A/N Heh, another story about Anzu. x3 I've been drawing some Tokyo Mew Mew stuff on deviantART lately (including Anzu), and after seeing the sketch of her Essence of Gold drew for me (which depicted her with short hair), I redrew her like that because it looked better (so go Izzy!). xD Anywhats, I wrote this ficlet as an explanation for the change.
Also! If you like my work, or the work of Essence of Gold, Kiichigo-chan, True Colours or Saba's Reflection, then please, please check out the contest we're all hosting? :D .net/s/5912506/1/Ykoto_Guess_the_Author_Contest We'd all appreciate it, and I promise it's a fun contest. x3 Thank you~!
~Gypsy
Anzu crashed to the ground and slid, coming stop a stop as her head bumped up against the side of a tree. "Ow," she moaned, sitting up dazedly and brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Get up!" barked Zakuro as she bounded past, stopping in front of the prone girl and extending the handle of her whip. Anzu grabbed it hastily and the taller girl pulled her to her feet. "Don't get distracted again if you don't want to die," Zakuro warned before turning and leaping into the air, lashing out at the head of the kirema anima that had been coming up behind her with her whip.
"Uh… right!" Anzu called lamely after her, picking up her own weapon from where she'd dropped it and pushing back into the fray.
"I could use some help over here, please!" Lettuce called from her right. One of the snake kirema's multiple heads had the porpoise Mew backed up against the park fence and was snapping at her, long fangs glistening. Anzu dashed forward, waiting for an opportunity to throw her shuriken and the weaving, bobbing thing. "Ribon Lettuce Rush!" Lettuce finally cried, and the kirema lurched backward as a rush of water and bubbles slammed into its nose; Anzu took the opportunity hurl her weapon with practiced precision at the incapacitated monster.
"Ribon Anzu Slash!" The kirema's head fell to the ground in a flash of orange light, rolling once before coming to a stop on the grass. Anzu shuddered as she looked at it before sharing a brief, tense smile with Lettuce before turning to survey the situation.
The other Mews were all engaged with one of the kirema's other heads, save for Ichigo, who was having a yelling match with Taruto, the youngest of their alien foes. Anzu stared at her in exasperated silence – she wasn't even fighting him, just shouting insults – wondering whether she should prompt the Mew leader to get back to fighting or focus on fighting herself.
"Anzu, Ichigo, what are you doing just standing around?" Mint's aggravated cry made Anzu's decision for her – she made a face at the blue Mew, who had turned away, before leaping over the lifeless neck of the part of the kirema she'd just killed and joining Pudding and Zakuro.
"Anzu-onee-chan," Pudding cried breathlessly as she drew up beside her. "Pudding will trap them with her Pudding Ring!"
"Alright, go for it!" Anzu shouted, nodding. She turned and leapt into the air – beating her wings once or twice for extra height but not right out flying – and brushed her hair impatiently out of her eyes, lining up her shot at the nearest snake head.
"Ribon Pudding Ring Inferno!" Pudding cried, loosing a blast of yellow light at the head, immobilizing it in pudding. With another cry Anzu threw her shuriken, severing the head. It fell to the ground as the pudding ring dissolved, rolling and dropping with a splash into the lake. Anzu fell to the ground near the shore of the lake, bending her knees to absorb the shock from the jump and looking back toward the kirema, which was sitting on the park path. The main body was the only the left standing, the largest head still attached to the neck and very much alive.
"Mew Ichigo," Mint, who was lowering her arrow, called. "Hurry up and finish it off."
"Hai!" Ichigo cried, finally having pulled herself away from her bickering with the alien. Anzu noted that small boy looked rather disgruntled - the ends of his hair were smoking. Apparently Ichigo been doing more fighting than she'd thought. She paused to brush her hair out of her eyes yet again – several long strands were escaping their pigtails and continually falling in her face.
"Ribon Strawberry Check!" A flash of pink light lit the sky – she heard Taruto's strangled cry of annoyance and the hisses of the kirema anima as the strawberry-flavoured attack consumed it.
"Look out!" Anzu looked up with a start, trying to discern who had shouted. I can't see anything through this damn hair! she thought, swiping the curtain of orange out of her eyes just in time to take in the wall of green scales in very minute detail as it slammed into her and sent her flying into the lake.
"You know what? Screw this!" Anzu declared, swiping the pair of scissors she'd been eyeing off the café's kitchen counter. Ichigo looked up from the magazine she was reading at the table where the Mews took their lunch breaks, eyes widening when she saw what Anzu was doing. The bat girl stood with wild eyes, feet planted and both hands raised above her head, the ends of her long brown hair clenched in one hand and the scissors in the other.
"Wait, are you actually going to-" she ended with a surprised squeak as the blades of the scissors swished closed.
"Haha!" Anzu exclaimed triumphantly, pumping her fist before tossing the shorn hair she was still holding into the trash bin. "That's much better," she declared, shaking out her hair, which now fell just past her shoulders. "This'll be so much more convenient for fighting," she continued, fingering a scruffy, uneven lock as she danced happily past a still-gawping Ichigo. "And I won't have to spend so much time brushing and washing it every morning! Why didn't I think of this earlier?" Anzu ran her hand through her hair, throwing an exuberant smile at Ichigo before heading back out into the café, now humming happily to herself.
"Uh…" Ichigo trailed off, staring in bemused amazement after orange-clad girl as the double doors swung shut behind her. "Whatever works, I guess," she said, shrugging to herself before turning her attention back to her magazine.