Who Are You? Chapter 4:

Kidnapped!

Kisshu looked grim as he said, "Pai's tied up somewhere. And I can't get an exact location."

"I'll call Keiichiro, he might be able to find Pai," Ichigo said. "And I'm guessing Blondie did this, which means we don't have a lot of time." She took out her cell phone, and dialed the Café's number.

When Keiichiro picked up, Ichigo said, "Someone, most likely Ryou, kidnapped Pai, and Kisshu can't get an exact location for some reason. Get the other Mews, and try and find him."

"On it," Keiichiro said. "What are you and Kisshu going to do?"

"We'll work that out, so keep an eye on my pendant too," Ichigo said.

"Understood," Keiichiro said, and hung up.

Ichigo looked at Kisshu, and said, "Do you want to call Taruto?"

Kisshu closed his eyes briefly, then said, "He's with the small blonde girl, she'll most likely tell him."

"K," Ichigo said. "Do you want to try and find Pai?"

"Yeah," Kisshu said. "I can teleport nearby, but I don't exactly know where I'm going."

"That's fine, we'll just search," Ichigo said. "Let me transform, and we can go." She took her pendant out, and transformed, then said, "Let's go."

Kisshu took her hand and teleported to what looked like an old mansion covered in ivy. "Is he in there?" Ichigo asked.

"I think so, but I don't know where," Kisshu said. "Let's go in, there's no other way but to look around."

"I'd guess the basement," Ichigo said. Kisshu nodded, and teleported inside. It was dead silent, and Ichigo whispered, "We'd better be quiet." Kisshu nodded, and they started walking.

Eventually, at the end of a hallway, they found a door, and opened it to find stairs. Looking at each other, they started down them- and the door slammed behind them. "I can't see," Kisshu said. "Now what?"

"I can see," Ichigo said. "I'll help you." She took his hand, and said, "We're halfway down the stairs. Try feeling the next step with your foot."

Kisshu did so, and managed to get down the rest of the stairs. There was no light at the bottom either, so Ichigo led him by the hand. "I don't like being blind," Kisshu said softly.

"It'll be okay," Ichigo said.

"How come you can see?" Kisshu asked.

"Cats are nocturnal; they can see in the dark," Ichigo said. "There's another door ahead."

She saw Kisshu concentrate, and then he said, "I think it's another room, and it feels like Pai is close by."

"I don't want to get locked in again; maybe we should destroy the door?" Ichigo suggested.

"You're going to have to do that, because I can't even see a door," Kisshu said.

Ichigo sighed, took out her weapon, and aimed her attack at the door- which promptly collapsed into ash. She kept a hold on her weapon, but took Kisshu's hand again and said, "Let's go."

Kisshu followed her into the room- and they immediately got picked up by a net. "So much for being quiet," Ichigo sighed, as they heard evil laughter.

"You two are doomed," Ryou said, as he turned a light on. "And so is Pai. Although using that truth potion was very helpful in figuring out how to defeat you, Kisshu."

Ichigo could sense Kisshu's nervousness, and asked, "So what did Pai tell you?"

"That Kisshu can't even smell bananas without getting very sick," Ryou said. "And that eating them could kill him."

"Where is Pai?" Ichigo asked.

"Tied up in a teleport-proof cage back there," Ryou said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "But that net will cancel out teleporting too."

Ichigo unsheathed her claws, and clawed through the net. She and Kisshu fell to the ground, and stood up. "Didn't think of that, did you?" Ichigo asked.

Ryou snarled, and pointed a remote at them. He pressed a button, but nothing seemed to happen- until Ichigo and Kisshu realized they couldn't move. "What was that?" Ichigo asked.

"Just something I developed to freeze the aliens if I ever needed to," Ryou said, shrugging. "Nice to see it works on others too."

Ichigo snarled, trying to break free of the paralysis. Ryou just smirked and took out a bunch of bananas. Most of them were half brown, and Ichigo could smell them. Apparently Kisshu could as well, because he wasn't looking too good. Ichigo continued struggling to break free, and suddenly felt her arms and legs go back to normal. Ryou wasn't expecting that, and didn't have time to react as Ichigo swiped the remote out of his hand and freed Kisshu, then smashed the remote to bits. Ryou dropped the bananas, and took out a knife. Ichigo was much faster than him, and dodged his lunge, then grabbed the knife as he turned, and ripped it out of his hand. Now he was looking nervous, and rightly so, because as he started to back up, Ichigo lunged and stabbed him in the heart with the knife. Realizing he wasn't dead yet, she slit his throat, and left him to bleed to death as she went to Kisshu.

"Ichigo, my stomach doesn't feel good," he said.

Ichigo felt his forehead, then said, "You've got a pretty high fever. Can you still walk? We need to get Pai out of here."

"I think so," Kisshu said. He got up a bit shakily, and started walking in the direction that Ryou had pointed. Just as they reached another door, Kisshu stopped, and said, "I think I'm going to throw up…."

"It's okay, don't hold it, you'll just feel worse," Ichigo said.

"But what about the floor?" Kisshu asked. He was turning green.

"It's an abandoned house, no one lives here," Ichigo said. "Don't worry about it."

Kisshu looked like he wanted to say more, but suddenly clutched his stomach, turning away from Ichigo. He was looking pretty shaky, and Ichigo said, "Kisshu, you might not want to be standing."

Kisshu dropped to his knees, still clutching his stomach. Ichigo saw him lean over a bit, and came over, kneeling next to him. Not even a minute later, he threw up on the floor. Ichigo started rubbing his back gently as she said, "It's okay, just let it out."

Kisshu barely heard her, feeling like his stomach had turned inside out as he continued throwing up. Just as he coughed up the last of it, his vision started going black, and he started to fall forwards. The last thing he felt was Ichigo's arms catching him, before everything went black.

Ichigo had noticed Kisshu was looking more and more shaky, so when he started to fall forward, she was able to catch him. She pulled him towards her, and slung one of his arms over her shoulder, then stood back up, and opened the door to the room where Pai was.

Sure enough, Pai was in a cage, and he looked up as Ichigo came in. "What HAPPENED!?" he asked.

"Ryou had bananas," Ichigo said. "And you were right, just smelling them got Kisshu really sick. We need to get him back to the ship, he's got a really high fever. I'll get you out." She gently set Kisshu down, and went to the door of the cage. Pulling on it, she discovered that it wasn't locked from the outside, just barred. She lifted the bar up, opened the door, and said, "Let's go."

"Ryou's dead?" Pai asked, coming out.

"I killed him," Ichigo said. "Let's get Kisshu back to the ship."

Pai nodded, picked up Kisshu, and said, "Grab my shoulder." Ichigo obeyed, and Pai teleported to Kisshu's room. He took off Kisshu's boots, and tucked him into the bed. Kisshu woke up as Pai was tucking him in and said weakly, "Pai?"

"I'm here," Pai said. "How's your stomach?"

"It's not feeling good again," Kisshu said. "Can you get the bucket under the bathroom sink?"

"Ichigo, go get that," Pai said. Ichigo ran to the bathroom in the back of the room, grabbed the bucket, and ran back. Kisshu was sitting up, and Ichigo put the bucket on his lap. He almost immediately threw up again, and Ichigo started rubbing his back gently.

When he finished, Pai took the bucket and said, "Lie back down, I can heal the stomach problems." Kisshu obeyed, and Pai put a hand on his stomach. His hand began to glow, and Kisshu started to relax. A few minutes later, he was asleep, and Pai took his hand off Kisshu's stomach, then put it on his chest instead. He closed his eyes briefly, then sighed, looking worried.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.

"This is like the time he ate a whole banana; I can't heal the fever," Pai said. "And he can't take our medicine on an empty stomach."

"That's BAD," Ichigo said worriedly. "His fever's really high, and I don't think a cool cloth is going to do much."

"I can bring his fever down a few degrees, but he'll need me to do that more than once, if it's like last time," Pai said. "I might need your power at some point too."

"Take as much as you need," Ichigo said. "I'll stay with Kisshu; you should tell Keiichiro what happened, and get back onto figuring out how to cure Kisshu's amnesia."

"Alright," Pai said. "Do you know how to use telepathy?"

"No," Ichigo said. "I don't even know if I can."

"Focus on me and think what you want to say," Pai said.

Ichigo concentrated, then asked, Can you hear me?

She was excited when she heard Pai reply, Yes, it should work fine. Call me this way if I'm out of the room; leaving Kisshu alone won't be good for him.

K, Ichigo replied.

Pai put his hand back on Kisshu's chest, and his hand began to glow again. A few minutes later, Ichigo heard him say, That will help a little, but last time his fever didn't go away for two days. And don't be surprised if he doesn't stay conscious too long; he spent the two days he had the fever last time unable to stay awake for very long. You can sleep with him; he's not contagious, since it's an allergic reaction.

Alright, Ichigo said. I'm tired, can I go to sleep?

It's midnight, so that's a good plan, Pai replied. I'll be by tomorrow morning to check on Kisshu; but if he gets worse tonight, call me.

I will, Ichigo said. Pai nodded and teleported out. Ichigo went and got her pajamas on, then carefully climbed in with Kisshu. He didn't even stir as she laid back, and she fell asleep soon after.

The next morning she was woken up by someone tapping her forehead. "Nyaa…" she said unhappily.

"Are you okay?" Pai asked when she opened her eyes.

"Don't you know that cats need lots of sleep?" Ichigo asked. "I need at least ten hours, or I'm tired all day."

"Oh…" Pai said. He had a thoughtful look in his eyes, and Ichigo asked, "Did you come to check on Kisshu?"

"I brought his fever down a bit again," Pai said. "Now I want to study cats, though."

"Tokyo's full of strays, but shouldn't you be working on curing Kisshu's amnesia?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm taking a break while he's sick, since I won't have the energy to cure him anyways if I have to keep bringing his fever down," Pai said. "Where would I find a stray cat?"

"In an alleyway, usually," Ichigo said. "If it has a collar, though, you should leave it, because it most likely belongs to someone. Don't steal, got it?"

"Oh, fine," Pai said, and teleported out as Ichigo started to get up.

Well, that's what happened. Now we get to see how good Pai is with animals! Review!