Hello! This is my entry for Saba's Reflection's "Invincible" contest. Just to clear things up, Everything in italics are scenes from the psychic vision set two years in the future. And remember, the only thing the Mew Mew's can hear are the dialogue in bold, which she is actually saying outloud, the rest is going on in her vison. And everything in regular print is in the 'present'. And, yes, I know Oracles really are not musical phsycics, just pretend please? Please review and tell me what you think!
Making new friends had always been easy for Ichigo. And the new foreign exchange student was no exception to this fact. Though, this girl far exceeded the boundaries of what was deemed normal, with her unnaturally straight black hair and long, unkept nails. But, as most would tell you, the girl's oddest quirk was the acoustic guitar that never seemed to leave her side.
Naturally the girl's odd and quiet disposition quickly found its way into Ichigo's interest. For, as you know, the cat is a curious creature. Putting on her nicest smile she approached and befriended the girl. Deciding that the girl was amiable enough, Ichigo invited her to the Café Mew Mew to meet her other friends.
Finding it hard to resist such an earnest and enthusiastic offer, the girl in question agreed and calmly walked beside the practically skipping Ichigo.
Cheerfully, Ichigo introduced the girl to each and every one of the Mews as well as Ryou and Keiichiro, who brought cakes and other sweets for the girls to enjoy as they chatted.
After being introduced to the girl, Zakuro never took her suspicious eyes off the girl. Her and her guitar. This speculation, of course, did not go unnoticed by the girl, but she kept silent. During the second round of sweets, Zakuro finally voiced what she had been thinking the whole night, "Elizabeth-san? Are you an Oracle?"
The girl, who was in fact named Elizabeth, started at the question, but answered in a calm and collected manner, "Yes, but might I ask what gave you such an idea?"
Zakuro gave a knowing smile, "I couldn't help but notice, Elizabeth-san. Your guitar hasn't left your side all night, so I only assumed."
The other four Mews stared in confusion at their guest and their teammate. None of it made any sense to them and Pudding was the first to voice that, "Pudding doesn't understand, na no da. What's an 'Oracle' and what does it have to do with Elizabeth- oneesama 's guitar, na no da?"
Zakuro broke her gaze with Elizabeth to look at the puzzled face of Pudding, "An Oracle is a special type of psychic that voices their predictions with music, but the reason Oracles are so renowned is because they are never wrong."
Pudding looked at the older girl with innocent, wide eyes, "Never?"
Both Elizabeth and Zakuro nodded together, "Never."
Ichigo squealed in delight, "Wow! That's so COOL! Will you please do a reading for us?!"
"Oh, yes! Please?" chimed in the rest of the girls, excitement coloring each of their faces.
Elizabeth couldn't help but crack a smile at the girls' enthusiasm, "Alright, but I don't like to give readings to individuals. So I will tell one fortune for all five of you and leave you to only guess who the fortune belongs to."
"But why?" moaned Mint, "I wanted to know MY future!"
Elizabeth's eyes became distant and her expression blank, "Because if it is a bad fortune, an individual will try to change the course of their futures. Which, I can assure you, can only end in disaster."
"I suppose," sighed Lettuce, "You can't compete with that logic."
Elizabeth nodded, having returned from her distant state, "Right, then let's begin."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the oncoming vision show itself to her. Her eyebrows scrunched together in obvious confusion and surprise and she began to play soft, mournful chords on her guitar. The she opened her mouth.
"She put him out, like the burning end of a midnight cigarette. She broke his heart. He spent his whole life trying to forget…"
Two years into the future, Kisshu dragged his feet along the dimly lit sidewalks staring blankly forward, not really watching where he was going. Now a days this was not an unfamiliar sight, even to the passerby it was not uncommon to see the long-eared, green haired boy stumbling his way to the bar just after night fall.
On the inside, Kisshu felt empty. After Ichigo had shattered his heart for the last time after the final battle, his mind crumbled like many of the ruined buildings of Tokyo after the battle. And the little strip of sanity that remained from her last coldhearted blow, he drowned in whiskey in hopes of dulling the pain of his broken heart.
"They watched him drink his pain away a little at a time,"
Several hours later, Kisshu was drunk. He was drunk and he was dancing with a beach blonde tramp whose name had already slipped his mind. And, as brains sometimes do, his brain took advantage of his drunken state. Suddenly, the girl in front of him was no longer a tramp, but his beautiful, sweet Ichigo. She was decked in a wedding dress and love radiated in her eyes. And then in a flash, she was the tramp again. But, a moment later, she was Ichigo again. And then the tramp. Back and forth causing Kisshu to begin to feel dizzy from the constant switching.
"But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind, until the night…"
Kisshu tripped, stumbled, and swayed as he made his way home. In his right hand, a bottle of whiskey was still firmly in its place.
He fumbled with the key as he opened his apartment door. Once inside, he tossed the key into the room, not really caring where it landed. Kisshu fell backwards onto his bed, staring with unfocused eyes at his ceiling. Thoughts of Ichigo were running wildly in his head, taunting him; calling to him; killing his heart more and more with every image, every simile, every little detail he loved about her that he will never see again.
A small tear fell down Kisshu's cheek. He had never cried before he met Ichigo. He had been taught that crying was for babies, women, and wimps. And Kisshu was certainly not any of those, or at least, before he met Ichigo he didn't think he was. Another tear fell.
He sat up. He knew what he had to do. He stumbled his way to his small desk and clumsily grabbed a sheet of paper and pen and began to write.
After he had finished writing, he tucked the pen back in the desk and the note folded neatly into his left hand. He reached into another drawer in the desk, and pulled out a small black gun.
Climbing on top of his bed, he closed his eyes and imagined Ichigo one last time. He imagined the silky feel of her hair, the warm porcelain feel of her flawless skin, the shining innocence in her chocolate eyes. The longing ripped at his heart, wanting nothing more than to reach out and hold her delicate frame. Despite himself, Kisshu smiled and placed the cold barrel of the gun to his temple. Ichigo still in mind, He pulled the trigger, and a loud bang filled the silent apartment.
"He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger. And finally drank away her memory. Life is short, but this time it was bigger, than the strength he had to get up off his knees."
The next morning, Pai and Tart came up to Kisshu's door and knocked, "Kish? You here?"
Having received no reply, they decided that he was probably still asleep. And seeing as it was noon already, they thought they might as well wake him up.
Both were surprised when the door opened without protest. Crossing the dirty apartment, Pai opened the door to the bedroom. And, as they expected, he was asleep.
Tart smiled and dashed across the room and jumped on top of the 'sleeping' Kisshu, "Come on, sleepy-head! Time to wake-up!"
Kisshu did not wake up, nor did he move in the slightest. Tart started shaking him, getting desperate, "Come on, Kish… this isn't funny. Get up."
Kisshu still did not move. Pai fearfully moved to the side of the bed and took a hold of Kisshu's ice-cold arm, and felt for a pulse. Pai inhaled a shaky breath, "Taruto… Kish… Kish, is… dead."
Tart stared blankly at him for a moment, till tears clouded his vision to the point where he couldn't see the corpse in front of him anymore, "No… no… KISH! You can't just DIE!"
He pulled the corpse to his body in a hug, and Pai noticed something fall out of Kisshu's dead hand. He moved to the other side of the bed and picked up a nicely folded paper with the clear label of 'To: Whoever finds me'
Pai unfolded the note, trying with all of his might to fight back tears, and remain in an emotionless state. The note only had one sentence on it; six words. And, yet, those six words explained Kisshu's sudden death like no others could. For, written on the paper, were the words: I'll love her till I die.
"They found him with his face down in the pillow, with a note that said: 'I'll love her till I die."
And, for a long while, Tart cried holding Kisshu's corpse and Pai watched forcing back his own tears and grief.
But, as they both knew they would have to, they buried him. For his final resting place, they chose the cherry tree that he loved so dearly in his final years. At Kisshu's funeral, there was no priest and there were no mourners, just his two best friends, their shovels, and their tears.
"And when they buried him beneath the willow, the Angels sang a Whiskey Lullaby. La la la la la la la. La la la la la la, La…"
After that line, there was a short intermission where the guitar made the only sound in the room. The Mews sat in absolute shock. Whose future could be so horrible? All of them had tears streaming down their cheeks, and were too far in bewilderment to make a sound. Before any of them could regain their composure, she began to sing again.
"The rumors flew, but nobody knew how much she blamed herself."
It had only taken a few weeks for the news of Kisshu's untimely death to reach the ears of the Mew Mews. And, ever since, Ichigo had been cold, distant, and always seemed to have something bothering her.
The Mews had assured her time and time again, that she was not to blame for Kisshu's suicide, but deep down inside, she knew that it was indeed all her fault.
No, she didn't and had never loved the young alien, but she was chosen to be a Mew Mew to protect life, not be the cause of it being ended. And that is what truly disturbed her.
And, there, is where Ichigo's secret was first born. Her sweet escape: Whiskey.
"For years and years, she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath. She finally drank her pain away, a little at a time,"
Taking another swig from the bottle of whiskey she had stolen from her mother's alcohol cellar, Ichigo flopped down on the couch with a drunken hiccup. She placed the bottle on the side table and picked up a picture frame and held it inches away from her face, "Well, Hi-ya there Kish! How –hic- is heaven?"
"But, she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind, until the night…"
The picture of Kisshu, of course, did not answer back like she wanted it to, "You know, Kish. If you don't-hic- answer me, I'm just going to have to go to-hic- Heaven and make you-hic- talk to me."
With a drunken giggle she answered her own question, "Visit you in Heaven! What a-hic- splendid idea! I-hic- always wanted to see Heaven!"
Skipping and stumbling, Ichigo retrieved her father's gun and returned to her seat on the couch, and took one last swig of her whiskey. She held the picture in front of her and smiled, "See ya soon,-hic- Kish!"
She hugged the picture to her chest and smiled as she held the barrel of the gun to her temple. And then she pulled the trigger without a second thought or hesitation, joining her Kisshu in death.
"She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger. And finally drank away his memory. Life is short, but this time it was bigger, than the strength she had to get up off her knees."
Her parents walked into the house the following morning, to find their dead daughter on the couch face down holding her picture of Kisshu in one arm and her bottle of whiskey in the other.
"They found her with her face down in the pillow, clinging to his picture for dear life. We laid her next to him beneath the willow, while the Angels sang a Whiskey Lullaby: La la la la la la la. La la la la la la La…"
Elizabeth played her final note and let it hang in the air. She opened her eyes, now over flowing with tears, and said, "That's one hell of a future…"
The Mews sat, tears staining each of their faces all of them too far in shock to sob. It disturbed them beyond imagination to think that one of them had that kind of future. Everyone agreed to split for the night, claiming they were tired. But, no one slept a wink that night, not even Elizabeth.
As the saying goes: Life must go on, and so it did for the Mew Mews. With each passing day the fortune slipped farther and farther into the back of their minds, until it was like it never happened. And the war raged neither side knowing the tragedy to occur.
Two years later, the five Mew Mews, along with Pai, Tart, Ryou, Keiichiro, Elizabeth, and Ichigo's parents stood, all in black, around the newly dug grave at the base of the cherry tree. The priest talked, but no one listened. All lost in their own memories of Ichigo
"Does anyone have any words to say about Ichigo?" spoke the priest.
Elizabeth raised her hand. The priest nodded his head in acknowledgement of her, giving her permission to speak. Everyone turned to listen to what the quiet, odd friend of Ichigo's had to say.
She turned and looked all of the Mew Mews in the face and gave them a small sad smile with knowing eyes, "La la la la la la la. La la la la la la La…"
Pudding, Lettuce, and Mint's eyes all widened in unison and their breaths caught in their throats. It couldn't be… not Ichigo… Zakuro, on the other hand, only shook her head ruefully and let a tear slip down her pretty face. Because, as she knew quite well, an Oracle is never wrong.
Elizabeth felt a tear slip down her face as well, never breaking her gaze with the Mew Mews, "La la la la la la La. La la la la la la La…"
*tear* Review? Please?