OMG! I got my uniform on Thursday, and i look awful! The blazer makes me look like a boy! I've been depressed a lot these last couple of days. I got my new laptop, but it won't let me download MSN, so i'm stuck with windows messenger or the i love im site. I also don't have microsoft word processor, so i had to download the writer. It's so different, it's gonna take me a while to get used to it.

I start school on monday, meaning updates will be slow. I'm not looking forward to 100 minute lessons, but i can't wait to see my friends in their uniforms! Haha.

Anyway, thanks to the reviewers for reviewing. I would like to see more reviews from people (How cheeky of me XD)

I hope you enjoy this chapter x

Chapter Eight: Persuasive Gestures

He knelt down beside me and smirked "Hello Sakura."

"Ryou?"

I blinked several times, not believing that the person I was staring at was actually here. "What're you doing here?"

Ryou lifted my chin with his finger so I was looking into his heavenly blue eyes. "I could ask you the same thing."

I turned my head as I flushed. "I asked you first."

"I came to look for you." He stood up. "And found you."

"How did you know that I was in Mito?" I asked, looking up to meet his gaze.

"We can track the Mew Mew's movements." Ryou answered. "And I'm surprised that you came here. I thought that you might of boarded a plane to America or something."

I scowled at his comment. In a way, I felt embarrassed. Him finding me has proved that you can't run away from the past. I felt incredibly stupid. Running away just caused me more misery, because someone knew me from Tokyo so they took advantage of me.

I exited my thoughts when I saw Ryou hold his hand out to me. I weakly smiled and lifted myself up with it. As soon as I stood up, I felt a shooting pain emit from below my stomach. I gasped as my arms clutched my stomach.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Ryou asked, gaining a light but firm grip on me.

"I'm fine." I lied. "My stomach just hurts that's all." The pain was excruciating. It was like the stab wound all over again, only less painful.

"You don't look okay." Ryou stated as we began walking out of the alleyway.

I didn't know it, but I was shaking. I felt warm and slighty light-headed. "Ryou, I'm fine."

Ryou averted his gaze to the night sky. "Are you reporting it to the police?"

I looked at him strangely. "Report what?"

"The rape." He answered. "Or were you just doing it in the alleyway because you don't like beds?" Ryou's eyes widened as I stood still. "Sakura, I'm sorry."

"That was uncalled for." I stated, tears on the verge of falling. I felt like a cry-baby, the many times I've started to cry in front of everyone. It also made me feel weak, thinking that I had to cry to resolve my problems.

"Gomennasai." Ryou stood in front of me. "Well, are you going to report the rape or not?"

"I see no point." I answered looking down at my feet. "He'll end up getting away with it and I don't want to go through with getting checked over by police surgeons and facing a jury who'll probably think that I'm a slut."

"You're not a slut, though." Ryou stated, looking intensely at me.

"Well I'm stupid, that's for sure." I sighed. Ryou shot a questioning look at me. "I spent a day with a complete stranger. Would a smart person do that?" I yelled.

"Yeah, they would." Ryou answered, looking away from me.

"No they wouldn't." I argued. "They would know better than to think that running away from their problems makes them go away and that strangers are their best friends."

"But everyone makes mistakes." Ryou shrugged. "You just...seem to make a lot of them. You can't let problems get in the way of your life, it means that you're showing how weak you are, and if people see that weakness in you, they'll take advantage of you."

Those words stuck like glue into my mind. He was right. I shouldn't let my problems keep me down. I should just think of them as obstacles which try to stop me from having a pleasant life. A gentle smile appeared on my face. "Thanks, Ryou."

Ryou just shrugged. "Just speaking the truth." He stated. "Now come on, I'm taking you back to Tokyo."

"What?" I stood still with shock.

"You heard, now come on." Ryou ordered.

I ambled over to him. "You expect me to go back there? Back to everything that ruined my life? Are you crazy?"

"No," He answered. "But you are."

"Why am I crazy?"

"Because you just thought that what I said about mistakes was true, and yet you're ignoring it." Ryou explained.

I looked down, sighing in defeat. "Fine."

"Fine what?"

I looked up. "Fine, I'll go back to Tokyo." I waited for Ryou to lead me to his car.

Every time I get into a car with Ryou, the drive is mostly awkward silence. Ryou was unusually silent, like, in a way, I was. I was usually a chatterbox when my family and me were driving across Japan. I was always the one who started conversations and ended them to start another. But when I'm with Ryou, I'm always silent. I've only been in the same car as him twice, but both times, neither of us had started a conversation.

Ryou turned on the radio in his car. It was playing an opening theme to InuYasha. The song was called Angelus and was sang by Hitomi Shimatani. I nodded my head lightly to match the beat of the song. I stared out of the window to find out that we were back in Tokyo.

Great, I thought in a mentally sarcastic tone as I glared at the Tokyo Tower with dissatisfaction. I couldn't believe that I actually agreed to come here. One thing was on my mind though, why did Ryou come for me? Why not Keiichiro? Or why didn't someone accompany Ryou?

There was another five minutes of soundtrack songs before the car stopped at the Café Mew Mew. I stared at it intently. I wanted my stare to melt it to the ground.

"We're here." Ryou stated as he stepped out of the car.

"I can see that." I muttered as I copied his movement. I slowly followed Ryou into the Café Mew Mew, remembering that I had left all of my belongings back in Mito. My clothes were gone, my money wasn't with me, everything I owned was unintentionally disowned. I still had my room key with me. I had stayed at a hotel and rented a room for three weeks. I still had twelve days left before I had to give the room up or pay to keep it longer. "I've left all of my stuff back in Mito." I mumbled. I don't think Ryou heard me, since he didn't turn around or simply respond to my comment.

I stepped into the Café Mew Mew as a sigh escaped my lips. I felt drained and exhausted. I needed sleep. Sleep is a funny thing. It does strange things to people. If you go to sleep early, thinking that this will help you get up early, it actually makes you want to sleep more. If you go to bed late, you're more likely to wake up earlier. So if I went to sleep now, I would wake up at about six or seven.

"Welcome back, Sakura-chan." I looked forward to see Keiichiro smiling at me.

"Konnichiwa, Akasaka-san." I smiled in return. I actually missed him. He was really nice to me. I heard a car start, causing me to turn my head to the entrance of the Café. Ryou and his car were gone. "Where's he going?" I asked.

"I'm not sure actually." Keiichiro sat down at one of the tables in the Café. "So, how was your little adventure?"

"It was...okay." I answered as I sat opposite him.

"How was it in Mito?"

"It was great. There's this noodle shop that is gorgeous. I was in their daily. And I'd made a new friend, Hikari, she worked at the till. She was really nice to me." I sat back into my chair covered my mouth as I yawned.

"So, where were you staying in Mito?"

"In a hotel around the corner from the noodle shop. The name's on the key." I placed my hand into my pocket for my key, but I couldn't feel it. "Uh-oh." I checked my other pockets, but the key wasn't on my person. "I've lost the key."

"It might've fallen out of your pocket when you was in Ryou's car." Keiichiro said with a slight chuckle. I think that he was amused by my worried expression.

"But what if it isn't? What if it's somewhere on the streets in Mito? Someone might find it and go into the room and take all of my stuff." I banged my head on the table.

"You are so cynical." Keiichiro laughed.

I lifted my head from the table. "I am not cynical!" I shouted.

Keiichiro smiled with amusement. "So where are you staying now?"

"I don't know." I whined. "I have no money to stay in a hotel or B&B, I have no relatives that live around here, apart from Gao, but there is no way that I'm staying with him. I despise him."

"Why won't you stay with him? Isn't your sister with him?"

I looked at Keiichiro suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"Ichigo-chan told me." Keiichiro answered.

I nodded. "Lini has always been Gao's favourite." I began to tell him my life story. "He always got her the most expensive presents for her birthdays and Christmases. I just got nothing from him. I wasn't fazed by that, I honestly didn't care if he got me anything or not. Lini always looked at Gao like a father, much to my dismay.

"Our father died when Lini was four months old. My father hated Gao. He really hated it when he moved in to our house. I was four when he came to live with us. When mother and father were at work, he used to babysit me. I hated it when I was left alone with him, if I simply went up to him, asking for something as simple as a toy that was on a high shelf, he used to attack me.

"I remember one day, when he was babysitting me and Lini, I was upstairs in my bedroom. I got hungry so I went downstairs and saw Gao with a woman in our front room. He saw me and threw a vase at my face, I was almost blinded by the attack. When mother got home, she just thought that I fell down the stairs and hurt myself. But when my father got home, he knew what happened and confronted Gao, who stabbed him in response to his accusation.

"I cried for three months when my father died, and my mother wasn't on my side, she thought that it was my fault that my father died. He was found out though, and was no longer welcome to our house, until three years later when he helped Lini climb down a tree because she got stuck. My mother then accepted him as one of the family, where as I just ignore him and hope that he drops dead so I can spit on his grave."

"Did he not get sent to jail for killing your father?" Keiichiro asked.

I couldn't believe that he actually listened to me ramble on about my past. "Oh no, he's a lawyer so he knows how to get his own way in court. He said that my father walked into the knife which was in his hand because he was preparing dinner. The liar. I wish that he'd got stabbed and not my father."

"So, where will you stay if you won't stay with Gao?"

"I don't know." I groaned, lying my head on the table.

"Well, you could stay here, in the back of the Café." Keiichiro offered. "That is, if you want to."

I looked up and smiled. "Arigatou, Akasaka-san."

He smiled warmly at me. "Well then, let's show you your new room." Keiichiro stood up.

I nodded and followed him into the back of the Café. We made our way upstairs, where the Mew Mew's changing room is. There were five rooms on this floor. One was the changing room, that's all I knew about this floor. I followed Keiichiro to the end of the hallway, where a door was facing us. Keiichiro opened the door to reveal the room I was in when I was stabbed.

"Thanks, Akasaka-san." I shouted as I threw myself onto the bed.

"You're welcome." Keiichiro said. "Oh, here." Something landed beside me on the bed. "In case you need it."

I looked at Keiichiro as he left the room and closed the door beside him. I looked at what landed on the bed. "My Mew pendant."

As i wrote this, i thought 'the title doesn't match the chapter', but it does, in it's own little way. Because Ryou told Sakura to face Tokyo, rather than hiding from it to get her to come back, and Keiichiro listened to her 'problems' so she would agree to stay at the Cafe for a while. Basically, it's confusing. If you understood this chapter, you will understand what i mean.

Ryou seems to hurt Sakura's feelings a lot, doesn't he? I don't know why he does it, yet i'm the one who makes him do it. Haha i'm so strange.

I honestly don't know where i'm going with this story. It's got no plot line or anything. I think i might discontinue it and start a new story. I have no idea what to do. It's all so confuzzling to me. What do you think i should do? Should i continue this story? Or should i make a new one (Which will be different to this one)? I have absoloutely no idea what to do with this story!

Anyway, please review this chapter (Once again, constructive criticism is welcome)