Warriors of the Heavens

Ayano’s life followed this pattern for four years. Four years of nothing but the same boring routine every single day of her life. One night, this routine was to come to a halt.

Ayano’s parents were abruptly taken from sleep. They heard screams coming from her room. Terrified, they pulled on a few shreds of clothing so as not to be completely naked and stumbled into her room. What they saw caused them both to gasp in horror. Their daughter was writhing on her bed, screams of anguish spilling from her mouth until she had to gasp for breath. Waves of heat were visible coming off of her body. Her face was dripping with sweat and her sheets and bed covers were torn from the mattress.

The screaming continued and her parents just stared, both of them huddled together in a far corner. A piercing scream, louder and more powerful than before, rang through the house and her body began to rise off of the bed. Her chest was visible as a hexagon, three inches from point-to-point and two inches wide, of diamond rose to a thickness of half an inch. That hexagon broke off and fell and another grew to take its place. This one did not break off and remained embedded in her skin. After this very painful change, Ayano stopped screaming and lay still as the rest of her body changed. She grew to a height of 5’10”, a growth of ten inches from her original height. Her hair lengthened until, standing, it would fall to the middle of her thighs. The color of it lightened from its dingy brown to a pleasant golden color with ten stripes of color spaced evenly through her hair: white, black, red, blue, green, brown, pink, purple, orange and silver. Beneath her eyelids, her eyes also changed to these colors, alternating in stripes. Her left eye became five stripes of black, red, brown, purple, and orange with a thin strip of gold encircling the outer rim of her iris and the outer rim of her pupil. The right eye was colored with white, blue, green, pink, and silver also with a strip of gold encircling the outer extremities of the iris and pupil.

Her body floated back down to her bed and she continued to sleep as if nothing had happened. Within her mind’s boundaries the changes were already known, but the reasons were still unclear. Her parents remained cowered in a corner for several minutes to be sure it was over. They scurried like mice back to their bed and huddled under the blankets, scared of their daughter.

When Ayano woke up she could hear her parents whispering just outside her door. She sat up and reached down to pick up the diamond that had fallen off during her transformation. She found a piece of thread and threaded it through a hole at the top center point of the diamond and tied it around her neck. Not liking how it felt against the diamond embedded in her chest, she tied it to her arm. She pulled her silk dress on and put on the matching shoes. She then strapped on her four blades and walked gracefully into the kitchen.

Her parents stared at her. They were still afraid of her and kept their distance as they set the table for breakfast. Ayano sat down at the table and pulled her multi-hued hair over her right shoulder. She ate slowly and carefully, not wanting to over stuff herself. Silence reigned over the table. Nothing was heard except the occasional clink of silverware.

Sighing heavily Ayano set down her utensils and cleared her throat, “We all know what happened last night. We all know that I am no longer the same girl as yesterday.” Her tone was flat and without emotion as she looked gravely from one parent to the other.

Her mother was the first to speak, “Does this mean you’re leaving us?” the words were choked out as she fought back tears.

Ayano nodded slowly, “I can feel the energies surrounding us. If I don’t leave, the dangers associate with what I’ve become will hunt me here. I can’t put my family at risk.”

Her father spoke in monotone, his face was unreadable so as not to give away the anguish he felt inside about his daughter leaving them again, “I will get you a travel pack ready. I think it’s best that you leave now.”

Ayano nodded and her mother burst into tears. She flung herself across the table and clung to her daughter.

Soothingly Ayano stroked her hair, “Don’t cry Mom. This isn’t goodbye forever. You’ll see me again, I promise.” Her grip loosened as Ayano slowly detached her. She kissed her mother’s forehead and took the travel pack dangling from her father’s hand.

“That’s enough rations for a month, two if you eat sparingly. Good luck, my daughter…” he hung a thin golden chain around her neck that fell below and around the diamond embedded in her body.

She touched the chain briefly and then turned to go out the door with the back over her shoulder. She turned her head and spoke back to them both, “I’ll be back one day. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I’ll be back. I promise.” With those final words she walked rapidly away from the place that she had called home for seventeen years of her life. She walked until the sun was a semicircle on the horizon and the sky was pink and the clouds were the color of blood. She walked a few steps into the woods outlining the road and set up camp. She gathered some timber and started a small fire to keep the animals away and curled up on the ground underneath a thin blanket.

She woke a few hours later hearing some twigs snapping nearby. She lay very still and listened carefully. She could hear footsteps, heavy footsteps, possibly a male around 200 pounds. She gripped one of the sabers and waited patiently. The intruder crept closer and started whispering to someone else. She felt stupid for not hearing the other softer footsteps but dismissed it as possible since the man might as well have announced his presence.

She slowly removed her blade from its scabbard and waited a while longer. When she could sense the two people within a blade’s length of her she leapt to her feet and pressed the blade’s tip against the man’s throat. Simultaneously she drew her second saber and angled it at the woman’s heart.

“If either of you move I’ll kill you where you stand.”

The man spoke first, “W-we don’t mean you any harm. Honest, we was just curious.”

The woman hissed menacingly and let her hand drift behind her back. Ayano gave her a small cut just below her jugular, “I told you not to move.”

While she was distracted by the woman, the man howled and drew a blade of his own knocking the saber away from his throat. The woman fell and rolled back drawing a long thin dagger. This time it was she that spoke, “Now it’s you that will die if you move you hateful wench. Give us your valuables and we might let you live.”

Ayano was not afraid and she tightened her grip on the two swords, “Watch your words. If you want to live past tonight you’ll leave now!”

The two laughed and rushed her. She deflected each blow gracefully. The pair was incredibly easy to read and she knew where they were going to swing before they did. Eventually she grew tired of this and pushed them back by locking blades with them. She growled angrily and started to glow a light green.

“Kaze no Ikari. Tear them to shreds!” the two sabers had a faint green glow to them as well. Wind whipped across them as the two blades began to disappear. Silently Ayano stood facing the two would-be bandits waiting for them to attack.

The pair of bandits stood confused for a few moments. Eventually they decided that it was just a show and that Ayano was now unarmed and unable to defend herself. They rushed at her with their blades raised high. Ayano raised one hand and a blast of air repelled the two attackers. They staggered to their feet and she formed two daggers out of air. These daggers were a mass of dense air that was sharp and dense enough to cut through a large tree. To display her abilities and try to avoid unnecessary bloodshed she sent one of the daggers straight through a tree just to the left of the male bandit.

The eyes on the two criminals grew to unimaginable sizes before turning tail and running. They bumped into each other several times as they hastily escaped this madwoman with strange powers. Her swords reappeared in her hands and she collapsed, going unconscious. Time passed. When Ayano finally awoke it felt like she had been asleep for days. She didn’t find herself on the forest floor as she expected, rather she found herself in the back of a carriage pulled by horses. She sat up and took in her surroundings and made sure all of her supplies and weapons were still with her. Luckily for whoever picked her up, everything was where it was supposed to be.

She heard voices up front where the driver would sit so she poked her head out suspiciously. There was a young man sitting in the driver’s seat holding the reigns and an older woman sitting beside him with a basket of knitting materials.

“Who are you and why am I in your carriage?” she demanded crossly. Ayano didn’t take kindly to being picked up by strangers, and her temper was still high from the fight with the pair of arrogant bandits.

The man did not take his eyes from the road and flicked the reins to keep the horses moving, “You know who we are. Maybe not consciously, but instinctively you know us.”

Ayano’s eyes almost crossed she was so confused. Her confusion quickly turned to anger and she reached out to grab the man by his shirt and ended up grabbing nothing but air. She fell back onto her rear and just gaped at them until the man spoke again.

“We are Searchers. It is our responsibility to find anyone who might have the gift. You have the gift. We are taking you back to our mistress. Her name is Gatsuei, Mistress of the Moon. She will explain further when we arrive.” With that the man returned his attention to the road and snapped the reins to keep the horses in motion.

Ayano retreated back into the carriage still thoroughly confused, but not as angry as she was when she had first awoken. She felt that these ‘Searchers’ would not harm her, but that did not keep her from being pissed and wanting to rip their guts out for taking her against her will.