At that moment, I began debating the colour of my coffin.

Somewhere deep down knew that running was pointless. With that massive owl and a hawk like gaze fixed directly on me, hopping aboard the Nope Train to Screwthatville was currently not an option- unless I wanted to be mauled to death by those razor sharp talons. Forte was standing atop the ever faithful owl, arms crossed, a look of smug triumph dancing across his features, accompanied, as ever, by San. "So, that's why you ran off with her earlier."

"It makes perfect sense," San agreed, in a cute little voice, her head cocked thoughtfully to the side as she studied us. She smiled, just as sweet as ever, but I wasn't fooled for a second. Outwardly, she seemed nothing more than a small, innocent little cinnamon roll. But there was something very subtle about her demeanour that sent icy shivers racing down my spine and, no matter how much of a muggle I was right now, I was inclined to listen to it. "I thought you were acting strange earlier. But I never would have guessed the Crystal Pearl was inside of her!"

"Hand her over." Forte ordered, holding his hand out expectantly.

Zero hitched an eyebrow up, and, much to my utter confusion, he appeared to be more than a little amused. "You've gotta be kidding me."

The blond boy had his nose in the air and sniffed disdainfully. "Either you do it willingly, or we take her by force. It's your choice."

"Yeah," Zero's warm, strong hand gripped my wrist, tenderly pulling me back into his tight embrace. I squeaked, surprised, but loosened almost immediately once I registered what exactly he was doing. "I'd like to see you try." A wan smile ghosted my lips. Zero and Ichii, somehow they seemed to emit a bright, comforting aura that reassured my very soul. San and Forte, however, were a completely different story. They made my stomach curl with unease, while it wasn't as though their mere presence emanated nothing but pure malice, there was something that I inherently didn't trust about either of them.

"You shouldn't act so confident, Zero."

"What ever helps you sleep at night." the bluenette tipped his head with incessant pride, his fingers flexing slightly around my upper arms at Forte's irritated twitching. It looked as though the blond boy was intent on strangling poor Zero. "She's ours. There's no way you're getting your hands on this girl. You may as well just give up now, Forte."

"I wonder about that. San, want to have the honour?"

The raven haired girl bounced forward excitedly. "It's San's turn now!" She exclaimed, twirling her golden staff with incredible enthusiasm. She looked akin to a child on Christmas, which was more than a little disturbing considering she was about to attack us. "Here I go. Step Cat!"

Zero looked unimpressed, to say the least. Bold and brash and too cocky to know better, he made the mistake of taunting them with a smug smirk. "Is that it? I'll destroy this easily with my Destruction Magic-" -A strangled little yell sounded as Ichii seized his collar and dragged Zero into the backseat of the car, the bluenette awkwardly falling across the backseat. Taking no time to asses his friend's condition, Ichii floored the accelerator and Zero, limbs splayed haphazardly, only managed to avoid smacking headfirst into the seat in front due to my swift intervention. Recovering, Zero pouted in a way reminiscent to a five-year-old being denied cookies. "Remind me exactly why we're running away, again!"

As if indulging a three-year-old, Ichii said; "Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that whenever you use your magic you always go crazy and destroy everything?"

Zero considered this for a long moment, as he carefully pushed himself up from my lap and into an appropriate sitting position, affectionately chipping Zura under his chin when the little seahorse flew over to sit happily on his shoulder. "What if I go easy on him?"

In the rear view mirror, I spotted Ichii rolling his eyes with enough force to cause permanent damage, making Zura giggle. He didn't even bother to merit the bluenette with a response, instead using the reflection to meet my worried gaze and shoot me a reassuring smile. "How we looking, Hikari? Out of the danger zone?"

A quick glance behind confirmed that we were in fact not safe. At all. "It's catching up to us!" I cried, snapping my head back with enough speed to induce whiplash. "You better step on it, Ichii!" The brunette obliged, practically flattening the pedal against the floor. The engine gave a small splutter of protest. In perfect synchronisation, both Zero and Ichii's eyes widened as they shared a long glance.

"That... didn't sound good." Zura intoned, sinking a little closer to Zero- who immediately patted his head in comfort.

"Zero, you've gotta get her out of here."

The bluenette levelled Ichii with a serious look. "What about you?"

Ichii shrugged, hopelessly. "I'm not the one they're after, am I? I doubt that they'll bother spending too much time on me, considering the Crystal Pearl is what they really want. I'll distract them long enough for you two to escape. And even if they do go for me, unlike you, I can use my magic to protect myself." Zero processed his words for a long moment, before nodding firmly. "Good. I'll catch up to you real soon. Look after her, Zero."

"I will." He promised, with genuine honesty.

They traded an awkward, poor excuse for a high five, considering Ichii was almost forced to dislocate his arm to do it in the first place.

"Hold on tight." Zero instructed. I didn't hesitate to fling my arms around his neck. One arm held me securely up against him, the other was firmly locked around Zura's tail. The little seahorse, proud to finally be needed, puffed up like a balloon and lifted us into the air. It really wasn't what I had expected. Sure, magic was strange and new to me, but after growing up in the era of Harry Potter, I was expecting some Apparition-type-thing to happen. I was sorely disappointed.

As we swayed precariously, my eyes focused unwaveringly on the rapidly shrinking ground.

My voice, already faint and unassuming, could not quite make itself loud enough to be heard over the roaring of blood in my ears. Without even meaning to, my nails began to sink deep into Zero shoulders, marking his fair complexion with deep, ugly indents, and the boy was too busy with keeping us from falling to our deaths to really protest much.

He must have noticed that I was trembling. After all, every part of my body was shaking uncontrollably, there was no way he could miss it. So, he did the best that he could to comfort me, like giving me a tender squeeze, and whispering so quietly that only we could hear, "It's alright now, Hikari. I know Ichii looks like you could snap him like a twig, but trust me, he's strong. He's kicked my ass enough times for me to know that. Small fry like San and Forte won't even faze him, so don't worry. We're going to protect you, I promise."

He became immensely concerned when his admittedly poor choice of comfort words hadn't seemed to work at all.

"Hey," He said, voice firm but urgent. "Hikari, is something wrong?"

I latched onto him tighter, tearing my eyes away from the ground. "Zero I can't do this. I need to get down."

He stiffened, realisation dawning on him. "Are you scared of heights?" The words caught painfully in my throat. Frantically, I nodded, vision blurring from the sudden rush of tears. "Damn. Gimme a sec, we're going down right now." Zura, his worry obvious, quickly lowered us back down to the ground. I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath. No matter how much my chest heaved, I couldn't quite grasp enough oxygen to support myself.

Zero, eyes wide and panicked, knelt down next to me. After a moment of watching my frenzied state, his hands cupped my cheeks, firmly turning my head to look him in the eyes, thumbs affectionately brushing my cheekbones. "Hey," His voice was smooth and carefully controlled, holding so much sweetness that it induced a wave of tears to cascade down my cheeks.

"Hey," He repeated, just as gently. "Look at me, Hikari. Just look at me, okay? You don't need to focus on anything but me. Keep your eyes on mine. Don't look anywhere else."

His thumbs very softly began brushing the tears away from my cheeks. He didn't seem at all bothered that my continued crying hindered this task greatly. "I know you're scared and you have every right to be. But it's alright. You're safe. You're on the ground, now Hikari. There isn't anywhere that you can fall. Do you understand? You're safe here. You don't have to be scared any more."

Shakily, I nodded my head. "Now, we're going to deal with one problem at a time. You're breathing way too fast. Ichii told me about this- it's called Hyperventilation. It's only making you feel worse, so we slow it down. Do you think you can do that for me, Hikari?" I acknowledged this with another small nod. "Good," He praised, as Zura worriedly pressed his little body against my neck, in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Follow me, alright. I'll help you control your breathing." He continued with a firm, consistent mantra; Breathe in. Hold. Out. Hold. In. Hold. Out. Hold. Over and over and over again, until I was no longer struggling for breath.

"There we go," He murmured, fingers sweeping away the last of my tears. "Feeling better?"

"Y-Yeah. Th-Thank you."

He slowly pulled away, eyes assessing me critically. "There's a bathroom up there. D'you need to go in for a minute?"

"Please."

Like an anxious puppy, he hovered a little too close, hands ghosting over my arms as I stood, almost entirely unaided despite my still shaking legs. I paused in the doorway, feeling queasy and terribly uneasy. A few feet away, Zero leaned casually against the base of a tree, a lazy hand shading his face from the sun. Upon noticing my hesitance, he smiled and flashed me a thumbs up. "We'll be right here." He reassured, laughing as Zura slammed into his chest, the little seahorse moving a little too fast to stop in time.

Hesitantly, I smiled and headed for the sinks, splashing cold water over my face, sighing contently at the cold sensation. Tears tracks gently scrubbed away, I warmed my icy hands underneath the hand dryer for a little longer than was necessary and left, feeling calm and refreshed once more.

"Sorry about the wait," I said, with a tinkling laugh. "I'm ready now. Let's go find Ichii?"

A woman walking past gave me an extremely concerned look.

I blinked.

Zero was gone.

Zura, too.

"Zero?" I gnawed down on my lower lip, running around to the back of the building, to make sure he wasn't teasing me. When no mop of blue hair appeared, I began to get concerned. "Zero!" I exclaimed, forcing down my panic. "Zura? Are you there?" Surely the little seahorse wouldn't ignore me? He was far too kind for that. "Where did you go? Zero!"

It isn't safe here, not if he's gone.

Those two examinees are after me... I have to hide somewhere.

"Z-Zero?" I tried, one last time. With no audible reply, my shoulders slumped in defeat. "Where do I go...?" Home, was my initial plan. But that didn't seem like a sensible choice at all. Standing there like a duck wasn't really sensible either, so I started walking. Or, more accurately, wandering aimlessly, with no real destination in mind. Briefly, I wondered about the bluenette. He'd dissipated into thin air so suddenly, it was almost as though I had imagined him. But surely I couldn't have imagined the warmth from his hands against my skin, or the weight of Zura perching on my shoulder. Both of those things were to real, too tangible for me to imagine.

But if that was the case... Then where had they gone?

A sharp loud hissing caught my attention.

Blocking my path was a horde of angry snakes.

Instantly, I reeled away, confused and more than a little frightened. San was behind me, cutting off my only exit. I was tempted to test my luck with scaling the fence, but San was far too close, I was already aware that she would pull me back down before I could get over. Clenching my fists, I tried to act braver than I felt. "You better stay away from me!"

Interested, she cocked her head with a little giggle. "What if I don't?"

Stumped, I peered anxiously at the snakes from the corner of my eye. They were definitely creeping closer. "What do you want?"

"You, of course," she replied, cheerfully. "You have the Pearl, after all. Don't you?"

"No." I shot back, a little quicker than I should.

"You're funny." San grinned, evidently amused. I gave a startled shriek when a something smooth twisted around my ankle. Looking down, I found them all slithering around my feet, and whimpered pitifully. "I wouldn't move if I were you! They might just attack."

"Well... That was easier than expected." Forte chuckled, looking far more relaxed than he was entitled to be.

"She did give up without much of a fight," San agreed. I choose to keep my mouth shut. Protesting would save my pride, sure, but it would also raise the guards of my two captors, something which I didn't want to happen. "Where's my reward?"

Forte didn't acknowledge her. He was staring directly at me, blue eyes sweeping over my body, lingering on my cautious expression. Summoning up some courage, I tipped my head and started right back, raising a questioning eyebrow that didn't serve to end the impromptu staring match. "To tell the truth... I don't know if I could hurt her, even if it means aceing the sorcery test..."

After a steady beat of silence in which San seemed to consider his words, she pouted and hit Forte over the head with her golden staff, completely dismissing his worries. "Reward, reward, now!" She demanded, in a child-like, petulant tone that made my toes curl. The boy, only mildly surprised with San's bratty behaviour, merely rolled his eyes and remained perfectly still as she continued her assault on his poor head. Sensing the distraction, I wriggled my hands enough to push the rope up my wrists, wincing as the coarse fibres sliced into my skin.

At this point, Forte had confiscated her staff, causing the girl to pout even further, and was rooting through his pockets.

Ignoring the blood seeping out from underneath the rope, I caught a strip between my teeth and pulled as hard as I could, feeling it loosen just enough for me to have some leverage in my hands. A couple of tugs later and I'd discovered how to pull it free. Unfortunately, San skipping out of the room had me freezing like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Afraid that I might have been caught, I didn't dare move until San had returned.

If spending Forte's money was an Olympic sport, she would've won gold. Barely ten minutes had passed before she was back, humming cheerfully to herself with an armful of boxes.

"Hey, Hikari. Let's go eat some cake together!" San exclaimed, cutting the ropes in one fell swoop and yanking me up to my feet. Evidently, San didn't do gentle. Oblivious to the injuries on my wrist, she dragged me over to a make shift table and insistently deposited me in a seat. Grimacing, I used my sleeve to wipe away the blood trailing red rivets down my arm.

"I have to go to the bathroom."

San's child-like eyes peered up at me, all sad and droopy like a kicked puppy. "But you were in the bathroom just before I caught you."

That piqued my interest. Cocking my head, I slowly sat back down. "You were there?"

"Of course," the girl replied, happily. "I followed you!"

Frowning, I barely registered the fact that San had shoved a fork laden with chocolate cake into my mouth. I chewed and swallowed quickly, tapping the table to attract her attention. "You didn't happened to see where Zero went... did you?"

Her expression fell into one of mild distaste. Wrinkling her nose up, she waited until her mouth was clear before speaking. "He's a meanie! I was only looking, but he chased me away anyway. Big bully wouldn't leave me alone for ages." A little scowl marred her features. "And look what he did to my skirt!" Dejectedly, she displayed the singed hem to me. I bit my lip to stop myself from speaking. At least now I knew that he was unhurt and possibly already out there looking for me.

Forte, from where he was leaning against the wall, raised his head and tried not to look too irritated. "Are you quite done yet, San?"

She smiled sweetly, and after making sure that I had began eating the slice of cake she slid across the table towards me, she angled her head back towards the blond. "Do you want to cake, too, For-chan?"

"No I don't!" He said, with an impatient stamp of his foot. San folded her arms with a loud huff, noticeably affected by Forte's bad mood. "What are we going to do, San? We may have got the Pearl, but do we really have to protect this girl for half a year?"

The raven haired girl considered this for a long moment, face screwed up in seriousness. "Hm... In that case," Tapping her finger against her chin, San spared me a small glance. "We don't we just kill her? I mean, there are no rules in the exams saying that we can't kill humans, right? Once she's dead, we can just get the Pearl from her corpse."

I was most alarmed when the seemingly more practical Forte nodded along, thoughtfully. "I see... That does sound like it'll work."

I shot up as if jolted by electricity. "H-Hold on! You're joking, right? You're not really going to kill me... are you? We... We just ate all that cake together, San! Aren't we friends now?" Forte smiled, as if amused at my desperation. Eyes widening, I stumbled back a step. "Y-You... You can't! Forte, please!" Horror flooded my entire body. In an instant I was sprinting flat out towards the exit, Forte's voice following me, holding the same amused tone.

"Do you know what Hypnosis Magic is? I can manipulate people with the music I play on the flute. For example, I can do this,"

The second the sweet melody struck my ear, my feet halted, as if glued to the floor. Every part of me was stiff, unwilling to budge even an inch. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream. As if pulled by invisible threads, my arms contorted, bring my hands up to close tightly around my throat. I couldn't even begin to imagine anything more sick than forcing someone to strangle themselves. But that's exactly what Forte did. The crushing force around my windpipe sealed off my breathing completely. I knew for a fact that I wouldn't last long like this. Already black spots were forming at the edge of my vision. My lungs were on fire, blood searing through my body, setting every nerve alight.

I'm going to die.

That was it.

I could do nothing else.

I couldn't even yell for help.

As it happens, I didn't need to.

Just as I was losing hope, an object travelling at high speed crashed through the window. Glass sprayed everywhere, a sharp of which slice my cheek, but I didn't particularly care because Zero was sitting there, Ichii having cushioned his fall, grinning like a complete idiot. "See? I told you it'd be fine!"

"You overdid it, dummy." Ichii scolded, rubbing his sore behind.

Forte straightened up like a bullet, glaring at the two intruders. "What do you want?"

"What do you mean, what do we want?" Zero mocked, kicking over a box. "Didn't your mommy ever teach you it's not nice to steal from other people?"

"Zero, Ichii! Thank God you're here!" Elated, I struggled back up to my feet and was greeted by the little seahorse slamming into me for a hug. "Hey, little guy. I missed you." I murmured, giving him a gentle squeeze. Zura mumbled back some reassuring words, nuzzling his head into my neck.

"Are you stupid or something? Don't just think you can waltz in here and take the Pearl back without a fight!" Forte struck up a melodic tune, smile sinister and incredibly. "Come to me," He ordered, sharply. Zero and Ichii both started, their expressions fading into blankness. I could feel myself shaking, frightened, too hopeful to believe that this could be happening. "Remove the Crystal Pearl from her stomach!"

Ichii advanced on me. Shaking my head, I backed away. "Ichii! Please, don't!" Seizing my upper arm, he slowly pulled me closer. "No!"

Before I could comprehend what was happening, the brunette had swept me up into his arms, a teasing grin lighting up his youthful features. "Just kidding! We're taking back the princess." He crouched down, tenderly raising my head. "Are you okay? Sorry for scaring you. He can't control us, we know how to counter it, so don't worry. You're safe now." Clapping a hand on my shoulder, the brunette began leading me away, shooting Zero a sideways glance as he did so. "It's your turn, Zero. But you can only go wild for a minute."

Surprised, the bluenette whipped back around, eyes wide with excitement. "Seriously."

Ichii smirked. "Just don't kill him."

Forte cursed. "Dammit, don't think you can just do whatever the hell you like! I'll stop you-"

Zero had moved far faster than I expected from him. "Do you really think you can defeat me with that pathetic magic of yours?" He asked, a second before the ground completely shattered beneath Forte. I gasped, shrinking against Ichii in the wake of the massive display of power. Fire engulfed his fist, shooting out and striking the astounded pair, knocking them so far back that I couldn't quite figure out where they landed.

The bluenette snapped the back on his goggles, casually strolling back over, his arms folded behind his head. "Man, how lame. I didn't even break a sweat!"

"You broke the floor," Zura supplied, helpful.

Zero winced and grinned sheepishly. "Maybe I went a little overboard?" He offered, gingerly. I giggled, which made his cheeks flush with pride. "You okay, Hikari? Not too hurt?" I nodded tentatively, displaying my wrists with a little hesitance. "That doesn't look too good." He frowned and traced the wound, looking to Ichii for advice.

"I can fix this up for you, no problem." The brunette assured, kindly. Zero smiled and ruffled my hair, almost dislodging Zura from his perch on my shoulder.

"I'd really appreciate it." Shifting awkwardly, I chanced a glance through my hair. "Is this... bothersome? Having to protect me, I mean. San and Forte... they said I was too much trouble... They were going to kill me and take the Pearl from my body. I... I don't want to force you to have to help me..."

"Are you an idiot?" Zero's reply was much blunter than I expected. "If we thought this was a waste of time, we wouldn't still be here. Trust me, we're both stubborn as you can get. It's hard as hell to force us to do something we don't want that as a good sign. Especially since we searched half this goddamn city for you, which sucked, by the way. Majorly."

Ichii rolled his eyes. "What he's trying to say is that you can count on us." Choking back a half sob, half laugh, I flung my arms around their necks, hugging them tightly. After a second of hesitation, they melted against me, squeezing me back just as tightly. "We'd really appreciate it if you tried to stay out of trouble from now on, though." Ichii said, teasingly, and I could hear the warmth in his voice.

"No kidding," Zero agreed. "I'm not running around after you again."

"He's only pretending not to care." Zura informed, slyly, loud enough for all three of us to hear. Zero blinked and turned to face him comically slowly. The little seahorse snickered and ducked behind Ichii.

Zero childishly poked his tongue out at the seahorse, before snapping back to face me. "Hey, Hikari, do you have any food? I'm starving!"

"Let's go eat out, my treat."

I giggled at the boy's enthusiastic cheering.

A/N: So that concludes my second chapter of Hikari's Tale, I hope it was good and everyone enjoyed it. It would really help me a lot if I could get some feedback on this, to know how I can and improve or what people like is really helpful! xD