[hr][hr][i][h1][color=salmon]Haruka Takashiro[/color].[/h1]
[@FernStone][/i][hr][hider=Garden of Words OST - Rain of Recollection][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCIUhQwuDj0[/youtube][/hider][hr]
[quote][b][code]ENTRY #160710 | CLOUDY[/code][/b]

[code]Four months... it had been four months since the Eco-Natura incident at Prince Ed-Field. Baybridge certainly had recovered much from the aftermath of the Overload incidents - even now I still felt guilty about what happened at Oakdell Harbor - but the public's hatred towards us, the Metahumans, had shown no signs of waning. Fights and riots broke out around the city from time to time; even supposedly peaceful protest marches weren't spared from the violence. Not just America, but things were looking grim in the other parts of the world too: just last week in Taiwan, anti-Meta supporters protested outside of Taipei 101 - where the annual Asian Metahuman Conference was held this year - but the situation spiraled out of control, causing close to a hundred of deaths and casualties.

Shizu had been working overtime, trying to rally the Asia-Pacific countries together to join the West in sharing resources and intelligence to deal with the increasing Metahuman-related tension around the globe. It wasn't easy, since the Asian politicians had never liked the US to interfere with their regional problems (which usually seemed to make the matter worse than before America had intervened). Even so, I believed regardless of which country they might be from, beneath all the front about personal gain and advantages, everyone shared the same hope for peace and harmony at their core.

Of course, Shizu was quick to shoot me down that human beings would never learn the lesson about the horrors of war, because it's something deeply etched into each and everyone of us - that this was a world where only the strongest would be able to survive, and to do that people would have to fight with one another, whether they liked it or not. I had wished that after working for RAVEN all these years would have mellowed out not just his difficult personality but also the way he viewed the world, but apparently that didn't seem to be the case - he was as pessimistic as ever.

Although Shizu had endless complains about his job (he even asked me for advice to keep girls away from him, which was pretty amusing to hear that coming from my normally snarky brother), I still felt proud of him and his achievements... if only he wasn't so lazy.

Other than his official business, there was another thing - the one that I was worried about the most.

Shizu told me that he had done his own investigation regarding our missing mother's case, but he had no leads whatsoever so far. Where could have Mum gone to? What's going on?[/code][/quote]
[hr][hider=Maurice Ravel - Bolero][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KgpEru9lhw[/youtube][/hider][hr]
[b][code]Little Seapond, Roseview_[/code][/b]

Haruka Takashiro gave his backpack one last check, making sure that he had the score sheet inside before he zipped up the bag. He had sent Rori Aherne a message about a rehearsal:

[quote][code]Hi Rori, I have managed to book a studio room in the Academy where we can practise "Bolero" together. I wonder if you are free tomorrow?[/code][/quote]
Within a few seconds after he just sent the text, his mobile vibrated; his face broke out a smile at the response he had received from her.

After his twin had left on his business trip around Asia, Haruka bumped into Rori by chance again, and that time he remembered to ask for her contact details. The two of them had been keeping in touch since then, deepening their friendship through writing and music since drawing was out of his league. Also, Akemi didn't want him to always coop up with his studies and her flora shop, encouraging him to spend more time with friends, and do the things he wanted or liked to do. "[i]You should try to enjoy the younger days of your adulthood more, especially with all the social unrest going on lately,[/i]" was what she had said to him.

Strapping on the backpack behind him, he walked out of the door to the garage; soon he was off on his bicycle, riding in the direction of Academy 61.

[hr][hr][i][h1]...[/h1][/i][hr][hider=Another OST - Track 8][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ7IjPGpHNY[/youtube][/hider][hr]
[b][code]Unknown_[/code][/b]

The chamber was dimly lit by a kerosene lamp on a round, wooden desk in the middle of the room, and a makeshift bed big enough to only accommodate one person with a small stature was positioned at the end of the scarcely-furnished chamber against the wall. Standing at the table, a young boy was writing a particular Chinese phrase repeatedly on the rice papers - [color=silver]"[i][abbr=冤有头 债有主]Every wrong has its cause; every debt has its debtor.[/abbr][/i]"[/color] - with a calligraphy brush, and his strokes were firm. As he shifted his weight to his other leg, the chained metal cuffs around his ankles clinked sharply against the stone floor. The distant sound of approaching footsteps didn't distract him from his work until the door was thrown open, and the draft blew the papers off the table, scattering them around on the ground.

That finally made the boy to look up slowly - his eyes remained glassy at the sight of an old woman before him. The hunchback woman glanced around the chamber, raising an eyebrow at the black, bold characters on the fallen papers. "[i]Your writing certainly is at the level of masterly finesse, though I cannot say the same... for your[/i] immature [i]mind.[/i]"

She snapped her fingers. Two tall, masculine figures stepped forward, each grabbing the boy's arm and hoisted him off the ground.

"[i]On the account that you have been behaving yourself well enough, maybe this time a...[/i] lighter [i]punishment will suffice.[/i]"

A silent anger flashed across the boy's pale face; the chamber was later filled with the echoes of the boy's agonized scream as the woman watched, the corner of her lips curled up into a sneer.

"[i]Now that your little rebellion against your fate is out of the way, let us get down to the[/i] real [i]business...[/i]"