Sacred Guardians

VOL 1 Chapter 1 - Flase Reality

The warm embrace of the sun that graced above, pierced through an open window, and crept inside the sleeping boy's bedroom like clockwork.

The boy moved ever so slightly as he laid on top of the covers. Kira, skin white and figure average, was catching up on missed sleep. Unlike the other villagers outside, he stayed inside to recoup. Having this ability was a blessing, considering the tormented night prior.

Pure dread. Utter despair. A blood-soaked nightmare. These words best described an event that caused his pores to fill with sweat. It resulted in his once neat brown hair becoming a mess.

Kira, unaware that the morning had dawned or choosing to ignore it, was late. And as such, the sun had an answer for him, a way to slap him awake. Ablaze, the heat above turned up in intensity, wanting attention. If it possessed the ability to speak, it would shout, "Wake up, it's morning!"

Kira was disturbed by it as his eyelids opened to reveal a pair of beautiful, azure eyes, shining like a cloudless sky.

"I'm getting up!" He muttered under his breath, almost disparaging the sun. Telling it to tone down its shine.

Tiredness brought a yawn, and he covered his mouth with a hand, good manners taught from Setsuna. Yet, inside such a large house, his yawn passed through the silence, void of other voices and sounds except his own.

'Setsuna and Kuro should be back soon,' He thought, eyes blinking rapidly, 'Know them, they're probably checking the forest.'

Kuro looked around the room, catching green upon his desk from a leaf which had flown in through the wind.

Too big for one person, he thought. The other two individuals who lived with him departed regularly on secret missions, never disclosing their whereabouts to Kira. To protect him, they said. To keep him safe, they said.

Four weeks. That was how long they had been gone now but, thankfully, they were due back today.

Though Setsuna was the father of Kuro, Kira was adopted into the family as a newborn, never knowing his parents. He felt strange. A feeling that would never disappear. A sense of abandonment lingered in the air for Kira. Even as he knew he wasn't alone, it was impossible to never feel that way from moment to moment.

Inside, Kira was facing the mental exhaustion of the blood-soaked nightmares that haunted his dreams. Compared to before, where nightmares weren't uncommon to him, these were bloodcurdling. Yet he maintained the act that everything as fine.

"I'm fine. . ." Kira muttered.

He wouldn't be kept down by such a thing. He stood with the intent of washing away his sweat, bare feet touching the floor, his athletic body walked to the wash. Once done, and now dressed in pants, Kira made his way and dried himself before beginning to dress into village clothing.

Yet.

In the midst of pulling down his top, he paused.

Eyes fixated, Kira's vision glued onto a painful remainder on his chest, a thing that had stayed there since as long ago as he could remember. A scar in the shape of a sword.

'How could someone try and kill a baby?' He thought, 'What did they do? Smack me with a sword?'

Each day, he pondered these ludicrous questions, never able to let them die. In the end, he came to the conclusion that someone malicious, twisted in the head, was the cause.

Kira always felt grateful to Setsuna. As the man had said, that day, under the moonlit sky, Setsuna had not been able to sleep as he watched Kira struggle to breathe, vulnerable. Luckily, Kira survived, broken in places, but living nonetheless.