June 27, 2003

That day, Ichigo rode a bus to school in the morning. As she stood in the hallway, she tried to fight off falling asleep once more, but after several minutes, she gave up. She closed her eyes and was about to fall over when she suddenly hit a man in a business suit behind her. The man moved away as she stumbled further on her feet, trying to catch herself. However, she noticed nobody was in the back of the bus behind the businessman, so she ended up falling to the floor. As she got up and wiped herself off, she noticed music coming from the back of the bus and found a single high school student sitting in the back with headphones. Based on how she could hear the music, she assumed he must have turned up the headphones obscenely loud. There was also a boombox at the student's feet, though it was not on. Immediately, she recognized who it was.

"Oh no," she thought to herself. "It's Suzaku Morishige. He goes to the local high school around here. He's always listening to music or singing it terribly. I just hope he doesn't notice me." Suzaku had spiked black hair, and wore a blue uniform.

"Ichigo," he asked her as he turned his music off and took his headphones out. "Did you fall?"

"God damn it," the redhead thought to herself. She then turned to him and replied, "I did, but I'm fine. I almost fell asleep on the bus."

"You're not alone in that regard," he replied with a chuckle. "So, anyway, I'm selling CDs of my covers, and I was thinking you could help me." He then gave her a stare-down that slightly intimidated the younger girl. "How's about 10 CDs for 2000 yen apiece? I'll let you keep 500 yen for each CD sold."

"I wouldn't buy his 'music' for a single yen, let alone 2000," she thought to herself. Of course, she could not express these views directly to him. "Well, uh, I guess?"

"Excellent," he replied as he handed her a stack of 10 CD cases with crudely-made covers on them. "Be sure to sell all 10 by the end of the day, okay?" His tone and expression gave off both excitement and yet also intimidation, making Ichigo rather uneasy.

"Sure thing, Suzaku," she assured him. She immediately thought in regret, "And I immediately regret saying that. I can't subject gullible people to this guy's singing. Not even Masaya could handle it. Besides, what's the worst he could do?"

During school later that day, Ichigo was standing outside her classroom, waiting for the math teacher to come along in between classes, when she noticed Mariko, a former fortune-teller in the school, looking concerned about something across from her, fidgeting slightly and looking around. "Huh? Mariko, hey."

Mariko noticed her and looked up, asking her, "Ichigo? What is it?"

"Is everything alright? You seem worried about something." Ichigo wondered what was getting Mariko as worried and scared as she was.

Mariko then took off her backpack and pulled out a recognizable CD. "It's that Suzaku guy from the high school. He wants me to sell 10 of these by the end of the school day. Shunsuke doesn't know about any of this." Referring to her boyfriend, t was clear she was concerned about him. "I don't want him getting hurt."

"I, uh," Ichigo replied in disbelief. "I was told to sell them, too."

Mariko then sighed. "Could you take one off my hands please? I don't want any trouble with Suzaku." She was desperate, not wanting to get on his bad side.

Immediately, Ichigo was reluctant. "I don't want to get on his bad side, but I don't want Mariko getting hurt. I might as well buy one. It can't hurt, right?" She then pulled her wallet out and took 2000 yen out of it. "I'll take one."

"Thank you so much," Mariko replied, overjoyed. "I just hope that makes Suzaku less mad."

"Same here," she replied. She then thought to herself as she took the CD from Mariko, "Now I have 11 CDs with nobody to sell them to. What the hell have I gotten myself into? If anything goes wrong, I should be the one who suffers, not her."

Later that day, on the bus ride home, Ichigo looked around, hoping Suzaku would not get on the bus. However, when thy got to the high school stop, to her dismay, she saw Suzaku standing outside. She sighed and told herself, "Be calm, be calm, be calm." She had no idea how he would react to not having sold a single CD and in fact gaining one from Mariko.

As Suzaku noticed her within the crowd, he asked her, "Hey, Ichigo, when we get to my stop, come with me. We'll discuss the sales there."

Ichigo nodded and replied, "Okay, okay." She had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

Seven minutes later, the two of them got off at his stop. As they walked out, Suzaku asked her, "So, Ichigo, did you sell any?"

Ichigo realized she could not hide the truth. She shivered as she shook her head no, expecting the worst. "I... Did not..."

Suzaku's expression gave away a sense of anger at her. "You told me you would. By the way, I caught wind of Mariko's little deal with you through an associate. I had him take her to this spot." He then took Ichigo by her arm as he practically dragged her to a back alley between two buildings. Ichigo did not resist, figuring that if anything happened, she could fight him off successfully.

Once they got to the back alley, Ichigo ripped her arm away and demanded from him, "Where is Mariko?!"

"I got her right here," Suzaku replied as he opened a back door to an abandoned house he and a few of his friends frequented. As he opened the door, Ichigo gasped as Mariko stumbled out into the alley, having previously been beaten by Suzaku's associate and bleeding from the nose. She then fell to her knees and coughed. "Ichigo... Help me..." As she fell over, Ichigo ran to her and tried to help her up.

"Mariko! No!" Ichigo then looked at Suzaku while still bent down, rage in her eyes. "How could you do this to her?!" She then closed her eyes as she felt a familiar pain in her chest. As she grasped her chest, a beam of light quickly surrounded her before vanishing.

Suzaku stood back as the other Ichigo stood up from a new passed-out Mariko. "Morishige Suzaku, you will be my next opponent!" She then turned around and asked him, "Tell me, are you a coward?"

"A coward? Hell no," he replied defiantly, still wondering what was going on with the redhead in front of her. "Why do you dare to ask?"

"If so," the other Ichigo replied as she set her backpack down. "You won't be afraid to play a game with me. It involves your boom box and the CDs you're trying to sell."

As Suzaku begrudgingly turned his boom box on on the ground, he asked, "What's the meaning of all this?"

"The game is simple," the other Ichigo explained. "I'll put the CD in, and the first person to start dancing, humming, or singing to the songs being played loses." She then took a CD case out of her backpack.

"What happens if I win? My singing is said to be contagious." Suzaku then thought to himself, "She's delusional. This game of her's is too easy."

The other Ichigo then grinned. "You can have my body and/or my life. Be warned, though. If I win, you will face a Penalty Game, and believe me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of mine." She then inserted the CD into the boom box and pressed play. "Game Start!"

The first song was a cover of Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. As Suzaku's tone-deaf cover played, the other Ichigo remained silent, while Suzaku had a hard time trying not to move or sing to the song. "Damn it, this is harder than I thought, but I can still win."

Once the song ended, the CD went right into the next song, an even more tone-deaf male cover of Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi. Again, the other Ichigo remained silent, staring him down with vengeful intent. She thought to herself, "These covers are worse than I thought. I can tell Suzaku is having a hard time trying not to lose."

Finally, at the end of Plastic Love, Suzaku gave up and began to sing along. As he sang the final line, the other Ichigo turned the boom box off. "I... I couldn't do it... This game was never fair!"

"Your tendency to sing no matter how much it annoyed others has finally done you in," the other Ichigo told him as her Mew Mark appeared and glowed once more on her forehead. "You lose, Suzaku!" As she pointed at him with her right index finger, she shouted, "PENALTY GAME!"

Immediately, Suzaku stumbled back as he suddenly heard his heartbeat deep within him. As it got louder and louder, he panicked and screamed. "Oh God! Make it stop! I'm gonna go deaf!" As he tried to cover his ears, it only made the sound in his head louder.

As the other Ichigo picked up Mariko off the ground and onto her shoulder, she told him, "Now you can hear your heartbeat. Maybe you will understand what it sounds like to have to deal with an annoying sound forever and ever. Game Over!" She then turned to a still passed-out Mariko. "Come now. Let's get you some help."