Spark in Darkness: Unworldy encounter/Prototype

Spark 9: First mission

Haruki pulled up his travelling bag and slung it over his shoulder. Inside was a pouch of water and his uniform from his Japanese school. Somehow he just felt like bringing it with him whenever he went. He looked at the mirror in front of him. Half of his had already turned white, starting from the end, so now what was left of black hair was showing from the tip from the center of his head.

He twisted his body to look at the clothes he was donning on. Above a sleeveless shirt was the robe of his school, specially made for the students of Zaki Taiyo. He had heard about stories of some housewives living at the town at the bottom of the mountain helping out with the making of the robes for the Spark school.

At least it was comfortable.

Using another arm, Haruki grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows given to him from the woman he saved when he first came to this world. He wondered if that town was now safe. He had wanted to check on them, but his first mission would get him off on a route opposite from that of the town at where he fought Gless Moria.

Haruki felt nervous. He was only given directions to a town to protect it from some beasts of the Night, most likely familiars of Nayshards, but he was afraid he was going to mess things up. It had always been like that, him messing things up at critical times.

Sighing, Haruki tried to get rid of this feeling and went to meet the school's headmaster. The old man was waiting for him at the dojo, sitting on the floor behind a table. As Haruki approached, he realised a box was resting on the table, the dark red colour of the box matching that of the mahogany table.

Geniya Zaki motioned for the young man to sit down, and sit down he did.

"In case you're wondering why I called you here, this is the reason." Geniya pointed at the box.

"This box?" Haruki took a closer look. The box looked old, with the edges slightly worn, and with scratches over it, but the intricated carvings and decorations remained intact, giving off a combination of old and new.

The older man proceeded to remove the lid, and in the box, resting on a black cushion, were two gloves. The gloves were brown, and had holes for the fingers. A small metallic chain made its way around the wrist area, with a small plate connected to it. Two small straps of belt could be seen around the area where the forearm would be, most probably for fastening the gloves onto the arms.

Haruki raised an eyebrow in question, but before he could ask, Geniya spoke.

"You might wonder what these gloves are for. They are the Torch of the Zaki Taiyo school, the relic from the ancient past."

It took Haruki a moment to realise what Geniya was saying. "Wait a minute, sir. You mean this is the Torch of the school? One of the seven weapons that sealed off the Night Goddess, Nyx, two thousand years ago?" He exclaimed.

Geniya nodded. "It is. And it is also a custom for the school to make a student going on his or her first mission to wear it. Since it has not been awakened ever since the first user died, it's more of a good luck charm than anything. And as you can see, all the students who wore it managed to return safely."

"Oh...okay. I'll take it, then." Setting his weapon and bag aside, Haruki stretched his trembling hands forward to take the gloves.

During the month training here at Zaki Taiyo school, Haruki had learnt many things. One was about the legendary war that took place two thousand years ago. At that time, the God and Goddess that shaped the world were at a cold war. The days were extremely hot, and the nights were extremely cold.

Seeing the beings in LeFolia suffering, the God of Light, Heylion, decided to approach Nyx, the Goddess of the Night, for a peace treaty. But the Goddess refused, and in a fit of an anger, turned LeFolia into a world of Darkness. Helyion was weaker than her, so he gathered a group of seven warriors, each blessed with his Sun Torches, the ultimate and original weapons of the Sparks, to fight against Nyx.