"Mom! Mom! Can we go outside, please?"

A child that's raring to go out and play jumps around in excitement.

The mother smiles gently and pats him on the head.

"Alright, but take care of yourselves"

She then looks at me.

"Look after them."

I nod and take the hands of my two little brothers.

"Let's go, big sister is going to take care of you."

And so we leave the house.

My name is Himari Sato and these are my two little brothers, Hidiku and Enmei. We are headed to a playground out of the Hogo-sha district, a part of the town that's near the forest. We often play in the forest, it's fun. There are also friends there we meet often.

As we are walking down the street, my right arm is being pulled down multiple times, indicating someone needs my attention.

"Big sis! big sis!"

I look at my seven-year-old brother with a smile.

"What is it Hidiku?"

"Roy and Emily said they will come today too!"

Roy and Emily are friends of my brothers, they play together all the time while I'm looking after them.

I giggle.

"Isn't that great?"

Hidiku nods twice.

Then Enmei stops and yells while pointing before us.

"Look! It's those three!"

The two of us look in the direction Enmei is pointing in. It's one of our neighbour families, the Endous. Our parents know each other for a long time and are good friends but...I'm not exactly sure I can say the same about us.

It seems one of them overheard Enmei and looks in our direction.

"Ah! It's the stinky brat!"

She yells back at us while pointing.

In response Enmei leaps at her, grabs her cheeks with his fingers and starts spreading them. She tries to defend herself and copies Enmei.

The girl's name is Charlotte, those two fight whenever they get the chance.

I walk towards them to stop Enmei, still holding Hidiku's hand, but before I get to say anything, the next challenger appears.

"Look who it is. Still didn't give up on your brothers? We both know that there's no way they could compare to my little Yuuna!"

She grabs her younger sister standing before her and hugs her tightly.

That's Lena and the younger girl she's holding is the youngest of the three, Yuuna. Right now I'm concerned for her as it looks like she's about to choke while struggling to get out of her older sister's clutches.

I force a smile.

"Sure..."

Hidiku lets go of my hand and walks up to Yuuna.

As he gets close enough, he stops and has a good look at her. Then he places his palm on her right undeveloped breast and looks back at me with a smile.

"Big sis, look! She has nothing just like you!"

My heart shatters.

Hidiku continues to bump it with his palm a few more times until he starts feeling endangered and so he looks at Yuuna's face, then freezes.

Yuuna now has the most sinister glance I've seen up till now. just before she completely loses it and tries to force her way out of her older sister's clutches.

Hidiku drops on his rear and crawls back to me as he's scared, but when he reaches out to me, there's no response. I'm staring before me with empty eyes.

The shock was too much for me.

Lena, trying her best to hold Yuuna back because she knows the little boy would get murdered otherwise, starts yelling.

"It's ok Yuuna! You are only seven years old! You still have plenty of time for development!

As Hidiku isn't getting a response from me, he curiously touches my breast and he receives an instant slap to the face. The force of it rotated his head to a different direction.

It was so fast he didn't get the chance to change his expression and now he's stuck with a smile on his face together with a big red hand mark.

Crap, I messed up...

I try to apologize but before I get to, he starts shaking followed by him bursting in tears.

What miserable situation....

It took me quite a while to drag my siblings out of the mess.

"I will come back for you! Just you wait!"

Enmei yells at Charlotte while being dragged as I'm holding him by his collar with one hand and the crying Hidiku with the other.

"Simmer down, at this rate it's going to get dark before we even get to the playground."

I start thinking about Lena and her behaviour.

"What's their problem anyway..."

I mumble to myself.

Feeling bad for little Hidiku, I stop, kneel and start patting him.

"There there, I'm sorry about what happened, it won't happen again. Will you forgive your big sister?"

He wipes his eyes followed by a sniff and then finally a nod

"Mhm."

I give him a gentle kiss on the forehead. Then I turn around and face Enmei.

"You too!"

He looks at me with a conflicted and worried expression.

"No, no way! Get away from me! Ew!"

He starts yelling as I provoke him by trying to force a kiss.

"Hidiku! Enmei!"

A little child? I track down the voice with my gaze. It's a little girl with a boy standing behind her.

"Oh my, it seems you have been saved."

I smile at Enmei and let him go play with his friends.

The four kids group up and I let my voice become louder as it escapes me.

"Be careful! Don't go too far!

Hidiku waves back at me just before they run off.

For a moment I stand still and watch them slowly disappear from my sight when someone taps on my shoulder. In response I look back as anyone would.

"Yaho!"

It's Mia! One of my best friends!

I immediately hug her.

"Whoa there lovely!"

She is caught by surprise.

Long, honey brown hair. Eyes blue as the clear skies with a tiny hint of grey. One of the kindest and sweetest people you will ever meet. I am lucky to be her friend.

I distance myself from her as I stretch my arms that are currently holding her shoulders.

"What are you doing here? I thought you moved to another town with your mother."

My eyes are shining bright as stars on the midnight sky.

"I'm here to visit father."

I hug her again, and this time I squeeze the life out of her.

"I bet he feels too lonely without you."

Mia starts giggling and takes my hand as I let her out of my clutches, then points towards the same playground where my little brothers are right now-

"You wanna go?"

I nod in approval.

And so we walk off as Mia leads me with her hand.

We sit down on a bench that stands just before the playground behind which the forest stands tall.

"Eight....nine....ten! Ready or not, here I come!"

Looks like they are playing hide and seek. Hidiku is the seeker.

"Oh, aren't those your siblings?"

Mia asks as she can recognize the familiar faces.

"Mhm, my cute little brothers."

I swing my feet back and forth in a scissor pattern while I'm sitting down on the bench with Mia.

Hidiku starts looking around when Enmei jumps out of the bush at the edge of the forest, holding his trousers.

The seeking Hidiku aims his index finger towards him.

"Found you!"

Enmei averts his gaze directly at him full speed. It seems he did not notice Hidiku standing there.

"Hey, no fair! I was peeing!"

It makes Mia and me chuckle a bit.

"So, so, Himarin, did you gain any abilities yet?"

I shake my head.

"But I'm sure I will soon. What about you?"

Mia grins.

She extends her arm and aims her palm upwards. Her concentration is very visible. I focus my view on her palm when a small blue-ish bright light can be seen forming something above her palm.

The light is now solidifying, and ice is created. It's tiny, but it still is more than I can do.

I'm impressed and so I clap.

"That's great, I'm happy for you! Soon you will be able to make a whole iceberg, I'm sure of it!"

Mia smiles.

"Thanks, but I don't know about that."

Suddenly, a scream vocalizing fear comes straight out of the forest.

I look around, Hidiku and Enmei are nowhere to be seen.

Wary of my little siblings, I stand up and call out to them, but there's no response. My body starts trembling, but it's soon overcome by warmth that can be felt coming from one of my hands as Mia holds it.

"Come, we need to find out what's going on. "

We enter the forest in hurry.

"Enmei! Hidiku! Answer me, please!"

The desperate me calls out into the dark woods hoping for a response.

"Big sis!"

It's Hidiku's voice!

I rush towards it while Mia follows me. Soon enough I spot Hidiku sitting on his rear, right next to his friend, Roy, shaking in fear.

"Hidiku! What's going on!?"

He looks at me with his little terrified eyes, then he averts them and looks behind me.

"Watch out!"

I look back. A tree is falling directly at me.

"Himarin!"

Mia jumps at me to get me out of the way. We both hit the ground.

"Are you alright?"

She's aware of how terrified I am when I nod.

Squish

I look down beneath my hand once my previously dulled senses sharpen again as the feeling I'm getting from below my palm isn't familiar.

At first I thought I'm resting my hand on a rock, as the thing was harder than earth, but now that I've moved it a bit, it also had an unusually mushy sensation.

Oh how wrong my assumption was.

Not a rock, nor the earth, but a body of a child, with its back wide open. The face I can identify as Emily's while my hand is laying on her spine.

I start screaming as I completely give in and fear consumes me.

What happened here? I can immediately tell.

Hidiku is sitting, still trembling in fear. Where's is Enmei? Is he near?

Then, someone jumps out of the bush. His timing is perfect.

"What are you doing?"

I question him with wary.

"I was peeing again...."

He looks down at me and notices his deceased friend.

"Emily...?"

Tiny droplets come running down his cheeks.

I stand up and take his hand.

"We need to get out! Now!"

And so the two of us start running as the rest of the kids are led by Mia.

We reach the edge of the forest when something launches down from the tree above and drops right before us, cutting us off from the playground.

Standing wide on its fours. A long, bone tail and its body covered by reptile scales. A face just like a mummy's, and its limbs armed with sharp claws.

It isn't too big, I'm guessing it's a C-rank but it still is dangerous nonetheless as we don't possess any abilities yet and there's no way Mia's could protect us at her level.

We back off as slow as possible, attempting to provoke it as little as possible, but that does not help.

The demon leaps at us.

I react as fast as I am able to, grab Hidiku's shoulders and push him to the ground together with myself. The others also get down and the demon misses.

Now there's an opening to get out of the forest.

We dart towards the playground while screaming for help, but when I look back, the demon launches another attack.

We are not fast enough.

With surprise I rotate my body to face the demon, conflicted about what my next action should be, when Mia suddenly appears before me. She pushes me further with her back as she faces the demon and guards her face with her arms.

Slash

One of her hands come off.

She falls over as she holds the rest of her arm, screaming in pain.

"Mia!"

I try to get her, but I am stopped by Hidiku as he's pulling my shirt from my rear. Next thing I know, the demon is standing before me, about to swing its arm.

"Big sis! I don't want to die!"

My heart stops beating. My lungs cease to pump air within. It's as if everything froze in that split second, but I can feel warmth. It's Hidiku's warmth. He's still tightly gripping my shirt when I look at him.

Those little fearful eyes. His tiny trembling lips surrounded by the rose red cheeks. My little brother is crying, calling out to me, to his big sister, for help.

My heart breaks out of its rest as it begins to race. My breathing becomes irregular. The blood in my veins flow once again as it boils and a strange, almost electrifying sensation runs through my spine.

It's like my body fell into a sudden state of trance, then woke up full of adrenaline.

I direct my view back to the demon with the rotation of a vortex. Block the demon's arm and swing its body against the ground, then do a quick side-way step and fully spin my body together with the demon until I finally let go of it, leaving the demon to fly back into the forest.

It takes only a few seconds for it to leap back and charge at me with one of its arms.

I slightly move my head and dodge the arm, then counter with a punch of my own directly to its face, pushing it down to the ground with a bang and creating a small crater as a result.

The demon starts wiggling around.

The kids behind me are in surprise with Mia still being visibly pained.

Thud

My knees hit the ground. In that short moment, I lost all my strength. I can't make my legs move any longer, they have given up on me.

The demon slowly gets up as it reaches its arm out to me.

Slash

The arm that was just a few moments ago trying to get me is now laying besides me, separated from its owner.

"Are you kids alright?"

It's a knight, an adult.

He looks at us one by one but gets no answer, then he notices Mia.

"We have a severely injured child here! Get the medic, fast!"

The knight kneels next to me and pats my head.

"You have done a great job kids, leave the rest to us."

He stands up as the demon tries to attack him but instead it gets slashed in half.

Our lives have been spared, and with that thought, my mind blacks out.

***

An unfamiliar ceiling.

It's the first thing I see after opening my eyes.

I attempt to sit up but my body is in pain.

"Ow ow ow."

I look around.

"Where...am I?"

"We are in the infirmary."

A familiar voice. I track it down.

"Mia!"

She gives me a gentle smile.

I have a better look at her and notice the unusually short arm, wrapped in white bandages.

She notices my expression as it goes from surprised to sad really fast.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I will live."

I look down at my feet covered in the white sheets.

"Sorry...maybe if I had done something, your hand wouldn't be missing."

Mia shakes her head.

"Don't be silly. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be alive right now. And now I have a clear goal before me too! Improve my ability until I'm able to recreate my hand of ice!"

Her previously gently smile now brightens.

"So thank you!"

A shine passes through my eyes as the light reflects from the watery surface.

The kids are already at home as they have no injuries. I was stuck here for a week and Mia even longer.

Soon after she was discharged, I met up with her just before she moved back to her mother's place in another town.

I then continued to live my everyday life together with my younger brothers.

We all gained our abilities. Enrolled in the Hogo-sha academy. Met the Endous, our rivals, every day there. Fought between each other and then made up again. Laughed and cried together. Fought again, then comforted each other. The irreplaceable friends. Someone we could depend on when needed. Someone we could never abandon. They became our dearest friends.

Friends I would gladly lay down my life for.