Amnesia Chapter 9:

Shopping

Sakura finally found a parking spot, and they got out and went into the mall. "Kisshu, do you have any food allergies I should know about?" Sakura asked as they walked.

"Bananas make me really sick," Kisshu said. "I don't know about any others."

"I asked Pai, and he said you don't have any other allergies," Ichigo said. "But we probably shouldn't even have bananas in the house anymore."

"That bad?" Sakura asked.

"Kisshu had a fever and was throwing up a lot," Ichigo said. "I gave him stomach medicine, and that helped, but I think bananas are not a good thing to have around."

"I'll let Shintaro know," Sakura said. "He sometimes does the grocery shopping." She took out her cell phone and dialed the home number, and when Shintaro picked up, she said, "Just so you know, we can't have bananas in the house anymore, so if you're going shopping, don't get any. Kisshu's extremely allergic to them."

She got a response, and then hung up. "Well, he's not thrilled, but he'll survive," Sakura said. "He likes banana bread."

"I like apples," Kisshu said. "Are there desserts with apples?"

"Yes, lots," Sakura said. "Apple cake, apple pie, apple crisp…. There's more than I can count."

"What's apple crisp?" Kisshu asked.

"It's cooked apples with a buttercrumb and cinnamon topping," Sakura said. "I can make some after we get home, if you want."

"I'd like that," Kisshu said. "Do we need to get more apples?"

"Probably," Sakura said. "We'll stop at the grocery store on the way back. Here's the clothes store."

She walked in, and said, "Kisshu, I think you're a size smaller than Shintaro. Those clothes look a little baggy on you."

"I guess," Kisshu said. "What size would I be?"

"I'd say an 8 or a 10," Sakura said. "You're very thin."

"I guess I am," Kisshu said. "I don't know why, Ichigo's a good cook."

"Maybe you didn't eat that much before you started living with her," Sakura suggested.

"Oh, that could be," Kisshu said. "Pai said something about not having a lot of food, and apparently I used to live with him and his younger brother Taruto. They said they're my adoptive brothers."

"Where do they live?" Sakura asked.

"I think that if they come back to Earth, they'll be living with Keiichiro," Kisshu said. "But he only had two extra rooms, so Ichigo took me in."

"Well, it's nice to have you," Sakura said. "And Ichigo seems really happy to have you around too."

"Ichigo's in love with me," Kisshu said. "I really love her too."

Ichigo was turning bright red. Sakura looked at her and said, "And you didn't tell us this why?"

"Mom, you know what Dad would do to me and Kisshu," Ichigo said. "And then regardless of your scoldings, Dad would treat Kisshu badly."

Sakura sighed. "You're probably right. I'll start work on him tonight. Then you can be a couple and not be afraid of your dad."

"Thanks Mom," Ichigo said.

Kisshu, meanwhile, was looking at shirts. "What does this say?" he asked, pointing to a black shirt that said "I'm Sexy" in large red letters.

"It says "I'm Sexy", and you are not getting that," Sakura said firmly.

"Okay," Kisshu said. "I like green and black, can we get those colors?"

"Sure," Sakura said. "Let's keep looking."

Half an hour later, they had quite a lot of green and black clothing, as well as some boxers and socks. "Kisshu, do you want sneakers too?" Sakura asked as they went toward the shoes department.

"What are they?" Kisshu asked.

"I'll show you," Sakura said. She went down an aisle, and looked around. Then she pulled out a pair of green and white sneakers, and showed them to Kisshu.

"What are the strings for?" Kisshu asked.

"That's to help them stay on," Sakura said. "I can teach you how to tie them, if you want these."

"I'd like that, if you don't mind," Kisshu said.

"I don't mind," Sakura said. "But you should try these on to see if they are the right size."

Kisshu took the sneakers and sat down to try them on. "Stand up and see how they feel," Sakura said.

Kisshu obeyed, and said, "They fell different, but I like them. I think they're a good fit."

"Good, let's go pay for all this," Sakura said.

Kisshu and Ichigo followed her to the checkout, and watched as she paid for all the new clothes and the sneakers.

"Okay, now we need apples," Sakura said, as they went back to the car. She drove them to the grocery store, and they bought a bag of apples. Then they went home, where they found Shintaro reading the paper in the living room.

"Oh, you're back," he said. "Ichigo, I got a call from the school wondering where you were. Apparently you've been absent since we left?"

"Ryou was out to get Kisshu, and I didn't want to leave him home alone," Ichigo said. "And seeing as YOU weren't around, I decided to stay home with him until you guys got back. I figured I'd just pretend that I went to Paris with you."

"Is Ryou still out to get Kisshu?" Shintaro asked.

"No, Ryou's gone," Ichigo said.

"Do I want to know what happened?" Shintaro asked.

"Probably not," Ichigo said.

"Tell me anyways," Shintaro said.

"Fine…. Ryou broke down our door, knocked me out, and kidnapped and tortured Kisshu, so Pai and I killed him," Ichigo said. "And Pai destroyed his remains."

"I thought there was something funny about that door," Shintaro said.

"Did I do a bad job putting it back on?" Kisshu asked.

"No, you did a fine job," Shintaro said. "There's a scratch that wasn't there when I left on the handle, that's what I meant."

"Oh… I didn't notice the scratch," Kisshu said.

"It's fine, the door works, and that's what matters," Shintaro said. He went back to his paper, not noticing his wife and daughter's jaws were on the floor.

Finally Sakura collected herself and said, "I'm going to make apple crisp, so Ichigo, could you show Kisshu how to do the laundry?"

"Sure," Ichigo said. "Come on, Kisshu. We should cut the tags off your new clothes."

"Oh, one last thing," Sakura said. "Kisshu, do you remember how to read?"

"I'm not sure," Kisshu said. "I haven't really seen anything to read lately."

"Ichigo, go get one of your books, and we'll see if Kisshu can read it," Sakura said. "Maybe one of the children's books you've got."

Ichigo went upstairs and got the book 'Cinderella', then went downstairs and handed it to Kisshu. Kisshu took it and looked at the cover, then said, "I don't recognize the characters. What does this say?"

"It says 'Cinderella'," Ichigo said. "I guess you forgot how to read- either that or when you were an alien, you had different characters."

Kisshu looked sad and said, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault," Ichigo said. "You didn't choose to get amnesia."

"But how can Mrs. Momomiya teach me if I can't read?" Kisshu asked.

"I'll teach you how to read first," Sakura said. "And call me Sakura, 'Mrs. Momomiya' makes me feel old."

"Okay, thanks Sakura," Kisshu said.

Sakura smiled, and continued cutting up apples. Ichigo took Kisshu upstairs and started helping him cut the tags off his clothes. Soon after they were done, before Ichigo could teach Kisshu how to do laundry, the doorbell rang, and Shintaro opened it. Then he shouted, "ICHIGO! Get out here!"

Ichigo and Kisshu ran to the front door. Pai was standing on the doorstep, and he said, "How's it going?"

"Fine," Ichigo said. "How'd it go on your planet?"

"We got exiled," Pai said glumly. "Keiichiro took us in, though. Kisshu, did Mrs. Momomiya sign you up for school yet?"

"I'm homeschooling him," Sakura called from the kitchen.

Kisshu looked rather sad as he said, "I forgot how to read, apparently."

"Your amnesia's worse than I thought," Pai said. "But I did find out why you turned into a human."

"What happened?" Ichigo asked.

"You were right, I looked at one of my machines, and somehow, Kisshu must have activated it," Pai said. "The machine is supposed to turn one of us human for a certain amount of time, but whatever Kisshu did to it, it doesn't work that way anymore. Actually, I think it used all its energy turning Kisshu human for good. And it looks like we can't reverse the process, either."

"Since you're all living on Earth, I think that might be for the best," Ichigo said. "It won't be easy to explain to anyone why the aliens who were attacking Tokyo are living with us now. It's better for Kisshu to be human."

"Maybe, but there's also a possibility that the machine is part of what caused such a severe case of amnesia," Pai said. "And if that's the case, Kisshu might never fully regain his memories."

Nice little cliffie there. And to those of you who were happy that Kisshu seemed to be getting his memory back (i.e., Soccer-Geek), sorry, but I kinda had this planned. Don't ask me why.