To say that Ichigo is ticked off is putting it mildly. She had over slept, causing her to miss breakfast and be late to school.

After that school had gone on forever. Mayasa hadn't showed up at all which just made the day even longer. Then Ryou made her work FIVE hours at the café! Keiichiro had even announced a half price special on all cakes which made the place packed out the door! Lettuce and Mint worked with her today but between Mint's constant tea breaks and Lettuce's even more constant apologies, Ichigo was the only one that was really working.

She was exhausted walking home. It had been a really, really long day. Ichigo let out a heavy sigh as the sky darkened around her and she started in on the long walk home.

She could hear her heavy footfalls on the concrete as she and Lettuce parted their separate ways to go home.

"Good night, Ichigo!" Lettuce smiled. Mint had opted to ride in her chauffeured Mercedes than walk in the dirty street with them, so Lettuce and she had walked for a little while before parting ways.

Ichigo walked on, kicking a stray rock along her way. The walk home on days like this always seemed the longest.

Her footsteps echoed behind her as she walked down the empty sidewalk. The clicking echo behind her was getting irritating by the time she had rounded her third corner. With how dark it was the echoing sound was starting to make her uncomfortable. Ichigo glanced around, keeping a tight hold on her pendant. She had never gotten such an eerie feeling going home from work before. Ichigo started to pick up the pace as she realized the echoing definitely wasn't coming from her own footsteps. This was starting to get scary. She couldn't wait to get home and lock the doors behind her.

Ichigo could see something darting around in the corner of her eyes before she started running. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying hard to calm down, but as she felt a hand brush softly by her cheek she let out a loud and panicked scream.

"Mew Mew METAMORPHOSIS!" She yelled. She could feel the Iromote wild cat encompassing her, creating a seal of protection around her. She felt her skirt flowing around her as power coursed throughout her. With her strawberry bell in her hands she could fend off anybody who dare attacked her.

At the end of her transformation she opened her eyes. Instead of being met with a dirty side walk all she could see were a pair of eerie golden cat's eyes.

"AAAAHHHH!" she screamed as the pale owner of the eyes swooped down and lay a kiss on her. She froze in shock for a few moments before reaching out to punch him the throat with her strawberry bell.

Kish flew back, rubbing his throat sorely.

"Hi kitty cat." He nearly purred. Tart and Pie swooped down beside him, frowning at his show of affection but not making any comment towards it.

Tart was holding a squirrel from the nearby park, and transfused it, making it into a monstrous creature with machine gun hands that shot out nuts like bullets. As Ichigo fought, her screams reached Lettuce, who in turn raced over and called the other mew mews, who were already on their way, sensing that one of them had been under attack.

As the fight continued it got dirtier. Tart had flown down and was in a fierce wrestling match with Pudding. Whereas Lettuce was twirling above the sky in an epic battle with Pie.

Mint, Zakuro, and Ichigo were going head to head with the demonic squirrel, who appeared as a furry, long tailed lady with a penchant for throwing acorns. Ichigo swerved to the side to avoid an oncoming pistachio as Mint let an arrow fly into the monster's hide. The monster screeched out in anger as its claws slashed toward Zakuro, who whipped them back with her spear.

The fight was so intense that nobody had noticed that Kish had teleported behind Ichigo.

Ichigo screamed as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her up from the sidewalk. She reached down at the arms, trying desperately to tear them away.

"Hiya Kitten!" he whispered, his breath tickling her ear.

"Let go of me!" Ichigo struggled as she looked at the city scape bellow her. She gulped and stopped struggling when she realized that she was far above the small city side walk where the fight had happened just moments before.

"Come on, Kitten. I just wanted to spend some quality time alone with you." Kish said, sporting that stupid smirk on his face.

Bellow she could see that Mint and Zakura had combined their attacks to finally destroy the monster. They had aimed their weapons up at Kish, while Ichigo continued to squirm in his arms. "Let her go Kish!" Zakura yelled up at him. Kish chuckled darkly before responding.

"You know you can't do anything to me without hurting my Kitten." he partially sang, tightening his hold on his precious cargo. Pie and Tart had teleported away from their own fights to float above with Kish. Lettuce and Pudding moved to back up Zakura and Mint.

"He's right. We can't do anything without hurting Ichigo!" Mint said while gritting her teeth.

"NO! We have to do something! Pudding, use your tambourine!" Lettuce yelled in despair, turning towards her.

"I can't! If I do that they'll all come crashing to the ground and Ichigo will get hurt!"

"We just have to wait and see what he does." Zakura responded while shooting Kish an angry glare.

"Please be safe Ichigo." Pudding whispered into her hands.

Back up with the Cynicions (and one very angry catgirl), things were just as tense. Ichigo was growling and clawing at Kish's arm, while Kish just stared on in amusement.

"You're so stupid, you old hag. You think doing that will free you? If you keep this up, you'll be as flat as a pancake." Tart giggled. It seemed he wanted to see a flat Ichigo. Pie just rolled his eyes.

"Kish, just get this over with so we can move on to stage two." he said in a bored voice. That made Ichigo even more suspicious.

"What are you guys up to?" she demanded.

"Don't worry, you'll see soon enough my little kitty cat." Kish said with a big grin, caressing her arm.

Ichigo cringed. Whatever it was, she knew it was going to be bad. Ichigo twisted around to meet Kish's face. He started intensely into her eyes. Ichigo gasped and lurched back, struggling her way out of his arms. Kish smirked as Ichigo plummeted to the floor.

Ichigo could feel the air rushing around her as she flew through the sky. Kish had caught her just in time, and he was giving her even more of a devilish grin. He leaned in and kissed Ichigo deeply. Shocked, Ichigo gasped again, allowing Kish to deepen the kiss. She was so distracted by the kiss, that she did not notice Kish had snaked his hand up to her chocker until she felt him pull her power pendent off. Ichigo felt the kiss end right as she turned into a cat. She glared angrily at Kish as he held her up by the scruff of her neck to get a good look at her.

"You know, I kinda like you this way." Kish said with a wink, while holding up her pendant for her to see in his other hand. Ichigo started swiping her paws at it, trying to get it back. Kish better be thankful that he didn't speak cat, because some of the things she was calling him were definitely not nice.

"I'd love to stay and chat Kitten, but I have stuff to do. I'll be keeping this for now. I'll see you soon though." Kish promised with a dark smile. He blew her a kiss, before letting her go and teleporting away with his minions. Zakura had managed to jump up and catch Ichigo in time to stop her from having to have the other Mews form scraping her up off the sidewalk.

"Way to go, losing your power pendent to that creeper." Mint said to the very agitated cat.

Ichigo just shot her an irritated look at her before getting an idea. She gave Mint a sly grin before she launched off of Zakura's chest so she could reach her face. She reached up and smooched Zakura right on the lips. Mint practically burst into flames.

Ichigo stretched leisurely after she returned to human form. She was getting good about not caring who or what she kissed in order to transform back.

"So what's the plan now?" Pudding asked as she clung onto Ichigo, swinging on her out stretched arms.

"I-I don't know." What could she do without her power pendent? She felt helpless without it. How could she just let Kish take it from her like that? She felt so frustrated with herself by being distracted by his kiss.

"Why don't we just go back to Café Mew Mew, and see what Ryou says?" Lettuce added hesitantly.

"Huh? Yeah, sure." Ichigo couldn't think of anything else to do. They all started to head back to their base, not knowing what was about to happen.

#?*!

Kish was back at the headquarters, twirling his precious Kitten's pendent in his hand. He couldn't believe that had worked out so well. Ichigo had been so receptive to his kiss! He couldn't be happier. He felt like he was almost purring.

"Stop daydreaming and give me the pendent. We need to work fast if this is going to work" Pie said in his usual bored tone.

Kish shot him a dark look. He didn't want anyone touching his Kitten's pendant, but he had to do this if the plan was going to work. Beside, surrendering the pendant now would mean that he could hold Ichigo in his arms again later. A dark grin spread across his face.

Just wait a little longer Ichigo, then we will be together.