As time carried on, I continued my training with the guardians. I was slowly getting better with my powers and skills. Sometimes, I would see only some of the guardians go off to fight, while the others would stay behind to watch over and help me. The more my power grew, the more eager I became to fight alongside them. I was so keen to see them in action, but there was no way they would let me go yet. How I wished I could be with them and fight by their side.

Then one day, Hikki approached me causally when no one else was around. "Psst....Hey Sakura!" He whispered. I turned to face him.

"You really wanna see the guardians in action?" He asked with excitement in his voice.

"Huh?" I glanced at him with a confused expression.

"Cus next time I go with the others to fight, I can bring you along! So you can watch fight when they're not looking." He suggested with a small smirk.  My eyes widened in disbelief. I stared at him as though that was the most ridiculous idea I'd ever heard.

"WHAT?!!! HIKKI ARE YOU CRAZY?!!! We can't do that!" I exclaimed. Hikki quickly shushed me.

"Don't worry! You won't be in the way and no one will notice us. I'm super fast remember?" He reassured.

"But why would you wanna do that for me?" I demanded.

"I know how much you wanna see the guys battle monsters. I was the same when I first started. I would sneak out and use my super speed to follow and watch them from afar. Luckily, they never caught me since I'm super speedy and all." He explained in a slightly proud way.

I looked away for a moment. "I dunno Hikki. It doesn't feel right." I cautioned.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you're safe. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. The guys will never know you left." He assured me.

I DID want to see them fight. It wasn't that I didn't want to trust Hikki, I did trust him. But going behind the guardians backs felt wrong. Though if I could watch them, I could possible gain more knowledge and confidence by seeing them in action. Plus, Hikki seemed pretty keen to show me and he said he'd look out for me. Surely it wouldn't be too dangerous right? After a minute of considering it, I finally nodded.

"Okay, when I'm next called to go along and fight, go wait for me round the corner of the warp room." Hikki told me. "If the others ask, tell them you gotta grab a snack or go to the bathroom or something. If the enemy doesn't look too dangerous, I'll come and get you alright?"

"Okay, got it!" I replied.

Later that night, we were all busy training together. When all of a sudden, the celestial map activated. Everyone went to the warp room obviously I followed them.

"What we got this time?" Matsuo inquired as we all headed towards the map.

"Looks like a bunch of them in a rural area. This isn't the deadliest threat, but it's still a big one. I'm sure just half of us can handle it." Raiden suggested.

"Are you sure? What about the other half of us?" Enyo asked.

"Stay here and continue to train Sakura." Raiden answered him. "We'll call again if we need reinforcements. So who's gonna go?"

Matsuo, Chiyu, Kira, Yuto and Souta volunteered to fight. 

"I wanna go to!" Hikki volunteered before he winked at me. I immediately knew what he was thinking.

"Alright then! No time to waste! GUARDIANS LETS GLOW!" Raiden announced.

The seven of them moved to the pad and immediately transformed. Hikki looked so cool as Lepus the Hare. His outfit was like an all in one sports thing, which was yellow/gold with blue streaks on in. He didn't have anything on his feet, instead he had like ankle cuffs around his legs. He also had hare ears and tail which made him look like a bunny boy. They were such cute features.

 As soon as they transported off, the others and started to get back to our own business.

"Well now that that's taken care of, shall we continue working on your skills?" Misa suggested to me.

"Err...sure!" I agreed. I went along with them, but I knew what I had to do eventually.

We went back to the arena to train for a little while. After a few minutes of training I decided to take the chance.

"Sorry guys I just remembered. I just gotta go....grab a glass of water! I'll be right back, just carry on without me." They just shrugged and let me go. 

I went back to the Celestial warp room and waited for Hikki. How long was I supposed to wait for anyway? Was he even gonna come for me? If something didn't happen soon, the others could get suspicious. Just when I was lost in my thoughts, I jumped when I saw Lepus came back in a sudden flash. It was quicker than I expected (well quick was his thing).

"Lepus are you alright?" I asked. We always had to refer to them with their Celestial names whenever they were in their guardian forms.

"Yeah, looks like we're dealing with a few rat monsters." He responded while panting a little.

"Rat monsters?!" I repeated alarmingly.

"Don't worry, nothing the guys and I can't handle. Come on....." He extended his hand to me.

"Are you sure about this?" I looked at him hesitantly. I sort of had a sinking feeling in my gut.

"Yeah it's all under control." He responded clearly. "Now quick, before the others notice we're gone!"

I thought for a second, surely just this once would be okay. Besides, I seemed to be in good hands. I furrowed my eyes in determination, as I took his hand. He pulled me onto the warp pad with him and we beamed off back to the place the guardians headed to.

I looked around, we were in a sort of wide open area, with a number of rocks, trees and bushes. 'Where exactly is this?' I wondered. 

Lepus then pulled my arm and led me behind a large bush amongst some trees.

"Stay down." he whispered. "And whatever you do, don't move from here." I nodded in comprehension. Next, I heard a loud crash in the distance and I flinched a little.

"I'll be back for you." Lepus said quickly, before bolting off like a flash of lighting.

I used my hands to push the bush leaves aside and I noticed the other guardians fighting some fierce looking rat monsters, the size of trucks. They had razor sharp teeth, spines on their backs, long wrinkly tails and menacing red eyes. They made these horrible squealing noises that make you wanna grind your teeth. They looked like lab rats that had been mutated in a crazy science experiment gone wrong. 

I then turned my attention to the guardians, who were facing them fearlessly. They looked truly amazing, as their outfits sparkled in the moonlight. They each had their own weapons too, that they could make appear out of thin air. I just knew they would be able to take these hideous pests down in no time. So I stayed down to secretly watch the show. I could also just about make out what they were saying from afar.

"Lepus! Where were you?" Leo demanded as Lepus zipped back to their side. I tensed up when he said that. 

"Sorry! I...Uh...went to do a perimeter check! Just making sure there weren't any more rats in the area." He lied. Leo started at him for a moment, before turning back to the rat monsters.

"Come on! The sooner we exterminate these vermin, the sooner we can get home!" Leo hollered.

"Roger that!" Everyone responded. Then all at once, they started launching a number of attacks at the ferocious rats. They managed to land some hits on them but the rats also had a secret weapon of their own. They opened their mouths and shot out powerful purple laser beams at them.

I got to see all the guardians different counterattacks.

Ursa made large gauntlets appear on her hands and she started landing punched on the rats. Next she transformed into a bear and started biting one.

Taurus charged at them in his bull form, before slamming them with his warhammer.

Aquilla flew up and shot a number of air arrows at the rats, which managed to pierce their skin a little.

Lynx used her stealth to sneak among the rats and whip them multiple times.

Lupus continued to slash them with his daggers, while at the same biting and ravaging them as a wolf.

Leo used his sheild to block the beams and use his swords to unleashed lightning powers slashes.

Lepus had what looked like a three prong boomerang and threw it at the rats to get their attention. It ricocheted off of them. He also ran round them multiple times while making faces at them, which was amusing.

"Taste this ya big ugly rodents!" Lepus hollered as he jumped up vigorously to launch his next attack. "LEPUS LIGHTSPEED KICK!" He yelled, while aiming a speed powered kick into each of them. This cause the rat monsters to become even more disoriented. All the guardians were certainly inflicting damage to the rats, but they still weren't gonna go down easy.

Unbeknownst to them, I was still watching from a far. It was terrifying, but also incredible. My mouth hung open in both shock and amazement. I quietly praised them each time they landed a hit.

They all looked so awesome! It was like I was watching an action movie, only it was all real life . I couldn't help but stand up or peek out at times to get a better look.

They struggled a little, but eventually they beat them all, except for one. This was the biggest one of the pack. 

'If only I could help them!'  I pondered to myself. I had just about got the hang of my power, I was sure I could do it. But I stayed put, like Hikki said.

"Come on guardians! We can take this overgrown sewer rat! We'll manoeuvre round, then attack all at once!" Leo called out. 

The others nodded in agreement. They moved around the last rat, before they all jumped up simultaneously to launch their final strikes. If I had a seat, I would so be on the edge of it right now. I couldn't help but stand up without thinking.

Suddenly, the rat snapped it's attention towards my direction! I gasped and transformed into a fox to hide myself more. Did it notice me? I poked my little snout through the bushes. Then to my horror, it shot out a gigantic beam out of its mouth and it was heading straight for me! 

My eyes widened in terror and my heart immediately stopped.'What do I do?!'  I panicked.

It was just like the time when that monster invaded my town. I was simply frozen in fear, there was no way I'd be able to dodge it in time.