Cross Ice

by Crimrose-A-Bee

Snow Hisayuki moves to the mysterious "Lost City" of Akutetsu in search of closure for a damaging past she could never truly overcome. When she becomes faced with pure magic, friendships she feels she doesn't deserve, and the burden of her first love, she realizes just how much of her life she lost to despair. However, she soon realizes that she holds a deadly mystery of her own...

27. Chapter XXIV - The Fallen

AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

No, not dead. Just busy and lazy. Don't let me fool you! Even when I'm not writing CI, it's constantly on my mind. I draw it constantly. I wonder if I should start up my DeviantArt again...

ANYWAY sorry for the super long wait and thanks to those who are still reading! I literally saw MissHales review when I was thinking of writing a LITTLE BIT last night, and now the chapter's done, so that goes to show how much they mean to me. I LOVE YALL.

ALSO APOLOGIES IF I KEEP SWITCHING BETWEEN TENSES! My other fanfic is written in present tense because I hate myself apparently, so it messes me up when I switch to CI, which is past. I try to catch it as I go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara or any of its characters, and for once, amen for that in this chapter JESUS.

Chapter XXIV

The Fallen

The necessity of castles, palaces, fortresses and the like, are purely a human construct. A means of displaying power and status, symbols of figureheads made to be destroyed and built up again upon man's arrogance. Demons have no such need for structures of any kind, especially not ones to boast of the power and riches they have; they can sense each other's power and individuality just by feeling, breathing in the air, listening to the wind change. It is undeniable, though, that they hold something akin to refuge, a place of comfort that the damned feel they deserve. Thus Stiriacus had a palace of its own, naturally crafted completely out of ice and steel, its intended purpose more of a meeting place than a decorated home.

Its halls were cavernous, gaping like the maws of the creatures that crawled within. Winds howled through it at every hour like sorrowful cries, and it constantly rebuilt and reconfigured itself as it pleased, as though it held a mind of its own. Seeing as it belonged to Glaziel, whose power still remains even after death due to its enormous capacity, it seemed natural to the denizens of the tundra, completely within the realms of the ordinary. While Lecariel didn't visit particularly often, due to his responsibilities in the realm of man and his niece with a penchant for loneliness, when he did he made it brief and efficient.

This was such a business occasion. Any meetings or summons were held within a room made completely of steel due to some of his guests having an aversion to its element. There was no throne, no tapestries, no décor to resemble anything belonging to humans, since demons had been around far longer and had no need to display such things as their lineage or political prowess. Naturally it was Glaziel's idea, the uncharacteristically selfless demon who put others needs and comfort before his own. He figured it would make negotiations and the like more amicable, and it worked completely in his favour.

He was a much better ruler than his younger brother, who hated the place. Without Glaziel it was nothing; it had never been a home, but it was a place they shared, licking each other's wounds after battle or even just relaxing and reminiscing together. It had been beautiful to Lecariel once, but now it carried nothing but bitter memories he sometimes wondered if he'd really rather forget.

His leg bounced impatiently under the steel table crafted into the floor itself through motifs of vines and blossoms, the exact opposite of their frozen element. Another one of his brother's genius ideas; Belial in particular appreciated that little touch. Ivalthea was coiled and tensed around his seat, her head rested on the top of it, eyes glittering and observant, prepared to strike at a moment's notice if need be. What was taking so long? If there's one thing a demon knows, it's patience, but the matter in which he was concerned with at the moment was one of time sensitivity. Every second was precious, another one lost in his niece's life, though she herself didn't seem terribly concerned about it.

A great, earth-shattering cry resounded through the tundra and the castle, echoing through its halls and splintering cracks into the ice. So he had arrived. Lecariel rose respectfully, meaning to show no disobedience whilst at the same time standing his ground; being the son of Lucifer held no particular importance in Hell, seeing as the amount of bastards he had was nothing short of astronomical. Any power he had, he had to claim for himself and do anything to keep it that way. So he kept his back straight and hooves ground into the floor when thunderous booms grew louder in sound and closer in presence. He didn't have to wait much longer; the door soon opened with a swing of ease very atypical of its gargantuan size, and a figure stepped through the threshold, headdress made of jewels blowing in the wind and robes swirling calmly around them.

"A pleasure, Lecariel," they said, their voice swirling in the room like thousands of whispers, warnings long forgotten. It seemed as though many voices, both male and female, were contained within the one, which was very unsettling to hear but not altogether unusual. "To what do I owe your summons? I assume it is not a social occasion."

"I'm afraid not, Paimon," he responded, his voice strong and sure as the greater demon swiftly moved to sit across from him, distorting like a shadow and holding a predatory grace. "I requested you here because I need something that I'm aware you have a plethora of."

Even though he couldn't see it, he could feel the demon's lips curl up into a smile, though it was hardly anything pleasant. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"Knowledge," Lecariel responded, finally sitting in kind. "I wish to do an exchange of information, question for question, as I'm certain you're familiar with."

Paimon made a noise, something between a grunt and a growl of understanding. "A fair assumption, and by no means a surprise, considering recent events." Lecariel should have known a greater demon such as he would already have some inkling of what he was going to ask about. The very thought made his blood boil; he hated bowing down to anyone, showing any sort of weakness, and he had no idea what knowledge Paimon could want from him in exchange that he didn't already have. Not to mention that he couldn't expect a straight, honest answer.

"I won't waste your time," he said, staring at him straight-on. He saw glitters beneath the headdress, be it eyes or something else, he wasn't exactly sure. Any question regarding the topic he was most concerned about was risky; Paimon was the demon most loyal to his father and his rule. Anything he didn't want Lecariel to know, he wouldn't know, regardless of the temptation of information. He had to phrase it carefully, yet at the same time make it clear what he wanted to know. "My first question is concerning half-breeds." Already he was caving, admitting he had more than one question; these were signs that he was desperate, signs he most certainly didn't want to show. He knew it couldn't be avoided, though, and time was of the essence. "Why aren't they allowed to exist?"

Paimon didn't seem affronted, or unwilling to give anything away – on the contrary, he seemed very amused by the question, fully aware that he had something on Lecariel to have been summoned by the demon himself for a question concerning his half-blood niece. "They are a blight," he responded simply. "A mixture of blood that could not – and will not – be condoned."

"That's the general opinion, yes," Lecariel answered in kind, prepared to throw off that careful dance around the question. "There's more to it than that." He hadn't made that a question, cautious of owing the demon more and more, but rather a prompt for more information.

Paimon leaned back into his chair, not as if he could feel any particular comfort or discomfort, and sanded his angular hands together, nails long and silvery in the effervescent glow of the ice. "That is correct," he said, and Lecariel could have sworn he saw him shrug. "Not information I'm permitted to disclose, I'm afraid. Though since my answer clearly didn't satisfy you, I can tell you this: half-breeds are called wild cards, unpredictable for a reason. It is not merely because of their human – or otherwise – emotions holding sway over them. They have potential, a mould that can continue to be filled beyond even my comprehension. And, as you know, we folk of the darkness do not like that which we cannot comprehend." There was a very thinly veiled threat in those words, one he obviously didn't misinterpret. So he decided then was the best time to move along, and made his next question seem fairly off-topic, though he knew it had everything to do with the half-breed in question.

"How do you remove a seal on one's powers?" The question was harmless enough, one any demon would ask if it was concerning themselves. Though Paimon had been around for a very long time, longer than he, even if not in the form he was confronted with in the present. He was no fool, and knew very well Lecariel was not asking for himself; the second he set foot in Stiriacus he could feel its ruler's power, that it by no means waned or dipped even upon his entry. It would not take him long to put two and two together.

"It all concerns the one who sealed them in the first place," he responded, waving a hand dismissively. He literally could not care less about Lecariel's petty questions or his reasons for asking them; to him he was but a foolish, bumbling adolescent trying to make sense of the world around him even if they were only a millennia or so apart. "Either they themselves remove the seal – which is presumably impossible in your case - ", so he already had it figured out, big surprise, " - or the sealer set a condition in place for it to be broken. For example, the sealed must complete a certain task, or have some element of themselves fulfilled. Unless disclosed by the sealer, though, it is nearly impossible to ascertain what that condition could be."

It took everything in his sense of reason for Lecariel not to rip the palace apart piece by piece. Glaziel left no clues for him to know what his intentions were in sealing Snowrenrie's abilities, nor how to revoke the sealing itself. He undoubtedly did it to protect her, but how was that even meant to be possible if she couldn't use her abilities to protect herself? He couldn't make sense of it; his brother had always been a riddle to him, though it was never quite as infuriating as it was right then.

"Regarding my payment," Paimon continued, as though he barely even noticed one of the Princes of Hell seething with rage before him. "Since you have asked two questions, I have two questions in my possession to ask you in return, and you are obliged to answer honestly lest you turn your back on our bargain." It was obvious from his tone of voice that Paimon thought him a fool, that his questions were too juvenile and now he had the upper hand in the situation. They would have to see. "One I will ask now; the other, I shall keep in my hand until I deem it appropriate. This is acceptable." He wasn't looking for confirmation, but rather stating a fact to Lecariel. The younger demon could only nod. Without his unseen expression shifting or his body even making a slight twitch, he asked, "What is your half-breed favourite's greatest weakness?"

This took Lecariel somewhat off-guard. He'd assumed the question would be about him, not something completely beneath a greater demon's notice. He was cautious not to phrase it into another question: "I didn't believe she concerned you."

This time Paimon did shrug, the broad shoulders of a man shifting his headdress to reveal the face of a beautiful woman. "As I've stated, it is a wildcard; you never know what the future may hold, and this information could prove to be advantageous to have in my keep lest something akin to your dear brother's mess should occur."

Even if it was begrudgingly, Lecariel seriously doubted it. Despite how much he wished it wasn't so, Snowrenrie relied far more on her human blood than the demonic. It wasn't like she could help it; she went her whole life without even knowing of its existence. He found it difficult to imagine her going on a demonic rampage akin to her father's long ago, mostly because of the seal, but also because of her very aversion to the world she belongs in more than anywhere.

It would be another story if she got her hands on one of the Remnants, however. He had taken every precaution to ensure that didn't happen, including not even informing her of their existence lest she get some suicidal ideas about vengeance and the like for his brother's demise. Paimon was examining him as if he knew exactly what he was thinking about – which he most likely did.

"Ancient crafts that can be wielded by neither demon or human," he said quite softly, a true feat for a demon with such power and forces at his disposal. "Though in the hands of something that is neither… well, it could prove to be interesting, especially in the hands of something so young and naïve. Therefore: its weakness."

Lecariel was less than keen on revealing anything about his blood to this demon, one who could not and would never care less about her existence. To them it was something so frail, so disgusting that the real surprise was that she lived so long to begin with. To Lecariel, and him alone, it was also something precious, something to be protected as he was sure his brother wanted him to. "She is part human," he muttered, fury barely restrained through his voice. "That includes all their frailties and weaknesses, both mentally and physically." That was all he planned to say on the subject, and he knew from the change in the atmosphere that Paimon was not satisfied, but it would have to do… for now. He admittedly dreaded what else he planned on extorting from him, and having that always held against him, being indebted like that, could perhaps prove to become his hubris.

"If that is all," Paimon said from afar, having moved from his seat to the doorway like a flash of smoke in mirrors. "Then I will be on my way. I will come to collect someday, and should you cease to exist within that time, your debt will naturally transfer to your own blood." Not any of Lecariel's children, he was sure, and he didn't miss the threat in those words, either. He didn't ignore Paimon as he stood in the threshold, silent and ancient as a shadow, but didn't respond, either. The next moment he was gone, and Lecariel still didn't allow the tense set of his body to relax. Without another word he rose from his seat and extracted Vorpalis from its sheath attached to his waist, awkward in his clawed grasp, and tore through the fabric of his realm and into the next, into his human form and his niece's home with the slice of a knife.

There she was, unassuming and innocent, her back turned to him as she bickered with her peculiar beings that riddled even him. Knowing full well she didn't have much time left to be as human, as feeling and whole as she was currently, and perhaps not even long to live. He'd seen what happens to half-breeds who lose control of themselves after years of inner torment, two beings that should never combine trapped within one body. Combustion is a kind word for what happened to them. A fair amount of demons were the farthest thing from attractive, but he could honestly say he had never since been quite so… repulsed. When it happened to rule-benders, beings that had committed a crime by simply existing, he had no remorse over their inevitable fate. But imagining it happen to his brother's delicate offspring, the one who had reached out to him with a smile enviable by the angels when she was but an infant, sent something coursing through him that made him itch to tear his own innards out and cast them away, much as the previous half-bloods had done to end the merciless pain that tore them in two.

His naïve, awkward niece, pallor stained crimson and titanium hair dripping with red as she drove herself to madness and her own demise, was a vision that petrified him out of any means of rest.

"Uncle Lee," she choked suddenly, finally noticing his presence. Her reaction time was so slow, so unbearably human that he ached to smack some sense into her. "I didn't even notice you there! But since you are here, I've got a question."

Prepared to be confronted with the nature of her mortality, or perhaps lack thereof, he returned Vorpalis to its sheath and tied his flowing locks back into its ponytail at the small of his head. "What is it?"

She pivoted around once again so that her back is to him and gestured to her backside. "Do these pants make my ass look big? Vivian is telling me that I look like a harlot, but I can't say that I agree."

He just stared at her, eyes tired and archaic, until her mouth slipped into an irritated pout so similar to her mother's that he had to restrain an urge to murder. "Nevermind, sorry. It was a bad idea to ask. I'm not bothering to change," was directed at her Shugo Chara who just rolled her eyes and threw her hands into the air, having given up and was leaving it in the hands of fate. "I can fix you something," she said to him, already moving towards the fridge. "Are you hungry at all? Thirsty? I've only got a bit of time before I have work."

He felt tempted to tell her that with her father's trusts, she didn't need to work a day for the rest of her life, but he could see the scowl on her face already. "Just water," he said, forcing his most human and familial smile on his face. She complied immediately, setting to make her tiny companions a snack before she left them with him to watch over, having been traumatized out of leaving them unobserved at her work again.

Lecariel watched the tendons in her small hands work, the veins shifting into patterns with powers in her blood seething to be released. His mind was already working, wondering what 'condition' his brother could have possibly set upon her to doom her to a fate worse than death. How cruel and kind Glaziel had been, and how foolish to allow something such as she into the world in the first place. She unwittingly brought suffering and anguish to the lives of those she loved, yet at the same time insurmountable joy to him, one who had figured any trace of 'feelings' he had lost forever.

Snowrenrie was his blood, his pride, and he would do whatever it took to ensure that her existence would not be a blight on their bloodline, but rather an advantage. That's what he told himself, and Ivalthea every time she demanded to know why he even bothered with such a lost cause. But they both knew it was nothing but a front, that he had more emotion in him than he ever even dreamed, to be so terrified of being left with no one and without even the smallest kindness in his day. He had lived a long, long time without someone who even remotely cared for him, and now that he had it, he was far too selfish to let her slip through his fingers.

Once she was unsealed, and once she survived her explosive powers, she would be his to claim forever, and no human was going to stand in his path. He would kill them first.

---

"Those pants make your ass look big," Mashiro-san griped without even attempting to be subtle, pointing it out in the middle of the restaurant. I pursed my lips in irritation, glad Vivian wasn't there to hear that; I didn't really think they did, they were just tight and black, as they should be for my work uniform. And Mrs. Garrett hadn't said anything about me compromising the restaurant's image, so I really didn't think it was that big of a deal.

"Oh hush," I said, my pen poised over the notepad as Yaya-san was pestering Kairi-kun about what he should order. "No one's ever complained about these pants before, so I don't understand why it's happening now."

"Maybe your butt's just growing bigger," Yaya-san piped in, leaning across the table to address me. Tadase-kun looked heavenward with a slight flush in his cheeks, as if the topic of my backside was a bit too much for him. I kept forgetting that I was three or more years older than each of them, that they may not be used to dealing with someone with an more matured body and all of its… quirks. Be it my ass growing bigger or combusting from a destructive demonic power, growing into your own was never an easy thing.

"If that's the case then I'm not complaining," I pointed out. "Do you guys know what you'd like yet?"

They each listed off their individual orders, then got a Caseser salad to share amongst the four of them. East Side Mario's had been pretty steady for most of the night, but it was finally settling down closer to the end of my shift. Lots of the red-checkered clothed tables were empty, the only real action coming from the bar. Louise looked perfectly bored at the hostess stand, staring at the door as if she could will customers to appear. My sneakers squealed against the freshly cleaned floor as I went to give the chef their orders, and I actually had a spare moment to wait around for them instead of rushing off to another table. I could hear them chattering from the kitchen, eager and alive, and I couldn't help but feel a bit left out; they had come to eat here specifically so they could see me, but they were still getting along well and having fun while there was still some distance between them and I. Mashiro-san, especially, I still had yet to develop a good relationship with.

It wasn't for lack of trying; I thought she just genuinely didn't like me. I made her feel smaller than she already was, and she thought I was a downright bumbling fool. Not like she's incorrect, but it's bordering on offensive to see that judgemental look she gets on her face every time she sees me. I heave a sigh as their orders finished their preparations, and I carried them over with an easy balance I'd grown used to while working there.

After placing each of their food in front of them – chicken parmesan Yaya-san and Kairi-kun (who no doubt had been pressured into it), chicken alfredo for Mashiro-san, and riso italiano for Tadase-kun – I pulled up a chair to their booth and sat at the end of the table, counting this as my brief break. Tadase-kun offered a bite to me, which I gratefully accepted, being careful to use a different fork than his own. I wasn't the biggest fan of spicy food, but it was undoubtedly delicious, the chicken and tomatoes juicy and flavourful.

Mashiro-san watched carefully, an unreadable expression on her face as I chewed. Before either of us could say anything in response to the awkward stare-off, Tadase-kun with his impeccable timing chose to begin. "As you know, I've just received word from Soma-kun - "

"Why can't he be bothered to show up and tell us in person?!" Yaya-san raged, mouth full of food. "That stupid Kukai is so dense, he probably just whined about how he missed us like a little baby."

The look on Tadase-kun's face indicated she was exactly right, since he was trying to restrain a smile and keep matters serious. "Be that as it may, he's doing an excellent job for us, and fitting in well, to boot. He claims that Ikuto Tsukiyomi doesn't seem to be up to anything too suspicious beyond his regular patrols, but that Utau Hoshina-san has stopped showing up to school altogether, while she only came periodically in the first place." His expression was grave as he paused to take another bite of his meal, and I was loading up on Caesar salad, thinking. "He believes she's the one to be watched more carefully; he thinks she's up to something."

I had yet to inform them about the whole situation with El and my lost Egg, and now seemed as good a time as any, so long as we were on the topic. So after we each mulled in comfortable silence for a bit longer, munching away at our food and sipping drinks (Yaya-san shared hers with me), I swallowed a bite along with my pride and decided to just get it out of the way. "She is up to something. She's using her voice to extract X-Eggs from people again, but this time on a far larger scale than before."

They all stared at me, confounded – especially Tadase-kun, who looked as though he almost didn't want to believe it. "And you know this how?" Kairi-kun asked, sounding particularly stricken.

"One of her Shugo Chara has been staying with me," I admitted, the words not exactly difficult to get out but uncomfortable all the same. The air seemed to get sucked in entirely by the four of them. "Hoshina-san apparently kicked her out, the same as how she'd becoming more driven to the cause than before, you know? She's been trying to rid herself of obstacles to get in her way of extracting more and more X-Eggs."

"How long has this been going on for?" Tadase-kun asked, brows furrowed, his expression almost hurt. A pang of guilt coursed through me and made the food in my stomach seize, like my whole being went against doing something to hurt him in any way.

"About a week or so," I responded, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms over my chest. "I was… hesitating to tell you, because that's not the whole story. Before any of this happened, closer to when the showdown with Nikaidou ended, I woke up to find a new Shugo Chara Egg."

Tadase-kun and Yaya-san brightened, while Kairi-kun and Mashiro-san looked downright shaken. "Four Shugo Chara…?" Kairi-kun muttered, almost to himself, mystified and confused. "Three is already enough of a feat…"

"That's wonderful, Hisayuki-san," Tadase-kun cheered, squeezing my shoulder comfortingly. "Have they been born yet?"

"See, no, therein lies the problem." Their faces fell, expectant, as I cleared my throat and straightened my back, so much that Tadase-kun's hand gracefully fell from it. "The day that El -Hoshina-san's chara – appeared, mine disappeared… after it turned into an X-Egg." That was the hardest part, and after having finally said it aloud, it felt like I could finally breathe again. Yet at the same time a gaping hole opened in my stomach, filling with poisonous dread until it overflowed. What would they think, having a Guardian whose Egg got turned into an X? What did that say about me? Surely that I was unfit for the responsibility, which now that I thought about it, I hadn't wanted in the beginning. Now I'd do anything to keep it, to stay with them and do what I can for people who lose hope.

They didn't say a word. I stared at my hands in my lap, and unable to stand it any longer, began to babble. "So my Egg is lost, and I've yet to find it, and El's been staying with me. But I've been trying so hard to find it, to fix things - "

"Why didn't you say anything?" Mashiro-san surprised me by being the first to speak, yet she still looked completely disinterested, as if my problems were absolutely microscopic to her – which they probably were, and she had every right to feel that way, but it still hurt a bit.

"I guess because I was ashamed," I murmured, afraid to look up and see the expressions on their faces, to see the other three look so disappointed. "A Guardian's job is to heal X-Eggs, not to create them from their own. It's just proof that I'm not strong enough – "

"So get it back," she said simply, tossing her head so that her fluffy hair danced over her shoulder. "Get it back and fix it. Simple as that."

"She's absolutely right, Hisayuki-san," Tadase-kun added, placing a reassuring hand on my knee beneath the table. "You should know by now that we wouldn't judge you for that. We're not just people who work together towards one common goal; we're friends." I looked up at him, brows furrowed with worry, and a shock was sent buzzing through my body when I saw the kind smile on his face, as if it was the first time I'd ever seen it. "We'll help you find it."

"That's what we're here for!" Yaya-san cried, banging a fist on the table so loudly I saw Louise jump in my peripheral vision. "You can count on us, Snowcchi!"

I wanted to tell them not to worry about it, that this was my problem so it was my responsibility to solve it on my own. But the truth of the matter was that four pairs of eyes looking is better than one; the ground I was unable to cover due to my schedule could possibly get swept with other people looking, and the chance of finding my lost Egg would be increased by… well, by a lot. I swallowed my pride, and my guilt at dragging them into my problems again just as they'd been during the fight with Nikaidou, and said, "Thank you so much. I owe you one."

"You owe us lots," Mashiro-san snorted as she tossed her head away, but I saw her reflection in the glass of the window; she actually had the tiniest smile on her face, one of a secret joy instead of malice. I found myself smiling in return, warmed by the possibility that she didn't hate me completely.

"To surmise, Utau Hoshina is being more proactive in her extraction of X-Eggs, Hisayuki-san's new Egg is missing yet still around, and as we've learned a while ago, Easter made an attempt to steal the Humpty Lock." When I informed Tadase-kun of that later on the day of the incident (guiltily keeping Ikuto's name out of it without being sure why), he decided to call this meeting and get all the facts we had straight and devise a strategy. We'd been going blindly about our business for some time now; purifying X-Eggs as they appeared without taking direct action. But it was clear from the looks on all of our faces that time had passed – now was the time to actually hatch a plan and do something about it, instead of lollygagging and waiting for danger to come to us. We could no longer get by being evasive while Easter kept being proactive in their mission for the Humpty Lock. It wasn't productive, and with another member able to Character Transform, our ranks were evened out with Ikuto and Utau-san. Unconsciously my eyes flickered to Mashiro-san, who was chewing her dinner thoughtfully, her Shugo Chara snickering at her side like usual. In order for us to take action, we had to be in sync; it was about time for me to stop being a coward and actively try to get along with her better. I heaved a sigh, certain I wouldn't be very good at it.

"I say we sleep on it," Tadase-kun suggested after a few moments of silence. "Try to think of some ideas on how to interfere with Easter's plans, now that we have a vague idea of what they are. In the meantime we search for Hisayuki-san's Egg." His hand was on my knee again, comfortingly. I tried to restrain a flush; he was being quite touchy-feely tonight, not that I minded. I was just unexposed to that kind of attention.

"Good idea," Kairi-kun agreed, and I was relieved to see that he seemed to like his dinner well enough. "This isn't something we can rush into – there could be grave consequences for that. We should know exactly what we're up against." His expression was troubled, no doubt considering what he could bring to the table. He was our first and only intel guy, after all.

After we were all in agreement, they finished up their meals and started assembling their belongings to bundle up and head out. After Yaya-san dished out a tip she elbowed me in the side with a smug grin and said, "Buy yourself something pretty." I rolled my eyes with a snort, but thanked her all the same; I hadn't expected them to tip, as they were my friends and I was just barely doing my job around them, but it was a relief all the same. As they headed out the door and Louise cheered, "Please come again!" Mashiro-san briefly tossed her head back to glance at me. Her expression was unreadable, but there was a glimmer of dislike in her eyes. I heaved a sigh after they left the building and I wished them a safe trip home; this was going to be harder than I thought.

My shift wasn't much longer; I dealt with the few remaining tables with my best server's smile despite the disturbed thoughts running through my mind, all of them comprised of my lost Egg, Utau-san and Mashiro-san. Just like with casual touches, I was very unexposed to how to deal with a situation like this; how to better get along with someone who probably hated me. It seemed to apply to all three subjects; Utau-san made her dislike for me abundantly clear, as did Mashiro-san, and I took my Egg's bailing as a good indicator of such. Normally when someone disliked me – since of course it has happened before – I just ignored it, unwilling to stoop to some petty level of being rude in return. That method was unacceptable for these circumstances; they were all people I had to deal with, otherwise things could just turn out badly.

As I made my way home across salted sidewalks grating down ice, focusing hard on the crunch of my own feet to keep a steady rhythm to my thoughts, I thought about Ikuto's number in my phone. Maybe I could text him for some info on his co-worker, like why she dislikes me so much and what her goal is. But I figured he probably wouldn't tell me, and that was like cheating, anyway. Besides, he was probably in on whatever their current extraction plan was, being an Easter employee and all. Something had changed in their methods after Nikaidou's plan was a bust, and the trouble was that we didn't know what that change could entail. It could have been monumental to stopping it in its tracks, and we hadn't a clue what it was. El was just as clueless as we were; we needed something more. I considered that perhaps it was time to stage an attack or something of the sort ourselves instead of standing by and waiting for them to do something. If she was using some kind of new ability, or a new plan had been hatched, there was a chance we could draw it out of her by challenging her head-on.

My breath released in a puff of white when I groaned aloud, startling the pedestrians next to me on the crosswalk. There were just too many variables and maybes to make a concrete plan yet. We would have to wait for something even bigger to happen; I hated waiting, and instead wanted to solve this as quickly as possible. Both for our sake and for the victims that have had their Eggs stolen. Utau-san was almost worse than Nikaidou in that regard: people came to her concerts because they loved her and wanted to support her, and she was taking advantage of that and basically manipulating them. It was downright cruel, and to be frank, a method that didn't seem very much like her.

Obviously I didn't know her that well; our few interactions consisted of verbal or physical stand-offs, and the concert when I observed just how talented she really was. But she had revealed something to me, something she may have forgotten; she said she hated Nikaidou's underhanded means to get what he wanted. Could she be like Ikuto, then, in that she didn't really want to be doing this? She had said that it was for his sake, and not for her own… there was a slim chance she, herself, was a victim of manipulation. It was a slim chance, purely based on naïve hope, but anything was good at this point. Maybe there didn't even need to be a fight. If we could just talk to her…

My head was starting to hurt. I scowled at the slushy streets, wondering if demons even got headaches in the first place, and kept trying to puzzle out the tiniest fragments of a plan. That was when I noticed the unfamiliar territory I was in, the downside of making the girls stay home. I thought it over for a few moments, standing still and nervously bouncing as the eyes of suspicious passerby fell on me, then eventually pulled my phone from my pocket and dialled.

"Uncle Lee? Yes, I got lost. Can you please pick me up?" A pause as he heaved a sigh and asked where I thought I was. "If I knew where, I'd go home." Another long pause, and this time I was the one to sigh. "Nothing. We have no clue where my Egg is, or what Easter is planning. See you soon." I tapped the icon to hang up and resisted the urge to kick up the drifts of snow around me. Just a little clue was all we needed. But that was probably too much for an abomination to ask.

---

In the Royal Garden the following afternoon, I brought up my dregs of a theory to the other Guardians, who all listened with surprising acceptance. When I was done, my little ladies bitching out Vivian for just full-on eating a sugar cube, Tadase-kun nodded thoughtfully. "I think that has some potential. I knew Utau-san when she was young, and she wasn't always how she is now." This takes all of us by surprise; it was the first we'd heard of it. "It's worth looking into. So for now we've decided to wait and see."

I clenched my fists next to my teacup and saucer, made by yours truly with Nadeshiko-chan's absence. Waiting just meant more victims that we may not be able to get to in time. I didn't know if it was worth banking that on one small 'maybe'. The very thought had me agitated and hard as stone on my seat.

My eyes wandered to meet Mashiro-san's for a brief moment, whose expression was almost a mirror of mine. So our thoughts were in the same vein, then. Except her gaze was a bit more accusing, as if she thought that the ample numbers of victims was my fault – which, Eggless and hopeless, it was. I thought it was pretty rich coming from her, who smashed one right in front of me, basically having the same heartless effect. But I couldn't keep making judgements about her – that was one of the barriers between us, an inability or desire to understand one another. This was so incredibly frustrating; how on earth could I make her my friend in the little time I had left? It would make our efforts here so much smoother, and it would be nice to genuinely get to know her…

I just didn't know. That seemed to be happening a lot lately. One thing I did know for sure was that I was not going to die and leave things here unfinished, without doing everything in my power to help these people who welcomed me with open arms and no judgements. They deserved better than that.

The girls glanced up at me in unison, as if they could sense the direction my thoughts were taking. Their expressions were unreadable, almost something between admiration and concern. This made all of the Charas exchange a glance, and again I came to wonder exactly what kind of creatures they were and what kind of abilities they had. They were so synched up with my own mind and decisions that there was no doubt they actually came from me, but still… just how did that happen? And how could I make my lost Egg come back to me? Not only would it amp up the Guardians' power if I could Character Transform with her, but a piece of me was literally missing; I didn't just want her back, but I needed her, as well.

"This isn't the time to hesitate," I whispered, mostly to myself, but in my peripheral vision I saw Tadase-kun nod with a minute smile on his face.

"Anything on your missing Egg, Snowcchi?" Yaya-san asked, concerned but not enough to wipe away her perpetual cheer. She deflated a bit when I shook my head, but perked back up almost immediately. "I think today we should hold a search for it! If we start as soon as school ends, we –"

"Hold a search for what?" Asked a familiar, deep voice, accompanied by an arm resting on Yaya-san's head. All of us jumped a bit in unison, but my eyes and Tadase-kun's widened with recognition while Mashiro-san and Kairi-kun's were full of panic.

Yaya-san flipped her head back and up to stare into Kukai-kun's green eyes dancing with mischief and let out the most inhuman screech I'd ever heard – this coming from someone who has literally been to Hell and back.

"That's a welcome if I've ever heard one," he winced, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. In the weeks since I'd last seen him his hair had somehow gotten more vibrant, almost glowing in the winter sun cutting through the glass and tousled by the chill. It looked as though frost was trapped in it; he must have come from Mayosu, which was still a bit of a walk from the bus stop. His cheeks were bright and rosy despite his heavy winter jacket.

"Kukai!" Yaya-san screamed, getting into apparently her most comfortable position of clinging to his back like a koala. He just laughed good-naturedly and pat her on the head, messing with her ribbons like he knew irritated her.

Mashiro-san's ochre eyes were narrowed. "Who's this?"

"Judging from Yuiki-senpai's reaction," Kairi-kun began, and I almost snorted at his formal way of addressing the little redhead getting a piggyback, "I believe it is the former Jack's chair, Kukai Souma-senpai. The one on a covert mission to Mayosu."

"And what a mission it's been," her sighed, trying to pry his underclassman off to take a seat. "Hardly any good sports going on in the winter, you know? Plus it's harder to get in the middle of the semester, so close to winter break." He looked the most bitter I'd ever seen him, a sour set to the corners of his mouth. "No juice on Easter, either. Tsukiyomi's hardly ever there, and when he is he's the opposite of helpful. That's to be expected, I guess." No one had talked this much in a Guardians' meeting for quite some time. It was a change that made my chest swell a bit, like his presence was the helium being pumped into a balloon.

"By the way, we haven't met!" Kukai-kun chirps to our newest members. He bolts up to stand between their seats and starts ruffling their hair. I'm a tad envious of his ability to be so comfortable with people he's just met. "I'm Kukai! Nice to meet ya, new Jack and Queen!"

While Kairi-kun responded with 'likewise', Mashiro-san just hissed that he was messing with her hair and swat his hand away. That didn't bode well with his bubbly personality; it only made him more determined, and he started clapping her on the back instead. She'd met her foil, and she didn't seem to be particularly fond of him.

"Welcome, Souma-kun," Tadase-kun was saying cordially, the same old beam on his face. "It's good to see you in person. Texting leaves something to be desired."

"I know! I always bring so much energy to the table!" He says it with a sense of entitlement that's well deserved. Tadase-kun and Kukai-kun were both like the sun, in different settings. Tadase-kun was warm and gentle and put you at ease, capable of making you relax and comfortable, while Kukai-kun was bright and just brimming with positivity and energy suited for days with lots going on. Not a cloud ever got in their way, such as the current stump in our situation. Unlike me, they still had it in them to hope for a solution, and didn't let it get them down.

I wanted to talk to Kukai-kun, to tell him how much I missed him and how much better I felt with him around, but he was so busy with the others that I didn't want to intrude. They all suddenly felt so much further away from me than last night, when we still sat at the same table and we talked about finding my Egg together. My chest once filled with the balloon that gave me the sensation of floating was burst, left in smithereens for nothing. I realized that the problem between Mashiro-san and I wasn't her; it was me, unwilling to open myself to the possibility of welcoming someone else into my life.

My Charas caught that feeling of estrangement as well, and actually stood from their place at the table to scoot closer to me in a subtle attempt at comfort that I greatly appreciated. As I sipped absently at my tea I felt a weight fall against my back, so sudden I nearly spat it all out. "Ooh, I like that reaction! Happy to see me, Hisayuki?" Kukai-kun's grin was suddenly in my face, his attention so erratic that it had shifted to me in a split second. I had to gather myself before I could respond with a weak smile.

"You know it. It's been too long already," I said, to which Yaya-san agreed by telling me I could say that again. Kukai-kun took me by surprise for the third time by creasing his brows and giving a lopsided frown; I panicked when I concluded instantly that it was my fault. All I wanted to see was him smiling – that's all it took to lift my spirits. But then he nodded, not at me but to himself as if some decision had been cemented in his mind.

"I hate to cut the visit short, but I'll have to return later." Before Yaya-san could protest, a dangerous look in her eyes, he had my arm in his grip, raising it for me, and pointed to my scrunched-up expression. "With this one, naturally."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, a worried grin on my face. He just flashed me a toothy one in return. "You're not suggesting cutting class! That's not a very good example."

"Everyone's got to do it at least once!" In a flash he'd pulled me from my chair and twirled me in a circle by my hand. I was a bit swept away, a startled giggling bursting from me. "We'll be back in a bit!"

"Kukai-kun," I tried to reason with him, but he was already pulling me towards the door so quickly I barely had time to scoop up my scarf and coat. We were followed by two confused stares and two other giddy ones, Yaya-san waving excitedly and Tadase-kun looking strangely at peace. Vivian took another hunk of sugar and then the girls were in pursuit with us, and she made me smirk when she offered some to Daichi-kun. Maybe it was weird to ship the Charas, but it was honestly too adorable not to.

We were out of the Royal Garden in seconds, his hand warm and a bit rough over mine, and I made him pause to put on my outerwear as if I actually needed it. He looked at it skeptically as I trudged along his side, my heart racing at the thought of missing class for no reason. "Are you going to be warm enough in that?" He asked, genuinely worried.

"The cold doesn't bother me much," I confessed, glancing back to the intimidating main building of the school multiple times to see if a teacher would be in mad pursuit. We were still okay, as far as I could tell, but that didn't quell the panicked heartbeats within me. What would I tell my parents if I was caught and they called home? I'd never done something like this without a legitimate reason…

"No way!" He snapped, so sudden that I was startled again, apparently jumpy today. "I'm so jealous! This is why sports are good in the winter – exercise warms you up." He ponders for a moment, his breath steaming out of his mouth, when he added, "Speaking of, maybe we should get a bit of that in so long as we're leaving!"

"I'm not really in the mood."

"Oh, I know. That's why we're doing this in the first place." He flashed another grin at me over his shoulder and my heart stutters. For someone who came and left like an unconcerned tornado, he was oddly perceptive. He actually was skipping class with me because he could tell that I wasn't feeling my best. Suddenly I wasn't as irritated at him for doing it; he had good intentions, and really, I figured that I needed a tiny bit of a break. I felt significantly warmer holding that knowledge with me; it spread through my entire chest to the tips of my toes. A smile was on my face completely unintentionally, and I didn't bother to wipe it away when I noticed it.

"Where would you like to go?" He asked me, and we were beyond the school gates at that point, so I figured we would be okay so long as there wasn't anyone patrolling around the area.

I just shrugged. "I imagine you have more experience with this stuff than me."

He put a hand to his chest with an affronted look on his face. "Hey, it's not like I'm some kind of truant. I say we find somewhere we can just sit and talk, so you can share what's weighing on ya." He gave me a suggestive raise of his eyebrows, and I nodded solemnly, a bit ashamed that apparently my feelings were so easy to read, despite how hard I tried to keep them to myself.

Somewhere to sit and talk was evidently a tiny park within the middle of the residential area not too far from Seiyo, close to where I'd first met him and Tadase-kun and he'd beamed me in the head with a soccer ball. I bought us hot chocolate from a vendor stationed nearby, and we drank thoughtfully as I stared at the swings shifting ominously in the delicate, frigid wind. The warmth it slid into my body was similar to the way I felt just sitting near him, tender and sweet. He really was the big brother type, though I was older than him; despite how much energy he reserved for athletics and how pompous he seemed sometimes, he genuinely cared about other people. I supposed that was why all the Guardians got along so well before I came along and they seemed to drift apart; for young kids, they were all remarkably selfless and dedicated to helping others. Even if their ultimate goal was to rule the world. I rolled my eyes to myself at the thought, a wry grin on my face.

"So what's eatin' ya?" He asked after a few more moments of reflective silence, and at first all I can do is purse my lips.

"Nothing too important," I responded, and he rolled his eyes heavenward to rest on me.

"If it wasn't, we wouldn't be out here right now. I don't skip school with just anyone, you know." He looked at me pointedly as he took another sip of his warm drink, pulling back his toque just a bit so I could see his short eyebrows.

"I guess I'm grateful for that," I muttered into my cup, the steam making my eyes sting a little. The girls were snuggled safely into my lap, after I laid my scarf into something of a nest for them since I certainly didn't need it. He could tell that I was struggling to come up with the words for what I was feeling, as it wasn't something I did often. I was very used to keeping my feelings to myself, even though there are people in my life that would listen to me if I asked. I just always thought of my problems as juvenile in comparison.

"One of the things I worried about the most when I transferred was you," he said suddenly, taking another nonchalant sip as if he hadn't just said something blatantly embarrassing. He was avoiding eye contact thought, and I figured that meant he wasn't exactly used to this either. To make it easier for the both of us I thought it best to go along with him.

"Why's that?" I asked, a bubbly feeling in my chest.

"You never really opened up to us when I was there – I was worried it would only get worse if I left. And lo and behold," he murmurs, a sardonic twist to his smirk. I just shrug and blow out some negative air I felt rotting inside of me. "You closed right up like a gator." He claps his hands together to represent an alligator's mouth snapping shut and I rolled my eyes, thinking it was a crack at Louisiana.

"I just haven't been getting on well with the new Guardians," I said, shame colouring my voice. "I mean, I think I'm on okay terms with Kairi-kun, but Mashiro-san… I don't know. She doesn't like me very much."

"Have you tried talking to her about it?" His voice was carefully unconcerned, not pressing me.

I shook my head. "Not yet. I feel like talking about it will somehow only make it worse. And I don't want to bother anyone else - "

"Why don't you trust us at all?" He cut in, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I trust you plenty. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"That's the most casual amount of trust I've ever heard of. You make it sound like we wouldn't be able to help if you just asked. It's not like we'd sit you two down and force you to talk it out. You can't keep being scared of something that could happen, Hisayuki. That's your problem."

I resisted the urge to grit my teeth. "Since when were you a psychiatrist, Kukai-kun?"

"Since I joined the Guardians," he said matter-of-factly. "It became much easier to tell when someone is holding themselves back because of those little guys." He points to the bundle of four bodies in my scarf, El having somehow snuck in without my notice – she'd been lazing in my coat pocket for the meeting. "Those are your true selves personified; their traits are inside of you, eager to come out, which is why they did. Daichi was born because I wanted to see how far I could push myself, how much I could use my own abilities, so it's a bit different. But I know you're not being real with us. You've got a lot to say that you don't, and you probably think it's for our benefit."

"You're psychic," I muttered.

"No, just observant. If there's a disconnect between Charas and bearers, it's not that hard to figure out. You have the potential to become them, or at least the wish they represent. What little I know of the new Queen tells me that she doesn't like it when people are being fake."

That took me off-guard. "You think I'm being fake?"

"I just told you why, so in a way, I guess so." He shrugs beneath his bulky coat that made him look like a burnt marshmellow. "It takes a shit-ton of courage to be yourself – not that I can relate. You shouldn't be afraid of what we'll think of you, because we love you already." It was so off-hand, so nonchalant, I swore he said something else. I hadn't heard the word 'love' in reference to myself in years. It was enough to make my throat close, my eyes widen and sting in the way that meant my body was trying to shed tears. Of course none came, but my breath seemed to be stuck inside of me. "You have to say what's on your mind, or we'll never know. I know Tadase's told you before, but apparently it didn't get through that thick skull of yours." His fist thunks me lightly on the head.

I tried to make my mouth spit out some poetry, something befitting of the bomb he just dropped on me, but I came up empty. He sighed a little, but a smile was on his face when he added, "It won't kill you to be honest with yourself. Fist-fight her if you have to."

A startled laugh shook my body enough that the girls looked up in terror, then they smiled brightly when they realized what it was. "That was some really backhanded advice, but it was… surprisingly touching. You should seriously write greeting cards."

"You've gotta take care of your friends," he said simply. "Now, anything else bothering you?"

I was surprised Tadase-kun hadn't told him yet, but I did suppose that I'd only informed him last night. So I confessed to the missing Egg, and he was nodding in understanding before I even finished. "So this is where some of your doubt is coming from. You feel distant from us because your Egg got X'd."

"Something like that. I just don't feel like that makes me strong enough to help other people with theirs. Like I'm a hypocrite, you know?"

"There's nothing wrong with showing weakness. This I can agree with the Queen on; just find it and show it who's boss." He said it like it was so easy, but this city turned out to be surprisingly massive when you're actually looking for something. But… maybe it was that simple. Maybe I couldn't find her because a part of me was always frightened of facing the weakness in my heart that her X signified. I'd been subconsciously shying away from her, of the shame I felt consume the day she flew from my sight.

"I'm amazed at how much better I actually feel after talking to you," I confessed with a chuckle, crunching my empty paper cup in my hands.

"I should really become like a counselor or something. I'm actually even surprised at myself." We both laughed at that, and I couldn't deny that my shoulders felt like a massive weight had been lifted from them. The scenery around me looked so much more crisp and defined, the shroud of uncertainty around me lifted and sharpening the picture. Enough that I could see a shadowy figure in the distance approaching us rapidly.

My mind flashed to more dangerous places instantly, like a figure of darkness sent straight from Hell or fragments of my memories from when I'd been ensnared in those bloodsucking vines. My heart stopped and I practically tackled Kukai-kun to the ground with a shouted, "Look out!" Just as we hit the concrete, the fall softened by the sheer mass of his jacket, a gust of wind so ferocious it stirred my hair into a frenzy whisked over our heads. I ignored him complaining about his spilled hot chocolate and moved into a more defensive sitting position, in which my knees were touching the ground and one arm was guarding him protectively.

It was a shock in an almost pleasant sense to see Utau-san standing a distance away from us, menacing bat wings spread from her back – that was the only sign of her using Shugo Chara powers, so I figured it was only a Chara Change… for now. Even if we weren't on the ground, I got the sense she'd still be looking down on us. Her only winter wear to speak of was a white jacket lined with black fur that cinched at the waist, with a glare to much the sub-zero temperatures. I gave it right back to her, secretly grateful for this chance; it was insanely lucky to see her so soon, after we'd just been talking about waiting for an opportunity to talk to her.

El immediately flew away from me, giving her presence away to the oblivious Kukai-kun, and started yelling her bearer's name in unfiltered joy. I almost felt bad for her – it was clear to tell from Utau-san's face that she hadn't come here looking to take her Chara back.
"So you're with her now, El." It wasn't a question. The last time I'd spoken with Utau-san, her voice had emotion brimming through it in currents, with constant undertones of sarcasm. There was no trace of that any longer. I couldn't hear any sort of feelings in her voice; it was strangely hollow for a person I'd thought of as passionate. El could see it, too, having deflated immediately after her bearer finished her sentence.

Utau-san's second Chara emerged from resting on her shoulder, snickering like a Jack-in-the-box. "That means you're the enemy now!" She yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at what should have been her sister.

"No, of course not!" El was floundering now, looking back and forth between us and Utau-san as if looking for a lifeline. "All I want is to help. Il, you can see it too, can't you? This isn't how it should be!"

"You're actually talking gibberish," Il responded, no longer amused but just judgemental. "You're the traitor here, abandoning us in our mission to hang out with some weaklings."

That had Kukai-kun standing up beside me, lending me a hand to help me up. Even though Utau-san probably would see it as a sign of weakness, I took it as a sign of solidarity, trying to channel my feelings into him with a simple touch. His eyes flickered to me for a moment, then back to our adversary with an amused grin composed of snark.

"I'm not here to deal with someone not worth my time," Utau-san practically spat, and El fell a few centimeters lower in her floating position, like the words physically wounded here. "I'm here for Snow Hisayuki."

I decided to mess with her a bit. "Aren't you the one I saw stalking me in Winners…?"

She actually stomped her foot, her brows slashing down to make her eyes blaze violet. "I'm not here to play games! You're going to fight me for the Humpty Lock."

I tilted my head to the side, no longer mock confused. "And why would I ever do that?"

Suddenly she was smug instead of irritated. She rummaged in her pocket for a moment and emerges with something that steals all the air from my body. "Because my wager is this."

"Ho, what is that?!" I demanded, referencing my lost X-Egg remaining still and silent in her palm. Kukai-kun didn't need much more information to understand what exactly it was she was holding, but he was chuckling quietly to himself at my colourful language.

Utau-san, on the other hand, was hardly as amused. "I thought so. Looks like we've somehow ended up trading Shugo Chara. Lucky for you, I've happened to take a liking to this one." The Egg in her hand twitched in response, causing my heart to skip and make me take an unconscious step forward. "It looks like she likes me, as well. How perfect. Now two weaklings can remain together, as it should be." Her eyes narrowed, and the cruelty in them even took me by surprise. "Meant to be crushed."

I'd never seen El so visibly hurt before. She was ridiculous in general, and overly emotional, but she didn't need to be crying excessively as she did for me to say how much her bearer's words were scarring her. I used a hand to draw her closer to me, protectively, and snapped, "That's enough. I'm not fighting you for a stupid reason like that."

"Oh, so you don't want your Egg back?" She obviously didn't believe that. My body was trembling with restraint to snatch it away from her.

"That's not what I said." My gaze shifted to my Egg momentarily, the X glaring white and menacing, and my shoulders sank. "I don't think it's something I could force if I wanted to."

"How very honourable of you," she snorted. "I guess it'll just be one-sided on my part." In a half second she was Character Transformed and a swarm of energy, white-hot and in the form of phantom bats, was slicing towards us at incredible speed. Even I couldn't Character Transform that quickly, so it was wonderful luck that Kukai-kun Chara Changed and had his skateboard flicked up into a quick ollie that deflected it.

"Head in the game, Hisayuki," he said teasingly, but I was still hesitating.

"We wanted to talk with her, not fight," I argued, but he just quirked a brow at me.

"But fighting's good, Snow." That made one of my eyebrows raise – since when was she allowed to address me like that. "Competition's good for the soul. It makes you work hard to win, and you emerge shining even brighter than before. No matter if you win or lose, you'll always improve if you fight."

"She does have a point," Kukai-kun said, a pout on his face as he nodded in agreement.

I stared at him in bewilderment. "What happened to our little therapy session just now?!"

"I was telling you about taking chances," he argued, shrugging. "That's what competing is. You've got to improve to win." His grin was pure mischief as he flashed it between us. "That's what makes sports so fun."

"Someone gets it," Utau-san muttered, to which he flashed her a thumbs-up. I was incredulous. I always avoided conflict, obviously because I was afraid of getting hurt (getting stabbed only intensified that fear), and because I hated hard feelings. Even if I did understand what they were trying to say.

Apparently someone else did as well. My chest became completely hollow when the sound of something cracking rang through the air, and I looked over to Utau-san's hand only to see fissures forming in my X-Eggs shell and a blinding light emerging unevenly from it. It was so bright all three of us had to shield our eyes as my heart pounded in sheer terror. When we could see again I whipped my head up to see what was supposed to be my fourth Shugo Chara, staring vacantly at me as if I were a stranger.

Somehow I got the distinct feeling that the way we saw her isn't how she was supposed to look. A cracked X rested atop her head with no signs of budging even when she moved, and she was entirely in monochrome. Her hair and skin were the colour of ash, her eyes the blue of breathless skin. Her clothes looked like the tattered remains of a wedding dress, or something akin to it, almost like the Corpse Bride. She radiated cold – I knew because the moment her Egg hatched Utau-san and Kukai-kun were shuddering, and I could sense a change in the air. Beyond being scared for her identifying more with Utau-san than me, I was frightened for the blonde staring down at her in wonder. Uncle Lee and I had discussed the possibility of her being a demonic Shugo Chara, comprised of the side of my self I was still searching for. If, by chance, she did something with Utau-san, I had no idea how that would affect her. Somehow, though, I got the intense, earth-shattering feeling that it wasn't going to be anything good.

Having no idea what else to say, I just muttered, "Please." Her eyes were totally glazed over, her pupils the same almond shape as Lilith's. My heart sank. Her gaze made your spine skitter, the same as those phantom eyes you feel watching you from the shadows. The eyes of unmentionable things. I was at a total loss for what to do, especially when she turned to Utau-san and closed her eyes in acquiescence.

In another flash, the situation turned from dire to desperate. Utau-san was consumed by a flash of cold light, only to emerge looking different, almost frightening. Something similar to a sleeveless tailcoat barely covered her torso, cascading into sharp ruffles of deep obsidian, fishnet tights crawling along her legs that had obtained a strange blue hue. Tiny leather shorts concealed anything extremely important on her legs, with velvety black booties clicking on the ground as she examined herself all around. What scared me the most wasn't how she radiated power, or how shining diamonds reflected the sunlight in her hair, but how her arms seemed to be coated with scales that shimmered every time she shifted. Her eyes had obtained that same cat pupil narrowing in the light, accentuating the purple undertones in her big eyes. It sounded like she'd titled it "Dark Jewel", but I couldn't be sure as I felt like I was being drowned, unable to hear or speak.

Almost in a chain reaction, Kukai-kun had somehow managed to Character Transform as well – for the first time, I realized. The Humpty Lock was practically burning a hole into the skin on my collarbone as I stared at him as well, covered with a bomber jacket, skiing goggles on his head, and cargo pants. He looked dashing, to be sure, and filled with wonder as it was his first time holding that much power in his grasp. Utau-san was no character in an anime, waiting until all was said and done to stage an attack; she took advantage of our momentary shock to send another wave of energy at us, this time with shards of what looked like black glass coming from thin air.

One thing to be grateful for was the Kukai-kun was going to make good use of his Character Transformation; his new board, more similar to a snowboard than a skateboard, just barely flicked away the attack with a rush of conflicting wind created from a flip he performed midair. I was still standing there like a mute idiot, watching it all happen without a clue what to do, as Utau-san laughed almost maniacally at my uselessness.

"She's much more suited to be with me," she declared, flexing her hands and the power she must have felt broiling within them. I didn't like the looks of it one bit; it wasn't just that I was jealous of her using the power that was meant for me. No one should look like they enjoy bringing potential pain to others that much. I was worried it could be demonic energy within that Chara that even I probably couldn't handle. If I was concerned then El was downright frantic, fluttering around nervously as Utau-san tried yet again to nail me with shards of obsidian that undoubtedly would have speared through my skin.

"A little help, Hisayuki," Kukai-kun grunted as he barely deflected it again, his eyes squinting against the sheer force of it. I wanted to, but my concern for Utau-san's well-being kept me from making any movements without thinking them through. It was their first time Character Transforming with new Charas, for Kukai-kun just in general, and they were no doubt unstable and already getting tired. I had to think of something.

"Snow," El pleaded of me, tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. And then it hit me. Utau-san had Character Transformed with my Guardian Character, so why couldn't I do the same with hers?

"Do you want to try?" I asked her quietly, and I didn't see her nod, but I felt it in the heat of the Humpty Lock that we were on the same wavelength. Our desire to save her bearer from exhaustion – or something worse – bonded us in like mind, enough that I felt the air around and within me begin to shift and change, along with the feeling of something new shifting along my skin.

It wasn't like before with any of my Charas; Character Transforming with El hurt, like there was something essential at the core of my being getting incinerated. I'd felt something similar at Ayame-san's shrine, when her X-Character had struck me with the light of the gods. With dim horrified amusement I realized it was because El was an angel, and it seemed silly to pray that the Transformation would work despite that, but I found myself doing it anyway. My legs felt strangely bare, my hair loose and light, with fabric only somewhat covering my skin.

As the effervescent light and gales began to settle around me, I found myself crouched on the ground, my back weighed down by something incredibly heavy and painful right along my spine. It was strangely still and silent all around me, the breath having been drawn from Utau-san and Kukai-kun. My own Shugo Chara were speechless, a rare feat, and strikingly intimidated as they stared up at me from the ground. Something long and onyx caught my eye that was out of focus next to them, and when I shifted my gaze to it, I saw the sun almost stroke the delicate jet plume, looking as if it was plucked straight from a raven.

I knew I had to stand. I staggered a bit from the weight on my back, El's presence filling my chest with wonder and a breeze ruffling the shift of fabric around my legs. I straightened my shoulders in an attempt to shake out the crick that was locking my spine in place, and instead found something unfurling from my shoulder blades and just beneath, a hulking presence behind me casting a deep shadow on the ground.

I stared at it in shock. Wings had sprouted from my back for the Character Transformation, the span longer than an albatross. They looked like the paintings of angels found in books on Catholicism, or more accurately, like a Milton rendition of them. I wouldn't have been massively surprised if it were only two; I also obtained wings with Lilith of a more demonic variety. It was the third and fourth wings that were throwing me.

I wasn't paying enough attention; another rush of energy and shards were being swiped at me with incredible speed and I wouldn't be able to duck out of the way. So one of the four wings simply whipped around my body and in front of me to block it, the feeling of the joint moving in my back making me shudder. Feathers sharp as knives flew out from it in the next second to stab that ground at Utau-san's feet, and instead of looking even slightly intimidated, she looked all the more excited.

"This just got interesting," Kukai-kun let out a low whistle from beside me. He was staring at the things on my back that were honestly making me both physically and mentally uncomfortable; wings that looked like that weren't meant to be on the body of an abomination. I supposed it was only fitting that they were black as night instead of pure white.

"Is El only good for protecting herself?" Her bearer demanded, almost forcibly amused. "Her Character Transformation may look a bit scary, but it's just as weak as she is. I'll finish you off in no time." She extended her hand, reading to whip another bout of that dark power at us without restraint, but I saw her hesitate. It was in the set of her mouth, the freezing of her legs. It wasn't out of fear, but something more raw, almost like… regret.

It felt like that made my Transformation with El bond all the more; we both wanted that to end, to see her smile and hear her beautiful voice used for good instead of manipulation. I braced myself not to defend but to do something to counterattack (neither of us knew what that would entail yet) when in unison my knees and Utau-san's buckled beneath us and the transformations were undone.

I felt wobbly all over, but also incredibly relieved. I couldn't even guess what was going on in her body then, and I'd doubt she'd answer if I asked. But actual scales didn't become any human being; I was just glad she was out of whatever trance that had been. She was looking around, confused, and Kukai-kun soon followed in reverting to his burnt marshmellow self, plump in his massive coat.

"What happened?" Utau-san murmured dazedly, and I shrugged down at El, who was discarded on the ground and looking around dizzily.

"Maybe you ran out of batteries." Another new voice, one that made me freeze up and the words "ur dumb" run through my mind. As if the situation couldn't get any worse.

"That was impressive," Ikuto continued, leaping out from presumably nowhere. That was what pissed me off the most about him, how he just appeared. Honestly, how did he accomplish that? I didn't really give a shit if his Chara was a cat, it still didn't make sense to me. "Good fight, ladies."

"Hey," Kukai-kun chirped moving to help me up for the second time. "I ain't no lady."

He was completely ignored as Utau-san struggled into a standing position in the distance, approaching us until he was standing right before us. Kukai-kun was shorter than him, the same height as me (which was still tall for his age), but he didn't lose any of his confidence under the intense gaze of those midnight eyes. I almost rolled my eyes at myself; leave it to me to get all fangirly about his pretty eyes when there were more important things at hand. "What are you doing here?" I asked him, almost in a grunt. The fight was over, which I was grateful for, but there was no chance of negotiating with Utau-san with him here. As a matter of fact I'd say his presence dashed that chance into oblivion.

"I was just around and happened to be in a very generous mood." He raises his dark brows, nearly concealed by his equally dark hair, as he hands a plastic bag to me. Suspicious, I peek inside to see mint chocolate chip ice cream and smile despite myself.

"For Kukai-kun's hot chocolate?"

"If that's what you want to think."

Kukai-kun, oblivious to the mood, swiped the bag from my hands with a whoop and cracked open the lid with a plastic spoon in hand despite being bright red from the cold. I shrugged in indifference, surprisingly more pleased by the gesture than the treat itself.

"Your wings were cute," Ikuto adds with his usual smirk, which makes me blush for some reason.

"You were watching?" Utau-san asked quietly, her cheeks flushed as well. I hadn't even seen her move closer, but she was only about two steps behind him. His expression transformed from teasing to indifferent almost instantly, a change I found myself secretly pleased to observe.

"Not particularly. I just got here." His attention shifts to Kukai-kun and I again, and while his face is blank as a sheet of paper, he sounds sincere when he says, "Sorry about that."

"It's cool man," Kukai-kun mumbles around a mouthful. Where had his earlier tact vanished? Did Daichi-kun kick it out of him when he Character Transformed?

"Why are you apologizing?" Utau-san wasn't pleased. I'd say she was actually quite livid, her brows drawn and gaze burning a hole into the ground where she looked to in shame.

"You should apologize, too," he said, startling me again. He sounded so patronizing, like in a more intimate way than just coworkers, and my heart gave an uneasy thud. Obviously she wasn't going to, and I didn't expect her to – I really just wanted to talk to her one-on-one. But it looked like that wasn't going to happen judging from their immobile stance.

"No." It was clear-cut, simple. She tossed her head away from me, snubbing as one of her pigtails nearly slashed me in the face. By this point my Charas were clinging to my neck again, searching for warmth, but El was still floating between us as if she couldn't decide where to go.

"Utau."

"No. I didn't do anything wrong."

"I beg to differ," added Kukai-kun, and I shot him a look that told him to shut up. He held up one hand in mock defense and I noticed that half of my carton if ice cream had been completely inhaled.

"Why is it always Snow?" I look at Utau-san then, shorter than I am and somehow looking significantly weaker in Ikuto's presence. Briefly, I wished he'd come before the altercation; then she wouldn't look so worn out and drawn, and my legs wouldn't be shaking like a newborn faun's from a lack of energy. "You always take her side on everything." She clearly had not been around any of our previous interactions; I found that the opposite was true.

Then she was flying into Ikuto's chest and he toppled backwards, right onto the ground, so suddenly I staggered back a step into Kukai-kun, making him have a brief choking episode. I hissed at him to stop stuffing his face while Utau-san pounded her fists on her coworker's chest, a stream of extremities exploding from her mouth quicker than he could tell her to settle down.

"This is so – so – stupid! Why is it always about her?!" She demanded, a bit teary-eyed. The gap between her when Ikuto was around and otherwise was completely absurd; it was giving me whiplash.

Ikuto stared her straight-on, eyes narrowed, and said, "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about." He looked a lot less intimidating sprawled out on the ground, and then I realized their position was a bit inappropriate for younger eyes. I felt tempted to cover Kukai-kun's, but he finally looked less invested in my ice cream, so I took advantage and snatched it from him.

"You know how I feel!" She shouted, frustrated, and I thanked our lucky stars that school was still in session and the park was still deserted; otherwise this was worthy of being called a scene.

"What on earth are you - "

Then she grabbed his face and kissed him.

Kukai-kun and I choked, our jaws touching the ground, the ice cream falling from my hands. My heart started racing in an uncomfortable way, a way that made me feel sick to my stomach just looking at them. Ikuto was trying to pry her off of him, his knuckles white as he clutched her shoulders to shove, and when he finally snapped at her and she came up for air, she immediately dove down again and crushed their lips together.

I felt like screaming. My face felt hot, and when I quickly glanced at Kukai-kun I found his face red and attention rapt. Our Charas were also shell-shocked, whispering amongst themselves like gossiping housewives; even Yoru and El looked aghast. It was a few thundering heartbeats before he tore her away again, breathing hard, and yelled, "I'm getting pissed! Just stop."

She looked like she'd cry. "But –"

He cut her off to firmly yell in frustration. "We're siblings!"

Kukai-kun and I sucked in a gasp so sharp our throats burn.

Then I started laughing harder than I ever have in my life.

While I'm in a near epileptic fit, Utau-san moves away from Ikuto, ashamed, and he aggressively rubbed his sleeve over his mouth. Kukai-kun morosely moved to retrieve the fallen ice cream, thankfully lidded by yours truly, and my Charas stared at me like they were embarrassed. There's a few more moments of hysterical laughter, enough that it echoes through the empty park and rebounds from the icy slide, until Utau-san finally screeches, "Stop fucking laughing!"

"I CAN'T!"

My laughter is infectious enough that Kukai-kun started chuckling along until he receives a death glare from Ikuto's sister. The thought just makes me start asphyxiating. She burst out, "So what if we're siblings? My real name is Utau Tsukiyomi - " she really shouldn't have said that, "but that doesn't mean my feelings for Ikuto aren't real!"

It wasn't just the situation that had me crowing, though that was largely part of it. It was how silly I felt. I'd been worrying about him hanging around me, making her jealous for so long, when there was really no reason to be. Even if her feelings were as real as she claimed, he was telling the truth when he said they weren't dating. Not that it was any of my business, but I found myself without a weight on my shoulders, lighter than when my wings had vanished with my Transformation.

I started gasping, and the girls were slapping my cheeks to get me over my fit. My stomach was clenching so hard that, along with my already quivering body, I was ready to collapse onto my side and let the earth take me. "I don't get it," Utau-san hisses, brows furrowed in hurt and eyes twinkling with tears, enough that I started to feel guilty enough that the laughter eased. "Why does he like you so much? He's never cared about another girl like this before."

My laughter died altogether as I looked to him, appalled. Didn't he have many a girlfriend before? I pitied them if he didn't even – wait. She'd just said he cared about me. Oh.

As I reflected on that, finally silent, she basically growled at me and got in my personal bubble. "I've slapped away nearly every insect buzzing around him. What makes you so goddamn different?"

I held my hands out to her, peacefully, but she smacked them away. I tucked them behind my back nonchalantly, though I'm still a bit speechless. "I really don't know what you're talking about. It's not like I have anything with your brother." The snickers started again, but were abruptly cut off by arms wrapping around my torso and shocking warmth into my body.

"Don't be like that," Ikuto murmurs, his breath dancing across my face. "We've shared so many moments together." There was such heavy sarcasm on that word I knew he was doing it to be a shit disturber. "You haven't even texted me yet. I guess you've just gone cold, huh."

I could've killed him when I saw his sister trembling with insurmountable rage. This was the opposite of reaching a peaceful resolution with her. I knew he'd make the situation worse, and he just had by about infinity. She basically spits in my face and screeches that she's never going to lose to me, that my defeat is imminent and so forth before bolting out of the park.

Kukai-kun was also making a casual getaway, having long since passed his capability of trying to understand what was going on, and I begrudgingly watched as he bailed with my ice cream in his possession. That made me quite solemn as Ikuto lounged on the bench, and I trekked back over to it to toss my forgotten trash into the nearby bin.

"Well, that was exciting," he muttered, still rubbing at his mouth absently.

That brought back my good humor. "I'll bet. Having a nice make-out sesh with your sister…"

In all the time I'd known him, he'd never glared at me so hard or with such genuine threat. I stifled a giggle only for a stream to follow, and he just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It didn't mean anything, obviously." But he was still seriously perturbed, averting his eyes and glaring at the direction Utau-san had ran off to.

A thought occurred to me. "Don't tell me that was your first kiss." Of course it wasn't; like I'd thought, he'd had plenty of girlfriends before. But when he didn't respond and was just suggestively silent, I whispered, "Noooooo" and immediately lost my mind again.

"You're ridiculous," he muttered. "Quit being so immature about it." I knew he was right, but I couldn't help it. The whole day had jus been absurd so far, and I needed something like this to ease my worries for just a little bit. I knew I shouldn't be benefitting from his… misfortune, if it could be called that. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that his first kiss, probably with tongue and the whole shebang, was with his sister. Oh Jesus, it's happening again.

There were, believe it or not, more serious things on my mind. Those Character Transformations that appeared from nowhere, painful and strange. And I hadn't missed that Utau-san had run off with my now X-Character, who could possibly have a very negative effect on her. But a small portion of our goal had been accomplished; we have a better understanding of her power, and I now knew what she was capable of, what was different about her. And I could Character Transform with El whenever she was willing – that was undoubtedly a benefit that would serve to help us in the future. My resolve for working with the Guardians, Mashiro-san in particular, was more cemented than ever. Altogether, I'd call today a win.

The mood shifted, quite abruptly, when his face was suddenly in front of mine. I'd never seen it so close before: the subtle chips of gray in his irises, which is what made them look so distinctly like the midnight sky. He even had an incredibly subtle dusting of freckles across his nose, lost in the winter months but bound to come back in the summer I'd never see. His eyelashes were indeed enviously long, casting feathery shadows across his cheekbones that sent my heart surging to my throat. I felt a brief, gentle touch to the very distant corner of my mouth, his scent washing over me and sending a twisting feeling straight below my stomach. He pulled back almost instantly, smirked right in my face and muttered, "Disinfectant."

Like Keyser Soze, he was gone, just like that, leaving only the lingering feeling of his mouth between my cheek and my lips. I needed a few seconds to compose myself, to gather my breath again, to stop my heart from bursting from my chest… a few seconds more. He'd just been so close. My girls were staring at me, startled, excited grins on their faces, and I made the spontaneous decision to bolt back to school before I had a few more moments to myself to reflect on what just happened.

In the back of my mind, as El re-entered my pockets and snuggled close with the smallest of grins on her face, I swore I heard an echo of her voice murmur the words: "Fallen Seraphim". I wondered in what sense the 'fallen' was, but I automatically associated it with the Character Transformation instead of… the other one. Because that just wasn't possible for someone like me.

No, not someone like me. I was just me, Snow, for now, and that's the person I had to keep trying to be in order to get things done. Other things could wait. I had to report to the Guardians what had happened today.

…Not necessarily everything, though.

LOLOLOLOLOL I've been waiting to write this chapter SO LONG just for Snow's reaction, because that's literally what I did when I saw it, mmm, SEVEN YEARS AGO. I ended up getting a tattoo of her flower, red spider lillies, and I drew a cute picture of her with them, too. Like it's good enough that I was shocked at myself; usually my drawings are mediocre at best.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING OMGOMGOMG PLS REVIEW WHOEVERS LEFT I LOVE YOU IM SORRY.

Know what? I love Dance in the Vampire Bund so much, and Yuichi Nakamura voices Akira, who also voices IKUTO. My ovaries exploded.

Ikuto: "I'm sexier though."

Crimrose: "SOMEHOW I SERIOUSLY FUCKING DOUBT THAT, HE'S SHIRTLESS MOST OF THE GODDAMN SERIES."

Byebye lovelies~~~~~