Truth

Set about five years after the series.

What am I doing? Kisshu wondered, as he walked up to Café Mew Mew. I don't even know if she's still alive. And won't they just attack when they see me?

Sighing, he went up to the doors, and hesitantly pushed one open. He had changed his ears with one of Pai's little pills, but other than that, he looked the same.

Pushing on the door, he found it locked. Deciding to just get it over with, he teleported into the Café. Ryou was leaning against the wall, watching Lettuce clean. Their heads snapped up, and Ryou snarled, "What are YOU doing back?"

"I came to see if Ichigo was here," Kisshu said. "I'm not here to attack. Is she around?"

To his worry, Ryou started looking sad, and said, "Ichigo died in that battle."

With those words, Kisshu's heart shattered. He lowered his head sadly, and said, "Oh. I guess I'll be going; I just came to see her." With his head lowered, he didn't see Ryou's small smirk, or the fact that Lettuce was turning red. He teleported out, and landed in the sakura tree. What am I going to do without her? he wondered. I know it's probably pointless, but I think I'll go to her house. He teleported off again.

Meanwhile, back at Café Mew Mew: Two seconds after Kisshu teleported out, Lettuce had completely lost it. Ryou had NEVER seen Lettuce this angry, and it was starting to scare him as she screamed, "HOW COULD YOU!? HE CAME ALL THE WAY BACK JUST TO SEE HER, AND YOU TELL HIM LIES JUST SO YOU CAN KEEP HOPING ICHIGO-SAN WILL FALL FOR YOU!? YOU'RE EVIL, YOU HEAR ME!? EVIL! AND I REFUSE TO WORK FOR AN EVIL, HEARTLESS, JERK! I QUIT!" With that she stormed out, just as Keiichiro came up from the basement.

As the doors slammed behind the porpoise-girl, Keiichiro asked, "Jeez Ryou, what'd you DO?"

With Kisshu: He had gone to Ichigo's house, landing in the tree outside her window. Her room was neater than it had been, but she wasn't in there. I guess she really is gone…. he thought sadly. He was about to teleport again when someone called, "Kisshu-san?"

He looked down to see Lettuce standing under the tree. "Yeah?" he asked sadly.

"Ryou lied to you," Lettuce said. "Ichigo-san is still alive, but Ryou thinks someday Ichigo-san will fall for him, so he lied to you to try to get you to leave. He also lied to Ichigo-san and told her you were dead. She was really depressed about it, but since I didn't think you guys were coming back, I didn't want to get her hopes up. She broke up with Aoyama a week after you left, saying she couldn't take knowing she was head over heels in love with you, and still dating him."

"She loves me?" Kisshu asked.

"Yes," Lettuce said. "Unfortunately, Pudding and I are the only ones keeping her alive right now. She's very depressed, and can't stand how much she hurt you. And it doesn't help that she thinks you're dead. She stopped cutting her wrists a while ago, but now she won't talk to anyone except me, and occasionally Pudding. I guess it's because we're all going through the same thing. I miss Pai a lot, but I guess it's not as hard, because I know he's alive still, and he didn't die in my arms. And Pudding is still crying herself to sleep thinking about Taruto. Ichigo-san needs you, Kisshu-san. And I'll do whatever it takes to keep the two of you together. I really don't want a repeat of dragging her out of Ryou's lab because she thought she could poison herself."

"She tried to kill herself?" Kisshu asked, horrified.

"She didn't get that far, but yes, that was her intention," Lettuce said. "I'm going to call her, she needs to come see you."

"Where is she?" Kisshu asked.

"I'm not sure," Lettuce said. She took out a cell phone, and dialed a number into it. When she got a response, she said, "Ichigo-san, meet me at your house, I have a surprise for you. Okay, good." She closed the phone a moment later, and said, "She's on her way, so I'd suggest getting out of the tree."

Kisshu floated down, and said, "Thanks, Lettuce."

Lettuce smiled. "Sure," she said.

They waited in silence for a while, but then Lettuce said, "There she is."

Kisshu looked, and saw Ichigo running up the sidewalk. Then she stopped dead, noticing Kisshu. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. She hesitantly walked toward him, and he said, "I'm real, Koneko-chan."

"You're alive?" Ichigo whispered. "I thought-"

"Ryou lied to you," Kisshu said. "Lettuce told me what's been going on, and Ryou lied to me as well. I wasn't sure if you were alive either, that's why I stayed away so long."

Ichigo literally threw herself at him, knocking him backwards as she hugged him. Kisshu hugged back just as tightly as he felt Ichigo bury her face in his chest. He felt her shoulders shaking, and started stroking her hair as he said, "I'll never leave you again. I'm really sorry for putting you through all this, Koneko-chan."

Ichigo just hugged him. He heard her purring softly as he stroked her hair, and soon after, felt her breathing even out. He looked over at Lettuce, but saw that she had left. Sighing, he teleported into Ichigo's room, and put her down on the bed- or tried to. She had literally attached herself to him. He didn't want to wake her, so he sat down on the bed, then laid back, feeling her snuggle against him.

Suddenly he heard footsteps, and flinched. Looking at the door, he saw a woman who looked a lot like Ichigo. She looked startled, but then asked softly, "Are you Kish?"

"Y-yeah," Kisshu said.

To his surprise, the woman smiled and said, "I'm glad you're alive; Ichigo's been absolutely miserable thinking you were dead. She talked about you a lot to me, but about two months ago, she completely stopped talking to anyone but Lettuce. Are you staying?"

"I never want to leave again," Kisshu said. "Lettuce told me what's been going on, and that Ryou lied about me being dead to Ichigo. I really should have come back sooner, but I wasn't sure if Ichigo had survived."

"Ryou's the reason Ichigo's been in so much pain?" the woman asked.

"In some ways, but I should have come back sooner," Kisshu said. "But if Ryou hadn't told her I was dead, I think things might not have gotten this bad."

"Can you live here?" the woman asked. "I think you're the only one who can help Ichigo now."

"You don't mind?" Kisshu asked.

"Not at all," the woman said. "I'm Sakura, by the way."

"I'd love to live here," Kisshu said. Then he noticed Ichigo was stirring, and asked softly, "Koneko-chan?"

Ichigo sleepily opened her eyes. "Kish?" she asked.

"I'm here," Kisshu said. "Sakura says I can live here now."

Ichigo's face lit up. Sakura sighed, and said, "It's been a long time since I've seen you this happy, Ichigo."

"Kish makes me happy," Ichigo said.

Kisshu blushed, and Ichigo giggled. She untangled herself from Kisshu, and sat up, then said, "I'm hungry, what is there to eat?"

"I should warn you, I'm severely allergic to bananas," Kisshu said. "Do you have any?"

"Yes, I'll go get rid of them," Sakura said. "You two wait here."

Ichigo and Kisshu watched her leave, and then Kisshu looked back at Ichigo. "You're thinner than the last time I saw you," he said.

"I haven't been eating much since Ryou told me you died," Ichigo admitted. "And my mom had to stop making quiche for dinner; I had made up that nickname, and I couldn't even hear that word without breaking down again."

"I'm really sorry for leaving you alone so long," Kisshu said. "I'm never going to leave again."

Ichigo hugged him again. "Thanks Kish," she said. "Should we do something about Ryou?"

"We could kill him," Kisshu suggested.

Ichigo thought, then said, "We'd probably get arrested. Let's just beat him to a pulp, and I'll tell him if he comes near us again, he'll die the most horrible death we can invent."

"K," Kisshu said, smirking.

Sakura came in at that moment and said, "The bananas are gone."

"Thanks," Kisshu said. "We're going to go beat Ryou to a pulp, we'll be back soon."

"Because he's the reason Ichigo's been miserable?" Sakura asked.

"Yep," Ichigo said. "See you later."

Sakura sighed, and said, "Don't get arrested."

"Don't worry," Kisshu said. He took Ichigo's hand and teleported into the Café. The main room was deserted, but they heard noises in the kitchen, and went in.

Keiichiro looked up, startled, and asked, "Kisshu?"

"I came back," Kisshu said. "And Blondie lied to both me and Ichigo, so now he's going down."

"Is that why Lettuce was screaming at him?" Keiichiro asked. "I came up here because I heard her screaming, and she slammed the front doors after screaming at Ryou. Ryou wouldn't tell me what he did, though."

"He told me Ichigo died," Kisshu said. "And after she left here, Lettuce came to find me and told me what's been going on. Sakura invited me to live with Ichigo, so I'm going to be living on Earth now."

"Ryou told me Kish was dead," Ichigo said. "That's why I was depressed."

"Are you here to kill him?" Keiichiro asked. "He'll have a fit knowing Kisshu's living with you."

"We were just going to beat him to a pulp, but killing him sounds nice too," Ichigo said. "Can we?"

"Just do something about the body," Keiichiro sighed.

"K!" Ichigo said cheerfully. "Where is he?"

"The basement," Keiichiro said.

Ichigo transformed, then headed off, followed by Kisshu. They found the door to the lab locked, so Ichigo just kicked it down. Ryou looked up, startled, then snarled, "How did you two find out?"

"That's none of your business," Ichigo said coldly. "You're going to die for what you've done, Blondie. Thanks to you, my life for the past five years has been a living hell. That ends today." She took out her Strawberry Bell, and said, "Kish, let's combine attacks."

Kisshu smirked and summoned his swords. Ryou tried to back away as Ichigo and Kisshu combined her Strawberry Surprise and his energy ball, but he was too late. The attacks hit Ryou dead on, and he collapsed into ash. Ichigo let her weapon disappear, and said, "That worked well…"

"Sure did," Kisshu said happily. "Should we let Keiichiro know?"

"Sure," Ichigo said, smiling.

They went back upstairs, and found Keiichiro still in the kitchen. "We turned him into ash," Ichigo said happily.

Keiichiro looked at her, and smiled reluctantly. "I can't say that I'm not sad, but it's been a long time since any of us has seen you smile like that," he said. He looked at Kisshu, and said, "Thank you, Kisshu."

"For what?" Kisshu asked, startled.

"Coming back," Keiichiro said. "And making Ichigo happy again. All of us watched her basically withering away, and it killed us to see someone so happy turn into a shell of her former self. I should have seen through Ryou earlier, and noticed he was only keeping you in the dark about Kisshu in hopes that you'd get so depressed you'd turn to him, and then he could have you. I'm sorry, Ichigo."

"It's not your fault Ryou was evil," Ichigo said. "Kisshu and I should go home, I'm sure I'll see you around."

"Thanks, take care," Keiichiro said.

Ichigo smiled, and Kisshu nodded, then took her hand and teleported back to her room.

This is a one-shot, but I hope you like it. Please review, and I still take requests!