My first Shugo Chara entry, set somewhere between school time and summer holidays because it's before Kairi leaves them. I actually don't know how accurate I am in keeping people in character and such, but I assume I'm good at it because it's been a very long time since someone commented about my character portrayal.
This is a crossover with Kingdom Hearts, but it's set primarily in the Shugo Chara world with Amu as the central character. Kingdom Hearts is a video game created by the collaboration between Disney and Square Enix (just in case you didn't know) and the fantastic game reviews don't lie: it is awesome!! I have completed all three games in the series and anticipate the next ones. I am aware that some people reading in the Shugo Chara category won't know much about Kingdom Hearts so I'll do my best to explain characters, environments and concepts in detail.
I am using no OCs, all unfamiliar characters will most definitely be from Kingdom Hearts unless otherwise specified.
Disclaimer: I don't hold the copyrights of Shugo Chara or Kingdom Hearts, but I love them both.
Another day had come and gone at school and Amu was in a very excited mood. Summer break was just around the corner and she was determined to make plans for it. She was almost skipping down the street on her way home, thinking about days at the beach, shopping sprees with friends and maybe even a big party.
"Amu looks happy, desu!" Su said airily as always.
Ran and Miki nodded in agreement. "Summer vacation is coming," Ran explained. "Amu's got to make lots of plans to have fun!"
Suddenly Amu stopped, her face paling. "Uh! Why didn't you guys remind me before I got all this way?" she yelled at her guardians.
"Tell you what?" Ran asked, hiding behind Su and Miki, whose facial expressions became very interesting when they realised that they were on the front line.
"I was supposed to pick up the new My Microphone and surprise Ami for her birthday! Dad is gonna be so mad if I don't get back home with it." She turned around and made a mad dash for the mall.
The guardian charas sighed in relief. A light bulb went off in Miki's head. "Oh… that's right. Her dad ordered the microphone two weeks ago. Ami wanted it because it came out on her birthday."
"We were supposed to remind Amu that she had to pick it up before she got home," Su added.
"Hey, we have to catch up with Amu!" Ran exclaimed. The charas took off, following the cloud of dust Amu left in her wake.
Amu was panting by the time she got to the mall but was already looking around. "Where's that store dad ordered from? Damn, I should pay more attention when dad's talking."
"It's okay, Amu," Miki said, slipping into her bag and reappearing with a slip of paper. "Your dad gave you the receipt.
"Oh, right! This should have the store name on it," Amu said, snatching it and reading the information. "Wow… Ami's getting such an expensive toy."
"Hey, Hinamori-san!"
Amu blinked. The voice was familiar… "Kuukai?"
She turned around and the soccer superstar was there with another boy accompanying him. She couldn't help but blush. His spiky blond hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin were all flawless. He wore his uniform like a true rebel with the shirt untucked, the sleeves pushed up over his elbows and the blazer tied around his waist. On his right wrist was a black and white chequered wrist band and there were a black ring and a white ring on his index and middle finger. A silver pin that looked like a four-pointed star was pinned to the knot of his tie and on his bag were three keychains, each with a marble. Amu was momentarily captured by the marbles. One marble had a red fleur-de-lis suspended within the glass, another had a blue flame and the last had a yellow X-cross.
"Hey, Hinamori-san! Nice to see you again," Kuukai said, dragging his new friend to meet her. "How have you been?"
"I'm fine," Amu replied but in her head she was floating on a love heart squealing, "He's coming this way! That hot rebel boy is coming!" It wasn't her usual train of thought but this guy wasn't the usual bad boy. He could make a goldfish stop and drool for longer than its memory span allowed.
Kuukai laughed. "Still the old obstinate character!" Amu blushed and began to rebuke but Kuukai cut her off quickly. "Hey, I want to introduce you to a new friend. This is Roxas. He just transferred to the middle school. He and I are in the same class."
"Oh, really?" Amu said, turning away so that they pair wouldn't see her blush. "The girls must get all excited."
"You wouldn't believe it!" Kuukai exclaimed with an exasperated sigh to emphasise his point. "It's really distracting when twenty or more girls in the class are staring at you all the time. Roxas doesn't seem to mind though. I wish I had your ignorance powers," he said to Roxas.
Roxas just shrugged.
Amu blinked, blush gone. "So, do you like the attention?"
"There is only one thing I like," Roxas answered emotionlessly. "Everything else is ambiguous."
Amu and the charas had question marks flying through their minds at that reply. Kuukai started laughing again.
"Isn't he great? He's been saying stuff like that all day, making kids pull funny faces like yours."
Amu huffed. "What's so funny about my face?"
Above them the charas watched on curiously. Miki hovered as close as she dared to Daichi.
"I have to admit," Ran piped up, "Amu's face was funny just then."
"But I have a strange feeling about that boy," Su said, worried look plastered to her face. "Don't you think his aura is a bit strange, desu?"
Miki turned to one of her many crushes. "I think so, but Daichi, you've been around him all day, right?"
Daichi nodded. "Kuukai took charge of showing him the school campus. Roxas' behaviour definitely is strange. It's like he has no emotions whatsoever."
"I wonder what that thing he likes is, desu," Su said out of nowhere.
"Well," Kuukai continued, "we're shopping around for some stuff for the basketball club. Do you want to help us out, Hinamori-san?"
"Um… sure! I only came to get this one thing for my little sister, but I think I can spare a little bit of time." Amu put the receipt away and followed the middle schoolers to the escalators. As they were moving up Amu piped up: "So, you decided to be on the basketball club, Kuukai?"
"Yeah and it's heaps of fun," Kuukai replied. "Roxas joined up too. He'll be attending regular practice with everyone else starting tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh? Roxas-kun, are you a sporting person like Kuukai?" Amu asked, turning to the spiky-haired blond.
Roxas looked at her. "Actually, I'm not a kind of person. If by 'sporting' you are implying that I like sports and that I enjoy it, I'll let you know that sport is not the thing I like and I don't enjoy anything."
Amu gaped at him, even more question marks flying through her head. Whatever admiration or attraction she had had for him before was completely gone. This guy wasn't social. Kuukai just started laughing again.
"Geez, Roxas, give her a break! You only just met her. Have some mercy."
Roxas turned his unfeeling gaze to Kuukai. "Mercy requires feelings of regret, pity and sorrow but I have no feelings so pray tell me how am I supposed to be merciful?"
The charas hovered above them, each with a sweat drop on their heads.
"Wow… that guy is so weird," Ran muttered.
"How could Kuukai stand being around him all day?" Miki wondered.
Kuukai chuckled. "I get where you're coming from. Hey, while we're here let's make the most of it."
"Wait! Don't you two have errands to run?" Amu scolded.
"Yeah, but when we're done we can have some fun. Roxas is still new here, so let's make him feel welcome in town."
"That would be pointless," Roxas said. "After all, I have no feelings."
Kuukai laughed again. Amu found it strange that the ex-Guardian had no problem with the attitude of this new boy. "Well, then," Kuukai said, "I guess it's just for my benefit then: just an excuse to show off a new friend."
A moving van was parked outside an old mansion that had been forgotten for quite a long time. The movers shut the doors and climbed into the front. The driver started the engine to begin the drive back to town.
"That place looked like a dump," said the passenger. "Why would anyone want to buy a house like that?"
"Maybe they're planning to fix it up," the driver replied with a shrug. "You never know, they could be loaded."
"With that many of them? I don't think that's possible."
"I said 'you never know'. One of those guys had a massive drum kit. Maybe they're famous musicians in teen pop-culture or something."
Back at the mansion a large group in black cloaks stood in the old driveway with their luggage. A tall, thin woman in a dark robe walked out in front of the rest of the group tapping her chin with a long, painted nail. The gardens were in disarray. The fountain was broken and chipped and some windows had been smashed. The walls had mould on them and the furniture that was still inside draped in white cloth was collecting phenomenal amounts of dust.
"This place… it looks absolutely disgusting!" the tall woman exclaimed. "However, this can all be fixed quite quickly."
"Are you sure?" said the tallest black cloaked figure. "I mean, about our goal. How could everything fall into one world like this?"
"Who cares! It was a stroke of good luck that they did. Are you that eager to begin operations, Axel?"
The cloaked figure was taken aback a bit.
"You can go and do whatever you like; I'll just have Zexion move all of your things into a room for you. But if you move out now, I'm warning you, you have to bring back results!"
"I understand," Axel replied, turning on his heel and walking away.
"Ice-cream!" Kuukai yelled. He passed out cones with double scoops for Roxas and Amu and had a single scoop in a bowl for the charas. He sat down with the others at the white plastic table outside the ice-cream parlour as the sun was beginning to set. "Man, it took a lot longer than I thought. It's almost time to go."
He began to dig into his top scoop of cookies and cream enthusiastically. Amu smiled and also started on her top scoop of strawberry swirl. She looked over at Roxas, noticing that he had two vanilla scoops.
"Uh… Roxas-kun," Amu began, almost dreading to ask a question for fear of his reaction. Roxas stopped the gentle licking of his ice-cream to look up at her. "I was just wondering… do you like vanilla ice-cream?" "Just like Tadase-kun?"
"It's ambiguous," Roxas replied. He returned to his ice-cream without another word.
Kuukai tried not to laugh this time but he couldn't help a snort. "Sorry, I just find his reaction to everything funny. I only got him vanilla because I don't know what he likes and he doesn't seem to care either way."
Amu glared at Kuukai. "You know that doesn't make it right!"
Kuukai stopped smiling and blinked. Roxas stared at her over his ice-cream.
"How do you know that he isn't just forcing it down? You should at least ask him which flavour he prefers."
Kuukai grinned sheepishly. "Um… I've already tried that. There's only one thing he likes and he won't tell me what it is. He doesn't have any preferences when it comes to food."
Amu blinked and looked at Roxas. "That can't be true! What's your favourite soda?"
Roxas was boring a hole in her head with his stare. "Flavour doesn't matter."
"You're only saying that now to back up what Kuukai said!"
"Type and flavour don't matter. Food is meant for eating," Roxas added.
A sudden squeal made Kuukai and Amu turn their heads. Two girls wearing the middle school uniform were standing a few metres away. One of them clutched a note to her chest. With a push from her friend she nervously made her way towards their table. She blushed and stood beside Roxas.
"Um… hello."
"Hi Ayanami-san," Kuukai beamed. The girl blushed.
"Er… I see that Kuukai-kun already has a date today…"
Amu blinked. "No! I'm not his date!"
"Did you need something Ayanami-san?" Kuukai asked.
"Um… it's just that… Roxas-kun." She turned to face him front on. Roxas spared her a glance. "I want you to take this note from me and read it later on." She held the note out in front of her like an offering.
Roxas quirked an eyebrow. Ayanami gulped.
"Even if I took that from you," Roxas finally said, "I wouldn't read it."
Amu appeared to be surprised, but on the inside she was screaming: "Why did he go and say that? It's too cruel."
"I would just throw it in the trash," Roxas went on. "I'm not interested in going out with anyone."
Ayanami began to cry, face flushed with embarrassment. She dropped her note and ran back to her friend, only she didn't stop there. Her friend ran after her and they were both gone fairly quickly. Amu rounded on Roxas, ready to yell something at him.
"Hey, Roxas," Kuukai said, finally taking a firmer tone. "You didn't have to do that. I think even you know the difference between indifference and cruelty."
"I wasn't being cruel, just blunt," Roxas said with a shrug. "Sometimes cruelty is merely the by-product of the truth. Or would you rather have me lie to her?"
Amu and Kuukai exchanged glances uneasily. When he put it that way, how were they supposed to say yes? While they both knew they would have preferred to hear him lie, they didn't want to sound like they were taking the lower moral grounds.
"Not really," Kuukai said after a while of hesitance.
"Then it's decided," Roxas said, standing up with his ice-cream. "It's late so we should all make an effort to return home. Hinamori-san, you have a present to deliver to your little sister."
Amu suddenly jumped to her feet, guardian charas suddenly in tow. "Oh, that's right!" She grabbed a colourful bag lying by her feet and began to run from the mall. "I'll see you later, Kuukai." The charas also waved their goodbyes to Daichi and Kuukai.
"Bye-bye Hinamori-san."
As Amu dashed on homewards Kuukai turned back to Roxas. "So, where do you live, Roxas?"
Roxas stared at him. "Why? Do you want to walk me home?"
Kuukai waved his hands in front of his face. "No, not the way you say it! I was just thinking that we could walk together if we lived down the same way but I won't bother if we're going to head in completely different directions."
"Are you trying to be indifferent now just to show off in front of me," Roxas asked.
Kuukai's eye twitched. "Man, you're such a handful."
"If you think so," Roxas shrugged. "We live in different directions."
"How can you come to that decision without knowing where I live?"
"I don't know."
Roxas began to walk off towards the street and a set of traffic lights. Kuukai sighed and shouldered his school bag. He picked up the plastic bags holding the new equipment for the basketball club and began to walk in the opposite direction. It seemed Roxas had been right after all.
The light was already green by the time Kuukai had reached the crossing, so he just kept walking across the road. As he did he noticed a strange man on the other side. He was tall and lanky and wearing a black coat with the hood drawn up and black pants, gloves and boots. He made the crossing as well. When they passed Kuukai thought he might have actually been passing a campfire. Why was there such an intense heat radiating off this man? When he was safely on the other side of the road Kuukai turned around to see where the man had gone but the black-clothed figure had disappeared completely.
"Oh no! It's already dark and I haven't even made it halfway there!" Amu exclaimed, running as hard as she could.
"Don't be discouraged Amu!" Ran cheered. "Run! Run! Run!"
"You're not helping!" Amu snapped.
"What are you going to tell your parents as an excuse?" Miki asked. "You can't tell them you were hanging out with boys or your dad will have a stroke."
Amu skidded to a halt. "That's right? What am I going to do?"
"Don't panic, desu," Su said kindly. "You'll find something."
"Are you all suggesting that I lie?" Amu said.
"You do it all the time with your outside character," Miki supplied. "Why not?"
"Miki! How can you say such a thing?" Amu whined. "Using an outside character and lying to my parents' faces are two completely different things."
"I agree with Miki," Ran said. "There's nothing different about it at all."
Suddenly Su squeaked. "Look over there, desu!"
Amu and the other two charas followed Su's pointing finger to where four X Eggs were hovering about, muttering the word 'useless' over and over again. At a corner not too far away four young girls were walking out on their way home from a concert. Their eyes were blank; their dreams were taken and sealed away inside the X Eggs. One girl suddenly fainted and the others followed suit.
"Ran," Amu said, turning to her chara. The pink chara nodded. "My own heart: Unlock!"
The X Eggs were startled by the bright pink light that ensured during the Character Transformation. Amulet Heart appeared before them.
"Okay, Ran, let's go! Heart Rod!" The pink Heart Rod appeared in a flash. The X Eggs got the message and began to flee. "Hold it!"
Amulet Heart took off with Miki and Su trailing. They leapt over rooves and gardens chasing them down until they finally cornered off the X Eggs near the power grid of the old amusement park. Amu hadn't even realised they'd come this far until she got there, but she pushed the memories aside and faced the X Eggs.
"Ha! You can't get away now." Amu spun her Heart Rod and threw it at the eggs, trapping them in the glittery ring it created. She made the heart shape with her fingers over the Humpty Lock now that the time was right. "Negative Heart… lock on!"
A tall, black-coated figure watched from the shadows. If there had been any sufficient lighting it might have been possible to see him smirk at his findings. A small flame burst to life in his palm. Upon his will, the X Eggs also burst into flame. They shrieked in agony before finally breaking. Amu stared wide-eyed. Before she could even finish her attack the X Eggs had been mysteriously destroyed. Miki and Su gasped at the bizarre sight of those Heart's Eggs shattering into little flaming pieces and disappearing forever, along with someone's dreams.
"Oh, how terrible," Su whimpered. "Amu was so close to purifying them, desu."
"How did those X Eggs suddenly burst into flame like that?" Ran wondered, speaking through the Humpty Lock.
"I don't know," Amu replied. She gritted her teeth and turned around, running into the amusement park. "Hey, I know there's someone here! You must have burnt those X Eggs! Show yourself right now!" she screamed into the darkness.
The figure in black had heard her of course, and almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the request. "Aren't you the naïve one," the figure said with a smooth, male voice. "Why don't you stay and have some fun for a little bit? You are at an amusement park after all."
All of a sudden the lights and rides came to life. Amu turned around. One of the girls from before was standing by the breaker. She was surrounded by the four girls who had just lost their Heart's Eggs.
"Wh-what's going on?" Amu stuttered.
"Get out of there Amu!" Miki yelled. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Without their Heart's Egg to support them," the smooth male voice continued, "the hearts are open slather. Darkness, feed on their unguarded souls; do with their useless forms as you please."
Little dark puddles formed under the girls' feet and blackness began to creep up their legs and engulf their entire bodies. Dark wisps floated upwards and curled around them, creating a mist that was impossible to see past. The mist squeezed the bodies down to a more compact size, taking on a more solid form. All that was left of the girls were four little, black creatures with yellow eyes and antennae. They hopped around, waving their clawed hands about and their antennae twitched in Amu's direction. Su covered her mouth in shock and grabbed Miki for security.
"What are those monsters?" she asked Miki.
"I-I don't know!" Miki said.
"Hey, Amu," Ran said. Amu looked down at the lock. "I think we can do this. Remember what that mysterious voice said? These are the hearts that the Heart's Eggs belong to. Maybe we can purify them the same way as the X Eggs and X Characters."
Amu nodded. "I think you may be right." The black creatures lunged for her. Amu fended them off with a spinning Heart Rod. They were able to sink into the ground and their flattened bodies crawled towards her. Even if she smacked them it seemed that they couldn't be harmed in this state. They all rose out of the ground at the same time, reaching for her. Amu leaped out of the way and saw that they were all in one place. She ensnared them with the binding ring created by the Heart Rod as it boomeranged back to her. She fell back to earth only a few feet away and made the heart shape with her fingers.
"Negative Heart… lock on!"
The black creatures were trapped in the attack and it seemed to be having an effect on them. The man in black, however, chuckled at the attempt.
"Open Heart!"
The energy flow increased, which normally allowed the X Eggs to be transformed back into their normal forms. But nothing happened to the black creatures. They appeared to be a bit frazzled by the sudden energy but other than that, they were completely unharmed. Amu stared wide-eyed at them. The binding ring easily broke, allowing the creatures to wander again. They sunk into the ground and advanced towards Amu. She leapt onto the carousel but the creatures followed her up there, scaling the poles with ease. Amu found herself trapped. She had poured so much energy into trying to purify the hearts she didn't have any left. Her Character Transformation with Ran broke and her chara appeared beside her drained of energy. Su and Miki immediately flew to her side to help her stay afloat in the air.
"I don't understand," Ran huffed. "Why didn't that work."
Amu didn't answer. They all knew what she was going to say anyway. The creatures rose out of the carousel roof and stood before her, their antennae twitching. Who knew what they wanted. They jumped towards Amu. Amu squeezed her eyes shut when she heard Su exclaiming something excitedly. She looked up and the only thing she could see was someone in red and black wielding two similar weapons land in front of her and lunge to attack the black creatures. In three practiced swipes the black creatures were easily dissipated into black smoke and little pink hearts were released. The hearts rose into the sky and then disappeared in a flash of light.
The weapons wielded by Amu's hero were unique to say the least. They resembled keys, but also resembled swords. One was black with a squarish head and a black crown on the key chain hanging off a purple hilt with jagged knuckle bows. The other was white with a star-shaped head and had a pink, star-shaped key chain hanging from the handle with wing-shaped knuckle bows. Unique keychains hung off the end of the handles. In a flash of white light the keys disappeared and the person turned to face Amu. Her eyes widened when she saw the face and recognised him.
"Ro… Roxas?"
Roxas was wearing a black shirt with a red, hooded jacket. His baggy pants were mostly black and both legs had the red fleur-de-lis that Amu had seen in one of his marbles. His shoes and fingerless gloves were also predominantly red.
"Roxas, what just happened?" Amu demanded. "Why didn't Open Heart work on them?"
"I don't know the nature of your attack so how am I supposed to know?" Roxas replied. "Besides, those creatures were the Heartless. Their existence occurs when hearts are consumed by the darkness."
Amu blinked. "Consumed by darkness? Then… what happened to the girls?"
"You mean their bodies?" Roxas clarified. "They're gone. Usually when a person loses their heart to the darkness, their bodies are taken as well."
"What? Are they dead?"
"I guess that's the only word we can use to describe them. They certainly aren't alive anymore."
"Murderer!" Amu screamed at him.
Roxas stared at her. "Why?"
"Those black creatures – the Heartless – you killed them, and you killed those girls with them! How could you do that? Why didn't you think of saving them before you decided to slaughter them?"
"When a person loses both their body and heart to a Heartless there is no hope for them. Perhaps if the body remained when the heart was lost, maybe the heart might somehow return. But the heart would have to be found first. If you return a heart to a different body, you might create an entirely new person altogether. One thing is for sure, the heart doesn't willingly return to the body it was released from."
"I don't understand what you're talking about! How does this justify killing innocent people?"
The tall, coated man stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the amusement park. "Hey, hey," he said, loud enough to grab the attention of Amu and Roxas. Roxas narrowed his eyes.
"It's you again."
"What?" Amu said. Roxas wrapped an arm around her waist and jumped down from the carousel. Amu blushed and pushed away as soon as they'd touched the ground.
"You know," the tall man continued, "it's not fair to jump to an accusation like that. What Roxas is trying to say is: there is no way to purify a Heartless once it is created. It has to be killed and the heart released before anything useful can be done with it. There is no way to return a person gone Heartless back into the human they once were."
"That's not entirely true," Roxas argued. "There is one way…"
"And how many times has that worked, Roxy? The last time I checked, the count was only twice."
"That doesn't make a difference. The fact is that there is another way. The problem is that there are too few occasions when the criteria to achieve it are met."
The tall man scoffed at that. "Aren't you the idealist." He pulled down his hood, revealing bright red spikes of hair and green eyes with triangular tattoos beneath them.
Amu stared at him. "Who are you?"
The redhead turned to her with a smirk. "The name's Axel, got it memorised?"
"Axel…?"
"And what's that you've got around your neck? Looks like a pretty special padlock. What does it do when it opens?"
Amu placed a hand over the Humpty Lock. "I don't know. You don't have the key to open it, so you won't ever get to find out!"
"No biggie. Roxas, give her a hand."
Roxas glared at Axel. "No."
Axel frowned. "Why not?"
"Well… why?" Roxas countered. "If I don't know what it does and it's of no interest to me, why should I try to open it?"
"How about just to prove that the Keyblade can open anything?" Axel suggested.
"Keyblade…?" Amu repeated.
Roxas summoned the white weapon he had held before. Amu stared at its strange key shape and realisation dawned on her.
"I suppose it's worth a shot," Roxas thought. "But there's really no reason. I don't know what it does and it's of no interest to me."
"What if it could return what you lost?" Axel said.
Roxas shrugged. "I know there are other ways to get back what I lost. I don't know for certain if the padlock will return it."
"But none of them are any better than trying this untested method."
"It won't work."
"But you-"
"Even though I possess the Keyblade, it doesn't always function as it's supposed to in my hands."
Axel chuckled. "I suppose that's plausible. Then perhaps…" He turned his gaze back to Amu. Amu squeaked and clutched the Humpty Lock tightly. "Looks like you won't be letting go of that anytime soon. Take this then."
He took a card with a jagged shape at the top and tossed it at Amu's feet. Amu bent down to pick it up. On both sides was a picture of a sphere with a little town, a train line and a large clock tower with four prominent bells on it.
"Use that as you see fit." Axel held his hand out to the side and a large, dark, ellipsoidal portal just large enough for him to fit through appeared. "I can tell you've got a great potential in you. Don't let it go to waste."
Axel stepped into the portal and the portal slowly faded away. Amu blinked, completely confused. She turned to Roxas with a feeling that he knew exactly what was going on.
"Hey," she began.
"Don't try to get involved with Axel. He is only working towards a goal of his own benefit. To a person with feelings such as you, he might come across as unscrupulous or selfish."
"So does that mean he's a bad person?"
"If that's how you interpret him."
Amu huffed. Miki and Su floated down with Ran who had regained enough energy to not need their support for a while. "Why don't you give me a straight answer? Is Axel a bad guy or not?"
"Have you heard of William Shakespeare?"
Amu was taken aback. "Well… yeah, but I don't see-"
"Then you should know one of his famous quotes: 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so'. It depends on how you interpret the situation. If you believe Axel is a 'bad guy' then so be it." Roxas began to walk away, intending to leave it at that.
"Wait!"
Roxas stopped and turned to her.
"I'm still confused. What's the deal with the Heartless? Why did they appear? And why does it seem that you know Axel?"
"We were once friends," Roxas said, then after a second of thought, "if you can call it that. As for the Heartless, who knows? I suggest you take Axel's advice and use that card."
"But…" Amu tried to argue, staring at her card.
"I suggest," Roxas said, "that you start heading home now. It's already late."
"What? Ah! It's true! It's dark! I've got to go find Ami's present! I left it on the street when I transformed! Oh, darn it!"
"Amu, calm down," Su said. "We'll find it, don't worry."
Amu took off in a cloud of dust on the search for her little sister's present.
The bag was a little dirty but the toy was still intact. When Amu finally made it home her parents were waiting by the door expectantly. Instantly her outside character was activated.
"What?"
"Amu, do you have any idea what time it is?" her mother scolded.
"It's late," Amu replied.
"Of course it's late!" her father exploded. "Late enough to make us worry and certainly late enough to have been out with a boy! And why is Ami's present all dirty?"
"I wasn't out with a boy," Amu said, the lie quickly formulated in her head. "Ami's present is fine, only the bag is dirty. I met some friends at the mall and spent some time with them. I could have been home earlier but some bullies tried to steal Ami's present."
She could almost swoon when she saw the stars immediately appear in her parents' eyes.
"And you protected it for little Ami-chan!" they finished for her. "Amu, you're such a wonderful big sister!" They almost crushed her with a huge hug.
"Ack! Okay, okay! I get it. You're grateful! By the way, where is Ami?"
"She already fell asleep," her mother explained. "She was disappointed when you didn't show up with her present."
"I think she'll be so happy when she hears about what you did to save it," her father added.
"Yeah, yeah. I should get ready for bed," Amu decided, taking off her shoes and scampering upstairs. She stopped by her sister's room first. Inside the nightlight glowed wonderfully and illuminated Ami's troubled face.
"I'm sorry, I was late Ami," Amu apologised. She took the toy out of the dirty bag and placed it on the bed beside her. "Happy Birthday."
She backed out of the room, shutting the door quietly. Her charas floated over her head with smiles on their faces.
"That was sweet of you, desu," Su said. Amu nodded.
"Let's go to bed," she suggested. "It's been a long day and I'm tired."
I'm actually really happy with this: this fanfic concept just seems so right. It's like Shugo Chara and Kingdom Hearts were meant to meet. Hey, do you think that if I appealed to Square Enix they would consider putting the Shugo Chara world in Kingdom Hearts III? (of course, this question only applies to you if you know what I'm talking about).
