THE MISSING EMPEROR ~ The Elemental Seven Book I

CHAPTER XV: VISIONS OF THE PAST

Myoku saw a very familiar place. For her, it was a place of solitude that calms her heart. Her grandfather's home, the Dragon Temple.

Her grandfather lived in a temple in the midst of a garden of different flowers. A beautiful landscape with bricks formed in an arc served as the temple entrance that welcomed guests. On both sides of the arc were Cherry Blossom Trees. On the left side of the temple was a garden of her mother's favorite flower, Iris. On the right was a garden of Brassica Oleracea flowering cabbage. Myoku wondered why she's here. "The Dragon must have taken me here for a reason and not just for fun." She then walked through the arc and saw her grandfather waiting for her at the shrine's door. "This can't be!" she said aloud. She walked straightway to her grandfather. "Grandpa... You are..." Just then, a girl, about eleven years of age ran past her. The girl hugged her grandfather. "Grandpa! I'm home!" the girl said. "Kuku, how was school?" her grandfather asked. "Kuku?" She wondered. She looked closely at the girl.

It was her as a child.

"This is your past, Myoku. The memory that was taken away from you." the dragon in her head chimed. Myoku got lost in the conversation of her, as a child, and her grandfather. She tried remembering this incident and it gave her a migraine. She cannot remember it at all. "Do not try to remember it. You can never will. The memory was taken from you. Completely erased. And this is the only way for you to know the truth." The dragon said. "Why are you showing this to me now?" Myoku asked. "Let's just say... I have my own reasons." The dragon replied. Young Myoku and her grandfather went inside the temple and she decided to follow. She figured they cannot see her as they were just visions of her past. "Kuku, we're going to Honshu to-..." "Really?! I'll see them again?!" young Myoku interrupted her grandfather. Myoku can't help but smile seeing herself like that but tears also fell from her eyes. She never realized how much she missed her grandfather. "Yes, you will see all of them again," her grandfather said. "Yay! Yay! Yay!" Kuku ran to her room excitedly. Her grandfather smiled adoringly. "Soujiro!" grandfather called. Myoku was stunned. "Yes, my lord?" young Soujiro said behind her. She looked at him and saw the young Soujiro which was about the young Myoku's age. "You will come with us." Grandfather said. "Understood, my lord." Soujiro replied. Myoku felt something in her gut. "This is making me feel so uneasy."

The vision changed. She was taken to a place she never knew. A mansion behind a palace with elegant architecture and fully guarded gates. She ran following a carriage passing the gate. She recognized the carriage as it belonged to her grandfather. Royal guards welcomed them, her grandfather, Kuku and Soujiro, as they alight the carriage. However, young Kuku ignored the guards and ran inside the palace. Myoku followed her. She went straight to the hall and went up a spiral staircase. She entered a well furnished room with a futon bed covered with a silken sheet in a corner. "Huh? He's not here!" Kuku said. She shut the door, went down the spiral staircase, turned right to the dining hall. The maidservants bowed to her. "Lady Reiko, it's good to~" "Where's Iceman?" Kuku interrupted the maid talking to her. "He's out~" the maid said but before she could finish, Kuku already sprinted out of the dining hall. "...side." The maid finished, scratching her head. "I can't keep up with myself! Even as a kid, without using the Shukuchi, I can't believe I ran this fast!" Myoku said to herself, but the dragon heard her. "Either your young self runs fast or you're getting old." The dragon said. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Myoku bellowed. "Nothing." the dragon replied. 

Kuku reached the backyard of the mansion. It was so wide, it can accommodate over fifty carriages. She ran straightway until she reached a wooden gazebo. Behind the gazebo was a garden of flowers she has not seen before beside a stream. A boy younger than Kuku was standing by the stream. "There he is." Kuku said. She walked toward the boy but even before he can get near him, the water surrounded him. "Uh-oh.." The water that surrounded the boy rose and was about to splash Kuku. She tried to dodge but the boy distracted her. "Careful, Lady Myoku. These are those expensive Ice Roses from Ainsworth." Kuku saw the flowers so she stopped "Oops!" and she got splashed. "Ah! What was that for, ICE MAN?!" Myoku laughed while watching. "Aren't they cute?" she said aloud to no one in particular. "I don't want you to run into mother's garden. We bought these as a surprise for her birthday." the boy snapped at Kuku. "Father says I must tend them since no one else can." The boy said. "Hmm. Alright then. ICEMAN GARDENER!" Kuku said. "Lady Myoku, you idiot." The boy said.