Since this is where the real story starts, I'm gonna say it...

Inspired: "Shugo Chara! is the works of Peach-Pit and all the original characters and ideas belong to them."


My good mood shattered the moment I stepped off the school grounds. Less than five yards away were a group of six people, two of them I recognized from art class. One of them pointed at me and the whole group turned. The tallest boy grinned wickedly at me and all six of them began to advance toward me.

Fight or flight? I was never the fastest runner, but fight? Never. I didn't even know how to.

"Stay...away..." My voice quivered as I found myself backed up against the school fence. As images burst out from the weak barrier I had been able to build over the past three weeks, my eyes widened.

A man coming at me, one hand raised, the other clutching a bottle. A tender bruise on an arm that throbbed when touched. A pair of heavy feet clomping around the meager room that could be called my own. A dark face peering under a bed, but the eyes were glazed over and so they didn't see me.

"GET AWAY!" I screamed, too late in trying to break through them and run. Just run. A large boy, a jock maybe, laughed, flinging me back to where I had been. My backpack took the worst of the blow as I slammed into the fence and slid to the ground, triggering a string of older memories...

'Don't run from me you...you worthless brat!' He bellowed, his words slurred, as my little feet pattered across the scratched-up floor. 'He can't get me! He can't catch me!' I thought exuberantly, a precious piece of super sweet chocolate clutched in my hand. 'This is going to be my first taste of anything sweet in over three months!'

"So this is the girl who sent Cheyenne away?" One of the girls surrounding me asked, but I couldn't hear her.

As I entered the hallway that led to the rooms, I felt myself being roughly swung over his shoulder. 'No! This can't be happening!' My thoughts echoed frantically. My eight-year old body had always been light-weight due to a lack of food, which had made me no better than a bag of bones and skin. 'Screaming and kicking will do no good.' I reminded myself. If anything, it would make what was coming worse. I had learned that the hard way. Barely trying, he flung me through a doorway into nothingness.

One of the girls, a pretty blond, took a drink of something from a can, and sighed, reaching into her pocket. "I don't want to get rid of this-"

The air was rushing past me, seeming to never end. I prepared to be smashed into the wall, but instead I hit the slightly-softer-than-wall mattress. My body curled into a ball and I squeezed the chocolate to make sure it hadn't escaped. The door slammed shut, followed by the sound of a key turning in a lock. 'No food for...for three days!' His voice boomed through my head. 'And you're not leaving this room for a da-'

My memory broke as something wet trickled down my chest. It took me a moment to realize what had happened. That girl...had dumped her drink on me! I raised a hand and felt the sticky liquid make its way down my face.

"Listen Korean girl." One of the boys stared down at me mockingly.

"I'm Japanese. I quietly corrected him, against my better judgment.

"Whatever Korean." Blonde dropped the empty can on my head, and it fell to the pavement with a clang. "We're not going to beat you up today-" I winced and drew closer to the fence.

"We liked Cheyenne. She was cool." A different girl added, smiling at me in a dangerous way.

"And then you sent her away." The larger boy glared at me. "You're not even cool, you disgusting little Korean." I again made the mistake of correcting him.

"I came here of my own free will." I whispered. "So did she. Cheyenne-san went to Japan because she wanted to.

"We don't give a damn Korean!" His foot lashed out, kicking me painfully in the shin. My mouth opened in pain, but no sound came out.

"We're not going to beat you up completely today," the blonde girl said, waving off my attacker, "'cause we don't want to make your first day her a bad memory. But..." she zoomed in until she was less than a foot away from my face. "IF you don't leave town by the end of the week, you WILL be unrecognizable. So take a hint, bring Cheyenne back, and leave this country. It's for your own good, just sayin'." She rose. "Come'on guys, let's split before someone shows up. Oh!" She turned back to me. "But if you come to school tomorrow, we'll have a surprise waiting for you. So watch your step."

~(*)~

The creaking gate was the only sign that I had arrived at 1023 Basset Street, AKA the house I was currently living at. Normally, walking for blocks would have been absolutely no problem. I would walk twenty blocks to get to school in Toyko every morning. However, I was pretty sure that guy had placed a decent sized bruise on my leg. And after every step I took, my problem reverberated in my head.

'We're not going to beat you up completely today...but if you come to school tomorrow, we'll have a surprise waiting for you.'

'Bring Cheyenne back and leave this country. It's for your own good...'

The second comment was impossible, but it was the first comment that scared me a lot. Getting beaten up frequently had...changed me. Installed a fear that ran through my veins. I thought I had left that behind in Japan, but it still haunted me.

Shaking my head, I tried to set the dilemma aside. Passing through the front door, I hoped no one would see me with my still-dripping hair and wet shirt, but that was not the case.

"Hi-karu?" I breathed out in a depressed sort of way. After two-and-a-half weeks of living in this house, Mrs. Smith, Cheyenne-san's mother, still couldn't pronounce me name correctly.

"I'm here Jane-sama." I replied, quickly pulling off my shoes, hoping to get upstairs before-

"Oh my goodness! What on Earth happened to you?"

Too late.

"It was an accident Jane-sama." I said, making an effort to deter her, but she continued to try and help me, by removing my bag and soaked jacket. "It's okay Jane-sama. I'm really okay-" aside from my leg "-I'm just going up to take a shower. There's nothing to make a fuss about." Not a full-lie. I was bad at telling full-lies, but half-lies were a specialty of mine; a talent I'd been forced to obtain when I was younger.

"Are you certain?" She took a step back, surveying me. I nodded. "Well, I was just worried, because you came home so late. Do you know what time it is?"

"I got held up somewhere Jane-sama." Half-lie; aside from the fact that I had no home. I was a free-spirit in a matter of speaking.

"Dinner is in...twenty minutes, if you're hungry." She informed me, watching me carefully.

"I'm not hungry." MAJOR, MAJOR lie. Jane-sama could see it in my eyes, but it was my stomach, which rumbled in an un-dignified was as I said it, that told the truth.

"You're eating whether you like it or not missy." She laughed, turning back toward the kitchen. "Take your shower and come down when you're done. Understand?"

"Y-yes..."

~(*)~

The cool night air gently brushed against my skin as it drifted through the second-story window that was next to the bed I lay in.

The shower had been just what I needed and dinner was excellent. Jane-sama was an extremely good cook. However, neither had distracted me.

What to do? The wall I'd managed to erect in my mind since leaving Tokyo had come dramatically crumbling down. And there was a literal death-sentence hanging above me. Climbing onto a window seat above the bed so I could stare out the window, I wrapped a blanket around me and, without thinking, began to sing a little tune I had once made up in Japanese.

{I was once there, at that place, but now I'm lost...in a labyrinth...do I want to stay lost? No, never...again...} I drifted off, sadly staring up into the Milky Way. In Tokyo, even though I had a little grimy window, I'd never been able to see the stars or the moon; there were too many city lights. I twirled a "good-luck" charm I'd gotten from my friends at home in Toyko. The character for "Home" twirled on the chain as the words of a song I'd heard yesterday came tumbling toward me and I began to hum them, translating them from English into Japanese as I went.

{Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now. Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now...} Blinking, I realized what I'd said and felt tears welling up.

"W-why?" I whimpered, trying to wipe away the tears. "Why do I have to be haunted by my past? If I hadn't been so scared, I might have been able to get away. I'm alone here. No one can help me."

No, something inside my said, remember what someone once told you. 'Someone or something is always looking out for you. Whoever it is will help you be the person you want to be...'

Was that true? Could I leave my past behind as easily as I had left Tokyo?

"No way..." I muttered, shaking my head. But...right now, I was willing to try.

"Um, hello...someone..." I muttered foolishly, glancing out the window. "I-I really want to...be able to escape my past and..." I swallowed, "I want to be someone other than who I am now. I wish I could stand up for myself. So please, someone, give me the strength to be who I wish I could be. Let me be able to freely express myself without fear. Please help me make an impact on the world. And please, please, let me be who I want to be..."

~(*)~

Morning already? I peeked open one eye and saw the yard outside bathed in sunlight. Yes, it was morning. I sighed deeply, breathing in the warm air. Must have fallen asleep, I decided, when I felt myself leaning against the wall like I had last night. Yawning hugely, I slid myself off the window seat to the bed. Glancing back out the window, I watched as a bird landed on the tree next to the window, but something else drew my eyes down.

"WHAT are these?" I leaned over, picking up one of three little eggs that fit perfectly in my palms. Each of them had a blue hue to it, but all three of them had its own dominant color and symbol that was on it.

The egg I was currently holding had a silvery-grey color to it, with moons circling around it, while smaller moons that seemed to glow were scattered all over its surface. The other two eggs had similarities on how they were arranged. While the orange egg had a sun pattern on it, the yellow egg had stars dancing around.

"How did they get here..." I thought a moment, "of course." Carefully putting the egg I was holding on the bed, I pulled open the bedroom door. "Very funny Thomas-kun!" I yelled out, addressing Cheyenne-san's nii-chan, or little brother. Did he think he could pull another trick on me, that prankster? Oh no he would not! Grinning happily, pleased to have finally foiled one of his pranks, I turned back to the painted egg and nearly jumped out of my skin.

The moon egg was about to fall off the bed. Rushing over, I scooped it up before it could crash. Pausing for a moment, I noticed something strange. Is it my imagination or is the egg...quivering?

~(*)~

"Good morning Hi-karu, you're down early." Jane-sama said when she noticed me entering the room.

"Good morning Jane-sama." I replied, carefully setting down the three eggs on the table. I had no desire to come back later and find baby chicks wandering around on the bed.

"I told you, Hi-karu, you don't have to call me that. Do to. I thought silently, but didn't say. "Breakfast is almost done."

"What is it?"

"Bacon and scrambled eggs." Eggs. For some reason, I was feeling nausea climbing around in my stomach. SCRAMBLED eggs. Without thinking, I slowly reached out and began to pull the three eggs I had just set down back toward me.

"Done!" Jane-sama said, pleased, she turned around toward me and set the pan on the table.

"Actually Jane-sama," I muttered, keeping my eyes away from the pan, "I'm not very hungry this morning."

"You said that last night," Jane-sama reminded me, sitting down across from where I was sitting. "But considering how much you ate last night-oh? What are these?"

"Eggs..." I whispered, regretting not moving fast enough.

"Can I?" She reached out, taking my silence as a confirmation. "These are cute. Where'd you get them?"

"Thomas-kun put them on the room when I was sleeping." I watched carefully as her hand brushed gently over the surface.

"Thomas?" Her eyes reflected the confusion in her voice. "Hi-karu, Thomas isn't here. He was staying the night at a friend's house last night, don't you remember?"

"But...how..." My mind couldn't grasp what she was saying.

"Did you get enough sleep last night? When you're tired or hungry, your memory won't work correctly." Jane-sama's cellphone hummed as she looked down, breaking her analysis. "I need to go. Hospital needs me early." She rose, squeezed me, and grabbed a jacket. "If you need to leave school, I'll get you. Just be safe, okay? Bye."

"Good bye Jane-sama." I said simply, staring down at the eggs. The front door clicked shut. If Thomas-kun didn't put them in the room, I wondered, then where did these eggs come from?

~(*)~

The gate creaked shut and I made sure it was fully latched shut before carefully pulling my bag onto my shoulders. The reason I was so careful was that the three eggs were in it, each wrapped in a dish cloth so they wouldn't break. I knew from freshman orientation that there was an Ag department somewhere at school. They would probably take the eggs. A car sped past me and I noticed when I crossed the street that hardly anyone was on the streets. That's odd, I thought, then glanced down at my wristwatch. Oh, that's why. No wonder. It was 7:53, a whole thirty-seven minutes before school started. Oh well, that'll give me some time to find the Ag room.

A tall person in a grey hoodie jogged past me, a pair of ear buds sticking into his hood. I couldn't see his face because his hood was pulled over his head, but as he passed me, his head seemed to turn toward me. It was something in the way it seemed he was looking at me that caused something inside me to snap.

"What are YOU looking at?" I hissed, but he had already turned the corner and vanished. Then the full impact of what I had said crashed onto me. Wha-what did I just say? I gasped, shocked at what I had said. That-That's so out of character for me! My feet kept on walking, but my brain wouldn't respond, which is why I was caught off-guard when it happened.

As I passed in front of an alley between two tall buildings, a pair of hands reached out from the shadows, grabbed the straps of my bag, and pulled me in. I lost my footing as I was shoved deeper down the alley; pulled up harshly, I recognized the jogger's grey hoodie from earlier before being pinned against the wall.

"You have a character egg," a boy's muffled voice came from behind his hood. "Give it to me and don't make a sound. I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't give it to me, I will hurt you."


CLIFFHANGER! XD Don't worry, I won't do them often. I just had to do it once.

Oh yeah, after each of Hikaru's Guardian Characters hatch, I'm gonna introduce one of my Guardian Characters. I'm not going to tell you what their special talent is, but if you can guess what it is, I'll include the first person who guesses it in the story. But if no one can guess after two chapters have been released, I'll just plain out tell you.

And that chorus Hikaru was singing in the bedroom was from a song called "Airplanes" by B.o.B. I like that song, and the lyrics just seemed to fit right in. I had my MP3 on Shuffle when I was writing this chapter and I stuck it on Replay after hearing that song. This was my inspiration for this chapter.

Until next time. Please review and tell me what you think. I appreciate suggestions both in plot and other ideas.

~Inspired From A Song