Enemy Mine?

Chapter 3: Return

Disclaimer/Author's Note:*Here it is, Chapter 3! I'm quite happy about this one being posted, because it means I'm now confident about my writing. I feel confident enough now to stop begging for good reviews, but it would still be nice to get some. Special thanks to my Beta, Alpha Flyer, and I say thank you for your support, and now, please enjoy the story!*

The remaining Mews had closed the Café until further notice. Ichigo was stranded on a spaceship somewhere with nobody but Kisshu to interact with. Besides that, the workload was getting too heavy for them to handle with only four people. They hadn't managed to contact them since that last day, but Ryou, Keiichiro and the aliens hadn't stopped trying to talk to their trapped friends again.

The Mews were walking down the sidewalk to the Café, discussing what they should do about Ichigo. Waiting was unbearable, but they couldn't do anything besides. Lettuce sighed heavily as she leaned forward.

"How do you think Mew Ichigo is handling this?" she asked the other three, setting herself down on the curb.

"I would probably be going slightly insane if I had nobody but an alien to talk to for a week." Mint plopped herself down next to Lettuce, her hand on Lettuce's shoulder in attempt to comfort her.

"The question isn't about you, Mint. It's about Ichigo. But you're probably right, nonetheless." Zakuro muttered, and Mint grinned at the praise. Pudding, who was walking in circles a second ago, spoke up.

"I only wish we could do something…" Pudding sighed.

"In the meantime, let's continue to the Café. It's closed, but they might need a hand." Lettuce stood back up, lifting Pudding off the ground and onto her back. Then the four of them continued on their way, unaware that they were being closely examined by the shadow of the mystery assassin, blue eyes gleaming with a dull, soulless light.

"Ichigo! Are you awake yet?" Kisshu's voice echoed through the ship's empty halls. There was no answer. Kisshu started to worry a little for Ichigo's safety. He gave another call up the stairway. When there was still no response, he began to make his way up the stairs to Ichigo's temporary bedroom. He opened the door, revealing Ichigo sitting on the floor hunched over the sword with her eyes fixated on the blade.

"What's wrong?" Kisshu walked up to Ichigo, kneeling next to her. She remained perfectly still as if in a trance. Then, Ichigo began to shake slightly, tears falling from her face and dropping onto the sword in her hands. Kisshu set his hand on her shoulder. Ichigo whipped her head around to face him, just noticing the fact he was there.

"How long have you been sitting there?" she muttered, her eyes puffy and her face as white as snow. Kisshu promptly ignored the question, replying with one of his own.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, wiping a tear from Ichigo's cheek. She pushed his hand away from her face, sniffling. Kisshu, however, wasn't giving up. He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. "Why are you crying?"

"I… I… I…" Ichigo stammered. "I miss my friends…"

"I miss my friends, too." Kisshu mumbled. "I don't have to, but in this situation… I can't simply think of myself. We don't know what happened to my abilities, or if it would happen to Taruto and Pai if they were to come here. If it did, we'd never get out of here."

"Do you think they're trying their hardest? I mean, really trying?" Ichigo gazed blankly at the sword again, trying not to look Kisshu in the eyes. It's just not fair, how much he cares about me! She thought to herself.

"They'd better be." Kisshu said bluntly, standing up. His hand was still wrapped around Ichigo's, so he pulled her up too, surprising her a little. She couldn't help but smile slightly at the fact that Kisshu was trying to cheer her up, even if it was in his own strange way. Lost in thought, Ichigo didn't notice Kisshu's grip loosening. As he let go, her hand fell to her side.

Ichigo? Ichigo… Hellooo… Say something! Kisshu's voice echoed through her head. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream took the place of thoughts as Ichigo collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

"Gah!" Kisshu shouted to himself, lunging forward to catch Ichigo and half-succeeding. Her head didn't hit the floor, but the rest of her did. He picked the rest of her body up, checking to see if there was anything wrong. Besides some bruises on her knees and upper back from the fall, it seemed she had simply fainted. Kisshu carried Ichigo to Taruto's bed and set her down onto it. Other than that, he wasn't sure what to do. Normally, he'd be able to have her awake in seconds, but without his abilities he was no better than a human.

Thinking this, his eyes fell to the scar on his leg. How Ichigo had managed to fix it (sort of) with limited knowledge of her surroundings.

Hmm…

Maybe there is something I can do…

Kisshu walked down the hall to the fountain. He grabbed a bowl and filled it with the water from the basin in the center of the room. He walked back to Taruto's bedroom with the water in one hand, trying to see if he could talk himself out of what he was about to do. Unsuccessful, he shrugged and continued. He reached the room and entered, walking up to the bed where Ichigo was lying. Then he dumped the water on Ichigo's face.

She sputtered, her eyes flying open as she sat upright. Ichigo attempted to shake the water off her face, when Kisshu threw her a towel instead.

"What the Hell was that for?" Ichigo yelled. Kisshu simply smirked, his pointy teeth showing slightly as he threw the bowl aside.

"I needed a quick way to wake you up." The smirk disappeared. "You had to have fainted for a reason, and I need to hear it."

"I… don't know what happened exactly." Ichigo rubbed her damp hair with the towel. "All I remember is sort of zoning out. A few seconds later I heard a very loud scream, then everything went dark."

"Hmm…" Kisshu murmured. "Did the scream sound familiar in any way?"

"I recognised it, I'm just not sure from where. I think I may have heard it a few times." Ichigo replied, throwing the towel back to Kisshu. The two of them stopped to think for a few minutes. There was absolute silence.

Where did that scream come from? Ichigo wondered to herself. Where have I heard it before?

Suddenly her cat ears popped out of her head. Making no effort to hide them, she ran up to Kisshu.

"That scream. That scream belonged to Mew Lettuce." Ichigo huffed, her hands gripping Kisshu's shoulders. It was evident that she was terrified, and very too.

"We should go check if we can contact them, see if there's anything wrong." He muttered, grabbing Ichigo's wrist and pulling her out of the room behind him.

"I can walk, you know!" she whined, trying to loosen Kisshu's hold.

"Then hurry up. We are in an urgent situation, are we not?" Kisshu told Ichigo as he released his hand and kept walking. He turned around, his everlasting smirk on his face. Ichigo rolled her eyes, following him out of the room.

It had been hours with no success. But that didn't stop Kisshu from attempting to re-establish communications with the Café Mew Mew. He was determined to get Ichigo back home, before he even began to worry about what would happen to him. Ichigo was starting to worry about Kisshu. He hadn't slept in days, pushing himself to the absolute limit. It had taken nearly an hour to simply get his attention away from the screen before him. Ichigo sighed. Kisshu looked awful, and she could tell by looking at him that something was going to occur.

"Kisshu," Ichigo said, her voice heavy.

"What is it?" he replied, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"You've been just sitting here for almost three days. You need to get some rest." Ichigo replied, physically turning Kisshu away from the massive screen.

"Yeah, I guess you're right… I am tired. But Ria should be here any minute." Kisshu sighed, standing slowly.

"Who is Ria?" Ichigo asked, confused. The name had never come up before, ever. Kisshu began to walk up the stairs, Ichigo, following him, was clearly expecting an answer.

"Ria is my little sister. She visits the ship every two weeks to see how I'm doing. The reason I've been there nonstop is because when I'm not trying to get you back to Earth, I'm trying to tell her not to come until we solve the problem. But evidently, communications are part of the problem itself. There's nothing I can do to stop her from coming." Kisshu explained, kicking the wall in frustration. "It's all my fault we're stuck here, and there's no way to know how to stop others from joining us without any means of contact!" Ichigo grabbed his wrist to stop him from injuring himself.

"Remember how that person managed to get off the ship before?" Ichigo asked, her voice in as calm a tone as she could manage.

"For all we know, somebody could've just teleported him off using outside sources." Kisshu groaned, setting himself down on the ground.

"But there's a chance, however small, that he got out by himself. Maybe your sister could help, if that's the case." Ichigo managed a small grin.

A small sound was heard throughout the ship. Out of instinct, Ichigo's cat ears shot out of her head as she listened for another sound. Kisshu had heard it too, and the tips of his ears were twitching slightly.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" A female voice echoed through the ship. Kisshu then stood up, replied "I'm coming!" and walked down the stairs. Ichigo crawled to the edge of the upstairs platform, watching what was happening below.

There was a small girl, about the height of Mint. She had white-blonde hair that reached her waist. It was rather messy. Her midriff was showing. She wore a skin-tight black top with sleeves that stretched down to her elbows and a matching pair of skin-tight black Capri shorts under a small beige tank top and matching mid-thigh shorts. She had white bandages on both her wrists and ankles, and her feet were bare. Her ears were long and pointy, like Kisshu's and her complexion was paler. Ichigo couldn't hear the conversation because there was too much distance for even her feline ears to detect, but she heard a greeting between the two of them.

Ria? Ichigo thought to herself. Probably…

Kisshu turned around to face Ichigo. Ria turned around too, spotting Ichigo lying on her stomach on the upstairs platform. Only just then did Ichigo realize that her cat tail was out as well, and it was swaying in the air, causing the bell on it to ring out. Ichigo blushed a little.

"Who are you?" Ria called to Ichigo. She blushed even more as she ran down the stairs to meet her. Ria had the same golden eyes as Kisshu, Ichigo noticed as she got closer. Kisshu turned to Ria and whispered something in her ear. Ria then jumped up into the air, just floating there.

Ichigo had arrived at where the two aliens were conversing. Ria was still floating around as Kisshu grabbed Ichigo by the shoulders and began to shake her.

"Ichigo! We can get you home now!" He sounded exited and extremely relieved. Ria lighted down on the floor next to Ichigo.

"So you're the infamous Ichigo?" Ria grinned, a small pair of pointed teeth showing. "I'm happy to finally meet you. My name is Riana, but my friends call me Ria. I'm Kisshu's younger sister. The one that takes care of his duties while he's gone goofing off on Earth."

"I don't goof off on Earth!" Kisshu whined a little. "I have very important duties to attend to."

"That you peg on me…" Ria muttered. Ichigo giggled a little. "So. Do you always have kitty ears?"

"Ria, can we please focus on the more important stuff first?" Kisshu crossed his arms. "You can fly, but can you teleport?"

Ria closed her eyes and disappeared. Then she reappeared on the other side of the room.

"Excellent!" Kisshu said, clapping his hands together.

"And… you can do this because…" Ria moved her hand in a little circle, motioning for one of the others to finish.

"We don't exactly know why, but my abilities have been cancelled out ever since we teleported here." Kisshu replied. "We've only managed to contact Ichigo's friends long enough to tell them to warn Pai and Taruto away from coming here, and to tell them that we're safe. But I can't do anything else."

"Have you tried moving the ship?" Ria asked.

"YOU CAN MOVE THIS THING?" Ichigo yelled.

"NO, I can't! The engine seems to be finding any excuse possible not to function." Kisshu waved the two girls down.

"Then you need my help for real this time." Ria tapped her chin. "What's in it for me?"

Ichigo's mouth dropped. "Why can't you just help us?"

"Because Kisshu always asks me to do stuff when he doesn't really need my help." Ria shrugged.

"Okay then. What do you want in return for helping us out?" Kisshu groaned, rolling his eyes.

"You need to be home sometimes, too! You can't just hide from your chores on Earth and make me do them in your stead." Ria sniffed. "They're HARD!"

Ichigo wasn't really sure what to think. She saw a few similarities between the two siblings, and a whole lot of differences. Ichigo sighed and interrupted their bickering.

"I know exactly how Ria feels!" the two aliens stared at Ichigo. "My friend Mint doesn't do any work in the Café, she just lazes around and drinks her tea, and she only ever pitches in when there's a real emergency."

"That doesn't really solve anything, though." Kisshu muttered.

"I was only kidding, though. Sure, I'll help, but Kisshu has to be at home once in a while!" Ria complained.

Both Kisshu and Ichigo groaned, but they grabbed Ria's wrists anyway, and she teleported them off the ship.

Two things were for sure.

One, they were back on Earth.

Two,

Earth was a mess.

….

*Chapter 3 is finally finished! It was tedious, but delightful thinking up this chapter. I don't have much else to say but review, review, review! It really does help!

Bye for now =D*