Chapter 14: VS Christmas

"I am Sasaki Chika, heiress to the Christmas Company."

…

…

…

Eh?

"Christmas Company?" Nagihiko voiced out my thoughts. "What's that?" he questioned rather…plainly for the situation. The dark aura Chika donned slightly dimmed as she closed her eyes.

"Easter has fallen," she stated clearly. "A new force is wanting of the Embryo," she mentioned, at which Nagihiko and my ears perked up at the mention of that term. Embryo? It still existed?

"We are Christmas," she said, the dark aura returning as she floated up higher into the air. "The Embryo shall be ours!" she exclaimed, her eyes suddenly blinking open as she shot another array of Dreaded Diamonds towards me and Nagihiko, along with commanding the X-Eggs to attack. Crap, this is getting harder. The longer this battle is delayed, the less chances we have of winning.

Where the heck were Amu and them?

"If you're wondering about your…friends," Chika stressed, "then never mind. They've got their hands full," Chika said, as she sent another wave of X-Eggs coming our direction. Argh, couldn't someone just destroy the Embryo so we can all live happily ever after? Geez!

"Blaze Shoot!" Nagihiko exclaimed, blocking off the wave. We didn't dare to break the X-Eggs. That isn't right…right? We supposedly had to wait for Amu to come along and purify the eggs. But when was she gonna come? The X-Eggs were gradually weakening us. We had to purify them, or trap them somehow!

"Tightrope Dancer!" I tried again. I managed to trap some X-Eggs…out of the millions (or seemingly so many) that were there.

"OPEN HEART!" I heard Amu's voice coming from a few hundred yards off. Hopefully, she just cleansed all of them at once.

"Seems like that rosette's skills haven't de-proved," Chika mumbled audibly. Nagihiko and I turned out heads towards her. "You know Amu? Previously?" Nagihiko asked. Chika shrugged.

"Nah. Heard from previous head of Easter. That dude," she said nonchalantly.

"Kazuomi?" Nagihiko asked. Chika nodded. Wait…they previously knew each other?

"Didn't Kazuomi give up on that already?" I asked no one in particular. Chika responded. "Yeah. Him and my father used to be good buddies. Then, he quit, and my father got mad. He moved his HQ here," Chika rambled.

Wait a sec…why was Chika suddenly acting all normal and divulging so much information? Did she suddenly trust us? Now that I think about it…her 'dark aura' seems to be fading. The X-Eggs are backing off.

"Rima, Nagi!" Amu's voice came from behind. We turned around to face our faces, with red faces and huffing deep breathes. I could feel Chika's glare intensify on them as she turned to leave.

"You guys are despicable," she said with her back towards us. "You purify when you don't even know what's going on to us. It's hilarious how you are the heroes when you don't even know what you're doing," she said, leaving us stunned. A moment after she jumped to leave, Nagihiko reacted.

"Wait!" Nagihiko called out. He used his Beat Jumper shoes and leaped high into the air, attempting to follow her. Tadase, Yaya, and the rest helped me trap the remainder X-Eggs and Amu purified them. Good; another job done.

"Think Nagi will catch up with her?" Amu asked. I shook my head.

"Doubt it."

"So you didn't catch up with her…" Amu remarked, as Nagihiko nodded sadly. Everything was getting a bit too confusing. What was going on?

"She always slips away somehow…" Nagihiko remarked. "I…I don't know what happened to her. She said she didn't recognize me. Where is Shizue?" he said to no one in particular. Amu sighed, patting his shoulder comfortingly. Everyone looked at him grimly.

"We should analyze the situation," Kairi, being the intellectual one…analyzed. "This time we won, but it was because she chose to retreat. If she really attacked us like that, they're a slim chance we'll win," Kairi said. We all nodded, contributing bits of information we had on her as Kairi took out his laptop that he somehow managed to bring everyone he went.

"She's Sasaki Chika, apparently heiress of some Christmas company," I said. Kairi nodded, as he searched online for what this Christmas Company was.

"Wow. Christmas is a famous enterprise for its high tech computers," Kairi said. "It's really modern and sells very good items," he continued. We all nodded. Having an opponent heiress to a famous company definitely didn't help.

"You know, towards the end, she started warming up," I remarked. "She was all mean to us, but then suddenly, she seemed to start telling us all these things. Like her father used to work with Hoshina-san. Your…not quite stepfather, Utau, not you," I added, as I saw Utau shooting me suspicious and puzzled looks.

"Somehow, I have a feeling it's not that deep," Kairi muttered. "Like she's not holding back much. And what she said about us…I don't know," he remarked. We nodded.

"I need to go," Tadase exclaimed, shooting up out of his chair. "It's almost time for dinner," he remarked, as we all realized it was getting pretty late. We dispersed, heading our own ways (with Amu being kidnapped by Ikuto). Nagihiko and I chatted for like 3 minutes.

"What do you think?" he asked me. "What do you think of Chika?" he questioned. I sighed, holding my bag.

"She's got her reasons. And she's not telling," I said. "It's sad to know we can't help."

We walked in silence for awhile. Something was slightly out of place…

"Though it's all your fault Purplehead. Just let her protect you so we can get this all over," I said. Ahh, that's me. Wow, it's like I have a split personality.

"Yeah…" he muttered, seemingly unconsciously. We reached the intersection of our homes. I stomped off without bidding him goodbye.

Though I swear I heard him say goodbye to me.

"Come on, Rima, Yaya!" Amu exclaimed, as we used our combo attacks together, trapping the X-Eggs. Amu purified them all at once as we finished yet another job.

"Finally," Amu remarked, de-charanari-ing. She slightly sighed, adjusting the X-clip located in her hair. "We gotta locate the source quickly," she said, as we nodded along. We were all tired of being called and ordered to appear immediately where the X-Eggs were.

"But recently, Chika isn't appearing with the X-Eggs." She had completely quit school as well. I think she didn't know Nagihiko was at that school, so she transferred. Now she knows…

BAM. She's gone.

"Well, there's only one last way," Yaya said, her index finger on her chin, as she slightly looked up to the sky. We looked at her curiously, as she turned towards us and winked.

"We go straight to the Christmas Company," Yaya said.

"Uhh…so what's going on?" I asked. Yaya had made us dress up in military outfits, you know, those green-and-black-and-grey-and-white camouflage clothes? And she herself even brought a BB gun with no bullets, pretending to be an actual army soldier. Of course, there was only me, her, and Amu. I had no clue where the others are. The sun dipped low beneath the horizon. I had finished dinner and it was probably already 8:30. I'd promised Mama I'd be home by 10:00.

"Everyone's not here! That's so sad!" Yaya complained. I sighed irritably. "Could you explain why we're here?" I asked, facing a large skyscraper right in front of us. "What, are they holding a marathon with an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet at the end?" I said sarcastically. Yaya's eyes gleamed.

"Yaya would like that, but sadly, they don't. You don't know? This is Christmas headquarters," Yaya said matter-of-factly. Amu and I seriously gaped at the humungous structure in front of us. T—that's Christmas Headquarters? I thought it was a Japanese landmark! It had like a billion stories (more like 100, but anyways) and TRILLIONS of windows (I don't know how precise that is).

"Yaya researched!" Yaya exclaimed loudly. I snorted. Leaning over to Amu's ear, I whispered, "I bet she bribed Kairi with brownies." Recently, Kairi had grown to a liking for sweets. Yaya's persuading probably finally caused him to crack and he accepted sugar like mad now.

"ANYWAYS!" Yaya exclaimed loudly when she saw me whispering to Amu, "we'll be invading this building in twenty nanoseconds," she spoke matter-of-factly. Twenty nanoseconds (I suppose) later, I could almost hear the Mission Impossible music echoing in my ears.

"WAIT!" Amu exclaimed as Yaya immediately retreated back. "Yes, General Amu?" she asked in a mock-general tone. Amu sweat-dropped and sighed. "Look at that," she said, pointing towards a small device next to the automatic doors. Men in black walked up to it and swiped a card, thus allowing them entrance. Yaya sweat-dropped. "Ah…so Yaya didn't think about that…" Yaya admitted. Humph. Glad she at least admitted it. "Well, Yaya does have a plan…remember to take the left hallway, okay?" she said. What, left hallway? She has a plan already?

What surprised me next was Yaya dashing up to the door and begging the receptionist to get in. She probably let her in cause Yaya looked like she needed to go to the bathroom. Yaya then darted in, past the receptionist, but sadly, she got caught immediately. She then began crying, severely alerting the receptionist. After that—

"Did she just wink at us?" Amu asked. "I think so," I whispered back. Indeed, the energetic brunette we all love was winking so much it looked like her eye would pop out. The two of us shrugged. The automatic door was still open cause Yaya and the receptionist were nearby. Amu and I snuck in and down the left hall before the receptionist could notice us.

"Wow. We actually got in," Amu commented. I nodded. Well, sometimes you never knew about stuff. We looked down the hall. It was creepily dark. Nervously, the two of us walked down it and huddled next to each other out of fear. After all, this was the enemy's headquarters we were in. We had to be careful.

Suddenly, something dropped on the ground. Amu shrieked like a scared cat (haha, my pun of the day) and latched onto my arm as I trembled nervously, facing the direction of the sound.

Whoof. Just a—

"WAHHHH!" I cried aloud as Amu, in response, cried as well. There was a window in front of us and those things that people use to climb in! That spiky thing! Someone was trying to sneak in! What were we supposed to do?

"RUN!" Amu hissed as we nodded, dashing down the hall. But before we could run too far, we heard a familiar voice from behind us.

"Wait," it said. I was the first to stop and turned around. It sounded so familiar, the voice—

"Ikuto," I stated bluntly, facing the feline blue-haired male crouched at the edge. He smirked at the sight of a terrified Amu and slowly tiptoed over. From behind him came more people: Kuukai, then Utau, and Kairi and Tadase, and finally the Fujisaki twins Nadeshiko and Nagihiko. Amu and I turned towards each other confusingly. Weren't they not coming?

"Weren't you guys not coming?" Amu voiced my thoughts. Ikuto looked around and made sure everyone was there before turning towards Amu. "Ah…the Baby Girl said it was part of her plan," Ikuto explained. I blinked. Yaya actually had a plan?

"Well, more of Sanjou-kun's plan," Tadase added as he helped Nadeshiko into the building. "You two were supposed to remain clueless cause you guys give away stuff easily. If you were caught, it'd be alright," Tadase explained. I blinked. "What?"

"Basically," Nagihiko took over, gracefully jumping down from the windowsill to the ground, "you two and Yaya were supposed to raid from the front and we were supposed to enter from the back." I blinked. "And why weren't we informed of this plan?" I asked. Nagihiko shrugged. "That way, if you two were in danger, you guys could immediately bail without thinking of abandoning your other friends," he said matter-of-factly. Wow. Right on the spot, Purplehead.

"So, here's our plan," Kairi said, gathering us over. "Yaya-chan is, presumably, out," he said, crossing out Yaya's name on his master sheet. "That remains nine of us to invade the headquarters. Our goal is to find out the purpose of Christmas: what they want, what they have, what they can do, and preferably who's in charge. We'll split into groups: Tsukiyomi-san with me, King with Hoshina-san, Nadeshiko-san with Nagihiko-sempai with Hinamori-san, and Souma-sempai with Mashiro-san," Kairi said. I nodded, glad that they hadn't took the chance to set me up with Nagihiko. Seriously, I swear, they are doing things in the background to set us up! Kairi looked at each of us. "According to my research of this building's structure, our goals would be four places: their lab, their training grounds, their business front room, where they pretend they're just another business company, and finally, their director's room. The four groups, according to their various strengths, will go after different rooms," Kairi analyzed for us. We all nodded, listening to where our group was assigned to.

"Tsukiyomi-san and I will be aiming directly for the director's room on the top floor," Kairi said as we nodded. I was secretly glad the most dangerous place was taken. "King, Hoshina-san, please take care of the business front," he said, as Tadase and Utau nodded. "Fujisaki-sempais, you will be taking the training grounds. Please be careful," Kairi addressed as the Fujisaki twins nodded. Finally, he turned towards me and Kuukai. "Souma-sempai, Mashiro-san, that leaves the lab for you two," he said. I gulped. What seemed like a childish game of Yaya's actually turned into this.

"Does anyone have any question?" Kairi asked. No one dared to make a sound. "Oh, one last thing," Kairi added, "if you are in danger, run. We don't care if you're that close to getting the information—the last thing we want is someone hurt—or caught by Christmas. Run, remember: run," Kairi emphasized. Everyone nodded seriously. "Alright. Here's your map," he said, passing out maps for each group. Kuukai took ours, and Kairi nodded.

"Alright. Mission: Infiltration of Christmas Company, MICC, begin," Kairi said. We all nodded, as we grouped together with our partners and began locating our destinations.

"C'mon, Mashiro," Kuukai said, as I nodded and followed behind him. He seemed like he knew where he was going, as he turned down every crossroad rather surely. We had to sneak around some guards but with Kuukai's speed and evasiveness, it wasn't that hard. I just had to keep up—with got difficult sometimes.

"Where is the lab?" I asked as we tiptoed around another corner. Kuukai came to a sudden stop in front of me, causing me to crash right into his back. He inched back a few steps and placed a finger on his mouth, signaling for me to keep quiet. Complying, I shut my mouth and listened for anything Kuukai was listening to.

"—but those Guardians are really annoying," a gruff voice spoke. There was some clattering of papers heard—probably dropped to the ground.

"Pick it up!" Another gruff voice. "The director said he'd be back anytime soon. Didn't you hear about his newest security plan? At 10:00 sharp, the entire company would completely shut down: power, doors, everything. If you're out, you can't in. If you're in, you can't get out." My eyes widened. What? What type of security was that?

"Isn't it 9:30 already?" the other voice asked. My eyes widened even more. Crap! That meant we had only 30—or maybe 25—to find the lab, get what we wanted, and attempt to contact the others. Kuukai turned around and grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket, signaling he'd brought his cell phone. I heaved a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. Mine was out of batteries, actually.

"C'mon, let's go. I heard the director's staying here overnight. Like he's locking himself in," one voice said as footsteps were heard, getting lighter and lighter. The rest of their conversation was just a blur of whispers that I couldn't hear.

"Did you hear?" I whispered as Kuukai nodded. "Can't believe it!" I exclaimed. "It's like they're last resort! If we get trapped…we'll have to survive at least 9 hours without getting caught," I calculated. Kuukai gulped, immediately beginning to call everyone.

"Hey, Utau?" he spoke into the phone rapidly. "Listen, Mashiro and I heard the guards saying something about the director coming back soon. Be careful. Also, make sure you evacuate the building before 10:00. They've got this ultra security system that'll completely shut off the building at 10:00. Yes, I'm not lying. Sure, we can race whoever gets out the quickest—" I groaned. Now wasn't the time to get competitive! I glared at Kuukai and he smiled sheepishly, quickly finishing business and hanging up. Following up, he informed Kairi, who thanked him for the information. Finally, he dialed Amu's phone number.

"She's not picking up," Kuukai said worriedly as he hung up and tried someone else's—either Nagihiko or Nadeshiko's. Kuukai swore as he hung up once more, trying whoever he hadn't tried yet. "Both twins are out," he said nervously, as I gulped. "They went to the training room, didn't they?" I asked. He nodded, as we continued maneuvering down the halls.

"There's the lab," Kuukai whispered, pointing at the metal door that was apparently like the one at the entrance: you needed someone to open it with a card or someone from the inside to open it. Kuukai smirked. "This is what Sanjou came up with," he said, passing me a card. I blinked. Wow, Kairi forged a card for us! Wait—that what was the point of us charging in through the front?

BEEP: Identity recognized: night guard, the automatic voice spoke. The door slowly opened up and Kuukai pulled me towards the side to hide. The door remained open and not a sound inside was heard. Great, everyone was gone.

"C'mon," Kuukai said as he turned around the corner but abruptly came to a stop. He had one hand pushing back so I couldn't see what was inside the lab. His eyes then narrowed down.

"Sasaki-san," he greeted. I mentally gasped. Chika? What was she doing there. Kuukai's eyes then widened. "Hinamori and Fujisakis?" he asked confusingly, as I heard Chika's laughter echo around the lab. "Yes, they will be our new tests. Don't worry, they'll come out unharmed—I think," Chika said. Kuukai's eyes narrowed down and still pushed me back. "Stay," he whispered. "Don't get caught," he said, as I nodded. Unnoticeably, he dropped his cell phone and charanaried into Sky Jack.

"Golden Victory Shoot!" he exclaimed as I realized he and Chika had engaged in battle. What was Kuukai thinking? And why were Nagihiko, Nadeshiko, and Amu caught? Well, that'd make sense why they weren't picking up. I scrambled to pick up Kuukai's cell phone. He probably had some type of plan in mind—or Kairi had told him and hadn't told me.

"Rima…" I heard KusuKusu whisper. I had kept her in my pocket the whole entire time and ordered her to stay quiet. I assume she fell asleep and just woke up. Nervously, I took a step back and opted to call Kairi.

"Souma-sempai, did something happen?" Kairi's urgent voice came from the cell phone. I gulped, speaking up. "I'm not Kuukai; it's Mashiro," I said. I heard Kairi nod. "Ah, Mashiro-san. Did something happen?" he asked, wondering why Kuukai hadn't picked up. I gulped. And finally broke down.

"Ku—Kuukai's fighting Chika in the lab right now," I hissed into the phone, trying to stop my tears. Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling of fear overtook me and I sniffed. "A—and Nadeshiko and Nagihiko and Amu are captured in the lab! And Chika said she'd do something awful to them, and—" Kairi's calm voice cut me off.

"So where are you now?" Kairi asked. I gulped. "Right outside the lab. Chika didn't see me yet. Kuukai told me to not get caught," I reported. I could almost hear the gears in Kairi's brain functioning.

"We'll settle this tonight," Kairi said. "Mashiro-san, it's 9:54. According to you and Souma-kun, the building should be shutting down in approximately 6 minutes," Kairi said, and I nodded. "Tsukiyomi-san and I have already obtained the information we need. I can process it right now; I've brought my laptop. I'll need approximately an hour. Tsukiyomi-san can hold off normal guards, but I'm afraid Sasaki-san is a challenge for him—and everyone. You must do something important, Mashiro-san," Kairi said. I gulped. What could it be? "Yes?" I asked.

"We will have a showdown with Christmas today," Kairi said determinedly. "But we need all our members. First, you must locate Hoshina-san and King. I need their information. Tell them to go to the business front. Afterwards, try to contact Yaya. Then, you'll have to try and free the three of our members trapped," Kairi said. I almost hurled.

"Umm…did you not hear me, Kairi? They're trapped. In the lab. Where Chika and Kuukai are fighting right now," I said. Kairi sighed. "Last time, Nagihiko-san told me you and him could not hold off Chika's powers. We must try to attack with everyone. And I have a plan…." Kairi said. "If you can get them three out, or even just Nagihiko-san, that would be enough," Kairi said. I gulped and nodded. "S—sure," I stumbled hesitantly. We then hung up and I gulped.

Well, MICC was in action, and I was to be the heroine.

A/N: So, yes I am back. And I'm sorry for the super long leave (4 months...I know...). Actually, I don't have much to say unless you really want to hear me rant about my life. So basically, I think I'll stick to talking about this story. (By the way, I've deleted my Kukade FanFic since I really don't wanna write about it now)

So, this story, if you can't sense yet, is coming to an end. There are a few reasons why I've decided to start ending it. One, frankly, after 4 months, I've forgotten most what has happened in my story. So if you see some stuff that don't connect, sorry. Two, I'm frankly growing bored of my own plot. Yes, these things do happen. I wanna write a Kutau one (THEY FREAKIN' KISSED IN ENCORE!) but I've tried and failed to concoct up a suitable plot. So I'm basically inspiration-dry.

Well, that's it. My profile's getting a face-lift so check it out if you want. :P

By the way...about Sealed Memories...I might do it, I might not, depends on my inspiration. And I just might change the pairing.

Besides that, have a good week!

~~*Hope-chan*~~