Broken Melody

Chapter 2

Back to Loneliness

"And it hurts to want everything, and nothing at the same time. I want what's yours and I want what's mine"-Michelle Branch, Goodbye to you

Welcome to chapter 2! Ignore the typo in the first chapter and the A.N. at the bottom of the chapter. You know the one that says, 'I'll try to find out by chapter 1' I meant chapter two. And I didn't find out, because I did most of this chapter at my grandparents' house, which meant no Internet.

Anyways, I want to thank Katra, for being so supportive and trying to think of reasons why no one is reviewing Golden Roads. Peoples, it's a good story. Also, my friends at school; Lance, for never making fun of me and being so nice, Kristyn, for being an excellent friend and way supportive of me always writing angst poems, Alyssa, for being amazingly super hyper and funny (like me). Please review!

Also, I never explained the stars (*) in Chapter one. I cannot for the life of me remember the teacher's name, so please review and tell me. 'Sensei' is Japanese for 'Teacher'

BTW, Lance is a friend from school that I share two things in common that I can't share with anyone else- DOA3 and karate (ignoring the fact we study different styles)

Every character in this story with the expectance of Antonia, Marie, Lance, and Indigo are copyrighted to their respective owners.

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On Saturday, Nagoya Chiaki awoke to the sounds of unfamiliar voices, laughter, and something heavy being dragged. Rolling out of bed, he made a loud thunk, and he heard one of the people attempt to stifle giggles. Female, definitely, he noted, and heard a second voice that could just as easily be noted as male.

"Now, Indy-Chan{1}, it's not polite to laugh at other people's misfortunes." The male voice said, and Chiaki figured there must be three voices- a mother, a child, and a father. He was proved wrong in a moment.

"You're supposed to be my bodyguard, not my mother." The girl retorted sharply. "Dad's afraid that someone will assassinate his youngest child. How can they? He doesn't let the public know I exist." She then started babbling rapidly in what sounded like English, but Chiaki wasn't awake enough to pick out any words he might know. She then switched to French, and finally back to Japanese. "Anyways, if anyone wanted to seriously piss off Kaiki{2}, they'd kill Chiaki. He hates me enough as it is. He'd probably leap with joy. It's my parents in France, Ireland, and America. They'd just die if something happened to me."

"What about me, Indy-chan?" The man asked mockingly. "I'd kill the person who killed you. If I had to, for my fifth daughter." The girl, whom he'd finally figured out was his sister, laughed merrily "So many families adopt me! And I'm only talking about the official thing, with papers and everything. And you. Of course you count, Lance-chan!" she said.

He poked his head silently out of his doorway, watching 'Lance' drag a blue suitcase, and his sister follow behind, wearing a blue short sleeved T-shirt with an SL wound next to each other and a gold cross, a black, blue, gold and white plaid pleated skirt, knee-socks and school shoes. He also noticed the tiny little details, like the fact her shirt was untucked, her knee-socks had random scribbles on them, and her shoes were scuffed. She was chewing bubble gum, and would occasionally blow a huge bubble. She came to the door next to his, and pulled out a key-ring with key-chains on it. She swiftly unlocked the door, and disappeared into the formerly empty apartment. He heard the sounds of a phone ringing faintly in the background, and his 'sister' picked up the receiver.

"Moshi Moshi{3}?" she said in Japanese, then squealed and began babbling very rapidly in what he could only guess was French.

"You want to test your Japanese?" she finally said in Japanese. Then, "I see. So, how's Paris? Is Gregoire-Jean still your ballet teacher and partner? You know, after the whole Jean-Paul thing. Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, my brother is currently eavesdropping, so…. Which one? The 'real' one. The one I haven't seen since I was three. Yeah, him. How's Marie? Is she still getting nightmares? Ouch, it's insomnia now. I have no clue what she did to deserve this. Visit here one day and tell me how the orphanage is. Have you e-mailed Cam recently? Oh, Antonia, I'm so sorry. Yeah, she was an evil witch anyways. You have to go now, right? Long distance- Paris to Tokyo. This sucks, Antonia. I'll e-mail you the second those lazy-ass movers bring my laptop up, O.K.? I miss you! Bye," she said, and then hung up.

"Chiaki," she yelled through the wall, "That was Antonia, my best friend from France. She's really sweet, it's such a pity... Your purple-haired girlfriend is really weird, you know that? And who the heck is 'Jeanne' and why does she want to catch her?"

"What's a pity? She's not my girlfriend," he hollered back.

He turned to his balcony door, and on his balcony was his sister, grinning triumphantly. He groaned.

It was going to be a very long morning.

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Movers had been bringing Indigo's stuff up all morning, and they were getting pissed off at her refusal to call them anything except 'lazy-ass movers'. She was walking out the door at the same time that Maron was walking out to. Her face brightened, and an evil grin appeared on her pale face. But Maron hurried away, and Indigo sighed. People in France had been willing to make a friend out of the transfer student. Then again, she may have come to Japan too late in the school year; cliques were already established. She'd be the girl hiding in the shadows again.

"I really wish I was back at any of my homes." She said to no one in particular, then sighed. "No where, Now here."

I want to wander around town, but there's nowhere to go, she thought, still standing outside her doorway. She brightened when the movers brought her laptop up. Now I can e-mail all my friends-If my laptop lets me type in three different languages.

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Maron heard rather than saw the blue-haired transfer student. She was staring into space with an odd look on her face. Maron simply hurried off to gymnastics practice, wondering briefly why the girl looked so lost. She belonged here.

Didn't she?

Maron had never felt she belonged, and she'd grown up in Tokyo. Indigo had, if all assumptions were correct, lived in about four different countries. She obviously had never belonged.

So if she didn't belong here in her birth-town, where did she belong?

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Chiaki heard Maron leave her apartment, and he also heard Access snickering at him for missing his chance. The black-winged angel was currently rolling with laughter in mid-air.

"Baka," he stated firmly, "You'll never get her now. Your sister will convince her to stay away from you. And since now you actually like her, that 's a good thing, since you won't be breaking her heart." Chiaki tried to grab the stupid 'angel', but found him to be too small and fast. Attempting to ignore Access' taunts, he set to work on homework.

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Maron walked down the stairs, ignoring the elevator, humming. It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning- what could go wrong?

Quite a few things, as it turned out.

For one, she didn't accidentally on purpose run into Chiaki, which darkened her day enough. Thank God for balconies. Then, Miyako got mad at her because she forgot she was supposed to meet her in the lobby to go shopping together. So she was forced to suffer through yet another rant about Jeanne. All she was thinking was that it's really hard to listen to your best friend say things against your other side. And then it turned out that there was supposed to be a checkmate that night. But maybe we should skip to there……

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The sun sank slowly, resting its fiery head against the horizon and slipping the cover of darkness over the world. Maron crept onto her balcony, and jumped off silently. In mid-air, she transformed into Jeanne, and landed safely, despite the fact that her apartment was on the seventh floor. Her white-fabric boots made little to no noise as she crept through the streets of Tokyo. She heard Sindbad and Access behind her, and grinned. She'd found a shortcut yesterday, and she knew it was time to use it.

At the next corner, she ducked into an alleyway. Making sure Sindbad hadn't heard her, she hopped onto the wall, and walked cautiously across. Hopping onto a rooftop, she began to run, her feet barely touching the roofs and making very little noise. She, to no huge surprise, arrived at the scene that the checkmate was to occur first. No noticeable way in, she thought, But I'll find one, even if it means hopping from one streetlamp to another. In the end, she found a window that had been overlooked, and silently crept in.

Sindbad cursed as he noticed that Jeanne had already disappeared into the large building. He leapt silently into a large tree, observing all the traps Miyako had put up in an effort to catch the two elusive kaitous. He prepared to jump out of the tree, but a shadowed figure whizzed over his head into the next treetop, hopping above all the traps Miyako had taken great care to set up. It was pretty funny, actually.

Wait a second.

If Jeanne was in the building, then who the hell was the shadow?

As she leapt through the last tree, she did a flip with her knees tucked in, unfolded, and landed primly and silently on a street lamp. Good Lord, she's a frickin' gymnast. Not another one. While he was contemplating her acrobatic abilities, she jumped onto the first-story roof, crawled up to the second-story roof, and smashed a skylight when she went through it. Miyako spun around, as did the others, and in a flash Chiaki realized she was making a distraction to get him into the building. He just shrugged and slipped silently into the building. Inside, he saw two girls standing in front of the painting- Kaitou Jeanne and the shadow.

The shadow snickered as he neared. How did she hear me? Sindbad wondered, even Jeanne didn't hear my footsteps.

"So," she said. "It nears." The shadow truly was odd. She wore a long, kimono-sleeved black shirt with blue and purple ribbons wrapped around her waist and arms. She wore a black kimono-style bow, the smaller bow being a dark purple, and a thin satin ribbon of navy blue. Her skirt was three layers, each one slightly shorter than the last. The bottom was black, the middle was navy blue, and the top was deep purple. She had black and blue ribbons flowing like satin water down to her knees. Her black fabric boots were much like Jeanne's, except with silver ribbons wrapping them up. She had her black hair in a braid with her bangs down to her shoulders, braided also; all braids had thin ribbons woven into them.

"I am not an it," he said indignantly, and she snorted.

"I wasn't talking about you. You are an insignificant little bug. I'm talking about Darkness." For some strange reason, he felt like 'darkness' was a name. She went back to absent-mindedly gazing at the portrait of a beautiful young lady. It was obviously the possessed item. For some odd reason, Jeanne was still staring at the portrait, unmoving. The shadow-girl saw where he was looking and grinned.

"She won't be like that forever. I just hit a paralyzing spot. Once I tap it again, she'll be fine. Now…" she trailed off, deep in thought. Without warning, she leaped at Chiaki and tapped his back in a very precise area. He found he couldn't move a muscle except his eyes, which were currently rolling around, searching for someone to help him. He felt incredibly stupid. The girl drew out a silver pin, and tossed it lazily at the picture. It hit, and the two original kaitous waited to see if the chess-piece was black or white. In a burst of silver light, the demon was checkmated, and two very odd things happened.

The picture remained the same.

The chess-piece was silver.

The portrait looked exactly the same; only Sindbad and Jeanne couldn't sense the demon. To a normal person, it would seem as if the shadow-girl had never been there.

The chess-piece was neither white nor black- the delicate shape was silver, glimmering gently in the palm of her hand. Both gasped. Everyone knew that chess was for two players, with two different colored pieces. When a third player joined with a new color, things got messy.

The shadow didn't move to help either one of them, just stood there, grinning triumphantly.

"Who…. Are you?" Jeanne asked in a soft voice. The shadow blinked.

"I am Kaitou Nightmare, the queen of nightmares and all things that haunt them!" With that, she tapped Jeanne and Sindbad's backs, and darted out the window, all the while singing softly under her breath.

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Monday morning, Indigo hummed as she got into her old school uniform. She didn't have to wear the Japanese school uniform because they didn't have any in her size yet. She skipped downstairs, where Lance was waiting for her. He handed her something and a glass of water, and she drained the water and swallowed whatever he gave her. Then, although it was still very early, they both walked out the door and headed towards the school.

Hours later, at the end of the school day, the class was assigned a partner project. By some twist of fate, there was an odd number of students in that class. Naturally, Indigo ended up on her own. The teacher made a big fuss, who would be willing to accept Indigo as a third person in their group? Indigo just shrugged it off and said she'd work alone. The teacher eventually gave in when she realized that no one wanted Indigo in their group. Lance picked Indigo up at the end of the day, and all was quiet as they walked back to the apartment building because every one else had clubs. They chattered aimlessly, and Indigo hugged him and waved good-bye from her balcony as he walked off.

She checked her e-mail; none of her friends had replied. She felt so cut off, so alone. She set to work on her homework, and by the time everyone else was heading home, she was long done. She settled down to play video games, but heard her brother and friends arriving 'home'. She wondered what it would be like to live in one country all your life, and know you had friends. Her friends in France and America were her closest and truest friends. And then there was Bryn, of course. She didn't want to think of how their relationship would suffer if she would be forced to stay in Japan as long as she thought she would be. Any other thoughts of friends and acquaintances were drowned out by Maron, Miyako and Chiaki arguing heatedly.                                                              

Chiaki was attempting to get Maron to go out with him, with Maron stubbornly refusing to and Miyako insisting that Chiaki go out with her instead. Indigo heard Maron say 'I give up!', and storm into her apartment, slamming the door behind her. She peeked out, and saw Miyako flounce off, and then Chiaki muttered, 'girls', shrugged, and went into his apartment. Indigo went back to her video game, all the while wondering why no one liked her.

Maron stormed off into her apartment, steam practically pouring out of her ears. Why couldn't Chiaki understand that Maron was refusing to go out with him because Miyako wanted to{4}? But noooooo, he insisted upon flirting with her and refusing to see! And sending her all those stupid notes. Okay, he was really cute. And really sweet in his own way. And yes, she really did want to be his girlfriend. But what about Miyako?

Chiaki was far less troubled than Maron. By now he had figured out why she didn't go out with him, it was just impossible to make her see that she shouldn't place other people's happiness above hers, especially when it made her so sad. Access was out, no doubt looking for Fin who was looking for demons…..

In the end, all three of the friends went to sleep. Indigo stayed up far later, however, contemplating how it was too late to make friends if it was only November. By midnight, however, she was far too tired to contemplate the socioeconomic divisions of High School, and finally went to sleep.

Her sleep, however, was plagued with nightmares of death and dismemberment of all people whom she holds dear. She also saw a man killing a young girl, sawing her head off then drinking her blood. Tossing and turning in her bed, she cried out softly. But no one was there to hear her. If she fell, no one would catch her. She was all alone in the largest apartment building in Japan.

When she fitfully awoke, she said to herself:

"It looks like I'm back to loneliness."

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Bah. I do not like this chapter. _. Icky stuff. I can't write Access, if you couldn't tell. Please review. Hey, I told you the next chapter would be longer. Slightly over six pages, YAY!

Footnotes:

{1}'Indy-chan'- Lance is being affectionate. It's sort of a nickname you would give your daughter or niece, get it?

{2}Kaiki- I BELIEVE this is Chiaki's dad's name. If it isn't, tell me in a review.

{3}'Moshi Moshi' is the way to say 'Hello' when you answer the phone, but only when you answer the phone.

{4}SPOILER ALERT- In the episode where Maron skips school because she found out Chiaki was Sindbad and didn't want to face him, Miyako visits Maron and asks her why. Maron says they got in a fight because he lied to her, and Miyako says something like 'Maron, you were in love with Chiaki from the start, you just didn't admit because I thought I loved him.' That's where I'm basing this.

I still don't like this one, but if you review, I'll change my mind ^_^; To all you non-existent readers, I need reviews to keep me from committing suicide.

-Knife thrower