Ch 14: Denial is not Equal to Dishonesty

A/N: Fan service mode XD

Shooting Grounds, EMC

Everything seemed to be back to normal—

Or in Youko's case, her retrieved memories of Vaglass, Nakamura-san, buddyroids Nick and J and Hiromu.

Hiromu was trusted for being a critical thinker. But in situations that were either time-sensitive or having a low % success rate, he would opt for bold or reckless ideas. In Youko's case, Hiromu believed that her memories will be restored, even if Ryuuj thought otherwise. For Ryuuji, Youko had same vaccine program as the buddyroids, but the former's restoration needed not to depend on a massive flow of enetron (A/N: in the movie Gobusters vs Gokaigers, the memories of the buddyroids were recovered as a result of a massive enetron-flow coming from Hiromu, Ryuuji and Youko). But for Hiromu, he thought that the enetron-flow (to the buddyroids) was possible because of determination and the special bond that they have formed together. Youko may be a human, but Hiromu believed that there's still a possibility to restore her memories using his determination and the special bond he had with her.

However—

Youko didn't have the slightest idea that Hiromu would opt for a bold idea this time.

What should I do?—she asked herself, her eyes still round from shock. Youko felt her form melting and her heart beating very fast. She's afraid to breathe—for if she does, she'll have to pull herself away. She asked herself again, I thought he didn't like me? But she heard him say, "I love you, Youko" loud and clear. She's certain that Hiromu wouldn't lie to her. Lying was not in this siscon's nature.

As for Hiromu—he didn't have a clue that she found her memories at last. He opened his eyes slowly and pulled back—with his hands still immobile in his sides. His gaze became unfocused as he tried to catch his breath. Color was spreading rapidly in his cheeks.

"H—Hiromu…" Youko muttered, "You said I wasn't your type…"

Hiromu raised his eyebrows in surprise. Youko was indeed recalling from the moment when he sort of "rejected" her (A/N: Chapter 4: At Odds). "You remembered?" he asked hopefully.

Youko nodded slowly and replied, "Everything".

Without her knowing it, Hiromu pulled her back—but this time, in a tight hug. Youko thought that any moment, her heart would burst.

"Gomen Youko, it's my fault that you lost your memories." Hiromu said apologetically. Youko found herself frozen once again. When he felt how rigid her stance was, he suddenly realized that he made another bold move. He loosened his grip but he didn't release her. He moved a hand to pat her head this time.

"Only Ryuu-san can do that!" Youko retorted, her cheeks puffed.

"But I'm better than Ryuu-san" Hiromu replied humorously.

They remained in that position for a while.

"Hiromu?"

"Yes?"

"Don't tell Ryuu-san about what you did to regain my memories"

"I'm not going to lie."

"Hi-ro-mu!"

"Stop protesting or I'll make another bold move."

"You're being cocky, don't you think?"

That's it, Hiromu said to himself. He released his grip from her and leaned his face forward to hers. He was only teasing her, but it seemed that Youko was taking it seriously. Her cheeks were beet red and her eyes—poor eyes—they looked so strained from the shock.

He closed another millimeter between them and gave her an opportunity to back off. Closing another millimeter again would begin another bold move. He waited for her to pull back, but he saw that her eyes were slowly relaxing.

They remained absorbed in each other's gazes that they didn't hear footsteps coming from the hallway.

"There you are"

Ryuuji's voice made them jump. They widened their distance between them as Ryuuji approached them. Pretending to be busy, Youko grabbed a bite from her wafer immediately while Hiromu occupied himself with the buster weapons.

"I thought I'll see you here Youko" Ryuuji said, "I wanted to show you tapes of our battles with Vaglass. It may help retrieve your lost memories"

"Daijobou Ryuu-san, I got my memories back" Youko replied.

Ryuuji smiled widely at the good news and patted her hard on the head. "So Hiromu figured it out then! How did you do it?"

Youko gave Hiromu a don't you dare look.

"Enetron-flow. Our bodies can produce that." Hiromu replied. And this was exactly true. When he kissed her, green wave particles moved from his form to hers. He realized that he constructed an inappropriate answer, because Ryuuji's question began with "how". But Ryuuji seemed not to mind. What's more important to him was Youko regained her memories back.

Ryuuji asked that she may be examined once again to prove that her memories were really back. Youko gave a nod to his adoptive brother and followed him to the hallway.

Command Center, EMC

Commander Kuroki's teenage fraternal twins visited the center the next day. Ryuuji and Youko were good friends with them—most especially Youko since they share the same age. But unlike Youko, the twins were in their first year in college. According to Usada, they looked nothing like Commander Kuroki and insisted that they got their good genes from their mother. Takeru, the twin brother, was fond of Youko eversince.

The twins didn't know that there was a party going on (in celebration of Youko's retrieval of her lost memories) at the Command Center. When Commander Kuroki saw his children, he invited them to join them. They didn't ask what the party was about since they know it was classified. The twins haven't seen Ryuuji and Youko for more than two years. Takeru was more than happy to see Youko. He distanced himself from his twin sister Taki-chan to catch up with Youko.

Seeing the delight from Takeru's eyes, Ryuuji nudged Hiromu's elbow and whispered, "That kid likes her. Doesn't that bother you?"

"I don't meddle with people's personal lives, Ryuu-san" Hiromu answered earnestly. It was true that Hiromu didn't like meddling with other people's lives, but every now and then he would steal glances at Youko and her friend.

"It's good that Youko-chan doesn't like him," Ryuuji said, taking a sip from his soda, "because if she does, that Takeru kid will get something from me." He showed and flexed his toned arms infront of Hiromu. Hiromu only shrugged in reply. Then he thought, what if Ryuu-san finds out about my feelings for Youko? Ryuuji's strong point was in his arms. He imagined being cornered and punched at. The thought tickled him and he couldn't help but burst in a chuckle. Then another thought surfaced inside his mind—and it was about Ryuuji torturing him with chickens. This thought sent a chill down his spine.

They overheard Takeru's bold query about asking Youko if she's dating anyone. Ryuuji was about to go to pull the boy's ears but Hiromu grabbed his collar in time.

Youko replied that she's not dating anyone yet. When Hiromu heard this, he grabbed Nick's accelerator and turned it hard. Nick asked what's wrong and Hiromu suddenly realized that he was being illogical. "Gomen, Nick" he said and excused himself from the crowd.

Rooftop, EMC

Nick found Hiromu leaning his body on a railing. The latter was preoccupied while watching the stars from the sky.

"daijobou Hiromu?" Nick asked

"Oi Nick, you didn't get lost this time" Hiromu said bluntly.

"And you're not a good liar either," Nick replied back, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know Nick. The vaccine program should have sharpened my senses. But I feel lost."

"I see," Nick said, shaking his head, "and that explains why you grabbed my accelerator. Why did you do it?"

Hiromu paused for seconds or so.

"After…Youko told Kuroki-san that she's not dating anyone" Hiromu answered cautiously.

Nick was stunned initially and then he chuckled afterwards.

"I think what you're feeling is normal, Hiromu. It's common with any person who values another." Nick added. He put a hand on Hiromu's shoulder for emotional support.

Nick and Hiromu enjoyed some minutes of silence. The silence of the night was what they needed to pretend that their current environment was from the country side. Out of the blue, they heard running footsteps from the stairs. They both looked at the figure who just surfaced from the dark. It was Youko.

Nick excused himself so that the two can have a private conversation alone.

"You vanished all of a sudden" Youko said, taking a seat from the bench.

Hiromu took a seat beside her, but he never said anything. Youko looked at him from the corner of her eye and she thought that the expression on his face was playing between calmness and pain. She also thought that to break Hiromu's silence would be to ask questions related to her.

"What you told me yesterday—did you mean it?" she asked. She was referring to the moment when he confessed to her.

"I don't see why I shouldn't" he replied calmly.

"But you mean it in a brother-sister way, don't you?"

Hiromu raised his eyebrows. He turned to her and said, "Brothers and sisters don't kiss each other on the mouth after saying I love you".

"What do I know? You're siscon. I thought you do it to your oneesan."

Hiromu didn't know whether he'll feel disgusted or sympathetic to her unsound logic.

"And I'm not your type, remember?" She stressed the word 'type' as if mocking the day when he 'rejected' her.

"Well—you're moody, impulsive and sometimes you're not serious in doing your homework" Hiromu made it sound too straightforward that it hit a nerve. Youko stood up quickly—color was rising in her puffed cheeks.

She tried to take a step first, but Hiromu took hold of her hand. A feeling of comfort surged in her. She remembered the day when he made a promise and held her hand to comfort her. The expression in her face shifted from annoyance to placidness.

Hiromu looked up to her. Youko returned his gaze awkwardly.

"Do you remember this?" He asked, referring to their gesture of holding hands.

"Haii" she nodded slowly.

"It all started here."

Youko couldn't believe that he'd been thinking about her since 15 years ago. Well, she did have a little crush on him back then. But along the way, she forgot about it.

"I trained really hard with Nick so that I could keep my promise to you and return everything to normal. I had to deny my feelings because we're in the middle of a war with Vaglass and you were just 16 then. I thought my feelings were like of Ryuu-san's, so it became natural to be overprotective of you as well. But sometimes I went overboard—and we had little arguments every now and then because you thought I was treating you like a child."

He added, "After the war with Vaglass, I decided that I want to be with you forever so I worked here as a student-intern. My goal was to be employed here so that I could see you always. Then everything developed from there."

Youko thought she could see him getting apprehensive. But she wanted to know also if he figured out that she had feelings for him too.

"To tell you the truth," she began, "when you said I was moody, impulsive and not serious in doing my homework, I wanted to prove you wrong so I had little improvements in myself."

"But that was natural from you, isn't?" Hiromu said, "You're the competitive type"

Youko widened her eyes, "So that's what you thought as my reason for doing those?"

Hiromu nodded.

I wanted to prove you wrong because I realized that I liked you all along. I enjoyed those moments when we studied together. I stayed late every night to see you study and work at the same time. I even went overboard of going to the library just to see you. I got jealous about phantom thief and I waited for this year's spring break to tell everything to you. I thought your good judgment would figure these feelings out. These were running in Youko's mind, but she didn't say it aloud.

Instead, she took a palm, rested her face on it and sighed. "Hiromu, you really are dense" she said with a chuckle. Hiromu stared at her with his eyebrows furrowed.