Sacred Child

    < too happy to be upset about being called younger >

   “ It’s no problem at all. I wouldn’t offer if it was. “ He wouldn’t! He’s not as nice as Satou and Mikale. Shugo couldn’t help but chuckle at her sudden enthusiam for the shared topic of interest. At least now he had an idea for how to get her cheerful again.

“Oh yes! Very much so! I’ve always been intrigued with the unknown and cryptids and all that stuff.” She replied, perking up moreso at the new topic. “When I was a child, I would always wander around looking for strange oddities and the like. You’re… practically a celebrity to me Yumeno-san.”

With age, her adventurous spirit had long gone dormant. Stomped out of her to pursue something more practical that she enjoyed. 

   “ Of course. It’s fun to meet someone with similar hobbies, for once. “ Shugo laughed. It would be nice to get a fresh pair of eyes looking at some of the material he had gathered too. When it came to researching Sacred Children, most of the history was now locked in old stories and myths. It was a struggle to tell what was true and what was just made-up.

“it’s quite ok Yumeno-san. I’m just glad I’m not the only one this confused. I feel so dumb when it’s just me.” Which happened more often than she liked. “It’s so strange, it’s like I walked into a legend…”

Uh oh, her love for legends and strange occurrences was starting to show.

Luckily, before she dug herself into a much deeper hole, she had something else to talk about.

   “ I’m not kind at all, compared to her. “ Satou, he meant. He was already thinking about her again. Hopefully she was doing well with Humra... It did make Shugo feel anxious to leave Humra in the state she was in. He wanted to be by her side and reassuring her too.

Hostage? Great gallopin’ geodude… 

“The pleasure is all mine Yumeno-san!” She smiled. Hey, a genuine smile, that’s progress! She added the sugar to her tea as she continued, “I do hope this isn’t rude, but I can tell! You guys barely batted an eye at all this.”

She took a sip of the calming tea and took a deep breath.

   “ Yes, I am. The Sacred Child of Ho-Oh. “ He didn’t mention Satou being a Sacred Child. Giratina had a lot of bad press, and Shugo didn’t want to risk making Yue uneasy... or risk making himself angry at her, should she not be a Giratina fan.

“Yes please…” She said, taking the cup into her hand and giving him a small smile. Her sweet tooth simply wouldn’t allow her to drink tea without sugar. “It was a mess. It all happened so fast too. Jirachi teleported us into this weird.. spacey place and there was this creepy looking person threatening Humra-san.”

“I was saying that they needed me to use their full power to help Humra, and something about Jirachi said something about redeeming itself I think?” She frowned as she strained her brain to remember more. “Yoshiya-san lost something precious to him as well. The creepy person broke his ocarina.”

Brr… Just thinking about that person sent chills up her spine. Something about her just radiated “danger” but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“T-thank you f-for the kind words Yumeno-san. I really appreciate them… A-and I’m sorry that our first meeting was so awk-”

!!

   “ His ocarina, huh? “ Shugo imagined that Humra was just as upset as Yoshiya about that. She was way too good of a friend in that regard. The idea of a creepy person who broke important objects as unsettling enough. He couldn’t imagine what someone like that would want from Humra or Yoshiya, except maybe to give them a dose of misfortune... and those kids didn’t deserve that.

   “ Well, maybe I can ask Ho-Oh about it... Hm? “

  One right, introductions. Shugo brought the sugar bowl over and laughed, returning to being a smiling and easy going stranger rather than a troubled and thoughtful one.

   “ Kobayoshi-san, huh?  It’s a pleasure to meet you formally! “ Shugo grinned, “ Nothing awkward about it! We’re a pretty chaotic family. My girlfriend and I? We met when I was being held hostage-! “

Goodness, this guy definitely had his stuff together. He must’ve seen some things to be so calm upon seeing what he just did. 

She wondered what in the world this family has been through in the past to react so.. well… organized. Sure, there was a bit of panic, but if it was Yue walking in on a wounded man, his bird-lady girlfriend and a complete stranger, along with some girl that called herself Jirachi… Needless to say, Yue would have called  the cops on the way to the hills she was running for.

“A sacred child… I’ve heard of them in my readings before, but I never would have guessed they were anything but myths…” If she hadn’t seen all the crap she did today, she still wouldn’t have believed him. “Jirachi thinks highly of me..? I can’t imagine why, but…”

“That raises the question of why they chose me…” Yue frowned and played with her hair as she spoke. “I was just told that someone named “I” wanted my help and that I was supposed to get some album, patch it up and give it back to the girl with the white hair. I did that, but.. it didn’t help…”

   “ I? “ Well that was a weird name if ever he heard one! And Shugo thought Satou was the world’s worst namer. He checked the tea, though really the only way to know it was done was to trust the clock and eventually taste it. His thoughts were wandering and he was just doing this to pretend he was still grounded in the situation. Who was I...? And how had they known to help at all?

    “ I wouldn’t say you were useless. Sometimes you don’t see the effect of what you’ve done right away. Doesn’t mean it was a useless effort. “ If he’d known she was a baker, he might have referenced her hobby as proof of this. For now, he was going to pour the tea and struggle to explain what he knew. “ I’m impressed you were about to do anything at all. It must have been a terrible mess if Jirachi got involved in it. You have a lot of courage for being able to act. You should be more proud of that. “

She took Shugo’s hand and got to her feet before wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve.

“Thank you Yumeno-san.” She said as she forced a smile on her face, “I do drink tea… And I appreciate the offer. I h-hope I can explain everything well enough…”

The brunette looked over to the three others involved in the incident as another wave of guilt washed over her. She was no help… If she was, this wouldn’t have happened…. She whimpered softly, unsure of how she could have done more.

No. Mikale wasn’t going to be happy to see her. No one should, and she doubted any of them would. The doubt immediately set in when her mother said those words, so the white-haired continued to gather the blankets, now thinking of Jirachi and Yue. Afterwards, Humra was determined to at least sleep outside.

Unlike the other times where she’d be inclined to hide her feathers and talons, she didn’t care this time. Instead her empty red eyes gazed at Satou for a moment before going back to work.

   “ No problem. It must have been a lot of trouble to bring them all back here... I might still have some of the cakes Mikale stress baked somewhere... “ Shugo guided Yue into the kitchen and sat her down at the table. It was meticulously clean, and he didn’t have any trouble getting the electric kettle set or finding a selection of cakes displayed on the counter. 

    Also easy to see: Someone’s guilt. Shugo paused his task to give Yue a more worried look. “ ... Sorry. We’re a pretty crazy family. I’m sure you’re more confused than I am right now. .. so if you have a question, then shoot. “

Ack! No-they were so close! Humra felt like she was definitely dragging him to the couch, though. Quite annoying considering she was doing this for him. But now he was collapsing. No-no-no, not again-! She winced, holding him up, 

“She’ll b-be home later..” She blurted out, at least getting him to sit on the couch. Slightly ignoring him again, the white-haired looked back to the crying Yue, frowning. 

    “ What’s going on out here?! “ Other than CHAOS. Luckily, Shugo was practically married to chaos magnets. He was the first one to come running down the stairs and into the front entry way. Reassuringly, Yoshi’s blood was on the floor and staining his pants leg. Also reassuring, the strange young woman curled up on the floor. Actually reassuring--

    “ HUMRA! “

    “ HUMRA?! “

    “ Blue it is then! And of course I’ll help. “ He was lucky that he knew a thing or two about hair braiding from Omichron and Theta, or this would have been as embarrassing as trying to make lunch on his own. 

“Cuz I’m really great too.”

Whoops. Those words slipped right out of his mouth without even a second thought. Gotta slow the roll on that ego someday. But today is not that day. And at the sight of the little bitty girl chirping and rushing towards him, Leon slumped to one knee and opened up his arms to welcome her into a hug.

‘Wait a minute if she’s the robot and Shugo had problems carrying her because of her sheer weight wouldn’t this be a real mistake in letting her hug me on account of stronger than human-’ Crack

  “ Ehehe! “ Sakura stepped back from the hug when he mentioned watermelon. Of course, she was a robot and could not actually eat it. That was part of why the family had decided to turn smashing it into a game: to get the robot daughters involved. Because yeah. That was plurral.

   “ Grandmaaa! Greatest Uncle Leon is coming! “ The bitty called as she darted down the hall again. Shugo gave Leon a very worried look once the little girl was out of sight.