Amu burst through the double doors and into the auditorium. She paused there, panting, taking a moment to catch her breath. She undid her character change with Ran as the rest of her charas floated up behind her. After a few more seconds, she straightened up and scanned the room quickly. Almost everyone was there already with only a few people left to arrive. Amu jogged down the aisle toward her assigned seat at the front of the auditorium. With a sigh, she plopped down into her seat between Tadase and Rima with the rest of the guardians. The five senior guardians took up the front row of the auditorium, making it easy for them to get up to the stage and give out the diplomas.
"You're late, Amu," Rima observed coolly. The waterfall commonly known as her hair was piled expertly on top of her head in beautiful ringlets. "What kept you?"
"I lost track of time," Amu replied, still a bit flustered. "Ran and Miki wanted to go to the park so we stopped there before coming here."
Rima noticed Amu's flustered tone immediately. "I didn't know there was all that much to do in the park," said Rima, looking at Amu suspiciously.
Amu giggled nervously. "You know Ran; she was having so much fun that she didn't want to leave." Amu winced at the high pitch of her own voice as she presented her flimsy excuse to Rima. She tried her best to prevent a blush from coloring her already rosy cheeks but wasn't having much progress. They were starting to turn a distinct shade of red that could only be described as tomato red. Rima raised her eyebrows.
"Later," Rima said, her eyebrows raised.
"Sure," Amu replied.
Taking a few deep, calming breaths, Amu attempted to calm the whirlwind of confusion that used to be her brain. Her thoughts stumbled rapidly from one emotion to the other, trying to make sense of what had just happened. There was only one clear thought in her head, one that repeated in her brain like a mantra, summing up all her other thoughts into one nice, neat, sentence. Ikuto's back.
She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and turned to see Tadase smiling at her, holding out a white, folded object.
"Here's your cape, Amu-chan. You left it at the garden yesterday."
"Oh," Amu replied, taking the folded cape from his out stretched hand. "Thank you, Tadase-kun. I was in a hurry to get home last night."
"I figured," Tadase said. "You looked like you had a lot on your mind yesterday. You want to talk about it?"
Tadase's eyes showed the sincerity of his concern, and Amu realized that he really was worried about her. And who wouldn't be? She had been pretty depressed yesterday, constantly sighing and staring off into space, and then today she runs into graduation, cheeks flushed and eyes alight with a secret. She wanted to tell someone what had happened so badly, but she restrained herself, since even she didn't know what to think about it yet.
"I'm fine," Amu replied with a winning smile. "I was just thinking about graduation and having to say goodbye to everyone." Not a lie, but not exactly the whole truth either. It had been bothering her and was part of the reason for her depressed mood yesterday; it just wasn't the whole reason.
"The guardians still have the summer to spend together," Tadase said. "It's not totally goodbye yet." Tadase playfully ruffled her hair making Amu giggle. "Don't get so depressed just yet!"
"You're right," Amu said, still giggling.
"I usually am," Tadase said turning to face forward in his chair. Amu punched him in the shoulder for the pompous remark, causing Tadase to smile even wider. Tadase had become more of a brother over the years. After they both had gotten over their crushes on each other, they had become like siblings, giving each other advice and being involved in each other's lives. Amu usually told him everything, and it was weird for her to keep something from him, but she just wasn't ready to let this cat out of the bag yet.
Amu carefully unfolded the white cape and put it on. Everyone in the graduating class graduated in these white capes. The guardians' capes were a little different, however. While non-guardians had plain white capes with white trimming, the guardians' capes were white with colored trimming. Amu's cape was trimmed with sapphire blue and Tadase's was trimmed with ruby red. Rima's cape was trimmed with light green and Nagihiko's with purple. Lastly, Yaya's cape was trimmed with yellow.
Yaya wasn't originally supposed to graduate with them. She had been a year behind them but during her sophomore year, she realized that her friends would soon be leaving her. Determined to graduate with her friends, she actually started studying and going to cram school every day. After a few months, she tested out of junior year and started senior year with the rest of them. She even kept up her studying habits and was graduating at the top of their class.
The principal walked onto the stage and started to address the assembly. It was the same generic speech that he said every year. He talked about how this was the start of the rest of their lives and about the endless possibilities that awaited them. Amu was soon bored out of her mind and so, of course, her mind looked for amusement elsewhere. Her four charas were floating by her shoulders, their eyes drooping as they too fought off the urge to sleep. Amu glanced around and saw her parents sitting not far behind her, tears running down their faces. Amu smiled at them and they waved back at her, Ami waving the most enthusiastically.
She started to turn back around but at the last second she caught a flash of midnight blue hair. Sure enough, there was Ikuto, casually leaning against the back wall. He caught Amu's eye and then winked at her, a playful smile spreading across his face. Amu saw Yoru floating next to Ikuto's ear, whispering a question to him. Ikuto nodded at whatever the question was and Yoru flew over to Amu's side. Miki saw Yoru's approach and blushed, dashing behind Amu's hair to hide.
"Yo, Amu," Yoru said.
"What are you guys doing here?" Amu whispered furiously.
"You thought we would miss your graduation, nya?" Yoru asked incredulously. "Ikuto's been looking forward to this for months, nya. He wouldn't miss this for the world."
Amu's eyes widened slightly. "Really?" she asked.
"Of course, nya," Yoru replied. "I don't think he would have taken a break from his search for anything else, nya."
Amu blinked, too stunned to say much of anything.
"And now Hinamori Amu, as speaker for her class, will say a few words."
Amu's head snapped around and her mouth gaped open. The principal was smiling down at her, waiting for her to ascend the steps to the stage and give the speech that she had completely forgotten about until just now. What was she going to do?
"Go on, Amu," Rima whispered, pushing her out of her seat, causing Amu to stumble. It was a miracle she hadn't fallen flat on her face. Amu blushed furiously as she heard some people in the audience laugh. Most notably was the distinctly masculine chuckle that no doubt came from Ikuto's lips. After straightening up, she carefully ascended the stairs and stepped toward the podium. She looked out and saw her classmates dressed in white with their white capes. All of them, staring at her expectantly, waited for her words of wisdom.
Ran, Miki, Su, and Dia, floating by her head, were whispering words of encouragement as she scrambled for words. Yoru had disappeared. She looked desperately out at the crowd, her eyes finally coming to rest on Ikuto. His smirk was gone, replaced by a gentle, encouraging smile. His sapphire eyes had softened, and in them was all the confidence in the world.
Amu took a deep breath, and spoke from her heart. "We've all come from different walks of life. We have all overcome different challenges to get here today. Well, here we are, ready to graduate, ready to move on to the next chapter in our lives."
Amu spoke about all their previous challenges and all the challenges they have yet to face. She reminded them that there was nothing that they couldn't do, that the sky was the limit. Just as she was about to finish up her impromptu speech, she heard a familiar sound.
"Murdi, murdi, murdi." Amu stopped mid-sentence and looked up to see an x-egg floating in the middle of the room. The four remaining guardians in the front row spun around at the sound, looking at it in horror. With so many people around, what could they do? No one else could see the x-egg but if they didn't do something about it soon, it would soon wreak havoc on everyone in the room. Suddenly, the piercing sound of the fire alarm filled the room and all the students jumped up to run to the nearest exit. In the midst of the confusion, Amu slipped down from the stage and joined the other guardians.
Amu's speech was going great until the x-egg crashed the party. He saw the look of horror on her face as she realized that she couldn't do anything about the egg without revealing herself to the entire community. Ikuto glanced around, looking for a distraction, and found one. The fire alarm was right next to the double doors. He pulled the handle and a piercing alarm filled the air. Everyone started rushing towards the exits, giving Amu and her friends the distraction they needed.
"Murdi, murdi, murdi." The x-egg was now bouncing around in the air, hitting anything and everything; from chairs to scrambling graduates.
"We'd better take care of that, nya," Yoru said to Ikuto. Ikuto nodded his agreement and five seconds later, he was decked out in his character transformation. He grinned as he looked over to see that the guardians had transformed also. Amu had transformed with Ran, no surprise there, but the outfit was slightly different. Her outfit, though still basically the same had changed to be a bit more mature, just as Amu had matured. Instead of a visor on her head, her hair was pulled back into two pigtails by a pink ribbon. Her cheerleader outfit was now a bit more form fitting, though still pink. It showed Amu's figure with a definite advantage and Ikuto couldn't help but admire the view.
The guardians leaped into action. Rima contained it with her ropes while Nagihiko kept it distracted. Yaya, well, wasn't really doing much at the moment. She stood there, cheering on her friends. Amu and Tadase were creeping around to get behind the egg in an attempted surprise attack. It was a pretty standard battle plan really, but unfortunately, this egg was not a standard x-egg. It nimbly averted all their traps and surprises so that when Amu launched herself into the air to purify it, it turned around a sent a whirling maelstrom of darkness at her, knocking her away. Amu went flying through the air and without a moment's hesitation, Ikuto launched himself in her direction and caught her.
They hit the ground, with Ikuto taking most of the impact so as not to injure Amu. He held her close as he steadied himself and then looked into her wide, golden eyes.
She was in his arms, staring at his luminous, sapphire eyes. He had saved her from a potentially horrible fall and was now holding her protectively in his arms. Hmm, this seems familiar.
"You're still heavier than you look," Ikuto said with a smile as he gazed down at her. His velvet voice brought her back to reality and she scrambled out of his arms. She turned to look at him, still a little in awe of what had just happened.
"W-well, no one asked you to save me," she retorted somewhat firmly. The stutter at the beginning of her sentence kind of ruined the effect though.
"No one had to," Ikuto replied, straightening up from his crouched position. He held his hand out to help her up. "You're still my princess, Amu," Ikuto said, "so of course I saved you."
She ignored his outstretched hand and stood up hurriedly, attempting to hide the blush that was spreading across her face. She heard Ikuto chuckle and instantly knew that her attempt at hiding had failed.
"Who said I was still your princess?" Amu asked, her tone challenging.
"I really don't think this is the time to be having a lover's quarrel," Ikuto said with a meaningful glance toward the x-egg.
"L-l-lover's?" Amu sputtered. "You, you stupid, perverted cat!" she yelled. Just as she was about to tell him just what she thought of him, she heard Tadase call her name.
"Amu? We kind of need your help over here." Rima had finally gotten the egg under control and was just barely holding onto it with her rope. Amu glanced at Ikuto then back at the situation at hand.
"This isn't over," Amu told Ikuto with a determined gleam in her eye. "Don't think you're out of trouble yet."
"I wouldn't dream of it, Amu," Ikuto said with a smirk.
Amu leaped back into the air and positioned herself to aim at the x-egg. "OPEN HEART!" she yelled and pink hearts erupted from her outstretched hands, purifying the egg in an instant. Soon enough, the now white egg floated out the door to find its owner, cooing happily on its way out.
"Well that was certainly unexpected," Tadase commented as he walked over to Amu.
"Yeah," Amu replied looking at the door the egg had exited out of.
Rima went up to Amu and put her finger on Amu's chest. "Was there something you wanted to tell us?" she asked with a meaningful glance behind Amu.
Amu gasped and whirled around, and saw that Ikuto was still there, staring at her with that cocky smile. Tadase also turned and saw Ikuto, a look of shock spreading across his face. Finally Nagihiko saw Ikuto too, but didn't seem as surprised as the rest of them.
"I can explain!" Amu said desperately as her friends turned to look at her with a questioning face.
"This one ought to be good," Rima commented as she watched Amu flounder for words as Ikuto's smile grew wider and wider.
