Argg I haven't put the date in a while. Um so it's June 1st today!

I was sleeping, having a nice dream where Kanon drowned in a bucket of maple syrup, when I woke up to Mr. Loony Next-door-neighbor mowing his lawn with his machine that's a cross between a chainsaw and a hairbrush. It makes this big clanky moaning noise and then he's at it all day – mowing the lawn. Loony.

Then, my phone started vibrating on my bedside table, propelling it over the edge where it hit Kanon in the head. Rima-chaaaan!!! she said, fake crying. Dooshite? WHYYY?? I ignored her and picked up and answered my cell phone, and then immediately regretted it.

"HI-HI, RIMA-TAN!" screamed Yaya, making me hold it away from my face so I didn't suffer brain damage. "WE'RE GOING SHOPPING, DESU DESU! WE'LL PICK YOU UP IN FIIIVE MINUTES, ME AND AMU-CHAN and Nagi," she added in a low voice.

"why's Nagihiko coming?" I growled into the phone.

"because Amu-chii made him come."

HINAMORI SHALL DIE.

Five minutes later

I barely had enough time to get Kanon in my bag and get dressed before Yaya came stomping in going, "NE, MS. RIMA'S MOM, DO YOU HAVE ANY SNACKS?" and Nagihiko laughing awkwardly as my mother fussed. I ran downstairs like crazy before my loony new-and-improved mother did anymore damage.

"Hi, Amu-chan," I greeted her, and ignored everyone else as a subtle hint not to encourage my mother. Sadly, my friends are all be numbskulls (a Nagihiko word) and they ignored me and kept begging for snacks. And thus that's how everyone ended up sitting at my kitchen table eating muffins. Since when did we even HAVE a kitchen table? Where is my mother unearthing (another Nagihiko word) all this stuff?

Then my mother was all to Nagihiko, "I've been talking to your mother lately and blahblahblah," and Nagihiko gave me an I-told-you-so look that I returned with a Death Glare. My mother watched this exchange with a silly grin on her face. What is with all this plotting, dammit?

Then the phone rang while we were all chatting about which stores we would go into (Nagihiko, being a guy dragged along by Amu-mania, was looking bored as hell).

My mother picked the phone up (probably expecting it to be Nagihiko's mom) but instead a crease formed between her eyebrows and I panicked. Yep, it was my dad, who was still going on about me living with him. "no," I heard her whisper into the phone, "not now. Later..." and then Nagihiko silently looked up and followed it all. I wouldn't be worried if it weren't for the fact that the Evil Mad Genius is too observant for his own good and would figure out something in seconds, and so as soon as I began to hear the silent whirr I said, "OK, let's go now! Bye, mom!" and practically dragged Amu and Nagihiko out the door (my mother looked scandalized at the idea of me dragging Nagihiko) with Yaya bobbing in tow.

Later

Thankfully, Nagihiko was silent and didn't bring up anything about my meddlesome father who wants me to get a proper education. We just stopped at this scary boutique where a grinning salesperson said, "HELLOOOOOO. Can I help you?" and I muttered, "they get in your face until you need them, and then their off on their coffee break. Convenient."

Yaya made a beeline for all the dresses straight away, and Nagihiko yawned a little and sat down. Reluctantly, I plunked down beside him and he smiled slightly. "aren't you going to try on dresses, Rima-chan?"

"when hell freezes over." I said and he bit back a grin and sweatdropped. "so you're not going to formal," he said, and there was this sad note in his voice.

"my mother is trying to force me," I said testily.

"Yay."

Dress #1, Amu.

Amu came out in green. Nagihiko said slowly, "turn around, walk back into the changing room, and get out of the garbage bag."

So this is why Amu wanted him along.

Dress #1, Yaya

Yaya came out in a mass of pink dress, much like Glinda from the Wizard Of Oz, and said, "does it look cool?"

I sang quietly, "we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of all..." and Nagihiko snorted. "I'm actually going to have to disagree with Rima on this one. By all means, look like a cake at formal," and so Yaya bought the Glinda Dress. She even bought a wand to go with it. loony.

Dress #2, Amu

She came out in a yellow dress, and me and Nagihiko said at the same time, "no."

Dress #3, Amu

Black and frilly. I said the frills fit more of her 'cool and spicy' personality than anything else.

"is that a bad thing?" she said nervously, and Nagihiko went on Disney-narrator mode. "we just want Amu-chan to be Amu-chan," he said sappily and she went back reassured.

Finally, the black one is the first one in the 'maybe' pile.

Dress #4

She came out in a frilly white one.

"Jeez, we're going from Black Alice to White Alice. What are we, Ali Project?" I complained. Nagihiko eyed the dress interestedly. "it doesn't really suit you, Amu-chan."

"it looks like something Barbie's bridesmaid would wear," I quipped. Nagihiko widened his brown eyes innocently and said, "I thought it looked like something you would wear, Rima-chan."

"Wha-" I started, and Amu's eyes started glowing creepily. "are you thinking what I'm thinking, Nagi-kun?"

"oh, yes," he said, smirking, and the EVILNASTIES dragged me into the changing rooms and made me put it on! NASSTTTIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I came outside in it, I looked in the mirror and shuddered. It had a halter top with a floor-length full skirt. "it looks like I'm getting married. Can I take it off now, please?"

"aw, listen to that, she said please," said Nagihiko, who was staring at me so intently you'd think I was one of his 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles.

"no," Amu ordered. "stay. Good girl."

"bark, bark," I said sarcastically, and Yaya popped up over my shoulder. "inu-chan-Rima-tan! Hee hee!"

"What do you think, Nagi?" said Amu, turning around.

"I think she looks like an angel," he said honestly, and my face went red. Bright red.

"oh? What's this? Chibi tomato?" said Nagihiko over my shoulder, smirking. Amu cracked an evil grin. "ne-ne, Rima's embarrassed."

"you suck," I muttered, carefully lifting up the hem of the dress. "you're not going to leave me alone until I buy it, aren't you?"

"yes. Buy it. Yaya orders you," Yaya said creepily. In truth, I secretly liked it, but I wasn't about to tell anyone else that.

"fine," I huffed, and bought the dress. Amu bought her black frilly one, and Yaya bought her Glinda Dress. All the way home, me and Nagihiko sang Wizard of Oz songs to piss Yaya off (we had seen the Wizard of Oz in New York on Broadway when we were on our musical spree).

Then I asked Amu, "is your mom driving us home?" and she stopped dead. "what? I thought your mom was driving us home!"

Later

We've all ended up walking home. Twenty something blocks. It was horrible. And I was the lucky person chosen to carry Yaya when we realized she wasn't going to shut up.

Yaya's house

Yaya's was the closest, so after she had gone home that left me, Amu, and Nagihiko to continue the one hundred mile trek home. The friendship triangle, whee.

We ended up playing "would you rather" which brought up the interesting question: would you rather be too hot or too cold?

"too hot," said Amu.

"too hot," said Nagihiko.

"too cold," I said.

"you'd rather die of hypothermia or frostbite than third-degree burning or sunstroke?" said Nagihiko, being a know-it-all.

"eh. Probably."

Amu said, "OK, I go next. Rima-chan, would you rather kiss..."

I cut her off. "it's truth or dare all over again, isn't it?"

She kept going. "Joe Jonas or Nagihiko?"

"eurgh, Nagihiko," I blurted out, before I could realize what I had said. Nagihiko's eyebrows went up. "I don't know whether I should be insulted because I've just been compared with that freak from Camp Rock, or flattered..."

"shut up," I growled, and he grinned again. "you're just upset that the cat's out of the bag."

"NOOO!!!" yelled Amu but we all knew it was too late as Ikuto's head came down from the trees.

"you know, we cats find that very insulting. Cats should never be put in bags. And Rima, I can't believe you chose Mr. Kabuki over Joe Jonas. Puhleeeze!"

"Joe Jonas is ugly!" I argued, going bright red.

"hmm, Nagi's right, you do blush easily like Amu-chan," he said, making us both resemble radishes.

"can you go away?" said Amu, exasperated now and not angry as usual.

"no."

Nagihiko met Ikuto's eyes briefly and nodded.

"OK Nagi, can you explain why he needs to stalk us?" snapped Amu.

Nagihiko sighed. "Yuto Shizunabe is quite weaker than Tsukiyomi Ikuto, because Ikuto's had a Chara longer." Damn it, I had already forgot about that stupid guy. I thought he was just a one-time appearance. "If I were a strategist." ("which you'd love to kid yourself you are," I muttered), "I'd keep close to the people who are fighting him. Also, hasn't anyone noticed that Ikuto hasn't been going on any Death Rebel rampages since staying so close to the guardians?"

"and no one from Easter caught him while he was shacking in Amu's room," I volunteered.

"RIMA!" Amu yelled and Nagihiko whirled on her. "in your ROOM?"

"funnily enough, that's the words I used for it, too, Rima-chan," said Ikuto, still hanging down from the tree.

"it makes sense," said Amu slowly. "so you're not stalking me?"

Ikuto leaned in closer to her and said, "why do you sound disappointed?"

She flushed and sighed irritably. "well, here's my house. See you guys."

"what about Ikuto?" I asked.

He suddenly character-changed and hopped up onto Amu's balcony.

"NO!" yelled Amu but he just sat there, grinning. "what? It's just so that I don't get controlled by the violin. Do you want me to turn into an X-egg collecting zombie again?"

Then Amu had no choice. Hee hee.

Oh, crap, I thought. Alone with Nagihiko again. Except for Kanon, who was still on Nagihiko's shoulder. Sometimes I wonder why she doesn't just live with him and be done with it.

"how far away is your house?" I asked.

"pretty far. Actually, it's pretty close to yours."

I tripped. "what?"

"you didn't know that? Yep. About three blocks away."

"but you live in that creepy patch of woods..."

"it's creepy?" he laughed. Then he was silent, and he suddenly stopped me.

"what?" I asked, hoping that it wasn't what I thought it was.

He slowly and deliberately moved in front of me. I tried to see what it was, but he kept me back.

"it's Shizunabe, isn't it?" I said, a sinking pit in my stomach.

"Shhhhh," he said, his eyes flashing, and I thought grudgingly that at least he could be aggressive when he felt like it.

There was silence for a minute, broken only by my hyperventilating, and then suddenly Nagihiko snapped, "Temari!"

"what?" I gasped. "she's out of her egg?" then light started to pour from all directions, and Kanon soared into my hand. "it's a Charanani!" she whispered.

Whack.

A blade sunk into the wall and inch above my head, and a naginata almost killed Yuto as he sailed out of the way.

"Nagihiko?!" I screamed and a figure in a kimono attempted to kill Yuto again. "did he get you, Rima?" Nagihiko snapped.

"Temari!" I said, my brain on overload. "she hatched!"

"well done, captain obvious!" said Temari grumpily from inside Nagihiko.

"Rima!" said a voice, and I saw Kanon hovering beside me. "let's go!"

"and do what?" I asked and Nagihiko said, "RIMA, let ME deal with this!"

"no!" I yelled back stubbornly and suddenly I character transformed. Actually, it was pretty annoying to character transform. They always have the big light and you have to be all like, "watashi no kokoro! Unlock!" which is pretty embarrassing.

Suddenly I landed on the ground in a blue-and-purple kimono. It was short-skirted, and the sleeves were separated from the main body of the dress. And my hair was up.

"I did it!" said Kanon, getting the smug look Nagihiko gets when he receives one-hundred-percent-plus-extra-credit on a test.

"you can Charanani with Kanon?" said Nagihiko, turning around. Oh horrors, it was a pink kimono. Me and Nagihiko looked like kimono-clad twins. Yuto took advantage of that to swing his scythe and I deflected the blow with something in my hand. It was a... a...

Bamboo pole? Brilliant. Nagihiko gets to use samurai weapons and I get to use a stick of wood. The hell?

Yuto's face was as blank as ever, which made me wonder if he was a robot. But he wasn't just any robot. He was a killing robot, like in that creepy movie with Will Smith in it! I gritted my teeth and ran at him. His eyes widened in surprise as I suddenly took my hand, dropped the bamboo pole, and slapped him smartly across the face.

"would you just STOP IT?" I yelled at him. "you're being BLOODY STUPID and quite personally we couldn't care less if Ikuto's not being controlled by X-egg energy."

Yuto quickly recovered and suddenly gave an unpleasant smile and said quietly to me, "I know your weakness. Do you want him killed?"

For a minute I was going to ask him who "he" was, and then with a dawning horror I realized it was Nagihiko. He would kill Nagihiko if I did anything.

No! yelled Kanon, and on instinct I backed away.

"don't fight him," I begged quietly to Nagihiko, who looked utterly disturbed at my sudden lack of sense. "don't."

"Rima, he wants to kill you."

"I know," I said, on the verge of tears. "can we just... finish this... some other time? Please? Please," I said, widening my eyes and trying to keep all the unshed tears form falling out. Amazingly, he softened. "fine."

And then he promptly picked me up bridal style and jumped into the air.

"put me down!" I hissed.

"you're in no fit state to be walking," he said serenely, and he changed back as we ran. He gestured to a giant gash in my shoulder, which was bleeding through my uniform.

I began to scream, and he put a hand on my mouth. "shush, I'll fix it."

As soon as we stopped, I realized where we were. We were under the bridge, by that hill that's near Amu's house.

"let me see it," he said. I glanced at my shoulder, and realized what he wanted me to do. "NO."

He sighed. "just pull your collar down. I won't see anything. or would you rather it get infected, or worse knowing Shizunabe?"

I gritted my teeth and carefully pulled the edge of my shirt down so that it didn't expose anything else and his fingers got to work on it. great, he can sing, dance and be a doctor too. Whee.

A figure hovered by his shoulder, next to Kanon. I recognized it as Temari. After a moment of silence, she squeaked suddenly to me, "maybe you're not such a bad queen after all. You tried to save Nadeshiko-chan."

"that's not my name," Nagihiko mumbled but smiled slightly. I didn't know why he looked so happy at having his fingers covered in my blood (I kept thinking, Vampire!) but maybe that was just because he had one of his Shugo charas back. Before I could stop them, a tear slid down my cheek, and I started crying.

"isn't it a bit late to start crying?" said Nagihiko with a feeble attempt at bravado. "the worst part of the cut is healed. Don't look at it!" he added hurriedly but it was too late. It was the deepest cut I had ever seen. I might even have a scar.

I took a deep breath but continued crying. "it's not just that... it's everything... Ikuto being controlled by the violin... Amu.... Shizunabe... even stupid Tada-gay!"

He laughed feebly. "Tada-gay? Nice nickname."

Suddenly, Temari floated over and hugged my good shoulder. "you protected Nadeshiko-chan well though!" She squeaked cheerfully. Did she have a one-track mind or something?

I smiled quietly. "he pretty much saved himself." While we had been talking, Nagihiko took the edge of his shirt sleeve and pulled. It ripped quite cleanly into a length of fabric.

"what are you doing?" I said, blushing as he wrapped it around my shoulder.

"this is what they teach you in first aid if you pay attention, Ri-Ri-tan. I remember you and Yaya playing hangman when they taught us this."

"that a shirt sleeve makes a good bandage?"

"a good temporary one. I'm going to tell your mother you slipped and fell down the hill onto the rocks."

She was so dim she'd actually fall for that. "you're going to tell her?"

He snorted. "I'm not letting you walk home alone with a shoulder like that. When you get home, you might even want to call your doctor."

My doctor would love to know why a 'low fitness level' non-athletic person like me fell down a bunch of rocks, but oh well.

Later

Nagihiko flashed his charming smile he uses on adults on my mother. "hello, sorry we're late. Rima-chan fell down a bunch of rocks and got her shoulder cut."

She actually did believe him. She gave him a teacher's-pet grin and then glomped me. "oh, poor Rima-chan! Luckily Nagi was there to make sure you didn't bleed to death. Wasn't Amu-chan with you?"

"she had to go home."

She fussed. "Nagi-kun, why don't I call Hanako-chan to pick you up here?"

"no, it's o-"

"nonsense. You can stay with Rima-chan and make sure she's OK." Loony mother. Grrr.

He smiled. "ok."

I flopped down on the couch and he sat beside me cautiously as if I was going to pull a steak knife out and chop him to pieces.

"why do you look so guilty?" I asked him. He grit his teeth. "I shouldn't have let that jerk touch you."

"it's not your fault. You have scratches, too."

"scratches," he clarified. "not inch-deep cuts that made you lose a lot of blood."

I winced at his description, and lifted my arm to get the remote. "Ow."

The evil mad genius picked it up. "looks like I get to choose the channel."

"HANG ON! Naruto is on right now!"

"yeah, but so is Grey's Anatomy. I better catch the end."

Evil Mad Genius.


Ok, y'all better have watched 78. if you haven't, I have a link to where it's subbed. Now, let me point out something very interesting: when Amu-chan walks in all sad, DID YOU SEE IT? RIMA AND NAGI BLINKED AT THE EXACT SAME TIME! WHOO! And in the new opening, they're NEXT to each other! See, it's like a sign sent from heaven (read: the anime industry) that they're meant to be together!

Anyhoo, FU***##!?! TADASE IS SOOOO GAY! I'M SORRY! A cold? Yeah we're all gonna fall for that one "prince" Tada-gay. And then when Amu was like, "Tadase's not coming today? gosh, I wonder why I feel so relieved?" I'm just like, DAMMIT YOU FOOOLLL, MAYBE THA'TS CAUSE HE'S A SELF-CENTERED DOG-LOVING GRANDMA'S BOY!

Ikuto, though... that was just too cutesy-sad. Yeah Amu's worrying about visiting a gay while Ikuto being controlled by a mental fork in a dark alleyway?! Insensitive old squid! But, I am glad we're getting stuff happening next episode. Kukai and his brothers, and FINALLY we get to see stinkin' Ikuto in all his death-rebel glory! (oh no, I'm talking like Lulu). And if there isn't some Ikuto-Amu reconciliation I'm going to march over to Tokyo with my band of Amuto fangirls and PROTEST outside Pony Canyon's office building, I swear to god!

And that's your scary Fangirl rant of the day. =_=0