I sighed deeply. I just got free from the Guardians and they asked me tons of things about what happened with Amy. I only told them she was a friend of mine- a friend who was strong-hearted and had bones made of titanium. Well, I couldn't tell them that she was a psycho freak. Even I still don't get about my return back home.

Unable to exit the school grounds, I took my seat on a bench in case Roo would come. I again sighed, "What the hell am I supposed to do. What am I going to do? I know sooner or later they will just drag me home. Darn it. It feels so much like-"

"Like prison?" I recognized the voice. It was low, and I quickly turned around to meet a pair of blue eyes.

"I-Ikuto!" I was shocked to see him sitting behind me. I turned my head upwards to look at him and we both stared at each-other. Ikuto was the first to react. He smirked slightly and hopped over the bench to sit beside me.

He crossed his legs and rested his cheek in a hand. "So, Are you doing well lately?"

I looked at him with a bored and a smug look. "Maybe a little. Do I care?"

Ikuto looked at me with a doubted smile. "Oh really? And I thought I heard you screaming, "Tadase-kun! Kyaaa~ Help me!" Or was that just my imagination?"

Blushing, I punched his shoulder and scoffed, "Well, that doesn't matter. It's only your imagination, moron."

Ikuto then rolled his eyes and said, "Sure. And I'm married to Jesus, then?"

I punched his shoulder playfully and smirked, "Yeah right."

Ikuto never failed to make me laugh. Perhaps, if he understood, maybe I could ask him. I turned to Ikuto who was staring aimlessly at the sky for no absolute reason. The dark night still reflects in his eyes, though it was already daytime.

"Hey...Ikuto?"

"Yes, princess?"

"Don't call me that you lowly beggar. If a friend of yours have a sister and that sister, who never respected your friend and treated her more like a prized possession rather than a human, wanted to take your friend back home for good and never to return with her again, would you ever help your friend?" I said quickly, trying to maintain my fluent tone as I looked calmly at Ikuto. Surely if I looked this way, he won't have any idea of the slightest that I had this problem running in my mind.

He did look around to ponder for a while, and finally said, "What was the question again?"

"Ikuto!"

Laughing, the dark-haired man said, "Amu, if that friend of mine told me that that was happening to her, I have to see if that claim is either true or false. Somebody needs to take chances here."

My eyes widened a bit.

~~~~FLASHBACK ~~~~

"R-R-Roo-onee-chan! That boy keeps hurting me!" I cried as tears ran down my cheeks. I pointed over to a young boy around the age of ten. He glared at me with an annoyed look, and walked away at the sight of my sister, Roo. "Onee-chan!"

Roo, in her first year in high school, frowned. "You don't have any scratches at all, Amu."

"But I'm not kidding, onee-chan! He hurt me and Mr. Poo Poo!" I held up the torned teddy bear, giving it to Roo as she examined it. She then placed a hand on my head lightly, and just smiled.

"Don't worry. Onee-chan will always believe you, and if you believe me, I'll fix Mr. Poo Poo."

~~~~END FLASHBACK ~~~~

Maybe she was right...Maybe the only person who believed me was Roo herself. Perhaps I was the one in the wrong and choosing the option of going home should be the answer. A tear trickled down my cheek as I was still unwilling to return home yet I missed my old friends.

"Amu?" I felt a hand pressing on my shoulder. I almost jumped out of my skin and quickly turned to meet Ikuto's dark blue eyes. He looked at me with a confused look. "What's wrong?"

I still didn't know what to say. Laughing bitterly, I tried to brush off his hand, "Nothing. It's just that I'm not feeling so well today.."

Ikuto crooked an eyebrow, and he a corner of his mouth twitched up. His hand still remained on my shoulder, and he slowly ran it down my arm. It sent chills down my spine;plus, they didn't feel good at all. He laughed, "Oh really? Then I suppose I have to-"

"It's fine, really." I suddenly said, standing up to brush off the dust from my clothes. I made an attempt to walk away when a hand grabbed my same shoulder. "I need to go home."

"Do you need me to escort you?" Ikuto offered. I shook off his hand and walked briskly away from the bench. Then, a pair of hands soon grabbed my arms. Now I was annoyed. "Amu?"

I tossed my arms about to remove his hands and turned to glare at him. "Look, will you stop?"

Ikuto looked amused, and said, "Stop what? I only-"

Before he could continue, I interloped him with a slap on the face. My hand fleeted across his face, and a red mark soon appeared on Ikuto's cheek. I was too overwhelmed by my action that I slowly backed away. Ikuto looked expectantly shocked, and he put a hand to cover the hand print. I muttered, "You're the worst."

Whilst he stared at me, I finished, "And, I have to go home myself. It's no problem anyway."

With that, I made my way out of the gates without uttering another word. I never did apologize, but that could come later. Right now I have to find Roo.

-

"Ah..." I moaned as I clutched my head. Rain fell onto my clothes, making me drenched as I fluttered my eyes open. I managed to raise my head slightly to look around. All was nothing but deserted streets and sheeting rain. The water pounded mercilessly on the pavement, especially me. I couldn't even remember what I was doing. But that wasn't necessary. More importantly, I should find out what was this place. I didn't recognize it one bit at all.

I tried to stand, but I was soon pinned down: an aching pain in my right leg caused me to fall again. I noticed a sharp twist in my foot and I guessed that I might have fractured it. There was a bruise all around on my arms and legs;not to mention scratch marks on my clothes. Judging by how those bruises lasted, I only figured that I had been out for almost over an hour yet nobody came to help me.

"Amu?" I tried in vain to get up when I heard a voice. It was faint and creepily familiar. "Is that...you?"

Footsteps were heard and it came closer to me. So close that it already stopped next to me. "Oh my god...It really is you, Amu! Oh thank god, what happened to you?"

Looking up, I saw a female's face as she gazed down at me with a sigh. "L-Leena?" I managed to say.

Leena who appeared to be standing behind me furrowed her eyebrows. She looked pretty serious and kneeled down to touch me. I then let out an aching gasp, that she touched the core part of my leg. I couldn't even move it anymore. Leena sighed, and she slowly picked me up into her arms.

Ever so gently did she try to make me feel comfortable to ignore the pain in my legs. It did work, but only for a while. Leena soon said, "We have to go now. Roo is expecting to see you, and can you bear the pain?"

I nodded slowly, and Leena smiled. "Alright. Then close your eyes now." I obeyed, and kept my eyes shut as I felt the wind accelerating behind me. I heard fast footsteps and splashing puddles as I didn't know where I was going. My legs shook with pain, and I winced.

The torturing journey soon came to a halt when Leena stopped. "Now you can open your eyes."

I did opened them, and saw a gate in front of us. Beyond the gates was a huge mansion, white with glory. Even with the rain falling, the building still had its charm in the estate. I didn't know there was a mansion here. I looked up at Leena with a surprised look: did she have super sonic speed or something? Leena didn't care. The gates soon opened by a snap of her fingers, and she walked calmly through the cloudy and downcast weather.

Leena then stopped at the front door which was huge, enormously huge that I head to look all the way up to the heavens to see how high it was. She knocked on the door, and the two knocks were loud enough to echo at the entrance.

The door opened slowly, and surely, light began to pour out. Leena stepped in, carrying poor me in her arms, completely unfazed by how drenched she look. Not to mention me being in the same state she was too.
"Amu...Are you happy to see your sister again?"

I was not sure if that question was a sincere or a demanding one until I looked inside the mansion. The bright light almost consumed me, but I was able to see what was there in it. A few silhouettes appeared, and one of them -in the middle- caught my attention. I mouthed, "Roo..?"

The other people around Roo were also my other friends -from my past, the ones I abandoned a few years back. They didn't have the slighest feeling of hatred and revenge in their eyes. Roo looked mad when she saw me, but her expression soon softened as she saw my bad condition. "Leena. What happened?"

Leena soon found a sofa and placed me there, and shrugged. "No idea, Roo. I found her in the deserted avenue, covered in bruises like a helpless puppy. Somebody probably gave her a big beating there."

I heard other voices. One of them sounded childish. It said, "See? I told you we shouldn't leave her all alone but NOOO! You wouldn't listen to me, ever! Even you, Terana!"

"Mizuki, shut your mouth!" I guessed it was Terana who snapped, and as my vision was still in progress of clearing, I heard another voice. I bet it was Mizuki again.

"Ohh! Wanna fight, ya ugly head?"

"Oh, would you just shut up for just ten seconds? We have something better to do!" Leena yelled, and the two stopped making a fuss of each-other. I heard Roo snicker, probably thinking that the scene was amusing. When my vision cleared, the first thing I saw was Amy.

"Hey, Amu." She said, "Who was that guy you slapped hours ago? Well, he was surely hotter than that Tada-gay, if you ask me."

Soon the others looked at me with an interested look in their eyes. I looked down, and twirled my finger in the air millimeters away from the white marble floor. "He's just...A stupid guy."

Amy pouted, "That's all? Aww~ What a shame, my dear. What a shame."

The first reason why I said that was because he didn't believe me, and the second was that if I told my sister that I liked him, regardless of friend or foe, there was a high chance of her eliminating him. Like I said, she treated me like a prized possession. She would not let anyone else have me.

But wait, did this mean that I...liked Ikuto? That was surely preposterous. I suddenly changed my subject and looked around the huge house. "Where are we...Anyway...?"

Everybody then, excluding me, planted a smirk on their lips. "Oh, this isn't our home. We borrowed it for a while," They said in unison.

Wait...Borrowed it? "Are you saying you STOLE this house?"

I stiffened when Roo got closer to me. She then raised me from the sofa with her hands on my armpits, and made me sit on her lap. I felt like a baby;a baby in pain of her fractured limbs. Most likely in pain of her obsessed relative.

Roo smiled, "And we did that because we care for our darling little Amu~"

I suddenly frowned and glared at her. "I just hate you."

"What? What did I hear?"

"I said I hate you." I growled, glaring at Roo as her eyes widened with surprise. "Because you ruined my life, everything I wanted...And you took it away from me. I hated you for that, Roo. Why won't you listen to me. Why? Why, I ask you why, Roo?"

I never tried to shout because the whole party was silenced by the time Roo asked me what she hadn't heard in disbelief. I furrowed my eyebrows and soon froze when I saw sadness and care in Roo's eyes. She mumbled, "But...We did that to protect you..."

My eyes turned softer but soon Roo's eyes turned to an emotionless and reckless twist. "Roo?"

"I know now. It seems that I'm the wrong one after all, right?" She pushed me off her lap, causing me to fall on my back. I winced in pain as I held onto my sides. Roo stepped out of my way and turned her back on me. "Well, it's no use anyway. She hates me. And because of that, I'm only left with one option: Those guardians...Whoever is acquainted with you, whether adult or child..."

The girls looked at her, waiting for her to finish. As for me, I just stared at her with cold eyes.

"Must be killed. Starting with that stupid guy, Ikuto."

I looked at her with widened eyes. My eyes were filled with horror and I felt something seeped out of my mouth. A crack, then a flow.

-

Reena:...OMG!SHE`S GONNA KILL IKUTO! NOOOOOOOO!

Amu:...idnt know what to say

Reena:you know, i just found out that Roo is older than ikuto

Ikuto:...*faints*