Chapter 1 The Time Has Come...

I was just playing a piece on my violin, when I heard a loud crash. The peaceful atmosphere immediately turned tense and I closed my eyes. He had come. Rushing out of the room, I held up the many layers of my dress and quickly passed the endless hallways until I reached the exit of the house.

The scene outside made my heart stop. I saw both of the twins black haired. One had violet, piercing eyes and the other a deep grass-green, soft and bright. One standing, the other crashed into a Sakura tree. And the dark haired hunter, Seishiro.

"Subaru!" I called out, running towards the slumped figure, who was panting heavily. I knelt down next to him and wrapped my arms around him, holding him as close as I could. "Subaru," I mumbled, choking as I placed a hand on his cheek. He stirred and his deep eyes opened to look into mine.

"Aya..." he smiled weakly and I hugged him tighter, my heart breaking upon seeing the state he was in. He sighed and nuzzled my neck when I glanced over at the hunter and his twin. The latter lunged for Seishiro with his sharp nails elongated and deadly, but the hunter easily dodged it and disappeared, just to appear five meters away in the blink of an eye.

"Kamui please, you have to go now," I begged at the back of the twin that was facing me. "You can't beat him. Go to the Dimensional Witch with Subaru!"

"She's right, you cannot beat me. But I'm afraid I can't let you leave." I gritted my teeth. He was obviously enjoying this. Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking behind me I saw three beautiful women with an elderly person standing behind me with solemn yet determined gazes. My sisters with the high priest.

"Aya, we will keep him back while the high priest prepares everything," the tallest of the three said to me as she glared at the hunter hatefully, who simply looked back, not faced by her at all.

"I'm truly sorry, but I can't let this happen, either," Seishiro mocked before he ran towards us with an unbelievable speed. So far I had thought only vampires possessed this kind of ability. The three girls blocked my view as they stood protectively between him and us. They muttered some kind of incantation together, words familiar and unfamiliar at same time to me, while raising their hands before them. The air seemed to thicken to a hemisphere around us, a protection spell, which would prevent anyone from the outside to come in. Kamui quickly jumped in, before it closed completely.

"High Priest, you need to send them to the Dimensional Witch now!" I requested, authoritatively and he obliged. I watched as he closed his eyes in concentration, inaudibly muttering words while Seishiro - outside of our own little word - clashed furiously against the bubble.

"Aya," Subaru muttered faintly as I noticed Kamui glare hatefully at their chaser, despising the fact that he wasn't allowed to beat the living lights out of him. I looked down at the man in my arms, my heart yearning to be closer to him than I already was. "I don't want to leave you," he said and my face softened.

I stared at him sadly. "I don't want you to leave me, either," I replied quietly, my voice cracking slightly as a lump created itself in my throat. "But you have to."

"No," he argued almost childishly and it would have made me chuckle if this hadn't been a farewell. Instead tears welt up in my eyes and I blinked heavily to be able to memorise his features properly for the last time. His sharp jawline, the soft skin, his captivating green eyes, his straight black hair that always needed to be brushed off his face as it constantly covered his eyes. His lithe body and the gentle hands that held my heart.

"Please, don't make it harder than it already is, Subaru." A tear escaped my eyes as my heart shattered this very moment to pieces at the realisation that I would probably never see him again.

But it couldn't be helped.

I caressed his cheek for the last time before I leaned down and pushed my lips onto his, passionately. He closed his eyes, trying to deepen the kiss but I pulled away quickly, tears coming out of my eyes endlessly.

"I love you," I said quietly into his ear before I pushed him in Kamui's arms, wiping my tears away with the sleeve of the dress. Subaru let go off me unwillingly and a circle appeared underneath us.

Locking my eyes with the piercing violet ones of the twin, I whispered, "Be careful you two when you cross dimensions. Some worlds are with magic, some are not. Some are full of wars, some are already destroyed. The Dimensional Witch will tell you the details about this." He nodded, listening carefully even though I had told him this a thousand times already. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around his neck for a second, hugging him tightly like I had never done before. "I sincerely hope we meet again."

Kamui nodded and gave me one of his rare, small smiles. "Thank you...for everything." I nodded back and glanced back down at the love of my life, sorrowfully. His eyes met mine, sadness evident in his beautiful eyes - the most beautiful windows to the soul that I had ever seen before - but he managed to pull his own mouth corners up a little.

"Until we meet again, my beloved princess," he said, the slightest glint of hope encouraging even me.

I stared at the spot he had been just a second ago.

"Until we meet again, Subaru..."

I woke up before sunrise. It was still a little dark as I stared out from the window, which was right next my bed. Only small streaks of orange and red painted the sky, which gradually turned into a light blue. They promised a nice day.

What a strange dream, I thought as I watched the chirping birds on the trees, absently. It was really weird. Dad used to say you could only dream of things you had seen or at least imagined before. But I did neither of those.

Who were these people? Do I know them? I've never seen them before, have I? But somehow they were so familiar... It seemed like a memory almost, but it couldn't be right. The clothes, the manners, the happenings; it was way too different and weird to be a memory. I remembered the elongated nails of the vampire - as I had recognised in the dream - and the unbelievable speed of the other man, Seishiro? was it. These kind of things could only be found in fairytails. 'I must have mixed up a fairytale in my mind and dreamed about it...,' I reasoned and pushed the thoughts away with that.

I quickly stood up from the bed and went to take a bath, before going down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Dad, Jun and me, who was certainly too hungover to make it by himself with the amount of drinks he had the previous night again. After Mom's death he was too depressed to do anything else than drinking. I didn't blame him much because of this, Mom had been his reason to live, but I blamed him for completely forgetting about his kids. I was worried how Jun, my sweet little brother, would take it, if he ever noticed him in a drunken situation.

Of course I tried my best to bring him somewhere else when Dad was drunk, which happened a lot, he was just seven years old after all. I couldn't let him notice the helpless condition of our father, he had been his idol for his whole life so far.

Moreover I didn't want Jun to have a childhood like I had had, so I was glad to be eighteen now. So I could work and take care for the food. Though the job wasn't paid well, it was at least something. I quickly finished preparing the food and pulled three plates towards me with a gust of wind from the cupboards. I ate my portion of the breakfast and got ready to get out.

But before I made sure, Jun woke up, ate and went to school to avoid any interaction with Dad that I couldn't supervise - I had become controlling like that - and then I finally made my way to the restaurant where I was working as a servant. I took a short cut, since I was late yet again and went through small forest that was between home and work.

At the other end it would just be a street away to the restaurant. I was surrounded by big trunks of trees, leaves crunching loudly under my every step when I noticed a light not far away.

That was odd. The sun wasn't even up, yet.

Curiosity got control of me and I made my way towards the light. Just as I was about to reach it, only one tree blocking me from view, I suddenly stumbled over a root, falling on my knees. Ouch!

Crouching up to my feet I examined my knees for any bleeding scratches since I didn't want my work clothes to be stained with the red substance. It would need instant washing or it would stay permanently. I was gingerly touching the spot where it hurt when the ground in front of me enlightened from the light and a breeze picked up around me.

Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion I looked up when I noticed the form of two feet amidst the light in front of me, inches away from the ground.

Huh?

Looking up, my eyes trailed up the transparent body of human, halting on the face abruptly. My heart stopped, before racing a mile per second.

Mom?

There, before me, in front of me, looking down at me with blue eyes so much like mine, her red hair waving along with the breeze as if she was actually here, white light shimmering from and around her body like a halo...was my mother!

"Mommy?" I finally found my voice, cracking. The remembrance of her, how I had found her dead back then, made tears well up in my eyes. I knelt there on the ground, frozen as I stared at her for who knew how long, the blood draining from my face and I felt slightly light-headed.

"My little princess." her silky voice echoed around and through me as I watched her mouth move. "you grew up to a beautiful woman, do you know that?"

"Mom!" I cried out louder now, not able to keep the tears from flowing anymore. My little princess. Hearing how she called me like she used to during her lifetime, memories of the time with all of us together, happy together, rushed up to the surface again.

I reached up to her in attempt to touch her, but my hand touched nothing but air. She was a ghost, she wouldn't come back.

She continued "The time has come." Kneeling down in front of me she looked me straight in the eye. "I couldn't tell you before. But now..."

"W-wait, what? What time?" I asked, confused, dreading the moment I would have to blink, fearing it was all just an illusion.

"You know, you have magical abilities inside yourself?" I nodded.

"And you can't control it?" Another nod.

"Do you know why?" I was about to nod again, but shook my head just in time.

"That's because your abilities...they are sealed," she explained and I frowned in confusion. "Did you saw the mark on your back?" Of course I did. It was hardly possible not to see it. The mark, which started from my neck down to my back, only to separate in some weird symbols towards my shoulder blades, leaving the middle free of anything.

"Yeah, I guess" I replied vaguely.

"These marks used to be bigger before" I noticed the past tense she used. "They symbolized how powerful your magic was, but because it is sealed now, the marks have also...shrunk and disappeared almost completely. Which is why you have only discovered one of your abilities so far. Do you know which one I mean?"

I stared at her, dumbfounded. How did she know this all? Could she use magic, too? Well, obviously. How else could she stay here, only inches away. She was dead after all. Dead. "E-eh, you mean, controlling the wind?" She nodded with a smile. I had always had a strange affinity to the wind and it had obeyed to my wishes ever since I was young. My parents never found this unusual but when I was thrown out into the world for education and growing up, I found out that it was more than unusual. I had refrained from using wind to bend to my will when I got chased down by people, who called me a 'witch' in a vicious way and thus wasn't able to do much with it. But now...

"So, I have more magic" I said slowly.

"Yes you have"

"And now I don't have it anymore."

"No...not exactly" she hesitated on giving away anything else, causing me to narrow my eyes.

"Because it was sealed?"

"Yes"

"But when did this happen? Who sealed it? You? And why? How come I've never known this?" I blurted out everything at once, not bearing the one-question-at-a-time-form we made up.

"My little princess." I swallowed at the name. "You will get your answers when you get your memories back, my dear..." Memories? What memories? I opened my mouth, but my mother forestalled me.

"And until you haven't gotten all your memories back, please...don't try to break the seal." How was I supposed to do that, anyway?

"What memories do you mean?" Has the light around started to her shine brighter than before or is it just my imagination?

"I don't have the time to tell you, my dear" she had a sad undertone in her voice, "You have to go now. But please, promise me to not break the seal until you get your memories back. Please, Aya?"

"Al-Alright" I stammered, finding it impossible to not grant her her wish. Then it hit me. "Wha- wait! I can't go!" I protested vociferously as I processed what she actually meant.

"I can't leave! What about Jun? And Dad?" I asked. Surely she hadn't forgotten them if she had remembered me. "I have to look out for them. I can't go just like that!" I stopped for a moment. "Where am I going anyway?"

"To your destiny" she merely replied, raising her arms. "I will send you to the Dimensional Witch." Who? She came closer to me, opening her arms wide as if she wanted to embrace me. And I wished with all my might that she would do so.

"You have to go on a journey...help some people. And during that you will get your memories..." she paused. "...from your past lives" What?

"What?" I voiced out my useless thought.

The light coming out from her surrounded me, blinding my eyes, preventing me from seeing anything but white. I had to shield them with my hand.

"I wish you good luck on this journey...and don't worry about Jun and your Dad. They will be fine..." I wonder why she sounds so sad. I tried to get glimpse of her, but there was only light, so bright it hurt my eyes.

Then light got replaced by utter darkness. Black spots appeared in front of my eyes. And the last thing I noticed were the last words of my mother.

I'm sorry, I can't help you more, my little princess...