As soon as school was out, Amu came up to me. Which was just as well, seeing as if she hadn't come up to me, I would've been up to her in a flash. It would've been somewhat embarassing, but I was not gonna let her out of my sight until I found out more about her trio of little floaty people, as I was calling them. She had with her a bag very similar to my own - the kind which hangs at your side. I was glad for this kind of bag right now - keeping my hand on my egg seemed less conspicuous if the bag was already at my side.
"Let's go outside, okay?" Amu said, with the little people smiling from their positions around her head. "I'll show you around the grounds first - there's actually a lot of land here, for an elementary school." Before I could say anything otherwise, she practically drug me out of the classroom. In this fashion, we made our way out the doors to the area out front of the school. Everyone stared at us - I'd picked up a bit during my first day of school, and I guess Hinamori Amu had a reputation for being 'cool and spicy.' What that was supposed to mean I couldn't guess, except that she was probably considered one of the more awesome kids in the school. Eventually, we made it out to an almost park-like area on the school grounds, with lots of trees. There was even a gazebo, as well as several benches scattered throughout the area.
Now this seemed like secluded enough a place to start a conversation about stuff that no one else can see. Talk about it in too populated a place, and I'd be sure to dubbed the insane student of the school. "So what are those things floating around your head? Fairies?" I asked. Really, that was the best guess I could come up with, after thinking about it for the entire school day.
"We're not fairies!" The pink one floated up in front of my face. "We're Shugo Charas! I'm Ran!" I was a bit put off by this one - I'd really never liked cheerleaders, and that's exactly what this 'shugo chara' was dressed as. Then again, she seemed nice enough, if just a tad too peppy.
The blue one floated up next. "My name is Miki." I liked this one. She seemed to have a more contemplative look about her.
"And I'm Suu, desu~! Nice to meet you!" said the green one. This one struck me as too eager to please. Much too polite to have any sort of evil about her. All of them seemed to have those noble kinds of personalities. Admittedly, I could've done with someone a bit less... goody-goody, but then again, whatever these things were, they seemed magical. I'd already thought it once today, but the phrase seemed to apply once more: beggars can't be choosers.
"Shugo Charas? What are those? And how come no one else could see you guys?" I asked. As excited as I was about this, I was still confused. Underneath the hand I still had on my pack, I felt my egg wiggle.
The blue one - Miki - looked about to answer, but then Amu stopped her. "I'll explain everything later. I'm sure the rest of the guardians want to meet you, and they probably know more about it than I do anyway." Amu seemed to realize something, and changed her attitude before continuing. Now, she held herself more like the 'cool and spicy' girl I had heard about. "Anyway, let's get this over with. I'll show you around, since I have to." I liked this side of Amu more, but it was kinda hard to take seriously when she had the overly-nice shugo charas floating around her head.
We finished the tour in what must have been record time, considering the size of the school. Amu seemed eager to meet with the other 'guardians,' though I still didn't understand who they were supposed to be. Even more than that, her shugo charas kept on urging her on - they seemed even more excited than Amu to get back to the rest of the guardians. In just ten minutes, we were heading towards the large, glass-enclosed garden that Amu had pointed out earlier on the tour.
"This is where the guardians usually meet after school." she said as they were approaching.
"Yeah!" shouted Ran enthusiastically. "They're probably waiting for us right now! Let's hurry!"
I'll admit I was pretty impressed with the garden within the glass dome. It had flowers of every kind imaginable - including some that I remember seeing only in America. As I walked in, I pretty easily noticed the large fountain that sat smack in the middle of my view. This was definitely a rich school. Amu and her Shugo Charas led me past the fountain, up a few steps, to a table where four other people were having tea. They got up when they saw Amu and me approaching. Each of them was wearing a cape as part of their uniform - something I hadn't seen any of the other students with. I guessed only the guardians got to where them. Suddenly, the shortest of the guardians ran up to Amu - a girl with two big ribbons in her hair. They gave her a sort of kiddish look, and she did indeed seem to be at least one grade below me.
"Amu-chi! What took you so long! Nadeshiko-san refused to give me any cookies until you got here!" She whined. It surprised me when what was presumably another shugo chara chimed in from behind her.
"That's right! A baby needs nourishment!" It was wearing pink baby clothes and had a pacifier in its mouth.
"Welcome to the Royal Garden. So you're Yamada-san, right?" this was asked by the blonde boy. He was still waiting up at the table. I mentally counted the chairs and saw that they had one extra. Apparently, they had been expecting me. Near each person, one of the little people floated. It looked like each of them had shugo charas, or whatever the fairy things were called.
"Yeah, my name is Yamada Miyuki. I'm in the fifth grade - in Hinamori-san's class. But please, could someone tell me what's going on? Never before today have I seen anything like these... these... shugo charas, I think Amu called them. And suddenly, it seems like everyone has one." This was it - I knew I was finally going to get the answers I wanted.
The other girl - a tall, pretty one with long, dark hair - spoke up. "Why don't you sit down and have some tea, and we'll try to explain everything." I complied. It seemed like a reasonable enough idea - I get to eat cookies while they explain what was going on. In fact, I thought it was an awfully good plan.
First of all, however, came introductions. First came the blonde haired boy. "I'm Hotori Tadase, in fifth grade and king's chair of the guardians. And this is my shugo chara, Kiseki."
"A pleasure to meet you, commoner." said a royal-looking fairy person. This made me a bit angry, but I shrugged it off. I didn't exactly like being called a commoner by someone who was only a bit taller than my thumb.
Next was the other boy. He was taller, with brown hair and a sporty-looking shugo chara by his side. "Yo! I'm Souma Kukai, sixth grade and jack's chair. And this is my main man, Daichi!" The sporty-looking little guy gave a casual wave.
"I'm Fujisaki Nadeshiko. I'm in the fifth grade, and I'm the queen's chair of the guardians. It's a pleasure to meet you." Said the girl with the long hair.
"I'm her shugo chara, Temari. It's also a pleasure to meet you." said the mini-person in the pink kimono next to her. She talked very quietly, and I almost didn't catch what she said.
"And I'm Yaya, ace chair! I'm in the fourth grade. This is my shugo chara, Pepe-chan! And we like ice cream, and ballet, and-" Yaya was quickly cut off by a cookie that Kukai stuffed in her mouth. Pepe only nodded and mumbled something knowingly to himself.
Hinamori, realizing it was her turn, said, "Well, we've already been introduced. I'm the joker chair of the guardians."
Seeing as all the introductions were done, I interjected before anyone could start saying anything. "And what are the Guardians? And Shugo Charas? Why do all of you have them?"
Kukai was the one who answered. "We guardians are here to protect the rights of the students at Seiyo Academy. That's the official story, at least. Really, we're a group of people with Shugo Charas - aka, Guardian Characters."
Tadase came in at this point. Why one of them didn't just say the whole story, I don't know. "Shugo Charas are people's would-be selves - the kind of person that they want to be. They come from eggs of the heart, which contain all the hopes and dreams a person has. For most people, this egg stays unseen within the person. But when some people have a really strong or powerful dream, the egg can hatch into that person's would-be self." Of course, this talk of eggs got me thinking on my own little egg in my pack. Was it a shugo egg?
Tadase continued, "With some people, if they lose their dreams or are simply burdened down by worries, the egg turns into an X-egg - an egg of the heart filled only with hopeless emotions. This leaves the person as a sort-of empty husk, unable to hope or dream, while the egg goes off to work mischief. Sometimes they hatch into X-charas. As guardians, we do our best to keep that from happening."
"That's where Amu-chan comes in!" Shouted Ran, Amu's pink chara, enthusiastically. "We chara-nari with Amu, and make the X-eggs and X-charas all better!"
"Wait..." I said, slowly. This was a lot of information to take in. "So what's a chara-nari?"
Amu decided to explain this. "That's when... you sorta combine with your shugo chara, using your would-be abilities to their fullest. Sorta like super-powers, almost. I can use my chara-nari to cleanse X-eggs and X-charas, so that they go back to how they should be. But so far, I think I'm the only one here who can do it..."
I nodded. I think I understood most of it now, except... "Why can only we see them? Why can't anyone else hear or see your guys' shugo charas?"
Nadeshiko answered this question. "Well, most people can't see shugo charas unless they have one themselves. Some little kids - like Amu-chan's little sister - can still see them, but that usually doesn't last long. The reason you can see them is that we think you have a shugo egg. All of our shugo charas sensed something like that with you when you arrived at school today."
"Do you mean this?" I asked, opening my bag and pulling out my egg, which I held cupped in my hands on the table. "I found it on my pillow this morning. I had been hoping it was a dragon." I said that last bit before I realized just how lame it sounded. I blushed and saw the egg jiggle in my hands.
"Oh, it moved desu~!" Said Amu's green shugo chara, Suu.
Kukai laughed. "A dragon, huh? Well, if that's what you want to be, then I wouldn't be surprised. You're egg does look kinda dragonish. Like the fire-breathing dragons, though, not like the dragons from Japanese legends." All the charas were now crowding around my hands, looking at the new shugo egg.
"Come on out! Do your best!" said Ran to the egg. It didn't seem to respond.
Pepe came up from the other side of the egg. "Come out so we can play, okay?" Still no response.
"Commoner! I order you to stand before me! You must aid me in my search for the embryo!" Now this triggered a response. The egg jumped out of my hand and bounced on top of Kiseki's head three times before landing back in my hands and laying still. His little crown was knocked off in the process, and he fell to the table top, a bit dazed. Everyone simply stood, shocked for a moment. Then Kukai started laughing, and everyone else broke into hysterics as well. Even me. It'd been a while since I'd had a good laugh - over the summer, I'd more or less secluded myself from social contact. Even after classes started at the other school, I didn't really make any friends. In truth, I got kicked out before I could make any friends. Three weeks wasn't a long enough time to do that. Seiyo Academy was about as far into the school year as my other school had been, so it's not like I was too late to get into a group. Perhaps this proved it.
Kiseki's little voice cried out indignantly from the table top, but no one seemed to hear him. I had to set the egg on the table top, for fear of hurting it in my laughing fit. In truth, the egg had done exactly what I had wanted to do when the little king had called me commoner.
As they were all finishing up their laughing, Kukai said good-naturedly, "I can tell you'll be interesting to have around! First getting kicked out at your own school, and now an egg that won't take being looked down on! Didn't you set your old-school's lab on fire or something?"
I saw that he wasn't being pushy or mean about the incident, so I decided to tell them. I had been careful not to mention it to anybody, but apparently they already knew. "Yeah." I said. "I nearly caught the teacher's shirt on fire after mixing two chemicals." I laughed, making it into a joke. Kukai laughed as well, and everyone else joined in for a shorter laughing fit. As I grabbed my egg up from the table and cupped it in my hands again, I asked, "But how did you know?"
"As guardians," Tadase said, "It's our duty to know about the students attending here. How can we protect their rights if we don't know about them?" Seems like a major invasion of privacy to me. I thought. But I left it unsaid. As long as they didn't know that the explosion was purposeful and not an accident, then I was fine.
So I asked the last question I had on my mind - for the moment, at least. "What did Kiseki say earlier? Something about an embryo? Is this something I should know about?"
Suddenly, a little crown appeared on Tadase-kun's head. His eyes seemed to flare up as he stood triumphantly on top of his chair.
"A-ha-ha-ha! Listen to your king as he graciously explains to you commoner! The embryo is a magical egg that can grant any wish, and it is this egg that I need to accomplish my attempt at world domination. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Join me, commoner, in this -" He was cut off as the egg once again jumped out of my hands, this time hitting Tadase hard in the center of his forehead. The crown disappeared, he lost his balance, and fell backward.
"Are- you- okay, Hotori-kun?" I managed to gasp out between laughs as Kukai (who was also laughing) helped Tadase up. Tadase rubbed his head, but smiled. He would be okay. As I laughed, I thought, World domination, huh? He still seems like a noble conquerer, but world domination is usually an evil-enough goal. Even if he is another goody-goody, I'd say that the goal more or less makes up for that. This is definitely an interesting bunch.
"What was that about? Why'd you go all 'world domination'-ish all of a sudden, Tadase-kun?" I asked. He smiled and blushed a bit, embarassed.
"It's a chara-change!" Yaya explained. "You become your would-be self for a short amount of time, sorta. Do you want to see mine?"
Imagining Yaya having a baby-like outburst, I quickly responded. "No, that's alright." Then, addressing everyone else, I asked, "So are you all helping him with world domination?"
"Yep!" Said Yaya.
"Why?" I asked.
Yaya, Nadeshiko, and Kukai answered in unison: "Because it's interesting."
Hinamori-san and I exchanged a glance, where she gave me an awkward smile. "I thought it was kinda weird reasoning when I heard it, too." She whispered to me while the others laughed. I joined in on the laughing - I really hadn't laughed this much in a long time, and my sides were beginning to ache from the constancy of it.
Once everyone had calmed down a bit, Nadeshiko addressed me. "Miyuki-san, we didn't invite you here just to inform you. Seeing as you are going to have a shugo chara of your own, would you like to join as an official guardian? I'm afraid we can't think of any name for you, though, seeing as ace, joker, jack, queen, and king are already taken."
I pretended to think it over for a minute, though I already knew my answer. This was my first chance at a fantasy adventure - perhaps I was joining the good side for now, but that could always change later, once I found out who the bad side was. If there was a bad side. But for now, the answer was obvious - I had even fit in well with this group on my first time meeting them, which was something that had never happened before.
"I'm in." I replied. Everyone gave a little cheer, but I cut them off, not yet finished talking. "Can we make a new chair? How about the deuce chair?"
"Deuce?" asked Tadase, confused.
"Yeah, deuce." I replied. "When I was in America a while back, my relatives liked to play card games. A couple of them couldn't be started without a '2' card, and I remember them calling two's 'deuces.' So why not deuce?"
"Isn't the two the lowest ranked card in most games?" asked Amu.
"Well... yeah. I guess." I said. "But it's better than just being called 'honorary' or 'official' guardian. Whether it's lowest or not, it's still an actual name."
"Okay then." Said Kukai. "Deuce it is! Welcome to the guardians, deuce chair Miyuki-san! We'll announce it at the student-guardian meeting next week!"
Unnoticed by all but me, the egg wiggled in my hands again.
Thanks for reading! And thank you to those who have favorited my story so far: Suzuka Harukaze and LadiiReckless! I really feel encouraged the more people who favorite or review. Speaking of which, please review! I want to know how my writing is - if I drag on, if you're able to picture easily the scene in your head, etc. I promise I won't be offended by constructive criticism! In fact, I'd appreciate all that I could get!
I hope you people don't mind long chapters... because it seems like it takes me a while to finish each one. ;D They just keep on getting longer... I guess that shows how much I enjoy writing them! I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I do! Happy New Year, peoples! (and if you haven't seen episode 64 subbed, go to veoh[dot]com - it's a new years episode, and the ending is a priceless Amuto moment)