“I’m free!”

Finally after the long struggle of continuous school work and projects, I can finally take a break and rest easy starting today.

My name is Katsuragi Yuko, and today is the 3rd of March, my birthday!.

I bought a really expensive cake today! It’s a mango cake filled with vanilla frosting and garnished with cream and mangoes. I’m finally able to treat myself after a long month's work without feeling guilty of the price of this cake. I can finally taste the fruits of my labour…

This is my first time buying a cake for myself, my parents died when I was only 9 years old. After that I needed to live for myself and grow up faster than most kids. I was forced to leave our apartment and was placed in an orphanage. The orphanage was kind enough to give me a place to stay, but I didn’t really like the way they do things around there, so I ran away when I was 11 years old.

Luckily enough a kind lady took me in and gave me a place to stay for a few years. But due to an unfortunate accident my adoptive parent died. It was a hard time for us back then. My adoptive parent has a daughter who works abroad. She was kind enough to become my guardian on paper so I wouldn’t have to go back to the orphanage.

She helped me take back my parents' apartment. Aunt Hanako, our neighbour and also a friend of my parents, took care of me when I returned to our old home. She has a son named Takuya, whom I'm good friends with growing up. Whenever I needed help she would always be there for me. But of course I can’t always depend on her, so I took some jobs here and there to support myself. She would always nag at me for working at such a young age but I guess she eventually stopped because I was too insistent.

Now I’m in my last week of being a high school student, I will soon graduate and start looking for a real job. Well, going to college is also an option, but I don’t really have the money to pay for it by myself, I wouldn’t want to trouble my guardian and aunt Hanako, especially now I’m 18 years old, I’m sure they would understand.

“This cake looks really delicious, I better go home fast..”

I was walking on a rather busy street. It was a bright and sunny afternoon, I just got out of school and the weather is too perfect for me to not enjoy. I was carrying a really expensive cake that I saved up for a week. I can’t wait to share it with my friends.

I strolled down the busy street whilst shading my eyes from the harsh sun in its usual spot, shining with all its might. The birds happily chirped under the cool shade of the cherry blossom trees with their petals gently fluttering in the afternoon breeze and carried the sweet scent of my freshly bought mango cake. I closed my eyes for a brief moment to take in the peaceful atmosphere, the calmness and stillness of the moment almost felt like a dream.

It was going fine until I opened my eyes and saw two shadow-like hands emerging from the shade of the trees. It was flailing around, attempting to grab passersby left and right. It was something that is definitely not normal. I was aghast that no one seemed to notice five squirming and almost transparent black looking hands emerging from the shadows.

I quickly looked around hoping to see if someone else also noticed the bizarre hands, but no one seems to be aware of the situation. I was confused, Why am I the only one who seemed to notice it? Am I hallucinating? Questions had flooded in my head and I needed answers. I stared intently at the shadow hands and one hand managed to catch one of the feet of a passerby, the shadow-like hands looked like it was pulled out from the ground up. The emerging shadow was in the shape of a tall lanky figure, then it fuse itself unto the unknowing man.

“I cannot sweep that under the rug!”

My curiosity had already reached its peak, I followed the man whom a shadow just merged into, completely forgetting the fact that I wanted to get home early. I followed him for about two minutes and for a second time I again came across a similar situation. A shadow caught the leg of a passerby woman and merged with her. I got distracted, I wanted to also follow the woman but following the man was something I decided on first.

I continued following the man while taking a mental note on what the woman looked like. I turned back to face the man but he’s already gone. I quickly ran to the direction where I last saw him. I caught up to the man and found him entering a murky looking street. It’s definitely a street you’d normally avoid entering, I stared in the distance, looking at the man as he entered the grey-tinted alleyway.

“Yuko,” I thought to myself. “Perhaps our curiosity shouldn't always come first.” I whispered trying to stop myself from continuing to follow the man. But it was too late, before I decided on what to do, my feet had already gone ahead and entered the suspicious street.

The atmosphere was foggy and humid. It was littered with empty boxes and fallen trash bins that was creating a putrid smell. Part of me wanted to just turn back and pretend nothing had happened. I was having second thoughts but I decided to trust my gut and follow him..

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He was already ahead of me so I had to run to catch up. But as soon as I started running I heard a deathly scream coming from upfront. I rushed to where the sound came from and people started running from behind who were minding their own business just a second ago. Not a moment later the street was packed with curious passersby who wanted to see what just happened. When the fog cleared the curious crowd let out a simultaneous gasp. The man I was following up till now has attacked an innocent beggar with a knife. Just from looking at the crime scene, the whole situation wasn't planned. The man just attacked the beggar by just being unfortunate enough to be there. It didn't make sense. Why would a nicely dressed man, wearing a business suit just go to a gloomy street and suddenly attack someone out of nowhere. While still being overwhelmed by what just happened, I noticed that the man was emitting a dark aura outside him.

“The shadow!”.

I gasped with the realisation that it was the emerging shadow’s doing. I hurried my way out of the crowd and sprinted towards the woman’s direction. The woman whom I saw had the same case as the first man. I darted street by street looking for the woman with the shadow. I took a quick turn at the last street and finally saw a familiar figure. It's the woman I was after. She didn't look weird by any means, she looked normal, no dark aura in sight. I tried to compose myself and approached the woman, but not a moment later a huge force just struck the ground, like a giant boulder just crashed right before the woman.

I was shielding my eyes from the dusty wind whilst taking a peek of what just happened. Instead of running away or giving an audible gasp, the woman was silent, she acted as if the surge of wind that just passed by her was nothing and carried on with her day. I was more confused than shocked.

But forget that. What was that? What just crashed before her? I stood in shock, speechless even.I took a step back afraid of what was about to emerge from the dust.

Before us stood a staggering 20ft. tall Sapphire Dragon adorned with beautiful jewel accessories embedded on its armour. I was standing in awe, admiring the beautiful dragon in front of me.

There was a man riding the dragon who was tall and rather good looking. He looked pale and seemed close to my age. His hair is split in blue and grey. On one of his ears sparkled a small earring embedded with a deep blue crystal. He wore a neatly tied high ponytail with a braid on the side, hanging on his braid was a glowing dark blue orb with the same colour as his eyes. He was wearing an odd set of clothing, he wore a leather armour with gold linings. Below his armour was a flowy white buttoned down long sleeve, and a piece of light yellow scarf he used as a sash.

As soon as I got a hold of the situation, the odd looking man already jumped off his dragon and landed in front of the woman who didn't notice his appearance and continued on her way. The odd looking man clutched his waist, with his belt holding a scabbard with it being a …katana?

“Hold up!” I came back to my senses. The odd man pulled out the katana from its sheet and quickly made a big swing at the woman’s neck.

“STOP!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

But it was too late, his katana had hit the woman’s neck. Afraid of what I might witness, I closed my eyes. But what happened next was more than shocking. Instead of her head flying away, she was looking behind her back, she looked directly at me, looking PERFECTLY fine! She’s now staring at me—no, Everyone in the street is staring at me like I’m crazy.

I realised that I was the only one who saw the giant dragon sitting in the middle of the road and a woman almost getting her neck sliced in half.

I tried to think of a way to cover up the embarrassment at the moment, all eyes were on me and I stood there still overwhelmed with emotions.

“Oh.. haha wrong person..”

I was never good at theatre but this might be my best performance yet! The whole street just shrugged and carried on with their life. Without questioning why I just screamed like that.

"You... "

The odd man whispered with a puzzled yet suspicious look on his face.

I bolted away, I don't know what I just witnessed but I'm not ready to be a part of that. My curiosity once again failed me and I needed to escape fast! I couldn't think of a way to escape the situation and make it seem like it was nothing, so I just ran the opposite way.

That didn't work out because the odd guy quickly got down from his dragon and chased after me. I quickly made a left turn onto a crowded street and bumped into someone. I quickly picked up her fallen bag, I couldn't think much about it at the moment. I'm more concerned about the odd looking man who’s about to kill me because I saw him. I was in a hurry, for a moment I thought that person’s hands were unnaturally white, but I was too busy running so I didn't think more about it.

I have no idea what just happened, I don't know what wrong I did, but the look on that guy's face was enough for me to know that I should stay away from him. It's as if I just saw something illegal.

I ran for a while and noticed I wasn't being chased anymore, I had a sigh of relief and walked to a nearby convenience store. I thought I should wait it out in case I'm still being followed. But as soon as I was about to enter, a huge gust of wind blew everything and next thing I know I'm being carried by a dragon four times my size!! The dragon carried me as if I was its food in its massive claws. I tried my best to stay calm because I know I shouldn't do anything to make that dragon want to drop me.

The dragon flapped its massive wings and we were instantly zooming 50 ft above ground. I looked up and called for the dragon’s rider, the odd man just looked back at me and tried to say something, I didn’t quite hear it because of the strong wind but it sounded important. I stayed still hoping not to get on the dragon’s bad side, she might drop me so that’s not good.

How did I know the dragon is a she? Well if you’re getting carried by a dragon 600ft. up in the air, you’re bound to look up right?