Why? Chapter 9:

Nightmare

By the next day, the whole school had heard that Aoyama, the school's top athlete, was in the hospital for a month with a broken leg, a broken arm, and numerous other injuries. The girls were pretty much devastated, and the kendo team was moaning about it nonstop.

The girl who told them that Aoyama was telling everyone Kisshu was an alien had succeeded in convincing the majority of the students that Aoyama was just jealous. The kendo team was not happy, however. Luckily they didn't believe Kisshu was an alien, but they were now basically plotting the demise of Kisshu, Ichigo, Moe and Miwa.

By the end of the week, the kendo team had formulated a plan, but no one knew about it yet. They were going to implement it on Monday.

The four friends were well aware that something was up, and were on guard until the weekend. Unfortunately, the weekend was not as relaxing as they had hoped.

Kisshu and Ichigo had spent the day at Inohara Park, and now they were home for dinner. "So how was the park?" Sakura asked.

"It was nice, the weather's beautiful," Ichigo said. "Maybe we should go again tomorrow."

"That sounds nice," Kisshu said. "I like the sakura tree there."

"Me too," Ichigo said. "I guess that's settled."

Later that night: "Aren't you two going to bed?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, fine," Ichigo said. Kisshu left a bit morosely as Ichigo gathered up her pajamas.

Still later: Ichigo was having a nightmare, tossing and turning in her bed.

Ichigo's nightmare:

Kisshu walked towards her, his swords ready. She knew she was too weak to fight him off, but at the last minute, he teleported, appearing next to Deep Blue, one of his swords pointed at the alien leader's throat.

"Bastard! Now, in the end, you plan to betray me?" Deep Blue asked angrily.

"That's right," Kisshu said, his voice confident. "You want this planet for your own selfish desires. Take over the Earth if you wish- but I will never allow you to have Ichigo."

"Kisshu…" Ichigo whispered, as Kisshu brought his other sword up, preparing to stab Deep Blue.

Deep Blue had other ideas, and right before Kisshu's blade struck, he stabbed Kisshu in the stomach with his sword. Ichigo watched in horror as a small, sad smile flickered on Kisshu's lips. "I lost," he said softly. Deep Blue threw him off the end of his sword, and Kisshu skidded across the floor, stopping in front of Ichigo. Ichigo lifted him in her arms, softly saying his name. "I guess… I was lucky to have this time with you, Ichigo," Kisshu said weakly, opening his eyes. Tears spilled down Ichigo's cheeks, and Kisshu asked, "Ichigo- are you crying?"

Ichigo couldn't respond. Kisshu used the last of his strength to lift himself up, trying, one last time, to kiss her. Frozen in shock, she couldn't do what he wanted, and he fell back right before he reached her lips, the life leaving his body. More tears spilled down Ichigo's cheeks as she screamed, "KISSHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUU!"

~End nightmare~

With Kisshu: Kisshu was woken by Ichigo screaming his name. His eyes shot open, and he jumped up, then teleported to Ichigo's room, to find her sitting bolt upright, gasping, tears streaming down her face. Kisshu turned her light on, and came over. "Ichigo, what did you see?" he asked softly, sitting down next to her. Ichigo didn't respond; instead she threw herself at him, sobbing, as both Sakura and Shintaro came in. Kisshu hugged back tightly and started stroking Ichigo's hair as she sobbed.

Sakura came over and asked, "Ichigo, what happened?"

Ichigo took a breath, trying to stop crying, and said shakily, "Kish died…. he died in my arms, and I couldn't do anything…"

"You saw what happened in the battle with Deep Blue, right?" Kisshu asked softly. Ichigo nodded. Kisshu sighed, and said, "Nightmares come with traumatic experiences. Do you want me to ask Pai tomorrow to do something?"

"Pai can heal nightmares?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm not sure about that, but he should be able to remove that memory from your mind," Kisshu said. "I think regaining those two memories was not a very good idea."

"Okay…" Ichigo said. "What about tonight? I don't want to see that again…."

Kisshu looked over at Sakura, who obviously got the message, because she said, "Go ahead." She then proceeded to shove Shintaro out of the room, and closed the door.

Kisshu looked at Ichigo, who was looking sleepy again. "Can you scoot over a bit?" he asked. "I'll sleep with you, maybe then you won't have the nightmare."

Ichigo scooted over, making room for Kisshu. He laid back, and pulled the blankets over them both as Ichigo attached herself to him. He hugged her as she fell back to sleep, and soon after, he was asleep too.

The next morning, they woke up because Shintaro was shouting, "WHY did you let them sleep together!?"

Kisshu and Ichigo listened closely as Sakura replied calmly, "Because they're responsible, and it helped Ichigo feel better. She didn't have the nightmare again, or we would have heard her screaming. You and I sleep together; why can't they?"

"Because they're too young! They're only fourteen!" Shintaro said. "And they're head over heels for each other."

"They're both responsible, and Ichigo's sick of your overprotectiveness," Sakura said. "I know that neither she nor Kisshu would make a mistake; you should realize that too. Ichigo wants you to trust her, but you don't listen to her at all. She asked me before we left if you actually care about her feelings. Do you?"

"Of course I do," Shintaro said- but he sounded a bit uncomfortable.

"There's a 'but' somewhere in there," Sakura said.

Ichigo and Kisshu heard Shintaro sigh. "I just don't want her to get hurt," he said.

"I wouldn't hurt you," Kisshu told Ichigo. "Why doesn't he understand that?"

Before Ichigo could respond, there was a knock on the door. Ichigo sighed and said, "Come in."

Sakura opened the door and came in, followed by Shintaro. "You heard all that, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yep," Kisshu said gloomily. "Ichigo and I both have better hearing than humans. What makes you think I would ever hurt Ichigo?"

"I used to be your age, no matter what Ichigo may think," Shintaro said. "The first girlfriend I had dumped me because I hurt her by mistake."

Kisshu looked up, angry. "Humans are different," he said. "My people take relationships seriously, and we know when we've found the right person for us. It's like an instinct. I knew from the moment I met Ichigo that I would never find anyone else, even though she already had someone. Had she continued seeing the treehugger, I probably never would have dated anyone. Ichigo's special, and no matter what you may think, I would never willingly hurt her. I will never dump her, because she's the only one for me. Humans go through different people; my people will spend years single, searching for the right person. My people are different, and though I may live with humans, that doesn't make me one."

Shintaro and Sakura were a bit stunned by this; Ichigo said, "Kish is a wonderful person, Dad. Stop being so hard on him. And start treating me the way I want to be treated. I don't think either of those are unreasonable requests. And if you truly care about me, which I sometimes doubt, you should at least try to fulfill those requests."

"You think I don't care about you?" Shintaro asked, somewhat shocked.

"If you truly cared, you would have listened to me any one of the numerous times I told you to stop treating me like a baby, and trust me," Ichigo said. "You never listened. You never tried to change your behavior. And now you're treating Kish badly too. I want you to stop being such a jerk."

Shintaro was now speechless, and Sakura sighed. "Ichigo's got a point," she said. "And we already had this talk while we were unpacking. It makes me wonder if you listen to anyone, Shintaro. Relationships are based on trusting each other, but it's also important to communicate and listen to one another. If you can't listen to the rest of us, there will be problems. And problems can have you sleeping in the garage."

Shintaro sighed gloomily. "I'm going for a walk…" he said.

"You do that, and think about what we've said," Sakura said firmly. Shintaro just sighed again and walked out. Sakura sighed and came over to the bed, then sat down with Ichigo and Kisshu. "How are you two this morning?" she asked.

"I don't like being compared to humans," Kisshu grumbled. "I'm grouchy."

"I don't like feeling like Dad doesn't care," Ichigo said. "I'm not in a great mood either."

"Maybe he'll get over it soon," Sakura said. "Are you two going to talk to Pai today?"

"Yeah," Kisshu said. "I guess we should get up and dressed." He got out of bed, and Ichigo did the same. "Koneko-chan, you can shower first," he said.

Ichigo smiled at him, then picked out some clothes, and left. She took a shower, and got dressed in a pink miniskirt and a blue T-shirt. Then she went back to her room to do her hair. Kisshu was making the bed when she came in, and she said, "Thanks for making the bed, Kish."

"Sure Koneko-chan," Kisshu said. "Is it my turn?"

"Yup, I do my hair in here," Ichigo said. "Have a nice shower."

"Thanks," Kisshu said, and left. He took his shower, got dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, then went back to Ichigo's room. She was sitting on the bed, and she looked up when she heard his footsteps. She looked sad, and Kisshu asked, "Koneko-chan, what's wrong?"

"What's your dad like?" Ichigo asked.

Kisshu came and sat next to her. "He and my mom died when I was six," he said softly. "I had the best dad of all my friends, though. Some kids' dads' hit them to make lectures stick, but mine never did. He was really fun to be around, even though he was kind of strict. He had this great laugh, and he laughed and smiled a lot. He and I had the same eyes, and I style my hair the way he used to. I remember him laughing the first time I tried to copy his hairstyle. My hair was sticking up all over the place, but I had somehow managed to get two little pigtails tied up. My mom started doing my hair like that after that time, and by the time they died, I could do it myself."

"It must have been nice to have a dad like that," Ichigo said softly. "Does Taruto remember them?"

"Taruto and Pai's family adopted me after my parents died," Kisshu said. "They're my adoptive brothers, but Pai and I were already best friends before my parents died. Aunt Haruka didn't know at the time she was expecting another child, so she and Pai's dad, who I call Uncle Kaito, took me in. They're both really nice, and I got lucky; Pai's parents didn't believe in hitting children to make lectures stick. They thought up other ideas- one of which was not allowing Pai to read anything not school-related. He's loved reading since he could do it, and not being allowed to is like torture for him. Taruto and I just got grounded a lot."

"What was your mom like?" Ichigo asked.

"Your mom is her mirror image," Kisshu said. "In personality, anyways. My mom had green hair and blue eyes. She was the kindest, most understanding person you'd ever meet. She had a nice laugh, too. It sounded like little bells. She liked helping people with their problems, too. Your mom seems a lot like her."

"Wow…" Ichigo said. "It would be nice if my dad was more like your dad was."

"Well, at least you've got your mom," Kisshu said.

"You're right," Ichigo said. "Should we go see Pai?"

"K," Kisshu said. "Let's walk to the Café, I don't want to teleport if there are people there."

"Okay," Ichigo said. "You should get one of your pills."

Kisshu left to do that, and Ichigo went downstairs to get her shoes and purse. Sakura came in and asked, "You're going?"

"Yup," Ichigo said. "I hope Pai can help."

Kisshu came downstairs, and put his boots on as Sakura said, "Good luck."

"Thanks," Kisshu said. "Koneko-chan, ready?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said. She and Kisshu walked out the door, and walked to the Café hand in hand. When they got there, it didn't seem to be open, so Ichigo knocked on the door. It was opened by Lettuce, who seemed startled, then smiled. "Hi, what's up?" she asked.

"We need to talk to Pai, is he here?" Kisshu asked.

"He and Ryou are in the basement," Lettuce said. "You can go right down, I've got more cleaning to do."

"Thanks Lettuce," Ichigo said. She and Kisshu went in, and down to the basement.

Sure enough, Pai and Ryou were in the lab, and they looked up as Ichigo and Kisshu came in. "What's up? You don't usually visit," Ryou said.

"I want to erase the two memories I got back," Ichigo said. "I don't like the nightmares that come with them."

"Can you do anything?" Kisshu asked. "Last night was pretty bad."

Pai sighed. "I can remove them," he said. "But it takes a lot of energy, so I won't be able to do anything else today."

"That's fine," Ryou said. "I can work on this alone for a while."

"Good," Pai said. He went over to Ichigo, and said, "Okay, close your eyes, Ichigo."

Ichigo did so, and Pai put a hand on her forehead. Then he closed his eyes, and his hand began to glow. A minute later, what looked like a hologram appeared above Ichigo's head, showing a picture of Kisshu lying in Ichigo's arms. Pai snapped his fingers, and the hologram thing vanished. Soon after, another image appeared. This one was Ichigo talking with Aoyuck. Ichigo turned away from Aoyuck, and Pai snapped his fingers again. That image vanished too, and Pai took his hand away. The glow faded, and he said, "They're gone."

"Thanks Pai," Ichigo said tiredly.

"You should go home and get some rest; taking things out of someone's mind can make them tired. I'm going to do the same, I'm exhausted," Pai said.

"K," Ichigo said. She was starting to look a little unsteady, and Kisshu picked her up. "Thanks Pai," he said. "Come visit soon."

"Okay," Pai said. He walked up the stairs, and Kisshu nodded to Ryou, then teleported Ichigo home.

They landed in Ichigo's room, and Kisshu set Ichigo down on the bed. She took her shoes off, then curled up like a cat and promptly fell asleep. Kisshu sat on the bed with her, and started stroking her hair, smiling as she purred.

Sakura came in a minute later, having heard the teleportation, and Kisshu put a finger to his lips. "What happened?" Sakura asked softly.

"Pai says taking things out of peoples' minds can make them tired," Kisshu said. "She should be fine when she wakes up."

"Good," Sakura said. "I'll leave you two alone." She left, and Kisshu continued stroking Ichigo's hair.

About four hours later, Kisshu was kind of worried. Ichigo hadn't stirred, but she was still purring softly. A while later, however, she stirred, and Kisshu asked softly, "Koneko-chan?"

Ichigo opened her eyes sleepily. "Hi Kish," she said.

"Are you feeling better?" Kisshu asked. "You've been sleeping for four hours."

"I feel fine," Ichigo said. "I'm hungry, can we get something to eat?"

"Sure, I'm pretty hungry too," Kisshu said. "Let's go downstairs."

Next chapter, we see what happens with the kendo team! Review to find out what happens!