Chapter Three
POV: Lilacheart
"Lilac!" Soundstorm yelled. "We're going to be late!"
"You really should get going," Syaoran said, sounding anxious. Mokona had made a mess of his guest room, and I had been cleaning it up all morning. The racket it had made had kept me and Soundstorm up all night, too.
"It's okay," I said, sweeping a pile broken glass into a dustpan. "I'll need to cancel that play day with Cloudy, though."
"There's no need to cancel anything just because we're here!" Syaoran exclaimed.
"No, it really is okay," I said quickly. I was remembering Ashura; I didn't feel it was safe for them—or for the house, for that matter—to just leave them alone. Soundstorm was trying to pretend she didn't care, but it was obvious how much she cared for Mokona. She had even jumped to its defense when Syaoran yelled at it.
"Lilac!"
I sighed. "I've got to go," I said, dumping the glass in the garbage. "Please try to keep Mokona out of trouble."
"We should be fine, just keep it away from your chocolate drawer," Fai said with a laugh. I sniggered, then moved the chocolate to my bedroom before catching up with Soundstorm by the newly-repaired front door.
"Okay, let's go."
It was only about a five minute walk to school. We were about halfway there when someone called our names from behind us. I turned to see Cloudwind racing towards us. Soundstorm and I paused to let her catch up.
"Hello!" she greeted, grinning happily as usual. "What's up?"
"Nothing really," I said. "Magicyop had to get someone from outside of Wands and Worlds County to fix our door when it collapsed yesterday."
"Your house is fairly old," Cloudwind said, laughing.
"One year, Soundstorm sighed. "It's not that old."
"You seem tired," Cloudwind noted, changing the subject.
It was true. The reason Mokona had messed up the room and kept me and Soundstorm awake all night was because it decided a guest's house was the perfect place to go drinking ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.
"I didn't sleep well last night," I sighed.
"I'm sorry," Cloudwind said empathetically.
"It's nothing," I said as we walked into the school grounds. I spotted Starsight on the high school side of the campus. She was talking to Rabbitfoot, as usual.
"We'll be right back," I said, abandoning Cloudwind and darting over to her with Soundstorm by my side.
Starsight caught sight of us and nodded. "Hold on a sec, Fun-Bun." 'Fun-Bun' was her nickname for Rabbitfoot. No one else used it, and I had no idea where it had come from. Starsight walked over to us.
"You haven't seen Ashura again, have you?" I asked.
"No, but I was wondering..." Starsight began. She paused, then said, "Should we tell the other Wandies?" The Wandies was the most common name used for the members of the County.
"I would, if they would think we're sane," Soundstorm said with a groan. I nodded agreement.
"But they probably won't," Starsight sighed. "So we'll just have to keep it quiet then, unless Ashura shows up," she concluded.
I nodded. Somehow, I had a feeling that if red scratches were forming all over the place and dumping book characters from the sky, it wouldn't need to be kept a secret for much longer.
The bell rang. "Time to get going," I sighed, suddenly filled with anxiety. If a vampire mage, his worst enemy, a bunny with 108 powers, and a boy with an evil clone and magic powers were dropping from the sky, what else could happen...?
The classes before lunch were so boring I don't even remember what happened. The only things I could remember hearing were, "2+2 does NOT equal 9," from my math teacher, "Lilac, you aren't a zombie," from my science teacher, and something about polar bears from my English teacher. I think P.E. had something to do with taking notes, but I'm not quite sure because I fell asleep.
It's a wonder how I get A's.
The bell rang for lunch, which jolted me awake from P.E. I forced down a yawn as I collected my books and met up with my sister. "What a nice nap," I commented to her as we went outside.
"You fell asleep?" Soundstorm exclaimed.
"Yes," I said.
"...Yeah, me too," she admitted. We grabbed our lunches from our bags and looked around the lunch area.
"I think I want to sit with Squirrely today," Soundstorm said.
"I might sit with Foxwhisper," I said, chuckling as I remembered my idea about chasing her around town. Soundstorm and I split up; I watched her as she walked over to Squirrelflame, who was talking to Jadepool. I walked over to Foxwhisper, who was talking with Swiftstep, and sat down quietly next to them.
"Oh, hello!" Foxwhisper greeted happily.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" I asked nervously.
"No, we were talking about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon," Foxwhisper said.
"Somehow, I really should've expected that," I laughed. Foxwhisper really loved that game; we were constantly discussing it during class. I wasn't sure Swiftstep had the game, but she had appeared to be listening quite intently.
"You look exhausted," Foxwhisper commented when she noticed the dark rings under my eyes.
"No, I had a nice nap in P.E.," I giggled.
Foxwhisper laughed. "I sometimes wish that my knees weren't so bad. Today wasn't one of those days."
"Actually, I had an idea!" I said, laughing. "You know how Rabbitfoot is constantly chasing me around town...?"
"Everyone does, Lilac. I should really get some popcorn and watch sometime," Foxwhisper sniggered.
"I was thinking I could chase you around town to make up for P.E.," I said with a snort of laughter. Foxwhisper choked on what she was eating, laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Swiftstep lightly patted her on the back until she was breathing again.
"I can run pretty fast when I want to. Have fun chasing me," Foxwhisper laughed.* I started to laugh too, when I noticed something in the corner of my eye.
A red scratch in the air. And a painfully high distance off the ground, too.
"Oh no," I mouthed. I dropped what I was holding and sprinted towards the scratches, signalling frantically to Soundstorm. She caught my eye, then saw the scratches. She darted across the lunch area to Starsight and tapped her shoulder, pointing upwards. The both of them instantly darted after me.
We were attracting some fairly weird looks from our classmates. Suddenly, the scratch became very large, and that's when everyone started to freak out. Two figures tumbled from the scratches; I dived forward to catch the creature who tumbled out of the scratch, while Soundstorm caught the second person. The scratches closed and the crowd closed in around us, everyone trying to figure out what was going on. I didn't notice a thing.
"Oh my God..." I whispered. I was staring at the creature I had caught: a white wolf. But it wasn't just a white wolf. I could tell by the red markings and the instrument wore on its back. I knew this character from anywhere.
"Spirit!" I yelled. "Come here! Right now!"
Spirithunter pushed her way through the crowd. "What's going on?" she asked. Then she froze. I was suddenly worried that just the sight of the wolf in my arms would kill her from shock.
"Spirit? Meet Amaterasu."
Spirithunter fainted.
"...I should've expected that," I muttered.
The wolf cocked her head at me. You can put me down, now, the wolf said. I flinched then nodded and let her go. She walked over to Spirithunter and licked her face. I couldn't help but laugh. A sun goddess reincarnated as a wolf was licking my friend's face. Spirithunter was the biggest fan of the Okami video games I knew...
Wait a minute. Amaterasu was from a video game. Not a book. So this wasn't just restricted to books, then.
"Wow, this is really embarrassing," Soundstorm whispered. I glanced over at her and realized what she meant: she had caught a boy about her age. She put him down almost instantly. He got to his feet.
"Where am I...?" he asked slowly.
Realization sparked in my mind. I knew who this boy was, too.
"DANNY PHANTOM!" Rabbitfoot squealed.
"Fenton," the boy corrected. Rabbitfoot glomped him, knocking him to the ground. Starsight burst into laughter.
"But none of these people are real!" Kitten-Chan cried. She was holding her head in her hands and muttering, "I must be dreaming..." I would've agreed with her yesterday, but now...
"They are real," I confirmed. "I met three others on the street yesterday. They're currently at my house."
"I'm confused!" Foxwhisper wailed.
"So am I," I muttered, shaking my head. "I have no idea why this is happening. First Syaoran, Fai, and Mokona, now Amaterasu and Danny—"
"FAI?" Cloudwind screeched, completely spazzing out.
"Now's not the time for spa—oh, never mind," Starsight said, standing up straight. I heard her mutter something about 'anti-spaz pills'. "I want to know what's going on," she admitted. There were many nods of agreement.
"I think we should call Sheila." Wolf's small voice came from the back of the crowd.
"I don't know if that's a good idea..." I muttered, trying to think it through.
"Sheila's a very reasonable governor," Soundstorm said. "I bet she'll know what to do."
"Has she ever seen book characters drop from the sky?"
"And video game and TV," Rabbitfoot added.
"What is going on here?" Danny yelled, completely lost.
"No one knows," I admitted.
"Where am I?" Danny asked.
"Wands and Worlds County," everyone said in unison.
"I can go get a phone, yes?" Sevenclaws offered. We all nodded and he darted to the nearest office.
It took him about five minutes to get back to the group. In that time Spirithunter had woken up, fainted, and woken up again. After a long silence she slowly asked, "Can I see your Celestial Brush...?" She winced, obviously thinking, I'm talking to a wolf...
However, Amaterasu just gave a wolfish smile and turned towards the sun. She unloaded something from her back: a brush. Everyone stared in awe. She closed her eyes and drew a crescent shape in the sky. Suddenly, the sun fell and the moon rose. Spirithunter stared, looking overjoyed, in awe, and completely shocked all at the same time. Amaterasu drew a circle this time, and the sun rose again.
Spirithunter put her hand on the wolf's head. "You're amazing," she breathed.
The wolf smiled and wagged her tail. I'm Amaterasu. You're Spirithunter, correct? Her voice wasn't actual speech, more like a voice you could hear on the wind.
Spirithunter nodded, her face glowing. I felt really happy for her at that moment. I couldn't imagine the joy that was flooding through Spirithunter right now. Or maybe I could. I was so happy yesterday when I met Syaoran, I just hadn't been as open about it. Not with my sister around, because, let's face it, she's not afraid to create a shipping with me in it.
But no one would ever tease Spirithunter for this. It was, without a doubt, amazing. The best part was, it eliminated any doubt that I had about this all being fake in my mind. It was real. That also added more stress, because that meant Ashura was real, too.
Rabbitfoot had just started to speak when we all heard footsteps. The entire group turned around; Sheila and Magicyop were walking towards the mob of students.
"Hello, Sheila! Hello, Magicyop!" everyone greeted, filled with excitement. We had just seen it become night and day again, all in less than three minutes. If that can't make you excited, nothing can.
"You said that a bunch of book characters have fallen from the sky?" Sheila asked, sounding more than a bit confused.
Amaterasu stepped forward this time. She glanced at a rock, then slashed down with a single Power Slash. The rock split right in two. Spirithunter beamed, looking like she was trying hard to stop herself from squealing.
"Cool..." I heard a few scattered voices whisper.
Sheila looked surprised. "Amaterasu, is it?" she asked.
The goddess nodded. Magicyop just stared.
"Oh, by the way, Magicyop, thanks for getting those people to repair our door yesterday," I said.
He gave me a withering look. "Dare I ask what knocked it down?"
"Mokona's Ncha Cannon."
"You told me it collapsed," Cloudwind said.
"And I'm a hairy gorilla," I said sarcastically, smiling to let her know I was joking.
"You're a hairy gorilla?" Soundstorm cried in fake surprise.
"Oh, shut up," I said, nudging her playfully.
Sheila looked thoughtful. "How many of these characters have showed up?"
"Syaoran, Fai, Mokona, Danny Fenton-slash-Phantom, and Amaterasu," I counted.
"Wait, how do you know—" Danny began.
"You have your own TV show," Rabbitfoot said happily.
"I WHAT?" Danny shrieked.
"She'll explain later," Sheila interrupted. "What I mean is has anyone evil shown up?"
A long silence followed her words. Then, "Ashura," Starsight said softly.
Not a lot of people knew who he was, but those who did tensed. Sheila looked concerned, seeing as we'd specifically said he was evil. After a few long moments she seemed to come to a decision.
"I'm dismissing school early today. Everyone go home, have a good weekend, and maybe things will have settled down by Monday."
No one needed to be told twice. Everyone picked up their belongings (some picked up their lunches) and headed for the exits. Amaterasu trotted after Spirithunter, much to her delight, I was sure. Rabbitfoot, who was trying (and failing) not to be a spaz, offered Danny to stay at her house. He hesitantly accepted and they both left.
I caught up with Starsight by the exit. "Do you want to come over to my house?" I offered. "If Mokona decided to drink again, I might need help cleaning up."
Starsight laughed. "Sorry, I need to help Icemoon pack. She's leaving today, and as usual she's left all her packing to the last minute."
"That's okay," I said. "Tell her I hope she has fun."
Starsight nodded and ran off, waving over her shoulder as she raced down the street.
Cloudwind darted over to me. "Are you going to come over today?" she asked.
"Right..." I said, remembering. "We have guests to look after. I'm really sorry, but Soundy and I might need to reschedule."
"I could help you look after the guests!" Cloudwind offered.
"That's okay," I said.
"But I want to!" Cloudwind insisted. "I like helping out!"
"You just want to meet Syaoran and Fai, don't you?" I asked sarcastically.
"...Yeah, so what?"
I laughed. "I can take care of the guests by myself, thanks. Besides, they didn't even know they had a book and were totally freaked out when I knew who they were. It would probably scare them more if you had a hyper attack right in front of them. Besides, if I need help, I've got Soundy."
At these words, Soundstorm conveniently walked over to me. "I've got my bag," she said. "Let's go."
"You have a good weekend," I said to Cloudwind, then turned around and walked home.
—
"We're home!" I called, dumping my bag in the foyer. "Mokona didn't cause too much mayhem, did it?"
"Mokona's not THAT bad," Soundstorm said.
"You weren't the one who had to clean up broken glass shards or check for holes in the walls," I sighed.
Mokona leapt around the corner. "Heya, Lilac! Sorry about last night," it squeaked, not exactly sounding all that sorry. "Heya, Soundstorm!"
Soundstorm laughed and bent down, picking it up. She then walked over to the couch and collapsed on it while Mokona hopped to the guest rooms to get Syaoran and Fai.
Syaoran came in the living room first. He had recovered from his injuries well, and didn't need help walking around anymore. "You're home early. You told me you'd be out for about three more hours."
"They cancelled school due to dangerous situations," I admitted.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I just meant that there's someone dangerous out there," I said.
"Who?" Syaoran asked.
Right at that moment Fai walked in. I bit my lip. This was going to be hard.
"I...um..." I muttered. Then I grumbled, "Good timing, Fai," under my breath, but he didn't hear me.
"Didn't you stammer the same way when Starry-chan asked about our existence?" Fai said.
I smiled, thinking it was kind of cute that he still remembered the conversation, and Starsight's name. Or maybe that was just me and my habit to easily forget people's names kicking in.
"Ashura," I finally managed to say. "School was cancelled because Starry saw Ashura on the way over here yesterday."
Fai froze, a look of pure fear on his face. I didn't know what to add, so I stayed silent.
"...That really was a good time for Fai to come in here, wasn't it?" Syaoran asked sarcastically, but a glance at him showed that he was also worried.
Syaoran suddenly looked up. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to something in the hallway.
I turned around to look. Another one of those red scratches. Only this one looked a bit more ominous. I could hear something in it, and it didn't sound good.
I stared at the hallway, worried. Syaoran shot a glance at Mokona; it nodded and a sword flew from its mouth. Syaoran caught it easily while Mokona jumped into his shirt.
Suddenly, the giant portal technically exploded, and what forced its way through?
Two dozen Erasers.
Erasers are wolf-humans. Humans who can turn into wolves. And they're DANGEROUS. It would be easy for one of them to kill a human. Let alone 24 Erasers to kill four humans.
"What the—?" Syaoran said, sounding surprised. There was no time for an explanation; the Erasers noticed us instantly and charged. Syaoran stepped in front of me, seeing as I'd never fought before, and slashed his sword across the nearest Eraser's muzzle. It screeched and sunk its teeth into Syaoran's shoulder. He winced and lashed out, kicking it in the neck. Fai tripped it over and nailed it into a wall. It flew backwards, ripping large wounds into Syaoran's shoulder as it flew past. Soundstorm was shivering, and I was trying to hold back a loud scream.
"Here!" Syaoran yelled over the cries of the Erasers, which he was still trying to protect me from. He handed me his sword.
"How do I use this!" I shouted, absolutely terrified.
"I can't help you there, now's not really a good time for lessons!" he shouted back. "I can't hold these things off for long!"
I unsheathed the sword, biting my lip. There was no way I could use this...
I felt claws rip across my shoulder and I screamed, instinctively swinging the sword around and slicing at the attacking Eraser. It howled in pain and staggered backwards.
"You've got the basic idea," Syaoran muttered sarcastically, whipping around and nailing an Eraser in the eye with his foot.
I felt myself get dizzy as I saw the blood dripping down the sword. I glanced at my shoulder and shivered. It was soaked with blood. I couldn't really move it well. I was so afraid I was crying now.
I brought the sword fearfully on the hand of an Eraser as slashed at my neck. The sound of the sword colliding with its claws was deafening, even despite the roaring and barking of the Erasers. I swung around and attempted to dig the sword into its knee, but I found that I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bear to hurt it.
"They aren't afraid to hurt you, Lilacheart-san!" Syaoran reminded me as he nailed it in the chest, sending it staggering backwards.
Soundstorm had been lucky enough to stay out of the battle so far, but now an Eraser was speeding towards her. Before I could make a move to help her out I saw Fai come in and nail the creature in the back of the head with a well-placed kick, which sent the Eraser staggering away, howling. He handed a small weapon to Soundstorm. It was a sharp kitchen knife. Soundstorm was shaking.
"You don't actually expect me to use this, do you...?" she whispered. Neither of us could do anything really violent, despite what we wrote.
"It's your choice," Fai murmured before he ran back into the battle. I noted that the way he fought was more like a variety of defensive techniques, not really attacks.
Soundstorm and I worked together to fight off some of the attacking creatures, but we didn't have the courage to badly wound, let alone kill any of them. After a while the Erasers finally had enclosed us all into a tight group. About half of them looked like they had broken limbs, several others had various cuts, and the final group was uninjured. They had been standing back while we exerted our energy. Smart plan.
Syaoran, Fai, Soundstorm and I were all covered in blood and scratches; I had been trying to hide the fact I was so scared I was crying. All twenty-four of the Erasers jumped, and I felt claws rip into my stomach, shoulders, legs—just about everywhere as I tried my best not to injure the people who were standing back to back with me and defend myself at the same time.
Then, something caught my eye: the phone.
"Syaoran!" I gasped out. I handed him the sword and pointed to the phone. Syaoran didn't know how a phone worked, but he knew what it was for.
"Who can you call that would help?" he shouted, looking completely exhausted as he used the sword a lot less carefully then I did, fatally injuring and killing the first Eraser of the battle. My legs were shaking unsteadily.
"I don't know!" I yelled.
He didn't really seem to care about my less-than-satisfying answer; instead he raised his sword. "Raitei-Shôrai!" he cried. Raitei-Shôrai was a lighting spell.
The lightning nailed all of the Erasers in my path, knocking them out of the way. I darted over to the phone, picked it up, and dialled the first number that popped up on the list. Starsight's.
The phone rang, and I narrowly ducked an Eraser's claws as it slashed at my face. Syaoran was holding off the Erasers coming at me, but it didn't look like he could hold out for much longer. Fai was badly injured, and Soundstorm was fairing about as well as I was, except she had a weapon.
"Hello?" said a voice after what felt like forever.
"Starry!" I yelled over the racket. "Help!" I didn't really know what else to say. I figured that the sound of the Erasers would be clear enough for her to know that something was wrong.
"Lilac, what the heck is going on over there?" she yelled. She used a slightly more colourful word then "heck," but you get the drift.
Before I could answer her, I heard Soundstorm scream, "Lilac, look out!"
An Eraser appeared out of nowhere, bringing its claws down on my wrist. I screamed, and the phone flew out of my hand. It nailed the wall and smashed, the pieces skittering across the floor.
An Eraser scrabbling across the floor sunk its teeth into my knee, and I crumpled to the ground. I found myself unable to get up as the pain enfolded me.
That's it, I thought as my eyes fell shut. We're doomed.
—
* Actual quote from comments on the R&F forum on W&W.