A/N: Sorry I made the last chapter to short! But cliffies are hard to resist. And I also forgot to include Kukai in the character list!

When the rest of the Guardians read Amu's letter, they were in shock. Rima just refused to believe that Amu would leave without giving a substantial reason. However, even through her stoic face, tears were dripping down, silently and quickly. Yaya collapsed in a chair. She stared into space, which was enough to show how worried she was. Usually she would be crying and jumping up and down in denial, but Yaya was too shocked, confused, and depressed to worry about making noise. Tadase looked at the letter, as if expecting it to suddenly say, "just kidding." Nagihiko glared at Tadase.

"Tadase. Are you sure that she wrote that? That you aren't pulling a joke on us?" growled Nagihiko, his voice angry, but his eyes dead. Rima and Yaya looked up hopefully.

"No. I…" began Tadase.

"You commoners! How could you think so low of a king? Would a king do such a petty thing like that?!" yelled Kiseki, in defense of Tadase. Nagihiko merely nodded, as if he had just wanted a confirmation. Rima and Yaya merely looked down again, as if all hope in the world had gone out, which it had for them. Kusu Kusu and Pepe tried to cheer up their masters.

"Rima! Don't worry! Amu probably went somewhere like that…market! She's probably playing a joke on all of us!" attempted Kusu Kusu.

"Hai desu!" seconded Pepe.

"No. Amu is not the type of girl to do something as cruel as that. However, we should try finding her…"

"Yo! What's up?" shouted a familiar voice.

"Hello Souma-kun."

"Kukai!!! Amu-chii is gone!" Kukai looked at them blankly, and then started laughing.

"HAHAHA!! You guys are kidding right? Just playing a joke?" he stared at them with amusement in his eyes. Finally he realized that they weren't laughing, that they were as solemn as before. "You guys…aren't kidding? Hinamori…left? Wh-why?!"

"We don't know. There's nothing in this message that tells us anything," explained Tadase as he handed Kukai the letter. Kukai scanned the message and then started staring blankly into space.

"Anyways. We have to find Amu! We have to! There has to be a better reason why she would leave!" continued Nagihiko.

"No."

"Mashiro-san?"

"No. We cannot follow Amu. Not yet. Let us give her time. She asked for that, begged. We can find her eventually. But for now…no," concluded Rima, trying to fight tears.

"I second that."

"Kukai!"

"Souma-kun!"

"Like Mashiro said. We have to leave her alone for awhile. That's what she wants. But someone should tell Kairi. Come on Yaya. Let's cheer up with some ice cream."

"ICE CREAM!!!" screamed Yaya as she ran out the door. Kukai followed, smiling, but having worry written all across his face. Nagihiko picked up his bag, and left to go home, as did Rima. Kusu Kusu tried to Weird Face gag, but to no avail. Tadase merely stared at the message, and then called Kairi.

"Inchou? We have a problem. Hinamori-san has…left."

A/N: What will they do now? Another cliffie! I'll try to update as soon as I can! Review please! Also, this is still an intro! Ikuto will come up later. This is an AMUTO story after all