Chapter Three

Umi took a deep breath as Caldina opened the door with a slam. Umi winced when she saw eyes turn to her, and she quickly walked to the back of the room, picking up a shot of whiskey as she did.

She quickly downed it, grimacing, and pulled another off a girl slowly sipping.

"Bitch!"

Umi glared, and she quieted immediately.

"Hey Umi, lighten up, come on," Caldina urged and danced around Umi, waving her arms and attracting a crowd.

One man particularly stared at Caldina then.

"Cal, I think that guy in the corner is totally into you," Umi whispered softly, and Caldina's eyes turned to him.

"Hm…" she rotated her hips and bid Umi farewell as she gracefully danced over to him.

"That girl was born to be a dancer," Umi mumbled to herself and downed another shot. She could all ready feel the effects the drink was having on her. She was getting lightheaded and woozy, and the world seemed to disappear. She was in a spot where no one could touch her. She smiled idiotically at the temporary bliss and grabbed another drink.

*

Caldina smiled a dazzling smile at the handsome man in the corner who nodded in return.

"So," she casually ran her fingers down the outline of her skirt. "I've never seen you here before."

"I've never been here," he answered simply.

"Oh," she mistook his short words as coldness.

"What year are you in?" she tried again.

He looked around almost hesitantly, "Going for my masters."

"Oh," she blushed and looked down, "that far?"

He nodded gruffly, and she sighed and turned around.

"Wait," he grabbed her wrist, and she turned.

"Yes?"

"You…I need to ask a favor…"

"Yes?" she batted her eyelashes, giving him her best flirt.

"Could you…could you…introduce me to your friend?" he asked softly, and she looked astonished.

"Sure…" she muttered and took his arm.

"Umi…why Umi?" she thought to herself as she guided him to the blue haired girl.

*

Somewhere inside Umi knew that she should stop this drinking, but she couldn't help it. Somehow, they didn't seem as cruel when she drank, so she kept it up.

A gentle hand pulled the glass from her hands, "I think that you've had enough, are you even over twenty-one yet?"

"As a matter of fact I am," Umi's head swam, but she managed to be hostile to the person who stopped her as she grabbed for the glass. "And quite capable."

"Not in that state you're not," when he shook his head at her his lavender hair caught his eye.

"You again!" she huffed and wrenched the glass from his hands. "I should have known. Are you following me or something?"

"Funny," his eyes narrowed, "because I was about to ask you the same thing."

She glared and shrugged into her jacket, "I'm out of here."

"Don't leave because of me," he threw his hands up, and she scowled.

"Umi! Wait!" Caldina called after her, and Umi spun.

"One comment, remember?" Umi demanded, and Caldina chose to ignore her.

"This guy wanted to meet you," Caldina responded with hidden spite that Umi picked up immediately despite her temporary handicap.

"Why?" she inquired harshly, and he took her outside to explain.

*

Umi laughed and thought it must be the alcohol, "Yeah, I'm crazy," she muttered and walked away from him.

"You can't turn, this is your destiny," he called after her, and she waved a hand behind her.

"I'm going to have such a hangover in the morning," she mumbled and trudged to her apartment, weary with alcohol and fatigue. "No classes until afternoon," she smiled blissfully, "Perfect…"

*

Hikaru could barely concentrate in any of her classes; she kept remembering what had happened at the party last night.

She had been talking to Lantis in a corner when some strange guy pulled her aside. She had to smile when Lantis glared at him with a look that would scare the most fearsome people, but the man had just stood his ground and pulled Hikaru way, to her confusion.

"I thought I'd never find you," he breathed when they were in a dark corner, hidden from sight and hearing.

"What?" Hikaru questioned. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Of course you know me!"

"Uh…" Hikaru looked perplexed.

"Princess?" he whispered, and her eyes bulged out of her head.

"What?"

"Magic Knight?" he tried again.

She laughed, this must be some kind of joke, "Sure, whatever."

"You don't remember…?" his eyes seemed downcast. "Of course you don't remember…"

"Remember what? Who are you?" Hikaru began to get panicky because she was confused and alone. She realized suddenly that Lantis had no way to reach her if worse came to worse, and she was getting really scared really fast.

"Princess, listen to me, you have to find the other two," he grabbed her arm, and she began to struggle away.

"What are you talking about? Let go of me! Lantis!"

Immediately Lantis was between her and the man, pulling her away from him, daring him to get closer.

"Guard," the man bowed as Lantis pulled Hikaru away.

"You okay…Hikaru…Hikaru…" her thoughts were ripped away from her. When she looked up her professor was hovering over her. "Miss Shidou, do you want to repeat to the class what I last said?"

There were a few giggles at Hikaru's scarlet face, and she shook her head.

"Miss Shidou if you're going to come to my class at all at least pay attention," he turned. "And if you're not going to pay attention don't come."

She nodded, "Sorry professor."

"Continuing on…"

*

Fuu twirled her hair aimlessly, thinking about the green haired boy. She looked anxiously at the door every few minutes, wondering if he would show up. This was folly, she thought to herself; she was just being stupid. She didn't even know his name, but still…her mind wandered. He did seem so genuine.

"Fuu-hime," a gruff voice said behind her, and she turned. In front of her was a man of colossal size. He had blond hair pulled back in a small ponytail. His purple eyes were smart and deadly. He wore a large hoop earring on one ear, and his black shirt clung close to him, revealing well-developed muscles. He was the pure definition of strength, and she jumped back and stifled a gasp. What he called her didn't even register.

"W-who are you?" she stuttered.

His eyes seemed to shoot down as he shook his head, "Princess, you must remember, please."

"What?" she whispered, and her eyes narrowed. "Not funny, did that boy send you to mock me?"

"Never," he seemed fierce in the answer, "and anyone that mocks a Magic Knight should be slain."

"A what?" she was choking on her words.

"Magic Knight, you are the Magic Knight of Wind, but I didn't expect you to remember. The other's didn't remember either," he sighed and shook his head again, almost wearily.

"The others? Who are you?" she was getting scared because the seriousness in his voice was too convincing. This person was either very good, or very sick. She didn't want to be around to find out which it was.

"Fuu, sorry I'm late, I…" Ferio stopped as he stumbled in on the two. "Uh…"

"Prince," he bowed, and Ferio's jaw dropped with the statement and gesture.

Fuu immediately knew this wasn't a stunt, nothing could look this real, "I think you should get someone…to uh…escort this gentlemen to a place where he can get the treatment he requires," Fuu was careful with her words, and Ferio nodded and hurried off in that direction.

"Fuu-hime," the man bowed. "I will be back for you, for all of you."

Then, in a gust of wind, he vanished.

"Fuu," the librarian put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around with terrified green eyes. She met the gold eyes of Ferio and gasped out the words, "He…he just v…vanished!"           

*

He paced around the room, angry and confused, "Why haven't they remembered?"

"Calm down Lafarga, I'm sure they'll regain their memories soon enough," a little girl stood beside him and sighed, shaking her head.

"But it has been a long time," the boy behind her added.

"There must be a way, some way…" Lafarga sat down and tried to think. "I wish we weren't the ones who had to do this. If only…"

"Clef insisted on going," the girl pointed a finger, and Lafarga nodded.

"Yes, he did," a smile played on his normally expressionless lips. "Yes he did, for more reasons than one…"

"What do you mean by that?" the boy asked, and Lafarga dismissed it with the flick of a hand.

"Nothing, Sanyun, nothing at all."

"You're too little to understand," the girl jested, poking him in the stomach with an elbow.

"Shut up Aska!" Sanyun shouted back, and Aska laughed.

"Caldina…" Lafarga's eyes turned into a pool of purple as he whispered her name. "Why don't you remember?"

"Lafarga," Aska put a small hand on his shoulder, standing on her tippy toes just to reach it while he was sitting.

"Why didn't Clef stay to help us? Cephiro needs them now!" His fist hit the chair.

"We'll figure out something," Sanyung sounded less than hopeful.

"We have," Aska said meekly, and Lafarga nodded and went back to thinking.

*

Lantis was lying on his bed reading a book when his roommate walked into the room. Full of confidence and bursting with pride a tall man with dirty blond hair and brown eyes waltzed into the room that he shared with his best friend. He wore khaki pants and a black shirt, but through his façade something always seemed to plague his eyes. He was confident and determined in everything he did, but there was always a hidden sadness in his eyes, a longing.

Now though, he seemed to be beaming, "Lantis, guess what?"

"I can't even begin to imagine, why don't you tell me?" Lantis responded dryly, but it didn't seem to put a damper on the other's mood at all.

"Guess who scored us great tickets to the concert?"

"I think I know this one, it's you isn't it?" Lantis' voice was dripping with sarcasm.

He nodded back, "You're right!"

"When?" Lantis inquired as he set the book down.

"Tonight."

"Sorry," Lantis didn't even hesitate.

"What?" his eyes were downcast.

"I promised that I'd help Hikaru with this stuff she's doing in English Literature," Lantis avoided his eyes; he did that every time he spoke of the red haired girl.

"Hikaru…" his own eyes seemed to turn and cloud. "I see…"

"I'm really sorry…" he began, but was cut off.

"No problem, I understand. I'll give the tickets to someone who wants them, and I'll stay here and help you guys," his face brightened.

"You don't need to do that, take someone, go have a good time. Don't let me hold you back," Lantis was almost angry at the prospect of having someone intrude on the semi-sacred time he spent alone with Hikaru.

"No no no, I insist, besides, didn't you have bad marks in English Literature anyway?" a grin crossed his face and reached his eyes.

"B's and C's…" Lantis trailed off, and he nodded.

"Exactly, I'll stay with you guys. I'm sure there's a ton of people who'd like to take the tickets off my hands."

"Eagle, really, you don't have to," Lantis emphasized the, 'you don't have to.'

"But I want to," and the issue was settled.

"Okay…" Lantis sighed. He knew that Eagle was a friend of Hikaru's too, and he couldn't pretend that she didn't like him. He was, in fact, rather uncomfortable when the two were around each other. Sometimes, it seemed like they would get lost in each other's eyes and not speak for long periods of time. He knew then that that night was going to be another one of those edgy moments.

*

"Hey guys," Hikaru held up the pizza box as she walked inside.

"Hey Hikaru," they chorused as Eagle took the box from her and peered inside, half pepperoni and half mushroom and pepperoni.

"So what's the crisis today Hikaru?" Lantis asked gently, and she blushed and looked at the book in her hand.

"It's this stupid book!" she threw it on the table and sighed heavily.

Eagle scanned the title and grimaced, "Gods I hate Shakespeare."

"Why?" Hikaru inquired.

"Because he's an idiot," Eagle shrugged his shoulders, and Hikaru and Lantis' jaws dropped.

"Well that's a little forward," Hikaru admitted.

"It's the truth, have you read anything?"

Hikaru's look was dangerous.

"Well, the way he structures his sentence is absolutely wacked out. The words he uses have metaphors that only someone who reads in depth, or Shakespeare could understand. Even the actors of his time couldn't read their scripts. The thing is, it's not appeasing to many people," Eagle explained his theories. "It's hard to keep interest when it takes half an hour to read one page."

"That's exactly what I feel," Hikaru looked into his deep brown eyes, and he looked back at her.

Lantis quickly cleared his throat and pulled them from the awkward situation, "He is a genius of his time. All artists are a little eccentric, that's all."

Hikaru smiled and nodded, "That's true…"

"Still," Eagle's eyes flashed, and Hikaru looked back and forth from one to the other as they battled. Somehow, this didn't seem to be about Shakespeare anymore.

The thing that stopped them was a loud whistle from outside, and then a lot of hollering.

"What's going on?" Hikaru ran to the balcony of Lantis' apartment and looked outside.

She found that a circle of kids was gathered around a form, or two forms, that seemed to be battling in the grass.

All three ran out of the apartment and asked around.

"What's happening?"

"Hikaru?"

"Yeah," she responded and looked at the short boy. He was in a few of her classes, and they were on friendly terms, but then, she was friendly with most people. He wore an ugly green hat most of the time, but all the girls thought he was adorable because he was so short.

"I don't know, something about a girl," he shrugged and looked back to the fight.

"Always," Eagle muttered behind Hikaru, and Lantis nodded in agreement.

"So stupid really," Lantis added.

"I don't know," a taller man next to the short boy admitted, and it was insane to think that they were the same age.

"Geo and Zazu, how are you?" Eagle inquired, and they told him fine as the fight broke up, and everyone began to disassemble.

"Disgusting act, really," someone muttered behind them, and all five spun.

"You," Lantis' eyes were like ice as he met cold purple.

"Guard, Eagle, Zazu, Geo, Princess," he bowed to them in a bow that looked Japanese, and Hikaru's eyes narrowed.

"Are you trying to mock me?" she demanded. "Just because I'm not English or American does not mean that I am void of emotion!"

He shook his head, "Why does everyone think that I would dare to mock a Magic Knight?" he sounded astounded.

"What a convincing act, what do you want with Hikaru?" Lantis came forward, his fists were in tight balls.

"I only want to find all of you in one place so I can explain everything," he sighed heavily. "No matter what I do or try none of you come to the same place at the same time."

"You started this?" Hikaru demanded outraged.

He shrugged, "They're fine; they obviously wanted it started anyway. Stupid humans," he muttered and turned.

"Who are you?" Hikaru called after him, but he didn't respond, just kept walking.

*

Fuu looked at the ceiling and shook her head. She was just watching the ceiling aimlessly when there was a knock at her door.

She went to answer it, and a smile appeared on her face when she saw Ferio, "Hi."

"Hi," he answered and looked around her apartment. "Where's your roommate?"

"Don't have one," she shrugged. "My scholarship gave private rooms, book worm," she grimaced, what a way to attract a guy.

He grinned, "That's cute," he told her, and she smiled and blushed.

"Not to be rude, but um…why are you here?"

"Because that guy, I just heard something from a couple friends of mine; can I come in?"

She nodded and opened the room up for him. He walked in, and she offered him a spot on her couch. She sat next to him and waited for him to speak.

"He was at a fight tonight, speaking to that other Japanese girl, pardon me," he added when he thought that that might not be politically correct. She shrugged and urged him to continue. "And I thought maybe that he was after all the Japanese students."

"All?" she laughed. "How many Japanese students do you think there are?"

"Three," he answered quickly, "you, Hikaru Shidou, kendo girl, and Umi Ryuuzaki, that uh…" he stopped and shook his head. "Anyway, is it possible?"

"I suppose so," she sighed and put her head in her hands, "but somehow…"

"What?" he asked when she stopped.

"This is going to sound insane," she informed him before she even started, "but somehow I think that he's telling the truth, or at least, maybe thinks he is. Maybe he's sick and thinks it's the truth, or I don't know…I just, I don't think he's lying."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not entirely sure," she looked at her hands that were dancing nervously, "but I'm going to find him and get to the bottom of it."

He nodded, "I'll help you; I'm quite interested now myself."

She smiled, grateful, "Thanks."

*

"How do the cute guys always like you?" Caldina demanded irritably a night after the party.

"What are you talking about?" Umi called from the other room.

"Oh you know, that blond haired fellow from the party," Caldina called back. "I thought he was into me, but oh no! he wanted to meet Umi Ryuuzaki."

"What?" Umi walked into the room, and her face was pale. "He was real?"

"Of course he was real!" Caldina shouted. "You weren't that wasted, Jesus Umi."

"Oh gods," Umi whispered and sat down, putting her head in her hands.

"Umi, what's wrong?" suddenly Caldina was worried. "Umi, you didn't do anything stupid did you?"

"No!" Umi glared at her friend. "Rumors getting to your head Cal?" she spat hatefully, and Caldina shook her head and looked down.

"Nothing like that, I mean, you were drunk though and…and…"

Umi waved it off and continued, "He told me some really weird stuff though Cal. I thought it was a dream or the booze or something. Cal, I don't know…"

"What did he say?" Caldina inquired hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know by Umi's expression.

"That I was a Magic Knight sworn to protect another world called Cephiro. He said that I was a Princess of the realm, and that I was a guardian along with two others. He said that our world was in trouble and I needed to find the others and go back to save this place. Cal, we can't have a creep like that running around campus. We've got to find him and stop him," Umi stood and began to pace.

"In the morning Umi, in the morning we'll go and find him. Just don't worry about it, we'll find him, everyone will be okay," Caldina tried to calm the other girl.

"Yeah, okay," Umi nodded and sat once more. "Wow, I can't believe I thought I was that trashed."