Note: Italics indicate flashbacks
Chapter 1
Yurenai Kizuna”… Throughout life, we meet thousands of people. Only a few of them will be noticed, fewer will be spoken to. Some selected ones will be what we call friends, “nakama”... And no challenges will be able to break those unshakeable bonds, “yurenai kizuna”
After a long day of singing and performing, the members of Yurenai Kizuna were settling into their makeshift camp. A battered van was parked away in an alley, and a small fire enclosed by a ring of rocks was set out in front of it. While it was dangerous for them to be out and performing, it was still the best cover they had to hide from the soldiers, because a traveling group like them would have been suspected if they didn’t have a reason for wandering from village to village. They also believed that the only way to prove to the world not to fear the power of magicians was to use their gift to heal and help the citizens, slowly but surely, starting in the villages where there was less governmental oversight.
Keiko let out a sigh as she prodded the fire growing in the center of a ring of rocks. Above was dinner wrapped up in some aluminum foil. Everyone else was busy doing other things, so it was just her, left alone to her thoughts.
“You seem lonely,” Keiko looked up to see her twin sit down next to her.
“No thanks to you,” Keiko teased and bumped her sister on the shoulder, “what were you doing?”
“Ariadne and Aristide are sparring again,” Meiko explained and drew shapes in the dirt, “I got bored, so I decided to join you.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here.” Keiko smiled before turning back to the fire to think. She watched the fire grow and shrink. Flames would rise up to lick the foil, only to simmer down into merely embers. It was entrancing. Beautiful. Deadly. Unlike her power of mind control, Keiko never feared her power of fire. She used it at every opportunity, used it to get whatever she wanted. Easy as breathing. She’d threatened her guardians to do her bidding, even if it was for something as simple as a cookie. She’d fearlessly burned things down, not realizing how much damage she was capable of. She was, well, a formidable child. But even though she never feared the use of her powers to get what she wanted, with the family she chose, her friends in Yurenai Kizuna, she would never hurt.
There was the snap of a branch breaking, and Keiko started. She looked up to see Komorebi, who gave a happy wave. Keiko smiled in return as the smaller girl sat down next to her. It was silent except for the crackling of the fire. Keiko stole a mournful glance at the sixteen year old next to her. She was only two years younger than Keiko, but she already had enough traumatizing experiences to last a lifetime.
When Keiko and Meiko found her, she was a lively and carefree child, always singing, trying to follow her broken dream of becoming a popular singer within the confines of the facility. Whenever she entered a room, it seemed to almost light up with energy and music. Her joy was contagious.
On one night at the facility not unlike the current night, Keiko and her friends were sitting near a similarly crackling fire and talking about their days. Komorebi was sitting next to Keiko, apparently shaken by something. Staring at some spot on the wall as if it were an endless abyss, her joyful aura was condensed into a small flicker, barely a presence at all. Keiko tried to put her hand on her shoulder to ask her what was the matter, but Komorebi flinched uncharacteristically and screamed. All eyes turned to her.
“I’m so sorry, so sorry, so sorry…” she blubbered, tears rolling down her cheeks as she flickered in and out of view.
Keiko was shocked by both her attitude and her new ability, but she gently took her aside to somewhere where they could speak in private without anyone staring at her. Komorebi began to explain.
“It was my first performance, and I was still very clumsy on stage. I accidentally tripped and fell down the stairs, but instead of turning into a crying, blubbering mess when the skin broke and my knees started to bleed, I healed myself.” She tucked her arms close to her chest. “My managers stared in shock as a tattoo on my back glowed pink and the wounds on my knees sealed themselves shut. Other than the blood that had already been spilled, nobody would’ve thought anything had happened. He ended the show without any apologies to the fans, took me by force to backstage and started insulting me and throwing objects at me.” Komorebi moved her sleeve to reveal an angry deep purple bruise on her shoulder, and Keiko’s hands flew to her mouth.
“How dare they?” Keiko’s fingers clenched into fists.
“I lost consciousness and woke up in a truck, gagged, with a cotton bag over my head. My hands and feet were tied. I felt like a criminal, but I didn’t know why. What could an 8-year-old girl could have done wrong? Was I a monster?”
Everyone from the Yurenai Kizuna troupe knew that feeling. Magicians were shunned in society-- an accident caused by the government was blamed on magicians; after that, it became a witch hunt. Parents who had magical children saw them as a disgrace and sent them to facilities to soothe their pride. Nobody wanted a magician as a child. A wild card. A force of nature less beloved than an earthquake or a hurricane. Scientists were stumped when they saw no genetic ties to the inheritance of magical traits, but when one was born, they were immediately shunned and sent away. It wasn’t difficult to tell them apart from regular humans. Every magician was born with a mark, and that mark corresponded to what type of magic they possessed.
Keiko felt a hand on her shoulder and was pulled out of her trance. ‘’What is it, Komorebi?’’ The young girl took both Keiko’s hands in hers, pressing it on her heart. She seemed troubled, as if she wanted to tell her something. Indeed, she wanted so badly to share her horrid past, but without her voice, it was near impossible, unless...she brightened up and quickly ran to the van. Keiko looked at her in confusion, and did not at all feel less so when Komorebi came back with a pen and a pad of paper. She sat down on the log next to Keiko and quickly scrawled out something on the paper.
The pad was handed to Keiko and Meiko craned her neck to see what was written, “I want to tell you something,” Keiko read aloud what was written on the page. “What is it?” her red eyes softened as she looked at the younger girl. Komorebi nodded and wrote on the piece of paper again. This time, it was a lot longer, and Keiko turned her attention back to the fire when Komorebi started to flip pages as she ran out of space. After a few minutes, Komorebi tapped on Keiko’s shoulder and got her attention. Keiko took the pad of paper and furrowed her brow as she read what was on the paper. ‘’Do you remember when we didn’t always have a place to stay at night? We often got separated, sleeping in trees or on some random bench. There was a time I went up to find water and I stepped on my ex-manager. He looked at me with a perplexed look, and asked me what I was doing. I didn’t say anything about the group, but told him I was looking for water and would go back to sleep under the tree. He told me he had a spare bed and that his daughter was not home. I was so naïve back then. I followed him, he treated me food, tea and told me to go sleep. I was awakened in the night by laughter around me, and when I opened my eyes, I saw them, the managing team of the company I was with when I was a child. They were naked.”
Keiko looked up at Komorebi, unable to mask the horror in her eyes. She tried to keep her voice steady and as gentle as she could manage when she spoke. “They didn’t...did they?” beside her, Meiko’s already pale face seemed to have been drained of color.
Komorebi couldn’t meet Keiko’s eyes. She gave a small nod of affirmation, then thrust her head into her hands. Tears were in all three girls’ eyes before Keiko reached out to hug the younger girl. “I am so sorry,” she whispered in shock. Meiko also wrapped her arms around Komorebi so it was a large group hug. Keiko’s shoulder shuddered as she cried silently. “I’m really sorry you had to go through that, but know that you’re incredibly strong.” Meiko softly spoke into Komorebi’s hair.
There was a pop and a little smiling spirit was floating in the air next to Keiko. The three girls stopped embracing to look at it. It was Anpann, a spirit that Meiko met while she was wandering the spirit realm. The two of them hit it off immediately, and from then on, the little spirit could be found not too far away from Meiko. It chirped encouragingly at Komorebi.
Komorebi smiled at the twins and Anpann. “Thank you,” she signed. Opening up was hard, she wouldn’t deny that, but the support system that surrounded her made it worthwhile. She was happy that she had opened up to them. The people in Yurenai Kizuna were her family. She trusted them, and it was time she told them about that event.
(On the other side)
Ariadne let out a grunt as Aristide effortlessly pinned her to the ground. He gave her a reassuring nod before offering a hand to help her back up. It was no surprise that Aristide won. For one, he was trained in martial arts, while Ariadne was trained in...well, nothing. Stupidity maybe? No, that was too harsh. She was just brave and fearless. The second reason was that he towered over her, easily a couple of heads taller than the rambunctious girl, but that didn’t stop her from jumping feet first into the fight, much to the chagrin of the older male.
Aristide was one of the quietest people in the group (Komorebi being the quietest), but he was reliable. When it was time to escape the facility, he, along with Silane, led the charge out of the building.
“Again!” Ariadne cried out stubbornly as she prepared herself to attack again. Aristide shook his head no. Ariadne harrumphed and crossed her arms angrily. “Please! Pretty, pretty please!” Aristide again declined. It wasn’t that he was trying to be mean about it, he was just worried that he would accidentally hurt the younger girl.
With little thought to the consequences, Ariadne ran at Aristide, ready to attack. He reacted immediately and put up a wall of earth between the two of them. Ariadne pouted and put her hands out in front of her. The wind howled as it quickly eroded the earth wall that Aristide put up. As soon as the wall was low enough, Ariadne leaped over the wall and aimed a punch at Aristide, who quickly dodged and pinned her to the ground once more. “Stop,” he said sternly before letting her get up.
She sat back up and crossed her arms, looking at him darkly. “Why? I need to be stronger! Why won’t you help me?” Aristide shook his head before he walked away around the corner of a building. “Stop pushing us all away, Aristide!” she shouted as a last ditch attempt to get his attention, “it’s been over five years since we’ve left the facility! Why won’t you just open up?” Ariadne frowned when familiar silence came as a reply and angrily punched the ground next to her. She wasn’t always like this: loud, stubborn, and brash. She used to be quieter, a bit more reserved, a lot more fearful. That fateful day when she was taken into the facility, she didn’t just lose the life she knew. She lost her closest friend. The officers stormed her house, and her best friend stood her ground, refusing to go down without a fight. Ariadne, on the other hand, was petrified. She couldn’t speak, let alone move. The officers didn’t like how the other girl wouldn’t go quietly, so they shot her. She was dead before she even hit the ground. It was that day that Ariadne decided that she would no longer sit quietly and be the bystander. She would be loud, she would stand for what she believed in, and she would never go down without a fight.
Aristide sighed and let his head rest on the building. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere far; he just needed to get away from the loud girl, even if it was around the corner and out of sight. He heard everything Ariadne had shouted after him, and he did feel remorse for not being able to open up. He trusted her, and the rest of the members of Yurenai Kizuna, from the bottom of his heart. He knew that if it came down to it, he might let his health burn out in sacrifice to ensure the wellbeing of the rest of the team. However, it wasn’t in his nature to “just open up” at the drop of a hat like that. It wasn’t as simple for him as it seemed to be for Ariadne. He was always quiet, always reserved, and it wasn’t like he had a tragic backstory that scarred him as a child.
“Aristide?” He started when he heard his name called out. He looked up and saw Mikado and Silane walking towards him with a couple bags of groceries in hand. He nodded and ran a hand through his hair.
“What happened?” Silane asked in concern. It wasn’t often that he chose to be alone and away from everyone else.
“Nothing,” he replied. It wasn’t a big deal.
Silane frowned; she could tell he was hiding something. “Aristide,” she told him warningly. He simply shrugged and Silane let it drop. She trusted that if it was a big deal, he would open up and explain. He was mature enough to determine it. “All right, I’m going to head over to everyone else, we’ll have dinner soon.” Silane smiled before she turned the corner to where the rest of the group was camping out.
Aristide nodded to acknowledge her and Mikado leaned against the wall next to him in silence. The two of them got along with each other, mostly because they were people of little words. Mikado grew up in a warring nation, so she never had much interaction with people growing up. Like Aristide, she found it difficult to open up about her past, which is probably why the two of them got along so well. The two of them would often be found next to one other in companionable silence. Even though neither of them said much, they knew that the other had their back.
“Was it Ariadne?” Mikado asked after a moment of silence, and Aristide nodded. “Thought so.”
When Silane got back to the camp, she noticed Ariadne sulking on the ground. “What are you doing?” she asked, stifling a surprised laugh.
“Sulking,” Ariadne responded childishly with a pout.
“Okay, why?” Silane had a hunch, or ‘motherly instincts,’ as her Yurenai Kizuna friends called them, but she’d rather hear it come out of someone’s mouth.
“Why won’t Aristide open up to us?” Ariadne complained with a frown.
Silane squatted down to get on the same level with the younger girl. “You know that’s just his style. He doesn’t mean any offense.”
“But maybe he’s hiding something!” Ariadne began fantasizing. “Maybe it’s so bad he doesn’t want to tell us because we’d all hate him or something!” She gasped in what she believed to be a realization. “He was working in the facility! Maybe he did something bad to magicians and that’s why he’s not telling us anything!”
“That’s not how we talk about each other!” Silane scolded. “Besides-- I worked there, too, and I would have refused if asked to do anything cruel.”
“But we don’t know anything!” Ariadne was clinging on to the last strings of her runaway reasoning.
“And if you keep on talking like that, you won’t get any answer from him,” Silane answered strictly, “that’s for certain.”
“But Silane!”
There was a cough and both Silane and Ariadne turned to see who it was. It was Aristide, with Mikado trailing behind. “I don’t say anything because I have nothing to say.”
“What does that mean?” Ariadne questioned combatively.
“Ariadne,” Silane said warningly.
“My time before the facility was spent wandering. I came to the facility to help other magicians escape,” he explained.
Mikado looked at Ariadne with wide eyes. “I think you broke him,” she said in a hushed tone. “That’s the most I’ve heard him talk.” Aristide rolled his eyes.
Ariadne awkwardly fiddled with her long hair. “Thanks.” Aristide nodded.
“Let’s go see how dinner is, shall we?” Silane asked with a smile on her face before standing up and heading over to the fire. Mikado trailed behind her and Aristide paused for a moment to help Ariadne up.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, and Aristide patted her head before the two of them followed Silane to get some dinner.
Many of the members of Yurenai Kizuna had backgrounds filled with painful memories, but it was part of the glue that held them together. They worked as a unit and helped each other up. They all had baggage, but with everyone helping each other carry it, it became easier. Together, they would move forward and make the world a better place for humans and magicians alike.
After dinner, Mikado climbed up into a tree where she knew she would be left alone. She and the stars held a serene vigil for one another as the night’s creatures squirmed, crawled, and flapped on. Her cupped hands cradled a small handcrafted doll. Brushing its face lightly with her thumbs, her thoughts retreated to remembering the one who gave it to her.
“Mikado! Wait for me!!!” Rose’s pace stuttered as she breathed heavily. “Why are you leaving without telling like this? I can’t catch up; I’m too tiny!’’ Rose struggled to keep up with her senior as she hurried through the streets of Miyazaki. It was hard for the small girl to keep up-- one of Mikado’s steps was easily three of Rose’s-- but she had to catch up. Mikado was leaving, and she had to know why.
“It’s not like you actually needed to follow me, Rose? I’m just going to get food and I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just go back to the others; I’ll bring you some juice.”
“Yay! Thank you, onee-chan! ♥” Rose always came to Mikado, to an annoying point. She made her be her big-sis, without the consent of the party she was hoisting the responsibility upon. At first, Mikado didn’t know what to do with the young girl, back when she was 8 years old. A lot had happened since then, and even if Rose had matured a lot over 4 years, her love for her proclaimed older sister was growing stronger from day to day. Now, she could bear with the role, understanding Rose’s need for an older figure as one who lost her mother to the facility’s experimentations. Mikado was proud of the effort Rose showed to become more serious, even if she was still a small, noisy brat. She pulled out a small doll, with short pink hair, just like herself. Rose had given it to her for her birthday one week before. It wasn’t really made with the resilience and precision store-bought dolls tend to flaunt-- some details were odd, but one could easily recognize who it was meant to be. At that moment, Mikado heard a gun sound, and her head snapped up to where her little sister had been. ‘’ROSE!’’
She ran back on her way, heading towards her little sister, only to find her lying on the ground, blood pooling on the ground beside her. She was barely breathing. Komorebi was too far, she wouldn’t be able to get there in time to heal her. Mikado hadn’t seen the soldier that killed her Rose. She didn’t care until he caught her by the collar. She was too livid to control her magic correctly, so only a few flaming pebbles made it to him, barely singing his overcoat. She thought she would die as well, until the soldier was suddenly engulfed in flames. In witless agony, he released her and she crawled away, eyes still enraptured by the destructive light. His screams met eternal silence not long after.
Turning around to try and find Keiko but seeing her nowhere, she turned to her sister’s still-warm body and understood that Rose had used the last ounce of her strength to copy Keiko’s flames and protect Mikado. ‘’I was strong... right, onee-chan?’’ she barely whispered. Tears in her eyes, holding tight to the little girl, she looked at her with love. ‘’Yes, you were. You were the bravest of all of us, my Rose.’’
Mikado unconsciously let out a sigh as the past loosened its grip on her. “Are you still thinking of the time back in the Facility, Mikado?” She nearly fell out of the tree when she saw Silane looking up from the ground.
“Who doesn’t?” A veil of pain crossed her face. She looked to Silane, rage in her eyes. “They treated us like animals and worse. Just because we are a little bit different than most humans, just because they’re jealous of our longevity. Even to children, they--" Mikado’s voice broke as she thought about the younger girl-- “and Rose. She may have been one of those rare magicians who were born from another magician, but she was never given the chance to see what life was. She was always kept in that cage, that Facility. And they killed her mother for those stupid tests, those assholes!” Mikado shouted angrily, “And they, they, HOW COULD THEY KILL AN INNOCENT CHILD LIKE HER!” she demanded, looking at Silane with angry tears in her eyes.
“Calm down, Mikado. Shhhh,” Silane reassured her consolingly, “I know, it’s hard. Even if we regained a little bit of freedom, we will always be in danger. We will always remember Rose, but we have shed enough tears for that past. It’s time to move forward.” She gave a small smile.
She said that, but Silane herself was still deeply affected by what happened in the Facility. She, who was thrown there when she was 12, had no choice but to accept her new life at that time. Her parents had always let her loose in the public library (until they found out that she wasn’t studying human history, she was studying spellcasting), so she always felt at home when surrounded by books. She buried herself in the Facility’s magic archives to alleviate the pain of the loss of her family, learning more and more spells by heart. Life became dull and numb, and Silane was but an unfeeling automaton, focusing solely on perfecting her work. It was only when she met the group that her fighting spirit came back. She used all her long-gained knowledge to help Meiko and Ariadne in their plans for escape.
“Meiko…” she sighed and looked away from Mikado to gaze up at the sky. “Even if you’re still with us, I wish you were still alive.”
5 years ago, Meiko had been taken for experiments in the laboratory complex of the Tokyo Facility. The group of magicians that would form Yurenai Kizuna came to realize, after hearing of the cruelty of the experiments performed upon Meiko, that it was likely that at some point one of them would be taken for an experiment and would never return, so they began to prepare for an escape.
The plan that they formed need eight days of preparation before it could be executed, but in the second day, a big explosion emanated from the direction of the laboratory. There was a moment of silence as they all realized what had happened. They knew Meiko was in there, and they also knew that she had no chance of surviving an explosion that large.
They were too late.
A few seconds later, an anguished voice cried out, “Meikoooooooo!” and started to cry as she buried her head in her hands. That 13 year old girl was Keiko, Meiko’s twin sister. Aristide and Silane had to support her and guide her until they were out of the Facility, but Keiko was in a trance for days.
‘’It’s all right!’’ Silane and Mikado were taken out of their memories by Meiko and Keiko’s arrival.
‘’Even if my original body is dead, my spirit is still within Keiko!” Meiko spoke brightly, ”and I can even have that physical body 5 hours per day thanks to Mikado’s summoning magic. I don’t even have to sleep,” Meiko smiled with a small joke. “It’s so convenient. I think I’m the most free of all Yurenai Kizuna’s crew!!’’
“And listen, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, Silane.” It was Keiko’s turn to speak as she turned to said person. ”You’re the one who supported me the best, and who helped me win over my fears, although I am still deceiving myself by not being able to hurt the bad ones to protect the innocent,” Keiko continued somewhat angrily, ”what nonsense.”
“Stop it, Keiko.” Meiko put a hand on her twin’s shoulder. “Just because you almost killed those two bullies back then doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to use your mind control power correctly. We’re twins, right? I’ll help you control your power, so stop looking down on yourself!”
Meiko hugged her sister lovingly, which she wasn’t able to do very often with merely a temporary body. The others left the twins together, seeing that Keiko was doing her best not to cry in front of them. The two stayed like this for a couple of minutes, and when they came back to the campfire, there were hot drinks and marshmallows. They all continued to talk about their stories until they went to bed. Keiko slept next to Meiko, although she knew she wouldn’t feel her body in the morning.
