Kiyonna

What to do now…? Classes were pretty easy today, and there isn’t much I want to practice. I haven’t seen my friends since homeroom this morning. I wonder what they’re doing right now. Sitting on my bed I ponder how to pass the time until there’s a knock at my door. Who could it be? 

“It’s me, Kiki.” My eyes light up at the realization. There’s only one woman in West Gaia who calls me by that name. I open the door, throwing my arms out to my sister.

“Aurora! It’s you!” Aurora wraps her arms around me and smiles. Her embrace is as warm as always. “I thought you had left already.”

“Without coming to say goodbye? Of course not.” My sister’s so busy all the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has to leave already. “It looks like I’ll be here a little longer, at least until we do a little more research.”

“Is it my fault again, Sis? I’m sorry you have to protect me all the time.” Ever since I was a baby, Aurora has been by my side watching over me. Having a sacred naturalist for a sister had to be stressful at times. 

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, what are you doing sitting in here? Don’t you have friends now?” She says, barely containing her excitement. Closing her eyes, I can tell she’s locating someone. “Daimyon is finishing up his training on the field, and Chase appears to be in the library.” Sis is a Spirit Watcher, so she has an exceptionally powerful ability to detect people by their arcana signatures, even from really far away. She told me that arcana signatures are the unique properties in a naturalist’s spirit that allows them to perceive and manipulate arcana in their own unique way. All naturalists have a sixth sense that allows them to “feel” arcana and identify a naturalist by the signature imprinted on it upon release. Arcana feeds our spirits autonomously, so we release it every second the way we release air from our lungs or waste from our bodies. Even the most advanced trackers can’t match my sister, and thanks to that, she always kept us out of danger. Now she’s giving me off to these students, how could she? My face frowns up at the thought.

“Maybe we could train together?” I ask, making my best sad face. She shakes her head then puts her hands on my shoulders.

“Go play, Kiki.” She says to me with a straight tone. I guess there’s no talking her out of it. We went our separate ways, with me heading to the library to meet up with Chase. I discover him reading a stack of books. Respecting his studying I take a seat next to him in silence. He’s definitely serious about reading and I don’t want to break his concentration. Eventually he finishes his page and addresses me.

“Hello, Kiyonna.”

“Whatcha reading?” His answer surprises me.

“Ironically, I was reading about Sacred Six naturalists.” He says, moving his hair. I froze in shock. Is he that interested in me, or is he just trying to learn more about why it’s such a big deal? Either way, the timing is impeccable. I fumble a bit to find something to say back. My sister would tell me stories all the time about the Sacred Six and their awesome power, hoping to encourage me to trust my own. I don’t want to bore him with those, though. 

“Cool. Well then, what did you learn?” He gave me a look of confusion that kind of made me feel embarrassed.

“What do you actually know about your power, Kiyonna?” I scratch the back of my head, realizing at that moment how little I can actually do.

“Not much, I guess.” He closes the book and places it back on top of a stack that he had on the table.

“Not even how to transform at will?” Now I was really embarrassed. “Each sacred naturalist has a transformation that calls forth their sacred spirit into the natural realm. It’s the manifestation of their true power.” 

“Yeah. I’m still learning how to do that, but it’s really hard. I’ve never met another sacred naturalist who could teach me.” 

“It’s okay. It’s supposed to be extremely difficult, even for more advanced sacred naturalists. Give it time. You keep practicing, and I’ll keep studying to help as much as I can.” He gives me a thumbs up and a smile that reassures me. Even though I just met them, my friends are really cool.

“So...have you had dinner yet? I was just thinking of heading up to the cafe now.” He shakes his head.

“You go ahead. I’ll catch up. There’s a few more books I want to grab and it might be a while.” He responds, getting up from his chair. Nodding, I take my leave for the cafe upstairs. I didn’t even realize how hungry I was until I asked. Entering the cafe, however, I ran into something far more interesting than food.

“Oh! Kiyonna, hey!” Daimyon yells from across the cafe. 

“Daimyon! You’re here? I thought you were off training with Bones.” I say surprised. He laughs.

“We can’t train forever, you know. Plus, his first step was so intense that we called it a day as soon as I finished. It was super close, but I finally got the hang of drawing and releasing.”

“Oh! That’s really good!” I say, grinning. Knowing that he succeeded makes me so happy for him.

“Yeah. Afterward, we kept drilling it over and over because he wanted me to increase how much arcana I could draw at once. Now I can draw a crazy amount!” 

“Like...how much? More than when Professor Ligaiya did it in homeroom?” He grabs my hand.

“Come on, I’ll show you.” He’s grinning ear to ear. For some reason he seems a bit...too excited. We go outside back to the area where he fought Hotman J. Daimyon puts his food down and walks out towards the open grass.

“I think this is enough distance. It’s still a lot of arcana and I’m not very good at controlling it yet.” *gulp* That definitely makes me nervous. I’m sure he won’t hurt me intentionally but if he was trying to make me comfortable with this, he’s off to a bad start. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath then gazes into the sky. His eyes glow with a silver aura. The wind howls then makes a whipping sound as the waves of silver wind form around Daimyon. The intensity grew, and the wind spins rapidly in a circular motion like a small tornado. Slowly it expands as more of the ground cracks, lifts and then breaks down. The whipping sound is now a loud crackling. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to keep myself grounded. Eventually his arcana force started pulling me in, prompting me to scream out in fear. That got Daimyon’s attention. He immediately stops dispersing the arcana and runs over to me in a panic.

“Sorry, sorry! Are you okay, Kiyonna?” He laughs nervously, scratching the back of his head. I got up and brushed myself off.

“I’m okay. That was so intense, my gosh!” I can’t believe he’s capable of such a powerful draw. Just a couple of days ago he didn’t even know how. What did Bones do to him?

Just then, we hear something. The sound of someone clapping nearby. It’s a simple sound, and yet it’s ominous to hear. We look around frantically, but we aren’t able to pinpoint its origin...Until this man steps out from the shadows. A strange looking man that I’ve never seen before.

End ~