Well, thanks for the 7 reviews. Don't I feel special!
vendred13: Yeah, Mai and Anzu are pretty mean, but they will get their rightful punishment! And you're right again, little Shizuka is being pulverized by her older cousins. LOL Thanks for the reviews!
Yamiko Dartz's Girl: Thanks! You think this fic is cute? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Sorry, I'm just a big fan of Love and Lust in Ancient Egypt! :)
neoelite: I'm glad that you think my new ficcy is original! Thanks for reviewing!
MistressMoonDemon: One of my favorite Authors and reviewer! Thanks for being the first person to review, and thanks for adding my new fic to favorites! .
PinkStarz: You think my fic's cute and original? Thanks! . That means a lot to me coming from you!
Kikoken: Sorry if the last chapter was long....Thanks for reviewing!
Mysthique: Thanks for liking my newest ficcy! LOL
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"Wow," Mai said as she twirled her wand in her hand, "I can't believe that we actually got rid of her. I mean, we actually broke through Aunty Kijin's shield and sent a fairy to the Human world all by ourselves. I think that that's an accomplishment."
"Yeah, we were good, weren't we?" Anzu asked as she looked through the parlor window, making sure that her mother stayed in place. "I wonder how Shizuka did with that wish."
"You don't think that she actually tried to grant the wish, do you?"
"Ha! Even if she tried to grant that wish, it wouldn't have worked because all Shizuka can grant are those demented puppies. Remember Mai, the VDT said that the boy wanted a human friend."
"Still, I'm really curious to see how she's doing with that wish," Mai explained as she started fidgeting with her wand with excitement. "Hey, Anzu?"
"What?"
"Can we ask the Inclination VDT to show how Shizuka's doing? Please? I think I could use a good laugh."
Anzu bit her lip nervously. Everything that was displayed on the VDT was recorded, and what happened if one day Kijin found the recording of Shizuka unwillingly in the Human world?
"I don't know, Mai," Anzu answered, "I mean, you know how the VDT records every-"
"Didn't you know?" Mai interrupted as she started to trace her fingers around the VDT's numerous buttons. "The first minute of a VDT display is never taped or documented in anyway."
"Really?" Anzu asked as she left the window, "You mean, we have a whole sixty seconds to watch a display without it being transcribed?"
"Yup," Mai said as she devilishly looked up at Anzu. "So, whaddya say?"
"I say yes! Those sixty seconds are fifty-nine too many for me!" Anzu exclaimed as she joined Mai in front of the VDT. "All I need is one simple glance....Computer! Display Shizuka immediately!"
And Mai and Anzu watched as the mapped screen became filled with trees and blue skies. But as they listened closely, the sounds of a young girl crying slowly started to unravel themselves.
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"I DON'T WANNA BE HUMAN! I WANNA GO HOME!" Shizuka felt her stomach do cartwheels as warm tears started to drip down her face.
She had this nasty metal tang in her mouth that made her whole body be overtaken by anxiety. For the first time in her life, Shizuka was tasting fear...
And although Seto still had serious doubt toward this...girl, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor thing. She was obviously scared, upset, and most likely lost by the way her muffled screams were shrieking, "I wanna go home!" So, he was a pretty decent human being, therefore he lowered the stick he had held up to her face and tried to ask one more time who she was.
"Who are you?" He asked for the first time addressing her without all that startled anger in his voice. "You're not human....So what are you?"
'I wanna go home! I want Aunty Kijin! I don't WANNA be human!' These were just a few of the many panicked thoughts that were spiraling around Shizuka's confused mind.
Seto, being once again naturally defensive, couldn't help but point that annoying stick back at the little Shizuka. He didn't mean to seem rude to her-well, actually, he didn't know how to act in front of her-but every time he saw her, the sheer tutu she had on, the strange stick that she held in her hand, the wings he saw just minutes ago she had on her back....He just couldn't find the ability to trust her.
Shizuka's vision was being blurred by the warm mist of gathering tears when she heard a voice other than the sobs of her whimpering and the angered voice of the boy....
"Seto some of the boys said that they heard a noise----Excuse me, Miss--Seto, who's your new friend?"
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Surprised was the best word to describe Anzu and Mai as they looked at the Inclination VDT, or better yet, as they looked at Shizuka.
Both their mouths were hung open, and they had to rub their eyes several times just to make sure that they were seeing correctly.
"Shizuka....Where...where...where are her wings?...." Mai asked as she severely squinted her eyes.
"I don't know, but her wand looks funny," Anzu answered as she turned her head to the side so she could make sure that it was no illusion that she was seeing. "And she's screaming, and that human boy is poking her....Is that even possible?"
Mai turned her head sharply to Anzu. "We have to get her back here.... now," she ordered Anzu.
Anzu turned her head to look at Mai and idly nodded her head.
"Cherry blossoms and things so amazing you have to say WOW, bring the fairy Shizuka back here NOW!"
And the result of Anzu's spell was....
Well....
Nothing
"I don't understand," Anzu said slowly, "Why isn't Shizuka here?"
"Where is Shizuka?" Mai asked angrily as nothing appeared where Anzu pointed her wand to. "Move aside; I'll create an incantation."
"Little and cute and skin soft like a teddy bear, make Shizuka appear right there!"
And the result of Mai's spell was...
Well, to be honest...
Nothing
"WHAT?! My spell didn't work? What did I do wrong? How could I have done something wrong--I'm ME!" Mai was more than shocked to see the result of her magic be nothing, let alone anything at all.
"Mai," Anzu called as she blankly stared at space in front of her, "I don't wanna rush to conclusions....But Shizuka has no wings, she's screaming 'I wanna go home', her wand looks funny, and I saw that human boy poke her with his wand-"
"Are you implying that Shizuka is a human?"
"No--well, yes, but my guess does make sense-"
"I personally don't care if it makes sense, but haven't you thought about what would happen if your mother found out?"
Anzu looked again at the VDT, gulping as she did so. "Mai, I don't even wanna think about that. Let's just stay calm and try a few more incantations, whaddya think? Mai?"
But as Anzu looked to her cousin, she saw Mai staring horrifically at a certain spot a few feet in front of her. So, as Anzu followed Mai's stare, all the while asking what was wrong, Anzu felt a putrid flavor lingering in her mouth. She stared for a few more seconds as a massive curl of light purple pixie sprinkles started to from right before their very eyes.
"Oh fudge..." Mai cursed as she stared with such alertness/terror.
"Why me?..." Anzu cried, fearing that these were her last moments.
"Well, Anzu, I'm certainly not pleased with what your villa did to my statue, so I want you to hand in your wand to me, and you'll get no dessert tonight," Kijin's figure explained as she started to appear through the purple sprinkles. "You have some magic, Anzu! I couldn't even find a decent spell to place my statue back together.....Or maybe I was just too tired to perform any decent magic...."
Kijin stared at her daughter and niece as she said all of this, and was a bit surprised by the expressions she got in returned.
"What's wrong?" She asked the two girls whose facial expressions were showing pain and horror....
Mai and Anzu smiled sheepishly in return, not daring to say a word for fear of their lives....Oh, and their lives would not be pleasant too much longer for Kijin was starting to look up to the monitor.....
"And....WHERE'S SHIZUKA?!" Kijin practically screeched as her eyes hit the VDT that was bulging with images of the young girl, screaming and crying...
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"I'm sorry Mrs. Wheeler, but we don't have any job openings here at the orphanage," The front desk receptionist explained as she stared once again at her computer screen.
Mrs. Wheeler lowered her eyes away from the receptionist, and then she had an idea:
"What if I work for free?" She asked as she leaned a bit more forward on the desk.
"Free? Like a volunteer?"
"Yes, you see, about a month ago I got a divorce from my husband. And my husband...[She tried to control a few tears that were glossing her eyes] My husband won custody over our only child, Joey, because the court ruled in favor of a husband having his only son. Therefore--well, ever since then I feel so lonely, and I think that working with children could sort of make-up for the absence of my son."
The receptionist, feeling for Mrs. Wheeler, nodded her head and said, "Well, if you want to work for free as a counselor, I suppose that I could talk to the manager."
"Thank you, I truly appreciate it," Mrs. Wheeler explained as a little bit of hope came inside of her heart.
The receptionist smiled back, but her focus was instantly distracted when she saw a counselor come in with the orphanage's most isolated boy, Seto, and a new girl who was whimpering endlessly.
"Izumi," The counselor said as she reached the reception desk, "Were we expecting any new children to arrive today?"
"No," The receptionist answered as she barely glanced over the screen of her computer. "And besides, any new children only arrive officially at the orphanage on Mondays, and today's Wednesday."
"Excuse me," The counselor beckoned for Mrs. Wheeler to step aside as she talked to the receptionist.
Mrs. Wheeler stepped aside, but as she looked at the two new children who had followed the counselor into the main lobby, she couldn't help but look at the hysterically crying girl. 'What a cute girl, but the poor thing looks terrified!'
"Yeah," the counselor said, "But have you ever seen her before? Some of the boys heard a strange noise coming from the shrubs where Seto was sitting, and when I went there to investigate, I found this new girl." The counselor leaned a bit closer on the desk, "And I think that she's very scared of me. She hasn't stopped crying, and she was full of terror when I asked her to come with me--Seto, stop poking her with that stick--Anyway, I've never seen her before, so I think that she's a lost child who wandered off from somewhere in the city."
"Well, no I've never seen her before, but what if she came two days ago and you didn't notice?"
"Izumi you idiot! I am informed about every new arrival, remember?"
"Oh yeah..."
"I bet she's a lost child, and she seems so afraid of me."
"How do you figure?"
"It took me a good ten minutes to calm her down. You should've seen her, she would've made Victoria Falls look like a trickle. And then, she wouldn't come with me. In fact, she backed away. So I had to use my hand to take her arm and gently guide her. And even with that she was a little bit hesitant."
While the counselor and the receptionist had their conversation, Seto kept his close eye on Shizuka. Standing behind her, he thought about his clear opinion on this new...girl.
'She's not normal. She's not human. Keep your eye on her, Seto, you don't know what she's capable of... Ugh! I wish she's stop crying because it's getting way too loud!'
Seto closed his eyes in an attempt to drown out any more annoying cries from the girl, but all efforts proved to be futile. So, he started fidgeting with the large branch that he had originally used to poke the thing. [But now, he was using and keeping it more as a weapon of defense.]
Shizuka, on the other hand, finally felt the jabbing from her back go away.
'So he finally stopped,' She thought to herself, for once not thinking about Kijin and a way to get home. But, thinking about the fact that she wasn't thinking about Kijin brought on for Shizuka to start remembering her pain and separation from the people and places that she loved so dearly.
'Stop crying, Shizuka! You can't let them see you upset. You're a fairy, and they're just...they're just humans, right? They can't hurt you Shizuka, so stay calm...'
So, mustering an unbelievable amount of courage and bravery, Shizuka bit down at her tongue forcefully, and tried to wipe away the damp tears from her soft cheeks. Once satisfied, she started to nervously dart her precious hazel eyes around, feeling completely doomed in the situation she was in. She dare not look at they boy behind her, she was much too terrified by him. And as for the receptionist and counselor, well, she found no interest or fear in the conversation that they were having. Although she did find it a bit rude to be the subject of their conversation when she was listening right there.
And really she found nothing more of interest when she looked around the lobby, except when she laid her eyes on Mrs. Wheeler. As she looked to Mrs. Wheeler, her frown slowly started to disappear, and it became sort of an amused expression.
"Aunty Kijin?" She breathed as a state of complete and utter disbelief befell her.
"Ok, it's possible that she wandered off---hey!" The receptionist cut herself off as she pointed a wobbling finger toward Shizuka, "She's not crying anymore!"
"What the?...." Seto and the counselor seemed to have the same expression on as they saw, for the first time in the ten minutes that they knew her, the girl named Shizuka smile. [Well, Seto didn't see her smile because he was standing behind her, but he did hear her stop crying and happily mumble something.
Mrs. Wheeler, being the kind woman that she was, returned the overjoyed smile that Shizuka was giving her, though she was a bit confused and did look behind her when she saw Shizuka beaming at her.
'It's all the same!' Shizuka thought joyfully. 'Her hair is cut in the same layered ways. It's the same cocoa brown color! Her eyes are the same green with the bits of yellow in them! I knew that she would come to save me, I knew it!!!'
And before anybody could even have time for a reaction, Shizuka ran to Mrs. Wheeler with smoke coming out of her light pink slippers.
Mrs. Wheeler barely had time to even be startled when Shizuka ran to her and enveloped her in a hug while screaming, "AUNTY KIJIN!!!"
"Mrs. Wheeler, do you err...know that little girl?" The receptionist asked a bit hesitantly.
"Do you know her name?" The counselor asked eagerly.
"She can't know her," Seto mumbled beneath his breath, "Because if she does, than she's not human either." Seto stared in sheer shock as he saw Shizuka tightly cling the waist of Mrs. Wheeler.
"No, I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. Really, I've never seen her before in my life!" She explained to the counselor and receptionist as she tried to keep her balance. "I'm sorry, little girl."
"Aunty Kijin?! You don't have to pretend! It's me Shizuka, your niece, remember? I knew you'd come to rescue me! I just knew it, and I wasn't worried for a second......" Shizuka thought that she was speaking in Fairy Babble but in reality, she was speaking Japanese, and she didn't know that now, she couldn't understand or speak Fairy Babble anymore.
"So that's her name..." Seto mumbled as he thought carefully, "Shizuka..."
"Umm, Shizuka? You might want to leave Mrs. Wheeler alone." The counselor looked sharply as Shizuka.
"I really am sorry my dear, but I'm not...Kijin," Mrs. Wheeler explained being too kind to push Shizuka off of herself. "You really must be mistaken."
But Shizuka didn't have to hear anymore. She opened her tightly closed eyes to stare up at the woman whom she was so attached to. That voice, the voice that Mrs. Wheeler spoke with, was not Kijin's voice. In fact, it was actually a bit softer, but it definitely was not Kijin's.
Feeling both humiliated and upset for getting her hopes up and then broken, Shizuka continued to cling to Mrs. Wheeler, but along with that, she started to cry. And she cried loudly, to have the understatement of the millennium. She was practically projecting massive bulks of warm and salty water, and Mrs. Wheeler instantly regretted ever letting down the poor girl.
"I'm sorry," Mrs. Wheeler apologized as she nervously put a hand on Shizuka's head and started petting her soft auburn hair. "I didn't mean to get you upset, honest."
"Maker her stop!" Seto ordered as he dropped his stick and clasped his hands to his ears. "It's WAY TOO loud!"
"Well, at least we know that her name's Shizuka and that her aunt's name is Kijin," The counselor yelled to the receptionist. The receptionist nodded slowly in return, keeping her gaze on Shizuka.
"I'm sorry if she caused you any trouble," A new voice came into the main lobby of the orphanage.
Mrs. Wheeler, Shizuka especially, Seto, The counselor and receptionist looked up to see the strangest sight they ever saw. A woman was the clear owner of the voice, but she was no ordinary woman. She wore a sheer gown that was set in soft purple layers, and she carried a strange...stick in her hands. She looked almost identical to Mrs. Wheeler, and she stood solemnly under the main doorway of the orphanage.
She was followed by two girls who looked pretty much like the same age. One had shoulder length brunette hair and wore a gown like Shizuka's but in shades of red. She carried a wand like Shizuka's, but it had a glass star on it. She looked very displeased to be here, judging by her facial expression.
The other girl was very pretty. Also wearing a gown like Shizuka but in a rich purple color, she had vivaciously wavy blonde hair that went down to her waist, with lovely amethyst eyes. She had what resembled purple ballerina slippers, and carried a stick that was completely purple except for the pewter set of angel wings that were set on the top. And judging by her face, she was disgusted about being here at the orphanage.
"The freak show's... come.... to town." Seto's eyes went wide as he spoke with such astonishment trickling in his voice. If his hands weren't attached to his body, they would've fallen off by the way they dangled in shock.
"Do you.........know this little girl?" The receptionist and counselor asked in unison as they looked amazingly at the three people who stood at the main doorway.
"Oh, well she really caused us no trouble," Mrs. Wheeler explained, skeptically smiling at the woman. "But I didn't catch you name."
"That's Aunty Kijin! That's Aunty Kijin! That's Aunty KIJIN!!!" Shizuka's expression literally changed in spilt seconds from first wailing, to now expressing sheer joy at the sight of Aunty....And of course, she was a bit glad to see her cousins.
The woman in the doorway seemed to nod at Shizuka's exclamation. She, followed by the two girls, started to move closer to the ecstatic Shizuka. Shizuka let go of Mrs. Wheeler, and Mrs. Wheeler couldn't help but feel a miniscule void when she didn't feel Shizuka's tiny hands secured around herself.
"Aunty KIJIN!" Shizuka started to wearily take a few steps closer, and just when Kijin and Shizuka were about to come to each other, Seto immediately darted in front of Shizuka.
Standing like a shield to protect the one he had mistrusted so, he lowered his eyes at the sight of Kijin and the two girls. Shizuka looked very much startled, and Kijin, Anzu, and Mai seemed to put on a look of absolute annoyance.
"Hold on! You won't get near her until you tell me who you are and what you want with her!"
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Umm...well, what did you guys think? I actually cut out the scenes that I had looked most forward to in this chapter, and I saved them for chapter three.
It wouldn't hurt to press that little button and review! (Sorry, but you guys know that I love reviews!)
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Tootles,
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Celestial Night