Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of the Guardian Children ❯ Night of Change; The Roll Call Begins ( Chapter 1 )

It has been a few weeks since I finished my last original work. Needless to say, the ideas for original stories have been flowing much more generously than the ideas for fanfics. There’s only so far that you can take characters that already exist, and I’m not a big fan of alternate reality series unless they completely change the setting or keep the characters well, in character. Besides, it’s much more fun to create your own characters with their own personalities.

To make a long story short, I will be working on this story until my writer’s block clears up on my other projects. If certain elements seem familiar, it’s because I am intentionally borrowing several story elements from various anime that I liked. Think of it as a bit of homage to these particular themes. The 5th anniversary of my first endeavor into creative writing actually passed almost two months ago, but consider this my 5th anniversary project. This may or may not exceed the length of my previous original work, as I plan to write my first true ‘epic’. It will be split into 3 ‘books’, with the length of each depending on how much story is packed into each. So, without further ado, let’s begin…

-Kouji Tamino

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Legend of the Guardian Children

Book One: The Light of Destiny

Chapter One: A Night of Change; The Role Call Begins

It had been a night no different from any other. The time was 3:01 A.M. and by this point, the entire city was sleeping peacefully. Well, all except for one young girl. Sitting up in bed, she huffed, pulling her magnificently long brown hair behind her ears. It went all the way down her back, going a bit below her waistband, and that she was able to maintain it and keep it in such fine condition was a fact that she was particularly proud of. Dressed in a light purple pair of pajamas, she pouted, looking out the window. “Ni-san, I can’t get to sleep…”

Groaning in annoyance, the t-shirt and boxer-clad Kyoji Shimohara stared irritably at his younger sister as he sat up in his tatami mat. “And how the hell is that my problem?” Scratching his head, fingers running through his unruly brown hair, he shook his head and lay back down, his back towards her. “Go back to sleep, Kiriko…”

“But that’s the problem!” She shouted, quickly lowering her voice due to the late hour. “I can’t get to sleep… I’ve been up all night.” A bothered expression made its way across her face as she continued. “I’ve got feeling deep inside me that tells me that something terrible is going to happen. I--” she paused incredulously, her jaw dropping and her eyes wide, as the rather loud snoring of her older brother made her realize that he had already abandoned her and nodded back off to sleep. “Kyoji, you’re a jerk”, she said plainly, looking out her window. Staring at the shimmering stars in the sky, she sighed deeply, her boredom quickly turning into alarm as a small rift suddenly appeared in the sky, opening further and further until it was more noticeable than the full moon that night. “Oh my…” Those were the only words she could get out as a bright white light erupted from the rift, engulfing what seemed to be the entire city.

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Yawning loudly, Kiriko made her way down to the kitchen, freshly showered and dressed for school. Looking around confusedly, she saw that everyone was already in the middle of breakfast and seemed to be quite settled. “Um… Good morning, everyone.” Why had they eaten without her? She couldn’t have overslept for that long, could she?

“Mornin’ Kiri-bozu…” Kyoji teased, eating another bowlful of rice. “I wondering when you were going to wake up. Guess you really couldn’t get to sleep.” He quickly added. “Oh, and the alarm clock’s about 20 minutes early.”

“Please don’t call me that, ni-san…” the girl whined, taking offense at being called ‘squirt’ at her age. Doing a double take, she screamed. “What do you mean, 20 minutes late?! You mean to tell me that I only have 10 minutes left to get ready?!”

Nodding, Chika Shimohara set a plate of food at her daughter’s usual spot. “You had better hurry and eat or you’ll be late for school, dear.” She found it quite unusual that Kiriko would sleep so late. She was usually such an efficient and punctual girl. Well, everyone has his or her off day, she supposed, and perhaps today was one such day for her daughter.

“You’re lucky that your mother saved you some food”, Nabuta began with a grin, “Otherwise, your brother and I would have eaten it all.” Laughing rowdily at his own hackneyed joke, the rest of his family stared at him miserably, mortified at the fact that they were related to him at all at that moment. Of course, he completely missed this fact.

Sitting down, Kiriko began to frantically eat her breakfast. Wolfing down rice and fish, she very rarely came up for air, determined to finish this meal with time to spare. “Ahh!” She suddenly screamed as a memory flashed through her mind, surprising her whole family. “The light! I saw a bright light last night that swallowed up the whole city!”

Snorting obnoxiously, Kyoji rolled his eyes. “Eh, you were probably just dreaming or hallucinating. You did say that you barely got any sleep.” Had his little sister finally lost it? It wasn’t like her to make up stories.

“No way!” she shouted, standing up with an unwavering expression of resolve on her face. “I’m sure of it! It was right after you went back to sleep, so it couldn’t have been a dream!”

“I’m sure that you were just seeing things, Kiriko-dear…” Chika replied, starting up the hot water so that she could wash the dishes. “As soon as you get finished with your homework, I want you to take a nice long nap after school.”

“But mother…” Kiriko began, absolutely certain that what she saw last night was not a dream. She may be tired, but she was most definitely not crazy.

“No buts!” her mother scolded, frowning. “You’re obviously very tired. You need the extra sleep if you plan on functioning correctly tomorrow.”

“Fine…” the girl replied reluctantly, shaking her head in disappointment. It was no use to continue arguing, as they would never believe her.

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As the warning bell rung throughout Kaneda Tokio High School, students began to make their way to their classes. Dragging her feet to room 2-A, Kiriko struggled to keep her eyes open. Bouncing cheerfully and energetically along side her was her best friend, Atsuko Namimura. “Hellooo Kiri-chan!” the glasses wearing, light shoulder length greeted merrily, wearing the green themed school uniform that all female students there wore. Seeing the state of her comrade, she frowned worriedly. “Wow, you don’t look so hot, girl… What’d you do last night?”

Groaning miserably, Kiriko told her story. “Last night, I couldn’t get to sleep at all. I think all in all I only got about 2-3 hours in.” As her friend asked her how she finally got to sleep, she explained. “I’m not sure what happened, but at about… 3:03 AM I think, a strange bright light spread all over the city. I can’t remember past that, so I think that’s when I finally--” It was only after saying that that she realized what a horrible mistake she had made.

“ALIENS!!” Atsuko suddenly screamed, shocking everyone within the area with her sudden outburst. “I knew they existed! No one believed, but now there’s proof!” Grabbing Kiriko, she began to shake her violently. “And you are my sole witness!”

“Wah! It wasn’t aliens!” Kiriko sighed in relief as her friend let her go. “At least, I don’t think that it was…” To tell the truth, she had no idea what to make out of the situation. She was much too tired to think properly.

As they entered the classroom, they made their ways to their seats and began to interact with their classmates while waiting for the teacher to arrive. As they conversed with the other students, the door suddenly slid open with authority. Interestingly enough, the person who had arrived was not a teacher, but was in fact the exceptionally proud class representative, Tsukino Hoshino. Captain of the Girl’s Archery team, she was also on the Basketball team and was ranked 6th in terms of grades in the entire school. She was in other words, an over achiever. She had few friends and was rather cold to anyone who tried to get close. Closing the door, she took her usual seat and she too awaited the arrival of the teacher.

A shiver ran down Kirikos’ spine. Why in the world did she have to sit directly behind this girl? She didn’t know what it was about her, but she scared her for some reason. Tall, with black hair that went past her shoulders held in a ponytail, sharp and piercing light brown eyes, the girl seemed quite intimidating. The fact that she had very few people she could call friends also had to say for something. As Kiriko watched and mentally examined the other girl, she turned around, frightening her a bit. “What the hell are you staring at?” She asked harshly.

“Yawah!” The youngest Shimohara sibling yelped, knocking her desk up into the air with her knees. Panicking, she began to rant. “I’m so sorry, Iincho-san! I didn’t mean to stare, it’s just that I was so tired and I guess I was spacing out and please forgive me!” She whined as she was given a pound on top of her head. “That was mean…”

“Idiot.” Tsukino replied simply, rolling her eyes and turning away. She had no idea why, but that girl annoyed her to no ends. Sometimes she wished that she could-- Shaking her head clear of that thought, she scolded herself. No, that would be going a little too far. Then again, with thoughts like that, was it no wonder that she had no friends? Oh well, things could be worse. As the teacher finally arrived, she stood up and faced the class, her expression stone cold serious. “All rise for Datta-sensei.”

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The day dragged on and soon lunch began. As the other students all started to enjoy their meals, Kiriko had a little trouble doing so thanks to a frequent tormentor. “Um, excuse me… Akito?” she began, timidly. “Could you please leave me alone?”

“Eh?” the boy began, cupping his ear mockingly. He was quite tall with broad shoulders and a full head of dark wavy hair that went down to his neck. Wearing the dark green boys uniform, he gave the girl a wide grin, snatching away some of her food. “What’s that? I can’t hear you!” Laughing cruelly, he took a bite of her lunch. “Mmm, pretty good.”

“Hey, you heard her you jerk!” Atsuko shouted, standing up with a puckered brow. “Stop messing with her, okaaaaoh wow…” The extra-terrestrial fanatic suddenly lost her resolve as the bully cracked his neck and knuckles, growling fiercely. “Um, what was it I was saying again?”

Just as all seemed lost, Tsukino wandered over, having been a witness to the whole ordeal. Glowering at Akito, she crossed her arms. “Don’t tell me that I need to kick your ass again, Tonomaru-san. Please refrain from picking on your fellow classmate.” Smirking in satisfaction, she quickly turned her nose up at Kiriko’s show of gratitude. “Don’t thank me, I’m the class rep. It’s my job. Besides, he gets on my nerves even more than you do.” Returning to her own lunch, she was oblivious to the bruised spirits of her classmate.

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Time continued to pass, and pretty soon it was time for Kiriko’s least favorite subject: P.E. She was a terribly uncoordinated girl, and she got tired easily. Watching as the class rep conquered each warm-up exercise with ease, she sighed miserably. “Wow, Iincho-san may be scary, but she’s so cool. I wish I could do stuff like that…”

“Then quit staring and actually do your exercises and you might improve!” Tsukino shouted, scowling at the less athletic girl. Walking towards her, she prepared to give the girl another bonk for her stupidity, but then noticed that she wasn’t looking too good. Tilting her head, she furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you all right, Shimohara-san?”

“Not really…” Kiriko muttered, eyelids becoming heavy. “Ya see, I din get much sleep lass nigh…” Her words becoming slurred, she fell face first into her class rep’s chest. “Nighty night…” she mumbled, falling fast asleep.

“H-hey!” Tsukino yelped, her bosom being invaded. “Wait just damn--” Sighing in resignation, she raised her hand. “Kiyuzu-sensei, Shinohara-san passed out. May I please escort her to the nurses office?”

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After reaching the office and helping the nurse set the girl down on a bed, she wiped her brow. “Well I think I’d better head back to class--” Just as she entered the doorway, she was plowed into by a boy. Falling to the ground, she grunted as her butt hit the floor, looking up to see Kyoji. “Oh, Shinohara-sempai…” she muttered, rather peeved that he had ran into her like that. “Did you come to check up on your younger sister?”

“Yeah, you could say that”, he replied, offering her a hand. “Sorry about that.” Staring intensely at her, he naturally asked her if Kiriko was all right. Sighing in relief when she assured him that she was just tired and needed some sleep, he nodded. “Thank you so much for looking out for her.”

“Yeah, sure…” Tsukino began, making her exit. “I mean, I couldn’t just leave her there, right?” Planting a hand on her head, she left, leaving the siblings alone with the nurse.

Walking over to the bed Kiriko was sleeping on, Kyoji took a seat next to her and ran a hand through her hair, smiling softly. He may not have acted like it, but he really did care for her. She was, after all, his precious baby sister. Suddenly, he heard a giggling sound come from the nurse. Jerking his head around to face her, he whispered harshly. “Don’t you dare tell anyone about this!”

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That night, as brother and sister prepared for bed, Kyoji gave her a scolding look. “Hey, I’m serious… Try and get some sleep this time, Kiri-bozu.” He did not want a repeat of today and besides, it was unhealthy. “So no screwing around and ranting about bright lights, okay?”

“I’m telling you, it was REAL!” Kiriko whined, hopping in her bed like a child. “There’s no way that it couldn’t have been!” Huffing, she wrapped herself in her blankets. It was useless to try and change his mind. “Good night…”

Only moments after she said, the walls suddenly caved in. Her eyes widening and pulse increasing, Kiriko began to breath heavily, looking around frantically. “Who’s there?…” Glancing towards her brother, she gasped. Had he been hurt in anyway? “Kyoji, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine…” he groaned, moving away some rubble. What in the hell was that? “You?” he asked, the room too dark to really see her.

“Uh huh… I wonder what caused that…” A pair of white sneakers stepped into the house through the new hole. Kirikos’ eyes widened at the sight of Akito Tonomaru standing there, grinning. “Wha-- What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to eliminate you… princess.”

To Be Continued…

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“Hello, this is Kiriko! Why is Akito attacking me? What did I ever do to him? Someone, please save me!”

“Hey, what about me? Older brothers should always protect their little sisters!”

“B-but Kyoji, you’re completely useless against him as he is now!”

“What do you mean, useless?!”

“You’ll just have to tune in next time to find out! Next Episode of ‘Legend of the Guardian Children’: Goddess of War! A Guardian Appears! Don’t miss it!”