Khaos Wars

Chapter 7 - United

The last class for the day had just ended at Miyazaki High school and Aika walked tiredly through the schoolyard. She already felt a lot better than the day before; that thing Daisuke gave her really helped. Today was a cloudy day, the sun hid behind the clouds. If only she could hide the same way. She couldn't help but wonder why Emiko hadn't tried to talk to her all day. Maybe she had given up?

The entire school had been talking about the monster attack from the other day and the mysterious person who defeated it. Aika though Emiko would talk to her about it, but she never did. She was still scared of Emiko but the fear of getting captured again, or killed was stronger. She needed to talk to her as soon as she could.

Not too far away, Aika saw a girl with pink pigtails walking fast while looking down at her watch. She seemed to be headed out the schoolgate. Aika ran towards her, it was now or never.

"MORIYAMA-SAN! PLEASE WAIT!" Aika yelled. She needed Emiko's help; she couldn't go on on her own anymore. Not after finding out how big all of this really is.
Emiko turned around.

"Oh, how the tables have turned." She sent Aika a sly smile. It took her by surprise, but she should have expected it.
"Don't worry, its ok. Come with me, we can talk somewhere else." Emiko was back to her normal self. Aika followed her all the way to a restaurant named "King and Queen".

Aika sat on a chair across from Emiko in the staff room. Who would have thought that Moriyama Emiko worked an after school job? Putting that aside, Aika had to lay her cards down.

"This has become too much for me. And what I want to say is... I need your help." Just as she finished her sentence, she heard a female voice approaching.
"Took you long enough." Two girls dressed in the restaurants uniform walked up to them. She didn't know which one had spoken. One of them smiled towards Emiko and stood behind her. She had short, blue hair which curled in at the ends. She was short, probably shorter than Aika and looked younger than the rest. Aika assumed she was pretty shy by the way she hid behind Emiko.

The other one had wavy, light blonde hair, with the top half tied up in a bun. She was taller than both the blue-haired girl and Emiko. Something about her also appeared more mature and independent than the rest. Aika instantly took a liking to her.

"So you are number four?" Number four? It was the blonde one.
"Koizumi Aika... right?" The blue one interrupted. Both of them knew about Aika. An idea struck her and she quickly glanced at their wrists. Just as suspected they both had the bracelet in their respective colors.

"Nice to meet you, I'm number two. Some may call me Yumiko." Weird-number-girl introduced herself and reached a hand towards Aika. She took it and smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
"Ignore her, she likes addressing us by our numbers." Emiko tried to explain. They had numbers?
"We're still going to find number five, right? Or should we wait until tomorrow?" Yumiko pointed out. No one answered, they were already headed outside. Aika and Yumiko had to catch up to them. On the way out Yumiko told her number five's name was Zakura.

***

Emiko proudly paraded in front of everyone else, and the rest quietly followed her. She occasionally glanced down at her bracelet. Aika couldn't relax; Emiko hadn't said a word the entire time and the others hadn't either. She seemed like she knew where they were going. The awkward silence suffocated Aika, did Emiko have a plan? Why hasn't she told them anything? Why isn't anyone questioning her? Aika couldn't take it anymore; she had been through too much these last couple of days.

Aika stopped walking and waited for the others to notice. Yumiko and Reina halted and turned around, Emiko kept walking.

"Something the matter, number four?" Yumiko looked Aika straight in the eyes. Aika hadn't expected her to care; she appeared way different from earlier today.

What Yumiko said made Emiko turn around as well. When she noticed everyone else had fallen behind, she waited.

"What's the hold up?" Emiko sounded annoyed. Aika felt like she had to speak up fast, before Emiko got mad. She suddenly got very nervous, and finding the right words became difficult. Everyone was looking, waiting for her to get over her childish attitude. It felt like everyone was starting to get frustrated with her. What was she thinking, why did she put herself in this position?

"How are we going to find Zakura?" The bad communication in the group really bothered Aika. These people were supposed to be a team. Emiko looked even more annoyed now.

"Don't you think I know what I'm doing? I've been a part of this the longest, don't ask unnecessary questions." Emiko gestured everyone to continue and turned around again. Aika couldn't remember the last time she felt so embarrassed. Emiko just humiliated her in front of her new team without a second thought.

Reina, the blue haired girl, ran to catch up to Emiko and sent Aika a displeased look. What was up with her? She acted like Emiko's puppet.

Yumiko closed in on Aika's ear.
"I don't know everything myself; but there is this tiny robot we call Nikka. It gave us our bracelets and is the reason we have our powers. Nikka can be tracked using our bracelets, which is what number one is doing now. It is most likely with number five since she is the last one." Weird-number-girl whispered. Nikka? Aika couldn't recall having seen such a robot. She just woke up one day and had the bracelet, which was impossible to remove.

After a while they entered a sports center. Everyone stopped in front of one of the changing rooms. The stench of sweaty socks and anxiety reeked through the door. Obviously it was locked; Zakura was probably in the middle of a game.

"So what now? Are just gonna watch her play?" Yumiko said sarcastically.

***
Aika sat beside Yumiko on a bench in the rear row; both of them were looking at each other in compassion. Reina and Emiko were cheering Zakura on loudly on each side of them. Their intense cheers had attracted a lot of attention. One player in particular sent a smile in their direction; could it be Zakura? She had long, purple hair tied up in a ponytail. The thing that made her stand out from the rest was her speed. She ran so fast and swiftly, it was incredible to look at.
***
They had returned outside after game and the girl from before stood in front of them. Turned out she really was Zakura. She was strikingly beautiful; tall and slightly muscular. Her long, thick, purple hair was let down this time. It almost reached down to her knees, and her purple eyes sparkled with kindness.

"I think I know why you are here." Zakura sounded serious. No surprise, she has Nikka, she must know a lot more than them. She also probably expected them to find her soon.

"Yeah..." Zakura continued. She reached for her bag and pulled something out. Something small. But it didn't look like a robot... unless Nikka was a marker. Zakura suddenly had a goofy smile on her face as she approached Emiko.

"It's so nice to meet so many fans! Thanks for cheering me on!" She proceeds to sign Emiko's forehead. Yumiko apparently couldn't keep her composure and busted out laughing. Aika barely managed not to do the same.

Zakura reached to sign Reina as well, but she quickly hid behind Emiko. Aika couldn't help but laugh a little, watching the two of them desperately trying to stop her. It was hilarious watching Zakura slowly realize what was really going on. Poor thing, she looked so disappointed as she put down her marker in shame.

She reached for her bag once again, but this time took out a small lightblue ball of fluff with pitch black eyes, dark blue wings and white antennas.

"Ma-magical girls. Everyone." Nikka didn't sound human at all. Its voice was high and mechanical; it was clearly a machine even if it didn't look like one. The voice must have come from some sort of speaker, since the robot didn't have a mouth.

"Wait, it can talk?" Yumiko looked horrified at the tiny, fluffy creature. While everyone was busy talking, Nikka started acting strange. It flew around in circles while the antennas were spinning. Zakura looked worried.

"Danger. Danger. Enemies approaching."