Reincanation
03-24-2009, 03:56 AM
Username: --- Reincanation
° I N T R O D U C T I O N S
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
~ Matthew 7:7
Name: --- Megumi Michiko
°°Megumi literally means ‘blessing’ while Michiko means ‘child of beautiful wisdom’. This name was one of the two keepsakes she has left from her biological mother, the only proof that she was her real mother’s daughter. The doctors at the hospital made a statement that her mother, of whose name remains unknown till this very day, used her dying breaths to name her first and only child. The doctors, of course, could only comply with the mother’s dying wishes.
Gender: --- Female
Age: --- 16
School: Higashi High
School Clubs: ---
• None Whatsoever
°°Megumi doesn't have the time nor does she have the interest to join a school club. Petty things like Arts and crafts or Dance couldn't possibly hold her attention for more than a fraction of a second. Why waste your precious time on something that wouldn't benefit you in the future? And even if she did have that kind of extra time, it would be better spent going through more reading material or more practices to improve her tuning skills. So there, period.
Skill Stats:
Vitality: 10
Dexterity: 10
Hearing: 8
Intelligence: 12
Total SP: 40.
°°Megumi is well aware that all the stats of a tuner is important in its own manner and if one was to be called a good tuner, one couldn’t solely focus on one attribute. It wasn’t like a rider who could solely focus on speed or strength. A tuner has to be good at everything. Because of this, Megumi will constantly do her best to up all of her statistics as much as possible with as much practice and effort as it takes. She is what some would call an all-rounder. Megumi aims to be 'perfect' in all aspects of tuning. In other words, by pushing herself this much, she wants to be able to cater for whatever needs her future rider may need, whatever they may be. This is all part of her conquest to become the Ultimate Blessing to someone.
Status: --- F Class
Road: --- Ring Road
Tuning Information:
°°Megumi believes that in order to become the perfect tuner, she has to achieve precision and intellect beyond a normal being’s capabilities. As a result, she has worked hard over the years to accumulate as much information about tuning Air Treks as possible. No gear or blot that is used to construct a pair of Air Treks is unknown to her. She’s made it a point to know every single detail inside and outside of these magnificent devises. Megumi has also spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours poring over books and learning material to increase her knowledge of tuning to its highest peak. But of course, even Megumi, a constant dreamer, knows that it is virtually impossible to know everything. That’s why she never stops learning. Without proper and sufficient knowledge of Air Treks, one would only prove to be a burden to one’s rider, nothing more, only less. As for skills on the practical side of tuning, all of Megumi’s spare time goes to repeatedly doing exercises, not matter how simple and easy they may seem to be, over and over again. She had purposefully bought herself a pair of Air Treks for this specific reason (no, she has never worn them before). One cannot count the number of times she has dismantled and reassembled them back together. Precision without comparison, intelligence with no rival, this is what it takes to be a tuner. Unfortunately, hearing is something that cannot be improved with constant practiced. If one absolutely had to label something as Megumi’s weakness, it would be her hearing.
° E V E R L A S T I N G B E A U T Y
"Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven
and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
~ Malachi 3:10
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn263/reincanation/JJstunercopy.jpg
Eye Colour: --- Enchanting P E R I D O T Green
Hair Colour: --- Mysterious S M O K E Y Grey
Skin Tone: --- Rosy M I L K Beige
Height/Weight: --- 170 cm / 41 kg
Blood-type: --- O positive
Overall Appearance: ---
°°Deary me... I still hate this section, JJ... Anyways... just as her name would say, Megumi is blessed with the most beautiful set green eyes that could spellbind you for hours on end. These captivating eyes that rival the passion and preciousness of Peridot gems are always bright and shining, always alert and eager to spy someone in need of her help and blessings. Sometimes when she’s happy, you would swear that you see stars twinkling in them. Megumi had always wondered whether it was because of her unusually fair skin which contrasted so well with those green eyes that they were so intense. Once or twice a day, you would see fellow students and sometimes teaches telling her she needed to get out more often or get a tan but Megumi never really takes any of those comments to heart. Since her it’s is usually obedient and fine, Megumi rarely sees the need to tie her smoky hair back, preferring to let her silky grey hair fall past her delicate shoulders and down her small back till about mid waist. Her friendly smile that is usually stuck on the front of her face for at least eight-five percent of the time she’s in the public’s eyes, making her someone that’s easy to approach. Megumi is very expressive when it comes to positive feelings. However, when she’s feeling slightly down, she does her best to mask her mood from her outward appearance, regardless of how well she fails at it.
Megumi’s small, slim and petite body usually fits into just about anything but her preference would be fitting yet flowing. She can been seen wearing Higashi High’s school uniform almost throughout the entire day. Of course, she dresses appropriately for school but after school, she doesn’t really bother changing into anything else. During weekends when she doesn’t have the opportunity to slip into her uniform, she can be seen in anything from a tube to a long shirt that extends past the hips. The bottom part of her body is usually clothed with long pants. Megumi doesn’t limit herself to just one set of colors or just one style of dressing. However, it doesn’t stop her from having certain favourites. Her favourite set of clothing would include a black tube that rises roughly two inches above the navel and a pair of blue, low rise, bell bottom pants made from soft jean material. Megumi prefers sneakers over sandals or high heels any day. Nike, please~ Megumi likes putting on a good old pair of pants over skirts and dresses when going out but it’s mostly because they’re more convenient to travel in. She doesn’t have any sort of special vendetta against putting something more feminine on. At home, her dressings are much less profound, they even bordered on sloppy. The first that that enters her reach is usual the thing she puts on, regardless of style or clashing colors.
Notable accessories would include a silver locket that she wears wherever she goes, rarely taking it off at all. Other things such as bracelets and belts vary according to her mood. One thing that she stands firm on is that she doesn’t wear rings. Why? Dunno... they just seem bothersome to her. One last ‘accessory’ that follows Megumi around wherever she goes is her Sony Walkman. Before you ask, yes, she is a Mac hater. Going back to the topic, Megumi brings this little trinket of hers wherever she goes. The fact lies with whether or not you notice her bringing it. But then, since Walkmans are that small, I guess I could overlook it if you didn’t. When on the roof of her school block, she opts to use smaller earpieces to attract less attention, and of course, they’re easier to carry around as well as easier to conceal if the time called for it. Bass enhancement all the way~ At home or outside for casual purposes, she switches to a set of surround sound headphones much better suited for her tastes. When it’s not on her, she has it around her neck. Occasionally, a black laptop bag would opt to tag along with her when she went outdoors. Pretty high tech for a girl like her, no? Although a little tom boy-ish in appearances but she’s got her feminine points and moments.
° P E R S O N A L I T Y
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
~ John 3:16
Likes:
• Studying
• Tuning
• Learning
• Neutral Colors
• The Comforts of Home
• Helping people
• Music
• Singing
• Being Praised
• Being Appreciated
• Presents
• Good Surprises
• Coke
Dislikes:
• Being Disturbed
• People Upsetting her Schedule
• Being Unable to Figure Something Out
• Being Left Out
• Failing
• Shopping
• Doing things in Vain
• Being Misunderstood
• Pepsi
• Being caught off guard
Hobbies:
• Tuning
• Singing
• Reading
Fears: --- Becoming Useless and Unneeded
Goals: --- To become the Ultimate Blessing
Overall Personality: ---
°°After taking all her aspects into consideration, one could say that Megumi has a generally good character and personality. She smiles a lot, stays positive when she can help it and she encourages others a lot. She likes helping people when they need her and she likes being there for others. In other words, she just likes blessing people. Thinking it this way, people would often say that she’s a very reliable friend or a very helpful peer. Every act she does, she does from her heart. Someone as pure and innocent as Megumi, she doesn’t think of benefits and rewards. Fame and reputation weren’t important. She just wanted to help. She just wanted to make a difference in someone’s day. She wanted to be responsible for turning’s someone’s day around. That was it. She doesn’t have any ulterior motives when she agrees to help someone with one thing or another or agrees to help them study for their next test. Megumi wants to like the sunlight, chasing away the dark clouds. However, even with Megumi’s pure and innocent aspect, she knows when to draw the lines. As much as she loves helping people with their problems, she will not take part in anything that is generally frowned upon. She wouldn’t do something as foolish as to lend money to someone that’s going to gamble it away anyway. She won’t aid you in a crime that will lead to the misfortune of someone else.
As stated above, Megumi is a very expressive person, constantly using her facial expressions to tell people what was going on in her heart. This isn’t a problem most of the time she’s in the public’s eyes but there are always some tainted days mixed in Megumi’s life. Yes, of course, her life wasn’t perfect. Even though she smiles all the time, it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel hurt or angry some times. During days like these, Megumi does her best to mask her feelings from others but god knows that she is an epic failure when it comes to acting (lying and tricking). So... in order to not affect others with her own bad moods, she’ll kindly makes excuses to leave the crowd to go sulk in solitary peace. So, if taking everything into consideration, it was hell easy to identify the times Megumi was feeling down. It was one of those days when Megumi wasn’t visible on the school grounds, in which case, she either disappeared into some self made hiding place or she had ditched school. The second scenario doesn’t happen very often though. Yes, she’s still your goodie two shoes of a student. She couldn’t break a school rule even if you paid her to do it.
By reading the above, one could easily come to the conclusion that Megumi is addicted if not thoroughly hooked onto tuning, which is a very true fact. Megumi had always liked studying. She had always believed that she could bless someone if she had wisdom and intellect and so she had pushed herself to develop in this area. By having extensive knowledge of a wide variety of things, one stood a better chance of being able to help more people with their various problems. It was the same for Air Trekking. The world of Air Treks was still something so alien to Megumi. Every time she opened a book or switched on the internet, she learnt new things that she had never seen before. It fascinated her, truly enthralled her. Besides, probably eighty percent of the teenage population rode Air Treks. By becoming some sort of a medic to these warriors that braved such dangerous stunts every night, Megumi could serve to help more people in a much more useful manner. Another thing being that somewhere deep in her sub consciousness, she always believed that by becoming a tuner to a rider, she would stand to have a greater chance to perform that ‘ultimate blessing’.
All this business of blessings, being blessed and this ‘ultimate blessing’, since when had these things come to play such a large part in Megumi’s life? Maybe they always were and they were just waiting for Megumi to notice it. Ever since she was born, Megumi’s goal had always been fixated on one thing: to become someone’s Ultimate Blessing. Maybe her zeal for helping people came from this. In hopes of finding and performing that ultimate blessing, she helped others as much as she could. In her mind, she had always believed that God put her here in this world for a reason. She didn’t know why, but she always believed it was so that she could be of use to someone. Her insignificant life that could have been thrown away before she could come to know what ‘life’ was, was salvaged at the cost of her real mother’s life so there must have been a reason why she was alive now. Because she had taken something from this world in order to be brought into it, she must have a reason and purpose that was greater than anything, right? She was brought into this world to do something that only she could do, she knew that. The problem was finding out what it was but before the time came to do that blessing, she would equip herself as best she could. It was the only thing she could do now.
Music plays a big part in this young tuner’s life. Although she doesn’t play an instrument, she has the voice to make up for any lack of talent there. If there was one thing Megumi was truly good at, it was singing. It was a natural gift from birth but never before had Megumi thought of developing her career in this direction. It just didn’t seem like it was calling. Call it a gut feeling. And so, this talent that rarely graced the ears of people around her, slumbered within her, seldom coming out to see the light of day. But it wasn’t like she was hiding this talent of her, oh no, she wasn’t. It was just that people automatically assumed that you couldn’t sing when you turn down their invitations to attend karaoke events. In truth, she was just too good and law abiding a student to attend functions like those. Plus, all that time they used to fool around could be better use if Megumi used it to enrich herself. Her favourite genre of music would be... Asian pop. It didn’t really matter which language the songs were in since Megumi could speak Japanese, Korean and several dialects of Chinese quite fluently. English is something she excels at as well, it being the international language of the world as of this moment but English songs never really held her attention for some reason. And as weird as it seems, she finds herself quite attracted to Gospel music, not that she was religious or anything. They style the Gospel songs were usually written in just sounded pleasing to the ear for some reason.
And while we’re on this subject, a somewhat weird habit Megumi has is that she likes quoting from the bible. She doesn’t really know why. When she was younger she used to like quoting well written sentences from books that she had previously read. One day, she came across a bible somewhere and found it quite poetic. Her good memory allowed her to remember quite a number of nice verses which she used in different situations. So now, that little game of hers stuck onto her and slowly became a habit that she could never get rid of. Hehe... Although she did manage to get herself to think the verses instead of say them out loud to avoid people raising eyebrows at her. Well... sort of... kind of... let’s just say that it’s a habit that she’s still trying to develop.
Let’s tie up a few loose ends and call it even, shall we? Megumi doesn’t really have a temper. She’s found herself to be quite a tolerant person when it comes to her temper. She can hold her smile in place in most situations. Her mood is rarely affected by those around her. More like, she sees it as her own personal responsibility to keep the mood around her positive and cheerful. Patience is a tricky subject. When it comes to dealing with others, she can be very patient. This makes here the ideal teacher for those... ‘Hopeless Cases’... However, if it was patience when dealing with herself... well, let’s just say that a whole and entirely other story. No one has higher expectations for Megumi than herself. She expects herself to excel and succeed. She expects herself to be able to solve any of her personal problems by herself. She expects herself to be able to learn fast, understand fast and think fast. She absolutely cannot stand it when she fails at doing something. Whether or not this is a good thing is still yet to be proven though... But all in all, if you need someone’s help, you can always count on her. Her bright rays of sunshine will definitely chase away the darkest of shadows. But then, dark clouds aren’t always bad, you know?
“ Fear not when seeing dark clouds because I
sent them. Every single drop of rain that
falls from them shall be like the number of
times I wish you happiness... ”
° L I N G E R I N G M E M O R I E S
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
~ Psalm 23:5b
Birthplace: --- Tokyo City
Birthdate: --- 7th July 1992
Birthtime: --- 6: 39 a.m.
Parents: ---
Shizumasa Michiko & Chinatsu Michiko
°°Shizumasa and Chinatsu Michiko work as partner authors to a bestselling fantasy novel series. In fact it was during the collaboration of their first novel that they had come to meet each other in the first place. By working long hours and meeting nearly every day to go through plots and things for the story, they became close friends very quickly. It was only after the release and success of their first novel that Shizumasa proposed to Chinatsu, which of course, she accepted with a ‘Yes’. A few months of hectic preparations later, they were finally married at a white wedding. A few weeks into their marriage, Chinatsu found out that she was actually barren. Depression set over her and after awhile, they decided to adopt a child at a local orphanage. Finance as well as living accommodations weren’t a problem so the procedures to adopt a three year old girl by the name of Megumi went smoothly. It is quite a miracle that even after adopting a toddler, the two authors can still juggle their previous lives and make Megumi feel the love and warmth of a family well without any difficulties. They are currently working on their fifth novel to their series even though the world knows that they should have enough money to go on living the rest of their lives very, very comfortably with the financial resources they have now.
Siblings: ---
None
Overall History: ---
Silent Past
°°There is one important part of Megumi’s life that no one, not even her, knows about. It’s the time from when before she was born on that stormy night at Tokyo General. She and the orphanage were told that her biological mother had died in childbirth, which wasn’t so off the dot. But actually, Yukiko Kaname had already received a fatal wound before delivery and was already dying when Megumi was being brought into the world. Yukiko Kaname was a young and attractive lady that was involved with the wrong crowds. She was the lover of one of the high ranking men in the underground business. And of course, when we say ‘lover’, we mean ‘mistress’. And that was why a lot of troubles arose Yukiko got pregnant. She couldn’t hide the fact from the eyes of the black society for very long until one day, in order to save hers and the unborn baby’s life, she fled. But of course, everyone knows that making enemies with the underground is the same as signing your death contract. Amazingly, Yukiko was able to jump from city to city with the help of some friends and managed to evade the death grip of underground for more than seven months. But as time passed, it became more and more inconvenient to move around as much anymore.
It was during that time that the hounds cornered the hare. After saying their piece, the men sent by the person that once whispered honey words into her ear at bed left her to die in an abandoned alleyway. By pure will power, Yukiko crawled and stumbled all the way towards the hospital in the dead of night. By the time she reached her destination, she had already entered a critical stage in which the baby inside her may well already be dead. The surgeon on duty took pity on her dying wishes and decided to take up on the challenge. And it was a good thing they did because by the grace of God, Megumi was delivered with no signs of endangerment to her life. All vital signs were stable and no injuries were found inside or out of her body. However, even though the baby was born unscratched and unscarred from her mother’s mistakes, Yukiko was bleeding so much both internally and from physical wounds that she couldn’t be saved. That wasn’t a problem to her though. She would pay for her sins while her child lived her own life, untainted by her. With a smile on her face, she said the words “Megumi-chan, be a blessing to others, ne?” before her heart line went flat. Aware of the situation Yukiko was in to cause her early death, the doctors made a police report stating that a woman with an unborn child was found dead in a nearby alleyway (which of course, was reported again in the morning newspaper to ‘ease’ the mind of a certain person) while in truth, they moved Megumi to an orphanage from behind the scenes. A silver locket, the only thing that was of any value on her Yukiko’s person, was given to Megumi. She treasures this small piece of jewelery above anything else that she has in her possession.
Checkpoint
°°Megumi grew up well enough at the orphanage. Luckily, there was no mistreatment like what you people see in movies. Megumi passed through an uneventful life here in the orphanage but maybe it was because of this place that Megumi had come to love gospel music since it was run by some church. There isn’t much to say about this place since Megumi only spent three years of her life here. She doesn’t really remember this part of her life nor the people that accompanied her throughout the time there, seeing as she went through it as a toddler. All she knows is that she was kindly treated here and was adopted before she could really walk and talk. Megumi doesn’t see this part of her life with much importance. To her, the orphanage was like a transit stop to the place she called home now. Never before has the thought of going back to visit ever occurred to her. Actually, it might be the opposite. More like she avoids going back to the orphanage as much as possible. Though, as said before, there weren’t any bad memories there, there was just this feeling she had when she was near there, a feeling of losing something, so to speak. It was hard to put into words but it was there.
Survivor of the Past
°°Megumi had a happy childhood living with her adoptive parents. And yes, before you ask, she knew she was adopted right from the start as her parents never saw the need to high this fact from her. Besides, she was going to find out eventually anyway even without their help since she looked nothing like either of them. Megumi never viewed her past with any embarrassment or spite. She does, though, acknowledge that she’s very lucky to have been adopted by such a good and loving family. Now that she’s older and is more capable of tacking of herself, her parents tend to focus more on their work. Subsequently, this makes her more independent. Her parents have full confidence in her to not get into anything she’s not supposed to so you could say that she has quite a wide range of freedom waiting on her. She doesn’t have a ‘curfew’ but she doesn’t abuse or exploit her parent’s confidence in her by coming home at ungodly hours. Her studies so far have been good, always staying above average, so her parents rarely see the need to force her to study. In fact, it might be the other way around. They do, sometimes, see the need to drag Megumi out from her tuning practices and studying to have some leisure together. Megumi doesn’t mind much... as long as they don’t go overboard.
It was maybe around the time when her generation of youths had started, one by one, taking up Air Trekking that she too was charmed by this new and exciting world. However, rather than wanting to soar to heights like most of her fellows, Megumi took up tuning instead. Even when captivated by something she found that she liked, she always remembered that she needed to be a blessing to others. For what other reason would her mother name her that if not to remind her to be a blessing? And so, while others were buying new Air Treks and getting they limbs broken doing stunts that they obviously had no idea how to do in the first place, Megumi would always be there to patch them up. Her parents, miraculously, doesn’t object to Megumi getting involved in Air Treks. Megumi figured that her announcing that she was going to tune instead of rider might have put some ease to their minds. At least they didn’t have to worry about getting a phone call from the hospital. Not that they really know to the full extent of what tuning is. Hum hum hum... what? It’s not like Megumi is lying or anything... She just left out a few details, is all. Hehe, so begins a new tuner’s journey.
° E V E R Y T H I N G E L S E
And there are also many other things which Jesus did,
which if they were written in detail,
I suppose that even the world itself would not contain
the books that would be written.
~ John 21:25
Extra: ---
°°Megumi is ambidextrous
Roleplay Sample: ---
°° A single pink petal flower floated down from above and gently into the open palm of a dainty hand. Her Lady, the moon, was still high up in the skies as she smiled down on the scene below her. It was a beautiful view, a splendid picture, even if you weren’t looking down from above like the luminous orb in the sky. A single young lady in violet stood in the middle of a rain of pink cherry blossoms. A warm smile was set on her face as her chin was tilted slightly upwards. The wind was blowing with just the right strength, lightly playing with the blossoms on the branches before giving them a final push then carrying them gently down to the earth. For a normal citizen in the depths of Tokyo, this was a common yet beautiful sight but for that single young lady named Ayame, this was a dream come through. Arashi stood leaning against one of the nearby cherry blossom trees as he too, like the moon above, watched the scene before him. Unconsciously, there was a slight smile set on his face as well and he would have noticed it too had it not been for the fact that he was fixated on the picture in front of him. With his arms crossed in front of his chest, his sapphire eyes analyzing every detail and his mind running into roadblocks every time he thought he came to an answer, he was thoroughly stumped. He just couldn’t figure out why someone like Ayame would be grounded to that extent. Plus, all the items and places that were listed down on her paper were things that normal children in Japan would experience at least every now and then.
I mean… Singing at the beach? Walking down the waterfront? Going to the park? Watching the cherry blossoms fall? These were all things that everyone did quite often if not every day. You could see the full bloom cherry blossoms fall every spring and judging from Ayame’s age, she would have at least fifteen chances to see them previously. I mean… Cherry Blossom trees were everywhere here in Tokyo city, in the entire Japan even. Sure, Arashi had to admit that the rain of blossoms were probably one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life but it wasn’t something really special in Japanese eyes, seeing as one could see this sight nearly everywhere. However, according to Ayame, she had never done any of the things on her list. That… was strange, don’t you think? Maybe she was an immigrant? No, it couldn’t be. Ayame was definitely Japanese, Arashi could tell that much. Or maybe she was born by Japanese who had migrated to other places and had just come back for who knows what reason. Hmm… that sounded a little doubtful. The was Ayame seemed to know her way around a big city like Tokyo without much problems and without the aid of a map or tour guide, Arashi would guess that she had lived here all her life. So then why all these items? Why would a Japanese girl take the risk and trouble to sneak out of her room at the dead of night just to do things that could be done at just about any time of the day? The more Arashi thought about it, the more his head hurt but surprisingly, Arashi was kind of happy with that.
Heh, Arashi was pretty strange himself huh? But really, just like his encounter with Nathanial Barrows, a Kyoto rider that could go at amazing speeds that rivaled Arashi’s, Arashi rather enjoyed not being able to understand something. This seventeen year old teen had spent his entire life reading and studying as much as he could about as many things as he could. I guess some would call Arashi a genius with an IQ that exceeded two hundred. But you know… knowing everything was pretty tiresome. Yes, Arashi could understand that not being able to understand how some things work and go but when you knew all the reasons and all the answers, very little things could interest you anymore. Was that a little hard to understand? Well, here, to put things really simple, one could compare Arashi’s life to one of a magician. Yes, the ones that could pull bunny rabbits out of their top hats. Now, a magician’s life and career, his job, was to entertain the public by amazing and astounding them. And yes, you’ve guessed it, you can’t be amazed and astound if you knew how the magician swapped places with one of his assistants or how he managed to escape a life and death situation in a matter of seconds. You were amazed when you couldn’t understand those things. Magic was just that: something you couldn’t explain to yourself. As interesting as all this philosophy was, you’re still wondering how this related to Arashi’s situation? Well, here it is then.
Plain and simple, do you know who enjoys magic shows the least? Well… setting aside personal rival competitions of the various magicians, it’s the magician performing them, of course. He’s not amazed at how he managed to jump down a trap door to seemingly disappear from the eyes of the audience. He’s not amazed at how well he could pull a rabbit out of a secret compartment. The magician knows all the answers and ways to accomplish his act. He lives to entertain all but himself. In his world, magic is the last thing that exists. Well, irony wasn’t a rare sight in this world but do you see the connection now? Yup, Arashi was a magician that knew all the trap doors and secret compartments. Rarely anything puzzled or astounded him anymore these days. But then, along came this mysterious girl named Ayame of whom he couldn’t figure anything out. One could compare her to a magic trick that another magician was performing. It was so good, so magnificent, so beautiful and amazing that not even a fellow magician could understand it and I tell you, if such a case ever happened, the stumped magician would be grateful beyond words and comparison. For that one instant, the moment when the ‘magic’ happened and the second the thing called amazement set in, real magic would enter a magician’s life. Yes, Arashi was a very grateful magician right now and Ayame was truly something Arashi would call ‘magic’. Arash smiled fondly at that. ‘Magic’, huh? Sounded like something a girl would be flattered to be compared with. He would remember that the next time he was forced to do some courting.
Then Arashi remembered something that made his smile broadened. It was the expression that Ayame had on her face when they came into seeing distance of this field of cherry blossom trees. The smile that had appeared on Ayame’s face was something that Arashi had never seen before in his life and to he who smiled and was smiled at nearly every day, that was saying something. It was… hah… it couldn’t really be described in words. It was a smile that had so many emotions mixed in it: joy, wonder, amazement, gratitude and something Arashi just couldn’t put his finger on. However, I tell you now, just by looking at that one heartwarming smile, Arashi felt as if all the hard work that he had put into getting to this point in life was worth it. It was a reward that not even people with all the money in the world knew of its existence. Ayame was so happy, he could feel it in that smile of hers and Arashi didn’t know why but that same happiness had started swelling inside him as well. See! Happiness was contagious but Ayame’s smile brought it to a whole new level. It was almost as if seeing that smile just once in Arashi’s life made enduring all those hardships over the years worth it, almost as if that smile was the sole reason that made life worth living. It was only now when Arashi knew the true meaning of ‘heartwarming’. It really and truly was. Faintly, Arashi wondered if Ayame knew of this gift she had, the power of her smile, this ‘magic’ she had. Maybe… Arashi continued to gaze upon Ayame who was silently enjoying the beauty. He closed his eyes and smiled. Ayame was his magic, huh?
" Torment not the Survivors of the Past "
° I N T R O D U C T I O N S
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
~ Matthew 7:7
Name: --- Megumi Michiko
°°Megumi literally means ‘blessing’ while Michiko means ‘child of beautiful wisdom’. This name was one of the two keepsakes she has left from her biological mother, the only proof that she was her real mother’s daughter. The doctors at the hospital made a statement that her mother, of whose name remains unknown till this very day, used her dying breaths to name her first and only child. The doctors, of course, could only comply with the mother’s dying wishes.
Gender: --- Female
Age: --- 16
School: Higashi High
School Clubs: ---
• None Whatsoever
°°Megumi doesn't have the time nor does she have the interest to join a school club. Petty things like Arts and crafts or Dance couldn't possibly hold her attention for more than a fraction of a second. Why waste your precious time on something that wouldn't benefit you in the future? And even if she did have that kind of extra time, it would be better spent going through more reading material or more practices to improve her tuning skills. So there, period.
Skill Stats:
Vitality: 10
Dexterity: 10
Hearing: 8
Intelligence: 12
Total SP: 40.
°°Megumi is well aware that all the stats of a tuner is important in its own manner and if one was to be called a good tuner, one couldn’t solely focus on one attribute. It wasn’t like a rider who could solely focus on speed or strength. A tuner has to be good at everything. Because of this, Megumi will constantly do her best to up all of her statistics as much as possible with as much practice and effort as it takes. She is what some would call an all-rounder. Megumi aims to be 'perfect' in all aspects of tuning. In other words, by pushing herself this much, she wants to be able to cater for whatever needs her future rider may need, whatever they may be. This is all part of her conquest to become the Ultimate Blessing to someone.
Status: --- F Class
Road: --- Ring Road
Tuning Information:
°°Megumi believes that in order to become the perfect tuner, she has to achieve precision and intellect beyond a normal being’s capabilities. As a result, she has worked hard over the years to accumulate as much information about tuning Air Treks as possible. No gear or blot that is used to construct a pair of Air Treks is unknown to her. She’s made it a point to know every single detail inside and outside of these magnificent devises. Megumi has also spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours poring over books and learning material to increase her knowledge of tuning to its highest peak. But of course, even Megumi, a constant dreamer, knows that it is virtually impossible to know everything. That’s why she never stops learning. Without proper and sufficient knowledge of Air Treks, one would only prove to be a burden to one’s rider, nothing more, only less. As for skills on the practical side of tuning, all of Megumi’s spare time goes to repeatedly doing exercises, not matter how simple and easy they may seem to be, over and over again. She had purposefully bought herself a pair of Air Treks for this specific reason (no, she has never worn them before). One cannot count the number of times she has dismantled and reassembled them back together. Precision without comparison, intelligence with no rival, this is what it takes to be a tuner. Unfortunately, hearing is something that cannot be improved with constant practiced. If one absolutely had to label something as Megumi’s weakness, it would be her hearing.
° E V E R L A S T I N G B E A U T Y
"Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven
and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
~ Malachi 3:10
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn263/reincanation/JJstunercopy.jpg
Eye Colour: --- Enchanting P E R I D O T Green
Hair Colour: --- Mysterious S M O K E Y Grey
Skin Tone: --- Rosy M I L K Beige
Height/Weight: --- 170 cm / 41 kg
Blood-type: --- O positive
Overall Appearance: ---
°°Deary me... I still hate this section, JJ... Anyways... just as her name would say, Megumi is blessed with the most beautiful set green eyes that could spellbind you for hours on end. These captivating eyes that rival the passion and preciousness of Peridot gems are always bright and shining, always alert and eager to spy someone in need of her help and blessings. Sometimes when she’s happy, you would swear that you see stars twinkling in them. Megumi had always wondered whether it was because of her unusually fair skin which contrasted so well with those green eyes that they were so intense. Once or twice a day, you would see fellow students and sometimes teaches telling her she needed to get out more often or get a tan but Megumi never really takes any of those comments to heart. Since her it’s is usually obedient and fine, Megumi rarely sees the need to tie her smoky hair back, preferring to let her silky grey hair fall past her delicate shoulders and down her small back till about mid waist. Her friendly smile that is usually stuck on the front of her face for at least eight-five percent of the time she’s in the public’s eyes, making her someone that’s easy to approach. Megumi is very expressive when it comes to positive feelings. However, when she’s feeling slightly down, she does her best to mask her mood from her outward appearance, regardless of how well she fails at it.
Megumi’s small, slim and petite body usually fits into just about anything but her preference would be fitting yet flowing. She can been seen wearing Higashi High’s school uniform almost throughout the entire day. Of course, she dresses appropriately for school but after school, she doesn’t really bother changing into anything else. During weekends when she doesn’t have the opportunity to slip into her uniform, she can be seen in anything from a tube to a long shirt that extends past the hips. The bottom part of her body is usually clothed with long pants. Megumi doesn’t limit herself to just one set of colors or just one style of dressing. However, it doesn’t stop her from having certain favourites. Her favourite set of clothing would include a black tube that rises roughly two inches above the navel and a pair of blue, low rise, bell bottom pants made from soft jean material. Megumi prefers sneakers over sandals or high heels any day. Nike, please~ Megumi likes putting on a good old pair of pants over skirts and dresses when going out but it’s mostly because they’re more convenient to travel in. She doesn’t have any sort of special vendetta against putting something more feminine on. At home, her dressings are much less profound, they even bordered on sloppy. The first that that enters her reach is usual the thing she puts on, regardless of style or clashing colors.
Notable accessories would include a silver locket that she wears wherever she goes, rarely taking it off at all. Other things such as bracelets and belts vary according to her mood. One thing that she stands firm on is that she doesn’t wear rings. Why? Dunno... they just seem bothersome to her. One last ‘accessory’ that follows Megumi around wherever she goes is her Sony Walkman. Before you ask, yes, she is a Mac hater. Going back to the topic, Megumi brings this little trinket of hers wherever she goes. The fact lies with whether or not you notice her bringing it. But then, since Walkmans are that small, I guess I could overlook it if you didn’t. When on the roof of her school block, she opts to use smaller earpieces to attract less attention, and of course, they’re easier to carry around as well as easier to conceal if the time called for it. Bass enhancement all the way~ At home or outside for casual purposes, she switches to a set of surround sound headphones much better suited for her tastes. When it’s not on her, she has it around her neck. Occasionally, a black laptop bag would opt to tag along with her when she went outdoors. Pretty high tech for a girl like her, no? Although a little tom boy-ish in appearances but she’s got her feminine points and moments.
° P E R S O N A L I T Y
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
~ John 3:16
Likes:
• Studying
• Tuning
• Learning
• Neutral Colors
• The Comforts of Home
• Helping people
• Music
• Singing
• Being Praised
• Being Appreciated
• Presents
• Good Surprises
• Coke
Dislikes:
• Being Disturbed
• People Upsetting her Schedule
• Being Unable to Figure Something Out
• Being Left Out
• Failing
• Shopping
• Doing things in Vain
• Being Misunderstood
• Pepsi
• Being caught off guard
Hobbies:
• Tuning
• Singing
• Reading
Fears: --- Becoming Useless and Unneeded
Goals: --- To become the Ultimate Blessing
Overall Personality: ---
°°After taking all her aspects into consideration, one could say that Megumi has a generally good character and personality. She smiles a lot, stays positive when she can help it and she encourages others a lot. She likes helping people when they need her and she likes being there for others. In other words, she just likes blessing people. Thinking it this way, people would often say that she’s a very reliable friend or a very helpful peer. Every act she does, she does from her heart. Someone as pure and innocent as Megumi, she doesn’t think of benefits and rewards. Fame and reputation weren’t important. She just wanted to help. She just wanted to make a difference in someone’s day. She wanted to be responsible for turning’s someone’s day around. That was it. She doesn’t have any ulterior motives when she agrees to help someone with one thing or another or agrees to help them study for their next test. Megumi wants to like the sunlight, chasing away the dark clouds. However, even with Megumi’s pure and innocent aspect, she knows when to draw the lines. As much as she loves helping people with their problems, she will not take part in anything that is generally frowned upon. She wouldn’t do something as foolish as to lend money to someone that’s going to gamble it away anyway. She won’t aid you in a crime that will lead to the misfortune of someone else.
As stated above, Megumi is a very expressive person, constantly using her facial expressions to tell people what was going on in her heart. This isn’t a problem most of the time she’s in the public’s eyes but there are always some tainted days mixed in Megumi’s life. Yes, of course, her life wasn’t perfect. Even though she smiles all the time, it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel hurt or angry some times. During days like these, Megumi does her best to mask her feelings from others but god knows that she is an epic failure when it comes to acting (lying and tricking). So... in order to not affect others with her own bad moods, she’ll kindly makes excuses to leave the crowd to go sulk in solitary peace. So, if taking everything into consideration, it was hell easy to identify the times Megumi was feeling down. It was one of those days when Megumi wasn’t visible on the school grounds, in which case, she either disappeared into some self made hiding place or she had ditched school. The second scenario doesn’t happen very often though. Yes, she’s still your goodie two shoes of a student. She couldn’t break a school rule even if you paid her to do it.
By reading the above, one could easily come to the conclusion that Megumi is addicted if not thoroughly hooked onto tuning, which is a very true fact. Megumi had always liked studying. She had always believed that she could bless someone if she had wisdom and intellect and so she had pushed herself to develop in this area. By having extensive knowledge of a wide variety of things, one stood a better chance of being able to help more people with their various problems. It was the same for Air Trekking. The world of Air Treks was still something so alien to Megumi. Every time she opened a book or switched on the internet, she learnt new things that she had never seen before. It fascinated her, truly enthralled her. Besides, probably eighty percent of the teenage population rode Air Treks. By becoming some sort of a medic to these warriors that braved such dangerous stunts every night, Megumi could serve to help more people in a much more useful manner. Another thing being that somewhere deep in her sub consciousness, she always believed that by becoming a tuner to a rider, she would stand to have a greater chance to perform that ‘ultimate blessing’.
All this business of blessings, being blessed and this ‘ultimate blessing’, since when had these things come to play such a large part in Megumi’s life? Maybe they always were and they were just waiting for Megumi to notice it. Ever since she was born, Megumi’s goal had always been fixated on one thing: to become someone’s Ultimate Blessing. Maybe her zeal for helping people came from this. In hopes of finding and performing that ultimate blessing, she helped others as much as she could. In her mind, she had always believed that God put her here in this world for a reason. She didn’t know why, but she always believed it was so that she could be of use to someone. Her insignificant life that could have been thrown away before she could come to know what ‘life’ was, was salvaged at the cost of her real mother’s life so there must have been a reason why she was alive now. Because she had taken something from this world in order to be brought into it, she must have a reason and purpose that was greater than anything, right? She was brought into this world to do something that only she could do, she knew that. The problem was finding out what it was but before the time came to do that blessing, she would equip herself as best she could. It was the only thing she could do now.
Music plays a big part in this young tuner’s life. Although she doesn’t play an instrument, she has the voice to make up for any lack of talent there. If there was one thing Megumi was truly good at, it was singing. It was a natural gift from birth but never before had Megumi thought of developing her career in this direction. It just didn’t seem like it was calling. Call it a gut feeling. And so, this talent that rarely graced the ears of people around her, slumbered within her, seldom coming out to see the light of day. But it wasn’t like she was hiding this talent of her, oh no, she wasn’t. It was just that people automatically assumed that you couldn’t sing when you turn down their invitations to attend karaoke events. In truth, she was just too good and law abiding a student to attend functions like those. Plus, all that time they used to fool around could be better use if Megumi used it to enrich herself. Her favourite genre of music would be... Asian pop. It didn’t really matter which language the songs were in since Megumi could speak Japanese, Korean and several dialects of Chinese quite fluently. English is something she excels at as well, it being the international language of the world as of this moment but English songs never really held her attention for some reason. And as weird as it seems, she finds herself quite attracted to Gospel music, not that she was religious or anything. They style the Gospel songs were usually written in just sounded pleasing to the ear for some reason.
And while we’re on this subject, a somewhat weird habit Megumi has is that she likes quoting from the bible. She doesn’t really know why. When she was younger she used to like quoting well written sentences from books that she had previously read. One day, she came across a bible somewhere and found it quite poetic. Her good memory allowed her to remember quite a number of nice verses which she used in different situations. So now, that little game of hers stuck onto her and slowly became a habit that she could never get rid of. Hehe... Although she did manage to get herself to think the verses instead of say them out loud to avoid people raising eyebrows at her. Well... sort of... kind of... let’s just say that it’s a habit that she’s still trying to develop.
Let’s tie up a few loose ends and call it even, shall we? Megumi doesn’t really have a temper. She’s found herself to be quite a tolerant person when it comes to her temper. She can hold her smile in place in most situations. Her mood is rarely affected by those around her. More like, she sees it as her own personal responsibility to keep the mood around her positive and cheerful. Patience is a tricky subject. When it comes to dealing with others, she can be very patient. This makes here the ideal teacher for those... ‘Hopeless Cases’... However, if it was patience when dealing with herself... well, let’s just say that a whole and entirely other story. No one has higher expectations for Megumi than herself. She expects herself to excel and succeed. She expects herself to be able to solve any of her personal problems by herself. She expects herself to be able to learn fast, understand fast and think fast. She absolutely cannot stand it when she fails at doing something. Whether or not this is a good thing is still yet to be proven though... But all in all, if you need someone’s help, you can always count on her. Her bright rays of sunshine will definitely chase away the darkest of shadows. But then, dark clouds aren’t always bad, you know?
“ Fear not when seeing dark clouds because I
sent them. Every single drop of rain that
falls from them shall be like the number of
times I wish you happiness... ”
° L I N G E R I N G M E M O R I E S
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
~ Psalm 23:5b
Birthplace: --- Tokyo City
Birthdate: --- 7th July 1992
Birthtime: --- 6: 39 a.m.
Parents: ---
Shizumasa Michiko & Chinatsu Michiko
°°Shizumasa and Chinatsu Michiko work as partner authors to a bestselling fantasy novel series. In fact it was during the collaboration of their first novel that they had come to meet each other in the first place. By working long hours and meeting nearly every day to go through plots and things for the story, they became close friends very quickly. It was only after the release and success of their first novel that Shizumasa proposed to Chinatsu, which of course, she accepted with a ‘Yes’. A few months of hectic preparations later, they were finally married at a white wedding. A few weeks into their marriage, Chinatsu found out that she was actually barren. Depression set over her and after awhile, they decided to adopt a child at a local orphanage. Finance as well as living accommodations weren’t a problem so the procedures to adopt a three year old girl by the name of Megumi went smoothly. It is quite a miracle that even after adopting a toddler, the two authors can still juggle their previous lives and make Megumi feel the love and warmth of a family well without any difficulties. They are currently working on their fifth novel to their series even though the world knows that they should have enough money to go on living the rest of their lives very, very comfortably with the financial resources they have now.
Siblings: ---
None
Overall History: ---
Silent Past
°°There is one important part of Megumi’s life that no one, not even her, knows about. It’s the time from when before she was born on that stormy night at Tokyo General. She and the orphanage were told that her biological mother had died in childbirth, which wasn’t so off the dot. But actually, Yukiko Kaname had already received a fatal wound before delivery and was already dying when Megumi was being brought into the world. Yukiko Kaname was a young and attractive lady that was involved with the wrong crowds. She was the lover of one of the high ranking men in the underground business. And of course, when we say ‘lover’, we mean ‘mistress’. And that was why a lot of troubles arose Yukiko got pregnant. She couldn’t hide the fact from the eyes of the black society for very long until one day, in order to save hers and the unborn baby’s life, she fled. But of course, everyone knows that making enemies with the underground is the same as signing your death contract. Amazingly, Yukiko was able to jump from city to city with the help of some friends and managed to evade the death grip of underground for more than seven months. But as time passed, it became more and more inconvenient to move around as much anymore.
It was during that time that the hounds cornered the hare. After saying their piece, the men sent by the person that once whispered honey words into her ear at bed left her to die in an abandoned alleyway. By pure will power, Yukiko crawled and stumbled all the way towards the hospital in the dead of night. By the time she reached her destination, she had already entered a critical stage in which the baby inside her may well already be dead. The surgeon on duty took pity on her dying wishes and decided to take up on the challenge. And it was a good thing they did because by the grace of God, Megumi was delivered with no signs of endangerment to her life. All vital signs were stable and no injuries were found inside or out of her body. However, even though the baby was born unscratched and unscarred from her mother’s mistakes, Yukiko was bleeding so much both internally and from physical wounds that she couldn’t be saved. That wasn’t a problem to her though. She would pay for her sins while her child lived her own life, untainted by her. With a smile on her face, she said the words “Megumi-chan, be a blessing to others, ne?” before her heart line went flat. Aware of the situation Yukiko was in to cause her early death, the doctors made a police report stating that a woman with an unborn child was found dead in a nearby alleyway (which of course, was reported again in the morning newspaper to ‘ease’ the mind of a certain person) while in truth, they moved Megumi to an orphanage from behind the scenes. A silver locket, the only thing that was of any value on her Yukiko’s person, was given to Megumi. She treasures this small piece of jewelery above anything else that she has in her possession.
Checkpoint
°°Megumi grew up well enough at the orphanage. Luckily, there was no mistreatment like what you people see in movies. Megumi passed through an uneventful life here in the orphanage but maybe it was because of this place that Megumi had come to love gospel music since it was run by some church. There isn’t much to say about this place since Megumi only spent three years of her life here. She doesn’t really remember this part of her life nor the people that accompanied her throughout the time there, seeing as she went through it as a toddler. All she knows is that she was kindly treated here and was adopted before she could really walk and talk. Megumi doesn’t see this part of her life with much importance. To her, the orphanage was like a transit stop to the place she called home now. Never before has the thought of going back to visit ever occurred to her. Actually, it might be the opposite. More like she avoids going back to the orphanage as much as possible. Though, as said before, there weren’t any bad memories there, there was just this feeling she had when she was near there, a feeling of losing something, so to speak. It was hard to put into words but it was there.
Survivor of the Past
°°Megumi had a happy childhood living with her adoptive parents. And yes, before you ask, she knew she was adopted right from the start as her parents never saw the need to high this fact from her. Besides, she was going to find out eventually anyway even without their help since she looked nothing like either of them. Megumi never viewed her past with any embarrassment or spite. She does, though, acknowledge that she’s very lucky to have been adopted by such a good and loving family. Now that she’s older and is more capable of tacking of herself, her parents tend to focus more on their work. Subsequently, this makes her more independent. Her parents have full confidence in her to not get into anything she’s not supposed to so you could say that she has quite a wide range of freedom waiting on her. She doesn’t have a ‘curfew’ but she doesn’t abuse or exploit her parent’s confidence in her by coming home at ungodly hours. Her studies so far have been good, always staying above average, so her parents rarely see the need to force her to study. In fact, it might be the other way around. They do, sometimes, see the need to drag Megumi out from her tuning practices and studying to have some leisure together. Megumi doesn’t mind much... as long as they don’t go overboard.
It was maybe around the time when her generation of youths had started, one by one, taking up Air Trekking that she too was charmed by this new and exciting world. However, rather than wanting to soar to heights like most of her fellows, Megumi took up tuning instead. Even when captivated by something she found that she liked, she always remembered that she needed to be a blessing to others. For what other reason would her mother name her that if not to remind her to be a blessing? And so, while others were buying new Air Treks and getting they limbs broken doing stunts that they obviously had no idea how to do in the first place, Megumi would always be there to patch them up. Her parents, miraculously, doesn’t object to Megumi getting involved in Air Treks. Megumi figured that her announcing that she was going to tune instead of rider might have put some ease to their minds. At least they didn’t have to worry about getting a phone call from the hospital. Not that they really know to the full extent of what tuning is. Hum hum hum... what? It’s not like Megumi is lying or anything... She just left out a few details, is all. Hehe, so begins a new tuner’s journey.
° E V E R Y T H I N G E L S E
And there are also many other things which Jesus did,
which if they were written in detail,
I suppose that even the world itself would not contain
the books that would be written.
~ John 21:25
Extra: ---
°°Megumi is ambidextrous
Roleplay Sample: ---
°° A single pink petal flower floated down from above and gently into the open palm of a dainty hand. Her Lady, the moon, was still high up in the skies as she smiled down on the scene below her. It was a beautiful view, a splendid picture, even if you weren’t looking down from above like the luminous orb in the sky. A single young lady in violet stood in the middle of a rain of pink cherry blossoms. A warm smile was set on her face as her chin was tilted slightly upwards. The wind was blowing with just the right strength, lightly playing with the blossoms on the branches before giving them a final push then carrying them gently down to the earth. For a normal citizen in the depths of Tokyo, this was a common yet beautiful sight but for that single young lady named Ayame, this was a dream come through. Arashi stood leaning against one of the nearby cherry blossom trees as he too, like the moon above, watched the scene before him. Unconsciously, there was a slight smile set on his face as well and he would have noticed it too had it not been for the fact that he was fixated on the picture in front of him. With his arms crossed in front of his chest, his sapphire eyes analyzing every detail and his mind running into roadblocks every time he thought he came to an answer, he was thoroughly stumped. He just couldn’t figure out why someone like Ayame would be grounded to that extent. Plus, all the items and places that were listed down on her paper were things that normal children in Japan would experience at least every now and then.
I mean… Singing at the beach? Walking down the waterfront? Going to the park? Watching the cherry blossoms fall? These were all things that everyone did quite often if not every day. You could see the full bloom cherry blossoms fall every spring and judging from Ayame’s age, she would have at least fifteen chances to see them previously. I mean… Cherry Blossom trees were everywhere here in Tokyo city, in the entire Japan even. Sure, Arashi had to admit that the rain of blossoms were probably one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life but it wasn’t something really special in Japanese eyes, seeing as one could see this sight nearly everywhere. However, according to Ayame, she had never done any of the things on her list. That… was strange, don’t you think? Maybe she was an immigrant? No, it couldn’t be. Ayame was definitely Japanese, Arashi could tell that much. Or maybe she was born by Japanese who had migrated to other places and had just come back for who knows what reason. Hmm… that sounded a little doubtful. The was Ayame seemed to know her way around a big city like Tokyo without much problems and without the aid of a map or tour guide, Arashi would guess that she had lived here all her life. So then why all these items? Why would a Japanese girl take the risk and trouble to sneak out of her room at the dead of night just to do things that could be done at just about any time of the day? The more Arashi thought about it, the more his head hurt but surprisingly, Arashi was kind of happy with that.
Heh, Arashi was pretty strange himself huh? But really, just like his encounter with Nathanial Barrows, a Kyoto rider that could go at amazing speeds that rivaled Arashi’s, Arashi rather enjoyed not being able to understand something. This seventeen year old teen had spent his entire life reading and studying as much as he could about as many things as he could. I guess some would call Arashi a genius with an IQ that exceeded two hundred. But you know… knowing everything was pretty tiresome. Yes, Arashi could understand that not being able to understand how some things work and go but when you knew all the reasons and all the answers, very little things could interest you anymore. Was that a little hard to understand? Well, here, to put things really simple, one could compare Arashi’s life to one of a magician. Yes, the ones that could pull bunny rabbits out of their top hats. Now, a magician’s life and career, his job, was to entertain the public by amazing and astounding them. And yes, you’ve guessed it, you can’t be amazed and astound if you knew how the magician swapped places with one of his assistants or how he managed to escape a life and death situation in a matter of seconds. You were amazed when you couldn’t understand those things. Magic was just that: something you couldn’t explain to yourself. As interesting as all this philosophy was, you’re still wondering how this related to Arashi’s situation? Well, here it is then.
Plain and simple, do you know who enjoys magic shows the least? Well… setting aside personal rival competitions of the various magicians, it’s the magician performing them, of course. He’s not amazed at how he managed to jump down a trap door to seemingly disappear from the eyes of the audience. He’s not amazed at how well he could pull a rabbit out of a secret compartment. The magician knows all the answers and ways to accomplish his act. He lives to entertain all but himself. In his world, magic is the last thing that exists. Well, irony wasn’t a rare sight in this world but do you see the connection now? Yup, Arashi was a magician that knew all the trap doors and secret compartments. Rarely anything puzzled or astounded him anymore these days. But then, along came this mysterious girl named Ayame of whom he couldn’t figure anything out. One could compare her to a magic trick that another magician was performing. It was so good, so magnificent, so beautiful and amazing that not even a fellow magician could understand it and I tell you, if such a case ever happened, the stumped magician would be grateful beyond words and comparison. For that one instant, the moment when the ‘magic’ happened and the second the thing called amazement set in, real magic would enter a magician’s life. Yes, Arashi was a very grateful magician right now and Ayame was truly something Arashi would call ‘magic’. Arash smiled fondly at that. ‘Magic’, huh? Sounded like something a girl would be flattered to be compared with. He would remember that the next time he was forced to do some courting.
Then Arashi remembered something that made his smile broadened. It was the expression that Ayame had on her face when they came into seeing distance of this field of cherry blossom trees. The smile that had appeared on Ayame’s face was something that Arashi had never seen before in his life and to he who smiled and was smiled at nearly every day, that was saying something. It was… hah… it couldn’t really be described in words. It was a smile that had so many emotions mixed in it: joy, wonder, amazement, gratitude and something Arashi just couldn’t put his finger on. However, I tell you now, just by looking at that one heartwarming smile, Arashi felt as if all the hard work that he had put into getting to this point in life was worth it. It was a reward that not even people with all the money in the world knew of its existence. Ayame was so happy, he could feel it in that smile of hers and Arashi didn’t know why but that same happiness had started swelling inside him as well. See! Happiness was contagious but Ayame’s smile brought it to a whole new level. It was almost as if seeing that smile just once in Arashi’s life made enduring all those hardships over the years worth it, almost as if that smile was the sole reason that made life worth living. It was only now when Arashi knew the true meaning of ‘heartwarming’. It really and truly was. Faintly, Arashi wondered if Ayame knew of this gift she had, the power of her smile, this ‘magic’ she had. Maybe… Arashi continued to gaze upon Ayame who was silently enjoying the beauty. He closed his eyes and smiled. Ayame was his magic, huh?
" Torment not the Survivors of the Past "