Faded Memories

I shove a rice ball in my mouth. Kyo and Yuki stare at me. “What?” I say around my mouth full of rice.
“Are you trying to choke to death?” Yuki asks as he slides a glass of tea towards me.
“No, I’m trying to beat a record I saw in a book. Some guy shoved fifteen rice balls in his mouth at one time.”
“I could beat that,” Kyo says as he shoves rice balls in his mouth.
“Your mouth is big enough.” Yuki shakes his head side to side.
I grab ten rice balls and start shoving them in my mouth. “I'm almost there.”
“Oh yeah, I'm catching up!” Kyo shoves ten in his mouth too.
“What are you idiots doing?”
Kyo and I spit the rice out of our mouth at the same time and look up to see Hiro.
“What do you want twerp?!?!” Kyo lifts him up by his collar.
“If you don’t put me down, I’ll call the police and report you for child abuse. Idiot, all I want is for you to tell me where Kisa is.”
“Why would we know where Kisa is?” Yuki asks.
“Kisa ran away.”
I jump up and grab Hiro. “Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“She is somewhere around here. Kisa ran away because children at her school have been making fun of her.” I look up and see Haru standing in the door way.
I shove past him and run around searching the area around the house. “Kisa, Where are you?” I yell. Out of the corner of my eye I see the bushes rustle. I run over to the bushes and stick my hand in them.
I feel something bite my hand and I know its Kisa. I pull the small tiger out of the bushes and run back inside. “I found her.”
Haru looks at Kisa. “Stop it Kisa. You’re hurting Ruki.”
Kisa lets go of my hand and looks up at me. “I’m back, Kisa.” Kisa changes and I’m holding a small girl in my arms. I run up to my room and pull out some clothes. “Here, put these on.”
Kisa puts on the clothes. “You’re back.”
“Yep, I came home recently.”
“Are you going to leave me again?”
I look at the small girl and feel horrible. “I’m so sorry I left you. Kisa, tell me why you ran away.”
She looks up at me. “The other kids in my class don’t like me. They make fun of my hair and eyes. They call me short too.”
I hug her. “We all go through that. But you shouldn’t run away. You shouldn’t listen to the comments of your classmates. They don’t know you like me and Haru do.”
Kisa looks at me. “But, you ran away.”
“Well…I ran away because it was a matter of life and death. Annoying classmates don’t kill. Or at least not until you’re my age…”
“Oh, okay. I am so glad you’re back. You haven’t changed at all.”
Is that a compliment? Who knows? I pick up Kisa and carry her down stairs. “Kisa is back to normal.”
“I knew her seeing you back would make her feel better,” Haru says when I give her to him.
“Where is the twerp?”
“He left.”
Kyo laughs. “Well, he insulted everyone, he threatened to call the police, he insulted me again, he called you a whore, I tried to beat him up, he threatened to call the police again, and then he left.”
“Wait, he called me what!?!? I swear I will kick him where the sun don’t shine!”
Kyo laughs again. “I knew you would say that.”