Chapter 3

Kish was sitting in the control room, concentrating hard on the screens, pushing on various buttons now and then, and then cursing. He then turned some switches on, and some off. This time a faint sound was heard. Kish smiled, not noticing Ichigo, who was standing on the doorway.

"Kish?" Ichigo asked carefully. Kish turned around and smirked. He then leaned back on his chair taking the sight of Ichigo in his clothes in. Kish winked suggestively, making Ichigo blush.

"What are you doing?" She asked, getting a hold of her self.

"Trying to contact the Mew Mew cafe´. Should be fairly easy, as you have a control room. But the ships energy batteries are low, so we will have to talk quickly, as we'll need to talk to Pai too." Kish said, pushing more buttons, and writing some complex code. The board was filled with different symbols that glowed now and then, instead of normal letters.

"Pai?"

"Yes. He knows the ships defensive systems and magic's better than I do. It's his specialty." Kish answered, not even looking at Ichigo, but concentrating on the screens again. Ichigo's eyes widened.

"Magic's?" Ichigo could practically sense the smile Kish had on his face, even thought she couldn't see his face.

"Yes. What did you think the Chimera animals were? Technology most certainly not. We are what the humans would call elves... I believe." Kish explained, and then continued. "...Every elf has a natural power of magic, and by that Magic they are able to achieve magic's, such as 'teleporting', breathing under water and limited healing. This ship is covered with runes, and it took twenty elves to chant the defences to this ship..." Kish stopped to think for a moment. "... There are different branches of magic. Like Pai's specialty are wards, and Tart's plants." Ichigo frowned.

"And your specialty?" Kish didn't answer as suddenly a screen showed the video camera picture from the control room of cafe mew mew. The mew mew crew, along with Keiichiro and Ryo were present.

"Sit down. They won't believe me if they don't see you."

"Kisshu!" Mint exclaimed. Kish suddenly raised his hand to silence Mint.

"We have no time for this. We are trapped in this our ship, with no way out. Pai and Tart are still on earth, and you will have to find Pai and Tart and stop them from teleporting here. It is crucial. You will need to get Pai there, so I can talk to him. Do NOT let them teleport, or they will be no use to us, and you will never see Ichigo again." Kish said to them. Then turning to Ichigo, he said;

"You have one minute to talk them over that you are unhurt. We will have to cut the connection as soon as possible. Push the button with the golden rune by the iron decoration." Kish then moved to leave when Zakuro talked.

"And what if we have no time to explain it to them? I doubt they will listen to us." Everyone froze for a moment. Kish's eyes filled pain and they darkened to the point where he looked scary.

"Just say to them... just say..." Kish hesitated "...Eoin." Kish finished, spitting the name as if it was something disgusting and foul. Then, without a look to Ichigo, he left the room, leaving it to silence.

"Who's Eoin?" Purin asked.

"He didn't tell me, but he did mention he was bad news." Ichigo answered, turning to the screen where the others could be seen.

"'talk them over you are unhurt'? Were you hurt?" Retasu asked.

"I... I was shot." Ichigo said hesitantly, bringing worried looks on everyone's faces.

"And why are you in Kish's ship?" Keiichiro asked.

"He healed me. Not a mark on me anymore. Pretty cool that, huh?" Ichigo said, and not waiting an answer to the rhetorical question, continued. "But I'm fine now... really."

"Fine then. But do you trust him? He could... do things to you, you know?" Ryo said. Ichigo blushed, and it wasn't until then the rest of the crew noticed she was wearing Kish's clothes.

"I don't know why...but... He's different somehow. More serious. I have no doubt in my mind now that he has only been playing with us. He's capable of something even bigger."

"Right." Ryo asked in a tone that told Ichigo clearly he didn't believe her. Ichigo sighted, and Retasu looked at her in concern.

"Ichigo? Are you sure you are okay?" Ichigo looked back at the other mew mew that had kind of idolized her after the day she became mew mew, and smiled her most convincing smile, which wasn't much.

"I'm fine, Retasu" Ichigo said. Zakuro looked at her sceptically back and quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh? Then why are your ears and tail out?"

"Kish said that it had probably something to do with the stress and the magical healing he had to do on me." Zakuro didn't lower her suspecting eyebrow.

"Ah. Kish said? When did you forget that Kishhu was the enemy?" Ichigo frowned.

"When he saved my live I guess, and when he dangered his live to save mine." Then without waiting for any reaction, she told the mew mew's a hurried 'bye!' before pushing the golden rune, and closing the connection.

Ichigo stayed quite long time there, sitting in the comfortable wooden chair, looking at the faint blue/green globe outside she knew to be earth.

- When indeed?

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Kish gathered the body stone's from the floor they had been left to. He took the blood covered stone's, and whispering a small cleaning spell, put them in the pouch they belonged to. He then took the precious stone pouch to the armoury, and opening the floor board, hid the stone's there, next to Pai's and Tart's.

Kish returned to the library, and after cleaning the bloody mess on the ritual star, seated by the study table. The table was filled with three piles of papers, the biggest Kish' own, and the other small one's, Pai's and Tart's.

He took the first file and sighted as he saw the commander star in it.

Typical, reports... Kish thought as he took a guill and some Inc, and started to write his report. Now if he could only formulate the failure in a good way...

Well, I've done it before, Kish thought as he pulled his sweaty bangs out of the way. Time to take a shower too.

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Ichigo wandered around the halls, searching for Kish, and now and then looking at the different kinds of paintings, and 'windows' by the wall, where they were lightened up by something Kish had earlier called 'Sunstone's'.

The sunstones were that exactly, Stone's. They were often honey coloured, but now and then even red, and they shined with inner light, the weird stone's pulsating with energy. The Stone's were loaded with energy, Kish had explained, and now that Ichigo knew about the magic's, she suspected it had something to do with Magic.

Shaking her head to get the confusing thoughts out of her head, she saw a huge door, which was open, opening to the right.

Deciding Kish wouldn't mind, she looked wearily inside, not wanting to run into Chimera animals, or anything. She didn't found Chimera's, but she did find Kish. Kish was seated on a table, his head dropped down, and he slept peacefully on top of some papers, a quill still in hand.

Ichigo neared Kish, afraid to wake him up, and felt very guilty as she saw Kish better. Kish didn't have dark rings around his eyes before. Or at least before I met him at the mall.

Ichigo couldn't resist the temptation, and gathered some of the papers on the table, looking through them, while holding an eye on Kish, so that she would notice if he would wake up.

Ichigo's eyes widened as she looked at the very official looking report, and at the few lines written after them.

Commander of the Army of Nebulosa,

Current Commander in charge,

Member of the royal family of Kaibutsu,

A chairman in Nebulosa's council,

Kishhu Kaibutsu.

Those lines were followed by some runes that Ichigo didn't understand, but Ichigo guessed they were important too. Placing the documents as they were, Ichigo took a closer look at the exhausted Kish.

Kish looked more mature somehow now that he slept, and he didn't have his constant smirk on his face. His forest green hair was, as usual in their ribbons, thought Ichigo hesitated to call them that. The word was just too girly to be placed in the same sentence with Kish.

Sure, Kish had shorts that hanged way too low, and a shirt that showed his stomach always on, but he was in no way girly. His arms, stomach, legs, and probably even chest were nicely formed, the muscles showing nicely. At the thought of Kish's muscles, Ichigo felt suddenly hot, and pulsing warmth started spreading from between her legs. She blushed.

Kish suddenly sniffed the air in his sleep, and murmured;

¨"Hmmh...Ichigo..." Ichigo blushed even more crimson, and decided to take another shower.

"Mmm..." Kish murmured. -definitively, Ichigo thought, before carefully backing out of the library.

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Kish woke up, and after clearing his head, he stood up in more ways than one. He shaked his head to get rid of the blush he had gained in his dream... And the dream had been very real-a-like.

Putting the completed rapports on the 'out' file, he run his frustrated fingers through his hair, and made a face. His hair really had to be washed. To normal eye it may not have looked greasy, but by elf standards? It was. The elves were very strict about they hygiene, and showered more often that not, twice a day. He hadn't showered in two days.

Kish rubbed his still dream filled eyes absently with his palm, and staggered to the bath rooms. He opened the door to the bathroom, only to find that Ichigo was there. He thanked his lucky gods that Ichigo was in a towel, even thought it was a very small towel. If Ichigo had been naked, he would have gotten the slapping and screaming of his live time, and he wasn't sure if his overly good hearing ears were up to it.

Kish didn't even say hi to Ichigo, only muttering;

"Later"... When Ichigo looked at him questioningly. Not caring that Ichigo was still standing and staring, he kicked off his shoes, took off his gauntlets, and drew his shirt over his head. When he was about to take off his pants, Ichigo had the courtesy to look away. Not that Kish really minded per say, it was just quite different when someone saw you dirty.

Kish sank to the bath gratefully, thanking his lucky gods that Ichigo had already filled the bath with warm water. He seemed to thank the gods often now days. He sighted pleasure fully as the warm water caressed his tensed muscles and bruises.

Ichigo was still staring at him eyes wide, when she after a moment finally got her voice back.

"Mmm... Where did you get the bruises?" She asked, with some actually worry in her voice, and she seemed just as surprised as Kish was. Kish cleared his voice, before answering.

"Eoin left some holes in the defensive magic of Serenity. Took some force to teleport in. But it's no big deal, really. Just some tensed up muscles, and it's much better now than it was before."

"Serenity?" Ichigo asked shyly.

"The name of my ship, this ship, I mean." Kish said, rambling little, his senses little off by exhaustion.

"Oh?" Ichigo asked, and then not waiting an answer, exited the room, but not before saying at the door;

"Have a good bath." Kish just nodded, even thought Ichigo didn't see it.