Starry Days & Sunlit Nights: Volume 2 - Haze of Shadows

Chapter 1.3 - Silently Watching

Yumiko Manaka. A seventeen-year-old girl born from a Japanese father and an American mother. She was a spirited person who valued life and all it had to offer, the kind of person who lived for the moment. Kind, caring, and surprisingly very brave, it was little wonder she always remained in his thoughts, even if she was unaware of his existence.

Ryan had run into her before he thought he would be ready, and their first real meeting caught him by surprise. He did not stalk her for his own benefit, but hers. After all, she was more than just a girl.

She was a Day Witch, possessing the powers of fire as well as the ability to heal the body. Only a month had passed since she learned of her true nature, and the experience was not a good one.

It had been an accident, but one that marked the potential danger of being what she was. By some influence on her dormant instinct, she had summoned up a ball of flame and burned her family's precious home to the ground. Since then, she had been wary and reluctant from using her own destructive powers, and although she didn't show it, the guilt was still branded on her heart to this day.

If anyone would know the truth behind the incident, it would be the man who had always been watching her. But meeting her up close, so suddenly, surprised him. His heart skipped a beat when they made eye contact, a fact that both surprised and frightened him.

Those eyes of hers were always so sincere and pure, he wanted to tell her his name, but he forced himself to refrain. He was here only for one purpose, and that was to protect her and her happiness. Nothing else mattered. Even if he died without her knowing who he was, as long as she would remain safe, he would be satisfied.

It was the least he could do to make up for all the wrongs he had done in the past.

He could hear a group of girls giggling out of his sightline. Apparently talking about him. They probably thought that he couldn't hear them, but years of honing his senses to their peak allowed him to pick up their conversation clearly, even if it was only subconsciously.

"Are you sure he's our new janitor? Isn't he a little too..."

"Hot?"

"I was going to say handsome, but yeah, totally."

"Yeah, you'd think he'd be able to land a better job than that."

"Oh! Maybe he's got some kind of troubles we don't know about, and

"But it's pretty lucky for us, don't ya think?"

"Mmmmhm!"

Ryan smirked dryly. Being the subject of female attention was nothing new to him, but nowadays it wasn't anything of concern to him.

"Don't you think he was staring at Yumi a little too intently, though?"

"Lucky..."

"Strawberry-head? No way."

"Jealous much?"

Ryan went straight back to work after hearing that. Words meant nothing to him anymore. His life existed for one purpose alone now, and he was determined to see it through.