Tokyo Mew Mew:
Tokyo Mew Mew:
The Third Generation
Chapter 1:
Time has passed since the legendary battle, which has driven the aliens back to where they came from. There has been peace in Tokyo for several decades now, and the people have flourished in happiness and prosperity. The enemy has shown no sign of returning.
However, a twelve-year-old girl is restless. Her name is Hikari Tanaka, meaning "light" in Japanese. It is already two o'clock in the morning, but she is still awake, having lost hope of falling asleep long ago. She finally sits up and gazed out the window, where a thin waxing crescent lights up the dark night sky. Once again, she pondered the confusing dream she had the night before, one that she's had thirteen times now.
She wanders through a dark fog, unable to see anything, but an eerie sound penetrates her ears. It most resembles… ticking, like that of a clock. Afraid, she walks faster, calling for help but receiving none. Suddenly, the fog lifts, revealing a bottomless dark hole before her. Before she can stop herself, she involuntarily flings herself into this hole. The ticking grows louder as she falls deeper into this dark chasm. Panicking, Hikari screams. As if on cue, she begins falling backwards, feeling her body rising out of the hole at a frightening rate. The dream then reverses itself, the hole disappears, the fog returns. Hikari is walking rapidly backwards, with no control over her actions. The ticking increases in volume, and it becomes almost unbearable… It was then that Hikari woke up in a cold sweat.
Her eyes misted over at her failure to interpret the dream. All of her life, she had been a perfectionist, being at the top of her class, being taught that anything can be achieved with hard work. She received pressure from her family and classmates, who always had such high expectations for her, disapproving if she did not meet them. It was ironic, she thought, that her name meant "light," when in reality she thought of herself as dark, cold, and unfriendly. Only her four closest friends knew her cheerful side, which she rarely displayed when they were not around. With a sign of frustration, Hikari wiped her eyes and lay back down, hoping to obtain some sleep before school.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew, her annoying alarm clock was going off with enough noise to wake the entire house, which it did. Silently cursing her stupid alarm clock, Hikari got out of bed, struggling to overcome overwhelming exhaustion as she got dressed.
Her family was already downstairs when Hikari finally went down for breakfast. Her parents were as usual running around in a panicky manner getting ready for work, and her sister, Hoshi, named after the stars in the nice sky, was complaining about everything she could think of. As always, Hikari ignored everyone and sat down to eat her breakfast.
The bus arrived a few minutes after she finished eating. Instinctively, Hikari dropped everything she was doing, grabbed her enormously heavy dark blue backpack and ran out the door to catch the bus, Hoshi running clumsily behind her.