Cuxie: Yodal-ay-EEEEEE-hi!
Kamiko: You're like a siren; whenever anyone hears you, it means there's trouble nearby.
Cuxie: How dare you say something cleverly insulting! REPLACEMENT!
Kamiko: Eh?
(-poof-)
Aoi: Huh? What am I doing here?
Cuxie: I know you! You were created last chapter.^^
Aoi: Uh...yeah?
Cuxie: Well...?
Aoi: 'Well' what?
Cuxie:...Acceptable. Rolling!
Aoi: O.o ?
"So it got away..."
I hung my head, not wanting to see the look of disappointment on Seo-san's face. I had found him, along with Yamabuki-san and Inokuma-senpai, in the Royal Garden just like I'd predicted. I hadn't had the courage to tell all of them about my failure, so I pulled Seo-san away to tell him privately.
He placed a hand on my shoulder and I jumped slightly. "Don't look so down. We've all lost our share of X-eggs. Although those two will never admit it." He glanced over at the other two Guardians, who were eyeing us as well. Then he smiled at me and said, "You'll get the hang of it soon enough."
He said it so confidently that I felt tears spring to my eyes. He honestly believed in me. Why, I'd never know. "I hope you're right."
His expression turned serious. "I am a little concerned though. An X-egg running loose in such a public place...that could be trouble. "
"What should we do?"
He crossed his arms, looking pensive. "Well, we could try and look for it, but honestly it could be anywhere by now."
That thought made me feel scared and guilty. That X-egg had caused me enough trouble. Who knew how it was affecting everyone else? It had been loose for hours now. And hadn't Seo-san said that those things could cause problems for the bearer of the egg? I had a bad feeling about this... "Isn't there something we can do? We can't just let it run rampant over town!"
He scratched his head. The look on his face told me that there was something we could do, but he didn't really wanna do it. He glanced over at Inokuma-senpai and sighed. "Oi!" He yelled suddenly, strolling back over to the other Guardians. "You guys, I think we need to do some more patrolling after school today."
Yamabuki-san huffed loudly, already making excuses. Inokuma-senpai looked from Seo-san to me and back again. I squirmed as his dark eyes settled on me. His voice was cool and slightly detached when he asked, "And why all of a sudden?"
"We've got word of some X-egg sightings on the east side of town," Seo-san replied every bit as coolly, conveniently leaving out the fact that their newest Guardian had failed to capture it.
"Hmm..." Inokuma-senpai continued to eye both of us. Seo-san didn't seem to notice, but I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched under a microscope. The look in the King's eyes said he knew exactly what had happened and who was responsible. I found myself shifting to stand slightly behind Seo-san. He sighed, "Then I guess there isn't much of a choice."
Meeting the Guardians outside of school felt weird. It probably would've been less so if we had all walked directly from school into town. But Yamabuki-san had a flower-arranging class immediately after school, which left us with the option of going home first and then regrouping. We decided to meet at the huge water foutain were Lanna-chan had drawn me just the other day. Seo-san and I were the first to arrive, so we kept each other company for awhile. I was getting used to being around him, enjoying it even...
But once the others arrived Inokuma-senpai suggested that we split up. Since Seo-san had told him the general area of the X-egg sighting, which was the bridge, the boys crossed the bridge to cover one side, leaving Yamabuki-san and I to cover the other end. I was surprised that Inokuma-senpai had paired us this way. From what I could tell, he and Seo-san got along even less well than Yamabuki-san and I did.
Daisy and Tomo were delighted to be in each other's company. Once they got together it was quite a task to get them apart.
Why is it that our charas can get along so well when Yamabuki-san and I are so... I glanced at the Queen as we patrolled the streets, which all in all was really just walking all over town and keeping an eye out for flying eggs. The silence between us was painfully awkward. Yamabuki-san was marching ahead with an annoyed look on her face. I wasn't sure if it was because I was with her. Apart from the initial "I can't believe Akio-sama stuck me with the newbie. I thought it was Makoto's job to babysit you" at the fountain, she hadn't said a word to me. It wasn't at all like being with Lanna-chan; she was so easy to talk to.
"Oooh! Ami-chan! Can we go in here?" Daisy latched onto one of my pigtails, steering my head in the direction of one of the shop windows.
"Daisy we're not...window-shopping..." The shop in front of us glittered with the metallic colors and rhinestones of dozens upon dozens of accessories. Stars danced in front of my eyes. I always get excited walking past the Momo no ChouChou store. I've never brought anything from the store, and I've only been in a handful of times. But just standing near it makes me feel like a princess or something. But I had to restrain myself. We had an important job to do. "No...Daisy, we can't-Daisy?"
Daisy and Tomo were already inside.
"Are you always this easily distracted?" Yamabuki-san said with a flip of her hair. "You act like you've never seen a few trinkets before," she scoffed. My cheeks burned.
"S-Sorry. Um, D-Daisy and Tomo went into the, um, the store."
She rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. "Honestly, those two are more trouble than they're worth." Throwing back her shoulders, she strode into the store and I crept in behind her.
Without the glare from the window, the store wasn't as blinding, but it was even more colorful on the inside. I felt my breath go out of me and my eyes became slightly unfocused, not knowing where to look in this sea of treasures.
Yamabuki-san looked right at home in all the studded jewelry and hair pieces. She immediately went towards front desk where they kept the more expensive items. "Hmm...let me see that," she told the clerk. He handed her a large hairclip in the shape of a dragonfly with green and blue crystal-like stones. It went well with her dress, a knee-length summer thing with a tiered purple and blue design and a large dragonfly embroidered near the hem.
I hadn't thought to dress for patrolling, so I wore nothing more than some capri pants and a plain yellow t-shirt.
She placed the clip in her hair and turned to me expectantly. "Well?"
I was a little surprised that she'd want my opinion, but I gave it regardless. "I-It looks pretty on you."
She waited, apparently expecting more praise. Before I could think of anything more to say she turned her back on me, then said to the clerk, "I'll take it, I suppose." Reaching into a small handbag, she handed him what looked like a credit card without even bothering to take the clip out of her hair. "Hold onto it in case I find anything else."
Wow. She really can buy anything she wants. I felt ridiculously poor shopping in the same store as she was. But I'm not really shopping, I thought while catching site of some adorable dangly earrings with pearly stones. I fingered them lightly.
"You're getting those? I can't imagine you have anything to wear with them," Yamabuki-san said, snickering. "And that's if you can even afford them! They're no where near as expensive as my pearl earrings."
I turned my back to her and put the earrings down. The truth was, I wasn't poor, but they were kind of expensive and I had nothing to go with them. It always hurts more when people make fun of me for things that are true. Even if I had the courage to confront them, I'd only be lying to them and myself.
"Ami-chan! Ami-chan!" Daisy rushed at me from behind. "Look what we found!" Between her and Tomo, they were carrying a silver chain that must've been a mile long. "It can be a jump rope!"
"No, it can't," I hissed at her. "Put that down before somebody sees!"
They dropped the chain onto the floor suddenly.
"Um...I meant put it bac-"
"X-egg," Tomo whispered. She flew around me, heading towards Yamabuki-san. "We've gotta hurry. It's moving farther away!"
Yamabuki-san nodded discreetly, took her credit card back, and headed briskly out of the store. Remaining calm the entire time, she did nothing to draw attention to herself in spite of what was going on. Something I should probably make a note of, I thought as I rushed to keep up.
"Which way is it?"
Without answering, she turned down another street and started running. I watched in awe as a large colorful hammer materialized in her hand. As I caught up with her I caught sight of a large yellow smiley face pinned to her dress. "I see it!" We were headed towards the bridge again. I spotted the egg just as it ducked under. "C'mere you!" Yamabuki-san shouted playfully, giving chase. I'd never heard her talk like that before...
"Let's do it too Ami-chan! Chara Change!"
I felt myself gripping my own weapons as Daisy and I raced after them. Yamabuki-san stood at the water's edge peering under the bridge. There wasn't much room to walk under without getting your feet wet. "Ami-chan, watch the other side! We can corner it!"
I nodded. Wait, did she just call me 'Ami-chan'? Before I could think to react, the egg popped up on my side. I swung a disk blindly at it, not having enough time to aim. The X-egg made a shrieking noise and raced back to Yamabuki-san's side. She took a few swings at it with her hammer. The little thing flew anxiously back and forth between us. It looks scared... I edged myself onto the narrow strip of grass under the bridge, trying to get closer. "I gotcha-!"
"Whoa!"
As I threw my disk, I hadn't noticed that Yamabuki-san had also been moving towards it. She swung her hammer hard, wobbling as she did so. It deflected my disk and sent it flying straight at me, hitting my shoulder and making me tilt backwards. As we both tried to regain our balance, we reached for each other. Yamabuki-san grabbed my hand as I fell backwards and we both tumbled into the water.
The water was cold and, being so close to the bank, a bit muddy. "Mou! We almost had it!" Yamabuki-san scrambled to get up, shaking her hair out like a dog. Muddy water flew everywhere. I giggled, too amused to worry about her getting mad at me. She looked like a poodle! "Eh? What's so funny?" I pointed at the water so she could see her reflection. "Wah! My hair!" She puffed out her cheeks and I tried to smother my laughter. "Hn. Let's see how you like it!" Grinning deviously, she splashed water on me.
"Hey!"
The splash fight that ensued was nothing short of crazy. Soaked and filthy, we were both having too much fun to worry about our clothes or someone seeing us. And I couldn't help but marvel at Yamabuki-san's sudden change of heart. Or rather, change of character. Maybe we can be friends after all...
"What the heck are you doing?"
Looking up, I swallowed hard. Inokuma-senpai and Seo-san were peering at us over the edge of the bridge. Seo-san looked amused, but senpai clearly wasn't. His eyes were narrowed and he looked us like we were pigs rolling around in mud.
Yamabuki-san and I exchanged looks. A faint shimmer in the air told me that both of our Chara Changes had just worn off.
Yamabuki-san flushed all the way up to her ears. "Ah! A-Akio-sama! This is, um, we weren't...ah, I-I..."
"We didn't come out here to goof off." He gave us another distasteful look and shook his head. "If you two aren't gonna take this seriously then you might as well go home."
The Queen looked anything but royal at that moment. Soaked cold through, her shoulders slumped, she held herself in a way I'd never seen before. Nothing of her usual confidence showed through the shamed look on her face. She stared back at him as if he had struck her, tears pooling in her eyes. Then, turning sharply, she shot me a quick, searing glare and took off running.
"Inokuma!" Seo-san shoved past him and ran down the bridge, coming to my side. We both stared in the direction Yamabuki-san had left in. He sighed, "We're not gonna hear the end of this for awhile." He stuck out his hand to help me up.
I couldn't say anything. The moment had gone from fun to mortifying so quickly my brain had barely had time to process it. All I could think of at that moment though, was that for once I hadn't been the one to run away.
Cuxie: Aww... That's what happens to characters who insult me in the opening.
Kamiko: I can't believe Akio-sama saw me like that! I've never been so embarrassed in my life!
Cuxie: Really? We'll fix that. By the time this story is finished that moment will be the highlight of your life!
Kamiko: WAAAH! TT^TT
Cuxie: Crybaby. Geez. What do you guys think? Did she get what was coming to her? R&R!