♣ CHAPTER 3 (KAZE)
I still remember the nights when I roamed the dangerous city streets, sweating and panting. That nightmare of a memory will forever remain in my head, reminding me that it was not just some sort of monster under the bed. It was reality. It happened when I was three. The moment my mother slipped her hand out of my grasp and ran away.
“Wait! Mommy! Wait for me!” I’d screamed. I ran after her for a while before I tripped and fell on my knees, screaming for her to come back. Of course she didn’t. I was alone, abandoned in an eerie alleyway.
That night, I cried myself to sleep. It was like that for many nights. I don’t know exactly how long, though. And although I had five dollars with me, I didn’t use it, no matter how hungry or thirsty I was. I still have it with me. Then, Master Hokage found me and took me in. He realized I wasn’t just any abandoned little kid; I had powers. Powers of wind. But what he doesn’t know is that I have a secret. One that I can’t tell anyone. Even if my life was on the line.
Master trained me. I learned to control my wind powers. And I met Kurume, who was Master’s nephew. His parents were journalists so they were always traveling from place to place. And they left Kurume behind with Master.
It’s been one whole month since I met everyone. One month ago, the Elemental Council tracked down all of the Elementals that should be trained. Trained to protect humans against evil. All evil. Master is the trainer for our area, here and so he was to train the new Elementals. Master told me that the Elementals that were coming here for training would have the powers of Fire, Water, Earth and Ice. They would be trained like how Kurume and I had been trained. Oh, and Kurume is Fire and Master’s Earth.
The Elemental gene is passed down through the maternal line. Meaning if your mother or a woman in your mother’s family is one, chances are, you are one, too. The only other way is if you’re cursed. That’s a long story. Kurume’s mother is an Elemental. So was his Grandmother. His mother’s brother is Master. No one in my family was an Elemental. That’s where my secret comes in. I guess my story began when I met them.
♣♣♣
When I came downstairs for breakfast one memorable Sunday morning, the kitchen was swarming with maids and cleaners. That evening, the Recruiting Ceremony was to take place. It was a formal party so they were preparing the ballroom. We live in a place called the ‘Institute’. Actually there are many ‘Institutes’ around the world. They’re all for Elementals. And they’re invisible to humans. To humans, the ‘Institute’ looks like a wisp of ashy land with nothing built on it. Usually, it’s built on holy places so humans won’t build anything on it. Werewolves live as humans by day and wolves by night. Oh, and there are Vampires, as well. They live in abandoned alleyways and hotels. In fact, there’s a hotel – Hotel Dumont – a couple of streets and all of the vampires live there. The thing about vampires is that they do not age or die of age but you can kill them. They don’t have a beating heart but you still can kill them, like you’d kill a normal being. And they don’t breathe even though they can, if they want to.
The new Elementals (a.k.a. ‘them’) grew up in the human world like humans so they won’t know of any of this ‘Downworld’ stuff. That means that we are going to have to introduce them to it. And I couldn’t wait. Because, believe it or not, I’d get to see girls my age for the first time in my life. Kurume and I were commanded by a very nerve-wrecked Master to go to the tailor’s and get measured for the formal clothing we were to wear. And as they measured me, I couldn’t help but wonder what the new Elementals would be like. But, however they were like; I knew that, there would definitely be some fireworks, that night.
♣♣♣
I touched my hair self-consciously as I walked into the massive ballroom with Kurume. People – Elementals stood around and talked to one other in small quiet groups. All of them were in formal clothing.
“Hey, Kaze,” Kurume muttered to me. “I’m going to go check out the refreshments’ table.”
“You mean the veggie table?” I teased him. Kurume was a veggie-freak. From carrots to celery, Kurume ate them all. Oh, and the boy goes crazy over garlic sauce. He caused a major fire in our ‘Institute’ and we all had to evacuate until the Elemental Council sent workers to fix it. And that’s also probably why vampires stay away from him at meetings. After sending me an icy glare, Kurume’s walked off, his blazer’s tail flying out behind him. He smiled and nodded an easy greeting at everyone he made eye-contact with. Women turned around to look at him as he walked by. They were looking at him like the way all women always did – a little open-mouthed, as if they couldn’t believe the vision that had materialized in front of them. The only people, who weren’t mesmerized by Kurume, were his mother and I. He is a brother to me and to him, it’s the same. And we always get along well. Very well. Even when we were little kids, we never fought over the last chocolate cupcake – which was one of the only kinds of junk food he liked. The cupcake was shared. Equally.
I looked around at everyone once again and I spotted something that caught my attention. They stuck out like sore thumbs because they were in casual clothing. In a room full of dresses and tuxedos. Three people – one guy and two girls – were standing in the middle of the room, awkwardly. Well, the white-blonde guy and the curly-haired blonde girl were. The girl with the fierce red hair wasn’t. She was wearing big sliver headphones and her hands were relaxed in her sweatshirt pockets. She looked like she didn’t care about a thing in the world. She probably didn’t. She looked up and caught my eye. She smirked faintly and said something too quiet for me to hear to her companions. Her friends immediately looked around the room, their eyes landing on me. They smiled at me. I smiled back at them and looked back at the red head. She was staring at me with an odd look on her face. I tried smiling at her, but she’d already looked away. But after talking amongst themselves, they started to make their way through the crowd toward me. I looked at Kurume who was already looking at me.
“They are the new Elementals,” He mouthed to me as he gesturing to the group walking towards me. I raised my eyebrows and he nodded at me. I turned back to the gang that was now five feet away from me. I grinned at them as they came closer.
“Hello! You all are the new Elementals, right? We’ve all been expecting you,” I said.
“Hey! I’m afraid we actually don’t know what the term ‘Elemental’ means, but --” the curly blonde girl started.
“But we have invitations,” the guy finished.
“Oh! Yeah, you can show me them and I can bring you to Master and the Elemental Council.”
“Here,” the blonde girl said, handing me the invites. I took them.
“I’m Kaze, by the way,” I grinned at all of them.
“I’m Mizu and my twin brother here is Aisu,” the blondes smiled.
“Oh, and she’s Kasai.” I stuck my hand out in greeting. Kasai looked down at it and back up at me. And then she shook my hand stiffly. Her eyes were very hard to see behind those thick glasses but if you looked closely, you could see tints of orange and yellow. No doubt that her power was fire. Her name meant Fire. Mizu meant Water and Aisu meant Ice. My name meant Wind.
I led them over to Kurume, who gave them all an oddly formal greeting. I learned that Aisu was also a cocky son of a female dog like Kurume. All of us went off in the direction of Master who looked up and smiled at us.
“Hello, Kasai. Mizu. Aisu,” he nodded at each one in turn.
“Hey!” Mizu smiled and looked around at the ballroom. “This place is huge! Not nearly as big as Kasai’s house but still.”
Everyone turned to look at Kasai who just pushed up her glasses. Master cocked his head at her.
“Can I see those glasses?” He held out his hand.
“Why?” I think that was the longest I’d heard her say so far.
“No particular reason, but if you don’t want to, it’s fine” He took back his hand and smiled at everyone again. “Follow me.”
We all followed him into the conference room.
“You all look like your parents,” Master told the new Elementals.
“So you knew our parent, right?” Mizu looked at Master.
“Yes. We grew up together. You’re mother and father met during training,” Master ran a hand through his hair.
“And you also know what happened to them, am I correct?” Mizu continued. Kasai and Aisu, I noticed, recoiled at that. I guessed that they weren’t comfortable with talking about it. I totally understood that. Whenever there are gatherings, people always ask me what my mother’s maiden name was. Kurume’s mother and father said that I was their daughter to prevent embarrassment for me. If your parents abandoned you, it was like saying that you were worthless to them. I guess I was worthless.
“Yes,” Master answered. “They died during a fight with the dark Elementals.”
“Okay, I have two questions now. One, what in the world are ‘Elementals and two, why are making us join something that our parents died in doing?” I couldn’t help but smile at Mizu’s choice of words.
“It’s very hard to explain but the best way is to show it to you,” Master nodded a me.
“I’m Wind and I have this rune,” I slid up dress sleeve, exposing a tattoo like mark that consisted of three dots surrounded by three swirls. “You guys have them as well, but only in your own Element. Kasai, you have one that looks just like Kurume’s.” Kasai spared a glance at Kurume’s wrist. Kurume noticed, and smirked.
“You’ll find this hard to believe, but I can control wind. I can move things using wind and--”
“And I freeze things, right?” Aisu spoke up. There was a tint of amusement to his voice. “Are we supposed to believe this?”
“No -- well, yes but--” I looked at Kurume and Master for help, but they were looking at Aisu.
“Do you know why I asked for Kasai’s glasses?” Master asked. Kasai sat back in her chair and flipped her bangs out of her face. “Elementals have heightened eyesight. There’s no way that those spectacles are real.”
Aisu stood up. He grimaced at Master. And then he walked off. Aisu stopped as she reached the doorknob.
“I’ll wait outside for ten minutes. If you’re coming, come,” he said without turning around. And then he walked out, slamming the door after. It was quiet for a while and then Mizu also stood up.
“I’ll go after him,” she walked out as well.
Silence again.
“Sorry about that,” Kasai said. "He’s usually worst than that. But how did you know that my glasses were fake and why are you all going through all of this just to prank us?”
“It’s not a prank,” Kurume said quietly.
“Then, what--” Kasai didn’t get to finish. Kurume had lifted a finger and from it, a small flame lit up. Kasai blinked in disbelief.
“What in bloody hell...?”
“It’s not a joke. You have Fire powers,” Master said. “I’m sorry if your friend is really mad at me but--” Kasai shook her head.
“Its fine, let me go out and call Mizu and Aisu,” She stood up and walked off a little shakily, probably from the sudden surprise.
♣♣♣
After nearly two hours of explaining everything about it all, they finally accepted it as reality. Aisu and Mizu were just as shocked as Kasai. Oh, and Aisu apologized to us. Master said that we’d be training our powers in a forest. He said that even though Kurume and I had been trained well, there would a lot to learn. And that we’d be meeting someone. And, boy was that person going to be important in our lives.
522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamvGvU1kh5
Authors' note: Dont worry, there are only four differnt perspectives, so the story won't be so complicated. ^_<
