There was a sudden commotion around me. In that one instant, everyone turned their gaze, looking at the elevated pathway. I followed their gazes… long white hair and a bright cyan cloak were the first things that catched my eye. A girl? Her appearance is so striking, contrasting literally everyone in the crowd. She’s about my age, and beautiful. I’d be blushing, if it weren’t for the fact that she is running like her life depends on it. She covered the distance of the entire walkway in a matter of seconds. It was odd, what would a person could be running away from? 

That was when I heard the music. It was a foreign instrument that I never heard before. Or if I did, it most likely originated from a different part of the world. As soon as I heard the second note, I felt the intensity of the heat around me. There was fire. Blue flames chasing after the girl. Never in my life did I see anything like it before.

“Tch-”

Before I knew it,  the air temperature shifted from hot to cold.  She slammed her foot down, and created a path of ice from that pathway to the streets. Hopping on it, she slid down that path with ease.

This was no mere dream, no mere hallucination. This was real. That girl created ice out of thin air.

Despite the impossibility of the spectacle in front of me, I did not question it. In my mind, I was cheering for her, for a person that I had never met before. I didn’t want her to lose this battle. At the top of the ice path, however, appeared two figures: male and female. They were both fairly young. The female carried the supposed instrument I was hearing.

Every strum against the strings controlled the flames that were chasing the white-haired girl. And now that I get to see them more closely, these were flames in the shape of fish. Fish that were traveling in the air as if they were swimming in water.

However, no matter what flame the instrument player conjures up, the girl quickly stops them. She created ice right in front of the fish flames’ path, thus melting the ice to water and dousing them. The distance between her and the two was growing rapidly.

She is winning!

“Well, well! It seems like water is bad for my spirits after all… But little miss… at this moment, did you perhaps expect I won’t think outside of the box as well?” the instrument player said.

One of her fish flames strayed off next to a metal wire frame statue in the center of the main pathway of the city. She changed her melody, and the fire spirits burned even hotter against the metal. The metal expanded, glowing red hot. And then, the fire spirit bursted. It’s energy completely pulverizes anything that the statue was bolted to. It’s trajectory was heading straight for the white-haired girl.

She tried to stop it. Multiple sheets of ice completely melts against the hot hunk of metal. And then, the wire frame collapsed in on itself. The sudden change in temperature by the layers of ice caused all of the wires to clump into a dense ball. And the impact of this to the girl was not a sight I did not want to see. Nor the sound of her scream did I want to hear. I looked back to see her down on the floor.

Her body shakes as she slowly tries to stand. Due to the pain, however, she couldn’t. This… should not be happening. I’d never seen anyone go through this much suffering. Eventually both the girl with the instrument and the man, who hadn’t done anything, walked over to the defeated girl.

“Don’t take this personally. Us seven will need what you have in order to find out what exactly happened on that day.”

His words stirred up commotion among the crowd of onlookers. People were going insane at the sight of the display. Some people looked in disbelief like they just saw the display of military power. Some people looked in confusion and shocked at the unusual appearance of the girl.

She looked up at everyone watching her, with an angst look. Then, time stopped. At least, that’s what it felt like in that particular moment. Her gaze met mine. Her cyan eyes conveyed everything I needed to know.

(I need help.)

Before my body moved on it’s own to protest against the seemingly unjust actions I had just witnessed before me, I felt a little light-headed. What was this? ...I blanked out for a second, and then... they were gone. I lost my chance. Everyone around me seemed to go back to their day, like nothing had happened. Certainly that would have sparked some discussion, but it was like nobody cared. Or rather, no one even saw it in the first place. I kept looking around. No one dared to question anything that just happened.  Something struck me as well, the ice that the girl has created is gone too with not a trace of damage anywhere in sight. People began glancing at me for looking so disoriented. This struck me, was I the only one that remembered that incident? Who remembered the struggle of a single person?

The ensuing silence was painful.