I am one, but I am not alone. I have the power, but I can’t use it. I have the talisman, but I’ve lost part of it. I can control them, but I don’t want to. I am the child of millennium, but I don’t want to be. I am Yuri, but at first I didn’t know it. I am the Chiyoko, and this is my story.

It was dark, too dark…and the pain in my left arm was intense. I tried to sit up, but immediately lay back again from the throbbing in my head. I couldn’t remember anything. Nothing was in my mind, and the strange thing was, I knew something was terribly wrong. I heard dripping, and felt something cool and wet on my face. Water? I shifted a little, trying to find the source, but had to stop when I ran out of energy to move. Where was I? But more importantly, how did I get here, where ever here was? I was too confused at the time to notice anything, which is why I was nearly scared out of my wits hen I felt something soft and warm touch my injured arm. I gave something of a raspy yelp, my throat being much too dry to muster anything else. As I tried to squirm away (I say squirm because that’s exactly what I mean) a soft, female voice called what I later learned was my name.

“Yuri, stop before you injure yourself worse.” Surprisingly, I stopped, still having no idea of whom or what was talking to me. Suddenly, my head began to spin, and I heard a small voice, like a whisper.

“It’s Nuriko.” As suddenly as the spinning had begun, it stopped, leaving me dizzier than before. After regaining some control, I remembered what the voice had said. Nuriko. The name floated through my mind and imbedded itself in. The female voice belonged to Nuriko; I should know who Nuriko is. But I didn’t, I couldn’t remember, I couldn’t remember anything. A cool, wet cloth was put on my forehead, and soon enough I fell asleep. I slipped in and out of consciousness, not knowing whether it was night or day, or even if such a thing even existed anymore. As I slept, I dreamed of fire falling from the sky, of an explosion. I could see a boy running, pulling a girl after him. She tripped, and he quickly scooped her up into his arms. He kept running, entering a cave in what looked to be the mountain side, more explosions, and then….nothing. The voice returned. “Those were your memories, you are Yuri, the girl is Nuriko… you must leave this place. You have the key, use it. Above all, trust the girl, and trust yourself.” The voice ceased speaking and I woke up. Though my arm was still throbbing, it felt much less painful, and my head wasn’t hurting anymore. I sat up carefully, remembering what had happened last time. The darkness that surrounded me was pressing, as if it was choking me. I could hear shuffling somewhere. Without thinking, my voice dryly called out.

“Nuriko?” The shuffling stopped and her female voice answered me.

“I’m right here.” A glowing blue light came toward me, and I saw that Nuriko herself held the source. She came to my side and looked at my arm. I flinched at her touch.

“Do you know who we are, where we are?” I asked her. She pointed laser-like green eyes at me.

“The voices, they say I am Nuriko, and you are Yuri. Didn’t they speak to you too?” I nodded, she continued. “They say we’re in Kitamiya….or what's left of it, after the dreams I had. Did you see the…” I interrupted her.

“Explosions. Yes, but I heard nothing of Kitamiya.” This was true; the voices hadn’t said anything to me of our current location. I noticed that the light was coming from a piece of crystal hanging from her neck. “What is that?” I gestured to the triangle shaped stone.

“I have no idea. I woke up to the darkness of the cave, wished I could see better, and then it began to glow.” I looked up from the necklace to her face. She was decidedly pretty, and somewhat young, maybe about 18. I couldn’t remember how old I was, but I knew 18 had to have been close.

“Are we supposed to be related?” I asked as I glimpsed her longish dark hair much like my own.

“I don’t know.” It seemed to me that we both didn’t know a lot of things, like why we were here, and so forth. She gently lifted my arm into her lap. Tearing of a piece of cloth from her sleeve, she wrapped it around my wound and tied it tight. The rhythmic drip, drip of the water was making me thirsty.

“Do you know where the water is?” She wordlessly handed me a hollow rock filled with cool water.” Thank you.” She nodded. I took several sips before setting it down, feeling better already. She was watching me with an intense gaze, and it was making me self-conscious. I licked my lips and smoothed down my hair with my uninjured hand.

“Your forearm is badly broken.” she said. I looked down at the cloth she’d just put over it. Already it was turning dark form the blood. That explained why I was so weak.

“How long have we been here?” she shook her head.

“I don’t know how long it was before I woke up, but you’ve been out for almost three days.” I raised an eyebrow at her. I was getting tired of asking questions.

“How do you know when it’s daylight?” She pointed behind me to a small sliver of whitish light. Moonlight. I slowly started to get up on my knees. She at once began assisting me, knowing I was still quite weak. Who was she? But more importantly, what was she to me before this-whatever this was- happened? Her touch was so familiar and so comforting…yet I still couldn’t remember…..
We began walking toward the little hole that was letting the light in. It seemed to almost pull us toward it. “Come closer.” It was the same voice form before. Both of us gave a small startled gasp, so I knew she heard it to. “Do not be afraid, I will not hurt you.” As if by force, we both slid the rest of the distance to the beam of light which I now noticed a blue orb floated in... I spoke first.
“Who are you, what do you want with us, and why are we here?” Nuriko stayed silent and looked from me to the orb.
“You ask too many questions for your own good, Yuri Besides, as a child of Millennium, or a Chiyoko, you know everything already.” My head began spinning again, and I saw myself on a throne, surrounded by people, and standing nearest to me was Nuriko. She touched my hand and we both seemed too laughed, as did the people around us. My vision flashed to what seemed to have happened to put us in this current predicament. People screamed in terror as fiery rocks fell from the sky and began setting what looked to be a city on fire. Again, I saw Nuriko and me running, running to this cave. We entered just in time before rocks covered the entrance, one landed on my arm and threw me to the ground just as one hit Nuriko and sent her sprawling to the other side……

So this is what had happened to get us both injured. I looked down at her leg and saw it was tied with a piece of cloth too. Everything I saw was true then. I turned back to the orb as more memories came flooding in. “You’re the Orb of Beginnings.”

“Yes. And before you even ask, yes Yuri, you are the king of what was once Kitamiya. Your earlier vision and the one just now have shown you almost everything you need to know. Nuriko used to be one of your advisers, and seeing as the others are dead, she is your only remaining friend.” Even though we now had more information than before, I was still confused.

“What destroyed the....my kingdom?” I asked.

“It was the Ankoku, right?” Nuriko surprised me; I had almost forgotten she was there.

“You are most defiantly the Chiyoko’s true companion. Yes, the Ankoku Organization destroyed your kingdom, and the known world for that matter. They left it as it is now, thinking that you two were dead also, like everyone else. In a flash, the scene of what was outside the cave walls came before us. The barren, burned land was completely demolished, nothing could be identified, and even the remains of the people were burned. Nuriko looked at me, and I could tell it was upsetting her. I felt a sharp pang in my head, and suddenly I remembered something else.

“We were an advanced civilization of technologically advanced people. Everyone was under my command, and The Order of the Chiyoko. Nuriko was our military advisor; The Ankoku was our only enemy.”
“Well done child. You are already beginning to remember. However, you will never regain some information; you will have to begin again with some certain things….”

“Like what?” I asked, but Nuriko raised her hand to shush me. I ceased speaking and looked down at her.

“I cannot tell you, time will tell you this secret. For now, you must concentrate on the problem at hand…you must leave this place at once and get to Toronokai. Once you are there, I will appear to you again, and tell you what you must do.” The orb began to fade a little. “I will give you new clothing, and something to defend yourselves against The Followers, but the best help you will receive is each other. I must leave you now. Nuriko’s eyes grew wide as the orb disappeared before our eyes, leaving us to stare at the sliver of light. Nuriko looked at me, and I at her. Now what?

“Look!” she pointed down to my feet, where a pile of clothes, a bow and arrows, and a sword lay. I used my good arm to pick up the sword. It was encrusted in gold and emeralds at the hilt, and automatically, I knew it held some sort of power. She picked up the bow and arrows and ran her fingers over them, and then looked back to me. “They want us to use them?” I nodded a little, still not completely sure of whom “they” were.

“To defend ourselves.” I slung the sword over my shoulder and picked up the clothing. Two military style suits, both black, with two gilded gold belts. A black enamel crest was set in the middle of the belt; I ran my fingers over it, and then it came to me, everything finally set in.

This is my life now; I am the Chiyoko, the legendary Millennium child. Nuriko is my companion, my only remnant of the people that no longer exist. We are the last of the human race; we are the only remaining survivors. The crest on the belt was the Millennium crest, which meant anything with that crest was safe to touch……
I heard rumbling. The whole cave was going to fall in on us. I grabbed Nuriko’s hand and pressed the clothes to my body, running toward an opening I’d glanced when a rather large rock fell. We ran through the opening, and as soon as our eyes got used to the light, we looked around.
We saw desolation, nothing more. I looked at her, and she looked back at me.
We had to get out of here.