::Yume de Aru Youni::

Heard of the J-Pop group 'Buono!'? Well, I decided to 'digify' them. My first attempt at SORATO. More into inside. AU-ish.

Am beginning to think I need a better short summery but nothing comes to mind...

----------

Thank You's:

'Thank You' hugs and kisses go out to the reviewers: KoumiLoccness, winta-skies, and DigiDigiMonMon. To the former, some KOUMI should appear soon and to the latter, I'm glad you decided to actually check out the songs and am thrilled that you liked them.

Author's Note:

*scratches the back of her head uncertainly*

Okay, truth be told—I have no idea what to make of this chapter. Being honest it was a complete puzzlement to write. It could be really good, or really bad, though frankly I have no opinion of it except for that it is absolutely necessary for this story's continuation.

Um…enjoy? o_O

Information:

'My Guardian Characters', the anime mentioned below, is really just another name for 'Shugo Chara!'. Buono!'s singles are also used as Shugo Chara! themes so that's why I decided to go with it.

----------

Chapter 6 ~ Tokyo Days

----------

Should one look to the sky, what would be visible then was an endless, crystal blue blanket – on a nice and warm, sunny summer's day – littered with fluffy, dollops of white forming wispy patches in the beautiful oceanic layer.

Hundreds of miles below, on graciously-green grass, a young individual with short locks the shade of the fiery orange sun dribbled a black-and-white dappled ball with expert feet; all the while exulting skill bemusedly advanced for one at such an ostensibly tender age. Further to mention, the individual was a girl.

The young soccer activist sped keenly across the field's lush green, paving gracefully (yet robustly) over the earth's gentle curvature with the dappled ball retained in her possession. Small lips puckered into a wide grin as she glimpsed the huge, ground-netted basket of sorts up ahead; the bulls-eye target for her soon-to-be angled kick—her winning kick.

She dashed at top speed, she was going to make it, she was almost there!

But just as the young soccer princess was about to swing her foot hard against the dappled ball, a tall figure materialized perpendicular to her form, becoming a wall between her and her goal.

Whoever it was casted an impish smirk down at her. "Didn't think it would be easy, did you?" A laugh.

The young girl's instinctive reaction was to halt the ball with the heel of her foot. She in turn let her eyes find their way to those of the figure's towering above her, permitting innocent scarlet orbs to smile up at her supposed obstacle, exuding nothing but that of conviction and sheer fortitude—the fire in her eyes, blazing as hot as the summer sun's vicious rays.

Said figure appeared taken aback, doubt distorting his expression. Still, he refused to give in but the young one saw her chance; she took it—swerving swiftly around her assailant and surveyed vividly as the dappled, round object collided heartily with the ground-basket's netting.

"Score!" She yelled, jubilant. She began springing up and down on the lush green before twirling on the spot to laugh at the figure for his los-

"Where are you going?" She asked diffidently, then watching as her father bowed away from her and began walking.

She waited, but he did not answer. "Hey, wait up!" The young individual made to run after him but found herself unable to leave her position—someone had taken a hold of her right hand, keeping her from him. She spun around hastily to see who it was; expression a loss upon realizing it was her own mother.

"Mom, what?" She croaked in disbelief. Her eyes began to tear, conviction spent, insecurity and desperation coursing strongly through her veins in its place.

But just as she turned to call out to the distancing figure one last time, the crystal sky faded, swallowed up by dark clouds; the warm summer breeze was no more, substituted with that of bone-chilling cold and a rough howling wind; the grass lost its green, morphing into a deadened land: ice…snow…and the wrenching cold…

"Wait!" She cried, vanishing thoughts of soccer from her mind, all the while trying furiously to shake her hand free of her mother's vice-grip. "Dad!"

The cold howling wind stung her eyes, freezing the embers within them into flame-colored jewels (rubies) and tears threatened to stream, jointly assisting the snow and sinister grey clouds in blurring her vision of the man.

On and on she called, but still the figure walked, further and further to where she could no longer reach out to him. It was then when she had come to grasp of a fear; a fear of how truly powerless her voice could be…

Her world went black. "Stop turning your back on…me."

~O~

In one of the headquarters many dance studios, Sora proceeded to pack her bag, taking her time in stuffing her belongings into the indigo sports duffel as she hummed a tune discreetly for her ears alone—the tune to their (Kari, Mimi and her self's) group's future debut single.

Continuing to arrange her possessions one by one in the duffel, the auburn-hair began to ponder. A lot had happened subsequent her evaluation with MINt the other day in the amphitheater. Overall, she discerned the experience so far had been entertaining, though every bit as tiring.

Sure Sora had anticipated the hard work she would have to put in. The extensive craziness however, now that was new.

As things stood now, Hikari and Mimi – lead vocalists to their respective Sky! Project home groups, Mai`Co and P!nku*Chorus – as well as herself had been assembled to form the project's latest sub-unit, Mello-D!

To Sora, the line-up had come both as a bit of a shock and relief. After all, her father's initial proposition had consisted of her flying solo—an idea that had quite literally petrified her to no end when she had first lent ear to it (and still did).

And so, while she still dreaded the thought of having to sing in front of a large, live audience come the project's upcoming concert, Sky! Project 2009 ~ Thank you for your LOVE!, Sora was eternally grateful to the silver-hair and his brunette partner in crime for casting her as part of a three-piece. There was just something so consoling in knowing she would not be forced to face the audience alone when time came.

At least a week had passed since that faithful day in the amphitheater and the auburn-hair had spent the near entirety of it getting settled with all going on about her. As staying with her father proved to be out of the question—given they were to keep their father-daughter relationship secret, Haruhiko had made up for it by allocating her a rather convenient apartment situated within walking distance to headquarters; paying for it and pretty much any and all of her various living expenses.

To her surprise her father had even personally taken on the task of showing her around Odaiba for the first couple of days and helped with her enrollment into a local school, which turned out to be the exact same one her group mate Mimi was attending. The pink-hair had been ecstatic to learn this of course and had immediately beckoned Sora to join her class; that request…somehow ending up being the way of things…

Sora had learnt then, just how persuasive Mimi Tachikawa could be.

Still, her concern was for her father. Sora felt it a large stretch for him in some ways—he really was doing a whole lot for her. What if others grew suspicious? But Haruhiko had justified that he was merely fulfilling the responsibility for having dragged her away from her life back in Okinawa on such sudden notice.

Strangely enough, people lapped it up.

At any rate, school and managing a living all on her own was taking quite enough time as it was, but with the concert less than a month away, there were (undoubtedly) the many Sky! Project duties to attend to—and boy were those duties hectic.

Together, she and her two group mates had sat down to work with various people; namely MINt, Fujiama-san, and the trio Sora found exponentially draining to deal with, the notorious SK2—an invented abbreviation for none-other than Satoe and Keisuke Tachikawa (indeed, Mimi's fashion designer slash stylist of a mother and her creative director slash fashion photographer of a father respectively), plus the man's young apprentice, one Ken Ichijouji.

It did not take long at all for Sora to figure out from whom Mimi had inherited her bubble-ish charm.

Keisuke and Ken she decided, were tolerable any day; what with Ken being somewhat of an introvert in temperament. However, Mimi's mom, Satoe…was a whole different story. The auburn-hair puzzled how Hikari faired through such encounters.

Tersely, their debut single had been composed, lines distributed and arranged for recording; a dance routine to match had been choreographed and was in the process of being learnt; clothes (or costumes) designed, measurements taken, etc. Sora had even found herself getting a haircut as Satoe felt she needed a fresher look.

"Wow," was the one word Sora could push past her lips to that end result. Hikari and Mimi had agreed.

The auburn-hair guessed photo-shoots and the making of a promotional video would soon follow as the song was scheduled to be the opening theme for an imminent anime program set to air on Fuji TV, 'My Guardian Characters'. Of course, this was riding on just how well-received their single would be in the project's upcoming concert—joy, what pressure.

Sora let out a sigh, done with her humming. The girl made to look up momentarily as she packed the last of her possessions—a hand-me-down Ipod Mimi had offered her the other day; given partially as a gift for inviting Koushirou to the upcoming concert.

Long story short, the pink-hair had been amiably euphoric over the song 'Over the Rainbow' during Sora's evaluation. As such, Mimi had asked everything she could under the sun about said song and Sora was forced to bless the pink-hair with answers as best she could, obviously leading to her mentioning her red-headed best friend back home.

Sora had then proffered up Koushirou's CD for Mimi to lay her signature on and minutely after, relented to call the boy genius (courtesy of Mimi's…persuasion) and invite him over.

Mimi (being her drama queen-self of course), had at one point snatched the mobile away from Sora and began ranting compliments into the device's speaker, only to find no reply from the other end when she had finished. The auburn-hair had taken the phone back at that point and queried Koushirou if he were still alive, earning her a kind of staggered grunt to which she took to be a positive response.

Hikari had dropped to the floor, rolling with hysterical laughter by the time Sora ended the call, stuttering something about how that would always happen whenever boys talked to Mimi over the phone for the first time.

At present, Sora's newly-formed group mates were still dancing opposite the studio's wall mirrors along to the tune she had earlier been humming, though in this case the tune's origins was that of the sound system in the far corner of the room, currently operated by one of Hiroaki's supposed errand boys, Charlie. Their dance instructor, Fujiama remained nearby, coaching their steps and pointing out any mistakes.

The two girls were sweating furiously by now, having already danced over an hour, though with water breaks at each twenty minute interval to avoid dehydration. Sora on the other hand, while had endured pretty much the same feat was now clad in fresh clothes, adorned after a brief shower and was ever-ready to take her leave—an action she reckoned herself more than happy to do.

Oh no, it wasn't so much that Sora detested dancing or was bad at it. On the contrary, growing up with a love for sports and having played a few in her years, she quite liked the idea of grooving along to the beat of a nice melody.

MINt's composition was rather up-tempo (a request from Hikari) and was thus, tons of fun to move to. And so her good muscle coordination had saved her additional embarrassment of being scrutinized by Fujiama, who was already relieved by the fact that she was attesting to be an easier student than Cho.

Nevertheless, nothing could stop Fujiama's austerity in his teachings. More than a few times past had he pointed out numerous mistakes on Sora's part, more so than either Hikari's or Mimi's as the duo were by far more senior than the auburn-hair and evidently very seasoned dancers whom could pick up moves fast and with ease.

Hikari – Sora noted – had practically mastered the whole routine before their first water break and hadn't made a single mistake since.

Prodigious, she thought, knowing what Koushirou would say.

Unlike the other two, Sora found herself forgetting her steps a little too often for her liking and had more than once mixed-up her position during a formation switch.

Not yet accustomed to the insatiable demands of being a Sky! Project Kid, the auburn-hair also found lessons incredibly exhausting. And while she held the utmost respect for Fujiama-san's choreography – though a tad girlish in her opinion, a fault of Mimi's – and teachings, she could not help but hate how he could repeatedly succeed in sucking out the fun of the whole thing with all that shouting and the negative remarks.

Since when did dance lessons seem so alike to the military?

This was no joke. Sora wondered how the other two managed. After all, she got away with much less to deal with than either one of them—only being tied down to one Sky! Project group for the moment; as were the majority of Sky! Project Kids she had gotten herself formally acquainted with the week before.

"It's worth it," Hikari had told her when she asked. "You'll see." She sure hoped so.

Of course, Hikari and Mimi were in no ways the only two presently involved with a sub-unit group besides their home ones. Some of the others included P!nku*Chorus' and Mai`Co's captains, Maayu and Tomoka respectively, forming a duet, Jun who was apparently also a solo artist; as was Cho who as a solo act was spared the worry over her below-par dancing.

"Leaving already, Sora?" Asked the young brunette.

"Yeah," she humbly replied. Mello-D dance practice session was over for the day but Hikari and Mimi were still entitled to another hour of rehearsal with their home groups shortly, before they could leave as well.

Sora quite sympathized with them. After all, it was because of her that they were being made to do all this extra work—even if it was stated that the unit could easily be dissolved in a matter of seconds should it fail to pull in the crowds in the forthcoming concert.

The auburn-hair had opted to profusely apologize to both girls on the matter but they had astonished her by waving her apology aside, instead expressing delight at having such a vocally-accomplished (or so they deemed) member to work with.

Hikari and Mimi had even further agreed that it was a good opportunity, having the chance to work with not only someone of Sora's capacity but with each other on some original material, technically hailing from separate groups.

Sora smiled, bushed but appreciative. "Thank you very much for today," she recited, bowing her thanks to Fujiama and Charlie before walking out the door with a friendly-joke-of-a-blow-kiss to her two famous-yet-surprisingly-down-to-earth (perhaps in Hikari's case) new friends. Both instantly laughing at the playful banter and waved back.

The auburn-hair had made it to the lifts before busying her thoughts with that of how even crazier and more frenzied her life would probably be after the concert, patiently waiting for one to reach her floor.

Little did she know, just how much of an understatement that would soon turn out to be…

It wasn't long till the doors clinked open but when they did, Sora somehow found the option of walking into the compartment…dissipate in the flash of a moment. Instant shock and pain besieged her as she mentally struggled to comprehend how exactly she had ended up pinned to the carpeted floor on her back with some guy pressed right on top of her laying form.

Ouch… she thought, then finding her human-compressor articulating the same thought aloud. He made to push off of her but sure as hell did not get very far when their eyes met, flare-fired rubies with water-cooled ceruleans…

The gaze lingered. It was a strange sensation.

Sora sensed her breath hitch in her throat as she held this stranger's gaze, his face no more than a short-ruler's distance away from her own.

Some inner part of her must have rang the warning bell for her the severe the stare but those ceruleans seemed to have some sort of power over her, paralyzing each and every muscle in her body and gluing her limbs to the floor. It was strange but she just…wanted to keep staring straight into those hypnotizing pools of blue that reminded her so much of the crystalline sky on a hot summer's day.

It took awhile before she noticed yet another interesting feature of his—blonde hair that looked to be…his natural shade?

Likewise as he continued to stare right into amazing ruby orbs, the blonde could not help but be entranced, not wanting to look away. The girl was really pretty, or so he thought.

Soon it had become impossible to ignore the furious blush steadily inching its way up his cheeks as the situation dawned upon him, not to mention the rather blatantly compromising position they were in. Realization likely coming to her as well, he noted she was blushing too, cheeks flushed red, almost as red as…her hair?

The blonde's eyes went wide. He knew in all aspects of mannerisms he was failing miserably and should have pushed off of her by now and voiced a patent apology. Yet instead, he found himself asking a question.

"Hey, are you…Sora?"

----------

To be continued…

Gosh, I hope things didn't get too confusing for people. Questions are still acceptable if anyone has any. Ah, and the concert name used in the chapter is truly a slight modification on the name of an actual Hello! Project concert held some time ago. As to the first part of the chapter in italics, take it as something of a dream-flashback sort of thing.

I'd really like to know what you readers think of this chapter, a little more so than the previous few as I found this one…seriously weird? Till next time then.