Excerpt: Shadow Chronicles

“Morning.” She said, as she pressed the button to go down and the doors closed. Allen nodded, toast in his mouth as he took out his phone and turned it on. They arrived on the ground floor and were about to get out when Kenji charged them.
“Wait, don’t get out!”
Kenji ran into the elevator and pressed the ground floor button, and the doors closed once more.
“You can hitch a ride with me and Galahad.” he said, grinning, as Mitsuki raised her eyebrow and Allen nodded enthusiastically, eating his toast.
“Galahad?” asked Mitsuki, raising an eyebrow.
the doors opened once more and Kenji walked over to the car, a sleek looking dark grey sports car with vents on the side and a slide down roof.
Allen whistled, toast eaten. Mitsuki nodded in approval.
“Galahad, is the team car.” Said Kenji proudly, slapping a hand on the hood.
“Shotgun.” Mitsuki called, as Kenji unlocked it and walked around to the left side.
“Sorry Allen, you got back.”
Allen shrugged and tossed his large bag in first, the jumping in, Mitsuki sliding in front, all clicking their seat belts.
Kenji turned it on and Allen grinned at the sound, Mitsuki sighing contentedly as they pulled out of the garage and onto the street. The went straight for a few blocks, before turning left at a light. Mitsuki looked confused.
“But the palace is-,”
“There’s a back way that isn’t covered in tourists.” Kenji turned another corner and pulled a U turn into another seemingly broken down parking garage, taking a card out of his overhead thing a ma bob and scanned it, the bar shifting up and letting them through. They seemed to go through a labyrinth, and after more than a dozen twists and turns, they emerged in the back lot of the arena. Kenji parked and got out, Mitsuki and Allen following.
“Ok. Let’s go.”
Hideyuki sat on the bleachers, tossing a chunk of earth up in the air and catching it. The three came in and Hideyuki grinned and chucked the good sized chunk at Mitsuki.
“Think Fast.” he said amusedly, as she immediately pushed the two boys out of the way, rearing back and punching the incoming earth so it turned into sand. Allen and Kenji looked at each other with a rather terrified look on their faces. Hideyuki chuckled.
“I do believe I figured that out. You’re not classifying your energy and you’re settling for it raw.”
Allen and Kenji looked at each other with even more terrified glances at the new realization of Mitsuki’s brute strength.
Hideyuki hopped down from the bleachers.
“Alright my little duckies, lets see five laps around the arena.”
Mitsuki’s eyebrows shot up and Allen nearly dropped his bag. Kenji just groaned.
Mitsuki was the first one out, keeping pace in a rather smart strategy. Allen quickly passed her, keeping a pace slightly faster than hers. Kenji blew by both of them in a raw sprint. By about two laps, Kenji was still going strong. Allen, however, was losing steam, and Mitsuki, completely non plussed by everything happening around her. However, this didn’t last long. Kenji had the nerve and the short memory loss to run backwards while passing her, and that was a bad move. She started to sprint, leaving poor Allen in the dust, Kenji now not only running for the win, but for his life.
Hideyuki hadn’t heard such a bad mouth in so many languages directed at a single human since Alicia had gotten surrounded by enemy troops.
Allen was the last to come in, panting for breath. Mitsuki was beating up Kenji, and Hideyuki was sitting on the bleachers watching the show. Finally, after Kenji started to scream ‘MERCY!’ in a rather high pitch, Hideyuki broke it up.
“Alright, ok, now what have we learned?”
Mitsuki jabbed her thumb at Kenji.
“Aoi- san is a show off.” Mitsuki cracked up and Kenji nodded at Allen.
“Allen can’t run.” Allen glared at Kenji, Punched him in the shoulder, and looked at Mitsuki.
“I’ve learned not to piss her off.”
Mitsuki punched Kenji again.
“What was that one for?”
“Allen’s right.”
Hideyuki fought the urge to fall on the ground laughing.
“Ok, other than those three rather obvious facts.”
There was a long silence before Mitsuki held up her hand.
“Aoi- san’s powers are purely physical, mine are slightly physical, and Rukama- san’s is purely mental, which means he hasn’t had much physical training.”
Hideyuki nodded.
“Alright, now…” he held up an envelope, “These hold your test scores.”
He passed them out and Mitsuki looked at him.
“Why do I have Rukama- san’s?”
“Read the score.”
“Two- hundred points out of two hundred points within 30 minutes.”
Mitsuki looked over at Allen who had suddenly found an interest in the ground.
“Ok, Kenji, read Mitsuki’s score.”
“198.5 out of two hundred points in 45 minutes.” He looked at Mitsuki, “Someone rushed through…” he said in a mock disapproving voice. She snapped again.
“Well guess what, Mr. I’m – So- Smart, you only got a 140 out of 200. And you took the whole time.”
Allen cracked up. Kenji turned beet red. Hideyuki shook his head and muttered something about how the familial honor was tarnished.
Hideyuki quickly changed the subject.
“Ok. Kenji and Mitsuki, why don’t you two try and spar. I’m curious to see who would be incapacitated first.”
Allen blinked.
“But that’s no contest. Mitsuki would freeze him into a statue in a second.”
Hideyuki pointed a finger at Allen.
“Exactimundo. Which is why I said that. well, ok, I wanted to see the look on his face, but really, think about it. On the battle field, the Mages could easily get rid of the knights with one flick of the hand.” He looked at Mitsuki.
“However, in your case, you’d just have to blink.”
Mitsuki nodded slowly.
“Ok. Rukama, Kanbara. Let’s see who would win.”
Mitsuki blinked, “really?”
“Of course. Let’s see the next experiment.”
Kenji looked up at the ceiling. “Of course, we’re his experiments.” he muttered wryly, sitting on the bleachers.
Mitsuki shifted her weight and calmed herself down, closing her eyes and waiting for energy to be released. She felt a slight release and she immediately jumped and bounced off the air, opening her eyes and bringing water next to her, spreading it into ten equal parts, each blob controlled with her finger. However, she forgot that the circle was enlarging and charged right into it. Suddenly her world changed, the arena dissolving into darkness. Instead, it was now a frozen garden enclosed by a palace, a path in front of her and open sky above her. She was dressed in a wide armed dress, that trailed behind her. There was a tree next to her that was encased in ice, some icicles hanging off the branches. everything was calm, and Mitsuki, for the moment, was too.
And then all hell broke loose.