DISCALIMER: I don't own Daa! Daa! Daa!

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Touched by an Angel

~By mugen83

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Chapter 3: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Time seemed to have passed fleetingly that evening. The velvet carpet strewn with glittering dust and gems that draped the night sky was slowly vanishing and was gradually turning into a vast ocean adorned with fluffy white clouds. The surroundings looked much brighter now that it was bathed in sunlight. Yet, it was still getting colder and colder. Then again, this was something normal considering the time of the year.

Unlike evenings, morning seemed to have a different effect to Saionji temple. The darkness of the night made it looked gloomy while the brilliance of the morning made it looked peaceful and radiant. The surroundings looked so serene, as if whispering to the wind that nothing could go wrong. It gave no inkling of what was going to transpire later that day.

Kanata awoke a bit earlier than usual. Stretching his arms and legs which had gone stiff from sleeping in an awkward position, he decided to go outside to catch a bit of fresh air. A cold breeze greeted him when he got out of his house. He shivered instantly. He was feeling rather stupid for not taking his jacket along with him.

Amber eyes surveyed the surrounding area. He grinned seeing that there were no traces of snow in their yard. It was not that he hated when it was snowing. As a matter of fact, he actually liked the way it slowly dropped from the sky. How it covered the rest of humanity with its pure color. How its gentle presence made this polluted world untainted, making the harsh reality temporarily bearable. But knowing that he has to shovel them once they piled up made him think otherwise. So for now, he wanted to relish a morning free from snow-shoveling.

He averted his gaze to the vast blue that stretched into the horizon. Looking at the boundless and endless azure sky reminded him of how little he was compared to the rest of the world. Staring at it for so long made him think deeply about life. When a cold wind brushed passed him, he suddenly sneezed. He was so immersed with his thoughts he had forgotten that he was standing in the middle of a cold morning wearing only his pajamas. He sighed and went back inside. He needed to prepare breakfast since his father was always busy with his morning rituals. As a monk, his father always followed a strict routine every day. According to him, to become a good monk one has to seek the path of Buddha. He respected his father, so helping him with the chores was one way of showing him that he supported his beliefs.

After a short while, he was finally done preparing breakfast. He waited patiently for his father in the kitchen. He felt no need to call him since he knew he would come once he was done with his morning duties. Having nothing better to do, his gaze wandered across the room. It has been years since three people actually shared this household, now it was just him and his father.

His eyes landed on the milk he bought last night. Looking at it reminded him of the angel. Her face and their encounter were still etched in his mind. Realizing that he was thinking of the angel again, he shook his head vigorously in an attempt to forget about his absurd experience last night. He really needed to take his mind off about those things. Glancing at the clock, he wondered what was taking his father so long.

He went to the main temple hoping to find his father meditating but unfortunately he was not there. He then went to his father's room only to find him packing his things. The sight of his father preparing for what looked like a long trip startled him.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to eat? And what's up with the huge baggage?" he asked him while giving him a confused look.

"Oh Kanata, I'm preparing for my trip to India. Didn't I tell you I was going there to train? You know that a monk needs to follow the path of Buddha." his father answered.

Kanata mentally slapped himself, how could he have forgotten about his father's trip to India?

"Well… I didn't know it was today of all days."

"Well I thought I told about this a week ago…" his father replied, momentarily discontinuing packing his things and giving Kanata a concerned look. " Anyway, my flight will be in one o'clock so I won't be here once you come back from school. I'm going to be staying there for a few weeks. You'd have to take care of yourself. You're a responsible man, son, so I know I could trust you. And you don't need to worry much since I asked Mikan-san to come here and check up on you once in awhile. I left some money in the safe. You'll need that of course. I'll come back here in time for the New Year's preparation so you don't need to worry about taking care of all the shrine arrangements. And before I forgot, don't you have school today? You'd better hurry or you'll be late…"

Still feeling dazed, Kanata reluctantly went to school and all the while hoping that going to school might help to improve his mood even just a little. Again, he was proven wrong. His supposed to be ordinary day at school turned out to be the worse, for his classmates had been bugging him if he could help them with their homework. They reasoned that since he's smart he might as well share his knowledge. This was not something new to him but what made him irritated was that they kept nagging him if the student council had anything planned, like some sort of event for the upcoming holiday. Being a class representative, he was given the unwanted obligation of having to deal with class duties and his classmates. Adding to his already growing problems was his friend Santa who kept asking him to watch the latest movie of Tofu Man. He convinced him however, that he has so many things on his plate to accompany him.

Feeling really exhausted and relieved at the same time that school was finally over, Kanata gladly went home. He took his time walking since he did not see the point of hurrying home knowing that his father must have already taken his flight which meant that he has the leisure to at least go back a bit later. He was walking on the sidewalk while thinking of what he was going to eat for dinner when a kid suddenly caught his eye.

The kid was on the other side of the street. He was holding a ball while playing some sort of game with a puppy. He thought that the boy was probably trying to make the puppy fetch the ball which seemed impossible seeing as the ball was too big for the puppy and even for the kid. Suddenly, the ball the boy was playing with rolled off into the street and the puppy instinctively ran after it. The boy also followed, running after his puppy and the ball.

"Hey kid! Don't play on the streets! It's dangerous!" he shouted when he saw that the boy had run into the direction of the road. As if on cue, a car speeded into the direction of the boy. Kanata's face whitened, he ran after the kid as fast as he could but suddenly, a bright light blinded his vision making him stop from his tracks. When he opened his eyes he caught a glimpse of a faint light that flashed its way onto the forest near the park. Still feeling stunned, he instantly scanned the area to look for the boy. He saw that a crowd was surrounding the kid. He also saw the driver of the car who kept bowing his head vigorously trying to apologize for almost hitting the boy with his reckless driving. He went closer to the scene so could take a look at the condition of the boy.

The people were checking if the kid was alright and to their amazement and relief they found out that the boy was not hurt or anything. His small body was free from injury and there were no traces of scratch. Despite not having any injuries, the people still called an ambulance just to make sure that the boy did not have any concussion. The mother of the boy who must have heard of the incident came hurrying into the scene. He hugged her son tightly while crying and checking if her child was okay. The driver, feeling really remorseful, told the mother that he would pay for the medical expenses as an apology.

Kanata sighed in relief when he saw that the boy was fine. He really thought for a second that the kid would have been run over by the car. But surprisingly, he was not and he was really thankful. It must be a miracle which made the kid survived the near death experience. Then he suddenly remembered the thing he saw when he was running after the boy. What was that light? He glanced at the direction of the forest which was where the flash of light headed. Was he the only one who saw that strange light? Taking a deep breath, he decided to go into the forest.

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A/N:

Thank you so much for the reviews! ^-^ I greatly appreciate them! :) And I would also like to thank you readers for continuing to read this fic :D I kind of noticed that most of the reviews said that they like the plot, thank you so much for liking it! I'm really happy to know that readers like my theme ^_^ It really made me happy and a bit worried at the same time. I really don't want to disappoint you readers as the story progresses. But I guess I'll just have to do my best in writing ^_^ I hope this chapter did not disappoint you. Actually, this chapter was supposed to be much longer but if I did not stop at that scene the word count would be over 3000. So I decided to just save the next scene for the next chapter.

*I was really planning to update this weekly but school's not letting me do so . anyway I'm currently working on the next chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to upload it by next week probably Thursday or Friday. Again thanks for the reviews! And before I forgot, I borrowed the title of this chapter from Lemony Snicket's novel. I chose it since I think it was the fitting title… ^_^