A/N: Sorry it took kinda long to update.
Thanks to those who reviewed, favourite and alerted; especially the one who sent me my first piece of concrit (well, on this story)! :D
But I'll talk about that later.
Chapter Four: Meet the Would-be Selves
In flashes of blue and white, Ikuto found himself in what was probably his destination. He looked around to take in his surroundings, only to see a small wooden house that seemed to only contain a room or two. In front of it was a sign that read: Hakken House.
So that's what the Hakken House is, thought Ikuto. He averted his gaze from the sign to a forest a good distance away from it. From the Hakken House, Ikuto could see that Tsukasa was right. The forest was old and abandoned.
He stepped closer to get a better look at the trees. Their greyish colour and partially blackened leaves made the trees appear lifeless; causing Ikuto to wonder what brought them into such a state. When he came before the woods, he realized that it wasn't as thick as he once thought. Instead of a deep forest stretching far and wide, it seemed much more like a wall of trees about two layers thick or so.
He crossed the forest slowly, taking a few moments between each step to look at the finer details of some trees. The trees were like oak and willow trees, with thick trunks. If they were people, Ikuto was sure they'd be pretty wrinkly. After a while, he made it through the trees.
His eyes needed a small amount of time to adjust as the bright light of the other side came a bit fast, but soon he saw the environment ahead of him. The field was plain, no plant life besides the tall patches of grass closer to the wall of trees. As he looked around, he couldn't see Amu anywhere. The place was empty, almost barren if not for the forest and grass, which was only found on one side of the field.
Ikuto decided to explore and headed towards the patches of grass. He parted the grass as he walked; the grass occasionally brushed his face leaving a tingly feeling. When he got to the end of the grass he saw someone there: Amu.
He was quite surprised to see Amu in that state. She was crouched down over a small pond that was appeared to have been hidden by the grass. Her hand was reached out toward a group of ducks, a pile of what looked like berries upon it.
The strangest thing about the sight in front of Ikuto was the fact that Amu was smiling. Sure, it was natural for a person to smile, but Ikuto had never imagined her to do so. At least not like she was at that moment. Her smile was like a young child's: innocent and pure. Seeing her smile like that made him rethink everything he thought about her before.
She didn't look uncaring, lazy, annoyed or even arrogant. Just like a regular girl, if not nicer. Amu noticed Ikuto's presence and looked his way. Her smile faded almost instantly. "You finally got here," Amu stated in the same composed tone of voice she'd used earlier.
Ikuto shrugged, "Yeah. Sorry I took so long. I was talking with Tsukasa."
"It's fine," she said, not bothering to ask what they spoke about. Then Amu remembered something and quickly added, "Oh and there's one thing I have to tell you."
The boy in front of her raised an eyebrow but allowed her to continue. The two words to come out of her mouth surprised him quite a bit.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" he asked.
"Well," she began, "I was extremely rude to you, even though you hadn't done anything offensive to me. So I'd like to apologize and also explain."
Ikuto motioned for her to continue as she said, "The reason for my behaviour is that I was jealous."
"Jealous?" he repeated. "Why would you be jealous of me?"
"I was jealous because even though you're just like me, you were able to remain in the other world and live there."
"But you visited my world earlier."
"That was on a mission. It was the only mission I had that allowed me to travel to your world, and I wasn't able to explore or do anything I'd liked to."
"I don't really get why you think my world is so interesting."
"Well I don't understand why my world, and many others, fascinates humans, so we're even."
Ikuto smiled lightly, but it turned into a slightly concerned look when Amu added, "My dad promised to bring me to your world a while before he left. The day before he was supposed to come back from his work and take me there, I received news that he died. "
"Is that what Tsukasa meant?" Ikuto interrupted, causing Amu to shoot a perplexed look at him. He continued, "Uh, before I came here, I was talking to Tsukasa and he said you'd been through a lot. Is that what he meant?"
Amu contemplated the thought for a second. "I think he was referring to the fact that my mom died after I was born and my dad died four years ago in battle so starting when I was eight I had to live without parents."
"Your father died four years ago?"
"Yeah . . ." Amu confirmed looking at him as if he hadn't been paying attention at all. Then suddenly she understood. "It was the same time your dad died, right?"
Ikuto nodded numbly as Amu said, "My father and yours were friends. They both fought the same battle to defend the magic world. Hopefully we can be as they were."
Then a thought occurred to Amu, "Minus the dead part, of course.
Ikuto laughed a little, before Amu stood up. "We still have some stuff to do, so we'd better get moving."
Her smile returned once again as she led Ikuto out of the tall grass and back into the field. "So, where are we supposed to be going?" he inquired.
"To the Hakken House," she replied simply.
Remembering the small wooden house from before, Ikuto asked, "You mean that little house I saw when I got here?"
The pink-haired girl racked her brain for what he could've been talking about, until realization hit her. "Oh, that old thing? Nah, we just use that to mislead newcomers and intruders. It was Tsukasa's idea."
'No wonder he transported me here,' thought Ikuto.
"So where's the real Hakken House?" he asked.
Amu stopped to gesture before her, "Here."
Looking in front of Amu, Ikuto saw what she was talking about. There stood a huge mansion, not unlike the versions built in the nineteenth century. There had to have been at least three levels to it, from what he could see. Even the gardens surrounding the structure were amazing. After letting him have his moment of staring in awe, Amu walked toward the mansion's entrance, expecting Ikuto to follow suit.
Just as Ikuto suspected, the mansion also had some forms of security; though probably much more than the ones he could see. As he and Amu neared the building, he noticed that barbed wires sheltered the premises, as did the dogs on the other side. He couldn't exactly see them, but their barks and growls grew louder with each step he took.
Amu stopped before a small mechanism attached to the wall of the entrance. She clicked a small blue button and spoke into a small microphone, "Hinamori Amu."
Instantly the device emitted a red light, scanning Amu. A faint click was heard as she pushed the door open with ease. They entered what looked like the foyer of the house; a large (and most likely expensive) crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling while two staircases led up to a double door across the hall. Hallways leading to separate rooms were also present, along with many interior decorations that seemed to mould modern and vintage styles together.
"Daaamn . . ." Ikuto mumbled in wonder.
This time, Amu didn't wait to let him analyze the room, and headed toward the flight of stairs to her right, moving toward the door farthest on that end. Soon enough, Ikuto followed as well, into the rightmost corridor. There were several more doors; so much so, that it seemed nearly endless. The fact that Amu seemed intent on getting to the end of the hall didn't exactly prove him wrong.
After reaching the end of the hall, Ikuto discovered that there was another, smaller set of steps on the left side of the door. They went up the steps and traveled to the third door on the left of that particular corridor. Above the door was a sign that read "The Nest". Never in his life had Ikuto ever encountered a room called a nest. His own house had a conservatory, a library, a game room, but no nest. His curiosity grew as Amu turned the oval-shaped doorknob.
The door opened to reveal a room similar to a nursery. The walls were decorated in an outdoor theme. The walls closer to the floor were painted to look like a nest on a tree branch while the rest looked like the sky on a spring morning. Lining the walls of the room were small beds very similar to baby cribs, but as Ikuto drew near, he noticed that there weren't any infants in the cribs; instead, there were eggs.
There were about ten or so in every crib, each one decorated differently, like the eggs you paint for Easter. There were eggs that had musical patterns, academic designs, natural textures and many other variations that Ikuto could hardly begin to describe.
"Why'd you bring me here?" he asked.
Amu turned to him briefly before walking toward one of the cribs in the middle. Ikuto moved toward it as well, afterward having Amu reach into the crib and bring out an egg.
The egg was entirely black and white. The top and bottom of it were black, with a zigzagged strip of white down the middle. On the zigzagged section in the middle were silhouettes of cat heads. Overall, it looked like an egg that was black on the outside and white on the inside hatching to reveal black cats.
"This," Amu said, holding the egg out to Ikuto, "is why I brought you here. We came for your would-be self."
Before he could ask anything, the egg shifted around in Amu's hands. "What's it doing?" questioned Ikuto.
"It's about to hatch. It was born about three years ago."
"Well, if the egg was born that long ago, why hasn't it hatched yet?"
"A heart's egg can't hatch unless the owner is ready for it. The owner must also be present for it to hatch. You were ready the same year it was born, but the egg was here, away from you."
The egg moved even more vigorously with each passing second until it began to crack right down the middle of the egg. The upper half of the egg broke off and in the blink of an eye, something came out of the egg and right in front of his face.
"This is your Shugo Chara," Ikuto heard Amu say.
His Shugo Chara had shaggy indigo hair and golden cat-like eyes. Two furry cat ears protruded from his head, and he had paws to match his hair and ears. He even had a long tail as well. He wore a black shirt and shorts with a silver stud belt around his waist and a cross on his shirt.
Enthusiastically, the Chara raised its paw in a waving gesture and said, "Hey Ikuto ~ nya! I'm Yoru ~ nya!"
Ikuto smiled lightly at his Chara. "So you're my would-be self, huh? 'Wonder why you're a cat," he murmured, loud enough for Yoru to hear him.
"I represent your desire to be free ~ nya!"
"Free from what?"
"That's for you to figure out ~ nya," teased Yoru.
Ikuto let out a quiet laugh before turning to Amu, "So now what?"
A/N: Hopefully this was okay... hopefully.
By the way, do Ikuto and Amu seem OOC to you?
And, continuing from the a/n at the beginning of the chapter, a big thanks goes to Mickey, my not-so-anonymous reviewer who gave me some constructive criticism!
To Mickey: Yes, I remember you :D And yes, I have realized that Saaya's message appearing at that exact moment was highly implausible. That bit was based off a suggestion from a reviewer, and since I don't like directly using other people's ideas (I feel bad), I tried to incorporate it somewhere into the chapter. I made a (fairly bad) attempt to fix that part, but if it doesn't work with the story, I can just scrap it.
Soooo... be like Mickey & review! Preferably with suggestions for improving the story :D
I also made a new poll, so don't forget to check that out, too!