I sniffed the air around me. This smelled wrong, it smelled like blood. Oh no, it smelled familiar. Oh, wait. It is familiar. It's Kisshu's blood. I spun around, looking for the green-haired alien boy. Then I saw him, lying there on the ground. I planted my feet into the pavement and ran to him. I felt the pavement scrape my knees painfully as I fell to my knees, but that was nothing compared to the boy in my arms. I hadn't seen him in years, and now I have to find him like this, bloody and severely wounded?
"Dammit Kish! You're not supposed to get this hurt!" I screamed at him, hugging him to my chest. I couldn't see how battered he was, but that was because I couldn't bring my eyes to look at what had to be a horrible wound. I could see blood though. There was so much of it.
"Oh well," he flinched as he took an unstable breath. His whole body froze, then his teeth clamped together as his torso jerked uncontrollably. I gasped when the blood started to flow from his lips too. His fingers gripped my shirt, causing my arms to tighten around him instinctively, he laughed softly and coughed. Then he moaned, but found his voice, "at least I'm with you when I die. I thought I was going to be alone."
"You moron! I don't want you to die!" I leaned over his broken body and touched my forehead to his. I felt my tears rolling down my eyes, and my forehead felt wet. I pulled back and saw blood all over his face. I felt a wave of nausea pass over me. He looked horrible. I didn't want Kishhu to die in my arms again. I couldn't do this a second time. "You already did that once, and I didn't like it then either. I haven't seen you in years, why do I have to find you like this?"
"Yes, and I came back, didn't I? Maybe that'll happen again," he said quietly. He made a sound that sounded like another laugh, and his body froze again. I brushed his hair from his eyes and kissed his forehead. I felt his blood on my lips, and that caused the tears to start. I focused on his face, I couldn't bear to see the rest of him. I didn't want to know how bad it was. I didn't want to know he might actually die even more than I already did. So, I stared into his usually bright eye. Now they were dull, and his smiling lips were in a tight grimace. He looked like he was in pure agony. I couldn't stand the look, I didn't want him to be in this much pain. No matter how annoying he could be, I didn't want him to die. There had to be a way to be some way to fix this.
"Is there any way?" I asked with a small sob.
"Why would you want to save me?" He asked softly, having to pause a couple times. His breaths were becoming more and more shallow. He sounded a little like his playful self, but at the same he sounded so close to death.
"Because I care about you," I murmured, taking his fingers in my own. He gasped, and I let them drop, realizing that must have hurt him somehow. He said something that sounded quite inappropriate under his breath, and I tried not to let out another sob.
"No," he said. His body was shivering now, "you couldn't. I don't believe you."
"You're one of my friends! Of course I care!" I said. I know I wasn't always nice to him, but he always did whatever he could to annoy me! It was like I was fulfilling his karma. I shifted a little, and he groaned. I looked around frantically for anything that could help us. Maybe I could call Ryou, or Keiichiro. They'd most likely know what to do, but I didn't know what would happen if I called and asked them to save Kisshu. I didn't know if they'd even help. He wasn't their favorite alien. He caused too much trouble.
"It hurts," he whimpered. It felt like someone had punched me in the gut. He was dying in my arms like last time. But now I wasn't going to let him. I didn't just want him to survive. I was going to make sure he did.
"I'm not letting you die Kisshu! You hear me?" I yelled at him. He seemed to be fading, leaving me forever. I wiped all the blood from his face, and looked down at him.
"Ichigo.. let me go…" he was barely breathing. The ones he was getting into his lungs were jagged, but he was breathing.
"Hell no! Now, get your act together and teleport to Pai!" When he didn't react I decided he needed to know I wasn't kidding. "Or I'll call Ryou. Pick!" I said, shaking him. I saw him grit his teeth together. That was a good sign. He still had strength left, hopefully enough to save him.
"Kitty, no. I don't want to," his voice was weak, really weak. He sounded like he'd given up the fight for his life. It kinda made me want to let him give up, but he was so not dying on me today, not this time. Not here in this park. Instead I stuck my hand into my pocket and grabbed my phone. I flipped it open, and started letting my fingers fly over the keypad. I texted Pudding, and Lettuce to see if the other two aliens were with them, then called Ryou. I was going to get in a huge load of drama for this. Masaya was going to be really angry with me, and Ryou was probably going to make me do extra work for it, but it was worth it. I bit my bottom lip as the phone rang. There was no way to know how Ryou would react to this. I shook Kisshu's limp body again. I heard him moan faintly, and it really scared me. He sounded so asleep.
"Stay with me Kisshu. Don't fall asleep yet," I said angrily. I shook him even harder this time and his eyes flashed open. He started gasping for what seemed like painful breaths. That seemed like a good sign, and I really hoped it wasn't something signaling how close he was to dying. If he died right now, I would never forgive myself.
"Stop it! It hurts too much! Just let me go!" He yelled, grimacing as he kicked his legs, trying to squirm away from me. His fist caught my eye, and I gasped as my head flew back. I was going to have one heck of a black eye tomorrow, but, what really got to me was what he said next. Such heartbreaking torturous agony in his tone made it impossible not to do what he was begging for. No, I could never kill him. Even when his voice is so broken, so desperate, so pleading."Please." I watched tears leak from his eyes, and just became even more determined to save him.
"Ichigo?" I heard from my phone. Ryou sounded angry. "Was that Kisshu?"
"He's hurt, really badly Ryou! I don't know what to do," I said into the receiver of my phone. Kisshu was struggling to move in my arms, his face was twisted in agony, and he kept begging me to stop it. It was horrible, and forced my tears to flow harder from my eyes. I couldn't bring myself to look at his broken body, so I looked at the sky. I felt the noise indicating the new texts on my phone, and felt a little hope. But when I opened the texts it wasn't anything good. Neither Pudding or Lettuce knew where the other aliens were. I was just about to angrily close the phone when Ryou started talking.
"What do you mean?" He asked hesitantly.
"I mean he's going to die if we don't do something, and for once I'm not going to sit here and cry about it! I want to save him!" I screamed into the receiver.
"No need to screech!" Ryou complained. I growled at him. I tried rubbing Kisshu's cheek to see if that could possibly help, and it seemed to calm him a little. Or maybe I was just deluding myself because I wanted so badly to help. Probably the latter. I texted Pudding and Lettuce to ask if they saw the aliens any time soon to find Kisshu, and come to get him. Then, I did what I didn't want to. I looked at Kisshu's wounds. His blood was everywhere. I didn't know anything about first aid except band aid administration, and if I didn't do something he wasn't going to make! First, I scanned his arms. There were scrapes, but nothing too horrible. Then, I caught sight of something at the top of his shoulders. I moved his shirt down a little and gasped at the wound. It made me feel sick to my stomach. I could easily see the flaps of skin that had been separated. The jagged wound ran from the middle of his collarbone all the way down to his hip.
"Oh no," I breathed.
"First of all, stop any bleeding you can," Ryou started.
"How?" I screeched into his ear again.
"Pressure! Find any fabric you can and press down on the bleeding! And keep him awake. I'll be there soon, ok?" He hung up when I didn't answer, and I threw my phone to the side. I set Kisshu down on the ground and stared at my blood covered hands. A scared whimper escaped my throat as I looked at my favorite alien. His blood was pooling was pooling around him, and there was so much of it! I looked at his face when his limbs stopped moving completely. His eyelids were closing.
"Kisshu!" I screamed, and I saw his lashes flutter.
"I..." gasp, "chi…" gasp, "go…" gasp. If I didn't have heightened senses, I wouldn't have heard him at all. I watched helplessly as his eyelids closed further. I slapped him, and when he didn't react I didn't know what to do, so I just pulled his shirt over his head and wadded as much of it together and pressed it to as much of his chest and stomach as I could. I heard him gasp, and looked at his pained expression. He looked weak, and so pale. I thought for a second, wondering if there was any way I could wake him up again. To make him more comfortable. I stared at him as I pushed even harder on his chest. It had to hurt, but he couldn't leave me. Not yet. I leaned so I could press my lips to his, and when I felt his breathing stop, and his heart stutter I jerked away from his lips. But, it started again, stronger.
"Kisshu you are the most annoying," I leaned away do I could press onto the wound even harder, and kissed him again "wonderful," I moved my hands farther apart and spread my fingers to get more of the wound, pushing down again and pressed my lips even harder to his, "beautiful person I know! I am not letting you make my life boring by taking you get yourself killed!" My tears came even harder as I pressed the cloth into as much of the wound as I could. I leaned back down and pressed my lips back to his. I felt the softness of them, and tasted his blood. His skin was so cold, and I sent a silent prayer to whatever deity is really up there that Kisshu doesn't die. "Please don't go Kish, please," I whispered, leaning away from him.
"Ichigo!" I whipped my head around and saw Ryou running towards me.
"Ryou!" I called back to him. "Thank god! It's worse than I thought!"
"Where the heck did he get these?" He gasped as he stopped behind me. He was panting, and I looked up at him with my tears his eyes widened. He looked horrified. "He's not-"
"He's still breathing, but barely. You have to help him!" I begged. Ryou nodded, and swept down to pick Kisshu's broken body from the sidewalk.
"Ichigo go find-"
"No! I'm staying with him!" I shouted. I reached down to pick up my phone and ran to Ryou's car. I slid into the back of the red convertible and reached my arms out to help Ryou lay his body against the car's seats comfortably. I pressed the shirt into the wound again, and flipped my phone open, and called Lettuce as fast as I could. When the ringing started I pressed my hand back into Kisshu's chest. His breathing was about the same, like he was trying to hold on. Thank god.
"Hey Ichigo, wh-" I heard Lettuce start.
"Lettuce I need a huge favor," I interrupted her.
"W-what's wrong?" She asked immediately.
"It's Kisshu. He's really, really hurt. Can you get the rest of the team to find Pai, or Taruto? I can't leave him," my voice broke at the end.
"Ok, I will. Be strong," then the line went dead. Hopefully this would all work out, but the chances seemed so low.
Oh Kisshu, you can't die. You just can't leave your blood on my hands like this. You can't end your life in this way, without anyone knowing how so we could get revenge for you. Please Survive! Please.
"How's he doing?" Ryou asked over the roar of the wind. I looked at Kisshu's face. It just kept getting paler and paler. His breathing was worse with every breath, and his body had quit twitching.
"It's not like he's getting better!" I shouted at the blonde high school student.
"I don't know if we should take him to the hospital. He needs a blood transfusion but I doubt he could take human blood," Ryou called back. He was driving dangerously, and I knew he would outrun the cops if he had to. If they caught us we were in big trouble. But he was obviously going to see this through to the end. Thank god. I couldn't do this alone.
"I don't care! Anything to help him," I tried not to yell at him this time, but my voice was still pretty drastic.
"Maybe we should go to the café," he said, sounding like he was thinking.
"I. Don't. Care," I growled at him. Kisshu was almost gone. I could feel his heart slowing on me. I wasn't letting Kisshu die. Not today, not on my watch.
"He needs stitches," Ryou said, and made a sharp turn, forcing my hands deeper into the wound. I saw his body jerk, and felt my eyes widen.
"Kisshu!" I gasped when I heard him moan faintly. When he didn't move more than that I went back to concentrating on the pressure. If he was moaning he still had time. "We need Pai!"
"Yeah, I think we do," Ryou agreed.
"Go to the café then. We can do what we can for him, and track down Pai with the computer. Get moving!" I ordered. I was the one who took the orders, but right now Ryou seemed perfectly fine with taking mine. Probably because if he didn't I would be really mad at him. He'd told me not too long ago that he never wanted to see my actually angry, so right now with me screaming at him he'd probably take me for ice-cream if I told him too.
"Got it. Hold on, I'm not going to slow down," he said, and I felt the car start speeding up. I had to be careful so I didn't hurt Kisshu again.
"Go as fast as you can!" I shouted back. I liked how the wind was whipping through my hair and thrashing my hair against my face.
"I'll try. Try to keep him hanging on," I felt the car jerk and I could barely keep from being thrown from being thrown to the floor of the car. I moved one of my hands and braced myself on the car seat. The rest of the ride to the café was difficult. I had to be really careful at every twist and turn. I didn't want Kisshu getting even more injured. He was going to live, and I couldn't let myself so much as think otherwise. If I started thinking negatively then I might lose this new determination bit by bit.
That was a bad thing.
I felt the car jerk to a stop, and looked up to see the café. Good. I looked down at Kisshu and winced at all the blood. Ryou and Keiichiro were going to have a heck of a time cleaning this up. Hopefully they don't make me do it. I wouldn't like that. It looked like nothing on Kisshu wasn't covered in blood. Everything was. It was horrible, and making me want to cry again.
"Damn, he's definitely a survivor," I heard Ryou's voice over my shoulder, so I whipped my head around to meet his gaze.
"Yes he is. Now, we have to get him inside so we can do something to get the bleeding stopped!" I said angrily. Ryou looked at me, and his eyes widened.
"Are you hurt?" He asked. I shook my head, and looked down at myself. I was covered in blood too. I gasped at the sight of me, but shook my head to say I wasn't hurt. My were covered by blood completely up to my elbows, and splattered up from there. My dress was utterly ruined, and it was one of my favorites. Too bad. I knew I probably had a bunch on my face, seeing as I've been wiping tears from my cheeks and I had kissed him. So, I was covered in blood too. The smell was nauseating, I didn't like it.
"No? Ok. I'll go get Keiichiro, and you two should do what you can to help him here, then bring him inside, and Ichigo," he put a hand on my shoulder, "we're going to do what we can to save him."
His eyes were soft, and his expression was grim. I nodded, and then watched him run into the building. "Hang on Kisshu," I murmured, pressing my lips back to his one more time, and hoped that he was going to be ok, "Keiichiro's on his way."
"Ichigo!"
"Keiichiro!" I called back, "hurry!"
"I am!" He called back, "are you willing to help me?"
"Yes! Anything!" I said as he came up to the car. He nodded, and I saw the kit he held in his hand and gulped. What were we going to have to do?
"Ok. I need you to go get me towels, and water. We need to get him as clean as we can. If you could also get my flashlight, that would very helpful," he said, looking down at Kisshu. I leaned over Kisshu and kissed his forehead.
"I'll be right back. Don't die on me," I said, then ran inside. I ran into the kitchen and got a bunch of towels, then one of the bigger pots and filled it with water and started to go back out. I grabbed the flashlight in my mouth as I tried not to spill the water. I walked swiftly back out, trying to be careful as I walked as quickly as I could. When I got to the car I handed the stuff to Keiichiro and he motioned for me to come into the car. He slid over and patted next to him on the ground. He'd pulled the front seats out of the car so there was a lot more room. I didn't know you could even do that!
"Thank you Ichigo. This isn't going to be easy. The chest wound definitely needs wuite a few stitches, and he's bleeding in quite a few other places. If you could wash him off and start bandaging wounds, that would be very helpful," he said softly. I nodded and got one of the towels wet. Keiichiro nodded towards the box and I pulled out antiseptic wipes and started working on his legs. I washed quickly and watched as Keiichiro set the flashlight on his shoulder and shifted his suspender so it would stay there. I quickly looked away when he started stitching. I started cleaning out wounds. I reached over and grabbed antibiotic ointment and put some on one of the wounds and bandaged it. Then wrapped the gauzy bandage around his bottom leg. I realized that the wound seemed to wrap around his leg, all the way up, getting deeper as it traveled up the leg. On both legs. It was horrible looking. I did my best to bandage them, and from what I could tell I did pretty well. Then I went to the other side of Keiichiro and worked on cleaning up his face and hair. The blood didn't completely come out of his hair, but I got as much of it out as I could. His head wound stopped bleeding, but I put a bandage on it anyway. His arms were fine, so I just sat there, trying to get the blood from his hair. I didn't want to watch Keiichiro stitch him back together. I kind of lost track of time as I murmured to him softly, so when Keiichiro spoke again I was completely surprised.
"Well… He's stable. He isn't getting any worse, but he isn't getting better. If we can keep him like this until we can locate Pai I think he'll be alright," he said.
"I'll go check on Ryou," I nodded at him and slid out of the car. I ran into the car and down the stairs. I poked my head into the computer room and looked for Ryou. He was sitting in front of the lone computer.
"Did you find them?" I asked hopefully. He nodded and put his hand over the receiver to call back to me.
"Yeah. Lettuce is moving towards Pai," he said, I sighed in relief at that. Thank god. Kisshu was going to be ok.
"Ichigo! I need your help!" I heard Keiichiro call. Maybe he wasn't going to be ok.
"What's wrong?" I asked, running to the car. I saw it immediately. The kimera. I pulled the power pendant to my lips and changed into my Mew Mew form.
"Stupid Kimera! Go away!" I yelled at the giant worm. I really didn't feel like saying the usual rhyme, and I don't think the thing was very impressed. It roared, pulling half of its form into the air, then charged at me. I blinked then jumped up and… well, hit it with my strawberry bell. I just whacked it, bringing it down to the worm's forehead. It was effective though. The thing just froze. I jumped back off his head, and did a back flip. I flicked my tail so I could balance as I landed on my feet. I felt the shock run through my legs, but I let my knees absorb the shock. I waited for the Kimera's attack, but it never came. It seemed to be retreating. It was odd, that's for sure.
"Ribbon Strawberry Surprise!" I yelled and watched as the pretty colors evaporated the Kimera's body. Masha appeared suddenly and ate it, signaling I could go back to Kisshu's side. I ran back and slid into the backseat. I watched Keiichiro clean the rest of the wounds on Kissshu's chest. Hopefully this guy was going to stay alive. I held my hands together and tried not to break my fingers as I waited. I'd done all I could, and now I was being forced to wait! It was so frustrating.
"Where's Kisshu you old hag?" I looked up at the brat. He wasn't Pai, but he'd do. He had his bronze hair hanging down instead of his usual pigtails. It looked messy. Really messy. Annoying kid!
"Right here!" I said frantically. The midget flew over and looked down. His face paled when he saw Kisshu's brokenness.
"What the heck did you do to him?" He yelled at me.
"I'm the one who went out of the way to save his life!" I yelled back. He looked surprised, but looked at Kisshu's chest again.
"What did you do?" He asked, touching the stitched skin. He pulled his hand back immediately.
"We stitched the wound together. It's something we do!" I said, touching Kisshu's face again.
"How did this happen?" Taruto asked, waving his arms around.
"I don't know! I just found him like this," I said sadly.
"I'm gonna get Pai! Don't move old hag!"
"Hurry midget!" I shouted at him, and he was gone. It wasn't long at all before Pai showed up. He took one look at Kisshu and his features became angry. He flew down and pressed his hand to Kisshu's chest. He nodded, then turned to me.
"Taruto said you found him like this?" I nodded, and bit my lip.
"Can I come with you?" I asked when he lifted Kisshu.
"Taruto," was all he said. What did that mean?
"Fine. You can come, but for just a little while,"