Prologue:

The city was ablaze with fire as more and more explosions occurred. Men were fighting and women and children were on the ground, dying or dead. Another man then another dropped dead.

“Yukiko! Get Kuro inside, now!” a worried father shouted to his wife.

“What about you Kenji?” she cried.

“Mommy! I can’t find Ayu!” a little girl screamed in fright, clinging to her mother’s skirts.

“Get inside Kuro! Quit worrying about the cat and get inside! Where’s your brother?” her mother said frantically. She turned back to her husband.

“He’s fighting,” Kenji answered for his daughter.

“What?” The woman’s eyes widened in horror.

“Don’t worry about him, he can handle himself! Now get inside!”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be back, Yukiko, I promise. Now get inside!”

Inside, the little girl asked her mother: “Are daddy and brother going to be okay?”

“Yes, Kuro. Now come on,” her mother answered, even though she wasn’t completely confident her husband and son would come out of this unscathed.

The Story Begins: Kuro’s Point of View

“You have twenty minutes on the computer before dinner! Did you hear me Kuro?”

“Yes! Twenty minutes,” I said, sitting down at my computer and logging on to my IM. I’m out of high school in a week, why is mom still bossing me like that? Oh well, I thought. Ace was already logged on.

Ace has logged on

Ace: Hi. Is anyone here! Echo, echo, echo. No, I’m all alone

Kuro had logged on

Kuro: Hi! ^___^

Ace: So I’m not alone? Yay! *throws a party*

Kuro: You bringing the sake, or should I?

Ace: I’ve got it right here! And pocky!

Kuro: Are you serious?! I want some!

Ace: HAhaha! Nope! All mine!

Kuro: TToTT so mean…

Ace: *evil smile* so what’re you doing now that we’re done with high school?

Kuro: Hmmm…I want to visit Japan for a while

Ace: That’d be cool. I’m coming!

Akira has logged on

Kuro: Huh?

Akira: Ace are you there?

Ace: Yeah

Kuro: You gave out our IM address ace? Who is this?

Akira: I left the message on your email.

Ace: I have to come over there already?

Kuro: Excuse me? Hello? Anyone listening? Who are you?

Ace: I’ll explain later kuro k?

Kuro: no, now!

Akira has logged off

Ace: Kuro, check your email. I’m logging off

Ace has logged off

Kuro: What the hell just happened here?! Oh well…

Kuro has logged off

I went to check my email like Ace told me to. What was with that other guy though? I’ve never heard of an Akira. When I got to my email, there was one new message. I clicked on it and all that was there was an internet link.

“Huh?” I said, clicking on the link. What happened next was unexpected.

Ace’s POV

I got to my email as fast as I could. Akira already needed us over there? It has been a while, I thought when I clicked on the email. As I expected, there was an internet link. I clicked on it and found myself home once again.

Kuro’s POV

“I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming,” I tried to convince myself. Where was I? This place wasn’t my house. I didn’t hear my mom nagging me about the time I used on the computer. I didn’t smell dinner. I was standing on the side of some stone street. There were people all over, ignoring me completely. There were three people in front of me that were looking at me though. One was a girl around my age that was standing close to another guy about my age that had dark hair and green eyes. The girl had blonde hair with a couple of electric blue streaks in it and hazel eyes. The last person was a guy who looked older, but not a lot, than me. He also had dark hair but his eyes were blue.

“Hey Kuro!” said a familiar voice behind me.

Ace’s POV

I walked up next to Kuro after greeting her. She looked shocked. Oh boy, this would be hard to explain.

“What the hell just happened Ace?” Kuro exclaimed, confusion on her face.

“What do you mean?” I said, trying to make out I didn’t know what she meant. It didn’t work very well.

“You know what I mean! Where are we and who are these people?” She sounded mad.

“I don’t know where we are or who these people are! How should I know what this is about?” She wasn’t buying it.

“What about the IM Ace? You sounded like you knew what was going on then!”

“What IM?”

“You know what IM, damn it!”

“Calm down Kuro.”

“I want an answer! Answer me now Ace or I’ll--,” she didn’t get to finish. My palm was on her head and as I muttered something no one else heard, Kuro fainted.

“She won’t be out for long, but she won’t remember anything about the IM now.” Akira nodded and the other two looked as confused as Kuro had.

“Who is she?” the girl asked in disgust.

“Be nice Rin, or I’ll be taking you off the mission.” Rin silenced. Toji was looking at Kuro funny. I gave him a warning look. Rin pulled closer to Toji.

“Get off, Rin.”

“How can you be so mean?” Rin said in a childish voice. Toji was just about to respond when Akira spoke.

“Quit playing around you two,” Akira said.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Toji said. “It’s Rin who’s messing around.” Rin looked discouraged.

This is when Kuro woke up.

Kuro’s POV

“Hey Ace,” she said, rubbing her head. “Who are they?”

“This is Rin,” Ace began with a trace of annoyance in her voice, pointing to a blonde girl. “Toji,” she said, pointing to a boy Rin was standing very close to. “And Akira.” She pointed to the last guy of the three.

I gave them a small smile. “Good to meet you. I’m Kuro.” No one said anything back except Akira. I wasn’t sure where we were, and right now I didn’t really care. I signed this off as a dream and decided not to worry about it.

“Well, you’re probably hungry, right?” I nodded and so did Ace. “Then just follow me. And pay no attention to the other two.” Rin looked offended and Toji acted as if he hadn’t heard what Akira just said. Ace laughed a little as we followed Akira to a restaurant. Toji and Rin were right behind us. The town we were in was filled with people. Some were wearing odd clothes and I felt out of place with my jeans and maroon tank top. One person passed by us wearing a weapon on his back. They allow weapons here? The restaurant was just as packed as the streets outside. People sat at a long bar, drinking and other groups of people sat at tables that were everywhere. The whole time we were trying to find a table, Rin clung to Toji’s arm and Ace seemed to be staring at Akira’s back.

Ace’s POV

Akira smells good, I thought irreverently to myself. Wow, this place is big. An odd looking guy came up to us with a girl next to him.

“Hey, haven’t seen you guys in a while,” Ryo said. I gave him a warning look; Kuro still didn’t remember anything.

“I’ll get you guys a room, Akira,” the girl said. Here’s someone I haven’t met before.

“Thanks Yuri.”

“No prob. Who are your friends?” she asked, gesturing to me and Kuro.

Kuro’s POV

Yuri seemed nice enough. When she asked who we are, I introduced myself. “I’m Kuro.”

“Ace,” Ace said, eyeing Yuri closely. Maybe it was because she was acting friendly with Akira.

“Okay then, you guys can go up to the second floor tables and I’ll bring up menus soon, kay?” Akira nodded and we followed him to the second floor.

It looked like we were in an inn of some sort.

“Ace, sit close to me,” Akira whispered to Ace. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I made sure to give them a lot of room by sitting at the opposite end of the table. I mentally giggled because Ace had never acted friendly to any guy. Ever. Not from what I’ve seen anyway.

Rin was still clinging to Toji. I sort of felt sorry for him. I’d kill Rin, or any other person if they did that to me.

Ace’s POV

Kuro was laughing at me, I knew it. I made a mental note to smack her later. Ryo and Yuri came up later and Yuri had a few menus.

“So Akira,” Yuri started, handing out the menus, “where’d you find these two?”

“Who cares where they came from?” Rin mumbled, letting go of Toji to look through the menu. Toji then got up from where he was sitting, taking his menu with him, and sat down on the other end of the table with Kuro. He looked relieved and Rin glared at Kuro from across the table.

Kuro’s POV

“Finally, she was starting to bug me,” Toji muttered, looking back at his menu.

“Have whatever you want, it on the house,” Yuri said, leaving to room to take care of her other costumers. Ryo sat down with us. I guess he’s eating, I thought. I looked down at my menu and realized I had never seen this kind of food in my life or this language. Everyone seemed to speak English, so why was the menu like that? When Yuri came back up, I ordered what Toji did since I was unsure about this food. About twenty minutes later, our food came. It looked strange, but tasted good. Really good. While I ate, I couldn’t think of anything else but how good the food was. This was probably why I didn’t suspect anyone of staring at me.

Ace’s POV

I noticed a couple of interesting things.

1: There were a couple of eyes staring at us from a closet.

2: Toji was staring at Kuro. I seemed to be the only one to notice.

I got up and opened the closet when the owner of the spying eyes fell out and hit the floor with a loud “Smack”. It looked like a little boy no more than nine years old. Another person I haven’t met. A small puppy followed behind him.

Kuro’s POV

When I heard something fall over, I quickly turned to see a little boy and a puppy on the ground not so far away from me. I’ll make a couple things clear. I hate dogs and little kids never get along with me, no matter how much I might try. I was the only girl who didn’t baby-sit for money before I turned fourteen and could get a real job.

“What were you doing in the closet?” Ace asked the little boy. He didn’t respond.

“Sho, what’re you doing here?” Ryo asked. “You’re supposed to stay in your room unless Yuri is with you.”

“Who is he?” I asked.

“His parents died a few years back and someone brought him to Yuri to take care of,” Ryo explained. Sho’s little puppy managed to jump on my lap after Ryo was done talking.

I picked the dog off of me in disgust. “Ace, you take it. You like dogs.”

“I still don’t see why you hate dogs so much,” she said, taking the puppy and petting it before handing it back to Sho. “They’re so cute!”

“To you maybe,” I mumbled. Sho set the puppy in his lap and began petting him, not looking at any of us. I went over the reasons I didn’t like dogs in my head. First, they’re too needy and most are hyper as hell and I don’t need that. Cats are easier to take care of. So far as this Sho keeps his puppy away from me, I didn’t care. I wondered exactly how Sho’s parents died though. I’d hate to be without parents. This was the only reason I felt sympathy for him.

Ace’s POV

I forgot Kuro hated dogs so much. Don’t worry Sho, I’ll protect your puppy. I wonder what the puppy’s name is.

“Hey Sho, what’s you puppy’s name?”

This was the first time he spoke. “Her name is Ame.”

“Oh. Can I hold her for a bit?”

Sho handed me Ame and then said: “I’m sorry for spying on you through the closet.”

“That’s okay,” I said, playing with Ame. She was white with a little brown fur on the end of each of her ears. When I looked up to the table, I saw Toji was looking at Kuro again. I was going to have to talk to him later.

Kuro’s POV

This time I noticed it. Why on earth, or wherever we were, would Toji be staring at me? I barely know him and guys never look at me. All the time I was in high school, I never had a boyfriend. And I was fine with that. So Toji staring at me left me unsure of how to feel about it. The only feeling I had was annoyance with Rin for glaring at me.

Ace’s POV

Me and everyone else were getting tired, I could tell. As everyone finished their food, I got up, giving Ame back to Sho, and went over to Akira.

“Where are we sleeping before we leave?” I asked.

“We got a room. One side’s for the guys and the other’s for the girls. Just go down to room 218 and use this key,” Akira said, holding up a gold key. “You’d better take Kuro with you.” I nodded and went over to get Kuro. She was done eating.

“Come on Kuro,” I said, motioning for her to follow me. She got up and came over to me.

“What about my plate?”

“Yuri’ll take care of it,” I answered. I figured she would anyway.

“Okay then.”

I held out the key. “Here, go down to room 218 and open the door. I’ll be right there.”

Kuro looked at me oddly before nodding and walking out of the room in search of our room. I walked over to Toji.

“Listen, you need to stay away from Kuro,” I said in a hushed tone so only he could hear.

“What are you--,” he started.

“Don’t play dumb. I’ve seen you staring at her. Don’t try anything. You know who she is.”

Toji frowned. “I know who she is. And I feel sorry for her.”

“Just stay way from her then. Things are different since the last time she’s been here,” I said, turning on my heel to go find Kuro.

Kuro’s POV

So I found the room we were staying in. It was pretty big. It was divided though. There was an opaque glass room separator to the left of me. The side I could see had three beds, two windows that were letting in the last rays of sun for the day as the sun set. The floor was carpeted so I decided to take off my shoes. Setting them aside, I walked over to the windows and watched the sun set on a pastel sky. It was really pretty.

“Hey Kuro. What’re you doing?” Ace asked, entering the room through the door I had left open.

“Just watching to sun set.” I yawned and pulled the curtain over the windows, making the room darker.

“Going to bed?”

I yawned again. “Yeah.” I laughed a little. “Maybe when I wake up this weird dream’ll be over.”

Ace gave a faint smile. “G’night.”

“Night.” I flopped down onto one of the beds and got under the covers before falling asleep.

Ace’s POV

No, you won’t wake up from this dream Kuro, I thought after Kuro fell asleep. I yawned and decided to go to bed too. I took the bed on the right of Kuro and got under the covers just as she had and fell asleep.

Toji’s POV

I got up from the table and asked what room we were staying in.

“218,” Akira answered.

“I’ll go with you, Toji,” Rin said, getting up also and following me to the room. The door was open. I caught a glimpse of Kuro and Ace sleeping already. Kuro looked so peaceful. I frowned again. Damn that stupid monarch, I thought before going to my side of the room.

“Good night Toji,” Rin said, going to bed. I didn’t respond, but just went to my bed and sat there, awake, until Akira came.

Kuro’s POV

I was sleeping until someone opened the curtains and the bright sunlight shone through. I flinched when I tried to open my eyes. It burns, it burns, I thought in dismay.

“Who opened the damn curtains?”

“I did,” Rin said. “Got a problem with that?” She crossed her arms. I realized I wasn’t at home. I was still in this weird world. I don’t think this is a dream after all, I thought. I threw the covers over my face, blocking the sun out. “I wasn’t ready to get up.”

“Too bad. Now get up.”

“Hey sleepy head! Get up!” I heard Akira saying to Ace. Ace can sleep even with sun beating down on her eyes. I envied her for that.

“I’m up, I’m up!” I heard her say in a sleepy tone. She wasn’t ready to get up either. “Kuro, why are you under the covers like that?”

“Ask Rin,” I said, pointing at Rin from under the covers.

“What are you guys going on about over here?” Toji’s voice entered the conversation.

“Morning Toji!” Rin greeted cheerily.

I stuck out my tongue. Cheery people annoy me, a lot.

“Get up you bum,” Ace told me.

“Urgh, fine.” I came out from under the covers and blinked a couple times to get my eyes used to the light. Ace started to laugh.

“Take this,” she said, throwing a hair brush over to my bed.

“Oh, quit laughing! Your hair looks bad too!” I said, brushing my hair through. Curse my thick hair. Ace did stop laughing while I brushed my hair.

“When you guys are ready, we can go get some breakfast,” Akira said, leaving the room. He was already dressed. Ace and Rin started getting dressed. I wondered where Ace got the new clothes.

Ace threw some clothes at me. “Get dressed,” Ace said. “You’re going to stand out dressed like that.”

“Oh,” I said, taking the clothes. Toji had already gone back to his side of the room to get dressed.

Ace’s POV

After we were all dressed, we went down to breakfast. Akira had our plates ready by the time we got there. The food was just some eggs and ham. That’s the good thing about this world: the breakfast food here isn’t too different from the food back on earth. I was still tired when I sat down next to Akira and began eating.

Kuro’s POV

I wanted to kick Rin’s ass for waking me up this morning. I was so tired! I sat down and ate my breakfast in silence though. I had an eerie feeling for some reason. Toji was staying well away from me today too. I looked around the room and noticed something I hadn’t the night before. Everyone, excluding me and Ace, was wearing an armband. The armbands were red. This peaked my interest. I wanted to ask what they were for, but I wasn’t sure who to ask. I’d ask Akira, but he’s always with Ace and I’d ask Toji, but he hasn’t even looked at me or said a word to me the whole morning. And then there was Rin. That’s not going to work. She made it clear she didn’t like me. Ryo entered the room while I was thinking and sat down across from me. I wasn’t sure why he was keeping us company, but I was glad he sat down.

After I was done eating, I waited for Ryo to finish. When he did, I asked why everyone was wearing armbands.

“Oh those?” he said. I nodded and he went into a long explanation. It was easy enough to follow. Each town had a sector color and big towns had two, like the town we were already in. We were currently in the red sector and that’s where Ryo and the rest of them belonged, so they wore those armbands.

He also explained that whatever sector you’re born in is your sector, regardless of where your parents came from. Because there’s so many sectors, every sector has an individual head or boss.

“So, does that mean me and Ace need to get armbands?”

“Yeah, just so you guys go unnoticed.”

“Do we pick the color ourselves then?” He nodded. I thought for a second. “Is there a black sector?” Black was my favorite color.

This is when Ryo’s face turned grave.

“What?”

“The black sector is the only sector that doesn’t get along with any of the other sectors.”

“Why is that?”

“The leader of that sector once called war on every single sector by declaring war on the king of this country. No one ever forgave him for what happened. After he lost the war, his sector was weakened and only a few members remained.” He shook his head. “He was power hungry I guess you would say.”

“King?”

“Yeah. There’s a king that rules this country.”

“Then why do you have so many sectors and different leaders?”

“This country is so big, the king decided to split it into different sectors that were named by colors. He appointed a leader for each sector and once a month each individual leader and the king have a conference to discuss problems and such. When he appointed the leader for the black sector, he had no idea they would turn on him and declare war. Now that the war is over and the black sector has lost, the black sector is no longer a part of the country.”

“I see.” After Ryo explained all of this, I was sure I didn’t want to be in the black sector. “Where does the king live?”

“Him? He lives in the white sector. That’s the biggest settlement in the whole country.”

“What is the name of this country anyway?”

“Chikyu.” I was all out of questions now and it appeared as though everyone was done eating.

Ace’s POV

I wondered what Kuro and Ryo were talking about. At least Toji was staying clear today. Tomorrow was the day we were leaving this town. And before we leave, we’ll have to get a couple armbands for me and Kuro. I got up from the table, as did everyone else.

“Come on Kuro,” I said.

“Where are we going?”

“To go get a couple of armbands. Coming with us Akira?” Akira nodded. Kuro got up and followed me and Akira out of the inn and onto the streets. I followed them all the way to a store. We walked in and Akira began talking to the storeowner.

Kuro’s POV

The storeowner went to the back of the store and came back with two red armbands. They were made like sashes, so I decided to wear mine around my waist while Ace put hers on her arm.

Ace looked at me. “Uh…Kuro?”

“What?”

“You know what, never mind.” She shook her head at me.

“We need to get some clothes for you two,” Akira said as we left the store.

“How long are we going to be here?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Akira said. We went to another store that was devoted only to clothes. “Take this,” Akira said, handing Ace a bag of coins. “I’ll be back at the inn.” Ace nodded and Akira left.

“Go over there,” Ace said, pointing to the woman’s section.

“But there’s nothing but skirts over there,” I whined.

“Too bad.” We made our way over there and I looked through the clothes racks. Most of the skirts were pretty long. I found a few long black skirts, then looked for some tops I could wear. What’s with this world and girls not wearing pants? Ace was wondering around the boys’ section. She hates wearing skirts too, so I didn’t blame her. She came over to me with a few pairs of pants in her hands.

“I can pass off as a guy since I have short hair. There’s no way I’m wearing a skirt,” she explained. I, on the other hand, love my hair long and would kill anyone who tried to cut it. So I couldn’t pass as a guy, no matter how much I tried.

“Don’t worry, I’ll lend you some pants to wear underneath those skirts,” Ace said.

“Thanks.” Ace is such a good friend.

Ace’s POV

When we got back to the inn, Kuro and I packed our new clothes away in bags so we were ready to leave the next day.

“Wake up you two! Why are you always the last ones up?” Akira’s voice came. I opened my eyes a little, only to see sunlight. Kuro was already hid under the covers. I slowly got up and headed for Kuro’s bed.

Kuro’s POV

When I woke up, I immediately threw the covers over my face to protect my eyes from the sun.

“Get up you lazy bum!” Ace said, knocking me out of bed this time.

“You didn’t have to knock me out of the bed, damn it!”

“Yes I did. Now get up!”

I got up off the floor and glowered at Ace. We both got dressed after Akira left.

“I’m going down to breakfast now,” Ace said when she was done getting dressed and I was still not done. She had her bag with her.

“Have fun with Akira!” I said as she left the room and shut the door behind her. Rin had already left too. While I brushed out my hair, I heard Toji getting up on the other side of the room. Not five minutes later, he was dressed and came to the other side of the room.

“Morning,” I greeted sleepily. He looked at me oddly before returning the greeting and leaving the room. I was done, so I left the room too with my bag in hand. I wondered why he looked at me like that, but I didn’t ask. We walked in silence down to breakfast. Breakfast was just as quiet. I supposed everyone was just really tired. After eating, we went outside to a stable that held not horses, but creatures that resembled a griffin. It was odd to me, because in mythology, griffins are supposed to be mean, evil, that sort of thing. These people actually rode them?

Everyone mounted one and I was at a loss of what to do.

“Umm….” I said, looking up at the big animal. I suddenly felt someone lifting me up onto the griffin. When I was completely on the animal, I looked down to see Toji there, already mounting his own griffin. I smiled briefly and said: “Thanks.” He made no eye contact with me. Does he just not like me or something? Because if he doesn’t, he doesn’t need to help me, I thought angrily. When we began riding out, I found riding the griffin easy. It was just getting on top of it that was hard because of how tall the thing was. Our ride began as a smooth run, and then turned into flying. I’m not exactly fond of heights, but the way the griffin flew was calming. I was still so tired that I actually ended up falling asleep on the griffin.

Ace’e POV

Looks like Kuro fell asleep. She can fall asleep anywhere, I swear. We didn’t stop flying until dusk. When we landed, we were in a field. We would rest here until dawn, and then we’d leave again. We pitched tents in the field. After Akira took Kuro off of her griffin, the group of them rested since they had been flying for so long.

Kuro was still asleep, so we put her in the first tent we pitched and let her sleep. I was going to mess with her for fun, but Akira asked me to meet him in his tent.

“What is it Akira?” I asked, making sure no one was listening.

“Ace, do you know how much I missed you while you were gone?” A small smile spread across my face as I took a step closer to Akira.

“About as much as I missed you?” I answered.

Akira’s POV

It was true. Ever since she left, I’d never stopped wishing she hadn’t left.

“And now, after eight years, I couldn’t believe how much you had changed….” I said, looking down into her caramel eyes.

“I’ve changed?” she asked.

“Sure. You’ve gotten smarter and….” I looked her with a smile. “You got prettier, if that’s possible.”

“And you have learned how to sweet talk, I see,” Ace said, laughing. Her gaze lingered for a second.

Ace’s POV

Nervously, I tilted my head as Akira leaned down. Both of us closed our eyes as we felt each other’s lips touch. A shiver went down my spine. Slowly but surely, Akira deepened the kiss. When he pulled away, I let out a sigh for no apparent reason.

“You all right?” he asked teasingly.

I managed a giggle before saying: “I’d say you’ve been practicing.”

He laughed too.

Kuro’s POV

“Get up!” I opened my eyes slowly. How long did I sleep? I’m in a tent. I got up and looked outside. It was near dawn. Ace was waiting for me.

“Man you sleep a lot. Come on, we’re leaving soon.”

I followed Ace over to the griffins. They were still sitting, so it was easy to get on this time. Everyone mounted their griffins and within a few minutes, we were flying again. I wondered where exactly we were going. When we landed again, we were in a smaller town than the last and the people there wore all different colored armbands.

“Where are we?” I asked Akira.

“Lodging town,” he answered. We walked into town with our griffins beside us. According to Akira, we were headed for an inn where we could put the griffins away. When we reached the inn, we went around the back and put the griffins away.

“You guys can go and wander. I’ll check us in.” Before we left, he handed each of us a bag of coins. He called them chi-coins. It seemed to make sense since the country was called Chikyu. After this, we split up and wondered about the town. This town wasn’t as crowded as the last one, so I was a bit more comfortable. I wondered if this place had a bookstore. But then again, I thought, it looks like everything is in the same foreign language.