DDLC: Element Guardians! (Sayonika + Natsyuri)

Chapter One: Running To Leave

Running. The action of moving. Fast. As fast as you are able; it's a very personal activity. Lifting yourself up only to bring yourself down so you can push up again. Why? Why bring yourself down to only go back up? Why keep moving?

It's different for each person, but for me, it's the goal. The victory in knowing you did it, the feelings of accomplishment when you end the race. You did it. You matter. Pushing against the forces that keep you down and blow you away in this world; rebelling.

Maybe you are doing it to get away from danger. Is someone behind me? It's your choice to look back or not. You can stop, or keep pushing, you can fall and stay down, or you can stand back up again.

And for years, that was my motivation. You can fall and stay down, or you can stand back up again. The best I could do at some points was stumble forward, but I never stopped moving.

Life pushed me down; sent it's winds to pull me back and gravity to crush me. It sent rain to make me slip, and thunder to scare me. I was fine with all that; I kept moving. But sometimes, life throws the unexpected at you, making you not only fall onto the ground, but into a hole.

Just when I was getting used to it all, life threw me into a tunnel, at age four.

The house, burning slowly to the floor, hours and months of working for money lost as they hurried me out of the house. They said it would be okay. They promised.

It wasn't. Mother and father had dangerous jobs that led them to have enemies; they found us, planning to kill me, but ended up shooting them.

I now live with guilt, but happiness isn't impossible to find. I find it in two things; running and four girls. I run for the four, and the four girls are the only ones that let me keep running. I owe them my life.

What is my name? My story? If you will, join me in my journey. Stay and walk with me through the hardships and amazement. Anytime you may leave, give up hope. But I hope you believe in us.

Let's start simple. Monika. Monika is my name. I am a brown haired and green eyed girl, who is currently sixteen. I'm tall enough, slightly taller than average. I'm known as the *perfect* student; I do try my best. High school never helped me keep a small reputation, as I had lots of friends, even some I had never met before.

Humans. They'll do anything to climb their way to the top, to be higher than another. We're such competitive creatures; grades, jobs, money, survival.

In this world, everyone is competing for one thing; a school. At the age of sixteen, you automatically leave high school for three weeks and enter an application for a different high school.

This high school was told to be a place where only the best of the best got into. Only for the strong. People who went there don't come back; they've found jobs and their life secrets are revealed to them. They found happiness, and anyone would kill to get out of the rough place this life is.

But why am I running? Well, they announce who is going into the program today, and so you need to get to your tv as fast as possible if you don't want to miss the casting.

But we don't have a tv, so we're meeting up at the town hall, where multiple TVs are placed for people out shopping and can't get home in time.

They do this every year. That's why I'm running. To meet up with my "family" and watch the program.

The forest soon grew weaker as trees began to get thinner and shorter, and the sound of loud chatting rang over the sound of the wind.

I jumped up onto the sidewalk and ran off it, into the town. The dirt on the ground sounded like gravel as they held my feet up. People held shopping bags or walked slowly around the town square.