Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa: Those with Wings.

Four: Me

Three weeks later . . .

"Isn't it just great, Muteki, you look strong enough to get out of bed now!" exclaimed Ryu sarcastically.

"The sarcasm is not appreciated, Ryu," I retorted.

He frowned. "I don't remember giving you permission to call me by my given name without any honoraries," he said without emotion.

I was a bit annoyed by the redundancy of what he said, but I let it be. I turned to him with a blank look on my face. "Neither do I remember giving you," I said.

That shut him up for a second.

He was right though, I was ready to get out of bed. I could probably know take this needle out of my arm, too.

I turned myself sideways, swinging my legs out and over. I sat up, planted my feet firmly on the ground, and steadied myself before cautiously rising into a precariously wobbling standing position. I smiled to myself, proud of my meager accomplishment.

"Mmm. Good job. You learned to stand again. But the question is, "I could hear the smile in his voice at this point, "Can you re-master the arcane art of walking?"

I stuck my tongue out at him before taking a small step forward and tripping over my own feet.

Ryu caught me before I hit the ground. "I guess the answer is no," he said.

"Shut it."

He sighed. "I just want you to know that you can't go and get yourself hurt again. For the military, you are a precious treasure, not just some pretty girl they accidentally shot. I know how delicate you are, if you get hurt again now, considering the situation, I am not sure what I would do," he said, "Promise me you won't get yourself hurt."

"I'll try . . . I guess."

My heart thumped as I realized what he'd said. The apparent meaning of what he'd said was backed-up by the position we were in.

He had more to say. "You, Muteki, are all that currently matters," he paused thoughtfully for a moment before hastily adding, "To the military."

The fact that he felt the need to add that was a dead giveaway that his thoughts were going in the same direction as mine.

I relaxed substantially.

Then I realized exactly what I was doing.

I yelped and jumped back, blushing.

That started off a chain reaction. When I jumped back, I tripped over a chair, which caused me to lose my balance. Before I had the chance to right myself, I fell.

I secretly hoped Ryu would catch me again.

But he didn't. I fell too fast, too suddenly.

The world flashed red as I whacked my head on the table. The world spun. How could I have been so stupid? I tripped twice in the past minute. I probably looked like an idiot, an idiot who couldn't stand on her own two feet. The idiot girl who forgot how to walk, that was me.

"Muteki? Muteki!" Ryu shouted. "Muteki, answer me!"

I told him he couldn't call me that without any honoraries. He should be calling me Ageha-Dana. Wait Rikuro-san, help me out before you go, I fell can't you see? I'll get up in a minute just let me sleep. Night is falling and the sun is going down. Maybe in the morning I can have some more chocolates. The stars are pretty aren't they? And they're finally coming down to meet me. If only I could reach out and touch one.

Then the heavy black nothingness came back.

I awoke to the sound of a steady beeping. It was probably a heart monitor, again.

Huh, now where have I seen this situation before? It was total Déjà vu.

I looked to my left and saw Ryu, asleep in the chair beside my hospital bed. He was asleep in a cute way, with his head resting on the bed.

I gently ran my fingers through his tangled brown hair.

"I'm sorry," I said so quietly it wouldn't wake him. "I am sorry I cause you all this worry."

I smiled to myself. I was happy in an odd way I'd never been before. It was a nice, peaceful happy, a happy that made you feel like you were in a world that meant something. It was a happy that was accompanied by a feeling of belonging, a feeling of right. Maybe it was even a feeling of love. I wouldn't know. I was not educated on these things.

Under my hand, Ryu stirred as he opened his eyes and looked up at me. "Muteki?" he asked sleepily.

"Yes?"

He sat up, noticing how my hand was on his head. "You're awake," he stated.

"Yes, Ryu, I am awake," I said, "What of it?"

He glanced around the room. "What time is it?" He asked.

I looked over at my vital signs monitor thingy-ma-bobber and read the time off of that.

"Really?" he said, leaning to get a look for himself. "The doctors said you weren't going to regain consciousness for several days. Muteki, you've only been out for a few hours."

I made a face. "I am not human. Don't expect anything they say to be correct."

He looked back to me. "They made that prediction based on the rate of which you healed from the gunshot wound. It was an accurate prediction for an Ageha. You were out the amount of time a human would have been out, Muteki."

I stared at him blankly. "So?"

He sighed. "I guess if you are not showing any concern, I have no need for it, either," he said, "And by the way, you broke your promise."

My promise . . . that I wouldn't get hurt again . . . I broke it. I broke it within ten seconds of making it. So now, I was not only an idiot, but also a jerk who broke promises immediately after making them.

"I'm so sorry, Ryu-kun, I won't break anymore promises, ever!" I exclaimed.

He looked startled by my sudden outburst. Then he smiled. "'Ryu-kun'?"

My face felt warm. "Uh . . . yeah. Sorry, Ryu-sama."

"Now I'm Ryu-sama."

"Okay, let's just keep it at plain Ryu."

"Now I am plain."

I glared at him. "Stop being difficult."

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll be good." He smiled at me. It was one of those involuntary really nice smiles you give when you're content in a peaceful way.

It was probably not unlike the one I had a few moments ago. If he was feeling what I'd been feeling then . . . I'm not sure what, something, definitely, I just didn't know what.

He leaned back in the chair. "Everything will most likely tie together in the end," he said absently.

I opened my mouth to say something, but the door suddenly burst open.

An eerie presence that gave me shivers poured into the room. Only death could be that malevolent. It had to be a Shinigami or something and I was definitely dead.

So I was rather surprised when a fierce-looking Gothic woman stomped in.

"YUKI! You have paperwork five weeks overdue!" she was gesturing wildly, her sandy blonde pony-tailed hair flying all over the place. She was wearing black pants made of a satin-like material, and she had a black denim bodice and sleeves that were just fishnet. "Do you know how stressful it is for me as a general when my underlings refuse to hand in their reports? Especially ones that include the obtainment of a Tsubasa!" she took a deep breath before speaking again, calmly this time. "I have enough on my plate without you - "

"Muteki, this is Morino Kuroryu, Morino-san, this is Ageha Muteki," Ryu said flatly, interrupting Kuroryu.

She nodded quickly, "Pleasure. Now, as I was saying, I have enough on my plate without you around to-"

"Make sure you steer clear of her, Muteki, she might nag you to death," he rudely interrupted again.

I turned to stare at him blankly. I could totally imagine a big '?' over my head. He had no real reason to be antagonizing her. He was being rude, too.

"Oh, Ryu, you haven't seen me get angry, lately, have you?" Kuroryu said in the most evil voice I'd ever heard.

Ryu grinned. "Actually, I video-taped the last time and posted it on the military database under the file name 'Secret Weapon.'"

Kuroryu's face went red. Without another word, she turned around, and walked out the door, closing it gently behind her.

"Where is she going?" I asked.

"To delete the file. No way is she going to be able to, though. I encrypt everything I put on the military database. I've got that file so encrypted that I'm not sure I could break it," Ryu said.

I poked his nose. "You are a very naughty boy."

He smiled. "I strive to be."

"DAMMIT, YUKI, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO THIS!" screamed Kuroryu from an unknown place outside the room.

Ryu's mouth twitched.

"WHAT THE – HOW THE HELL DO YOU BEAT THIS THING?"

He was snickering by now.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I made the deletion password a –"

"DIE YOU STUPID GOBLIN; I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS DAMNED VIDEO!"

" . . . A first-person shooter," he finished, "She'll have to beat all 50 levels without missing once. If you miss, you go back to the start, no save points, and targets can get really, really small."

"That was very mean of you, Ryu. Did you see that streak of gray in her hair? That's apparently from you," I said quietly, "You don't put embarrassing videos on the internet then make it virtually impossible to get rid of. It's not nice."

He gave me an odd look. "It's not embarrassing, it's just . . . an inside joke. No one can really access the video. I just wanted to give her a hard time."

I frowned. He noticed, and sighed, "Kuroryu and I are really close friends. She doesn't get all stressed out when I give her a hard time, she just gets frazzled for the fun of it," he explained.

I still didn't get it. Humans were weird. They did many things that just did not make sense to me. Ryu seemed to understand it pretty well, so why couldn't I? It does not compute. Understanding such oddities was beyond my artificial brain. But even though I was artificial, I could still enjoy and understand many complex things. I was like an advanced computer that could learn. No, never mind, that's wrong. I could feel, therefore I was not a computer. So what do I call myself? I am not human, I am not a computer, I am not a thing, so what was I?

Maybe Ryu knew.

I looked over at him. He'd noticed my thought-filled silence. He was sitting in that chair at the side of my bed, waiting patiently for me to gather my thoughts. He'd be startled by the question I was about to ask.

"Ryu, what am I?"

He smiled. "Is that a trick question?"

"No."

He mulled it over for minute. "Do you want the obvious, simple answer, or do you want the obvious yet deep answer?" He asked.

"Both."

He nodded. "The simple answer is that you are an Ageha."

"No duh. Anyone in this building can tell me that."

"Exactly. That's why the other answer is: You are you," he said.

"I am me?" I asked. He couldn't have given a more enigmatic answer. I was kind of hoping for something more scientific.

He chucked. "Yes. Muteki is you and you are the only Muteki."

This I understood. He was trying to tell me that I was unique and the only full accurate way to describe me was my name.

Muteki is me.