Chapter 1: Discovery of a Star
The town of Negai Mori Machi was a odd town. It wasn’t that small because it was built around a large lush forest. The forest wasn’t like any forest in the world. The legend told was when the town was much smaller the founders of the town with their family saw a burst of light in the forest. And a shooting star shot up leaving a rainbow trail in the night sky. No it did not crash into the forest it came from the forest. The next morning the bravest went to search for the cause of the weird lights. The leaves of the trees had changed sparkling like gems. And so did the flowers. They tried to pick a flower to bring back to show, but it turned a sickly gray version of the once beautiful color loosing all it’s sparkle. Soon the search party got lost, even though they had just went straight some how they ended back in their town. All, but one.
A young man Mamoru Hoshi came back with a story to tell. The further he got in the odder the plants became, they lost the normal green leaves would have, and turned into pastels of the rainbow. He spoke of pink trees with heart shaped apples and pastel blue bushes with yellow star shaped berries. Curiosity had gotten to him and when he picked one of the star berries it didn’t loose it’s color. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted. He brought as much as he could with him, and every person who ate one of the berries had their heart’s wish come true. Old people were suddenly young again, dead love ones had returned. One person was suddenly rich. But, the berries only worked once, when they tried to eat another nothing happened. Mamoru was told to take them to the berries, but no matter who went with him, only the young man was able to find them. Each person who followed him ended up lost. Even with rope it would randomly break when no one noticed and once more the followers would lose their leader.
It was decided to protect this forest they worked on building a their town around this forest, keeping 7 feet away from the sparkling trees afraid what would happen if they built on the sparkling land. People all over came to help in payment for their wish to come true. Mamoru started a family and his son was blessed with the same ability to find the tree. But, after Mamoru passed and his son passed no one seemed to be able to find the fruit again. Mamoru’s grandchildren weren’t given the same talent to find them. People came all around the world to find these wishing fruits. But, no one could find them again.
Soon the stories became just that, stories. People didn’t believe that wishing fruits truly ever existed that it was just a trick, a lie told to make some money. Tourism started to decline. Of course there would still be those dreamers who hoped to find the fruit again. But, no one was able to. It seemed as if the forest was starting to become more dangerous though the years. And no one knew why. Mitsuko Hoshi had been gifted the ability to travel in the forest like her ancestries. She brought back the star berries, but something had changed, they were duller than the stories had told. They didn’t shine as bright. And they didn’t seem to make the big wishes come true anymore.
They couldn’t wish a dead family member back to life like the stories had claimed. Small wishes seemed to come true, a sick person suddenly getting better, a little kid getting the pet they had been begging for. But, these things were push aside as just coincidences. Some of the town folk even grew bitter about the forest and ideas of wishing. Many people disagreed with the whole idea. The town had a vote on the matters and it was decided Mitsuko Hoshi would not bring any more fruit to the town and that the forest now was forbidden to enter.
This didn’t stop the people who really wanted to believe in the forest. People still would sneak into the forest to look for the fruit, they would still beg Mitsuko to get some for them and she would. Because it filled her with happiness helping others make their wishes come true even if it didn’t always work. Her son, Hikaru resented his mother’s choices to risk getting in trouble and giving people false hope. He hated how much wishing meant to her. He focused on hard work instead, because no one ever got what they truly wanted by wishing. He focused on a new goal Hikaru became the mayor of their town, he wanted to change the town for the better. Show the world, and his mother that wishing was useless, that action was all that mattered.
When Hotaru was born Hikaru asked his mother not to tell her about their family history. It wasn’t anything that talked about anymore in the town and he wanted his daughter to have nothing to do with the forest. With heavy heart Mitsuko agreed wanting to still be in her granddaughter’s life. As she got older, Hotaru was drawn to the forest and her first word wasn’t mama or daddy, but rather wish. This upset her father, but the more he pushed her away from her true heritage the more she was drawn to it.
As she got older it felt like only her grandmother understood her. She didn’t really have any friends and she didn’t understand why in a town known for wishing, people were always telling her to stop wishing for things and work for them or how wishing never got anything done. Even though her father wanted her to stay away from the forest, she asked her grandmother so many questions, but very little of them were ever answered, to honer her promised to her son. So instead Hotaru looked for answers herself. She learned about her family’s history and the town’s history. It was all so amazing to her.
Everyone was always telling her wishing for things didn’t make them come true. All her wishes to get better grades never helped. Her parents were always wanting her to study more, but it was so hard. It was just so boring and her brain just couldn’t focus. She wanted so bad to be able to be a good student like her parents wanted, but she could never focus on the boring stuff. She found herself trying to do something better. Her classmates would get angry at her for getting them in trouble when she tried talking to them during class. Hotaru didn’t mean to get them in trouble she was just trying to make friends. But, she was just the weird wishing girl to them.
After a really bad no good day, where a girl she had been really hoping to be friends with asked her what was wrong with her. Why couldn’t she ever just behave and do her work, why did she always just wish for things and never just worked hard like the mayor. She went to the only person who understood her, her grandmother. Mitsuko who took her to a nice man who played some games with her, before telling them she had ADHD. While her parents wanted to put her on medication, but it had been her grandmother’s idea for her not to go on medication. Instead she focused on helping her study, she made learning fun. While she still struggled making friends in school at least she had her grandmother and wishing!
One day everything changed, a girl in her class had sneaked into Negai Mori and ended up coming back with no emotions. When doctors checked her out she had a odd black heart on her chest. No one could explain it. She came back to school, but she wasn’t the happy loud girl she used to be. She was quite and only spoke when spoken to, and it was a monotone voice. It was like she was a robot. The girl wouldn’t be the only victim. People were starting to be more and more afraid.
It broke Hotaru’s heart seeing the victims, they had wanted nothing more than to make wishes come true and now they were suffering from this mysterious illness. Wishing meant everything to her and she loved seeing them coming true. Her grandmother went to find answers in the forest. When she came back she wasn’t her self anymore. Mitsuko had gotten the mysterious illness. But, unlike the others who didn’t remember how it happen. When Hikaru asked his mother what had happen she explained how a a wizard and pet monster who were turning the star fruits black, before attacking her. No one knew if they could believe the old woman, she had started talking about some pretty odd things with age. Things like seeing star like creatures in the forest hearing talking in a weird language. Nothing she could prove. However, now she was just like the other victims a shell of a person who would answer when spoken, but felt nothing.
Hotaru knew her grandmother wasn’t crazy! She knew whoever this wizard was, was the one hurting everyone! And now he was ruining the wishing fruit that helped wishes come true? Maybe if she managed to find some wishing fruit that were still okay she could wish her grandmother, wish for everyone to be cured of this mysterious illness. So in the middle of the night, when her parents slept, Hotaru grabbed a flashlight and packed a backpack of things to help her. Getting into the forest was easy, it was the first time she ever went into the forest. Her mother and father never liked how obsessed she was with wishes. They didn’t really understand how wonderful wishes were! Wishing would be the only thing that could cure everyone, she knew it in her heart. The doctors couldn’t fix it, they couldn’t even understand what was going on!
The forest was much bigger than she had ever thought it was. She had wanted nothing more to see the forest herself. It was more beautiful than she ever imagined it would be as she got to the oddly colored trees she heard whispering, it didn’t sound like anything she had ever heard before it was like a chiming twinkling sound. Suddenly there was a loud crying sound. Something drew her to running towards the sound. That was where she saw it. The weird evil wizard her grandmother was talking about was trying to grab a odd little star bear, something about it made Hotaru instantly feel a connection with the creature. Grabbing a stick on the ground as the wizard demanded for the creature’s magic. And with a hard swing aiming for the man’s head he fell to the ground.
Picking up the odd little bear, the man started to groan. “Come on lets go before creep wakes up” She told the shaking bear as she took off running. She could hear the weird wizard man yelling, but she kept running until she made it home. Only once she was safe in her room did she finally collapse on the bed. “What are you?” She finally questioned petting the soft fur of this mysterious creature. “I’m Miki Kibo princess of the wishing kingdom! But, my personal friends called me Twinkers” The creature spoke happily. “Who was that?” She asked the creature, Miki. “A meanie he goes by No Heart! He’s trying to stealing magic from wishing! He attacked my kingdom! I barely made it out!” She explained. “You poor thing” Hotaru whispered softly. “Thank you for saving me! You didn’t have to risk your life! You didn’t even know me!”
Giving the creature a hug, Hotaru felt a connection with Miki that she had never felt before. “Well maybe now we can be friends” The human girl suggested shyly. “My first friend!” Suddenly the fairy creature blushed brightly. “I mean-” “You’re my first friend too Twinkers” Hotaru said hugging her new friend tightly. “I won’t let that mean No Heart hurt you. I promise you! I just wish I had something to make you feel more at home” Twinkers’ marks suddenly grew brighter and a picture of Twinkers with what looked like her parents appeared “Wow! How did you do that?” The human asked amazed “I’m the princess of the wishing fairies silly! I’m one of the most strongest of them” Twinkers giggled adorably.
