Emory’s POV:

“Hey~ has anyone seen my backpack? I can’t find it!” I asked while rushing into the kitchen. I was greeted by four pairs of eyes, all which held the same exact question; Again, Emory?

“Did you look by the front door? You sometimes tend to leave it there.” My older sister, Allissa, asked hoping to be helpful.

I shook my head. “I checked already. Not there.”

“What about the living room? Isn’t that where you did your homework last night?” N, Allissa’s oldest warrior, tapped his chin and pondered.

“Checked that too; no result.” Leo, another one of Allissa’s warriors, walked up to me and held out a frying pan full of freshly cooked bacon. It was his usual, quiet way off offering me breakfast. After I said thanks and took some, he patted my head and walked back to the stove. That was his way of saying ‘calm down, you’ll find it’.

“You probably left it in the bathroom again. Did you check there?” Ravi, Allissa’s last warrior, who was reading the newspaper, rolled his eyes. I blushed a bit at the memory and glared at him.

“That was ONE TIME!”

“Five, actually.” He pointed out with a smile, still not looking up from the newspaper. I was about to retort back when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning my head, I saw Leo, who was holding up my ‘lost’ backpack.

“Oh My Gosh!!! Leo, You’re amazing!! Where did you find it?” I took my backpack from him and hugged it. He sighed, raised his arm and everyone, except me, started laughing at what he pointed at.

The pantry. I freakin’ forgot my backpack in the pantry.

“Hey, at least it wasn’t in the bathroom this time.” N said, trying to cheer me up.

“Or the fridge.” Ravi mumbled to himself, thinking that I wouldn’t hear him.

I ignored the raising feeling of embarrassment and gave Leo a smile. “Thanks a bunch, Leo. You saved my day…. Again. Hehe.”

Leo huffed another sigh and rolled his eyes. But I still caught the corners of his mouth lifting up a bit.

“Alright, Miss. Magic Hands.” Allissa said, looking at the clock. “I suggest that you head out soon or else you’ll be late for school.”

That made me start to panic as my eyes shot to the clock. “Crap!” I cursed and sprinted out the kitchen.

“Bye guys!” I yelled, not bothering to look back at them. My priorities at the moment were to not be late for class.

“Mornin’ Ems. Late again?” My little sister, Rori, who was walking down the stairs with her two warriors, greeted with a yawn. They watched me as I ran passed them to get to the front door.

“Yep!” I replied as I attempted to neatly get my shoes on. They usually weren’t this difficult to fit into.

“What’d you lose this time?” Jungkook, Rori’s youngest worrior, asked with the most curious voice I’ve ever heard.

“My backpack; ask Ravi for the details, he’d LOVE to tell you the whole story.” I mumbled in reply and growled. “Why can’t I get these stupid shoes to fit!?”

“Umm…. Maybe because those are mine?” Rori pointed out. I immediately stopped struggling and took a closer look at the shoe.

“Oh.”

“Here, Ma’am. Are these your’s?” V, Rori’s newest warrior, asked me as he used his powers to make my actual shoes levitate in the air. I sighed in relief and grabbed them.

“Yes! Thank yo- Hey!” I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’d I say about calling me ‘Ma’am’?”

He grew a quick shade of white as he thought that he made a huge mistake. “I-I am so sorry Ma- I mean, Emory! Please forgive me!” He bowed deeply. That’s when I knew that I had just messed up, big time.

“Oh! No no no! It’s fine! You’re not in trouble and I’m not mad about it! So please don’t do that! I’m the one who should apologize for my choice of words.” I didn’t hesitate to run to his side and stop him from bowing. “What I meant is that, you’re family now, so you don’t have to call us things like ‘Ma’am’ or ‘master’. Ok? I’m sorry if I upset you.”

He didn’t say anything, but gave me a small smile which I copied. Jungkook and Rori, who were just watching the whole thing, both smirked at each other before grabbing V’s hands and pulling him away.

“Alright…” Rori said as she intertwined her arm with V’s. “Now that the funs over, how about we say goodbye to Emory so she can finally head off to school?”

“Oh my gosh!” I gasped in horror that I almost forgot about it. “I’ll make it up to you later, V! Bye guys!” I finally got my shoes on and ran out the door.

I guess you all are questioning a few things right now. Especially about these people called ‘warriors’. Well, I kind of live in two different worlds. The first one is the normal, everyday life that you would usually see a normal high schooler live in. The second is not so normal. My sisters and I, well, we’re called ‘Deck Masters’. A deck master is basically a person that has a magical ability to help them bond to what’s called a ‘Warrior’s Card’. Each Warrior’s Card contains the soul of the warrior represented in the card and when a Deck Master kisses the card, they are able to summon the warrior and use their powers. Not everyone can be a Deck Master though. You have to born with Deck Master blood, which only a small percentage of the human population actually has.

My sisters and I come from a long line of Deck Masters. Allissa obtained her first warrior, N, when she was fifteen; right after our parents had died and we had no one else to take care of us. My sisters and I always hated the idea of treating warriors like slaves. It made us sick to think that someone could treat another, even if they weren’t human, like that. The timing was also pretty odd because she was so stressed out about having to raise her nine and eight year old sisters that she didn’t have the time to worry about herself. So she bottled up all her extra feelings and always made sure that she smiled around us.

What my sister didn’t need was slave, instead, what she needed was a friend; someone to fill the void that our parents had left.

So when N materialized in front of her after she kissed his card, the first thing she did was bury herself into his arms and cry. Thinking back, it was kind of funny seeing N flabbergasted and not knowing what to do with his master bawling her eyes out in his arms and two little girls also crying at a distance. But it defiantly didn’t take long for him to open up to us; I asked him about it one time and he just said that we had 're-awakened' his parental instinct that had shut down long ago.

Never once did he call us ‘master’ or ‘ma’am’, and we never minded it because we loved it when he called us by the nicknames that he picked out for us. And that’s how the four of us lived for the first two years after he came into our lives.

Leo was Allissa’s second warrior; she and N both found his card while they were out shopping for groceries. N was super excited because he recognized the card as a very close friend of his. So when Allissa bonded and kissed Leo’s card, it was N this time that ran up and hugged the warrior.

Unlike N who was loud and loved to nag, Leo was the complete opposite: quiet, observant, and liked to keep to himself.

He didn’t open up to us as quickly as N did. Although he didn’t speak, we could tell that he didn’t fully trust us by the guardedness that always reflected in his eyes and how he would recoil when someone (mainly N) would try to touch or get near him. It took some time, but we knew that we finally got to him after catching him smirking while N nagged at us for not cleaning our rooms. After that he started acting like another parent; he offered to help us with chores, played games with us, and after he found out that Allissa couldn’t cook to save her life, he shooed her out of the kitchen and made us real food. N and Leo had both filled in the empty space left by our parents, and we couldn’t be happier.

Then, about a year ago, Allissa had found her third warrior right after Rori had obtained her first.

It was a rainy day in May when it happened. Rori was eating breakfast when the card literally flashed in front of her face. We were all excited for her as Allissa lead her through the ropes of bonding with it. Then she kissed the card and out came a very rugged looking boy with messy brown hair and scared eyes. Like Leo, he didn’t talk much for he was too scared too. But we still did our absolute best to reassure him that we wouldn’t harm him in anyway nor did we want to. And since his clothes looked like nothing but rags, we took him out to buy him some new ones. It was right after we had paid for six outfits and a snapback when the new boy himself had found the next card; which happened to be under a pile of jeans that was nearby.

This card was another one that both N and Leo had recognized, and since Rori still wanted to get to know her destined warrior a bit more, she let Allissa bond with it. And that was how Ravi came into our lives. When he materialized after Allissa’s kiss, let’s just say that he was a bit grumpy. At first, all he did was glare at everyone until he was clobbered by one of N’s big hugs. We all laughed as the look of utter confusion instantly replaced his scowl while he watched Leo pull N off of him and then bicker. And since he didn’t look like he could really trust us just yet, we let N and Leo explain everything to him.

Both of the new additions took about two weeks to get to know us and open up, but soon enough, Ravi was teasing me about every little thing I did and was cracking jokes with Allissa and Rori; and Rori’s first warrior had also spoke to us willingly for the first time.

He whispered “My name is Jungkook…”

After that, he visibly relaxed, smiled more, and laughed every time N tried to nag at us to clean something.

About a month ago, our little family grew a bit more with the addition of V, Rori’s newest warrior. She never did really tell us how she got him, but I remember how she and Jungkook had come home, soaked to the bone from the rain and was pleading for someone to quickly get them a knife so Rori can do a bond. We respected her wishes, gave her what she needed and watched. It turns out that the card was someone that Jungkook knew, and he was really worried because the card was a little bit torn up.

And the only way for a card to fully heal is to make a bond with a new master.

So when Rori’s blood dropped onto the card’s face, it illuminated a bit before revealing a card that looked completely brand new. But when she kissed it, a boy dressed in rags and covered in bruises materialized. When he saw his new ‘master’ the fear on his face grew rapidly as he fell at her feet, pleading for her to not punish him. This made Rori so sad that she started crying and embraced the boy who stiffened at her touch. Jungkook, who was watching the whole thing with sad eyes, rushed to their side and tugged them into a hug. Knowing that they needed to settle everything by themselves, we all left them in the living room and went to bed. The next morning at breakfast Rori and her warriors had come down the stairs and, with a little prod of encouragement from Rori and Junkook, V shyly introduced himself and said hi.

    The look on his face was priceless when we all smiled and said good morning.

And that’s how our little family came to be. It’s not completed yet since both Rori and Allissa have more opportunities to find more cards, but so far, it’s nice.

Now, why don’t I have any warriors? Good question. See, I’m what you would call an odd case. Usually, deck masters are supposed to be presented with what is called their destined card (aka, first card) between the ages of nine and fifteen. Right now, I’m seventeen, and no card has ever presented its self to me. Allissa and Rori both say that I’m just a late bloomer, which I also believed at first. But after my sixteenth birthday came and went, doubt started to rise in me. Am I really supposed to be a deck master? Or am I just supposed to live like a normal human?

“Emory!” someone shouted and drifted me away from my thoughts. I looked up and saw my two best friends, Star and Addison, waving back at me.

“Hurry up, Ems! Or we’re gonna be late!!” Addie yelled with slight annoyance. I ran and caught up to them.

“Sorry!” I panted. “Lost my backpack again!”

“Where did Leo find it this time?” Star asked with a hint of teasing in her voice.

“The pantry.” I quickly replied, refusing to meet their amused stare.

“We really need to work on your forgetfulness.” Addie sighed, shaking her head.

“By the way.” Star perked up. “How’s V doing so far?”

Now, Star and Addie are both normal humans, and normal humans aren’t even supposed to know about the world of deck masters and warriors. But one day, when we were all at my house for a sleep over, they witnessed Allissa kiss Leo out of his card and well….. let’s just say that I had a lot of explaining to do.

“He’s doing better.” I began. “But I almost made him cry after scolding him for calling me ‘ma’am’…..”

“What?!” Star erupted. “How could you almost make such a cutie pie cry?! Are you even human?!”

“I know! I know!” I hung my head in shame. “I feel terrible about it! What do you guys think I can do to make it up to him?”

“I don’t know…” Addie looked at her watch. “But how about we think it over at lunch ‘cause right now, we have to hurry.”

With wide eyes we rushed into the building and, thankfully, made it to class a minute before the bell rang.

“Made it~!” I sighed, sitting down in my seat. Sarina, who sits in front of me, turned around and smirked. “awww… and you almost made a new record too. So sad.”

The teacher came in right at that moment, so all I could do was give her a playful glare before she turned around.

The day passed by and I still couldn’t think of a gift for V. I had no idea what food he liked, what his favorite color was and even during lunch Addie and Star couldn’t think anything up. So, dejected, I walked home that evening with a frown on my face. Just why couldn’t I think of anything to get him? I sighed again, looked up and notice that I was passing the local grocery store. It also just so happened that they were having a special sale for strawberries….

“Strawberries… huh…“ I pondered, then grinned and ran into the store. “I wonder if he’s ever tried them!”

And that was how I found the perfect make up gift for V. The rest of the walk home was spent smiling to myself and thinking of the different reactions the warrior might have when he sees his gift.

Little did I know, though, was that something in my backpack illuminated for a short time before it died down, revealing its true form.

Alright~! First chapter: UP! I already have chapter two written and am working on Chapter 3 at the moment, but I'll wait a bit more until I post them, so please be patient! Other than that, how was the first chapter? I know it might be kind of boring but I wanted it to be informative. Comments are always welcome!

P.S. Heejun WILL show up in the next chapter!