I was going through the late professor Lesac's private collection with permission from Dean Kerzaku when I stumbled upon the book. It was old and weathered much like many of the others but there was something that drew me to it. The front cover was slightly ripped, almost as it had been slashed, but I could still make out the title: 'Ye Olde Booke of Prophesie'.
I stared for a moment; torn between an urge to laugh at the odd title and the realization of just what I was holding. It was practically legendary; the single most coveted and valuable book of prophesy ever written. People had been looking for it for hundreds of years, so long that many doubted it's very existence.
It had been written by a renowned prophet way back in the late twentieth century. He or she had been especially noted to have a rather dry sense of humor, thus the silly title, but nearly all other information about s/he had been lost. Save, of course, for the fact that every single prophesy of his/her save one had come true. 'Ye Olde Book of Prophesie' had apparently been written shortly after the one prophesy hadn't been fulfilled. It was said that it contained a last prophesy and the answer to why the one prophesy hadn't been fulfilled. It was also said that it would never be found until the last prophesy was due to occur.
I thought about the way things had been going lately. There were rumors that the Emperor of Luirhan planned to break the age old peace treaty and invade the Allied Territories. That would be... well words cannot describe how catastrophic such an event would be. Luirhan's military was so much more stronger than ours that it wasn't even funny. Not only that but if anything I had heard about inside the Empire was true.... I don't think the peoples of the Alliance are capable of withstanding such tyranny.
Once we would never have had to worry about the Empire, back when Xaken's father was in charge, but since Ruenen had taken over things had been getting progressively worse. Where his father had been all for peace and the happiness of his people Ruenen cared for neither and seemed to want only to expand his territories. It was said that he had threatened death to any of his people who even considered escaping the Empire. Everyone was terrified of what was going to happen. To make matters worse our outer borders seemed to be under compromise as well. We were having difficulties with pirates of all things and we could do nothing about it because of the situation with Luirhan. This especially sucked because the Alknylhi station on which I lived was a lot closer to the outer border than I would have liked.
Perhaps this book contained the answer to our problems. I opened the book to the first page and begun to read. Then I stopped in confusion. This didn't seem like a prophesy; rather it appeared to be a story of some sort. The first few pages set the scene as the capital city of twentieth century Japan on Earth; a place called Tokyo. It described that 'recently there had been a great deal of mysterious earthquakes' then went on to explain that they were nothing of the sort. Apparently the earthquakes were actually signs of a battle between two groups of powerful psychics and magic-users. One who's goal was to save the Earth and the other who wanted to destroy it. The book briefly mentioned each character and then went into further detail about the one whom everything depended on. This main character was one Kamui Shirou, fifteen years old and one of the most powerful telekinetics the world had ever seen... with only his counterpart on the other side being more powerful. It was Kamui who had long been prophesied to be the one who would choose the fate of Earth. However he had wanted nothing to do with the entire situation from the very start and only truly got involved in order to protect his best friends Fuuma and Kotori Monou. Unfortunately what he hadn't known was that Fuuma was his 'twin star' and destined to be the leader of whichever side Kamui didn't choose. The moment Kamui chose to save the world he may have also doomed it for Fuuma became the dark /kamui/ and proceeded to messily crucify Kotori and torture the shell-shocked Kamui before leaving to join the bad guys....
I blinked at the sheer detail involved and wonder about what the rest of the book would be like if this was just the prologue. Yet the story had captured me and I found myself hoping that things would turn out all right.
The book went on to tell of how Kamui had locked himself inside his 'heart' and lie unconscious until an omniyouji on his side, Subaru Sumeragi, went 'inside' to convince him to come back to the world of the living. Since then the two sides, the Chi no Ryu lead by Kamui and the Ten no Ryu lead by Fuuma, had been in several conflicts and things were getting progressively worse.
Abruptly it switched from past to present tense. I found myself reading a detailed account of Kamui visiting the library in the mansion he was staying in. Even as I read about him choosing an old-looking book and sitting down to read it I knew something was a bit off. However it wasn't until it told of what he was reading that it really hit me what I was reading. I read the prophesy as he did but unlike him I had a pretty good idea about what was about to happen.
The prologue ended rather simply, though slightly longer than his had. It was, to my ire, a personal letter to me :
Miss Gloria Arcadi,
I apologize for tricking the both of you into this but the Fate of two worlds hangs in the balance. You must protect and guide Kamui for it is he whom the prophesy speaks of. Through much trial you must help him to save the galaxy... I'm not asking much am I? By the way, the past described in this book is true and Kamui must survive to save the Earth if you want to exist now. Note that he will be unable to do so until after he saves you all in the future. Anyway he'll be arriving as soon as you turn the page so... have fun saving the universe!
-Kakyou Kazuki
With that the book exploded into blinding orange light and I suddenly found myself holding the unconscious form of a cute teenage boy who could only be Kamui.
End Chapter One