly followed us. Akaya ignored her and continued to take me away from there.

Then suddenly, a katana cut in between Akaya and I.

In fright, Akaya quickly let go of me and moved away. However, the attacker did not stop, and with a snap of his wrist the katana came swinging back and knocked Akaya over with the tip of the handle. Like watching a movie ten times faster, in a few seconds, Akaya was down on the floor and the attacker's sword was against his neck.

    "Don't hurt him!" I screamed in horror. This was insane, why were we suddenly being attacked?!

    "Wait, Sanada! He is one of the Hakkenshi too!" Seeing what had happened, Sakuno intervened quickly. The attacker stood up and moved away from Akaya upon Sakuno's call. With a smooth swing he replaced the sword back into the sheath on his waist. Turning to me, he crouched down on one knee and gave me a most polite bow.

This attacker moved so fast before that I was not able to have a good look of his face until now. I was stunned when I saw him, for like Niou, he also had a beautiful and attractive appearance. Yet, there was no smile on his face, and he showed no interest in what was happening around him. I noticed a pearl on his left ear lobe, and with that I realised he was one of the Hakkenshi too.

    "Sorry to have frightened you, Hime, let me introduce to you..." Sakuno came up quickly and stood between me and the tall, cold warrior. "This is Sanada Genichiro, another Hakkenshi. He was my father's personal guard and since he was chosen to be a Hakkenshi, he was assigned to also be your personal guard."

    "My personal guard..." I took another look at the handsome cold soldier who knelt with the utmost respect before me. Uncontrollably, a grin appeared on my face when I realised it was really not too bad being the Hime.

    "Sanada must have thought Kirihara-sama was attacking you so he interfered, please do forgive him." Sakuno justified for the gorgeous warrior's actions. Sakuno then turned to Akaya and apologised, "I hope he did not hurt you. I was hoping to introduce you to each other in a different way..."

I took a look at Akaya and saw anger arousing, indeed he had never been suppressed so easily by anyone. His pride and confidence must have been hurt. Worst of all, if Sakuno had not interrupted on time, Akaya could have been dead.

    "Sanada, this is Kirihara Akaya-sama," Sakuno introduced to Sanada while taking a peek at Akaya, before cautiously continuing, "your partner as the east pair..." Both Sakuno and I knew this pair's first impression of each other did not go so well.

Finally standing onto his feet again, Sanada outstretched his hand to help Akaya up. However, in anger Akaya hit Sanada's hand away and stood up, eyes still glaring at Sanada. Seeing the fire burning between them, I quickly intervened.

    "Alright, let's be cool about it. Akaya, Sanada did not really harm you and Sanada, Akaya also meant no harm. Maybe we can all sit down for a cup of tea and relax a little?" I smiled.

    "No need," Akaya patted the dust off him and declined, turning back to the other two with vicious eyes. "I have nothing to say to him and neither has he. No matter what you say, I am not staying here and I am taking her with me."

    "Kirihara-sama..." Sakuno called with concern. If the east pair could not work together, it would be a disaster.

    "If you wish to go home, I suggest that you corporate."

To my surprise, another voice joined in. Turning to the direction of the voice I saw a tall young man, slightly older than me, coming towards us. When I saw his face, my first thought was that he looked as beautiful as a porcelain doll. Everything about him was like an artwork, a masterpiece, so beautiful that it was surreal. Under his left eye was a small pearl, indicating he was also one of the Hakkenshi.

    "Yanagi," Sakuno greeted as the tall composed young man came up to us.

Yanagi took a look at Akaya then coldly he asked. "If you were upset being defeated by Sanada, why don't you learn from your mistakes and become stronger? With your current ability you will not make a very useful Hakkenshi."

    "What?!" Akaya's anger turned to Yanagi now, due to those provoking words. From the gleam in Akaya's eyes, I noticed he was about to change into his infamous demon mode.

    "That is not a very nice thing to say. After all, Akaya and I are both not from this world and back from where we were from, we don't need to know combat fighting to protect ourselves!" I defended for Akaya quickly.

Yanagi's beautiful face turned to me; surprisingly he was not stirred up nor taken back with what I say. "Why is the Hime so upset? You are no longer in your world and Akaya is unable to protect himself let alone protect you."

I could not believe my ears, the tone in Yanagi' words showed that he was not trying to be offensive, but everything he said, although it all made sense, they just sounded very unpleasant.

    "I don't need you to teach me! I have protected her since she was five, and no one could help her and look after her as well as I do!" Akaya glared back at Yanagi. I was touched when I heard Akaya's words, it was true that he had looked after me since the day I met him. Although he teased and joke with me all the time, he was the person who always protected me from bullies at school.

    "Show us how you can protect her then." Yanagi replied, still calm, monotonous and not showing any signs of emotions. Before we understood what he was referring to, the sky turned grey, and for some reason, I could sense a very unpleasant aura coming toward us.

As the dark aura started to become thicker and obnoxious, a beast appeared before us, howling. Both Akaya and I could not believe our eyes. The beast had a lion's head but the body of a serpent.

    "Sanada," Yanagi called out to the handsome warrior, who had been so quiet the entire time, and took off the bead necklace from his neck. Sanada nodded in response and leaped forward towards the beast together with Yanagi.

    "Hime-sama, please move back into the house!" Sakuno called and pulled me quickly back into the building.

Unintimidated by the two warriors, the beast howled and blew out flames of fire from its mouth, targetting Sanada and Yanagi. Sanada ducked aside, whereas Yanagi formed a protective shield before him like a thin sheet of glass in a flash. Amazingly, the fire could penetrate that thin sheet of glass.

To prevent the beast from attacking, Yanagi flashed his bead necklace before the beast, and like magic the beast froze, not able to move one bit.

    "Sanada, now!" Yanagi called, holding the bead necklace before him. Following Yanagi's signal, Sanada took out his katana, and with a rapid swing, a whirl of wind was formed and it sliced the beast in half.

I watched in astonishment, for it totally looked like the action movies, only it was all real! The beast that was howling a while back now lay still on the ground in two pieces, and Yanagi and Sanada only took a half a minute to deal with it!

    "Hime-sama , are you alright?" Sakuno asked quickly in concern.

I nodded my head, for mouth could not move, and I could still feel my heart pounding hard and fast like mad. Now I began to understand what Yanagi meant by the need to be protected, for in our world, there were no huge ferocious looking beasts like this!! While I was still recovering from shock and thought it was over, like a horror movie the head of the beast suddenly leaped up towards me, baring its fangs maliciously.

    "Hime-sama!" Sakuno screamed with shock.

Sanada and Yanagi moved quickly up to help me but from where they were standing it was too late.

    "Move!" Just when I thought I was going to die, I heard someone called and pulled me away. It was Akaya. As if it was second nature, he stretched out his right arm to block the beast. Suddenly, the pearl on Akaya's right arm shone and an enormous blast was released from Akaya's hand. The beast had obviously not expected that and when that power hit its victim, the beast howled painfully, and like a smoke, it vanished before our eyes.

It took a while to register, though. "Wow...did I just do that?!" Akaya held onto his right hand and exclaimed in excitement. "This is so cool!"

Seeing what Akaya had done, Yanagi placed the bead necklace back around his neck, "Looks like he has learned how to protect the Hime."

Sakuno and I started laughing as Akaya tried to wave his hand around to see if he could do that again. I gave a hopeless sigh within me; from the looks of it, I guess I am really going to be stuck here for a while, and it was a fearful thought, not knowing if I'll ever be able to return. However, thinking about Akaya, Sanada, Yanagi, and Niou, although everyone was so different, I believe we have formed a great team, and a little comfort was found amidst a world I know nothing of.

Return to [ Prelude ]
 

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Iori
14.September.2006

Notes: