I tried to keep calm throughout the rest of the week, though I'll admit I kept my eyes peeled whenever Nikaido was anywhere near Amu. I was almost sure it would happen on Tuesday, but that day came and went without any problems. That made me even more paranoid by Wednesday. I even asked Tadase if we could look at Nikaido's papers, just to make sure he was the real deal. We did, but by appearances, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I knew that if we looked into his sources and references more, we would probably expose him for what he really was. But that could potentially seem suspicious when I just happened to be right on my hunch, and I was still worried that Nikaido would find out and do something to me if I started leading the Guardians too directly to him. By Thursday, I was starting to calm down a bit, mainly because I was tired of being tense all the time just for the sake of Amu. And by the time Friday morning came around, I had convinced myself that Nikaido was just going to wait to steal Amu's charas during Winter break, in which case I could do nothing to attempt to prevent it.
Mai remained more or less unresponsive throughout the week. She still talked when directly spoken to, but other than that, she seemed to be in a daze all the time. I tried a couple of times to get her to talk with me like we used to, but it wasn't any use. I began to avoid her all together. It hurt too much to be with her. I no longer mourned for her - not on the outside, at least. Though there was still some hope for perhaps saving her egg, it was so small that I didn't act on it. An effort like that seemed like it would be futile, and stupid to even try. In general, I tried not to think about it too much; what was done was done, and as I saw it, there was nothing I could do about it, no matter how saddening the current situation was.
Despite this depressing and somewhat precarious state of affairs, it was now Friday and even I had been drawn into the excitement of the imminent break from school. Nikaido didn't even bother trying to keep us under control. The only real work we did was reciting our poems, which was finished with before lunch. I recited Caged Bird flawlessly, though I did so with a bad taste in my mouth; I still had a bad feeling about it. The rest of the day, he basically let us goof off. This surprised me. Especially on a day like today, he would normally make us all calm down and ruin our fun. What made me even more suspicious was that, throughout all of our goofing-off, he worked intently on his laptop. The back of the laptop was facing the class, and there was no way I could have even caught a glimpse of what he was doing without him knowing.
My worries about that faded quickly, though. I mean, it was almost Winter break, and I was quickly finding out that when I wanted to be distracted, it wasn't too terribly hard to forget about something unpleasant.
As soon as the final bell rang, everyone (even Amu and I) hurried out of the classroom, down the stairs, and out of the school. Even the chilly weather couldn't dampen out spirits. Amu and I started heading to the Royal Garden, though not because there was any actual work to do; we were planning our Christmas party: deciding what time to arrive at the garden on the twenty-fifth, who would bring what, etc.
"Where's Azami?" asked Miki suddenly when we were just a few steps away from the greenhouse doors.
I looked around, realizing that Miki was right: Azami was nowhere to be seen. I shook my head in an exasperated manner. "Who knows where she went? Anyway, I'll go see if I can figure out where she went really quick; you guys go ahead."
"Are you sure, Miyuki? We can help look, too." Amu offered.
"I'm betting she just got hit by someone during the mob dash down the stairs and out of the school." I replied. "It shouldn't be too hard to figure out where she went." I started heading back towards the school, while Amu kept on going to the garden. I was almost to the school when someone else came out the main doors, giving Azami the opportunity to fly out. She spotted me and flew over, choosing to float by my head rather than sit on my shoulder.
I rolled my eyes and turned around, heading back towards the Royal Garden. "So where were you?"
"Nowhere." Azami replied, sounding completely innocent. But she was never innocent, and so her tone of voice just made me even more curious.
"Nowhere, huh?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure you had to be somewhere."
"Well, perhaps I was. Perhaps I wasn't." Azami said.
"Oh, come on. Just tell me." I said. I was getting more and more curious by the second.
"You'll find out later." Azami replied. Now, an answer like that made me suspect some sort of practical joke, or some other thing to be wary of. I could tell that, whatever she had been doing, she wasn't about to tell me. She continued. "Anyway, do you think you could leave the door to the garden open a bit when we go in?"
"Why?"
"I was going to see if the other charas wanted to play hide 'n seek, since this is the last time we'll see each other for a while." Azami answered.
"We'll see each other again in, like, six days. Besides, why can't you just play in the greenhouse?"
"We always play in the greenhouse. We all know the good hiding spots."
I suspected alternate motives behind Azami's request, but nonetheless left the door opened slightly when I went in. The rest of the Guardians were already there, unsurprising due to the fact that Azami had made me somewhat late.
"Sorry, Azami managed to get stuck in the school or something. Anyway, what did I miss?" I said, setting my bag down and taking a seat at the table.
"We were just talking about when we would meet here, Yamada-san." Tadase answered. "How does six in the evening sound?"
"I doubt my parents have any plans for us all to do something, so any time works for me." I replied. I noticed that Azami had gathered all the other charas a ways a way from our conversation, and wondered for a moment if she really did just want to play hide 'n seek.
"That's good." Tadase said, reminding me that I was currently supposed to be paying attention to the other guardians, not the charas. Addressing everyone at the table, Tadase went on. "So who's going to bring food and refreshments?"
* * *
"So, who wants to play a game before we leave for break?" Azami asked as soon as she had gathered the rest of the charas as best she could. Of course, I couldn't hear any of this - I was too preoccupied with helping to determine who was bringing cookies.
"Oh, yeah! Let's play something!" Ran agreed.
"No, commoners! We must lay out our plan of action for finding the embryo!" Kiseki ordered. "This break will give us a chance to double our efforts in our search! We cannot let this chance go to waste!"
Everyone ignored him, and Azami continued. "I was thinking we could play hide 'n seek."
"But we all know where the hiding places are, desu~" Su said.
"That does kind of ruin the fun." Miki agreed.
"I don't care what we do, as long as we do something." Daichi said.
Azami grinned. "Don't worry - I was thinking ahead. I got Miyuki to leave the door open so we could play outside. And as soon as their little meeting thing is over, anyone who hasn't been found wins! I'll even be it, if no one wants to volunteer."
"Sounds like fun!" Ran said. "Let's go!" She started to rush towards the door.
"Wait, wait - one more thing." Azami said. Ran stopped and floated back. "Let's make sure we stay around the school. I don't want to be searching forever."
"Don't you think we should tell Amu and everyone that we're leaving?" asked Miki, the voice of reason as always.
"Yeah, yeah!" Ran agreed. "Amu-chan!"
The rest of the Guardians and I all stopped our conversation as Ran called out and all the charas flew over. We had just finished deciding that we would all bring some treats, except for Kukai, who would bring some pop and such for refreshments.
"We're all going to play hide 'n seek outside!" Ran exclaimed.
I looked suspiciously at Azami, who pretended not to notice me. I knew her well enough by now to tell that something was going on. I simply couldn't figure out what.
"Oh?" Amu blinked, as if taking that information in. "That's fine with me."
Everyone else agreed that it was fine. "Have fun, everyone. Just be careful." Nadeshiko said, exchanging a meaningful glance with Temari as she did so. But I didn't notice - I was still attempting to think of what Azami might be planning.
"Don't worry - we will!" Azami said, a little bit too enthusiastically. I groaned as it finally hit me - I had been expecting a prank from Azami's secretive behavior earlier. At this point, I could only hope that whatever it was, it wouldn't go too overboard. All the charas left, and my mind wondered about the prank possibilities throughout the rest of the time our conversation went on in the Royal Garden.
* * *
"All right, I'll start it off!" Azami said. "I'm only counting to fifty, so you'd all better hurry! One... two..." The other charas wasted no time, each darting off in different directions. Though she was still covering her eyes, Azami grinned evilly. As she reached twenty, she peeked out and looked off to her left, into the leafless trees off to one side of the path. Despite the cold weather, someone was standing there, mostly concealed behind the trunk of one of the trees. Someone with orange hair, yellowish eyes, and (since there were no students around by this time on a cold Friday) an evil grin that he did not even attempt to conceal. Azami opened and closed her wings a few times, as was their agreed upon signal, and Nikaido seemed to melt away into the shadows as he left.
Throughout this, Azami never stopped counting. As soon as she reached fifty, she shouted "Ready or not, here I come!" and then spread her wings and flew off, deciding to let Nikaido do his business as she did her job of making it seem like she actually wanted to play Hide 'n Seek.
Nikaido, for his part, started out for who he thought would be the simplest to capture: Su. He had watched as she had flown off down the path a little ways before her tiny body faded out of sight. But Nikaido had a good intuition for almost anything you could think of, and especially anything having to do with Guardian Characters. In fact, he had a pretty good guess of where all those annoying little charas had hidden, based on the direction each had flown. None of the other charas had gone in the same direction as Su, and so he didn't even need to worry about concealing himself.
Just as he had the ability to sense and rip out wavering eggs of the heart, Nikaido could also detect where already hatched shugo charas were, to some extent. And so, once he felt the presence of one (presumably Su) nearby, he began to stroll along, acting like he was admiring the bare trees and bushes along the path. He took on his normal teacher demeanor - kind smile, klutzy walk, etc. Then, from the side of the path ahead of him, he heard a small voice.
"Hmm? It's Nikaido-sensei. I wonder what he's doing here, desu~" Su thought aloud, apparently thinking that he couldn't hear her. Of course, there was no way she would be able to know - Nikaido ignored all the charas so well at school that none of the Guardians really thought that he could see them, even if he was evil. Su really wasn't concealed that well - she was sitting at the base on a large tree, with some leaves drawn up around her to help conceal her noticeable green outfit. She was watching Nikaido with curiosity, wondering what he might possibly be doing.
Suddenly, Nikaido tripped - or, at least, he pretended to. He landed right in front of Su and, before she could do anything, he reached out his hand and grabbed her, dropping all pretenses of innocence.
"Well, one down, two to go." He said as got up from the ground, keeping a firm grip on the helpless chara.
"Nikaido-sensei, please let me down, desu~!" Su said as she wiggled, trying to get free.
Nikaido shook his head. "Tsk, tsk. You really shouldn't ruin the peace and quiet of this beautiful Winter day." With his free hand, Nikaido reached into one of his pockets and pulled out what could have been two halves of a shugo egg, except for the fact that it was a dull, boring shade of grey: hardly the color of someone's dreams. Despite Su's struggling, he managed to get her into one half of the egg with ease, then closed the other half on top of her. Her protests were drastically muffled. Then he reached into his pocket again, pulled out a white, sticker-like 'X', and put it over the crack of the egg, sealing the two halves firmly together.
"I hope you don't mind that I had to improvise a home for you for now." He said in a voice that said he really didn't care all that much. Then he opened his briefcase, tossed the egg carelessly in, closed the briefcase again, and headed off towards the school. He couldn't relax just yet - there were still two more test subjects that needed gathering.
* * *
Meanwhile, back in the garden, I have absolutely no idea what's going on outside. I decide to actually listen to what we're talking about for a moment...
"No! Yaya thinks we should have chocolate cupcakes! Not vanilla!"
...okay, useless conversation. My mind wandered off again to what the charas might possibly be doing outside. Maybe I was just being overly-paranoid about the whole prank thing. I mean, what could they do? Then I remember waking up at the sleepover at Nadeshiko's house... and that was only Azami. What would she be able to come up with when all the charas were involved? Unsurprisingly, my mind drifted back onto the subject of what I could do to counter a bucket of green goo falling on my head, among other possibilities.
* * *
In case of any of the hiding charas possibly seeing him, Nikaido went back to his 'normal' klutzy self as he strolled off in the direction that Miki had flown. She was a bit more hard to predict - for a chara, Miki was definitely fairly intelligent. She'd probably find a good hiding place - one where the chara who was seeking wouldn't guess to look. However, as he walked, he began to sense a presence following him. He resisted the urge to turn around and look, and instead kept on walking until he came to one of the benches in front of the school. Making sure that he didn't look up, he opened his briefcase and took out a piece of paper, pretending to examine it closely. And, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a little blue chara coming ever closer, intrigued by what the suspected enemy could be inspecting so thoroughly.
Miki, thinking ahead, gave Nikaido a wide berth before slowly coming up behind him. That wouldn't work for Nikaido - she was being too cautious and staying too far away for him to catch. Nikaido placed his briefcase on his lap and opened it only enough so that he could see what was in it. He put the paper in there but continued to look at it closely, as if it was a secret that he couldn't let anyone know about. And despite Miki's normally wise behavior, she also had a deep curiosity for what Nikaido was hiding. Not to mention, it seemed like she could hear little muffled shouts coming from within the suitcase, and they sounded vaguely familiar...
As soon as Miki had let herself wander within reaching distance, Nikaido's hand flashed up and grabbed the chara. He knew that he was closer to the other hiding charas now - possibly within hearing distance - and so he had to work fast. Before Miki could really comprehend what had happened, he had her in another of his dull, grey eggs and put the 'X' on it. He then put her in his suitcase next to Su before continuing on his way. One more chara left. Unsurprisingly, he now headed toward the school's track and P.E. equipment, where he had seen the last of his targets fly off to.
* * *
What if Azami dug a pitfall trap? No, wait, that doesn't make any sense - she's only a couple inches tall. Even with the other charas helping, that would take ages. Unless... what if they got a dog to help them? No, that's silly. So what if I do end up getting my hair full of goo as soon as I step out the door? That seems probable. Or maybe-
"Miyuki-chan, are you all right?" Nadeshiko asked, snapping me out of my train of thought. All the Guardians were staring at me, probably wondering why I had been zoning out so much.
"Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine." I said, blushing a bit from embarrassment. "I guess I'm just a bit worried about what the charas might be doing outside." Totally true, though the Guardians took it as concern for the charas rather than concern for the current un-gooey state of my hair.
"Give 'em a break, Miyuki!" Kukai said, carefree as always. "What's the worst that could happen?"
* * *
On his way to the fields, Nikaido passed Azami and the first chara she had found, Pepe. Nikaido acted as if he didn't see them, and instead continued to saunter this way and that, looking like he really wasn't doing anything in particular.
"Should we follow him, dechu~?" asked Pepe as the two charas stopped to observe Nikaido's progress for a moment.
Azami shrugged. "You can, if you want. I'm going to keep on looking for the others - I'm ashamed with myself that I haven't been able to find Kiseki yet, since he's probably in the most obvious hiding spot anyone could think of. Plus, I've never really agreed with Miyuki's theory. I mean, look at him - what could he possibly be doing?"
The baby chara watched Nikaido intently for a few moments, then agreed. "I guess you're right, dechu~. Anyway, I think I know where we can find Kiseki." Pepe led Azami away farther into the trees, away from Nikaido. He continued on his way.
As he made it to the P.E. and sports area of the school grounds, Nikaido sensed not one but two charas. He was sure that the two nearby charas knew he was there, but both of them stayed in their hiding places. He guessed that they suspected he was up to something, but were waiting to see what he would do next. Of course, that would be their downfall.
Nikaido neared the high-jump mat, apparently examining it very intently. It consisted of the two tall rods from which the horizontal pole was normally suspended from, as well as the big mat which cushioned a jumper's fall. Coincidentally, the mat was a light shade of red - perhaps not exactly the color of Amu's athletic chara, but similar enough that if she partially concealed herself while right next to it, she would be somewhat camouflaged. As he rounded the back of the red mat, he spotted a little discolored dot of pink where the mat met with the ground: Ran. He stopped for a moment, acting like he hadn't noticed, then reached into his pocket and grabbed another of his gray eggs. He examined it for a moment, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Ran was almost completely intent on figuring out what it was for herself.
Then, dropping all illusions of klutziness, he rapidly reached down and scooped Ran into one half of the egg and closed the other half around her, finally sealing it up with another of the X's. Nikaido simply put this faintly yelling egg back in his pocket before walking off to the back side of the school, turning sharply around the corner of the building.
Daichi, for his part, gasped at the sudden change in the behavior of Nikaido. He had been hiding nearby, in the upper branches of a tree, and saw everything. He wanted to dash forward and help, but he was uncharacteristically paralyzed with shock and fear. And besides, what could something little more than a couple inches tall do against Nikaido? Yet, as soon as Nikaido passed around the corner and out of sight, the spell was broken.
"Ran!" he shouted, flying forward as fast as he could in pursuit of the kidnapper. He turned sharply around the corner, only to fly right into Nikaido's hand.
"Well, now, what have we here?" Nikaido grinned menacingly. "Are you maybe her boyfriend, planning some sort of dashing rescue? How naive."
"Let me go!" Daichi shouted. "And let Ran go, too!"
"I see no reason why I should do either of those things. In fact..." He reached his other hand into his pocket and pulled out another empty egg shell. "Ah, it seems I did remember to bring an extra! Excellent."
"Somebody!" Daichi shouted at the top of his little lungs, realizing it was the only thing he could do. "Help! It's Nikai-" He was cut off as he was stuffed inside the egg and sealed within. Nikaido opened his briefcase on the ground, put both Daichi and Ran inside of it, then closed it and walked calmly to his car.
* * *
"Guys, I've got something I have to tell you." I snapped out of my daze. That had been Kukai talking, and he actually sounded... serious. That almost never happened, unless something was up that he really had to be serious about.
All the other Guardians had noticed his tone of voice, too, and immediately he had our undivided attention. Seeing this, he continued. "The thing is... I've got a cousin about my age who lives in France. Or, he did live in France. His dad moves around a lot for work, and he just got transferred to a branch of his corporation here. They'd been looking for a house near where I live, so that I could help my cousin out at school. But they only got a month's notice, and apparently the only good house they could find that was in their price range was way over on the other side of town. My mom wants me to go to school with him for the second semester to help him adjust to Japanese school."
I was in shock. Kukai leaving? I mean, I had never been that close to him, but he was like a big brother - to me and all the other Guardians. How could this happen?
"No! Yaya won't let you leave! Why can't your cousin just come live with you and come here for school!?!" Yaya said, jumping out of her seat and clamping on to Kukai's arm, refusing to let go. Kukai stayed sitting, though a little awkwardly due to Yaya.
"Hey, hey, calm down! I tried telling my mom that, but my aunt said that she wanted him to start making friends in his own neighborhood! It's ridiculous, I know, but neither her nor my mom will budge on the matter. My brothers even tried to help my cause - they said they needed me around more often to run their errands - but it didn't help." Kukai answered. "And my dad's dropping off and picking me up on his way to and from work, so it's not like I'll be completely gone. Just during the day."
"Doesn't matter!" Shouted Yaya, tightening her hold. "Yaya doesn't want you to leave!"
"Yuiki-san, can you calm down?" Tadase asked calmly, trying to soothe her. "It's only for the semester. After that, he'll be going to middle school just down the street, and we'll be able to see him any time."
"Come on, Yaya - you guys will be fine without me! And like Tadase said, I'll still see you." Kukai said.
"What about you, Souma-kun?" asked Nadeshiko. "Will you be okay going to a new school?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I'll be okay." Kukai said. "Admittedly, I wish I didn't have to go, but I hear they at least have a great soccer team!" That was Kukai - optomistic even when faced with a totally new school and having to take care of some lame French cousin. I would miss him, but like he said, it wasn't like we would never see each other again. And I was sure that Kukai would do great, whatever school he was at.
"No, no, no!" Yaya said. "Kukai can't leave!"
Kukai was about to try and comfort her, but suddenly Temari - normally so calm and graceful - came flying in through still open door, apparently in great distress.
"Nadeshiko!"
"What is it, Temari?" Nadeshiko asked, looking deeply concerned.
Though still talking quietly, her speech was stumbling. "I-I was hiding on top of the roof in hide and seek, trying to stay down so Azami wouldn't see me if she happened to look up there. I had been up there for a while, but then... but then I heard Daichi yell for help."
"What!?!" Kukai said, standing up and knocking his chair to the ground. Yaya had already let go, distracted by Temari's sudden appearance.
Temari continued. "I floated over to the side of the building where I heard the yell - at the track area - and I saw Nikaido right as he was putting something in his briefcase. Then he walked off to his car. I looked around for Daichi, but he was nowhere, and neither was Ran, who should have been nearby."
Kukai didn't wait along any longer - he dashed away from the table and out of the greenhouse. "Souma-kun, wait!" Tadase said, but it was no use. Tadase, Yaya, and Nadeshiko all quickly got up to follow him, but both Amu and I just sat in a daze for a moment.
"Amu-chan! Miyuki-chan! We've got to help!" Nadeshiko said urgently.
"...Ran..." Amu seemed disbelieving. But then she came to her senses. "All right - Let's go!"
I reluctantly got up. What if Nikaido was still around? Would I be finally forced to fight the Guardians? And how much would that hurt Amu? I mean, talk about adding insult to injury - first her charas are stolen (I was certain that Nikaido didn't have just Ran, but Miki and Su as well), and then I would betray her.
Seeing no other option, I followed. We ran down the path towards the sports area, but we all stopped (except Kukai, who was far ahead) when I heard someone calling out my name.
"Miyuki-chan! Where are you guys going?" Azami asked innocently as she caught up to us from behind. Following her were Pepe and Kiseki.
"Where have you three been? Have you seen the other charas?" Tadase asked seriously.
Kiseki answered. "I just fought a valiant battle with a fearsome beast-"
"Squirrel, dechu~." Pepe corrected.
Kiseki looked annoyed, but continued. "- a beast that was trying to force me from my hiding spot!"
"He forgets to mention that he lost." Azami said. "Anyway, what's going on?"
"Did you three see Nikaido around here?" asked Nadeshiko.
"Yeah. He was wandering off in that direction." Azami said, pointing with her tail towards the area where the final kidnappings had taken place. "Why?"
"We think he's done something to Daichi, and maybe Ran." Nadeshiko explained. "Where are the rest of the charas?"
Azami shrugged, though she looked convincingly worried. "I haven't seen any of them - they were hiding, after all."
"Ran! Miki! Su!" Amu suddenly shouted, stopping any other questions. We waited a few moments, but there was no answer.
Amu yelled again. The silence hung longer this time, but still there was no response. Amu's face showed a mix of emotions - pain, sorrow, hopelessness. Not knowing what to say, we all remained quiet. Then, Amu dashed off towards where Azami had pointed. We all followed, and our charas - at least, the ones that were left - joined up with their respective humans. I paused for a moment, deliberating whether to follow or not, but after a couple seconds I ran in pursuit. I glanced quickly over at Azami, who flashed me a smile of pure mischief. And that's when it finally hit me: she was the one responsible for this. She had set up that whole game just to get Amu's charas kidnapped. As soon as we got a moment away from the Guardians, I was going to strangle her. I was so angry that I almost would have burst out yelling then and there if the other Guardians wouldn't have heard. Azami saw how angry I was, but didn't say anything to me.
When I made it to the track area, it was a solemn scene. Kukai was kneeling on the ground, his eyes looking downward. Amu was staring off at the parking lot, her back turned to everyone else. The rest of the group was just standing in shock.
"Ran! Miki! Su!" Amu shouted, then added, "Daichi!"
There was no answer. Again she shouted, but like before, no one answered.
Then, in a quiet voice that I had never known he had, Kukai spoke. "He's gone... Daichi... and all Amu's charas, too. They're all gone."
Quick FYI to all readers - the next update will either be next Wednesday or the Sunday following that or not at all, due to the fact that I'm not going to have access to any computer from Thursday to most of Sunday. I hope I can get one out, but please forgive me if I can't.
Thanks to new reviewer Angelic Swordsman (though you might not see this, since you reviewed chapter 20), Starheartswirly (I don't think you've reviewed before - thanks for doing it now~), and Jasper and Onyx! I did realize I have anonymous reviews blocked, though I may consider unblocking for a time and seeing if I prefer it that way. I simply prefer having signed reviews, but I've never tried allowing anonymous before, so I'll see....
As far as my poll on how to continue the story goes, I've got four people saying I should just label this "A Possibility of Evil: Book 1" and the next Book 2 and so on, and four people who say differently (though that's divided among three of the other choices). So I'll probably be adding 'book 1' onto the current title of this story soon unless more people vote differently, though it probably won't happen for another chapter or so. Just a forewarning.
Thanks for reading! (We're so close to the end of the first part of the story! Yay!)