Amnesia Chapter 4:
Taruto, Then Ryou
The next morning, Ichigo woke up, and took a shower. After getting dressed, she checked on Kisshu. He was waking up too, and said, "I'm feeling better. I think the medicine helped."
"Good," Ichigo said. "Do you want to take a shower? I'm done."
"Sure, but I don't have any clean clothes," Kisshu said.
"I'll go find some, wait here," Ichigo said. She went to her parents' room and started looking through her dad's stuff. She found jeans and a green t-shirt, boxers, and socks. She brought all this back to Kisshu, and said, "You can go take a shower, there's plenty of soap and shampoo. The towels are in the cabinet under the sink."
"K, thanks," Kisshu said. He headed off, and Ichigo went downstairs to make toast. She also cut up two apples, and put them aside in case Kisshu was hungry.
Kisshu came down a little while later, and said, "I'm kind of hungry."
"I cut up some apples," Ichigo said. "Do you want some?"
"Sure, thanks," Kisshu said. Ichigo handed him a plate of apple slices, and he sat down to eat as Ichigo finished her toast.
When they were both done, Ichigo asked, "So what should we do now, Kisshu?"
"Play a game?" Kisshu suggested.
"Sure, do you want to play Connect Four?" Ichigo asked.
"What's that?" Kisshu said.
"I'll show you," Ichigo said. She got out the game, and set up the frame, then said, "We each get a color, red or black, and take turns putting the pieces in the frame. Whoever gets four in a row first wins, and you can get four in a row diagonally, horizontally, or vertically."
"Okay," Kisshu said. "Can I have black?"
"Sure," Ichigo said. She sorted out the pieces, and gave Kisshu a pile of black ones. She took the red ones, and said, "Should I go first?"
"Sure," Kisshu said. Ichigo put a red piece into the frame, and Kisshu put a black piece on top of it.
They kept going, and eventually Kisshu won. "Good job," Ichigo said. "Do you want to play again?"
"Sure," Kisshu said. Ichigo smiled and poured the pieces into the box, then separated them again. "You can go first," she told Kisshu.
Kisshu put a piece in, and they kept going. Halfway into their third game, though, they heard a noise upstairs, and looked at each other.
"Do you think someone broke in?" Kisshu asked.
"Let's check," Ichigo said. "I left the window in my room open, something might have been knocked over."
She and Kisshu went upstairs, and found Taruto in Ichigo's room. "Taruto, why are you in my room?" Ichigo asked.
"I was looking for Kisshu, and this is just where I ended up," Taruto said.
"Ichigo, you know him too?" Kisshu asked.
"This is Taruto, Pai's younger brother," Ichigo said.
"Oh. Hi," Kisshu said. "Why were you looking for me?"
"I want you to come back!" Taruto said.
"Come back where?" Kisshu asked.
"Back to our spaceship!" Taruto said.
"You live in a spaceship?" Kisshu asked. "Why don't you have a house?"
"You used to live with us," Taruto said. "Don't you remember me?"
"No, sorry," Kisshu said. Taruto's face crumpled up, and he started crying.
"What's wrong?" Kisshu asked. "Are you okay?"
"I want you to remember!" Taruto wailed.
Kisshu looked puzzled. "But if I remember, Ichigo won't be my friend anymore," he said. "I don't want to be her enemy."
"It's always about Ichigo!" Taruto said. "What about me and Pai?"
"It's always about Ichigo?" Kisshu asked. Suddenly his eyes went blank. "Kisshu? Are you okay?" Ichigo asked.
Kisshu didn't respond, but he suddenly said, "But I love you, Koneko-chan!" Then he clutched his head and cried out, obviously in pain. Ichigo looked at Taruto, who looked scared as Kisshu then collapsed.
"Taruto, go get Pai," Ichigo said.
"But-" Taruto started.
"GO! NOW!" Ichigo shouted. She knelt next to Kisshu as Taruto teleported out. "Kisshu? Kisshu, can you hear me?" she asked, shaking his shoulder.
He didn't respond. A few minutes later Pai and Taruto teleported in, and Pai said, "What happened?"
"Kisshu's eyes went blank after Taruto said that everything was always about me," Ichigo said. "Then Kisshu said, "But I love you, Koneko-chan. Then it looked like he was in pain, and he collapsed."
"His memory might be coming back," Pai said. "If so, it's probably going to be painful if he remembers too much at once. He hasn't called you 'Koneko-chan' at all since he lost his memory, right?"
"Not once," Ichigo said. "What do you think we should do?"
"I don't think taking him to the ship is a good idea," Pai said reluctantly. "He has too many memories there, and if he starts to get his memory back too fast, it could permanently damage his mind. But if this happens again, I guess you'll need some way of contacting me."
"Do you have a cell phone?" Ichigo asked.
"No," Pai said.
Ichigo thought, then said, "Do… you want to stay here?"
"Bad idea, Ryou will figure it out sooner or later," Pai said. "I guess I'd be better off making you a device that would allow you to contact me. I might have something, so I'll be back either later or tomorrow."
"Okay," Ichigo said. "When do you think Kisshu will wake up?"
"I can wake him up now," Pai said. "Has he recovered from the bananas?"
"Yeah, I gave him stomach medicine, and it really helped," Ichigo said.
"Good," Pai said, and then tapped Kisshu on the forehead twice.
Kisshu slowly opened his eyes, and asked, "What happened?"
"You collapsed," Ichigo said. "Pai thinks you might be getting your memory back."
Kisshu looked scared. "If it hurts to get my memory back, I don't want it back," he said.
"I think it's only going to hurt if you remember too much at once," Pai said.
"Oh…" Kisshu said. He stood up, then put a hand on his head. "I've got a really bad headache," he said.
"I have headache medicine too," Ichigo said. "It might make you kind of sleepy, though."
"I can take care of the headache," Pai said. "Kisshu, come over here."
Kisshu looked at Ichigo, who nodded. Then Kisshu went over to Pai, and Pai put a hand on his forehead. Pai's hand began to glow, and finally he said, "Does that feel better?"
"Yeah, thanks," Kisshu said.
"We have to go…." Pai started to say, when the doorbell rang.
Ichigo peeked out the window and snarled. "Ryou," she muttered. "Pai, Taruto, you should probably leave. Kisshu, stay up here."
"Okay," Kisshu said, as Pai and Taruto teleported out. Ichigo went downstairs as the doorbell rang again.
She opened the door to see Ryou on her doorstep. "What part of 'I'm not coming back' are you not getting?" she asked.
"Ichigo, did those aliens do something to your mind?" Ryou asked.
"NO! Honestly, you treated me like dirt from day one and you actually expected me to take it all and stay?" Ichigo asked. "I hate your guts, Ryou, and seeing as you hate me too, I don't understand why you want me back."
"I don't hate you," Ryou said.
"Yeah right," Ichigo scoffed. "If you don't hate me, you wouldn't have treated me worse than anyone else. You let Mint do absolutely nothing, but when I stop working, you'd yell the place down. Lettuce broke at least eighteen dishes per day, and you barely yelled at her. Same with Pudding's acrobatics. If I did that, you'd call me a baka and start yelling again. Zakuro scares everyone away, and if I did that, you'd dock my pay, which you do for fun anyways. You seriously expected me to stay and work for an evil jerk like you? You're out of your mind, Ryou. And here I thought you were a genius."
"You're just saying that to put me off," Ryou said. "I know you want to come back. You're hiding something."
"I REFUSE TO EVER WORK FOR SOMEONE WHO'S EVEN MORE EVIL THAN YOU THINK THE ALIENS ARE!" Ichigo shouted. "IF YOU DON'T GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD THAT I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, I'LL ATTACK YOU! AND IF NEED BE, I'LL KILL YOU TOO! I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU, RYOU!"
Ryou looked shocked, but then running footsteps were heard inside the house, and Ichigo turned.
"Ichigo, I heard you screaming, are you okay?" Kisshu asked.
"I'm just annoyed," Ichigo said. "I'm fine. I don't think he'll be fine for very long, though." She jerked her thumb at Ryou, who was turning the color of Pai's hair.
"You were hiding HIM!?" Ryou shouted, pointing at Kisshu. "WHY, Ichigo?"
"Because he's my friend, and besides, he needed help," Ichigo said calmly. "And since I'm not part of your little team anymore, there's really nothing you can do about this. Tough luck, you evil jerk."
"Ichigo, this is Ryou?" Kisshu asked. "You were right, he does look pretty evil."
"I'M NOT EVIL!" Ryou shouted. "And you already know who I am, you spend all your time teasing me about my hair."
"Why on Earth did you work for him so long?" Kisshu asked Ichigo.
"I have no clue," Ichigo said. "I realize now that I should have quit a lot earlier."
Ryou was steaming, and Kisshu asked, "Why are you turning red?"
"He's angry," Ichigo said. "That's generally what happens when people get angry."
"Oh… Why did I tease him about his hair?" Kisshu asked.
"Just to annoy him," Ichigo said. "I always enjoyed hearing you call him 'Blondie'."
Ryou was starting to look puzzled. "Ichigo, what's going on?" he asked suspiciously. "And why is Kisshu staying with you anyways?"
"I'll explain, but if you take advantage of this information later, I will hunt you down and kill you personally," Ichigo said coldly.
"Fine…." Ryou said. "What's going on?"
"Kisshu has complete amnesia," Ichigo said. "Apparently Pai slammed him into a wall. I found him wandering around downtown, and after he told me he didn't know what his name was, I decided he'd be better off living with me. And for some reason, he's also turned human."
Ryou looked shocked. Seeing this, Ichigo asked, "Are you going away now?"
"Fine, but if he does anything, you know who to call," Ryou said.
"Yeah, Pai," Ichigo said with a smirk. "Or Zakuro, but definitely not you. Now, get out."
"You'd call PAI over me!?" Ryou shouted.
"Yup," Ichigo said. "Are you going away, or do I need to call the police? I'm sure they'd be happy to drag you away. You are harassing me, after all."
"Fine, I'll go," Ryou said. He walked off, and Ichigo shouted, "And don't come back!" Then she walked back into the house.
Well, Ryou knows. Will he become a problem? Review and find out….