Kidnapped! Chapter 10:

Are We Going Home?

Emiko woke up the next morning to find that Pikachu was curled up next to her, sleeping. She sat up, and realized that she was back to full strength already. The movement woke up Pikachu, who looked up at her. "Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"I'm fine, thanks Pikachu," Emiko said. "Should we go see the others?"

"Sure, I think they all slept in the lobby," Pikachu said.

Emiko put her boots on, and Pikachu jumped onto her shoulder. Then they went to the lobby, where everyone was still asleep. To Emiko's surprise, Officer Jenny was still there, and she was sleeping too. Pikachu got down from Emiko's shoulder, then ran and jumped on Ash, who was still fast asleep.

Pikachu jumping on him, however, caused him to wake up immediately. "What's going on?" he asked, worried. Then he noticed Pikachu was giggling, and said, "That was a joke, wasn't it?"

"Yup," Pikachu said, nodding.

The others were starting to wake up too, so Emiko came over and sat down next to Ash. "Are you feeling better?" Ash asked her.

"Yeah, I was just tired," Emiko said. "I'm back to full strength now, though."

"That's great!" Ash said. Suddenly his smile faded.

"What's wrong?" Emiko asked.

"You have to go back today, right?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, it's not good to keep Ichigo here too long; Kisshu's going to have a fit anyways," Emiko said.

Ash sighed. "I'll miss you," he said. "I like having you around, and so does Pikachu."

"Thanks, that means a lot," Emiko said. "But you know I'll be back. You seem to get into a lot of trouble."

Ash laughed slightly and said, "Yeah, I guess we are kind of trouble magnets."

"Well, I'm sure we'll see each other again, even though the group that attacked you yesterday is in jail," Emiko said. "Besides, I might come of my own accord someday, if Ichigo and Mint keep up the fighting. This might be the only place I could get some peace and quiet."

"I wouldn't count on that, but we're always happy to have you," Ash said.

"Thanks, Ash," Emiko said with a grin.

Ichigo and Brock came over, and Ichigo said, "You two get along well."

"Better than you and Mint, at least," Emiko said.

Ash laughed, and Emiko joined in. Ichigo started fuming, until Brock said, "Okay, calm down, I'm sure they don't mean any harm."

Ichigo sighed. "Would you two quit it?" she asked.

"Sorry," Emiko said. "I suppose you want to go home, right?"

"Don't you guys want breakfast?" Officer Jenny asked, coming over.

"That actually would be nice," Ichigo admitted. She turned to Emiko and said, "Can we have breakfast and then go home?"

"Sure, I'm pretty hungry too," Emiko said.

"I know a nice little breakfast place nearby," Officer Jenny said. "Why don't I take you all out?"

"Really?" Emiko asked.

"Sure," Officer Jenny said. "You've been so helpful, it's the least I can do."

"Then I think we'd all be happy to accept," Emiko said.

"Let's go," Officer Jenny said with a smile.

They all went to the restaurant, and sat down. Ash, Emiko, Max and May all got chocolate chip pancakes with bacon and homefries, Brock got blueberry pancakes, Ichigo got fried eggs, toast and homefries, and Officer Jenny got fruit and yogurt and a chocolate chip muffin. Pikachu, as usual, got Brock's homemade Electric Pokémon food.

Emiko watched Ash eat and said to Ichigo, "Who's worse, Taruto or Ash?"

Ichigo had been watching too, and she said reluctantly, "Taruto, actually, I swear he doesn't even chew."

"Hey, remember that time you and I made a cake, and Taruto was inhaling his share when Kisshu whacked him over the head?" Emiko asked.

"What happened?" May asked.

"Taruto got cake everywhere," Emiko said. "Unfortunately, he also got some on Kisshu, and that sparked a fight that actually rivaled Mint and Ichigo's fights."

"Yeah, Kisshu got out his swords and Taruto nearly got a haircut," Ichigo said, giggling.

"And Taruto tried to use his weapon to tie Kisshu up," Emiko said. "I ended up freezing BOTH of them and dragging Taruto to a different room from Kisshu."

"They can be so immature," Ichigo said.

"Hey, how did we get started on this conversation anyways?" Max asked.

"I asked Ichigo who she though was a faster eater, Ash or Taruto," Emiko said. "She's right, though, Taruto doesn't chew. Unless it's something he doesn't particularly like."

"Yuck," Ash said.

"You shouldn't be talking," Emiko said. "You're only marginally better than Taruto."

"Hey, maybe those two should have an eating contest," Ichigo said.

"Not in my kitchen," Emiko said firmly. "If that were to happen, you and I would have to drag Taruto to this dimension, because I refuse to let Ash and Taruto have an eating contest in our dimension. I just know Kisshu would try to mess Taruto up, and then we'd never get the place clean again."

"You're probably right," Ichigo sighed. "I was half-joking, anyways."

"Good," Emiko said. Then she sighed. "We should probably get going," she said. "We've been gone too long already. I'm actually surprised Kisshu hasn't shown up and started yelling at me yet."

"Good point," Ichigo said.

They all walked out of the restaurant, but before anyone could go anywhere, a blur shot past Emiko, and stopped in front of Ichigo.

The 'blur' turned out to be Kisshu, who kissed Ichigo, backed up, and said, "My name is Kisshu, thanks for the kiss."

Emiko burst out laughing. Ichigo blushed, and everyone else just looked confused.

When she calmed down, Emiko said, "This is the day that Ichigo and Kisshu first met, and that's exactly what he did two years ago- he jumped off a building, kissed her, and said, "My name is Kisshu, thanks for the kiss." Then he teleported away."

"That's certainly an interesting way to meet someone," Brock said.

May grabbed his ear and said, "Don't even think about it."

"What?" Emiko asked.

"Brock's completely girl crazy," Ash explained. "One of us always has to stop him from going overboard every time he sees a pretty girl."

"Oh," Emiko said. She turned to Kisshu and said, "I take it you came to take us back?"

"Actually I came to recreate when we first met, since we can't go to Earth anymore," Kisshu said. "But bringing you back works too. What took you so long, anyways?"

"We got attacked by a bunch of those Team Rocket people," Emiko said. "And I used up all my energy fighting and healing Ash, so I couldn't teleport last night."

"Are you okay?" Kisshu asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Emiko said. She turned to the others, and said, "We should go, it was nice seeing you all again."

"You too," May said.

"And thanks for the help," Officer Jenny said.

Pikachu jumped onto Emiko's shoulder and rubbed her cheek. Emiko giggled. She was surprised, though, when Ash came up and hugged her. She hugged back, and said, "I'm going to miss you too."

Suddenly they heard a click, and looked up. Kisshu was holding a camera and smirking.

"I'm sure the others will like this," Kisshu said, and started laughing maniacally.

"Kisshu, you do realize that I can make that camera explode, right?" Emiko asked.

"NOOOO! Don't destroy it! It's my favorite camera!" Kisshu shouted.

Emiko raised an eyebrow. "You've got more than one?"

"Yeah, I stole Taruto's cause it looked nice," Kisshu said.

"I wonder what Taruto would think of that," Emiko said.

"You're going to blackmail me, aren't you?" Kisshu asked.

"Yep," Emiko said. "Now delete that photo."

"You ruin all my fun," Kisshu complained.

"I don't stop you from going through Ichigo's dresser, so I don't ruin ALL your fun," Emiko said.

Kisshu sighed. "Let's just go home…" he said.

"Fine," Emiko said. She turned to the others and said, "Bye!"

"Bye!" everyone said.

Emiko, Ichigo and Kisshu waved, and then Emiko teleported, with Kisshu teleporting Ichigo close behind.

They arrived in the living room, and Lettuce looked up from her book. "Oh, you're back," she said.

"Yep," Emiko said. "It's good to be home."

The End… at least until I think up another idea….