Barely alive

Shigure, Yuki, and Kyo burst into the room the moment that Kish had disappeared. Upon seeing the two girls on the floor they all panicked. Kyo ran to Ichigo's side and Yuki went to Tohru's. Shigure stood frozen for a few moments before regaining his cool. They appeared to be dead at first glance, but upon further inspection one could see the subtle rise and fall of their chests.

"Ichigo! Ichigo! Are you alright?" Kyo asked the limp, lifeless girl in his arms. She stirred slightly but her eyes refused to open. Tohru was, if even possible, more still than Ichigo.

"Her heart is barely beating, Shigure! What should we do?" Yuki said in a panic. Shigure was still in shock now for two reasons. There were once again two girls in his house and he remembered only one of the two. His other surprise was the complete panic coming from the usually cool Yuki.

"Just give me a moment to think. Kyo how is it that you know that strange girl?" He asked the orange haired boy holding what appeared to be a doll.

"What on Earth do you mean Shigure? She has been with us for awhile now. What I wanna know is who that other girl is?" Kyo snapped glaring at Tohru.

"Wait a second! You mean you don't remember Tohru? But she is the one who has been with us for over a year now." Yuki said coolly, as he looked at the pink haired girl in his relation's arms. Suddenly Yuki's eyes grew bigger as he looked at the girl.

"Kyo, look at that girl! She's disappearing!" Yuki said in a raspy, scared voice. Sure enough when Kyo looked down at Ichigo she was slowly becoming see through.

"What on Earth is happening to…" Kyo's voice trailed away as his eyes glazed over and the girl in his arms vanished. Tohru finally took a shuttering breath as the other girl vanished.

"He's taken her! I don't know what he is going to do to her but we have to help!" She screamed sitting bolt upright before falling back into a near coma in Yuki's arms.

Ichigo laid in a chamber that was strange yet familiar at the same time. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there or what had happened to her. A familiar face suddenly loomed over her. She bit back a scream as a pair of lips enclosed over hers. She kissed the person back and found herself wrapping her arms around the small frame of a pale skinned alien, Kish.

Being unable to make Ichigo love him in any other way than mind control he had ripped all her memories of her time in Tohru's world from her mind. He then exchanged them with thoughts of him and wonderful times they had spent together. He had also replaced all her memories of fighting him with ones of them working together.

Ichigo broke the kiss and stared passionately into Kish's eyes. He loved the way she was looking at him but it didn't seem right. As much as he loved the super hero cat-girl, he wanted her even more to love him without all the mind blocks. He sighed and pulled away from her.

"What's wrong my love? I thought we were having a good time. Just the two of us in such an intimate setting. I want to spend all of my free time with you!" She said pleadingly, while looking at him.

"Koneko-chan this isn't how it should be. I broke the spirit of another lovely girl just to get to you. And you don't even have your own memories and thoughts about me. They are all implanted and that is just something I can't stand. I want my kitten to love me on her own. This just cheapens our love and makes it seem unrealistic." Kish explained. The whole time Ichigo stared at him in confusion. Since she had no idea what he was talking about. To her he was the only one she had ever loved or cared for in her whole life.

"I don't understand what you are saying. I've always loved you, Ki…." Ichigo stopped suddenly. She was unable to finish her sentence because part of her knew that it wasn't true. She had never loved Kish, and she didn't think she ever would. Blank spots in her memory filled in and fake memories faded but nothing from her time with the Sohmas came back.

"Kish! You kidnapped me again. Honestly you need to get a life and just leave me alone. Send me home now or else." Ichigo snarled glaring at the alien boy.

"That's more like my koneko-chan. I will return you from whence you came but is there nothing else you want to check on first." Kish knew that Ichigo had injured the girl from that other time plane and he thought maybe she would want to check on her.

"I just want you to check your mental stability before you even consider kidnapping me again. I love Masaya, not you. Crazy weirdo!" Ichigo snapped, all the while glaring at him.

"You mean you don't want to check on Tohru? But you injured her in that battle and her spirit is now weak and she is barely alive. I thought for sure you would want to check on her well being." Kish said confused. He had no idea that Ichigo's mind had blocked out all the memories from her time in the past.

"Who did you hurt? I don't know any girl named Tohru and I certainly didn't fight her. You better fix whatever damage you did to the girl though. Because even though I don't know her, I know it is wrong to hurt people. You fix what you did, but just send me home." Ichigo pleaded as she rose from the place she had been sitting.

"As you wish my koneko-chan." Kish said with a slight wave of his hand.

"And one more thing, quit call me your ko…." With that Ichigo disappeared back to Tokyo and back to Earth. She was sent back to her time plane and her friends.

"I don't understand. I didn't do anything to her that would block the return of those memories. If all here other memories came back so should have those. This is most perplexing. Knowing my koneko-chan, if she had hurt anyone she would instantly check on them. For some reason though her own mind is blocking those memories so her gentle instinct and kind nature aren't taking over. Either way I need to check on that Tohru girl. Her will was never as strong as Ichigo's, and I fear she may not recover from her ordeal in the future or under my control." Kish muttered to himself before disappearing to the past to check on the brown haired girl.

She lay perfectly still in Yuki's lap, her breath barely moved her chest and her eyes had yet to open again. Three men and a floating set of eyes looked down at her with worry gleaming in all of them.

"Shigure what do we do? How do we help Tohru?" Yuki asked, the slightest bit of strain was in his voice and tears threatened to fall from the corners of his eyes. Kyo tried to maintain his stand-offish demeanor but the concern on his face destroyed the whole image.

"I honestly don't know what to do other than take her to the hospital. We have treated her wound the best we can but I fear something else is wrong with her. Come to think of it how did she get that terrible scratch anyways? I don't recall her falling and even though they look like cat scratches, I know Kyo didn't do it." Shigure said calmly even though he could barely maintain his composure. This was something he had never dealt with. They had all grown rather fond of Tohru and all of them were quite attached to the bubbly young girl.

Kish looked down from above, unnoticed yet he too was worried. He had had no intentions of hurting the girl and yet he had done just that. What was he going to do if the girl didn't pull through. He wasn't sure he could forgive himself for that. She was an innocent and sweet girl, not deserving of the fate she was currently be dealt.

They took her to the hospital not long after that. Kish watched them take her before returning to his time plane. Guilt had settled deep into his very being, because he knew that he was the cause of Tohru's coma. He had gone too far in controlling her mind, and now she was practically a lifeless doll. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until she either got better or…he dared not even think the alternative. A single tear formed in the corner of Kish's eye and then it slowly slid down his cheek.

Tohru was hooked up to countless machines and the Sohmas were unable to explain how she had gotten into her current condition. They didn't know and couldn't remember what had led up to Tohru falling into a coma. The doctors were puzzled and concerned by the story but had nothing else to go on to help her.

Author's Note:

I would like to formally apologize to all my faithful fans. I know that the last few updates to this story have come years apart. I am grateful to those who have stuck by me through this time to read this story. I know it has gotten a little sad currently but as always I have big plans on how to wrap this up. I won't give any hints away but I promise that Tohru wont' die.