"STRAWBERRY BELL!"

Mew Ichigo summoned her weapon, grasping it tightly in her hand. She turned around and smiled at the Chimera monster, fluttering her pink gloved fingers, biding a short farewell before completing her attack on the tired monster.

"Reborn Strawberry check!"

The Chimera emitted a last howl, a long ear-piercing howl that shook their surroundings, as it disappeared into shards of light.

Mission accomplished, Mew Ichigo dropped to the ground from her intense attack, panting slightly from the exercise. She turned around clothes fluttering, to scan her surrounding, and noticed Ryou standing by. She nodded in recognition.

Ryou gave her a thumbs-up, smiling.

"Thanks." She replied, short but sincere. She made one more scan of her surroundings, ran back to where she had dropped her stuff.

Mew Ichigo de-transformed and picked up her bag.

"Sorry, but I've got to go now... I'm going to be late. See you later..!! I'll catch you later at work." Ichigo started running toward the direction of her school, late as usual.

Ryou waved her off.

One she'd left, Ryou frowned, thinking.

Perhaps he had just been seeing things, but there seemed to be something wrong... no, different, with her battle moves just now... That was... weird. He turned back, walking back to the café, pondering.

Unnoticed by the pair, a hooded figure narrowed her eyes in the shadow of her hiding place, processing what she had just witness.

Interesting...

"See you tomorrow~!" She waved to her friends, starting off in the direction of the Mew Mew café. Oh dear. I think I'm going to be late. She thought as she sped up.

Ichigo managed to arrive late as usual, to the café. Sneaking in through the back, she went to the changing room and swiftly donned her cute red waitress clothes, still fixing her hair when she walked out to the corridor, innocently.

"You're late." Ryou was leaning against the wall, staring out at the customers. He did not give any other acknowledgement of her presence.

"I..." unable to make up an excuse, Ichigo strode out to the main hall, and started taking orders from customers, putting her friendly smile and efficiency to work.

After the last of their customers finished their food and was ushered out of the café, they hung up the 'Closed' sign. They gathered at the secret basement room.

Ryou spoke first, hesitantly. "There is something that you need to know. We haven't deliberately held this from you, but we think that it's time you knew."

"This world, the world you know, Earth, the Universe... there is more beyond it. There is more to the world than you know." Keiichiro continued for him. "There is more than one universe in the world. There are 3, including ours."

The Tokyo mew mew stared at the two men disbelievingly.

"Is this some sort of prank? A joke?" Ichigo asked first. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No. We need not lie to you. You need to know this, and we are telling you now." Ryou answered, his eyes serious.

Ichigo read the truth from his eyes. "No... way..." She shook her head.

Keiichiro smiled. "When have we lied to you? Just as we told you there were aliens, we are telling you now about the two other universes."

The five girls were silent as they realized this was true. But it was too much to absorb in one moment.

Zakuro regained her calm first. "And what do you mean by another universe?" The other mews nodded. It was the right question to ask, amongst the many questions that had appeared when this idea had been introduced.

"There are 3 universes in total, and they are what we call parallel universes. They run along a parallel line. These universes are very much similar to each other. The people too. For every single person that is born, their counterparts would be born in the other universes at the same time."

Keiichiro paused, searching for an easy explanation.

"For example, there are 3 'Ichigos' in this world, one in each universe. Those two other 'Ichigos' may not bear the same name, but they would look similar, as if they were the same person. They are what we would call counterparts."

"And why are you telling us this, right here, right now?" Minto asked.

"We have detected someone from another universe. Something tells us that they will be interfering with your lives. They—"

"Ichigo." Ryou interrupted Keiichiro with a troubled look in his blue eyes. "Did you sense that anything was... different, in any way, when you were fighting the Chimera this morning?"

Ichigo tilted her head and thought. Yes, something was different, but... she just couldn't quite place it...
"Um, I don't know how to say it... Yes, there was something different, like, a different feel. It was so minor that I might not have noticed... how do I say this..." She fumbled for words, not knowing how to describe it.

Ryou looked thoughtful.

Ahh! I don't know if anyone will review this story~~~ I just wrote it for fun. Maybe the whole thing is a bit sincere, but that was just the beginning. I hope to add some 'fluffy' stuff to it. Please R&R.

PS: I've been going over my stories, and realized how bad they were in the beginning... I've edited and re-written some of the parts. These changes won't interfere with the main storyline. Have no worries about that, people!! I'm doing a big reposting of the story, so sorry if i'm spamming your inbox!