(Years ago)

A little girl walked aimlessly in the cold, seemingly silent forest.

Ignoring the burning carcasses she left in her wake, she continued marching to a destination she doesn't know.

"I..."

She softly spoke as if her throat will suddenly hurt if she spoke too quickly.

"I am... currently... satisfied... No need to eat... for now..."

She gripped the dirty rags still concealing her small figure, the only thing giving what little protection she has against cold, and covering her body.

Wind blowing against her, she could only grip harder, her body seemingly stronger than how it was before she had killed these animals and creatures with the same flames and winds she killed the ones who kidnapped her before. And she noticed the difference, even if she had no understanding of how it happened.

"But I am glad... that it did..."

She licked her lips, feeling how dry they were.

She had only ate the monsters' meat. She didn't dare to drink any of their blood if they were not cooked enough from her flames, deeming that action too dangerous even when she was hungry before.

But now, she couldn't deny it. She needed something to drink.

'Preferably, a clean water...'

The girl pondered as she kept moving, but she tried to be as cautious as she could as the black night didn't fill her with a lot of confidence.

"No matter. I will survive this obstacle..."

She would continue moving and searching, even if it required staying awake for multiple days. That was something she could get used to, thanks to the slavers.

As much as she loathed them.

The lonely march in the forest continued, the only thing helping her notice the flow of time was the movement of the moon and stars in the dark sky.

It was strange, honestly.

Just a week ago, she would not have noticed how loud small sounds such as the movement of the leaves. The way the wind moved. Neither would she have noticed how the stars could help her live, but here she was.

She shook her head at that.

'Surviving first. Thinking about the past later.'

Her instincts alarmed her for a moment as she heard a sound like one's limbs hitting the ground and moving the soft grass and leaves that had fallen.

She tensed for a moment, her body stiffening before she noticed that it was just a simple harmless rabbit and she forced her body to relax ever-so-slightly.

'...It was just a rabbit...'

Ignoring the herbivore creature, she breathed a sigh of relief as she continued her search once more.

It would be only after three more hours that she would find a source of water, a small river.

The moon reflected on the surface, giving the water a strange illusion of depth as she looked at it.

She could see her face, the details barely clear due to the shadows covering them, as she bent her head down to see her reflection.

Honestly, she wasn't even sure if the water was clean or not, but she couldn't bother at this point. Either it will be alright, or she will heal herself with whatever that light she created when she healed herself before.

The tiny hands of her moved gently, almost shivering, as she grasped some of the water between her hands.

For a moment, she looked at it, before drinking.

The feeling of cold, clean water running through her throat, that sensation that she was so used to have before she got kidnapped, almost made her tear up as she hungrily drank the water with vigour to quench her thirst.

For what felt like minutes, she just kept gulping water, satisfying her dry lips, before she had decided that it was enough.

She looked at the moon for a moment, as it shone brightly in the black sky.

'I don't know where I am, nor how far I am fom any other cities or villages. I must find somewhere to sleep.'

She realized that she was also getting tired again as she pondered about her situation.

'I guess... I should try to do it again...'

She took few breaths to summon her willpower yet again.

'Listen to me, strange power I don't fully comprehend yet. I need you to help me erase this exhaustion from my body! So I will keep surviving again! So, heal me, please!'

She prayed to herself, trying her best to focus on how she felt when she healed herself for the first time. The desperation, fear and desire to survive. She tried to have them at the forefront of her mind as she wanted her exhaustion to go away.

For a second, she had felt that something had diminished deep within her body, before the soft light appeared once more.

Warmth spread to her body again, as she felt the soreness on her feet vanish, along with the sleepiness.

The girl looked with awe at herself, clenching her fist a few times to make sure, before she was satisfied.

With that, the search continued once more.

---

The night passed in a relative peace.

Being able to heal exhaustion and stop the bodily desire to sleep, even temporarily, was quite the advantage.

She was able to stay awake and continue moving as the sun slowly started to appear, the brilliant light of it rapidly spreading as the darkness of the night was vanishing.

She walked as the sunlight was brightening the area where she was, as she rapidly blinked, her eyes getting used to the bright light of the sun as it reached her.

It didn't take long for her, as the girl gripped her rags. She would have wanted better clothes to cover herself with, but it seemed impossible even beyond the power that healed her, and allowed her to create all these winds and flames.

If there was a plus to the situation, it is the fact that she realized her ability to create water and earth, with relatively large amounts.

She had found out about the earth aspect when she started getting really furious at night when a particularly annoying panther kept following her, but she just couldn't hit the damn animal with her flames or wind. It was just too quick to escape the area of attack, only to come back later, clearly waiting for her to drop from exhaustion.

The only reason it didn't attack her right away was the sphere of winds she protected herself with, otherwise, she would have died.

She was at that time so angry and she could feel as the energy inside of her was slowly dropping as she kept protecting herself up, and she knew that she will not be able to keep it forever, and she wished so hard that the damn panther would be unable to move, wether by something paralysing it or halting its legs.

It was at that time where she felt the power in her drop again, bfore she noticed as the panther's legs were seemingly stuck to the groud, as it morphed and wrapped at its limbs before hardening. Needless to say, killing the panther was easy when it was surprised and immobile.

Her ability to control water came to existence when she wanted to create it as she started getting thirsty once more, but she didn't feel safe in returning all the way to the river. So, she decided to trust the power in her body to do her bidding, and she had managed to create water, much to her surprise and delight.

So far, she had noticed that her power seemed to control the elements in general. She can remember something like that being talked about in the orphanage where she was living before she got kidnapped. Something about magic, and how it allows one to control the elements of the world. The matron often told stories about heroes and mages, using their magic to defeat the powerful monsters that tormented the humans and their ancentors.

'So, what I was using all this time was magic, huh?' she pondered to herself as she pushed away a tree branch that was in her way 'I guess I couldn't think of it or process it completely when I was so terrified and hungry, and being tired from the lack of sleep didn't help. Now that I had my fill eating the meat of some of the animals, along with satisfying my thirst, I am now able to remember and think about things a little better.'

She wondered what she would do now, and she could feel something in the pit of her stomach for some reason.

"I originally wanted to exit this forest and return to the orphanage. But..." she spoke softly as she leaned against a tree, taking a moment to stop her march.

"But these... slavers. They directly took me from there, I am sure. The matron didn't seem to suspect them when she told me to follow them. So, either they have people helping them from beyond the orphanage and they can cover for themselves very well, or the orphanage is working with them. I really hope this isn't the actual situation."

She bit her lips at that, as the dilemma of what to do was clear; Does she risk returning to the orphanage, potentially exposing the fact that she was not actually a slave to these who might be in cahoots with the slavers? Or should she just try to live on her own?

"Why did life become this complicated? Just one week ago, I was an oblivious kid playing around in the orphanage. Then I got kidnapped, thrown away to be enslaved, most likely to be killed in the end, then I started burning and hacking stuff, eating animals by cooking them alive most of the time..."

She felt herself getting depressed, her body slumping against the tree.

In just one week, her whole life got turned around, and she wasn't even sure what to do but to keep going for now.

"I guess it's no use to cry over the spilled milk," she tried her best to shake away the negativity of that thought process, and started moving once more.

She tried to desperately ignore a simple question that her mind started asking her:

Just, who even was she anymore?

---

It would be the next day when the trouble would rear its head once more.

She was once again, moving through the forest as she killed the occasional animal and monster on her path, both for food, and to increase her magic reserves. She also took some time to experiment with her magic, realizing that she could boost her own physical powers, strength, and speed included.

She had used this discovery to try and see where the forest will end by jumping really high to see how far she was in and maybe see if there was any humans around.

She sadly couldn't jump high enough to see anything but trees and flora around her, which told her that she had a long way to go on her own.

But it seemed that her usage of magic got noticed at some point. The sliced trees, burned wild life and scorch mark left by her probably didn't help.

The sound of something disturbingly familiar almost echoed in the forest as she hid by jumping inside a tree and hiding her body with the many leaves and branches around her as she intently looked towards the left.

A large object slowly appears, and she notices it right away. The similarities too close, and she wasn't sure what to think of it.

The large carriage that was moving though the forest was accompanied with two smaller ones, and she hoped that this was not what her paranoia was telling her.

They were just a bunch of adventurers. Yes, they have to be. Not everyone is going to have some disgusting interest in enslaving people. At least, that's what she wished.

Meanwhile, two people on that carriage were having their own conflict.

"But, man. I am not comfortable with walking though the forest. Do you think we can change this job?" one of the many men asked as he looked at the sliced trees around them, only for another man to give him a slap on the back of his head.

"You idiot! Do you not know that our lives are on the line? They'll kill us if we tried to escape. Not to mention, if we do this, we get rewarded well enough to live for a week at least."

"I know, but I believe I don't need to explain why I am not happy with this mission, right?"

The two knew why very well.

"Yes, yes. You wouldn't shut up about it. 'Oh noes~! There are trees sliced everywhere! Smell of burning bodies here!' I get it man! You are scared! But we can't really do something about it. This is the risk we have to take in our job," The second one stated with a mocking tone before relaxing.

"But seriously, stop worrying too much. We have strong mercenaries to protect us! This forest doesn't have anything that can deal with people even as strong as few bronze-ranked adventurers. With this, the only worry we have is transporting the goods, then we can enjoy ourselves for a few days at least."

With that, the first man relaxed and took a breath to calm himself.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just worrying too much. But you can understand why I was so worried before. So, the goods are silent for now. Some of them were quite loud an hour ago."

"Yeah, they are. Must have learned to shut up or get slapped."

The two chuckled at that, looking at the locked cages where the goods were held, the tense atmosphere slowly disappearing as the carriages kept moving.

Suddenly, the carriage halted without warning.

The men, their bodies jerking due to the sudden shift, almost stumbled before regaining their footing.

Wondering what was going on, they brought their heads out of the carriage, "Hey! What's the problem!? Why the sudden stop?"

A man wearing armor, holding a sword in his hand, one of the dozen mercenaries whose job was protecting the carriages came to him, "It seems that there is a young girl that was on our path."

"... A girl?"

"Yes. She looks like she is six~eight years old. Do you want to see her for yourself? Don't be worried, what can a little girl do?"

With that assurance, the two men followed the mercenary and exited the carriage.

As they looked directly in front of them, they could see the figure of the young girl, a dozen meters away from them.

A lone figure hiding her body with rags, and honestly, the two men couldn't clearly see her eyes from this distance, but the merenary could see it easily, along with the suspicion of his 'clients'.

"She has blue eyes, and I am pretty sure her hair is blond, behind all the dirt on her. Do you remember someone with this description?"

The men frowned at that, most likely pondering about that and trying to remember, before one of them spoke.

"I feel that our bosses had someone like that given to be shipped away to one of the many nobles we work with? I believe one of them should have passed by this forest too."

"What are the chances this girl could be that one?"

The mercenary clutched his weapon tighter as the other mercenaries started talking to the girl, and while he couldn't hear them well enough from the distance, he could tell that the girl was both distraught, but strangely hopeful.

The other man shook his head with disbelief at that thought, "How would she have escaped? The blond girl I heard about, was a random child who had no training whatsoever! Unless the previous group of slavers got attacked by monsters or something, there's no way she will be that girl. But still, we should capture her. If she was that girl and she had escaped and survived somehow, then capturing her might give us a nice bonus, and if she wasn't, we can't let a good catch run from our hands anyways... "

---

'What am I supposed to do now?'

She asked herself as the men in armor told her that they are there just to bring up the goods to the land of one of the nobles in the Rossthey kingdom.

She could, of course try to trust them for now, or she could try to run away until she reaches a village on her own.

Surely, they could be good people? They might have weapons, but it was probably to deal with the monsters and animals in the forest. It was clear that not everyone can use magic, at least in any substantial way, from what she remembers of the matron's stories, so it makes sense they would use different weapons to protect themselves, right?

'I guess I am still a hopeful person even with all what happened this week, huh?'

With that, she followed the armed men to their carriages, where she will see for her own wether these guys are trustworthy or not, and she reaches the carriages in barely a couple of minutes.

One of them asked about her name during that time, but she had no interest in giving her original name. Not when she doesn't know if they could be trustworthy.

"... Yui."

The fake name came out of her mouth easily, that she felt so weirded by how easily she spoke it.

'Yui... Strange name. But it feels... fitting? O-okay, focus on that later...'

She looked at the men, seeing them simply nodding their heads and telling her to follow them into the carriage where she could stay.

But when she turned her eyes towards it, something felt off.

It was a strange feeling that something was similar, or familiar, but she just couldn't put her fingers on it.

'Am I just being overly paranoid? Something feels off though. But what is it...?'

Her eyes focused on the carriage, trying to decipher what the familiar thing was.

It can't be just the appearance, since she knows that most carriages are similar from what she saw before her kidnapping, so it must be something else.

'Maybe it isn't the carriages...' her eyes rapidly darted to look around her, 'It must be something else. Not the place, as well. So, people?'

She looked deeply into the appearances of the men around the carriages as she was marching towards them.

There was it again.

Something- someone of them was familiar. Even if it was only by face...

Now, she was only a couple meters away, and she could see their faces even more clearly.

'Huh? Maybe I found it?' she asked herself, still tense as ever, as she looked at one of the men who gave her a seemingly gentle greeting.

Seemingly, because she could feel him getting so tense at her sight. There was also a strange tone in his voice. Like a person who doesn't care? No, that isn't right...

"Hello, mister..." she squinted her eyes at him, trying her best to remember if she had seen him before.

She ignored how the soldiers or guards tensed as she looked at him, and she could feel the guard who was the closest to her putting a hand on her shoulders and squeezing, as if to tell her to stop squinting.

"... Have we met before? I feel like I met you before. Maybe, a few days ago?"

"Now, now. I'm really sorry, little girl, but we've never met. You've probably mistaken me for someone else."

He answers with a smile, a smile that felt too sweet. A voice that felt too honest, and without any hesitation.

Suspicious. Too suspicious...

"I guess so, then! Sorry, mister! I was too tired to think properly! In fact, I will apologize first for che-"

Her feet move before the man realizes; before any of the other men holding their swords even move.

It takes mere seconds for her to enter inside the carriage the man was behind, and she could only look as her eyes fall on the many cages in front of her.

She doesn't really think or care at this point.

She doesn't even bother turning around, as the men scream behind her, realizing what she just did. She doesn't show any reaction even as they enter right behind her.

"... You really made me hope for something better than this."

She only looks at the twitching and whimpering figures as they retreated back in their cages even more at her sight.

"Okay girl calm do... w..."

A hand reached to her shoulders, the voice trying to tell her to calm down, but it no longer meant anything, as all of them sounded the same to her.

The person who tried to put his hand didn't finish, as winds, sharper than knives, swung behind her, slicing him in two.

The screams behind her increased, now with a sense of fear and alarm into them.

These too, were ignored, as she just pointed her finger towards the cages.

'Slice them.'

The wind obeyed.

Waves of sharp blades of wind moved, and sliced the sturdy metal cages as if they were nothing but paper.

"D-damn it! A mage!? This girl!?"

'Ah, these are still here? Ah, there were more than one. I guess I focused too much on the cages.'

The girl blinked as she finally looked at the men as they all were holding their weapons-

Actually, all but two guys who seemed to be trembling on the ground in fear. Also, what is with this smell?

Ah, blood. She killed one of them, didn't she? Hard to remember or care when she was focusing so much on the slaves.

"So." she started, her voice feeling too apathetic to the boiling wrath that was rapidly breaking through her mind right now, "You are slavers. And these behind me are your next victims?"

"L-listen, girl! You shou-"

"Disappear- No, DIE."

Fire exploded from her tiny frame, expanding and moving in front of her, as the wind howled, moving along.

"Run!"

One of them screamed, barely dodging as the flames and winds widened, scorching and slicing any of the mercenaries who was not quick enough, or lucky enough.

The screams only lasted for a second before disappearing, even as the flames and winds kept going.

Only a few seconds later did it end, and the blond girl descended from the carriage, the flames obeying as they snuffled themselves to her order to not harm the slaves.

"Wh-who are you...!? What are you!? You monster!?"

Looking at the ones who survived, she noticed that they were the ones who were trembling on the ground, unarmed.

They were looking at her with a very interesting expression of fear and outrage.

"Who am I, huh? A very interesting question. After all..."

Because to her, this experience.

"Himeko is no longer here."

It was the point of no return to her.

"I- No. We, will definitely never forget that day where our world had collapsed. Never in our hearts and souls, will we ever forget the torment we have suffered at the hands of your kind. We are in fact thankful for your existence, for helping us see the truth of this corrupted world. This experience, that broke us, we will never let it repeat again."

She didn't care as flames was raging around her tiny figure, as her eyes glared at the duo.

"We, are Yui."

Everything around her was being scorched to ashes, as the winds were howling.

"We've decided to do it."

A hiss came to existence, as small water droplets merged.

"The ones above you, should make sure you will be thrown to the abyss where you belong."

Her beating heart was burning with that desire, to destroy what they represent.

"Just wait, and we will throw you there by our own hands."

Himeko- No, Yui spoke.

Her words didn't even feel like she was talking to the ones in front of her.

There was no doubt, hesitation, or care.

The only thing that was there was the sheer hatred she had, as her targets died, unable to even scream or resist.

"We need more training. We wanted to burn them to ashes. Not leave bodies behind."

An instant later, the flames, the howling wind, the water-

Had simply disappeared. So suddenly as if all of it was just an illusion.

"Now, I guess I should try helping these poor victims then?"

With that, the rage on her face simply vanished, replaced with a calm, oddly serene smile. As if it had never existed on her face.

'Well, after we manage to calm them down. But, the question is still hanging.'

She pondered as she turned around and walked towards the slaves who were terrified and confused.

'How do we get out of this stupid forest!?'