Don't you hate when…you plan to do something, and… something gets in the way of that? That's what happened to me and updating this. I promised it would be here two days ago, but… you know, life happens. Junji and Minako belong to ThanosofTitan. They are from his stories "Rebellion" and "Coming to Terms", both of which are AMAMZINGGG. Oh, and they're used with permission, but Chobits and XXXHolic are not mine! Funny story: I wrote most of this, but needed to edit it thoroughly so that's why it took so absurdly long.

Time is an illusion, or is it?
Magic is an illusion, or is it?
Your soul sings a somber song
Begging for retribution

But are you willing to die to save the world{multiverse}?

Chapter 11: Magic and Miracles?

Something about you drew me in. I became so obsessed with you I didn't know what to do. You were well-off, and I was an heiress. We became friends, and it turned into a scandal.

We were drowning in our obsession with each other.

The resonance of our magic: this resonance of the souls.

...

Leaning on the gnarled iron railing, a tall, elf-eared Persocom stared into the darkness. From the balcony she could see the unmoving fireflies of the city suspended in the darkness, polluting the sky with unnatural light. Her sensors indicated that the smog was thick tonight, and coupling the distortion from that with the light, it looked like they could've been floating within a distorted nebula. Aside from that, being back in Tokyo was comforting, and staying here at Hiatte Hotel for a few days wasn't too bad either. She sighed and pushed back her lime sherbet bangs at the exact moment a gust of wind blew past the balcony.

The Persocom blinked a few times and reprocessed the feeling that had washed over her in that second.

Troubled, she walked back through the open door into the suite and yanked the sheets off of the King mattress. The one sleeping form on the bed sprang up immediately, fumbling for his glasses on the nightstand.

"I'm up Minako. I'm up!" He said hastily, affixing the spectacles on his face to glance at the time. If these stupid hotel clocks were malfunctioning again, then he would file a formal complaint. For the past few days he had set them to go off at 6 AM so he'd be in time for his lectures at the college, but unfortunately they never worked, and his wife had to wake him up in that same, rather violent manner.

He was understandably upset to learn that he'd only been asleep two hours, and that it was definitely not the next morning. He had just been getting into REM sleep, too. Great. Another day of students whispering that he was a disheveled wreck behind his back, and another day of rushing into the lecture hall in a rush.

"Junji," said Minako, her expression bewildered. "We've got trouble."

"Trouble?"

"The explosion of power I just sensed, it was..." she grew strangely quiet, concentrating on what she had felt.

The man didn't even have to hear any more to know what was going on. Such was the life of a District Chief such as him. Junji slumped forward; being a travelling professor was stressful enough, but his other responsibilities were beginning to wear on him. He was feeling older than he should be lately, and it was getting ridiculous how many places were aching.

"We have to go check it out, right?" he said, looking at her and pouting.

Minako smiled faintly at his poor attempt at a puppy face. "I'm afraid so."

Running a hand over his face, Junji cursed.

虚

'Chii, you need to do something.'

'What, sister? Tell me what to do.'

'You need to reach her.'

'How?'

'Turn yourself into nothingness.'

'What?'

何か

Hideki didn't understand what he had seen in the past few moments. He had the worst case of Deja Vu, and his mind was still trying to wrap around the giant blade that Garrett had summoned. For a few seconds Hideki gawked at the sword, which was just as tall (if a bit taller than) himself, and had just been used to reduce the door to splinters.

The questions were spilling out of his brain faster than his own mouth could process:

"Where's Amber-chan? What just happened here? And where the heck did you get that sword?" he babbled, pointed to the weapon Garrett firmly grasped in his hands.

The Chobit didn't respond, but filed those questions away for later, instead focusing on the retreating ball of light in the night sky. It wasn't imagined then, that feeling from before. The sudden outrush of pent up magical energy could only mean one thing: the seal had been undone. How it was broken, he did not know, but he knew that she couldn't sustain flight for long.

Before they left, Amber had already spent the time(and magic) to make sure that the runes they had placed around Gub Jogasaki were operational, and so he knew her reserves were already low by the time she had disappeared.

How long could he himself stay airborne? From checking his power levels, only two or three minutes. And she was already too far away.

'Darn it…'

Minoru and Yuzuki could see the internal battle within his mind. The young genius had correctly deduced that Amber had indeed freed herself, but why she took off was a mystery. He did not know how long she could stay flying like that, for how was not familiar enough with magic, but he assumed that it wasn't for long. Unfortunately that would mean her very untimely death, and Minoru didn't want to attend a funeral anytime soon.

"There must be something we could do," said Yuzuki, casing a worried glance off into the night. The cold nipped at them through the gaping hole in the wall, and the five man band stood immobile in the moonlight.

The wind howled through the building, and Chii raised her head.

"Chii will do it."

首謀

Meanwhile…

"That was nice," said Zima, clapping as the last song finished up rather neatly, echoing softly into the dark arena.

Dita frowned. "It was alright, nothing to win a Grammy over."

"You're a harsh critic," he replied, leaning forward on the steel garter to get a better view of the singer. His eyes scanned the crowd, recognizing most of the Persocoms that were present at the concert. Being who(what?) he was, Zima knew every single one of them by name. "I'm pretty sure that tonight she won't try anything, don't you think, Dita?"

His partner shrugged. It was possible that she was biding her time. But what was she waiting for?

They would learn soon enough, that was for sure.

変換

"Chii will save Amber-chama," repeated our real heroine. To everyone's shock, she had offered to jump out the window and save the heiress, and everyone could see the fire of determination flicker in her eyes like a newly lit torch. Hideki couldn't say what had brought about this change in Chii this night, but he didn't like it at all. Though he had seen her glide through the air like a luminescent dove in the darkness before, he wasn't sure if she could do so again.

"What if you fall, Chii? I don't want to lose you!" he protested, already moving to block her escape.

Garrett hadn't even computed the thought of asking her to do such a thing, but he didn't know what to say to stop her. Yes, Mihara had refused to share some of his flight designs with Dr. Lee-Young, but how effective they were at actually achieving it, he was skeptical.

"Chii can do it, Hideki," she told her boyfriend. "Freya told Chii how to do it."

And with that, she sprinted to the ledge where the hole began on the floor and sprung off into the starry darkness.

In her descent, Chii closed her eyes. The spot in her heart, the place that she went to see Freya, it was there she reached for as the dark ground came rushing up to meet her. Chii's feet began to glow, the light slowly spreading up her legs. Her body began to slow down its decent, as if a pocket of air had puffed up from below to catch her.

Everyone's hearts (so to speak) leapt up into their mouths as they rushed to the opening.

Hideki nearly cried out her name.

But.

Then a single, glowing form rose up in the sky to chase the blazing ball of light.

輝き

High above the city, Junji sat on his staff cruising through the cool night air, trying not to fall off and crack open his skull. From the end of his staff was a small white string that looped around Minako's waist—the only thing keeping her aloft in the air next to him. The thin wooden rod had a weight limit, so of course his wife couldn't sit behind him.

"Oh, Tokyo," sang Junji, the wind rustling his short hair. "Oh, Tokyo! I love my city so…"

"Can you be serious?" asked Minako, who had been scanning the area for any anomalous readings.

"I am serious," he said, blinking slowly. He could sense the residual traces of magic in the air, and they were getting very close, from what he could tell.

Beside him, Minako let out three short beeps. Her eyes refocused, and she held the side of her head, rereading the results. "I've found the source, or rather sources," she announced.

"Good job, Minako!" he said. At least it hadn't taken very long to do pinpoint the disturbance. The sooner he could get to sleep, the better.

"They're moving quite fast," said Minako, "we have to intercept them."

"Which way?"

"Northeast," she said, pointing to their left. If they could increase their speed by 2km per hour, then they could probably catch up. Minako and Junji looked in the direction she had indicated, and both were at a loss for an explanation.

"Do you see that?" Minako tugged on Junji's sleeve to make sure he was paying attention to what she was seeing.

Her husband rubbed his eyes in confusion. "Are those stars? They're so bright." There were a number of things that he immediately thought of that could radiate such an aura, but what would they be doing over such an urbanized area like this?

"That seems to be where the waves of magical power are emanating from."

"But..." Junji looked to the two lights uneasily.

Minako adjusted her vision to account for the glare of the stars and extra light radiating from the forms. "Oh my..." Her face was a mix of shock and amusement. She giggled at the thought that this was what she had been so worried about earlier.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Laughing was not the response that Junji had expected.

"It's a couple of girls," she said calmly—the statement nearly making her partner fall off his staff.

便利

What could he do? Garrett had failed to save her, and now she was in danger yet again. Though this time it was partially her fault, he assumed that whatever those two had in mind for her weren't pleasant at all. Garrett gripped the sword tighter, a murderous thought brewing in the back of his mind.

"Garrett-san."

Right before him, Minoru had been watching him closely since Chii had left. "Do you think we should notify the authorities?"

It wasn't a stupid question; Minoru was correct in his assumption that the police would pry too much into the situation, and the main reason for this caution was the inexplicable role that magic played. Amber had, for lack of a better term, gone berserk for some unknown reason, created a giant explosion, and leapt out into the night, coasting on the wind while shining like a giant nightlight from the amount of power she currently was radiating.

But it didn't hurt to ask.

Garrett gave him an eyebrow raise, which probably could be translated along the lines of: "Maybe later…"

What did bother the two boys was what the citizens of Tokyo would think of not one, but two glowing girls flying above their city. Garrett knew that the population of magical inhabitants would have to cover it up as they always did, and alter few memories in the process. He hoped that they didn't catch her before Chii caught up, because then the consequences wouldn't be so pretty.

Hideki, meanwhile, was throwing a dejected, hollow glare at the night sky. He kept forgetting how amazing Chii was, and all the things she had accomplished. One of them, flying, he had seen only once before for himself. The young man didn't know what to think, really. Especially after the appearance of a sword from nowhere and the weird things that he witnessed tonight, it just wasn't plausible to dismiss such things as normal. It wasn't that bad of a night aside from the kidnapping and his girlfriend jumping from the eight stories, but he seriously couldn't figure out an explanation for all of it.

"Why, Chii? " he muttered.

"Because...she's a good person!"

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Hideki figured that Chii must still be confused. This was the second time he'd heard her refer to Amber as a 'person'.

The whole week he could sense something was odd about those two Americans, but still couldn't come up win a logical conclusion. One reason for this was that Hideki, although not as bright as Minoru, didn't rightly believe in magic. I was something that made a good element for a story to have, but fantasy things like that never happened in the real world. Sure, he'd seen Chii do the nigh-impossible, but he only chalked that up to the fact that she wasn't human. His brain simply couldn't add all of this up to magic, no way.

鳩.

Why was this rage consuming her? Why did her magic go haywire? All Amber could remember was wanting to get away, and a loud, resonating chime. After that, she had blacked out. Then when awoke, she was flying.

This was a peculiar event…

Power radiated from every inch if her skin, it was a strange prickling feeling that vibrated from her head to her toes, causing her to light up the sky. Amber did know that she would run out fairly soon, and that for some reason she did not care in the least. Over the years her self-loathing had been suppressed, along with her magic, but being high above the city like this, her rage goaded on by that perverted idiot like a furious bull, all the girl could see right now was bright bloody red. Even if she were to fall, she was sure nothing would happen. The prophecy, after all probably could be fulfilled without her being alive. It did say that whoever had the heart of the butterfly will have the key. It never said that it had to be beating.

"…"

'But what about Elda?' asked her conscience. 'Who will protect her?'

"..."

'This wind pushing at my back…feels nice…'

Yes who would protect her? Guilt was setting in. Maybe she should land after all. Minoru, Yuzuki and Hideki couldn't fend off the rest of the contestants by themselves, and if she died, then Garrett wouldn't be able to use his sword.

As she contemplated this, Amber looked around briefly, only to be hit with unconsciousness once again.

Funny, this time she didn't even feel tired at all.

The last thing she remembered seeing was Elda smiling at her in the darkness.

...

"That's not good," said Junji, looking at the now-falling figure. "You think we—," He was getting ready to catch the plummeting figure by speeding up his flight. She had stopped glowing, and now she was descending on a downward arc toward the ground. Her eyes were closed (though he could not see that), Junji noticed that the amount of magic being released had almost cut off completely.

"Wait, Junji." Minako directed his attention to the other glowing girl who had suddenly dove after the other. It wasn't long after the first was caught by the second, and after a moment, they floated gently to the ground below.

When the two saw that there was nothing to worry about, Junji turned around and headed back for the hotel. It seems that they would have some damage control to do tomorrow, but at least they didn't have to intervene with anything too serious.

...

After about an hour of waiting, Garrett sighed in relief and looked down at the light blue card in his hands. It seemed that everything was alright, wasn't it? He, Minoru and Hideki had decided to call the police after all, but decided to hightail it before they showed up. Now they were in a car, heading back to the apartment. The party of four was silent for quite some time, so one of the 'coms decided that some conversation would help to lighten the mood.

"I have the location of Miss Chii and Miss Amber if you would like?" said Yuzuki.

"I already know," said Garrett, trying to crack a smile.

"You do?" said Hideki from the seat next behind Garrett. He was sitting in the front seat next to the driver, so no one could see his face at the moment, but that statement really had stuck Hideki's curiosity. Minoru was wedged in the middle of Hideki and Yuzuki, and he glanced at Garrett with an interested look similar to the one Hideki wore now.

"I'm not sure how to tell you, Motosuwa-san, actually."

"Huh?" replied the young man. So there was an explanation for all the strange happenings today? "Oh, if you want to explain what we all just saw, then go ahead."
Garrett knew this guy was strangely open, but he wondered how much he could actually take in one night.

"Well," said Hideki, "I think I may already know." He gave an embarrassed smile when the boy turned around in the front to gawk at him with a steady, calculating look that beckoned him to continue. "The thing you wanted to tell us, was that Amber-chan is a Chobit, right?"

At the revelation of this belief, Garrett, Minoru, and even Yuzuki broke into large grins. The Persocom in the front seat started to chuckle in a low voice.

'Huh…?'

"That's not it?" said Motosuwa, blushing now.

"Not quite," said Garrett. "I'll tell you tomorrow."

The next morning…

The sun was shining as bright as it could manage through the thick layer of clouds hanging overhead. They were clumped together tightly like a mass of squished together wet cotton- balls. Walking hand in hand, Hideki and Chii were on their way to Kokubunji's. Chii dressed in a plain white dress and her boyfriend. After she had caught Amber, the precious little Chobit had done something very smart: she had called a cab and went back home.

Ms. Hibiya wasn't at a meeting, so she had been home. That was fortunate, because she paid the fare without complaint and helped Chii bring Amber up to her apartment. That night, she and Chii had a very long talk. Of course, it wasn't long after that Yuzuki and the boys arrived home, sporting two stoic faces, a concerned but confident smile, and one very baffled expression.

In any case, the two would figure everything out today. Chii, although she had saved the girl, still had not disclosed directly to Hideki Amber's true nature, because of what she had discussed with her mother the other night.

Chii was observing her surroundings, an activity that she always took up while they travelled to Kokubunji's house. The neighborhood always was different each time, and the differences were fun to point out to her boyfriend, because he often explained whatever things she didn't understand. When she spotted a familiar pair of glasses, mess of brown hair, and characteristic cocky strut, Chii frowned slightly as she pointed to the young man walking on the opposite side of the street.

"Dragonfly," she said softly, to which Hideki took notice. They crossed the road to meet up with him, which Kojima knew he wasn't going to like at all. He stopped in his tracks despite wanting to run away.

"Hey!" said Hideki, waving at Kojima. "How're you?"

Great, he thought, those two. Kokubunji hadn't told him that they would be the 'special guests' that would be joining them for tea.

"I'm fine, Motosuwa," he said curtly. Koji-kun stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked askance.

"How is Kotoko?' said Chii. She had taken a liking to the saucy mobile unit. Kotoko was very frank, and at times it bordered on brutally honest, but sometimes she could be very very funny. That was what Chii liked most—her sense of humor.

"Well, we haven't seen her since we gave her back," said Hideki, scratching behind his head. "So we kind of miss her a lot."

'She'll be happy to hear that,' thought Dragonfly. Kojima smiled at their interest in Kotoko, when it came to his computers he was happy to talk about them no matter how grumpy he was feeling.

"Oh, I just bought her a new body, and it'll take a while for all her data to be transferred."

In fact, that was the only reason he had left her at home. He opted for overnight shipping for the new body, and he was so happy to add all the extra memory and other features. It cost a little extra, but he had been saving for a while and the extra money he had received from those two guys helped. It took all of his available units, though, to be able to finish the process, and even so, Kojima wasn't too thrilled to leave her behind. He explained that it was a full-sized model, so she was bound to be content at that.

Hideki was happy for her, actually. "Really?" He wondered if Sumomo would enjoy such a thing as well. Not only that, but since he was still learning about computers, he was interested in knowing about the process.

"Yeah, I don't like copying data, so I just opt for immediate transfer." Kojima smiled wryly. "It's completely normal for it to take a while."

And so, discussing the specifics about what he had planned, Kojima joined Chii and Hideki on their trip to Kokubinji's. It was where he was going in the first place, so it didn't matter too much.

百合

Yuzuki and Garrett were in the courtyard of the Kokubunji estate, conversing who knows what, while their partners were left to discuss their own matters. The Chobit wasn't pleased to leave Amber alone with Minoru, but Yuzuki assured him and offered to make some tea to have in hand as they chat themselves, despite the two Persocoms being unable to drink.

In Minoru's study, there was an assortment of snacks. Several petite cakes of many different flavors cut into squares; covered in an array of colored icings, lay on a tiered tray in the middle of the coffee table. Beside that was a platter of fresh fruit, mostly the halves of grapes and slices of cantaloupes, those types of things. Just next to that were a bowl of Doritos and a bowl of regular salted potato chips side by side. Artichoke dip and other condiments were on the other side of the table, next to the California rolls.

It was too much for just the two children to eat by themselves, obviously.

Chii, Motosuwa, and even Kojima (for whatever reason) had been invited as well, so the food Yuzuki and Yuki had prepared would not be wasted.

Amber steeled herself against the muffled swears her stomach emitted. Skipping breakfast wasn't a very smart idea, but considering what had recently happened, her appetite had reason to wax and wane like it did.

'But never mind that,' she thought, trying to break up the older memories threatening to cloud her present frame of mind. All she wanted to do was forget last night and move on with her original plan. Before the others arrived, she wanted to give Minoru something.

"I have a gift for you, Minoru," she said. At her feet was a large black bag, one you'd get at a department store after buying some snazzy, overpriced apparel. Out of the bag she lifted a box that was about as wide and long as her forearm, sky blue in color and tied with a bright red ribbon around it.

Minoru held the box in his hand for a moment before opening the package.

In those few seconds the world stopped spinning.

'Kaede, please don't die...'

Resting in a nest of tissue paper was a thin grey rod, and attached to one end of it was a yellow five-point star. The boy lifted the object out of the box and made a very astute observation.

"A wand?" he whispered.

'I want to believe in miracles, I want you to live!'

If the events of the past few days were not enough to sway his skeptic's outlook on life, then this moment was the one where all of his 'everything must be founded in data' gobbledygook was flushed clean away. A part of Minoru's heart that had once been sealed off, suddenly opened up.

'Magic and miracles do exist,' echoed his sister's voice in his mind. 'Don't let this convince you otherwise.'

His eyes welled up with tears, threatening to overflow from the mix of joy and pain that had emerged.

It was only when he felt Amber's hand rest on his shoulder that he realized that he'd been crying. She couldn't just let him be, even though he acted so stoic all the time. After all he was still a kid, no matter how mature he acted.

Even so, she knew precisely why he'd reacted this way.

"So now you believe, huh Min-kun?" she said, trying to wipe away the tears forming in her own eyes.

I'll meet you there, at the gates of heaven and hell

Where the heart of time beats endlessly

What will happen to my soul? I don't know.

I just want to hear your voice, and when our time comes,

Then we can be together.

But what about everyone? What'll they do?

The world. I don't want it to end.

We'll stop it together then.