(Standard disclaimer applies.) This fanfic is written purely for entertainment purposes only. No disrespect, etc. is intended, and no profit had been/ is being/ will ever be made. Don't hunt me, don't sue me, and don't hurt me in anyway And please kindly acknowledge that the girl' featured in this story is my character, so don't use her without asking for my permission first!

Author's memo: The Clamp Campus Detectives are in the Middle School division (and Utako and Nagisa are in the elementary division) when the events in this story happened.

Priceless Treasures

A Clamp Campus Detective fanfic

By Apus

Chapter 1 - Promises

The next day was a sunny, yet uneventful morning. The opened windows of the Middle School Division Student Council room brought in dancing sunlight and cool breeze. The delicious scent of Akira's milk tea and chocolate cake wafted the room. This, however, did not cheer up Nokoru, as he sat behind his huge desk, slaving away in the midst of his paper mountains (writing and stamping, stamping and writing ^^;). Suoh, who had managed to imprison the 15-year-old as soon as he got to school, was guarding him, ready to pounce whenever the kaichou stopped working. To add insult to injury, Nokoru had to endure Akira's bubbly laughter. The latter had already finished his work the day before and was having fun with a software that was newly developed by the school.

Only about a thousandth of the work had been done when Akira and Suoh heard Nokoru humming a rather familiar tune. Curious and suspicious at the same time, Suoh moved nearer to hear what Nokoru was singing.

light the matches' the ninja heard Nokoru mutter. Suoh's calm demeanor slipped a little.

With his usual bubbly face, Akira looked up from his computer and asked Nokoru, "Kaichou, what are you singing?"

Nothing... just beginning to think about Christmas, that's all." (Note: it is still July). As he spoke, Nokoru took out his paper fan to hide a mischievous grin. He saw the other two Council members waiting for him to continue. So, taking a deep breath, he climbed onto the little bit of space available on his desk, and began to sing:

"Stack the papers in one corner, fa la la la la, la la la la,

Light the matches throw them down, fa la la la la, la la la la

Hope the papers turn to ashes, fa la la, la la la, la la la

Hope Suoh won't lecture me, fa la la la la, la la la la"

(Seriously, the lyrics can be sung to the tune of Deck the Halls'!)

Upon the ending of the song, Akira clapped his hands; Nokoru simply bowed, whilst Suoh twitched his eyebrows together, fighting the urge to strangle the Imonoyama right there and then. Absent-mindedly, the ninja glanced about the council room, and was seized by a sudden fit of panic when he saw the huge columns of paperwork stacked in the two corners at the end of the room. He believed that deep down (like in the centre of the Earth), Nokoru was a fairly responsible person, but Suoh would not put it past the kaichou to REALLY burn down those documents – heaven knows how many tricks Nokoru had tried just to dodge the paperwork!

Having finished his little stunt, Nokoru jumped down from the table. It was most unfortunate that he swept down the nearest stack of paper along the way. Within seconds, other paper mountains crumbled under the sheer vibration caused by the fallen one.

At that precise moment a knock was issued from the massive doors of the room. The three had to battle their way out of the sea of paper (Nokoru with help from Suoh and Akira) before the kaichou managed a cheerful come in'.

A girl of about Nokoru's age entered the paper-flooded room. Her green eyes slightly widened at the field of papers in front of her, before resuming a tranquil smile. This time, instead of tying it back in a braid, she let her long hair flow down her back. Her formal black suit was otherwise similar to yesterday's if not for a small gold pin that glistened on the collar of her coat. Held in her delicate hands was a large rectangular box.

She was the girl that Nokoru had helped yesterday.

"I do apologise for the intrusion," she said in a melodious voice, "It appears that I have chosen to come at a rather inconvenient moment. However, since I have promised that Imonoyama-sama's items will be returned by morning, I thought I will stop by before my lessons started." She moved through the paper pile with liquid elegance, and gave the box to Nokoru. "Once again, thank you very much for your kindness." She gave Nokoru another bow.

Before the kaichou could respond, Suoh stepped (or rather, glided) between the girl and Nokoru. The bodyguard stared hard at her face, his body already in a protective combat position.

"Who are you?" Suoh asked threateningly, "You're not a student of Clamp Campus, are you?" The girl blinked twice, then pointed a finger at herself, as though questioning what the bodyguard had meant. Suoh ignored the gesture and continued, "How did you break through the security system?"

Nokoru started to chide Suoh for his impolite manner, but was immediately cut off by his protector's tiger-cold glare. There was a long silence until the girl finally managed to recompose herself and answer Suoh with a question of her own:

"I am the new transfer student. Have you seen my profile and documents yet?"

Transfer student? Profile and documents? Ah, yes, probably buried in the piles of kaichou's unfinished PAPERWORK! A rather chilly wind blew into the room as Suoh turned to aim his glare at the guilty kaichou and Nokoru took a few steps back to fan off the angry glare. Akira could only stand at the sidelines and pray for his sempais – for Nokoru who is sure to get lectured sooner or later, and for Suoh, who is likely to get a sore throat from that lecture. Luckily, the girl gave a chuckle, and the trio's attention was turned back to her.

"It is just as I thought. The esteemed Middle School Division Student Council members, also known as the Clamp Campus Detectives." the girl said with a little laugh. "Ijyuin-san, the treasurer, is forever kawaii and famous for his excellent cooking; Takamura-san, the secretary, is usually serious, calm, well-known for his sporting achievements and fighting abilities; and finally, the kaichou that had been elected for eight consecutive years, Imonoyama-sama, renowned for his brains and being the perfect gentleman." She added, "However, I did not realize that he also maintains the ability to build paper-mountains."

How rare it was to see the three members of the Student Council all blush at once! (How cute ^^) It was a pity that Suoh recovered quickly and demanded to know how she had learnt about them.

The girl gave another chuckle. "Since the three of you are very famous, it was not a hard task at all. Most of the information came from Clamp Campus's extensive information resources: from the computer network to the school magazines – although the most useful information came from your fan clubs," she replied. "As a matter of fact, I had just finished my research on the three of you yesterday afternoon when I got caught in the storm." The school bell rang as she finished speaking. She quickly set down the box on the coffee table and excused herself.

"By the way," the girl added just as she reached the door, "I hope that you find my documents, because I don't like the idea of my personal data floating around the school." And with that, she left for her classes.

~~~~~

"Nijikawa Shizumi; Age 15; Middle School year 3; Birthday 8th of October; Transfer from America; has exceptional acting and computing skills; renowned for her knowledge of and fluency in 14 different languages: Japanese, English, Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), Korean, Thai, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Finnish, Swedish, Latin, and Greek. Left as an orphan at the age of 6 when her parents died in a plane crash; was accepted as a student of Clamp Campus one week ago; currently boarding at Clamp Campus.

"That's all the information from her profile. The rest of the papers are just photocopies of her transfer documents." Suoh finished reading. It had took the members of the Student Council a whole afternoon to re-stack all the papers around Nokoru's desk (Suoh personally made sure that they were NOT in any corners of the room ^^;) and retrieve the transfer student's file. Akira, as usual, was preparing tea and Nokoru sat in one of the sofas, absorbing the information that Suoh had just read out.

"That explains how she got past the security," the kaichou said thoughtfully, "she IS already a student of Clamp Campus when we met her."

"Is she in your class?" Suoh asked.

"No. She is in the class next door to mine." Nokoru answered with certainty.

"I wonder what happened to her after her parents' death" Akira said quietly, pouring the tea.

"We could always go to the supercomputer-lab and do a research' on her." Suoh said sarcastically. Clearly, the young bodyguard was still holding a grudge against Shizumi for checking on them.

"No," Nokoru said sternly, "That will be disrespecting a lady's privacy and I will not allow it." He took a strong seep from his teacup, oblivious to Akira and Suoh's sweatdrops.

A knock interrupted their tea-break. (mine, there seem to be a lot of knocking today ^^;) Suoh answered it this time, and three ladies came in. At the sight of Nagisa and Utako, Suoh and Akira's face turned a lovely shade of red (the girls probably blushed too, but I'm not sure). Only Nokoru seemed to have noticed Shizumi following behind the two elementary school students.

"Konichiwa! Imonoyama-kaichou," Utako greeted.

"Konichiwa! Ohkawa-kaichou*," Nokoru returned with a charming smile, and bowed to the three girls. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

(* Note that this year, Utako has been elected the kaichou of the Elementary Division Student Council.)

"Actually, Nagisa-chan and I are just accompanying Shizumi-san."

Nokoru turned his head a little to question Shizumi with those sapphire-orbs. Shizumi's emerald pair smiled in return. "I came to inquire whether or not my transfer folder has been found yet," she said politely.

Nokoru reassured her that the documents have already been found and apologised for the mishandling. He invited the girls to join them for tea, to which the girls happily obliged. The girls sat opposite to the boys. Akira's milk tea and sandwiches, combined with happy chatter, have made tea-break an enjoyable time. In such a friendly atmosphere, all grudges and formalities have been thrown out the window. Shizumi was given the opportunity to introduce herself formally and befriend the boys. Meanwhile, Suoh seemed to have given up all hopes of trying to make Nokoru go back to work (since all his requests have been ignored and he is not about to throw a tantrum).

"May I have the last sandwich?"

"No, Shizumi-san." Utako confirmed.

"You're on a diet, remember?" Nagisa chided playfully.

"Of course. But I am willing to sacrifice my figure for Akira-kun's cooking," came the pixilated reply, the comment making Akira beam with pride. Ignoring Utako and Nagisa's protests, Shizumi took the last sandwich and bit into it.

"You three seem to be such close friends," Suoh noticed, "How did you come to know each other?"

"Shizumi-san was my guide on my American music tour last year." Nagisa explained. "Her school, Clamp Campus's America sister school, had sent her as a representative to take care of me during the tour. Because she was the only Japanese-speaking person in the whole duration of the tour, I grew to depend on her."

"And thus a sisterly-affection developed between us during those two months." Shizumi concluded, finishing off her sandwich. "After Nagisa returned to Japan, we kept in touch by writing to each other."

"I knew Shizumi-san through Nagisa-chan's letters, but only met her in person last week." Utako added with a big smile. "You can't imagine how ecstatic we were when we knew that she is going to transfer to Clamp Campus!"

"With Shizumi-san's language talents it would not be hard to apply for Clamp Campus at all." Nokoru said. "But Suoh," he turned to his friend, his voice sugary with mischief, "why won't you there to help Nagisa-san during that music tour? I am sure that Shizumi-san would have been glad of the assistance."

Nagisa blushed, whilst Suoh choked on his tea. "Kaichou!!" Suoh attempted to shout between his coughing, "You knew that I couldn't go because I was on a training trip with hahaue!"

"Ah, yes," Nokoru mused, "I forget so easily. My apologies." He tapped his forehead with his paper fan. Suoh was very tempted to give more impact to the tap by bashing him with Akira's tea tray.

Shizumi had been watching the commotion with a mixture of amusement and confusion. At last, she spoke, "I think I am missing something here. Is there something I should know about Nagisa-chan and Suoh-kun?"

Nokoru gave a musical laugh; "There is something you should know about Akira and Ohkawa-kaichou too, I think." Now Akira and Utako turned crimson as well.

Shizumi leisurely placed a hand under her chin, as though contemplating. She looked at Akira and Suoh. "Gentlemanly, clever, kind, and very caring if not a little TOO protective," she quietly evaluated the two boys, "personalities match their respective partner. Yes these two will protect them at all costs. The pairings are not bad at all; I am impressed However," her eyes grew sharp, and her voice had adopted a murderous tone as she directly addressed Suoh and Akira, "if anything happens to either Nagisa or Utako, I am holding BOTH of you accountable for it."

A deadly silence followed the warning. Each person had stopped what they were doing. The tension was only broken when Nokoru accidentally' spilled his hot tea onto Akira's lap, making the younger boy jump up in fright and everybody (except Suoh) laughed. Luckily, Akira managed to calm down and mend the damage with a handkerchief.

"I will protect them." Suoh's hard voice broke through the light-heartedness. Everyone else turned to look at him. Shizumi's full attention was once again focused on the younger boy.

"As a Takamura bodyguard, I have chosen kaichou as my One and will protect him with my life." Suoh continued solemnly. "But, as an individual, I swear to protect Nagisa-san with all I possess."

Shizumi stared hard at him. "Upon your honour?" she prompted.

"Upon my honour." the Takamura replied.

Shizumi nodded in acknowledgement. She turned to Akira, "And what about you?"

"I may not be much of a fighter, but I will certainly try my best to protect all of my friends," he answered bravely. "Especially kaichou and Utako-san."

Shizumi eyed them and said seriously, "Promises are one of the few priceless treasures in life, and I value them highly. I shall remember every single one of those words you two have said just then, and hope that you will live up to them." She then broke into a brilliant smile, breaking the uptightness in the room. "Nokoru-san," she said to Nokoru, "you are a very lucky person. To have such loyal friends"

"It is one of the few priceless treasures in life." Nokoru acknowledged with a smile.

--------------------

Free-talk:

Yes, yes, I know this chapter seemed rather pointless; I'm sorry, but I need to create the setting and give the characters a chance to get to know each other! And as for the stupid promises' (as my sister had rudely adopted) that Suoh and Akira has made, I can only guarantee that these promises will be of significance as the story continues, so please read on!

I had intended to use this chapter to convey my idea about promises – this at least, I think I have succeeded in doing. Promises-kept are almost extinct nowadays and I would like to see people treating promises with more respect - don't make a promise unless you are going to keep it!

That's all for now! Did you enjoy the story? C&C are appreciated, so please send them to apus000@yahoo.com.au

Thanks ^^