chapter one
A woman dressed in a red kimono stood in the face of the distinguished clock tower of CLAMP SCHOOL. Her features hid behind a fan that shaded her face from the bright rays of dawn. By her side was a boy of twelve years, with a mop of golden hair and elfin blue eyes.
"This beautiful dawn shall bring us another wonderful day in CLAMP School." commented the dignified lady.
"Yes, Rijichou." the boy answered.
"Nokoru-san," said Rijichou as she turned to face the youth. "Have you been looking after your youngest sister?"
"Of course," he replied. "With the utmost care."
"Is she a handful?"
"Not really," Nokoru laughed. "Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of her and keep her out of any kind of danger, but it my duty to take care of her."
"Is it a burden on your behalf?"
"No, ma’am. It is an act of love"
Rijichou looked into the sincere eyes of the boy and smiled.
"That is good."
~---~
"Mika-san! Mika-san!"
What is it now? thought the girl in demand. She turned around and saw a large group of twelve year old girls calling her name.
"Mika-san, can you help us?" asked the girl with short green hair.
"Please?!?!!?" cried another.
Surrounded by the loud and wailing girls, Mika looked about her and sighed in despair. Even though the girls were three years older than her, Mika could see that her level of brain capacity was higher than theirs.
"Mika-san, we need your help!"
"Desperately!"
"Only you can help us!"
"How?" Mika answered. She wanted to make this short, for she had a meeting with her brother.
"Could you…"
"Could I?"
"Could you… give this note to your brother?"
"Wha?" Mika asked, as the girl pushed a pink envelope with a love heart on the back.
"And could you give him this?"
"And this?"
"And this?"
"And also this?"
"And could you tell him…"
The end of this exchange loaded Mika up with a stack of love letters, muffins and photos to give to her brother.
"Why do I always have to do this?" Mika cried in agony. "Why is always me? Why do they have to harass me everyday?"
She trudged along, arms full of gifs, on the white path leading to the Elementary School Council Office. However, on the way to the building, her foot got caught onto the only ditch on the road, and she, who has no sense of coordination, fell over with a thud, and dropped everything onto the ground.
"Aaahhhhhhh!" she screamed. "Why does this always have to happen?"
She glanced around, and saw that all of the letters, muffins and photos were scattered all over the ground.
"Oh no!" Should I pick them all up? Or should I leave them there. It’s not my concern, is it? She looked at her scraped knee caps and elbows; new bruises were coming up under her old ones.
Mika picked herself off the ground, and started to walk off. Yet stopping in the middle of the path, her conscious got the better of her.
"Arggh! I’m too nice," Mika grumbled as she turned around and snatched the gifts off the ground. "Nokoru and those girls should better appreciate it!"
"Do you need any help?"
Mika turned around and saw a boy of eleven years, with his hand full of books. His raven black hair was slightly messed up from the wind, and his bright orange/ yellow eyes were full of smiles.
"Do you need any help?" he repeated. Mika stared at him, dumbstruck.
The boy bent down, and picked up the rest of the presents. He looked at them in curiosity, but did not enquire.
"Takendo-sama!" Mika squeaked.
"There you go," Takendo smiled, as he handed her the gifts. "Are you all right?" He looked at her injuries in concern, and stood up.
"Y..y..yes!" she stammered. She also stood up, with her arms full of things for her brother.
"That’s good. Ja!" he said, and walked off.
Mika stared at Takendo’s back, as his form became smaller and smaller. He talked to me! She thought in rapture. He helped me! He asked if I was all right! I think I’m in love!
"AAAhhhhhhhh!!!!. Sugoi!" Then she realized that she had not thanked him. Oh no!
"Arigato Gazaimasu!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. I hope he heard me.
Inside the Elementary School Council Office.
The elder of the three boys stood at the glass window, peering out at the many students who walked along the white path leading to the building. His companions, a blue haired ninja, and a brown haired thief, sat busily at their desks, going through the mountain of paperwork.
"I wonder where Mika is?" asked the blond boy.
"Probably got lost." answered his blue haired friend. He then looked up from his paperwork and looked at the older boy. "Kaichou, you should concentrate on to your council work. We are still three days behind."
"Oh, I will, but after I know where my younger sister is." answered the boy who was referred to as Kaichou. "And also, Suoh, don’t be too harsh on Mika. We both know that she has a power to draw all kinds of trouble towards her." Suoh smiled at this comment, for it was the truth.
"Kaichou, Takamura-senpai. Would you like some tea?" piped Akira, the third boy in the room. His happy-go-lucky attitude, and ever smiling face always brought a sense of easiness when anyone was around him. However, looks can be deceiving, for Akira was also known as 20 Masks, the greatest thief in all of Japan.
"Hai." replied Suoh and Kaichou to the offer of tea.
"I’ll get it for us."
As Akira Ijyuin happily poured the green tea into the three small cups, and humming a happy tune, the door of the Elementary School Division Council door slammed open with a crash. All three turned to see who caused the racket, and saw Mika, hands full of letters and muffins and photos, with scabbed knees, a ruffled uniform, messed up turquoise hair and dripping wet from head to toe. However, this look was not out of the ordinary (except for the water), for she was always looking ruffled.
Mika then stormed into the room, and threw all of the gifts onto the large desk that belonged to Kaichou. All three boys looked at Mika, who was breathing heavily, and then at one another, baffled at Mika’s entrance.
"No..Nokoru," gasped Mika.
"Yes?" replied Nokoru.
"You had… you had better be grateful!"
"Why is that?" Nokoru asked, amused at his sister’s antics.
"Why? WHY?" Mika screamed, "because I’ve delivered all of these stupid letters and muffins and stuff to you, at the request of your brainless fans!"
"Thankyou very much, but I’d rather you not call those thoughtful ladies names."
"Whatever!" said Mika, and then poked out her tongue in a childish manner. "I bet you don’t care what I had to go through to bring them to you!"
"Tell me then, please."
"Well, at first, I was bombarded by those ditzy girls, and I just couldn’t stand their whining! So I agreed to bring you all of this stuff to stop them wailing. And then on the way here, I tripped over because of that stupid ditch, and got more scabs and scratches and bruises because of that. When I got myself up and picked up ALL of the presents, a soccer ball hit my head with full force, and I fell over again! and also blacked out for a couple of seconds and now I got a lump on my head. But it doesn’t stop there. To top it all off, the sprinklers malfunctioned and I got myself all drenched. And it only hit me! no one else got wet!"
Mika, however, edited out her meeting with Takendo. She would rather die then let her brother know about her crush.
Nokoru was highly entertained by his sister’s story. Mika was not the conventional person, and her stories always kept her brother and everyone else around her amused, for even though they were slightly exaggerated, they were true.
"Are you even listening?" Mika asked.
"Of course I am, dear sister. I should ring up the Maintenance department and report them about the malfunction in the sprinklers right away." Nokoru replied, trying to keep his twitching lips from turning into a grin.
"Oh," Mika had no answer tot this remark, and stood there silent, while her elder brother called the Maintenance department. She glanced around the office, trying to notice if there were any new additions or changes to the room. She observed that the flowers inside the antique vases were new (but then, everyday, Kaichou always asked for new blossoms from the Botany division) and that also, there were actually less paper mountains than the last time she visited (which was a few days ago).
"Mika-chan," Nokoru interrupted, "Are you ready for the dinner?"
Mika was shocked. "What dinner?" she asked in surprise. She could not recall anything of the sort.
"You know, the function for the funding of the … Museum at Tokyo Tower. We have been invited to the dinner party signifying the opening of the museum because of our donation."
"Ehh?? I forgot all about it!"
"Well, it’s good that I told you now, because we will be leaving in an hour."
"EEEHHH??"
"What’s the matter?" Nokoru inquired. His sister looked extremely distraught at the news of the upcoming event.
Mika looked around the room, searching for a convincing excuse. "I, I don’t have any clothes to wear." she replied.
"You must have at least one dress. How about your blue one, the one you wore to the opening of the …Theatre?"
"Oh yeah.." Mika said, distracted. She seemed to be lost in her own world. Nokoru looked at her, quite concerned.
"Why don’t you go and get ready. I’ll pick you up in fifty minutes, ok?"
"Sure." Mika then turned around and treaded out of the Council Room, eyes off in the distance.
"Mika-san was surely concerned about what she was going to wear." remarked Akira.
"No, she wasn’t concerned about that. It was something different all together. Or perhaps maybe not that different." replied Kaichou.
He looked at the direction his sister had gone, with eyes filled with worry.