The calm village in the middle of nowhere

Planet Earth.

Aomura, Holy Kingdom of Babel.

April 16, year 1222 after the Cataclysm.

“Wake up Raiko! It’s morning!”

A young boy spoke loudly as he sat on top of his sister, buried in a blanket, while pushing her shoulders back and forth. Despite his insistence, all he got was a groan for an answer.

It was clear that despite being late in the morning, the girl had no intention of opening her eyes. Even then, their mother raised no quitters, and the boy wouldn’t give up. He kept insisting, until he realized a way to achieve his goal, and pulled on the blankets so she would notice the sunlight from the outside.

Her head was finally uncovered, and the morning rays found their way into the sleeping girl’s face, whose eyes remained shut. The next step, the boy remembered, was to pull her in the direction of the window, so she would have no choice but to open her eyes.

“Geez, get off me!”

On a last ditch effort the brown haired girl threw her pillow at her brother’s head, but he did not desist. Despite her courageous resistance, the girl realized the cold hard truth: she had lost the battle, getting out of bed was her only option now.

“I saw the meaning of life in this dream, but now I forgot it because of you.” Raiko pressed her nose bridge, as if that would bring her epiphany back.

“You mean being a purifier?” The boy’s head tilted.

“Maybe I would know if you didn’t disturb my sleep, Hayato.” She said with a pout.

“Anyway breakfast is ready, mama wants to see you before leaving.” Hayato pointed out of the room with a thumb.

Victorious, the boy jumped out of bed and ran away leaving the annoyed girl alone in her room. Raiko Midorikawa, fourteen years old, she was selected to become a purifier when she was ten. She was the eldest of three siblings, but not the eldest of her generation.

Sitting on the bed she contemplated her options, now that her pesky brother was gone nobody was there to prevent her from getting back into the blankets and maybe, just maybe, catching up to the slippery revelation of her dream… No, it was a risky move, if she doesn’t show up he will be back, and maybe this time he will be even more annoying.

She let out a sigh of frustration.

She left the room, heading and into the hall she took a deep breath, contemplating the sunlight bathing the central yard of their family house. She then moved to the sink to wash her face, encountering her uncle along the way.

A few greeting gestures and that was it, she knew he wasn’t super talkative when he was just waking up, and he seemed super tired, too. The poor man wasn’t as unfortunate as her because she knew her aunt was nicer and her only daughter was too old to do this sort of thing.

“I wish I was you.” were the words popping up in Raiko’s mind.

The cold water got the job done, the sleepiness and sandy feeling on her eyes left her body. As she covered her face with a towel she felt a hand slapping her on the back, almost instantly, the would-be purifier turned her face towards the culprit.

“Hello Raiko! Good morning!” A bright smile, arms waving, she was in a good mood.

“Hello, Hanako, how are you doing?” Raiko on the other hand barely raised her eyebrows.

Hanako greeted her father with a handwave, who responded in the same way but with none of the energy her daughter had this early. If it was up to him, having to wake up before 9am would be a criminal offense.

Raiko, on the other hand, was usually fond of her cousin’s pranks, but today was not the case. She started the day on the wrong foot, and she was still angry at being interrupted at such a crucial moment of her sleeping cycle. At any rate, Hanako was still talking to her.

“Just wanted to see you before going off for work, you really need to wake up earlier.” The hands on hips didn’t match the playful voice tone.

“Ask me to lick my elbows if you want, but don’t ask me for impossible things.” Raiko just rejected the idea with a handwave.

“Good to see you’re doing well today.” She answered with a loud laugh.

And with that, she left for her job at the village’s liquor store. Raiko then remembered she was supposed to have breakfast with her mother, the village’s doctor, who was also leaving soon, so she should hurry. Her urge for getting back at her little brother was greater than her urge for food, though, she was the vindictive kind.

While still processing those thoughts she entered the kitchen, making a slight bow to her elders. Her aunt was already gone and her uncle was walking behind her, so that only left her parents, her grandmother, who was also the family’s matriarch, and her siblings Aoi and Hayato.

“Good to see you’re among the living once again.” Her mother said.

“Sorry about that, I was having a nice dream.”

She joined them on the family table contemplating the food in front of her. The breakfast on her plate wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, a few slices of bread, milk and boiled eggs. She sliced her eggs in an instant and poured them into the bread to make a sandwich, if bread lacks something, it’s always eggs.

“Oh? what was it about?”

“I’d remember enough of it to tell you if a certain someone wasn’t so insistent on waking me up.” Raiko’s voice gave her away.

Hayato suddenly found a very interesting stain on the ceiling, which made him completely oblivious of her sister’s irked words.

“That was my bad.” Her mother said with a giggle. “I have a long day at work and thought we could share breakfast to make up for it.”

Raiko felt a little bit of guilt at her mother’s words, she can’t get mad at her. Hayato, on the other hand, was fair game. She noticed that her milk also got cold due to her taking too long.

“So...” Raiko’s grandmother spoke. “I am assuming you kids are doing well at school?”

“Of course!” Aoi’s voice was loud and confident.

“I am imagining Hayato is doing well and not goofing off, isn’t he?” Raiko took the opportunity on his brother’s bad attempt at whistling to get back at him.

“I also meant you, Raiko.” The old woman put some weight on her voice, hands pressed against the table.

“Well, yeah, it’s boring sometimes.” She scratched the back of her head. “But I’m doing well... I think.”

“Then everything is fine, good.”

As nothing else was left to say, Raiko proceeded to devour her meal. Despite being the last to arrive, Raiko finished her breakfast at the same time her mother did, even though she wasn’t super hungry, her stomach still was a bottomless pit.

“Then I’m off for today, I’ll see you later.” With that, her mother left.

“Shouldn’t you two hurry for school?” Raiko’s father looked at her siblings.

Hayato rushed to gulp the remaining bits of his breakfast under Aoi’s impatient gaze and left the room running as fast as he could. The young girl just stood there with her mouth open, made a bow to her elders and left behind him.

“Kids these days...” The remainder of the family laughed at the matriarch’s words.