Chapter 16:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A scream. Of utter horror.

Those were the last sounds I'd heard, the epilogue of The Life of Mashiro Rima.


W—where was I? Some dark, dark room…and I was tied up. At least that was the only reason I could think of to describe the rough, tight bindings around my wrists and ankles.

A sudden shock ran through my body. This was exactly how it was when I was kidnapped: cold, scared, tied up, in a dark, scary, lonely room…

Nervously, I trembled. Fear ran up and down my spine and I attempted to regulate my breathing. C'mon, Rima, nothing too hard: in, out, in, out, in—

"Rima?" a quiet voice whispered. Air got stuck in my windpipe as I wheezed, attempting to breathe in and out. "R—Rima?" the voice asked nervously, as I continued panting and choking on my own breath. "Rima, are you alright?" the voice asked worriedly. Slowly, I began recognizing the voice as Amu's.

"F—fine," I sputtered out nervously, finally getting over my flashback. "W—what happened?" I asked nervously. I heard Amu sigh exasperatedly, causing me to tense up. Did something happen?

"Well, you know Chika attacked you?" Amu asked. I nodded worriedly. "Then…well, her attack hit you and you—erm, fell," she stated vaguely. I raised a suspicious brow at her, though I had a feeling she couldn't see it. "Fell?" I voiced aloud my suspicions.

"Umm…yeah," Amu said. "Basically…KusuKusu popped out of you and you de-charanaried, and then Kuukai rushed over to help you," Amu said. "Kairi called for Chika's attention, I don't know why. So naturally, after Chika attacked you, she turned her attention to Kairi. She attacked him as well, and he fell…so basically we're all down except for Ikuto, Yaya, Tadase, and Utau who, for some reason, weren't with Kairi," Amu finished. I blinked.

"So…we're captured?" I asked. Amu nodded. "And," she began, "you shouldn't move too much. Chika's attacks materialized into attacks directly harming your physical state. Careful," Amu warned. I winced. And you don't tell me sooner! I felt my left shoulder, right leg, and abdomen churn in pain.

"S—so what's our plan now?" I wheezed. Amu sighed. "I don't know. To be truthful…we're trapped," Amu said. I blinked. Wow, Amu. Great way to go and state it bluntly. Now what?

Suddenly, blaring bright lights turned on that temporarily blinded me. After I'd adjusted to the brightness, I surveyed my surroundings. Apparently, we were trapped in some sort of prison, though the walls were metallic, like we were in a lab.

Correction: we were in a lab.

"What the heck?" Amu exclaimed aloud. "What's going on?" she demanded. A cynical chuckle came from our side as our eyes turned towards said direction.

"Chika," Amu narrowed her eyes down at the de-charanaried girl dangerously. Chika gave a smirk and stared right back at Amu. "Well, well, look at what we have now: all of you trapped in a cage," she spoke ambitiously. Amu glared straight back. "What are you gonna do?" she demanded, as Chika pretended to whistle innocently.

"Oh, I don't know: change your Charas into X-Eggs first, I suppose?" she said. My eyes widened. N—no way! They couldn't change KusuKusu into an X-Egg! They couldn't! Th—then wh—what would h—happen to me? A part of me wo—would be gone!

"Curse you," Amu hissed as Chika shrugged. "That won't be getting you anywhere, pinkster," she said, 'cheerfully' skipping out of the room. There were two burly guards in black that opened the door for her and watched her go out, then quickly shutting the door.

Three moments of silence passed.

"What are we gonna do…" I mumbled, lost. Puzzled. Confused. Discombobulated with how the world was treating me. I mean, c'mon! What did I ever do wrong? –Well, I have admittedly faulted before, but when has a fault gone to such an extent that my dream needs to be crushed?

"Hey," a static voice came from one of the guards. Apparently, it was a walkie-talkie. "Yes?" one of the men responded in a low, gruff voice. "Bring the prisoners in Cell B to Cell A," the voice said. One of the men nodded and placed his walkie-talkie back, turning to glare at us. "Let's go," he said, as one grabbed me by my arm and the other grabbed Amu's. "Hey!" Amu exclaimed, alarmed. I bit my tongue to cry out from the pain that surged through my body when that guy grabbed onto my left arm. If you don't remember—my left shoulder burned awhile ago.

We were grabbed out of the room and down a short period of hallway. Finally reaching where was apparently Cell A, the guards swiped a card to open the room and pushed us in, quickly closing the door after we were pushed in. "Darn it," I muttered as I kicked the metal door. All that happened was Newton's Third Law being demonstrated as my foot surged with pain.

"Amu, Rima!"

"RIMA-TAN!"

"Hinamori! And Mashiro and well!"

Amu and I whipped our heads around to see who the familiar voices belonged to. Our eyes widened. Nadeshiko, Yaya, Kuukai, Kairi, and Nagihiko were all in the room, tied up as well. We quickly gathered together to check if everyone was alright.

"Hey, is Mashiro fine?" Kuukai asked worriedly. I huffed. At least no physical pains of Chika's attacks were shown. "I'm fine," I said. Sure, the pains still hurt, but there was no point in telling everyone now when we were flippin' gonna die soon probably!

"What's happening? Why's Yaya here?" Amu asked. Kairi shrugged. "According to my analysis, Yaya probably got caught by one of the surveillance guards," Kairi said. I sighed. We should've expected Yaya to get caught by one of the guards.

"What happened?" I asked, desperately wanting to get filled in on the information as soon as possible. I mean, --the fudge? I fainted and suddenly all this crap happened?

"Well," Kuukai began gingerly, "you got hit…right? Then, Sanjou came soaring in—very cool, Sanjou—and Sasaki attacked him as well. Mehh, he went down in one shot," Kuukai said as Kairi shot him a glare and coughed. "I 'went down in one shot' because I was not in my charanari," Kairi pointed out. Kuukai rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, Sanjou went down, and then Sasaki attacked me, and we all went down. And we were all caught," Kuukai pointed out. "And now, voila," he said, directing towards the seven of us in the room. "We're all caught," he said, repeating himself. I blinked. Great explanation, Kuukai.

"Now what?" I asked, completely unaware of what was happening. Here, Nagihiko spoke up.

"We wait," he said solemnly. Kairi nodded.

"Yes. We can only wait."


"So…what do we do know?" Kuukai nervously asked. We'd been trapped in the room for approximately three hours already and to be frank, we'd already lost our anxiety and started growing bored. I mean, c'mon! Staying in the same silver-grey room for three hours—that was meant for people in asylums!

"We can only rely on Ikuto, Tadase, and Utau?" I questioned carefully. On my side, Kairi nodded. "Sadly…for they are the only ones…free," Kairi stated carefully. I then blinked. "Hey Kairi, weren't they with you? Why weren't they with you when you came to the lab?" I asked. Kairi's face paled—

Along with everyone else's in the room.

"Hmm?" I asked curiously. Kairi blinked. "U—uhh," he stuttered nervously. My eyes narrowed down on his but soon continued onto everyone else. There was something going on…definitely something going on…that I didn't know about.

"We told them to retreat, because too many people isn't necessarily a good thing," Nagihiko piped up. The atmosphere immediately loosened up—and that didn't go by undetected by me. My eyes narrowed down on Nagihiko suspiciously but all he did was smile an innocent smile.

An altogether too flashy, shiny, innocent smile.

"Something's going on—" I began suspiciously, but Nadeshiko nervously clapped her hand over my mouth. I squirmed and attempted to leave her grasp but her stupid hand just wouldn't let go! Finally, I gave up, as Nadeshiko slowly took her hand off. "Shhh…" she whispered, "we're onto something, don't worry," she said confidently. I raised a suspicious eyebrow. What could they possibly have in mind?

"This," Nagihiko whispered, as if reading my mind. Suddenly, all the lights in the laboratory were turned off. "Wh—what?" I panicked, as everyone around me began to stand up (we'd sat down cause we were tired). "Let's go," I heard someone—Nadeshiko?—whisper, and complying so, I made a grunt signaling I'd heard her and I followed the vaguely-seen silhouettes of people around.

"This way," I heard a hiss. I couldn't tell who it was, but I think it was a girl. Amu, I think. I followed her so we were in front of one of the walls—I think. "NOW!" a voice hollered from beside us, and suddenly, the wall burst.

Literally.

"WAH!" I exclaimed out of surprise. Amu slipped her hand into my hand—wait a sec, it wasn't Amu! It was Nagihiko. He gave it a tight squeeze, causing my heart to literally skip a beat but I did shut up, which was probably his intention. My eyes squinted towards the bright light coming from the hole.

"Thanks, Tsukiyomi-san," I heard Kairi's formal, polite tone. Outside was Ikuto charanaried with Yoru into Black Lynx. On his side, Utau was in Lunatic Charm and Tadase was nervously looking around in his Platinum Royale transformation.

"W—what?" I questioned. I heard Nagihiko squeeze my hand again and I shut up once more. Kairi rushed over to Ikuto and whispered some things to him. Ikuto finally smirked, walking over towards Amu and carrying her up.

"W—what?" Amu chibi-tomato-mode squeaked nervously. Ikuto leaned down towards her ear and—knowing him—whispered something very perverted into it, causing Amu to blush as red as—no, redder than—a tomato. Ikuto soon leaped away while carrying Amu.

"What's happening?!" I asked aloud, beginning to panick. Nagihiko turned towards me and shot me a smirk which I couldn't help but huff at. "What?" he asked as I rolled my eyes. "Stop the smirking and get on with the topic," I demanded rather forcefully. Nagihiko smirked once more, much to my irritation.

"Didn't Kairi already mention it to you? We're having a final showdown with Chika-chan today," Nagihiko said. I winced at the affectionate honorific still added to Chika's name. When will he call her Sasaki? Jeez!

Then again, it's not like I care or anything.

"How so?" I asked. Nagihiko smirked, knowing he was in charge—which sadly, I had to admit he was. "Kairi got some backup scoop on Chika-chan's dad. Sure, he's the owner of Christmas, but is he really the one trying to get the Embryo? No," Nagihiko decided. I glared at him questioningly. "Huh?" I asked. He sighed.

"Basically, what I'm trying to say is that Chika's family is, so to say…apart," he said. I blinked.

"Divorced?" I asked bluntly. Nagihiko sighed. "No, it's not like that. It's…well, so to say…" Nagihiko said, "Chika…she's an illegitimate child," Nagihiko said. I blinked once more.

"Her mom and dad aren't married?" I asked. Nagihiko sighed irritably.

"Basically, Chika's mother had an affair with another man. When Chika's mother died, the man came over to Chika's…'father' and asked for child custody over Chika. Thus, the whole story was spilled. However, Chika's father refused to hand over Chika, and the two got a very serious argument involving law suit. Chika's father—like…uhh…her quote—father—quote, won in the end, partially due to Chika's unwillingness to accept the strange man and he also had a stable job—CEO of Christmas. In order to keep his daughter satisfied, he's been giving her more and more space to go wild recently, cause he's secretly afraid she'll runaway to that man one day. So he gave her control over the company," Nagihiko explained. I gulped. Wow. A very fierce woman.

"So what're we doing now?" I asked. Nagihiko smirked once more.

"Whaddaya think? Directly facing down Chika once more."


"There!" I heard Nagihiko exclaim, my head jerking towards his direction. Kairi had once again assigned us to different roles: Ikuto and Amu were to locate the director—Chika's father—, Kuukai, Utau, Tadase, Yaya, Kairi, and Nadeshiko were sent to attempt to find Chika, and me and Nagihiko?

Find the Charas of the ones who'd been caught.

"KusuKusu!" I exclaimed aloud, attempting to gain my Chara clown's attention. They were all trapped in a glass box inside a brightly lit room. Nagihiko and I burst in—and much to our chagrin…

Chika was in there as well.

"Well, well, I somehow knew you guys were gonna head here," Chika said, placing her elbows on the glass box and leaning her chin on her palms. "Come to get your Charas?" she asked as I narrowed my eyes down on the Charas.

"Chika-chan, really, your mother's death—" Nagihiko began tentatively but all Chika did was shoot us a dirty look. "Do not, I repeat do not mention that in front of me—ever again!" she exclaimed. Nagihiko sighed. "Chika-chan—" he tried once more but this time, Chika's response was a charanari.

"Charanari: Noir Diamond," she exclaimed, her and Shizue character transforming into their charanari. Brilliant grey feathers shot out from her back as her blood-red eyes narrowed down on us. "You two—will die," she hissed. "Dreading Diamonds!" she exclaimed, sending a barrage of diamonds our way.

"Get to the Charas!" I heard Nagihiko exclaim. Nervously, I ran out of the way and inched towards the wall. What the heck did he mean? No way was I gonna get to the Charas! She was right in front of them! She was dangerous!

"Rima-chan!" he pleaded. I sighed. Sure, sure. I'll run if there's trouble though. Nervously, I inched towards the Chara box as Nagihiko managed to distract her. Finally, when my hands were just a few centimeters away from the glassbox, she turned around, her blood-red eyes suddenly seeming more bloodshot than ever.

I gulped.

"Dreading Diamonds!" she exclaimed as I quickly ducked. I mean, that was all I could do! Since I was here already, I had to save the Charas! C'mon, stupid glass box, get off!

Pong.

"YAY!" a chorus of cheers came from the cheered Charas. I drew a deep breath and ran, far faraway from Chika, as fast as I could. Finally, I turned back around, heaving deep breaths. I reached for Kuukai's cell phone, which I forgot to return.

"HELP!" I exclaimed into the phone. I wasn't even sure who I'd called; it was speed-dial 2. "W—what? Where are you? Kuukai? Or still Rima?" the voice replied. Utau. "Rima. We're…we're…NAGIHIKO, WHERE THE HECK ARE WE?" I hollered to Nagihiko who had already become Beat Jumper and was fighting against Chika. Chika turned my way and narrowed her eyes on my cell phone. Expertly sending a barrage of diamonds over, it struck my cell phone before I could barely move.

"Crap," I muttered, quickly dodging to the side. "KusuKusu!" I exclaimed, as KusuKusu floated over. "Charanari: Clown Drop!" I exclaimed, as I quickly joined Nagihiko.

"Chika-chan, bringing your mother back to life won't solve anything," Nagihiko reasoned. Chika snorted. "Yeah right. My mother was the only one who could understand me. My father? Or should I say fake-father? He doesn't give a crap for anything I do! And my real father, quote-quote again? Pshh! What can he do: give me child support for 6 years? Not a chance," Chika hissed. "There's only my mother. Only my mother. I need my mother—I need her—I needneed," Chika repeated to herself over and over again.

"SHUT UP SHIZUE!" she exclaimed—to herself? Nagihiko and I silently watched from the sidelines. "Shizue?" I heard Nagihiko whisper.

"Stupid Chara, you're just that remaining conscience in my brain! Well guess what? CONSCIENCE KILLED MY MOTHER," Chika hollered, slowly beginning to descend to the ground.

"You know that Shizue is your would-be-self, Chika-chan!" Nagihiko hollered, in support of the conscience fighting Chika. Chika hissed. "NO! I NEED MY MOTHER, I NEED HER!" Chika hollered.

Finally, her internal fighting stopped.

And her full attention was on the two of us.

"Die," she hissed, charging our way with a sword in hand. Nagihiko and I dodged towards the sides. Similar fighting proceeded, with Chika evidently attacking and Nagihiko and I being forced into a defensive stance.

"We can't go on like this forever," I reminded him as Nagihiko nodded. Expertly, he summoned his Blaze Shoot attack and carefully took aim. I got his hint, using my Tightrope Dancer to momentarily trap her. It worked this time—probably due to the rise in emotions she'd been experiencing in the last 24 hours. Right before Nagihiko was about to hurl his attack, a holler came from the entrance.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" the voice screamed. Nagihiko paused his attack and I looked that way as well, curious as to who it was. A businessman? Dressed in a black suit, red tie, black pant, black dress shoes, cleanly-shaved, and gelled brown hair.

"P—Papa?" Chika choked over her words.


A/N: w00t! Coming to the end! I can't believe I'm actually rooting for it to end...but whatevs. *shrug* I'm thinking of an AU story for my next one...Sealed Memories has been scrapped for now. I can't write about fantasy currently. In a realistic mood.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed!