Kyrie
Chapter 3: The First Heart Orb
Arella's life had been largely worry-free, a side effect of being the youngest of the Ancient Ones. But ever since the Dark Ones had shown up, her former life had officially vanished. Having lived with the Ancient Ones her whole life, she had heard the stories of how the Dark Ones had tried to destroy the Ancient Ones, and how Michel-Dono, their Emperor, had defeated the Dark Ones and banished them away to a dark realm. But that had been so many years ago. She had not expected them to ever come back, or to try and take their anger out on Michel. Neither had anyone else.
But that had changed.
A new day was arriving; the horizon was beginning to grow light. She had to leave before the Dark Ones found her here. She cast one last glance back at the small house Michel was currently calling home, then spread her wings and flew away.
Why didn't you tell him the truth, Ojii-san? Why did things turn out like this?
"You know what to do. Find That Ancient One and bring him back!"
One of the Shadow King's dark servants, in human form, was patrolling the streets of the town. "Find him…" It growled as it glanced at the milling crowds. It paused to scan the minds of a few of the humans. "Negative…"
It watched as another human, this one with white hair and blue eyes, pushed through the crowds, a dark green backpack slung over one shoulder.
The creature narrowed its eyes and scanned its subject's memory. "Negative…" The creature growled, then turned away to continue its work.
And Michael continued on his way to school, oblivious to what had just transpired…
"Seira, I know you like to keep tabs on that mirror, but do you really think you should have brought it to school?" Lucia asked.
"I have to keep it with me." Seira insisted. "What if we find one of the Heart Orbs? We have to have it ready!"
"Do you really think that that's going to work?" Hanon asked, herself and Lucia having been told of what Seira had learned the previous night. "I mean, what, we just put all these orbs back together and give the mirror to Michael, and everything will be fixed?"
"I'm sure it will!" Seira proclaimed. "We can find the Heart Orbs, I know we can!"
Lucia and Hanon didn't reply.
A moment later, the three of them turned as they heard the sound of a motorcycle coming up behind them. They watched as Rina stood up and took off her helmet, then handed it back to Hamasaki.
"Thanks for the ride." She said as she grabbed her bag and turned to head up the path to the school building. "I'll see you at five."
"Later." Hamasaki called as he drove off.
"Well, Rina." Rina came to a stop as she saw Lucia, Hanon, and Seira standing there.
"What are you doing out here?" Rina asked.
"We were just on our way to school." Hanon said slyly. "You mean you're not gonna play hooky and go on a date with Hamasaki?"
"What are you talking about?" Rina demanded. "I was running late, and Hamasaki offered to give me a ride."
"Oh, is that all?"
"Yes!"
"You don't have to explain it to us." Hanon waved her hand back and forth, as though brushing Rina's words away.
"Ah, you're so annoying, Hanon." Rina said.
While this had been going on, Seira had tucked the mirror into her back pack, and begun looking around. "Michel!" She suddenly shouted as he came into the school yard.
Michel turned and saw Seira and the others, then began heading towards them. "Lucia-san, I'm afraid I'm going to be late arriving at the Piari today. I'm staying late to work on some assignments. Will your sister mind?"
"Nikora," Lucia spoke slowly, her mind trying to follow the sudden change of subject. "No, she won't mind. How late do you think you'll be?"
"Maybe about a half-hour, or forty-five minutes." Michael replied.
"Okay, then it'll be fine. We'll tell Nikora."
Michael nodded. "Thank you," He said, then turned and walked away.
"You're not cheating on me, are you?"
Lucia spun around. "Kaito! I was just talking to him." She started to mope. "You know I wouldn't cheat on you."
Kaito just grinned at her, then asked, "Who was he?"
"Actually, he's Michel." Hanon told him.
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "The psycho angel?"
"One and the same." Hanon confirmed.
"Well, not the same." Rina corrected. "He can't remember anything."
"Amnesia?" Kaito asked.
"Who knows?" Hanon replied.
"I do!" Seira piped up. "Michel had his memories taken away, but if we gather the twelve Heart Orbs, we can bring them back!"
Rina turned to look at Hannon and Lucia. "Uh, yeah, we were going to tell you about this." Lucia told her. The two of them quickly related what Seira had told them about her late-night visitor.
"And she gave me this mirror!" Seira held up the heart shaped mirror. "It can hold the Heart Orbs! And it already has one in it! Now we just have to find the other eleven."
No sooner had Seira finished, then the bell rang.
"Well, right now we'd better get to class." Kaito said as he turned and headed for the school building.
"Master!"
"Did you find that Ancient One?"
"No, Master, we found something else!" The underling held out a glowing ball of white energy to his master.
"A Heart Orb?" The Master threw his head back and laughed. "Ojii-san, you're getting less creative in your old age. No matter." He turned his attention back to the underling. "Use these to draw him out. But I want him found and brought to me! Understand?"
"Yes, Master."
"You know what my other favorite part of school is, Hanon?" Lucia asked.
"Lunch break?" Hanon guessed.
"How did you know?"
"You're not too hard to figure out." Hanon said as she took another bite of her food.
"Hey look, there's Michel." Lucia said as she looked at the students milling about the schoolyard. She and Hannon watched as Michael walked past them, holding his instrument case and a music book.
"What's he doing?" Lucia asked. "Flute practice?"
"Could be." Hanon said as she took another bite. "He seems to love that instrument."
Michel found a deserted seat on a picnic table on the other side of the school building. He sat down, opened his music book, and then took out his flute and began to play.
"Hey, you!" Michel stopped playing, and turned to look at the two guys approaching him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Playing my flute." Michel calmly replied.
"Yeah?" The first guy demanded. "Well, the rest of us don't want to hear that, so knock it off."
Michel gave him a look of disgust. "I recall having no need to answer to you."
"You tryin' to make something out of this?" The guy demanded.
"Something wrong here?" The two students turned to see Kaito standing there.
"Ah! Domoto-senpai." The second one said. "We were just…"
"Telling this loser to quit playing that stupid instrument!" The first one finished.
"Don't say that to him!" The second one exclaimed. "His parents were musicians."
Michel looked at Kaito, who shrugged slightly, indicating he had no clue what was going on.
The first guy scowled at Kaito and stalked away, his friend following him.
"Perhaps I shouldn't practice around here." Michel said as he put his flute back in its case.
"Don't let them bother you. A lot of people practice their music here. I don't know why they decided to go after you. I'm Kaito Domoto."
"Michael Yoriwofuruis."
"Yoriwofuruis?"
"Yes."
"Kaito!" Michael and Kaito both turned to see Lucia run to them.
"Have you already met Lucia?" Kaito asked.
"Yes, we met earlier." Mich\el replied. "Would you excuse me, please?" He asked as he walked past them and back towards the school building. He headed inside as Lucia turned to Kaito.
"What were you doing, Kaito?" Lucia asked.
"Meeting your new friend." Kaito replied.
"You're not mad at him for stealing your memories?"
He shrugged. "Does it matter? If I was to accuse him now, he'd have no idea what I was talking about."
"Then you think he's Michel, too?" Lucia asked.
"Yoriwofuruis."
"What?" Lucia gave Kaito a confused look.
"Yoriwofuruis." Kaito repeated. "His last name can literally translate into 'from the ancients.' The Ancient Ones, you know?"
Lucia was silent for a moment, and Kaito asked, "So, what are you going to do now?"
"Start looking for the Heart Orbs, I guess." Lucia replied.
"Lucia, Lucia!" Lucia and Kaito turned to see Seira run up to then, holding what Hanon had dubbed the Heart Mirror in one hand. "Look, the mirror is glowing!"
"Maybe there's a Heart Orb nearby."
"Let's go look for it!" Seira exclaimed.
Lucia turned to Kaito. "Can you cover for us?"
"I'll do my best."
"We'll go look for the Heart Orb." Lucia said. "Come on, we'd better get Hannon and Rina."
"Pink Pearl Voice!"
"Aquamarine Pearl Voice!"
"Green Pearl Voice!"
"Orange Pearl Voice!"
The four Pearl Mermaids, now in their Idols forms, stepped out from the alley they'd used to privately transform and hurried down the sidewalk.
"Lucia, why did we transform when we're just looking for a Heart Orb?" Seira asked.
"Because the police will stop us if we walk around in our school uniforms in the middle of the day." Rina replied. "Come on, let's find that Orb and get back to school."
"The glow is getting brighter." Seira said as she looked at the mirror. "We must be getting closer."
Suddenly all four of them came to a stop as a monster burst out of a nearby building. It was tall and formless, with no distinguishable features, other a completely dark body and yellow eyes.
"What is that thing?" Hanon asked.
"I don't know." Rina replied.
"But it has the Heart Orb!" Seira nearly shouted as she pointed at monster. Sure enough, in its giant hand, the monster was holding a small white ball of energy.
"The last one was yellow, but I'm sure that's it." Seira said, still holding tightly to the mirror, whose glowing now reached a near fever pitch.
"Then we'll stop that monster and take the Orb." Lucia said as she pulled out her microphone. "Pichi Pichi Voice Live Start!"
All four mermaids began singing.
The rainbow wind
Blows at the far off coast
Before dawn there was a melody I heard
It's a very nostalgic song
The birds that fly towards the Eastern sky
Well, they're taking a shortcut to the Treasure Island
Where the paradise of the seven seas lies
After the night of the storm
The creature screeched in irritation as it heard the song.
Another life is born only to pass love along
As long as we have the melody of the seven countries,
Even if a day comes when no one journeys here,
I'll never forget.
"Love Shower, Pitch!" A spattering of stars flew at the creature, which again screeched. "Would you like an encore?" Lucia offered.
The creature dissipated away, leaving behind a small white orb of energy, which floated down and entered one of the white slots in the top of the mirror.
"We got another Heart Orb." Seira said excitedly.
"Yep. Two down, ten to go." Rina said. "Anyway, we'd better get going."
"Back to school?" Hanon asked.
"Well, we should." Rina said.
"Or we could help you get ready for your big date tonight and forget about school." Hanon suggested in a sly tone.
"I like that idea!" Lucia exclaimed. "C'mon, let's go!"
T.A.R.N.S.: The end of chapter three. Is anyone out there still reading this story, or am I writing this for no reason, other than to take up bandwidth?
Anyway, story notes. The plot is slowly starting to unfold. We finally learn the meaning of Michel's last name, thanks to Kaito. That Japanese might be messed up, sine I just googled it. Meh. We are not going to be seeing Rina's date (at least I don't think we will), although Lucia and Hanon might make reference to it later on. (I'd really like to know how that subplot got in here.) You may have also noticed that the summary has been changed. I did not like the first one, even thought it is still logged in chapter 1 as the summary. It has also come to my attention that I am misspelling Hanon's name, as it should be 'Hanon' instead of 'Hannon', so that's the reason for the name differences between this chapter and the other two.
Anyway, that's all I got. Please review.
[EDIT: for the same reasons listed in the previous chapters. (2-16-17)]
