[Edit: I had to edit this chapter because I put the wrong song on the first published one. :x Whoops. Also, is it just me or do the chapters look a LOT shorter on fanfiction then they do on your writer? ;/;]

So I know I said I'd update at 20 reviews, but I know already that's not happening. The reason I am updating is because a few days ago, I checked my mail on my iPod, and I found out I had about 10 new messages. Figuring they were from those idiot sites I sign up for, I decided to look at them then delete them.

SO MANY OF YOU FAVORITED THIS. ;_;

I kept getting a bunch of emails for a few days after that from either this story, and one from my old Pandora Hearts one, and it made me feel happy. I would've updated right then and there, but I've had a REALLY hard week, even today was the same. ._. Just dealing with grades and these bullies (LOL that sounds like a first grade word) in my math class kinda brings me down.

HOWEVER. I FINALLY GOT OFF MY LAZY ASS AND WROTE THE NEXT CHAPTER. The song to listen to for this is "Goo Goo Dolls – Iris."

Also, I got a question at the end of this chapter for you guys. :D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any Shugo Chara! Or any characters affiliated with it, nor do I own any songs/lyrics/titles that I use in my stories.

Usually when you wake up, you'll find yourself in a warm, comfortable bed. You'll feel slight anger at the sun for mercilessly coming up to help wake you up. You'd cower under the covers, trying to escape the new day and travel back into a world of magic and darkness.

Yet, I'm sure every day that you do this, you're completely unaware of how lucky you are to simply have the gift of a pleasant place to sleep.

While you're too busy complaining for waking up an hour too early, you don't know that there's a young, teenage girl out sleeping in the streets, who would kill to feel something other then the hard stones beneath her hands. While you're trying to shield yourself from something as simple as the sun, I'm sure that girl wishes she had a blanket, a coat, or something, to hide her away from the rest of the world.

Everything is taken for granted.

It wasn't the ice cold rock that seemed to tremble with her that ended up waking Amu up, nor was it the wind that left an algid burn across her exposed skin. The scurries of the animals outside, not even the cry of the cicadas were enough to even make the heartbroken girl flinch in her dreams. They were probably wonderful dreams.

What did wake her up, however, was the feeling of something that matched the winds coldness that seemed to tickle her feet uncomfortably.

Her golden eyes shot open at the sudden contact. She moved her eyes down to her foot, where that odd feeling still lay, but only to be met with disappointment. It was still very early in the morning, and the sun hadn't risen enough for her to get a good look at whatever was touching her. Since the sun, however, was barely beginning to rise on the other side, she figured if she stood up and turned around, she'd get a better idea, right?

So, with that idea in mind, she began to get up. However, sleeping on a cold ground for a few hours and trying to get up just a few minutes after being awoken from your asleep doesn't lead to great results. Her knees began to wobble, and soon enough, the clumsy girl lost her balance, and she fell.

Correction: She fell on someone.

Amu groaned in pain from her fall, despite having a little fall breaker before her. It took her a second or two to realize that she hadn't hit the ground, but had hit someone else. She quickly let out a sharp gasp, and backed away from the figure. She turned away, and didn't even bother to say sorry. Her face was too flushed from embarrassment to be able to face him.

Curiosity struck her in an instant. Who is that, and why exactly are they sleeping in an empty lot? Then again the could easily say the same for me.. but still. Struggling to find her voice, she took a deep breath in, then managed to say, "U-um.. who are you..?" she questioned nervously. When there was no reply, another wave of puzzling thoughts hit her once more. Well.. maybe he, or she, is still asleep? I fell pretty hard though, didn't I? Then why won't he, or she, speak up to me? Are they just playing dumb or are they just embarrassed as me..?

Wait.. has it even moved?

Amu gulped, then warily put her hand on her shirt, to only feel that same odd sticky substance invade her now dirty hand.

Her eyes widened, and her body began to tremble vigorously. Just like any other person would, she tried to put herself into denial in what it really was. It was human nature; when something is too hard for you, you reject it and put in the back of your head, convincing yourself that it's something else to simply make it better for yourself.

Humans are such idiots.

She lifted her hand into the air, and turned herself around to face away from the person laying beneath her, and face the city in front of her where the sun's lights were shining brightly, lighting up each and every detail in all its glory.

Her small, pale hand too, got a chance to feel this glory, as she watched the red on her hand glisten lightly under the suns touch.

She had to take a step or two back, which probably wasn't that good of an idea since, once again, her legs began to feel weak, though I doubt she'd let herself fall down again. Her head felt dizzy. Her forehead felt hot and cold at the same time. Without turning around, she looked back at where she fell, to see the scene as the sun washed over it as well.

A lingering stench.

Little drips of blood leaving an eerie echo in the air.

Loss of life.

Four men.

Ominous animal cries.

Red stained titles.

Young teenager.

Older men.

Undeniable deaths.

All of those, each and every one of those, were what Amu had seen before her eyes.

Her teeth clenched as she grabbed a firm hold of her hair. When I said things couldn't get any worse, it was a statement, not a challenge..

She fell down to a crouched position. Her feet stayed planted on the ground as her knees moved up towards her head. With a tight jaw, closed eyes, and a raging sorrow passing through her, she let out a blood-curling scream, which ended up sending memories of Tadase's death through her brain, only making her scream louder.

The sky willingly listened to her cries in shock, agony, pity, horror..

Amu, however, probably didn't expect that her screams would end up rising up one of the dead.

Really, she didn't.

When her shriek of trauma finally came to an end, she got down on her knees, panting and crying. The killer.. is the killer still here? Who are these men anyways? N-Nadeshiko's friends? The one who are supposed to give me a place to STAY? Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! What the hell is wrong with this world?

"Calm down. You're safe. Isn't that all that matters?"

She blinked at the sudden voice in the seemingly empty lot. Another reminiscence came through to her as the words echoed in her head. His voice, that reassuring, husky, velvet voice..

I guess it took her a minute to realize who exactly she knew that had a voice like this, but when she did, only one thought crossed her mind.

The murderer strikes again.

Amu hesitantly turned around to see Ikuto, covered in the blood of the other men and staring at her intently. His eyes held this weird, unnamed emotion in them, that Amu didn't bother to figure out. To her, the only emotion this man had was the ability to have no emotions at all.

"Y-you.. you killed.. k-killed all these.. p-people.. you.. n-no.."

Ikuto separated his gaze from her. Whether she knew it or not, he hated seeing her look at him like that. Like he was some heartless, cruel man that didn't care who's lives he ruined. What she said was true, however, but he still didn't want to make her feel more uneasy and frightened as she was.

But, no matter how upset she got, this was one murder he would never regret, nor apologize for.

Her voice woke him up from his thoughts, "W-why.. do you enjoy this.." she began, gaining some strength to walk closer towards the man, "Do you just LOVE killing innocent people? Answer me, do you? You.. you monster!"

Ikuto's heart skipped a beat at her choice of words. Unexpected anger began to swell over his face and his body. He quickly ran up to Amu, and took a nice, tight hold of her wrist, then proceeded to slam her against the wall he was sleeping up against just a few minutes ago.

The girl whimpered in pain from the sudden contact as the older teen grabbed a hold of both her hands and raised them above her head to keep from protesting. That didn't stop her, however, from running her mouth at him, "You pervert! Let me go, right now! I ha-"

He decided to cut off her harsh words by returning the slap that she gave to him during their first encounter.

Without giving her time to recover, he began, "Listen to me, Amu! Whether you believe it or not, I'm not the enemy! If I stayed on your side, YOU'D be the one getting hurt. If I explain everything to you they'll kill you, if I don't they'll kill you, if I help you they'll kill me! But I still try to, you know why? You actually mean something to me, you hear me? Out of all the years of losing people and hurting more, I finally find someone I can care ab-"

"THAT'S A LIE!"

A shudder of fear ran down Ikuto's back as he stepped away from the pissed off girl. She grabbed a hold of both sides of her pounding head, her bangs bent over her eyes as she struggled to stand up against her mental stability, which was beginning to drain by the second.

"Lies. It's all a lie. You.. I'll never believe you.. Liar.. Liar.." Ikuto's heart began to ache at her words, then again it was his own fault that she had not a reason in the world to trust a thing he did or said.

But it still hurt.

Amu sank down against the ground, crying silently to herself, not caring that someone older than her was watching. Whether she liked it or not, those words of his began to penetrate her heart. Part of her wanted to trust him.. but her mind wouldn't let her. Not after killing Tadase. Not after the shooting. Not after being taken away from the place she thought she belonged to.

The conflicting emotions that burned inside of her just made her head pound even more.

Ikuto smiled sadly at the small girl, trying to hold everything back as he made his way towards her, she flinched at the sound of his footsteps. She looked up at him with big, teary eyes in wonder.

He sighed and shut his eyes, figuring something like this can be saved for another time. He made sure he really looked at her before her turned and left. The flaming red that seemed to increase on her cheeks as he started intensely at her told him his job was done.

"One day, when you become our heroine and save everyone, I'll come back for you and explain everything. I'll show you a life beyond this town. We'll live together, you'll fall in love with me, and we'll forget each and every day of this tragic December. Don't forget it."

Yaya's POV:

Everything's changing, even Yaya is changing!

This city me and Kairi are in right now, it's a nightmare! Kairi told me that something "extremely unexpected and highly unpredictable had occurred in the depths at 19:00 last night, and it is our duty as citizens to help the unprotected."(Anyone know what 19:00 is? Yaya needs to work on her math sometime, if I ever get back in a math class room again that is!)

Yaya isn't too sure what happened EXACTLY. I guess someone had gotten the smart idea from someone in our town to take that poisonus gas that was let out of that home and spread it around here? Great, now EVERYTHING is flammable here!

So why are we here? Honestly, I dunno. Kairi said I'd be a great help though, and I really hope I am!

Kairi, Kairi, Kairi.. he doesn't seem to be changing much, in fact he seems perfectly fine with how things are! I wonder how Amu-chi's doing? And everyone else? I hope they're ok.. I wonder how they've changed?

Yaya's been thinking about things lately now that it's just me and Kairi. I guess I'm getting quieter, maybe even more mature? Yay! But reality seems to just be the first thing on my mind. Usually Yaya would just go with the flow, but lots of things hit me that I can't think outside of my head.

Like, why would Kairi take ME to a flammable city? We could die here any minute! And why are all these weird things happening? Is it just me or is Kairi acting a little stranger right now? He seems to talk to me more, smile more, blush more, I mean it's cute but it's something SO new to me! Will I ever see my friends again? I better! They needs to make sure I'm a-ok! Plus, I can't wait to show them how mature Yaya is getting!

I'm really happy right now, though. We're sleeping in some hotel together, and it feels so romantic right now? I look at Kairi, who's sound asleep beside me. It's nighttime, the time of the day where I like to slip into a fantasy, to block off all the bad things in my life.

Nighttime; it's the state of bliss you think you're dreaming, it's the happiness inside that you're feeling. It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry.

I really, really, really hope this innocence lasts.

Song for "It's the state of bliss.. you wanna cry." is Avril Lavigne – Innocence. (One of my favorite artists. Beautiful, beautiful songs that describe everything.)

My question for you guys is THIS:

Look up these two songs "Higurashi – Dear You" and "Angel Beats – Ichiban no Takarmono." Listen to them both and read the english lyrics if you can. (Both of them have a video with the lyrics in the description or on the video.) When you listen to them both, if you can, leave a review telling me which song sounds more beautiful, yet sad. I can't decide. (And this isn't just for myself, it's actually to decide a song for a VERY important future chapter.) ((I can't go back and add this at the top because for some reason when I type something, it erases whatever is in front of it. For the Higurashi one it'll say "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – You – Lyrics" that's the same as "Dear You," so click that one. ;D))

THIS SHOULD'VE BEEN UP TUESDAY. D: I REALLY wanted to type this up Tuesday, but I left my notebook at school. Then yesterday we had just gotten back from the High School tour for next year and I was like 'yeah i'm going home' and COMPLETELY forgot about it. ;_; So I'm sorry this is so late.

Again, THANK YOU. TO EVERYONE THAT FAVORITED THIS (And me, it feels kinda cool to think that people can favorite you ;D) IT MEANS A HELLA LOT TO ME. ;3; YOU'RE ALL AMAZING AND ILU.

Please R&R!

(P.S. There was a secret message somewhere in the story.)