Ichigo's Illness Chapter 38:

The Attack- or Not

With Keiichiro and the others: Everyone was up when Keiichiro and Pai ran out of the basement. "They're here! Transform!" Keiichiro said urgently.

Zakuro nodded to the others, and they all shouted out their transformations. The girls were fully transformed just in time, as teleportation sounded in the room and three Cyniclons appeared. The Mews, Pai and Taruto tensed up, taking out their weapons.

"What are you here for?" Pai asked.

"We are not here to fight," one of them said.

"What? Then why did you send that stomach illness, and why did you make all of us sick?" Pai asked. "Why should we believe you?"

"The stomach illness affected you?" the Cyniclon said. "It was only meant to get the humans out of the way so we wouldn't have to deal with them."

"Are you kidding? We spent weeks throwing up, Kisshu and Ichigo still can't fight, and you tell us that it was a MISTAKE!?" Taruto yelled. "Boy, when Kisshu gets better, you know you're going to die, right?"

"Um…" the Cyniclon said.

Keiichiro sighed. "Would you care to explain what you're doing here?"

"We were ordered to come by the General of our army's wife," the Cyniclon said. "I am Sanuka Hiroshi, and these are my brothers, Hikan and Toshirou."

The others noticed Pai and Taruto's jaws were hanging open. Finally Pai collected himself and asked, "And why did my mother do this?"

The Mews and Keiichiro's jaws hit the floor. "Your mother?" Zakuro asked.

"Yeah," Taruto said. "She's pretty…. um….. determined. She won't take no for an answer, and since she's part of the nobility on our planet, she often gets her way, unless Dad says no. Then she actually listens- most of the time."

"Okay, so why the stomach illness?" Pai asked.

"Like I said, she didn't want a bunch of people panicking over us coming here, so she and a few others sent an illness that would knock out the majority of Tokyo's citizens," Hiroshi said. "It wasn't supposed to affect any of you."

"She is never getting another phone call from us," Taruto said. "So what's the urgency?"

Hiroshi looked a bit embarrassed as he said, "She's looking for her adoptive daughter, Ikisatashi Yuka. Yuka disappeared a few weeks ago, and her adoptive parents are frantic. Do you know where she is?"

"That kid is in sooo much trouble," Pai said. "She's living with Kisshu and the family that adopted him. She didn't tell anyone she was leaving?"

"No, and we questioned all her friends," Toshirou spoke up. "No one knew where she was. We just woke up one morning and she was gone. How'd she get here?"

"She teleported," Taruto said. The three Cyniclons' jaws dropped.

"And she's still alive?" Hiroshi asked in shock.

"Ichigo and Lettuce healed her," Pai said. "Those two are the best healers I've ever seen, and they become more amazing when they combine their powers."

"Yeah, Pai got Toru Fever about two weeks ago, before the stomach illness came, and they cured him like it was nothing," Taruto said. "And Kisshu got it too, and Ichigo healed him in like ten minutes."

Now the three Cyniclons were speechless. "Pai had Toru Fever and they cured him!?" Hikan asked. "How is that even possible?"

Lettuce cleared her throat nervously and said, "Toru Fever sounded like a human disease called tuberculosis, so Ichigo-san and I focused on healing that, not figuring out how to cure Toru Fever."

"Y-you two must be really powerful…." Toshirou said.

"So back to Yuka," Keiichiro said. "I hope you don't mind telling her adoptive mother that there's no way she's going back."

"She'll kill us!" Hiroshi moaned. "Why did Yuka have to leave?"

"She claims she was sick of hearing people bad-mouth us," Taruto said. "So she teleported to Earth, and Ichigo's family adopted her."

"Humans adopted a Cyniclon?" Hikan asked.

"Well, they already took in Kisshu, they weren't going to turn out his five-year-old sister," Taruto said. "They're really nice people."

"What are we going to do?" Toshirou asked. "We have to tell Ikisatashi-sama something."

"Call her and I'll talk to her," Pai said.

"Good idea," Hiroshi said. He took out a cell phone-like device, and typed something into it. Then he handed it to Pai.

Pai waited as the phone rang, and finally got a response. "You'd better have good news!" a woman's voice said. Pai sighed and said, "Mother, you are lucky Kisshu isn't here, because he'd be yelling your ear off. WHY did you send a plague to Tokyo?"

"Pai?" the woman said. "Why do you have Hiroshi's cell phone?"

"He gave it to me to call you with," Pai said. "Honestly, why did you send a plague? We've all been sick for weeks. And Kisshu and Mew Ichigo are still sick. If you had to find Yuka, why didn't you just give us a call?"

"The thing I sent wasn't supposed to affect you," Pai's mother said. "You're saying I made a mistake?"

"YES! We've all been throwing up for two weeks, and Kisshu and Ichigo STILL haven't recovered!" Pai shouted. "We thought your leader had decided to attack Earth again! Why the hell didn't you just call and say, "Hey, have you seen Yuka?" And for your information, Kisshu's sworn to kill the person who made us all sick, so you'd better watch out!"

There was silence on the end of the line for a minute, then Pai's mother said, "I'm sorry, Pai, I had no idea. Can you at least tell me where Yuka is? Then I'll go and get the antidote."

"After all you've put us through, I really shouldn't," Pai growled. "But Yuka was adopted by Mew Ichigo's family, who also adopted Kisshu after we were exiled. She's fine, and there's no way she'll be coming back. She's too attached to Kisshu. You can't separate them again."

Pai's mother sighed. "Fine… I'll be over in a few hours with the antidote," she said. "I don't suppose you could inform Kisshu that this was a mistake?"

"Hell no," Pai said. "He'd kill you, then me, then you again. And then he'd probably start ranting about 'meddling parents', and we'd never get him calmed down again. You get to tell him what happened, and hope that Ichigo can keep him from murdering you."

"Great…" Pai's mother said. "Let whoever else is there know that I'll be there in three hours."

"Fine," Pai growled, and hung up. He tossed the phone back to Hiroshi, who caught it. "Mother will be here in three hours," he informed the others. "She has the antidote to the stomach illness she sent."

"I'll call Mrs. Momomiya," Keiichiro said. "She needs to know that there's a way to help Kisshu and Ichigo." He left to get the phone.

The others sighed and sat down to wait.

With Kisshu and Ichigo: Ichigo sighed for at least the fifteenth time that day. "I hate this," she muttered. She could sit up, but not walk yet. Kisshu was in the bathroom again, so she had no one to talk to.

Sakura suddenly ran in and said, "Keiichiro just called with some news. Where's Kisshu?"

"The bathroom again," Ichigo said. "Is everyone okay?"

"Hai," Sakura said. "It turns out the three Cyniclons who came here weren't here to attack, they're just looking for Yuka!"

"WHAT!?" Ichigo shouted. "And the stomach bug?"

"It wasn't supposed to affect anyone who wasn't human," Sakura said. "It was sent by Pai's mother, who didn't want the population of Tokyo to freak when the three she sent came looking for Yuka."

"Aunt Mika sent this!?" Kisshu shouted from behind Sakura. "She is sooo going to die!"

"Um…. Is that really a good idea?" Sakura asked.

"YES!" Kisshu and Ichigo shouted together.

Sakura sighed. "I think I'll let you two cool off, Pai's mother is coming by later with the antidote," she said. "Please try not to kill her, I don't want blood on the tatami mats."

Kisshu sighed. "Fine, I'll kill her somewhere else," he grumbled.

Sakura sighed and left, closing the door behind her. Kisshu was still scowling. "I'm seriously going to kill her," he grumbled. "She's doomed."

"If she apologizes, will it help?" Ichigo asked.

"No," Kisshu said bluntly. "You and I haven't been able to do anything for nearly three weeks. And the whole city's basically shut down."

"You're probably right," Ichigo said. "Are you feeling at all better?"

"I think-" Kisshu broke off, clutching his stomach again. Ichigo quickly handed him the bucket right before he threw up again. When he finished, he said, "I think shouting wasn't too good for me. I feel pretty awful again."

"I hope the antidote actually helps," Ichigo said.

Kisshu sighed. "It should, but that doesn't mean I won't kill Aunt Mika."

Ichigo replied, "I guess I shouldn't bother trying stop you."

"Nope," Kisshu said.

Back at Café Mew Mew, about two and a half hours later: Everyone was sitting around, waiting for Mika.

Finally teleportation sounded in the room, and a middle-aged Cyniclon woman appeared in the room. She looked similar to Pai, but had Taruto's orange eyes. She was dressed in a simple green sundress, and was holding a bag in one hand. She also looked rather nervous, since everyone in the room, except Keiichiro, Hiroshi, Toshirou and Hikan was glaring at her. "Okay, I know you're all unhappy with me, but I did bring the antidote," she said.

"'Unhappy' is a grave understatement, Mother," Pai said in a cold tone of voice. Lettuce put a hand on his arm and said, "Pai, let's see if we can help Kisshu and Ichigo first. Then you can take out your feelings."

Pai sighed and said, "You're right, Lettuce-chan." He turned to Mika and said, "I informed Mrs. Momomiya that we'd be coming, so I think we should go now. I should warn you, though, she called me and said that Kisshu is planning on killing you, and Ichigo is refusing to stop him."

"Great…" Mika said. "Couldn't I just give you the antidote and go home?"

"NO! I don't want to die," Pai said. "And after what you put us through, I frankly think you should at least face Kisshu and Ichigo. I'll bring Lettuce-chan too, she's good at calming people down."

"Fine…" Mika said. "Let's go, then."

Pai nodded, and Lettuce stood up. He took her hand and Mika's, then teleported to the Momomiya's living room.

Shintaro was the only one in there, and he looked up. "Hi Pai, hi Lettuce," he said. "Who's this?"

"You don't want to know," Pai said. "Where's Mrs. Momomiya?"

"Playing with Yuka," Shintaro said. "And Ichigo and Kisshu are upstairs. Ichigo still can't walk, and Kisshu's pretty angry. And I don't think Ichigo's trying to calm him down."

"I was afraid of that," Pai said. "I'll just let Kisshu know that he can't fight in the house. I'm sure he'll understand."

"He'd better," Shintaro said, and went back to his book. Pai sighed and led the way upstairs.

They reached Kisshu's room, and Pai knocked. "Come in!" Ichigo's voice said.

Pai opened the door, and Ichigo looked up. She did NOT look happy. Pai got nervous and asked, "Where's Kisshu?"

"The bathroom again," Ichigo said. "At least he can walk. I can't."

"Well, at least you don't have the stomach thing anymore," Pai said. "I brought my mother, will you let her see if she can help?"

Ichigo sighed and said, "Fine, but I wasn't able to convince Kisshu not to kill her, so don't expect that anything you do will stop him."

Mika gulped slightly and walked over to the bed. "Lie back," she told Ichigo. Ichigo obeyed, and Mika put a hand on her chest. "I have the medicine you need," she said after a minute. "You have to swallow it whole." She turned back to Pai and said, "Go get a glass of water."

Pai sighed and left, coming back a few minutes later with the water, which he handed to Mika. She took it and gave it and a small pill to Ichigo. "Swallow that, it'll help you," she said.

Ichigo swallowed the pill, and drank the rest of the water. "The medicine should take effect in about an hour," Mika told Ichigo. "I'd suggest getting some rest, it won't work if you're awake."

"Okay…." Ichigo said. "Thank you."

Surprised, Mika said, "Sure."

Ichigo laid back down, and was sound asleep soon after.

Next chapter, both Kisshu and Ichigo get better! But what's going to happen to Mika? I wonder…. Review!