[ History: Character Background ]

[oceanmist]

BRIEF CHARACTER HISTORY:

—2002- 2008

Born to scientists Yukimura Hana and Kiryuu Ibuki, Megumi was the first child to a loving pair who virtually could not wait to start a family. For most of her young life, she witnessed her parents helping others- doing whatever they could together, and still managing to keep their family running. She was always traveling with her mother and father, enjoying the perks of their job, and observing the way things were run. She developed an early interest in reading herself, and displayed a maturity beyond her own years even by the time her little brother Hanaki was born. She was quick to pick up on things and on how to talk, and with parents as attentive and hard-working as they were, it was virtually a life of perfection when it came down to it. While she didn't interact with many children her age growing up, she still had enough activity to keep herself going, and want to imitate her parents' work as best as she could.

Things, however, took a change for the worst one night at the age of six while they were in their home, during a time when Megumi had become distinctly aware that her parents had been keeping to themselves and their jobs in the city rather than going to their island lab for some days and looking like they were preparing for something- like a trip. Eventually it all came to light, because in what felt like a few seconds, everything went straight to hell. She was suddenly being handed her brother to keep him safe and quiet, two backpacks and a book, and locked into a small floor closet that seemed to have a small pathway out. But she didn't immediately leave- curious about the loud voices and the yelling going on around them, she peeked out of the door crack and witnessed the brutal murder of her parents at the hands of a voice she knew she recognized but couldn't give a face to. The crippling fear that caught her was suddenly overcome by an odd sense of calm as she noticed that her brother, who usually got irritated at sounds, was suddenly sleeping peacefully in her arms. It was an odd sensation in that moment when they both should have been anything but, but her parents' commands resonating in her mind made her carry on even though she was terrified.

Finally making her escape out the back route built into the lab ground with her toddler brother to the garden exit, Megumi hid in there with him until everything was clear. Taking a glance at the notebook she'd been given revealed a drawn set of instructions guiding her to find a family friend listed there- a kind nurse who had worked with her parents and cared for them when they weren't able to, and so Megumi set off. She fortunately didn't live very far, and Megumi knew where to go to find her. Her father had been careful to tell her not to turn on her cellphone until if she didn't find her, and it kept the children safe until they managed to get to her apartment, and when she saw them, it seemed as though she'd understood what had happened. Quickly taking Megumi and her brother in, she made a call to a private number written in Megumi's notebook before getting them fed and dressed, and finally driving out with them to a local train station, where they were both picked up by their young uncle and taken to London. Megumi herself, never quite understood how they were so prepared, but she never questioned it- following instruction as she could do best, even with the memory of what had occurred to her parents, but she kept herself held together until they managed to get there. Things became a little blurry after that (she'd blame it on the exhaustion settling in) but she was eventually living in London with her uncle Kazuya and his partner Muraoka Takehiko with her baby brother and cousin Haruki. It wasn't at all easy to adapt, with her and her brother's initial nightmares and loss of their parents- but her brother adapted better due to Megumi's resemblance to their mother. They were eventually schooled in a private school and formally adopted by the couple, living with them in the city for a few years.

By the time she turned eight, she was already looking after her brother and herself responsibly, having been mentally adapting to the fact that they would have to live without their parents for a while. The notebook her father and (as she continued to read it) mother had written for her contained little notes and letters from them, encouraging them to listen to their uncle and that they were still there with them. It kept her motivated, as well as the flash drives they'd hidden in their bags containing images and notes from them both. For a while, the memory of them dying seemed to be a bad dream, and her brother and her kept their images alive in their mind with what little they had of them to look at. Hanaki and her cousin Haruki remained in her care for a while, and Megumi displayed a maturity beyond her years in ensuring that her adoptive family never had any complaints with them. She looked after the boys like a caring big sister- though also a scary one, especially where it came to anyone picking on her brother and little cousin, who would eventually run home with bruises. They eventually began to attend the same school under pseudonyms, with Takehiko and Kazuya's own income keeping them supplemented. The children had their own inheritance that they couldn't access until they were older, but it became evident that their parents had prepared for the worst with them from the very beginning. It was something Megumi wouldn't be able to appreciate until she was much older, but until then, it was almost as though things were finally becoming normal again.

Until the day Hanaki and her almost killed two men with an awakening power they both hadn't realized they'd had.

—2012- 2016

It's the simplest of situations that have the biggest of impact- such was true in their case, and like the incident many years ago, it happened without warning. At the age of ten, while returning home from a park they'd been playing in, Megumi and Hanaki witnessed a mugging. Things had been growing tense around then, and Kazuya had been making sure the children didn't stay out for too long with the strife with Caelus reaching its crescendo and Magicals becoming a hot subject among the masses. Hanaki, a creative and playful young boy enjoyed waiting until sunset whenever he went out to play to watch the stars, a habit Megumi herself encouraged because of their father's love for space, which delayed them that one time- much to their own misfortune.

The children were delayed in returning that one evening when they saw a man who could be described as a "Magical"- trying to defend himself with a shield of energy from the onslaught of attacks coming from a pair of troublemakers. Magicals weren't an abnormal sight during the height of Caelus- though there were few who could truly use the power to its fullest potential with their bodies. Some had been able to make work out of their own abilities influenced by the Stellaflores, in hospitals and construction and other technology- but with the latest news of the mass slaughters under the guise of experimentation and Stellaflores gaining a wicked reputation, people didn't want to be around those that willingly manipulated it.

Seeing the victim being attacked initially made Megumi want to run, but on seeing that despite his hold over his magic and only using it to shield and not attack, she began to call the police on her cellphone, telling Hanaki to hide, and yelled at the men to stop because she just sent their picture out to them. Angered and provoked, the men let go of their victim and headed towards her to take her phone, but she quickly grabbed Hanaki and ran. Hanaki was faster, taking her phone and running on ahead, but Megumi was caught by the men who she noticed were looking crazed and not in their right minds. It was a bizarre thing to see, but before she could fight back, the men were suddenly being flung back as though being hit by some kind of invisible truck. Shocked as she was released, she found Hanaki glowing with an energy she could feel resonating within herself as well. Shocked by the sight, Megumi found herself unable to move, but not as much as she was when the men, now thrown back and angered even more, began to stand and look almost demonic. Their skin was burning off and their bodies looked larger than before- and she froze as they suddenly moved towards them again, this time charging like beasts. Panicked, Megumi ran to cover Hanaki herself, when her own power reacted with his own as he attempted to protect her- and she aimed to push them away from Hanaki and herself.

Things were a blank after that, but when the children came to, they found the victim and the two attackers unconscious- and looking normal, yet unconscious. Wondering if they'd just imagined what they'd seen, Megumi grabbed Hanaki and ran home with him, uncertain and worried about what they'd just witnessed- and what they'd done. They initially kept quiet about it for a few hours- until the victim was brought home by Kazuya and Takehiko, awake and safe, and telling the both of them about what had happened.

The victim who Megumi and Hanaki would discover, was their father's younger brother, Kiryuu Ryuji, a natural Magical- a mage, warlock, whatever name they'd like to give it.

Just like their father had been.

—2017- 2018

Ryuji, who had been many years younger than Ibuki, had been a simple restauranteer to the world and had somehow been targeted by the muggers because of their having detected his magic when he was coming to visit them at Takehiko's request. He revealed to the children that their father- a gifted mage himself by birth, came from a long line of Magicals, or correctly, Mages, that had protected Stellaflores and moderated its use to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Before it had been discovered by the governments, Stellaflores was simply known as the Star Fountains- the power circles of all magic that kept the earth stable as it shifted and adapted to the damage caused to it by those that walked it. He joked that while he wished he could say they had some kind of organized order or cult or society or anything to prove it, it hasn't been something so dramaticized. It's always been something understood and private by those that know of it, have accepted it, just like any life that continues in the world. It's been a natural duty just like anything else- how a flower knows how to blossom in the light and close at night, and such things.

He also revealed that their mother was a natural witch herself. Kazuya, too, perhaps because their own grandmother may have unknowingly been near a Star Fountain or exposed herself to it when they were born. There were few like them, who were capable of carrying on with the weight of such power in them, but not only did they manage, they continued to keep themselves balanced and not turn into what they saw those men turn into. Megumi would learn the possibility that her mother knew her own ability, and her father likely sought her unknowingly too- with the powers from the earth that called them together. It all seemed like a fantasy, one she would have scoffed at or laughed off, but the proof was in what had happened to her brother and herself that very day.

Kazuya would then reveal that knowing this is why their parents were so prepared for the worst, all those years ago- why Megumi and her brother were still alive, safe and protected. It was because they had advanced past what the original mages could do with the combination of their powers, and how it had become more tangible with time. There could be the possibility that there were others like them, too, and they were safe in their unknowing- but in their own well-meaning naivete, it was likely their parents had also unintentionally endangered them, too. Because Caelus knew of them- and wanted to know how to recreate what they'd discovered.

Megumi would eventually spend the next few years trying to balance her studies and responsibilities, and come to terms with her newfound heritage.

Worried for their safety, Takehiko finally moved them to Los Angeles, USA after that incident, fearful that their display would not have gone unnoticed, and with the rising anti-Magicals sentiment, it felt safer to relocate to where the children wouldn't have to worry about coming under fire. The fresh environment, he felt, would also help them ease up a little, as most of Europe had fallen more strongly under the anti-Magical sentiment than the rest of the world.

Megumi and Hanaki, now aware of their powers, began to explore what they could do in that time- and Ryuji began to visit fairly regularly to help them understand how to work them. Just because they were no longer permitted to display them, did not mean they shouldn't at least know how to control them. The first rule above all, he taught them, was to never attempt to take a life to supplement their own, or to restore a life by harming their own life. Their powers, at their core, were to help and protect- nothing more and nothing less. However, with the constant reminders of how people that had accepted the Stellaflores were evil and wicked, Megum began to go through a feeling of uncertainty and confusion. For someone who had spent most of her life attempting to be strong before everything that had occurred in her young life, it was a rather crippling realization of how much risk they truly were at. It became obvious just how much their parents had been unable to tell them or get them adapted to, though it made many things clear up in their own way. How their parents used to treat them, the things she'd remember that she felt were just dreams at the time- little magical "tricks" that may have been more real than anything... their involvement in the experiments that she later learnt were bigger than she realized. The Etoile Project, the Restoration Incident... facing the life of a teenager was difficult enough, but things were already becoming too messy for her to focus on her own life and what her own purpose was. For a short period of time, she withdrew into herself, trying to find different hobbies to simply take her mind off it all. With all that she had been doing to keep her brother and herself safe, all the kind words left to her in her only remaining memories of her parents felt almost burdensome.

Hanaki, on the other hand, seemed to be a little more at peace with his abilities, the result of the encouragement and support he'd continued to get from both her and her family. He became quite good at reparations of everyday objects and simple telekinesis, displaying talents beyond his years, and maintaining his discretion. He was even reunited with a young friend he had kept in touch with from before the purges, the young Etoile named Ishida Yoshiko, who was living in secrecy with her fathers in the city, who he was happy to resume his friendship with. Megumi, however, was a little more reluctant to try her hand at her own. With barely any friends to start with, she felt as though harnessing this ability would further isolate her from normalcy and the security of the life her parents wanted for her, and also endanger Hanaki further. But she never once discouraged him, letting him train and participating in brief moments, though she felt continuously troubled and unsure of how to ever express herself before her uncles, and unsure of how to really open up to her younger brother, who seemed so much more settled than her.

It wasn't until she rescued the life of a classmate in school with her abilities, that she realized she really didn't have to be afraid any more- though perhaps that became the beginning to the undoing of the peace she'd so longed to have.

—2019- 2021

Megumi continued her schooling without much incident, revealing a talent for learning and an interest in medical sciences. She ended up forming a rivalry with the two top students of her class- a pair of best friends who she was extremely annoyed by and who also happened to be the biggest playboys in her year. She eventually opened up enough to befriend the two young men, who she considered the very pretentiously named Kalios Galahad and Julien Gawain- if only to give them a hard time for their scores and to give herself a distraction, though she later discovered that Kalios was the patient her parents took in and who Hanaki's own innate power had saved many years ago in the Restoration Project. He would later become her younger brother's boyfriend, and as Megumi was surprised to learn- a lot nicer than what his image suggested. With something of a normal life underway, Megumi seemed to be enjoying herself as well, even if she'd refuse to admit it, though her own friendship ended up being put to the test when Julien came down with a troubling infection that threatened his very life.

Unknown to her, the virus- a Stellaflores based infection, had been deliberately placed among a few students of the school as a part of a discreet witch-hunt of their own by members of Caelus, now calling themselves Tartaros. They had integrated and hidden themselves among the normal folk to escape any responsibility for their actions from a few years ago. Well aware that those with magical blood could at least manage to combat the virus, if not resist it, it was their way of getting rid of those that would pose a danger to them, as well as finding those that would be useful. What they did end up finding, exceeded their expectations- because in her fear of losing one of the two friends she had grown to care for, and who Kalios had virtually grown up with, Megumi finally lay caution to the wind and sneaked in to the hospital where he was being kept, using her powers into clearing Julien's internal system of his infection. It took a strain on her with how deeply it had settled, but she managed to clear it up perfectly and save him. Relieved that her friend would survive, she told Hanaki, who had been concerned for her as well- that all would be fine.

A few days later, the other students that had been infected disappeared from the hospitals, and were said to have been discharged- but no one ever saw them. Stranger still, was the fact that they weren't seen with their parents later on, nor did the families return to their part of the town. Many people could barely recall their faces as well, which struck Megumi as odd- Kalios, Julien, Hanaki and Yoshiko did recall them all, at least for those they knew, and were uncertain as to what was going on. Beginning to wonder if some sort of Stellaflore-related conspiracy, Hanaki and Megumi rushed back home to find Kazuya and Takehiko, only to find it broken into. Yoshiko's parents- both working with the police, came to investigate, and determined that whoever it had been had been searching for something. Fortunately, thanks to Megumi and Hanaki's care in maintaining their parents' data and keeping it safe as well as maintaining their own discretion, nothing was taken that was of importance- however, Takehiko, Kazuya and their son Haruki were nowhere to be found. Yoshiko's fathers had them moved to their own house temporarily while they investigated, and Kalios and Julien joined in to look after their friends. For at least that night, they were seemingly safe- but it was a calm before the storm.

Because the next morning, something broke into their house, and whatever it was, wasn't human. Before Megumi could blink a second time, it lashed out at them all, attacking them with powers beyond their own strength and capability, but they still managed to gain the upper hand somehow, revealing their powers together in the end. It turned out that thanks to Kalios's exposure to Hanaki as a child, and Yoshiko's own special birth, they had similar powers- and Julien himself, was of the same condition that Megumi and Hanaki's mother had been. For a few moments, Megumi truly felt like everything had come full circle- that she'd finally found friends and family she could open up to.

It was the last thought she had before she saw all four of them start falling to their knees, as a strange mist began to surround them- and then she remembered nothing.

—2021

A few hours later, she awakened again, finding herself trapped in a single room and hearing the voices of faceless people who made no sense to her- though as she came to, one voice stood out- a definitely familiar voice she'd heard continuously in her nightmares since she was a child. She was finally able to make out their conversation, learning that Hanaki had somehow managed to protect Kalios and Yoshiko, and escape with them, and was yet to be found. She found her thoughts suddenly interrupted by Julien, who she ended up realizing was locked in with her too, and who told her that they were all safe- except for them both, naturally. Whoever had ordered the attack had been looking for Hanaki and her, and Hanaki had tried to save her but hadn't been able to.

From the screens in the room, she could make out it had been at least three days since then, but before she could think much else, she finally came face to face with the face to the voice that had ordered the hit on her parents many years ago- her mother's cousin, Yamamura Takatora, who informed her that he'd been looking for her for a long while.

That was the only thing she'd remember seeing and hearing, before her body would be battered with the worst pain she could ever imagine.

—2021- ????

For at least twenty-four hours after that, her memories were attacked viciously by a severe kind of torture that was already being utilized by Tarataros to "cleanse" their captives of any prior attachments and thoughts. Megumi and Julien were repeatedly tortured in an attempt to draw out their energy and watch their powers at work, though Megumi's own anger at her situation and what was being done to them had already reached its peak-

Much to everyone's own surprise, she lashed out, just like she had together with Hanaki those years ago, causing a system malfunction with their equipment, and causing the scientists working on them to be thrown back from the impact of her shielding power. Running on adrenaline by that point, she moved to grab Julien, and the both of them quickly made their move. The both of them were exhausted and disoriented, but Megumi's own restorative power began its work- she wouldn't realize it then, but it would be what would have saved Julien's mind from falling into the emptiness that everyone else seemed to have been experiencing before them. However, her own mind had suffered with certainty- Because as they escaped, and she thought to reunite with her brother, she suddenly realized that every image of his was missing from her mind, leaving dark shadows covering her thoughts with the barest recognition that the person in those memories with her was her brother- but what his name was, what his face looked like- she could no longer recall.

And despite having Julien right there with her, her own mind could not register his face in it, even if she could understand that he was her friend, and understood that she was helping him. She realized in horror that their kidnappers had attempted to clean those memories out- and even Julien realized the same- he too, had forgotten their faces, but understood that they were allies. Megumi, though retaining most of her memories- no longer had the people's images within them- and as she discovered when they made their way to her home, there was nothing in the house, no pictures or images, that could tell her anything. The members of Tartaros that had gotten in had made sure that they would attempt to erase whatever existed of their past lives to remove them from the minds of others once they removed others from their own minds.

She had no time to ponder the horror of what had just been done to her- gathering what little she could recall as being her own and her brothers' things, Julien and her quickly made their escape to find his family, next. She herself, had a brother to find, and powers she was still trying to understand-

She had to find who she'd lost in her memories first and reunite with them. She could fill in names and images later.

At least, she'd hope. With her brother's data bracelet malfunctioning- it wasn't going to be easy to find them unless Hanaki looked for them first.

And she didn't know if she'd know who her brother was when the time came.