Broken Homes Orphanage Part 3

During our conversation Kana spots the gear we purchased not long ago noticing the two swords.

“Which of you can wield the sword?”

Irin looks at me then to Kana, “We do. But our skills are only novice at best.”

“Irin is good at close range combat skills using her hands and arts. Crimzon is also good at close range combat and is firearms.” Mirai tries to raise Irin’s spirit sensing that she was downplaying her skills.

Kana sensing Mirai’s intentions playful chuckles, “I believe you young Mirai! I was not questioning her abilities, rather looking forward to seeing them use the blade! I hope to one day be one of the best with the sword, so I look forward to meeting people to one day train with them!”

“Crimzon, you use firearms and the sword? That’s interesting. Most commit to only one or the other. Those who wield the sword will never use a firearm, and most firearm users never pick up the sword. How did were you able to decide to use both?”

Mirai’s comments about my skills catch me off guard. I just arrived here in this world and today, day one of my new life here, I didn’t train, nor can I remember anything the Miss Aiko may have taught ‘this world’s me’ anything. Confused, I look to Irin, who makes eye contact with me, suddenly realizing that today I suffered from memory sickness.

“Mirai, remember Crimzon got memory sickness again. He probably doesn’t remember anything he was taught from Miss Aiko.”

Mirai’s expression turns to uncertainty once she realizes that today I woke up with memory sickness, “Oh I forgot.” Trying to stay positive she bounces back, “But you never know Irin, Crimzon may remember once everything starts!”

Hearing the exchange about my memory sickness, Irin turns to me, “Crimzon, you have Astray?”

Hearing Lori say “Astray” I’m dumbfounded, “What is Astray?”

“Astray is what we call memory sickness where we’re from. We have doctors and healers that can help cure it if it’s a severe case. I’m not sure if anyone around here treats it. How long has this been going on?”

Irin goes into detail about my history with Astray and that it has been occurring at a higher frequency in the last two years. Mirai is encouraging as she chimes in explaining after a couple of weeks, I seem more like my usual self. After hearing about my case of Astray, Lori looks over at Kana as she momentarily leaves the table to make a call. Lori suggests that if they can get in contact with someone, they may be able to bring them along to the Rite and have a look at me and see if my case of Astray is severe.

Kana rejoins us after finishing her conversation, “I’ve explained everything to my sister, and she will be available to come with us for the Rite. She’ll be leaving in a couple of days to join us with an estimated arrival for the day before the Rite begins.”

Relieved, Irin’s eyes begin to tear, “Thank you so much Lori, thank you Kana. Miss Aiko was able to investigate the matter as much as she could but didn’t have the finances to afford someone to come and have a look at Crimzon for his Astray. But today, we learned that this memory sickness has a name and could be cured.”

“My sister should be able to at least see how severe Crimzon’s case of Astray is and should be able to help remedy it. She has been successful in most of her cases with Astray so rest assured.”

“Thank you again. Your sister must be very skilled in taking on helping people with Astray. Is she a doctor?”

Kana smiles with humility, “Actually she’s my younger sister, Shiori and she’s one of the kingdom’s best healers –I mean…”

Irin catches the words “kingdom’s best healers” she begins, “Wait!?! KINGDOM?! Where are you from? Are you royalty Kanna?”

Lori politely interjects, “Shh, Irin that may get unwanted attention.”

Irin lowers her voice to a whisper, “Sorry. It’s just I didn’t know Kana was royalty. Is she a princess.”

Kana lowers her head in embarrassment looking at Lori, “Well Irin, I’m not royalty…”

“But you mentioned your sister is ‘one of the kingdom’s best healers’. Does that mean she’s royalty? What kingdom is she from? We will not say a word.”

“My apologies Lori, I didn’t mean to—“.

“It’s alright Kana. I think they are good to trust with this”. Lori reassures Kana of her mistake. “Irin, Crimzon and Mirai, Kana is my personal guard, and I am Princess Iori Aurora and heir to the matriarchal kingdom Aurora. Currently my mother is in a power struggle to try and transition the kingdom into a democracy. I came here with Kana to see how my training has paid off before I return home. Please do not say a word to anyone.”

Irin and Mirai look at me in acknowledgment we bow our heads, “Lori you have our word that we will not say a word of this to anyone. It is a pleasure to meet you and Kana.”

“The pleasure is all ours, we’ve been traveling for quite some time and keeping a low profile takes obedience to do so. I think I can speak for Kana and myself that this has been the most refreshing encounter to meet the three of you. With Shiori and the others on her way, I’m sure we can plan for her to assess your Astray.”

“Thank you, Lori, we greatly appreciate it and if you need us for anything for the Trials, please reach out to us”. Irin begins to gather up her gear and Mirai’s, “Apologies but we have to head back to the orphanage before we miss our transport.”

Upon gathering all our gear, we head out leaving Lori and Kana with our contact information. Lori and Kana send us off and decide to stay for a moment longer.

“What do you think Kana?”

“About what Lori?”

“Do you think Crimzon’s Astray is a severe case?”

“We’ll find out soon enough with Shiroi. It could be that Crimzon has stabilized in pulling himself back to our reality.”

“But why would he phase in and out so frequently recently over two years? It seems like he did not recognize us at all. I thought for sure the necklace would remind him.” Lori looks down to hold a necklace shaped as a shooting star with a violet and blue tone.

“Give Crimzon a chance to remember. I’m sure he may remember.”

“But what if the Crimzon stabilized is not the actual Crimzon from our world. What if our Crimzon was caught and kil—ed…”

“If we are going into why memory sickness and the Astray, we won’t know for sure. But whoever this Crimzon is now, it’s evident he has some ability. It’s latent but I could feel it hiding itself. Don’t worry Lori, stay focused that our objective is to develop our skills.”

“At least Miss Aiko was able to take care of them this long and train them.”

“Mirai was a late addition, I didn’t expect for there to be three of them.”

“Miss Aiko said that Mirai appeared out of no where one day and grew very attached to the two. Not knowing what to do she took her in, then Crimzon and Irin have been watching over her naturally. At least we’ll get to see them up close now.”

Kana’s Radial flashes incoming call as she opens a window to see her younger sister Shirori.

“Where is Crimzon Kana? Is he there with you?”

“No Shiroi they just left. We’ll meet up with them sometime during the Rite. What is your ETA?”

“We should be there in a couple of days. Does Crimzon remember anything? Does he remember me?!”

“No Shiroi, he doesn’t remember any of us. Call me when you arrive and we’ll give you the download.”

“Wha? He doesn’t remember us? Ah that stinks.” Shiroi pouts, “Fine, I’ll call you when we arrive. Bye-bye”.

Kana clicks the window to end her call with Shiori, “What shall we do now Lori?”

“Let’s prepare for the Rite. If Shiori arrives with time to spare maybe, we’ll pay them a visit at the orphanage. There’s nothing we can do until then.”

Kana notices Lori’s body begins to look heavy, her head tilts down with gloom, Lori begins to descend river of emotions. Lori’s eyes cannot hold back her tears from leaking. She is in despair and heartache.

“Lori. Breathe. I know this is probably emotional for you. But we found him. Only time will tell if it is really him.”

Lori is caught in a flood of emotions as she hears Kana’s words.

“I know. I know…I know it may not be him and that it could be someone else. Just remembering how close we were and seeing him die in front of me…to protect me that day. He didn’t need to die the way he did for me. Seeing him alive after all these years…I’m just happy he is alive.”

Kana comforts Lori, “Your highness, we lost a good friend that day. He protected us. Even if inside that body, he is not the same Crimzon, I believe that a part of him is our Crimzon. Let us trust Miss Aiko, believes she may have known this Crimzon from her world and if she says this is him, lets trust in her.”

“Okay. Thank you, Kana.” Lori regains control of her emotions and cracks a smile to reassure Kana, “I still will not forget that you confessed to him your feelings before me, I still owe you for that.”

“Bwahahaha! I almost forgot I did that! You dared me too!”

Lori and Kana continue to laugh and reminisce about their childhood antics. Memories of nostalgia flood in; Lori “the princess of Aurora”, Kana “Iron Will”, Shiori “The Blessed”, and Crimzon “The Chimera”.

Crimzon, Irin, and Mirai return to Broken Homes Orphanage, with all their gear and ice cream in hand. They announce their return home to Miss Aiko, as she greets them and assists them to put away the ice cream while they layout their gear for inspection. Miss Aiko inspects all of their purchases as her eyes are drawn to the light pistols.

“This must be Crimzon’s choice?” smiles Miss Aiko. “Interesting, you both have gloves very similar, boots, and a jacket. I assume they have elemental attributes.”

Irin walks back in with some ice cream for Miss Aiko and hands it to her. Irin also begins to investigate more about their gear selection.

“I understand why we decided to go with all these selections, but the element components…I’m a little confused. He suggested the jackets have an element for lightning built in. The gloves have fire and void elements while the boots also have lightning elements, he had built in.”

Miss Aiko smiles to Irin who has a dumbfound look and whispers, “He’s just thinking ahead. He’s always like this.”

Irin confused, looks again at the gear then at Miss Aiko, “Wait you know why he made these selections?”

“Have a seat my dear Irin. Crimzon! Mirai! Come and join us.”

Crimzon and Mirai join Irin and Miss Aiko in the living room where all the gear is laid out on the table. Miss Aiko invites Crimzon, “Please explain to Irin why you had these modifications made to the gear you selected.”

“Well, we’re going to split the pair of gloves so the effect from the elements will be for our attack. This is just a hunch tho, if we land a hit on an opponent the element may singe the layer of their clothes. In my experience fire and void cause lingering damage for a short time frame. For the jacket and boots, I’m just guessing a theory of mine but if we’re hit by an opponent, it will jolt them with some lightning. Another theory is if lightning is fast then it may help us to evade an opponent, even for a second, that is crucial.”

Irin realizes of what is said and goes into further thought, “How would you know this? I never, once, when you had Astray mentioned that elements work this way. I don’t know if they even work like this.” Irin turns her attention to Miss Aiko, “Does it work like this and how would he know. You never mentioned any of this to us.”

“First, it is a theory that it may work like this. I don’t think anyone has tried it this way having elements infused or built into the gear like this. Second, Crimzon reminds me of someone I once knew from another life you could say, always trying something out of the box. Third, I think it’s time I tell you something about this orphanage.”

Crimzon has a puzzled look on his face as he replays what Miss Aiko just said. He can’t escape the thought that he reminds her of “someone I once knew from another life”.

“Wait, Miss Aiko. Did you know me from another world? Another life?”

“Don’t be silly Crimzon! Miss Aiko hasn’t been to another world, and what do you mean by another life? I’ve known you all my life here in this world, and orphanage. Are you implying you’re from another world? And how would that be possible?” Miss Aiko makes no sense. Should we take him to see a doctor?”

“Irin, he’s not wrong. I guess it’s time for me to explain a few things.” Miss Aiko assures Irin that everything will be okay and that she will go through what she can in detail. Irin is in shock but Mirai is calm, as though unfazed by all the revelation.

Miss Aiko sits and begins to tell the three that they are the last to stay at the orphanage. Miss Aiko reveals that she once died and ended up in a body here on Tellus, outside the kingdom of Aurora where she met Lori, Kana and later Shiori. One day they all went into the forest outside the kingdom and came across a waterfall where they met a young boy, Crimzon. Soon they became a group of friends that would continue to play just outside the kingdom.

Then one night just outside the kingdom walls, Lori’s parents were attacked and her father died defending them as they escaped from a mysterious beast. Lori and her mother escaped through the night into the kingdom and the royal guards came to find the king dead. A few days later with no sighting of the mysterious beast, Lori and Kana went to the waterfall to meet Crimzon. However, along the way they noticed the river was flowing red from the waterfall. Once they reached the waterfall they could hear something thrashing in the water, where they came across a mysterious beast bathing, it was a chimera. As Lori and Kana backed up, they stepped onto a branch that startled the chimera.

The chimera gave chase to Lori and Kana getting closer as they made their way out of the forest. Just at the clearing, Lori was about to get struck down by the chimera and at the last moment she curled up. To her surprise she did not feel anything hit her, all she heard was thrashing and could feel something splatter all over her. It was blood but not her blood.

“Lori, Run!”

“Lori this way!”

Lori could feel someone grab her hand and pulling her to run. Her legs felt weak due to the shock of seeing the chimera up close. Lori’s vision clears up to see Kana pulling her and Aiko running behind her.

With tears in her eyes, Aiko with a determined look, “Do not look back Lori! Keep your eyes forward! We must get to the clearing, don’t look back!”

As the three make their way through to the clearing a bright flash breaks through devouring their vision. Their eyes calibrate to see the queen and the royal guards rushing into the forest to slay the chimera.

The queen rushes to Lori with her assistants wiping off Lori of the blood that covered her. Medical assistants and healers surround Lori making haste to heal her. Aiko with tears forces out, “The blood is not hers!”

The queen embraces a shocked Lori and examines Kana and Aiko, “Aiko, if Lori is okay…and both you and Kana are not hurt, then who’s blood is this?”

Kana breaks out in tears after holding in the thoughts of what she saw. Her memories flash out of sequence the events that just took place as she tries to comprehend everything. She remembers looking back to see Lori slip and fall. Just as she turned to go back for Lori two figures shot out of the woods. First it was Aiko grabbing Kana to pull her back to get Lori away from the chimera. Then the second, leaping out from the trees above Crimzon dove straight at the chimera just as it got a few feet from Lori curled up. Kana grabbed Lori as Aiko helped her up from the back.

“Crim…Crim…Crimzon…It’s Crimzon’s blood!” Kana breaks down yelling at the thought of the last thing she saw when they fled.

Aiko tries to comfort Kana as she tries to compose herself, but it can’t be helped she can no longer stand as her legs go weak. Aiko and Kana fall to their knees sobbing in a petrified state, the last images of Crimzon diving at the chimera with a simple blade in hand goes on repeat like an endless loop.

Queen Aurora holds Lori tight trying to help her from shaking of the immediate shock. Someone her age died leaping at a chimera, throwing themselves to certain death. Their blood rained upon her unknowingly, who it was, a mere boy they had just met only days ago gave his life to protect her. Lori’s thoughts could not stop racing as it kept pounding why?

“Why did you throw away your life for mine?!”

Rustling and branches can be heard breaking as footsteps draw closer to the clearing. The royal guard covered in blood make their way into the clearing, some leaning on each other wounded. Others with their own strength hold themselves up with their weapons. One of them makes their way to the queen and she kneels.

“My Queen Aurora, the beast chimera has been slain. We suffered a handful of casualties.”

“Was there a boy? Did you see a boy Lori’s age?”

“We did not see a boy. We will head back with more soldiers to retrieve the carcass of the chimera and will search for the boy.”

“Yes. Please do Elsa. Recover what you find.”

The royal guards returned for the carcass and upon doing so they found the body of a boy. However, further down the river they found the body of a young girl who also was attacked by the chimera. No one knew who she was, and no one reported a missing girl. Crimzon’s body was found in the woods, mauled and motionless. Both Crimzon and the unknown girl were dead; their bodies were taken to the castle of Aurora to be examined. At the time the kingdom was experimenting on genetics with the organization Atlas. Atlas was looking to genetically enhance soldiers as it furthered its global reach.

The partnership with Atlas and Aurora was for use of facilities within the kingdom hidden from their opposition and protection. In turn, Atlas would assist with medical research, treatments and financial compensation. There was one condition, Queen Aurora would conduct random inspections to ensure nothing inhuman would take place but not everything went as expected. As Atlas looked to remove genetic defects from the genetic code of humans, they discovered numerous medical breakthroughs to combat various viruses and diseases.

One discovery was that of regenerative abilities at the cellular level, but the project needed actual subjects to proceed with its research. Then there was discovery of altering the human DNA and genetic code that could enable people with powers; however, it proved to be unstable with a high death rate. After the chimera attack, both Crimzon and the unknown girl were found dead, but their brainwave activity remained. Queen Aurora ordered their bodies to be placed in cryostasis in hopes of finding a way to help them.

With Atlas wanting to further its research and create genetically ‘enhanced’ human beings they approached Queen Aurora with a proposal. Atlas would help with trying to revitalize Crimzon and the unknown girl, in return the queen would provide facilities for Atlas to build its infrastructure. Queen Aurora pushed back wanting all the information concerning the projects Atlas conducted. The Atlas organization hesitantly agreed, fearing the queen would find out about all their projects, but they needed subjects to conduct their research and needed more than two subjects, so they agreed to terms with the queen.

Atlas then set up a front for outpatient trials under their supervision and their project would begin with young children displaced or abandoned. Queen Aurora wanted to help impoverished children all over the world, so Atlas facilitated going to other nations and regions to help provide support and through that guise they established the facility Broken Homes Orphanage.