The Hidden World

Kaede was quite happy today. The testing went by smoothly and yielded results far better than that she was expecting. It went so well in fact that she felt like jumping around like a little girl but since she was a professional she had to control herself.

 

While she was immersed in her joyful thoughts, her partner Moyasu entered the small room they had rigged up for the medical exams. Upon seeing him, Kaede’s eyes lit up and she began to speak in an excited voice.

 

“Today’s a great day! We have another potential trainee!” she said.

 

Moyasu looked up in surprise.

 

“Wow,” he said. “Then that makes it two for this group here. Two in one country, especially one as small as Japan.” He looked through Yuki’s file and a small frown appeared on his face. “Wait, I understand that he tested positive on the last one, but the other two test don’t show anything unique about him. Average mental capacity and average physical capabilities.”

 

“No,” Kaede said shaking her head. “You need to look closer. The kid was intentionally trying to look average. Those answers are way too boring for a normal person to think of and though he was in the middle of the pack during the run he didn’t seem in anyway tired when he entered this room."

 

“Also, when I was looking at his body he seemed much more fit than his results said. He had some muscle on him, but his body was kinda thin for a male.”

 

“Now that you mention it, he was able to keep up with the boys that were sprinting fairly easily,” Moyasu said thinking. “Even during the last stretch, he managed to stay in the middle.”

 

Kaede nodded with his analysis.

 

“Yup!" she said standing up. "We should go to the school nurse’s office now, the boy fainted after the last test. It's time to give him the good news.”

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When Yuki woke up, he found himself lying on a soft bed in a foreign room. Upon seeing the various first aid equipment and the white lab coat that rested on a swivel chair next to a desk, he assumed that he was somehow in the nurse’s office. He didn't know how he got there. 

 

While struggling to sit up, he remembered that he had fainted shortly after holding that odd crystal ball. With that he suddenly remembered that voice that came with it, the unidentifiable voice that he heard echo in his head before he blacked out. The voice that welcomed him.

 

Turning his attention to himself he suddenly felt something flowing within him, a warm familiar feeling. While trying to identify this new sensation, his hand unconsciously went to his neck as it always did when he was thinking. A surge of panic went through him when he couldn’t feel the necklace that usually rested on his chest. He calmed when he recalled that he placed it in his pocket when that lady, Kaede, told him to strip. Taking it out, he placed it back around his neck and the flowing curiously seemed to somewhat subside.

 

‘Magic.’

 

That was the only explanation Yuki could come up with to explain what had happened to him and what he was feeling. This wasn’t a conclusion that one would normally fall on but he had always suspected that magic existed in the world. One of the biggest clues to this was on his own body. 

 

Ever since he could remember, he had some sort of emblem that resembled a tattoo etched onto his right arm. The black mark circular in shape with an unidentifiable creature drawn in the center with a single star below it. Besides the fact that he had never gotten a tattoo in his life, what made the mark especially curious was that no one else seemed to be able to see it. Now that magic was a possibility Yuki began to suspect that it wasn’t that only he could see the emblem on his arm, but that anyone one could as long as they were able to use magic.

 

But he wasn't sure of his theory. Kaede should have been able to at least sense magic since she was the one testing for it but she didn't react or seemed to notice any tattoo on him when he had his clothes off.

 

‘Thank god, though. I thought I was crazy, seeing things that don’t exist,’ he thought to himself. ‘But what was that voice?’

 

Hearing footsteps, Yuki looked up to see the two inspectors entering the room, the woman who he remembered was Kaede looking excited and the man, Moyasu, more subdued. They took a seat beside the bed Yuki was resting in and Kaede took a sheet of paper from a red folder that she was holding.

 

“How are you feeling? I was really worried when you suddenly fainted,” she said to Yuki.

 

“I’m fine. What’s this about?” he asked.

 

“Oh, I have some great news!” she said, her expression brightening. “You have been selected as a potential candidate for our program.”

 

She handed Yuki the paper and continued to talk.

 

“This is an amazing opportunity for you. You just need to go home and get that paper signed then we’ll take you from your house to our facility to determine whether or not you can join.”

 

The paper that she gave Yuki looked more like an advert rather than a permission slip. Bright and colorful, it had childish decorations pasted all over it. If Yuki didn’t suspect that the organization Aether had connections to magic he would have thought the paper was for some kind of summer camp. The kind where fun is promised but in reality all you receive are mosquito bites.

 

Yuki inwardly grumbled to himself when he received the paper. This was the exact opposite of what he was aiming for when he was taking those tests. All of his hard work to not stand out and avoid getting picked became undone in that last test. And he still understand what exactly happened then. 

 

“We have already gotten permission from the school for you to go right home to get that signed,” Kaede continued. “One of us is going to give you a lift. But you might have to wait a bit before we go to our main headquarters, we have to pick up another candidate. She also attends this school, by the way. Maybe you’ll recognize each other.”

 

Nodding, Yuki got out of the bed and stretched a little before heading to his locker to retrieve his things. The one that was going to drive him was Moyasu apparently as he was the one that followed Yuki out.

 

Once Yuki packed all of his items up, Moyasu led him to a black Mercedes parked outside the school and opened a door for Yuki. After he got in, Moyasu started the engine and headed toward Yuki’s home.

 

‘They know where I live. That’s interesting and a little worrying,’ Yuki thought to himself. Doing a quick mental rerun of his day, he wondered how his aunt would react to all of this. She’ll probably just think it was some kind of educational program and sign it. Yuki eventually decided to just accept that his life just got more complicated.

 

‘At least, I could learn more about myself and that weird tattoo,’ he thought. 

 

They stopped outside of the entrance to Yuki’s apartment and he got out. Moyasu told him that he’ll stay outside for now but if it seemed that Yuki was taking too long of a time he’ll go inside to check up on him.

 

Yuki entered the apartment to find it oddly quiet and he paused. Normally his aunt would have the television or radio on and the kitchen would be filled with the sound of soap operas and game shows.

 

But today the television was dead. The radio was mute. And his aunt was nowhere to be seen. The eerie silence was suffocating to Yuki as the hairs on the back of neck began to rise, his instincts warning him.

 

He cautiously creeped around the home looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of his aunt or what she was doing.

 

As he tiptoed past his room he heard the sound of someone breaking pieces of wood coming from his door and froze, a foot hovering in the air. There was someone here, a robber maybe. But why would a robber be destroying potential profits?

 

He turned his neck slowly and then his body, trying to not make any noise. He willed his arm to move and it took hold of the handle of the door and twisted it without a sound.

 

He cracked open the entrance to his room in order to peek inside to see what was happening inside of it. The scene that greeted him was one that seemed to have came out of a novel. A person clad in black with the remnants of drawers and closets around him while holding a shining katana dyed red that slowly dripped crimson blood from the tip of the blade onto the floor.

 

And in the center of the room, the dead body of Yuki’s aunt.