Guardian of Sound:

Code 10

The night air was cool and crisp as Minori made her way through town, thankfully she was wearing a jacket Sakura had let her have. While it wasn't her true definition of warm seeing as the cold air still manage to seep through and give her chills from time to time. Even so, she continued to keep moving. People continued to pass on by without a care in the world, they had their lives, while she—she was just a tiny insignificant person with nothing to fall back on. She'd thought she'd finally found happiness and a place to call home, but—in the end pain and sorrow ended up catching up to her basically crushing that tiny sliver of hope she had left.

"Man, what should her? With Christmas coming up soon—" Minori heard a random voice say. She looked over and saw a random guy staring at a random shop window with a puzzled look on his face. She looked at him a small smile on her face. She thought about helping out, but quickly thought again it and continued to press on.

After walking for about what seemed like an hour, she ended up in a park and decided she'd take a break. She sat down and leaned her head back and stared up at the sky. 'I wonder what it would be like to be a star. Shining brightly in the sky without a care in the world...I don't belong, I never did.'

"Ah, w-what d-do we h-have ere, boys?" Minori heard a slurred voice say. She looked up and saw a group of boys walking toward her. They all seemed to be high school students judging by their uniforms she just didn't know which." One of the boys, which Minori assumed was the leader of the group, looked to be drunk seeing as his face was a bit red and he was constantly tripping over himself as he made his way over to her. Minori felt chills go up her spine, she knew that these guys were trouble. She tried to get up and leave, but her legs were rooted to the ground in fear.

"So, what is a girl as pretty as you doing out here by herself?" One of the guys asked. Minori looked at him, he had brown spiked hair and light green eyes. He sat down next to Minori, his hand lightly brushing up against hers causing her to blush a bit. The other guys huddle around them. 'Please, just leave me alone!'

"You waiting for someone?" he asked in a smooth voice. "A boyfriend, perhaps?" Minori shook her. This seemed to perk the guy's curiosity. "Well, why don't you come with us? Well show you a good time." Minori shook her head.

"Please?" he begged, giving her a puppy dog look. Again, she shook her head, declining. Minori finally felt her legs letting her move. As she stood up to walk away she felt a hand forcibly grab her wrist. "Where ya goin'?" the guy asked in a now serious and frightening tone. Minori felt fear taking hold, but she refused to acknowledge it . She turned to the guy giving a firm glare. "Oh, am I making you angry?" he teased. Minori tried once again to pry her wrist, but the guys grip was too strong. She knew she desperately needed to get away, so she did the only thing she could think of—she balled up her fist as tight as she could and swung; her fist colliding directly to the guy's face. She'd gotten the result she wanted, she felt the guy's once tight grip on her wrist loosen so she could escape—or so she thought.

"Y-you bitch!" The guy spat. He was now covering his nose, she could see blood seeping down through his fingers. As Minori was getting ready to run, she felt a hand grab her wrist once again and jerk her backwards. *Snap* if Minori could talk she'd probably be screaming in agony. Instead a pool of tears we're streaming down her face. Why? All she was trying to do was keep the people she loved out of harms way, yet no matter where she went trouble always found her. "Do whatever guys want with her," the guy said. Suddenly Minori felt hands roaming all over her body, she felt so violated... tears continued to run down her face. 'Yuuki, please!' She begged. 'Anyone!'

"You've got a rockin' body. Mind if I play with you a bit longer?" one of the guys whispered seductively in her ear. She shivered.

"You're hair smells like strawberries...I wonder what other part does?" another guys chimed in. She then felt a tongue slide up her cheek, she cringed inwardly at the feeling. The other guys fumbling with her clothes. She desperately tried to pry them off. She wasn't very successful, she did however manage to kick one of the guys in the face. "Ah, you—!" he was also now bleeding from his nose. The only difference was that instead of having others gain up on her more, this guy decided to take it upon himself to do something not even the leader expected. He reached into his pocket and pulled out what Minori saw was a switch-blade. "You wanna play games, huh?" the guy sneered. Minori was eternally frightened as hell. However, on the outside she stared at the guy with a strong firm glare, she refused to show the guy how truly scared she was.

The guy was inching closer with the switch-blade, when...

~Code Breaker~

Yuuki squirmed in the sheets, his bladder felt like it was going to explode. He slowly sat up pulled the sheets back so he could get out. He was totally quite as not to wake Minori. Yet, little did he know of the plethora of sadness he was about to experience. After he was fully relieved of his bladder he headed back into the room and what he saw next made his knees go weak and his stomach feel sick...

'Minori-chan?' the bed was empty. Her things were gone. The only thing letting Yuuki know that she was once here was a package with an envelope on top. Yuuki sat on the roof in utter silence, the stars were b his only companions. Why? Where? Who? These questions plagued Yuuki and he desperately wanted answers. He stared at the envelope that he held in his hands, her scent; the scent of strawberries and lavender lingered on it. Did she not care for him like he did for her? Minori in the beginning was just a task sent to him the organization he loath with a passion. But as the time went on even without her ability to speak he found, she was really sweet, kind, and caring. He'd fallen in love with her. He was so happy he'd met her. He hadn't felt true happiness from anyone besides...Makoto.

But now, his happiness was gone. 'Minori-chan, why'd you leave me?' Yuuki finally opened the envelope and pulled out the contents that resided inside. It was a letter... hell even the note had her scent on it. He looked at Minori's beautiful hand writing and began reading...

Yuuki there's no doubt that you're reading this letter, and I truly am sorry for making you worry about me. So don't blame yourself, please. I'm truly, truly grateful that you saved me that day, I was able to meet so many nice people, you, Sakura, Toki, Rei, Rui, and Hajime. The happiness you were all able to show me, help shed light on my dark life, and even if it was only for a little... some of the paper was wet letting Yuuki know that Minorihad been crying as she sat there as she wrote this.

Being able to laugh with you all, have fun with you all, going to school. These are moments that you guys have given that I wouldn't change for the world...so, Yuuki thank you from the bottom of my heart. It greatly saddens me that I won't be able to see you all again, but I had my reasons for leaving...so please don't bother with trying to find me, I'm probably long gone by now.

The letter stopped there. Yuuki hadn't noticed, but he had crumbled a bit of the paper as he read continually read the paper over and over. He loved Minori, he wanted her—no, he needed her back in his life again, and if that meant he had to explore every inch of this city to do so, even if he had to go through people to find her, so be it! Yuuki took the letter stuffed it in his pocket.

'Minori, I love you and I will bring you back!'

And with that Yuuki was off faster than you could say "go"

~Code Breaker~

The guy was inching closer the glint of the moonlight reflecting on the blade. This was how she was going to die—or so she thought. Suddenly, what sounded like a wolf's howling could be heard. It sounded extremely close, but where was it? "W-what the hell was that?" one of them asked slightly frightened. "I-I don't know, but—Ah!" the guys were so preoccupied with where the howling was coming from, they hadn't noticed that the very creature had used it has a distraction and was coming for them. The wolf had jump out of the bush it had been hiding in and was successfully able clamp his teeth firmly into the leaders shoulder. The leader was ecstatic, he tried punch the wolf to get him off, but he wouldn't budge. The other guys heard their leader's distress and went to help him, quickly forgetting about Minori in the process.

Minori quickly dropped to her knees. She felt dirty, defiled, and rotten. Not to mention she was shaking uncontrollably, tears also once again made their way down her face. She moved her right hand slightly and a searing pain shot up from her wrist through her whole body. 'My wrist is—' she dropped to the ground in extreme agony. The pain was setting in, it was becoming unbearable, and her vision was getting blurry. The last thing she saw was the wolf was walking toward her, he had what seemed to be a look sympathy on its face, something in the back of Minori's mind told her that this wolf wasn't all that it made its self out to be. "W-who are—" but before she could finish she was incased in darkness.

~Code Breaker~

Minori felt as though she was suspend in mid-air. There was nothing but darkness around her. 'Where am I? Suddenly fits of laugher could be heard. Minori couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Minori's your name? I think that's a pretty name." she heard a familiar voice says, but whose voice was it? "My name is Yuuki" Minori felt herself falling upward. 'Yuuki, I-I'm, I-I—' she was never able to finish the sentence before she was blinded by a bright white light.

Minori slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and noticed she wasn't in the park anymore. She seemed to be in a room. Was she back at Shibuya house? If she was then everything she went through was absolutely meaningless. 'Damn, can't I do anything right?' she looked around and noticed that this room definitely wasn't her room at Shibuya house, this place didn't have the same layout and air about it compared to Shibuya house. Minori was now fully rested she felt she should at least try to get a better view of her new surroundings.

Minori sat up pulled to covers back, she looked and noticed that her right wrist was cover in a splint and bandages. As she got up she moved her wrist at tad thus causing a short burst of pain to ripple her, she winced slightly because of this. Before she left the room, she walked over to the mirror, someone had taken her pervious clothes off and dressed her with an oversized button up shirt and sweat pants. Think about this made her blush heavily. 'That means they...' she shook her head trying to get rid of the terrible thought. Even so, whoever this person was they'd saved her life and she was eternally grateful. After checking herself in the mirror a little bit longer, she finally decided to leave the room.

She opened the door slowly, it creaked a little as she did so, as she popped her head outside the door, she noticed the place she was in seemed to be a small apartment. There was a light brown colored couch, a wooden bookshelf with books, a small T.V. positioned in the corner. There was a table and fours chairs positioned a little ways from the kitchen.

"Oh, you're up," a gruff, but kind sounding voice said. Minori jumped at the sound of the voice. She slowly turned around and saw a guy with messy black hair and a tattoo on his face. He was wearing a black short sleeved shirt and sweat pants. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, but you've been out for three days." Minori's eyes widened slightly at hearing this. "So, are you hungry?" he asked. Suddenly the sound of growling could be heard, pretty much affirming his answer. "I'll take that as a "yes" then," she chuckled. "Go sit at the table, I hope you like left over spaghetti. I'm kind of running low on food, thankfully my roommate Yukihina decided to go to the store."

Minori watched as her unknown savior fished inside his refrigerator until he came across what he was looking for, a white container which Minori guess held to confines of the spaghetti. She then watched as he pulled out two plates from the cupboard and began to dish out the food onto the plates and place them one by one in the microwave. After about forty minutes. The guy came walking in with two piping hot plates of spaghetti.

"Here ya go." He placed one of the plates in front of her with a fork stabbed into the middle, she gave him a short nod giving her, her thanks. He then sat across from her. "So what's your name? My names Kouji," he said. Minori remained silent for a moment before she got up from the table and headed back into the guestroom where her stuff resided. Kouji cocked an eyebrow in confusion at the girl's sudden exit. Minori eventually came back with a notepad in her hand and began writing. Seeing this seemed to baffle Kouji further. "Um..." before he could even question what she was doing to the notepad was thrust into his face, he blinked a couple times, before his body responded and he grabbed the notepad and began reading the content that was written on the pages.

"So, your name is Minori Ichikawa, huh?"

She nodded. "And you were born without the ability to speak?" she nodded once again. "Ok, then...can I ask you a question?" she gave a short nod. "What were you doing in the park so late at night?" Kouji asked. He watched as Minori's once carefree demeanor, changed rather quickly. Her eye brows furrowed together and her eyes seems worried and scared. She was also fidgeting a little bit. He did mean to make her uncomfortable, but having seen what he saw...how people could be so cruel as to take advantage of someone as kindhearted and sweet and least from what he could tell—it just wasn't right.

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence, before Minori decided to breakdown and tell her story. –I ran away. She handed him the notepad "Why?" he asked. –I-I, I'm trying to protect people that are very dear to me. No, matter where I go pain and destruction always seem to follow and they've all been so kind to me this is my only way of keeping them out of harm's way. Minori looked away slightly, he must have thought her a coward, running away from her problems instead of facing them head on. That's what she thought of herself. What she supposed to do, let the people she cared for get killed just for the like of her? It made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it. If the only way she could make sure they were safe was to disappear from their lives completely, then so be it.

"I see. Then if that's the case, then feel free to stay for as only as you'd like. But Ichikawa-chan, know this...you will eventually have to come to terms with all that's happened. I've learned from my vast experiences that no matter hard you try, you can never and I mean never out run your past, try as you might."

CODE 10: END

A/N: Well, here's another chapter, I hope you all enjoy. I actually had fun writing this one. Oh, and thank you guys for every follow and favorite. It really brings me absolute joy knowing you guys in enjoy my work:)