Chapter 1 - Chapter 1 X3

Please be kind to Emi-chan. This story is very rough. This is her first time writing it...

No light filled the sky as the old, cloaked man made his way through the pitch-black forest. In his hand was a small lantern, which could have no purpose but to see three inches in front of his face. Beside him stood a short woman who held a large key with both of her hands as if not to accidentally drop it. Every once in a while the small woman would trip, and the old man would scold her with his walking stick. Near the end of their journey, she felt the need to start up a conversation.
“Who are you waking, Master Yoshida?” she asked quietly.
“That information does not concern you. You will learn whom I have chosen to wake when they leave the temple and not a moment beforehand,” the old man said strictly.
“I understand, master.”
Eventually, the two of them arrived at a very large temple that looked as if it had been unused for many years.
“Soeki, the key,” the old man demanded as he held out his hand.
“Here it is, master.” The small woman bowed and held out the key for him.
“Stay here and don’t make a sound.”
“Yes, master.”
The old man hobbled into the temple, still holding the lantern in his hand. Inside was a very large room filled with gravestones, which held no epitaph. Each grave held only one character…a number. The old man stopped his hobbling at the grave labeled #5. That was my grave…The old man was my master, Yoshida. This was the torture that entities like ourselves were subject to. We would live for an eternity in the darkness. We were what humans might call ninja, but we were much more than that. We were damned creatures who awoke only when we were needed.
Master Yoshida fit the key in his hand into a small keyhole, a small part of the stone floor rose, and I opened my eyes. I took a long breath and sat up. My whole body was stiff…it had been a while since I had had a mission. To me, the world above my grave seemed quite bright.
“Welcome back, Miss Koizumi,” Master Yoshida said with a small chuckle in his voice.
“Every time I wake you say that, but somehow I never feel welcome,” I sighed.
“Regardless I say welcome back.”
I sighed again. “Can we just get this over with?”
“Wake the other three.”
“Fine.” I sighed a third time and called the other three… my teammates to wake up.
Automatically they rose and the four of us stood.
“Come now, we must not waste time,” the master insisted.
The four of us followed like good little ninja.
The second we exited the temple, “she” was upon us.
“Welcome, Koizumi-San, Misaki-Chan, Junichiro-kun, Kureno-kun,” Soeki squealed, bowing to each one of us.
That woman’s name truly suited her. She was not much more than a little pest. The whole way back to Master Yoshida’s house, she rambled on about how much she missed us and barraged us with questions. When we reached Master Yoshida’s house, we were taken to a small room where we were to have our mission explained to us. As soon as we were all seated, Master Yoshida began.
“Alright you four, you have a tough mission on your hands this time,” he began.
“Good, because you owe us one. We’ve been down there for quite a while. Ten years to be exact,” I complained.
“Well, I believe that this mission will include shinigami enemies, so you’ll be awake for a while.”
“For joy! Everyone loves a good Shinigami fight,” Kureno spat sarcastically.
Ah Kureno, our newest member. Wasn’t he just the biggest ray of sunshine you’d ever met! Yeah, this guy had some anger management problems. His name somewhat suited him. I believe that he was named Kureno for his fiery hair that seemed to have little orange sparkles in it that reminded me of embers. I’m sure his parents had no idea he was going to have such a fiery personality (and I do not make that out to be a compliment). We didn’t know much about this guy though, so maybe I shouldn’t be talking. Back then, he seemed like quite the shady character to me. Moving on…
Master Yoshida ignored him, “This will be a bodyguard mission.”
“And what bodies will we be guarding?” Misaki asked curiously.
“They are an extremely popular Japanese visual kei rock band that goes by the name of Hydrangea.”
I looked up at him with surprise, “Master, if they are a Japanese rock band, wouldn’t they be called Ajisai?”
“You would think that would be the case, but they told me the name was Hydrangea.”
“Wow, they sound so manly.”
Misaki giggled at that. “Master hasn’t even told us weather they are girls or boys yet.”
Master Yoshida chuckled. “I’ll be showing you one of their more popular promotional videos so you can get familiar with them.” He turned on the small television that was sitting next to him.
(the promotional video they watched is show here :3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeppmiXA5To )
As the music played, I couldn’t help but feel something. That boy, .the lead singer I mean…he was quite good, and he did not look too bad either. Then it got to part of the song where he looked straight at the camera and his gaze pierced my heart. I felt like falling, but I couldn’t. As I watched that video, I felt a feeling that I had never felt before. It was very strange to me. At that time, I thought it best that I kept that feeling to myself. At the end of the video, Misaki’s eyes were beaming….I was not looking forward to what she had to say about them.
“Well, there’s that,” Master Yoshida said dismissively.
Misaki jumped up, “Master, that was amazing! Those boys were so beautiful!” I watched her eyes beam even more than they had before.
Misaki was the squealing fan girl type. I didn’t necessarily like her, but I didn’t dislike her either. She stood no taller than five feet, and her short, spiky, blonde hair could probably boost her height another inch. She was a good friend, but we had recently gotten into a fight, and neither of us were ready to put the past behind us.
“What else do we need to know?” Junichiro asked pointing the pen that was in his hand into the air.
Junichiro was the smart type. He was sitting there taking note of every word master said. I kind of liked that about him. He wasn’t very argumentative either, so, most of the time he just went with what everybody else was saying. He was one of my favorites.
“Why are you in such a rush, Junichiro? Don’t you want to know why you are guarding them?” Master Yoshida asked with a small laugh.
“Oh, right, go on,” he stuttered, pushing up his thick glasses beneath his short, black hair that always covered a good part of his face.
“This is how it was told to me…”

The night after Hydrangea received the title of band of the year their bassist, Taiki-san, was relaxing in his hotel suite. He had just been out drinking with his band mates, and he was ready to crash. The window in the bedroom half of the suite had been left slightly open, and a chilling breeze flowed through the room. He ran his hands down his tired face and yawned.
“What a long night,” he sighed as he walked over to close the window.
After a quick shower, he was off to bed, but before he got in bed, he heard what he thought were voices.
“This was his room, I’m sure of it.”
“Then where is he?”
“Oh, I can’t wait to ring his little neck.”
There was a cry of delight from the last voice. Taiki-san peered into the front room of his suite where he saw three frightening creatures. Then he proceeded to blink and pinch himself several times.
“Those drinks must be getting to my head. This can’t be possible,” he whispered silently.
One of the creatures shot its head around right in his direction. Almost simultaneously, he sped silently to the closet and hid under a blanket.
“What is it, Chiba?”
“I thought I heard something in there.”
Taiki-san heard the voices come closer. He had to force his body to stay completely still which was a hard thing to do considering that he was high as a kite. They were right outside of the closet he was hiding in. The creatures were breathing very heavily and Taiki-san thought he heard sniffing as well. He heard what sounded like extremely sharp claws scrape across the closet door as if they were trying to find something.
“I swear I heard a voice.”
“It was just a false alarm. You need to get your ears checked.”
“I’ll make sure I get that done as soon as possible, Mascot.”
Then the voices died off into the distance, and Taiki-san heard his door slam shut. After he was entirely sure his life was no longer threatened, he came out of the closet (no pun intended) and ran for his phone…

“Ah, good, when you said it was a body guarding job, I thought it was going to be a bore,” Kureno said as soon as Master Yoshida was done talking.
“I was thinking the same thing when I got the call, but it seems that this is going to be quite a challenging mission after all,” Master Yoshida added.
“Then let’s get this show on the road, I’m tired of lying around,” I said quickly.
“There is one more thing you have to know. You only have to guard them when they are alone. I’ve been told that they Shinigami won’t go after them when they’re around people.”
“Got it, c’mon guys, let’s go.”

Mao aka Nazo. :D I don't care what everybody says, he's adorable! *smothers him with hugs* >w<

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