Shards of a Broken Sun [Megaten/Shugo Chara/Exalted]

August 30, 2009

Time passed, and summer vacation ended. Not with a bang, oh no; no mad scientists attacked, no alien spaceships hovered ominously over the city. Summer vacation ended with a doze.

It ended on the final Sunday, when Amu lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, contemplating her life. Miki sat on the pillow next to her, drawing, while Ran and Su played a card game. She'd been feeling great, and bringing out those two always cheered Miki up. Dia, of course, was-

Her. Dia was her. These days Amu always felt a little off, whenever Ran and Su were out and about. She didn't mind that the two occasionally wanted to exist, in fact she loved it, but the way it worked out...

She closed her eyes.

It wasn't like it was a bad feeling, though. More like... like her head was too empty. Reality felt too raw. Her eyes got a little yellower, which she could deal with, but the colours got brighter, and it got harder to talk to people, and it made her a little too aware of her own emotions.

It was, in short, uncomfortable, and Amu was pretty sure she didn't like it.

Not that there was anything wrong with Ran and Su. They were her, after all. It wasn't that they were somehow less her than she was, or that her personality was split or anything. It just wasn't the way the world was supposed to be.

She closed her eyes, and let herself fall into her own mind.

She'd done it a couple of times. She could sort of, almost, kind of feel herself in her mind, and she could feel her connection to the world, and to the people around her. And, if she concentrated hard enough, she could feel...

...something.

She'd thought of it like a giant ball, once, but that was wrong. It was more like a web, or maybe an endless, tangled mess, where she was just a part. Or a single string, a string that could be pulled by others, or used to pull them.

She rolled over, then glanced at Miki's sketch. She was drawing a cat, but the face was a little off, a bit too...

"Ikuto?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or is that Yoru?"

Miki blushed, and flipped the paper over. "Just doodling."

Amu smiled.

"Shouldn't you be playing cards with the others, not making fun of my art?" Miki asked, trying to sound haughty and failing.

"Shouldn't you?" Amu retorted, her voice playful.

"Touché," Miki said, grinning.

"Come on," Amu said, stretching. "Let's both join the game. I don't want you to be all alone."

Miki nodded, and jumped onto her shoulder. "Fine."

It was the last day of summer vacation, and the last time she'd see the two of them for quite a while. Amu couldn't bring them out a lot, because if she did, she wouldn't be herself. That really was the only way she could put it.

Also she'd get bushed and sleep fourteen hours a day, but that wasn't the important bit.

A few minutes later Ami burst through the door, wanting to play with—and Amu was sure she was exaggerating the lisp—the 'shugoi chara'.

Ran, Su, and Miki, of course, were more than happy to comply.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing board games, until it was time for dinner. After that, she went to bed. Her dreams were filled with—Ami, who hadn't had enough chara time, and Ran and Su, and a whole bunch of other things.

She woke up feeling refreshed, and a bit tired.

It was the start of the new semester.

= = =

It wasn't until the classroom chatter and the smell of chalk had become routine again, and the maples outside her window had just barely started to hint at the oranges and reds of autumn, that Amu found her so-called 'normal life' disrupted. Three weeks had passed. She'd gotten reacquainted with her classmates, she'd had two more dinners with Utau, and she'd stopped feeling like her concrete home was sucking out her soul. Seiyou Academy's castle-like grade school this wasn't, though her new classmates made up for it in many ways.

So it was a Saturday, days before her thirteenth birthday, that Amu was accosted by a strange child on the street.

It had, up until that point, been a very nice Saturday. She had been wandering aimlessly, enjoying the early autumn sunshine and the feeling of freedom that came with not having homework that day. It was still warm; the last vestiges of summer clinging stubbornly to the city streets, and by 'last vestiges of summer', Amu meant 'thirty degrees, sticky and humid.'

She had decided to take a walk. The streets in her little suburb were quiet, only the occasional pedestrian wandering past, or bicycle riding by. It had been quiet mentally, too; Miki was at home, doing whatever Miki did when Amu wasn't around—manga, mostly—and Ami was playing with their mother.

She would have liked it to be a walk with Utau, but Utau was on tour. Though, 'tour' was maybe exaggerating it a bit. Sanjou-san had found her a gig singing at a hotel restaurant, and was using that to get her some exposure. Kukai, ditto, was there to cheer; he and Utau had grown apart a little, but they were still good friends, and it didn't seem like that would ever change.

The streets were, to say the least, uneventful, and the only thing worth mentioning was the faint breeze that kept Amu cool in the heat.

Amu had been thinking of nothing much, just the pleasant breeze and the nice weather, which meant she'd walked right past the young girl drawing a diagram with chalk on the ground. She'd only given her a short glance, and only then because of her clothes. The girl was dressed in a worn, punk outfit, just like the one Amu's mom had outfitted her with that day. Their eyes had met, and the girl had given her a grin and a thumbs-up.

That was weird, but whatever.

The next time Amu saw the girl, it was a couple of minutes later. She'd turned the corner, and the girl was sitting on a bench, staring intently at the sky. She hadn't seemed to have noticed Amu, and was instead muttering into a phone.

Amu was just about to move on when the girl spoke.

"Hey! You!"

Amu froze.

"Yes, you!" the girl called, her voice piercing the air. "You're like me, right? Telepathic, I mean." She grinned, placing a finger against her forehead. "I can tell. You could see me. Nobody else can when I don't want 'em to. But you, you could. That means you're like me."

Amu looked around, trying to figure out a way out.

"I'm not going to hurt you, and nobody else can hear," the girl said, rolling her eyes. "Trust me. C'mon, we're the same. How long have you been out here?"

"Um..."

"On the streets," she clarified, waving at Amu. "Though if you don't wanna tell, that's cool. Naomi says we've gotta be careful, but I think she worries too much. I can tell, right? And I bet you can too. You're a nice person, not like those people back at the labs. I just, like, want to know how long you've been out here, and—you wanna come with me? We've got snacks. Food. An entire house, actually! Betcha you haven't had a real bath in ages, and—"

Amu blinked, trying to process what was happening.

"Oh, sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?" the girl continued, speeding up. She sprang to her feet, the phone she'd been holding still in hand. "Naomi always says I do that when I'm nervous, and I guess I am. Nervous, I mean."

Amu stared, and the girl sighed. Amu took the chance to look at the girl—really look, instead of the quick glance she'd given her earlier. The girl was around Amu's age, tanned, with messy brown hair. Her eyes were a bright green, and they were staring intensely at her, the girl's expression earnest. Her clothes weren't 'punk'; they were simply worn, like she'd gotten them from a donation box, and the only thing she was wearing that seemed to belong was a pair of purple sunglasses.

"So, anyway, hi," the girl said, reaching out a hand. She paused. "My name's Akane, by the way. What's your name?"

Slightly deeper, Amu felt the edge of a heart that was worried, nervous—a little bit, just a little bit, desperate—but also filled with warmth, poorly hidden under fear. A desire to be liked.

And that was what decided it.

"Akane?" she said, taking her hand. "That's a pretty name. I'm-"

Akane's mind brushed against hers.

"Amu," Akane said, nodding. "You've got a pretty name, too." She frowned. "Oh, uh, you can call me Kana if you want. That's what Naomi and the others call me, and I almost forgot it isn't really my name, and... oh, you didn't actually say your name, did you? Um, well, you said it in your head, and—"

Amu blinked, suddenly feeling her face grow hot.

"—It was at the tip of your tongue!" Akane said, beaming. "And you're not angry, which is nice, 'cause Naomi is always yelling at me to not do that, and it's so annoying, but then she tells me it's important and that I can't do that to people and it's just, I'm sorry, I don't even mean to." She tilted her head. "And you're clean. Huh, that's odd. You're not with the scientists, are you? No, of course not. Look, just come back with me. Like I said, we've got food."

Akane looked expectantly at Amu.

"Um, I guess?" Amu replied, a little bit confused. Akane wasn't especially dirty either. "I mean, sure, but..."

She was getting pulled along.

———

A/N: Amu is good at getting pulled along. I'm not sure if that is a thing she ought to be good at, but she certainly is. Maybe this would be a good time to reevaluate the situation, now that Akane has stopped talking for two seconds.

[ ] Go along. Let Akane do the talking; she's good at it.

[ ] Clarify that you are not, in fact, escaping any scientists. Or homeless. Or… you're still putting your thoughts on Akane in order.
- [ ] And drag Akane back to your home, instead. She seems like the sort who'd go along.
- [ ] But go along anyway, to figure out what's happening.

[ ] You're not sure what this is, but you don't like having your thoughts read, and if Akane doesn't share your mother's sense of style then she's simply a delinquent. In other words, reject the invitation.
- Vetoed by Amu's common sense. Maybe in a different timeline.

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