(A.N./ Here lies a story that proves that inspiration comes from random things, at any time, anywhere. I have no clue where this one came from. I did some research, and no one has done a Tokyo Mew Mew and Alice in Wonderland combination, although it has been done with different animes. I'm releasing this is three parts, since its pretty big for one thing. Without further ado, enjoy!)
--
"Ryou, you heartless slave driver!" Ichigo growled.
After a hard day's work serving customers, she had found her fate in her boss's hands when he ordered her to clean the floors of the café, dismissing the rest of the employees to their homes. It made her positively angry. So angry, in fact, that she slammed her mop harshly in the bucket (causing it to tip over), and slumped down in the nearest chair to her. She didn't care in the least bit whether she had to clean up the water she spilled, or pick up the mop, she just simply wanted rest.
Letting out a tired sigh, she thought to herself,
Oh, the things I would give to be rid of this job. But, I guess I can't do much about it, since I have the Mew genes in me, and I need to work at the 'secret base'.
Still, though, Ryou has no reason to work me to the bone like this! He lets all of the others go, but not me, oh no, I have to mop the entire floor…
"Just talking about it makes me sleepy…" she said quietly to herself. Resting her head gently on her arm which was laid on the table, she allowed her eyelids to flutter shut.
I'll just rest my eyes a bit…
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind did she hear a shrill cry above her head,
"Ichigo, Ichigo!" She lifted her head up slowly and blinked a couple times to get in focus to the world around her. She then looked around to see Masha flying around in panicked circles,
"Ichigo! Hurry! Hurry!"
"What is it, Masha?" Ichigo asked curiously. However, Masha continued with his alarm as if he didn't hear her,
"Hurry! Hurry!" Ichigo made a reach to grab him out of the air above her, but he was too quick and dodged. Flying over to what Ichigo identified as the basement door of the café, the little robot continued,
"Ichigo! Hurry! Ichigo!" Ichigo got up from the table and stretched drowsily. She wandered over to where Masha was indicating and hesitantly opened the door. She was about to step inside when she must have tripped, for she fell forward instantly. She let out a scream, expecting to tumble down the stairs, but she felt nothing. Opening an eye hesitantly, she saw she was actually falling down a rather large hole, both sides of it lines with shelves. She opened both eyes now, scanning the walls around her with curiosity.
The shelves were all lines with various cakes, tarts, and parfaits. Their colorful berries and frostings stood out against the dirt, brown walls and brown oak shelves. Still awaiting some kind of fall, Ichigo decided to amuse herself by reaching out and snatching a passing cake off the shelf.
She examined her catch to see she had grabbed a blackberry tart situated on a decorative little china plate, and a small fork laid delicately on the side. Definitely not her favorite dessert. She stuck her tongue out and, setting the cake on her lap, (which was still drifting in the rushing air) she grabbed for a second treat on a passing shelf.
This time, when she examined it, she found it was a strawberry parfait in a small, glass dish, with a small spoon stick into it. Bright, red, juicy strawberries decorated the sides of the parfait. Layers of berry crème, vanilla cake, and ice crème made up the most of the dessert, and a small dollop of whipped crème placed lightly on top. She smiled in delight.
Mmm, delicious, she thought to herself. She lifted the spoon and was about to take a bite before she landed in a chair.
Ichigo looked around in curiosity at the room around her, all the while wondering why she didn't die on impact.
The room she was in was fashioned like Café Mew Mew, the light pink wallpaper and heart-shaped trimming were decorating the walls, and the brown, polished floorboards strangely similar to the ones Ichigo just cleaned were laid on the floor.
She was also sitting in one of the white-and-red decorated chairs that were exclusive to Café Mew Mew. Before her stood the matching table.
Ichigo set the tart and parfait before her on the table. Getting up from the chair, she resolved to have a look around the strange place.
The entire room was fashioned in a similar circular shape to the café, except she saw no doors and no windows.
Spooky, she thought as she looked around. She was suddenly surprised by a cry of,
"Ichigo! Hurry!" Ichigo, once again, found Masha flying around her head in small circles.
"Masha!" she exclaimed. She tried, once again, to catch him out of the air, but he just wouldn't stay still long enough for Ichigo to take a good aim at him. Flying over to the other side of the room, Ichigo noticed a small, six-inch door. She was sure it wasn't there before.
Masha opened the small door with his tail and flew in, having no trouble fitting through the door. Ichigo walked over and got down on hands and knees, examining the small door to find it shut. She tried turning the knob, but it was locked.
Furrowing her brow, Ichigo got back up and sat down in the chair that she arrived in. She looked before her to see the uneaten strawberry parfait.
Well, she decided, picking up the spoon, Dessert is supposed to help you think. It calms your nerves, I guess…
She took off a small bite from the parfait and ate it. The taste was wonderful, like a fluffy cloud of strawberries and crème. Ichigo closed her eyes, enjoying the flavor to its full extent, and smiling contentedly. She opened them, however, to find that she was not at all in the same place she was before. In fact, she barely recognized her surroundings if it wasn't for the fact that she recognized the wallpaper. Her surroundings hadn't changed, she had!
She looked down to see that the chair and table she used to be seated at were small, like doll furniture to her, and her head was scraping up against the ceiling. She bent over and looked down to see the floor.
I must be twenty feet tall by now! And I can't transform, I left my pendant in my bag back at the café! I How am I ever going to get out now…? she said to herself sorrowfully. She hugged her knees and buried her face in them.
Slowly, one by one, tears began to slide down her face and drip off her chin. Light sobs escaped her and gasps for air as more tears were falling by the second.
It was what seemed like half an hour before Ichigo finally lifted her head and dried her face. She came to the realization that she was, in fact, sitting in a small pool formed from her tears! She had filled the whole room about a foot deep, in her perspective. She was now more astonished than sad, all the more so when she spied something in the corner of her eye.
A small, brown mouse was rowing through the lake she had created, seated in a little black umbrella, and making full use of his paws to paddle. She looked at it strangely before realizing that the object of her interest was trying to get her attention,
"Oi! You there! Old hag!" She blinked and stared at it strangely.
A talking mouse? That's weird. But, I suppose everything else that is happening today is weird also. She retorted with a scowl,
"I'm not an old hag!" The mouse rolled its strangely-colored amber eyes,
"Look, if your going to flood the room, at least let it drain through the door, idiot." Ichigo buried her face in her knees, reminded once again of her failure with the door.
"I can't fit through that small door." she said meekly. The impudent mouse, once again, rolled its small eyes,
"Just eat the blackberry tart before you soak that through as well." Ichigo was about to ask why, but, appealing to her better judgment, picked up the small fork and took a bite from the tart that well could have been the whole pastry itself. Popping it in her mouth, she felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller, until she landed on top of the chair. Taking a step, she realized she was on all fours,
"Nya?! I've turned into a cat!" she cried. The mouse grimaced and continued to paddle onward. Ichigo wasn't about to let it go,
"Wait, Mr. Mouse!" The mouse turned its head, and Ichigo continued, "Can you tell me how to get out of this room?"
Even from a distance, Ichigo could make out the mouse rolling its eyes, the simple action proving itself as the mouse's favorite pastime,
"The fork is the key. Stupid hag." It noted the last little insult before continuing his paddling. Ichigo ignored the remark and gripped the fork she had dropped on the chair next to her with her mouth. She leaned over the edge of the chair, preparing to dive.
Here goes nothing, she said to herself. She jumped and splashed into the water. She immediately regretted doing so, though, because it caused the most uncomfortable feeling in her suffering black fur. She groaned through her teeth and paddled her way to the small door, trailing at a distance from the small, brown mouse.
After a few minutes of tiring maneuvering through the salty lake, Ichigo was at the small door, the little brown mouse waiting for her impatiently,
"Hand me the key." it said with an irritated tone. Ichigo lifted her face up to the mouse and it took it from her mouth with a disgusted face,
"You have terrible breath." Ichigo scowled and considered actually taking a good bite out of the foul-mouthed beast, before she remembered that she didn't care for her meat raw.
The mouse dipped its arm into the water and fidgeted underneath. Ichigo guessed that he was trying to fit the fork into the lock.
After several moments, though, he managed to unlock the door, and the water flooded out past the two creatures, sending them both down the current of tears.
"Nyaaa!" Ichigo cried as she came out the door in the flood of water. She found herself coming into contact with a tree head-first, managing to wedge her small head and shoulder span between some branches. The rest of her cat body hung limply out the tree after the current of water receded. She pushed and pulled either direction, but she couldn't manage to get herself out of this particular predicament.
Soon enough, she heard voices outside the tree,
"What is it?"
"Some kind of garden ornament?"
"It has a tail with a bell."
"Mommy, can I ring it?"
"I wanna touch its foot!"
Ichigo felt light tickling on her feet and tail. Unable to control herself, she kicked her feet this way and that, letting out desperate 'nya's here and there. Small gasps and murmurs of surprise were heard from the unidentified crowd outside. One of them shouted,
"Grab the tail; pull with all your might!" Ichigo protested to that idea, and soon made it known by struggling terribly to get out of that tree. However, the gathering stood fast and managed to get a hold of her tail and pull. She screeched in the sharp pain from her tail as she felt herself being yanked out of the tree.
"One! Two! Three! PULL!"
She tumbled out of the tree, backside first, onto the wet, grassy ground beneath her. Turning over and getting up on her feet, the crowd gasped,
"I-it's a cat!"
"Run!"
"Get out of here!"
The small crowd of what Ichigo saw was various animals were running in all different directions, all of them leading away from her. She looked around desperately and began to chase a crowd of frightened birds,
"Wait up! I won't hurt, you really! I just need you to tell me where I-"
Before she could finish, the flock of small birds twittered angrily and took flight, leaving Ichigo skidding to a stop. Gazing up in the sky, she called after them,
"Wait!"
Her efforts were in vain, though, because, even if they really had heard her, they weren't about to stop to get 'eaten'.
Ichigo sighed and looked around her. She saw that, in her chase of the birds, she had followed them into an unfamiliar forest-like place. Quite lost, she wandered around a bit before she heard the familiar small alarm,
"Ichigo! Ichigo!" Ichigo called,
"Masha!" The little robot flew over to her left,
"Ichigo, the house! The house!" Ichigo turned to look, and, sure enough, there was a little, snug cottage seated a ways back into the woods. She turned,
"What about the house, Masha?"
Only, Masha wasn't there.
Ichigo sighed and decided that Masha must be alarmed by something in that house, and, being lost and all, she had nothing better to do.
Coming to the house, she stepped onto the small porch and knocked the door. No answer came. Feeling a little like Goldilocks, she walked inside the little cottage, expecting to see a table with three bowls of porridge.
Instead, though, she saw a cozy little room, with calming, floral wallpaper and a small, warm-looking bed seated in the corner, with a nightstand next to it. A rug was laid on the floor neatly, and a fireplace was crackling on the dying embers on the south wall.
Separated from the homey room was a small kitchen, with all of the necessary appliances and tools an individual would need. A small bathroom was off to a side, also separated by a wall.
"What a quaint little house…" Ichigo said to herself. She walked slowly through the room, taking in her surroundings. She was about to lay in front of the dying heat of the fire to dry off the remainder of her wet fur when she noticed something seated on top of the nightstand next to the bed. It was a small, orange crème soda, with a small bit of whipped crème on top. Ichigo walked over to it, observing how delicious it looked,
Well, I can't let it go stale, now can I? she said to herself. She put her mouth to the straw poking out and began to drink.
No sooner than she did she felt herself growing bigger. She lifted her mouth from the straw and looked at her paws, which were beginning to grow into human hands.
Uh boy, she thought to herself as she grew larger and larger. She had to crouch down to avoid having her neck break under pressure of the ceiling. Now back on hands and knees, she found herself sticking one hand out an open window to avoid it being smashed against the wall. In the same manner, she found a foot had to be shoved out the opposite window.
"Great…" she muttered, "How do I manage to get myself into these kind of situations so easily?"
While trying to think up and easy solution, her ears happened to catch the sound of pattering feet and a hurried conversation,
"Yota! Quick, get a ladder! Try to get through the chimney!"
"Right."
The next noise she heard was metal clanging and scurrying of claws on what sounded to be the ladder they spoke of. Ichigo ran their rushed conversation through their head again before yelling,
"Wait! Don't go through the chimney! It's-"
Before she could finish, she heard scurrying of feet in the chimney behind her, soon following was a yelp and a high-pitched screech, carrying on out the top of the chimney.
Ichigo winced as she knew that this "Yota" character has just had his bottom meet with the hot cinders in the fireplace. She soon heard more scurrying of feet and conversation,
"We'll have to burn the house down at this rate, Sir Masaya!"
"No, I have a better solution." the "Masaya" person replied. Ichigo mused at the sound of his voice. It sounded so calm and peaceful, yet so familiar somehow. She liked it very much.
A few moments later she felt something in her hand. She clenched her fist and felt a small hand retract itself from her grasp. Apparently, Yota still had his hand in place when Ichigo had closed it, judging by the familiar high-pitched squeal. She brought her hand as close to herself as she could, and opened it to reveal a small, plain, brown cake, now a bit squished from its journey in Ichigo's hand. Judging by her past experiences with cakes, she made no hesitation to pop the cake into her mouth. Sure enough, she began to grow smaller and smaller.
Soon after, she, once again, found herself on all fours.
"Great." she muttered.
She dashed out of the house to come face-to-face with her saviors, Yota and Masaya. Yota was a small, green lizard with big eyes and a long tail, small purple spots dotting his scales, he had a slight hunch to him, and was shivering nervously.
Masaya, however, looked more human. Actually, Ichigo might have said he WAS human, judging by his looks. But he had a pair of black panda ears and tail, and was much smaller than an average human.
Ichigo didn't have much time to stop and stare, though, because soon after her observation a small gathering of animals rushed out of the woods,
"What's all of the commotion?"
Ichigo took that as her cue to leave, considering she probably ruined the interior of that nice cottage.
Giddy from her encounter with the boy that she now labeled as "absolutely adorable", Ichigo wasn't really paying much attention to where on earth she was headed. That's when she ran, head-on, into a huge mushroom.
Sitting up from the ground and rubbing her head with one paw, she looked up at the mushroom cap above her. She then saw small tufts of smoke coming from the top. Curiosity killed the cat, they say, but Ichigo wasn't about to believe it. Getting up on a second mushroom next to it, she reached over to the top and put her paws up, peering over.
On top of the mushroom sat what looked like a young man, or maybe and older teenager. His hair was lavender purple, and he was dressed in Arabian-style clothing. His pants were white and baggy, hanging off the shape of his muscular-looking legs. His vest was patterned with gold designs, also hanging loosely. A simple gold bangle was on the higher part of his arm. A big, thick turban was wrapped around his head, encrusted with a purple jewel.
He was smoking what appeared to be a long pipe. Ichigo mused about what age he was, and whether or not his parents knew he was smoking.
Before she could comment, however, the man turned to her,
"Who…are…you?" he said slowly. He had a very deep, frightening voice that was made for a leader. It was a voice that carried power. Ichigo shrunk back a bit before replying,
"My name is Ichigo and I-"
"I only asked you…who you were…" he interrupted. He smoked his pipe for a few moments and left the conversation dangling in the air. Ichigo was about to interrupt him before he continued, "…I didn't ask you…anything else." Ichigo furrowed her brow,
"As I was saying, could you please tell me how to-"
"Don't interrupt…young one." he said, taking another long whiff of his pipe. Ichigo was getting rather angry,
"Oh, so I'm the one interrupting, now? Is that it? How old are you, should you be smoking a pipe? Calling me young one-"
"There you go…again. Interrupting…" he drawled on.
"I am not interrupting, YOU are! How in the world am I the one interrupt-?"
"You're interrupting….my…thoughts." he said lazily. He smoked his pipe some more while Ichigo tried to calm her nerves as she spoke,
"Anyway, could you please tell me how to get back to my normal size? I don't see any cakes-"
"What…cakes?"
"I said," Ichigo continued patiently, getting used to the interrupting game, "I haven't found any cakes. Cakes tend to make me larger or smaller here-"
"Larger…" he repeated, taking a long smoke before continuing, "…or smaller…" Ichigo nodded, trying to grasp how to communicate with this strange man,
"Yes, that's right, do you-?"
"Why do you want to be…larger…or smaller…" Ichigo sighed,
"Well, it gets frustrating when you're always the wrong height around here, and I'm not even my original size!" Ichigo paused to consider she had actually finished her statement without being interrupted. The queer person lifted the pipe from him and got up from the mushroom. He stepped down and wandered into the tall grass on the west, calling back lazily,
"One side is taller…One side is shorter…"
Then he was gone.
Ichigo lifted herself down from the mushroom and considered his words. What exactly did he mean?
He makes absolutely no sense. But, of course, nothing is making any sense today. Ichigo concluded, But what do I make of what he said?
I suppose that he's answering my question, but what was that about sides? What does he mean by that? Sides of the lawn? Sides of the mushroom? Sides of the trees? Ichigo was utterly confused.
"Well, the best thing to try, I guess, would be the two mushrooms sitting on either side of the big one, that makes sense…" she said to herself. She walked over to the left and right mushrooms, taking a piece off each. She popped the first one in her mouth. It tasted like, not surprisingly, mushroom.
She waited a few moments. Nothing. She didn't grow any larger OR smaller.
I must have the riddle wrong; it's not the two mushrooms… Ichigo thought. She set down the two pieces of mushroom and walked over to the big mushroom.
"He must mean the two sides of the big one." she said aloud. Chipping off a small piece of each, she took a little bite of the one in her right hand. She felt herself beginning to grow smaller. She quickly ate a chunk of the other one. She felt herself grow larger, and she grew into a human again, and getting bigger. She quickly took a nibble off the one in her right hand and began to shrink to about a foot and a half tall, a comfortable enough size for wandering the land. She realized, however, that she still had her black cat ears and tail attached to her.
"Oh well…" she sighed, "At least I'm a comfortable size and walking on two feet."
With that, she started off into the woods to the east of her.
As she was walking along, she began to wonder,
I wonder how long I've been down here? An hour or so? No, it has to be longer than that. I wonder what my parents are thinking…I wonder what Ryou is thinking. He probably thinks I ditched him or committed suicide, or something like that. She giggled at the thought of Ryou's shocked face as he saw the overturned mop bucket and no Ichigo.
She didn't have to navigate long to come across another small house, except this one was larger, more like a home for a very wealthy nobleman. She heard screaming and yelling from the inside, and smelled a strange smell. She couldn't put her finger on what exactly the smell was, but she decided to take a look inside the house, just to make sure the poor residents weren't being robbed or something of the sort. After all, with all the commotion in the house, they very well could be.
Knocking on the door briefly, hearing no answer over the clamor and screaming, Ichigo dared to open the door and step inside.
Once inside, the smell hit her nose like a bullet. Pepper. The pepper was everywhere, on everything, in the cramped room of the spacious house. It was a kitchen, to be exact, in which was a young-looking, lime-green-haired cook with her back turned to a rocking chair. In the rocking chair sat another girl with lavender-colored hair (similar to the smoking man), who looked about five years older than the cook did. She was rocking back and forth rather harshly, with what appeared to be a screaming child on her lap. The cook was throwing various pots and pans behind her in a flurry, after each one yelling,
"Sorry! Sorry! Very sorry, Duchess, m'lady!" The Duchess, wearing a very formal-looking dress, was dodging pots and pans left and right, still managing to keep a cool, calm look on her face, sneeze occasionally, and violently rock the child, who was sneezing.
In fact, the only two people in the room who weren't sneezing were the cook, and a cat. Well, actually, it was sort of a cat.
Lying on the floor on the other side of the room was yet another human-animal. This one appeared a little taller and older than Masaya, and he had jet-black cat ears and tail, similar to Ichigo's but he had added cat paws. His hair was a forest green, and his eyes a piercing gold, not unlike real cat eyes. The thing Ichigo seemed to notice about him first was that, for one, he was staring right at her, and secondly, he was wearing a tremendous smirk. For some reason, that smirk of his just made her mad.
She had no idea as to why it made her angry, and why all of these people seemed so familiar, so she chose to ignore him and all of the questions and intercept the Duchess with some kind of conversation, trying her best to be mannerly,
"Excuse me, but why does that cat smirk like that? And why does it look like a human with cat features?" The Duchess turned and looked at her with a blank stare,
"It's a Cheshire-Cat," she sneezed before continuing, "It always does that. And you shouldn't be one to make remarks, seeing as you have a similar appearance."
Right… Ichigo thought, I have cat features too…
After the Duchess gave her giving her the most frank answer possible, she resumed her rocking of the sneezing and howling baby. Then came another round of pots and pans from the cook,
"Sorry! I'm sorry! Sorry! So very sorry!" Ichigo jumped back in terror,
"Stop it, will you?! You'll hurt the child!" The Duchess sneezed some more and replied,
"It's none of your matter to deal with, now is it, young girl?" Ichigo scowled a bit,
"But what about the baby?" The Duchess gave her another blank stare,
"What about it?"
"You'll…you'll kill it at this rate!"
The Duchess got up from her rocking chair in one sweeping motion of her elegant robes and thrust the child into Ichigo's arms,
"You take care of it then. I will be off to the hunting party with the Queen." with that, she strode out of the room gracefully. Ichigo followed after her, still holding the child,
"Wait! Duchess! You shouldn't…" her voice trailed off as she reached the outside to discover the Duchess's absence. Breathing a sigh of fresh and non-peppered air, she glanced down at the child. She blinked her eyes to make sure they weren't deceiving her when she saw that she wasn't holding the child. Instead, she saw she was holding a small monkey with orange-like fur. She hastily set it down, and the animal ran into the forest ahead, out of sight.
She wondered if that was really the right thing to do. What if the Duchess found out? Actually, she probably wouldn't care all too much, considering how she was handling the child earlier. So she concluded that it was the right thing to let the animal roam free.
Completely immersed in her thoughts, she didn't notice the Cheshire cat in the branches of the tree above her until he let out a little snicker...
--