The Dragon Warriors

Chapter One

YAMANASHI, JAPAN, 2027

february 20

Crouched behind the bushes with my sisters, I pull my jacket tighter around me and use my shoulder to nudge my balaclava further up my face, leaning into Rose for warmth. I love the cold, but screw you, February. My legs burn from squatting here for the last - I check my watch - three and a half hours.

The rioters are holding signs as they chant hate slogans, standing outside one of many government stations set up in recent months. Phones record live broadcasts that are getting deleted before they hit the air, faces contort with rage. If I wasn't fourteen years old without a death wish,  I would be right there with them, because after everything that's happened, it's the least they deserve.

After NJS.

Nihon Jin Saisho, which translates to Japanese First, are a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, (I could go on for quite are while) group spreading propaganda about foreigners, as well as anyone who's quote unquote different. About two and a half years ago, their leader Yamaguchi Soushirou was voted prime minister.

As a Latina bisexual feminist...

Yeah, I got a problem with them, and it's not just me.

But it's not only false shit being printed in the news. If it was, then welcome to the age of social media. Since September of 2024, we've been kicked out of our jobs, turfed out of schools, banned from using our abilities (powers possessed by the facultas), forced into camps, killed. I won't exactly be surprised if this escalates to NJS becoming the Nazis of the 21st century seeing as frankly, we're already halfway there.

According to Mum, the government are tracking devices and hacking anything that could expose them, so obviously our phones are at home, out siblings occasionally tapping at them as cover.

I shift slightly, and - shitshitshit - hard dirt scrapes against the sole of my old, worn trainer. I freeze at the sound, not moving a muscle, Charli's and Rose's heads both snapping in my direction. None of us make a noise, attempting to listen over the rioters.

Please tell me no one bloody heard that.

Nothing. I breathe a silent sigh of relief.

Rain starts to fall, beating against the leaves of the trees above us, soaking through my hair and clothes. I smile slightly, turning my face up to the water, and see my sisters copy me. Call us weird. Personally, I don't entirely get what's so hot about the sun, pun intended.

Something occurs to me. I look over at Charlie questioningly - she's an Aquadominator like me, the globally forbidden ability of controlling water. But she shakes her head that, no, she didn't do that.

Alright, we've got all we're going to get out of this. I raise a hand and hold up a peace sign, then fold in my middle finger and bend my pinky in a question mark. Our symbol for Now?

Yes, we have a secret sign language. We're triplets, so sue us.

Rose shakes her head.

I'm not a Telepathic, but the sister bond is telling me that she thinks it too dangerous to leave right now. I suppose she's right, if anyone notices...

Shudder.

Adrenaline explodes in my abdomen, my heart rate sky-rocketing, and all of our heads snap up at once as the sound of boots hitting the ground closes in around us. Dark figures - fuck, policemen - surround the clearing, emerging from the woods around us.

They march swiftly towards us, now close enough for me to see guns hanging from their belts, and a huge dirt wall erupts from the ground a hundred feet in every direction, enclosing us in a huge earth dome. Phone torches light up the area, nearly exposing us.

I whip around to face my sisters, internally screaming. We have to GTFO out of here, or we will be bloody dying tonight.

I repeat the signal from earlier, this time leaving off the finger curl and sticking my pinky up straight. Now!

Charli nods wildly, and we turn to Rose, who flinches hard. She claps a hand to her mouth to block a gasp of surprise, and I follow her line of sight to an Asian girl staring right back at us.

Well, fuck.

I don't waste a second in lunging for her and pinning her to the ground, smacking my hand over her mouth to keep her silent. Her head bouncing against the hard ground, her face inches from mine, I see she's barely any older than I am. Furious dark eyes bore into mine, and she tries to fight back, but I've been training years for this shit. My knees are on her stomach, the toes of my boots shoving her hands into the ground. Maybe I'm putting too much weight on her head, but she'll survive.

I'm about to drag her into the bushes where she can't expose us when the ground falls away beneath me.

A/N

So, I came up with the general idea for this series when I was about nine. Over the last four years, we've had a lot of development, both with the characters and the plot line. Honestly, if you went back to the original Dragon Warriors, you wouldn't recognize it for what it is now.

I'm going to try to update every week, but I'm going on holiday and then starting school quite soon, so I probably won't be able to stick to that schedule.

pls comment!!