The Midway Point

There's still a lot more to this story at this point. Everyone has a story of their own, yet so far you've only heard mine and Jinny's. The other stories have only been hinted at. Don't worry, I'll explain everything in due time, including what's happened to me to lead me to this point. For now though, a recap.

It was August first when everything began. After one straight year of failing to get into a college, our city was going to be struck by a massive thunderstorm. It had reminded me of all the other "natural disasters" that had happened throughout the last few months as well. There was said to never be any survivors, and these disasters were so unnatural I decided to call them unnatural disasters.

I was so anxious that our town was going to be next to fall prey to an unnatural disaster. Little did I know the truth of the situation. My body started acting in odd ways and I kept getting shocked by things left and right by everything I touched the closer the storm got to our town. When my father tried to touch me, he got shocked to death. I didn't even have time to be surprised before a massive lightning bolt came down on our house and destroyed it, and a massive explosion destroyed the rest of the town.

When I woke up next, I found myself in an unfamiliar room. Going into the bathroom and looking in the mirror, I found I had spiky black hair and yellow eyes, my irises the shapes of lightning bolts, and my body much more toned than it ever was before. Before I had messy greyish black hair and light grey eyes, skin as pale as a corpse's, and a body as weak and frail as one.

It was then that I met Akari Amateratsu, a girl with long white hair and eyes just as white, her irises shaped like the sun. She introduced me to five other people whose irises were in the shapes of water droplets, fire, mountains, tornadoes, and leaves. Their names were Jinny Ashani, Agni Aagneya, Daichi Doi, Kazane Agnishika, and Hanako Ai in that order.

They explained to me that my family was dead, my hometown was destroyed, and that I was now known as an Elementia, the Lightning Elementia. They each held the elements of light, water, fire, earth, wind, and nature in that order. They also told me I'd have to train to control my element or I wouldn't even be able to do everyday tasks, and if I were to lose control of my emotions, I could cause another Unnatural Disaster.

I learned that they each had their towns and loved ones destroyed when they turned as well, and Akari, our leader, was one of the first Elementia along with someone named Atiyama, the Darkness Elementia. They had been at war with one another for 100 years before the next Elementia appeared. Atiyama wanted to destroy the world, but Akari didn't know why, she just did everything she could to stop him. He too had six others to help him with his goal: the Dark Elementia. Their main goal is to kill Akari and the rest of us so he can complete his task.

The one who trained me was Jinny, the Water Elementia. This scared me because I had severely pissed her off the moment we met when I assumed some things. However, she taught me a lot and we quickly became really good friends.

One day in the middle of training, Atiyama the other Dark Elementia attacked all of us. I learned that this was a common occurrence, but Atiyama was just testing out his new Elementia, the Plasma Elementia, who had turned on the same day I had. Everyone separated to fight off their counterpart Elementia, Agni fighting Bobina Angarika, the Lava Elementia, Jinny fighting Boris Korudo, the Ice Elementia, Daichi fighting Kristy Ratna, the Crystal Elementia, Kazane fighting Isek Dhumra, the Gas Elementia, and Hanako fighting Attor Chua, the Poison Elementia. I stayed back with Akari, helping her fend off Atiyama and the Plasma Elementia as much as I could.

The Plasma Elementia didn't speak or reveal his name or his face. The only thing I could see on his face was his glowing, mint green eyes, wearing a hood to conceal his face. I had dreams and visions about that exact person standing beside Atiyama before they arrived, but to this day I still don't know why.

When Atiyama tried to attack me, I ended up becoming really afraid and my element bursted out around me, actually hurting Atiyama, which surprised all of us because the only thing that should've been able to hurt him was Akari's light. That's when I realized that lightning literally had the word light right in it. This meant that anyone with any type of element that produced light could hurt Atiyama. After that, they all retreated, Atiyama too worried he might lose.

Akari then predicted he'd attack again at the end of the month, which didn't leave me long to finish my training, so all the other Elementia chose to pitch in and help me. Day after day they each taught me something new, and on the final day, I had a fight with Jinny to put all my training to the test. In my mind, I definitely won that fight, but she said she had been holding back. She was definitely just being salty.

We later found out that Akari's prediction had come true, just not the way we expected. On August 31st at midnight, shadows filled the mansion and took everyone but Akari to a secluded location. Everyone, including myself, fought our counterpart Elementia.

Even in my Element Drive, a form where you connect with your element and become one with it, I couldn't beat him. Through our battle, I found out that he was actually my big brother, Raito, who I assumed had also died when I became an Elementia.

I asked why he was siding with such an evil and vile person when before he was light personified. He told me he wanted to kill me because of the life I lived. That made me furious beyond what I'd ever been before. I was the most average person you could've met. Average looks, average grades, average athletics, etc. Yet my brother had it all. Good looks, amazing grades and athletics, girls falling for him left and right, and an amazing girlfriend. You couldn't even hate him because he was the nicest guy in the world. Even with all my rage, I just couldn't defeat him. He was my brother, and despite what I felt at that moment I still cared for him. I wanted to save him.

Just as it looked like we might kill each other, all of the other Elementia and Dark Elementia who had won their battles rushed in and intervened. I didn't question why at the time, but Agni and Bobina were both there. Kazane and Daichi had lost their battles, Daichi having gotten severely hurt, but I was the worst off. Having used so much energy and taken so much damage, I passed out for days.

After that battle I trained day after day, always filled with anger and sadness at what my brother had turned into. Jinny and the others, having noticed this, decided to cut into my training. They told me it was time to take a break from all that and just all hangout together, like normal people, and even if just for a little while, forget about being Elementia.

For a little over a week, we partied, played games, danced, sang, barbequed, anything you could think of friends doing, we did. At one point, Jinny got really drunk, and when I complained about never having had a girlfriend or even having kissed a girl, she kissed me. I thought I might pass out after she asked if I wanted to lose any other firsts, but she passed out first, not to mention everyone else, so I had to carry her to her bedroom.

When I put her in bed, she pulled me down next to her, and with the feeling of her entire body pressed against me so tightly, I couldn't take it and passed out. The next morning when I woke up again, we were both hugging each other as close as possible. It was so warm that I never wanted to pull away, and ended up falling asleep again with her head in my chest. When I woke up again, she did too. I thought we'd both get embarrassed or something, but neither of us did. We just looked into each others eyes and smiled at each other. I think it was then that I really fell for her. Not much happened after that between us. We just acted like everything was normal and that it never happened.

The night that solidified my love for Jinny was the day we all decided to stay outside the entire day. We had a blast and even made a giant tent fort out of all of our tents. I had woken up in the middle of the night when I heard Jinny get up and go out to look at the view. I was feeling insecure and like the things she said to me were just to cheer me up, but she told me otherwise that night with all her heart and the warmest gaze anyone had ever given me. When we went back to sleep that night, I held her hand until I fell asleep.

I had woken up before anyone else that day. For some odd reason, I felt compelled to go inside the mansion. I found a note in my room, a challenge to a battle to the death from my brother. At first, I accepted with full intentions of killing him, reverting back to what I was like before I became an Elementia: cold, heartless, and distant, with the help of the voice I always heard before I had become an Elementia.

When I reached the location of our last battle, Raito and I both fought, my element stronger since I decided to use the full force of it, and we were still both evenly matched, though I knew he was holding back. We knocked each other back and forth through the sky with our fists, burning each other's skin with our elements. Even though I was giving it my all, Raito was just that much stronger at that point.

When it looked like I was going to die, I recalled a memory from deep within, a young Raito reaching out to me and crying my name, telling me to stand up. Thanks to that, I regained my sense of purpose: to beat Raito back to his senses and turn him back to the brother I knew and loved. So, I did as the child asked, standing up and reaching what I now call Level Two, a more connected form of the Element Drive. I honestly think an element can be stronger if you have a more just purpose, which is why I was able to reach that level. However, Raito had long since reached that level throughout his training, and took his Level Two form as well.

We both fought at full force, both of us bruised, bloody, and burnt from one another's elements. I begged Raito to stop, but he was determined to end it. Afterwards, I lost control of my element and my emotions, letting it all out at once. Raito was struck with the full force of my element and fell to the ground. When I reached him, it was too late. His wounds were too severe, and he was going to die.

A dark mist came out of my brother's body, evaporating afterward. Raito, though weakened, opened his eyes and began explaining what had happened to him by connecting our elements and showing me his memories through his eyes. When Raito awoke, he thought he was the only one to survive. From there, Atiyama appeared, spoke to Raito about our past, and not only angered him, but corrupted him. He used his darkness to make the little jealousy he had over my simple life grow to the point where he wanted to kill me and lost all sense of reason.

After that, he showed me another memory, several in fact. The truth was, we were both just as smart and amazing as one another, both having the top grades and athletics in our classes and winning many awards. One day we were invited to do some chemical experiments. I ended up getting cocky and mixing up my chemicals, causing an explosion and several fires, as well as several other little explosions as the other chemicals reacted to the first.

The auditorium, in flames and slowly breaking down, lost a small piece of its ceiling and hit me on the head so hard I lost my memories and was in a coma until the next summer. It was then that I learned the memory of Raito reaching out to me and crying my name had actually happened and wasn't just a figment of my imagination. The only reason I had woken up was because of some odd light that entered my mind when no one was around.

My brother spoke a few more words after that, then passed. The other Elementia appeared as I grieved, comforting me. I ended up confessing to Jinny and kissing her two times that day, to which she accepted later on.

When I looked back at my brother to bury him, his element phased out of his dying body and his features returned to what they were before. When I touched it, I absorbed his element entirely. My eyes constantly glowed after I did so. Jinny told me that along with his hoodie, he'd really always be with me from that day forward. I'll never forget how that day was one of my saddest, and happiest days at the same time.

My brother's last words still ring in my mind to this day. What he said still gives me chills. "There are other forces at work here... Before this...I was in...a city...and there was...no one...there..." He then smiled at me. "Remember to never change... I love you little brother... Stay strong...and keep...protecting the weak..." I still don't know what these other forces could be, and at the moment, I don't really care. My only goal now is to kill Atiyama as well as the rest of the Dark Elementia for everything they've done. I'm gonna make them all pay, every last one.