The Girl and the Forest Witch

Prologue Part 1

History of the Witches

Witches have existed way back on Earth worldwide as early as the thirteenth century. They are all descendents of people who had a natural affinity with the planet Earth. These witches do not wear capes, cloaks and pointed hats as told in books. They mingled with ordinary people and studied their gifts and used them for the benefit of the people. They studied nature and managed to find out what herbs are used for which illnesses through tests on themselves and a number of volunteers. Some with more affinity follow their gut feeling.

As the centuries passed by, the witches slowly decrease in number as many got too absorbed in their research in achieving in longevity which was brought up by one of the first witches in existence. The medical knowledge gained by the witches were left behind after their death to be found by ordinary people who made use of them while credited to the witches if they left their name on the stuff which was found. However, people start to fear the witches when those remaining start to display even greater abilities such as manipulating fire and controlling wind.

In early twentieth century, some of the remaining witches wrecked havoc with their powers which started, to what people of the present come to know was, OPERATION W which is initiated to eliminate any remaining witches as well as those who were part of a witch's bloodline. OPERATION W was one of the darkest times of Earth which could not even be compared to the wars which occurred decades later. People were killed if they supported the witches. Those who were even very distantly related to witches were killed. Despite OPERATION W succeeding in its objective, the people of Earth start to despise those behind it while sympathizing with the witches. The world again became chaotic with countries going to war and trying to settle the civil unrest. However, the dark times did not end there.

Just about a decade after that, something extremely big happened. Nobody really remembered but they could not remember the Earth starting to shake. Plants started to run wild and fires broke out. It felt like doomsday had arrived but the whole incident ended in a mere hour.

On that one day, a single individual had saved many more people's lives by sacrificing her own freedom to be placed in isolation in a location far away from people. Conflicts did restart again however it was never to the point the individual had to step up again.

Prologue Part 2

Reflections

?'s POV

Seeing my family was being killed while I hid in our secret basement with my little sister…I could not describe the feeling I was experiencing…it was similar to fear and hatred. Those powerless people were hunting down those with gifts because a handful went rogue and now hunting down just about anybody with witch blood in their veins. They might as well destroy the whole Earth while they are at it.

Hearing the screams of my family as they were being mercilessly killed, I fought the urge to rush out and vaporize those fools but my little sister, Kikyo, was pulling on my sleeves telling me not to die and seeing the tears which were flowing from her eyes, I hugged her and apologized. There was no way I would die and leave my sister all alone in this cruel world.

We lived on the streets and our life became a living hell. Every day I had to steal food to eat and we had to constantly move from place to place so as not to get caught. Not only that, there were a lot of times I have to kill anybody who witness me using magic so that we would not get hunted down. I was one of those extremely gifted witches and was still learning to control my gifts. It took me an extremely long time to finally fully control my powers and even longer to finally achieve what many others failed to do which was increasing my lifespan.

However before all that, I had to cope with the loss of Kikyo who could not stand it anymore after three years on the streets. I had dug a grave for her and put her to rest near our old house which was still in its destroyed state.

I found myself questioning myself why I decided to surrender myself to these worthless people when I displayed my godlike prowess which I harnessed after painstakingly studying it for decades with not much sleep. I was robbed of my freedom and imprisoned and was set to be shot to death by firing squad. I remembered I had laughed like a madwoman and destroyed the whole prison complex. I had slaughtered anybody who tried to kill me. Such idiotic fools, they did not even know they were against a being superior to them.

After that, I escaped to a deep thick forest which was surprisingly filled with mana. Mana was the life essence of Earth. It was present in all living things of Earth but only us extremely gifted witches can utilize it in our magic, we were different from those who can only mix potions. I proceeded to build a house and get some necessitates for myself and prepared for a long life of solitude.

When I heard conflicts had continued, I did not care at all and proceeded with my new life. Strangely enough they did not try to find me which was a good thing.

xxxx

It is now the year 2012. It has been about a century since that day I did that stupid thing. The worlds now see witches as nothing but fictional characters which was a good thing. Nothing about witches or OPERATION W were ever mentioned in history which I felt was for the best.

I was surprised to see a school near the forest. I had gone to observe it from afar and saw it was an all-girls institution. I had minimal education during my early life due to what happened but my gifts with magic and alchemy, which I taught myself, had helped me survive till now.

My views toward the powerless people had not changed but I was open to some of them being good people. Not everybody is bad; there are always some kind souls around. Suddenly I heard a scream in the forest. I was surprised as I had put a magical barrier in the forest so normal people should not be able to enter without my consent. I quickly got dressed in the old sailor uniform I managed to get from somewhere and tied my blonde hair and quickly exited out of my house.

When I reached the spot, I found a blonde-haired girl being driven to a corner by a wild bear. I quickly get to work. My blonde hair changed to grey and eyes changed to crimson as I gathered mana in my hand and used spell like fireworks to scare off the bear. It had worked as the bear was taken by surprise and ran away. The girl fell to her knees and sighed in relief. I was more curious as to how she managed to enter the forest. The girl seems to be wearing the uniform of the all-girls school nearby. As my hair turned back to blonde and eyes to purple, I realized the girl's eyes had the same colour as mine. Our eyes met and then I sensed the magical potential in the girl in front of me and I could feel something else as well. The girl stood up and seemed to be afraid of me. Seeing as there was no need to think about it now, I smiled. I did not know my quiet life in solitude would never be the same with the coming of this girl. I held out my hand for a handshake.

"My name is Kokoro. What is your name?"

End of Prologue I & II