HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here is my long-ish one-shot that I could make a sequel to if you'd like. Please review :D
Goodnight
Three aliens, five mews and two humans gathered in the halloween-y style decorated cafe. Ryou and Pai looked to be having a staring contest between themselves and nobody spoke.
Nervous glances were passed around as they wondered why they were all here together, even the aliens. Lettuce's face lit up as she realised they could be coming to a truce. When nobody spoke, her heart sunk a little. This was no truce. It was an interrogation.
"Why do you need us here, human pest?" Pai finally hissed. "Or did you just want a staring contest? Which I won by the way."
Ryou glared at him. He pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket to put a tick on the list. Kisshu groaned in the background, "if you've finished looking like a spaz in front of your four mews and my Koneko-Chan, then can we go home? I'm so bored."
"Don't call me that!" Ichigo spoke in a voice that was between a snap and a hiss; all together sounding possessed. The mews shifted their chairs away from the mew leader.
Kisshu laughed weakly. The glare was still on him. "Got it, kitty-cat."
Ichigo decided It wasn't worth the hassle and turned to her friends who had cowered away in the corner. All apart from Zakuro who looked slightly vacant, doing some cleaning on the tables.
They were all a little shocked when Zakuro said, "Just get on with it Ryou." It was strange how such a tone could be spoken with such velvet.
Finally, Ryou looked up from his sheet and said with pride and sadistic glee, "you're the ones."
Pai raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"
Ryou turned to face everyone who looked slightly concerned for their boss/best friend/enemy. "You've all heard of the murders going on in Toky-"
"No! What murders?" Tart yelled, nibbling on the skin around his thumb. "I don't want to get murdered!"
Ryou laughed once. "Coincidence? I think not." Pudding walked with fake bravery over to Ryou, to place a detective's hat on his head. There, Pudding saw the dark circles under his eyes and the unusually pale skin. Wisely, she sat back down over with the mews and everyone thought best not to ask where the hat came from.
Ryou put the hat back on the table, stared at it and decided to keep it on. It was Halloween after all.
"Anyway, the murders in Tokyo. You" - he gestured to the aliens - "did them!"
Everyone gasped. Keiichiro spoke up for the first time. "Ryou, surely that's a bit... rash. You don't know-"
"WHERE'S YOUR PROOF?" Kisshu yelled, getting to his feet. Ryou did nothing more than check another thing off his list along with taking out a few crumpled newspaper clippings.
"Everybody knows about them except you, short temper, hates humans... I really could go on with this list." Ryou switched to the newspaper clippings. "Sharp fingernail marks found on the victims necks, like claws-"
"What about the demon hag over there? She's possessed with unnaturally sharp claws and-"
"EXCUSE ME! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" Ichigo stood up, ready to beat the midget up but Mint and Lettuce held her to the wall while Pudding wrapped herself around Ichigo's legs.
"Don't hurt Taru-Taru! He's stupid and doesn't understand what it's like to be a girl, na no da."
"Hey!" Tart protested.
"Shut it, Tart." Pai spoke. He turned back to Ryou. "Instead of just blaming us, have you considered that one of the mews or some random human with sharp nails could have done it?"
Ryou shook his head and pointed to each of the mews in turn. "Pudding is way too young and innocent to want to kill anyone. Zakuro... is just Zakuro. Mint is too rich and smart to need to kill anyone. She can get someone else to do it for her. Lettuce is too clumsy and would turn herself in the second after she had done it. And Ichigo is too stupid and would leave a lot of evidence pointing to her."
"Hey! Shirogane, you will-" Ichigo fumed before being interrupted.
"And besides, they've been with me during the times where the murders were predicted to have happened."
"Great." Kish said sarcastically. "But that doesn't mean we did it."
"Unless you have decisive evidence, we are leaving. There is no reason why we should have to sit here and listen to you accuse us of your ridiculous human issues."
Ryou sighed. He had nothing. Pai grabbed him by the collar and studied his face. "You need some sleep. Maybe that will help you think straight."
The three aliens teleported away, leaving Ryou's tail between his legs. He pounded his fist against the wall, "I nearly had 'em!"
Four mews quickly dismissed themselves as they scurried home - in the dark - but one stayed for a little bit longer. Zakuro placed a single kiss on his cheek and left. "Pai's right. You need some sleep."
No. Ryou wouldn't rest until he had the killer.
"She the one?" A low voice asked. Two figures sat in the trees, just waiting for the right moment to strike.
The girlier voice smiled evilly in the shadows. "Yes. She's the one."
They watched the purple mew leave the safe light of the cafe, clutching her pendant very tightly. "Now?" The lower voice asked.
"Now."
Zakuro didn't show it but she was terrified. The model sensed that she was being watched and bit back a scream. Playing with her pendant, she hurried to the expensive car, failing to notice the broken window in the back seat. When she noticed, it was too late.
"Hey, Zakuro," a familiar voice said, making her jump. Zakuro placed a hand over her heart to steady it but sensed something was wrong. Why was the girl in her car?
"Y-You're the murderer! You killed all those people!" Zakuro realised, fumbling around in the front for the exit. There was a soft click, seeing another, manlier figure hold up her car keys.
"No. She didn't kill all of them. Well not alone, anyway."
Zakuro frantically pulled at the door handle, but it wouldn't give. That was when she saw her pendant, the last chance of escape, lying on the floor outside.
She felt arms wrap around her neck and the coolness of a blade. It dug into her throat and Zakuro winced as she felt blood seep out. "Happy Halloween, Fujiwara Zakuro."
Zakuro couldn't do anything. She couldn't do anything to show defiance and had no way of defending herself. There was blinding pain for a few seconds, then everything went black. Zakuro's corpse went limp and her blood seeped onto the leather seats.
"What a waste..." the man said.
"The girl or the car?"
"Both."
The girls turned up at the cafe at eight ready to face the day. Ichigo looked groggy, Pudding was full of energy, Lettuce looked tired and Mint looked normal. They thought it weird that Zakuro hadn't got their yet but maybe she had overslept.
Ten minutes later, the four mews were changed and there was still no sign of Zakuro. Ryou sighed and looked over to Lettuce who had dropped yet another plate. "Since Zakuro's not here yet, take out the trash, Lettuce." She nodded, not hearing him add on the end, "you can't mess that up."
Ichigo silently fumed. How dare he say that about her friend?! "Hey, Shirogane! I heard that!"
"So?" Ryou sighed again, running his hand through his hair.
"So, it's a jerk move and you need to say sorry!"
"A jerk move-"
Ryou was cut off by Lettuce's blood-curdling scream. Keiichiro, Ryou and the three other mews ran out, holding their pendants.
"Lettuce Onee-Chan! Are you alright, na no da?" What they saw, scared the wits out of them all.
Lettuce was pinned to the floor next to Zakuro's car. The door was open and Zakuro had fallen out on top of Lettuce. That wasn't the scary part though. Zakuro's body was covered in blood and some dripped onto the pavement. A steady drip of the liquid fell onto the ground, creating a little pool. How did nobody notice earlier?
There was a teleporting sound and Pai appeared next to Ichigo. "Lettuce? I heard you scream-" Then he saw her under Zakuro.
Lettuce was sobbing and nobody moved for about ten seconds. It felt like an hour. Eventually, Ryou and Keiichiro rolled the dead body off of Lettuce and found her uniform smeared in blood.
Ichigo sent Mint and Pudding inside after deciding Pudding had seen enough and Mint looked a little green. Zakuro was dead.
Lettuce was still shaking. Everybody was gathered around the table. Even the aliens. They all stared at Zakuro's pendant. The colour had drained out of it, leaving the pendant still gold but grey in the centre.
"Lettuce, tell us what you told the police," Keiichiro coaxed.
She nodded shakily. "Hai. Well, I went to take out the trash and I saw something shiny in the corner of my eye. Lying by a tree was Zakuro's pendant.
"I got worried because she'd never leave this but she might just have dropped it. I put it in my pocket and then I saw her car.
"The back window was broken and again, my animal instinct told me that something was wrong. Obviously, I told the police that I had a hunch.
"So when I went to check, I knocked on the window but she didn't do anything. I tried opening the door and she fell out. I screamed and... well, you know the rest."
Ryou nodded and glared at the aliens. "Why did you kill her, you monsters?" He spat the word 'monster' out.
Pai returned the glare. "Where's your evidence? We didn't do it."
Ryou hissed, nearly throwing himself at them. "YOU DID IT! I KNOW YOU DID!" Keiichiro barely managed to hold him back. The three aliens, once again, teleported out.
"SHE'S DEAD! ZAKURO FUJIWARA IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!" This time, Ryou threw himself to the floor, punching it until his fists were bloody.
Finally, it sunk in and the mews' eyes teared up. Mint's tear dropped onto her cheek and she barely got out, "Onee-Sama." Then finally, "ONEE-SAMAAAA!"
All of the girls left early that day and Mint barely made it back home. How was she supposed to live without Zakuro?
The mew dropped to her knees in her bedroom and sobbed. She didn't notice the presence that had joined her.
"Boo hoo. Get over yourself, Mint. With money like this, you should never be sad."
"I know. It's enough to save an entire planet of dying people."
Mint's eyes shot open at the sight of the two familiar faces in front of her. It all clicked.
"Not you!" She sobbed.
"Yes, us." Said the female. "We've decided to be nice and send you off to wherever Zakuro went. Sound good?"
Mint paused. After a second, she nodded. "Be gentle."
The two looked at each other in slight shock before the male stated, "good. We would have killed you even if you said no."
Mint felt around for her pendant in her pocket as they readied the weapons. She pressed the distress button on it and threw her pendant far from the house. At least they'd know.
Without warning, Mint heard metal shoot through the air and connect with her shoulder. Mint cried out in pain and fell, seeing her arm lying next to her. Her vision went fuzzy, but she finally heard, "goodnight Aizawa Minto." Then, there was nothing.
"Damn it!" Ryou cleared his desk with the swipe of an arm and gripped both sides of his head with his hands. He'd seen her distress signal and seen the signal go from her mansion to the woods nearby in under a second.
Mint was probably dead. Ryou'd rather not stick around to find out. The aliens were serving payback. This had to be the end of the Mew project. He just hoped that Keiichiro and the remaining mews would be safe from their wrath.
He picked up his semi-smashed phone to dial Pudding's home number. "The Fong residence. How may Pudding help you, na no da?"
"Pudding. Pack up and leave the city. The country, whatever! I don't want to see them hurt you or your siblings. Just leave."
There was a pause. "Ryou Onii-Chan? Has there been another... 'death', na no da?"
"Yes."
"But Pudding can't, na no da. She has her friends to look after and Pudding can't afford it either, na no da."
"Don't worry about the money, Pudding. It's sorted. Will you leave?"
"Okay, na no da. Pudding and her siblings will leave. But if Pudding does, will the rest of you be alright, na no da?"
"Yes, of course, Pudding." He lied through his teeth. "Leave. I've payed for your flights and a new place to live. I'll tell your father to send payments to: 462 Evergreen Lane in Paris." He paused, his tone softening. "Be safe, Pudding. I wish you the best."
"Good luck, Ryou Onii-Chan. Pudding hopes you will be okay."
The line went dead. Ryou wanted to send the other's away too but there was just enough for one to start a new life. There was no decision to be made about which mew to give it too. Lettuce and Ichigo would understand and would have done the same thing in a heartbeat.
"So she's gone for good?" Ichigo asked, feeling rather lonely in the cafe with just Lettuce, Ryou and Keiichiro with her.
"Yeah," Ryou nodded.
"Girls, we've thought about this... and we are letting you go." Keiichiro announced looking grim.
"It's not safe for you to be here anymore. The mew project has to end for your own safety."
The girls nodded grimly, Lettuce looking tired and distant. Teleportation was heard and two aliens came into view. "Tart's gone." Kisshu stated sadly.
"He went with Purin to Paris."
Ryou fumed. "I sent her away from YOU! If she dies, you have even more blood on your hands."
"We aren't the killers!" Kisshu yelled. "No matter what you say, we haven't killed the two mews. But if you push me any further, you will find yourself dead."
Lettuce burst into tears and ran out of the front door. Only Pai made a move to go comfort her. Even Pai seemed a lot more... cold lately. He barely talked to anyone.
"Did they, uh, hook up recently or something?" Ichigo asked awkwardly.
"God forbid!" Ryou said, gritting his teeth so hard that the remaining mew and alien thought that they would smash like glass. Keiichiro placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Dunno." Kish shrugged. "Fishie is all he ever talks about now." He laughed. The laugh caught in his throat and it felt sickeningly wrong. It made his stomach churn and the smile drop from his face.
The next morning, two people - Ichigo and Kish - stormed/teleported into the cafe. Both had tears in their eyes and a piece of paper in their hands.
Ichigo said, "Lettuce is dead!" at the same time as Kish said, "Pai committed suicide!"
Ryou rushed in to read the notes that both people slammed on the nearest table. He read Lettuce's first.
Um, hi guys. I'm so sorry about this; I'm such a coward for doing it. I just wanted to say that I love you mum, dad, Uri, Ichigo, Ryou and Keiichiro.
I couldn't take it anymore and Pai has been feeling the same. In short, we've y'know... died together. I don't want to use 'that' word. But, stay strong all of you. I trust you'll find the killers, hopefully before they catch another of you.
All my love,
Midorikawa Retasu
P.S. I left my, um, thing in the cafe changing room.
Ichigo had long gone into the changing rooms to come out with her pendant. Like Zakuro's and Mint's, the centre of the pendant was grey, signalling death.
Ryou swallowed the lump in his throat and continued to read Pai's shorter note.
Kisshu,
I have gone with Lettuce to die. Don't bother looking for me. Now it's up to you and Tart to save our people.
Goodbye forever,
Pai
Ryou looked up to see Ichigo sobbing and hanging on to Kisshu. Ryou decided not to get angry as Ichigo was stupid and hugged the first thing she saw.
Well that was what he hoped for, anyway.
Ichigo had taken a heartbroken and lonely Kisshu home that night.
Ichigo had barely stopped sobbing, since Keiichiro had been killed off in the very same building that day. It was all too much for the cat girl. The only one's left were her, Kish and Ryou.
Unlocking the door, she told Kisshu to go upstairs and she'd bring up some food. Ichigo found a note on the kitchen table saying that her parents were in Tomokiya for the weekend. She threw it somewhere, not bothering to look where.
After taking some rice out of the fridge, she heated it up in the microwave and added some meat. It wasn't much but it was good food.
Ichigo turned to take it up to her room when she saw two people facing her. She saw the knife in their hands and barely had time to dodge it. Ichigo dropped to the floor as she heard the knife whistle past her head into the wall behind her. In the process, the food was scattered on the floor.
"Dang it, I missed!" The female hissed.
Ichigo fished for her pendant in her pocket and pressed the distress signal. Pressing it to her lips, she whispered, "Mew Mew Strawberry, Meta-"
The pendant was struck out of her hand with deadly accuracy. The knife lodged itself in the wall and her pendant turned into nothing more than a few shards of golden metal and tangled wires hanging from the blade.
Crap! The female neared her and crouched down, gripping the teen's chin. "You always had the attention but you never wanted it. How selfish. Don't worry, you'll join your friends and parents now."
"Parents?" Ichigo whispered in a scared voice.
The female nodded. "How can you not recognise your own parent's handwriting? Or at least what isn't theirs?"
Ichigo did the only thing she could think of. Screaming. Just after she started, it was cut off by a death grip on her throat. And then a knife replaced the hand. "Goodnight, Momomiya Ichigo."
Kisshu ran down the stairs after hearing her cut off scream. "Please let her be okay," he muttered. "Ichigo?"
The house was deathly silent. There was a large counter blocking a lot of his view of the kitchen and approached it. Then he saw the trickle of blood. "ICHIGO?"
He saw the food scattered along the floor, lined with blood and hopped over the only thing that she could be behind. And immediately regretted it. There was a knife lodged in her throat and her eyes were frozen in a shocked position. "Ichigo..."
"You'll join her soon." A male voice said. Kisshu blindly attacked the person who said it and regretted the second thing of the night. A blade went through his body and he looked into the eyes of his killer.
"No... you couldn't... have." He managed to get out before his eyes rolled back into his head. The male dropped him and washed his hands in the sink. "Goodnight, Ikisatashi Kisshu."
"On to the last kill we have to make," the female giggled. "I'll miss killing. Sad isn't it?"
The male made a noise of agreement. "What about the monkey mew and Taruto?"
The girl waved her hand dismissively. "I may be a monster now, but I don't kill kiddies. I won't let you either."
"As you wish."
Ryou rocked back and forth in his chair. He knew he was the last one left. But he was ready. He even heard them come in.
"Hello Lettuce. Pai." He said bitterly.
"Ryou," Lettuce said back coldly.
"You know why we're here, don't you?" Pai asked.
"Of course. But before you kill me, I want to know why."
."Poor little Ryou." Lettuce said unsympathetically. She knelt down to whisper, "I'm not the timid girl you thought I was. Maybe if you'd have payer more attention, none of this ever would have happened."
Lettuce ran a finger down the side of his face, making Ryou shiver in disgust. She had ditched the nerdy glasses and wore her long, green hair down to her waist. The catsuit she wore was black and hugged in all the right places. On her feet were knee-high boots that made no sound when she walked.
"Now, Lettuce. Let us not play with the human," Pai said with a hint of jealousy in his tone. Lettuce pouted. He turned to Ryou. "I'll answer your questions but then you must die.
"You created the Mew project. The Mews are freaks of nature and mess with the balance of the Earth. The Earth we are trying hard to look after for our people. We," - he gestured to Lettuce and himself - "are trying to restore that balance.
"A few months ago, Lettuce and I agreed to meet to discuss so-called peace. There, we discovered the same hatred for the Mews and teamed up. The Mews are unnatural and must be stopped.
"We killed a few humans to get our skill up at first, waited for the right moment and killed the first Mew. Fujiwara Zakuro. The next one was begging to die so then went Aizawa Minto. We were going to kill Fong Purin and Ikisatashi Taruto but you called her out of the country and-"
"And I don't kill children," Lettuce added.
Ryou held up a hand to stall. "You would have killed your own brother?"
Pai shrugged. "Yes. If he was in the way and to avoid suspicion. It is a miracle that Lettuce here is a good actress otherwise it would have been game over.
"It would have looked suspicious if we were the last ones left so we faked our deaths. Painted grey over the top of Lettuce's pendant and stayed away from the cafe for a while. Akasaka Keiichiro was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and we killed him for the sake of it.
"All that was left to kill of was the Mew leader and my annoying brother. So we did. And here we are ready to kill you."
"Lettuce is a Mew!" Ryou nearly cried. His tough guy act was ling gone and replaced with a little boy.
Pai sighed. "I can see that. Unfortunately, she must die as well. With me along side her. We have both agreed to this."
"Wouldn't all your hard work be ruined if Pudding had kids?" Ryou fumbled for more questions. Pai grew irritated but answered nonetheless.
"We have made sure that Pudding cannot have kids. Ever." If Ryou could have, he would have taken a step back. A girl like Pudding who loved children, would be heartbroken to find she couldn't have any of her own. That was just cruel.
"Enough chat," Lettuce grinned, pulling a blade from a pouch on her inner thigh. "I'm gonna enjoy killing you just like I did with poor Keiichy, Ichigo, Mint and Zakuro. I can't take credit for Kish."
Ryou gulped as he saw the two figures approach him with sharp blades.
Date: November 2nd, 2014.
Time: 14:09
Place: Café Mew Mew
Crime: Murder
Victim: Shirogane Ryou
Description: Body in pieces. Signs of struggle and eventual decapitation. Blood everywhere and a note left from possible murderers. It says, 'we're done'.
The End