A Game of You
Chapter 1: A Remembrance of Things Past
This story was written for True Colours' Alternate Pairing Contest. I started writing it Sunday night, but OpenOffice died on me partway through, and I couldn't get over it enough to start re-writing until today. Yes, I understand that that's pathetic.
Anyhow, this fic is a sequel to my story "Stop the World," and thus contains the same rarepair, but you don't have to read that to know what's going on here. Just know that it takes place in a slight AU where Ryou and Keiichiro are five years older than they are in canon—21 and 27, respectively. There are other differences, but they're all touched upon in the story itself and thus don't merit a mention here.
Oh, and in case the whole "Alternate Pairing Contest" thing didn't tip you off: Despite what the character filter claims, this is not a Ryou/Ichigo fic. Sorry if you somehow came in expecting one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or Tokyo Mew Mew: A La Mode. If I had the choice, I'd only want to own the former, anyway.
"This stinks," Minto groused as she fired a Mint Arrow at a waist-high giant tortoise. "Why couldn't you get your boyfriend to take all the chimeras back to his stupid planet?"
"He's not my boyfriend!" Ichigo replied, blushing. "Ugh, don't even say that!"
"What are you afraid of? Masaya's in England. It's not like he'll hear you if you confess your undying love for Kish," Minto cackled.
"Minto, stop teasing Ichigo." As soon as the words left Zakuro's mouth, the blue-haired Mew quit leering at her friend and looked down demurely. "She's got a point, though, Ichigo: We seem to be just as busy now as we were when Kish and the others were here." Zakuro lashed her whip at the tortoise-chimera, which stumbled and fell. "Go, Ichigo!"
"Right! Reborn, Strawberry check!"
In a flash of pink light, the monstrous tortoise dissolved and separated into a bemused little reptile and an alien parasite. Masha swooped in to scoop up the latter, but before he could ingest it, Purin grabbed the jellyfish-thing and whirled it around like it was her dance partner.
"Put that down," Ichigo said, a touch exasperated. "That's a dangerous alien, not a toy."
"Aww," the blonde Mew said with a pout, "but these little monsters aren't any fun. I wish we had a real challenge, na no da!"
"You could have asked more politely, but I think a 'real challenge' can be arranged."
No matter which way Purin looked, she couldn't find the source of that voice. And the weirdest thing was that none of the others seemed concerned by it. In fact, they were all looking at her like she was the crazy one. It wasn't until they started lumbering toward her that Purin realized something was wrong. With her simian reflexes, she leapt out of her friends' grasp, but they just turned to pursue her, leaving their Mew weapons lying on the ground.
"That's right, run!" the strange voice cackled. "I promise, you'll tire out long before they do!"
Purin skidded to a stop.
"Ichigo! Guys, it's me, na no da!"
She stared up into their faces, but there wasn't a hint of recognition in the other Mews' blank eyes. Zakuro, always the fastest of the group, reached the little Mew first and began to claw at her, seemingly oblivious to her own Mew powers. Purin cried out in pain; she only had a second before the others were on her as well. She scrunched her eyes shut and hoped her plan would work. She only had one shot.
"Reborn, Pudding Inferno!"
When the yellow light cleared, the mind-controlled Mews were stuck fast in neck-high blobs of gelatin. Slowly, one by one, the other girls came slowly out of their trances. The pudding surrounding them disappeared.
"What happened to us?" Retasu asked, holding her head. Then, when she saw Purin's scratched face and arms, she added, "Oh my gosh! What happened to you!?"
"Well, it appears that nothing happened to any of you. How gauche."
The voice sounded annoyed this time, but Purin shot looks to her teammates before trying to locate its source. Luckily, they all seemed to be themselves. A man in a long, fancy coat and a cravat appeared before them. He appeared to be human, but the way he floated in midair reminded the Mews of nothing so much as the aliens.
"I suppose I'll just have to finish you children off myself," he said, bloodlust sparkling in his eyes.
"Not likely," Ichigo replied. She held up her hand, and her bell flew into it. "You think you can just mind-control us and get us to attack our friends? You'll pay for that, whoever you are!"
Seemingly unimpressed, the man took a mocking bow in midair.
"My true name is of no concern, but you may call me his Royal Highness. Remember that name, for it's the last one you'll ever hear!"
By now, the others had also regained their Mew weapons, and they fired attacks as he swooped down at them. He dodged the rainbow light with surprising agility, until one lucky attack of Zakuro's caught him across the bridge of his nose. Raising a gloved hand to his lightly-bleeding face, Royal Highness gasped.
"My beautiful face! How—how dare you!?" he screeched, regal composure lost. "Oh, I shall make you pay for that someday, Mew Ichigo, but for now, I think I've done my job. Farewell." He bowed again. "I look forward to spilling your disgusting blood in the future."
And with that, he teleported away.
"Who was that guy?" Minto wondered aloud. "And how the heck did he know your name Ichigo?"
The catgirl bit her lip. She hadn't even noticed that he'd called her by her name, but it was a worrying development.
"I dunno. Whoever he was, though, we'd better go warn Ryou and Keiichiro about him. They think we're just cleaning up leftover chimeras, but maybe they'll know something about this new wacko. Ugh, my head. I hate mind control."
The girls transformed back into their civilian clothes and rushed back to the café. It was still early, just after sundown, but the pink building looked closed.
"Geez," Minto muttered. "You'd think they could hire other waitresses so they wouldn't have to close when we're not there."
Zakuro, though, looked worried.
"I came here sometimes before I became a Mew Mew, and it was open even when you girls weren't here. I don't like the look of this. Stay close, everybody."
The Mews entered the dark café in a tight huddle. Inside, it was totally dark, without even the omnipresent light of Keiichiro working in the kitchen.
"This is too scary! Can we go? Please?" Ichigo whined.
"Oh, come on. You saved the world, but you're scared of an empty building? There isn't even anyone in here!"
Minto was more right about that than she thought. The café's power appeared to be out, but the girls transformed back into their Mew forms and used their weapons to light up their surroundings. The front room looked relatively normal. Oh, sure, no one had pushed their chairs back in, but if they'd all left when the power went out, that wasn't very surprising.
In the kitchen, though, there was a long, deep dent in the back wall. The Mews wound their way around the various tables and appliances to get a closer look. Purin, who was in the lead, nearly tripped over Keiichiro. The baker was sprawled unconscious on the floor beneath the dent.
"He's still alive," Retasu whispered, laying her head on Keiichiro's chest to hear his heartbeat, "But I don't know how badly he's hurt. I-I can stay here with him if you want to go on ahead. I'll make sure he doesn't get any worse, at least."
"I'll stay too!" Ichigo said, a little too quickly. "I don't want anyone going off by themselves, so that means you need a buddy. The rest of you, go down and check the lab."
Purin and Zakuro nodded; Minto rolled her eyes, but all three of them disappeared into the café's basement. Despite Retasu's presence, Ichigo was shaking uncontrollably by the time the others reappeared.
"W-what'd you find?" she asked, her mind awhirl with terrifying possibilities.
"Well," Zakuro said, "nothing appears to have been stolen or damaged, but Ryou is missing."
o()o
Ryou awoke, groaning, on a carpeted floor. His whole body felt like one big bruise, but his left arm hurt the worst. He craned his stiff neck to get a look at his bicep, and sure enough, there was a livid-purple handprint wrapped around it, as if someone had grabbed him with enough force to nearly crush his arm. Gingerly, he rubbed the mark with his other hand and dragged himself into a sitting position.
A shape detached itself from the indistinct walls. It was a tall, blond man, younger and paler than Ryou himself, but with strikingly similar hair. Through his pounding headache, Ryou hazily recalled the pale man breaking into his lab, and then a brief fight where even Ryou's Mew-like strength was no match for the stranger's. Not that any of that explained what the two of them were doing here. The room looked like it might be part of some European castle, from the ill-lit stone walls to the wine-red carpet he sat on to the raised throne at the back of it.
Ryou heard a door open and close behind him. Assuming he was alone in the room now, Ryou carefully took better stock of his injuries. Aside from the bright bruise where the pale brute had presumably been holding onto him, nothing seemed to be seriously damaged. His pulse was steady, his ribs were intact, and if he could just ignore the pounding in his head enough to think straight for a moment, he felt certain that he could figure out what was going on and how he could escape.
As it turned out, he didn't have the luxury of a moment. The door swung open again, and Ryou sat up stiffly facing the other way, not willing to let his captors think he was curious.
"Ah, so you must be the enigmatic leader of Tokyo Mew Mew!" a voice said warmly. A woman's voice, so probably not the pale man's, though it did seem vaguely familiar. "I've been able to find out so much about your girls but almost nothing about y—oh!"
The speaker had walked around into his line of vision. She (he?) was wearing a white robe and matching hood, featureless except for small eye-slits. Despite his (her?) feminine voice, it was impossible to determine a gender from the speaker's appearance. But he (she?) seemed taken aback when she (he?) saw Ryou's face.
"Well, well, well, Shirogane Ryou! I should have guessed you were behind Tokyo Mew Mew! Who else would possibly be brilliant enough to pull off such a feat of genetic engineering?"
The hooded figure laughed warmly. Ryou narrowed his eyes.
"I'm afraid you have the advantage over me. I don't believe we've met..."
"Come now! You really don't recognize me? Ah, well, I could leave you in suspense, but I suspect our negotiations will go more smoothly once you know who I am."
Negotiations? Ryou thought. Is he (she?) crazy? Who the hell thinks that kidnapping someone and dragging him to who-knows-where is a good way to conduct negotiations?
The robed figure removed her—she was definitely a woman, he saw now—hood, and Ryou immediately knew how she must have felt when she first saw his face. It had been almost six years, but she hadn't changed a bit. That long, elegant black hair, those sparkling, mischievous eyes... Ryou remembered every detail of her face. Without conscious input, his lips formed her name.
"Kou...?"
She smiled a beatific, amused smile that he remembered too well.
"It's very good to see you again, Ryou, but we have serious matters to discuss."