Chapter Fifteen: My First Date and Then Some 我的第一日期,然后一些
"Those
in the grip of a strong drug---heroin, devil grass, true love---often
find themselves trying to maintain a precarious balance between
secrecy and ecstasy as they walk the tightrope of their
lives."
Wizard and Glass , The Dark Tower Series,
Number IV
It was Friday evening; Ichigo and Masaya had left the day after the kirema anima incident.
"Ryou, we're all really sorry, but… we have to leave now. Something's come up at home." Ichigo said, looking down. He touched her shoulder, a hint of disappointment glistening in his eyes.
"I understand. But just give me a call if any of you see anything weird."
Ryou looked rather lonely as he bade Ichigo farewell, although I'm sure he was glad to have Masaya out of the house. I wonder if he likes her…? Ichigo gave Ryou a warm hug, and walked out the door without another word. Masaya gave Ryou a look of utmost distaste before following her; Ryou returned the look after Masaya turned away. Other than that, the rest of the week had passed without any other incidents. My first fencing team meeting wasn't all that bad either. Turns out, all we had to do was have a go at each other for two hours, which was pretty fun if you have a knack for senseless violence.
I had finally written a song about my new powers too. It was pretty short, but still good. I was excited about my first date with Kiyoshi on Saturday and was also debating with myself about what I should wear. I got my guitar out of its sanctuary in the closet and decided to try out my new song. I sat on my bed and began to strum on the strings.
"The feelings are hurting,
My heart's close to bursting,
And my soul's burning,
To say what I should.
The secrets I hide,
Lay deep in my mind,
Longing for someone to tell.
But no one's around
Who wants to hear
A Liar's Tale.
You smile at me,
Having no clue,
What it is,
That I really do."
"That was pretty." A voice coming from the window chimed. I looked over in surprise to see 'the dark aid to the light' sitting on my window sill.
"What are you doing! Spying on me!" I yelled in surprise, ready to throw the guitar at him if I had to.
"No, just listening to your song." He waved, and jumped off the sill. That stupid jerk…
Meanwhile, Twenty Feet Below Earth 同时,在地球下面的二十英尺
Resu approached Ronin and bowed.
"Sire, the Mew girl has gotten in the way once again. Although, after her last battle with the rat kirema anima we planted in that scientist's home, she was injured very badly." Resu informed. Ronin's eyes narrowed. This Mew girl was becoming a pest.
"Resu, the next time you see her, I want you to eliminate her. Do you think you can handle that simple task?" Ronin asked, eyeing Resu.
"Yes, sire. Shall I explain our motives before she's killed? Just so the humans have a small chance, you see. It would make things more…interesting for us." Resu asked.
"You are full of the strangest ideas. Of course we will not reveal our plans!" He bellowed angrily.
"Thank you, Sire." Ronin bowed and backed out of the room slowly. Imbecile…
Back at the house, Saturday 回星期六,在房子
I looked myself over in the mirror. Hm, black's starting to look a little old on me… I was wearing a gray miniskirt, black boots, and my favorite ruffled black shirt. After hearing the weather report, I decided black wasn't smart idea. As I was trying to figure out what color I could wear, I noticed a mark on my leg just below my skirt line. I scratched at it, thinking it was dirt. When it didn't come off, I examined it more closely to realize that it was a tattoo! Woah! I don't remember getting that… I analyzed it. The tattoo appeared to be a crudely drawn pair of bat wings. Maybe it's some sort of mark that comes with being a Mew? At any rate, I knew I couldn't let Ryou see it, that was a given. I raided my closet and finally found a pair of light gray capris. God, I'm going to be sweating like a pig in this! I shrugged and walked downstairs, the mark still burned in my mind. Masha came up to me and snuggled my neck. He had started being very protective after I told him my secret.
"Hey, Ryou! I'm leaving!" I yelled, not quite sure where Ryou was.
"Hey, I'm behind you, moron." He plugged his ears.
"Oops, sorry." I said and started to walk out the door. Ryou stopped me.
"Komori, if this guy…does anything to you, just give me a call, 'kay?" Ryou said sternly with a worried tone in his voice. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Ryou, I swear, you sound just like a worried parent." I said as I walked out with Masha still curled up under my neck. I met up with Kiyoshi at Café Mew Mew; I picked it because it was a pretty popular place, so he might not get lost as easily. It also was because it would be hard not to find a gigantic cupcake in the middle of the neighborhood. I was relieved when I got there and saw him waiting for me. Good, he found the place okay… He was leaning against the café, letting his raven-colored hair fall in front of his eyes. Ugh, god, he's so hot! Kiyoshi shook his hair off his face and then noticed me.
"Hey, Komori!" he said as he gave me a huge smile. I could've melted right then.
"Hey, Kiyoshi!" I replied, trying to get myself together.
"Alrighty, then." he said, locking elbows with me.
"Um, you still haven't told me where we're going yet." I pointed out. Kiyoshi held a finger to his lips.
"It's a secret." He whispered.
"Um…okay." I mumbled.
"Come on! Follow me!" he said, locking elbows with me once more. Like I really could follow him when he grabbed my arm like that. I think we ran for about two blocks until we came to a train station.
"Kiyoshi, how far are we going, exactly?" I asked nervously. He flashed me a smile and said, "It's not like we're going across Japan, or anything." He led me onto one of the trains that was labeled 'Myogadani Station' Where's that? Where are we going, anyway? We sat down as the train started to move. Most of the ride we sat in silence. I wanted him to talk to me, but what would we talk about? There wasn't anything new to say. Somehow, the silence made me feel uneasy. I glanced over at Kiyoshi, who was staring out the window with his beautiful green eyes. A lock of his hair fell over his face; he let it stay there for a moment and then blew it off. He must have been feeling the same uneasiness with the silence; he glanced at me, we both blushed, seeing the other looking, and then turned away, embarrassed. I saw a minute smile come onto his face as I dared to glance again. The train came to a screeching halt, opening it doors at Myogadani Train Station. Kiyoshi grinned and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the train like I was a little two-year-old.
"Now will you tell me where we're going?" I asked impatiently.
"Don't worry," Kiyoshi said winking, "It's only about a five to ten-minute walk to where we're going." I sighed and allowed Kiyoshi to drag me down the road to god knows where. The tops of several trees appeared above a chain link fence to our left.
"Here, this way!" Kiyoshi said, running even faster. At this rate, my arm's going to be yanked off! We approached a gate where a man was asking to see tickets. Are we going to an amusement park? Kiyoshi pulled two tickets out from his pocket and flashed them at the man, who nodded and let us enter. Kiyoshi grabbed my hand and led me through the gates.
"Welcome to Koishikawa Botanical Garden! Located at the prestigious Tokyo University!" he said in a mock sports-announcer voice. Botanical…wha?
"Oh, wow, this is… cool!" I lied. We stood atop a hill, overlooking a large meadow dotted with various trees and shrubs.
"I thought you'd like it," Kiyoshi grinned crookedly, "C'mon. Let's go check out the Tsukiyama Gardens." He lost me there… He grabbed my hand again and ran toward a field that was speckled with wildflowers and tall trees. An occasional bridge would run across a random man-made stream. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
"Wow…" I uttered in amazement.
"Here, there are some paths we can follow." Kiyoshi said, starting (yet again) to run. At the corner of the giant 'garden' there was a large, shady canopy of trees, but other than that, I didn't see the 'path' he was yanking me towards. Kiyoshi stopped running as we neared the canopy of trees. A bush with wide violet flowers hung over the path entrance which made the path become almost invisible to anyone who didn't know that it was there. Kiyoshi pulled up the bush and let me walk through to the shady moss-covered path. As he let the bush down, he plucked a flower off of it and put it behind my ear.
"Rhododendron flowers," He explained, "are very fragrant." Rhododendron…I think I've heard that somewhere. I fingered the flower and said, "Woah, it does smell good."
"Here, I'll show you all the other kinds of plants that are here." Kiyoshi said, grabbing my hand. I half expected him to start running down the path again, but surprisingly, he nonchalantly began to walk. Every time he saw an interesting-looking plant, he would start telling me its scientific name, what other plants it was related to, all that 'interesting' stuff. As we were walking along, a specific flower caught my eye. It was a deep, almost red violet with streaks of white along the petals. I noticed that it also grew along a vine, which held dark purple fruit among itself. I tugged on Kiyoshi's sleeve and motioned over to the flowering vine.
"What's that flower?" I asked. Kiyoshi looked over at it and smiled.
"Pasiflora Incarnata. Passion Flower. I didn't think this park had any." He breathed, running his fingers over the waxy vine. Passion Flower… Kiyoshi plucked one of the purple fruits off the vine.
"Passion Fruit is known for its sedative purposes, which aid insomnia and anxiety problems." He continued, and held the fruit out to me. "Wanna bite?" he offered. It was unbearably tempting as my intense fruit craving flared.
"That depends. Are it's 'sedative purposes' going to knock me out?" I eyed the fruit suspiciously.
"I don't know, that's why I'm making you eat it first." Kiyoshi chortled.
"Eh heh. No thanks." I laughed.
"Suit yourself." He shrugged, tossing the fruit onto the spongy ground and continuing down the twisting path with. We continued to walk down the path, talking about plants, school, and fencing. On one side of the path sat an old stone bench overgrown with vines and flowers.
"Do you want to sit down for a while?" Kiyoshi asked.
"Yeah, I'm beat." I replied, sitting down on the overgrown bench. Kiyoshi sat next to me with his arm on the back of the bench.
"I never thought plants could be so interesting." I sighed, breathing in the sweet smell of the earth and the tangy aroma of the plants.
"That's what most people say." Kiyoshi said, looking up towards the canopy of trees which made the path so dark it seemed like twilight.
"It's weird; I didn't think they made places like this." I exhaled quietly.
"Of course they do." Kiyoshi smiled, leaning closer.
"Thanks for bringing me here. It's beautiful."
"I thought that since you were from New York and everything, you'd never seen anything quite like this." He replied, still leaning closer.
"And you were right. All I'd ever seen was trees and stuff in parks, and that was it." I nodded slowly. Kiyoshi held my chin up and looked into my eyes. Gosh, his eyes are almost pure green… He leaned closer and I felt his hot breath on my face. Right as we were about to touch, Kiyoshi hesitated and pulled away. He stood and nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Maybe we should… go," he stuttered, "Don't want to worry your folks, you know?" he said, helping me up. I looked at my watch.
"Wow! It's already four o'clock!" I exclaimed.
"Time flies when you're classifying plants." Kiyoshi joked.
"Yeah." And (almost) kissing…
Kiyoshi was nice enough to escort me back home; I guess that's the least he could do after nearly pulling my arm off running the whole way like he did. By the time we had run up to the front of the house it was already five thirty.
"Well, see you Monday, then." He said and awkwardly strolled away down the sidewalk. Sometimes he seems to be really shy. I felt something fuzzy bump into my neck and plop down into my outstretched hand.
"OW! Huh? Oh, sorry for running so fast, Masha." I apologized, looking down on Masha. When I opened the door, Ryou and Keiichiro fell in on me.
"WAAHHH!" I screamed, jumping back. Ryou and Keiichiro, who hadn't been able to catch their fall, slowly rose off the front steps and tried to look at me innocently.
"H-hey, Komori! Uh, what's up?" Ryou asked as he brushed himself off.
"Were you guys spying on me!" I screamed.
"Um…no, not …really." Keiichiro stammered nervously.
"Yeah, whatever." I growled and angrily stomped upstairs. The nerve of those two! I flopped down on my bed, completely exhausted from sprinting all across Tokyo.
"How did it go with what's-his-face?" Kish's voice questioned from the open balcony. I looked up to see him with his other freaky alien cohorts, even 'the dark aid to the light', leaning against the stone banister. A goofy lovesick grin spread across my face.
"It was bliss!" I squealed, hugging my frilly pink pillow to my face.
The ((I'm going to call him this from now on, so ha)) Dark Aid had a small smile tugging at his lips as he took a seat by Pai and Tart. Kish lightly hopped off the sill and flew over to my bed. Tart and Pai also hopped in, but sat on the floor by the window. Kish poked my stomach, causing me to make a "Huuh!" sound.
"You look like a lovesick frog when you make that face." He smiled.
"What'd you poke me for, you jerk?" I yelled. Kish gave me a small mischievous smile.
"I just wanted to mess with you. You humans are so touchy." He replied. I reached out and yanked down hard on one of Kish's elfish-like ears. Kish screeched and swatted my hand away.
"You evil little Mew!" Kish wailed at the top of his lungs while he rubbed his sore ear.
"Shh! Kish! Keep it down! You know that Ryou's on high alert right now!" I sternly whispered. Kish gave me his most hateful look.
"I hope he does find out! You deserve it, after pulling on my ear like that!" Kish snapped back. I heaved an exasperated sigh.
"Fine. I'm sorry, Kish…What did you guys come up here for, anyway?" I fumed, on the verge of throwing them out the window. Pai helped himself up and leaned on the corner of my bed.
"Long story put short, we found some information on the enemy that could be very useful to you." Pai explained.
"…And why are you telling me instead of Ryou or Keiichiro?" I asked looking up at Pai. Pai raised his eyebrow and said, "Because you're the only thing that has even a slim chance of defeating Ronin. Ryou and Keiichiro have no idea of what they're up against."
"Uhh…Who?"
"Ronin, that's the name of their 'leader'. That's all we could gather on him at the moment, unfortunately. As far as we know, Resu is the only follower that openly attacks people, usually in groups. I have taken the liberty of creating a device that will (hopefully) tell you where and when Resu will attack." Pai informed, pulling out a small pink wristwatch device from a satchel tied at his waist. He fastened the small gadget onto my wrist and Kish leaned over and examined it.
"So that's what you've been tinkering on…" Kish said, inspecting the watch.
"Yes. I also designed it like a human time-telling device, so it wouldn't attract any unnecessary attention. It will flash green whenever an attack has been detected. Then a map will appear on the screen, giving you exact coordinates. It also holds an excessive amount of information on kirema animas and all the information we could gather. Although, there are still many blanks to be filled in, so you'll need to collect information from all of your encounters." Pai continued.
"Wow, this is cool!" I exclaimed looking over the pink bat-shaped wristwatch. Tart hopped up and examined my watch.
"It's pretty weird-looking, if you ask me." He shook his head as-a-matter-of-factly.
"Well," I bantered, "No one asked you, now did they?" Tart turned away from me and silently pouted.
"This should make your life a lot easier." Pai finished.
"Yeah! More time to spend with what's-his-face!" Kish laughed.
"Shut up." I blushed; Dark Aid snickered. He looked out the window at the sun sinking below the horizon.
"It's getting late, we should be going." He said.
"Right. Well, thanks a lot for the watch, Pai!" I yelled after them as all four of the aliens faded away. I guess sometimes those aliens can be pretty helpful. This watch could make being a Mew a lot easier. I threw my face into the pillow and slowly drifted off to sleep, dreaming of what my future would hold.
