Utopia: 4

Chapter 4: No-one's Angel

Running through the city like the devil himself was on her heels, Kaiya could have sworn her feet were thumping to the beat of her hammering heart. Her mind was in turmoil and she could still smell chloroform, a little of which had dropped onto her uniform and was making her feel light headed. All the while her thoughts continued to wander back to the strange man and girl who had saved her in the alley. Who were they? And how had they known where to find her? Both at least looked human, but that wasn't saying much, a guardian could hide its wings if it wanted to. She'd seen Battré do it all the time. Mish had told him, in their first year of high school, that it made him look like a fairy, and that the guardian of a future famous musician wasn't allowed to look like a fairy.
The city was getting busy again. It seemed that whatever had happened on the outskirts hadn't affected the inner city at all. Kaiya was forced to slow her pace because of the cramped sidewalks and busy streets. She was still a little afraid of the laughing man, Sourire, whatever he was, may have escaped the man in white and the cat girl. But he was the least of Kaiya's concerns. Where had the sword come from? The closest Kaiya had ever gotten to a real sword was a museum exhibit in primary school. There was always the chance that she had picked it up without realising, but seeing as she'd been lifted off her feet for most of her encounter with her attackers it was unlikely. She pushed all of the questions to the back of her mind, locking them away for a time when she was able to ponder them. She had to focus on keeping the council satisfied with her performance of enjoying their fussing over her.
Café Valencia was actually not a café. Rather it was a small skyscraper filled with one huge, expensive restaurant. People, if they had the money, could rent out entire floors just for themselves. For some reason, it was always the place that Alexandra picked to hold a party. Kaiya suspected that it was because Alexandra just enjoyed fancy décor. Unfortunately, this meant that they were constantly forced to come up with increasingly elaborate schemes to smuggle Kaiya inside. The restaurant only granted entry to customers who brought their guardians along for the meal. A pain, but it provided massive entertainment for Zane, Mish and Battré who enjoyed a bit of 'danger'. Zane's guardian Cross just stood by with his head in his hands, helpless while his impulsive charge continuously broke laws set down by the Café owners.
The building stood on the corner of one of the main streets, close to the citadel, its entrance betrayed its height, and looked more like a flower shop than an expensive restaurant. Strangely, there was no lounging Michael waiting for Kaiya at the entrance. Passing the multitude of flowers and small counters of flowers that littered the entrance to the main restaurant, Kaiya looked nervously around for the bouncer. He was a great monster of a man, who's vocabulary consisted only of 'yes you may enter' or 'no entry granted'. He was nowhere to be seen, so Kaiya assumed that Mish had managed to distract him. But no. She was about to enter the main eatery when a massive hand, as big as her head flew out of nowhere and held her back. Kaiya groaned and turned to look up sheepishly at the newest obstacle in her quest to get to her friends. The man looked like he'd gotten even bigger.
"No guardian, no entry." He growled.
"What? But all of my friends are in there waiting for me!"
"So what? No guardian, no entry." He stated again.
Looks like he's been expanding his mental dictionary. "For my birthday party."
"Too bad. They should have chosen a different place then."
Kaiya scratched her head, irritated that Alex had actually forgotten that she couldn't get in. She decided to change tact.
"My guardian is in there waiting for me."
"No guardian can enter without their human, your guardian is not in there." He stated mechanically.
He sounds like a robot. Kaiya began to think.
She wanted to lose her temper at him. To yell at him, and cry and kick and scream just like a child. Instead she pulled out her phone to call Alexandra for help. No sooner had she hit the 'call' button than the blonde beauty flew through the doors and glided past Kaiya, completely ignoring her. Stopping in front of the bouncer, she began to reason with him, as diplomatically as was possible for a girl who was used to getting her own way immediately. The words she chose made Kaiya want to sterilize her eardrums. The bouncer stood there, impassive as ever and simply restated what he had told Kaiya. Alexandra was growing visibly more annoyed by the minute. Her porcelain features were changing to an angry red colour. She decided to try and sweeten him into changing his mind.
Secretly Kaiya was glad that she had been refused entry. Kaiya looked at her birthday in the same way that Alex would look at a particularly unpleasant bug. It was unimportant and needed to be forgotten. Snapping out of her thoughts, she heard Alexandra say "But you have to let her in! In fact, I order you to! Don't you know who I am?"
The bouncer just looked puzzled. Kaiya felt a twinge of sympathy. He must have thought that the blonde girl in front of him was bipolar. Kaiya herself was confused for several seconds. Until she remembered that Alexandra was the beloved one and only daughter of the High Chancellor and one of the five successors to the Ruling Council of Emeris.
The bounce continued to shake his head. Alexandra slumped, giving up. Kaiya went over to console her friend. Tell her that it didn't matter, and that she really didn't mind not having a fancy dinner at an expensive restaurant. Somewhere behind them the shop bell rang with a light tinkle.
In the midst of her attempts at consolation, a familiar but also alien voice made her stiffen in surprise. It cried out to her in greeting. "There you are! Sorry we're so late, we got held up with that stuff you got us to help you with…"
A hand clamped down on her shoulder and started to guide her to the door.
"Hold it." Came the voice of the bouncer, "who are you?"
"What does it look like? We're her guardians, stupid." Said the girl with the purple hair and cat ears.
"No human has two guardians, I've never even heard of such a thing. You may not enter."
The man in white turned to face the bounce and said in a cheery voice. "Well now you've heard of it and seen it," and then, taking hold of Kaiya's shoulders, he pushed her through the doors, leaving an astonished bouncer and tongue-tied Alexandra in his wake.
His companion poked out her tongue and followed.
Kaiya let herself be steered towards her friends, who had been conveniently placed on the side furthest from the entrance.
"Th, thanks" she stammered quietly.
"Twice in one day?" he replied, "you may as well hire us as bodyguards."
"Who are you? How did you find me?" she paused, "what do you want from me?"
The man chuckled. His companion was dancing around in a way that made Kaiya question her age. You'd think she's never been into a fancy restaurant. Kaiya thought.
"Well?" she hissed through her teeth.
"A man is entitled to his secrets, just like everyone. Just like you." He stated simply.
Kaiya turned her head to look at him. His face was very close to hers and she could see the orange stubble on his chin. His hair was the same colour orange. It was so bright she wondered if it was dyed.
"I don't have any secret." She replied, getting peeved.
"Really," the man smiled again. "Then why is it that you were being chased?"
Without waiting for an answer he spun Kaiya around to face her friends and pushed her forward roughly. Hopping to keep her balance Kaiya looked back and saw her 'guardians' seating themselves at an empty table. The girl waggled her fingers in a mock wave. Kaiya frowned.
Alexandra flounced past her, taking her hand and pulled her forwards. Mish stood and made his way over to them. He bent down so that he was on eye level with Kaiya and picked at her floppy bangs. "What happened to you?" he asked, "you look terrible…"
Kaiya swatted his hand away. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Sitting down at the table with her friends, Kaiya was bombarded with questions about why she ran away, who the strangers at the table across from them were and why she looked like she'd taken a stroll through a trash heap. She dismissed them all with a shrug. Soon tiring of her unwillingness to explain her actions, the subject was changed to the plane crash that had been on the news that morning.
It was a matter of interest purely because it was the first one ever. Nothing bad ever happened in Emeris or around its borders, it was unheard of. So what had caused it to crash? Zane mentioned that there would be a memorial for those who had been killed on the news that night. His father would be speaking, as well as several other people who Kaiya had never heard of. He invited all of them to come along, but Kaiya politely declined, with the excuse of spending the remainder of her birthday with her mother.
The food was brought out; huge piles of it, that Kaiya thought would be impossible to eat. She looked across the table to Zane, saw the look on his face and began to reconsider her thought, remembering that she had once seen him eat two whole large pizzas and then go swimming, come back and proceed to eat one more. Battré was already filling his plate to the brim with all sorts of exotic looking meats, even thought guardians didn't have to eat, and Mika was beginning to choke, because she had swallowed too much food too fast and had to grab a jug of water from a passing waiter to free up her airways. All the while, Kaiya sat at the table pretending to laugh with her friends, but feeling like the days events were slowly spiralling towards something even bigger and more out of her control. She could still feel the eyes of the man in white and the cat girl boring into her from behind, and she just wanted to go home and curl up in her big bed.
Realising that she was zoning out yet again, she tried her hardest to pull herself back into the present. Everyone was still discussing the plane crash. "What do you think will happen?" Gabriel was asking Zane, who she idolized.
Kaiya interrupted him before he could answer. "Can we please not talk about crashes and death anymore?" she asked quietly "I saw it on TV this morning and there was something about it that just felt…wrong." She finished lamely.
Battré and Cross both nodded in agreement and Ayame's guardian Chia said in his bored tone "Birthdays are cheery occasions."
Zane pulled out a small package wrapped in bright paper and laid it on the table. "In that case, I think it's time to open you presents."
Everyone else did the same, except for Gabriel, who Kaiya recalled, had already handed her a gift. She pulled it out of her bag. Mish, looking like an excitable puppy forced his package into Kaiya's hands. It was bigger than the others. "You have to open mine first." He grinned.
Not wanting to upset him, Kaiya set down Gabriel's gift and began with Mish's. It was a charm bracelet, with one charm, a music note. Unwrapping the rest, there were four others; a soccer ball, paint brush, surfboard and lipstick. She attached each charm, happy that her friends had decided on small gifts, not inconveniently large ones.
She was just about to put it on when it was plucked out of her hands. "Well isn't this a touching occasion."
It was the man in white.
Zane, Mish and both of their guardians leapt to their feet with exclamations of outrage, ready to help. The man in white held out his hand silencing them. Weighing the bracelet in his hand, he tossed it to his companion. "It's only fair," he began, "I've helped you out twice today."
"But-"
"Ah! I was thinking that cash would be fine, but THIS…" The girl waggled it. "This will do just fine. It's definitely worth my help."
"I never asked for you help!" Kaiya cried defiantly.
He grinned. "No, you didn't, but otherwise, you'd be lying dead in that alley."
The council members glanced at Kaiya.
"What does he mean?" Asked Battré.
When Kaiya ignored the question Zane took the lead. "Look buddy. You can't just take that because you believe you're entitled to it. If you've been put out because you helped her, which I don't believe you were, then I'm sure that if I speak to my father, we can compensate you."
"I'm listening…"
Zane dug around in his pockets for several minutes then pulled out a crinkled card. He handed it to the man in white. "You're a cop, yes?"
The cat girl's eye's widened, but she quickly covered her surprise with her ever-present smile. Zane, missing nothing said, "I saw your gun…only members of the defence force are allowed to carry them…"
The man raised his eyebrows and muttered; "Smart kid." Then glanced at the card that Zane had handed him.
His eyes widened and he snatched the bracelet back, all but throwing it to Kaiya. "My apologies Mr Hinchcliff, I'll most likely be in contact with you soon…"
He grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her away with him. Kaiya saw that she was clutching a gothic looking teddy to he chest. The man in white tipped his hat. "My name's Israel Diamants, this here is Rin." He said, indicating the girl, who winked. "No doubt you'll be hearing from us."
And with a final salute in Zane's direction they disappeared out the door.
Zane let out a woop of triumph as Mish high fived him. "One step closer to being a lawyer!" he crowed happily.
Alexandra snorted. "You only scared him off because you told him who your dad was… That's hardly a good lawyers trick."
"Shut it you, don't rain on my parade."
"Fine, I'll pour on it."
They were at it again, fighting like siblings. Ayame and Gabriel cam over to Kaiya, "Maaaan, that guy was weird!" Gabriel said, clapping her on the back. "But Zane fixed it all up for you, you're so lucky!"
"Then perhaps you can go and help him out argue Alex" Chia said dryly, "then you can help him, and he can owe you…"
"Wah? Don't be so rude Chia!" cried Ayame, blushing at her guardian's forwardness.
The two of them began to debate over varying degrees of politeness, Chia in his dry, almost bored tone and Ayame in her stuttering quietness.
Slowly Kaiya sank into a cushioned chair. She fastened the bracelet onto her wrist, promising herself that she would never take it off. It was the only highlight in a day of mishaps.
A hand on her shoulder told her that Mish was behind her. "Wanna go home?" he asked, "you look dead tired."
Kaiya couldn't even voice her answer, she just nodded, rubbing her temples between her fingers. "Okay, come on, let's go."
Battré, who had been busy saying goodbyes on behalf of Mish and Kaiya, re-joined them. There was a chorus of 'see ya's' and 'happy birthdays' and then the cool evening air hit them and she was free. Kaiya breathed a sigh of relief. Mish laughed, "you survived another year," he patted her on the head fondly, "well done."
Kaiya didn't bother responding. She just wanted to get home.
The evening was cool and clear. They could see the stars just appearing. Emeris was still busy with people going out after work. The lights of the city were just beginning to wink on.
In her haze of stress induced exhaustion, Kaiya lost sight of Mish and Battré, accidentally bumping into one of the night pedestrians. Muttering an apology, Kaiya went to move on, but was stopped by the man who she had walked into. He said something that she didn't catch, and then he shoved her to the pavement. The man crouched over her as a huge explosion rocked the street. The store next to the Valencia blew out. The roof collapsing and debris falling everywhere like rain. They stayed like that until the screams started, and then her 'saviour' stood. Looking up to thank him, Kaiya was shocked to see a pair of pearly white wings spreading from his shoulders, still sheltering her from falling brick and mortar. He reached out to help her stand and his mouth twitched into a humourless smile.
"My name is Asher." He said. "I'm your guardian."