2. What parents do for children

The shock after feeling closely the 8-year-old Ayame's magic power haunted them. They knew the sensation, they felt it before, the intensity, it was no mistake, that was the power of Himei.

"I heard that there is a special team.. What was it? Team M? They had... Much more strange Decenvirs, like this one!" stated a girl with no expression on her long, skinny, white face while playing between two fingers her straight, long, black hair, as she stares coldly with those black eyes covered in black makeup. "Can we send her there?" she asked bluntly.

"I know what you are thinking.. But she is human, we cannot send her to those lunatic demons from M." said the captain while placing his forehead in one hand.

"No matter how you look at her she is emanating a evil aura, even if barely noticeable, anyone who knows it could tell right away. How can we keep her? What if she is found out?" Complains the woman again.1

"We can train her to hide her aura Rika... I need to keep her close because she possesses one of the rarest crystals in this world." Said the purple-haired man with sadness.

"What can be this important to make you want to study it so bad Captain Fujisaki? Might the Legendary Phoenix Crystal be hidden into a demonic aura and we cannot feel it? Shall we try harder?" Joked the cockscomb guy, but after a second felt a chill in the air and a glance from Fujisaki was enough to shut his mouth for the rest of the day.

Makoto had returned from Ayame's room with a serious face. He caught a little of what the orange-haired guy was saying and did not accept the joke. His beautiful eyes pierced right through his soul, flooding it with guilt.

"Ren, just how stupid can you be?" Rika broke the silence "You even managed to get our kind Makoto angry." continued to tell.1

"Anyways!" interrupted Captain Fujisaki "That stone she possesses is not her own, it is an artificial one."

"Artificial? Like the ones made by Himei? The ones that need something to be able to make magic?" urged the girl sitting next to Rika.

"Yes, Suzumi, other artificial stones that can actually produce magic are not yet discovered." Rika scolded her teammate for being too unaware of the world around.

"Yes, exactly, one of the stones that eat souls to produce magic. But not only a few. This one just devoured a whole city." admitted on a serious tone Makoto.

"How did a child so small get her hands on something like this? She doesn't have any clue about magic!" wondered Ren while sliding with hands forward and putting his head on the table.

"Well, we found out only that she had a father, other details are not very clear." sighed Makoto.

"So you looked... Into her soul." guessed Rika while drinking her hibiscus tea from the small, dark blue, second in the world, vintage cup and glaring with small eyes at Makoto.

"I.. Just... I tried at least, but it is very well protected by a thick mist so it is a little hard to really see. Even for me. But her heart is good, she has no idea what happened to her. She is just a child." explained Makoto scratching his head while searching for the right words in this situation.

Everyone understood him and felt sorry for the child. She was not at fault for what happened.

"So the one who made the ritual must have been.. " started Ren.

"Her father, who also gave her the Grimoire." continued Fujisaki.

"Stuff like that stone or the book that holds together a lot of magic spells should be kept in the museum, not in the hands of crazy people. He did sacrifice his life for his daughter, but that would be reasonable if it stopped there, but guess what? An entire city has walked the same path that he chose for himself, without having any choice." complied Ren shaking his head with sadness.

"Well, he seems to have had a reason, or so we can imagine. While looking at her it was easy to notice that she has a very weak body, if not for the magic, she would not last even 5 more years. He must have loved hear very much to be able to do such an act just to give his child a longer life." added Makoto to clarify the situation.

"So her father was a madman who put his hands on such a cursed stone and actually managed to do the ritual for it. How many years did he even spend on this search for all information?" added Ren his conclusion of the story while trying to understand the desperate act of a parent for his only child.1

"Oh, now that you mention this, in the past those stones were used to do miracles like that.. Until the people found what actually powers them. It was a big mess in the Kingdom. The merchants never said where they got them from and after that, they never appeared again. It is said that they all have been destroyed. We didn't even have a chance to see one." sighed Rika while remembering the incident.

"So you are actually planning to investigate the stone, Captain Fujisaki?" Inquired Suzumi with a small amount of worry on her face.

"It would benefit our research. We've been trying to achieve a stone with almost the same properties for years. There are still children with weak bodies who need magical support." tried Makoto to explain the reasoning of this action while looking sadly at Fujisaki who was still seated, with his hands on the forehead and empty eyes staring at the table.

"Yes, indeed. This is why we need her." suddenly the captain stood up from his chair and walked to the window.

It was almost dawn, the red sunlight was slowly leaving the room, making a place for the darkness of the night. With his face bathing in the remaining light, Fujisaki was looking outside, his eyes were fixed on something. He suddenly frowned and spoke:

"We are researchers. Our goal is the most important. It does not matter what path we take, as long as it benefits our Kingdom. Our path is the path if truth. We are going to take care of her and no one should find that she is not one of our team. It is good that her mark did not yet appear and she did not awaken her element. If none of these are met, we can say that she is one of us."

"You never change Captain. Her father just sacrificed his life in order for her to live and you are going to take the stone away? What is going to happen to her life?" giggled Rika with a cunning smile on her face.

"We cannot take her stone. Not for long. We can take it when she sleeps at night and test what powers does it has during the day. We cannot let the efforts of her father to be in vain. We are not murderers who do not have feelings." contested Makoto slamming a hand on the table.

"I think you need to speak for yourself Makoto. That man by the window has an expression that betrayed every word that you said about us. And the rest of us also have different problems. You might be the only one who actually has a heart. Might be because you hold the Spirit element. Makes you empathize with others too easily." explained Rika with a sad look in her cold black eyes.

"We have not lost hope! I still have a heart full of love and compassion who wants to express feelings." started Ran looking at Rika with sparkling eyes and approaching her slowly, while sliding on the table. Everyone knew he was in love with her, but also everyone pitied him for having such bad luck. No one saw her even smile kind, her poker face never breaks. Not taking into consideration being nice for more than 2 minutes and the only person who gets that is the Captain. She respects him and nothing else matters for her.

"It is true that we did not lose hope!" grinned Suzumi while removing Ren from her side of the table and not letting him reach Rika. "Our little Hiro is so cute and so kind, how about leaving him to take care of her?" proposed to the Captain.

"Are you going to have a kid take care of another kid?" asked Ren while raising an eyebrow.

"He is not a kid, he has 12 years and is very responsible and serious!" responded Suzumi to that suspicious look from Ren.

"Indeed." laughed Makoto and continued: "Hiro is a very hard worker and also has a kind hearth. He might be a good choice. Besides, he is the closest to her age, she would feel more comfortable with him around." concluded while approaching Fujisaki and tapped his shoulder.

Fujisaki nodded and turned to face the others: "So this is the plan. The meeting is over. Have a good night."

After finishing the last sentence he calmly left the room. The others still had a hard time digesting what just happened but sighed in the same time and walked towards the door.

"Maybe our captain would learn someday to be like you, Makoto. He has such a rare power, both Spirit and Void in one person. His eyes just stare into your whole being, but they are empty inside, trapping you into his void. Such a waste of this good combination." Smiled Rika before stepping out of the room. Makoto

was still standing by the window, looking outside with the same face as Fujisaki.

Rika turned her eyes to him, noticed the resemblance and sighed: "I can see you are starting to learn from him instead of happening the other way."