Of Chosens and Summoners – Chapter One

Sheena began to slow down, as the sky above her was streaked pink along with crimson red. She balanced precariously on the top of a tall tree as she watched the sun sink below the ocean. The day was getting late. If she set up camp now and woke early in the morning, she would most likely reach Meltokio by noon tomorrow, if not in the afternoon.

The kunoichi leapt off the tree and landed on the forest floor of Gaoracchia Forest with the grace of a practiced acrobat. The forest gave her a chilly feeling but it was the fastest route to Meltokio without using magitechnology. She hadn’t run into any wild animals yet so Sheena hadn’t had a chance to try out her new Vajra cards just yet.

Grandpa had been in the middle of training her to use spell cards before he fell into his Volt-induced coma, so the raven-haired girl wasn’t that good at it yet. It looked like she was going to have improvise her techniques. Sheena was pretty confident in her tanto wielding skills, though, so if she couldn’t defeat the monsters with Vajra, she could always resort to using to the short blade strapped to her back along with her provisions.

She tensed when she picked up on the sounds of fighting.

Sheena drew Vajra in barely concealed excitement before moving quietly to where the noises were coming from. Her eyes widened when she saw a red-haired teen fighting off two large wolves at once with his sword. He was obviously looking worse for the wear.

Sheena gripped her cards neatly with one in each hand. From a far distance like she was, to aid the guy, she would have to use the first card technique Grandpa had taught her. “CYCLONE SEAL!”

She flicked her right card into the air –it spun in place as she inserted some of her bodily mana into it- and several translucent green cards appeared around in her a cylinder shape. Several meters away, the translucent green cards also appeared around one of the wolves. They all flew in at once, attaching themselves to the beast’s body. With a quietly muttered command, they exploded at once, causing the wolf to let out a long whine as it arched its back before its corpse crumpled to the ground.

Grandpa had explained to her how the cards worked. The card-user would have two solid cards with them, and by inserting certain amounts of their bodily mana into the cards, could summon what they called ‘mana cards’. These mana cards were the transparent green cards that had appeared earlier. Since they were summoned by using one’s own mana, the summoner could manipulate them however they wished. Cyclone Seal was basically propelling the target high up into the air with a simultaneous mana card explosion.

Meanwhile, the redhead seemed to have finished off the other wolf and was looking around in bewilderment as to who had helped him out of his predicament. To ease his worries, Sheena revealed herself by stepping out into the clearing that he was standing in the middle of.

Sheena gasped when she noticed the bloody corpses strewn across the clearing. Then she cursed herself for not noticing earlier. And she prided herself on being a shinobi!

“Who’re you?” the other red-haired guy asked, looking like he had a bitter taste in his mouth as he shook off the blood on his blade before sheathing it into his… white sheath. What kind of idiot used white as the primary colour for their sword sheath? Even Sheena’s own tanto sheath was black.

Sheena gave her alias, as usual. In Mizuho, everybody had an alias. Their real name was only known to their immediate family, and to the one person who had their heart. “Sheena Fujibayashi. I heard sounds of fighting so I came to investigate. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, we were returning from our pilgrimage,” he grimaced, nodding his head to the fallen bodies. Upon closer inspection, Sheena found that they wore the clothing of… church pastors. “When we were attacked by those wolves. They sacrificed themselves to keep me safe. Damn it.”

“Why would they sacrifice themselves for you?” Sheena puzzled for a moment. It didn’t seem like the other guy was related to the pastors…

“Don’t tell me a cute girl like you doesn’t know who I am!” the guy looked at her in obvious surprise. Sheena felt her eye involuntarily twitch as he labeled her as ‘a cute girl’. What the- was this guy flirting with her or something? If so, he was going about it all wrong for a Mizuho kunoichi such as her. To course someone, first you had to have the blessing of his or her family before asking for permission of the courted. “I’m Zelos Wilder, the Chosen of Mana! ”

“You’re the Chosen One?” Sheena blurted out in shock. Now that she thought of it, she had seen him around Meltokio a few times, well, his hair anyways. There was always a crowd of girls surrounding him so the best she could see was the top of his head. That crimson red hair was unmistakable. The kunoichi wracked her brain for the proper etiquette with dealing with the Chosen One. Nothing came to mind, so she just bowed deeply. “Please excuse my behaviour, Chosen One! I’m so glad you’re safe!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sheena let out a quiet gasp when he grabbed her shoulders and jerked her straight again with a slight smirk. “No need to be so formal! Just call me Zelos!”

“But…” she murmured hesitantly. She’d always been taught to address others above her with respect…

The Chosen One let out a sigh as he ran his fingers through his bright red locks of hair. His face seemed to brighten as he spoke again. “Well, how’s about this then? I’ll call you Sheena if you call me Zelos! Otherwise you’ll be stuck with ‘Miss Fuji… Fuji… Fujibashi’…?”

“’Fujibayashi’,” Sheena corrected, trying to but failing at hiding her amused smile. Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad… He had a sense of humour at least. And he was smart. He probably wouldn’t mind if she… addressed him informally, would he? “As you wish, Zelos-san. I’ll try not to call you ‘Chosen One’ again, heh.”

“’-san’?” He shot her a questioning look.

Sheena couldn’t help herself and smirked slyly. A small smirk, of course. “It is an ancient Mizuhoan term of respect.”

“I’ll never win with you, will I?” he shook his head in mock dismay before grinning at her. Sheena found his joking nature… refreshing. Very few shinobi would be so trusting of a complete stranger, and to let their guard down around them. Because those few ninja would either end up dead or incapacitated. That was one of the main reasons Mizuho was unwelcoming to intruders and outsiders.

The kunoichi found herself smiling back, despite the grave situation they were in. Her cheerful mood fizzled out when she was reminded of how and why she’d had to save Zelos. Sheena looked back down at the small pile of corpses, and murmured a quick prayer for them.

While the world was divided into Martelism and atheists, Mizuho had a small religion of its own. They had several holy deities, called ‘kami’ in the ancient Mizuhoan tongue, translated into ‘god’ in the common tongue.

“I’ll escort you back to Meltokio then, Ch- Zelos,” Sheena caught her slip and corrected herself immediately. “I can’t let the Chosen One be put in danger when in a situation that I could be helping with!”

“Hey, I’m not about to protest being in the company of a pretty girl,” he put up his hands in defense with a boisterous laugh. Then he glanced up at the bit of sky that was visible through the shade of trees and scowled. “Wow, it’s so late already! Guess we’ll need to camp out again, huh? This time with such cute girl, though! Lucky me! ”

Sheena could feel her face turning a faint pink as she wondered what was it with the Chosen and being so free with his compliments. Of course it was inappropriate and completely out of line, but he was the Chosen One. What was she supposed to say but ‘thank you’? Or stay silent about it, which she decided to do otherwise she might lose her temper.

But…

“Aren’t you going to pray for them?” Sheena frowned. It was extremely bad form for the Chosen of Mana to be ignorant, or worse, scorn the teachings of the Goddess Martel. It would certainly set a bad example for the people, at least. The redhead just shook his head before looking at her expectantly. Oh! Right! Musing time was later, not now. “Right this way then, Master Zelos.”

She bowed, gesturing for him to go to where she’d planned on setting up camp. The kunoichi let herself smile a tad smugly when she caught the slightly hesitant look on his face, like he wasn’t sure if she was serious or kidding. “I’m kidding, Z-Zelos,” Sheena smiled apologetically. For some reason, the Chosen One’s name on her tongue felt strangely right.

“Ah, I knew that!” he laughed rather loudly, trying to cover up for his hesitation. Sheena pegged him with a doubtful look before following after him to the small clearing. She just wanted to get away from the heavy stench of blood in the air. It was sickening, and as tempted as she was to simply put up a Guardian Seal around herself, she should be able to overcome the stench of blood, in her line of work.

The smell… the smell of burning flesh… and the smell of blood broiling inside the body… Images flashed by in her mind’s eye, of the back of Grandpa’s back as he took the bolt meant for her, the village on fire and burning wickedly, Volt’s crimson eyes staring out at her as she failed to create a pact and caused the deaths of her comrades…

“Grandpa! Grandpa, no, please don’t leave me alone! GRANDPA!” Her own voice, pleading and sobbing for Igaguri…

“S-Shee…” Trying to comfort her even as he fell into a deep coma…

“NO!” The sound of her own voice, rising in volume and hysterical… A long, drawn out wail.

“Yo, Sheena, you alright? Sheeeeeeena?”

“Grandpa!” she gasped before she realized where she was. Zelos’ face was practically pressed to hers, with his hand raised like he had been waving it in front of her face. Sheena took a few steps back before trying to regain her bearings. Her bangs were matted to her forehead with sweat and when Sheena tried to calm her shaking hands, she realized she was still clutching Vajra tightly. Exhaling, she tucked them away into her yukata top.

“What happened?” Zelos raised an eyebrow at her. “You kinda spaced out there!”

“S-sorry,” she muttered, still feeling the pounding of her heart at the unwanted mental reminder of her greatest failure. Her eyes flickered up to his when Zelos all but shoved an apple gel in her face. “Where’d you-?”

“Found it in your pack,” he grinned cheekily. Sheena gaped openly at his audacity, then remembered that he was the Chosen, then promptly forgot again when he whipped out another apple gel for himself. The kunoichi fumed as she stormed over to the redhead and smacked him over the head, causing him to spit out the apple gel he’d been chewing on. “Ow! What was that for?!”

“That was for stealing from my pack, you stupid Chosen!” Sheena scowled, snatching the un-opened apple gel and her pack from his hands. She tied the pack securely around her body again before popping the gel into her mouth. Heh, he might’ve thought she couldn’t see through his tricks, but by getting her riled up, he’d effectively distracted her from being gloomy. Zelos Wilder really could be thoughtful…

“Ouch, that hurts, Sheena!” he feigned hurt by pressing his hand over his heart, but he really did seem to be looking at her in shock. Sheena immediately did a playback of everything she did and said. Oh, she supposed the Chosen One wouldn’t be used to being treated so harshly, huh? Too bad she wasn’t going to apologize. “What’s the big deal?”

Honestly, rummaging around in her pack without permission. What if he’d dug just a bit deeper and found her… her female things? Sheena could feel her face heating up at the thought of that. Apparently her embarrassment was making Zelos curious. “Uh- Um- Y-you’re a guy…”

“Uh… O-OOOOOH…” his jaw dropped open as realization dawned on him. Sheena nodded her head, blushing furiously. Her eyes narrowed in fury when he tried to tug her pack loose again. Not only was the Chosen of Tethe’alla a thief, but he was a pervert, too?! “I wanna see!”

She smacked him firmly on the head again, ignoring the fact that he was the Chosen One, and stomped back to her campsite. Sheena grabbed a small box of matches from her pack before starting to strike it against the box. The thin match caught on fire, and the kunoichi held it to the small pile of branches surrounded by stones. The wood caught immediately, and before long, she had a small fire going. There should be a stream somewhere around here, judging by the sound of water rushing.

“You keep this fire going, I’ll go catch some fish,” Sheena directed, not giving him a chance to argue as she strolled out of the clearing.

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Tanto - a short, Japanese sword