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Chapter 11:Troubling Wounds

"Go away, Odango-attama!" Mamoru grunted more than said in my general direction.

I could practically scream in fustration at the man. How dare he tell me to go away? I was the one that ran all the way from the arcade to return him the wallet that he'd left. It was not my fault that he happened to be in the shower by the time I made it to his apartment and it most definately was not my fault that he was shivering in nothing but a towel as he answered his door. He didn't have to run straight to the door. I mean, it wasn't like his wallet was that important. Okay, so maybe to an arrogant guy it is a valuable asset, but to me it was something that could have easily been left in a mailbox or something.

"Fine, baka, " I yelled back in retort," If you didn't live in such a fancy apartment, I wouldn't have to be buzzed up!"

"Excuse me for enjoying the finer points of life, unlike you..little girl," Mamoru muttered through gritted teeth as he took the wallet from my hands and turned to return to his shower.

He moved so fast that I thought at first it was only a trick of the light, but when I squinted at his backside, I could clearly see the wound reopening. It looked badly swollen and blood was beginning to seep down his spine.

"Mamoru?" I questioned as the door slammed into my face.

In a fit of panic and rage I began banging on the door in an attempt to verify what my eyes had seen. Was he really hurt? Could it be as bad as it looked? Maybe he needed serious medical attention and was too stubborn to get it?

The door opened with even less enthusiasm this time. Mamoru still stood shivering in nothing but a towel, however, now it looked like he was straining to stand more than shivering from cold air.

"What do you want now?"Mamoru growled out through his clenched teeth.

Before it had seemed as if he was trying to scare me, but now I could see his teeth were gripped in pain more than annoyance. I could not just leave him like this. Not even I am naive enough to think that a wound like that heals without any outside attention.

I pushed past him and promptly ran towards his living room. I turned to face him as he begrudedly sighed and closed his door. His slow trek to where I stood revealed even more than his strained face had. He was seriously injured, but was still being too macho and stubborn to ask for my help.

"You're hurt," I whispered in a meager display of compassion, "You need to go to a hospital."

Mamoru sighed deeply and leaned back gingerly against the wall. His grimace of pain was not even hidden as he nodded at my observation.

"It's just a scratch, odango. I'll be fine," He attempted to reassure me," Besides I'm studying to become a doctor. I think I know a bit more about wounds than you do?"

"I don't care if you are studying to become a doctor, baka. I'm not leaving until you promise to go to the hospital!"

In my exasperation and stubborness he must have seen something sincere because he didn't argue with me anymore. Mamoru just sighed and moved from the wall in a stiff sort of way. He turned, heading down a small hallway into what I could only guess was his bedroom because he closed the door after crossing its threshold.

I took this time to look around at the apartment. Everything was decorated nicely, however, the entire area seemed void of a personality. There were no pictures of family and only a tiny frame that held a picture of Motoki with his girlfriend and his little sister. The furniture was all leather or glossy black simplicity. The appliances were all shiney grays and somber hues of gray. It seemed the embodiment of the male ego overcompensating by buying lots of fancy things without a real reason for it.

'I wonder if anyone other than Motoki has ever set foot in here before...'

I examined everything I could lay my hands on thoroughly since I doubted I would ever get another chance to see them again. After a few minutes of touching and begrudingly admiring things, I became impatient. I started to pace the short length of the living room and finally began to walk the short length of the hallway.

When I was about to snap and yell hurry up, the bedroom door slowly creaked open to reveal Mamoru. He looked extremely pale and his face showed etches of fatigue. His facial features were the least of my worries as I noticed he held his shirt in his limp hands.

He looked up at me with the most helpless stare imaginable and I completely forgot about my impatience with him. He was standing before me without a shirt on and his eyes seemed to hypnotize me with their azure gaze. For a concieted jerk, he was really a work of art. I could even be tempted to say beautiful, but not even a baka like him needs to be given a compliment as feminine as that.

I saw more than heard him sigh as he continued to look at me. He bit his lip as if he was considering something before tilting his head to the side and looking down again. Seconds ticked by before he looked up again with a sort of determined set to his jaw.

"I seem to..."Mamoru trailed off and looked at the shirt in his hands as if the thing had defeated him in a great battle," I'm having a little trouble..." He finished softly.

No matter how much I ever felt annoyed by him, or how much I claimed he was nothing except a concieted baka, in that instance he stood before me a worn down guy. I couldn't deny him my help because of previous insults or petty arguements. Besides, he was hurt and I could not let him suffer needlessly.

I reached forward and took the shirt from his hands. It was a well worn black t-shirt that normally should have taken mere seconds to pull on, but with his back injury I could see how the action brought more trouble than it was worth. I looked up into his eyes and for the first time I noticed just how tall he really was. Even with him slouched over in pain, he was still several inches above me.

'Why did I never notice how tall you were or how blue your eyes are before now..'

"You need to sit down," I ordered while preparing the shirt to slide over his head," You're too tall for me to...just sit down over there." I finished rather dumbly.

He nodded and made the slight walk from the door to his bed. I followed him a little apprehensively. I had never been alone this long with a guy before and now I was in a bedroom with one helping him dress. Under typical circumstances I would have felt extremely nervous and wary of being in this kind of situation, however, my mind would not let me feel this way. All trepidations were in the back of my brain as I stood before him and aided his movements.

I then proceeded to help him stand and hold his hand the entire way out of the apartment complex. Vaguely I realized the storm had halted its downpour momentarily, but it wouldn't have mattered much either way because neither of us had a jacket or umbrella. It never dawned on me that I could let go of his hand now or that the Arcade was in the opposite direction.

'You just want to make sure he gets to the hospital alright...nothing else.'

After walking a few minutes in comfortable silence Mamoru announced more to himself than to me," I could have driven there in a fraction of the time it takes to walk."

I stopped walking so suddenly that my arm held Mamoru back. The jolt must have sent a shock of pain through his body since he stood really still with his eyes closed for a second. I didn't notice at first, however, because I was distracted by the negaverse general that had just materialized in front of us.

"Odango..." Mamoru began until he opened his eyes to see the general,"...you need to get out of here," he finished with a touch of menace to his voice.

I opened my mouth to protest before being hit with an energy blast that knocked the air out of me and tore my hand from Mamoru's grasp. I closed my eyes to gather my thoughts, but I must have momentarily lost consciousness because when I opened them I was in a strange building with Mamoru standing in front of my cowered form. My ears were ringing for some unknown reason, but I was able to understand Mamoru had just agreed to something with the general.

"Wha--,"I started to ask as flames sprung to life throughout the room.

I screamed, but Mamoru was already half dragging, half carrying me into an elevator that had just magically appeared to our left. He swung me into the closing doors while barely making it in time himself. The elevator lurched upwards, further throwing me off balance and bringing me to my knees.

Out of breath from sheer terror and shock I looked at Mamoru's face for some kind of clue to what was going on. His eyes were clouded over with something dark and malicious. His mouth was set harshly against his jaw in an immobile frown. Whatever was going on had nothing to do with his making, by the looks of it.

"Mamoru?" I began questioning him," Ma--"

"I'm sorry I got you into this odango. Can you ever forgive me?"Mamoru stated with such sincerity and conviction that the shadow of doubt I had of him somehow being on the same side as the negaverse disappeared.

I took a small breath and whispered,"Into what exactly?"

Mamoru shook his head and turned to look at what I originally thought was a wall. It turned out to be a large glass window that revealed the outer surroundings of the building we had somehow ended up in. The sight of the sun peeking through the rain clouds was breathtaking. It made me wish I was a painter so I could use brushstrokes to forever put on paper the view I was witnessing.

The profile Mamoru struck against the contrasts of light and dark in the sky was almost more beautiful a portrait than the storm. His eyes were shadowed and turbulent much like the storm outside was proving to be, his dark, ebony locks, slightly ruffled, fell over his eyebrows and seemed to be reaching desparately for his eyes like the sun seemed to be reaching desparately to light up the city, and his face showed the battle being fought in his mind as clearly as the sun's rays fought against the turbulent clouds.

Mamoru sighed deeply and closed his eyes as he turned to further face me. When he opened them again they shined with a light that I had never noticed before. He smiled feebly like he wanted to reassure me of the situation despite the opposing odds.

His smile made me want to smile in return and he must have read into my forced expression because he moved to stand beside me. I craned my neck a little in order to see his face clearly, but it was needless because he leaned down so that I could see directly into his eyes. His suddenly compassion-filled eyes took my breath away.

'I could drown in your eyes...'

"Mamoru.." I breathed his name so softly that I'm not even sure I said it aloud.

"No matter what happens, I'll always protect you," he whispered, but his lips never seemed to move.

We looked intently at each other for a moment or two, even though it felt like a lifetime was passing by. An unknown feeling fluttered around my heart and compelled me not to look away as Mamoru placed his hand on my cheek.

'Always,' whispered into my mind in a masculine purr that was far from my own internal voice.

In my head images of another time, another life flashed briefly before my eyes. I felt in my heart that he meant those words with all of his being. I felt that he would uphold those words because once, a long time ago, he had said them before. Once, a long time ago, he had promised me the same thing and, against all odds, he had kept this promise.

The elevator jolted as it came to a halt and I was snapped from my thoughts. We had stopped our slow albeit steady rise through the building. Mamoru chose this instance to drop his hand and move back to his previous position. The fluttering around my heart ebbed away leaving me shaking my head to get the idea of past lives out of my mind.

"How did we get here?"I finally asked after clearing my head.

Mamoru glanced quickly at me then at the ground before worrying his lip with his teeth. He tilted his head to the side slightly in a way that I've come to think means he's considering all options before speaking.

"That guy teleported us here," he said after a time.

"Well I got that much on my own," I muttered in exasperation," But why would he go to all the trouble for us?"

Mamoru did the shift of his eyes and head tilt again before quietly admitting," I've angered him and now he wants a chance for revenge. He will be sadly mistaken if he thinks he will defeat me though."

"Mamoru? What could you have done to anger a nega--I mean that creepy guy?" I caught myself before I revealed too much information.

Mamoru stared at me with those intense eyes of his. I could tell he knew I was up to something and would probably not answer any more of my questions.

"What?" I asked nervously after his intense stare brought a flush to my cheeks.

"What do you know about the negaverse, odango?" Mamoru questioned me," And furthermore, you're right. He had no reason to take you if the agreement was between him and me."

He said the last part in a undertone kind of way as if he were mentioning it more to himself than me.

"I never said anything about the negaverse?" I tried to say in a nonchalant way and failed miserably.

His expression told me much more than his words ever could.

'Nice going. Now I bet he's going to suspect me of having something to do with this.'

Mamoru smirked a little and said," The agreement was for sundown at the top of this building. I think we'll both be stuck here until then..."

He trailed off as he turned to look out the window wall. The storm was still fighting the sun fiercly, but the showers of rain looked more scattered now then anything. From the position of the sun in the sky I could tell sunset was at least a few hours off.

'How are we going to entertain ourselves until the sun goes down?'

"You have a family, odango?" Mamoru said out of the blue.

He slid down to the floor and made himself comfortable as I adjusted to his random question.

"Why the sudden interest in my family, baka?"

He shruged and continued to watch me like he knew I couldn't resist answering his question. With him sitting down now it was much easier to talk to him.

"Well, I have a mama and a papa and an annoying brat of a little brother that lives just to annoy and pester me," I began," My mama pretty much keeps the house and things like that. She's an amazing cook and a really understanding person. My dad works at some business. I never really thought about what it was called or what he did exactly. I guess I never had to...before."

I stopped my ramblings because Mamoru had a soft smile on his lips and a distance look to his eyes. I couldn't tell if he was being amused by my words, if they were upsetting him, or if he was even listening.

"What's wrong?" he asked," Why did you stop talking?"

"You don't have any pictures of family in your apartment," I declared as if that answered everything.

"And?" he prompted.

"Well don't you think you're the one that needs to talk about family? I mean, did you have a falling out with your parents or something? Is that why you don't have any pictures of them?"

I shot off questions at him one after another with no time in between for him to answer. His expression turned a little sad and his eyes kept that far off look to them.

"My parents died in a car accident when I was very young," he said quietly.

"Gom--" I automatically started to appologize for my previous questions.

Mamoru cut me off with his rationalizations,"You don't have to appologize, odango. You didn't know, right? I've only ever told Motoki. I guess you could say he is my family."

I nodded slightly while looking down and biting my lip. His habit of doing that was subconsciously rubbing off on me, but I was more concerned with his revealation to me. He was sharing something with me that he'd shared with no one else besides Motoki.

'Why would you tell me these things?'

"I thought if you talked about something you're familiar with then you wouldn't worry so much, Odango-attama. However, it looks like you can't help but worry?" Mamoru mumbled as he tried to gain eye contact with me.

"That's not my name, baka," I replied more out of habit then the fact I felt insulted.

He shruged," But it suits you so well."

A heavy silence fell over the space in the elevator. Minutes ticked by and somehow Mamoru and I both ended up simply staring off at the ever changing scene of the storm outside. The sun was still fighting for dominance, but not with as much vigor as it had before. It seemed drained and started to flush bright oranges and warm reds from the effort. Sunset was nearing and soon we would both have to face what awaited us at the top floor of this building.

Mamoru broke the silence,"Whatever happens next, odango, just make sure you get out of here okay?"

I glanced at him and saw the determination build in his eyes. I decided then and there that I wouldn't leave him. I would stay by him as he faced whatever that negaverse creep had in store because no one should have to fight an enemy like that alone.

"I'm not letting you go on your own. Besides you're hurt and you know it. You need my help, baka, so just accept it already,"I declared.

"But--"Mamoru began, but stopped as the elevator started to rise much faster than it had originally,"I don't have time to argue with you. Just stay back and let me handle this."

Thoroughly fustrated at his stubborness I shouted at him,"You can't take him on alone! I can help you I...We can try to get away or something?"

I couldn't bring myself to announce my alter ego's name to him. Even as I knew he was facing the same enemy as me I couldn't admit who I really was. Besides, the other's must have realized by now that something was wrong since I hadn't returned to the Arcade. Eventually they would show up and then we could defend Mamoru from the nega-creep as best we could. Mamoru would just have to get over his pride and let the scout's and I handle things.

"I won't run away from this fight,"Mamoru announced as he magically pulled a rose out of thin air.

The rose took on a life of its own as the petals glowed floated softly around Mamoru's tall figure. He closed his eyes as the petals brushed against his face, leaving a white mask in their wake. A small smile crossed over Mamoru's face and he opened his eyes to look directly into mine. Now the petals dragged along his clothes to leave a tuxedo covering his body. The rose he was holding in his hand lengthened and darkened into a cane.

I gasped at the site before me. I couldn't believe my eyes.

'Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen?'

"It can't be?"I spoke aloud to no one.

Mamoru removed his mask to speak to me,"I have to do this on my own. I need to defeat him in order to regain...something I lost needlessly. I will protect you, but do not interfere."

I shook my head, still in shock at what my eyes wanted me to believe. I finally snapped out of it as I realized the elevator had stopped again. We had reached the top floor and the doors would soon open to reveal what Mamoru, or rather Tuxedo Kamen, had agreed to fight.

Tuxedo Kamen stepped before the door and it crept open to reveal another empty floor in the building. He walked forward cautiously and I held my breath in fear for what he would face alone.

'Wait...he's not alone!'

"Moon Prism Power!" I exclaimed at exactly the same time the elevator decided to close on my transformation.

Okay...that's the next chapter in a nutshell. Review, critique, completely ignore or all of the above to your heart's content. The next chapter is already in the making and hopefully will grow and blossom into an update asap. Adieu til then.