Adrina knelt down in front of Hitomi. "What do you mean she's gone? Where did she go?"
"The blue light…" Hitomi repeated.
A look of panic crossed Adrina's features. "No."
"She's gone," Hitomi said again. Her eyes focused and she took a deep breath. "Oh no! Mecale!"
"Where did she go?" Adrina demanded, "tell me Hitomi, where did she go?"
Hitomi was slumped against Van, who had his arms around her. She looked up and her eyes were swimming with tears. "To the Mystic Moon."
---------------------------------------------------
The sun was just peeking over the horizon and bathing the quiet beach town in the first orange glow of the day. The ocean and the sky above it were still dark but the rays glinted off the surface of the rolling water, making it look as if it were covered in diamonds.
Most of the town was still asleep but in a one-bedroom apartment a few blocks from the ocean, Kouji Susumu tied the laces of his Nikes and headed outside to meet the day. He always woke up before dawn to start the morning with a jog/run up to a nearby cliff that overlooked the ocean. It wasn't that he needed the exercise but he had inherited the love of running from his father.
With his Discman in the pocket of his sweater and the headphones on his ears blasting the angry lyrics of Linkin Park, Kouji sprinted down a few blocks from his house to a dirt road that marked his usual jogging path. The path to the summit of the cliff was somewhat steep and Kouji slowed his pace to a jog before ascending the dirt track.
After about ten minutes, Kouji crested the top of the hill and headed towards the place where a large patch of grass grew. This was where he would sit and watch the ocean every morning as the sun began its daily trek to the west, where it would eventually sink into the sea. As Kouji approached the grass, he noticed something lying near the road. From where he was, it looked like a dark red pile of rags but as he got closer, he realized it was a person. He pulled the headphones off his ears and ran to them.
"Hey!" Kouji called as he bent down next to the person. They were lying with their face away from him and when he turned them over he saw that it was a girl no older than he was, but probably a year or two younger. She had brown hair and pale skin. He also noticed two streaks of blue in the hair around her face. He shook her gently.
"Hey!" Kouji shouted again, "Wake up! Can you hear me? Hey!" His mind began to race with the possibilities of what could've happened to her. He had already seen that she was breathing, but she could've been raped or assaulted in some other way. He looked over her body and could see no visible signs of trauma. Her face was untouched, as was the skin around her throat and chest. It didn't look as if she had been robbed because a valuable looking purple stone set into a dragon still hung down on the pale skin of her throat. Kouji noticed the low neckline of her dress and it occurred to him that she might be a prostitute. Only is California, he thought dryly.
Once again, he shook her and called to her. This time, the girl groaned and slowly opened her eyes. They were lavender, the strangest color eyes Kouji had ever seen, and they locked with his dark brown ones. He stared down at her and said nothing.
----------------------------------------------------
Mecale heard a voice calling to her. It was a male voice and her first thought was that it was Golan trying to wake her up. She groaned in frustration and then opened her eyes. She was shocked to find herself staring into the eyes of a stranger. The man's eyes were a dark brown, darker even than her uncle Van's. His hair was dark also, black actually, with hints of red among the ebony. It was currently plastered to his head with sweat and there was a look of concern in his eyes.
Suddenly afraid of this unfamiliar man, Mecale pulled herself into a sitting position incase she should have to defend herself. Her movement must have broken his concentration because he blinked a few times.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Mecale stared at him in confusion and surprise. He had spoken English! She had been taught the language, along with her cousins, by her Aunt Hitomi but why did this man speak it? *Author's Note: I know that Hitomi is Japanese, therefore would speak Japanese instead of English but it makes it easier to say she spoke English. For the sake of the story, we'll just pretend everyone on the Mystic Moon speaks English.*
Obviously confused by her silence, he tried again. "Are you okay?"
"Y…yes," Mecale replied in English.
"What were you doing laying on the side of the road like that?" he asked.
"I don't know," Mecale answered, "where am I?"
"Judging by you accent, I'm gonna guess you're not from around here," the man offered, "This is Seaport."
Mecale's brow furrowed in confusion. Seaport? She had never heard of such a place.
Seeing the look of confusion on her face, the man added, "California?" The confusion remained. "USA?" Still no sign of recognition. "North America?" Still nothing. "Earth?"
Mecale's eyes shot wide open as she recognized the last word the man said. I'm really on the Mystic Moon! What am I going to do?
Seeing the strange reaction she had to the word "earth", he began to doubt that she was in fact all right. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," Mecale answered quickly, "I'm fine."
Thinking that maybe she wasn't all there, he asked, "What's your name?"
"Mecale."
"Mecale what?"
"Fanel."
"Mecale Fanel," the man repeated. He then smiled and stuck his hand out to her, "Nice to meet you Mecale, my name's Kouji."
Mecale shook his hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well Kouji."
"Well Mecale," Kouji started, "You wanna tell me what you're doing laying on the side of the road?"
Uh oh, Mecale thought, What am I going to tell him, that I fell out of the sky? He'll think I'm crazy!
"Uh," Mecale stammered, "I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Kouji asked, "You can't remember what happened."
Sounds good to me. "No, I can't remember."
"Where do you live?" Kouji questioned, "I'll take you home."
Dammit! What's with all the questions? "I don't know where I live."
"You don't remember?"
"No."
"How old are you Mecale?"
Finally, one I can answer. "Seventeen."
"I think you should go to the hospital and let them check you out," Kouji suggested, "You might've hit your head or been drugged."
"That's not necessary," Mecale insisted, "I'm fine, really."
"Something had to've caused your partial amnesia," Kouji told her, "You could have a concussion."
"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Mecale repeated, "I don't need to go to a hospital. Besides, I'm sure this amnesia thing will pass soon."
Kouji sighed, knowing it would be pointless to try and force her to go to the hospital. "All right fine but will you at least come back to my apartment with me? I have a friend who works at the police station. He can check and see if your parents have filed a missing person's report."
Good luck with that. "All right."
Kouji stood up and offered his hand to Mecale. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. Now that she was standing, he looked her over once more. He saw that the dress se was wearing looked like something out of a medieval play. His eyes made their way back up to her face and he saw that she was watching him warily.
"Something wrong?" Mecale inquired.
"No," Kouji assured. As an afterthought, he added, "Cool streaks."
Mecale touched one of the pale blue tresses. "Thank you."
"Come on," Kouji turned and started back down the hill. Mecale followed after him.
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"We have to do something!"
Folken paced across the room for the fiftieth time.
"Pacing isn't going to bring her back!" Riley snapped. Folken shot a warning look at the boy, who paled and shrank in his seat.
"There isn't much we can do but pray that she makes it back safely," Hitomi said quietly.
Folken, Adrina, Van, Hitomi, Merle, Zane and Riley had been in the sitting room since the night before, trying to think of a plan to bring Mecale back. Their first thought was to go to Earth to look for her. This idea was turned down when Hitomi told them that the Mystic Moon was a huge planet and without knowing where Mecale had gone, they could search for her forever and never find her. Every plan they had concocted had been shot down for one reason or another and just a moment ago, Van had stated the terrible reality that none of them wanted to face. They would just have to wait for Mecale to return on her own.
"What is she can't come back on her own?" Folken demanded, "What if she's hurt or…" He trailed off, not able to voice his worst fears about his only child.
"Don't worry," Merle comforted half-heartedly, "She'll find her way back. She's a smart girl. She'll be all right."
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"Here we are," Kouji announced as he opened the door to his second floor apartment. He stepped aside so Mecale could enter first. She entered far enough so that he could close the door and then took in her surroundings.
The apartment was quite small by her standards but as apartments go it was moderately sized. The majority of the first room consisted of the living room. The carpet was dark brown and the walls were off white. In the living room was a tan couch and two chairs that faced a large entertainment center against the wall. In front of the couch was a small coffee table. On the left side of the couch, directly across from the door, were two large windows that looked out onto the ocean. The tan drapes hung over them were pulled open, showing the view.
Next to the door on the left was a small kitchen. It had a white tile floor and was separated from the living room by a counter. Three chairs were set up to provide a table at the counter. In the wall that ran parallel to the kitchen was a hallway that led back to the bathroom and bedroom.
Kouji walked past her and took something out of his pocket. He sat it on the counter and Mecale was delighted to recognize it as Discman, much like the one Hitomi had.
"So," Mecale started, "You live here by yourself?"
"Yeah," Kouji answered.
"How old are you?"
"Nineteen." He turned back to where she still stood by the door and mentioned toward the living room. "Have a seat. I'm going to call my friend at the police station."
Mecale nodded and made her way into the living room. She gracefully sat down on the couch and folded her hands in her lap. Kouji picked up the phone that was set up on a small table near the door and dialed a number. Mecale was silently thanking God that she had been so interested in Hitomi's life on the Mystic Moon when she was younger. As a result, she could identify most of the strange devices around the room by remembering Hitomi's description of them. She strained her ears and could hear Kouji talking to someone named Tommy.
"Yeah, hi Tommy," Kouji said into the phone, "I wanted to ask you a favor. I came across a girl this morning and she doesn't remember where she lives. I thought maybe her parents might've filed a missing person's report. Her name is Mecale Fanel and she's seventeen." He paused and she assumed Tommy was checking for her name. "Nothing? Okay, thanks Tommy. All right, I'll talk to you later." Kouji hung up the phone and walked over to the couch. He sat down next to her.
"He didn't find your name on the missing person's list," Kouji relayed, "but a person has to be missing for forty-eight hours before they can be reported as missing. Maybe you haven't been gone that long."
Mecale agreed, although she knew that wasn't the reason.
Kouji sighed. "Well, since you can't remember where you live and no one is looking for you, I can't just turn you out on the streets. If you want, you can stay here until we figure everything out."
Mecale's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Kouji smiled when he saw her reaction. "Yeah."
"Thank you!" Ever since she had realized she was on the Mystic Moon, she was wondering exactly what she was going to do. Now that she had a place to stay, a huge load had been lifted off her shoulders. At least she was safe for the time being.
"You're welcome," Kouji grinned. He stood up. "Are you hungry? I'll make you some breakfast."
"Oh," Mecale nodded, "Thank you."
Kouji went back to the kitchen and began pulling food out of the fridge and sitting it next to the electric stove. As he began pulling pots and pans out of a cupboard over the sink, Mecale wandered over and sat down on one of the chairs at the counter.
Kouji put a few pieces of sausage into a pan and put it on the electric burner. "How do you like your eggs?"
"Scrambled," Mecale answered.
Kouji nodded and broke four eggs into a plastic bowl. He whisked them quickly and then sprinkled cheese into the bowl. He poured the contents into another pan on the stove and began to ten to the food. When it was almost finished, he put four pieces of break into the toaster on the counter next to the stove.
Once everything was done, Kouji put half the sausage and eggs onto one blue plate and the rest on another. He then put two pieces of toast on each plate and brought them over to the counter. He walked back over to the fridge and opened it.
"What would you like to drink?" Kouji asked over his shoulder. "I have water, milk, orange juice, coffee…"
"Orange juice please."
Kouji poured her a glass of O.J. and poured a glass of milk for himself. He brought the two glasses to the table along with a tub of butter and a jar of jelly.
They ate their breakfast in virtual silence as neither one of them really knew what to say to the other. Sometimes Kouji would look up at her as if he wanted to say something but hen thought better of it and continued eating. After they were done with the meal, Kouji put the dishes in the sink and turned to Mecale.
"I'm going to go take a shower," Kouji informed, "make yourself at home."
Mecale nodded and Kouji disappeared down the hallway. A few minutes later, she could hear water running somewhere towards the back part of the house. She stood up and wandered back into the living room. She sat down on the couch and picked up a small, rectangular, black device with lots of buttons and letters. She knew it was a remote control for something, probably the TV. She pushed the large "ON" button and sure enough, the 27" blank screen in front of her glowed to life. On it was a man dressed in a gray suit holding a microphone. Behind him were the charred remains of a building. He seemed to be talking to no one. "We still don't know what started the fire, but the local fire department suspects arson. Live from Sherman Oaks, I'm Chuck Henry, Channel 4 News."
Mecale found the channel button and pushed it. Another news program. She pushed it again. More news. Again. The screen filled with color as an animated child with huge eyes began to speak. "Agumon, digivolve!" The scene changed to show a little orange dinosaur-type creature. It was surrounded by strange symbols and then it turned into a large orange dinosaur. She kept going, looking for something suitable to watch. She was still clicking through the channels when Kouji joined her on the couch, his hair still wet from the shower.
"Find anything good to watch?" he asked.
"No," Mecale replied.
By the door, the phone began to ring. Kouji jumped up and answered it. After a brief conversation, he hung up and walked over to the couch.
"I'm really sorry," Kouji started, "but that was my agent. He set me up a huge interview luncheon today and didn't bother to tell me about it. I have to go. Are you gonna be okay here by yourself?"
"Sure."
"Good." Kouji raced into the back of the house and emerged about fifteen minutes later in Khaki pants, a white T-shirt and sunglasses. He had spiked his hair and had a black folder full of papers and a set of keys in his hand. "I'm really, really sorry about this."
"It's okay," Mecale assured with a smile.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Kouji told her as he moved towards the door. "If you get hungry, there's food in the fridge and the cupboards. I'm gonna lock the door behind me. Don't open it for anyone, okay?"
"Okay."
He opened the door. "I'll see you later."
"Bye!" Mecale called as he left.
The door shut and she heard the lock click into place. She turned back to the TV and continued surfing through the channels.
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"I'm sorry it took me so long," were the first words out of Kouji's mouth when he returned to the apartment. Mecale turned around on the couch and saw that in addition to the black folder, he was carrying a brown paper bag that said "Burger King". He closed the door behind him with his foot and sat his armload down on the counter. "I had no idea it would take that long."
Outside, the sun could be seen sinking into the ocean, which on the west coast in summer meant it was almost 9:00pm. Mecale turned off the TV and walked over to the counter to see what Kouji had brought from Burger King. She had seen countless commercials for the place, most advertising their "Famous Whopper." It had looked delicious and Mecale found herself hoping he had brought her one.
"I figured you'd probably be pretty hungry so I stopped at Burger King and got us each a Whopper and fries."
YES! Mecale thought as Kouji pulled a wrapped hamburger and fries out of the bag. He sat them down in front of her at the counter and pulled out his own. He walked over to the fridge.
"You want a soda?"
"Yes," Mecale answered, "Mountain Dew please." Earlier she had seen a commercial for Mountain Dew and found it rather amusing. When she had found the soda in his refrigerator, she had tried it and discovered she liked the taste as much as the commercial said she would.
He brought her the soda and sat down next to her. "I can't believe that luncheon lasted so long." He popped the top on his can of soda and she did the same. "The guy would just not stop talking! And then after the lunch, which lasted almost three hours, he takes me to this bar where he proceeded to get plastered and told me his entire life story. Trust me, I would've been better off not knowing. I finally managed to sneak out when he went to the bathroom. I gave the bartender a twenty and told him to call the guy a cab. It was all worth it though. I'm pretty sure he's interested."
"Interested in what?" Mecale asked between bites of the hamburger, which was just as tasty as she had imagined.
"My script," Kouji replied. She stared at him blankly. "That's right, I didn't tell you. I'm a screenwriter, or at least I'm trying to be. I write scripts for movies."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Kouji confirmed, "I've only sold one, right after I came out here but I think the guy I met with today might want newest script."
"You seem excited," Mecale commented as she sipped her soda.
"I am," Kouji informed, "I love writing. It's the whole reason I came out here to California." Kouji suddenly realized how odd it was to be telling his life story to a girl he had known for no more than half a day. For some reason, he felt like he could trust her and felt comfortable telling her things that normally he would've kept to himself.
The two of them finished their dinner and Kouji cleaned up the counter. "Well, I'm beat. You're probably pretty tired too."
"A little," Mecale admitted.
"Well, I only have one bedroom," Kouji began, "so you can sleep in my room. I'll take the couch."
"No, I can sleep on the couch," Mecale insisted.
"What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you sleep on the couch?" Kouji questioned with a grin, "Now come on." He led her down the hallway to the last door. He opened it to reveal the bedroom. The room was quite small and contained a bed, two nightstands, dresser, a desk with a computer on it and a closet in the far wall. "I'm guessing you don't want to sleep in that dress." Kouji commented. He walked over to the large dresser across from the bed and opened a drawer. He pulled out a T-shirt and a pair of dark blue sweatpants. He turned around and handed them to her. "The pants are going to be way too big for you but if you pull the cord thing tight and tie it, they should be okay."
"Thank you," Mecale said and took the clothes from him.
"No problem." He picked out a pair of gray sweatpants for himself and walked to the door. "See you in the morning."
"Good night."
"Good night." Kouji left the room and shut the door behind him. Once he was gone, Mecale changed into the clothes he had given her and crawled into the Queen-sized bed. She knew she should be trying to find a way back to Gaea, but at the moment she was too tired. I'll worry about it tomorrow, she thought and drifted off to sleep.
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First things first, I don't own Nike, Channel 4 News, Digimon, Burger King or Mountain Dew. Anyways, thank you Gwuinny for reviewing, I knew you would. You're the greatest. I hope you are enjoying this little ficcy so far. I just had a thought, Allen and Millerna's children would be cousins to Prince Chid but they would also be his half brother and sisters. Creepy huh? Oh, and thank you to Klutzy-girl for reviewing the prologue of this fic. I don't know if you're still reading, but if you are, thanks!