Egg Nation- Dress Shop of Horrors
Yaya was racing down the streets, trying to get home as soon as possible, with a winded Pepe trailing after her. The baby character had begged her owner a couple times to stop and wait for her, but she wouldn't hear of it. Yaya kept insisting that her baby brother needed her; which gained an admirable look from Pepe, but when Yaya turned back and found her character in awe of her sudden big sister-like nature, she denied it and puffed out her cheeks disapprovingly. Pepe silently giggled about Yaya's dishonesty for the rest of the way home, when she wasn't pleading to take a break and rest.
Soon they arrived home; where Yaya's parents were walking out the door, mentioning about the highly recommended French restaurant they were going to. After their good-bye's, the couple left and their daughter waved at them as they drove off in the car. Yaya closed the door and breathed out exhaustedly; she flicked off her shoes and dropped her school bag on to the ground before looking up.
"Wow! Mom bought flowers; they're so pretty." Yaya cheered as she pranced up to the vase, sticking her face into the sunflowers and inhaling. She pulled her head out, Pepe chuckling at the bright yellow petal sitting on the bridge of the girl's nose. Yaya picked the petal off and was about to join her character in laughter, but she was interrupted by someone speaking though a yawn, making their words incomprehensible. Then as Yaya studied the sunflowers more closely, she found a new character wearing a pale pink scarf.
He awkwardly stumbled out into the light, still rubbing his eyes and starred curiously at Yaya and her character, who returned the look with one's of their own. Before the new character had a chance to inquire about their names Yaya proudly presented, "Hi there! I'm Yuiki Yaya, and this is my friend, Pepe."
Russia smiled, actually it was more of a smirk, and glided up to the two strangers. He then returned the welcome with a greeting of his own, "Subordinate one and two; you call me Ivan, da?" Yaya and Pepe's faces lost their initial friendliness, replaced by a mixture of perplexed and insulted.
"Oh, what are those things sticking out of your head? Is that your hair? I wonder how far they can stretch." Russia asked, grabbing the hair sticking out of the sides of Pepe's rabbit hat and began pulling. The poor baby character let out a painful cry, failing her arms hysterically and yelling for Yaya to help. The girl snatched the whimpering Pepe, causing the nation to frown, and made a stern face at the Russia.
"We're not subordinates; we're Yaya and Pepe!" The girl scolded, which was followed by her character adding, "And you need to learn how to play nice! And bathe, dechu." The latter comment brought all's attention to Ivan's less than cleanly state. His face was coated with patches of dirt and pollen, the normally beige hair sitting on his head was windswept and soiled, and his clothing was still quite damp with streaks of mud smeared onto the fabric.
"Oh, you must have been through a lot today. How else could you get so dirty? Yaya will be a good hostess for you an-" Yaya was cut off when Tsubasa's cries could be heard throughout the house. Pepe flew back and forth without a clue of what to do, her owner copied the character's actions and complained, "Ah! Yaya can't take care of Tsubasa and Ivan. Pepe! You've got to do something, go distract him or whatever. Just make him be quiet!"
"Roger!" Pepe confirmed and saluted before whizzing of to the baby's room. Yaya mumbled enviously about how lucky Tsubasa and Ivan were since her and Pepe were taking care of them; then spun to face Russia and proclaimed, "Alright! It's bath time." She picked up the baffled character and marched off to the bathroom, grabbing a bowl from the kitchen along the way.
"Okay! Yaya will fill this bowl with water from the bath, since you'd probably drown if you used the tub." She started pointing to each object as she mentioned them in a tour guide-like manner and continued, "And you throw your clothes through the crack in the door that I'll leave open for you, then Yaya will wash and dry them." After the end of her presentation Russia began raising his hand to object; then Yaya repeated her last sentence with a demanding tone that left no room for argument and also had a hint of Belarus which forced him to retract his hand.
She turned the faucet on and let the water run until it was warm, then the girl held the bowl under the gushing flow of water briefly. Yaya placed the basin on the floor and pranced out of the bathroom, leaving Russia to quickly strip of everything but his scarf and hop into the makeshift bathtub. Yaya cheered when she received the discarded clothes and ran off to a different part of the house. Russia sighed, relieved but also out of confusion.
'Silly subordinates, at least they keep me amused with all their loud noises and antics.' He thought sliding further into the bowl.
Nagihiko stood bewildered as the new character fell and began sobbing, while Rhythm bent down and patted Canada on the back, hoping it would somehow comfort him. He followed this gesture by asking loudly, "Hey man, you don't need to be so down! C'mon tell us what's on your mind." This only seemed to aggravate the crying even further, and Nagihiko glanced at his character, slightly annoyed.
"Matthew, are you alright? Please tell us what's bothering you, maybe we can help." Nagihiko said softly in a soothing voice that silenced Canada's crying down to awkward hiccups that jumped out every few seconds. The nation's cheeks were wet with tears and matched his red, runny nose, and his eyes were faintly puffy. He wiped his face off on to his coat sleeve and tried to get his breathing under control before speaking.
"I-it's my hic br-brother. He's hic b-been kidnapped by a g-guy with a hic s-small cat-person." Canada managed to squeeze out in between his hiccupping before he started sniffling back more tears at the mention of America. Nagihiko tensed up and his head fell in despair, Ikuto had gotten one of the new characters. Canada looked up; noticing the change in atmosphere around the boy, and Rhythm flashed an encouraging smile toward his owner.
"Don't worry Nagihiko! We've dealt with Easter before, and they've got nothing on us. So perk up!" Rhythm yelled confidently; Nagihiko could detect no ounce of uncertainty in his character's speech, and this fact seemed to slightly brighten his face. Rhythm turned to face Canada, ready to share his speech with him as well.
"And you too Matthew; your brother may be in the most evil place I can think of, but we'll bust him out!" The character shouted while pounding the nation on the back and laughing triumphantly over nothing. Canada's face grew pale as he mumbled, "'the most evil place'… Because of me my brother is at 'the most evil place'…." Nagihiko quickly intervened, waving off the loud-mouth's comment and trying to assure Matthew off his brother's safety. Canada believed him for the most part, thinking it better to accept the white lie then become useless with worrying about America.
"Anyway, we should probably reconvene with the others and tell them what's happened." Nagihiko suggested, standing up. Rhythm and Canada rose too; the former boasting a determined grin, and the latter smiled weakly while fading in and out. The boy didn't take note of the Canadian's transparent state and led them off to Seiyo Elementary.
The rest of the Guardians stood at the elegant gate looking depressed; none of them had found another of the new characters. The children's characters also exhibited their owners' disposition as they lay against each other's backs and sat on the ground, tired. Rima was especially exhausted, along with Italy, and breathed heavily as she asked, "How many more of you guys are there?"
"Five… or six, I know there was at least five. But I can't help but feel there was someone else, who else was there?" Germany estimated, holding his chin in thought of the other country that was with them when the potion exploded. Italy and Japan join him but were unable to provide the identity of the sixth nation, poor Canada is always forgotten.
Rima and Amu sighed in unison over the vagueness of Ludwig's answer, but Tadase gave a little laugh, having more faith in the German than his friends. He then pulled up his sleeve and read the face of the watch, becoming concerned of how late Nagihiko was.
"It's taking him a while to return, do you think anything's happened to Nagihiko?" Tadase voiced his unease; and the other Guardians soon joined him is his worrying, but their troubled minds were set to rest when they caught sight of their Jack running down the street. Everyone was quick to notice his victorious demeanor; a smile was spanned across his face, and his eyes joyfully gleamed. Nagihiko came to a stop in front of them.
"We found one!" Rhythm exclaimed, jumping from his owner's shoulder; which sparked an optimism that doused the other characters' glum as they rose from the ground, excited to meet this new character. The Guardians also shared this desire to be introduced to Nagihiko's discovery. The Jack turned as if he was about to reveal something, but all that he exposed was empty air. He and all present were alarmed at the nothingness Nagihiko presented, but before anyone could reprimand him, they heard a distant voice come into focus.
"Maple… maple…" Canada said softly as his form became more and more tangible. He soon found his fellow countries within the gawking crowd and flew over to them. They welcomed him awkwardly, since none of them recognized him, and the Canadian expected this. He reminded them, "I'm Matthew, Alfred's brother…"
"Oh wait, Alfred! He's been kidnapped." Matthew quickly relayed after his reintroduction to the other countries. There was a collective gasp from everyone, and the Guardians didn't need to inquire as to who had committed the act because Nagihiko's solemn look clearly read, 'It was Tsukiyomi Ikuto'. Amu then spoke before there was time for a long silence to be made or for Ludwig to character with Tadase to make him speak; she said, "Then tomorrow we'll have to confront Easter and save Alfred. We have to stop them before anyone else is taken."
"If we are to go into battle, then… Feliciano! You're going to come back to Tadase's home with me and Kiku. We'll try to get you somewhat in shape." Germany decided, glaring at Italy menacingly. Kiseki then piped in, "And what makes you think you can just commandeer our house again?" Ludwig turned toward the king character intensely with his arms crossed at first, but his expression became lax, as if amused by Kiseki's rebuttal.
"Please excuse our intrusion, but perhaps next time we can negotiate about our lodgings." Japan coolly stated; satisfying Kiseki with his courtesy and Germany with their assured housing. But while Japan was speaking the cowardly Italy inched further away from the group, and it wasn't long before Germany realized the Italian's absence. When Ludwig saw Italy already at the end of the block he yelled, "Don't you even dare think about running aw- Hey!"
But it was too late. Feliciano snapped into retreat mode, and he was off without a trace or a hope of catching up to. Amu followed after him with her characters trailing behind, bidding farewell to her friends as she ran. Rima, having lost interest, quietly left after Amu's exit. The two abandoned boys then exchanged a pleasant good-bye and left; Tadase with Kiseki, Kiku and Ludwig, and Nagihiko with Rhythm and Matthew.
The rest of England's day had gone very smoothly; he attended Ami to the remainder of her classes, and now was accompanying her as she went on errands with her mother. The nation was well received by the girl's classmates; they especially enjoyed the tales he told of when he was a brash pirate. But it was hastily made apparent when Ami tried introducing him to her teacher and then her mother that adults could not see or hear him. However this didn't hinder the Englishman from having a good time as he perused through dresses at a clothing boutique.
"Ami, come have a look at this one. I think the blue in it will complement you hair quite nicely, but there's the white so your senses aren't overpowered by that contrast." England suggested tugging on a dress hanging in a rack. Ami waltzed over and called her mother, pointing to the dress. Hinamori Midori appeared around the corner at the beckon of her daughter, carrying a couple bags from their errand running and fawned after inspecting the dress Ami was holding.
"Aw! It's so cute, and I bet it'll look great on you. You've grown so much recently that you're starting to grow out of your clothes." She cooed and bent down; resting a hand on the girl's head and continued as she stroked her daughter's hair, "First growing and now picking out your own dresses, Papa's poor heart will be broken after he realizes just how fast you're growing up."
"Oh no, I don't wanna hurt Papa! How can I fix his heart?" Ami asked desperately dropping the dress and backing from it as if it held a deadly disease. The nation chuckled admirably and her mother reassured the girl, "Don't worry. We'll just say I found the dress, besides even if we told him the truth he'd probably find a way to convince himself you're still his little girl." Ami was relieved by her mother's words and retrieved the dress, going off to the changing room.
Arthur started to tag along behind them when he was stopped by a chill that crawled up his spine and settled in his stomach. His eyes darted around in the store, but nothing in there was causing this uneasiness. He then hesitantly continued after the girl and woman, swallowing back the ominous feeling that was trying to sliver into his mouth. Fortunately his worry was extinguished when a beaming Ami came out of a fitting room, sporting the new dress.
"You look radiant, more than worthy of being in any kingdom's court." England complimented honestly, all memories of his anxiousness vanishing. His praise was supported by Midori's cheering; soon the dress was purchased, and they were exiting the shop. But the displeasing sensation returned to the country as soon as he looked out the display window, finding a young man starring right at him. Though he looked back at the boy horrifyingly; England knew that he wasn't the source of the chilling sense, but he certainly added to it.
Arthur sunk down and glided alongside Ami; who happily accepted the company, unaware of his nervousness. Once they'd gone out the door; the adolescent began to turn as if to pursue them but stopped, tossing a wrapper covered in shinning grease and walked the other way. England floated for a moment, watching the boy blend into a horde of people crossing a street before he scurried back to Ami's side. The young man was gone, but the revolting feeling still lingered and fluctuated from simple goose bumps to mild stomach cramps.
'What is wrong with me? Am I coming down with something?' He thought, but these questions were answered by a reporter on a television screen sitting in the window of a shop.
"Reports from all over America about children falling into a coma-like state have been flooding the nation's hospitals since approximately 8:00 pm EST, and doctors are baffled at these cases and unable to figure out the cause of this epidemic. Airports with flights going into other countries have been cancelled for fear of spreading this unknown disease. In further news-"
"What the Hell are you doing to yourself you bloody git?" England whispered in a harsh voice to himself.
A/N: Sorry for this chapter being so short, but if I'd added more I think I would've lost the mood. On a side note, mwhahaha! I've conditioned you all into reviewing without asking. You are helpless but to comment because your unconsious commands you to! That or you all are just cool... I'm sticking with me manipulating your minds.
Peace~! -MagnifiedSun