Welcome to Gaia! ::

Katsuko took the hit, moving her body back a step to avoid severe damage from the blow. It was something Ataru had decided she must know in case someone tried to hurt her, and this way the blow was softened enough where she was sure it would only be a very large, very painful bruise in a few hours, rather than internal bleeding and death.

But when she started to talk...

Katsuko's face slackened in confusion, her anger dissipating rapidly. She didn't understand. What was she talking about? As far as Katsuko knew, she was very much alive, and had been for a very long time. She may not know her history, but she couldn't've been this woman, lost for so long before turning up dead.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said quietly, holding her stomach. The bruises were setting in, and damn, could that woman hit! Still, she wanted to avoid destroying the room, so she kept herself ready for her summon, but didn't call forth any yet.

Katsuko stood, dodging flying objects. This woman was mad! Completely and utterly insane! Her, the kage? Yeah, right. If she were a kage, then the sky was purple and the rain, chocolate. It was absurd, a lie. One thing was truth, though- she did not appreciate this harpy speaking about Ataru that way.

"Shut up about Ataru. He's a good man, someone who accepts the fact that I have nightmares about things I don't remember. He doesn't care that I can't remember anything, or that I've amnesia, or that I'm carrying more scars than the Village eldest. Don't you dare badmouth him when you don't know what you're talking about."

She began to work herself up again, getting very angry."Who's Roy, the kid that ran from here after freaking? By that matter, who the bloody hell are you? You don't seem to understand that as far as I'm aware, I don't know you, I've never been here, I've no memory of any of this."

Katsuko's anger died again, and she glanced to Ataru for reassurance. He had always supported her search for her past, and now, it was all presented in front of her. It was almost too good to be true, but as the kid said, couldn't hurt, could it?

Katsuko licked her lips, suddenly nervous and wishing she would let herself crawl into his embrace, to something that was safe, familiar, something she remembered. Speaking of, the kid had asked her what she remembered. They wouldn't really send people to kill her if they thought she was lying...would they?

She had nothing to hide, so she spoke honestly, from the heart. "The earliest I can remember is pain, darkness, and wishing I would just die already." At the last second, she recalled that she hadn't told that to Ataru. Oh well, she told herself. Too late. "Then, I woke up in the home of a very nice elderly couple.

"Aku had been a healer in his early years, and they both took me in and let me patch up and heal as best as I could. When I was strong enough, Aku took me outside and started showing me how to defend myself, to build up the muscles I had lost and get my energy back up. When he discovered that I had known a few things that my body remembered, he began teaching me in earnest.

"I met Ataru sometime later, and we just sort of clicked." She remembered the insults thrown from the woman, and shot her a venomous glare. "We both discovered the hard way that I had a summon, and from the way things appeared I think that has something to do with how I lost my memory. But I became restless, and Ataru wanted to move, so we both decided to wander and see where we were lead.

"And then we come here, not disturbing anything, and get mauled and attacked and verbally cut instead of the kindness we both had heard of," she spat, reminding them that they had attacked first and that she was not someone to be trifled with.

Ataru was too stunned to react, in addition to the well known fact that Katsuko could take her, added onto the intrigue of what was going on, and hadn't moved until now. But this woman needed to know her place, and this ******** kid, Hengeing into some twisted Katsuko, pissed him off even more. He got up out of the bed, grabbed his glasses and confidently took his place standing beside Katsuko. Calmy, he spoke...

"I don't understand what your attempts are at, and I do understand that you may hold her past in your minds, but... This isn't the past anymore. You both..."

Ataru paused for a moment, looking at Katsuko. Here it was, all laid out in front of them, and he didn't want it to be true. At least not like this. He was afraid if she finally discovered her past, he wouldn't be the same Ataru to her. Or someone else might become something more...

His voice hushed and cracking, he continued. "You both can just do what you want. Katsuko is Katsuko, even if she is someone else. We want to find her memory, but remember it does not change anything. But do not even think of harming her, no matter what her past is."

Ataru felt lost, didn't know what to do. But he wouldn't leave her side, no matter what.

A poof of smoke covered Roy and he was back to his normal self. His jacket was wrapped tightly around him now and the collar was up and covering most of his face...he wanted to die right about now. He wanted to just kill over and die...He couldn't understand why fate liked poking at him so much. Why do this to him now? What was this all about?

He turned for a moment, away from them and placed a hand on his shoulder and began to rub it...hard... He was trying o make real pain to equal the pain he felt inside right about now...

"You didn't even flinch..." the words seemed to come from no real source...his voice was dry, his face was wet, his heart was none existant anymore. He was dead inside now. Such a harsh thing for a kid to go through.

"Well, this is yours techniqually. Take it." the hand slipped down into his bag. A small black bag was removed and tossed onto the bed in front of the woman. Inside of it was 3 things, a pair of cat ears, a cat tail and a photo...he never went anywhere without hose things but he didn't need them anymore.

"Your not who I think you are...she's dead obviously...but you look like her so you might wanna leave the villiage as soon as possible. If others see you and make the connection, things might not go so easily...I hope you enjoy your life and never return..." he began to walk off. Moving through the window and off into the distance.

Ryoko looked off to her son, tears welling up in her eyes. It was so hard...she knew what it was like to loose a love one but to loose them twice...she couldn't imagin what her son was going through. She looked back to the woman and lowered her head, "I'm sorry..." was mumbled before the mother left to comfort her son...it was all she could do.

"I spent a year or so of my life fighting for you and...wait..." he stoppe for a moment he stopped cold and let the words burn into his mind. They ran rampent a gambit of emotions and thoughts. The most prominate and powerful of which was...was that instead of simply losing his loe..she chose to leave....maybe he wasn't worthy of her. Maybe that was it. maybe this was just some sick game for her...whatever it was, he was sick of it now. He had had his fill.

"So...so you do remember huh? I gues youf ound a few new masks to wear huh Taida-sama..." he called her by her family name...very formally at that. He wasn't being freindly with her anymore. "Look...I'm glad you have enough time to play these little slutty games of yours...but if your going to do it, just try not to involve kids you sick woman. SHould have known it was too good to be true that you'd actually find interest in someone so many years your junior. Meh, whatever...tis fate I suppose. I did my time trying to please you and obviusly that wasn't enough."

Roy looked over to the man, tears still falling from his eyes, "Hay...guy...I'm srry for interrupting your personal time with your prostitute. I really do appologize and hope you enjoy your stay here in Iwagakure. Just make sure to take her back where ever you found her ok? Sorry for the bother..."

Ryoko was livid obviously but Roy stopped ehr...it was no point...

Katsuko blinked, then turned to Ataru. "What did I say?" she asked him, worried. She hated when things like that happened. She would do something that seemed so completely natural to her, and then she couldn't remember what she had done. It was how Aku began teaching her- she had just reacted to something he did, and he realized that the instincts were there, just buried deep in her psyche.

She turned back to the kid. "Oh, shut up and grow up. I don't remember what I said, but apparently, whomever I was, you didn't have much confidence in me. Did you even trust me." She put her hands on her hips. "If I have amnesia, there's nothing I can say or do that'll make you believe me, because obviously you're so set on a decision you made long ago. Well, I've got news for you- I don't give a flying rats a** if you believe me. I'm being honest here. You obviously don't know what it's like to live day after day and not know what's going on, who you were, to have no past, no family, no friends, and wake up in a strange place with no idea of who you were or who you are. You seem confident that you know who you are as a person, but the same isn't true for me. Stop calling me names, stop assuming I'm lying. Did you know that amnesiatic victims generally loose all memories of their time with amnesia? Which means that if I get my memory back, I lose the memories of all the people I've bonded with, all the experiences I've gained this entire time. I forget again, and I don't want that to happen." Katsuko's stance was shaking, but inside she was trembling from the fear of forgetting once again.

Ataru snapped to attention.
"What did you just say? I'm sorry young man, but under no circumstances should you ever threaten a lady, especially NOT Katsuko! And in front of your own mother, no less? I'd be disgraced to have a little whelp of a child as you. And, judging by your own mother's disposition, she doesn't mind and therefore isn't much of a parent, either. It's people like you that cause such misunderstanding that start wars and get thousands of people killed. I have nothing more to say to you."
Ataru breathed in deeply, and stood still beside Katsuko.
"Love, I do believe this runt wants to run and cry, but is trying to be tough and salvage some sort of silly pride. What say we just leave them here, now. We don't need this crap."