YAY CHAPTER 13!

Chapter 13- Casts (The Only One)

"So you're sure you want to go back?" Cougar asked. He had Mimori on his back and Kanami in his arms. Mimori nodded. "Then HANG ON TIGHT!" He laughed sadistically and ran faster. Mimori had to tighten her grip around his neck and shut her eyes to keep the wind from hurting them or drying them out. Kanami had a worried look on her face; both she and Mimori were worried.

Meanwhile, Ryuhou and Kazuma were fast asleep on the ground. Even though they were asleep, they could still feel the pain in their dreams. One of the Alters got up and brushed the blood off of his mouth. He looked at the two passed out Alters and grinned vilely. "Bakas, thinking you could mess with me…" Out of his fingertips came vines, which he used to constrict around them slowly. They were in too deep of a sleep to wake up from their slumber, and that was just what this Alter needed. He clenched his fist and the vines tightened. Both Kazuma's and Ryuhou's breathing became irregular, and, subconsciously, they knew what was going on.

'What… is this…?' Kazuma thought.

'My body… I can't breathe…'Ryuhou whispered mentally.

"You're going to die now…" the Alter grinned from ear to ear. "And after I kill you, I'm going after your friends for even thinking that they could take me on.

Just then, a firewall formed between the Alter and his would-be victims. The vines were torched, and the Alter pulled his hand back in pain. He looked around, and found the other three from before. The guy was helping the older girl stand up by putting her arm over his shoulder, while the younger girl stood looking sadly at the two injured fighters.

"Just in time!" he said despite the fact that his hand had been burned. "Saves me the trouble of having to hunt you down!" Mimori narrowed her eyes.

"You won't be hurting anyone!" Her eyes averted to Ryuhou and Kazuma. 'Were we too late?' She looked down at her necklace. Her eyes trickled and shimmered until finally her Burning Tears flowed down her cheeks. She caught them in her hands and hurled them at the Alter. His clothes were on fire, and he was now rolling on the ground as he tried to diminish the flames. After he had finally done this, he got up and wiped the dirt off of his shirt, Cougar punched him, successfully knocking him out.

Mimori, on the other hand, had already limped her way to Ryuhou. She fell to her knees and looked at him. "Ryuhou… Ryuhou wake up! Wake up Ryuhou!" She fought back as more tears threatened to fall. She looked at his ears, his shirt, his pants, everything had blood on it. How had she not noticed before? She scolded herself for this, and her will to fight against herself grew weaker. She used her index and middle finger to check for his pulse on his neck. 'His pulse is low… he's lost a lot of blood… at least a full quart…. Ryuhou why did you push so hard?' She hung her head and began fighting back her tears once more.

"What can we do?" Kanami asked.

'There's nothing I can do for him, nothing at all…' Mimori scolded herself. 'I don't have an Alter that can heal like Scheris… maybe she is better for him….' Her heart began to ache, she didn't want to admit it, but had Scheris been there instead of her, Ryuhou would be better by now. 'No stop it!' She told herself mentally. 'Stop thinking like that! There's got to be something I can do!' Cougar stepped forward.

"Minori can you walk?" He asked in a serious tone.

"I can try… Why?"

"Help me get them up." Slowly, she helped Cougar get both Kazuma and Ryuhou onto their feet. Kazuma had one arm around his right shoulder while Ryuhou had one arm around his left. Kanami was on Kazuma's side while Mimori, though weak, was helping Cougar on Ryuhou's side. She had his other arm around her shoulder as she limped. 'Things are a lot different now, aren't they Ryu?'….

Ryuhou and Mimori were running from his dog. His dog was very playful, and since Ryuhou and Mimori were kids, the dog looked really big and weighed a lot, too much for them to lift. He was also very, very fast. No matter what Mimori and Ryuhou tried to do, the dog would always catch up to them. Finally, they decided to hide behind Biggie.

"There's no way he'll be able to see us behind Biggie!" Ryuhou whispered while laughing giddily. Mimori put her hands over his mouth to listen for his dog.

"Don't say anything, don't breath very loud," She said seriously, removing her hand from his mouth. Ryuhou only nodded with as much seriousness as she had shown.

Soon they heard a twig snap softly, and they could hear the dog sniffing. "He can smell us!" Ryuhou mouthed. He pointed to nearby trees and shrubs. Mimori nodded, and they both took off for a better hiding spot. His dog, of course, caught up to them, and tackled Ryuhou. Ryuhou was taken aback by this and couldn't react in time. He fell to the ground, but not before getting scratched by twigs. His dog was licking his wounds, which was burning him, and he had his hand covering his wound now, so his hand was burning his cheek as well.

"Let me see," Mimori stated. He slowly removed his hand to reveal that his cheek was bleeding. Her eyes widened, and she reached in her back pocket and pulled out a bandage.

"Do you carry those around all the time?" Ryuhou asked as Mimori began unwrapping the bandage.

"Yep!" Mimori smiled. "I want to be a doctor when I grow up!"

"I'm sure you'll do great at it!" Ryuhou smiled as well. "You're the only girl that can help me!"

"What about your mom?" Mimori asked.

"Oh…uh, she doesn't count! Miri is the only girl that can ever help me!"

"I'm glad!" she laughed softly. "Here." She pressed the bandage gently against his cheek, and both of them blushed. "Um… t-there you go..." Mimori stammered. Ryuhou's dog licked both his and Mimori's cheeks, so the tension was broken by laughter.

'If I asked you that question today, would you respond the same way? Or would you call it childish nonsense?' She asked herself bitterly.

They had walked for hours in silence. Cougar had said a few things here and there, but Mimori wasn't listening. She was too wrapped up in her thoughts. 'He's cold, then he's warm; he won't look at me, then he saves me; I annoy him, and yet he gets mad when Kazuma takes me… Just tell me how you really feel Ryuhou!' Mimori wasn't paying attention, and she tripped over her own shoes. She waited for the pain to come, but was surprised when she felt a strong grip grasp her wrist and pull her up again. When she looked behind to see who it was, Ryuhou was awake.

"Pay more attention, Mimori," He said quietly. She was glad he was awake, but it was obvious that he was suffering a major loss of strength because of his blood loss. She began to put his arm over her shoulder once more, but he replied with a quick "I don't need your help." Mimori gave him a stubborn look and forcer his arm over her shoulder. "I said I don't-"

"I'm the only girl that can help," She smiled. "Miri is the only girl that can help." He too thought back to that memory and looked away. He felt his side being poked again by that imaginary stick. Cougar and Kanami, on the other hand, had absolutely no clue why Mimori was talking in 3rd person, or why she had said that.

"I suppose we leave him to you," Cougar smiled at Kanami. Kanami nodded as Cougar helped her get the unconscious Kazuma into the house. He came out moments later to Ryuhou and Mimori with a grin on his face. "Ready?" Both of them nodded, and they started back towards headquarters.

The sun had set by the time they arrived back, and everyone was relieved to see that they were ok. At least that's what they thought. Only Cougar knew that Ryuhou had lost a lot of blood, and that Mimori was still very weak. They requested to go to their room and walked/limped away before hearing a reply. Scheris was going to run after them, but Cougar got in the way.

"They need to rest for a while… Tell ya what; we'll go see them in a couple of hours okay?" Scheris gave him a poutful face but agreed anyway.

Mimori leaned against the doorway with her eyes closed as she slowly turned the knob. She hadn't noticed how heavy her eyes were until that moment. Her eyes burned, telling her to collapse, and she followed orders. Ryuhou's body seemed to be saying the same thing, for he too collapsed onto the floor. Although they had fallen down and weren't actually awake, they were not asleep either. They couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't even open their eyes, but they could still hear everything around them. It was as though they were in limbo. They weren't sure how much time had elapsed, but some point later there were a few soft knocks on the door.

"Ryuhou?" One voice asked.

"Minori?" Another voiced called. The door slowly creaked open, and that was soon followed by a shriek.

'Who's screaming?' Mimori asked herself. 'Why are they screaming?' She knew both of those voices, but her mind had become detached from her body. She couldn't place the voices. She heard someone running very, very fast. Some time after that, she felt herself being lifted. 'What's going on... Who are these people?' Even her thoughts sounded distant. She felt a small poking into her arm and hand as she was laid down on some unknown location. 'That… kinda hurts…' Her head swirled, she could feel something being pumped into her. 'What are they doing to me…?' She could also feel something force her stomach to open up. She screamed mentally. 'Why are they doing this to me?'

Ryuhou could feel these things, too. 'What's being forced into my body…?' They heard footsteps fading, and then something being pulled across the floor. They then heard a woman crying and a man sighing heavily from time to time. 'Why's she crying?'

Time had passed, they weren't sure how much more. Ryuhou's bed was soaked in tears. "You knew about this, didn't you?" A woman choked.

The man sighed once more. "If they had wanted medical attention, they would have asked for it, that was their choice, not mine."

The chair had screeched once more, and rapid footsteps were heard, followed by another chair being moved across the floor. "You idiot!" The girl screamed. "If you would have told us, then they wouldn't be as bad as they are right now! Ryuhou would be better!" The girl broke down and there were muffled sounds of punches.

"I know, don't you think I feel as bad as you do?"

"You should feel worse! It's your fault! Baka…Baka… Baka…" After the girl said each 'baka' there would be a muffled hitting sound.

"I know that, and I do. I take full responsibility," the man said seriously. One of them had fallen to their knees and was hitting the floor, but neither Ryuhou nor Mimori knew who it was.

Soon another pair of footsteps had entered the room. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave," A female's voice ordered. "These patients need their rest."

'……Patients? So that's where we are… But who are those two?' Mimori asked herself. Moments after two sets of footsteps faded, the third pair had walked her way over to them and stuck something in their arm. It was a small poke, and they could barely feel it. 'Anesthetics….' Mimori acknowledged, already knowing what it was. Her mind began to rest, and soon she was asleep.

Daylight had shined through, and Mimori's eyes flickered for a few moments. The sunlight hurt her eyes; it felt like she hadn't seen the sun in days. Her head tossed and turned as she moaned. Someone pressed their hands against her bedside and gasped eagerly. She blinked a few more times until her vision cleared to see that it was Straight Cougar.

"Minori I'm so glad you're alright!" He smiled brightly.

"It's Mimori," She whispered. 'So it was Cougar… then the other person was…' As if on instinct, her head turned. She saw Ryuhou lying in a bed next to hers, and the blue haired Scheris had her head on the edge of the side of his bed, fast asleep. Mimori also saw the bags under her eyes. She looked once more at Cougar and noticed that he also had bags under his eyes. 'They've been worried…' She sat up slowly and clutched her stomach. She could feel the new stitches that had been sewn. 'So that's what that pain was, they forced open my old stitches.'

She slowly, and weakly, got out of bed and walked over to Ryuhou's bed. Taking her bed sheet with her, she placed it around Scheris and pulled up her own chair. She sat on the other side of his bed and Cougar sat next to her.

Ryuhou, too, had woken up, but he was still in that limbo that he had begun in. He had heard Mimori whisper that last comment. 'What is it about this that reminds me so much of my past?' he thought to himself. 'That's right… Miri was there that time, too…'

It had finally happened. Their parents knew it was just a matter of time until it had happened. Mimori and Ryuhou had climbed Biggie once again, and this time Ryuhou fell out and couldn't summon Zetsuei in time. Mimori freaked out and had climbed down as quickly as she could. Ryuhou was still conscious, but he was in a lot of pain. Mimori helped him up and he had his hand on her shoulder as he hopped back to their parents.

"RYUHOU!" Their parents shouted. They rushed to the hospital where they had given Ryuhou anesthetics. The pain had numbed and he had fallen asleep. He couldn't feel anything, and he didn't dream anything. When he finally opened his eyes, the sun was out, and he figured it was the afternoon. His vision cleared, and he saw Mimori's face mere feet from his. She was watching him sleep intently, and when he opened his eyes she jolted back out of shock.

"Miri what is it?" Ryuhou asked in a confused way.

"Oh," She smiled, "I was just watching you sleep was all." Ryuhou could feel his face turn red.

"How kawaii!" His mother beamed, aiming her video camera at his face. Ryuhou looked at her, he hadn't noticed that there were other people besides him and Mimori. "Smile for the camera, Ryuhou!" She laughed, as did the rest of the adults. Ryuhou replied by putting his hand in front of his face, obviously embarrassed. He averted his eyes to his leg, which now had a green cast on it.

"Here!" Mimori said, opening a permanent marker. She stuck her tongue out and concentrated as she wrote something on his cast. When she was done, she closed the marker and smiled with pride. "There we go!" Ryuhou leaned forward to see that Mimori had written 'MIRI' in big letters and 'Get well soon!' in smaller letters. She had also drawn a chibi face with the chibi sticking it's tongue out.

"My turn!" Ryuhou's father stood up and requested the marker from Mimori. She gladly handed it over and his father purposefully pressed harder onto his cast as he signed it.

"Ow, Father!" Ryuhou whined. "That hurts!" He closed one eye in pain. His mother zoomed her camera in so she could see his face better. Everyone laughed at the face he made, and even though he was in pain, he was happy that everyone was laughing.

After recalling this memory, he smiled faintly. "Miri…" he whispered. He heard a small gasp, and his eyes flickered open sleepily. He saw a blurred image of Mimori leaning over him with a tint of red in her cheeks, and as the image became clearer, he too was having to fight the blood rushing to his cheeks. He shifted uncomfortably as Mimori sat back up with her back against the chair.

"You weren't dreaming of her, were you?" Cougar demanded defensively.

"No, I wasn't… I just heard her talking was all…" he replied. Hey, technically it wasn't a dream, right? Right!

Scheris had also bolted awake, and she rubbed her eyes. Her face formed into a smile, and she wrapped her arms around Ryuhou's neck. "Ryuhou I'm so glad you're okay!" She sounded very relieved.

"Yes, we all are!" Mimori agreed, a faint trace of pink still on her cheeks. "It's just," everyone looked at her now, and she looked away to hide her face, "too bad you don't have a cast."

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There we go! Hope you liked it!