Kisshu's Return part 23

Apart from running into a very annoyed Shirogane and ending up in a fight with him, which took up nearly half an hour, Ichigo's routine was as boring as always. She walked home, through the park, down the streets, avoiding the alleyways and made it home unharmed. Soon after, she had dinner with her parents and went upstairs to do her homework. It wasn't much, so she managed.

Even though everything was as regular as usual, she couldn't quite shake off the feeling that something was out of place. Probably her Mew senses were running wild, but the awkward feeling just wouldn't leave her. Just when she was about to give up on maths as she couldn't concentrate at all, she heard someone knock on her front door (cat DNA could come in handy sometimes).

Her mother answered the door. Ichigo knew by the soft sound of the door carefully being opened, instead of being pulled open with sheer force, like her father did. She almost tumbled out of her chair when she heard the voice of Masaya at door. He said he came to pick her up for their special date. Ichigo didn't know what to think about that. 'Special date? Wait, that would mean that today…'

Ichigo looked out of her window and searched the sky. It was already dark and there were no clouds to be seen. If she had to believe the forecast, the clouds would come soon though. But that was not what she was looking for! Then she saw it. Just behind the building of one of the many big companies she saw a bright part of what must be a full moon.

Full moon! She had a date with Masaya! He had asked her to go stargazing with him and she had reluctantly agreed. It was in the middle of the week, but Masaya had persisted on going on one particular day, as it would be a fairly clear night, with, more importantly, a full moon.

Today was that particular day. And she had absolutely forgotten about it!

As her mother called for her, she didn't now that Ichigo overheard everything she told Masaya after all, Ichigo flew into her closet and drawers, looking for proper pieces of clothing to wear. She kept it plain and simple, just as always. Not only did she not own outstanding clothing, she also secretly hoped that Masaya would get tired of 'plain and simple' some day.

So far, luck hadn't been on her side though.

Looking in the mirror one last time, attempting to care about how good her hair looked at the moment, she made her way downstairs, into the hall… To Masaya.
The feeling she had before turned from awkward to eerie for no apparent reason.

She saw her mother giving her and her appearance a criticising look, without any further comment, before wishing them both a good time. From the living room, they heard Ichigo's father yell: "You'd better bring her back home safe, got it boy?" Masaya assured him that he would and after that, they set off to the park, to the cherry blossom who, as Masaya put it, 'held so many wonderful memories'.

In the back of her mind, Ichigo vaguely wondered where she had left Masha, before she realised she was thinking about insignificant things. She should be listening to whatever Masaya was telling her! It was about a campaign which was set up to get the government to spend more money on sealife or something along those lines. Ugh.

Not that she didn't care about sealife. She cared more about it than the average teenager, which, considering her history, wasn't very odd. It was just that most of the things Masaya participated in were so indirect. Instead of directly going out on the sea, for example, to save turtles, dolphins and such from drift nets, he was now working on a campaign on land. Ichigo didn't really see how it would help the dying animals. But then again, he knew far more about it than her, so who was she to judge?

A heartbreaking story about dolphins and how humans killed them later, the couple reached the cherry tree. Masaya was still chattering on (Ichigo didn't even bother to figure out what it was about now) and Ichigo nodded, smiled and said an affirmative word or two every so often. As always.

And as always Masaya was as considerate as could be. He had taken some sweets with him and two blankets. One to sit on and one for when they would feel cold. She had to give him some credit for being thoughtful, that she couldn't deny.

As they sat down and stared at the stars, his hand on hers, Ichigo felt a sudden sadness take over. 'Kisshu…' The name popped up out of nowhere. Well, not out of nowhere, out of her memories. He had been looking at the stars with her too. 'Kisshu…' Masaya's voice pulled her back to the cherry tree.

"Ichigo, do you see those three, bright stars, they're called-" "Orion's belt, I know." Masaya stared at her as if she had told him that she liked to fly around the city with winged pigs, before she ate them, in her spare time. Ichigo's eyes too were wide with horror. She had interrupted Masaya. Aoyama Masaya! Her boyfriend! It was most inappropriate! Would he mind it much? Would he dump her? A hope which was even more inappropriate then her interruption grew.

He seemed however to recover quickly. "Erm… Yes, you're right. It's Orion's belt. I didn't know you were interested in astronomy." Turning a little pink, Ichigo looked down and didn't dare to look up before she mumbled: "I'm not… I was just taught a little… By a friend." As she looked up, she was surprised to see that Masaya's face had hardened. What did she say wrong?

"Masaya?"

As she called out his name carefully, he snapped out of it and smiled, albeit a little forced.
"It's nothing, Ichigo, I just got a bit distracted, that's all." She nodded slowly, not fully believing him, but deciding to leave it. And so, he changed the subject.

"Let's see if we can find Jupiter among the stars! Did you know that the Greeks called planets 'wanderers'? They called them by that name, because-"

-O*O-

Damn! Just when he had made up his mind, she disappeared! She wasn't at home, nor at Café Mew Mew. Her school had closed some hours ago, so he was running out of options.
So here he was, flying around Tokyo, in search for that particular redhead. She was not with that green Mew, nor with the yellow one, since Pai and Taruto were with them now.

The other two Mews. The blue and the purple one. He would check their houses.

-O*O-

He got lost in his own lecture about the Greeks, their experiments, their knowledge and their culture. Her worries/hope that he would be offended enough to dump her appeared unfounded, because he rambled on just like he did before that, like she never had offended him in anyway. Just what did it take to properly piss this guy off?!

Did she really have to repeatedly stomp on his heart, like she believed he didn't have one? Did she have to get angry at him and accuse him of cheating? Just what on earth would it take?!
She calmly breathed in and out a couple of times, in order to come back to her senses. She wouldn't, she couldn't annoy nor offend him like that. It wouldn't be fair.

Giving up on thinking over such matters, she attempted once again to understand what the conversation, which she was supposedly in, was about.

-O*O-

Checking the house of the purple one was astonishingly easy. He didn't need to pass the guards and security systems. The lights were out, the car was gone. The purple mew was out, Ichigo obviously wasn't there.

The blue mew's house was an entire different matter though. It was a castle. Of course he knew that already, but it still kept him wondering as he looked at it once again. This fortress was the home to only four people and their many servants. Why build it so big? What was the point? The only thing that all that space was good for was for parties and honestly, that blue mew didn't look like a party animal to him. The only party he had seen there, was the most boring party he ever witnessed and that said something when you consider that on the planet he came from, until a year ago, parties were very rare.

But back to business, he had more important things to do than think about parties. This colossal place would take him forever to get through. Getting in unseen, of course, was no problem, but nearly every light in the building seemed to be on. Ichigo could be anywhere in there. Sighing one last time, Kisshu teleported himself in.

'Ichigo, please be somewhere around here.'

-O*O-

They had been here for an hour now. She had to go home in another hour or so. Halfway, she was halfway! By now he had gone from the Greeks to astronomy again, searching for constellations while he spoke and still held her hand. He hadn't let go of it for even a second since they had sat down, but she hardly felt his skin on hers anymore. And the fact that he was looking for constellations put her in a great position.

She could dreamily stare at the sky, recalling what Kisshu and she told each other about the stars, without arousing Masaya's suspicion. They hadn't talked very much about it, because soon after starting the conversation, she asked him in what direction his planet was and then she started asking how it was there, what it looked like, what the people were like and so on, but they had shown each other some constellations that they knew about, like Orion and Lepus, before that and being able to find the same constellations again on her own made her smile.

It  was almost like Kisshu was pointing along with her again. Thinking about it, she wondered why Kisshu knew about astronomy. She knew he was more intelligent than he initially made everyone believe, but why would he want to know what constellations humans made up here? Maybe to be able to find his way home again. 'Travelling through space must be really difficult, especially when you have to do it manually.' Ichigo figured. 'Constellations might form a map of some sorts.'

Soon, she wasn't even looking at the stars anymore. She was literally staring into space, imagining what it would be like to travel through it. She didn't noticed the clouds which were slowly making their way towards her and Masaya

-O*O-

No such luck. No Ichigo in the whole damn building. Where the hell was she? Not home, not at the Café, not with her friends. At Aoyama's? No, he had passed that house already and the light of that guy's room was out. By now, Kisshu understood that that meant he was out. Wait a tick.

If both Aoyama and Ichigo were out, one plus one equals two, they were on a date! Considering that it was that Aoyama-bastard that he was thinking about, Kisshu assumed that he would take Ichigo to a romantic place, to watch the full moon, because one: Why else couldn't a date wait until the weekend? And two: That tree hugger was a romantic slime ball like that.

But were would a slimy arsehole take a girl when they went out for stargazing? To place with as less light as possible, because otherwise you cannot take a good look at the stars. That should narrow the choices down a bit, right? A place with little to no light… The park, of course. And as a romantic detail, he probable took her to the clearing with the cherry blossom.

Kisshu was both proud and disgusted because of his ability to figure the tree hugger out. He didn't waste time on standing still though, he took off towards the park. As he did, he studied the sky a bit. A bloody heavy storm was coming, that was obvious. It wouldn't take long either before those clouds would cover the entire city of Tokyo. 'Brilliant.' Kisshu thought grumpily.

His mood brightened up when he looked at the stars which were still visible, though. Orion, the great hunter, was very obviously present. He was there to cheer him on, wasn't he? Smirking, Kisshu sped up, the cherry blossom already coming into view. Tonight would be his.

-O*O-

Masaya suddenly called her back to Earth again. "Ichigo,  we should go home now, there's hardly anything to see anymore, besides the moon and a few constellations we've already talked about and it looks like it's going to rain rather hard, so let's go."

He was right. The clouds had come very close now and they looked very dark. Looking at her watch she realised she would be home three quarters of an hour early than she had expected. Masaya got up and she followed suit. He pocketed the blankets and the sweets, which they hadn't even touched. Since she couldn't assist him, she looked at the sky for a moment. And she swore she saw something drop out of the sky into some bushes on the other side of the clearing.

She turned towards Masaya to tell him what she just saw and she nearly bumped her nose into his chest. He had silently come very, very, VERY close! Smiling at her shocked expression, he cupped her face and leaned forward, ready to kiss her. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would be over soon-

"Hold on for a second, Romeo."

Masaya abruptly let go of her face, hissing a venomous "You."
As for Ichigo, she had never been so happy to hear that voice. His voice. Yet, at the same time, it felt unreal. She had to see it with her own eyes, so she turned around.

Yes, there he was, smirk on his face, arms crossed and a playful sparkle in his eyes. Kisshu.
Before Ichigo could react though, Masaya stepped in front of her and spoke up. "How dare you show your face! Didn't Ichigo tell you to stay out of her sight?"
Kisshu's smirk only broadened. "Hush, hush, Blue Knight. She told me to stay out of her sight, until I could prove my innocence, which I can now."

Masaya scoffed. "How?" Kisshu looked Masaya right in the eyes, which, even to Ichigo, looked rather intimidating, before he spoke again. "By pointing out who actually did it." Although it had become windy at the clearing and Kisshu spoke softly, because he articulated every syllable very clearly, it was like all the other sounds didn't even exist.

Ichigo couldn't see Masaya's face, but considering the fact that Kisshu still smirked broadly, Masaya had reacted just like Kisshu had expected him to.
That smug smirk was replaced by an annoyed frown when Masaya asked: "And who might that be?"

Kisshu, being clearly very irritated by the question for a reason unknown to Ichigo, slightly raised his voice, while replying: "Don't play dumb with me! You know all too well who killed that drunk man and the girl, bastard!"
Masaya started to tremble a little. Vaguely Ichigo could make out the words he said. "Shut up… Shut up…" was what he mumbled.

The intensity in Kisshu's glare rose and ignoring Masaya's constant mumbling, Kisshu stated:
"Don't deny it, Aoyama. You killed them."

The sky rumbled and the rain began to fall.