Musical Chairs

"1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 jump!! 1, 2, 3, jum-"

"Wait, wait a second, umm… Mori?.. Where are we?"

"In the woods?"

"I mean, what are we doing out here?"

"Walking home"

"Mori, I, I think we're lost, we should have left a trail or something"

"I guess, but-"

"Shh! Did you hear that?"

As the two brothers were peeking behind the tree, a tall woman dressed as nurse with black hair appeared from dense fog.

"Hey, are you ok? Are you lost?"

Shima lift his hand and pushed his little brother in the back

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh! I went out to pick some herbs, what about you?"

"We… we were playing, and we got lost!"

"Oh my! The night is just around the corner, you can come to my house until tomorrow, it's not far away from here, bet you don't want to walk through this forest in the night".

"Why should we trust you?"

"I'm taking care of other kids too, there is nothing wrong if you come overnight"

Shima accepted the lady's offer and went to her house with his brother. After a short walk they arrived to the house, Shima was a bit worried, why would a random house be existing in the middle of the woods? The house is big, three floors tall, with a large yard.

Inside everything is quite alright, it was dinner time, the only problem was children's face expressions, you could tell from far away that something was bothering them.

In the room, about fifteen kids were eating, but there was this girl with white hair, pretty tall for her age, who wasn't eating, Shima and Mori went to ask her if she is doing alright.

"Uhm… Hey! I'm Shima and this is my brother Mori, we were wondering if you are ok, you are the only one that is not eating"

"Yes, I am, looks like you are new here, it was better if you did not come here"

"Huh? I don't understand…"

"Let's go upstairs, I will explain to you what's going on"

As the three of them went up the stairs, the nurse asked:

"Hibana! Where are you going, you ate nothing?"

"I'm showing these two around! And I'm not hungry, that's why I haven't eaten".

"Ok then, have fun!"

After arriving upstairs, Hibana closed the door

"So, what's wrong with us being here?"

"The nurse who takes care of this place is using us as test subjects for experiments, they want to create artificial power, now that you are here too I'm sure she will trick you"

"What? What experiments, who are they? What do you mean about artificial power?"

"I thought you know since you don't live here, everyone on this world have powers, they are awakened by training"

"Hey Mori, we did read one time about this, right?"

"Yes, but I thought it's just an old legend"

"Now it explains everything, this is how Mom was healing us when we were sleeping if we got hurt, she did not want us to learn about these powers"

"But why Shima? Why you think she hid this from us?"

"Maybe it was to protect you, the outside world is cruel"

"Mom never let us leave the house yard, but now we are here because we sneak out"

"I bet she is worried"

"We need to leave as soon as possible and get back home Mori"

"Hey! I did not finish explaining, now wait and listen"

"Oh yes, sorry".

"When the kids here are old enough to be test subjects, the nurse takes them for the experiment test, she tells different lies to the other kids so that she can get away"

"But how do you know all of this?"

"I was living like you with my parents, but when I was five someone came and took everyone in the village with him."

"I was too young, and he sent me here so that when I'm old enough he would take me too"

"I'm sorry for what happened to yo-"

"I swore one day I will find him and take my revenge, that tattoo on his left eye I will never forget"

"…"

" I read books from this house library and I found hidden messages left by someone who is traitor and wants to help us"

"So that explain how you know all of this"

"Yes, so now I'm old enough for the experiments, I want to find the one that left the hidden messages and escape this place"

"How are you going to do that"

"I did not lose time playing games with the others, I trained"

Hibana eyes started to glow, she summoned a white bow with her powers.

"This is my power, until now I learned to create arrows and this bow, there are more things I want to learn but I

have no time for more, after escaping this place I will train to get stronger skills"

"Wow, will we be able to do that to one day?"

"Not the same things as me but yes, if you train you can, so what do you say, will you help me escape?"

"Yes! After we leave this place, I want you to teach us how to awaken our powers!"

"I will do my best!"

Everyone came upstairs after eating dinner together with the nurse, she brought everyone new clothes.

"It's bedtime everyone, tomorrow is a big day, so I want all of you to sleep well, goodnight!"

After kids felt asleep, Hibana slowly left her bed and went to Shima.

"Hey, Shima, she said "tomorrow is a big day" I feel something bad is going to happen, prepare yourself"

"I thought the same thing, let's rest now, everything is going to be alright, I'm sure of that"

"Yes"

It's already morning, an alarm began to sound, starting to wake up everyone in the room. The kids woke up just to be scared about their room changing while they were asleep. There is a big white room, no beds, nothing, just a big door in one of the walls.

Shima and Mori were the first to wake up, and they went straight to Hibana

"HIBANA, HEY, WAKE UP!"

"Huh? Where are we…"

"I don't know, but I'm feeling something bad is going to happen"

Right after Shima and Mori woke up Hibana, the big door started to open, the nurse and a mysterious man with a black hood entered the room, everyone got up to ask her what's happening.

"Good Morning everyone, hope you had a wonderful sleep because today might be the last time you experience one"

"Hey Shima, Mori, this isn't going well and that powerful presence I fell from that man with the hood, it looks familiar"

"Yes, I can sense that too, he is strong"

The kids didn't know what's happening, you can tell by their face expression how fear is taking over them. The man takes his hood off, under that hood was a tall man, with red hair and a tattoo on his left eye.

"Today all of you will be taking a test, the rules are simple, there are no rules, just survive"

"Behind this door there is a room full of obstacles, your goal is to find a chair and sit on to ensure your safety, while you are searching you will be hunted by these three baby monsters that have not eaten in days, I wish you the best of luck"

"What if I don't want to take the test? Can't I just go back home?" a kid shouted.

"Those who refuse to take the test will be killed immediately, it's your choice"

After hearing this everyone got shocked, Shima and Mori immediately wanted to discuss this with Hanabi, but she disappeared from their back. In the corner of the room she was trembling with fear with tears in her eyes. Shima and Mori rushed to her.

"Hanabi, what happened, are you scared that much? It's ok, look, we are shaking too".

"No, it's not that, it's… it's him, the guy with the tattoo on his left eye, he… he took them from me"

"Hanabi calm down, we need to focus on this test or everything is going to end, you need to live in order to get stronger, don't tell me you already want to give up!"

Cleaning her tears, she stood up, prepared for what's going to happen next. Shima, Mori and Hanabi started talking about a plan, right before starting to talk the nurse came to them.

"I heard you three yesterday, thanks to you now I have to take all of you at once, tsk, what a pain in the ass"

Hanabi was looking at her with dead eyes.

"By the way Hanabi, there is no traitor between us, I wrote all that hidden messages to prepare you for today, you better don't disappoint me"

"…."

"Hey Shima, Mori, which one of you runs faster?"

"I could never beat Mori in a game of tag, so he is the fastest, but why?"

"Let me explain to you the plan, first we need to see if Mori is faster than the monsters, if he is, he needs to bait the monsters to run after him, in that time we will be taking everyone and hide behind some objects that we find there, after everyone is hiding, I will use my bow to kill the three monsters, Mori do you think you can do that?"

"I think I can, but what if I'm not faster than them, what will we do, can't you just use your bow from the start?"

"Yes, I could do that, but something is not right, everyone to pass? There's something off, I think there aren't enough chairs for everyone, so while I take everyone to hide, Shima you will go to find three chairs for the three of us".

"That's smart, well we will stick to the plan, in case the monsters are faster than me, use straight your powers to kill them"

"Understood"

The nurse and the mysterious man opened the big door which leads to the test room, behind this big steel doors there is a huge room filled with random walls, just like in a maze, there is also another floor upside with a hole in middle. Not to long after everyone entered inside, the doors were closed and the test begun.

Hibana immediately took everyone with her, and they started running around to find a good place to hide. Mori went straight to where the three monsters were released, not a second passed after Mori found them, and they already started running after him, Mori started sweating, it's a life or death situation, the monsters are pretty fast, but not fast enough to catch Mori. Shima went to the second floor to secure three chairs, he got the easiest task to do despite the fact that he is the oldest.

Hibana's plan worked, Hibana hide everyone, she was looking behind the corner waiting for Mori to come near. Shima found the three chairs, one chair, in every corner of the floor.

Mori started to get tired after running with all his powers for too long, he finally reached Hibana's sight, and she shouted to him so that he can come to her, Mori turned left and ran straight to Hibana, she got up on the top of the wall and used her powers, her eyes started to

Glow white and out of nowhere a white bow began to form, she created an arrow and aimed to one of the monsters that was chasing Mori, in a fraction of second after she let of the bow string the arrow flew with high-speed straight into one of the monster's head.

Shima was coming downstairs in the worst moment possible, after reaching the first floor one of the monsters stopped chasing Mori and ran to Shima, Hibana saw that, and she didn't know what to do, she missed her second shot, her powers use a lot of energy, and she already started feeling exhausted, she aimed again and shot the monster running to Shima taking him down.

Shima was scared for a second, but he trusted Hibana that she will save him. Mori began to lose running speed, and he stumbled over a pebble and felt down. Hibana lost her concentration and missed her fourth shot, Mori was too exhausted to get up, the only thing he can do is wait for Hibana to kill the last monster, she started aiming again, as the arrow was creating with her powers, she felt down on her knees after using all her energy and fainted away.

The monster was not killed in time and jumped on Mori to eat him, he was so scared that he closed his eyes and waited for his death.

Mori started feeling a warm liquid falling on his face, when he opened his eyes, a hand covered in black flames was piercing through the monster chest.

"Scum do you think you can touch my brother?"

Shima took his hand out of the monster chest, and lift it up, watching it.

"So, this is my power, I think it awakened because of my strong will to defend you no matter what, thanks Mori"

"You're cool as always, Shima"

Shima gave Mori his hand to help him get up, they went to take Hibana and told the kids that everything is safe now, and they should go find a chair before it's too late.

At the second floor Shima found a total of four chairs, the brother put Hibana on a chair in the first corner of the floor, Mori went and sat down on the chair in the second corner and Shima sat down on the chair in the third corner.

As they were waiting for the test results, Shima saw someone sitting on the fourth chair, when they came here there was no one with them, meaning that this kid came here before them.

The big doors opened, and the mysterious man came inside the room

"Congratulations on surviving the test, now I will announce the results, everyone come downstairs"

"The white haired girl, the fast kid, the flames kid and the kid with a mask, you passed the test, about the others, you did nothing worthy of passing, you just relied on that girl to survive"

"The four winners, you are free to leave this place, the nurse will be guiding you outside, please go through that door over there, the rest of you, go to rest, a new test is waiting for you tomorrow"

"Mori we can't do anything about this, we should leave this place"

"Yes, let's take Hanabi and go"

"Oh yeah, hey maske--, he's already gone"

The three of them were taken outside by the nurse, as soon as they arrived outside they started running away without telling her a word. Near a river they stopped to rest and wait for Hibana to wake up.

"H-hey, where are we?"

"Thanks God, you are finally awake, how do you feel?"

"I'm good, how did we end up here?"

"We passed the test, only four of us passed, the tattooed guy let us leave, and he kept others for another test, the other guy that passed was wearing a mask, he vanished as soon as they let us out"

"I understand, … thank you guys, finally I can begin getting stronger and living a normal life again" said Hibana with tears in her eyes.

"You're welcome, while you were fainted I managed to use my power to protect Mori, I don't know how to use it at all but I will learn"

"Wow that's so cool Shima, I would really like to see your powers, but I guess I got to wait for that"

"Shima, Mori, thanks again for everything, but it's time to part, I'm going to wander around and train so promise me one thing, we will meet again and remain friends forever"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Hibana went on her road, a great journey is waiting for her, Shima with Mori went to find a way back to their home, their mom might kill them because they left for 2 days without saying word.

After a long trip, Shima and Mori found the way back through the forest. As they were getting closer smoke started coming out from in front of them, they thought there might be a campfire near them, but this was proved wrong after they reached the cliff from where you could see their entire village. Their entire village was burning to the ground, they are devastated seeing this is happening.

"Mori, this looks exactly like what Hibana suffered long time ago… Mom…" said Mori, starting to tear up.

"Shima… we can't do anything, I'm too scared even to go near there… We should be thankful that we left, because we got lost in the woods now we are alive".

"You are right Mori, this is a sign, I regret that Mom couldn't see us one more time"

"We should go too, it's time to get stronger, stronger enough to protect people we will get along with in life"

"Yes, our adventure begins just now, let's go brother"

Chapter I: Musical Chairs — End

"Hey Shima, it's time we head out, a long road awaits us until our destination"

"How long has it been since we parted away, five years?"

"Yes"

"Brother, I'm finally going to see Hibana again, I would have liked if you were to see her too, hopefully you are doing good where you are"

"Let's go Ryuu"