So I was inspired to pick this story back up by a newfound friend and favored author. Thank you for inspiring me because I probably never would have picked this story back up without the inspiration to do it. Thanks!
Kisshu paced the cafe's floors anxiously. He couldn't believe what he'd heard when he got the news. He walked over to the table where all of his letters were placed and read over the latest one again. In his father's messy scrawl it described that he'd gotten back in contact with her after a while. He claimed she was okay and she was a coordinator now. Whatever that was. Kisshu didn't care at this point. His father didn't know what he did. Every minute he was on Earth now felt like the minute his sister was ripped away from him. He was having a hard time taking it.
But the other half of him wanted to remain on Earth. He was happy here. He had Ichigo as well as many others by his side. Even Taruto and Pai had stayed. Taruto and Pudding were friends. Pai could read and spend his time here as a real scientist. A geneticist; like Shirogane. He spent alot of time studying. Under a human disguise Pai actually was thinking of attending college. Kisshu didn't have the luxury of stressing about college exams or whether Ichigo liked him or not. He was just lucky like that.
No. Kisshu got to wonder about whether his sister was even alive anymore. What was happening to her? He had to know. It was going to rip him apart from the inside.
"Kisshu?" Mint's voice. He turned toward her. She was dressed to work in the cafe. "It's almost time to open. You should get up there."
He forced a smile. It wasn't hard but still fored. All he had to do was think of Ichigo. "Okay." She turned. "Uhm, Mint?" She looked back. "Have you heard from Ichigo?" Mint sighed.
"No. But she should be over him by now. That was two moths ago! I think she's set a new record for how long people can sit around their house and mope" Mint said, clenching her fist in annoyance. Ichigo and Aoyama had broken up two months ago. Nobody really knew why. If you asked Ichigo you got something melancholy and in gibberish and then she started bawling. Nobody wanted to ask Aoyama, least of all Kisshu even if he wanted to know the reason for the best news of his life. At first the mews had been sympathetic but it was time for her to move on. "She better show up for work today or I'll get her... personally" Mint said darkly. Kisshu gulped. He took a shaky breath and headed upstairs.
He had been working in the back as a baker with Keiichiro. The customers often complimented his food. Kisshu was used to doing alot of cooking. Plus, in the kitchen he didn't have to hide since no one saw him.
"I don't think Ichigo-san is coming in today either" He heard Lettuce murmur.
"That's it!" Mint said. He heard the sound of slamming and walked outside to see what was going on. Mint had jumped up and slammed both her hands on the table. Her face was pure fury. She whipped out her cellphone and dialed a number.
"Put it on speaker" said Zakuro. Kisshu didn't think that Zakuro would be interested in this sort of thing, it shocked him a little.
It ringed a couple times. "Hello...?" Said a sniffling voice on the other end. Ichigo. She souded like she was crying. Again.
"Are you crying?!" Mint demanded.
"Mint?"
"Are. You. Crying?"
"Not really... just sort of being sad." Hearing Ichigo sound this heartbroken almost made Kisshu want to cry. But it also made him want to snap Aoyama like a twig for making her like this. He wasn't some hot-shot fighter. But he could be lethal if he was mad.
"Come into the cafe. Today! Before I come over to your house and drown you - IN YOUR OWN TEARS!" Mint snapped the phone shut without letting her answer.
To everyone's surprise Ichigo did show up. She looked... gloomy. Her hair was something like a rats' nest but the wrong color. Her eyes were puffy and her face was red. She was just wearing a T-shirt and a skirt with boots. Thankfully Lettuce knew what she was doing when it came to hair and makeup. She took Ichigo into the back and made her look presentable. Her hair was silky and smooth. She had on her work uniform and Lettuce had made her face look alot more naturally colored with the aid of makeup.
Ichigo had gotten fairly good at faking smiles and she seemed normal. Ichigo walked into the kitchen. "Is the strawberry tart done yet?"
"Almost. I just have to put on the finishing touches." Kisshu said. He placed a strawberry on top of the tart. "Done." He brought it over to Ichigo. He frowned. "You know Ichigo you should learn to smile a bit more naturally. I like the way you smile; when it's genuine" Kisshu said. He got a much less sad smile.
"Better?"
"Much better. But Ichigo, I wouldn't fret over someone like him for too long. So he was one bad seed. There are plenty of fish in the sea" Kisshu reasoned. Ichigo sighed.
"I know. My mom says that your first love is the hardest one to get over. But I'm tired of feeling depressed. I'd like to be happy again" Ichigo said.
"That can be arranged" Kisshu said mischeviously. Ichigo actually smiled. For real this time.
"You know what Kisshu, you're right. And I should have listened to you. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course." As much as Kisshu wanted to take her by the hand to somewhere she could be happy he was smarter than to just whisk her off during work. No matter how fun it would be. He'd get her yet; but he wasn't going to make a move while she was just starting to get over the last guy. He'd let her settle back into normalcy, then make his move.
"I haven't seen Ichigo smile like that in what seems like forever" Keiichiro said. Kisshu jumped; he had forgotten that he was there. "I can only hope it gets better from here."
Kisshu nodded. The sooner she got over whatshisface, the sooner he could capture her heart. The day ended. Kisshu was helping clean up. "I think we should tell the girls. They might be able to help" Keiichiro suggested. Kisshu frowned. He didn't like the idea of the other helping him solve his crisis. But, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed help. Ryou gathered the girls downstairs.
"Guys. We may have a new issue on our hands. Something much worse than what we've had to deal with. But this is more Kisshu's story than mine so I'll let him tell it from here" Ryou led off, gesturing for Kisshu to add on.
He cleared his throat. "Uhm, well... from what I've heard something bad is going on. I don't know all of the details but... my sister. She went missing a month after I left for Earth. Then she miraculously returned. I of course hear about all of this after the fact but I found something... disturbing." He shifted. "She never actually came back to the planet. She stayed where she was. Apparently she's a coordinator now. I don't know what that is but that's beside the point." He took another long, shaky breath. "I think someone is trying to kill her." Dumbstruck pretty much described what the mews' faces looked like.
"Do any of you know what a coordinator is?" Ryou asked. No one moved. Ichigo looked thoughtful though; like she'd heard that somewhere before but couldn't quite remember.
"Why do you think someone wants to kill her?" Lettuce asked.
"The night I opened those letters when I fell asleep It was completely dark but I could hear people. They were talking about April. They said she'd never go back so the only way to get it would be to take it, whatever it is, it could be a number of things knowing her, and if they take it... she'll die."
"So you were dreaming someone wants to kill your sister?" Mint asked.
"It didn't feel like I was dreaming it felt like I was... intruding on a meeting. Hearing something I wasn't supposed to hear."
"I've got it!" Ichigo said cerimoniuosly.
"Got what, Koneko-chan?" Kisshu asked.
"I know what a coordinator is!" Ichigo looked pleased with herself, a big improvement over nothing but sadness.
"Well out with it!" Said Mint.
"Okay so a coordinator is someone who competes in these contest thingies for ribbons. Once they get eight or something they can go to a finals like thing and compete for top coordinator. The one I saw was for something called the mini league. I thought it was fake but maybe it's not if she really is a coordinator. When you guys came to Earth we got a whole bunch of random channels that weren't there before. Last week I was still bored and sad so I clicked on one of the channels and caught most of one of them." Ichigo explained very fast. Kisshu had never wanted to kiss her more in that moment. But he restrained himself.
"Did you by any chance see a coordinator named April? I have a picture if you want to see what she looks like" KIsshu went through the files and letters on the table until he found what he was looking for. "It's old but that's her." The picture depicted a seven-year-old Kisshu and a five-year-old little girl standing with two adult cyniclons. The man was tall and lean with black hair and gold eyes. His skin was a tone darker than anyone else in the family, but he was still pale. Kisshu had his eyes and build but they didn't look much else alike. The woman was shorter with longer green hair in a braid over her shoulder and eyes that were such a beautiful blue color they might have been made of crystal. The five-year-old girl had wavy black hair and the same eyes as Kisshu. They both had their bangs cut the same way, she even had strips of hair tied in front of her ears. Exactly as her brother had it. Recognition flashed in Ichigo's eyes.
"Yeah she was one of the few first round coordinators I got to see. But the announcer person said she was from Snowpoint City. She looked almost exactly like that." Ichigo said. Well of course she wasn't going to say she was from another planet.
"Was the contest you saw live or a repeat?" Mint asked.
"I think it was live" said Ichigo. This day was getting better and better for Kisshu.
"Do you know where the contest took place?" Ryou asked. He was already at his computer. Ichigo had to think about it.
"Viridian City, I think" Ryou tapped a few buttons. They waited a long time to get results.
"Viridian City, in the Kanto region?" Ryou aksed. He had a map up and something about the mini league. He pulled a picture of the town.
"I didn't see the town. But that's probably the place" Ichigo said.
"How do we get there?" Kisshu asked.
"I don't think you can teleport there. Not only is it another planet it's in another dimension" Ryou said. Kisssu took back every single bad thing he's said about Ryou having access to finiding multiple dimensions through his super computer.
"Is there any other way of getting there?" April got there somehow. Kisshu needed to know how.
"I'll look into it" Ryou said, already tapping buttons on his computer. "It's getting late. You guys should go turn in for the night." They all nodded and left to change into normal clothes.
Kisshu gathered the files off the table and took them back with him into his room. All three of the aliens had been staying in the left over rooms in the back. There had only been two. He and Taruto shared a room and Pai got one all to himself. Taruto was completely absorbed in a video game. Pudding had given him a gameboy she didn't use anymore and some adventure game. Taruto barely noticed Kisshu walking in. He placed them on his bed and walked back out. He wanted to thank Ichigo properly. Now they knew where she was. As it turned out Ichigo was the only one still there.
She was drying her face in a towel; probably washing all the makeup off.
"Ichigo?"
"Hmmm?" She folded the towel and placed it back on the rack. "Oh, hi Kisshu."
"I just wanted to thank you."
"Why?"
"Because we probaby never would have found her without your help."
"Hmm. Well I think I should be thanking you."
"Oh?"
"I'd prbably still be moping aroud right now Iif it wasn't for you. I think I'm finally ready to move on." She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "So thank you, Kisshu. You're one of the greatest friends ever!" Friends!?
Kisshu tried to not look horribly depressed. "Oh, uh, thanks. Well, you should get going. You're parents will get worried if you stay here too long."
"You're right. See you!" Ichigo left just like that. Poor Kisshu walked back to his room and flopped onto his bed. He picked all of the letters up (after crumpling many by laying on them) and just pushed them on the floor.
"Something wrong Kisshu?" Taruto asked. Saving his game and looking at him.
"Yeah. Same old issue" Kisshu said bitterly. The treehugger was out of the way but Ichigo still was not interested in him. Kisshu wasn't giving up, not by a long shot. But he wasn't going to pretend it didn't bother him. He tried to not think about it and focused on happy memories of his sister, eventually driftiing off to sleep.
"La, la, la, la, la, la la la. La, la la la, la la laaa" April sang as Kisshu topped off dinner. He was nine years old, April was seven. April probably didn't mean to do it but all of the muscles in Kisshu's body were reaxed and he felt hopeful. Like many other cyniclons April had a power. She could sway emotions with her voice. "Kish, do you think papa will be home for dinner tonight?"
"Maybe, April" Kisshu said. He couldn't ruin her good mood. Kisshu knew that he would likely be working late again. Their dad worked late a lot. The kitchen was small with white furniture and appliances and sunny yellow walls. April was doing her homework as Kisshu cooked. He placed a warm bowl of soup in front of April, and ladled out a bowl for himself. He placed a cover on the pot then sat across his sister at the table.
"Wow. Look at the snow outside!" Snow was pretty much an everyday occurence. But this snow was fine and sparkly. Diamond dust; Kisshu remembered his dad calling it.
"Come on eat your dinner before it gets cold" Kisshu said. Then they heard the front door open. The siblings looked at each other then made a beeline for the front door.
"Daddy!" April yelled throwing herself at the older cyniclon. It was the man from the picture but he was a little older, his hair was beginning to gray. He still looked fairly young.
"Dad! I thought you would be working late tonight" Kisshu said. He was happy that his dad was home.
"If I worked late every night and left my two young children alone almost every day what kind of a father would I be?" Kisshu's dad asked, but he had a mischevious twinkle in his eyes and was smiling.
"Kish made dinner. Soup tonight" April said.
"He did? Well then let's eat." Kisshu's dad said. The trio sat down and ate dinner. April fell asleep some time later but Kisshu and his dad were awake. They were clearing away dinner. "Kish, I'm sorry that you have to take care of your sister so much. I wish I could be home more to take care of you guys." He sounded sad.
"That's okay, Dad. I don't mind." Kisshu was telling the truth. It had to be hard being a single parent raising two young kids. He'd never tell anyone but he wished his mom would come back. Then they could be a family of four again. His dad laughed.
"I know that you're very mature. But you shouldn't have to be. Go get some sleep, Kish. I'll finish cleaning up." Kisshu knew better than to argue. He just nodded and laid down beside April. As the younger version of himself fell alseep; the older version woke up.
"Kisshu?" Taruto was leaning over him, looking scared. Morning light filtered through the window. Kisshu sat bolt upright.
"How long was I out?" He asked.
"Don't worry about it. Are you okay?" Taruto asked. Kisshu didn't know what he was talking about. He rubbed his eyes and his hand came away wet. Oh, he had been crying in his sleep again.
"Yeah. I was just dreaming about my childhood. I'm okay" Kisshu said. Why couldn't he be a normal teenager dreaming about taking Ichigo out on a date or something? Kisshu got up, stretched and cleaned up the letters he had left on the floor. He shut them away in a drawer. He didn't know why he was crying; the memory hadn't been a sad one. He chalked it up to being homesick and decided to carry on. Means of transportation to another place entirely didn't just find itself.
So there you go. Sad excuse for a chapter end and crossover fic but oh well. Review please. It's kind of hard remembering what I wanted to do with this story since I lost the original file, but I think I remember the gist of it.