This is my first fanfiction so please read and review! But no flames please!
This story is rated 'T' for safety.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew.
Prologue- A Winter Night
Snow floated gently down from the heavens, silencing the cold winter night. A faint breeze blew gently as it swirled snow around into intricate loops. The dim glow from streetlamps illuminated the cold darkness. Under normal circumstances I would have thought this night to be beautiful. But nothing has been normal since I was taken away and sent to an old house to live as a kidnapped prisoner or, more accurately, an experiment.
Staring out of the icy window of the room I had been assigned to, I had the sudden eerie feeling of being watched. I turned around to face the entrance to my room and saw that a slight girl, a bit shorter than I was, stood there silently as she stared at me with her wide olive-green eyes. Light blond locks of hair surrounded her pale face, a black ribbon kept the rest of her hair back.
"Yuki-chan, you don't look like you're feeling well," the girl called in her soft voice. She flitted over to me, the small black heels of her shoes clicked against the old wooden floor. The girl wore a short frilly black and white dress.
"Kira, what are you doing here?" I asked, feigning innocence. Kira stopped and stared at me. Her lips curled into a thin ghastly smile and her green eyes sparkled cruelly. Unease flickered through me as I stared at her. I knew something was up.
Other than me, there were five other girls that had been kidnapped: Kira Shimizu, Sorami Hara, Mirai Hoshiyama, Kiyomi Oshiro, and Asuka Miyazaki. We had all been separately placed in our own isolated rooms by our abductors and contact between us was strictly forbidden. However, we were rewarded if we obeyed our kidnappers and went along with their experiments. Kira and Sorami were the only ones that had been obedient and were therefore given the privilege of being able to go outside of their rooms in their spare time and had even been given better accommodations.
At first the experiments were little simple things like giving blood samples to be examined and taking psychological tests. But then our capturers began to insist on us completing several strength and endurance exercises. A couple days after the exercises had started, I had eavesdropped on Kira and Sorami while they were talking about something that had to do with a special injection that perfectly fitted each of our DNA to make us stronger and faster. Since then, I, along with Mirai, Kiyomi, and Asuka, had refused to do anything that was related to the experiments and risked being punished.
Kira glided over next to me to peer out of the chilly window and held her tiny hands behind her back, her face serene and angelic. When she caught me staring at her, Kira flashed me a cold little smile. Kira turned to face me and adopted a look that was supposed to be mournful.
"Something had happened yesterday to your little friend, Asuka," Kira began. An icy pit formed at the bottom of my stomach.
"What did you do?" I demanded, struggling to keep my voice calm and emotionless.
Kira raised an eyebrow. "I did not do anything. Asuka-chan brought her own fate upon herself because of the poor decisions she had made."
I glared at her, angry, despite the fact that what she had just said was probably true.
"Anyway, Asuka-chan had been called down to the basement to have another blood test," Kira continued her story. "When she had gotten there however, Asuka adamantly refused to participate in the test. Nothing had happened to her and she was sent back to her room. But then the next day, she was called down again to the basement and has not returned since."
Kira paused and a cruel gleam leapt into her wide, seemingly innocent eyes. "Both Sorami-chan and I think that Asuka had been administered with the prototype product of all of the tests and research that had been performed on us and our DNA."
I stood frozen, speechless. This wasn't supposed to happen, I thought. According to Mirai's reasoning, our kidnappers were not supposed come up with a final product until later this week, far past the time of when we were supposed to escape- which was later this night.
Kira stared at me, assessing my reaction. "I'm sorry, Yuki. I know how you and Asuka had been friends," she said with false sympathy.
Something inside of me was beginning to snap, but I resisted the urge to scream at Kira. Taking a deep breath, I said mechanically, "Thank you for telling me this, Kira. I sure hope Asuka is all right."
She nodded her head, appearing pleased with my response to her news. "I'm sure she is fine."
Kira turned to leave and was just out the door when she looked back and said with a chilly slight smile, "I hope you reconsider your decision to not take part in these tests. If you don't, something bad will happen to you, I'm sure of it." Kira then turned and glided away, closing and locking my door behind her.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5… I counted her footsteps to make sure that she was truly leaving me alone before collapsing onto the floor. I leaned against the wall with my head in my hands, shaking. Closing my eyes, I recalled the day we all arrived at this house disguised as a prison.
"Welcome to your new home, my dears," the lady trilled cheerfully as we got out of her car and stepped into the entrance of a tall, slightly breaking down brick house. The house was three stories high and looked like it was cut out of a horror movie. Most windows were covered with closed shutters but the ones that were open were dark and empty looking. "I sure hope you have a wonderful time during your stay. Please be aware that your parents have authorized this and soon you'll be able to write them."
I knew she was lying. She had to be. There was no way my mother and father had allowed me to be taken away to some dingy old house in the middle of nowhere with a creepy middle-aged lady. I also had my doubts about the whole 'you'll get to write to your parents soon' part.
"Excuse me ma'am, but why have we been sent here?" a girl raised her hand and asked. Her long, sleek black hair shone in the sunlight, a contrast to her turquoise eyes.
"Ah, yes. I believe that your name is Asuka Miyazaki, right?" the lady asked. The black-haired girl nodded slowly. "Well, Asuka, you and your four other companions here" -the lady shot us a dazzling white smile- "have been specially chosen to take part in a couple of tests to further science!"
"What type of tests?" another girl with caramel-brown hair asked curiously.
"These tests are to determine whether or not mankind can host the powers of animals, Kiyomi Oshiro-san," the lady said mysteriously. The lady then frowned slightly and tipped her head to one side, her golden glossy curls bouncing. "Oh, dear me, I forget my manners. My name is Erina Kishimoto but you all may call me Eri. My husband, Akihito, is the head of the research here. I'm sure you all will meet him eventually."
Eri's green eyes sparkled."Now then, shall we all introduce ourselves so we can properly get to know each other?"
Asuka stepped forward uncertainly. "My name is Asuka Miyazaki, which you all should know by now."
A girl with fiery red hair and amber eyes glanced at us all coolly. "My name is Mirai Hoshiyama."
"I'm Kiyomi Oshiro," the caramel-brown haired girl said, her dark eyes sparkled as she smiled.
"Hey, I am Sorami Hara," a girl with wavy platinum blond hair and sky-blue eyes said confidently.
Shoving locks of my golden-brown hair out of my face, I stepped forth. "Hi, I'm Yuki Tsukino."
The last and youngest girl walked forward to introduce herself. "Hello, my name is Kira Shimizu." She smiled at us all sweetly. "It is such a pleasure to meet you all."
"Now that introductions are out of the way, shall we go and check out you new rooms?" Eri asked. She led us into the house, pointing out rooms that we can go into and rooms that were forbidden.
Most rooms were decorated with fancy rugs, antique paintings, and old imported Victorian-era furniture. Eri showed us all to our own private quarters before telling us that dinner was served promptly at seven o' clock and that we were to stay in our rooms until then.
My room, like all the other girls', was plain with just a bed, a closet, a desk, and a small dressing table. Eri had closed the bedroom door behind me and I had heard the locks click into place. I shivered lightly and struggled to overcome a sense of foreboding that had settled in my heart.
Something bad is going to happen, something that can't be stopped, I thought.
(Present Time)
Later that night…
Somewhere downstairs, a grandfather clock chimed twelve in the morning. I held my breath as I slowly sat up in my bed. Heart beating, I got off the mattress and crept to my closet where I had stashed a shoulder bag containing a couple shirts, pants, socks, and undergarments. Quickly changing into a dark green sweater, black jeans, and dark boots, I shrugged on a warm black button-up coat and tiptoed to the bedroom door, reaching into my pockets for the tiny barrettes Kiyomi had lent me to pick the lock of the door. After fiddling around and imitating the way Kiyomi had shown me to pick a lock for a few minutes, the door swung open soundlessly. Creeping down empty corridors and locked doors, I made my way to the first floor where Mirai and Kiyomi were supposed to be waiting.
"Mirai, Kiyomi, are you here?" I whispered as loudly as I dared. A sharp Shh came from my right. I turned to see Mirai and Kiyomi dressed in layers like I was carrying shoulder bags similar to mine.
"Are you crazy, Yuki?" Mirai hissed. "Do you want to get caught?"
Kiyomi glanced around uneasily. "Come on already; let's go before we get caught. If Eri or anyone else found out that we were escaping, then we'll surely suffer the same fate as Asuka... or worse."
Worry filled me at the mention of Asuka. "Do you guys know if she is, well, alive?"
Kiyomi and Mirai shook their heads in unison. Hearts heavy, we headed out the front door and walked briskly away from the house and across the courtyard that was surrounded by a small forest. Snow fell lightly onto our heads.
"Do you know if there are cameras out here?" I asked. They both shook their heads again. As we were nearing the middle of the courtyard, a sharp and familiar voice rang out.
"And just where are you girls heading to?" Eri asked dangerously.
We all swung around to see Eri, a couple of rather sleepy looking assistants, and a sneering Sorami stalk out from behind a thicket of trees. Kira followed from behind with a satisfied smirk. A tall man with evenly cropped black hair strode next to her. He frowned at us with a slightly amused expression, like as if we were naughty kids whose attempt at creating mischief had failed.
"Dear children, did you really think that you could leave your new home without me and my wife knowing?" the man asked with a crooked smile.
Wife? I thought. Is this Eri's husband, Akihito?
Mirai took a step back, taking in quick breaths. Fear glittered in her amber eyes but she didn't let it show in her voice as she bravely said," This isn't any home of ours." A silent message shone in her eyes, telling us to get ready to run. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we shall be leaving."
We all turned and pelted across the remainder of the courtyard and into the trees that surrounded it.
"Catch them," Akihito ordered calmly. I risked a look behind me to see that Eri, Akihito, Sorami, Kira, and all of the assistants were racing after us. One of the assistants raised something I couldn't see and a tranquilizer dart flew past me, missing by an inch.
"Hurry up!" Kiyomi screamed. The sound of heavy footsteps got closer and I forced myself to run faster.
I dodged branches and cut through brambles, tearing my clothes in the process. Behind me, Sorami slipped on a patch of ice but quickly regained her footing. Kiyomi ran beside me and leapt over a fallen log. I glanced behind us to see an assistant that was just a few meters away raise a tranquilizer gun and shoot it at Kiyomi. Kiyomi crumpled to the ground, her eyes already becoming dull with exhaustion.
"Run and catch up to Mirai!" she yelled hoarsely. "Escape, Yuki! I'll be fine." I hesitated, not wanting to leave her, but nodded tersely and sprinted after Mirai.
Mirai had stopped a few yards ahead of me, staring at a problem we hadn't considered: the fifteen foot tall iron fence that surrounded the property. I stumbled to a halt, my heart sinking as I eyed the fence. Mirai glanced at me, doubt clear in her eyes.
"I supposed we could climb a tree and then try to jump over it," she said slowly. She turned and leapt onto the nearest branch of a tree. I chose a different tree, a maple tree, to climb.
My hands clung tightly as I slithered up the tree cautiously. Bark dug into my palms and barren branches scratched my face. The tree swayed slowly in the wind and I was somewhat sheltered from the falling snow. Mirai was higher than I was, almost eye-level to the black iron fence. She crouched on an upper branch and was preparing to jump when Sorami, Kira, and the others bursted out from the trees and stood below us. A man raised his tranquilizer gun and aimed for us but Eri held up a hand.
"Don't shoot. I don't want any of them to break their bones if they fall off the trees," she ordered. Akihito stood next to her and gestured for Kira and Sorami to climb after us.
Sorami scrambled quickly after Mirai, smiling grimly. "I wouldn't jump if I were you," she called. "I'm sure you know, Mirai, that you're too far to leap across the fence." Mirai glowered down at her but we both knew that she was right. If Mirai jumped off of the tree, she would risk impaling herself onto the fence.
Meanwhile, Kira was racing towards me, the tights she had changed into kept on getting ensnared on branches. I grabbed desperately at tree limbs, pulling myself higher and higher until I was past Mirai and Sorami. I bent down on a thin branch, gasping for air as I estimated how much force I would have to leap with to clear the fence.
"Yuki-chan, are you sure you want to do this?" Kira asked below me, unwilling to climb any higher. "Even if you do make it over the fence, you'll probably break you leg or ankle. And we both don't want that to happen." Her lips curled into a sneer. "It's over for you and your little friends. Kiyomi is unconscious and Mirai is trapped. And I know that you are too afraid to jump over the fence and leave your friends behind."
I scowled at her angrily. "You don't know me at all, Kira."
"Just jump Yuki!" Mirai called in exasperation.
She smiled at me. "Yes, listen to Mirai. Go ahead and jump."
"Kira stop taunting Yuki and capture her already!" Eri called angrily. Kira glanced down and let out a sigh before slowly edging her way up to me.
I hesitated and stared at the gap between myself and freedom. Only a few feet away was Kira, climbing slowly but confident that she had won. Closing my eyes, I pushed off the branch and sailed over the fence. I gasped as I opened my eyes. The ground rushed towards me at an alarming rate and I braced myself for landing. Pain shot up my ankle when I hit the ground. I stumbled and closed my eyes, nauseous.
"I guess I really don't know you, Yuki-chan," Kira called, amused. I glanced back and resisted the childish impulse to stick out my tongue at her. Eri and her assistants were staring at me with rage and fear in their eyes.
"Yuki Tsukino, get back here right now," Eri ordered. She glanced at her assistants and they raised their tranquilizers.
I ignored her and fled from the prison I had been trapped in for all this time. I heard the faint snick as tranquilizer darts embedded themselves in trees near me. One dart grazed my arm before flying past me. I staggered weakly but continued to run. The stride of my legs grew longer and longer. For the first time ever, I was glad that I had been put through all of those endurance and speed tests.
Taking in even breaths, the distance between me and my prison was lengthening. I knew that Akihito and Eri would not let me go so easily but right now, all I could concentrate on was running. Above me, the winter moon shone dimly through a gap in the clouds as snow blanketed the world around me as the winter night went on and on.