Just a reminder, my contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on January 7th if you still want to enter. Happy New Year! :)
Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Tart focused on Yuebin, knowing that the young man was doing the same. Neither could afford a millisecond of taking their eyes off of each other.
Which was why Tart was really surprised when, indeed quite out of nowhere, his opponent disappeared in a yellow blaze and before he had time to register what happened or realize that Yuebin had hit the mat, he was lying flat on his back, staring dizzily up at the ceiling.
From the sidelines, everyone gaped.
"Um… what just happened?" Homare asked, very confused.
It was a very good question.
"What the heck…?" Tart murmured, the ceiling above him spinning.
He blinked as suddenly Pudding leaned over him, crouching down to put her face near his, noses brushing.
"Because you haven't experienced it in a while, Taruto, let me remind you of what this feeling is," Pudding said. "It is the feeling of me, kicking your butt."
Tart grinned in spite of himself.
"I thought it felt familiar," He said, pushing himself into a sitting position. Across from him, Yuebin was doing the same. Both looked a little dizzy and off-kilter.
"Flying Monkey Surprise," Yuebin muttered, holding a hand to his forehead. "Good one, Miss Pudding."
"Thank you," Pudding said proudly as she stood upright.
She then turned to her father, who was the only one—besides Kisshu, who was too busy playing with Ichigo's hair—who wasn't standing open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
"Fon Taren, I, Fon Bu-Ling—the first born of the current Master of the ancient Fong KouEnJi Kenpou—challenge you to a duel for my freedom and honor," Pudding said, her eyes hard. "If I win, I not only have a choice of whom I marry, but I also regain my position as next-in-line of succession to the KouEnJi Kenpou, with the condition that Yuebin Ron is also allowed to be considered an heir. If you win, I will travel with Yuebin Ron and marry whom you direct without question."
Pudding glanced over her shoulder.
"Those terms sound good with you two?" She asked.
Tart and Yuebin both looked at each other and shrugged, knowing that the person who was going to win was the one who had just knocked them both out.
"It is agreeable," Yuebin said.
"Yeah, sounds good to me," Tart said.
Pudding nodded and turned back to her father, dropping into a fighting stance.
"Well? Do you accept my challenge?" She demanded.
There was a long silence. Mr. Fong did not move, nor did his eyes leave his daughter.
"I will not fight you," He said after a long pause.
"Fight me!" Pudding spat. "Now!"
"I will not," Mr. Fong said evenly. "For you have already won."
There was another bout of silence in the room. Kish gently tugged on Ichigo's sleeve.
"Do we get to go 'Yay! We won!' now?" He asked softly, his eyes still glassy.
"Let's give it a few minutes," Ichigo said, patting his hand. "Let the victory sink in."
Kish nodded solemnly.
Mr. Fong sighed.
"Perhaps I should explain," He said. "But first, I think Taruto would be more comfortable if we removed those cuffs taking away his alien powers, am I right?"
Everyone stared at him in shock.
"You, you figured it out?" Tart said as Rin went ahead and unlocked the Restrictors.
Mr. Fong shook his head.
"No," He said. "I knew the moment I met you. That you, and your brothers, were the aliens who began attacking Earth nearly four years ago." He turned to his daughter again. "Just like I knew you were Mew Pudding."
"You knew?" Yuebin said, clearly surprised.
"I would have thought they only way he would know is if you told him," Pudding said, turning to Yuebin, who shook his head.
"No, I kept your secret," Yuebin said.
"And even if he hadn't, it would have been old news to me, as I discovered the secret first," Mr. Fong said. He smiled softly at his daughter. "It was hard not to, seeing as all of a sudden this little monkey girl using KouEnJi Kenpou was on the news reports all the time. As for the aliens' secret, well, no offense but the ears kind of gave that one away."
"I knew we should have done something to hide them!" Ryou said, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.
"Well, it's too late now!" Rirī snapped at him, putting a hand on one of her ears in an almost protective manner.
"But, why didn't you say something?" Lettuce asked Mr. Fong, her brow furrowed with confusion.
"I felt that there was no reason to," Mr. Fong said. "She needed to keep her identity a secret for a reason. If I knew, then I knew, but I wouldn't breathe a word about it. That is not to say I wasn't worried about you, Pudding. That was why I sent Yuebin here in the first place."
"What do you mean, Sensei?" Yuebin asked, still very confused.
"I sent you to Tokyo, not to duel with Pudding for the heir title. No, Ron, you were sent to Tokyo with my intent of protecting Pudding, knowing that you would be capable of doing so. I did not plan on you learning for yourself who Mew Pudding truly was, but I am pleased to see that you were loyal to keep the secret from even your Sensei."
"So, then, the engagement between Pudding and Yuebin…" Zakuro said.
"Is truly nonexistent or binding," Mr. Fong said. He smiled a bit shyly. "I, uh, was not planning on Pudding failing the duel, to be quite honest though."
Pudding and Yuebin looked at each other.
"So, we're not really…?" Pudding said.
Her father shook his head.
"No. Neither of you are not pledged to wed the other. I was going to tell you both. But, while I was able to see through Mew Pudding, I was not able to see through my own daughter. I believed that Pudding truly loved Yuebin, and that Yuebin truly loved Pudding. That was why I didn't say anything." He gazed at Pudding and Tart sadly, the two clutching hands side-by-side. "If I hadn't been so blind to see that it was Taruto your heart truly wanted, Pudding, then I wouldn't have even thought up the idea of the world-wide trip."
"Why did you suggest that trip?" Masaya asked.
"Again, to try to protect Pudding," Mr. Fong said. He hung his head for a moment. "Because you are right, my dear, beautiful Bu-Ling. I am selfish. I had seen the stitches on your arm, though I knew it had to have been a different kind of work accident than you tried to have me believe. I had felt my heart stop when the school called to say that you were being sent to the hospital at that very moment. I had done what I could to comfort you while you were sick, wondering why it seemed that as soon as you were better you were ill again. Then, I started to hear you cough… And you disappeared. You disappeared and all I could think of was your mother."
Pudding's eyes were filling with tears and she rubbed at them.
"Mama… it started with a cough, too, didn't it?" She whispered. "And it just wouldn't go away. Then, the doctors took her to the hospital and wouldn't let her leave. And then…"
She choked on her words.
But they all heard them.
And then she was gone.
Mr. Fong took the few steps and pulled his daughter into his arms, holding her tightly as she cried into his chest.
"I am so sorry that I have hurt you, my beautiful daughter," He said. "I was selfish. I had a job to do and I couldn't face it. I couldn't face losing her. I thought I couldn't live without her. Slowly, I began to see that I could. And that she wouldn't be happy that I left you and your brothers and sister for so long. And I just couldn't, wouldn't, refused to lose you the same way. I know there is nothing that can be done to make up for that lost time, nothing that can earn my forgiveness, but will you please accept my apology?"
Pudding smiled up at her father.
"I forgive you, Daddy," She whispered. "Thank you."
Mr. Fong gave his daughter a final squeeze and looked up at Tart and Yuebin.
"My next apologies go to the both of you," He said. "Taruto for not realizing sooner that you cared for Pudding as more than a friend and releasing her from the bond that never truly existed. And Ron, for taking away a part of your lifetime that can never be made up."
Both Tart and Yuebin lowered their heads.
"We forgive you," They both said.
"Please do not take offense, Miss Pudding, but I am a bit relieved to learn this new information," Yuebin said, smiling at her. "Because, as hard as I tried, I could never see you as anything but a little sister."
"And Yuebin is Pudding's Onii-Chan," Pudding said with a small smile, wiping away the rest of her tears. "Pudding doesn't think we'd be happy in a marriage where we see each other like that, na no da."
"No, definitely not," Yuebin said with a small laugh. He hesitated, but then said quietly, "But, if you must know, some good did come from this. Miss Pudding and Taruto freedom in love and, well, I met a girl because of all this. A special girl. One I think I might be in love with."
"If it's any of them, they're taken and got big, scary boyfriends," Pudding said, jerking her thumb behind her shoulder to the four other Mews. She glanced at Kish, who was trying to make another grab at Ichigo's chest. "Well, at the moment three big, scary boyfriends and one really drugged up one."
Yuebin laughed.
"No, no offense intended to you girls, either," He said quickly to Zakuro, Mint, Lettuce and Ichigo. "But, this girl I met in China. I believe you've met her, Miss Pudding," He said, giving her a wink. "Fon Hauna."
"Gū Mā Hauna?" The six Fong siblings simultaneously said at once in surprise and horror.
"You got a death wish, don't you, kid?" Mr. Fong said, looking at Yuebin with both awe and a bit of skepticism, to which he smiled bashfully at.
"Who?" Keiichiro asked, posing the question everyone was wondering.
"Daddy's younger sister," Heicha said gravely, still clutching her flowers. "She's all tsun and no dere."
"Hey, wait a second!" Rōzu exclaimed, glancing between Heicha and each of the Fong brothers. "You guys don't seem to be too surprised to learn all this, especially with your Onee-Chan being Mew Pudding."
The five kids looked a bit sheepish.
"We figured it out, too," One of the boys said.
"But we didn't tell Pudding Onee-Chan because we thought she didn't want us to know," Another brother said.
"We thought we were keeping Pudding Onee-Chan safe, too," One of the quadruplets said.
"And Taru-Taru, too, when we realized he was an alien, so we kept it a secret!" The last brother said, pressing a finger to his lips.
Heicha giggled.
"But Pudding Onee-Chan is good at protecting herself," She said.
"That she is," Tart said, squeezing Pudding's hand. Pudding gave him a big smile.
"Oh, will you two kiss already and be done with it?" Rirī snapped playfully.
Pudding giggled and leaned over to kiss Tart, but he stopped her, placing a finger to her lips, though his eyes never left her confused face.
"Pie, Rin," He said. "What are the rules for when neither partaker of a Duel of Honor wins?"
"It's never happened before…" Rin said. "Especially not because of a third party intervention. Well, to that degree."
"But, in these circumstances…" Pie said, a small hint of a smirk beginning to show on his face. "I would say that technically speaking, the victory would go to whoever hit the mat last."
Tart's grin grew, with a hint of mischief.
"Good enough for me," Tart said.
He held his free hand out palm up, his finger never leaving Pudding's lips. The air shimmered and Pudding's eyes widened as a small golden ring dotted with yellow and red stones dropped into Tart's hand.
"Taru-Taru?" She whispered. He grinned at her and moved his finger.
"Fon Bu-Ling, I am going to make a promise to you," Tart said. "A promise that one day, when we're both ready, I will ask you to marry me. Until then, I will do everything within my power to protect you, care for you and always be there for you. Do you accept this promise?"
Pudding's eyes watered slightly as she eagerly nodded her head, a large smile on her face.
So, with that, Tart slipped the ring on her finger.
He barely had it on when she glomped him, sending him to the ground, pressing her lips to his.
Tart chuckled when they broke off.
"You know," He said, reaching up to stroke her blond locks. "I think that was our first kiss that didn't involve candy."
"And yet it was probably the sweetest yet, na no da," Pudding said, her hands on his cheeks, cupping his face, before she kissed him again.
"Aw, they're so cute!" Homare said with a small sigh.
"But most importantly, they make each other happy," Yuebin said with a grin.
No one could disagree.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Scene Divider)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Kish walked in a large circle, babbling about random things.
"How long is this going to last?" Shinji asked, craning his neck to look at Kish, who had just walked behind him from where he sat on the floor of the Fong living room, eating pizza with the rest of the team.
Rirī watched Kish as she chewed.
"Three… Two…" She mumbled.
Suddenly, Kish got a really thoughtful look on his face and fell to his knees, laid his head in Ichigo's lap—she barely having time to move her plate before his cheek landed in her pizza—and promptly fell asleep, snoring.
"One," Rirī said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Thank the stars," Rin said with a slight groan. "I thought he'd never shut up…"
"Why exactly was he like that?" Tart asked, Pudding curled up beside him.
Everyone stared at him in disbelief.
"You should know," Shinji said. "After all, you're the one who broke his tooth."
Tart blinked.
"I did what?" He said.
"Let me guess, you can't remember anything from early this afternoon," Masaya said.
Tart shook his head.
"All I know was somehow I got from my room to that field with Pudding," He said. "Everything from before that is a complete blank."
"I almost think I'd be more comfortable about this whole Knight thing if at least one of was conscious of the Knight transformations from the beginning," Ichigo said, gently running her fingers though Kish's hair.
"Agreed," Mint said with a nod as she tore her pizza crust into pieces.
"There's something different," Zakuro said solemnly, running her fingertip along the edge of her soda can. "Between the Blue Knight and these Knights."
"What do you mean?" Keiichiro asked.
Zakuro lifted her head.
"We aren't seeing these Knights as often as we did the Blue Knight," She said. "And, just before Masaya became conscious of the transformations, it seemed like the Blue Knight had… changed."
"Changed?" Rōzu repeated, her brow furrowed as she gnawed on a pizza crust.
"The Blue Knight seemed… colder," Lettuce whispered.
"And merciless," Zakuro said. She jerked her head at Kish where he lay curled on his side, still using Ichigo as a pillow. "Kish bears the proof of that."
"It's not like it was unprovoked, though," Mint said. "Kish did kind of go at the Blue Knight with swords flying."
"Ichigo had to stop the Blue Knight from driving his sword through Kish's chest," Zakuro snapped. "The Blue Knight had never tried to kill anyone or anything before. He left minor wounds, but left it to us to destroy the Chimeras. Kish wasn't going after Ichigo at the time, just the Blue Knight."
"The Red Knight went after Yuebin, but only because Yuebin was in the way of him getting to Pudding," Ichigo said, staring at Kish's sleeping face, a small frown on her face.
"His eyes said he didn't want to do it, but he would have to, na no da," Pudding said softly. "But when Pudding asked him not to, the loyalty to Pudding won out over getting rid of an obstacle, na no da."
"You're being awfully quiet about this," Rirī said, glancing at Masaya, who stared at his knees.
"Got nothing to say," Masaya said, shaking his head slightly. "I don't remember anything from that time." He lifted his head, eyes smoldering. "But I believe that if I hadn't come to consciously become the Blue Knight, Deep Blue would have emerged sooner."
"I concur," Pie said. "It was during that time that Deep Blue also seemed to grow colder. Merciless."
"He told us to abandon Kish to die after the Blue Knight wounded him," Tart snarled at the memory.
"But he survived…" Homare said, glancing over at the oblivious Kish. "So, then, how…"
Tart's face suddenly softened as he turned to Pie.
"You didn't let me go with you," He said, not accusingly. "You just told me to stay, that you would be back…"
Pie nodded.
"I believed that Deep Blue would have changed his mind, or that his anger would have lessened to allow Kish back in," He explained. "I found an insulated warehouse to place him in and left some water and food as well as some painkillers for Kish when he awoke. The last thing I expected was for him to find the strength to leave on his own."
Tart's shoulders relaxed.
"And you didn't tell me because out of the two of us, you're the one with better poker-face," He said with a small nod.
"There's something else that separates these Knights from the Blue Knight," Lettuce said softly.
"The servant, na no da." Pudding said in agreement.
Suddenly, all eyes were going back and forth between Pudding, Lettuce and Ichigo.
"The what now?" Rin said, eyes wide.
"Something the Knights said to each of us when they first appeared," Ichigo said grimly. "We couldn't say anything before. Literally couldn't. I know, because I've tried. It's like the words die in your throat. They just won't come out."
"We're still not understanding," Ryou said with a frown. "Who, or what, exactly did the Knights refer to as 'servants'?"
"Who the Knights said would serve as protectors when they weren't needed," Lettuce said.
"The White Knight said Pie Onii-Chan, the Red Knight Taru-Taru," Pudding said.
"And the Green Knight said Kish," Ichigo said softly, eyes on the boy curled up in her lap.
"And, so far, we've learned Pie is the White Knight, Tart the Red, so that must mean—" Rirī said.
They all looked at the utterly oblivious Kish, fast asleep with his head on Ichigo's lap, drooling slightly.
"Ichigo's great protector, everybody," Mint said with a small sigh.
"So, this definitely means that Kish is the Green Knight?" Rōzu asked.
"Part of me hopes so, the other part of me doesn't," Ichigo said. "Because Mylo has figured it out: that the Knights will do anything to protect us. Even if that means not protecting themselves." Ichigo quickly stroked away the tear that had fallen into Kish's emerald hair. "And Kish has already died for me once."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"Kish is smarter than he appears to be," Pie said. "Or, more accurately, he is cunning. If there is a loophole to be found, he will find it and use it to his advantage. Moreover, he knows he cannot protect you if he is dead."
Ichigo nodded, with a small smile.
Homare turned her head as the clock chimed the hour and her eyes widened.
"Uh, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we still have school in the morning!" She said with a hint of urgency in her voice.
There was a look of horror on the students' faces (save Kish, who was still asleep).
"Yeah, time to call the party to an end," Ryou said, getting to his feet.
They quickly gathered up the empty pizza boxes and plates then said their good-byes to begin parting ways.
"Will he be okay by tomorrow?" Ichigo asked as Pie carefully picked Kish up.
"He'll be fine," Rirī said. "His mouth will be a little sore, but otherwise he'll be fine."
Ichigo nodded and stood on her toes to kiss Kish's cheek.
"Good night, Kisshu," She whispered into his ear. "Sleep well, my Green Knight."
Author's Notes: Heicha's comment of "All tsun, no dere" is one I picked up from another manga (Which, for the life of me, I can't remember the title of -_-') Basically, a Tsundere character acts cold and mean, but can be really sweet and loving at times. But, as Heicha indicates, her aunt is all cold, no love. For an example, Ryou is considered a Tsundere towards Ichigo in the original stuff. Zakuro and Pie could be considered Tsundere characters, too. (Admittedly, though, Pie's "dere" times are usually in fanfiction while Ryou and Zakuro got actual airtime and manga scenes the few times they were in "dere" mode)
Gū Mā is a Chinese title given to an aunt who is your father's younger sister (The Chinese are very particular about their family titles! O.O)
And I kind of combined the events of the manga and anime of when the Blue Knight injured Kish. Usually, I go back and forth between either manga events or anime ones (Just depending on which I liked better or thought fit the story best), but this was one I really liked the aspects of both: the Christmas Eve duel and Ichigo stopping the Blue Knight from killing Kish. I was so disappointed that part wasn't in the anime; they made Ichigo so weak and ditzy! -_- Masaya was better in the manga, too, IMO; not as boring and Gary-Stu like.