1 Chapter One

For as long as it could remember, society was given a gift. Whether it was bestowed upon them by God or the Devil, it mattered not, for this innate gift lead to the birth of a civilisation. Blank. Humanity used their souls to create the country, and thus, Blank was born. After many centuries, it grew to become a beautiful country with astonishing accomplishments, but what good is an apple rotten to the core?

"I'm going to be late again!"

Kaiya rushed out of her bedroom, and almost slipped down the stairs, before suddenly realising she was in her underwear, and was thankful no one else was in the house to witness her in this state. She quickly grabbed her clothes after running back up and headed straight to the bathroom. In the end, she came out with her long silky hair combed and light blue jacket... around her waist.

"I'm such an idiot, honestly, this makes it the third time I'm late...  DAMMIT"

She almost slipped down the stairs in a hurry, and ran outside.

Today was March 22nd. The Day of the Flame. Although, more accurately, the celebration takes place in the night. It is said that the first human created the first flame, so to honour his legacy, everyone must light a fire. Kaiya honestly thought this was complete nonsense, because firstly, not everyone could light a fire like he did, and secondly, fires are made so often, that celebrating this day feels like 'any other day with extra steps', as she says.

"Oh, Kaiya. You're finally here... late... again..." her mother whispered.

"Hey, this isn't my fault the clock you bought keeps acting up. There's always a shortage with it. I should've stayed with the-"

She was interrupted by her mother shushing her, and telling her to pay attention. Kaiya would often wonder, why doesn't her mother just wake her up. Last Ceremony, she asked her mother, only for her to reply:

'You wanted responsibility. A 15 yr old girl like yourself wanted to become an adult as a teen. What more do you want?'

And so, living with the regret that she wanted to be treated normally and not that of a 7 year old, she stood next to her mum, sluggish, and paid attention to the speaker.

"...and on this very day, the first of us reached out his hand like so, and with all his might, created flame from his fingertips and birthed us fire."

Kaiya was bored.

When the speech officially ended, everyone was given a block of wood with an insignia of a tiger embedded on the end.

"Hey, don't you think it was weird how they gave out the blocks? I mean, they made sure to make us wait for them."

"I'm sure the blocks are just more delicate this year. Don't worry so much dear. More importantly, have you seen the insignia? It's a tiger now!"

"Yeah... strange... it used to be a crab. The crab was cuter, although I heard there was a plan to make it a snail, but it somehow got lost in the process of making. Weird huh..."

As they returned home, Kaiya's mother, Zeniya, placed the wooden block on the kitchen counter and placed her coat in the air. Like almost everybody, Zeniya had an innate gift, one that was awakened. She had the ability to reduce or increase an objects gravitational pull, essentially allowing anything she touches to float or never move.

"Mum, remember what you said about not carelessly making things float around the house?"

Kaiya was ignored. In frustration, she walked to her bedroom and stared into her mirror. She then observed her bedroom like she would almost everyday.

"Good. Nothing's changed in the room. Mum hasn't been here yet."

She looked towards her bookshelf, to see her collection of mystery novels. Her favourite genre of books. "I should give you another read..." She starts to reach out to pick her favourite novel. "...actually, I need to try something first."

She stood in the middle of her room, and with a deep breath, and a long blink, she held out her hand and poured her thought into creating something, anything. The light flickered but before Kaiya could grab that ounce of hope that she had accomplished what everyone had already did, Zeniya yelled out that there was a power outage across the street.

'Why', she thought to herself. 'Why me. Why am I the only one. Everyone got their gifts. Am I... not worth a gift?'

She paused and took another deep breath before moving on and ignoring her struggle of being gift-less.

'If I can't have a gift, I'll become my own gift', and with that on her mind, she headed outside, but before she did, her mother managed to sneak a kiss onto her cheek as a goodbye.

"Make sure not to stay out too late, it gets dark quickly today, remember. And don't wonder off too far." These words were heeded and Kaiya left.

Turning around to look at the house, she said, "If only you were here, Bro", before wondering around the street.

"Another boring day in Ninurtah."

Realising that she had said this aloud, she quickly glanced around her, but no one was to be seen.

"Huh, I wonder why no one's outside... oh, I see they still keep their wood hanged outside", referring to the elderly couple that live on the opposite side to their house. "Today's Celebration's been really slow... I mean, normally, at this time people would've taken their blocks outside to set it up but as you can see Kaiya", as she points to the hanging wooden block, "no ones bothering to-"

It was too late for her to brace for impact. A sudden gust of wind knocked her off her feet. The blacked out street was suddenly illuminated and from this feeling of warmth, Kaiya deduced it could only be one thing.

Fire.

The house on the other side of the street was set ablaze by some unknown phenomenon. Trying to come to terms with what had just happened, Kaiya's immediate words were, "Are they still inside? I... I have to do something."

With all her might, Kaiya tried to make herself run into the burning house, but as much as she tried to get up, she was frozen in place. This caused her much distress, and caused her breathing to become more panicked.

She finally mustered up the strength to stand up, and was slowly approaching the building when suddenly, the building next to her erupted in flames too. This unexpected explosion erased her efforts of getting into the house as she was further knocked away.

"WHY IS THIS HAPPENING! WHY!"

Kaiya started to scream, which was the only thing she could do in this situation. She was unable to move. Tears started to roll down her cheek. Then, she remembered, if two houses had caught on fire... her house must be soon...

The image of her house being burnt with her mother still inside gave her the strength to the stand up, but the house next door was the next one to catch on fire. Unable to brace in time, she was knocked further.

"WHY ISN'T ANYONE RUNNING OUTSIDE, DAMMIT. HOW MANY HOUSES WILL BURN. STOP, PLEASE!"

Another building lit up, a house in the end of the street.

"GET UP KAIYA. THERE'S NO USE IN HOPING OUR HOME DOESN'T CATCH ON FIRE. GET UP, YOU USELESS GIFTLESS MISTAKE."

In this moment, her legs started to feel lighter, and the house she was currently next to exploded, but it suprisingly didn't knock her over.

Kaiya practically broke her front door open, and yelled out to her mum in tears.

"MUM, GET OUT THE HOUSE, GET OUT QUICK, NO TIME TO EXPLAIN."

Her panicked expression caused Zeniya to be worried. But she had unconditional trust in her daughter, but even so, she asked her daughter, "why, what's wrong?"

"You... you don't see it? THE FIRES GOING OFF ONE BY ONE, ALMOST IN A PATTERN... wait..."

Kaiya froze again. Zeniya grew curious to her words, but as she insisted to go out, she grabbed the wooden block and grabbed the floating coat.

"Mother... MUM THROW THE BLOCK AWAY, AND HURRY, THE DENIER'S GOT THEIR BLOCK BEFORE US, THROW IT BEFOR-"

It was too late. The block of wood. The block with the tiger insignia. The block that should've symbolised hope. It blew up in her hands. Time moved slowly in that instance. Kaiya took one long look at her mother. Her mother whom she cherished. Her mother who was now engulfed in flames. The force of the explosion slamming her outside, landing head first on the floor.

As she slowly faded to unconsciousness, the image of her house in its current state burnt itself into her memory. She let out one last tear. And her eyes shut.