• Prologue

    Nobody would ever find her.

    It was her fate, and she had accepted it a long time ago, but it made it no easier to live with. To know that she would be gone soon, that she would never see the light of day again, was a terrible destiny. It was excruciating to just lie there, like a zombie, and know that even if you did get up nothing would get better… only worse. But then again, wasn’t all of her life like that?

    She sneered, yeah, it was. But still, she kept fighting, even till the end... although now, now it was time to finally close her eyes to all of this. Because everyone has to give up eventually, and every story has to have an ending, no matter how horrible it is.

    And this was her ending. She smiled lightly to herself, her final ending. Her last damned day on this stupid earth. And she was happy, surprisingly happy, and yet, something was telling her to stay. But she’d always been a rebel.

    “Goodbye…” She mumbled, more to herself than anything, as her light purple eyes were beginning to glaze over. She lay at the bottom of a forest floor, her orbs staring up at the dark night sky as a thunder storm raged on. It reminded her of the night her father died. And the night her mother abandoned her. And now the night she left it all behind.

    Her eyelids drooped and closed, and just as she was about to submit to unconsciousness, she heard voices.

    “Is that her?” A man asked, and she almost gasped, she hadn’t heard anyone approach.

    She wondered who they were looking for, because who the hell would they find in the middle of a dark forest? Maybe there was a cabin nearby… or something… but she hadn’t seen anyone else near here, which was confusing. Unless, of course, the girl was really quiet, and that was why she hadn’t been able to hear her. That sounded more plausible than any of the other ideas in her head, she was, after all, eight.

    “Yeah, this is Mitsuki Yoru.” Another person, a girl she suspected, replied.

    They were looking for her?! Couldn’t they just leave her to rot, and go to hell? Gosh, these people were selfish. Besides, even though she had been mutated, she wasn’t strong, not at all. So maybe they weren’t looking for her, maybe they just wanted to kill her and rid her of the earth.

    ‘Well, excuse me, weird sounding people, but I was about to die!’ Mitsuki screamed in her mind. It seemed so unlikely that it was her they were looking for… so maybe there was another Mitsuki Yoru here… but that didn’t seem all that likely either.

    ‘And I’m not that bad of hearing! I would be able to tell if there was someone there!’ The truth in her words shone through, because even though she was eight, and wasn't strong, she was still a mutant; she could probably take someone twice her age. But a question still lingered in her mind, how did they know her mother’s maiden name? She was technically a Kagura, because she had inherited her father’s last name, so why were they calling her a Yoru? It didn’t make any sense.

    “Do we grab her?” A younger boy asked, snapping Mitsuki from her trance-like state. She almost opened her eyes, but quickly thought better of it… hoping that they would think she was dead, and leave her to the animals.

    She held her breath, and relaxed her tense muscles.

    “Yeah, Akio, do you think you can handle her?” The girl asked the boy, who, by Mitsuki’s deduction, was a young teen, generally new to this business of 'kidnapping people'.

    “Definitely… but… is she dead?”

    This was her chance; this could mean she could die peacefully! She mentally crossed her fingers, not daring to move an inch. Maybe, just maybe, the woman would think she was dead-

    “No, she isn’t.”

    Life wasn’t faire…

    The boy, who Mitsuki assumed to be Akio, picked her up without the slightest trouble, and took off into the night sky, moving from branch to branch quicker than lightning. Their pace had such rhythm that Mitsuki almost drifted off… of course she didn’t, because she wanted to be awake for whatever happened, and because the rain falling on her faced made it rather hard.

    She wasn’t actually scared, per say, just nervous of what would happen if she drifted off, and freaked out as to why this was all happening. She was annoyed, too… really annoyed. Although, soon she was sure nothing would happen to her for now, and she could risk a small sleep...

    Mitsuki sighed, sleep did sound like a good idea, and, luckily, she soon became accustomed to the rain falling on her face, it almost became comfortable… well, comfortable enough to fall asleep.

    Soon, she found herself drifting into unconsciousness like she almost had before, but now, instead of being calm, she felt confused. She had almost died. The reality hit her so quickly she almost fainted, because now, as she was being carried through the rain, she was glad they'd taken her. She was glad for a second chance.

    Then, images began to float into her mind, and she would only later realize she had begun dreaming.

    --

    "Mitsuki, Mitsuki, wake up!" A small voice, like that of bells rung out into the air, as a small girl shook Mitsuki lightly.

    "Hmm...?" She sat up groggily, not particularily aware of her situation. The only thing she knew was that this place was not familiar, and this girl was alien. Who was she? How did she know her name? And why did she have cat ears?

    "Oh... you don't know who I am, do you?" Mitsuki gave the girl a look, how would she know who she was? They didn't know each other.

    "Well, my name is Aya Mirai!" Aya cried, shoving her hand toward Mitsuki for a handshake. Warily, she took it, but quickly drew back when she noticed the other girl's eyes go blank.

    "W-what?! Are you alright?" Mitsuki shook Aya softly, but when she recieved no response, she began to shake more violently. Still nothing.

    Mitsuki stood up, backing slowly away from Aya's seemingly vacant body. What had she done? Was Aya... dead?

    Luckily, it was not so, when light came back into Aya's eyes, and she began to rub her right shoulder. "Ow... what happened?"

    "You-you left or something, and so I tried to get you to wake up, but it didn’t work, it was like you were dead." Mitsuki explained, bewildered by the whole experience.

    "Oh," Aya laughed softly, "I forgot to tell you."

    Mitsuki looked at Aya strangely, who began to explain further.

    "You see, this is a facility to help and protect mutants, like us-" Aya was cut off by Mitsuki's surprised voice.

    "You're a mutant too?" Aya nodded sharply, pointing at the cat ears resting atop her head.

    "I was infused with the DNA of a cat, so I could see, hear, and move better. It worked, but there are many side affects. Like what you just saw, it was an affect of all the chemicals that allows me to glance into your life with the touch of the hand. I zone out for a couple of minutes while I take all of it in." She paused, "As I was saying, this is a place to help us, and make it so we can learn our side affects-which are usually more powerful than the actual mutation, and help us control them. Although right now, this place is almost purely for protection. Currently, humans are finding game in hunting us." She looked disgusted as she finished, and Mitsuki felt disgusted, herself.

    "So... I guess I'll be staying here right?" Mitsuki asked, smiling at the idea of a home.

    "Yeah," Aya grinned, "I guess you are."

    End Prologue