Chapter 8
"I need to go to sleep." Megumi plopped onto her bed. She read her clock. 7:00 am.
"I have 3 hours to sleep" She was about to close her eyes when they snapped open to the sound of her shugo chara yelling at her.
"4 hours are not going to be enough Megumi-chan!" Izumi scolded.
"Izumi's right. You only had like 4 hours of sleep this last week! You're not going to be ready for the tournament at 10!" Honou said agreeing with Izumi.
"Relax it's only have one match because it's finals. Now will you excuse me while I try to make my 4 hours of sleep to 7 hours." Then she dropped her head against her soft pillow.
"But-" They tried to protest only to see that she already fell asleep.
"She's going to kill herself." Honou told Izumi.
"Megumi-chan always tries her best but sometimes she just tires too much." Izumi floated away to her egg.
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Megumi woke up from her sleep that felt like only 5 minutes. She forced herself to get up and get dressed for the finals starting in 15 minutes….. She stared at her clock and rushed into her closet to get dressed. 15 minutes! It takes me 15 minutes to get to the tennis courts!
She ran downstairs with her tennis bag on her shoulder and her Charas following her. She rushed and ate all her breakfast while listening to her mom scold her and to eat slow. It's your fault that I'm in this situation mom! She ran out the door while waving her goodbye and sprinted towards the courts.
She arrived panting with 5 minutes to spare.
"You okay Megumi? It's not like you to lose your breath after a short run." Honou asked worried.
"That was not a short run Honou-chan!" Izumi panted catching up to her owner.
"I'm fine Honou." Megumi took one step and almost collapse if not for her quick reflex to grab the gate to the entrance.
"Megumi-chan are you sure you're fine?" Izumi asked in her most calm voice to mask her panicked state inside.
"Yeah your face looks red!" Honou was already panicking.
"I'm fine, I'm fine maybe I got out of shape." Megumi proceeded to her assigned court while fixing her bag.
"Megumi…."
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Megumi was putting her racquet into her bag. It was the day of the Fall doubles Tournament and her partner, the captain of the Girls Middle school Tennis Team, left earlier to the court they were going to have their match on. She just finished warming up with the captain when her friends arrived.
"Hey Megumi!" Amu called out to her.
"Oh, hey everyone's here." Megumi said. She was really happy inside that they came to support her. But something was missing.
"Where's Shouta?" She asked. Kukai smirked mischievously making her regret her question.
"Why? Do you want to see him? Hm?" Kukai asked wanting an answer. He grinned when he saw Megumi slightly blush.
"No that's not what I meant! I-it's just I told him if he didn't come I would kill him." Megumi stated looking confused at Kukai's grin.
Wait why is he grinning like that. She felt her cheek get a little hot then realized what just happened. No, I just blushed didn't I! I could've! I should've! She thought as she tried to stop blushing but failed.
"Megumi you look red are you okay?" Yaya asked worried about to feel her forehead then Megumi grabbed her wrist before she can.
"I'm fine." She said smiling reassuringly towards her friends then grabbed her bag to walk to her finals match while her friends followed her all worried.
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The Referee sat on his seat while watching the two doubles pair coming together, spinning their racquets to see who will serve, and go into their positions.
Before Megumi went to serve her partner stopped her.
"Don't push yourself okay?" She said patting her on the shoulder. Megumi smiled as a reply and started her serve.
Four games ended quickly but on the last point of the last game Megumi tripped reaching for the ball giving her opponents the point. For second she felt like she couldn't get up but forced herself up while panting hard. She used the last of her energy to reach the bench, grabbing her water bottle and squirted some water in her face.
"Are you okay?" Her senpai looked at her with worried eyes. She grabbed Megumi's hand but removed her hand after feeling the heat coming from her.
"Megumi, you're burning up!" She still looked at her kohai panting and breathing for air.
"I'm fine! Now let's finish this match." Megumi stood up from her chair and returned onto the courts.
I'm not going to lose. If she loses because of me then she'll never get into the high school she wants to. Megumi looked up from her position and stared at a suited man standing at the top of the bleachers. She recognized him as the headmaster and coach of the school that had the best High school Girl's tennis team. If they lost this match Buchou will never get into that school.
She gripped her racquet tightly as she waited for the ball to zoom towards her. Her opponent used her fatigue against her and stole 3 games from them. But she recovered because of her frustration and was able to win, with the captain covering her weak spots, with the score of 6-3. That match took almost 4 hours with their intence and long rallies. She would've collapsed if not for her willpower to at least shake hands with them.
What's wrong with her? She usually has no stamina problems but she's panting hard and she looks like she could collapse any minute. The captain thought as she went up to their opponent to shake hands.
"That was a great match! That was the best one I ever had!" The taller girl said while shaking her hand happily.
"You were great! I can't believe you're still and elementary schooler! You're as good as us! I mean better!" The other girl shook Megumi's hand who weakly smiled. She paused for a moment and let go, losing her happy aura.
"Thanks." Megumi managed to say before staggering back to the bench.
"Megumi…" The Middle schooler started but was interrupted when Megumi suddenly turned her head behind her. The captain couldn't see the shugo chara that was warning Megumi about another Hunter appearance.
Megumi nodded to her friends that came to support her and they left. She followed them until she tripped but luckily held her balance by using the pole of one of the shelters to support her.
"Megumi!" Honou came to her owners side.
"I'M FINE!" She finally snapped. Honou looked shocked by her sudden outburst which made Megumi regret what she did.
"S-sorry.."
"It's okay… you were under a lot of pressure this week." Honou smiled wearily to her.
"Thanks for understanding." She stopped to look at the sky above the small forest near the courts fill with a purple aura. She watched as she saw flashes of light while the dark aura flew behind the trees.
"We gotta go. Izumi Chara Nari!" The Joker called out to her blue shugo chara finally catching up to them.
"Yeah!" Izumi said in her high pitched voice.
"CHARA NARI: AQUA PRINCESS!"
She flew towards the fight to see the same Hunter that was probably the nicest out of them all.
"Pretty Rain!" Megumi shouted as she neared everyone.
"Finally you came Megu-senpai!" Rikka said.
"Yea, sorry bout that." Megumi dodged another shot to see that her rain droplets has not affected some of the eggs.
"What the-" Kairi stood there shocked that her attack didn't work.
"His eyes… they're clear white. He used one of the eggs and now they have the ability to be immune to some attacks." Megumi explained.
"What do you mean some attacks?" Hikaru asked deflecting an attack.
"They're only immune to ones that, that guy never saw yet." Megumi was floating in the sky with the blue aura helping her up but immediately fell to the ground rough landing on her feet breathing heavily.
"Megumi!" Everyone called out worried but got distracted by the Bastu Tamas attacking them.
I wish everyone would stop pitying me. She thought as she panted. Why am I so tired?
"Because you never had enough sleep Megumi-chan." Izumi said talking to her.
She hated to admit that she was right.
"Amu we need to end this." Megumi looked towards Amu. They both nodded in agreement.
Amu used her speed skaters and she used her blue aura to fly into the sky. Megumi still felt like she was sick but held her defence. She faltered for a second but got back up.
She got frustrated with the persistent eggs. Stupid eggs. She raised her ribbons in the air and a blue watery aura surrounded it.
"ROYAL WAVE!"
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"Dang I hope I'm not late!" Shouta ran towards the courts to see that the match ended.
"Ugh, Megumi is gonna kill me." Shouta said to himself remembering what he promised with Megumi.
"Too bad we lost." He overheard the opponent pair talk.
"I'm sorry senpai." The shorter girl said bowing.
"It's okay that 6th grade girl was amazing anyway. I heard she won a few competition in America."
"Speaking of her I thought she lost a lot of her energy too fast. I mean she was panting like she just drowned."
"Maybe she has you know like a lung problem or something."
"Yeah but her face was all red and when I shook her hand her hand was burning!"
"Megumi… you Idiot!" Shouta followed his shugo chara to the battle after he heard their conversation.
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A blue light engulfed the eggs. Startled by the new attack the eggs lost all their defences. The light gathered all the eggs together making it an easy target. The aura around her flickered a little but she still stayed up to see Amu use her open heart and see all the eggs return to their owner. The masked boy expressionlessly left with no words said.
"We did it Megumi! Megumi?" Amu looked to the right to see Megumi blue aura fade slightly and her breathing became heavier with her face burning up.
I-i can't… her vision became blurry and she lost all her strength and her connection with Izumi making her lose her transformation and faint. She fell from the sky while her friends tried to reach for her or call her name.
"MAGIC SPELL: SPEED!" suddenly Shouta in his chara nari form flies towards Megumi's falling body in amazing speed and catches her, bridal style, right before she hits the ground. Everyone sighed In relief and returned to their original forms.
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Megumi snapped open her eyes and sat up and grabbed the shoulders of the nearest person, shaking them really hard.
"Did we win the match? What happened? Why am I in my room?"
Shouta, apparently the person that was the closest to her pushed her hands off him.
"Um… Yes you did win the match, you fainted, and them… oh, we brought you here and you were out for a whole day."
Megumi refocused her vision to see everyone including the captain in her room.
"Yokkatta…" She sighed in relief.
The captain clenched her fists and stood up from the corner of the room. She walked towards Megumi and grabbed the collar of her shirt with a mad expression on her face.
"Senpai!"
"Yokkatta! That's all you can think of when you fainted! You knew that you weren't in a good condition but you played anyway! You're too reckless! You know how worried everyone especially me got when you were out for a day! What did you even do to not get the right amount of sleep!" After she finished yelling she let go of her collar.
"I practiced tennis everyday this week until 6. Then I had Juku until 10. After that I did my homework and other stuff until 3 am. Then I would have to wake up at 4 to practice for another 2 hours. Then at 6 I would go to school. The day before the finals my sister got sick and my parents were out for a late dinner party so I took care of her until about 6 in the morning." Everyone stared at her like she was crazy.
"How can you survive with that amount of sleep! You could've gotten so sick th-th-that you could never play tennis again!" She shouted waving her hands over her head.
"Senpai I think that's an over exa-"
"I'm Sorry." Megumi interrupted Amu.
"I'm Sorry." She repeated a little louder. "I thought that we needed to win no matter what! I knew that, that school you wanted to go to was really important and you couldn't get in if you don't win!"
"Your health is more important than some stupid school Megumi." The captain replied gently.
"I'm sorry I'll be more careful."
"Ugh! Too much apologizing! Megu-tan apologized so why don't we just celebrate already!" Yaya complained.
"You're right," The captain chuckled at her childish kohai. They started walking out to let Megumi change when she suddenly turned around to face Megumi. "Oh, and if you ever, EVER do that again you won't just get a scolding." She smiled and walked out while Megumi trembled at the thought of what her senpai could do to her.
The last one out the door was Shouta but before he could leave Megumi grabbed his wrist. He turned around to see Megumi out of bed.
"Shouta, t-thanks for saving me back there." Megumi said softly.
"N-no problem." He replied trying to avoid eye contact because that would only make him blush.
"Um… I'll wait for you outside with everyone." He said.
She let go of his wrist. "Oh, right. I'll hurry." She said as he walked out and she closed her door.
"Wait how did she know I was the one who saved her?"
I may not have seen what was going on but when I felt your gentle and warm hands I couldn't help but feel secure. I don't know how but I knew one thing, that it was you Shouta. She thought and blushed at her thought.
Why am I thinking this! I thought I learned my lesson!
Sorry if there isn't much Shugo Chara appearance but there's just too many of them. This is my first fic so I don't have that much experience. Also I wasn't able to put that much tennis action because i suck at those!
Oh, and if you don't get what Megumi means when she doesn't like guys that much and learning my lesson kind of thing it'll all make sense at the end when she will have FLASHBACKS!
