Chapter 12: Casimir Pulaski Day

The greasy haired man drew nearer, hand poised for the finishing blow. Ignoring the warm blood oozing over her fingers, Hazelnut shifted into a fighting stance, summoning the last of her strength. The man took a step closer.

"Bin nice chattin' with ya, but I got other business tonight."

Another step. Just a bit more. She tensed her muscles, waiting.

"You got nothin' left, girly. Just pray in your next life, you'll be something less stupid."

He took another step towards her, drawing his knife back.

Hazelnut struck, a full force frontal kick to his jaw. He stumbled back, blood now leaking from his mouth. His face contorted into pure fury.

"KILL HER!!"

His posse of tattooed gangsters rushed her in one giant mass. Hazelnut tried to realign herself into a fighting stance, but her muscles were completely shot. Her legs wobbled beneath her.

"Well, Ryou, I tried," she said, glancing at his still body with a resigned smile as the ring of thugs closed in.

She collapsed to her knees, stamina completely drained, and braced herself for the worst…

Something was causing the gangsters to scatter. Sirens? Hazelnut watched as the man who had stabbed her took off into the trees. The edges of her vision began to blur.

Ryou. His blond head was bobbing along. Someone was carrying him.

She felt herself being moved too. She struggled.

"Let me be with him," she said. "Don't take him away again."

A vaguely familiar voice murmured, "Perhaps this time…"

***

Bright lights. Hazelnut struggled awake. Everything was white. An IV was attached to her arm. Needles. She hated those too.

Ryou was dead. "I killed him," she whispered to herself. "If I hadn't been such an idiot, he would still be alive."

She could feel the tears beginning at the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them away. "I don't deserve to be alive any longer."

There was a window next to her bed. She was on at least the fifth story.

She was already halfway through when the nurse came in.

The nurse let out a little yelp. "No, no, Edowara-san, come back in here. That's dangerous."

She firmly pulled the girl out of the window. Hazelnut's resolve was still too weak for her to resist much.

The nurse guided Hazelnut back to the bed and reset her IV in its place. "Now then, lay down. It'll all right. I know things seem bad now, but they'll get better. Life isn't out to get you, you know; it's just unfortunate sometimes."

Hazelnut scowled.

"Now, if you look like that, your visitor will think you don't want to see him."

A tall man with his hair tied in a neat brown ponytail entered the room. "Edowara-san."

Hazelnut's mouth went dry. Now that Ryou was dead, there was certainly nothing to keep Akasaka-san from murdering her. Dying trying to avenge him would have been honorable. Being strangled by his loony best friend in a hospital room was really more than she had bargained for.

"I'll leave you two alone, then," the nurse said, bowing out of the room. Akasaka took the seat by her bedside.

"How are you feeling, Edowara-san?"

"All right, I guess. A little achy."

"You don't have to be so afraid, you know." Akasaka-san smiled, and though she tried, Hazelnut couldn't detect anything maniacal in it, just a little sadness.

"I'm not afraid." A lie.

"I know I've been horrible to you in the past. You did cut my hair." He paused and shuddered. "But I think we can move past that. I shouldn't hold a grudge…especially…for his sake."

A sudden stiffness in Akasaka-san's manner told Hazelnut that she wasn't the only one who cared about Ryou. A bit of her fear evaporated.

"You know, the day he brought you home, I remember watching him, bent over your unconscious form on the couch, as though you were a wounded stray he was nursing back to health. I remember his face when he asked me if we had any bandages: anxious, lit with concern, the first emotion he'd freely shown since his parents died. I couldn't believe it."

"Now that he had a project, he could focus on something other than himself for a while. He opened up; he was recovering, faster than I had dreamed. But something still bothered me. I felt like I was losing him. You were taking Ryou away. I had been his only family. I had been going to save him. Now he didn't need me. I was being replaced by this stringy gangster chick he had picked up off the street."

He paused. "I watched him fall in love…"

Obviously, Akasaka-san had been mistaken. Ryou might have taken delight in teasing her, but he had said himself he didn't love her. He had turned her away. But there was no point in correcting him. One must have respect for the dead.

"And I wanted it to end. I wanted him to need me again. And I'll admit, when I wasn't…myself, I don't remember much of what happened. I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way. One of the perks of insanity is that it allows one to always speak his mind, without regard to social constructs or others' feelings."

He shook his head, as though inwardly chiding himself.

"He brooded for months after you left. I had no idea what to do with him. It wasn't as bad as his parent's passing, of course. But he shut himself off from me for a while. He never told me what happened."

At this point Akasaka-san glanced at Hazelnut, as though asking if she cared to reveal what had passed between them. Hazelnut remained silent.

"When we started up the Mew Mew project again, I had high hopes. New love had healed him once, and could do it again. When he showed a bit of interest in Ichigo, I tried to encourage it, however I could, knowing it would be the best medicine."

Hazelnut hated the ponytailed man again.

"So, imagine my surprise when you showed up again. All the work I'd done in the last three years, shattered. I thought you an inconvenience, but I was mistaken. Ryou had feelings for Ichigo, of that much I am certain. But it turns out they were merely a dam to hold back his feelings for you. When you arrived, the dam burst. I didn't realize this until yesterday afternoon, when he had Ichigo by his side, and you had left him. But he decided to go after you.

"Of course, you led him into trouble. I wondered if it had been a good decision to let him go. But I don't think I could have kept him back anyway."

Hazelnut's insides welled with apprehension. "Here it comes," she thought. "he blames me."

Akasaka-san shook his head as though to clear it and smiled. "You know, you were the first thing he asked about when he woke up."

***

"Though this be madness, yet there be method in it."
-Hamlet, Act II

Was Akasaka-san mad? Was he really?
Maybe partially. He was rather attached to his hair.

Yeah, you and I both knew Ryou wasn't dead.
Hazelnut didn't. In all fairness, he looked pretty dead.

I must seriously apologize (especially to Juniper) for any misrepresentation of the Japanese culture found in this story. I don't always do my research as I should. ^^'
(I also apologize for the gangster talking like an industrial era London street dog; I just wanted his villany to come out in his speech)

Jay Huddson AKA Aqua, it's thanks to your cheering that Hazelnut kicks the dude in the face. I didn't get that idea until I read your last review.

This chapter dedicated to DarkFlameAlchemist. Thanks for daring to review this late in the game.

(Twelve thousand points to anyone who recognizes the song in this chapter's title. Fourty-three thousand if you've got it on your iPod or whichever musical device you use :P)

Soo, not to bother you all with trivialities, but I have something to ask you.
How many people would be bothered if I changed my pen name?
My current one sounds a little arrogant, to say the least (I was a cocky, inexperienced fourteen-year-old when I started this account ^^', now I'm a slightly less cocky, slightly more experienced eighteen-year-old), and I'd like to switch to something with a slightly different ring to it.
(At this time, I'm seriously considering Paisley Avenger, because it combines two of my favorite things, superheroes and foofy patterns. :D)

But gave me grave cautions against changing willy-nilly, saying it would end up confusing everyone and the world would explode. (okay, maybe not that last one.) So I'm pitching the matter to you guys.