The Story of Us
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by summer dragonfly


Chapter XIII
"Ryo is Gone"


A/N: I'm happy to say that is a much better chapter than the last one. I'm full of inspiration
and I've managed to make this one short(kind of). As from this chapter, Ryo is officially
a new person(hint hint: the title). Enjoy!



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Everyone stood as still as statues, waiting for the smoke to clear. It seemed like no one could
even breathe.

Minutes later, when the air had become clear again, they all saw that the enemy was no more.

At once, as if on cue, they all started cheering and hugging.

"We did it!" Jeri said excitely, jumping up and down.

After a solid 10 minutes of rejoicing, Takato noticed something. He turned toward his friends.
"Hey...where's Ryo?"

They all looked around. Kazu scratched his head. "Yeah, where is Ryo?"

"You don't think---"

"Nah! No way...can it?"

"Yamaki!" Kenta called. "Help! We can't find Ryo!"

"Nani?" Yamaki came over to them, still smiling. "What's wrong?"

"Ryo's not here; there's no sign of him!" Jeri started to panic again.

"Wait, I'm sure he's here somewhere...let's not jump to conclusions..."

They organized a search party from the people that were there and started to look.

Where can he be? This was the question that was on all their minds.


* * *

The wind blew by a young man's face, causing him to open his deep blue eyes.

He wasn't old; about 20ish.

He sat up; dazed, confused, an odd ringing in his ears. "...where...am I?"

He couldn't remember anything at all. He took stock of his surroundings: he was in a wooded area,
probably a park, but since it was the dead of night, no one was there.

The wind blew again, causing the trees to shake and produce a creepy howling sound.

The young man's head hurt immensely and there was a cut on his forehead. He had no idea where he
was, or what had got him there.

Worse of all, he couldn't remember his own name.

"Who am I?" He asked himself. "What's my name?"

As hard as he tried, he couldn't find the answers. He dug into the deepest corners of his mind
but still didn't know.

"Come on, come on, think!" he forced himself to remember. "Who are you?!"

After a really long time, he remembered very little; but some. "My name...it was an R name..."

"What was it? I don't remember...I don't remember anything..."

He shook his head, knowing he couldn't get it. "Maybe...maybe it was Ray. Or something like that..."

*I guess it'll have to do.* Ray thought. *But I still don't understand how I got here...*

"Hey you!"

Ray turned around. It was an old man. "What are you doing here at this hour?"

"I---I don't know." Ray said, holding his head.

"What's wrong with you, boy?" The old man asked.

"My head---"

"What's your name?"

Ray hesitated. "I think...Ray."

"What do you mean you think? Is it Ray or not?"

"Uh---yes."

The old man smiled. "I'm a security guard for this park. Doing my night rounds. Now why are you here?"

"I can't remember anything..." Ray said.

"Well, first of all, you need to take care of that horrible gash on your head." The old man examined
it. "I'm Mr. Yoshida because it's my last name. No one's allowed to know my first name 'cept close
kin, y'know."

"Huh?" Ray was confused.

"Come on. Let's get you outta here. Where do you live?" Mr. Yoshida asked.

"I don't know."

"Don't you know anything, boy?"

"I can't remember." Ray said again. "I don't even know where here is."

"Do you have amnesia or something?"

"What's amnesia?"

Mr. Yoshida nodded. "All right. You can come stay at my place for the night. I'll tell you something
though, the missus won't be happy..."

"Excuse me," Ray said. "But where is this?"

"This is Yumi Park."

"Yu---Yumi Park?"

"Yes. In Kobe City...?"

"I still don't know where this is."

"Where are you from?"

"I don't know."

"Hmm." Mr. Yoshida said. "Well, c'mon, it's darn cold out here and I'm just itchin' for a cup of
cocoa, aren't you?"

"Co-coa?" Ray said.

"Never mind. Come on."

* * *

"Guys, we've been searching for forever." Kazu whined. "Can't we just---"

"NO!" They all yelled.

With that, Kazu fell silent and went over to a nearby mound of dirt, his head down.

"He's right." Henry said.

"Huh?" Kazu turned around.

"There's no use searching anymore, not until morning anyway. That's when we can get everyone to
help out." Henry said.

"Well..." Takato was hesitant.

"I think that's a good idea." Jeri said, and Kenta nodded.

"All right..." Takato somehow felt that this was all his fault.

"But wait..." Jeri paused. "What about Rika-chan? What do we tell her?"

They were silent. Everyone was thinking of the same thing: what to say to Rika.

"I guess we should just tell her what we've got so far." Kazu said in a small voice.

"You think so? She'll be so crushed...worse!" Kenta feared.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not everyday you get told that your fiance is nowhere to be found, right?" Jeri
said.

"So what do we do?"

"I guess---we wing it. Go to see her and...the rest will pan out for itself." Henry looked around.
"This is over, anyway."

* * *

Rika traced circles around the top of her coffee cup with her finger. She wasn't sure she'd ever
smile again. She glanced up at the clock. *11:43.*

*It's really late.* she thought. *I wonder what happened...I can't feel Ryo's presence anymore.*
She was too sad to feel scared.

At least she couldn't cry anymore. No, she was all cried out by now. All she wanted to do was just
curl up into a ball and have the world just disappear. She was feeling same way she did after her
parents announced their divorce. Except it was different. A different kind of pain.

Rika got up and decided she need some air. As she walked toward the elevator to go down, she saw
her friends coming out.

They all smiled wryly.

She didn't have enough strength to smile back.

"What happened?" Kazu asked. "Is everything OK?"

Slowly, Rika shook her head. They suddenly understood.

"I'm sorry, Rika..." Jeri went to hug her friend.

"What now?" Takato said to Henry. "We can't tell her now...she just lost another person who was
really close to her..."

"We have no choice, do we?" Henry said.

"Can't we put it off 'til tomorrow?"

"Stop procrastinating." Henry said. "Look, I understand Rika's situation, but delaying in telling
her will make her hurt even more, thinking that the one she loves is still alive. Do you want that?"

"No." Takato looked down.

"So?" Rika said, her voice different from what it once was. "What happened?"

"It's over. The enemy is gone." Kenta said, forcing a smile.

"Yay." Rika said, trying to make it sound whole hearted. She looked around. "Where's...Ryo-kun?"

They all looked at each other, nervous.

"Well? Where is he?"

"Oh yeah, Ryo, you know the nice guy, he went to get snacks for us all!" Kazu said. "Right guys?"

"No...Rika...there's something we need to tell you." Jeri said, her eyes full of sorrow.

"What is it? He isn't hurt, is he?" Rika said, worried.

"Well, we don't know..." Jeri bit her lip. "Why don't you tell her, Henry?" she pushed Henry in
front of her.

"Uh...um..."

"Spit it out. Why isn't Ryo here?" Rika couldn't bear the think of the worse.

"The truth is..." Henry gulped. "We can't find him."

"Nani?" Rika said.

"After the explosion, and after all the smoke was gone, we searched and searched but couldn't
find him anywhere."

Rika was speechless. She sat down on a nearby chair, confused. "What do you mean you can't find
him?"

"We think....that maybe..."

"No! No, OK? He just can't!"

"We're not sure yet, we're sending out full rescue teams tomorrow, remove the rubble, everything!"
Jeri tried to sound optimistic.

"We didn't find his body, so that's a good thing right?" Kazu said.

Rika didn't answer. *Where could he have gone? It's not like he can just vanish into thin air!*

"Maybe the body got vaporized." Kenta said. "That is possible, right?"

"Kenta, you're not helping." Kazu said through gritted teeth.

"Well, you aren't either!"

"Guys!" Jeri said, nodding her head towards the worried Rika.

"It's going to be OK, nothing's for sure yet." Takato reassured her.

Rika found herself being more frightened then she ever was. She couldn't stand the thought of
losing him, especially after he promised to come back...

*Ryo, where are you? Please be OK...*

* * *


500 miles away, the person now known as Ray slept in peace at Mr. Yoshida's house. Little did
he know that the girl that he had left behind was thinking, worrying about him at that very
moment.

He now has no recollection of his life from an hour ago.

All he can hope for is a new, better one, and maybe, just maybe...he'll have memories of his
old life.

Ray suddenly sat up, awake, from his dream.

Already, there was a hint that might've been from his life.

He saw a very pretty girl with beautiful flowing brown hair in his sleep. Her amethyst eyes had
stared out at him, begging him to remember...

Who was this girl?



...end of Chapter XIII!



A/N: Hey everyone! Sure hope you liked it! I put it up earlier than I normally would to make up
for my long absence. I just wish I could've come up with a better name for Ryo. But Ray was all
I could think of, and it's pretty close to Ryo...anyway, thnx for reading! See you next time!