Shangri La Pt. 1

98: Verity

"When I say I'm very close to your cousin, Emra, I mean; I'm her fiance."

Processing his words through her mind, Izumi could only sit there in silence as this felt too surreal to be. 

"You– You are... Emra's... fiance... ... EEEEEHHHHHHH!?!?!?!?" she screamed, forcing the doctor to just stand there and close his eyes while possibly regretting saying such a thing. 

"Ha– But you– But she– I never– HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN MY COUSIN?!?!?" "

Ah– Well we met when we were both 16 and now we're both in our mid 20's, so almost 10 years now." 

"S-So you met... before the war?" 

"Mn. She was badly injured at the time, and so I fixed her up and we've kept in touch ever since. And because me and your cousin have kept in touch, she also told me all about the Emerald Clan. Not just about the Emerald Clan and their abilities, but a few things about you as well."

"A-About... me?" 

"Yes, she told me that her cousin might look like an Emerald, but she's yet to release her powers, which is deemed uncommon in the clan. So, she told me if I ever got the chance to meet you, then I would be able to inform you or in some way help you on trying to awaken your powers. Then again, I'm not actually an Emerald, so who am I to say?" Takashi joked. 

"But... Why did she ask you instead of having her try to help me herself?" 

"Well, currently she's been traveling through the country, and–to be honest–I'm not sure where she is at the moment. Luckily, because you're here in the Todoroki castle, that means that you can possibly go into the royal library that's here." 

"T-There's a library?" 

"Mn. Not only are there books about the Emerald Clan in there, but there's books on all the other Clans that're out there. So if you're ever curious about those other clans, I'm sure you'd be more than welcome to look through them. But I must warn you, you're possibly not gonna find the answer you're looking for considering there aren't that many books on the Emerald Clan to begin with."

"W-What? But why?" 

"The Emerald Clan is considered the smallest of all the Clans, so it's possibly unsolved as to where they came from or why there aren't that many to begin with." Takashi answered, and that got the greenette thinking. 

'Wait– But I thought there were over a hundred Emeralds in the Clan before and during the war, so how can there be so little on the history?' she thought as she was itching to see this library the doctor was speaking of. 

"Hah~ I'm sure you'd like to read through such history, but I must see how badly injured your back is that you told me about." the doctor sighed. 

"Ah– Oh, right." 

"Face away from me, and don't worry, I'm a gentleman, not a creep." 

"M-Mn." she mumbled as she faced her back to the doctor for him to start unweaving the torn cloth that was considered bandages over her body and chest revealed the large burned scar.

"This is quite an injury." 

"Y-Yes." 

"Hm~ But now that I'm seeing this, it seems you shouldn't have to worry about your powers." the doctor noted, catching her attention. 

"'Not worry about my powers'? But why?" 

"Well, there's a fully bloomed cherry blossom tree on your back, and it seems quite new too." 

"Ah–" 

Without even waiting, Izumi tried to turn her head and look back as far as she could, and her eyes widened to see what she could that was resting on her back. Sure enough, there was a fully bloomed cherry blossom tree that covered her entire back and looked brand new. Not only did this tree look new, but the large slash wound actually landed exactly where the bark of the tree stump was, making it almost look like the tattoo was meant to cover the wound.