A Pleasant Day

It was a fine sunny day. Like all other days, sun was shining bright up in the sky. There was not a single cloud. Trees and flowers of my home’s garden were moving to and fro in wind, like they were dancing with the breeze. I sat at the porch enjoying the breeze pass my cheek in the silence. Well it was not common to have silence because mostly my house is filled with a lot of people. We are a large family, consisting of me, my siblings, cousins and uncle and aunt.

Today it was awfully quiet. Everyone was out doing their stuff. I can't go out you see. You would be thinking why? It's because I am sickly from birth. Yes I can't go out in this heat or next moment I will be lying in hospital bed. Although I want to go but whenever I try bed awaits me.

Today like any other occasions everyone was out preparing for the festival, ‘STARLIT FESTIVAL’, which held every year at the end of June and like every year I was at home.

"You can't go out, you were recently hospitalized, you know? We don't want you to die."

I remembered those words my older twin brother Nanao said when I pleaded him to take me with him but as usual I was rejected.

I let out a big sigh when I heard a voice from behind.

"Wow why are you sighing huh, big sister!”

It was my two year younger brother Haruka. Before I could answer him, he answered his own question.

"You must be bored, right? Off course anyone would be, so I am here to keep you company".

He said that while putting his school bag at table.

"Weren't you were with every one preparing things?" I asked him. "Yes, I was but you know I encountered the devil, and had to leave."

"The devil?" I asked him while staring at his lavender colored shiny eyes. He sighed and I realized who this so called devil was.

"Could it be…? Misaki?”

“Who else it would be!" he answered me in a matter of fact manner. He came to sit with me at porch, and I stared at him.

"Don't stare like that, it's true!?"

"Really?" I asked while staring hard at him. He looked another way. "Well, yes I was helping Hana to collect some things, and we happened to meet her at market, she dragged me with her to the museum and….." he stopped.

"And?"

"And then I stopped at library, that's all."

I sighed, "Well, I was kind of bored."

He looked at me, his gleaming as if saying he was relieved.

He let out his hand towards me, holding a book. "When I was browsing the library, I found this book. It seemed interesting so bought it for you."

“For me?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

I thanked him and took the book. Indeed it seemed interesting. The cover was made of leather, the title etched on it bold letters.

It was not unusual, because of my sickness I had to spend most of my time in bed, and I always got bored. Off course who would like to lay in bed whole day? Not me though. So my siblings started giving me presents to cheer me up. It started when I was 11 years of old, I caught a high fever and had to spend Christmas in hospital. My elder sister gave me a snow globe and then it became a tradition.

"I wanted to help them" I mumbled sadly.

He didn't seemed surprised by this.

"It's okay, you will be able to go to the festival, and that’s enough."

I nodded and decided to open the book. As Haruka said it was interesting. It was a fairy tale, not like the one I had read before. It was a story of a girl who lived a peaceful life, in a peaceful village with her family. When she turned 16 she was told that she was the lost princess of a kingdom which was destroyed a long time ago. And that she is the one who can save the world from disaster. It seemed pretty interesting to me. I was completely in it.

"Her name’s Fiona." Haruka said realizing my curiosity.

"The princess, I mean."

I glared at him. He stared back. I didn't have to say anything, he knew what I was going to say. After a moment of silence he said waving his hands.

"Okay, okay I won't say anything."

< Look at this guy ruining my curiosity…hah> I thought.

Suddenly the sky was filled with thick, clouds. It seemed it was about to rain. There was nothing before and now the sky is filled with clouds.

Haruka stood up, looking at now gray sky.

"I knew it, there was 75% chance of raining today".

"Your prediction told you?" I questioned him.

“Yes, off course."

You know my family is not normal. Not in a weird sense. No, it’s just a bit, how should I say it? Peculiar….yes. We have something that other ‘normal’ people don’t have. A family secret, I would say.

We all siblings have some abilities. Only in our family, no one else knows about it. It is because our ancestors were magicians and they came from a magical land, distant from this world. Although it seems a fairytale to some, but we of Shiraishi family inherited those powers.

Haruka's ability is 'Lots of Next’. It helps him to predict various futures, and they are true predictions. There are three types of results. Let me explain it to you.

One that are absolute predictions and no matter what happens it will not change. Just like how he predicted it would rain and it did. It is a natural phenomenon and thus cannot be altered. Second, temporary predictions, those which can be changed depending on the decisions one makes. Like if you know that there is 99% chance you are going to fall from stairs and injure your head, you might consider changing your course of action by taking a lift. And voila! You saved yourself. Thirdly, null predictions, meaning which do not have a definite value, there result is uncertain. Like there is 50% chance you’ll win the lottery and 50% you won’t. You don’t know what will happen.

I, Sakura Shiraishi, have an ability too. Its name is 'Sophistēs', and it means 'knowledge'. As the word describes it gives me knowledge of what I want to know, be it information of random things or different people. It gives me knowledge of those secrets that no one knows. For example, suppose you are a foreigner, and someone places a bowl of tuna fish in front of you. You don't know what it is, then comes my ability, it will tell me not only the name but it's history, origin, how it as found in the past , how fisherman caught it and all the things that will happen with this poor fish in future.