Amnesia Chapter 17:

Visitor from the Stars

A week later, Shintaro was out of the hospital and home. Ichigo was back in school, and Sakura was homeschooling Kisshu and taking care of Shintaro, who was still on crutches.

On Friday, however, things began to change. Keiichiro called the Mews, Pai, Taruto and Kisshu together. They met in the basement of Café Mew Mew, and when everyone was gathered there, Pai stood up. "Keiichiro and I were looking at the monitors yesterday, and detected something approaching Earth, presumably a spaceship, and most likely from our planet," he said.

"Do you think it's another attack?" Ichigo asked.

Pai looked a bit embarrassed and said, "Um, actually, I think it's my sister."

"WHAT!?" everyone except Keiichiro shouted.

"Rikia-oneechan's coming?" Taruto asked.

"Is that bad?" Zakuro asked.

"Not necessarily," Pai said. "I think she might be checking up on us, since my mother is such a worrywart. My mother may have nagged her into coming here, since Mom's getting on in years and can't fly a spaceship too well. If Rikia is the only one coming, we should be fine. If she brought our mother, we're all doomed."

"Your mother's that bad?" Lettuce asked.

Pai sighed and said, "She's a worrywart, and worse, she's really good at nagging people. She nags until you're so sick of it you'll do anything, no matter how ridiculous."

"Pai speaks from experience," Taruto said. "Remember the hat?"

Pai groaned, and said, "Let's not go there. I NEVER want to hear that story again."

The Mews were all curious, and Taruto said, "Then go somewhere else."

Pai teleported out as Taruto continued, "Our mom knitted this downright ugly hat with about five different shades of brown wool, and gave it to Pai for his birthday. He didn't want to wear it, but she nagged him until he wore it once. After that, he swore never to wear a hat again, since everyone who saw him was laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. A week later, Pai snuck out and burned the hat with his fans, then told our mother that a kid everyone hated stole it and destroyed it. I've heard that story so many times, it's like I actually remember the actual event."

"You don't?" Ichigo asked.

"I was only two when that happened," Taruto said. He looked sad as he said, "Kisshu told me that story, and every time we saw someone with a brown hat, he'd say, "Hey Pai, remember the time…" and he'd start telling that story again. Which is probably why Pai can't stand to hear it anymore."

Kisshu looked confused, and said, "Pai didn't like me telling a story?"

"Actually you just told it until he got sick of hearing about it," Taruto said. "The day you lost your memory, we saw a guy with a brown hat, and you told that story again. I miss you telling me all those funny stories about Pai."

"Look on the bright side, now you get to tell the stories," Kisshu said.

Taruto sniffed, then hugged Kisshu. Surprised, Kisshu hugged back and asked, "Do you like hugs?"

"From you, yes," Taruto said. "And from Pudding."

"And if I tried to hug you?" Ichigo asked.

"After seeing you take such good care of Kisshu, I'd put up with it," Taruto said, grinning. Then he smirked and said, "But if Zakuro hugged me, I'd run away screaming. Same with Pai."

Zakuro smiled, showing off fangs, and said, "You don't have to worry, I'll only hug you if I want to scare you. Thanks for the info, Taruto."

Taruto clung to Kisshu, scared of Zakuro. "Taruto…. You're choking me…" Kisshu gasped.

Taruto let go immediately and said, "Sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Kisshu said.

Pai teleported back in and said, "Is it safe?"

"Yes, Taruto's done telling the story," Ichigo said.

"Good," Pai said. "I noticed the spaceship landed a few minutes ago, so we might have company soon."

No sooner had he said this, then teleportation sounded in the room, and a young Cyniclon woman appeared in the room. Before anyone could say anything, she said, "I didn't bring Mother, if that's what you're so tense about."

Pai let out a sigh of relief, as did Taruto. "Rikia, it's good to see you," Pai said. "How's the family doing?"

"Fine, but Mom's nagging got on my nerves, and she wanted news on you three, so I got on the first spaceship I could find and came to Earth to check on you. Hey, where's Kisshu?"

"I'm here," Kisshu said. "You're Rikia?"

Rikia looked shocked. "Kisshu, what happened to you?" she whispered.

Pai sighed and said, "Rikia…. Kisshu is a human."

"But…. how?" Rikia asked.

"We'd better explain from the beginning," Pai said. "Before we got exiled, before we formed a truce, Kisshu and I were fighting over whether listening to Deep Blue was really wise. I… overdid it, and slammed him into a wall. It wasn't until I went to find him that I found out what had happened."

"And…. What did happen?" Rikia asked.

"He was playing with one of my machines, and somehow caused it to turn him permanently human," Pai said. "And that only made things worse- as if they weren't bad enough already."

"Uh-oh, I can tell I'm not going to like this next part," Rikia said. "Go on."

"Ichigo, the girl next to Kisshu, found Kisshu wandering around downtown that same day, and took him home," Pai continued. "I found them later on, and Ichigo informed me that Kisshu had somehow lost all memory."

Rikia looked horrified. "None?" she asked in a whisper.

"None," Pai said. "Kisshu has a very severe case of amnesia, and from what I've seen and researched, he probably won't get his memory back."

Rikia fainted. Pai teleported and caught her, then said, "I'll take her to my room, and watch her. The rest of you… feel free to do what you want." He teleported out, and the others looked at each other.

"She took that news pretty hard," Ichigo said.

Taruto sighed. "She was really close to Kisshu, even though I don't think he realized how much she cared," he said. "When our family adopted Kisshu, his parents had died in a rockslide, and he never talked. Rikia got him to come out of his shell eventually, but then me, Pai and Kisshu got picked for the military, and we rarely saw Rikia. And then we got sent to Earth, and she never got the chance to tell Kisshu how much she cared. I don't think she was in love with him, but she felt like he was her little brother, not just a kid her parents adopted. She was always looking out for him when they were younger."

"So this must be a heavy blow," Ichigo said.

"I'm just glad you didn't have to see our mother's reaction," Taruto said. "She'd be devastated- and then she'd most likely start in on Pai, since he is the cause of this."

"Wow…" Ichigo said.

Kisshu looked sad. "Kisshu, are you okay?" Ichigo asked.

"Rikia's sad because of me…" Kisshu said.

"It's not your fault you have amnesia," Ichigo said. "Do you want to go see if she's awake?"

"Can we?" Kisshu asked.

"Yeah, come on," Ichigo said. She led Kisshu upstairs, and to Pai's room. The door was open, and they saw Pai sitting on a chair next to Rikia. She was awake, but she was also curled up in a ball, crying. Pai was trying to comfort her and looked up as Ichigo knocked on the door. "Come in," he said in a heavy voice. "Maybe you can calm her down. I'm not doing so well at this."

Ichigo and Kisshu came over, and Kisshu sat on the end of the bed while Ichigo took the chair as Pai left.

Ichigo asked softly, "Rikia, are you okay?"

"No," Rikia said sadly. "If Kisshu doesn't remember me, I'm definitely not okay."

"Taruto told us that you thought of Kisshu as your little brother, so this is pretty hard, right?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah…" Rikia said. "I wasn't in love with him like everyone thought, but I really cared about him. I was really sad when my brothers got exiled. But this really put me over the edge. I know that Kisshu can't come back, but it would have been nice if he had remembered me."

"I'm sorry I can't remember," Kisshu said. "I don't remember Pai or Taruto either, Ichigo told me who they were."

Rikia looked at Ichigo. "You're human, right?" she asked.

"Half," Ichigo said. "I'm a Mew Mew, along with the other girls downstairs."

"Why did you take in your enemy, then?" Rikia asked.

"I found Kisshu wandering around downtown Tokyo, and when I called his name, he asked me if Kisshu was his name," Ichigo said. "I couldn't just leave him out there, so I brought him home. I was already planning on quitting the Mews; our boss was a completely evil jerk who I hated. So I quit, and Kisshu started living with me. My parents were away, and my boyfriend had just broken up with me because I'm a Mew Mew. Kisshu wanted to be friends, and so I let him into my home, my family, and my heart. My parents adopted him when they came back, and my mom is homeschooling him."

"Why not just go to school with you?" Rikia asked.

"We found out that Kisshu had forgotten how to read Japanese characters, and since his amnesia is so severe, my mom decided she'd be better off homeschooling him rather than sending him to a public school," Ichigo said.

"That was nice of her," Rikia said. "Can… I meet your parents?"

"Let me call ahead, and we should go downstairs and see everyone else," Ichigo said. "Come on." Kisshu and Rikia followed her downstairs, and they found that everyone except Lettuce had gone home. Lettuce looked up and then said to Pai, "See, I told you Ichigo would calm her down."

"You were right," Pai said. "Rikia, are you okay?"

"Somewhat," Rikia said. "Ichigo's going to call her parents to see if I can meet them."

"I'd better get you one of my little inventions," Pai said. "Your ears are going to be a problem outside this building."

"Oh, so you made something to change your ears?" Rikia asked.

"Yup, hang on," Pai said. He went and got a bottle, then gave Rikia a pill from it. "This will turn your ears human for the next ten hours," he said.

Rikia nodded, and took the pill. Meanwhile, Ichigo called her parents, and they said it was fine to bring Rikia over.

I'll post again tomorrow, k?