It's a windy early summer evening on the paths leading away from King Penguin Park back in towards the residential areas. The moon is just now beginning to rise into the sky, and people are walking along the streets of Tokyo. It's a good night for people to be out, and you'd expect there to be people out, doing all sorts of things.
Which is why it's strange to see a young man staggering down the sidewalk on an empty street, with wild brown hair and a nice outfit of a green jacket and button up shirt, both open wide at the collar, black pants and black shoes, trying to find somewhere quiet and silent to where he maybe figure out why he's suffering so much.
Everything on Kukai hurts. His heart aches, his muscles throb and twinge, his stomach is in knots, his head is pounding, and his ears are ringing. Whatever he'd been shot with had been magical, and part of him knew that if he just let the little Guardian Chara following behind him several feet back into his mind he'd be able to use his magic to blunt off the worst of the pain. Thing is, it's partially Daichi's fault he'd been shot, so he wasn't exactly in a talking mood with him.
A recess, off to one side. A small place where someone had once thought to build a little house or a shop, but it had fallen through and instead the paved ground had been walled off with an archway entrance, and little benches everywhere. Kukai collapses onto a bench and shudders all over, tears in his eyes as the pain comes and goes in waves.
She's nearly out of breath and beginning to think she's lost him when she spots a tiny chara disappearing around a corner. She charges on ahead, willing her legs to get to him before he vanishes into the city.
Fortunately when it feels like her lungs are about to burst, she spots him entering an abandoned lot. Taking a moment, she catches her breath, and now that she knows he's there, she also has to catch her nerves.
It takes only a moment, and a few are still flying about as she enters the lot.
"Kukai, I didn't mean-- That wasn't--" She sighs as Temari floats over to Daichi, large eyes just looking at him.
Nadeshiko stops just in front of Kukai, stooping over. She almost touches him, but stops with her hand just hovering. "What did she do to you?"
Kukai groans, stretching out on the bench, the pain enough to make him sick at his stomach, but it seems to be receding for the moment. He leans back against the wood, groaning and letting out a slow breath. It's starting to fade.
Then Nadeshiko follows him inside the lot. He starts to get up, to look at her, to think about her and respond. Every single bit of all of that causes him pain, aching and shuddering. "aaaAAaah!" He lies back, whimpering. "Oh it hurts.. it hurts!" He hisses, moving away from her hovering hand, the heat from her body almost burning him. "I dunno!"
Daichi is slumped over on one of the other benches, watching Kukai, openly crying at this point. He just looks up at Temari, then shrugs and rubs his eyes.
Temari floats closer to Daichi and wraps her arms around him in a hug. After all, yes the other chara did something stupid, but Temari still cares for him. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out."
Nadeshiko sits back on her heels and breathes out for a moment. "Okay. Okay, wait right here. I'm gonna...I'll be back. Temari, keep an eye on them?"
She's quick to exit the fenced off area, leaning against the brick wall of a nearby building to collect herself. It...takes longer than it normally would and its tenuous at best.
She walks a little bit more away, fishing out her phone and finding a very familiar contact.
When the line connects, Nadeshiko gives a breath of relief. "Amu-chan? I need your help." Calm, cool, collected. "Something happened to Kukai. He was attacked and--" Her voice cracks. "I don't know what to do. I didn't want this to happen."
Idly, she wonders how much abuse water proof mascara can endure.
Amu Hinamori is, by nature, a bit of a whiner. So as the heat and humidity roll in, the girl's temperament gets spicier. And the worst part is, even in the evenings, the heavy humidity keeps the heat in far longer than any human ought to have to endure.
Suitably, when her phone rings, Amu answers it sounding more like death than a princess. "Nnnnn. What do you want?"
Poor Nadeshiko didn't even do anything wrong.
Of course, then Nadeshiko starts to explain that she needs help, and Amu squints at the crack in the girl's voice. "Attacked?" Amu asks uncertainly. "Ugh, Nades, it's too hot for this," she grumbles. "Is he hurt, or what? Maybe he should go to the hospital? What's wrong with him?"
Amu's reaction...doesn't exactly help Nadeshiko's mood. "This isn't something that a hospital can fix! I don't know what's wrong with him!"
Her next breath almost brings a sob, but she manages to cut it off before it can go on. "No, it's okay, I'll think of something stay cool I'll talk to you later."
Dammit. She's Nadeshiko right now. She's not supposed to just start crying because someone got hurt.
"W...wh--Nades, wait," Amu says, fried brain finally starting to catch up with the situation. "Sorry, it's really hot and I'm not thinking straight. Where are you? I'll come over," she promises.
This is heard, of course, just as her finger hovers over the end button. It's not anger that had her almost hang up but pride.
She doesn't talk for a moment as she looks around, but there's an occasional sniff. Finally she rattles off the street corner, businesses nearby, and perhaps she's rambling by the end. "...that place we passed by one that had the cute skirt I said would look adorable on you but you didn't think so and we wound up getting ice cream instead."
Addresses, businesses, all go over Amu's head. It's nto that she's dumb, it's just that's not how she prioritizes. Cute skirt, however, "You mean the one with the purple flowers?" Yeah, that's how she navigates the world: by fashion.
Poor Tadase.
"I'll be there in like ten minutes," Amu says, "Sorry for being a bitch when you called." Beat. "It's just hot."
Then she hangs up the phone, and glances towards her charas. "Ran," she calls.
The little pink cheerleader bounds towards her and calls, "Hop, step, jump!"
Moments later, Amu bounds down to the ground in front of the shop committing an absolutely attrocious affront to fashion: she's dressed in nothing more than a pair of short pink shorts with grey stars all over them, and a pink sports bra. And still she's sweating, even with her hair up in a sidepony.
"Nadeshiko-chan?" she calls, looking around for her friend.
Nadeshiko must be impervious to the heat. Her skirt is long and her peasant top is bound at the waist with a cincher.
If she notices Amu's lack of undress there's no indication of it. After all, she's kind of worried about other things right now.
She's been leaning against the wall just outside where Kukai is. After all, Temari's keeping an eye out. It's bad enough Amu gets to see her have a melt down.
She rushes toward the girl, stopping short of hugging her. "Thank you for coming. I just don't--" She sighs and sifts her fingers through her bangs, upsetting their once immaculate style. "He's through there."
Nope, not getting out of it that easily. Amu may be sweaty and gross, but she wraps her arms around Nadeshiko tightly, hugging her friend. "Sorry," she reiterates her earlier apology. "Just be calm and let's go figure it out together, okay?" she asks, grabbing Nadeshiko by the hand.
And then she steps inside, dragging Nadeshiko with her if she has to, hand-in-hand. "Kukai-kun, what'd you do? Kiss a toad?" She's joking, hoping to keep the mood jovial, as she goes to try and figure out what's up with the sports star.
Kukai is still on the bench, one arm over his eyes, the other over his stomach, miserable. "I dunno... I got shot by a magic arrow or something. It didn't wound me or anything but I hurt all over now. And ever since you started talking everything's sort of doubled up." He opens his eyes for a moment, raising his arm to look at Amu, then lets out a heartfelt, aching moan and grits his teeth, managing to spit out a couple words through them. "Just doubled."
Daichi is slumped on the bench still, not looking up at Kukai or Temari or Amu or anybody. The little Chara looks just as miserable as Kukai, but maybe for different reasons.
Well, it's not that Amu's sweaty and gross, it's that Amu is hot and miserable. But when the hug is given, she returns it just as tightly. "S'okay," she murmurs.
There is, of course, a moment where Nadeshiko has to be dragged.
At Amu's toad comment, Nadeshiko does manage to grumble behind her. "Depends on your definition of a toad." Yep, her eyes are narrowed at Daichi!
And then Kukai's...well. For a moment she considers rushing toward him. The next, she contemplates running away. Instead, her hand is nearly vice-like around Amu's. "He called her...um." She closes her eyes to try and remember. "Shiniko?"
Amu stares at Kukai confusedly for a long, long moment, then shakes her head. "Weird," she tells him honestly, then steps closer and puts a hand to his forehead. She wrinkles her nose, then steps away and, hands on hips, stares at him. "Any chance I could actually get the whole story and not the summary? Can you describe the magic arrow or what was said when it was created or something?"
There is a faint, strangled yelp as her hand rests on his forehead, and Kukai pulls away, trying to keep her back since the pain hurts immensely. "Oh, gaaah! That burns! Please, stop!"
Kukai tries to wrangle his splitting headache into something resembling a coherent thought processor. "Uh... went to a thing that Nadeshiko invited me to. Ended up with a lot of bad feelings. Apparently it called this shadow witch Shiniko to us and she shot me with some kinda curse arrow or something. Just thinking about it all makes my brain want to pulse outta my skull..." He rolls over away from the two of them, shivering.
Daichi just pulls further back onto the bench, looking more miserable.
Nadeshiko murmurs to Amu. "He'd been acting weird. Apparently Daichi took love is a challenge seriously and was trying to make Kukai the best at...romancing. Pulling the strings." There may be a hint of a flavor of bitterness, but she ignores it.
Temari speaks up. "'Silly, silly boy. You shouldn't go around playing games like that and expect there to be no justice.'"
"Seriously?" Amu asks, then turns to Nadeshiko as if she's not entirely certain what she's hearing can possibly be true. With a sigh, she motions to Ran a second time. "Ran, c'mon," she murmurs, then flashes her fingers over the lock-shaped necklace she still wears.
"Atashi no kokoro, unlock!"
What little clothing Amu wears vanishes as a brilliant light engulfs the girl. Ran dives back into her egg, and Amu opens her arms to accept the egg into her heart.
"Chara Nari, Amulet Heart!"
Amulet Heart finishes the transformation, emerging in her cheerleader henshin with a wink and a smile. "Well," she says quietly, "Love is a challenge. But Daichi is probably not the best at making Kukai the king of love." She giggles, then asks, "Kukai, would you like me to try purifying you?"
Daichi perks up for a moment. "But Kukai's gonna be the best! I didn't mean to hurt anybody!" His cries seem to go mostly unnoticed.
Kukai opens his eyes again, looking up at the cheerleader magical girl, then nods, wincing again in pain. "Please? Something. Anything. This hurts so much. Everything hurts." He wants to say more, but it's just.. he's in pain. It's not conductive to long conversations.
When Amu changes into Amulet Heart, Nadeshiko steps back and to the side to give her space. Her arms fold across her chest as she just sort of looks over there. To a casual observer, she'd be accused of not caring at all about what's happening around her.
Temari pulls Daichi close, snuggling against him. "I know."
Amulet Heart just sighs and glances at Daichi. "Daichi, Kukai already is the best," she promises him. "Every girl in the city wanted him before this happened. Now look what you've done to him," she motions towards Kukai sadly. "Please promise you won't do this to him again," she begs the chara. "Let him experience romance all on his own. Stick with the sports you're so good at."
And then she makes a heart over that same locket, and a glow begins to pulsate there. "Negative Heart, Lock On!"
That glow builds up quickly, turning into a cascade of brilliance and light. Amu then thrusts her fingers outwards towards Kukai, extending the heart into a barrel. "Open Heart!" The light explodes outwards, engulfing Kukai and overwhelming him with feelings of happiness, confidence, warmth, and love.
Daichi just looks like he's been stepped on. He leans against Temari and tries to not fly off and just get lost, hiding his face in her kimono.
Kukai gasps as the blast of light and energy washes over him, shuddering and sitting up, closing his eyes as the positive, purifying wave pushes the curse out of him. Fortunately it hadn't had a lot of time to take root, but he had certainly suffered.
After a few moments he opens one eye curiously, then groans and stands up. "Wow. The pain's gone. I still feel like I've been training way too hard - everything is tense and stiff and overworked - but I'm not hurting anymore." He moves over to try and hug Amu. "Thank you."
Temari uses her long sleeves to hide as much of Daichi as she can. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."
"Tonight wasn't Daichi's fault." She's not sure if she's heard, though and she closes her eyes to soak in the residual cleanse.
If she knew of Daichi's desire to just fly off and get lost somewhere, she'd ask if he wanted company.
Her eyes are still closed when the cleanse is done, and her shoulders sag in relief at his declaration of feeling better.
"I'm glad you're feeling better." Her voice is quiet, but now leans more toward the tenor rather than the alto. This evening has been...more of an emotional wreck than she'd been expecting, and she'd been expecting a lot.
Amulet Heart separates from Ran with a pop, leaving the hot and sweaty Amu to hug Kukai back. "Sure," she says with a shrug. "I'm just glad it worked." She steps back and crosses her arms over her bare stomach, then looks Kukai up and down. "What happened anyways?"
Kukai lets out a small, unhappy sound, and sits back down on the bench. "So... maybe a month or two ago apparently Daichi decided, because of some stuff I had said, that I saw love and romance as a challenge that I wasn't going to try to deal with. Aaaand he decided that just wasn't going to happen, and he insisted that I face my challenge and be as good at it as I could be. Which turned out to be 'not very', since I've never done anything like this before. Y'know, I spend most of my time doing sports stuff."
He leans back, trying to put the events of the past few months into some sort of mental order. "So, every so often, when I'd be in a safe place, and things were calm, I'd hear Daichi in the back of my head going 'hey, that's a cute girl, go say hello!' and I'd... offer to buy her lunch or a snack, or ask if I could walk her somewhere, or something like that. And apparently somebody decided I needed to not be doing that." He very pointedly looks at the ground away from Nadeshiko.
"Of course, with everybody around me all at once and angry, Daichi panicked and assumed direct control with a Chara Change, and I started flirting with and hitting on everybody in sight, trying to 'win' or regain control or something, I dunno what. The bad feelings must've summoned Shiniko or something, because she popped up and shot an arrow at me made out of some shadowy power."
He thinks for a moment. "I remember seeing her raise her bow and about to release and thinking 'there are several people behind me. if I dodge, and I could probably have dodged - maybe - one of them will get hit. I love them all, and I have to prove that, so I have to take this.' I rolled to one side as much as I could after a second so it wasn't a direct hit, but it was closer than I would have ever dreamed. It didn't do any physical damage, but I've been in agony for the past... however long it's been."
He's quiet for a moment, then stands up, that familiar grin on his face. "So! It has been really nice knowing you two. I'm going to go be horrifically embarrassed in my room for a decade until this all blows over."
That somebody starts at being called out, at having her actions misinterpreted. "I--"
But she cuts herself off and lets him finish, because, well, she owes him that, right?
By the end, it's obvious when all of this started. And it's obvious that she'd allowed herself to get swept away when she should have been paying more attention.
By the time he's declared his intention to hide forever, she's putting on the performance of a lifetime!
She gives him a look that is both fond and chiding. "You're not the only one who's had things get interesting because of Chara Intervention. And baka. I did it because you were going to get hurt. If you kept flashing those pretty eyes at people like Sora-san..."
She trails off and raises her arms to the side before dropping them. "I'm just sorry about this evening. It did not end the way I expected. And...sorry for getting carried away by all of this. I should have been paying attention from the beginning."
See? She can do this!
She affects a look of curiosity. "Were you wanting to bring Daichi with you? If you need some space, I'd be happy to take him. Temari would love the company."
Amu's eyes narrow very slowly as the story continues on, and on, until at the very end, Kukai stands and tries to retreat, she crosses her arms angrily and glares at him. "I see how it is," she tells him. "Hit on every girl but me, then beg me to come save you, then run off and hide like it never happened."
Amu rolls her eyes, and all three of her Charas look very confused, for the moment. "Whatever, it's not like I'd want to be kissed by someone who was so promiscuous anyways." She raises her chin up irritatedly, then turns for the door.
Kukai sighs and looks at Nadeshiko and Amu. "Well.. I mean, I guess so. Eventually I would have flirted with the really wrong person and it would have caused a bunch of chaos. Still, though, I've never done it before. Usually Daichi and I get along really well."
He shakes his head. "You did the right thing, Nadeshiko. It wasn't your fault, it was..." And then Amu lays into him and he blinks. "Uh. Wait, what? Amu, you wanted me to flirt with you? I mean, I didn't flirt with anybody who I knew... well, no." He coughs. "I sort of -did- flirt with someone who had a boyfriend and he didn't take it at all well. There was a fistfight."
He sighs and then reaches over, patting Amu's shoulder. "So... I dunno, Amu. I guess the next time I try wrecking a bunch of people's lives I'll head straight for you." He eyes Amu for a moment, appraising the pink-haired girl curiously, then looks over at Nadeshiko. "No, I mean, he's ok. I'll bring him with me. Unless he wants to go with you. I should still be patrolling and stuff."
Daichi looks up at the lot of them, Charas and Bearers all, and then slumps. He looks even more embarrassed than Kukai did earlier. Kukai looks at the two of them for a moment, then rubs his head. ".... Ok, real talk. I don't want to just go home and go to bed. Nothing's fixed. It's not better. Everyone's still angry at me - hell, Amu's extra angry at me now. I don't know how to let it go."
Nadeshiko looks at Amu for a moment, no expression on her face. "It's not as fun as you'd think. And I'm the one who asked you here." Then, because her friend is hot and cranky, she tries -- tries -- for humor with an arch of her brow. "And you kissed him before I did."
Temari pets Daichi and whispers to him. "Do you want to come over? We can hide in my dollhouse. Or you can by yourself, if you wish." Temari knows how much a good hide-and-sulk can do!
At Kukai's real talk, she clenches her jaw before snapping. "I'm not angry. I already told you it's okay."
Amu clenches her jaw even further. "I'm not mad at you, baka," she says to Kukai. "I just think you're an idiot. You let it go by apologizing to the people you've hurt, obviously," she tells him. "And then you just accept that you screwed up, and put it behind you. Learn from the mistake. Go be a sports star again. Geeze, it's not like you're the first one to ever have a scandal."
It takes a few moments for Kukai to respond. He's a little busy staring at Nadeshiko. Both Nades and Amu seem to be saying the same thing - it's ok that he was an idiot, just make up for it. He looks at them both, then moves forward and hugs them both. "Thank you. You're right, I'll do what I have to do to put this behind me and make it a not thing."
He grins faintly. "Hey, my first scandal. Think there'll be more in my future? I mean, I hate to say it, but it was kinda fun while everything wasn't on fire." He squeezes both their shoulders as he lets them both step back if they want, as Kukai looks back at Daichi. "Daichi! Make you a deal. Go have a good embarrassed sulk night with Temari and then come back tomorrow and we'll get to work on getting back to normal." Daichi looks back up at him and then nods, hugging Temari and following her over towards Nadeshiko.
She takes her cue from Kukai and Amu both. She gives Amu a tight hug. "Thanks for coming."
Pulling back, she gives Kukai a two finger salute and heads on out. "Hey, Daichi. Ice cream's good for wallowing. You want some?"
Amu hugs Nadeshiko back, glares at Kukai, then sniffs faintly. "It'd better be your last scandal," she tells him irritatedly. "You're supposed to learn from the mistake." Then she rolls her eyes and looks to Ran. "C'mon, Ran. Let's go home," she says. And with a hop, skip, jump, Amu leaps away.