Daysha
My mother and father split up when I was about six years old.
The breakdown was hard for the family, considering there were so many of us.
I have six siblings all together, two sisters and four brothers.
People called us the magnificent seven.
When my parents split up, so did we.
My mother took three of my siblings, my father took the rest.
I stayed with my mother, with my big sister Cyrena and younger brother Casa.
The three of us developed a special relationship living with our mother, becoming the tightest of all our siblings.
Among my seven siblings, three of them are here trapped on this island with my father and I.
Thoughts of my favorite brother and sister distracted me from reality and what was going on at the moment.
Both of them sat across from me.
Not too long ago, my dad was the last of us to finish answering the opening questionnaire they give us soon as we wake up from the red gas they attacked us with.
"One hundred people." My brother Casa said. "How the hell we suppose to survive one hundred people?"
"According to the bitch who interviewed us, they do this annually. Every year someone wins." My sister Cyrena replied. "Think optimistically, we're gonna win. The lady says most families age groups aren't young like us, we have an advantage because the only old one is dad. We can cover for him."
Casa and Cyrena have the optimistic attitude our mother planted in our heads.
The three of us uplifted each other for years, half our lives we've used our mindsets taught by our mother to give each other willpower.
My younger sister Zuma spent awhile crying, until Casa and Cyrena finally talked her into hearing them out.
"Our lives took a terrible turn, but there's nothing we can do about it now but survive." Cyrena spoke softly to Zuma as she hugged her. "They took us and now we have to spend the rest of our lives on this island, long as we're all still alive there's nothing to cry for little sister."
The rest of our family must be looking for us, knowing we were kidnapped by force from our home.
The odds of us being saved a slim to none. No matter how optimistic we try to be.
Ten days of training.
Today marked the first day of a new life.
"Look, we've got ten days." Cyrena told us. "Right now is a good time to plot out how we're gonna win."
"We rack up on tools." Casa said. "I already asked, guns will be involved."
"Yeah I asked too." Cyrena continued. "Bullets will be scarce. Not only that, guns are too much noise. We'll use quiet methods, that way less people will know our location."
"You've given this deep thought, huh?" Casa replied. "So what we're gonna be all knives and swords? Ninja stars? Bow and arrow, Katniss?"
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever we come across that's quieter than a gun."
"What if the gun has a silencer?"
"If it's silent." She replied. "It's usable."
"Listen." My father spoke his first words since being captured. "I'm sorry I let this happen, I failed you as a parent."
"This isn't your fault." Cyrena said softly. "There's no reason for you to be sorry, we've got our minds set on winning because that's the only option. No reason to feel sorry dad, right about now we need to be feeling like survivors."
My dad hesitated, opened his mouth but couldn't speak words. He finally spoke, "Cyrena you've always been a good role model for your brothers and sisters."
Cyrena smiled, she tried holding in her emotions but couldn't for much longer. She finally cracked.
She cried, held her tears in for long as she could handle.
Her tears fell like raindrops.
When Cyrena cried, it affected the rest of us within seconds. Then we were all hugging and crying together.
After our moment of tears, it was back to action.
Cyrena made should we were on point.
Men wearing the same brown uniforms as the invaders at my dad's house came in the room to us, greeted us with headbands with our family name written on it.
One of the men asked, "Who's the captain?"
All of us looked at Cyrena.
The man used his knife, and marked one of the headbands.
He slashed right through our last name.
"Remember the slashes mean they're a team captain, in the field you aren't required to wear your headbands but it works well if you decide to have allies." The man continued. "You guys are a lucky group, four young guns."
He paused as if he expected a reply, none of us said a word.
He spoke again. "If you decide to leave the room, it's fine. Theres a cafeteria if you get hungry, it's available at all hours. Better take advantage of your last full meals. Also, there's training rooms that you should get into. The top guys watches the trainings rooms to see who the contenders are. Little secret, the more bets placed on you are the better chances of winning. The guys in control like to make tweaks on the island, but they usually don't mess with the high ranks because their the money bags."
My sister spoke to him. "You're saying the higher our rank, the more special treatment we'll have."
"Exactly." He continued. "We only rank the top twenty-five people, usually about the top ten get special treatment so if you think you can make it there by the tenth day."
Cyrena nodded. "Thanks."
"Family captains are expected to meet in the main room every night at ten. In case there's any new questions to be asked or any new statements we have to make." He wished us luck as he left. "You seem like a strong family, you got the potential. May luck be with you."
Out of one hundred people, only the top ten receive this special treatment he told us about.
Not only that, only twenty-five people are even ranked.
There's only a twenty-five percent chance that I'll be ranked at all.
Cyrena left the room, said she was going to the cafeteria to get us some food.
My two favorite siblings were both trapped in this with me, Cyrena and Casa. My youngest innocent sister Zuma was the baby of the crop, each of us were committed to assuring her safety above all.
"We should go to the training rooms, try to get an early start on the rankings." Casa suggested. "What ya think pops?"
"I'm staying here with Zuma." Our dad answered. "We probably don't have a shot of those top ten benefits he was hinting us on, but you three can all be top ten. I believe in you."
Casa smiled, he took my hand and helped me stand. He wanted to check out the training rooms, so we did.
They had training for everything. Multiple fighting styles, gun shooting, knife throwing, survival tactics, trap setting.
Casa and I decided to sign up and train under a an energy user here, a five day class that would teach us how to become spiritual enery users
I took it as a joke at first, but Casa was serious.
We came into the room, expecting to see a bunch of Asians fighting each other. Instead we walked into a white haired, green eyed, athletically built Japanese man holding a manga, sitting in his chair laid back comfortable, feet crossed and on top of his desk.
Casa and I laughed.
The man put his manga inside of his desk and smiled at us.
"I'm happy to finally see someone, I thought I'd never get started today." He stood up and greeted us with a smile, obviously happy of our arrival. "Nobody usually comes out day one."
"Why do you work for them?" I asked. "You know this is evil, why be apart of it?"
He took a breath, released a deep sigh. "Money."
I glared at him disgustingly, and spoke. "All of you are literally money this and money that."
"You're apart of a trillion dollar franchise." The man continued. "Everything is about the money now. I'm sorry this happened to you, but I'm here to help you win a my new pupils."
"No one told us their sorry until now." Casa said softly, he continued. "I'm Casa, this is my sister Day."
The Japanese man teaching us spiritual arts introduced himself to us as Hatake.
"Hatake Sensei." He said. "That's what you should address me as for the next seven days at least. Your family quick learners?"
"We're a bit persistent." I said. "We have ten days until showtime, why are we just spending seven with you?"
"That's all you need with me." Hatake came to me, placed his hand on my shoulder. "If I need you longer, I'll possibly keep you. We're gonna be a family for the next week and we're gonna put a lot of grind and effort into your training. Of course if you guys sign up other places you can just come by any time your free. Ultimately, I seek to teach you all how to become spiritual energy bearers."
Casa and I looked at each other for a second.
I said. "I think we're gonna spend some time here for now at least Hatake, how old are you anyway?"
"Twenty-eight." Hatake said. "I've been working this job for about ten years."
"Since you were eighteen?" Casa said. "Where's your family? You've been here that long."
Hatake looked at Casa long and hard before speaking. "I will tell you my story, once all of your comrades have joined."
"How many more folks we expecting spirit man?" Casa asked. "I'm interested in this story now."
"I'm only taking four students. I learned not to take bigger crowds anymore, smaller groups are better for learning quicker." Hatake continued. "Casa, your curiosity intrigues me. What your feeling, it may be correct. One of the keys is always trust your guts, no matter the feeling."
Casa eyes widened, then he looked at me for a second.
"Let's get to work!" Hatake called out. "I'm gonna get you two some gear!"
Hatake brought us both the same uniform as his, all black attire.
On our first day, we spent the first hour going over the basic fighting tactics and throwing knives. Then we spent hours with Hatake learning how to channel our energy.
Casa and I both kept the same sitting posture meditating and taking our time to find this energy Hatake spoke about.
When Hatakae detected doubts on our facial expressions, he gave words of advise. "Confidence is a key, don't let doubt interfere. Believe that your chakra is flowing and trust your energy's rising."
When Cyrena came, Hatake greeted her happily. Just as he did us.
"There's only four spots, we should get Zuma as well." Casa said.
"She's not ready to come out yet." Cyrena replied. "I brought her food to eat, then she laid down. She just needs some time, maybe tomorrow."
"I'm Hatake Sansei! What are you known by?"
"Cyrena."
"You're the captain of your family Cyrena." Hatake rubbed his hand across the mark on her headband. "I always found it dumb that they cross your family's name out to signify that. The three of you are family?"
Casa nodded. "Yes, we have a big family but the three of us have a special connection."
"And you have another brother here?" Hatake smiled rubbed the back of his head. "Wow, I've never had a family of brothers and sisters."
Cyrena told him. "Zuma should be ready tomorrow morning."
"It's fine, she can take her time." Hatake went over to his desk and took a seat, and grabbed his mag. "Day, show your older sister what you were just training on. She can just jump right in."
Casa and I proceeded back to our training, sitting back in the same meditating posture told of us. Cyrena mimicked us.
I told her to find her chakra, and they we were searching for our inner energy.
I told Cyrena what Hatake told us, to trust and believe in her energy's flow.
After awhile, Hatake rejoined us and gave more words of advice.
Hatake said. "Don't try and force the energy, imagine your spiritual energy flowing out of your hands. That'll help you gain more sense of it."
The three of us went on for what felt like hours, gaining progress and listening to everything Hatake had to say for advice.
He told us this is what the first night could consist of, and that we could leave whenever we were ready.
None of us wanted to leave any time soon, we were each dedicated on helping our family survive and win.
We didn't wanna lose anyone. Even though nobody captured wants to lose anyone, Cyrena convinced us that our pure willpower should be give us an edge on everyone else.
Too many things were on my mind.
My mother, the last night at home, the red smoke, my last phone call with Kalon.
All of my stresses went through my brain.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. A few more deep breaths, and within seconds it was as if all my stresses flowed out of me.
I felt light, numb to the world.
Hatake's voice brought me back to reality. "Hello! Another visitor!"
An Asian American kid came into the room, seemed about sixteen years old. My little sister Zuma's age.
Casa expressed his disappointment, but Cyrena calmed him. She assured him that we'd take care of our family.
Hatake introduced himself, then introduced us to the boy as well. He called us a team, and told us that we all seem very promising.
"What's your name?" Hatake asked. "Or what do you want to be known as?"
"Shiori."