Kyoko and Satoko ran into the woods, keeping their eyes out for the young Takeo. Satoko really wasn’t exactly sure who she was searching for, though she figured if she found anyone in the woods that wasn’t an adult, they’d probably found them.

    “Soooo, what’s this Takeo look like?” Satoko asked out of idle curiosity while the thought was on her mind.

    “Yellow hair, our age, should stand out. It’s not like there’s all too many people out in the woods this early in the day.” Kyoko responded, not skipping a beat in her breathing. She really was pretty athletic for how young she was.

    It wasn’t too long until they eventually ran into the boy, who looked to be in a rush, as he was running toward them too, screeching to a halt on his heels before crashing into the two girls.

    “I’m so glad that I found you, Kyoko! And… friend.” He paused his words before continuing, not knowing if he could speak entirely freely around this new girl.

    “It’s okay, I told her. I know I can trust Satoko. She’s my best friend.” Kyoko said with intense confidence, though despite the sudden serious tone, she was hopping on the soles of her feet like a jogger who doesn’t want to lose momentum.

    “Understood. It is a pleasure to meet you, Satoko. I’m Takeo, I’m sure Kyoko informed you of the most important information. But I can fill you in on more detail later. I think I’ve found one of the crystals!” He spoke excitedly. “It took some looking, but I saw a flash to the east!”

    “And this gem thing. It’s one of the same things that Kyoko found yesterday?” Satoko asked, trying to make sure that she stayed on the same page as the other two.

    “That is precisely correct. I’m unsure what kind of gem it is, but no normal jewel emits such a brilliant gleam. We should get going, before anyone stumbles upon it accidentally!” Takeo nodded his head, waving his hand to gesture to Kyoko to continue running. Without any hesitation, she continued her jog toward the east. While the trio began moving again, Satoko looked at Takeo with curiosity. He didn’t seem like he meant any ill intent, but all of this was still a little bit hard to believe.

    “So you’re from another world?” She asked Takeo between breaths.

    “Quite! There’s all sorts of history I’d love to inform you about. So many wonders that exist there, it’s where the gems were actually created in the first place.” He responded happily. Takeo seemed to love talking about his home, though under more calm circumstances.

    “I’ll be sure to ask you about it later. For now we’ve gotta get this gem like you said.” Satoko committed to save her questioning for later when there will be more of an opportunity. For now, her focus was helping her friend secure one of these strange gems, whatever that entailed. Thankfully for the trio it didn’t take long, as they saw a clearing in the near distance. In the center of the clearing there seemed to be some kind of puddle of water glowing a strange purplish color. There weren’t too many explanations as to why a puddle would be glowing, unless someone dropped some kind of LED or something into it, but even those wouldn’t make such an intense light.

    As the group reached the edge of the clearing, Takeo’s heart dropped. There was a pair of people on the other side, two adults dressed up like some kind of businessmen. A woman and a man stood there, paused in shock as they too looked across at the trio of children who seemed in just as much of a rush as them. There was a realization from both. “They’re here for the gem.” No one made a move toward the puddle yet, both parties seeming to pause and look at each other for sometime until one of the adults broke the silence.

“Sorry to tell ya, but this area is off-limits. Why don’t you three get back home for a snack or something. This is adult business, got it?” The man spoke with a sense of confidence. He was the type who didn’t really care much for children based on his tone. “Seriously, we wouldn’t want any of you getting hurt, would we?”

“No, we wouldn’t!” Kyoko called back to him. “That’s why you old timers should probably get going. You don’t want to break a hip!”

“Why you little… I’m 21! I am NOT old!” The man huffed, crossing his arms. “Look, we all know what we’re here for. One of us is leaving here with the gem, and it’s not going to be any of you three. I’d rather not get into a fight with children, but I’ve got a job to do.”

“Keep your cool, Saburo. They’re just kids, what’s the worst that they can do…?” The woman finally spoke up, seemingly the more sensible of the two. Her voice was cool and devoid of any kind of passion.

“C’mon Sayumi! I’m not gonna sit here and get bullied by a few punks half my age.” He mumbled grumpily under his breath.

“But you’re going to let them get inside your head? Very professional of you.” She patted him on the back. Her dry sense of humor was made all the stranger without the sound of any irony in her voice. “Let’s get this started. Either we’re going to fight over these gem, or you’re going to let us take it.”

“There’s no way we’re letting First Order goons like you take the gem. We need these, and there’s nothing you can say or do that will deter us from our mission.” Takeo spoke calmly, but there was a standoffish nature to his voice, far different than his normal gentle demeanor. It seemed that he was used to situations like this, and he didn’t seem put off by the idea of them being much older.

“Guys… can we really handle a couple of adults? If it was kids that’d be one thing, but…” Satoko spoke quietly, not wanting to show any weakness to their rivals.

“We have the power of two gems on our side. They may be intimidating due to their age, but I assure you, they’re no match to our power.” Takeo nodded confidently towards Satoko, but Kyoko was thrown off.

“Wait, two gems?” She looked toward him with an eyebrow raised. “This didn’t come up when we had our talk.”

“I’m not actually a bearer… these are semantics we can talk about later. I can help us in this fight, that is what is important right now!” He stomped his foot and held his hand out toward the pair. His hand began to glow with a bright yellow light in his palm. “The power of the light, and all who stand to defend Eden will lend me their strength to stop you. Leave now, or I will be forced to hurt you both.”

“Wow… kid’s got magic tricks.” Saburo spoke, with genuine intrigue in his voice. He slid a knife from his sleeve and grinned. “Don’t worry kids. I’m not gonna kill ya. But you might be going back home with a few cuts and bruises.”

“Kyoko, now! Put on the amulet, take your first step to becoming a warrior!” He shouted as he took a step forward into the clearing, a beam of light shooting from the palm of his hand, racing just past Saburo. The man dodged out of the way, a small patch of his jacket having been burned off by the beam. The man raced forwards toward the trio, gesturing for his partner to follow him. She pulled a collapsible baton from her hip and readied it, running toward the gem.

    Kyoko ripped the gem from her pocket, throwing it around her neck, causing the blue gem to begin glowing intensely. She could feel power inside of her unlocking, finally breaking free, flowing forth like water held back by a dam. She felt the speed of the river and the fierceness of the wave inside of her. The gem let out a small flash of light, leaving Satoko stunned at the display, her first true taste that this was some kind of real magic, not some kind of strange technology. Something she never believed truly existed was proven right in front of her eyes.