Here's Chapter 2, everyone! It's a lot longer than Chapter 1, but I hope that's not a problem! A little Kish X Ichigo in this one.

Ichigo was standing in the middle of the city, skyscrapers towering over her.

There were thousands of people all squished together, like there wasn't enough space.
They were all standing still, expressionless.

For some reason she didn't notice before, but the sky wasn't visible. Because of the skyscrapers? She wasn't sure. Everything was a bit blurry.

The scene shifted. There was nothing in sight; it was all black. Ichigo's eyes were open, she was sure, but it didn't make a difference even when she tried closing them. Same color.

She tried walking forward, but it didn't feel like she was moving. Ichigo looked down. Is there a floor?

The second she looked up, she found the Mew Mews facing her, all of them glaring.

"G-Guys?"

No response.

Suddenly, Ryou appeared in front of the Mew Mews with his arms folded. He grew bigger, and bigger, and in seconds he was several feet tall.

"You failed." was all he said.

"Ryou!" She ran towards him and the others, trying to get closer to them, but no advancement was made.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She cried desperately.

The scene shifted again. Ichigo was back in the city, but now she could see the sky. It was a shade of red and gray. It terrified her, made her quiver, but why? Where did she see this color before?

This time, the people around her had aghast expressions on their faces. They were completely still. She heard thousands of different voices, as if the people were speaking even though their faces remained unchanged.

Among all the voices, one was the loudest. "Strawberry Bell!"

It sounded like her voice, but it wasn't. Ichigo wasn't even transformed. Where did it come from?

Then, the ground started trembling. The skyscrapers started to tumble down, and all the voices turned into deafening screams. Ichigo tried to scream as well, but no sound came out. She was drowning in millions of pounds of rubble, but it didn't feel like that. It felt like falling.

"Alien alert! Alien alert!"

Ichigo's eyes fluttered open and she jerked up, banging into something. "Ow!" Two voices yelped. One was hers, one was…

"Kish?!"

"Geez, Ichigo…" He groaned, rubbing his forehead.

Ichigo was in a bed, with Kish straddling her.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted at him.

"I was trying to wake you up!"

"You couldn't do that from the side of the bed?!"

"You'd think!"

So he tried that? Was she really that deep in her sleep? She sighed.

Then she remembered her dream. "Ugh…" she quietly mumbled with her head down.

"You were having a nightmare… You've been sleeping for 3 days. I was worried…"

He did look worried. But she didn't want to talk about it. At least, not with an alien.

"Just… leave me be…"

He knew she felt guilty. "None of this is your fault."

That tightening feeling of her throat came again. She didn't want to cry now, not in front of him. She shut her eyes.

Kish felt responsible for everything. He hated seeing her like that, and he wanted to help her, but how could he? Of course she didn't want to talk to him, he was a Cyniclon.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo."

She looked up at him. Why was he sorry? She didn't blame him. He nearly died trying to save her from Deep Blue, and here she was making him feel terrible. She had enough things to feel guilty about.

"No, don't be…" Ichigo let out, trying not to let any tears fall. "T-Thank you… for trying to save me that time…" She smiled weakly, but it was no use. She was thankful, but that's not what she was thinking about. Tears slid down her cheek.

And once they fall, they don't stop.

"It's all my fault! They were counting on me and yet…" She wept, trying to wipe her tears away as she wailed, but they just kept coming. "It was my attack that killed everyone." She said, referring to her dream. It may as well have been her who killed everyone. "All my friends… and Ryou… they were glaring at m-me…"

Kish has never seen her this upset. He didn't know what to say to make her feel better. What do you say to someone who just lost everyone important to them at once? He felt useless. He hesitated, but decided to embrace her.

Ichigo held onto his shirt and continued to cry for a little while longer.

She felt relief letting it out, and finally started to calm down, her weeping turning into low sniffling. "I-I'm sorry…" she quietly apologized and let go of the hug.

He grinned and shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

Now she felt a little embarrassed and awkward after throwing a fit like that. She looked for a different topic to talk about, and Ichigo remembered that Kish told her she was asleep for 3 days.

"I can't believe I slept through my birthday."

He blinked. "Your birthday?"

Nodding, she said, "It was yesterday."

The sound of a knob turning resonated through the room, and Pai entered.

The purple haired alien took notice of Ichigo's flushed face; she was obviously crying, but he didn't comment on it. "Kish, you know you shouldn't be here."

"Yeah… I was only checking on her. He looked him in the eye.

Pai knew what that look meant. 'Please don't tell Deep Blue.' He sighed and shook his head. "Ichigo."

"Yes…?" What could he want from her?

"Master Deep Blue has requested that I study your power and your DNA. I've been waiting for you to wake up. So now is the time."

They spent a few moments just staring at each other.

"I don't get a say in this, do I?" A rhetorical question.

No response.

Of course she didn't.

"Fine," she grumbled as she got out of bed. "Can I at least go to the bathroom first?"

"Don't take too long. There's one right next to this room."

When she left room, Kish turned to Pai. "Hey, Pai. Is it okay if I borrow your computer for a while?"

He raised his eyebrow. "Why?"

"I just wanna look a few things up. Just until you're done with Ichigo." He begged.

"Don't give it another virus."

"Hey, that was an accident!"

'So is lending you my computer,' he thought as he exited the room.

He leaned against the door with his arms crossed, waiting for Ichigo.

Several minutes passed.

'How long do girls take in the restroom?'

As if on cue, Ichigo opened the door to the bathroom and turned to Pai.

"Follow me," he said.

She did just that. Neither of them said a word as they walked down the hall to who knows where.

The hall was endless. They must have passed like 30 rooms. How big was this castle anyway?

After what seemed like an eternity, Pai finally stopped in front of a door that looked like every other damn door in this castle. "How do you differentiate between all these doors?"

"It's not that hard." Curt like always.

He opened the door and they walked in.

A lab. Ichigo looked around. It was brightly lit and looked very clean. White cabinets lined the walls, punctuated by floor-to-ceiling glass cases that displayed different equipment. The table had two sinks and gas hook ups at the center. Nothing else rested on its surface; the space was immaculate. It had the feel of a hospital, with everything being so organized.

But it was also somewhat creepy; there were tubes with animals she had never seen before. They looked frozen in time. It made her nervous- what was Pai going to do with her?

"Lay down here," he pointed to a thin white bed. Well, that's what she tried to focus on. But surrounding the bed was what she could only call death equipment. "Uh, is this going to hurt?"

He shook his head.

That didn't really make her feel better. 'I guess this is better than staying in that room with nothing to do other than think about everyone…' She thought as she approached the bed and lied down.

Pai hooked up stuff all over her body, mostly on her head and limbs.

Ichigo had no idea what the stuff was; it kind of looked like the equipment they use in hospitals to check your vital signs.

When he finished, he sat down in front of the computer near the bed and started typing.

Once again, no words were being exchanged between the two.

Ichigo couldn't handle the silence. It always made her think her breathing was too loud, and that any movement would cause too much noise.

"So, uh… What are you doing?"

"Downloading your DNA."

"Right."

Another decade of no talking.

She gave up and stared at the ceiling. Her mind started to wander and inevitably landed on the thought of everyone.

What would life be like now? How would she ever forgive herself for letting Deep Blue win? She didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to everyone. It was still a little hard to believe. The thought of never seeing her family and friends again seemed so surreal.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Pai's voice.

"Your green haired friend… What was her name again?" He continued typing and didn't turn away from the computer.

She looked at him. "Lettuce?"

"Right."

Why would he mention her? Did something happen between them?

"What about her?"

"Nothing… She was just interesting. She was nice, and actually tried to convince me to stop fighting before she ever tried to attack."

Ichigo took a few moments to respond. "…Yeah… She was the nicest one out of all of us. I remember she questioned why we were fighting you guys. She said we could come to an understanding, because we all had feelings." The memory of her made Ichigo's heart hurt. Why was Pai talking about her all of a sudden? "…Did you like her?"

"I'm finished." He disregarded the question, and unhooked everything.

As Ichigo climbed out of bed, the door pushed open.

"Ah, you guys are finished, yes!"

"Kish?"

"Koneko-chan! I have something to show you, come with me!"

Kish teleported Ichigo and himself out of the castle.

Ichigo gazed at the outside world. It was a wide open space with thousands of flowers everywhere. The sky was a bright, clear blue with no clouds in sight. She could see a giant forest was several miles away.

"When… When did this happen?" She was sure they were in the same place where the battle took place.

"Beautiful, isn't it? This is the work of Mew Aqua. But this isn't what I wanted to show you!"

"Then what did you want to show me?"

"First off is the Great Wall of China!"

"The-" But before she could finish, Kish teleported her and himself again.

Ichigo opened her eyes, and in front of her was miles and miles of stone and brick.

The Great Wall of China.

Her eyes widened and a small smile formed. "Kish… Why are we here?"

"Your birthday was yesterday. I wanted to get you out of the castle."

She shook her head in disbelief. "This is…"

"Yeah, the Great Wall of China!"

That's not what she was going to say.

He continued. "A lot of it is gone, obviously… But still, a lot of it is left! It was built around 2,000 years ago to keep the Mongolians and other invaders out of China."

Surprised wasn't a strong enough word to describe how Ichigo felt. "Where did you learn that?"

Kish blushed, a little embarrassed. "I looked it up while you were with Pai."

Ichigo smiled. For him to do all that, and to take her all the way here… Was Kish really a good person? She turned to the view. "It reminds me of a dragon."

"Wanna go to the next place?"

"Next place?!" Isn't this enough?!

"Let's go!"

This time, Kish brought her to Egypt to see the Great Pyramid of Giza.

"The Great Pyramid of Giza was built for the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu. It's the largest pyramid ever built, and it's made of 2.3 million stone blocks."

She laughed. "Do you even know what any of that means?"

"Not a clue!"

"A pharaoh is a ruler in ancient Egypt… They were treated like gods." She remembered that from World History class.

"A god, huh? That sounds really- Hey, wait a second! I'm the one giving the tour here!"

She suppressed a chuckle. "What's the next destination?"

"I think you'll like it!" They teleported once again.

Paris.

"The Eiffel Tower!" Ichigo's eyes shined, her little girl side coming out. She was in the most romantic city in the world.

It was damaged, but it was standing. It was actually one of the few things standing in the whole city. It must have been far away enough from Deep Blue's attack.

"The Eiffel Tower was the main exhibit of the Paris Exposition of 1889. It was built to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and to show off France's industrial prowess to the world."

"It's gorgeous. Paris must have been really pretty… I've always wanted to go here…" She thought of moving here a lot of times in the far future, possibly with Masaya. The thought of him made her sad, but she didn't want to think about that right now. She would have enough time for that in the castle.

Ichigo looked at Kish. "Thank you so much for this."

"Don't thank me yet, we still have two more places to go!"

Now they were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, looking up at the statue Christ the Redeemer.

"It was actually created by a French sculptor… I hear this person, Jesus Christ, was important to humans?"

"Yeah… Christianity was one of the biggest religions. Many people thought of him as God." She turned to Kish. "Do your people believe in anything like that?"

"We used to... But after some time, we kind of just stopped. I guess some of my people might still believe in it, but we had bigger issues."

She felt the same way. If there was a god, they wouldn't let this happen. At least, no god she would respect.

"Ready to go to the last place?"

She nodded.

It was New York City in America.

"The Statue of Liberty, right?" Ichigo asked. America was one of the places Ichigo would have loved to visit. She's seen hundreds of photos of the giant towers in New York, but most of them are gone now. At least this statue was still standing.

"Right. It was a gift to the U.S. from the people of France."

She faced him. "I can't believe you memorized all this for me, Kish."

He grinned. "Does that mean I get a kiss?"

"Do you know what the U.S. stands for?"

"Uh, no."

She beamed. "Learn what it means!" She said, as she ran inside the statue.

"Aw, that isn't- Hey wait!" He flew after her.

Ichigo ran up the stairs of the statue, not even knowing if this was safe, but she didn't really care, she was too giddy. That feeling quickly went away when she started getting exhausted from all the climbing. "How…" She panted. "How big is this plaaaaaace?!" She raged. 'I need to exercise.'

Kish flew next to her while she was struggling to climb the stairs. He laughed.

"What are you laughing at?!"

"That's what you get for not giving me a kiss."

"Ugh, you're a little-! " She started complaining, but he interrupted her by picking her up bridal style and continuing to fly up the stairs. "You're very loud, Koneko-chan."

"Who said you could pick me up?"

"Would you rather continue to climb the stairs like you were before?"

She pouted.

A few seconds later, they were at the top. Ichigo looked at the view.

"Wow…" She peered outside the window. There was a chilly breeze, and she could hear the sound of waves. Where there were buildings before, there were now hundreds of trees and the sound of their leaves rustling. Both of them were quiet for some time, but this time Ichigo wasn't uncomfortable with the silence between them. She felt relaxed. "Hey, Kish? I wanted to thank you."

"It's no big deal."

"No, it is. I've been really depressed, and it'll take some time to recover…But this was a big help."

"Really?" He looked hopeful. Just this morning he felt so useless, like he couldn't do anything to help make Ichigo feel better.

She smiled. "Yes, really. You did all this just for my birthday?"

"Well that, and well… I wanted to make up for the way I've treated you in the past."

She blinked. "I didn't know you felt bad about that…"

He nodded. "I decided, in the end, I just want you to be happy." After stopping for a second, he whispered, "…even if it's not with me."

She couldn't find the words. "Kish…" He really was a kind person inside.

The alien broke the silence. "Anyway, we have to go. Deep Blue doesn't exactly want me with you."

"O-Oh…" She said, caught off guard with the change of topic.

He gently took her arm, and before she knew it, they were back in Japan.

Kish was panting a little bit. "Man, I'm tired… Just gimme a minute…" He sighed, as he flopped onto the grass.

"Really? How come?"

"Because I carried you all the way to the top of that statue."

She was about to complain when he continued, "Juuust kidding, honey! It's just teleporting so much like that and so far away really tires me out."

"Oh."

Suddenly, a giant shadow was cast over the ground. "What…" Ichigo whispered as she turned around.

Kish opened his eyes and slowly got up. "Oh man…" He whispered.

Ichigo's eyes widened. There were two giant spaceships approaching.

The Cyniclons have arrived.

I've seen a lot of people have a problem with Kish's actions in the past, so I wanted to address it. In the end of the manga, he stated he just wanted Ichigo to be happy, and he thanked her for letting him love her, even when it was a hopeless love. In the next few chapters, it'll make more sense why he did all that. Also, I made Ichigo older in this fic. Right now she just turned 17, or 18, around there. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! Please let me know what you thought. :)