》Shopping District《
Today was the day that Naomi and Miura-kun were going to meet my little brother, Hikaru. Originally only Naomi was suppose to come, but she invited Miura last second. I honestly didn't mind of course. I wanted him to meet my little brother sooner or later. Unfortunately, Daijin-kun couldn't come he apparently had things to do that day. Naomi seemed pretty bummed about not having her non-magical buddy around. I had a feeling that she was developing romantic feelings for him. Which I found kinda cute, but then again I kinda felt bad for Miura-kun because it seemed like he had feelings for her. It was all one big love triangle. I wasn't so sure about my feelings for Mikado anymore ever since the waterpark. He had responded to my surname. Who is he really? Luckily we had to pick up Hikaru after our school. It was a short walk but we would be able to make it. Naomi was extremely excited, she would talk about how much she's anticipated this day. She said she was going to take so many pictures, I believed her words right away. I was walking ahead of them to lead the way. Whenever I looked back I would see her and Miura-kun talking to each other. I noticed Miura-kun red face. He wasn't hiding it one bit. Oh my! He should just confess to her already! I mean, its very obvious he likes her. I don't see why Naomi hasn't noticed yet. I sighed and rolled my eyes. OH wait! But Daijin-kun, she likes Daijin-kun. So if he does confess she's going to reject him. I sigh in defeat. This is so difficult to keep up with.
I look up to the sky to calm my mind. I realized it was a pretty good day to have ice cream. "Hey! Should we go to the new ice cream shop after this! My treat." I turned and smiled at my friends. They agreed to it. I was glad because I was wanting to try it out anyways. We stopped real quick to get ice cream, Naomi and Miura were both quiet since then. I felt like I ruined the mood for the two of them. Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut. I tear up.
Once we were at the daycare, I told everyone to wait outside. Luckily my mother told the workers that I could pick him up. The moment I saw Hikaru I smiled. He was being carried by one of the teachers. When he saw me he instantly reached out for me. He made me giggle from the fact he wanted to be with me. I showed the teacher a name badge along with my ID. "Ahh Sora Li!" The teacher passed Hikaru to me. "He's been very good today! His separation anxiety is really decreasing. He's also started scooting today!" His teacher was very proud of him. I was too, I was trying to learn a lot about babies so it meant he will start crawling soon. The stroller my mother left for him was in its stall just where she said it would be. I strapped Hikaru in and waved goodbye to his teacher. She smiled as a response with a small wave, then she returned to the other children. I pushed his stroller out of the building. Naomi's face flustered the moment she saw him.
"Oh my goodness! Hello Hikaru! I'm Naomi!" She introduced herself to him. He extended his hand to her as if he was going to shake her hand and smiled. "Oh my! He's so cute!" She turned to Miura with a smile. Miura takes a look at my little brother, he even lowers himself to be at the same height of my brother. I can see he looked serious at first. Then he flashed a smile to Hikaru. The same heart thumping feeling came back. I arched an eyebrow at him for a second and the feeling was gone. I shook it off.
"Hello there little one." Miura spoke softly to Hikaru. "I'm Skai Miura." He bowed his head. "Your sister's fr-friend." He introduced himself in a very polite way. I highly liked that he called himself my friend. "I hope to make your acquaintance." I admired his politeness even though it was to an infant. I couldn't help but smile. He looked up at me with his eyes and when our eyes met he covered his mouth and coughed. He stood up and looked away. Naomi snapped a picture. "W-well we should get going."
Naomi takes the stroller from me. "I want to push him." She offers and I nod. We walked through the shopping district and headed home. Though along the way I felt a strange presence and so did Miura. But I felt another presence, one that I couldn't really figure out. Suddenly our surroundings become blurred and then we were in some green hedges. I arched an eyebrow and looked around. "Where are we?!" Naomi seemed just as confused as I was.
"Ugh its a Clow card." Miura grumbles. I sigh. Why now of all times? Especially since Hikaru is here with us. I look down at my brother who was giggling at the sight. He was enjoying the change of scenery. Naomi pulls out her phone and starts to record. Her eyes sparkled immensely.
"Which card though?" We all start to walk. The hedges seemed to be leading somewhere but at the same time, nowhere. Miura thought and walked besides me. "I mean, it seems like a big garden. Garden card?" I shrugged and Miura shook his head.
"Not even close, its Maze." He sighed at my attempt to figure out the cards. "Good attempt though." He pats my head. Naomi giggles behind us. Miura turns and glares at her. "Don't you have like something to do?" He scoffed and she nodded.
"Yeah, record you two." She shows him the phone with a sadistic smile. "Though there are some shots I really want." Her eyes sparkled and he shook his head while rolling his eyes. Then she looked around, "So how do you guys catch this card? It's really big." He placed his hand on his chin as he thought. Hikaru kept giggling at himself.
"Well we would need to find-" Miura began talking until Hikaru's giggling stopped abruptly. We both look at Naomi, but she was gone. "Akaname-san?!" Miura shouted.
"Hikaru!!" I cried. I ran to where they were standing at a few seconds ago but felt nothing. It was as if they were never here. "Miura what happened?!" I shouted at him with tears running down my cheeks. His eyes grew wide with fear. He didn't reply so I had to snap him out of it. I ran to him and grabbed his shoulders. I shook him a bit and screamed, "Miura! Tell me what happened!!" This snapped him back to reality.
"Erase!" He shouted. Tears continued to run down my cheeks.
"Erase?" I tilted my head in confusion.
"This is NOT good!" He summoned his sword and then pulled his cards out. "We have to get out of here! And fast!" He seemed very panicky. "We need to seal these cards, and fast!" He brought out Float. "Float, come to my aid!" He activated the card and was lifted into the air. He scanned the area until the hedges grew up to where he was. Which seemed impossible but I was watching it grow from where I was standing. The hedges were feet above the surface. "Ugh! I should have known this would happen. Float, take me down please." He floated back to the ground and sighed. "We need to get to the center. Luckily I found out where that is." He pointed to the left. I arched an eyebrow since he basically pointed to the hedge.
"How are we suppose to go through that?" I asked and then I looked at him. He gave me a small smirk. Oh right.
"Through!" We both shouted in unison to each other.
"Through, come to my aid!" He shouted as he summoned the card. We were both affected by it since we both had a similar glow. "We have to hurry, I don't have much magic to keep us both affected." We ran through the hedge together but we were so slow. Ugh, we need a faster way to get there. I thought. Then I remembered my own card. I grabbed my sealing key and released it.
"The key that holds both the power of darkness and stars, Reveal your true form to me. I, Sora, command thee under our contract! Release!" I chanted and grabbed my sealing wand. I pulled out a card and shouted, "Dash!" Miura and I both felt our feels get lighter and we ran faster than we would without the card.
"Good thinking!" Miura shouted. I turned to smile at him but saw he was becoming transparent as well.
"Miura!" I cried. He looked down and saw what was happening.
"Ugh, I didn't expect it to happen that fast!" He grumbled. "Don't worry! We should be close by." His body became more transparent. "L-li, just keep running straight! My card should still be active a few seconds after I di-disappear. Jj-ust keep running!" We didn't slow down at all. But I could tell Miura was panicking since he was stuttering. More tears fell from my eyes.
"Please don't leave me alone! I don't know how to catch Erase!" I cried. Miura shook his head.
"You can do it! I know you can!" He looked around in confusion and stopped running. I stopped beside him.
"What's wrong?! This is no time to stop.." I cried. He arched an eyebrow and scanned the area.
"It's suppose to be here..." He spoke softly. My eyes grew wide in fear. We were probably far from the center. His body was almost gone completely. I tried to grab him but with Through still active my hand just went right through him. "Use jump to see how much farther." I nodded and did as told. The hedges grew a few seconds after I jumped, but I was able to see the center. It was a circle in the middle of a bunch of twists and turns.
"I see it! We are only a few rows away!" I landed safely to the ground. He nodded and we kept running. Miura was basically gone by this point. "Please don't leave me!" I called out for him. I then notice my own body was starting to fade. "M-miura..." We both stop running and we stare at my fading body.
"Th-this isn't good!" He was panicking even more. I could tell by his breathing, it wasn't from the running since Dash was still in effect. "You have to reach the center!" I cry a bit more. Miura shook his head and screamed, "Sora run!!" And with that he disappeared completely. I was in shock by the fact he was gone. 'My card should still be active a few seconds after I disappear.' His words came back to my mind. I ran in the direction of the center. I need to arrive before I get erased as well! A few rows later I smash into a hedge. Through's power was gone, just like her owner. I didn't make it! I feared the worst.
"Are you sure about that?" It was Mirror's voice. I take out her card and arch my eyebrow. "Look around." I did just as she told me to. Sure enough I was in the center. There was a water fountain with a woman dancing. I wiped my tears away and walked towards the woman.
"Are you Erase-san?" I felt dumb talking to the woman but she looked at me with a bright smile and nodded. She continued to dance while waving around a transparent cloth. I felt more tears come back even after I had just wiped them away. "Please Erase-san... Return my friends to me.. My brother too.." My tears go down my cheek again. Erase tilted her head and then smiled.
"Only because I hear that you will be a wonderful mistress." It was Mirror speaking again. "If you seal me, you will get your friends and brother back. However, Maze is a different story. Maze has its own conditions to be sealed away. Now please stop crying little one." Mirror translated everything for me. I gave a small grin as I wiped my tears away again.
"Return to the first true form you were made in," I tap the woman with the tip of the sealing wand. "Erase!" The woman returns into her card form. Soon after she was sealed away, my friends appeared on the ground next to me. Hikaru appeared still sitting in his stroller. He looked around in confusion and then giggled when he saw me. I felt very happy seeing they were ok. Miura grunted as he got up. Naomi wiped her eyes with her hand.
"What happened?" She asked. I felt my tears come back but this time I held them.
"It was this card." I showed her Erase. Naomi looked at the card and then brought out her phone. She snapped a picture and then smiled with satisfaction. Before I could tell her anything more, the ground began to rumble.
"You need to seal Maze! Hurry before it forms into another type of maze!" Miura shouted. I nodded and tapped my sealing wand to the water fountain. That's where I felt its presence the most.
"Return to the first true form you were made in," I shout. "Maze!" The scene returns back into the shopping district.
The card flies to Miura and lands in his hands. He seems satisfied with the capture. "Well, this was an adventure." He sighs. He then looks at me and something seems to click in his mind. His face gets red, "I gotta go!" He runs off in a random direction. I arched an eyebrow and Naomi giggles.
"Boys." She shrugged with a smile. Hikaru let out a soft coo. I giggle.
》Sora's House that night《
Naomi came over to spend the night after the capture. I didn't mind it one bit since she made such great company. She asked about what happened while she disappeared. I gave her a brief summary until I remembered something. "Miura-kun called me Sora." I told her, but I mainly said it since I was thinking out loud. She arched an eyebrow and then smiled. I couldn't tell what she was thinking but luckily I really didn't have to.
"You should give him a call. Tell him how much you appreciate the fact he considers you a special friend. He still calls me by my surname, which I honestly don't mind." She grins. I wondered if she felt bad that he called me by first name and not her. Though she seemed more delighted that he called me that. "I mean, maybe you should start calling him by his first name too." There was no change in her expression. I reach for my phone and decide to give him a call. It rang for a bit and then he picked up.
"Miura residence. Skai speaking, how may I help you?" He spoke with such a stern voice. Today he sounded a bit different on the phone than he usually does.
"Hi Miura! Its me, Sora." I reply to him. I hear a sigh from his side of the line. "Are you mad that its me?"
"N-no! I mean, of course not." He responds with a weird expression. There was a mixture of emotions in his voice. Maybe he is mad its me. I thought, but then shook my head. "Wh-what do you want?" He asks. "I don't mean that rudely by the way.." He whispers the last part.
"Well, I remember back when we were in Maze and you were being erased that you called me Sora." I spoke. I heard him gasp or was it another sigh? It was really hard to tell with him sometimes. Lately he's been difficult to read and understand. Like he's been all over the place. I paused for a bit to see what he would say in response to that. Naomi tilted her head in confusion, she was about to speak but I placed my index finger to my mouth. She simply nodded.
"Go on.." He finally spoke when he realized I wouldn't continue until his acknowledgement. I couldn't help but smile.
"My mother once told me that when someone calls you by first name it meant that you two were great friends." He didn't respond, but I continued anyways. "Well, since you consider me a great friend I want to show you the same. May I call you Skai-kun?" My heart did another thump, Its not like it was the first time called another boy by their first name. I called Daijin and Mikado by their first names, but this time it felt different. Why? I couldn't hear him so I asked for him to speak louder.
"Yeah, sure." He said louder. I smiled and gave Naomi a thumbs up. She had her phone out, was she recording this? I arched an eyebrow and she shakes her head with a small smile. I then remembered another thing I wanted to tell him.
"Hey, Skai." I began. "Can we investigate where we caught Maze? I felt a weird presence before everything happened. It would be tomorrow though, because its too late now." He seemed to think on it and then he finally replied.
"Yeah, sure..." Another two worded answer. I smiled once more.
"Great! Let's meet at 12 at Penguin King Park. Afterwards we can get lunch." I offer. He didn't reply for a while so I spoke again, "If that's ok with you."
"Y-yeah. That's fine.. See you tomorrow." He says softly. I look at Naomi and give her another thumbs up. She shrugs and smiles again. I liked that she kept quiet all this time.
"Bye Skai."
"Bye S-sora." Click. The call ended. I looked at Naomi who put her phone down.
"Well, I guess I'll just sleep now." She shrugged then giggled and I giggled along with her. As we got ready for bed. I couldn't help but think of everything that happened today. It was a really strange presence... It wasn't a Clow card either. It was different than a Clow card. I hid my worry with a smile. I didn't want Naomi to freak out or worry. It was something to do with magic so naturally she wouldn't know what to do. So it was best not to tell her, and she understood completely. I love our friendship.