Azami and I headed down an alley, heading back home. It was Thursday evening, and we had just finished with a fairly successful X-egg harvest. Five X-eggs total. Better than on Tuesday; I'd only caught two that day. And I hadn't even had time to catch any on Wednesday, since the guardian meeting that day had lasted longer than usual. Tonight, I'd had the good idea of hiding in an alleyway next to a busy street. And by busy, I don't necessarily mean cars - I mean that I picked an alley depending on how many people were walking on the sidewalk it adjoined. I simply hid in the shadows of the alley, let my smoke drift out to the sidewalk, and waited to see how many X-eggs came to me. With so many people walking by, I knew I was bound to get a few. I didn't bother trying to scratch people to force the eggs out of them. It seemed like too much trouble.
As I headed down the dark back streets, I almost wished for some thug to come up and try and rob me. I was feeling great - every time I used my chara-change, it seemed like the X-energy flowed more freely within me. I would've loved to have a reason to use my chara-change strength to beat up on someone right now. So far, I could see no ill effects of my power. Except perhaps for that dark feeling that came along with it. Yes, I'd accepted it and let it become part of myself. That had made it feel less... bothersome. But there had been a couple of worrying times this week, when I'd been alone. The feeling, instead of just being present, actually seemed to grow. Each time it had happened, I got unreasonably depressed. Despite my reasoning that I had nothing to be depressed about, the feeling would stick. It made me feel like I just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and stare off into space. I lost the energy to do anything, and I seriously couldn't do anything at all until Azami realized that I wasn't acting normally. At that point, she managed to snap me out of it with a nice hard whack of her tail.
But those little episodes of bleakness didn't last long (thanks to Azami), so I wasn't too terribly troubled by them. Even with them popping up every now and then, the strength I felt most of the time by far outweighed that little negative effect. I was still a good twenty blocks from my house. This would've been a hard walk for me about a week ago, but the X-energy gave me stamina that I hadn't had before. But even with this extra boost, it was probably past ten thirty right now, and I was admittedly getting rather tired. Even Azami seemed to be a bit weary - she was currently laying down on the top of my head, instead of flying by my side like she usually does.
"Are you awake, Azami?" I asked, loudly enough that she would have to wake up even if she was asleep. In reply, I got a thump on the head. I think she was starting to enjoy hitting me a bit too much. Then again, I had to admit that it was kinda funny, even if I was the one getting hurt. I continued walking, deciding to let her be.
A couple blocks later, I turned a corner and nearly screamed as I came face to face with Ikuto, who was leaning against the wall of the corner building. As it was, I managed to hold back my shout, but did end up tripping and falling flat on my butt as I scrambled backwards in surprise. No help from Ikuto. He just kept reclining against the wall, a smirk on his face and amusement in his eyes. Azami (who had indeed been asleep) fell off my head and hit the ground behind me.
"Hey!" the dragon chara shouted, angry at being woken. "What was that for?" It was now that Yoru, who had been floating near Ikuto, broke out laughing.
"You little alley cat! I'll teach you!" Azami hurtled towards Yoru, murder in her eyes. Yoru, seeing the impending danger, zoomed away. Azami followed in hot pursuit. I wasn't entirely sure if I trusted Azami not to literally kill the little cat chara, but both of them were gone before I could stop them. Which left Ikuto and I together. Alone.
"Do you enjoy sitting on the ground?" he asked sarcastically. My cheeks flared, red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
"And do you enjoy stalking me and scaring me half out of my wits?" I retorted, getting up and brushing any dirt from the skirt I was wearing.
"If I recall," said Ikuto, still smirking, "It was yet again you who stumbled upon me."
My cheeks grew even redder, though it was hard to tell since the street we were next to had no lights along it. But this time, I was just angry. There was just something about his manner that just made me want to throttle him, and yet... and yet there was another part of me that was going crazy, just because he was there. I suppose that's love for you - the most confusing of all emotions. And if I were any kind of real dragon, then I shouldn't have any kind of feelings like that.
I tried to think of a good comeback, but nothing was coming to my mind. Seeing that I was saying nothing more, Ikuto continued talking. "So, I see you got your power. Is it really what you wanted?" I couldn't tell where he was going with this. If he was trying to make another joke at my expense, he certainly wasn't acting like it.
"How do you know I got power? Surely Easter doesn't have you keep on tailing me now, seeing as I'm working for them." I wondered how long he'd been following me. The thought made me blush even harder - the idea of him, watching me for who knows how long... A slightly stalker-ish notion, so why was I so flattered by it?
"The pulse of energy you sent out when chara-changing could be felt for a mile around." Said Ikuto. "If you don't want to draw every chara in the area to you, then I suggest you refrain from changing again. That is, unless you want your little guardian friends to know your... secret." Of course, he was referring to the fact that I was working for Easter. I made a mental not to self: do not chara change anywhere even remotely close to the guardians. I suppose it was only luck - or perhaps smart thinking on Azami's part - that I hadn't chara-changed at all this week while at school.
"So you now have the ability to rip people's dreams out. Is that what you wanted?" asked Ikuto. His eyes were drilling into me now, and I once more found that I couldn't look away. I had no Azami to chara-change with me this time; I would have to deal with Ikuto on my own.
"Well..." I thought about it. The look in Ikuto's eyes was almost making me feel... guilty. Is this what I wanted? Do I really want to rip out the very hopes and desires of my victims? Then again, they are just people. I would probably never see most of them again. What do they matter to me? I have power. I like using that power. Though I felt guilt, it was very deep down. The X-energy, almost taking a life of its own, began to flow through me as if I were about to do a chara-change. It smothered any guilt within me. My confidence grew. This was what I wanted. I had power; why not use it, even if it came at the expense of others? A few words from some stupid cat weren't going to stop me.
"Yes." I said firmly, after my pause to think. "Do you have a problem with it?" My eyes flashed dangerously. The energy inside me was raging, and I could barely believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. It was still me talking, and yet it seemed like the energy inside me was somehow guiding my feelings. And right now, all I felt was defiance. I mean, who was Ikuto to question my behavior? Since when was Ikuto my mother?
He chuckled, and broke his gaze. "Why would I have a problem?" that's what he said, but it seemed like there was some undertone to his voice, telling me that he clearly did have a problem. Or maybe the X-energy was making me imagine things. "So what's the catch?" asked Ikuto. "Surely to have this much power, you had to give up something in return. Easter isn't exactly the most trusting of companies. I doubt they'd give you power in exchange for your service unless they had someway to control you."
He was addressing something that had been on the fringes of my mind all this week, always there but never directly confronted. If Easter was any real villainous company, then the chances of them believing that I would be loyal to them on word alone was very small. But I could think of nothing that they could threaten me with.
"As far as I know, there's no catch. I told them I'd work for them, and they gave me power." I replied. My X-energy surge was dying down now, and now my heart was beating fast because of something else. The sight of Ikuto, leaning casually against the wall... it triggered something within me. No matter how angry he made me half the time, I had to admit it: Ikuto was like a magnet. And I was what he was attracting, whether he meant to or not.
"Is that so..." said Ikuto. His thoughts seemed to be half somewhere else. He wasn't even looking at me as we talked. Rather, he was looking up at the sky. No stars could be seen due to the light pollution of the city, so I couldn't imagine what he could be seeing that was of any interest. Then he turned back to me, his attention back on the conversation. "How did they give you your power?" he asked. If I had just been listening to his words, I might've taken the question as simple curiosity. But when I looked into his eyes this time, there seemed to be a hardness in them. There was more to this question then mere inquisitiveness.
Like my first time meeting him, Ikuto's eyes drew me in. I couldn't deny his question. I felt my heart beat quicken again. "Azami touched this crystal thing, and-" I broke off as the chara in question came hurtling towards us, still hot in pursuit of Yoru.
"Ikutoooo! Help me!" Yoru wailed as he flew towards Ikuto, coming to a stop behind his head. It looked to me like that cat chara had a bit of a bump on his head - probably a little memento from Azami. I grinned as she flew back and forth, trying to get around Iktuo's head and get at Yoru. Unfortunately for her, Yoru kept on moving so that Ikuto was always between him and little miss vengeance.
"Move or I'll go through you before I rip that filthy tabby's tail off." said Azami. Maybe she was joking about the tail part, but she was seriously prepared to do whatever it took to get to Yoru.
Ikuto grinned. "Really? I suppose we'll have to flee, then. There's no way I could possibly face up to such a fearsome being as yourself." he said, in a tone that clearly showed an immense amount of sarcasm towards the idea. His inflection was not lost upon Azami.
"Why you...!" she growled out, before charging forward. Ikuto's ears and tail appeared, and he easily dodged out of the way, forcing Azami to stop herself or else hit the wall. I saw that Yoru was hanging on to the back of Ikuto's head, doing his best to hold on tight. Azami charged forward again, and this time Ikuto jumped up, onto the top of a nearby one story building.
Yoru floated up above Ikuto's head. I could barely see him as he shouted down at us, "Eat our kitty litter, nya~!"
Azami clenched her fists, then turned suddenly to me. "Let's chara-nari and show them what we're really made of!" Azami said, her red eyes practically burning with rage.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ikuto taunted from on top of the building. "Don't you remember what I said about how much energy your chara-change gives off? Ever thought about how much of a beacon you chara-nari would be? And I know we're not too far away from either Tadase's or Nadeshiko's house."
"Azami, he's right." I said. "The other guardians will probably-"
"It doesn't matter!" said Azami furiously. "We're going to chara-nari!" The dark feeling grew inside of me. I felt Azami's vindictiveness fueling it as her vengefulness coursed through me with the power. I had no control over it. The chara-nari started, and there was no way I could stop it. The X-energy within me seemed to expose itself, filling the air immediately around me with its dark fog.
"My own heart - unlock!" Unable to stop myself, I brought Azami's egg into my chest. I felt my clothes change again, as did my appearance as a whole. I felt the reassuring presence of my wings, horn, and tail as they all revealed themselves. I felt Azami's current hatred towards Ikuto and Yoru controlling the dark energy, and making me feel her hatred as well. As the chara-nari finished, it was no longer just she that wanted to get at the two cats - since she was now a part of myself, I felt it just as much as she did.
"Chara-nari: Dark Dragon!"
"Oh?" said Ikuto, smiling. "The little lizard wants to play?"
If I hadn't been angry before, I was now. With all this power at my command, he was actually underestimating me! Now he was going to pay!
I spread my wings and flew towards him at my top speed. I could tell that he was shocked, but he jumped upwards right before I collided with him. And that was a mistake on his parts. Perhaps he was more agile that me in general, but even a cat can't change its direction when jumping or falling. Using my wings and tail, I changed my course and zoomed up to him. I changed the orientation of my body at the last second, so that it would be my shoulder and not my horns making contact with him. He went flying backwards, managing to land on his feet (of course he landed on his feet - he's a cat) on a roof a couple houses down. He was wincing. I had hit him hard, and he was feeling it.
Instead of turning to face me, he jumped from one roof to the next, trying to escape. That struck me as odd. But I wasn't gonna let him get away that easily. I quickly caught up to him by flying, and was just about to tackle him again when he ducked down into a small alleyway between houses. I flew right past it due to my momentum, and had to backtrack. I saw him fleeing the alley, but this time, he was different. He was faster and more agile, among other things. Oh, and he had on a totally different outfit. I suppose that might be of note. With my increased dragon sight, I could see that he was now wearing a short navy top with long navy pants, in addition to his customary ears and tail. Something glinted from his right hand, but I couldn't tell what it was. It took me a short moment to comprehend that he had done a chara-nari as well, and another short moment for me to resume my chase.
He was sticking to alleyways, which was a problem for me. Most of them were too narrow for me to open my wings in, which meant that if I wanted to confront him in there, I would have to do so on foot. My main advantage was having the speed and maneuverability of flight. Instead, I flew above him, waiting for him to come out in the open long enough to catch him.
"What are you doing?" Azami's voice rang out through my head. "Get him!"
I did consider swooping down a couple times as he crossed a street to enter a new alleyway, but decided against it each time. We were in a fairly small residential neighborhood, and the streets were still fairly narrow. He'd gone a couple blocks when I saw my chance. He had run out into a mostly empty parking lot next to an apartment complex, and I dove towards him, picking up speed as I fell. I was behind him, and he was running away from me. When I was still about fifteen feet in the air and probably just a few seconds from tackling him, he apparently heard me. He did something I didn't expect: he turned and faced me. I noticed for the first time exactly what had been glinting from his hand - a set of three long, sharp blades, apparently embedded into the sleeve of his outfit. He was holding them at the ready. I tried to slow myself, not having been expecting the threat of those knives. It was too late to pull up from my dive. Ikuto, instead of attacking, used my hesitation as a chance to jump backwards. I managed to land on my feet where he had been, but it was a hard impact that hurt my legs.
Instead of running away, Ikuto was facing me from about ten feet away, his stance tense. I glared at him. His eyes stared almost sorrowfully back, looking almost... conflicted. I still wasn't completely in control of myself - Azami and the X-energy seemed to be conspiring against me, fueling my anger towards this petulant cat.
"Why don't you attack?" I taunted. The parking lot put some distance between us and the actual apartments, meaning that we were hopefully safe from being heard. "Are you perhaps too weak to actually hurt me? You never struck me as the caring type. The world isn't nice, but you seem to think that you have to keep from hurting anyone, even if that person is attacking you. Face reality: it's a dog eat dog world, and if you aren't willing to defend yourself at someone else's expense, you're going to lose the game of life."
My taunting seemed to do nothing to him. His eyes continued to drill into me, but I took no notice. I charged again, this time staying on foot. My own sharp nails were at the ready, as I prepared to use them if necessary. He jumped out of the way at the last second, but I was ready this time. I pivoted my body and whipped out my black tail, managing to get a solid hit to his side as he jumped away. As he landed on his feet once again, I saw him clutching his ribs. I doubted that I had broken anything, but Ikuto would probably have a very decent-sized bruise there for the next week or so.
He tried to ignore his apparent pain as I charged forward again. I was expecting him to just try and jump away again, so I wasn't prepared when he grimly raised his right hand, with its blades dimly gleaming. I opened my wings to catch air and try to slow myself, but this time he was serious. I couldn't stop my momentum.
"Slash Claw!" He said darkly, his eyes resolute. He slashed the blades toward me, and I barely managed to get up my arm in time to protect myself. For some reason, I barely felt the pain as his blades raked lengthwise through my arm. It seemed very shallow, but each of the three gashes was also wide and very long. They reached almost all the way from my wrist to my elbow. The pain came a couple seconds later, but I ignored it. My rage had flared up even higher at being hurt. Ikuto had jumped back once again, and I faced him. The black fire from the first time I had character-transformed sprang up around my hands. But this time, it wasn't just a flame in my palms - it was like my hands were actually on fire with the shadowy flames. I raised my right hand up towards my left shoulder, as if I were preparing to throw a frisbee.
"Blazing Rain!" I swiped my hand down through the air in front of me, and a salvo of small, dark flames were sent hurtling towards Ikuto. He dodged, and the miniature missiles scorched the concrete where he had been standing. Now I used my left hand, swinging it in front of me, aiming in the direction Ikuto was landing. The barrage once again sailed forward, hard to see in the darkness of the parking lot. Ikuto put his arms up in front of him to guard himself, unable to jump away in time. They hit him dead-on, and he was sent flying backwards. He managed to land, crouching, breathing heavily in pain and exertion. He kept his eyes trained on me, wary of my next move.
But then, I felt the pain in my right arm come back full-force. I gasped from how much it hurt, and the flames died out from my hands. Even if the wound itself wasn't too deep, it hurt a lot. More than Azami's cut to the same arm that P.E. class a week or so ago. The pain was probably due to the fact of how incredibly long they were. I looked down, and saw blood flowing freely from the three parallel wounds.
I saw movement in front of me and turned my attention away from my injury, just in time to be knocked backwards by Ikuto. He had dashed forward while I was distracted by my wound, taking the opportunity to knock me down. I fell, my back landing heavily against the pavement and knocking the air out of my lungs. I felt my wings, tail, and horns disappear and my clothes change back to normal. The blow, in addition to the long scratches from Ikuto's claw attack, had weakened me enough that I couldn't maintain the chara-nari any longer. The X-energy was fading as well, making me even more aware of my general weakness at the moment. Azami, who had been ejected out of me when the character transformation had ended, floated next to my face.
"Come on! Get up! You can't just lie there!" she said. She seemed just as angry as ever. I tried to push myself up, but my right arm gave out and I fell back onto the ground. My mind seemed to be teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, just barely staying aware of my surroundings. I was afraid that any exertion other than just lying here might make me pass out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ikuto approaching, his chara-nari gone. What was he going to do? Help me? Finish me off? His eyes were almost unreadable, except for the smallest spark of some emotion I couldn't recognize. If I had to guess, I would say he was almost horrified by what he had done. Or maybe I was just imagining that.
When he was still a few feet off, he stiffened.
"Someone's coming, nya~!" said Yoru from his side. Azami had also detected whoever it was, and was looking in the direction off to my left. Ikuto chara-changed and was gone faster than my eyes could follow.
"I sense them this way!" Shouted a familiar voice from across the parking lot. My muddled mind tried to remember who it was as I heard two sets of running steps come towards me... that annoying, commanding little tone.... that was it! It was Kiseki. And if Kiseki was here, that meant...
"Isn't that... Yamada-san!" Tadase's voice rang out through the night. I managed to tilt my head, revealing both Tadase and Nadeshiko running towards me.
"Miyuki-san! Are you alright?" asked Nadeshiko worriedly.
"N-no." I managed to say. I was still trying to get my breath back, and my mind felt fuzzy, as if I was only hearing what Nadeshiko had asked a couple seconds after she had actually said it. I tried to get up, feeling silly lying on the ground. I got a bit farther off the ground this time, but then my arms gave out again as my head began to spin. I started to fall backwards, but Tadase caught me and lowered me gently back onto the ground.
"My arm..." I said, voice trailing off. They heard me and, seeing that my left arm was perfectly fine, looked at my other arm. Nadeshiko gasped audibly, and I saw Tadase stiffen at the sight.
Then Nadeshiko looked up at Azami, her glance serious. "You didn't do this, did you?" she asked quietly. She apparently remembered the last time something like this had happened.
"You're joking, right?" said Azami. "Of course I didn't do this! It was that filthy stinking cat chara and his-"
"Wait, cat?" asked Tadase. "You don't mean... Ikuto did this?"
"Yeah." Azami replied seriously. "I don't really remember everything that had happened. Earlier this evening, I felt a chara's presence and me and Miyuki went to check it out. We were following it for a while, and then...." Azami shook her head. "I don't know. We woke up here a couple minutes ago, and I saw some guy with cat ears and a tail run off. I tried to get Miyuki to wake up so she could do something about her injury, but she couldn't get up." Even though I was barely able to stay conscious right now, I was still amazed with Azami's ability to lie.
Tadase stood up suddenly. "Which way did he go?" His eyes were determined, with just a glint of anger in them.
Nadeshiko grabbed his sleeve. I now realized that it looked like both of them had very hastily thrown on some clothes. Apparently, they hadn't just been out for an evening stroll together when they had come upon me. "Tadase-kun," she said, "We have to let him go. We need to help Miyuki-san right now."
Tadase clenched his teeth in frustration, but nodded.
"Do you think you can walk if we support you, Miyuki-san?" asked Nadeshiko.
"Y-yeah. I think so." Surprisingly enough, I was feeling a bit better now. Admittedly, it helped that I had finally caught my breath. Breathing normally definitely seemed to help. My right arm was red from the blood smeared along it, reminding me once again of when Azami had scratched me. Tadase and Nadeshiko helped me up, and I took stock of my surroundings. After that chase, I was actually only about seven blocks away from my own house. My arm was no longer experiencing the sharp pain from before; rather, it had settled down to a dull pounding. But it still hurt.
"Azami, how far are we away from Yamada-san's house?" Tadase asked.
"About nine or ten blocks." said Azami. Okay. Maybe I hadn't been quite right in my guess as to how far away we were. My mind still wasn't quite back to normal.
"My house is probably closest, then." said Tadase. "Let's go."
Nadeshiko slung my arm across her shoulders, taking a lot of my weight. For a girl who looked so graceful, she was surprisingly strong. We were about halfway across the parking lot when a though tugged at the edge of my mind. I tried to pin down the idea, but it seemed to dance aon the fringes of my thoughts. We had headed about a block towards Tadase's house when I finally managed to figure out what was bothering me.
"How are you going to explain my injury to your parents, Tadase-kun?" I asked.
"Oh. Um..." we all stopped, seeing the dilemma. It would be pretty hard to pass off my injury as an accident. If a parent saw it, they would start asking questions that we probably wouldn't be able to answer. I mean, what sane person would believe that a guy with cat ears and a tail had attacked me?
"Take Miyuki-chan to her house." Azami suggested. "Her parents will believe anything. It won't be a problem once we get there."
Nadeshiko turned looked at me. "Do you think that would work, Miyuki-san?"
I nodded. "Azami's right. I should be able to keep them from worrying too much." Neither Tadase nor Nadeshiko looked like they quite believed me, but Azami nonetheless began leading them to my house, despite its distance.
We were about two blocks away when I started getting light-headed again. I knew I had lost a lot of blood, though admittedly the flow had slowed down considerably. I tried to keep my mind off of it - I didn't want to complain.
"How did you guys know to come find me?" I asked. I think I had a pretty good guess, but I wanted to know for sure.
Tadase was the first to reply. "We were both at our respective homes, and we felt a huge pulse of X-egg energy. We both rushed to find out what was going on, and bumped into each other on the way."
Nadeshiko, who was still supporting me, asked, "You wouldn't happen to remember anything having to do with that, do you? Neither of us have felt anything like it before."
I shook my head, and stars danced in front of my eyes as a result. I was starting to get sore all over, which didn't help. Thankfully, we made it to my house about that time. Tadase opened the front door for Nadeshiko and I, and we walked in.
My parents hardly even looked up. My mom was reading something in the newspaper, and my dad looked like he was cleaning some dishes. We could have gone upstairs to my room without even bothering them, but I knew that would seem odd to Tadase and Nadeshiko.
"Mom, dad, I'm back." I said weakly. "I've got some friends with me, but they'll be leaving soon. I got scratched by a cat, and they just wanted to make sure that I was okay."
"Okay, Miyuki." said my mother flatly, her eyes never leaving the page in front of her. The hypnotism looked like it was still working. Tadase and Nadeshiko exchanged a quick glance of slight confusion before helping me up to my room.
Nadeshiko gently lowered me down to sit on my bed. "Do you have any paper towels anywhere?" she asked. "We're going to need to clean your arm a bit before we wrap it in something."
"Uh, yeah." I said. "I think there are some under the sink in the bathroom." Azami told them where the bathroom was, and Tadase went to find the paper towels.
"We'll also need something to wrap your arm with, to help keep it from bleeding again." said Nadeshiko.
This was a bit of a tougher one. I couldn't think what we could use to wrap my arm in.
"Don't you still have that extra roll of gauze the nurse gave you from before?" asked Azami. It took me a minute to think what she was talking about. Then I remembered: the nurse had sent me home with an extra roll of gauze that day Azami scratched me. But what had I done with it...
"Azami, I think it might be in the closet." Azami went in to my closet, and came out with the small roll of gauze in her arms, struggling to stay in the air. Tadase came in right about then, with some wet paper towels in addition to a full roll of dry ones. Tadase looked like he was about to help clean up my arm himself, but I stopped him. That just seemed like it would have been way too awkward. I took one of the damp paper towels from him and cleaned off my arm, which started the blood flowing once again. Nadeshiko took the gauze from Azami and wrapped my arm with surprising skill, making it neither too tight nor too loose. As soon as she was done, I tried standing up. I still felt a little off-balance, but for the most part I was fine.
"Thanks." I said. I flexed my arm a bit, which started it throbbing. Note to self: be careful for the next day or so. "I don't know how to really thank you two. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't found me." I really meant it, too. I didn't know what Ikuto would have done if he hadn't been run off. Even if he had just let me be, I could have easily passed out in that parking lot, perhaps never to wake up again. Or maybe I was being over-dramatic about the possibilities.
"Of course we had to help. We weren't just going to leave you there." said Tadase.
"That's right." Kiseki piped in. "A king always looks after his subjects."
"It wasn't a problem." said Nadeshiko. "I just wish we knew what had happened."
"Yeah." I said, slightly awkwardly. Of course, I did know what had happened. It's just that they could never know that. I glanced to the clock on the wall, and noticed it was nearly midnight. "You guys should probably get home now. It's so late already. I should be fine now."
Tadase nodded. "Yeah, we should be getting back. Please be careful, Yamada-san."
"Don't try to over exert yourself." warned Nadeshiko. "If you really need to, just stay home tomorrow."
"Don't worry, I'll be okay." I insisted, despite the slight dizziness I was experiencing at the moment. The two escorted themselves down the stairs and out the door, not wanting me to have to walk all the way down the stairs. I was glad for that, because almost as soon as they left, I sat back down on my bed. I was experiencing a strange mixture of exhaustion and light-headedness, and it didn't feel pleasant. Without even changing into my pajamas or turning off the light, I laid down on my bed and fell asleep, unable to stay awake for a moment longer.
Over 60,000 words now! Yeah! In just a bit over a month, no less. I'll admit, I'm proud of myself. That makes this one of only six stories (at the moment) in the shugo chara section over 60,000 words (if you don't believe me, search for stories in shugo chara with over 60000 words. That's right. My story is up there. Or it should be). I'm very happy. Although you could argue that that doesn't mean too much, since even the one in there with the least number of reviews has over 160 more than me. Which does bother me a bit. For a moment. And then the feeling passes, and I'm just super excited that I finally got motivated about a story and stayed motivated!
Anyway, review are still nice if you'd like to give me some pointers or just encourage (or even constructively criticize) me in general. Thanks to Kitty Obsessive Disorder again, who I think might have been the only one to review the last two weeks or so.
If anyone would like to know, this was one of those chapters where I didn't know what was going to happen next. Or, rather, I thought I knew what was going to happen next, but then Azami had to come back from her little Yoru chase and I realized she wasn't just going to let that kind of insolence off the hook. So, I literally did not know that the whole chara-nari battle scenario was going to happen until about when Yoru is yelling "Ikutooo! Help me!" I was planning to go into the next day and actually (for once) not ending a chapter with Miyuki going to sleep. But, it happened anyway. Oh well.
And I'm actually dreaming about shugo chara now. Last night, I actually had a dream with evil Amu character-transformations (which just so happens to be one of the things I really want to see in the anime). The dream was sparked from seeing screen shots from the episode that came out yesterday, the Saaya Yamabuki one. My dream got a lot stranger than that (for example, I'm fairly sure that Hinamori and I were mice half of the time, due to some strange off-topic philosophy club conversations I'd had the previously that day), but that was the main part I thought was funny. And then I got up and watched the actual episode (I'd let it load over night), but I didn't like the episode and I was slightly sad....
But I'm starting to ramble again. Please review if you'd like to, and I hope you've been enjoying the story so far! As far as fanfictions go, I'm getting the feeling that this is going to be an epic in length.