Bobcat: right! Hina's turn next!
Hina: yay…
Kukai: gee, you don't sound very enthusiastic!
Hina: I'm worried about what you're gonna ask me
Bobcat: don't worry! It'll be fine! After Hina there are two surprise guests! Betcha can't guess 'em!
Midnight and Kuroro: Bobcat doesn't own and of the shugo chara team-
Crystal and Star: but she does own her own characters-
Hotaru, Ran, Miki, Suu, Dia: and any future characters-such as Amu's fifth guardian egg which will hatch in chapter 32!

Shugo chara Amuto Romance Chapter 28

Q&A part 2: Hina

Amu and the others traipsed upstairs but Nagehiko lagged behind slightly. Alice had walked into the kitchen and Aleisha was sitting by the pond, swirling her finger in the clear water, "Aleisha?" Nagehiko said. She turned around, "oh, Nagehiko! What's up?" Aleisha asked her boyfriend, Nagehiko seemed nervous and couldn't meet her gaze, "Aleisha, during those memories…Bane said, 'I bet she doesn't even know what you really are' and you replied, 'I'm planning on telling her I'm a demon, but I'm not going to tell her THAT' and I was wondering…what did you really mean? Are you really even a demon or are you something else?!" Nagehiko said, his voice almost pleading. Aleisha was looking shocked and her whole body was trembling slightly as she stared at Nagehiko.

"AMU!!!!" Ran shouted as she burst through Kurumi's open window at high speed. Amu froze on the stairs and Ran collided with the side of her head. "Ouch! Ran! What's wrong?" Amu complained as she rubbed her sore head. The others turned around, "erm…go on ahead; I'll catch up in a sec!" Amu told them. The others nodded and left her. Miki, suu and Dia arrived a few seconds after, "A-Amu! Your egg's got a crack in it!" Dia told her, panting. Suu held the red egg out for her to look at. Amu took it and traced the crack with her finger, "she'll hatch soon" she whispered. Miki came forward, "Amu, you should keep her with you, she cracked when Nada came to your window, so we think she reacts with demons more than anything else" Miki said. Amu's eyes grew wide, "Nada was there?" she asked, lowering her voice, "yes, he looked in your window, saw you weren't there and then left, it was really strange-desu" Suu said. "Girls, stay with me for now, alright?" Amu said, and the four girls flew into Amu's chara pouch.

Aleisha had run inside away from Nagehiko without answering him. 'I can't tell him!' she thought to herself. She felt tears building up behind her eyes as she ran into Kurumi's bathroom. She slumped to the floor with her back against the door and held her breath until she was sure she wasn't going to cry. Eventually she turned to the mirror on Kurumi's wall and looked at herself. Her wings had stretched out again; they always did that if her panic, sadness, happiness or love level got too high. This time it was panic. Carefully she pulled her black shirt off of her back. This was why she ALWAYS wore shirts that came up to the bottom of her throat. As she stood there her eyes only cast a fleeting glance to the red rose on the side her neck and the thorny scar that went around it before looking down. Where her neck flowed into her chest was a strange tattoo. She'd received it after she'd first transformed. It was a Tiger and a dragon fighting. Tying them together was a black ribbon, looping and twisting around them. 'Just like Kurumi is cursed with the new moon, I am cursed as a vessel, harbouring two creatures in my soul' she thought as she traced the outline of the creatures gently. 'My true form…a Driger. If I told Nagehiko after keeping it a secret, he'd hate me! Not even Alice knows...' she thought to herself (A/N: Driger- it's a cross between a dragon and a tiger guys…) a knock sounded on the door, "Aleisha, it's me, I heard you come up, are you alright?" Kurumi's voice sounded calmly through the door.

Aleisha's head snapped up and she began retracted her wings into their smaller version…but too late. Kurumi used demon magic to unlock the door and came in as Aleisha wings only just became small again, "oh, hello Kurumi! Sorry, I was just checking something on my wings" Aleisha said, hugging her black shirt to her body to cover her mark even though she wasn't facing Kurumi. "Aleisha, I've know you for years, you're hiding something" Kurumi said basically, her face expressionless. Aleisha slowly turned around and decided to herself that if anyone was going to understand this then it would be Kurumi. She pulled the shirt away from where she'd been holding it so the tattoo-like mark on her neck shone clear. "I've been hiding something for the past few millennia Kurumi…from all of you" she said.

"Ah! Amu! There you are" Hina said as she caught up with the guardians in Kurumi's 'house proportioned' library, "we didn't want to start without you" Tadase said. Amu blushed slightly but not as much as normal, the thought of Tadase screaming out his confession of love for Kurumi still lingered in her mind. "Well, ask away!" Hina said. Kukai yelled a question first, "How long can demons live for?" "We can live forever under the right conditions, but if we feel like not living any more we can order our hearts to stop beating!" Hina answered. The guardians looked a little surprised, "seriously?" Amu asked. Hina nodded cheerfully. "Sorry I'm late" Nagehiko said as he slid into the room. "Anything else?" Hina asked, "Well…who would you say is the leader of you demons?" Nagehiko asked.

Hina thought for a moment, "hmmmmm, Aleisha is the oldest Demon out of all of us and has a very mothering personality, she's also the most capable when it comes to magic, wise about the old legends and lore, clever about the modern days and a strong fighter-if you can ever get her to, Alice may be the youngest demon but she has the most straightforward personality, is as perky as a kitten and depends more on Aleisha than anyone else, Kurumi has the boldest spirit and the most formidable enemy in hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting, she's the second strongest magic user, clever about the modern day and old time world and is learning a few different languages from Aleisha right now, Miku is a laid-back, conflict avoider who jus goes with the flow but don't underestimate him! He's powerful when he needs to be…as for me; I'm just the one who follows the crowd because she wants to! I'm not really much of a leaderish person and neither is Miku, Alice depends too much on others so it come down to either Kurumi or Aleisha!" Hina finally answered, "And you couldn't have just said that…?" Nagehiko pointed out, "it's easier to get if you know about their personalities first" Hina explained.

"I was curious, how is it that ALL of you demons could character transform?" Tadase asked, "For exactly that reason, we're demons" Hina answered simply.
"Why is your hair such a strange colour?"
"I don't know; something to do with my genes, I think. Other demons have weirder hair colours but they can all hide it, I don't want to"
"Why?"
"There's no point, if I'm a demon, I'm a demon, and if my hair colour's strange, then my hair colour's strange!"
"Do demons have different forms?" Nagehiko asked.
Hina paused for a moment, "we look slightly different when we enter the demon realm because we finally have magic flying around us again, and a few-really, it's only about a quarter of a handful I'm talking about here-of us-like Kurumi-have curses upon us, but apart from that the only other sort I know of is similar to a curse…it's called harboured vessel…but it's said to be just a myth. It goes 'the 3,000th demon born of two opposite realms shall be cursed with the ancient spirit of a Driger, if her soul has suffered true sorrow but also felt the joy of living with the elements' but no-one ever worked out what it meant…" she explained. "At first we thought it was Kurumi because she's born from a dark and light demon, two opposite realms. But after she was searched they couldn't find the Mark so the legend was forgotten again" Hina explained, "no-one ever thought it could be Aleisha because she seemed too unique already, and even though her father's a high demon we don't know if he's an opposite to an angel-especially an angel assassin" she finished. Tadase thought for a moment before speaking, "But has Aleisha felt true sorrow?" Hina froze, "or the joy of living with the elements?"

Kurumi stared in shock, "is…is that…TRUE?" Kurumi whispered to the creature standing in front of her. 'Yes Kurumi, it's true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I thought you'd all hate me' a mind message said. Kurumi ran forward and put her arms around the creature's furry neck, "you may be clever, but sometimes…you can really be an idiot!" Kurumi said. The creature looked surprised and stepped away from her, "we could never hate you! The others accepted me just fine!" she explained, the creature's eyes turned into soft golden pools of light 'thank you' she thought across to Kurumi, "you're welcome" Kurumi said. The creature's wings folded around its body and it glowed slightly, when the wings parted again the figure ran towards Kurumi and flung her arms around her neck, her fingers brushing the black feathers as she buried her head in the dark-light demon's shoulder. Tears were running down her face, "I'm so scared to tell him" she sobbed. Kurumi slid her arms around the sobbing figure's back and smiled gently, "just tell him when you're ready" she advised, using one hand to twist a lock of hair into a tight curl. The sobbing finally stopped as the dark, midnight-ocean coloured, teary eyes looked up at Kurumi's differently-shaded blue ones, "thank you Kurumi, please…if they ask, I don't care if you tell them how we met" Kurumi looked surprised, "are you sure? It's the only thing you've ever been ashamed of until now" she asked. The figure hugging her released her and placed her hands on her shoulders, "if I am to truly be happy then I must let go of the anger in my heart, and my past is a perfect place to start" she said. Kurumi smiled softly, "alright…I'll tell them…Aleisha" she whispered to the demonic angel in front of her.

Hina continued to answer simple questions about her and her life until the others had deciphered the following information:

Her parents were both athletic demons, as were her grandparents and great-grandparents…putting it basically, she was as pure a demon as they came. She also had two siblings, an older brother who was married to a healer demon and a little sister who was just starting 'school' and had a love of equine sports. Hina herself was a skilled 'flighter' a warrior who excels in aerial fighting. When Kukai had asked how she could be an aerial fighter with such small wings she had replied:

"Actually, your wings' being small doesn't make them any less powerful, and they're less likely to be caught in battle. Since we athlete demons have slightly stronger bodies than your average demon-and THEIR bodies are three times as strong as the strongest man!-it means that our wings can support us easily in flight. Because my speciality is gymnastics my body is agile with movement, then all you need is a weapon and you have the perfect flighter! In fact, demons with smaller wings actually make better flighters than ones with large wings! They're better for scouts or ground fighters"

And after that no-one else had thought of anything to ask. Hina pointed to the left wall with a knowing smile, "there's someone waiting for you next door now" she said mischievously. The others looked at her slightly worriedly before backing out of the room and heading next door. As they passed the door opposite the room Hina had been in Nagehiko stopped and pressed his ear to it…"-m going to tell him eventually" one voice said, "just wait till your ready, after all, this is a big thing! You being a D-" "Nagehiko, come on!" Tadase called. Nagehiko heard the voices had stopped so he went and stood outside the room with the others…
To be continued