Chapter Five
"Sakura!" cried Amu, spotting the other pinkette across the courtyard. Sakura didn't stop, but she didn't speed up either, so Amu ran after her. When she caught up, she carried on, "I haven't seen you in a while; have you been avoiding me?"
"Possibly," responded the girl curtly, still walking.
"Look, I'm sorry," the Yang Joker attempted, but the pinkette ignored her, so she continued, "Sakura, about the other day –!"
"It doesn't matter," Sakura interrupted, her head down as she stopped walking, shoving her hands into her pockets. "You can have Ikuto, Amu."
"I don't want him!" she screamed, her face flushing when she saw that she had gathered some attention. "I don't want him," Amu repeated at a lower volume, making sure no one was staring, "I promise."
"I don't care," Sakura shrugged.
"If you don't want him, the how come you were hanging out with him after we left yesterday?" sneered Mari, placing her hands on her hips.
"What?" shrieked Amu; not caring at all about the odd looks she gathered this time. "How did you know about that?"
"Kukai," Setsuko inputted. "He saw you two, and saw fit to report back."
"Though he mainly just wanted to separate Sakura and Ikuto," snorted Katsumi.
"So that he could have Sakura to himself," giggled Mitsu.
"A little underhanded," mused Setsuko, "but I suppose it's understandable."
"Sakura, I'm not after Ikuto," Amu swore to her, ignoring the Charas and deciding to have words with Kukai later. "His violin string broke and I went with him to get it fixed. When the owner of the music shop asked if I was his girlfriend, he even said it was another 'pinkie' that he liked," she told the smaller girl, who wouldn't look up. "Please, Sakura," she tried again, "I don't seek him out – we just run into each other – but I'll start avoiding him if –!"
"It's not about you, Amu," she whispered, finally meeting Amu's eye. Green eyes were flooded with tears and Amu gasped, "I'm moving."
{-}
The rest of the day seemed like a dream. Sakura had been avoiding the Guardians – knowing that Amu would most likely have told them the news of her departure, even though it was never her news to tell – and although Rima probably wouldn't care, she didn't want a run-in with a curious Tadase or a weepy Yaya. Thinking along these lines, she wondered how Kukai would take it, and this inevitably led to her pondering about Ikuto.
Gritting her teeth, Sakura held the straps of her bag tighter in her hand as she stormed home from school. He was by far the last person she should be thinking about right now – it'll only make her upset, and that's not what she needs. She needed to think positively, to come up with some pros for her move rather than focusing on the cons alone. Taking a deep breath, she looked over to her Charas.
"I need to think of some good things about moving," she told them solemnly and they nodded.
"Well, you'll no long have to worry about Easter," Mari supplied and Sakura nodded, a small smile blooming.
"That'll be a relief," she agreed.
"You'll be save much emotional pain," added Setsuko, referring – of course – to Ikuto.
"That's true," Sakura frowned, crossing her arms as she huddled into herself.
"You'll get to know Itachi's Chara better!" beamed Katsumi. Sakura laughed, looking at her red Chara in amusement.
"That's more of a pro for you, Katsumi," Sakura pointed out. Shrugging a little, Katsumi blabbered on about all the Charas that were in Gakure.
"She has a point, though," Setsuko mused. "Now that you are one of the people in the world who bare a Chara, you may be closer to your old friends because of it."
"Mitsu?" said Sakura, gaining the attention of her strangely quiet gold Chara.
"You can't move," Mitsu murmured sadly. "This place is all I know. Even in my dreams, I'm here. We can't just pick up and leave our friends – what about Pepe-chan, or Kusukusu-chan? What about my precious servants, Kiseki, Daichi and Yoru? We have roots here – I am not a sapling that can just be replanted wherever you please, even if I am the youngest!" she cried, her head down.
"Mitsu represents warmth and a mothering nature," Mari piped up, "but she's also very set in her roots. She's not the type to like moving around without good reason; especially when you're leaving so much behind."
"Me neither," Sakura agreed, scooping her youngest Chara into her hands and holding her fondly, "but there's nothing we can do. Tsunade is my legal guardian, and whatever she says is best for me – even if it's not – is what we have to do."
"That's stupid," the gold Chara huffed, expressing exactly what the other girls were thinking.
Within the next few minutes, Sakura had made it home. After hanging up her stuff and calling a greeting to Tsunade, she walked to her room, only to pause at the door. Five boxes of varying size were stacked up outside, all of them empty and waiting to be filled. Tears gathered in her eyes as the reality of the situation set in and, reluctantly, Sakura took the boxed into her room and began packing her belongings.
{-}
"A power-up spell!" Sakura heard a voice practically sing as she turned a corner, heading to school. Unsurprisingly, she found Yaya, bowing down before the Humpty Lock, with Tadase, Rima and Amu gathered around her, trying to figure out just how crazy the youngest girl was. At first Sakura was going to simply walk past them, maybe talk to Yaya, but then she recalled the previous day and knew Amu had probably told them she was moving.
"What's wrong, Saku-chan?" asked Mitsu curiously as she floated over Sakura's shoulder. She then spied the Guardians and hummed understandingly while Mari sneered.
"I hate that they meddle so much!" she growled.
"It's because they care," Setsuko acknowledged.
"Yeah, maybe too much," Katsumi snorted.
"You can never care too much," Mitsu corrected haughtily and Katsumi glared at her. The red Chara turned around to face her sister, the two of them squaring off.
"Sure you can," challenged Katsumi, "just like you care too much about how unlikeable you really are, so you trick and bribe people into friendships."
"Katsumi!" scolded Sakura, knowing the oldest Chara had gone too far.
"At least I can have friendships," snarled Mitsu, "while you can only maintain a one-sided flirting match with a cat Chara who is more interested in Setsuko that you."
"Do not drag me into this," murmured Setsuko, furrowing her brow.
"I am way more interesting than Miss Fussy Pants over there," hissed Katsumi, readying herself for a full-on attack, but not expecting Setsuko to jump in.
"How dare you!" the blue Chara yelled, "Your topics of conversation lack any kind of intellect or depth – you cannot claim to be of more interest than a rock, let alone a person."
"Lay off!" warned Mari and soon it became a full shouting match between the four Charas. Sakura rubbed her temples, developing a headache right between her eyes, and she snapped.
"Stop it! Just stop it!" she screamed at them, "I'm having a hard enough time dealing with everything else in my life! I do not need my Charas at each other's throats permanently! I just wish I have only one Chara, not four! You're all giving me a headache!" the pinkette finished. She panted, staring between her Charas. All four looked incredibly hurt and she bit her lip guiltily, beginning to apologise, but she was interrupted.
"Saku-chi?" called Yaya tentatively, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sakura lied, collecting her emotions. "I have to go to class," she excused, hurrying past the Guardians with her Charas floating sadly behind her.
{-}
Sakura sat at home the following day – a Saturday – just staring at her Shugo Chara eggs. The girls hadn't come out that day, and were still sore over Sakura's wish for just one of them and not all four. It was, after all, the equivalent of telling your child you wish they'd never been born. The pinkette felt sick when she thought of how she had yelled at them. She was stressed and her fuse had blown, but that was no excuse.
Standing, she walked over to the eggs and tapped her finger gently on each, called the girls out. They all peered out at once and Sakura sighed, stepping back – dodging boxed of various degrees of packing – and sat heavily on her bed as they emerged. Setsuko sat atop her egg delicately while Mari mere stood in front of it, her arms crossed. Katsumi was floating over her egg and Mitsu had just taken off the top, but remained inside the shell, staring at her owner.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Sakura said quietly, her voice full of remorse. She prepared to go on, spouting a long apology about what she did wrong and how much she regretted it, but her Charas had already forgiven her and where flying towards her, wrapping their tiny arms around their mistress.
"We're sorry too, Saku-chan," sniffled Katsumi. "We shouldn't have started fighting over nothing."
"Yes, it was petty and unneeded," agreed Setsuko.
Suddenly, a jolt ran through Sakura and she stood, sensing dark and ominous energy from the direction of the park. Without thinking, and with the girl following closely behind, Sakura darted out of her room and out the door, ignoring Tsunade's question of where she was going. She kept running and running, feeling in her gut that whatever was in the park was bad news.
The pinkette made it to her destination in record time, instantly seeing a girl from her school – Minami – in what looked like a Chara Nari with a white question mark on her forehead. Yaya, Rima and Tadase were trapped in vines, lifted from the ground and for some reason unable to use their abilities to free themselves, while all civilians had frozen and were now covered in flowers and trailing vines, looking more like ornaments than people.
Amu, already having become Amulet Heart, was doing her best to hold off Minami's attacks, but even with her recent power-up she was struggling. Sakura looked down, recalling how the two of them had always been stronger when using each other's power, and she looked to her Charas. Mitsu floated forwards, and she and the pinkette nodded once, both standing together as Sakura's remaining three Charas hung back.
"Watashi no Kokoro: Unlock!" Sakura called, holding her hands in front of her heart and twisting them. Mitsu flew towards her, smiling sweetly as her egg closed around her and she flew into Sakura.
Sakura's whole form was covered with golden light and her hair fell loosely around her. She spun around quickly, the light unwrapping itself from around her, starting at her head. The light unwrapped to reveal a thick yellow headband atop her head, the golden rays of light sweeping through her loose strands of hair. It continued to unwrap down her torso, revealing a white dress with splits up her left side to her hip, a sparkling golden belt wrapped around her waist from her chest to her hips.
The light unwrapped from her feet, showing gold ballerina slippers tied with ribbons of the same colour up to her knees. Sakura spun around again, the light settling around her before fading to reveal a sheer gold fabric flowing from under her belt, opening in the front and covering the back of her dress to her knees. It also fell out of the front of the belt, two parts attaching themselves to gold bracelets on Sakura's wrists. In a burst of sparkles, a gold sun appeared on Sakura's headband and she smiled, raising her arms above her head.
"Chara Nari: Lonely Sun!" she and Mitsu called at the same time, twirling and bowing her head until she came to a stop, a sweet smile on her face and her arms raised.
"Sakura!" gasped Amu as she did her best to hold off an attack of two large flowers with her pompoms. Narrowing her eyes, Sakura lifted her hands.
"Sun Sai!" she called as an iron bar with a forked handle appeared in each of her hands. The weapon was gold and seemed to glow, with a sun on each end. She flipped them around her hands a few times before darting forwards and taking over pushing one of the flower head away, leaving Amu with only one. The taller pinkette looked over and smiled at her Joker counterpart as they worked together.
"Thanks," said Amu gratefully, appreciating the lessening of her task. As soon as the girls were stood beside one another, the Humpty Lock began to glow and sparkle, a radiant light emitting from the crystals. Suddenly, the flowers they were holding off disintegrated into nothing more than pink sparkles, those also quick to disappear.
"Wow, Amu-chi!" gasped Yaya, "You really did power up, and so did Saku-chi!"
The two pinkette looked down at themselves, realising that they were glowing and sparkling now, too – Amu in pink and Sakura in gold. They sensed the power coursing through them, and it made them feel as though they could take on any enemy, any foe, and – so long as they had their Twin Joker by their side – they could win back the world in a day. It was a feeling neither had experienced before and their eyes met as they shared a moment of awe at how light, and yet at the same time heavy, they both felt.
"We have this kind of power?" smiled Amu, lifting her sparkling pompoms.
"Apparently so," nodded Sakura, also holding up her weapons – though her Sai were sparkling gold.
"My...My flowers!" screamed Minami, attacking the girls with vines in revenge for the flowers they destroyed.
With no hesitation, Amu and Sakura attacked the oncoming vines, hitting them with pompoms and Sai alike. They swapped sides, leaping over and rolling around each other in some kind of elaborate dance, ending with Amu behind Sakura, one pompon raised, while the pinkette crouched in front of her, her twin Sai poised on either side. Around them, the vines did as the flowers had and glowed pink and gold, disintegrating into a shimmering rain of sparkles.
"Manami-chan, what's happened to you?" asked Amu, worried for her friend and determined to help her return to normal.
"I'm going to give flowers to everyone, and make them all smile," replied the girl dreamily. "Everyone is happy to be given flowers, right?"
"Not like this!" interrupted Sakura, standing from her defensive crouch. "Just look and see for yourself!" she yelled, pointing towards the frozen civilians with one of her Sai. "Is anyone smiling? Do they look happy to you?"
"Don't you want to make everyone smile?" asked Amu, her voice firm and Minami reacted – the girls were obviously getting through to her. "Your dream is warm and wonderful."
"My dream?" recalled the lost girl, "Everyone's smiles..." she realised sadly, the question mark on her forehead morphing to become an 'X' as a giant X Egg formed around her.
"I've never seen anything like it," muttered Sakura in awe as she and Amu stood side by side. The shorter pinkette nodded to the taller one, who used 'Open Heart' to restore her friend to normal. Sakura ended her transformation with Mitsu sadly and frowned.
"What is it, Saku-chan?" asked the gold Chara, sensing her mistress' discomfort.
"It never ends," Sakura whispered. "We defeated Nikaidou-sensei, but Utau and Sanjo-san took over; then we defeated them, and now this. It just never ends."
"The Embryo!" cried Yaya and everyone looked up, spotting a beautiful white egg, glowing and sparkling in many different colours. It floated around them overhead for a moment before flying off. Sakura, upon seeing the ultimate goal of her recent endeavours, was disheartened.
"Saku-chan?" called Mari as the other three Charas floated over. Sakura looked at them sadly.
"Maybe Tsunade is right," she admitted hesitantly. "I need to be rid of this place, rid of Easter, and they just keep coming back. The Embryo – is it really worth it after all? All I want is... Well, it's impossible, even for a magical egg. Maybe I really should just move back to Gakure and be with my old friends."
"You're leaving?" a familiar voice asked from behind her. Sakura's eyes widened and she turned, spotting Ikuto. Her eyes turned hopeful before she closed off completely and just walked away.
This time, he saw her back.
This time, it was Ikuto who went home with a broken heart.