((Author's Note: Okay, so I'm adding earlier than I thought. But hey, my Art History paper went good. Enjoy and please Review!))
Starflower watched as Meru made ready for school, taking special time for her hair.
Oh, yeah. You soooooo like Daisuke, she said, laughing.
"I do not."
Do so-oh...
"Not like it matters. He likes Risa anyways," She said, feeling a twinge of jealousy. "And you're really one to talk. All the escape routes you gave Dark yesterday, I wouldn't be suprised to find you liked him. " Their argument continued on the way to school, where Meru was suprised to find Daisuke is absent.
Oh no, I hope he's not sick... she thought.
Wanna go look for him after school? Starflower offered.
After school, Meru didn't go immediately home but instead transformed and flew to Daisuke's house. They landed in a nearby tree and turned into a small oriole. The oriole hopped to the window and saw Daisuke laid up in bed, thinking he had a cold or something. Satisfied he would be okay, they turned and left.
Daisuke didn't wake up once, thankfully his mother and grandfather knew it would be far better to wait until he was in a better condition before sending him and Dark out on another mission. He opened his eyes slowly at the late afternoon and discovered With curled up beside him. With a small smile, Daisuke stroked the little creature's ears and then drifted back to sleep. Dark's spell from the previous night was healing the injuries well but it made Daisuke quite tired. Dark, within Daisuke's mind, was also recovering well.
The grandfather was looking through the newspaper as he usually did was was surprised to read an article about three young girls who had gone missing over the past three days, taken from their bedrooms. There had been no clues at all left behind...
"Hmm..." He rose slowly and went down into the basement of the house. It was your usual basement until you reached the door at the bottom. It opened out into a large dungeon-type room which housed the stolen items Dark had taken and also some kind of altar for rituals. On two sides of the room torches were lit, the room lit by an orange glow. He walked over to a bookshelf off to the side and looked through it for a moment.
"As I thought..." He sighed, looking at a picture of a painting.
When the Larei parentsarrived home, Starflower woke upand changed in hurry back to Meru. Meru walked into the kitchen and explained to her mother that a friend was sick, and askedif she couldtake him some cookies. Mrs. Larei gave her consent and smiled as her thoughtswent back to the days when she had a crush.
Meru happily baked the cookies and packaged them, then took them back to her room and set them on the dresser. She changed into a dark blue shirt and pants, with brown shoes and a cap to hide her hair. Sheshifted to Starflower and took off through the window. Upon arriving at Daisuke's house, shewent to his window and opened it. Shecrept to Daisuke's side and placed the package in his hands gently, with a get well card attached, and left as silently as she had arrived.
Once she had gone, With poked his head out from under the blankets and blinked, tilting his head.
"Kyu?" He sniffed the package and then started trying to rip it open. Daisuke woke up as he heard a ripping noise and was startled to find a package in his hands. "Huh?" Sitting up, he pulled With away to find the small creature with a cookie in its forepaws.
"Cookies?" He let With have the one in his paws as he looked at the others and then the card.
His mother knocked on the door and stepped in.
"Dai? You awake?" She smiled at him and then noticed the package in his hands and the card. "Where'd you get that?"
"I don't know. I woke up and it was here. Didn't you bring it up?"
"No." His mother answered, shaking her head. There was a puzzled silence for a little while until Daisuke's phone began to ring. Sighing he picked it up and answered. "Hello?"
"Daisuke! Why weren't you at school? Are you okay?" Daisuke didn't answer straight away, instantly recognising the voice as Risa's and was a bit stunned. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just had a really bad cold."
"Um, I don't suppose you've seen my sister, Riku?" Daisuke's hopes plumetted. It was typical of her ringing him just for something silly.
"No. Why?"
"It's just...she's vanished. We had a fight earlier and when I went to apologise I heard a weird noise in her room and I opened the door and she was gone. There wasn't a note or anything and I'm really worried Daisuke!"
Okay, so maybe this isn't something silly.
"I'm sure she'll be back. Riku's not somebody to run away after an argument."
"Okay...thanks Daisuke." She replied, sounding a bit upset. "Bye." She then hung up and Daisuke frowned. In his mind, Dark was growing suspicious.
There's some other power at work here...
They were on their way home when Meru said, Let's just stay out and fly for awhile, to relax. Don't you remember when we would fly because it was fun? Starflower changed direction, and they swooped through the sky and over the moon. They stopped for a moment, crashing into a cloud and giggling, when suddenly Starflower heard something.
What's that?
Let's go see. It doesn't sound right...
They peeked over the edge of the cloud and see...something. They don't know what it is, they're too far up to see it clearly. But they could see it was carrying their classmate, Riku, and silently they followed it in the sky. Starflower turned and shot an arrow into the sky every so often. The arrows hung in the sky and glowed yellowish orange.
Its form was pure white, glowing and it was in the vague shape of a horse with wings and a large pointed horn. Riku was sitting on its back, making no resistance to being carried away, her eyes blank of any emotion. The being moved swiftly through the skies, then its form suddenly flashed and vanished, taking Riku with it. Starflower and Meru, seeing it vanish, recalled their glowing arrows and head for home, feeling worried.
Daisuke left his room to go and speak with his grandfather about Risa's odd phonecall.
"I don't think these events are unconnected." The old man said, after informing Daisuke about the other three missing girls. "I have a feeling that a power has awoken that we've never been aware of."
"So what is it?"
"It's called the Song of Unicorn." Was the reply as Daisuke was shown a picture of a painting that was part of a very private collection and was never viewed by the public. "I visited the artist not too long after their daughter passed away. She was only about nine but she loved unicorns. The painting was finished after her death."
"So you want me and Dark to scope it out? Now?"
"No, not now. You're in no condition. You should be back to normal by tomorrow night. We'll give you all the information then."
Then Daisuke jumped as his mother placed her hands on his shoulders; he had forgotten she had followed him downstairs.
"Now, back to bed. You've school in the morning." Daisuke spent a little time wondering over the cookie package before going back to sleep. His injuries were gone, except that his left leg was still hurting a little and quite bruised. With curled up beside Daisuke, having stuffed himself with two more cookies.
The next morning, Daisuke got ready for school and left after a quick breakfast, it hardly noticable that he was limping slightly on his left leg. On reaching school, he sat down at his desk and talked with his friend for a bit. The talk of the class was about Riku's disappearance. Risa hadn't appeared for school, obviously too upset to go in. Daisuke sighed, hoping Riku would be alright wherever she was until he and Dark could scope out the situation.
Meru was moody that day it appeared, paying attention when the lesson started, but the rest of the time, just staring out the window. Daisuke glanced over at her for a moment, glad to see she was looking better, and then returned his attention to the lesson. But nobody in the class could really pay attention for long...the empty seats of the twins kept reminding everyone of what had happened.
The bell went for the next class; Phys Ed, and the boys and girls seperated to get changed. Daisuke sighed, hoping this wouldn't end up drawing attention to his still sore leg. Whatever way Dark had fallen in the clocktower seemed to have maybe sprained something but after the healing spell it was just bruised and sore.
Outside, the teacher began organising running events for the students; first being a relay race. Each team consisted of two boys and two girls.
Meruwent and changed, making sure to hang her inhaler around her neck in case she needed it, thenwent outside for gym, pulling her hair back at the same time. She noticed that Daisuke's leg is bruised, but says nothing about it to him. But his friends noticed.
"Hey Daisuke, what happened to your leg?"
"I...uh..fell down the stairs." He said, his hestiation sound like embarrasment. His friend laughed.
"You clutz." He joked, shaking his head. "Think you can run?"
Daisuke nodded. "It's not that bad. Looks worse than it feels." The teacher joined him and his friend up with Meru and a girl with short blonde hair for the race.
"This relay will start with one boy who will then pass the baton onto one of the girls, who will pass it to the other boy and then the last girl will finish the race. Take your positions!"
Daisuke decided to take the middle position while his friend started the race.
Meru told the girl she would take the third or the last place. Meru was more of an endurance runner, which would be needed in the last legs of the race, but she could flat out run if she needed to. It was the blonde's choice.
You'd like to run with Daisuke, though, wouldn't you? teased Starflower in Meru's head. Meru grunted and took position wherever she was told.
"You can run last. I'm terrible at the last part." The girl smiled, nodding to Meru and then taking second position. The boys at the start were handed the batons and got ready as everybody got into place.
The teacher blew the whistle and the first runner broke into a sprint around the first quarter of the track, then handing the baton to the second runner. A pace was already beginning to show, some of the best sprinters in the class already taking the lead.
Daisuke held a hand out for the baton when suddenly Dark's voice sounded in his mind.
Daisuke! Do you hear that! Daisuke hesitated but he couldn't hear anything over the cheer of his classmates. Distracted, he only just realised in time the blonde girl was reaching out to him with the baton and he broke into a run to match her pace, still hunting for the noise Dark could hear as he picked up speed towards Meru.
Meru recieved a panicked message from Starflower. She heard something, but she doesn't know what, and that bothered her. Meru looked back and saw Daisuke and simultaneously told Star to just use their ears, but be quiet so she can concentrate on running. Meru stepped into position but faced her upper torso backward so it would't be much of a shift to grab the baton from Daisuke and run. She couldn't hear anything, since Star was using her ears, and once the race was over she'd find a quiet place to sit down and sort through whatever Starflower heard.
Daisuke passed the baton onto Meru, making sure she had it before releasing his grip and slowing his pace. He sat on the ground, as all the others had done after passing the baton and listened carefully, trying to hear what Dark heard.
Is it still there? Daisuke asked silently.
No...it's stopped now.
So what was it?
If it's what I think it was, we have a lot of work to do tonight. I'm betting your mother sent out the notice already.
Typical... Daisuke sighed and watched the rest of the race, cheering with the rest of his relay team for Meru to win.
Meru took the baton and turned quickly into a short sprint to ensure a good lead, at least a couple dozen feet ahead of the closest person. She slowed a little to settle into stride and kept going, concentrating on the race without thinking. She's very competitive and would make sure she kept her lead. If she was going to win, and she would, she wanted it to be impressive. As the finish line neared, the cheering grew louder and louder. Daisuke and the rest of the team egged Meru on. Suddenly, something white hopped out onto the track in front of Meru and Daisuke gasped.
With!
Meru didn'tsee the small white rabbity thing at first, and when she did, she was too close to stop. So she stooped down and picked With up instead, carrying it in one arm and finishing the race in first. She immediately got clear of the track and sat down, looking the little creature over. She was afraid she might have stepped on him, or that he might be hurt.
Starflower, I've not seen anything like this before, do you know what it is?
The guarded reply is, I do not know. Starflower's tone is strange, as though she is bothered by something as well as With's appearance. With tilted his head at Meru and smiled, his long ears twitching. He seemed perfectly fine, if just surprised.
Daisuke ran over to Meru, having seen her pick up With and instantly panicked inside.
"Awwwwwwwwwww, how cute," Meru cooed, instantly liking the little creature and starting to pet him. She'd forgotten all about the race. "You could have gotten hurt out there, poor thing." She looked up and noticed Daisuke. "Hi Daisuke. Isn't this little guy cute?" she said, holding With up for Daisuke to see.
"He's adorable but he's also in big trouble. He's my pet...rabbit." Daisuke said, having hesitated a bit in trying to think of what to call With. "At least I think he's some kind of rabbit. He eats everything though. And I've no idea how he managed to get all the way out here from my house unless he crawled into my bag this morning..."
With tried to look innocent but hung his head under Daisuke's glare. He had crawled into Daisuke's bag after the last of the cookies that had mysteriously appeared in Daisuke's room.
"Oh, is he? Aw, I kinda wanted to keep him." was her disappointed reply. "What are you going to do with him here at school? I highly doubt he's allowed in class," she giggled. She reluctantly handed With back to Daisuke and pet him one last time. And added that school is no place for a cute little bunny.
"I have no idea what to do with him considering we have almost a full day of school left before I can take him home with me." Daisuke sighed. "Maybe I can just hide him in my bag and give him my lunch to keep him occupied. He'd probably sleep the rest of the day then."
With brightened up at the thoughts of food. Meru frowned and studied Daisuke thoughtfully.
"But what if he eats it all? You won't have anything..."
"It's either that or let him run around school all day and I don't really think that's an option. Thanks for catching him like that Meru." He shrugged and turned to get to class. "Come on, With. I guess you'll get those last cookies after all." He muttered to the creature.
Meru watched after Daisuke going to class, then went to her class.
No, Meru. Giving him your lunch is not an option. You need to eat too. And do you want to know what I heard during the race or not? Starflower's thoughts cut into Meru's mind.
No, not really. It was probably just Daisuke's rabbit. Do you think that impressed him, Starflower? she asked.
I hope so, for your sake. He seems like a nice kid.
Meru groaned inwardly. Starflower, just because you're generations old does not mean you can call us kids. Maturity-wise, you're not that much older than me! Starflower just sighed. Something was really really wrong, and she didn't know what, but she was willing to bet it had to do with that white unicorn thingy.
Daisuke put With in his bag, giving the creature his lunch and orders not to even move in the bag. He then closed it up, leaving it a bit open so With could breathe and then getting ready for class.
That unicorn is getting more powerful by the day and the more victims it takes. It heard its song in broad daylight... Dark told Daisuke.
We're dealing with it tonight. Just let me get through this day without more mishap.
Once class started, Dark left Daisuke alone to concentrate. With meanwhile, was gorging on his lunch.
Meru was working in class busily, she didn't look up for anything. Starflower kept turning things over in her mind, playing what she'd heard over and over again. Sounds like a song... Meru suddenly stood bolt upright and asked the teacher can she go to the toilet. The teacher gave permission, and Meru left.
Merani, what's wrong? Starflower exclaimed. Meru only groaned and walks faster. She entered the bathroom and started splashing water on her face.
"What's wrong with me? I can't concentrate today, and my head hurts and I keep thinking I hear something and I feel like I'm slipping away somewhere...ohhhhhhhh..." She moaned and continued splashing herself. She was trying to wake herself up and it wasn't really working. Starflower watched in confusion and fright.
Meanwhile, the bell rang for lunch and Daisuke just sat at his desk, sighing. He had checked his bag to find With fast asleep and all his lunch gone. As he rested his chin on his hand, Dark suddenly became aware of the same sound he had heard earlier...a strange music. Daisuke sat up straight as Dark alerted him and picked up his bag, walking through the corridors trying to catch it.
A bright light began to appear in the bathroom, the song from earlier easily audible. As the light begins to take a form, the bathroom door seals itself, not allowing anyone in or out. The song become hypnotic as the light becomes a dazzling unicorn. Meru looked up in confusion.
"A unicorn? How pretty..." Her voice slurring and becoming dreamy. She had the misfortune to love mythical creatures, and walked toward it. Starflower started shouting at her.
Merani, try to remember, that's the thing that took Riku! Merani, don't you hear me? Get away from that thing! Meru didn't hear, or if she did, she was too entranced to care. She continued to the creature, removing her amulet and allowing Starflower to escape from it, the winged girl's body wrapped in bandages as the two were not fused in the same way dark and Daisuke were. Starflower saw Meru was lost and began pounding the walls, since the door was sealed.
"SOMEONE HELP US! IT'S GOT MERANI! IT HAS HER! IT HAS HER!" She heard no response from the other sides, even though she was forceful enough to break the mirrors in the room. She turned her attention to the creature and shot three blood-red arrows at it. Normally, these would kill on impact, but they passed right through it and into the door, the points where they hit glow bright red on the other side. Seeing her arrows had no effect, Starflower is at a loss for word or action and stood there, dumbfounded.
But Dark could sense the magic and alerted Daisuke, who ran in the direction of the girls' bathroom. He stopped dead, seeing the red glow and knew something was wrong. But he could hear the music... He pushed the door gently, expecting it to swing slightly and was startled to find it locked.
"Hello? Is someone in there?" He called, knocking on the door. The unicorn lowered itself to the ground, gesturing with a toss of its head for Meru to climb on. Meru moved toward the side of the unicorn, and Starflower ran to grab her, to try to stop her.
"MERANI, PLEASE! CAN'T YOU HEAR ME! DON'T GO WITH IT! IT TOOK THE OTHERS!" Meru stopped for a moment and shook her head in confusion, and Starflower picked her up and carried her away from it. As soon as she put her down, though, Meru started trying to make her way back towards it. Daisuke heard the voice yelling and both he and Dark are surprised to find they recognise it as the winged girl who kept attacking Dark. Daisuke pushed the door and then drew back to try kick it open. Something was very wrong.
The unicorn snorted at Starflower and moved forward to just take Meru on its back, glaring at Starflower. It was obviously not liking the banging that was starting on the door. Starflower backed up further with Meru in her arms, then made a sudden decision.
"Sorry, my friend," she says, then lifted the girl and threw her against the back wall, at the same time backing into the wall, effectively knocking her out and pinning her there with her wings. She took out five yellow-glow arrows and shot them around and through the unicorn at the door. She then prepared a second volley. If someone was out there, she wanted their help, so she wanted that door OPEN, and would blow the wall out if she has to. The unicorn snorted again, angrily but it could see the girl was too well defended. It began to glow brightly and vanished suddenly. Daisuke finally kicked open the door and stopped dead at the sight before him.
"What the-!" Starflower had already turned around to Meru and started trying to revive her. Meru revived, and the two hugged. Meru pulled away after a moment. They hadn't even noticed Daisuke yet.
"Starflower, what happened? This place looks like a battleground."
"Meru, couldn't you hear me? Don't you remember? That thing... that we saw take Riku and those other girls, it came after you! Oh, I was so worried." Starflower picked up Meru and hugged her again. It is only then that Meru saw Daisuke.
"Oh, hi, Daisuke. What are you doing here?"
"I heard some kind of weird music and then somebody screaming from here." He replied, looking concerned. "What happened? And...who are you?" He added to Starflower.
"I don't know what's going on. The last thing I really remember is seeing something that looked a lot like a unicorn appearing in here. " she replied, as Starflower put her down and turned around.
Most of Starflower was swathed in bandages. She wore the same black leather outfit Dark had seen in the past. The only places she wasn't bandaged were immediately around her eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as her large wings. Her wings were mostly orange feathered, except her down feathers at the base and bone of her wings was orange with red edging. A few of the feathers on the inside middle of each wing were gold. She wore a choker around her neck. The band of the choker ws black, with three stars in the middle, red, orange, and yellow. Hanging down from the middle orange star was a white flower. She picked up her bow off of the floor and went over to the door, or whatever was left of it and started picking up arrows. She looked at Daisuke with kindness shining in her steely, blue -grey eyes.
"You can call me Starflower. It's the closest derivitive of my name you're going to get anyways. I was the one screaming. I was out of options. The arrows here in the door you see were mostly shot at the unicorn. All of them went through the unicorn. That kinda isn't supposed to happen, especially not with the red ones. These yellow ones explode, and the red ones are for anything I want to be really really dead." she said, gravely.
"Uh...okay..." Daisuke made himself look completely confused and shocked, knowing that if he reacted any other way it would be really suspicious that he didn't find all this incredibly weird. He looked back at Meru.
"Are you okay? Did you really see a unicorn? I can kinda believe it...I mean why else would some...one like Starflower be here?" He appeared to have struggled over whether Starflower was a thing or person, just to keep up the charade that he had no clue as to what was going on. Meru and Starflower shrugged in unison.
"I don't know. I guess. But if Starflower's arrows went right through it, it wasn't alive. I guess it was a ghost unicorn. Starflower, can we go home? I'm tired." Meru complained.
"Sure, Merani. Just go check out in the nurse's office." They left, leaving Daisuke to whatever he was going to do.
Daisuke watched them leave, looking and acting totally confused. When they were gone, he headed outside to think.
Daisuke...that Starflower girl and Meru. I feel that they are something like us, though not exactly. Dark said.
Yeah...I'll have to be very careful around Meru now. But what was it Meru said? A ghost unicorn? Daisuke thought for a few moments as With crawled out of his backpack and onto his shoulder, cookie crumbs all over his face still.
The unicorn is a spirit from the painting your Grandfather described. Tonight, we will deal with it. Dark said.
Daisuke nodded to himself and then sighed as his stomach growled with hunger. With happily cleaned the crumbs off his face and yawned. When the bell rang, With fell asleep in Daisuke's backpack as Daisuke returned to class, hoping his growling stomach wouldn't make too much noise to be noticeable.