When I got to school the next day, I saw that Kairi must have been busy during the night. Almost every group of chatting students I passed on the way in had at least one of the X-CDs. I'll probably have to work hard tonight at distributing my CDs. Otherwise Yukari and Kazuomi might get angry with me for falling behind, I thought with a sigh. The Darkness had been enough to tire me out last night, and so all of my CD's were still sitting around in my room. And even though I'd gone to sleep at a decent hour, my night had been far from restful; the nightmares were back.

"It looks like Kairi still isn't taking your advice," Azami commented. "Will you finally admit that wasting time on anyone but yourself isn't going to do anything?"

I shrugged and pulled my cell phone out of my book bag. I pretended to talk into the phone as I said to Azami, "Give him a couple days. I bet Kairi will figure it out."

"And that's exactly my point," Azami retorted. "He'll be figuring it out, not listening to your advice. In the end, he'll just be doing what he would have done anyway, even without your advice. He didn't trust you enough to listen. You went through the trouble of warning him for nothing. That's why dragons don't worry about anyone else but themselves."

Ouch. I'd never really thought of that - what if Kairi really didn't trust me? It would make a lot of sense; after all, his chara is an honorable samurai, while my chara is a dragon who doesn't know the meaning of honor. And I'd told him last night that I'd joined Easter because I'd wanted to, and he'd seen how I ignored my parents completely. Azami was probably right. Kairi was probably deliberately ignoring my advice, perhaps guessing that it was all a ploy by Easter.

Exactly like how I didn't trust Ikuto when he tried to warn me about the crystal, I thought grimly. Then again, I couldn't really believe that. I still liked Kairi, and I wanted to believe that he could believe in me. "I don't think that's it. This is just a big decision for him. He can't make up his mind, that's all. He's probably thinking about my advice, but he either hasn't made his final decision or simply hasn't had the right chance to get away from his sister's orders."

Azami scowled at me. "Why in the world are you so bent on hoping that he'll quit Easter? I thought you said that you were going to stop liking Kairi."

"I never said that. I just said that I wasn't going to keep hoping for something that wouldn't happen," I answered. "And I've stuck with that. There's still no way that he'd ever like me, and I've already come to terms with that. I'm not planning on trying to start any sort of relationship." This was completely true, and I'd grown so used to the fact that it didn't even bother me to say it out loud. "Still, I can't stop myself from liking him. If it's any consolation to you, the feeling will probably fade as the fact finally sinks in that even a friendship with him wouldn't work." This thought actually cheered me up a bit; I didn't want to keep on being interested in someone who I'd never be able to be with.

Azami wasn't satisfied. "So if you're not trying to encourage anything, why do you keep helping him?" When I wasn't able to come up with an answer right away, she continued, "Just forget about him. Let him deal with his own problems, while we deal with ours."

"Maybe you're right..." I said.

"Of course I am," Azami said, as if that was all there was to be said on the matter.

We were still outside the school, and there was still a good bit of time before school started. I decided to go inside and find Kairi, despite Azami's advice to forget about him. As I walked through the hallways, I saw more and more people holding CDs, talking in excited whispers. I doubted anyone had actually listened to it yet, since most people didn't bring CD players to school. Azami protested when she figured out where I was going, but I just kept walking.

I found Kairi at his locker, putting some books away. He looked very tired, and I couldn't blame him; he must have been up a while to get all these CDs distributed. I came up behind him and said, "It looks like you got quite a bit done last night."

Kairi jumped a little and turned around, then relaxed a little when he saw that it was me. "Oh, it's you, Yamada-san. Yes, my sister brought me here right after we left your house. But is it really okay for us to be talking about this here?"

"It's noisy enough in this hallway that we won't be heard," I said. "And with these 'mysterious CDs' showing up overnight, I don't think it's too out of the ordinary for two Guardians to be talking. So how many CDs did you give out?" It was nice to be talking to Kairi like this. It's not like this was the most casual of conversations, but he really did seem to be a little bit more friendly than he normally was when we were talking at school. A small hope flared at the back of my mind; maybe we really could be friends. At least until he decides to switch sides.

"I got rid of a full bag last night," Kairi replied. "My sister didn't want me to give them all away at once."

Something occurred to me, so I asked, "You didn't give any to the other Guardians, did you?"

He looked down at the ground, as if ashamed. "Yes, I did. My sister said that if she wanted to get rid of the Guardians, and that this could do just that."

I paled slightly. If they all listened to that CD, then what would become of them? Pepe, Miki, Kususkusu, and all the others would probably turn into X-eggs. And Amu, Tadase, Yaya, and Rima would all be reduced to hopeless shells, without any real purpose. I was okay if that happened to Rima (in fact, I hoped it would happen to her as quickly as possible), but I didn't really want all the others to be like that. No matter how distant I'd been from them lately, they were still my friends.

But what could I do? If I warned them about it, they'd know I was part of the source of the problem. And Easter would figure out that I'd warned them, and I'd get punished. The only thing I could think to do was speed up Kairi's switch to the 'good' side, so that he could stop them.

"Is that really what you want?" I asked. "You do realize that if it works, there probably won't be any way to get them back to their regular selves, don't you?"

Before Kairi could answer, Azami flew right in front of my face and hit me in the forehead with her tail. "Ouch!" I said as I took a step back and rubbed my forehead. "What was that for?"

Azami glared at me with such ferocity that I was absolutely speechless as she said, "Will you just listen to me for once! Every time I suggest something, you act like you listen, and then you just keep on going along with your stupid human inclinations! Do you even want to be a dragon anymore!?! Because lately, I haven't seen you act like a dragon at all! Do you want me to disappear?!? Are you really willing to give up your own dreams so easily!?! You've got to let go of the Guardians eventually if you want to be a dragon, and now is as good a time as any!"

Kairi and Musashi were right there, listening to all of this, but I was too flabbergasted to even think about them. Azami was totally right. The past few days, all I'd been doing was trying to help Kairi, even though I knew that he never really cared that much about me. This was probably the main reason why Azami was angry. The thought of her disappearing opened a pit of worry in my stomach; I would never be able to bear that happening. Even if I didn't act like it a lot of the time, I still desperately wanted to be a dragon, and Azami was the only one who could help me with that. If I didn't listen to her, then I'd always be just another person.

"You're right," I admitted softly, feeling thoroughly ashamed. Still, there was something else that was bothering me. "But why did you encourage me to help the Guardians at the end of last semester, then?"

"Because that was about choosing to do what you wanted," Azami said, still glaring. "The most important thing then was to not let yourself be forced to do something you didn't want to do. As long as you disobeyed Nikaido, I didn't care what the reason for it was. But now, we don't have a choice. And honestly, even if we did have a choice, I'd still be just as angry about this! You've got to grow up sometime and realize that a dragon has absolutely no need for friends."

But what if I've been wrong all this time? Wrong about wanting to become a dragon? What if Azami really isn't what I want to be? I thought, suddenly consumed with doubt. The Darkness flared, feeding my doubt to depressingly high levels. What if-

Thankfully, my thoughts were interrupted Yaya dashed up to Kairi and me, completely breaking up the tension. "Hey, Kairi-kun and Miyuki-chi! Did you see all these weird CDs everywhere? They all just appeared overnight!"

"Very strange, dechu~" Pepe added.

Kairi recovered more quickly than I could. "Er, yes. We were just talking about it. Did you get one, Yuiki-san?"

Yaya nodded enthusiastic and dug through her bookbag, dropping papers and pens all over the floor. "Yep! Here it is!" She finally pulled the black CD from her bag. "But Yaya doesn't have anything here to listen to it on! Do you two have a CD player?"

Finally having enough sense to respond, I said, "I don't have one." Yaya looked hopefully over to Kairi, but he shook his head.

Yaya pouted, and looked like she was going to have a tantrum. "Yaya wants to listen to it now!"

It was about then that everyone started heading to their respective classrooms, which meant that Kairi and I could avoid the tantrum. "There's only a couple minutes left until class, and I don't want to be late," I said, hastily backing away. "I'll see both of you at lunch." Kairi said his farewells, too, and Yaya immediately snapped out of her grumpy mood in order to get to her own class.

* * *

All that morning, my thoughts hovered around what Azami had said. What if trying to be a dragon really isn't the best thing for me to do? Maybe that explains why I've been acting stupid enough to get Azami so angry with me. Maybe I just can't do it, or maybe I just don't really want to. The Darkness started feeding my hopelessness at the thought. I quickly did my best to shake it off. No! That can't be it. I know that's not it. I've wanted to be a dragon for so long. And through my chara-nari, I've felt what it's like to be one. To be responsible only to myself, and to get strength from that fact. I've never felt anything equal to that. I know that I still want to be a dragon.

But... I'm such a failure. I thought, as the Darkness continued to hound my thoughts. When Azami hatched and I finally got the chance to be a dragon, I decided to be human by making friends. And even if I could keep them as friends, I've already lied to them and betrayed them too much for that to ever happen. I fail at being a dragon, and I fail at being a human. If I'm going to be a dragon, I've got to commit myself to that goal only. Nothing else can get in the way.

Despite my resolve to really become a dragon, the Darkness kept on clouding my thoughts. The boost from last night had definitely worsened it, though it didn't seem quite as big of a change as last time. When lunch finally came around, I was thoroughly depressed, though I did my best not to let it show. As I had expected, we talked solely about the CDs. All of them had received a CD, but none of them had listened to it yet. Most kids around here had an mp3 of some sort if they wanted to listen to music, and since no one mentioned any X-eggs popping up yet, I was now guessing that absolutely nobody had a CD player that they brought to school.

What surprised me was that, for the most part, the Guardians didn't seem at all concerned. Yaya was just excited about listening to the CD when she got home. She had heard a rumor that it was by an up-and-coming band that had been playing in the area recently. I nearly choked on my food when I heard this, since that was almost exactly the truth. I guess that, for all the absolute nonsense rumors that went around this school, one or two of them had to be true every now and then.

Tadase said that as long as the lyrics were kid-friendly, then there was no reason for the Guardians to interfere. He did wonder who could have gotten them into the school and distributed so many, and he thought that if it happened again, the Guardians might need to investigate. Other than that, he wasn't very worried.

Amu was the only one who seemed slightly unsure about it. She didn't really seem suspicious, but she didn't seem very relaxed about the issue, either. I had to admit it; Amu had a great sense of intuition. Rima said that she agreed with Amu, being too much of a brainless brat to come up with her own thoughts on the matter.

I mostly stayed out of the conversation, only saying something when I absolutely needed to. Azami's rant from this morning was still fresh on my mind, and I was still ashamed at what a pitiful excuse for a dragon I was right now. The Darkness was making me feel almost certain that I'd never be a dragon, and yet that somehow made me all the more determined to keep trying. Which meant that I had to stop being so friendly with the others.

When lunch was over, I went back to class. As the afternoon progressed, the Darkness got slightly better, but not much. But I appreciated feeling even that little bit better. Azami continued to act rather annoyed with me, as if to emphasize the fact that she was truly angry about the current situation. And I couldn't really blame her for it. The school day seemed to drag on forever, and eventually my mind wandered away from the topic of my lack of dragon-ness. I started wondering when the first X-egg would appear. And I wondered how long it would take for everyone in the school to listen to the CDs. But that was all just speculation, and I didn't focus on it too much; I'd probably find out later tonight just how effective the CDs were.

More importantly, I wondered what Kairi thought about me now, after hearing what Azami had to say this morning. Though I hadn't really been focused on him at the time, I now remembered that he'd seemed fairly shocked. I got the sense that, before this morning, he'd thought that I really wasn't too bad. And now, I wasn't sure what he thought. At lunch, he'd consistently avoided talking to me or even making eye contact with me.

And, to my surprise, I found that I really didn't care what he thought of me anymore. I still liked him, but it was almost as if the feeling was buried somewhere deep within me. And at that thought, I realized that I was thinking in a drastically different way today than I had been yesterday. I hadn't really listened to Azami's instructions for what seemed like months, and today, I was suddenly listening to and agreeing with everything she told me. It was an so different that I wasn't sure what to call it, but if I had to describe it... Well, I guessed I would say that I felt hardened.

It must have been happening since the beginning of this semester, when I first felt the sting of what the crystal could do to me, I thought, everything suddenly seeming very clear to me. I've been slow to recognize it, but now I see why I started growing so distant. Part of it was because of Rima, and part of it was just because I wasn't in the same class with Amu anymore. But mostly... mostly it was because I was learning that I was in trouble, and that no one could help me. Amu had her own problems with Dia turning into an X-egg, and I couldn't even tell Mai because she doesn't have a chara. And then Azami's little speech this morning was what really made me open my eyes and see the facts. I can't rely on anyone else. If I want to get out of the mess I'm in, then I have to rely on my own strength.

I suppose I should have been sad about all this, but I couldn't. Now that I'd realized it, I knew that this was just how the world works. If anything, I just felt all the more determined to become a dragon. Sure, I still didn't particularly want to hurt the Guardians, but if there was no way to avoid it, then so be it. And I'd still be friends with Mai, but I resolved to stop it from becoming any more best-friendish than it already was. Ultimately, everyone is alone in the world, and the illusion of friendship wouldn't change that. Azami was the only one I could really count on, since she was a part of me.

Still, when the school day ended, I couldn't completely abandon my loyalty to Mai as a friend. My feelings and thoughts were so mixed right now, but I knew I still liked her. And unless I warned her about the CDs now, then she would have her dream ripped away. Again. I had felt horrible enough doing it to her last time, and I doubted anyone deserved to have an egg of the heart taken away once, nonetheless twice.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Miyuki," Mai said after the end-of-the-day bell had rung. She knew I had a Guardian meeting today, and this was normally all we said whenever I had to hurry down to the Royal Garden.

But, of course, today was different. "Wait a minute, Mai," I said. Mai paused and stopped packing her bag, looking at me curiously. All the other students milled in their own groups around us, but none payed any attention to us. I continued, "Did you get one of those CDs?"

Mai shook her head. "No," she replied. "Are you feeling okay? You've been looking more out-of-it than usual today."

"I've been better, but I'm okay," I said, smiling meekly. "But about the CDs... This is going to sound weird, and I can't really explain, so you'll just have to trust me, okay? And you can't tell anyone."

Mai nodded. "What is it? Is something wrong with them?"

"As I said, I can't explain, but just do me a favor and don't listen to any of them, under any circumstances. All right?" I tried not to sound too foreboding, but I was talking as seriously as possible, to let her know that this wasn't a joke of some kind.

Mai looked concerned and puzzled, but she didn't argue. "Okay."

"Thanks," I said. "Anyway, I've got to go now. I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you," Mai replied, still seeming a bit confused.

I left the room, walking slowly despite the fact that I was already somewhat late to the Guardians meeting. As I walked, Azami went off on another rage. "You see!?! You're still helping people out! You are-"

"Stop," I said plainly, not caring if anyone else thought I was talking to myself. I'm not sure if it was my tone or something else, but Azami immediately quieted down and looked intently at me. I didn't look back at her, though; I just kept on looking straight forward. "I heard you this morning. And you're right. From here on out, I'm going back to really trying to be a dragon. I think I'll be able to let go of Amu and the Guardians... they've got each other to rely on, after all, so I don't need to feel too bad about that. But while Mai has other friends, she thinks of me as her best friend, and I think the same about her. Please, just give me a while to adjust. I really want to try." Saying all this out loud seemed to cement it for me; this was how it was going to be from now on.

Now, I really am going to become a dragon. Even if I have to rip out my heart and emotions to do it.

Azami scrutinized me. After a few seconds, she asked, "Are you really saying this? Or is the X-energy making you?"

I briefly closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I can't be sure, to be honest," I said. "The Darkness has been messing with my thoughts all day. But... but I think I'm committed this time."

"You mentioned the Guardians and Mai, but what about Kairi?" Azami questioned.

"I haven't known him for nearly as long as the others, and I really haven't talked to him all that much, either. Now that I can think about it differently, I guess I was just desperate for someone I could relate to." I knew this was only half-true, but it was true nonetheless. And the other half of the truth was now buried so deep within me that it couldn't do anything to argue.

Azami flew over in front of my face and looked directly into my eyes. I kept walking, and my chara just floated backwards, always making sure she was a few inches in front of me. After a few moments of this, a grin broke out on her face. "Then lighten up!" She said, doing a few circuits around my head. "Being a dragon is fun, once you get used to it. It's like playing an instrument; you hate it at first, but eventually you're able to upstage everyone else with your skill. Then you'll be the one enjoying yourself while everyone else is still failing to learn the notes."

Even in my current mood, Azami's enthusiasm was contagious. I smiled. "And since when have you resorted to using music to make a point?"

Azami stopped circling my head and shrugged. "What can I say? I pick up things when I'm forced to hang around with charas like Miki while you are talking about pointless stuff with the Guardians."

The mention of the Guardians made me lose my smile, but I was still in a generally better mood than I had been in the rest of the day. Which wasn't saying much, though just having Azami not angry with me was enough to keep me in a relatively optimistic mood. Even if I alienate myself from everyone else, I thought, at least this way, I'll still have Azami.

I quite dawdling and hurried over to the Royal Garden. But almost as soon as I reached the door, Azami (who was sitting on top of my head) stiffened.

"What is it?" I asked, not yet opening the door.

In an almost amused voice, she answered, "It's the first of the X-eggs. I'd been wondering when they'd start popping up."

The door in front of me opened, and I was suddenly face-to-face with Tadase. Amu, Yaya, Rima, and Kairi were all behind him. "Yamada-san, where were you?" Tadase asked. Before I could respond, he continued, "No, never mind. There's no time for that. The charas sensed multiple X-eggs in the school, so we need to hurry before they do too much damage. Let's go."

We ran to the school, for once not bothering if the other students stared at us. I followed at the rear, but as we ran, two of the Guardians looked back at me for a moment. Kairi was the first. His face wasn't as expressionless as it usually was, but other than the fact that he was serious, I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Rima was the other, and she glared at me with such obvious suspicion that she must have supposed that I was the source of the X-eggs. I just glared back at her; I could care less about whether she suspected me or not.

We located the X-eggs in the computer lab. A group of six kids from my grade was standing forlornly around one of the computers. Two younger students were also in the lab, each staring blankly at their respective monitors. On the monitor of the screen where the group was gathered, I caught a glimpse of an opened music player program. That would explain it, then. I'm surprised no one else thought of the computers as a means to play the CDs. And clustered mid-air in the center of the room were eight X-eggs.

"How were so many drawn out at once?" Amu wondered aloud. We hadn't seen any X-eggs for about the past week, and so even one would have been a big deal, let alone eight in one room.

The others didn't have any time to guess. X-energy was launched towards us, and we were all forced to jump out of the way. The X-energy flew out through the open door and dissipated when it hit the wall outside. The X-eggs made a dash for the open doorway, but Rima did a quick chara-nari and grabbed the doorknob with one of her 'tightrope dancer' ropes, pulling it shut. That's the only thing she could possibly be good for - closing doors, I thought as I character-transformed as well. Amu got the drift, and changed into Amulet Clover.

The X-eggs, seeing that they were trapped, now turned to an offensive strategy. "Useless!" They shouted in unison, sending out a salvo of of X-energy in all directions. All the Guardians except for me ducked down to avoid the attack (I didn't need to, since I could just absorb it). I grimaced as it hit computers, shattering monitors and obliterating hard drives all around the computer lab. Glass went flying everywhere, and since I hadn't ducked down in the first place, I soon found my arms and legs covered in scratches. I instinctively stepped backwards, but I brought my foot forward again when I felt shards of glass and plastic digging into my bare feet.

But I'd felt pain much worse than this. I didn't let it bother me. I noted that the eight regular kids had all been knocked to the floor, and they all looked badly scratched, since all of them had been in too much of a daze to avoid the shrapnel.

From inside me, Azami spoke (which, as always, was a weird sensation). "We'd better get rid of those, before we destroy another couple thousand dollars worth of equipment and before we get those other kids killed," my chara said. "Though, admittedly, that'd be pretty interesting to see."

I didn't answer her, though, because now the X-eggs were flying towards the windows, which they had managed to shatter. The other Guardians were still recovering from the X-energy and the glass, and so it was up to me to either stop the X-eggs or let them go. I decided to distract them, because so far I hadn't really done anything. Plus, I wasn't particularly happy about having scratches all over.

"Hey! X-eggs! Look here!" The X-eggs, being the idiotic things that they were, stopped and turned around. I mustered up my best hypnotizing glare, trying to hold them all in place at once. It wasn't easy, since I had to look at the group as a whole, rather than at one individual.

"Amu! Cleanse them now!" Tadase said. He had a scratch on his cheek and a couple more on his arms, but other than that, he looked unscathed.

Amu hurried to get up off the floor. Like Tadase, she had a couple of scratches, but not many. "Oh, right!" she said. A whisk appeared in her hand, and she pointed it towards the immoble X-eggs. "Remake Honey!"

Honey flooded the room, first hitting the X-eggs and then spreading out from there. It did exactly what it was supposed to do; it purified the X-eggs, fixed the computers and windows, and even healed the cuts on everyone else. I remembered just in time that the honey didn't have the same effect on me, and so I practically dove beneath one of the tables. Still, a big glob managed to latch onto one of my wings. I clenched my teeth together, doing my best not to yell out in pain, and then quickly un-transformed. The blob fell heavily on the floor next to me. It disappeared a few seconds later.

"Huh? Miyuki-chi, why'd you duck under the table?" Yaya asked from across the room, apparently already recovered from the battle.

I got out from my hiding spot. All of the Guardians were looking at me curiously. "You're still covered in scratches," Amu, who was still character-transformed, pointed out. "Want me to fix them?"

"No, that's okay," I said quickly. Seeing that I'd have to explain before the others would be satisfied, I said, "Something about Remake Honey just doesn't work quite right with me. It hurts more than it helps."

Rima glared at me, and even Tadase seemed suspicous. "Maybe you're allergic to honey, Miyuki-chi!" Yaya suggested.

"Whatever it is, you need to get to the nurse," Amu said, concerned.

"No, really, it's fine," I insisted. Admittedly, it did look quite bad; though my uniform jacket covered up my arms, my legs had numerous scratches on them. But these were all short and shallow. I'd live. "Besides, what would the nurse say?"

"Why don't you let me walk Yamada-san home?" Kairi asked, obviously trying his best to get away from the Guardians for the moment. Or maybe he needed to talk to me. "Until we know what caused the X-eggs to form, it's probably not safe for Yamada-san to go home alone. But she needs to get some bandages, and she probably needs to rest as well."

Whatever his reasons, I went along with it. "That'd be good - if I've got someone walking next to me, it might help to block my legs from view. I don't need another rumor starting about how I fought off a hoard of lizards or something."

Tadase nodded, and I wondered if I'd just imagined the suspicious look earlier. "Good idea. The rest of us will stay here for now. When these kids wake up, we'll ask them if they remember what they were doing beforehand." I wondered why the Guardians didn't just look at the computer screens, so that they could see for themselves what the kids had been doing. Then I looked over and realized that, even though the computers had been fixed, all of them were turned off.

Kairi and I turned to leave, but before we could exit the room, all of the charas jumped.

"An X-egg!" Kiseki said, looking off towards one of the walls.

"No, it's this way!" Miki said, pointing the opposite direction. "Just a couple blocks away, I think."

Yaya looked back and forth. "Which one of you is right?"

"They're both right, desu~," Su said worriedly. "There's one in both directions, desu~."

"Where are they coming from?" Rima asked quietly, though the glare she was giving me told me that she at least thought that she knew that I was the culprit.

Tadase got that look on his face that made him look like a determined goody-goody. "I don't know, but we have to stop it," Tadase said. "Yamada-san and Sanjo-kun, you two go ahead. Once Yamada-san is back at her house, we'll probably need you to come back and help, Sanjo-kun."

"I understand," Kairi said.

"In the meantime, we'll try and get those X-eggs," Tadase said, turning back to Amu, Rima, and Yaya. "Hinamori-san and Yuiki-san, you two go to the one that Miki sensed. Mashiro-san and I will go after the one Kiseki felt."

We all agreed, and dispersed. All the others rushed out of the school, but Kairi and I hung back. I went to the bathroom first of all, since I had to wash off my cuts.

"Amazing what little pieces of glass can do to you," Azami commented as I took off my uniform jacket and washed my arms.

I didn't answer. I was thinking about what had just happened. I had just helped the Guardians without a second thought on the matter. Maybe I wasn't so committed to being a dragon after all. Then again, whenever an X-egg appears and I'm with the Guardians, we always go after it, so maybe it was enough of a habit that I couldn't really think about it. That has to be it, I thought. If I'd really been doing it to help them, then I'd have been more worried when they got cut up, even if none of them were hurt very badly. In fact, now that I think about it, I'd hardly cared that they'd been hurt. It might've helped that I was in my chara-nari at the time, but even so, maybe this is a sign that I really can be a dragon. I hoped this was right, and so I left it at that.

When I got out of the restroom (limping slightly, due to the gouges in my foot), Kairi was waiting for me. "My sister called. She's waiting for us now." He was speaking in his business-like tone of voice, like he normally did. And yet, somehow, I felt like he was talking coldly to me. I couldn't imagine what could have caused the change, unless he'd finally made up him mind about what Azami had said this morning.

Whatever it was, I no longer minded that much anymore. I also had a strong feeling that I was imagining things, or that perhaps Kairi was upset about something else. Maybe something his sister had said. I didn't know. Anyway, I followed him out to the car. I half expected Utau to be there, too, but it was just Yukari in her generic black car. Both Kairi and I got soundlessly in the back seat, with our charas hovering next to us. But Yukari didn't drive off just yet; instead, she turned to face us.

First of all, she looked me up and down. I could tell that she was examining the scratches. "Kairi told me what happened. You don't look that great, but it doesn't seem serious. It shouldn't slow you down for what I need you to do tonight, at least." Yukari said. "Listen closely, because I don't want to have to say this more than once. According to Kairi, the Guardians have already cleansed eight X-eggs. This isn't much, but I don't want them to keep cleansing eggs all night. I want every X-egg we can get. Kairi and I will be passing out all the CDs we can around the city today, at least until night comes. Once it's dark, we'll just let Utau do her singing. Miyuki, have you passed out your CDs yet?"

"No," I answered flatly.

"Then we'll go by your house and pick those up first," Yukari said as if it were the most logical thin in the world. "While we are doing this, you will be gathering up all the X-eggs as they appear, before the Guardians can get to them. Once you get a big enough group of X-eggs, you'll bring them to the roof of the Easter building. There will be crates up there waiting for you, and all you'll have to do is open one of them, put the eggs in it, and close it again so they can't get out. Do you got all of that?"

I shrugged. "I guess so."

Yukari smiled. Surprisingly, it wasn't a cruel smile; mainly, it was intended to be encouraging. "Good girl. Then there's one last thing you need to know. With the Guardians out and about and with you toting around large amounts of X-eggs, chances are that you'll meet up with them before the night is over. If that happens, don't even bother trying to keep your allegiances secret. Just do what it takes to keep the X-eggs. If you can, give them a thorough beating, so that they'll think twice about messing with Easter again. And if you fail to do all this, then you know the consequences. And this time, it'll be much worse than last night. Understand?"

"Yeah," I said past the knot in my throat. I wasn't too worried about facing the Guardians. As Azami had even said, now was as good a time as any. But I suddenly realized the immensity of it all; I mean, this was it. The one secret I'd been keeping from the Guardians for months would finally be revealed. It would change my life. It would change the Guardians' lives, as well. And perhaps it'd go even farther than that. If this scheme really did get Easter the Embryo, then who knew what would happen.

But even realizing the enormity of tonight, I couldn't help but feel excited. Because tonight, I would have the chance to fly like a real dragon, collecting X-eggs and not caring if the Guardians saw. Perhaps what happened in the coming hours would end a lot, but it could also be a beginning to much more. Maybe all of today had even been leading up to this. Maybe it was even Fate that my sudden change in attitude had come just in time for this, though I was inclined to believe that it had more to do with last night's boost of X-energy. But whatever the case, this was it.

In all likelihood, tonight would be my first battle against the Guardians.

I've got a lot to say, so here goes...

Wow. Eleven reviews on the last chapter! That's the most yet~! Maybe I need to do those 'thank the reviewer' things more often... hehehe... Anyway, thanks to all of you yet again!

Secondly, interesting note on this chapter. Based on several of the reviews, I was going to try and see if I could get Miyuki to confess to Kairi that she liked him. Not in a soppy love-story way, mind you - she would've just let him know, not expecting him to like her back, since just like in the show, Kairi is in love with Amu. However, my plans backfired. Due to Miyuki going into a conversation with Kairi, Azami had her rant, which got Miyuki thinking. And so, rather than a confession of love, we got a loss of innocence in this chapter. And this completely changes what I'd been expecting in the story, since I'd thought that Miyuki would keep on trying to hold on to her friends. Just shows how surprisingly little control I have over the story, despite the fact that I'm the sole person writing it.

So, ironic point of the week for me: I try to start Miyuki in a relationship, and I end with her becoming more distant from everyone, especially Kairi. Go figure. And I probably got you all of you MiyukixKairi fans worked up with that title, but I just couldn't help but be deliberately misleading. Besides, I never said what kind of change of heart it would be~

And a couple more notes on the MiyukixKairi relationship. Like what many of my reviewers have said, I too would like to see a MiyukixKairi relationship. Probably because Kairi is my second favorite male character in the show. But, as shown in this chapter, Miyuki makes decisions whether I like them or not. Also, the reason why Azami never told Miyuki to stay true to her feelings on this matter was because it's undragonish to love someone in the first place. Plus, Azami hates Musashi, and so she wasn't going to do anything to encourage a relationship.

Also, I've got a new poll up. Many of you have probably heard that there is going to be a new season of shugo chara. Basically, I want to know if you'll keep up with this fanfic, even if you end up not liking the new series. I encourage everyone to take it, so I know what to expect~.

And, finally, bad news. Looks like I'm going to be extremely busy this year, between school and multiple other activities. And even though my motivation is up from this past summer, it's not at the level it was during the school year last year. So I'm not going to guarantee a chapter every week, though I will definitely try. To make up for this, if you're ever curious as to how my progress is going on the next chapter, go to my profile and I'll have a section labled 'progress', or something else like that. There, I'll keep you informed on how far along I am, since I know that I hate it whenever I don't know when to expect a new chapter in a story I like.