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"Nee-chan what are you doing?"
Six yr old Tegoshi Yuya grimaced upon hearing his sister's voice. She found him again. He stops on climbing the ironed fence that surrounds their home. He looked down at his sister.
"You're going out again. Papa will be angry" 6 yr old Maki said, her big eyes accusingly staring at him.
"I'm just going to play outside" Yuya said
Maki pouts. "You're lying, you're just going to see those humans."
"Shh! don't be loud" Yuya said. He always hate it every time his sister hear his thoughts
"If you hate it then don't think!" Maki said. Then she starts to climb the fence too.
"what are you doing?" Yuya said to his sister
"I want to see them too" Maki said
"What if Papa caught us?"
"Papa is away and Mama is busy." Maki said
Yuya grins and held out his hand to help his sister up.

They arrived in a nearby park where they see so many humans. They hide in a bushes and watch them.
Children playing, adults chatting and laughing.
"What Erika (sawajiri) said is true! they really look like us." Maki said
Yuya can only nod. His 6 yr old mind is still awed by this strange creatures that he only heard from his father's stories, now he can see them with his very own eyes.

"They are so boring" Maki said after a while
"They are interesting, you see they don't have wings and gifts and such. I bet their life is hard." Yuya said
"That's why they're boring" Maki said, stomping her foot to the ground." Their mind is full of boring stuff, let's go home nee-chan"
"Just a moment more" he said as he watched a young kid trips and falls to the ground. They're not just strange they are clumsy too, Yuya thinks as the kid starts to cry
"Nee-chan" Maki starts to whine
"wait"
Then he felt her tugging at his arm
"I said wait" Yuya said still watching the kid.
The tugging gets harder
"I said wa-" Yuya turns to his sister and then stops. He sees their mother walking towards them, a black veil hiding her silver hair. Yuya always love his mother's hair, its so beautiful especially at night when the moonlight shines on it. That's why he didn't like it whenever his mother hides it. The whole world must see how beautiful his mother is. But that's the least of his worries now, his mother caught them, they are in trouble.
"What are you doing here?" his mother said, looking at the both of them.
Neither of them speak, looking at their toes, not meeting their mother's eyes.

~~

They went back to their home to see their father already waiting at the door.
Young Yuya felt scared. Its okay if its only his mother that caught them, but if its their father then the punishment will be worse. He looks at his sister, her face is calm. If his sister is calm then nothing bad will happen right? like the beatings and the spanking? Yuya, of course is scared of that.
"where have you been?" Their father said, crossing his arms over his chest
Neither of them spoke
"Didn't I tell you not to go outside? especially if you don't have our permission?"
They still didn't speak, looking at their toes.
"Yuya you're older than you sister, why did you have to bring your he too?" His father said as if he knows that Yuya is the initiator of this.
In which Yuya didn't deny. "But we're twins" Yuya said
"But you're still older and you are the boy, you should protect your sister. What if the Hollow People caught you? what will you do?"
"But the warriors are pursuing them right? they are no more" Yuya said
"Yuya don't talk back to your father" their mother said
His father lowers himself and kneel before them. He puts his hands on Yuya's shoulders and look at him straight at the eye.
"There are still some of them, that's why be careful and don't do reckless things like this again okay?" He said
Both Maki and Yuya nod
His father stands up, "Because of that, you two are not allowed to play outside for a week."
Yuya looks up at his father "Why?"
"That's your punishment" He said
"And no candies or sweets and candies for a week too" His mother said
"Ha?" both Yuya and Maki said
"That's for making me worried earlier" their mother said "Now go back to your room and think about those things that you did today"

When they are already in their room, Yuya plops himself at his beds "No play and no candies for a week? Isn't that harsh?" Yuya said pouting
"don't worry I know where mama hides them" Maki said
Tegoshi grins.

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9 yr old Tegoshi Yuya looks at the passing Maidens, each carrying their silver orbs, their white dresses sways as they move. They were in the temple, the offerings and the rituals are already finished. Some of the older Maidens are preparing their dinner for tonight, they are going to eat here.He yawned, its already late but their mother is still bust at the altar. Its been a long night.
Then he felt someone hit him in the head. He turned to the girl beside him.
"No yawning inside the temple" Maki said
Yuya scowls "but its already finished" he said
"still no yawning inside the temple." Maki snaps "And you're thinking nonsense things while we're still doing the rituals. Give respect to the Goddess."
"Stop snooping on my mind" Yuya snaps back
"If you don't want me to know it then don't think" Maki said
"Then tune it out I know you can turn it off right?" Tegoshi said
"Papa said to watch you or you'll do something stupid"
"Papa said just to watch not to snoop on everything I think"
"Fighting again are we?" said a girl
"Erika!" Maki said
"You shouldn't fight inside the temple." Erika said
Yuya scowls and leave the two girls behind. He went to the giant double doors of the temple. He sit down on the steps and put his face in his hand

He doesn't hate his sister, Yuya thinks. Its just that she always hear what he is thinking and it becomes really annoying. Though its fun to share with his sister but sometimes he wants some things just for himself, he wants to keep some secrets too.
Maki sits beside him. "sorry, I didn't mean to be that annoying to you"
Yuya groans, she's listening to his thought again.
Maki giggles. "I never meant to snoop. Its just that its hard to tune it out especially with you. It must been something to do with us being twins. I just really find it hard to tune out yours. And I'm still practicing, so don't be angry ne~ Nee-chan" Maki said, putting her head on his shoulder
"If I only knew what my gift is" Tegoshi said. If he only know what his is then he could show it off to Maki. Unlike Maki's which they discover when she's young, Tegoshi still doesn't find out what his gift is. The Moon Goddess granted each of the moon children a gift. Some finds it at a young age like Maki, some when they're old. It really differs for every one of them. He heard from one of his friends that a certain moonchild died not knowing what his gift is. He doesn't want to be like that one.
"don't worry, you'll gonna find it soon" Maki said "And about that certain moon child, that is not true"
"How did you know?"
"I heard them thinking, they only said that to fool you" Maki said
Those guys, Tegoshi thinks, when I got older and find my gift I'm gonna join the warriors and beat those guys up.
Maki giggles "You're the son of a Priestess, why would you want to join them?"
"Being the son of the Priestess doesn't mean I can't join them" Tegoshi said, mildly annoyed
"But you're wings is different" Maki said
"Then I'm gonna paint it black"
Maki giggles even harder
"and why would I want to stay here. Almost all the people here are girls" Yuya said. His father is away and that makes him the only boy here.
"Its okay, you looked like a girl that you can pass as one of the Maidens here" Maki said grinning
"hey!" Yuya said
They stop on talking when they see 2 men running toward their direction, one of them is their father.
Maki suddenly stands up fast. He can see fear and worry in her face.
Their father and the other guy ran passed them and went inside. Maki went inside too.
"What's wrong?" Yuya said
"It's bad news" Maki said to him
"Everyone!" The guy said panting. Everyone on the temple stops on what they're doing, even their mother, and look at the man and at their father.
"The King and the Queen is dead" the man announced the bad news.
There's a loud cry coming from one of the Maidens
"Don't tell me its true?" their mother asked their father. Her face and voice is still calm but Yuya can see the shaking of her hands.
"Its true, a group of Hollow People manage to get inside the palace last night and kill all the people that's inside. Including all the warriors, the King and the Queen" their father said
"That group is powerful, it seems that their leader is Yosuke the curse-bringer" the other guy said
Their mother slides to the floor and their father went to her aid as the other Maidens starts to wail.
"poor King and Queen, they are so kind why did this kind of thing happens to them?" said one of the Maidens, sobbing
"Anou~" a girl speaks up. Its Erika. "What about the prince?"
"We didn't find him. Some says that they captured him but lets hope that he managed to escaped." said the other guy.

Late that night their mother went to their room. She give each of them an amulet. A necklace with a silver pendant that shaped like a crescent moon.
"That is a charm to keep the two of you safe." she said
Yuya looked curiously at his amulet. "how this will keep us safe?" he ask his mother
"It have the blessings of the Moon Goddess and half of my powers is in there" she said
"You mean if someone tried to attack us, they can't harm us?" he said
"I don't know, the Goddess have her own ways" their mother said
"why are you giving this to us?" Maki said
"We are in a different time now, now that the King and the Queen is dead. We are not sure if we're safe anymore" she said
They both looked at their mother with big scared eyes.
"Now go back to your bed and sleep" their mother said
They went to their beds and their mother kissed them goodnight.

Their mother had already left but they still lie there, awake and not speaking, for a long time. Yuya can't sleep after what happened today. What will happen to them now? he thinks. If only he knew what his gift is then he wouldn't feel so scared now, at least if he knew what it is then he will know how to protect himself and his sister. He knows that the defense techniques that his father teaches him is not enough.
He sees Maki on the next bed, eyes big and staring at the ceiling. Then she suddenly stands up and went to the window. Yuya follows her. They see their mother and a single Maiden outside the window. A black veil covers their mother's hair. Then they see their father kissed her before she and the Maiden leaves.
"Where are they going?" Yuya said
"to the palace, they're going to get the Chalice" Maki said
"The palace? and what chalice?" Yuya ask her
"I don't know, I only heard their thoughts, something like they must get it before someone else does."
They still look outside the window even after their mother is long gone.
"Nee-chan, I'm scared" Maki said
Tegoshi doesn't know how to respond to that, he is scared too.

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12 yr old Tegoshi Yuya sits at the back of the car. He doesn't know where they are going. He looks outside the window, snow covered the streets. He wants to play outside, to ski or to snowboard or something, but he can't. His father forbids him to go outside alone ever since the day that the king died three years ago. Since then every moonchild lived in fear. Almost every week they hear someone else died. The Hollow People are killing them all. He wished that the time will go back to those days where they feel happy, safe and secured. Not like this where they fear that they may get them at any moment. He touch the amulet in his neck, he prays for the Goddess to protect them on this day too.
Maki went inside the car and sit beside him, not talking to him. She's very quiet nowadays, he thinks. She turns to him and then smiles. She heard him thinking again.
"I just feel nervous today" she said
"why?"
"I don't know" Maki said, shrugging her shoulders
"where have you been last night?" Tegoshi ask her, he saw her and their mother left the house last night.
"secret" she said, smiling at him
"You're unfair. You know everything about me and then you're keeping a secret from me?" Yuya said
"It's mama's secret not mine" she said "and we just hide something"
"what something?" Yuya asked
"can't tell, temple's business" she said
"hey!"
Maki didn't have time to answer back because their mother and their father came. They sit at the front of the car. Their father starts the engine
"where are we going?" he ask them
"to the temple" their father said simply. His mother is silent while Maki looks nervously at them.
What's wrong? Yuya thinks. He hates it when he's the only one who doesn't know about everything. He envies his sister who can know without even asking. Maki smiles apologetically at him.

They were already driving on a mountain slope when Yuya saw a hooded man standing at the side of the road outside the window. He doesn't know why but he feels suddenly nervous about this.
Then a loud bang startled them all. Their car veered violently to the left near the cliff. Then another bang and Yuya felt something hit the back of the car. They were going to be thrown off when his mother said something and suddenly they were outside the car at the side of
the road. Yuya sees their car violently turn upside down. They were going to be dead if his mother didn't manage to get them out of there fast.
"Hey! nice trick there" a man said. They turn around to see two men walking down the road towards them. One carrying a very large axe at his back and the other holding little black spheres that Yuya suspects is a bomb.
"Going to the temple?" said the man with the axe and he throws something at their mother. It landed near their mother's feet. It is a silver orb and Yuya was shocked to see that there's blood on it. He sees his mother's hand shaking while Maki starts to cry. Yuya doesn't need Maki's gift to know what happened, these men murders all the Maidens at the temple.
"what do you want?" their father said
"Give us the Chalice" the man with the bombs said
"Why would I give it to you? You are not our king" their mother said
"your king is dead" said the man and he throws a black sphere at them. Their father deflects it.
"Megumi, take them away from here" their father said to their mother
They were about to run in the opposite direction when they see the hooded man walking towards them, carrying a very large and very long sword. Yuya notice that there are weird symbols written on the blade of it. His mother looked at the sword warily.
"we've been looking for you for so long Priestess" the hooded man said "Give us the Chalice"
"We give it to you or not, you're still going to kill us right?" Their mother said
And then they heard a loud bang and they see their father being thrown off and he landed near the edge of the cliff.
"Anata!" their mother shouts
Then Yuya saw something silver flash towards him and he heard his mother shouting again as that silver crash into him. He fall hard into the ground, when he looked up it was to see his sister lying beside him, beautiful silver wings at her back. She flew towards him and crash into him, Yuya thinks, but why? And with horrified expression he saw something red flows in the snow coming from Maki. Crimson red started to stain her beautiful wings.
"Oh such heroic action" said the hooded man. Tegoshi looks up and see that the man's sword is stained with blood, his sister's blood.
With such rage, their mother sent a powerful force towards the man, startling him and throwing him off against a tree then he slides to the ground. Yuya hoped that he would die but no, he saw him stirred. Their mother hurriedly went to them and carried her daughter. Tears staining his cheeks.
The man with the bomb starts to move towards them but their father stands up and intercept him.
"Take them away from here. I'll hold them off" their father shouts
Their mother carries Maki and run, Tegoshi stands up and tries to follow them but he stops. He look back and sees their father fighting those two guys.
"save her!" Tegoshi shouts at his mother. His mother stops and look back at him.
Yuya look at his mother one last time, he looks at her beautiful silver hair and her beautiful face, and he smiled. Tears flow from her eyes and then she nods. She runs carrying his sister, she never looks back as if she doesn't want to regret her decision. He hopes that they will be okay.
He turn around to help his father and he sees him stunning the man with the bombs and sending him off the cliff. And then his heart stops on beating when he sees the second man swing his axe straight at his father's back. And he do it again.. and again... and again even if his father is already lying on the ground. Blood flows on the snow coming from him, lots and lots of blood.
The man smiles evilly at him "Like that kid?" he said
Face aghast, Tegoshi turns around to try to follow his mother only to be face to face with the hooded man. He leers at him and then he felt a great pain in his stomach, he looked down and see that the man's sword is sticking in him. He tried to remember what his father taught him, with the last of his energy, he sent a force towards the man. He flew backwards away from him, taking his sword with him and he landed on the snow.
Tegoshi moves backwards, clutching his stomach trying to stop the blood flowing from his body.
The hooded man sits up and laugh at him. "Boy, even if you managed to get out of here alive, you're still gonna wished that your dead. Your sister too even if your mother manage to save her. Don't you know that this sword is cursed? and all the people that it manage to touch or wound will be cursed too, well everyone except me."
Tegoshi looks at them while he leans on a tree, still clutching his stomach. If he's going to die, he must find a way to take this two guys with him.
The hooded man nods to the other man. "Finish him and we're gonna follow those other two"
The man with the axe walks towards him. He smiles evilly at him as he brings the axe up. Then he starts to swing it down right at his head. Yuya stops him by grabbing the man's arm with his two hands. "Stop!" he shouts
And then suddenly and miraculously the man stops. He brings his axe down at his side.
Tegoshi looks at him, wide eyed. He noticed that man's eyes look dazed.
"get away from me" he said and the man moves backwards away from him
"Oi! what are you doing?" the hooded man shouts at his companion
And then at that time Yuya discovers what his gift is.
"kill that man!" he said pointing to the hooded man
Eyes still dazed and under the power of his gift, the man followed his instructions. He runs towards his friend, swinging his axe.
The hooded man stands "Oi!"
The man swings his axe at him but he blocks it with his sword.
Tegoshi watch them fight. When he saw that the man manages to swing his axe right at his companion's legs, Tegoshi starts to run clutching his stomach. He heard the man shouts in pain as he runs away.

He runs.. and runs, trying to follow the footsteps of his mother and the trail of blood of his sister, until he can't see it anymore. He started to feel dizzy and he can feel his body weakening because of the massive loss of blood and the cold of the snow. He slowly sink to the ground. The snow is cold against his face. He thinks about dying here when he heard a wolf howling. He lift his head up, heart beating wildly. He strains his hearing, maybe it was his hallucination. A wolf's howl is a bad sign especially to them to the people at the temple, its a bad omen. And then he heard it again, once, twice and soon he heard that almost all the wolves here is howling. When they hear the wolves howl it only means one thing. The wolves howl to honor the passing of the Moon Priestess. He touched his amulet and looked at it. He saw it breaking before his very own eyes. With the wolves howling and the breaking of his amulet, it only means one thing, his mother is dead.
Tears flowed from his eyes, somehow he failed on saving them. He closed his eyes.

Tegoshi lie there on the snow, dying when he heard footsteps coming his way. Someone turned his body upward and touch his cheeks. He opened his eyes and sees a boy, who look a little bit older than him having such a kind face and eyes, hovering just above him.
"Are you okay?" Yamapi said
And then everything went black.

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Tegoshi Yuya dreams it all, see it all again as Yamapi heals him and tries to save him that night at Masami's house.

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sorry for the violence.... i hope you guys still like this after this chapter...
and i hope this will make some things clearer...
for Maki and Tego being a priestess or a priest.. no they are not.. well not yet.. i still don't know

and i hope you guys can guess who the prince is... more will come on the next chapters..

any of you guys have an lj? im planning to post this there too... ^_^