For her entire life, Ayaka Komeiji had always had a supernatural memory. She had remembered every moment of her life, even the first few seconds after her birth on August 16, 2008. Furthermore, she has the ability to recall any information that she has gained, either from reading or conversation no matter how long it has been since she has learned it. If someone were to ask her where she learned something, she could instantly respond with the exact quote of the book or the exact sentence of whoever taught her it. However, her ability was not as perfect as it may seem. Her ability made it impossible to forget the more negative parts of her life and her horrific nightmares. One particular recurring nightmare, in which Ayaka was in a dark forest just as the sun had started to set. Each time that scenery came up in her dream, she always experienced the same situation of being chased by a ball of pure darkness that always shouted “Oooh, a human! Time to dig in!” in a cheerful tone. This nightmare changed her personality and even caused Ayaka to develop a fear of the dark.

When she was very young, she was very excitable and loved to interact with people; however, because of the nightmare, she started to become extremely timid, to the point where she could not in any capability interact with people who she was not acquainted with. If she was forced to talk to someone she did not know, she would constantly stutter and would have trouble forming coherent sentences. In contrast, whenever she talked to a person she knew well (which was only her parents), she would constantly introduce new topics to continue the conversation while eagerly participating and adding her input on the current topic. Even after 10 years, she still could not overcome her timidity as a result of her limited conversations with other people apart from her family. Other than that, she was extremely diligent and modest. She would try to help her parents with anything that she could. Speaking of her parents, her father was the finance minister for Japan while her mother was a teacher. 

When she was growing up, her father taught her about the economy and statistics, while her mother taught her general subjects like science, math, english, japanese, and history. Due to her supernatural memory, she was able to learn all their lessons quickly and even developed a love for learning new things. When she wasn’t doing anything, she could often be found in the giant library that her family owned, reading a variety of books and expanding her knowledge. 

In school, she always scored a perfect score on all of her exams and was frequently regarded as the model student; however, she never befriended anyone due to her intense aversion to interacting with strangers. Whenever there was freetime at school, she was so immersed in a book that her classmates chose to leave her alone. She never participated in any extracurricular activity, instead opting to head straight home after class ended.

Starting when she was 6, she has followed the same basic schedule each day: wake up, eat breakfast, go to school/learning from her parents, eat lunch, read books, help parents, eat dinner, read books, and finally, sleep. She lived a fairly simple and monotonous life despite having such a powerful ability. 

Her life proceeded fairly uneventfully, 

Friday, August 16, 2019

“Happy 11th birthday Ayaka!” Mizuki, Ayaka’s mother, gleefully shouted.

“Happy birthday!” Hikaru, her father exclaimed. 

“To celebrate your 11th birthday, we decided to buy you two books that we think might catch your interest!” Her mother told her. 

Her mother handed Ayaka a neatly wrapped present. Ayaka carefully unwrapped the present before pulling out a thick encyclopedia titled Myths and Legends Around the World and a much thinner book with the words How to Best Learn from Observation written in bold at the top of the front cover. Ayaka was overjoyed at having received these two books because like her mother thought, they did indeed pique her interest. 

“Thank you!” Ayaka gratefully yelled before running up to both of her parents and enveloping them in a tight hug. 

“No problem sweetie!” Her mother responded.

“I’ll make sure to treasure these gifts for as long as I live, and I’ll be sure to repay you for your kindness!” Ayaka promised. Prior to this birthday, she had only received clothes that she would have inevitably outgrown, so the gift that she just received carries a greater importance to her than the other gifts she has received from her parents. 

“That’s quite a mature thing to say for your age. Although you can speak so maturely for your age, you still can’t talk to anyone besides us.” Her father teased.

“Come on dad, I’ve already told you that talking to strangers is different to talking to family. The books I’ve read have given me examples to base the words to use when speaking, but they have never taught me how to actually speak to other people.” Ayaka sighed while her cheeks were slightly tinged with a slight reddish accent.

“Hahaha, it never gets old teasing you, helps me reduce the stress I feel from work. Remember Ayaka, I’ll support you with whatever you want to do in the future, but I’d advise you to work hard in school so you can get a job that you like to do and that provides an income that will be able to support yourself. I know it might be a little early to be having this conversation with you, but I believe that with how fast you have grown and with how smart you are, the earlier we start, the better it will be. I figured that now would be a good time to start planning for your future.” Her dad informed her.

“Planning for my future? I guess now would be a good time to start that. I don’t exactly know what I want to do yet, but I’m thinking of pursuing astronomy as a career. There’s a lot of stuff that interests me, but astronomy is probably the one that catches my interest the most. I love learning about the various phenomena of space and pondering the many mysteries that we have yet to resolve. Also, if your job is that stressful, why don’t you find another job that you’ll enjoy more?” Ayaka responded.

“Well, I enjoy my job plenty already, I have fantastic and competent co-workers, and my work is generally fulfilling to complete. It’s just that sometimes shouldering the financial responsibilities of an entire country is stressful and tiring” her father replied. “I’m glad that you have already found something that you are interested in, if we’d known beforehand that you wanted to go into astronomy, we would have bought you an astronomy book” he chuckled. 

“The two books you already got me are already more than enough for me! Thank you both again for the thoughtful gift! Anyways, I should probably get going, I don’t want to be late for school today” Ayaka told her parents.

“No need to thank us, it’s your birthday, so you should naturally receive presents from your parents.” Her mother laughed. “Have a good day at school today, and be safe on the road!”

“I agree with your mother, there’s no need to thank us, in fact, we probably should have done more to celebrate our beloved daughter’s 11th birthday.” Her father added. “Have fun and watch out for strangers.”

“Thank you dad, mom! You two are the best parents I could have asked for.” She tearfully hugged her parents. “Also come on mom, dad, it’s only a two minute walk from here to the school, surely nothing bad can happen in those two minutes.”

“True, but anything can happen even in the period of two minutes, and I mean anything, so I just wanted to wish you safety nonetheless.” Her father cautiously explained.

“I got it dad, while I am almost certain that nothing bad will happen, I promise that I will be careful on my way to school.” Ayaka affirmed.

“Don’t forget everything I have taught you about being safe.” Her father reminded.

“I won’t, afterall, my memory is fantastic, I still remember each day that you have reminded me of this.” Ayaka replied. “Well, I’m off, see you later, mom, dad”

“Have fun at school!” Her mother exclaimed as Ayaka walked out of the front door.

On the way to school, Ayaka looked around, taking in the gorgeous scenery in her surroundings. The flowers that had already bloomed earlier in the year along the side of the street continued to be a sight for any passersby to see. The vibrant colors of the flowers were complemented by the softer shades of green that the leaves of the overhanging trees provided. The sun shone through the gaps of the leaves, creating intricate patterns of sunlight on the ground below the leaves. Birds were rhythmically performing their songs as the gentle wind whistled through the area, creating a symphony of swaying leaves and flowers. The scent of lavender wafted through the air, causing a soothing and refreshing feeling to all who smell the aroma. She noticed that the scenery seemed to be more beautiful than other days, making her feel confident that nothing bad could possibly happen on this day.

When she reached the halfway mark on her trip, she accidentally tripped on a mysteriously shaped rock. The rock resembled a stake that was deeply embedded in the ground. The small portion of the rock that protruded the ground seemed to have talismans attached to a rope that wrapped around the rock.

“Ahhhh!” Ayaka yelled in surprise. 

As she was falling, she noticed that the ground in front of her had turned into a portal of some sorts, a creepy one at that. The portal, elliptical in shape, had ribbons tied to the two co-vertices of the portal while the middle was filled with a countless number of eyes staring at her as she helplessly fell towards the portal. 

“What is that?!” Ayaka screamed in sheer terror, knowing that she could do nothing to prevent herself from falling into the portal. “I’m sorry, mom, dad, but I was wrong, it seems that something bad can happen in the span of two minutes. I’m sorry that I couldn’t keep myself safe like I promised you, and I love both of you.” Ayaka said right before entering the portal. 

As she was falling through the portal, she heard someone mumbling something. 

“I will have to seal her memories of the outside world other than the most basic of memories; afterall, I cannot let these memories hold her back from her new life.” The voice mumbled.

The voice exacerbated the fear that Ayaka felt, making her start to lose her consciousness. However, before she fully lost it, she heard the voice say something else.

“Welcome to Gensokyo, Ayaka” The voice whispered to her.

Chrono157

Here is the prologue chapter to the story, hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what I could improve on in the future! Anyways, see you in the next chapter! Last thing, how was the spacing of the paragraphs, should I leave another line between them or does it look fine?