Hello everyone! Bet you didn't expect me so ~soon~ (by soon, I mean 6 months but good enough). Hope you all had a happy holiday and have been doing well! I am super duper excited to present the first chapter of Part II of Renaissance! I didn't expect to have this up until about January, but sometimes things work out! I won't say too much, but this chapter largely serves as the introduction to what's coming in the rest of this part of Renaissance. Please enjoy!
The sun was shining brightly above the city, and Seiichiro Suzuki was feeling similarly bright. Unlike most of his peers who perceive the ebullient sun as a mere taunt that their summer vacation was over, the third grader felt as though the world was on his side. Nothing could go wrong for him; it was as the fortune teller, Nobuko Saeki had foreseen the previous night:
If you are a Capricorn watching this, then tomorrow will be the day you receive great fortune.
Seiichiro grinned in recollection. Luck was not usually on the young boy's side, but he was already having a positively great day; his parents let him walk to Seiyo Academy alone for the first time! It happened to be a lovely day as well. Admittedly, it was hotter than desired and Seiyo's long-sleeved school uniform hardly assuaged this discomfort, but Seiichiro was simply thrilled that there was no rain or—he shuddered inwardly—thunder. There was absolutely nothing that could burst the third-grader's optimism, nothing—
"Hey, kid." Seiichiro looked up, startled. Somehow, he had lost track of his direction and ended up in an alleyway. Directly blocking the path he needed to take were two tall boys, looking as though they were in their late high school years. Seiichiro felt his pulse quicken, but he quickly relaxed; Nobuko-San predicted he would have a lucky day after all, so it would all be fine.
"Hand it over." Seiichiro cocked his head to the side.
"Hand… hand what over?" He inquired. The taller of the boys leered at him. He extended his hand outward.
"All of your money. Don't make us get nasty." They both stepped closer to him, prompting Seiichiro to inhale deeply. He looked around wearily. It was his lucky day; someone had to be nearby to save him. He could see people walk by the alleyway, glancing over at them, but quickly walking by.
"Hey." Seiichiro gasped as one of the boys jerked his arm, forcing the third grader to look at them again. "Answer your elders when they speak to you."
"I-I…"
"I-I-I-I," The lankier one mocked, prompting both boys to laugh mockingly. Seiichiro could feel his sweat building up, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. Wasn't someone going to save him?
The taller boy shoved Seiichiro again. "I said, hand over your money." Seiichiro felt tears glisten down his cheeks. Somehow, he knew someone was supposed to come. Someone should be here saving him; someone should be his guardian angel.
Before the older boy could shove him once more, Seiichiro quickly dug into his pockets and with his hand quivering, handed the boys his wallet.
"Wasn't so difficult, was it?" The lankier boy punched Seiichiro roughly in the jaw, causing him to stumble backward and hit the floor. They both laughed, pocketing the wallet.
"Let's go." The two boys stalked off, leaving Seiichiro lying on the ground, tears and blood flowing together. Faintly, he could hear the bell from Seiyo Academy ring, but Seiichiro felt too pathetic too move.
"Fortune… fortune doesn't exist, does it?" He croaked, feeling water droplets touch his bare skin. He looked up at the sky, watching as the whole sky turned grey, clouds eclipsing the once ebullient sun.
Tadase stood in front of the podium, gazing out into the audience in front of him. His bright blonde hair was neatly combed back, his ruby eyes uncovered. He adjusted his checkered-blue guardian cape before gazing down at the paper on the podium in front of him.
I can do this. The ten-year-old whispered, inhaling. A king shows no fear.
Tadase cleared his throat loudly, attempting to seize the attention of the other kids in the audience. To his dismay, they continued to talk to themselves, ignoring his presence. He turned back to face the other three guardians sitting behind him. Nadeshiko offered him a sympathetic smile.
"Attention everyone!" Tadase let out a soft sigh. The students fell immediately silent. "Your guardians have some issues to address. Please give your full attention to the King of the Guardians, Hotori Tadase." Tadase cleared his throat again as the children applauded for him.
"We love you, Tadase-Sama!" Some girls chorused. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Saaya leading the chant. Averting his gaze, he looked into the crowd.
"Thank you Principal Komatawa," Tadase told him politely. He turned back to face the crowd. "Thank you everyone for gathering here today," He began, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the auditorium. He felt his heart beat loudly, but he continued, looking up from the paper in front of him. "As the guardians, we are here to address important issues facing our school. In particular, we are here to discuss the school's dress code." As he began talking, he could see the bored expressions from the audience, but he droned on anyway.
"Are there any questions?" Tadase finally concluded. Silence filled the room; the only sound was being Yaya's foot tapping behind him. His eyes scanned the room, his gaze briefly falling onto the empty chair in the back of the room.
"Well, in that case, we can finish this meeting and call it a day." As Tadase began to speak again, students were already shuffling around, getting ready to leave school for the day.
"So… why are we meeting?" Kukai wondered, drumming his fists against the guardian table. "I mean, literally no one cared about the dress code thing last week. Do we have anything to discuss?" Tadase frowned.
"The other day, Fujisaki-San and I saw a strange looking egg," Tadase began. "It was similar to our charas' eggs, but it was all black and has a white X on it." He sighed. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"Maybe it's just a chara egg!" Yaya pointed out. "You know, someone could be really into white X's or something!"
"It was really strange," Nadeshiko recalled, her hair flipped over her shoulder. "Temari said that she sensed something unnerving from it." Temari nodded in affirmation.
"I think the chara egg was corrupt or something," Temari mused. "It almost seemed destressed."
"My uncle once told me about eggs like this," Tadase recalled. "These types of eggs need saving of some sort. Supposedly there was some savior with four charas that would be able to come and save the day, but that's the legend."
"Okay, but what can we do?" Yaya wondered. "Together the four of us have four charas, but…"
"We have to try something," Tadase urged. "Even if we're powerless, there has to be something we can do to—"
"Wait, I sense something weird," Pepe piped up.
"I think it's the egg again!" Temari exclaimed. Tadase immediately rose to his feet.
"Let's go now," Tadase insisted. Nadeshiko stood up as well.
"Go where?" Kukai wondered.
"To…To learn more. We're guardians; it's our duty to look after any chara eggs."
"Okay, cool! Let's go!" Kukai and Yaya followed suit.
As they headed outside the Royal Garden, they were immediately confronted with a black egg with an X on it. It floated in one spot, as if waiting for the four guardians.
"Aw, it's so cute!" Yaya exclaimed, reaching out toward it. The egg floated away suddenly, prompting Yaya to pout.
"Uh, what's it doing?" Kukai wondered. Tadase watched with horror as the egg began cracking, revealing a darkened avatar with a red X on its head.
"A chara?" Nadeshiko inquired.
"Useless!" It cried, shooting a beam at them. Yaya gasped loudly.
"Look out!" Tadase cried, immediately character changing and forming a yellow shield around everyone.
"What the heck was that?!" Kukai exclaimed. "Why is it attacking us?"
"It said 'useless'," Nadeshiko noted, frowning slightly. "What does that mean?"
"C'mon Nade, you're the smart one!" Kukai nudged her jokingly, winking at her. "You should know what the word means." Nadeshiko narrowed her eyes.
"You know what I mean."
"Uhhh, guys? Why is it glowing? Is it gonna attack again?" Tadase stepped forward.
"Please, calm down!" Tadase cried, creating another shield. "We don't want to fight you!"
"USELESS!" It screeched, shooting another beam. This time, Nadeshiko deflected it with her naginata.
"Tadase, do you have any idea what's going on?" Nadeshiko asked.
"I think… I think it's corrupted, somehow, like Temari said," Tadase mumbled. "My uncle said once that when someone doubts their dream, their chara gets dark and…weird. Like this."
"But, uh, we've been guardians for a while now; why have we never seen this before?" Kukai asked.
"Yeah, Kukai's right!" Yaya piped up. "We've never seen these weird eggs before."
"They're called X-Eggs." All four of them looked up suddenly, turning to face the source of the voice. A teenager leaned against the wall of the nearby school, his arms crossed. He stood in the shade, the shadows covering his face, though his midnight-blue hair was visible. Tadase clenched his fists.
"Uh… who are you?" Kukai wondered. The teenager leaned forward, revealing the rest of his face as he stepped into the sun.
"Someone with invested interest." He turned to face the four of them. "You kids are wasting your time. There's nothing you can do about them."
"What do you mean?" Nadeshiko wondered. "What do you know about these 'X-Eggs'?"
"I'm just trying to warn you. You probably want to stay away from these X-Eggs, for your own good." Tadase could feel his fingernails digging into his palms, a glare forming on his face. Suddenly, feline features appeared on the teenager; blue cat ears popped up and a long tail appeared as well as claws from his fists, prompting everyone, with the exception of Tadase, to gasp. He performed a backflip, shattering the X-Egg in one motion with his claws, prompting the X-Character to dissipate. He landed perfectly on his feet.
"Nothing to worry about."
"What did you just do?!" Tadase demanded, prompting the other three guardians to look at him, surprised by his outburst. The teenager didn't look at him.
"My job," He bluntly responded.
"Stay away from us, Tsukiyomi Ikuto!" Tadase demanded. "You don't belong here; you belong in jail!" A smirk formed on Ikuto's face.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." With that, the cat-like teenager scurried away.
"You know that guy?" Yaya wondered, surprised. Tadase's eyes darkened.
"Not anymore."
Two Months Later
Tadase sat in the Royal Garden, reading through the umpteenth book. He grimaced, tossing the book to the side. He stared at the jumble of notes in front of him, a sigh escaping his lips.
"Anything new?" Nadeshiko wondered, prompting Tadase to glance up quickly. He shook his head slowly.
"Again, most of these books say what we already know, that these X-Eggs come from kids' lost dreams, but nothing on how to make them back to normal. I've been trying to get answers from my uncle, but he doesn't know much. He says that he doesn't do this kind of thing anymore."
"Well, we know that this company, Easter, is behind it," Nadeshiko recalled. "We saw that after Hoshina Utau's concert, that there were dozens of X-Eggs." Tadase nodded absentmindedly.
"We just have to keep looking. Souma-Kun, Yuiki-San, have you two found anything?" After a moment of no response, Tadase glanced upward. Yaya's head was on the table, her eyes closed with drool coming out of her mouth. Kukai was staring out of the window, his fingers tapping the glass table. "Guys?" Yaya opened her eyes suddenly.
"Huh, uh yeah, yeah! Doing stuff, yep that's me!" Kukai grinned.
"Yeah, Yaya's stopping those X-Eggs or something!"
"We're trying to figure out a way to purify them," Tadase told them slowly. "You guys were supposed to go around the school yesterday and see if you could find any X-Eggs."
"Oh, uh, yeah, we did that! Right Yaya?"
"Um…" Yaya looked at the ground. "Yeah!" Tadase's eyes narrowed.
"Do you guys not understand how serious this is?" Tadase began. "How would you feel if Daichi or Pepe had X's on them? We're talking about lost dreams here; a company called Easter is taking advantage of troubled kids and turning their eggs into these X-Eggs."
"Wait, Easter? Like the holiday?"
"We've talked about this before," Tadase reminded her. "It's the company that seems to be making these X-Eggs more common. It's the company that sponsored her concert."
"We have? Yaya doesn't remember talking about this before…"
"Look, this is important!" Tadase sighed. "You two, quite frankly, have been doing nothing to help. We're the guardians; our duty is to protect guardian characters and—"
"Our duty is to be a student council," Kukai interjected. Tadase's eyes widened. "Look, man, I get you want to help. That's great. But we're literally just kids; we don't even know how to turn these eggs good again or whatever."
"So we'll figure it out! It would be a lot easier if you helped us!" Yaya's eyes cast downward.
"Excuse me? I didn't join this club to get involved in some crazy affair; we don't even know what we're doing!"
"Then why are you here?" Tadase challenged.
"Because I happen to have a chara!" Kukai sighed. "Look, I understand where you're coming from, kid. It's noble of you to try and make a difference, and I'm all for not giving up, but you can't just come in here demanding that we all just keep looking for something that we don't even know what it is for months on end." Kukai reached back behind him and unclamped his guardian cape. Nadeshiko gasped.
"Kukai, what are you—" Yaya began.
"You're right. I'm not you, Hotori. I'm just a simple guy that likes sports and wanted to get involved with sports; I'm not here to get yelled at for not finding answers for something we don't even know. I'm going to be graduating soon anyway, so what's the difference? I quit."
"But Kukai!" Yaya exclaimed.
"I'll see you later, Yaya." Kukai ruffled her hair. He turned to face Nadeshiko.
"Thanks for everything, Nade. I'll see around." He opened his mouth to speak but closed it quickly. He turned back around and exited the Royal Garden without looking back at Tadase. Silence filled the room, the only sound being Yaya's muffled sobs.
One Week Later
"Can I join you, Hotori-Kun?" Tadase glanced up slightly, a small smile forming as Nadeshiko sat beside him. She stared at the bright blue sky and leaned back on the grass. "It's a lovely day today, isn't it?" Tadase nodded slowly, a slightly puzzled expression present.
"You aren't wearing your guardian cape," Tadase noted.
"Ah, yeah…" Nadeshiko sighed. "I left it in the Royal Garden. I wasn't sure…" She sat up suddenly, her ponytail flipping over her shoulder. "I wanted to check in with you, Hotori-Kun. How are you doing?" Tadase looked at the grass below him.
"I'm okay, I suppose. We're still in a deadlock with this X-Egg situation. I was talking to my grandmother, and she suggested trying to find some way that can give me new perspective." Seeing Nadeshiko's perplexed expression, Tadase chuckled softly. "I didn't give her the details exactly; I just told her more generally that I was stuck on something." Nadeshiko hummed.
"How is your grandmother feeling?" She asked.
"The same, really…" He frowned. Silence befell the two friends as the sun beamed down on them. A group of kids nearby were throwing a frisbee around, laughing as they kept dropping it. Nearby, some boys were on the basketball court, engrossed in an intense game. Nadeshiko's eyes drifted over to the basketball court for a brief moment, before turning back to Tadase.
"Kukai's graduation was yesterday," Nadeshiko suddenly spoke. Tadase nodded absentmindedly. "I know you're not really close with him anymore, but…"
"Was I too harsh?" Tadase wondered.
"You're doing what you believe in, Hotori-Kun," Nadeshiko reminded him. "We haven't made significant progress, but you keep trying because you have hope, and that's great. I know you'll continue to work hard and figure out a solution."
"We'll work together," Tadase amended. "You're a guardian too, Fujisaki-San. We're in this together."
"Of course I'll always support you…" Nadeshiko's eyes cast downward.
"What are you implying?" Tadase's eyes widened. "You aren't quitting the guardians, are you?" Nadeshiko's eyes darkened.
"I can't put this off anymore…" Nadeshiko frowned. "I'm going to Europe."
"What?!"
"I'm going to be furthering my dancing career," Nadeshiko explained. "Mother saw an amazing opportunity, so I'm going to be studying abroad for the next year. I will be back by the time we start junior high." Nadeshiko frowned. "I know, for the guardians, it's a difficult time to leave, but I believe in you, Hotori-Kun. You can do this."
"I'm…I'm really happy for you Fujisaki-San. I just… I don't know if I'll be able to do anything without you."
"You'll be fine," Nadeshiko promised, patting his shoulder. "You won't be alone anyway; Yuiki-San is still in the guardians."
"Yeah, but she's not exactly…"
"I'm sure you'll find a new Queen and Jack," Nadeshiko reassured. "And you mentioned something about a savior with four charas, right?" Tadase nodded slowly.
"I'm going to keep looking for them. I'm really going to miss you though, Fujisaki-San." Nadeshiko smiled softly.
"And I will miss you too, Hotori-Kun. Hopefully you will have figured everything out before then, but when I return, I will help you out." Tadase smiled weakly. Both of them rose to their feet.
"Thank you for everything, Fujisaki-San." Nadeshiko smiled.
"Until next time, Hotori-Kun."
"Introducing, the guardians for this term!" Principal Komatawa announced to the students. "The King's Chair, Hotori Tadase." Tadase waved to the other students, prompting many of the girls in the audience to squeal loudly. "The Queen's Chair, Mashiro Rima." The new transfer student stared emotionlessly into the audience, unflinching as many boys cheered her on. "The Ace's Chair, Yuiki Yaya." Yaya grinned and waved as well. "And last but most certainly not least, the Jack's Chair, Sanjou Kairi." Kairi nodded affirmatively to the audience. "We hope this new school term will be a success!"
The new guardians walked together after the assembly to the Royal Garden. As Yaya was about to take her seat, Rima coughed suddenly.
"I want tea," She bluntly said.
"On it!" Yaya walked over to the kettle and poured Rima a cup of tea, placing a green tea bag in her tea. Yaya waited for a moment, but Rima did not thank her. Yaya took her seat awkwardly.
"So why are we here?" Rima wondered.
"What do you mean?" Tadase wondered, slowly.
"What exactly does being a guardian entail?" Kairi inquired. "We have gathered that we serve as the student council of the school at some capacity, but to what significance do our guardian characters serve?"
"Wow, Yaya didn't understand a word you just said!"
"Are you stupid? It was pretty clear," Rima mumbled. Yaya gawked at her. Tadase sighed.
"As you both are aware, the guardians are more than just a student council organization," Tadase explained. "We serve as protectors for all charas. We are here to save children's hearts eggs from being contaminated and turned into X-Eggs." Kairi's eyes flashed.
"And how do we do that?" Rima wondered. Yaya shifted uncomfortably.
"We have to cleanse them from being X-Eggs," Tadase began slowly.
"So do you just character transform and destroy the X-Eggs?" Rima wondered, an eyebrow quirked.
"Well, we don't destroy X-Eggs! They are contaminated eggs that can be restored to a normal chara egg." Tadase hesitated for a moment, looking back up at her. "Wait, character transform? You mean a character change?" Rima gave him a deadpan look.
"You don't know what a character transformation is?" Tadase exchanged a look with Yaya. She shrugged. Rima rolled her eyes. "This is stupid." She stood up abruptly, taking off her guardian cape.
"Wait, Mashiro-San! If you know something, we could use your help!" Tadase cried.
"Your help?" Rima scoffed. "This is pathetic. You clearly have no idea what you're doing. I don't need to waste my time doing this stupid club. I quit." Abruptly, Rima walked out of the Royal Garden, leaving Tadase to watch her with his eyes widened.
"Well that was fast," Yaya murmured. She turned to face Kairi, who was beginning to remove his guardian cape as well. "Wait, Sanjou-Kun! Not you too!"
"Mashiro-San is correct; if you have no formulated plan, then my purpose here is futile."
"We do have a plan!" Tadase insisted. "We are going to stop Easter! We are going to stop them from creating X-Eggs and—"
"No. You will not." Kairi sighed. "To be totally frank, I was assigned by Easter to join your organization as a spy. Easter had obtained intel regarding the guardians' attempts to thwart their plans, but seeing as the guardians is a directionless organization, I do not need to bother working as a spy. You serve no threat to Easter." Yaya's mouth dropped open.
"Get out," Tadase hissed. "If you belong to a company that is using innocent children's eggs for your own personal gain, I have no respect for you." Kairi pushed up his glasses.
"Very well then." Kairi exited the Royal Garden. There was a brief interlude of silence, before Tadase suddenly spoke up.
"We can do this, Yuiki-San," Tadase insisted. "I don't care what either of them say; we're going to stop Easter and cleanse X-Eggs."
"Yeah, sure!" Yaya agreed hesitantly.
6 years later
"Tadase, watch out!" Tadase pivoted, narrowly avoiding an attack from an X-Beam. He gritted his teeth, clutching his scepter tightly. Thousands of X-Charas surrounded him, all of them chorusing "useless."
"Tadase, I know you're not going to like this, but…"
"No," Tadase hissed, narrowly dodging another hit.
"We have to!"
"We can't, Nadeshiko," Tadase mumbled. "These are actual hearts' eggs! If we just destroy them, then we could be destroying a kid's dream. We would be responsible for that. I can't…" Nadeshiko sighed in disgruntlement.
"I know, look…" She sighed. "I don't like it either, but what other choice do we have? We can't cleanse them; you've been trying for six years with no luck. Easter is still going strong with Utau Hoshina and Ikuto Tsukiyomi being nearly unstoppable with their transformations that we can't replicate either. It's only me and you, Tadase, against a massive company with more resources then we have. If we destroy the X-Eggs, at least we can contain them."
"If we resort to destroying the X-Eggs, this can't become a habit," Tadase mumbled. "We have to find another way." He let out a sigh. "But… fine, for now." Nadeshiko clutched her naginata.
"Ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Nadeshiko and Tadase stood back to back. They both inhaled, before swiping their respective weapons, shattering the X-Eggs one by one. Tears glistened in Tadase's eyes, but he sniffled, preventing the tears from flowing down his cheeks. Once the job was done, the two of them watched fragments of the eggs floating.
"This has to stop," Tadase murmured. Nadeshiko nodded, panting heavily.
You might be wondering how long you'll have to wait to hear what comes next. Worry not my friends; it will not be ridiculously long!
I actually have the next chapter already fully written, and the one afterward has a good portion written as well. I've had ideas for this part of the story for such a long time, so writing this has been super exciting. I can guarantee another update pretty soon into the new year, and we'll see how many other updates I can do this break as well!
In case you were wondering, many of these scenes as well as the title were direct inspiration from the anime (which involved a lot of research, as I haven't actually watched Shugo Chara in like 8-9 years). The 'what if' kind of story is something I've wanted to write in fanfiction for a very long time, not just with this fandom. Obviously, this particular story has a lot of backstory leading to this point and as you can imagine, there's a lot more to come, but I'm definitely really excited for subsequent chapters and I hope you are too!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review!