Chapter Text
Today was a Thursday night, bird chirps echoed outside and the wind was strong. The moon was bright although it wasn't a full moon. I softened my eyes as I looked at the moon as it shone onto the balcony. That was when I caught a hint of breeze and noticed an owl flying towards me. "What could an owl be doing here in the mountains on such a windy night?" I thought as the owl landed in front of me. It clutched on something which I assumed it was mine's to take. *rustle* ..A letter? "I don't remember anyone telling me they would send me a letter." I said, opening the letter. The letter read, "Dear Toriyazu, thank you for opening this! This is an invitation to the top school in all of Japan! huh.. am I exaggerating it? No worries! To explain, we're inviting you to our entrance exam and to participate, the location is very simple. Just head towards 'The Big Four Towers' in Yokohama where a ship shall lead you there. As for the location of the ship, it should be somewhere around your area's port. The ship should depart from wherever you are on May 16th and, the deadline of arriving to the towers is on May 18th! We hope to see you there~"
That was what the 'letter' said. I closed the invitation, blinking twice in confusion just to confirm if I was dreaming. I wasn't dreaming. "An invitation to the top school for a person like me? this has to be some kind of prank, there isn't any way someone would see any potential on me." I spoke as I walked back inside my room, setting down the invitation.
I looked at my door seeing the light on in the house through the gaps then turned over to the clock on the wall. (9PM) Usually at around this time, the lights in the house would be off. I wondered if my sister was still awake and overworking herself again. Me and my sister has always been living in this small house above this huge mountain where anyone wouldn't be able to hike up. Our parents had never paid attention to us although we hadn't either, they were always outside doing their own business. The only they did for us was provide us with money, we always pondered what kind of job they did that never gave them time for us. My mother named me while my sister got her name from our father. "Riku, Toriyazu, do you know why we named you on what you are? You both have beautiful names and should treasure it." are the last words I ever heard from my mother before she passed away of illness. Our father changed ever since then, complaining about how we were the fault of mom's death. He had left us for some other 'important business' 4 years ago. Now 4 years later, I'm 15 and my sister is 18. Since we had no one to support us with any income, my sister took on the job of a tailor. She had always dreamed of being a world-wide famous couturier, though I doubt she would.
I left my room, heading towards my sister's room. A little secret that perhaps I could spill is that we had a secret code. Whenever we would knock on each other's doors, the door had to be knocked 5 times. Otherwise we would know that it wasn't us. I proceeded to knock on her door with our 'little secret' and heard a voice from inside. "Thus, you may open the door and come inside." The door clicked open and there was my sister who was facing a mannequin. "Are you okay Toriyazu? What do you need from me?" she asked as she titled her head, staring at me. I replied, "The lights weren't off so I thought I'd check up, Is something the matter? Why do you have your gaze upon the mannequin?" Riku looked at the mannequin once and studied it, then spoke. "I received a special commission from Aqua Academy to design outfits for their theatre club. I've been stressing out for the past 3 hours on how to design for such an important request." This was unusual for even her. She would only receive requests from the small amount of villagers on this mountain to sew their old worn out clothes, and not some 'important special commission' as my sister mentioned.
"Aqua Academy? I've never heard of that, Is it from some other country?" I said.
"No, that's not it. I'm surprised you don't know Aqua Academy, also known as the top school in all of Japan. Any requests or commissions one receives from them are all special with a large sum of payment. You have to help me out Toriyazu! I'm trapped in a whirl of thoughts!" Riku pleaded. Then it hit me. I had received an invitation from Aqua Academy. I let out a sigh before speaking, "Can't help out because you're the one that needs to help me out! I got an invitation from them just a few minutes ago, what am I supposed to do!?" The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed as Riku looked at me like I had just destroyed one of her whirlpool of thoughts.
"Toriyazu. Are you serious? Show me it, right now!" she spoke as if she snapped which had me running back to my room to grab the invitation within the second. Then I ran back, handing her 'it'. Riku snatched the invitation away from my hands while clumsily opening it. She's a really fast reader as she had only learned about things when we were young from books. "No way.. this is real! THIS IS REAL! Toriyazu! This is your chance to get into a luxury school!" Riku shouted. I glared at the floor, at my sister, and back at the floor. "Right, this 'Aqua Academy' thing sounds exciting and all, but what would that do for me? I haven't gone to anything considered a school since 4 years ago Riku. There is absolutely no way I'm even going to catch up on anything there!" I spoke while Riku looked at me like I was some dumb bird. "That doesn't matter Toriyazu, What matters is you'll get to experience studying at such a high ranking school! I'm sure you're going to manage there, trust me your knowledge is better than you think." I couldn't deny that, so I nodded. "It's May 15th.. The ship is leaving tomorrow! You should prepare and pack now! Ignore that it's getting late, This is the only time I'm allowing you to stay awake at this time! I'll head downstairs right now to pack you some food incase you get hungry along your way, now go!" she said.
I ran back towards my room, still in shock. I never considered of taking such an exam and thought I never would. I rummaged through things in my room and found my backpack and luggage. My backpack had been a gift from one of the villagers living up here as appreciation for helping them one time. The luggage.. was my mother's. It had always been unused and it's small, so I thought I would take it to stuff a few extra things in there. The house is really small, probably the same size as some cheap apartment or hotel in Tokyo. What I'm saying is that since the house is small, we don't have many things in store. So packing was pretty simple. Clothes, Daily use items, A Flashlight, Some stationery, Food and water does the trick. After an hour, I had finished packing. Surprisingly at the same time, I heard Riku call from the kitchen that sounded like mumbling. I walked to the kitchen and Riku spoke, "3 sandwiches, An apple and a banana, snacks, water and money is enough right?" she said, holding an apple. "Money? For what?" I said. "It's for important use only! Perhaps when you run out of food, or need something essential. Remember that!"
"WAKE UP TORIYAZU!! IT'S TIME YOU GET READY!!" I could tell it was Riku even though I was half asleep. I groaned and got out of bed. Riku slammed the door open, "It's already 9am! This is why I don't let you stay awake for so long!" she said. Yesterday, I slept around 12am where the usual time for bed is 10pm. Riku left the room and I got ready.
A few minutes later, we both were sitting at the dining table discussing on the path I should take to get to the port. While the path was easy, getting there would take a few hours. After all, we are living on a hill sized mountain. Riku gave me the map insisting that she doesn't need it. Although I knew well that she was bad with directions, I had to take the map since I've never been to the port. Otherwise I'd be dead meat and would miss the ship. "Stay safe Toriyazu. Don't run off into the woods!" Riku laughed.
I hugged Riku as a goodbye hug and waved. From her research, she stated that the ship would leave in around 4pm. It's currently 11am. Hiking down the hill was pretty easy for me and I mean I'm a tiger when it comes to the forest! Or that's just what I think. The main reason on why civilians from the town below the mountain never visited the village above was, because the forest wasn't safe. As poor villagers, we had to hunt for everything. Traps, Poison, Gas, Arrows and any other type of hunting materials were set up in the forest. Any normal townsfolk would not be able to dodge such traps. I rushed my way towards the exit of the village, a voice called out to me. "Oh dear Toriyazu! Where are you going young lady?" the village leader questioned. "Hello Ms.Kito. I'm leaving the island for an exam! I'm sorry, I do not have much time to talk!" I replied with a smile skipping off. "Oh what a graceful young lady! Have a safe travel!" she waved. Ms.Kito had always been a nice person. She would help anyone in the village when help was needed, even considering she's very old. There were other villagers I'm familiar with, but It's a shame I'm unable to say goodbye to them.
Time Travelling to an hour later, I arrived at the bottom of the hill. It wasn't hard, just a few minor trips and injuries. I didn't mind getting injured as It was something that happens every time. Bandages weren't a need either, as someone that's been living in the forest. When you live in such an environment, you learn how to live well. Speaking of arriving at the bottom, I could already see the town. The town was triple times the size of the village, It was huge. Now, this was the real hard part. I had no idea what the town looked like and my useful sense of direction in the woods would no longer be useful in this economy based town. The town was much crowded with tourists. Tourists really only visited as the most famous thing here, was the site of the "Moon bearing boar". The moon bearing boar wasn't anything special to the villagers above, we could catch it easily. It was named that because it only appeared on full moons and couldn't be easily captured unless you were a professional. Though rumors in the town were that the moon bearing boar had some magical power in it. Fake lies. I asked around the town on the way ahead incase I was going the wrong path. Townsfolks are very weird, they use phones for communication and don't do farm labor. I guess the life of ours' just wasn't normal. Finally after speeding my way towards the port, I arrived at the port. My eyes brightened as they gazed upon multiple ships at a time. There were workers unloading crates or cargos, some ships anchored and.. multiple people all the way at what seems like the end of the port. I dashed towards the crowd, pushing through my way and spotted the ship. At last! I Attempted to make my way into the ship but got denied. "Hold up lady. We will need to see an official invitation from the academy in order to enter." a guard spoke. "Perfect!" I thought, proud of myself for bringing the invitation. Riku had given me it because she was aware that there would be some kind of security, otherwise normal people could enter without an invite. I passed over the invitation and the guard observed the invitation carefully. "You're free to go, welcome aboard."
This was my first time on a ship. Or rather, a cruise ship. This cruise ship was bigger than the village, and probably twice the size too. I sighed and whined quietly. I checked the time on a watch that Riku had given me as a gift so I could keep track of time. It was already 2pm, though I made it 2 hours earlier than I was supposed to. Then, the thought of exploring the ship sank in. Considering I've never been on such a ship, I figured this would be the perfect chance. I began inspecting every part of the ship, skimming through the creepy looking bunch of teenagers. I entered a room which was unlocked and saw a large window. The sky outside was bright and colorful. I could see a slight tint of rainbow which wasn't really noticeable unless you could stare directly into the sun. Suddenly, I heard screams from outside. I rushed my way outside trying to detect where the scream came from. Then, there it was. It was a girl running away from a gangster looking dude. "Someone, please help me!" the girl pleaded in need of help. Everyone ignored her, which troubled me. Once again, I rushed towards the girl and grabbed her hand, dragging her inside the room I found. "Are you okay? What happened?" I asked. She was panting heavily but looked up and smiled, "Thank you so much! I'm so sorry for the trouble, I promise I'm fine. Some guy came up to me and asked for my number, but when I rejected he started chasing me down like some desperate monkey!" A guy chasing down a girl for getting rejected? She's not wrong, that's some heavy angry behavior. "That's a pretty brutal way of saying it, what's your name?" I said. "Haruna Mai, please just call me Mai! Nice to meet you..?" she glared in question of my name. "Himeko Toriyazu, Feel free to call me whatever you would like. Nice to meet you too Mai."
Mai was an outstanding looking girl, no wonder some guy came and tried to flirt with her. She had orchid colored hair tied into braid on the front with side bangs, pink eyes and wore casual clothing. My appearance? I just had silver-blue colored short hair with gold eyes. Nothing special. "Hello?" Mai exclaimed. Ah, I must've spaced out. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. I guess you've also been invited to the exam thing?" I asked. "Yes! At first I was very surprised and excited! But after seeing all these people, I've grown a little scared..!" she said, trembling a little. "I see. By the way, Might I ask for your age?" "I'm 15! I'm so sorry! You must think I'm 12!" she replied with gloominess on her face. She read my mind so exact to the point where I thought she must've been asked that question, several times. According to my calculations, she seemed about five feet. I wasn't one to talk though, since I was around five feet and two inches. "No, It's fine. Do you know where the next destination would be?" I questioned in curiosity. "This is actually the second to last stop! Yokohama isn't far, so It should take us around an hour to arrive there!" Mai replied, but also looked confused. "How come you didn't know that? It should've been up on the Television Program last night." I whistled in sarcasm, "I don't live in the town. I live above the hill where everyone is dejected-." Mai looked at me shocked and the room went silent for a few second, before she spoke up. "The village? Above the hill? I've always been wanting to go up there!" I glanced at her as If she was lying, and glared into my reflection on the window. "There's nothing special up there, I don't understand why you would want to visit." "Haha. The truth is, I was born there. My family had gained wealth over the years and they thought It would be a good idea to move down to the town. It wasn't easy, especially because I didn't want to move. I liked the forest-village life better than my current life in the town. It's harsh there every day." she spoke, her face saddening on every sentence she said. I don't know anything about town life. While I did judge at the arrogance of the people living in towns or cities, I felt horrible for Mai. Moving from one type of lifestyle to another, wasn't the easy type. Mai doesn't seem like the type where she could suppress her emotions either, so she must've been extremely sad.
"Moving on from the topic, How did you get invited Toriyazu? I just got an email! Then I opened it to find that it was an invitation to the entrance exam!" Mai said. "A letter. They had an owl send me a letter." The room once again, filled with silence. Mai giggled quietly. "You must really not be fond of the town life. I understand though, Perhaps I should teach you some basic things!" I laughed, appreciating her kindness. "Thank you, It seems that I really do need it." I said as Mai's smile widened. Now, we had been talking for a couple of minutes which we did not realize, until we heard an announcement. "Testing...*2x tap* Testing! Hello everyone, onboard! I'm sure everyone is excited and doing great! I'm also excited to announce that we've arrived in Yokohama! The ship will be anchored in about 5 minutes! Until then, prepare to start un-boarding." the announcer signed off. What an energetic announcer for someone directing a ship. "Did you hear that, Toriyazu? We're finally here!" Mai said in excitement. I heard that, definitely. But something wasn't right. The ship wasn't getting anchored. With the way the ship was heading, It couldn't get anchored. Suspicion grew upon me as I dragged Mai out of the room and ran towards the near dock of the ship. As I investigated the sea, I gasped. I knew instantly that they weren't anchoring the ship, but instead the ship was sinking. It was sinking at a slow speed but many people would start drowning by the next minute if they didn't evacuate. The announcer went off. "Oh, what a surprise! Seems like someone has discovered what is happening! Well I'm not going to spoil it, so those in the lower level, this is a warning!" That pissed me off. I hurriedly turned over to Mai, who looked just as concerned as me. She had probably figured out that the ship was sinking too. Only those who paid proper attention should be able to notice that. "What do we do Toriyazu!? The people downstairs will start drowning if we don't do something!" said Mai, trembling in fear. I told Mai to split up and warn everyone to evacuate to the tip immediately, because the ship wouldn't sink all the way to the dock. I dashed over to the stairs leading to the lowest level of the ship while I saw that Mai, headed towards the 2nd lowest. For some reason, I saw some people already evacuating from the 2nd floor. Strange. The ship had 4 levels. The Ground level, Second Level, Third Level and The Lowest level. I made my way downstairs in a hurry, knocking on every door I saw and shouting to everyone on the level, "Please, evacuate quick! The ship is sinking and there's not much time left, those who do not evacuate will drown soon!" This 'accident' had caused chaos, resulting in screams and panic everywhere. It had been a few seconds and the water started to rise. While I believed that everyone left the level, I didn't trust myself. Making sure, I made haste towards each corner and room of the level.
As I made it towards the last corner, my eyes widened in fear. A child. She must have been lost. This wasn't good, the water level had already risen to my knees and the child was close to drowning. I carried the child and rushed my way towards the other side of the hallway where the stairs where. The water continued rising every second. I wasn't able to hear anymore commotion as I ran up the stairs. At that point, the water had reached us. I was able to swim up which was a relief, but the child has passed out. Probably from the lack of oxygen. I pushed my way through everyone on the dock as I felt eyes upon me. Mai wasn't anywhere to be seen, but instead someone tapped on my shoulders. "Need help? You seem like you just came from the lowest level." a girl spoke. She was tall, probably 3 inches taller than me. "Hi? I don't like glares you know." she said, again. I shook out of my thoughts as I replied, "Sorry, I didn't mean to! I'm fine, but this little girl I found passed out. I'm not someone who knows how to aid. Do you?" The girl looked at me and looked at the child in my grasp. "She doesn't need aid if she's just passed out, set her down at some bench and wait for a couple minutes. She should wake up then." she said, walking away. I thanked her as she disappeared from my sight, and I proceeded to find a safe place. Then, I heard Mai scream at me. "Toriyazu? Toriyazu! Are you okay?" Mai said, in worry.
"Oh Thank god! I've been trying to find you for the past few minutes.... !? What happened? Why is there a child beside you?" she said, undoubtedly questioning. "I'm okay, Mai. I managed to notify everyone but this child got left out. I don't know who her parents are nor where she came from, but she passed out. I'm waiting for her to regain consciousness." Mai nodded but had something to say, I could tell. She pointed at the port which I spotted earlier, but thought on how to lead everyone there. Then I saw extra rowboats that could fit around 3 people. Though, there were only 4 so transporting everyone would be quite the work. I glanced towards Mai and she glanced back at me, nodding again. she knew exactly what to do. What a friend she is! We ran towards the rowboats and detached them from the ship, dropping them onto the sea. Both of us shouted, "Everyone! Please look towards us!" Although, Mai seemed very embarrassed receiving stares. Which of course, gave me the sign to be the one to speak. "As the ship has particularly sank, the only transportation we have left are these 4 rowboats. We will transport everyone to the port which isn't far from us as where we are. But we have only two mere people, and need helping hands." I announced, with a serious look. Then two accomplices walked up, ready to help. I noticed that one of them was the girl I had met from earlier. She glared at me, her eyes shrinking. The other, looked like an calm boy who was ready to help anyone at times. "You need help? I'll help you!" the boy said, walking towards me. "The name's Usokai Yoshi but Yoshi's just fine, great to meet you!" he said, smiling brightly. "Is this really any time for introductions? Whatever, I'm Ichika Sara. Pleasure to be meet you I guess." the girl spoke, clearly pissed off about something. "H-hello! I'm Haruna Mai, please just call me Mai!" Mai introduced herself, while I spoke, "Do you speak the same introduction everytime, Mai? My name is Himeko Toriyazu. Thank you for helping out." Mai covered her face, shy. Sara by that point, had already got onto one of the boats. That was kind of rude. Me and the others then began to lead other people onto our respective boats and transported them to the port.
All that took really long. I hadn't checked the time when we were onboard and my watch wasn't working anymore, due to it getting wet. The others didn't seem to have watches either and their phones weren't working anymore. Yoshi didn't have a phone when I asked, so I'm assuming that Sara was the one that evacuated everyone out of the 2nd level. Evidence? Yoshi wasn't wet at all. I slowly started to realize that Sara was probably pissed off at the fact she was either wet, or the fact she had to work and lead everyone out of the ship. Abruptly, something struck. Someone had been behind all of us the whole time. I turned around to see a girl standing on top of a stand as if she was the jester of a circus.
"Wow! I'm surprised all of you survived. Welcome to Yokohama! My name is Fujioka Yumi, and I shall be the one to lead your way into the deficiency of this exam."