Betraying My People Chapter 34:
Rage
With Ichigo and Kuro: Kuro and Ichigo had been fighting for about ten minutes, and they were evenly matched. They were both using swords, and they had similar strength in attacks. Ichigo had never had any formal training with her sword, but in this case, it didn't matter. Kisshu had been right- Kuro wasn't that great.
"So, what's your weapon's ability?" Kuro asked Ichigo, dodging a thrust of her sword.
"What's it to you?" Ichigo snarled.
"Just curious," Kuro said. "Mine's fire."
"Mine too," Ichigo said. "But it's dangerous to use that in a wooden house."
"That's why I haven't roasted you yet," Kuro said. "So why did you fall in love with grass boy in the first place?"
"None of your business," Ichigo snapped. "And don't call Kisshu 'grass boy'."
"Why? His hair looks like grass," Kuro said, smirking.
"I think it looks like emeralds," Ichigo said.
"What's an emerald? Some kind of plant?" Kuro asked.
"No, it's a very pretty green stone that's used in jewelry," Ichigo said.
"I find it amazing that Kisshu actually found someone who doesn't think his hair is weird," Kuro said.
"I don't understand why you think it's weird," Ichigo said, dodging another thrust of Kuro's sword.
"Not many Cyniclons have green hair," Kuro said, shrugging. "It's unusual."
"So that makes it okay to tease someone just because he has an unusual hair color?" Ichigo asked. "How would you feel if someone teased you about your hair constantly?"
"No one would, I have a normal hair color," Kuro said.
"I meant if you had an unusual hair color and people teased you because of that," Ichigo said. "Do you think it would be fun to be teased constantly about something you have no control over?"
"No…." Kuro said. "I got teased, though."
"About what?" Ichigo asked.
"My skills," Kuro said.
"That's something you have control over," Ichigo said. "Maybe if you had worked harder, instead of teasing Kisshu, you would be better at fighting."
Kuro stopped dead, and Ichigo had to stop as well, or end up with her sword in his throat. She backed up a bit. Kuro looked like he was in shock. "I take it you never considered that?" Ichigo said.
Kuro didn't respond. He looked frozen, so Ichigo walked over and snapped her fingers in his face. He still didn't respond. Ichigo poked him- and he fell over. "Jeez, what happened to YOU?" she asked.
Kuro didn't respond, but suddenly teleportation sounded in the room, and Kisshu and Hiro-sama appeared.
Ichigo turned, and Kisshu said, "Ichigo! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ichigo said with a smile. "I don't know about him, though." She pointed to Kuro.
"Jeez, what'd you do to him?" Kisshu asked as Hiro-sama went over.
"I honestly don't know," Ichigo admitted. "We were talking about teasing while fighting, and he said he got teased about his lack of skill. Then I told him that maybe if he hadn't spent all his time teasing you, he'd be a better fighter, because he would have spent more time learning and practicing. And then he froze up. I snapped my fingers in his face, and when that didn't work, I poked him. Then he fell over, and that's about when you and Hiro-sama came in."
Hiro-sama came over and said, "He looks like he's in a state of extreme shock, but I can't imagine that what you described could have caused that. Maybe he has some kind of medical condition?"
Kisshu thought, then said, "I don't think he does, but I could be wrong."
A voice came from behind them, and they jumped as the voice said, "Actually, he's paralyzed." Yusuke came out from behind a bunch of boxes, and held out a dart gun. Kisshu took it, and said, "This is for those tiny paralysis darts, right?"
"Hai," Yusuke said. "I snuck out and came to find Ichigo and Kuro, and when Ichigo told him that he should have spent less time teasing you, I felt his emotions go straight to rage. So I shot him with a paralysis dart. That's why he gave me those poison darts earlier; I'm a better shot than he is."
"Thanks, Yusuke," Ichigo said. Yusuke smiled.
Kisshu sighed and turned to Hiro-sama. "What should we do with Kuro now?" he asked.
"I suppose we should drag him back to the Council room," Hiro-sama said. "Ichigo, Kisshu, take Yusuke home and explain the situation, I will handle Kuro."
"Hai," Kisshu said. He took Ichigo and Yusuke by the hand, and teleported to the Amaguchis' front door. Then he knocked, and soon after, the door was yanked open by Mrs. Amaguchi, who took one look at Yusuke and said, "Do you have any idea how worried I was? You're grounded, young man!"
"Um, excuse me?" Kisshu said.
"Yes?" Mrs. Amaguchi asked.
"Yusuke saved Ichigo, do you really need to ground him?" Kisshu asked.
"I guess I can save it till I hear the full story," Mrs. Amaguchi said. "Come in, and you can tell me what happened."
Kisshu, Ichigo and Yusuke followed her to the main room, and sat down. When they were all settled, Mrs. Amaguchi asked, "What happened?"
"Kuro attacked me, and while we were fighting, we were talking about teasing," Ichigo said. "Then I told him that he might have become a better fighter if he hadn't spent all his time teasing Kisshu about his hair. Then he froze, and Kisshu and Hiro-sama came."
"He froze?" Mrs. Amaguchi asked.
"I felt Kuro's emotions go from still slightly playful to pure rage, so I teleported to him and hid, then used one of his paralysis darts to paralyze him," Yusuke said. "The reason he told me to use those poison darts is because I'm actually a better shot than he is."
"Where is Kuro now?" Mrs. Amaguchi asked.
"Hiro-sama took him to the Council," Kisshu replied. "It's up to them to decide his fate."
"I understand, and I already told Siria-sama that I would abide by whatever they decide," Mrs. Amaguchi said.
"Am I still grounded?" Yusuke asked. "I only snuck out because I knew you'd say no to me going to a battle like that."
Mrs. Amaguchi sighed. "Fine, you're not grounded, but I expect you to warn me next time you go running off like that. I won't necessarily say no if you're going to go help someone. And it worries me when you disappear like that."
"Okay, Mom," Yusuke said.
"We should go," Kisshu said.
"Alright, thank you," Mrs. Amaguchi said.
"You're welcome, and thanks for stopping Kuro, Yusuke," Ichigo said.
"Welcome," Yusuke said with a smile.
Kisshu took Ichigo's hand and teleported back to their house. Aunt Hamaya met them in the main room, and asked, "Where have you two been?"
"You didn't hear?" Ichigo asked.
"Uh-oh…." Aunt Hamaya said.
"Yeah," Kisshu said. "Amaguchi Kuro kidnapped Ichigo, and then sent his younger brother to kill me. Luckily Yusuke decided to tell me about Kuro's plans, and I took him to the Council. Hiro-sama and I went to stop Kuro, but Yusuke actually beat us there, and paralyzed Kuro. Hiro-sama took him back to the Council room, and they'll decide what to do with him. Ichigo and I took Yusuke home."
Aunt Hamaya sighed. "I wonder what's going on," she muttered. "First Mizuki, now Kuro- it's like everyone suddenly is out to get you, Kisshu."
"That's not good," Kisshu said. "If this keeps up, the Council's going to start having doubts about me living here."
"Well, let's hope Mizuki and Kuro are the last of it," Ichigo said. "It's going to be hard if people are continually going after you."
"Well, we'll have to see what the Council says after this," Aunt Hamaya said. "I'll go tell Aran what's going on." She teleported out.
Kisshu sighed, then said, "Should we go back to our room?"
"Sure," Ichigo said. They walked back to their room, and sat down on the bed together. "I'm kind of tired," Ichigo said.
Kisshu yawned. "Me too," he said. "Wanna go to sleep for a while?"
"Sure," Ichigo said, lying back. Kisshu lay back too, and Ichigo snuggled up to him as they both fell asleep.
They woke up about three hours later, since Aunt Hamaya was shaking them. "What's up?" Kisshu asked, realizing that he felt terrible.
"What's up? You and Ichigo are both running fevers, that's what's up," Aunt Hamaya said.
Kisshu started coughing before he could respond. Ichigo was coughing too.
"You two are really sick," Aunt Hamaya said. "Take it easy, I'm getting some soup for you."
"I'm not really hungry…." Ichigo said.
"Neither am I," Kisshu said.
Aunt Hamaya sighed. "I'll save it for later, then," she said. "Get some rest."
Kisshu and Ichigo started to go back to sleep.
By the next day, it was pretty clear that Kisshu and Ichigo were really sick. But Aunt Hamaya couldn't figure out what they had. Finally she called Pai, who came in and examined them both. Unfortunately, he was clueless as well. Since they had the same illness, he took a blood sample from Ichigo, and went to work on figuring out what was wrong and how to fix it.
Meanwhile, Ichigo and Kisshu were stuck in bed, since they didn't want to get anyone else sick. They didn't get much rest either; they both had bad coughs to go along with the fevers. Due to the coughs, they were constantly waking up, and getting weaker from lack of sleep. They had both lost their voices, and were frustrated by that. So far they could still sit up, but they knew if this kept up, they'd be too weak to do that soon.
One morning they both woke up with really bad headaches. Kisshu started coughing, and as soon as he did, he felt like his head was going to explode from the pain. Ichigo wasn't any better. Kisshu stopped coughing before Ichigo, and lay back, but he knew he couldn't sleep now. Suddenly he realized he was dizzy too, and it looked like Ichigo had discovered the same thing, because she nearly fell back with a hand over her eyes. Kisshu closed his eyes, but that didn't really help. All of a sudden, the pain in his throat doubled, and he put a hand on his throat as he heard a small squeak of pain from Ichigo as well. Kisshu opened his eyes and looked at Ichigo, who was actually crying from the pain.
As usual, seeing Ichigo in pain made Kisshu's heart break. He didn't like seeing her in pain. He put a hand on her cheek- and both of them were enveloped in a white light. Strangely, the light didn't hurt. Then something strange happened. A woman dressed in green with pink hair like Ichigo's Mew Form seemed to be walking toward them. They were floating, and the woman stopped in front of them. Suddenly Kisshu and Ichigo realized they felt better, and Ichigo asked, "Who are you?"
"I am your guardian," the woman said. "When two people are as deeply and truly in love as you two are –and that's actually pretty rare- they are given a guardian. I have come to tell you that another evil is rising, this time on Cyniclonia. It will take your combined strength and the power of your love to defeat this enemy. It will be here soon. Do not speak of this conversation to anyone but each other, or misfortune will befall many. Do not even tell the Council. They will find out soon enough, but you two should be prepared, as the fight will draw both of you in. Through it all, you must keep faith in each other, or your people will fall. The fate of your planet now rests in your hands. And lives depend on you two keeping this conversation a secret. Ichigo, I will give you the power of telepathy. Use it to communicate with Kisshu, and only Kisshu." She touched Ichigo's forehead for a minute, then gently tapped her finger against Ichigo's cheek. "Remember, tell no one of this conversation," she said. "Farewell, and good luck."
Before Ichigo or Kisshu could say anything, the woman and the white light were gone, as if they had never been.
Interesting twist, huh? REVIEW!