Another chapter of this new reality, shall we see where it takes us? What questions will be raised now, and what revelations will it have for my favorite new puppet? I mean, there isn't much time left after all. Rito is walking deeper and deeper and deeper into my clutches, and you can only stand by and watch. Will Rito survive the night, or will his regrets hold him back? Well, dear readers, shall we see whether this new chapter takes us into the light, or into the dark...
Blue hair, a concerned face, and a good bust was all Rito saw before being pulled along a confusing route of twists and turns to end up at a cake shop.
Sometime Earlier
He had been wandering for an hour, hopelessly lost and confused, nothing seeming to stir any memories in his mind to direct him towards his home. As he turned another corner in vain, ending up walking down a blind alley and groaning in frustration as he hit another dead end, as the shadows grew longer and the setting sun's warmth waned to give light to a harsh and cold moon. Poetic language aside, Rito was lost in the middle of a city he didn't know, and without a place to stay he wouldn't have a very safe night either. Suddenly he hears crashing from behind him, and he turns to hear the yowl of a cat, as it skirts out from between piles of garbage spilling out of their cans. He wasn't sure if it was just the shadows getting to him, but he couldn't stand staying in this dead end alley any longer. Walking to the mouth of the alley, Rito hears the cans move again, and he regrets it as he looks back. A flash of silver, dark hair, and the cocked barrel of a gun is all he sees as the trigger is pulled, causing Rito to make an instant decision, to move or be shot and bleed to death in this alleyway.
"You shouldn't have come back here, Rito Yuuki!" his attacker shouted as Rito dashed around the corner and away from the alley, "I'm not trying to hurt you Rito, but you've put me in the middle of something that can't be ignored." Rito hears more shots fired from behind him, and he sees the walls of the buildings chip away as ricocheting bullets miss him, as if fired wildly. "The longer you stay here, when you look for answers you aren't even sure you can handle, the more you are risking it all," the voice shouts as Rito runs down the empty main street, past darkened street corners with seemingly faulty streetlights, "The longer you stay in Sainan, the more likely you risk everything Lala did for you!" The redheaded teen finds himself running through the streets, until he stumbles upon a park, at which he heads for the trees. "You can't run or hide from me, Rito, not when I know how you think," the man calls out in pursuit through the trees, "Doesn't it seem familiar at all to you, like the night you were taken from Earth, stolen by that Devilukean girl?" Rito suddenly feels a pounding in his skull his blood pressure spiking and causing pressure to build in his forehead, causing a sharp migraine that forces him to take shelter under the branches of one of the nearby trees. "I'm sure you want to go home, get your memories back, and live a long and healthy life with your childhood sweetheart," the person taunts, as they pass by the tree Rito was currently pressing himself to, "I'm sure Celine would be happy to see her 'Papa' again, and I know Mikan would give anything just to know you were alive..." Rito stills as the names ring in his ears, echoing around in the deepest corners of his mind.
A bouncing, vibrant toddler with green hair and a pink flower resting like a hat on her head. The piercing yellow eyes of his sarcastic sister, barely a teenager when he left her, a feisty brunette who had a soft spot for her 'Onii-chan' even if she didn't admit it to herself. He doesn't know how he could have ever forgotten them, and he cherishes the faces he could put to the voices, the ghosts of memory that taunted him back in his botanical prison. Rito remembers how she was carelessly she treated him whenever she found Lala in his bed, yet still she steadfastly got up, cooked breakfast for them all, and continued to help out around the house despite their absentee parents. Now that he knew all of this he wouldn't even be able to use this knowledge, not with this bullet crazy maniac after him wanting him dead, despite all appearances otherwise. Deciding to risk his luck, Rito crept through the underbrush away from his attacker and back towards the way he had ran through. He had just left the tree embankment running for his life before daring to look back, when he had the misfortune to stumble into someone, toppling them over and into a heap on pavement, dirt, and grass.
Feeling something squishy beneath his hands, and groaning in realization that he was a dead man either way, Rito quickly got up to help whatever poor, unfortunate soul it was that he had stumbled into. She looked up at him, having to part her hair that had messily ended up covering her face in the tangled fall, and he noticed the puzzled expression on her face right before it turned into righteous anger. "What the hell, pervert!" she angrily yelled, "Do you just tackle young women going home from work, or are you just another opportunist?" Not really having the time to explain himself, and hoping he wasn't heard by the guy in the park, he helped the woman to her feet while miming her to be quiet. "What, you don't want me to call the cops out on you, groper?" she angrily yells, her voice rising despite his unheard protests, "Someone, help me, police, we've got a groper on-!" Desperate to shut her up, Rito covers her mouth as she protests with muffled yelps through his hand.
If she didn't see the rising panic, the indecision on his face yet, when she realized he was looking around, especially towards the park, the girl quieted down and Rito in turn removed his hand from her mouth. "Are you in trouble?" she asks, "Did something happen, are you running from someone?" Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, the girl in turn grabbed Rito by the hand and roughly began to pull him down the paved walkway and back into the city. "Come on, if you're in trouble, I have a place we can go and calm down," she states, pulling Rito behind her, blue hair whipping in the wind, "We can collect our thoughts, I can hear your story, and decide if the cops need to be involved or not, ok?" Despite phrasing that as a question, Rito took it as the girl demanding that he follow her, not that her iron grip left him any choice. So despite a crazy man after him and an equally crazy woman pulling him away from danger, Rito chose to follow the leader and ended up safely within the dining area of a western style pastry shop.
The woman had ordered him to stay seated at the table, and she would be back with some tea and some of the day's leftovers they had stored in the back for the employee's. He really didn't want to impose, but the girl had insisted on coming to the cake shop, pulling out her key from her purse, and entering after hours. Rito would feel bad if he got the woman in trouble, but the girl seem unconcerned as she came back with a piping hot kettle of tea and a plate of cookies that to Rito, looked like heaven and tasted like it, since it was the only thing he had ate at all since he had been dropped back off to Earth. Sighing, the girl served him a cup of tea before pouring herself a glass, then sitting down, she began to feel around her scalp. Rito looked in curiosity at her, and then widened his eyes when the very impressive wig detached from her head and revealed, not blue locks, but dark ebony hair nestled underneath the false headpiece. She stared up at him in annoyance as he stared back, raising an eyebrow at him. "What, never seen a wig before?" she asks sarcastically, "The owners had a Cosplay day today, I dressed up as Professor from Courageous Superman Grand Braver?" At Rito's blank stare, the girl set her wig aside and stared him face to face in all of her seriousness. "You know, the mecha anime that plays on weekdays after Magical Kyouko?" she states, "Girl pilots team up with energy beings inhabiting giant robots, beating the snot out of alien invaders from the Machine Empire?"
Rito didn't break his blank stare as he took another bite of a delicious cookie. "I'm afraid I haven't been in touch with much 'anime' for the past couple of years, a lot has changed since I... moved back into Sainan," Rito answers as cryptically as possible, so the girl didn't think he was any nuttier than she already thought, "I get the gist though, so thank you for the interesting synopsis; when I get a place to stay, I might just look it up on television..." While he says the last part a bit more bitterly than he means it to be, the girl picks up on the fact he mentioned he had no home.
"No place to stay, running from the park in the middle of the night, I'm guessing someone wasn't too happy to have you sleeping out under the stars?" she prods, "It wouldn't surprise me, there are places I'm sure you could have gone to, family or something, before you were forced to sleep under the stars; there are laws in place for these sorts of things..." He doesn't know whether to roll his eyes or not, so instead he plasters a smile on his face and continues to talk to her.
"You could say they weren't happy about me returning to town, I was being shot at, but they weren't intended to be lethal," Rito states, crossing his arms and resting his head on the table on top of them, "I think..." He looks up at her, and realizes that despite her offering him food and a helping hand, he still didn't know her name. He straightens up and smiles, extending a hand towards her. "In all this fuss I forgot to get the name of my savior, and to introduce myself," Rito states as normal as possible, "Rito, Rito Yuuki; just who might you be, miss?" The woman stares at his hand for barely a second before she reacts to his name, looking up at him in surprise, before scowling and staring him straight down. He didn't even see the hand move, even less feel it make contact with his cheek, but the stinging afterglow of a fresh slap to his face caused him discomfort as he put his hand to the affected area.
"Rito Yuuki!" she cries out in anger, "Don't you dare pretend to be that boy; though I have half a mind to believe your story as perverted a man child you are!" He really doesn't know what set her off, but he sees she is still talking to him. "I'll have you know that Rito Yuuki went missing in his first year of high school, near the end of the term; his sister searched for him for months before giving up midway through last December," the girl states, making a fist on the table and rattling the cookies and the tea from the force, "His posters are still plastered all up over Sainan, so if you expect me to believe you're Rito Yuuki, you have better chances of making me believe that it really was aliens that took Him!" She crosses her arms and silently fumes at him, while Rito nervously tries to figure out what to say to her. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself, troublemaker?" she asks, "Rito Yuuki was my friend, even if he did cause me too much trouble in High School when I was head of the disciplinary committee!" At that comment Rito's eyes widened, as a faint blip of a memory and recognition crosses through the annals of his mind. Before he can even rack his brain as to what the memory entailed, he began to feel extremely tired. Whether it was the shock of being shot at, the adrenaline crash now that he was calming down, or the fact that he was regaining more of his memories, Rito tipped sideways and mercifully blacked out before his head hit the tiled floor of the Stray Cats Patisserie.
The room was dark, and Rito had had... someone with him, and then there was a power outage. He had tripped, and fallen over onto the person, as they fell onto the bed in his room. "Oops..." he had said out loud, though as he tried to say their name, it sounded like static in his ears, "S-sorry, Kotshfds." Rito froze as he noticed the shirt that was a size too large for her,popped a button and barely covered the areola, not to mention the fact her still dripping, wet body was soaking water into the material that barely covered her crotch. Hazel eyes stared up at him in confusion, as if waiting for him to make his move. She pouts, closing her eyes seeing him not making a move, and Rito feels the flames of embarrassment trail up his cheeks and close up his throat.
She opens her eyes again and shyly looks up at him from under his arms. "I...I...I hate shameless people," Kotfhawa admits to him, "I've hated them ever since I was little." She looks downcast, before bashfully looking back up at him. "It would be those shameless boys, of course, who would flip girl's skirts, disrupt the class morals," she says, "I would always protect the weak girls and confront the boys." She glances away and blushes, before turning back to face Rito with renewed courage. "But... it's normal for boys to do shameless things..." Kokegvwa says, "Being shameless doesn't mean that they're completely bad; I've begun to understand this recently..." She grasps the back of his neck, keeping him from moving. "If...IF...," Kotegawa states, looking passionately up at Rito with hopeful eyes, "...you promise to never do anything shameless with any other girl...th-then I will..." Before she can do anything, before she can draw him in with those luscious lips, something stops Rito from going any further. "Do you regret it?" she asks, as she watches him pull away, before smiling, "No, I can see your heart doesn't." In his moment of indecision, Yui pulled him down and planted a kiss firmly on his lips, surprising Rito greatly.
"Wa- wait, this didn't happen like this..." Rito states, as he breaks free of Kotegawa's hold, then backs up and away from the compromising situation, "Mikan, Nana, and Lala were supposed to interrupt us..." He looks down at his hands, seeing them shake, before he clenches them into fists. "This shouldn't even be possible, I shouldn't even be remembering this," Rito states in confusion, "I wasn't here, I never was in this position, because Momo stole me away, and Lala... Lala..." He looks up, and finds Kotegawa is gone, the room and scene changed to a bed, satin sheets spilling through the thin veil hiding a voluptuous form with hair cascading down her back translucent, pink curtains barely concealing the womanly figure. Rito sees eyes of aquamarine through the material, staring straight at him, as she smiles and curls her finger at him, motioning for him to approach. He watches through the veil as she removes the satin robe, exposing her most intimate parts, her red tail snaking through the veil and wrapping around his arm as he goes to pull the curtain aside, stopping him by resting its spade tip in his open palms. Gathering it in both of his palms, he stares at the pulsing, beating tip that rests in his hands, the most sensual part of her body given to him freely, showing just how much she truly loved him. He smiled, feeling the rhythmic beating in his hands, closing his eyes as he feels the beat resonate with his own heart, echoing through his bones, up his arms and into his ribcage.
T hump. Thump. Ba-Bump. Thump. Thump. Ba-Bump.
Reality crashing back in on him, Rito gasps awake from the dream, sweating underneath layers of sheets and blankets piled on top of him. He feels a cool washcloth on his forehead, and he throws the offensive thing off of him. Rito sees that this isn't the front of the pastry shop, nor is this anywhere he thinks he had ever been before. In fact, it looks much like a normal room, baring the few female idols on the walls, games posters, and collection of manga and anime in one of the nearby cupboards. Though, this being Japan, that latter one shouldn't seem as unusual as it feels to him. Getting up and finding out he was lacking a shirt, Rito was surprised that he was still wearing his pants and undergarments that Nana had provided for him. Scrounging through some drawers, as impolite as it seemed, Rito found some things that would fit him, then folded them up neatly, and quietly sneaked out of the room looking for the bathroom, or a shower. As he walked into the kitchen, the sound of sizzling meat and smell of breakfast food surprised him, and he found a the woman he had stumbled upon last night working away to create something to him that looked like a veritable feast of food.
As he slowly went to walk away from her, leaving her undisturbed, she turns and looks momentarily shocked, before shaking her head clear and going back to cooking. "Bathroom and shower are two doors down to your right, lock the door behind you," she commands, more than suggests, "My brother is coming over sometime this morning to get some more of his stuff from the house, and my parents are gone to work for the day already, so I plan to get you fed and make yourself scarce before the realize I snuck a boy into my room last night." He almost wants to comment out of surprise at finding out that room was hers, but chooses to bite his tongue. She then looks up at him, then blushes as she catches up with what she said. "No, I mean, my brother's room!" she states, covering her face and groaning into her hands, "I had you in my room, but you had a fever and I can't risk getting sick, so I moved you into my brother's room since he had been staying over at a friend's house last night... that room was his, not mine." Nodding in response, Rito politely thanked her, then went to do his morning routine.
By the time he is back, breakfast is ready and waiting at the table, with Rito sitting down across from the woman. She offers him a cup for tea, then retrieves a kettle from the kitchen and pours some into it, before setting the tea pot down. "Thank you for the food," Rito states smiling, he takes a sip of the warm liquid and sighs in satisfaction, taking a bite of the breakfast she had made for him, "You know, Kotegawa, you make really good food; thanks again for letting me stay over the night in Yuu's room." As he takes another bite of food, he hears utensils fall to the table, so he glances up to see what was wrong with her. Yui is staring him down, slightly shaking in her one hand as she stares intently across the table at Rito.
"Wh- how do you know that?" Yui states, putting her hand down and forgetting her food, "I- I never told you my name, how do you know that..." Rito raises his eyes in confusion, since he always knew that it was- A look of confusion crosses his face, as he knits his brow together as to when it was, exactly, that he remembers Yui Kotegawa telling him her name. "Are you- are you stalking me?" Yui asks out of panic, causing Rito throw his head up in surprise at her accusations, "Were- were you really running from somebody last night, or where you just hoping to get in my-" Rito stops her right there, throwing his hands up in panic and embarrassment.
"NO! No, I told you last night Kotegawa, I'm Rito Yuuki, I went to high school with you at Sainan High!" he exclaims, as the words just come tumbling out of him, "I was friend's with Kenichi Saruyama, I was classmates with Haruna, Risa, and Mio!" He is panting as he slows his heartbeat down, before becoming confused once more. Rito knew he shouldn't know any of those names, yet they came out of his mouth like they were everyday things he should know. "I don't- I don't know how I knew that," he states, looking back up at Yui, "I- I've had amnesia for the past two years, someone- someone brought me someplace they thought was safe, and I only just begun to remember my past, who I am." She looks unconvinced, and Rito frustratingly puts a hand to his head and forces himself not to cry while she disapprovingly stares at him. "Kotegawa, I don't know how you and I were around each other, but I just arrived in Sainan last night, trying desperately to rediscover what I forgot before some accident I had two years ago," he cries out in anguish, "I get lost in the city, get attacked by someone threatening me to leave, and I stumble into you, a woman I didn't even remember last night, and today after a very distressing dream, I somehow remember you and a bunch of other names to people I can't put faces to, yet." He slams his hands on the table, and stares defiantly right back into a smoldering Yui Kotegawa. "I don't expect you to understand, Kotegawa, but the past few weeks have been the most physically draining, emotionally challenging, and frustrating few weeks I've been having," Rito states, blowing up in her face, "I'm sorry I've dragged you into this, but all I've been trying to do is find my house, my sister, and my daughter!"
After all of that, Rito took a deep breath, and calmed down enough to face Yui again with a sheepish smile. What he saw was her blushing red, shocked face, her eyes full of surprise as she wordlessly mouthed sounds, looking more like a gaping fish. "D-d-d-daughter!" He could practically see the steam coming out of her head as she turned bright red, "I d-d-d-didn't know you had a d-daughter, R-rito!" She gulps, and then takes a sip of tea as calmly as possible, betraying the shock Rito had just witnessed. "Very well, it-it seems you are in fact who you claim to be," she says, eyes downcast as she coughs into her hand out of embarrassment, "I don't know exactly where your house is, as I've never been there personally after all, but I know Mikan and Celine frequently visit Mikado Sensei's house for some kind of after school job, or something; she's taken it up ever since you disappeared." Eyes brightening at the information, Rito smiles gratefully at Yui, before turning to his food and chowing down on it as fast as he could. "Rito, wait, don't eat that fast!" she cries out in surprise, "You'll choke!" He takes a chugs the rest of his tea, before setting the cup down and getting up, smiling at Yui once more.
"Thank you Kotegawa, I can't tell you how much I owe you for this!" Rito states, as he grabs his shoes from the front door and slips them on, "I'll make it up to you, someday, somehow!" Before he can get out the door, though, Yui is up and grabbing his arm, keeping him from leaving. Rito turns back to look at her, and he can't see her face beneath the curtain of her bangs, and he can't stand to see the pout on her lips either.
"Don't be stupid again, okay Rito?" she states, not looking at him, "Don't you go disappearing after coming back all these years later, okay?" She looks up at him, fiery determination on her face, a smile gracing her face now. "Go find Mikan, and say hi to Celine for me," Yui states, as she turns to grab something from her room, before handing him a wrapped package, "Give this to them when you see Celine, I bought her a new book to read after all." She smiles, and Rito nods, though he stays when he sees a look of hesitation cross her face. "Do you regret it Rito, being gone for all these years and just showing up on people's doorsteps like this?" She asks, and Rito feels it like a punch to his gut at the memory, "Ah, who am I to complain though, I don't have any regrets, and neither should you Rito!" That look of confidence has returned to her face, and she's smiling happily again. "You may not believe it, but Kenichi and I have been going out; he really is mature when he acts like it, and he'll be ecstatic to know you're back Rito," she states, and it warms Rito's heart to know he hadn't hurt her as deeply as he thought, "So make sure, whatever is going on, you stay alive Rito; I don't think any of us could stand to lose you again!" Rito smiles, then hugs Yui, who squeaks in surprise, but accepts it with a slight blush. "You idiot," she says, "I have a boyfriend." Rito lets go and smiles.
"I know," he says impishly, smiling from ear to ear, "I hope to meet him and remember all the fun times we had together too!" He opens the door to streaming sunlight, and escapes down the walkway back into the city. Yui watches him as he leaves, and casually observes the tattered, rusty-red string that had been attached to her ring finger finally snap and disappear, while the new, stronger, crimson string remained. She had found someone else to love, after all.
A/N: I don't know if any of you noticed, but I do not own To-Love Ru. Nor do I own Mayoi Neko Overrun.
Has anyone noticed the subtle references I'm making yet, or have I not left enough clues to light the end path. Maybe you could even deduce how many chapters I have left within this story arc. Oh well, I hope you guys enjoyed it!
First new chapter of 2018! Can't believe we made it to a new year! Updates may be slowing down from me, so don't be worried if I don't update for a while, though hopefully I plan to post something before February. To my two favorite reviewers, hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and that it lives up to your expectations!
And to my other readers, I hope with a new year, you may have the opportunity to review my work and leave a comment! Thanks again everyone, and have a happy start to a new year.
Edit: Cleaning up grammer and spelling mistakes. No new chapter yet.