Chapter 1: Mistress of Water

She sees death in her dreams... Sometimes she saves a mortal from death, sometimes she can't, but can she save herself from her own waking nightmare?

Chapter 1-The Mistress of Water

 

I stood out on the shoreline, gazing out at the clear, cerulean ocean that unfolded before me. When I looked back at the sandy beach, a girl waved her hand and sprinted toward the shoreline to me.

          “Hey Noriko, let’s go out there!” the girl suggested, pointing far out into the deep ocean.

          “Noriko? That is not my name, but then, why does she call me this name? To whom am I speaking to?” I wondered, but nodded in agreement to her offer.

          So, we swam out toward where the light blue sky and the deep blue ocean met. After a while we floated on our backs, gazing up at the sky, clouds, and birds. Suddenly, I heard something and so, looked toward the distant shoreline I had been standing on just a half hour ago. What I saw not the shore, but a tremendous wave standing about a towering 60 feet, and it was coming straight for us… fast. But then I realized something, this wave should not exist; it was coming from the shore and not going to it.

          From my calculations, according to its speed and angle, it would land on me, or us, if we did nothing. Once the wave became only a few yards away, the girl started to panic, and tried hard to swim away from it. When it started to pull us in, I remained calm, and behind me, she kicked and screamed in terror.

          Knowing by fact that did not stand a chance against a wave this large, I stayed calm, and continued to watch its movements with my electric blue eyes. Behind me, she still struggled, only tiring and making herself vulnerable to drowning. Having the wave almost upon me, I closed my eyes and let my black, blue-tipped hair flow out behind me, she kept screaming and kicking.

          I heard the wave crash, but I did not get wet. Surprised, I opened my eyes to see an amazing scene. I was in a tunnel of the wave, and I could only see blue all around. The girl’s screams ceased to reach my ears any longer. I had miscalculated, the wave was to crash behind us, and so crashed on her. If only she had followed my example and stayed calm. I closed my eyes again and became unconscious soon afterward.

          When I reopened my eyes, I realized that I had been carried ashore by other waves. People that surrounded me wondered if I had died. Seeing that I had not, they all let out a sigh of relief. The other girl was not to be seen again.

          I jolted up in my bed. I looked around, but nothing had changed. The clock said it was currently 8:40 a.m., at least three hours later than I usually wake up.

          “You had one of those death dreams again didn’t you?” asked Kyoko, my roommate.

          “How do know when I have those things?”

          “Well, it’s kind of obvious, you are soaked from head to toe you know,” she replied. I looked at my clothes, indeed, they were soaked.

          “But how do you not know it’s sweat?” I argued.

          “Because it smells of the ocean my friend,”

          I gave her an odd look,” Well, go turn on the news, I believe it has already happened.”

          Kyoko gave me a little smile of victory and left to turn on the TV. I shook my head, “She’s gotten way too clever for me,” I thought.

          I joined her in the living room of our small, but decent apartment. On the news, they were interviewing a 16 year old Noriko Kawahashi

“Is this it?” asked Kyoko, I nodded.

          “Well, look at that,” stated Kyoko, “she’s the same age as us!”

          I shook my head once again, “She may be clever, but sometimes she’s just plain stupid.” I thought to myself.

          “A girl about the age of 15 was said to have drowned out on the ocean today, could you give us a little more information on that?” asked the reporter, ever so ready with questions.

          “I-I can’t really explain it, it’s c-complicated,” she spoke, sobbing.

          “Complicated?” Could you try to explain the situation to us, please?” begged the reporter.

          “Well, it was like…I was in the air, watching the whole thing from above, like there was someone else in my body. She had the most electrifying blue eyes I’ve ever seen, but they were also deep and sorrowful almost as if she’s seen things no one should have to see. Then there was this wave that came from the shore, I really thought that was odd, and the person in my body was so calm, while Nina was kicking and screaming for her life. But I have to say, that I thank the person for possessing my body, because if that person had not, I surely wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

          The reporter just stood there, quite puzzled, “Well… that was some interesting information, Miss Kawahashi, thank you for speaking with us.” And with that, the news changed to the weather forecast.

          Kyoko turned to me, “Was Misuzu with you this time?”

          I shook my head, “She’s usually not with me in my death dreams.” I glanced toward the small keychain of a water dragon sitting on my bed.

          “Why don’t you call her out, she’s always bound in that keychain. I think she needs some fresh air,”

          I gave her a grin, and walked to my room to get the keychain. I walked back to the living room and set Misuzu on the table. “Nichi, Sui, Kin,” I chanted. There was a flash of light, and then came the real Misuzu, the water dragon.

          “Are you in need of my assistance, mistress Mizuki?” asked Misuzu, who had changed her size so that she was quite larger than her keychain form yet still no longer than my body..

          “No, Kyoko here thought it would be a nice idea to let you out for a bit,” I replied.

          The dragon bowed her head at Kyoko, “Thank you, that was quite thoughtful,” then, Misuzu turned to me once again, “Now, Mizuki, have you been practicing your water techniques?” she asked.

          “Yes indeed, I have gotten quite good at manipulating water,” I answered.

          “That reminds me, Mizuki, since you’re able to control water, why didn’t you stop the wave?” questioned Kyoko.

          “Kyoko, I’m not powerful enough to manipulate water in my dreams, and even if I was able to, I was in another person’s body,” I explained.

          Kyoko shrugged, “Okay then, I’m changing the subject, but what are you doing tomorrow?”

          “It’ll be a Sunday, so I might walk around town… alone,” I said.

          “Fine,” she replied, “I was wondering if you’d want to go shopping, but okay.”

          That night I dreamt again, but this time it wasn’t of someone’s death, it was of a meeting. In this dream I was walking through the streets of town, the image of what I was planning to do tomorrow. A black haired teenage boy rushed past, making me lose my balance and fall. He turned to apologize, then dashed off again. I wake.

          “8:00,” I whispered, “I’m just waking up late these days aren’t I?” 8:30 I was out the door. By the time I reached the busy, main streets, my mind was fully occupied with thoughts about that dream I had last night. Without knowing so, I walked into the busy street, with people shouting with terror all around me to get out of there. I paid no attention to the person running up to me from behind. He grabbed me and jumped to the close sidewalk in front of us. A dump truck passed over where I stood just moments before. I lost consciousness.

          When I regained myself, the first person I saw was my savior, a black haired teenage boy. He was the same one from my dream! Reporters and cameramen shoved their equipment in my face because I was awake. Cameras snapping and flashing in my face, reporters blabbering on with their ridiculously stupid questions, and way too much noise. I hate noise, I completely despised it, quiet peaceful places were much better. The uncontrollable rage of the water dragon boiled within me, ready to burst, and I tried hard to contain it. Just as I reached my limit, Kyoko rushed to the front of the crowd.

          “Mizuki! Contain it! Contain the rage, or else… you know what happened three years ago!” she screamed, almost breaking out into tears.

          Then I remembered. I remembered what had happened in the last town we lived in three years ago. Something similar to this happened, but no one tried to restrain my rage. I ended up destroying a fourth of that somewhat quiet town that had given Misuzu, Kyoko, and myself a nice habitable place to live.

The peculiar thing was, ever since then, Misuzu had gained her “power mode” which is basically similar to leveling up, making her a water dragon that was more powerful than before, with new abilities. I really didn’t know when or how she got it, but she did and I was delighted about it.

When that flashback ended I was too exhausted to keep myself in consciousness, and so I let myself into rest. Kyoko, who had finally relaxed, turned to the crowd of puzzled people and ushered them away. Then, she turned to my savior, whose lap was my pillow, and invited him over to our apartment for some tea, and because she wanted to talk to him. He agreed.

 

When my eyes finally opened once again, I was in my bed. I was still unusually tired, but I overheard Kyoko and the boy talking.

          “First of all, may I ask you for your name?” she asked.

          “Yeah, my name is Ryu Mizudra, yours?”

          “I am Kyoko michimoto, nice to meet you. Hmmm, Ryu, meaning dragon, how peculiar, you don’t hear that name very often, oh, and the one in the other room is Mizuki Ryumi. I thank you very much for saving my best friend, she has an extremely bad habit of getting absorbed in her thoughts and forgetting everything around her,”

          “Like she’s in her own little world…” he said, seemingly trying to remember something.

          “Exactly! That’s what happened three years ago when she almost got in an accident, just like what happened today, and someone unbelievably similar to you was the one that saved her.”

          Ryu’s eyes widened, “I remember now!” he exclaimed suddenly, making Kyoko jump, “three years ago the great flood that occurred because of a young girl about the age of 13, the section of the town that I lived in was destroyed. The only thing I remembered until now was that I was somehow the only one to have survived. I was found in the outskirts of town, alive, while everyone who was in that section of town and lived there, no matter where they were died. All of the bodies were found, except for two, Mizuki Ryumi and Kyoko Michimoto.”

          Kyoko flinched, “You mean to tell me that you lived in that section of the town, yet you lived to tell the tale? That’s impossible… Unless…” She gave him a concerned look, “No way, you’re him? If it’s true, then the legend of Death at Sea itself must be a reality!”

          She was about to say something else, but being my clumsy self, I fell off the bed. They both rushed into the room to find me upside down, tangled up in the blanket.

          “Mizuki!” Kyoko shouted.

          “Hehehe… Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly.

          “Well, this is Ryu Mizudra,” introduced Kyoko.

          “I know, I was listening to the whole conversation!” I exclaimed, showing no sign of guilt, even though I did feel it.

          “You are a pain in the neck sometimes, you know, Mizuki!” She grumbled.

          “Well, at least we have less to explain,” Ryu pitched in.

          “True, you have a point there.” Kyoko agreed.

          The three of us went back into the dining room, and held the rest of the discussion.

          “Oh, and Mizuki,” Kyoko said, motioning me closer with her hand, “I think that Ryu may be your partner,” she whispered, so that he couldn’t hear.

          I was a little shocked, but replied, “Well, it’s logical, the legend states that the partner will appear at age 16 and he survived my destructive water technique, that if targeted, a normal human would surely die. But there is one more thing to confirm it.”

          I stood and walked over to him, both Ryu and Kyoko slightly puzzled. “Do you have a marking on your chest?” I questioned.

          “How did you know?” he asked, startled.

          “Show it to me!” I commanded.

          As told, though startled, he pulled the collar of his shirt down far enough to see the cerulean blue mark on his collarbone resembling a water drop. I did the same to reveal the same blue mark. I gestured for him to touch my hand, he did. As soon as our skin made contact, the marks shined to an unbelievable brightness. As if on cue, Misuzu unbound herself and appeared before us.

          “Ryu! You are to be the partner of Mizuki, mistress of water and help rid the world of evil sorcerers who hope to do the world harm” Her alert, narrow eyes seemed to suck him in, “Mizuki, you should know now that you took a risky maneuver just to make sure that he was truly the one,” her voice echoed.

          “I realize that Misuzu, I have been aware of it for a long time, that if we make the marks shine, we give our location to our enemies, making ourselves vulnerable. But, I had to make sure that he was the one, because I am not about to go out and fight not knowing if he was truly my partner, or if he was an imposter.”

          Misuzu smiled, “Risky, but wise, I have always loved the way you think,” and with that she disappeared into her keychain form once again.

          “Uhh… what was that?!” Ryu shouted.

          “What was what?” I asked, confused.

          “That snake thing, which looks amazingly familiar, and that crazy light!”

          “Oh, that was Misuzu, my water dragon. And that light was a way to verify if you were truly my partner, or an imposter.” I explained.

          “Hey, I’m not forgotten am I!?” shouted Kyoko, who felt ignored.

          “Of course not!” I lied.

          “Liar,” Kyoko mumbled.