Zeku lay in her bed somewhere in the Moonflow, maybe it was a newly opened hotel, but that wasn't important. She had her bed sheets pulled up to her waist, and they were just a little bit itchy, but that wasn't important either. She was blankly staring in space and thinking about what had happened just before the tornado had struck and she had jumped ship.
She had heard crying coming from inside Chichiri's room. Not loud "Wah"s, but subtle sobs f hidden sorrow so melancholy that no one with any decency could ignore. She approached cautiously, realizing the door was wide open, and entered. Chichiri had been sitting on the side of his bed, his mask off, tears streaming from his eyes. In his hand, he had held a picture frame, and inside was a photograph of a young lady with similar features as Lina's. He looked up at her, and she hesitated. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea for her to be there...She realized now she should have left that very moment.
"Um...Chiri, I didn't mean to walk in, but..." Lina didn't move. It was awkward that she stood there, but there was nothing she could have done to make this situation any better.
"You just remind me of her so much," Chichiri said. He stood and walked to her. Without thinking, without words, he reeled her in and kissed her. Lina stood there, completely shocked again, but she knew she couldn't let this go on, so she pushed him away.
"I'm sorry, Chiri, I really am, but I am not her," she said and that's when she headed out to the porch to see the tornado approaching.
Now, Zeku laid in her bed with the sheets that made her itch and thought about the entire scene. It wasn't exactly the ideal situation to be in, and Zeku wondered to herself whether she had done the right thing. Whether or not it was right to tell him that, whether or not it was right to leave right afterwards. She didn't want to hurt him, but he'd given her no other alternative.
" Why can't I get him out of my mind?" Zeku shut her eyes and took in everything, the comfort of a good night's sleep, the soft chirping of the early morning birds outside her window. She thought about her friends back at Garden...about Zell...about what he would think when he went looking for her and she wasn't there. Suddenly, the birds stopped chirping.
"Let me help you," a voice said.
Zeku blinked once, then heard a creaking noise and a couple of cracking noises. She looked up from where the the voice had come from, but could see no one. Suddenly, the shelf on the top of her bed cracked and completely fell down on her. Zeku only had enough time to turn her body around and hope it cushioned the blow, but nonetheless a stray piece of wood belted her on the head. Zeku blacked out and Nonca jumped down from above her bed and looked at Zeku's unconscious body.
"It's a pity you're such a belligerent fighter," he smirked. "This wouldn't have happened, you poor child." He chuckled still as if Zeku could hear him and smirked. From the other room, he could hear the other girls waking up and calling Zeku's name to see if she was alright, so he headed for the exit, but just as he left, he turned around and muttered, short and sweet, "Goodnight now, Sweetie."
A second later, Rikku walked into Zeku's room and found the room a wreck. Magazine, books, Al Bhed dictionaries and other miscellaneous items had spilled themselves all over the ground, and right there in the middle of the mess was Zeku lying underneath the majority of the items, still out cold with a thin trail of blood coming from a wound on her head. Rikku almost screamed her head off and she rushed out, calling desperately for a doctor.
An hour later, Zeku awoke to see Rikku, Pain, Yuna, and the doctor carefully watching her. "Um...hi," she yawned uneasily, wondering what had happened or what she had done to attract so much attention and why in the world she had such a bad headache. Zeku rubbed a hand against her forehead and pulled the blankets up to her chin childishly. Rikku, Paine, and Yuna had themselves leaned in intently as if she had something else to say to them. She seemed like the same person: the same coffee brown eyes, the same pajamas, and her hair was still sleek and silky, hanging loosely down over her shoulders...and yet there was something about her that had seemed to change.
"She'll have partial amnesia for a while," the doctor declared. "Not to worry, it's not that serious. Chances are she could be cured at any moment, just needs a little time." He stood up, gathered his things and walked out of the room, shaking his head quietly as if pitying their situation. Rikku, Paine, and Yuna looked shocked and appalled by what the doctor had informed them of, and mostly they were appalled that he couldn't do anything other than shake his head in shame and walk away, leaving the bill right there on the table. They turned their heads to Zeku slowly and cautiously. She looked back at them, also fearfully as if something lurid and devastating was about to happen.
"Zeku...you alright?" Rikku asked her, edging closer with the same concerned look that she had shown Yuna when Yuna had just met her and told her about the pilgrimage to attempt defeating Sin. Zeku looked around at the scene: the toppled shelf and the scattered books, the stain of blood by her side, and her fingertips felt the bandage at the back of her head. She dropped the corners of her itchy blanket and looked at RIkku in utter fear, suddenly understanding that something horrible had just happened to her.
"Rikku, my head feels strange," Zeku said, continuing to rub her forehead with her palm.
"So you remember who I am?" Rikku asked and Zeku raised her eyebrows and nodded as if that were one of the stupidest questions in the world, and to someone like Zeku who could still recall who Rikku was, it really was. "Oh okay...then I guess you don't have amnesia." Rikku sighed with great relief. "Maybe the doctor had no clue what he was talking about... if that's the case we'll track him down later and get our money back." Zeku smiled at her, but then noticed the two girls standing behind her.
"Rikku, who are they?" Zeku pointed at Yuna and Paine and Rikku only sighed.