Chapter 25
The wolf growled at Zakuro, Ryou, and Keiichiro as it backed away from them, the two pups running off deeper into the cave..
"Hey, Zakuro," said Ryou. "Maybe it's a good time to introduce this side of Tohma to your own other side."
Zakuro nodded. "Mew mew Zakuro, Metamorphosis!" Zakuro transformed into her Mew form.
The wolf's growls started to subside, but not before Zakuro tackled it to the ground, pinning it there.
"Come on, Tohma, I know you're in there," said Zakuro.
"Who the heck is Tohma?" growled the wolf.
"You can talk?!" exclaimed Zakuro in surprise. She looked at Ryou and Keiichiro, who shook their heads.
"No, it's your powers again," said Ryou.
"What did you do with Tohma?" Zakuro forced onto the wolf. "The human that turned into you!"
"Forget about that guy," said the wolf with a smirk, "why don't you ditch that human form and come with me, as a full wolf."
Angered and disgusted, Zakuro slapped the wolf on the jaws, causing it to jerk around underneath her. She removed herself from on top of the wolf.
"Listen to me," Zakuro hissed, menacingly, "You will give Tohma back control of his body this instant."
"Sorry, your mate's not here right now," the wolf continued to smirk. "But when he wakes up again, I'll tell him you rang."
"He is not my 'mate', got that?" Zakuro hissed at the wolf, keeping her voice to a low whisper, prevent Ryou and Keiichiro to hear her.
"Aw…you'll crush his heart," the wolf teased.
"I'll crush your heart if you don't shut up," Zakuro said, glaring down at the wolf.
"Sorry, hun, you crush my heart, you crush you mate along with me," sneered the wolf.
"He's not my 'mate'!" Zakuro shouted, making Ryou and Keiichiro jump.
"Hee, not yet," the wolf whispered. Zakuro began to blush. "I see I hit a soft spot."
Zakuro turned around and stormed off towards the mouth of the cave.
Ryou and Keiichiro looked at each other, confused. "Zakuro, wait up," shouted Keiichiro.
The wolf suddenly called out, "Here, your mate's awake, guess my time's up."
But, before there was an answer, the change was already taking affect. With a flash of light, Tohma replaced the wolf.
"Finally you're back," Zakuro said with relief.
"Did 'he' say anything that's worth knowing about?" asked Tohma.
"Nothing you want to know," reassured Zakuro.
Later that day, Tohma and Keiichiro went back to the café to run a scan on Tohma.
"See anything?" Tohma called from inside a chamber.
"Dang you must love being possessed or something, that dang wolf's messing with your mind, I can't get a fixed reading" complained Keiichiro.
"You're complaining? Try having to put up with him. Now that I've found out that he's in here, he won't stop bugging me about Zakuro," Tohma said, leaning against the chamber doors.
Keiichiro made a noise of sympathy. "Well, that's all I can do now," he said, opening the chamber doors. Tohma stepped out. "The only thing you can do right now is to keep you're emotions under control."
"Any specifics?" asked Tohma.
"Mainly negative emotions such as anger and jealousy, things like that. But there is also the occasional effect happiness will cause," explained Keiichiro, shutting down the computers he was working at.
"I can't even be happy?" Tohma said in disbelief.
"Only at night," said Keiichiro, as he started to climb up the stairs, Tohma following suit. "But even then, you'll still be in control. Unless you happen to be asleep and the wolf's still awake."
"Great," Tohma sighed.
"Hey it's not all bad, just don't get mad at anyone," laughed Keiichiro.
"I'll make sure to 'eat' you first," Tohma hiss, causing Keiichiro to stop laughing immediately.
When the two of them returned, they were greeted by the others.
"Did you miss it again?" Ichigo asked in disbelief.
Tohma took a step back. "Miss what?" he asked, hesitantly.
"The wolf, I heard it was here last night," said Ichigo.
"No, I didn't miss it," said Tohma, flatly, walking past her and giving Zakuro a brief hug. "I would never miss it, whether I wanted to or not."
Zakuro looked up from underneath Tohma's arms, a slight look of concern on her face.
"What are you talking about, Tohma?" Lettuce asked, hesitantly.
Tohma didn't respond. He headed towards the door. "I'm going to experiment a little." He transformed as he walked out the door. They heard the door next to them close.
"Can someone explain what's going on?" Ichigo asked, running her hands through her hair frantically.
"Wolf must not be active," said Keiichiro, "That guy must like sleeping."
"Come again?" asked Zakuro.
Keiichiro sighed. "Might as well start from the beginning," he said. With Zakuro's help, Keiichiro explained to Ichigo and Lettuce how it all started out. "Tohma and I went back to run a scan to see what causes the transformation. After we did that, we headed back here. During that time, Tohma and the wolf had a little chat. To be honest, it got kind of annoying." Keiichiro rubbed his temples.
"Did you hear anything interesting?" asked Zakuro. "Like, maybe, why he attacked that chef?"
"He said he was hungry, so he went looking for food," Keiichiro said with a sigh.
"That's it?" Zakuro asked in disbelief. Keiichiro nodded. "Unbelievable. And why did he want to attack us."
"We weren't wolves… until you transformed, it claimed to be threatened," Keiichiro said.
"And it turned out to be a perverted git," Zakuro huffed.
"I didn't hear anything about it being perverted, or anything like that," said Keiichiro, a little taken aback.
"No, I bet you wouldn't have," muttered Zakuro.
Suddenly their all heard a loud howl. But to Zakuro, she heard words being shouted. "Let me out of here," came a whining voice. "Zakuro, you out there? Come on, hun, let me out of here. Your stupid mate shut the door and I can't get out."
Zakuro stood up and walked out of the room. They all heard the door next to them open, a moment of loving pining, then… the sound of a fist colliding with something hard. Then, the door was closed again, and Zakuro walked back into the room they were all sitting in, her knuckles slightly red.
"Hope, Tohma could forgive me for that," Zakuro moaned slightly.