cosmic chaos ➣ a zodiac story

ii - the festival

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"THE FIREWORKS ARE beautiful,"

Takara sat by her siblings who were both fixated on what they held in their hands on an isolated hill that had a good view of the fireworks. Via still played around with her trinket while Kaede started to read a book. They had just separated from the others to do whatever they wished. It was obvious that Ginko was going to get sweets with Akihiro, Pandora and Kezui would play game booths, Senzo and Ami would be watching the light and ice show, and Isaka probably dragged Sachiro and Itsuo to the best food stalls.

Honestly, Takara was quite interested in Prince Itsuo's mysteriousness. His mysteriousness was not similar to Senzo's. Instead, it was darker, like an evil spirit. She was confused at why the Demon King changed his mind last minute. The rivalry between Mokurai and Kahikari was far too drastic to be forgiven that easily. Takara did not know what happened but Via probably did. Although she didn't notice it, Takara was slowly growing beautiful little lilies on the grass because of her feelings.

"Aren't they?" Takara whispered to no one in particular, knowing that her siblings were not listening and were focusing on something else.

Unlike her siblings, Takara had no interest in politics or scientific stuff, she just wanted to enjoy life. It was that simple. She wanted fun. Unfortunately for her, her siblings were the opposite. Kaede and Via completely analyzed the cycle of the world and wanted to follow through with it. They'd work until they die. But that's not what Takara wants. She just wanted a happy life, filled with love. With the man of her dreams. Someone who will love her unconditionally.

Via was a genius. Not only academically, but she had the best street smarts. Not to mention her sahara (sand) techniques, which is a branch of their terra mana. Kaede, on the other hand, was a natural-born warrior. He could defeat anyone in battle, even without using his terra mana. When he did use his terra mana, he could wipe out armies with his metalia (metal) techniques, another branch of terra mana. Takara knew that her mother never saw anything that special in her, she didn't have any qualities for a genius. But she had her heart, which was most important to her.

Takara gazed off to the side and remembered the reason why her mother even brought her and her siblings along.

"Remember, keep an eye out on that Siren family -- the royal family of Heinami." Takara's mother, Queen Chiasa, was always suspicious of Queen Sumire of Heinami for some reason. Even though she adored the prince of Heinami (as a friend), her mother never liked them.

"Via, what happened in the third Great War?" The youngest sibling questioned her sister, causing the elder two siblings to freeze.

Kaede raised an eyebrow as he slowly placed a bookmark in between the pages he was on. "Why are you asking this, Takara? You know we shouldn't talk about it anymore. It's a part of the treaty."

Via scoffed, "That treaty is completely useless." She turned to Takara, "I'll answer if you tell me why you're so curious."

"Well, it's pretty obvious that the Yin and Yang sides of Yosono still have a huge divider between them, but I don't know why. So maybe the war could tell me something about it." Takara explained sheepishly, looking down at her lap.

The Yin and Yang sides of Yosono was merely a physical representation of the nations, the light and dark elements. In the Third Great War, Kahikari (light), Choseki (earth), and Jisora (air) sided with each other and became known as the Yang of Yosono. Meanwhile, Mokurai (dark), Ikarino (fire), and Heinami (water) sided with each other and became known as the Yin of Yosono. The general purpose of the war was to convince Eikonoha (ice) to join their side. In the end, Kahikari won over Eikonoha to the Yang side, but Eikonoha refused to defeat the Yin side and created a truce.