Ok, since Christmas is over, I am no longer giving out stuff for reviews. Sorry. And now that I've gone over some rules, I will no longer be answering reviews unless they are questions. Sorry everyone. I will post a list of who has reviewed as thanks to all. I will also begin editing past-chapters to get them in the same format. Hey, last time I didn't follow the rules, my story got deleted. That was years ago and the story sucked, but I actually like writing this and do not want it deleted. And I am very if it confused everyone who has me on their author/story alert list into thinking I posted about 10 chapters. I replaced 3-11, and posted 1. Sorry for the confusion. So thanks to all who reviewed!
Suma Susaki
Emerald Fox Fire
Merissala
Liz-Sakura
BlueButterfly aka Darkmistress
Bautchchic
Barbie Girl 1223
Mew Lizzy
DarkWingedAngelMairiel
Mayalen
Kagura-The Living Wind
Yoshiru
Iluvboys
Firediva
Sakuranbo-Chan
Whiteneko45
Hikaritenshi2000
SnowNekoGirl aka Yuki Shirogane
K paradox
Mew of Fire
Kay1fire
Mewmewgurl
Yokie
RyousRayne
It means a lot. And guess what! Rocking with the Runaway now has 200 reviews! Can you believe it!
And I've come to a decision; one I hope I don't forget. I will be graduating May 2009. As soon as I graduate, I will begin working to have this story published. Of course, I will change the names, except for maybe the names Ryou and Ichigo. It will still take place in Japan. And I will probably keep Mayalen and Kaguya in the story, only I'll change the name Kaguya to Liz to make it more understandable for those who don't watch anime or read manga. I've already started drawing a book cover.
And another thing, I've learned how to make sprites over vacation, and they'll be going up on my site soon. And I have three Rocking With The Runaway sprites; Kish, Pai, and Tart in their gang uniforms. I hope to put them on my site soon. Well, on with the fic; I might not post for awhile after this because its almost the end of the semester and I have finals coming up. My art final is on a guy named Cy Twombly. How cool is that!
I do not own TMM. Someone asked the question of where Mayalen and Kaguya went? Well, they'll be coming back in this chapter, along with another character. Ooh, but I don't want to give everything away just yet; you'll have to read to find out.
"This is your sister….." Ichigo said. She was in the shrine she had visited before. It was sort of like a greenhouse, grass covering the floor, plants all around. It had a glass ceiling and concrete walls. In the middle of the shrine was a statue of an angel made out of concrete, and on the walls were pictures of her with her family, drawings she had done, school work. And there were candles. Lots of candles.
Looking at a picture of his whole family, Ichigo noticed she looked nothing like his sister. She had blue eyes like Ryou, the blonde hair like Ryou; the only thing she noticed was that his sister kept her hair the way she did; in two pony-tails.
She could feel Ryou breathing, his chest rising and falling as he inhaled and exhaled. Her head was rested on his bare chest, and she couldn't have felt more at peace. And she felt she had made a good decision of waiting. The only clothes they had ditched were there shoes, socks, and Ryou's shirt.
"This is exactly how we met."
"Ichigo? You know you were….deceived by Masaya…right?"
"Do you have to bring that up at a time like this?"
"Well….you're not the only one….Zakuro has been too….and so has Lettuce….in fact, back when Masaya was a gang leader, she was his girl. He treated her like trash, yet she swore that when things got better, her and Masaya would live together. But when he got famous…..he ditched her. He told her he didn't need her anymore.
About a month later, Pai found her by herself. Him and the others were still in their gang, and Pai recognized her and knew Masaya had abandoned her. So he took her to his gang leader, and Lettuce was offered a position in the gang, as a spy. And she was pretty good too.
Pai has some sort of connections with Zakuro. And when him and his brother's told the gang leader they were leaving, she was devastated. That was about the time Mint and Zakuro were looking for a third singer. So Pai took Lettuce with him, and told Zakuro to let her be in the band. She agreed, and they got along just fine. Lettuce had a really pretty voice too, and the three complimented each other.
This was around the time my sister was alive, but she'd only be living for a couple more months. Well, Masaya came to our house telling my parents since fame, he'd turned over a new leaf. I didn't believe him, but my sister and parents did. He got close to my sister. A little too close. He tried to force her, like you, only there wasn't anyone to stop him. So he had his way with her. It destroyed her inside. My parents never found out; I was the only one she ever told."
"Ryou…."
"And then he went to Zakuro, and she didn't know about his past. And Lettuce didn't tell her because she was scared he would do something to her if she told anyone. And then she saw them together, and thought he had changed for good. Truth be told, he did the same to Zakuro. Zakuro, however, didn't like Masaya after that. Only hers was a totally different way of hating him, different from my sister. And she was able to move on without help, because right after it happened, she told him never to touch her again and that she was breaking up with him.
After Zakuro, he went back to Lettuce. Lettuce hadn't known about Zakuro, and agreed. And Lettuce got treated the same way. She was destroyed more than my sister. That's the reason I decided to go out with her. I saw Lettuce almost as a sister, and thought if I asked her, she would forget. So I didn't let her get too close to me. After that, I thought she'd get a little tired of me and break-up. But whatever I did, she just became more infatuated with me. And then…..well….I told her I only saw her as a sister. I didn't give her the reason's why I went out with her, or that I had seen her as a sister all along.
I thought she had taken it easily, but she hadn't. Then she found out her parent's were getting divorced, and that her mom was really sick. That's when Pai stepped in to help. I never knew that all this time, Pai had a soft spot in his heart for Lettuce until after he told me that he wanted to marry her.
This whole tour, you're probably wondering why Masaya came with. If you see put all of the pieces together, it all fits. He was after Mint since the trip began……and then he saw you."
"You mean….because of me…..Mint didn't get…."
"But Mint's smarter than that. She figured out what Masaya had been up to, and would have said no on the spot. But because Masaya is like this…..he probably would have forced her into some sort of relationship, making her his toy."
"Ryou…..why doesn't anyone do anything?"
"Well it's good to see you're alright," a voice came, making Ichigo and Ryou bolt upright. "Who's there?"
"I am so happy you guys made up, but seriously, when you guys take forever like that, you scare people into thinking something bad has happened!"
"MINT!" Ichigo whined at her for ruining the moment. "You scared me!"
"Well it looks like we all finally found you two," Zakuro commented. The members of Mizakuse and the rest of the Mew Mew's were gathered around the two in the greenhouse. Pudding was there as well.
"We need an answer, and we need one now guys. We never really cancelled off the tour, just the concerts that had been coming our way. And…well….we were wondering if you wanted us to still have the rest of the tour. We'll be going to Europe since all of the concerts in the U.S. were either cancelled or finished," Kish said.
"But….what about Masaya's part? Mayalen and Kaguya are still in America…."
"Not necessarily…." Kish added. The two stepped out from behind the door. "Hey! You didn't think we'd sit in America while you guys had the rest of your tour after this whole thing was settled, did you?"
"It's nice to see you two worked things out," Mayalen smiled.
"Zakuro," Pai said, staring at her. "I have something here with me to repay what you've done throughout my life, sis."
"Wait, you two are brother and sister!" Ichigo gasped.
"Technically, no. When Tart was about three, Kish about five, and Pai about seven years old, they lived in an orphanage. My parent's said I needed someone around to socialize with, and they claimed I wasn't exactly the most charming girl they'd met. So they adopted someone from the orphanage to be my sibling, someone about my age."
"What happened to Kish and Tart then?"
"They stayed at the orphanage. But after about three months of living with my family, Pai had had enough. He wanted to go back to watch over his brothers. So I helped him escape. Years later, Pai came to me, telling me to let Lettuce into the group we had started. And I told him I didn't need to be repaid," Zakuro explained.
"I know, but I thought I'd do this as thanks for everything," Pai added. "You may come out now," he said.
Into the room stepped a man with long brown hair tied into a pony-tail with blue-grey eyes. ((I actually looked at a picture of him, and I couldn't tell if it was more blue or grey))
"Keiichiro….."
"Hello there, Miss Zakuro," he said, smiling. Zakuro looked to Pai with a little glitter in her eyes and a small smile, as if to say, "Thank you."
"Hello there, Mr. Akasaka!" Kaguya and Mayalen said in unison.
"Hello girls," Keiichiro said.
"We've come to an agreement that he can come with us on tour. That is, if its ok with you, Zakuro."
"Yeah….sure……fine by me," Zakuro said in a dazed sort of way. She could feel her heart pounding and her knees shaking.
"And you know what, Mayalen? Mr. Akasaka is really good at playing the piano! He can help me sing and help you with some background music to the songs you play!" Kaguya said excitedly. "This is how we get big, Mayalen! We'll be playing concerts in Europe! It's always been a dream of your to play in Europe, isn't it?"
"Well yeah….I've wanted to ever since I was a little girl….."
"Then it's settled! Yahoo! I can't wait!" Kaguya shouted excitedly.
"We should all go then. Ryou, are you ok with leaving this place for now?" Kish asked.
"Yeah, don't worry about me…..but we've got to start practicing right away. Everyone does. You guys to, okay? Kaguya and Mayalen, you've got to go pick out songs you want to do in at least three days advanced of the concert. No picking them out and ad-libbing your way out of it, got that?"
"Yes sir!" Kaguya said, saluting him.
"Alright. I can do that," Mayalen said.
Everyone started filing out of the greenhouse. Everyone except Keiichiro and Zakuro, who just stared at each other. "You two coming?" Pai asked before leaving the two alone.
"We'll be out in a couple of minutes. Wait for us," Zakuro answered. Pai left the two alone, and they continued staring at each other for about another minute and a half.
"I thought I'd never see you again," Zakuro started.
"Me either."
"I missed you."
"Me too."
The next words wouldn't come out of Zakuro. She wanted to say something along the lines of, "I really like you. I want to get to know you better so we can become more than friends." But nothing was said as they stared at each other for another two minutes.
"We should go then," Keiichiro gestured toward the door.
"Right."
The two walked out together and not another word was said.
Chapter 12 is declared done. But that doesn't mean the story is done! No, the story continues. We'll watch as love blossoms and Masaya and Ichigo's father get dragged into the story once again. But I've said too much. Don't want to give it all away. Anyway, read and review, over and out.
-Nibzo
