Author's Note: It's been a while since mentioning a lot of these things that come up in this chapter. Well the last five chapters were only like 2 days, so really they seem longer than they really were. I did that without realizing, sorry XD. So just a reminder (in case any of you forgot) that the Guardians are now a super hero organization (in the eyes of civilians) called the Guardians. So, just a reminder. Oh yes and AMUTO FLUFF!!
Chapter 12: Logic Puzzle
I walked down town with Ikuto. Winter break had just started; Ikuto's cast had been removed – the doctor said that the stiffness would go away with some exercise. We passed a shop with televisions in front of it. All the TV's were switched to a news channel.
"Yesterday afternoon another mob of those... whatever-they-are were spotted just outside the city limits. Reports have said that the Guardians have been seen warding off the monstrosity as best they can—"
"St. Patrick's Day is becoming stronger isn't it?" Ikuto whispered to me. He had been obsessively worrying about me for a long time now. He didn't like it that I was endangering myself by fighting St. Patrick's Day.
"Yes." I said barely loud enough for him to hear. Grabbing his hand I led him away.
We ended up in the shopping district. There were tons of cute little shops, the sort of shops my cool and spicy character would never look at twice. There were quite a few kids from my school around, and so, after staring at one store for a while, I started to walk away. But Ikuto reached for my hand and led me inside.
"Eh!? Ikuto what are you doing?"
"You want to go in there," he said plainly, turning around.
"W-what!? No I don't! Th-th-that shop is for little kids! I'm not a little kid!"
"Don't lie to me. It's obvious you want to go in there so just go all ready!" The way his eyes stared into mine so knowingly made my heart melt. Even though he'd lost his memories of all we'd been through he could still see through all my facades.
"Um... Maybe just a quick look." I murmured as I stepped through the door.
Inside there were aisles and aisles full of stuffed animals and other various items of adorableness. Suddenly I heard whispered behind me,
"Is that Hinamori-san?" murmured a boy.
"No way! What would a cool and spicy girl like her be doing here?" a girl muttered.
"It's not like her," a different girl whispered quietly.
I set down the bracelet I'd been looking down and muttered,
"Ikuto, maybe we should leave." but while I said that he turned around to glare at the three gossiping kids.
"Do you got a problem with my girlfriend?" he demanded them. Shocked, I turned around. A quick glance at the kids told me the boy and one of the girls were freshman and the other girl was a junior.
"How do you know what's like Amu and what isn't? She doesn't go around making stupid assumptions about people! What does it matter to you if she likes places like this?"
"At school she's way to cool! You don't even go to Hinamori-san's school! How would you know her?" the freshman boy, who was obviously an idiot, demanded.
In Ikuto's expression something wavered. Then his eyes turned angry. I knew what he was thinking. 'I've lost my memory. I don't know Amu... But these people don't know her either!'
"You think I don't know my own girlfriend? We... err... we were trapped on an island for a..."
"A month." I whispered.
"A MONTH! You think I wouldn't know her pretty darn well after that?" The freshman was taken aback.
"W-well..." Ikuto was scaring the poor kids. I didn't want Ikuto to be involved with some stupid fight. He'd just end up hurting the idiot. I put on my best cool and spicy look and flipped my hair.
"C'mon Ikuto-koi, don't bother with them. If this turns into a fight you'll just beat the hell out of the poor kid, and besides it doesn't matter, they can think what they want about me." I started walking away.
"Hmph." Ikuto followed me, but then stopped at a register on our way out.
Outside I asked, "Ikuto, what'd you buy?" He grabbed my wrist, sliding on the bracelet I'd been looking at on the opposite wrist of the shell bracelet on my other hand. His deep blue eyes burned into mine.
"I don't remember what happened on that island. I don't remember meeting you. After I lost my memory the first person I saw was you. For me that was my beginning, butt I'm worried if you consider it your end. Would you please, see it as a beginning as well." When he finished saying those words I had to hold back tears. My shoulders shook with the effort.
"I said that. I told you that the night you took me to that amusement park." The pressure of tears was almost over-whelming. Either it was written on my face or Ikuto could just tell because he's Ikuto because he hugged my shoulders and led me out of downtown.
He brought me back to his apartment. He'd been staying there with Utau for a while Inside it had a small Christmas tree and a wreath hung on the front door. He sat me on the couch. I'd pushed the tears back by this time, but I knew I still looked sad.
"You all right?" he inquired. I squeezed Ikuto – the tears came back with a vengeance – and sobbed into his shoulder.
"I LOVE YOU! No matter if you lose you're memory or are abducted by aliens or whatever I will love you! Ikuto, you will always be Ikuto, and I love you for that! It's amazing that you can still love me after losing all memory of me."
"Well I can't believe you love me even though I'm practically the opposite of the Ikuto you knew." I groaned.
"What?" he asked.
"We're having a stupid sappy moment! GOD! Sometimes it feels like my life is a crappy action/romance!" Ikuto laughed and wiped a tear from my cheek. He titled my head up, kissing me with passion quite close to how it used to be.
"Ikuto, Amu!" Utau called, "Ah! I thought you'd be here! The Guardians need you Amu. You know I'd take care of it myself, but it's too big of a risk to send me out on the field. My identity might be compromised." she explained grabbing my hand and leading me towards the door. She looked back.
"Ikuto-onii, you can come too." she added.
"Eh! Wait Utau! We don't have our Charas! We were kind of on a date..."
"The Charas are waiting for you, no time for dates right now. We've got a lot of trouble. St. Patrick's Day seems to have found quite the interesting Chara. Emily and Kairi are thinking of giving the really bad ones names. I think that's a good idea. C'mon 'Heartgirl' The media likes you best!"
"Grr. Yeah I'm coming." I groaned following after Utau.
An hour later we arrived at an abandon warehouse outside the city limits. My Charas greeted me with a bombarding of hugs. Emily, Yaya, Rima, Tadase, and Kukai were hiding out inside. Emily's hands were flying across her laptop's keyboard so fast they were a blur.
"Hey! Where's Kairi, and Nagehiko, and Keiko!?" I asked as I entered.
"Kairi's trapped inside the Chara's powers while Nagehiko and Keiko are off who-knows-where on a date."
"What! You disturb Ikuto and I during our date, but you don't even know where Nagehiko and Keiko are!!?" I glared at Utau.
"Wait... Kairi's trapped inside the Chara's power!" Rima sighed and explained what had happened,
"He was gathering data. There was an unnaturally high concentration of Heart Egg energy when the Chara captured him."
"You should see it Amu-chii! It's AMAZING!!!" Yaya proclaimed, "Look, look! There's an image of it on Emily-chii's laptop!" I looked over Emily's shoulder.
It was like no other Chara power I'd ever seen in my life. It was like one of those house of mirrors only extreme in size.
"What exactly is that thing!?" I demanded.
"What does it look like? It's a maze. It was formed by a rather powerful X Chara, it must be on of St. Patrick's Days oldest experiments. I remember having discussions about this sort of thing with... with my friends." Emily answered. I looked at the Word document beside the picture of the maze. She was typing up observations and adding all sorts of ideas of how we might destroy it.
"It's blocking all radio and cell phone signals – we can't contact with Kairi. Amu, Rima, Kukai, you three will go into the maze to try and find Kairi," she handed Kukai a couple of round items that looked a lot like some sort of bomb, "Every once in a while throw one of these up in the air. It'll explode and the smoke will disclose your location, but that said, you'll location will be available to anyone, not just us. So move quickly all right? Get Kairi, and a warning he may have been knocked out by the strength of the Chara."
"Does that mean we will weaken once we're in there?" Rima asked.
"Possibly. And, this Chara, its a special Chara. It solves all puzzles and its mazes are strict."
"What??? You're not making any sense." Rima, Kukai, and I said at the same time. Emily looked down.
"I kind of know who's Chara it is... We met in America, and when my friends weren't evil we had fun solving the different puzzles the Chara created. But apparently St. Patrick's Day has used that person for its own selfish gain... but I digress. The mazes have rules. You're not allowed to go back and you cannot leave until you've solved the maze, and a warning, breaking the walls is a bad idea."
As I accepted Emily's other instructions I started freaking out. AAAH! I'm HORRIBLE with mazes and puzzles. I went into a corn maze once and got so lost I was there for hours until I started crying and my parents found me! I can't do this! Rima's a slow runner and Kukai's sense of direction is horrible!
"—Once you've found Kairi throw two of those in the air and then try to find your way out from there. I cannot promise that Kairi is anywhere near the exit. In fact he's probably at a dead end somewhere. Oh! I just remembered, the maze moves so, best of luck!" Emily all but kicked us out of the warehouse and towards the maze.
"WHAT!" I screamed banging on the warehouse door, "IT MOVES!!? AAAAAAAH! NOOOO!!" I screeched. Rima and Kukai pulled me into the maze as I fought uselessly.
"We're in, Amu-chan. Now transform with Miki."
"Eh? Why?" I asked, but complied.
"Because you can use Color Canvas to mark our tracks."
"But you heard Emily, the maze shifts. A 'trail of bread crumbs' won't help us." Kukai argued.
"Yes it will. The walls may change but the paint will still be on the ground, so we'll be able to see where we've been and where we haven't. This'll prevent running in circles." Rima talked down at Kukai like he was an idiot.
"Oh... OK! YEAH LET'S GET 'EM!" He cheered excitedly. Rima and I both rolled our eyes.
***
"RIMA-CHAN! Hurry up!" Kukai called. He was a quarter mile a head of Rima. She had stopped to catch her breath. I sighed; she was slower than Emily.
"Kukai, Rima doesn't run that fast, maybe you should slow down!" I suggested as I caught up to him. Even as Amulet Heart he was faster than me, and I was transformed with Miki.
"She's even Character Transformed and she still can't out run a turtle." Kukai shook his head disappointedly.
"I'm not you Kukai!" She yelled defiantly before she continued our way.
"That's right, I'm Kukai, and I'm made of awesomeness."
I looked at the sky. The afternoon was slipping through our fingers as the sun traveled ever closer to the West. Beyond my range of sight I could hear the maze walls shifting again. It seemed the more we stayed the more often the walls changed.
"Hurry up, Rima, we just don't want a wall to come between us... I mean that literally not figuratively." I added quickly.
"Okay, Amu-chan!" she replied pushing herself even more.
Kukai and I waited as she slowly progressed towards us. It was ridiculous how slow Rima was.
Suddenly Rima froze in place and stared above us. I looked up, and screamed. There were at least a hundred eggs glowing sickening green.
"HELL NAW!" Kukai exclaimed as he tackled a couple eggs.
"Juggling Party!" Rima cried, smashing some Clover Eggs to bits. I jumped back, I'd been wanting to try out an idea of mine for a while.
"Negative heart! LOCK ON!" I shouted, "OPEN HEART!" Beams of light cascaded into the mash of the green X eggs. As the spots in my eyes clears I saw that my attack – though it had worked on every other type of egg I'd ever come across, had had no affect what so ever. I gritted my teeth, realizing destroying those eggs really was the only way to defeat them.
"COLOR CANVAS!" I shouted and as the colorful rainbow of paint hit the eggs they exploded like fireworks.
"Let's keep moving!" Rima declared as the eggshells disappeared into oblivion. Rima had to stand on Kukai's flying skateboard with him so she could keep up while I ran along side them.
We saw a figure in the distance. It had greenish hair and glasses shone next to the figure. I saw different views of the figure in the many mirrors surround him.
"KAIRI!" Rima screamed gleefully as she jumped off the skateboard and ran closer.
Suddenly a mirror moved in front of her. She slammed into it.
"OH!!! That hurt!" she whined. I heard a giggle echo through the maze.
"Teeheehee. You think we'd let you win so quickly? So easily?" The voice – with an accent just as off as Emily's – teased. I looked up. On the top of the mirrored wall sat a fair-haired girl. In her hair was a rose; on her back were bat wings, and she wore a red and black dress with fancy sleeves and a deep crimson criss-cross pattern on the bodice. She was the same age as Emily too, and I saw near her three Charas.
The blonde jumped gracefully off the wall, her wings flapping once to bring her to an even more majestic landing. She looked at Kukai.
"Oooh! You're a cute one! Definitely better than glasses over there." The girl crouched down just as a bowling pin flew through the air where her head had just been.
"Tsk. Tsk. You might hurt someone!" She flew back a couple feet and winked at all three of us, "I like you guys, but orders are orders!" she laughed excitedly. "ROSE THORN!" Thorns, rose pedals, and sparkles shot through the air in an explosion of beauty. Rather, it would have been beautiful if it had not hurt so much. The thorns struck me everywhere while the pedals' scent became unbearably sweet and the sparkles blinded me. It was one of the best Character Transformation attacks I'd ever seen.
"T-that's cheap!" I heard Rima yell. I managed to see her jump up at the girl and miss.
"Grrr. COLOR CANVAS!" I roared. Flashing, blinding rainbow colors dissolved the pedals and thorns though some sparkles stayed in the air.
"Oooh! COOL! That was an awesome attack—" the blonde girl exclaimed, but one of her Charas interrupted,
"Andie! Remember the mission!"
"Eh? Oh right! Alice switch out with Ayaka!"
Suddenly Andie had cat ears and a teal shirt with light blue skinny jeans. On her shirt was a large rose and she wore fingerless gloves. From her cat ears hung silver bells.
"WHAT THE HELL! Your character transformation is JUST like Ikuto's! YOU RIP OFF ARTIST!" I yelled at her. She laughed,
"That was funny. I wish you would join St. Patrick's Day, or at least stay out of our way, then we could be friends!"
"I'll never join you!" I spat at her in fury. With a sigh, she shrugged.
"Then I have no choice. DARK CLAW!" Metal claws came out of Andie's gloves. She raced forward – sparks of black energy gathered around the claws as she ran." She took a swipe at my, but I dodged. Then she took another swipe and it almost hit. She lashed out for a third time when I heard a voice – deep and irresistible – shout,
"SLASH CLAW!" Ikuto – in character transformation form – had blocked Andie's attack. Andie smiled.
"Ikuto! Wow! You really are cute!!! Hmm... It doesn't seem like your memory is back yet, but you're still in love with Amu..." she sighed, "Too bad you can still character transform, St. Patrick's Day won't be happy to hear that, plus they don't want you dead." Ikuto's face contorted,
"BUT THEY WANT MY AMU DEAD?" Andie jumped back with cat like reflexes just as Ikuto swung at her with his claws. She shook her head,
"We don't want anyone dead! If we did, Anna would've taken care of that ages ago! We want Kairi, and we can't get him if you keep intervening."
"Kairi?" Rima gasped.
"What do you want with him!" Kukai demanded.
"We want his knowledge, he knows more about Charas and the Guardians than Emily-chan, and Emily-chan practically devoted her life to learning about Charas."
"How dare you talk like we're all friends here!" I growled, "You betrayed Emily! You and everyone else!"
"We didn't betray her! We offered her a job at St. Patrick's Day, but she refused! Our job and her studies made it difficult for us to stay in contact with each other!" Andie shook her head, "Emily and I and everyone else, we're still best friends!"
I just stared. Ikuto, Kukai, and Rima too, they just stared at Andie. Her perspective on things was... it was impossible! She smiled at us,
"We could be friends too! I know you think St. Patrick's Day is evil, but I'm not."
"N-n-not evil!?" I howled in absolute and pure rage, "You blew up a mall and a bridge. You killed people! No matter what you say you still betrayed Emily. You're letting Kairi get kidnapped. Oh, and let's not forget you got Ikuto's leg broken and wiped his memory." Andie's eyes flashed with sudden pain. She looked at Ikuto.
"Ikuto-kun! Noo! You're leg? Really!? I knew about the memory erasing because that was to mess with the Guardians and keep you from destroying St. Patrick's Day, but... I was never told about anyone breaking your leg!!" she wailed. "Gomenasai (sorry) Gomen Gomen!"
"Don't play dumb, I bet you were one of the people behind the motorcycle accident!"
"M-m-motorcycle accident? No one was supposed to do anything dangerous like that... killing... we don't like killing..." she mumbled. I was enraged. What about all those deaths from that collapsed building and freeway over pass!? I lunged forward, grabbing Andie at the throat.
"LIAR! Don't you realize people died when that mall collapsed!?"
"But, but, St. Patrick's Day didn't do that." Andie stuttered, her eyes filled with both tears and sincerity.
"What?"
Author's Note: OOOOOH PLOT TWIST!!! HOLY *******! XD CONFUZZLEMENT!!!!!!! UGGGGG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG CHAPTER!!!!!!! Please review, but be warned I'll be taking a bit of a break from this story but I WILL continue as soon as possible. Please have patience, and with the length of this chapter, I think you know why it took me so long.
