Egg Nation- A Mostly Lazy Afternoon
The rest of the journey to school was, thankfully, peaceful for Amu and the characters. After that chaotic morning, they welcomed this moment of quiet eagerly. The school yard was crowded with students and faculty, and as Italy glanced around while sitting atop Amu's head he just figured out that no one seemed to be able to see him or Amu's Guardian Characters. To test this theory he went up to a small boy and started waving his arms up and down frantically in front of him, but the boy continued on walking without acknowledging the Italian.
"How come no one can see me? Everybody could see me before." Italy asked pouting and burrowing through Amu's hair as he made himself comfortable on top of her. By now Amu had built up a tolerance to the character's insistence in using her head as a place to rest.
"It's because you're a Guardian Character. Only humans whose character have hatched or are too young to have created a would-be self can see us." Miki pointed out which left the confused Feliciano to sit there and scratch his head. She sighed and muttered, "He's still too stubborn to admit it yet."
Then at the entrance gate to the lavish castle-like school an attractive boy was calling out 'Hinamori-san' as he ran up to Amu. "Tadase-kun, ohayō!" She said through a thick blush; when her friend had stopped in front of her, and before either could get in another word an overjoyed Italy leapt from his perch on the girl's head and embraced a startled Germany.
"Ludwig! I missed you so much; I was really scarred when you and the others had disappeared. But this nice girl took me home with her, and we had pasta! It was really good, you should've been the- bonk!" The Italian's narrative was interrupted by a bop on the head from an angry Germany.
"What the hell! I searched all night for you, got chased by a new enemy and stayed up all night worrying about you, while you've been living it up without a care in the world at a strange girl's home!" He lectured irritably, Amu frowned at the 'strange girl' part, while Italy hung his head in shame but was consoled by the usually introverted Japan, who placed a hand of the despairing nation's shoulder and smiled slightly.
"He's glad that you are alright." He said simply before regaining his blank face again. Amu looked between Feliciano and Tadase for an answer about the new characters who, expect for Germany's 'strange' comment, hadn't really taken an interest in her or her apparent confusion. Tadase's gaze drifted up from the admirable reunion to Amu, and he began speaking.
"I'm sorry Hinamori-san you haven't met these guys yet, this is Ludwig and Kiku. I found Ludwig in his egg yesterday; he flew off and brought Kiku back with him." Tadase introduced pointing to each character as he said their name. Then the boy paused as he looked at the Italian, remembering Ludwig describing someone that matched this new character perfectly. He smiled and asked, "Is this the friend you were so concerned about Ludwig?"
Germany nodded shyly out of character and looked over at Italy, who was smiling idiotically, like usual. The Italian started laughing softly, and then spoke.
"I'm Feliciano, Ludwig and Kiku are my very best friends in the whole wide world!" Italy announced proudly as he hooked arms with the other two. The trio looked like a star-crossed bunch; Feliciano wore a silly grin, while Ludwig glared seriously off to the side, and Kiku had on a nondescript face. It was a laughable sight, and all present erupted into uncontrollable laughter making Germany scowl, and Japan avert his gaze, embarrassed. Italy joined in even though he wasn't sure what was so funny, but as they all started to catch their breaths the bell chimed, signaling them to hurry off to their classroom.
Engines were roaring, whoosh, and tires spun as they carried the metal compartments that composed most of the machine down the roads, whoosh! Onto the hot, black pavement an egg invisible to the drivers that sped along the street rolled slowly. Unknowingly they scarcely miss running over the strange, fragile object.
It was strange alright; a white egg with illustrations: one of a colorful and uniquely shaped building, St. Basil's Cathedral, and another was of a statue of a beautiful woman wielding a sword, the Mother Russia Statue. There were others images of buildings and churches and lots of sunflowers, but there was something else, a colored rectangle sat atop these images. The shape had three horizontal stripes, and they were in order white, blue and red.
'I usually like loud, obnoxious noises, but these ones annoy me. I think I should break the neck of whatever creature is making them, da?'
With that decision made the egg became chipped, and this crackling continued until the damaged had separated the shell in two. After the pieces disappeared Russia had to quickly step aside as a car came rushing past him, he narrowly evaded it when another was headed toward him. The nation continued to dodge vehicles as he made his way across the street thick with moving traffic and jumped onto the sidewalk when he finally arrived at the curb, only to land in a puddle.
Russia picked himself up; ashamed at the state he was in, he was completely soaked. Drips of water fell from the ends of his hair and landed on his nose, making him blink every other second. His wet clothing now made the air touching him freezing; he shivered and crossed his arms in an attempt to retain some heat. Plus the puddle he'd fallen in had dirt swirling around, and the Russian could already feel the thin layer of grime solidify on his face. He needed a drink, something to get his mind off what was going on. Russia reached into his jacket, taking out his trusty bottle of vodka.
He uncorked the bottle and raised it to his lips but only sucked in damp air; the country was baffled at first and violently shook the glass container hoping anything would slide out. He then remembered what'd happened at England's house and let the bottle fall out of his grip. It shattered the moment it made contact with the ground, and the shimmering shards reflected the hung head of Russia and his disheartened face.
Then a wall of water was thrown at the Russian, nearly drowning him as it pushed the nation off of the sidewalk. After the last waves of the tsunami rolled by he glared up furiously, prepared to destroy the source of that abrupt dousing. Then his angry scowl melted away as he realized the he was just outside a flower shop with a large bouquet of bright sunflowers sitting in the window. He started walking without the recognition of his consciousness; it was a trance-like stroll, ignoring the feet that were stomping all around.
Russia stepped through the door as a customer entered the building, leaving little pools of water from his soggy boots. He ignored the howling air conditioning and began to climb the treacherous pile of plant pots. The strange character soon found him standing at the bottom of the glossy, blue vase the flowers were being held in and unable to continue. Russia reached up even though he knew he'd never be able to attain them, but then much to the Russian's surprise, he started floating up along the smooth ceramic surface.
Once he'd made it to the top and was sitting in the center of one of the sunflowers; Russia broke out of his hypnotized state, shivering not only because of the cold but at the surrealistic properties of his current situation. His initial shock wore off fairly quickly, and his shaking died down also as he starred distantly out the window.
'I don't enjoy being barely larger than a thumb. It's hard to crush people like this, and I'm the one who ends up being almost crushed.' Russia thought and sighed, depressed, but when the Russian looked down at the radiant sunflower that was underneath him, he couldn't help but perk up at its cheerful brilliance.
"Now if only I had some vodka and a subordinate or two, I wouldn't mind being this small." He mumbled longingly, starring out at the busy street in front of the flower shop he'd settled in.
A harsh jolt followed his muttering as the cashier picked up the sunflower-filled vase and brought it to a counter where a customer stood with her wallet opened. In a few moments the money was exchanged, and Russia was being carried out of the store with his precious flowers. The country gently bounced with each step the woman took and turned, blinking at her. He was slightly alarmed at the indifferent feeling he had after being purchased but shrugged it off.
"I don't care what that receipt says, these are my flowers." Russia simply whispered; then he laid back and enjoyed the sun's warmth drying off his clothes.
Tadase and Amu stood at the head of the small table, having just told their tales of the new characters that stood in front of their eggs. The other Guardians and characters were seated around the table, all silent after the stories were done. Rima held a concentrated stare at the nations; which made Italy nervous as he soon broke out into tears and hid behind Germany, whimpering that the girl scared him.
"Feliciano, stop crying! You've got to stop being such a coward. I mean for God's sake, she just a little girl!" Germany bellowed crossly at Italy, grabbing him by the back of his collar and lifting the Italian up. While Ludwig had been speaking Rima whispered something to Kusukusu, causing the clown character to giggle. After tossing Italy to the side his eyes burned with annoyance and he yelled at them, "And what do you two think is so funny about this?"
Kusukusu squeaked out an 'Ep!' and retreated behind Rima, poking her head out. Rima met the German's burning eyes with a cold stare of her own before she simply said, "Axis" This took him aback as he broke out into a cold sweat. Japan looked up still keeping most of his composure but had a tinge of guilt, and Italy ceased wailing as he stood with his mouth gaping open. Rima explained, "See they're the Axis Powers; Germany, Italy and Japan." The girl pointed to each of their eggs as she said each country's name.
Nagihiko leaned over to check each of the flags on the eggs and confirmed with a laugh, "She's right, they are Axis. Isn't that a funny coincidence?" The other Guardian members looked for themselves and nodded in agreement, giggling and commenting. After copying the actions of her friends; Yaya sat unsatisfied and confused, she then: pushed out her seat, raised her hand and asked, "What are Axis Powers?" Rima glanced at Yaya with her usual uninterested eyes and inquired, "Don't you pay attention in school?" The Ace stuck her tongue out childishly, followed by her character Pepe.
"The Axis Powers was the name of a military alliance made between Germany, Italy and Japan in 1940." Nagihiko explained, literary waving off Rima's comment. Yaya retracted her tongue and tapped a finger against her chin in thought before she said, "Weren't they the bad guys of some war… Gah! I don't wanna learn about depressing stuff like war, I want to learn how to character change with Feliciano and make great pasta!"
While the Guardians sighed, thinking how typical of Yaya to switch to something so frivolous; the nations were relieved that she dropped the subject. She continued pestering the Italian by poking and questioning on how he character changed with Amu; he looked up at her through his 'closed' eyes and admitted, "I don't know how I did it. I think I just really wanted to make pasta, but I always want to make some pasta so…"
"Perfect, just character change with me!" Yaya demanded, grabbing the character.
From there everything started falling into chaos and ruin. Pepe joined her owner in the torture of Italy for a character change by pulling on his curled hair, and Kiseki started yelling at the two, while poor Feliciano was crying through the ordeal. Amu was being barraged with bops from Yaya who was harassing her also for the secret to character changing with the Italian, and Amu's characters and Rhythm tried freeing Italy, by all pulling on his arm. Rima sat in silence, wondering how this would end and Kusukusu giggling above her head. Nagihiko attempted to calm Yaya down but was ignored, and Japan hid from all of the overwhelming noise. Germany glared at Tadase, who tried to get everyone to focus on the meeting but was being too shy to get their attention.
Ping! "Everyone shut up!"
All became silent and turned toward Tadase, who now was wearing a worn-out blue cap.
"We can't be wasting time arguing amongst ourselves when our enemy is out there, probably up to no good since he's already tried to kidnap Kiku. Now is the time to go out and find the rest of Ludwig's companions before there is a chance for Tsukiyomi Ikuto to capture them!"
Ping! Tadase shrunk into a ball muttering, "Why'd I say it like that? That was so vicious, much worse than my normal changes with Kiseki." Kiseki trembled, knowing that he wasn't the character that'd changed with Tadase; he slowly turned to see Germany panting as if he'd been yelling. A long paused followed.
"Tadase's right; even if those words weren't exactly his, we need to go and stop Ikuto." Amu stated, going up to Tadase and lifting him from the ground. Rima was the first to stand up and nod, smiling in agreement. Amu sent a sweet smile back to her best friend, inspiring Tadase and Nagihiko to grin as well. Yaya was about to shout 'Yeah' when her phone started ringing; she took it out of her pocket awkwardly and flipped it open, putting the phone to her ear.
"You killed the mood" Pepe said unhappily to which Yaya puffed out her cheeks. She closed her cell phone, sighing and murmured, "Can't go, Mom wants me to take care of Tsubasa."
"It's okay. We'll just have to look twice as hard for Yaya and Pepe's sake!" Rhythm shouted pumping a fist into the air which the other Guardian Character responded with fist pumps of their own and shouting 'Yeah!'
"Okay! Yaya will leave it to you guys. Good luck! " Yaya wished them as she and Pepe left the Garden waving good-bye.
"Alright; let's split up and search around town for a few hours, then we'll meet back at the school." Amu suggested, and with that everyone was out on the streets searching.
'It's all my fault… he was taken, and I did nothing. W-what do I do? A nation's never been stolen before…'
"America… America!" Canada yelled in vain, waking the sleeping bear who then nudged him. Canada held out Kumajiro and tried to speak, but his throat was so dry that only a hoarse cough came out.
"What's wrong person-I-don't-know? You've been shouting 'America' all day, is he someone you know? Are you looking for him… wait, why are you crying?" Once Kumajiro had asked question after question, Canada's vision started blurring with tears and tried shutting them in. He quivered while slowly descending to the ground; Canada had been searching all day for his brother, but he had no clue where America was.
He clenched his hands tightly and gritted his teeth; Canada knew crying wouldn't help, and if America saw him like this, he'd surely ridicule him. But he'd already done everything else he could think of, and just when Canada was about to let his legs give way, the echo of footsteps began booming down the street.
He looked up; spinning around trying to find where the sound was coming from, but that just made him more disoriented. Then a long shadow was portrayed along a wooden fence lining a street that intersected with the one he was on. He was unable to distinguish anything about the approaching person based on their silhouette, but there was a smaller shadow that floated alongside it, making Canada's eyes widen in horror.
'I-it's the guy who stole America… And now he's come back for me.'
Canada frantically paced back and forth, not sure of what action to take, and before he'd made his decision a boy's figure stepped into the streets' intersection, making the anxious Canada faint. Kumajiro sat up on top of his passed out owner and looked up as the advancing human stopped by them, then crouched down. The small polar bear shook the sleeping country vigorously and was successful in waking him up. Canada held his throbbing head as he gazed up with droopy violet eyes, discovering a boy with long blue hair.
"Hello" Nagihiko greeted smiling kindly, his tenderness reflected by his yellow-bronze eyes; then suddenly from behind this new boy's shoulder a human-like creature flew over to Canada and introduced in a booming voice, "Yo, I'm Rhythm!"
"Cana- um... Matthew" The Canadian stumbled, soon losing himself in thought.
'Heh, this loud-mouth guy is kind of like… Ameri-'
With that Canada fell to his knees; streams of repressed tears flowing freely down his cheeks.
A/N: Poor Russia, he just got mauled this chapter! At least he enjoys the little things, like sunflowers... and crushing, or he'd never be able to get by. Especially with all the cold he complains about; I think he should take up skiing. I hate the cold, but I recently went on a ski trip and wasn't bothered by the cold at all. Oh well, food for thought.
a worn-out blue cap: I could not for the longest time figure out what to make for Germany's little character change symbol-thing, so hopefully using that blue cap he wears when he's on the deserted island with Japan and Italy will do.
Peace~! -MagnifiedSun