Chapter 1: The creatures
After the world-changing battle of Good versus Evil against Deep Blue had ended, and the Earth was a happy planet which was no longer in great danger, the Mew Mew's gave back their powers, became good friends with the aliens who afterwards had changed for the better, as much as that was hard to believe. Unfortunately, some of the Mew Mew members began moving to different places around Japan, due to different circumstances. A couple of years had now gone ever since they've seen each other but some have still kept contact with each other.
It was a seemingly chill day in the ending of the autumn. A girl was walking in the Zoo, holding a tray of food that appeared to be for the animals. She was wearing an orange hoodie, a black pair of shorts and yellow sneakers. Her golden hair was put into two large braids that were held by orange ribbons, bouncing as she happily made her way toward the animal cages. The girl was obviously an employee and entered the cages where she waved at the playing monkeys inside.
"Good afternoon, monkeys, na no da!" she greeted. She walked a little further inside and was instantly welcomed by the playful tugs of the shorter chimps. One even climbed up her back and played with her braids, which caused her to giggle.
"I've missed you too, na no da. Now eat your food or you won't grow as big and healthy as me, na no da!"
The girl filled the monkeys' food bowls with fresh food and left them after a while. As she was about to enter the next cage for a similar process, she saw something strange out of the corner of her eye. The thing was hiding behind the nearby benches.
"Did you get away from the others, na no da? Don't worry, little monkey; Pudding is here to help, na no da," she said reassuringly, walking slowly over to the 'monkey', but halted in her steps.
The thing was a monkey-shaped creature that radiated in a golden glow. The girl couldn't believe what see was seeing. The creature suddenly turned and ran away.
"No, wait!" the girl yelled and ran after it.
The creature was quite fast, running out of the Zoo exit in a matter of seconds and across the street. The girl did the same as she followed it. The monkey creature kept on running.
I almost gotcha… the girl thought. Then she jumped straight after it, throwing her entire body forwards in order to catch it. The creature, however, chose this moment to jump as well and it disappeared through some bushes between a store. The girl landed unceremoniously on the ground when meeting with nothing, not injured but mostly hurt by the thought of having lost the strange creature of sight.
"Aw, man," the girl sulked. A hand appeared in front of the blonde's face as she was about to move herself off the pavement.
"Are you alright? Here, take my hand," an elder, yet familiar voice politely offered. Pudding took the hand, raising herself up and faced the person whom had offered her help. She stared. The person was a female teen as herself, only older by two years or so. She had long emerald hair and equally long fringes framing her face. She wore a white t-shirt underneath a green top, grey leggings and white ballerina shoes. On each wrist, she sported a pale green bracelet. The older girl gaped, as she seemed to recognize Pudding as well. Pudding impulsively jumped on top of the other girl and hugged her tight.
"Lettuce-chan!"
"Pudding-chan!"
"I've missed you so much, na no da! Wow, you look like an adult now! Oh, and you don't have your glasses on anymore, no no da!"
"I was thinking the same thing about you, Pudding," Lettuce giggled. "I mean, just look at you. You look so much more mature. Ah, and I use contact lenses these days."
"Yeah! And now I work at the Zoo and I see the monkeys almost every day…monkey?" the blonde pondered. "Oh, yes! The shining monkey thing from just now; I almost totally forgot, na no da!"
Lettuce frowned a little. "A shining monkey thing? What do you mean?"
"It was like, this shinning animal that just came out of nowhere! It was...wait, there it is, na no da!" Pudding shouted and pointed excitedly behind Lettuce. Indeed the creature had somehow reappeared behind Lettuce...but it didn't look like a monkey anymore. This time, it had changed shape into that of a decent fish size, radiating a blueish green colour.
The green-haired girl was utterly speechless. "Oh my, you were right, Pudding..."
"Let's go and get it, na no da!" Pudding said, determinedly. The two teens ran across the street to get the animal once more, but seeing as the fish was lying next to an open manhole cover, it could effortlessly slide through the opening to escape. And it didn't get any better that just as Pudding and Lettuce reached the manhole cover, a vehicle's tires completely blocked the manhole.
"Hey! What did you do that for? Now the fish got away, na no da!" Pudding complained at the front driver who appeared to be a simple chauffeur. Just then, the door to the limo opened and an elegant woman stepped out. She had flawless, wavy violet hair that went to her shoulders. Her attire consisted of a purple west on top of a black shirt, grey jeans and expensive grey boots. Silver earrings hung around the woman's ears.
"I should've known that it was the two of you making all that commotion," the ever so charming Zakuro remarked, endearingly. Pudding squealed at the sight of her oldest companion and rushed over to hug her around the waist.
"Zakuro-chan!"
"It's so nice to see you again, Zakuro-san..!" Lettuce greeted until it came to her attention that Zakuto no longer had the long, flowing hair that she was so known for. "Waah! I-I'm sorry, but...but you've cut your hair!" Lettuce panicked. Zakuro ran her fingers through her hair absentmindedly at this.
"I just felt like I needed some change and the first thing that came into my mind was my hair. Does it really look that bad?" she asked.
"Oh, no, I-I didn't mean it like that! It looks wonderful! Oh, dear, I didn't mean to yell at you..."
"Lettuce, take it easy," the older woman chuckled.
"Yeah, you're kinda making me scared here. I mean, if you freaked out like this, how much don't you think Mint will explode if she finds out about Zakuro's hair? I don't think it's such a big deal, though, na no da," Pudding shrugged.
Zakuro's lips stretched into a small smirk. "I also quit my modelling carrier," she announced with ease.
"Haah?! Are you out of your mind!" Pudding cried out suddenly. Zakuro giggled at the desired reaction she had been waiting for.
"Relax, you, I was only kidding."
"You almost gave me a heart-attack," Lettuce commented, a hand resting on her chest to emphasize..
"Sorry."
The greenette shook her head. "I was actually talking to Pudding."
The girl in question suddenly seemed to remember something. "Oh, no! The fish might've disappeared again, na no da!" she said. Zakuro raised an eyebrow, confused at what her friend was saying.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a long story – wait, there it is again, the thing from earlier!" Lettuce said. The three girls turned around to see the animal reappearing for the second time, now in the shape of a wolf. The predator was glowing in a rich, purple shade, its gaze locked at the three females.
"Amazing..." Zakuro said lowly, at the sight of this majestic being.
"After it!" Pudding ordered. The three girls pursued the creature that decided to run away again. It sprinted with such speed that left it very difficult for the girls to follow it. Suddenly, it did a great leap that allowed it through an open window inside a house. The three girls stood and looked surprised at the creature's incredibly high jump, all panting with the effort of having run quite a stretch.
"Wow," the three of them remarked in union.
"Let's break the door up, na no da!"
"Wouldn't it be safer if we knock on the front door and ask nicely to come in?" Lettuce suggested instead.
"I second that," Zakuro agreed, definitely not pleased with the potential consequences of Pudding's idea. The girls went to the front door and Lettuce knocked three times.
"I'll be there in a minute," answered the voice of a familiar person. The girls outside frowned with much confusion.
"Do you think it's..?" Lettuce began but left the question hanging. The door opened up to reveal a teenage girl who was approximately at Lettuce' age but shorter in height. She had slightly curly, midnight blue hair that was sat up in a ponytail. Her outfit was a light-blue dress, white belt and black ballerina shoes. A blue butterfly clip was visible on her bangs and blue bracelets adorned her on each wrist. Her blue eyes widened at first when seeing three very recognizable girls before her but it dissolved when she threw herself in a group hug with the others.
"Mint-chan!" they all exclaimed happily.
"Oh, my God; I can't believe you guys are actually here! And you especially, Onee-sama..!" Mint gushed when finally taking a better look on her idol's appearance. "Oh God, your hair! You've cut you beautiful long hair!" Mint said with a horrified expression and a hand covering her mouth.
"Huh. I had expected that she would've freaked out way more than this, na no da."
"Well, I'm glad. If she had reacted anywhere nearly as much as you did, I would've had my second near-heart attack today," Lettuce said, jokingly.
Pudding seemed slightly offended. "Hey! There're some things in life you just don't joke around with, na no da!"
Lettuce giggled. "Oh, Mint, what were you doing in that house, anyway? I mean, I thought you lived in that large mansion of yours," Zakuro asked, curiously. The bluenette's facial expression had now turned a little duller, all trace of previous joy gone.
"I do, but I..my Dad cut down on my allowance because he think that I should work for them. So, I...".
The model had a pretty good idea of what Mint couldn't utter so easily. She smiled a little. "Come on, you can say it."
"I have a part-time job..." Mint finally muttered, very much discouraged. Pudding gasped dramatically on purpose, causing Lettuce giggle again.
"Oh, you think my tragedy is fun? For your information, babysitting three devils, two hours a day, three times a week is driving me nuts! And the money is about half as much as I usually earn! I swear to God, I can't live this way!" Mint stressed, fingers clenched in frustration.
"You're a babysitter?"
She hung her head. "Unfortunately, yes."
Pudding nodded to herself, arms crossed. "Makes sense since that's a job where you're actually supposed to do something, instead of sitting and drinking tea all the t-."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing, na no da!"
"You know, if you'd like, I could see to it that you could have a smaller job at my bureau," Zakuro assured, a hand placed on the smaller girl's shoulder. It made Mint smile a little.
"Thank you. And speaking of, how'd you even know I was here?" Mint asked with a brow raised.
"Because of...that thing over there," Zakuro spoke, pointing up at the window. From out the window came a bird-like that left a small glowing trace of blue as it basked its wings and flew away.
"Why does it keep appearing and disappearing, na no da?" Pudding asked angrily while they were yet again running after it. "It's driving Pudding crazy!"
"I can't shake the feeling that it's doing this on purpose. As if we're meant to follow it and it's somehow leading us towards something," Lettuce pondered aloud.
"Why would you think that?" Mint replied.
"Think about it. At the very beginning, Pudding said she saw that thing as a monkey right before she ran into me. Then we saw it as a fish right before we met Zakuro. Lastly, we saw it as a wolf right before we came to your location. If we continue this pattern, there's only one last person that we could possibly meet," Lettuce explained as they kept running.
"You mean to say that if we follow this bird thing, eventually we'll meet-"
"Exactly," Lettuce nodded, a little out of breath.
"Then, let's follow the birdy before it disappears again, na no da!" Pudding said, determinedly.
"Too late," Pudding panted, completely exhausted after the long run to pursue the bird. In the end, they couldn't follow its trail for very long and it seemed like it was gone now.
"Hey, look," Lettuce said, pointing at a smaller building. A new café had just recently opened in the neighbourhood and was already stuffed with people. Apparently, it was called the Silver Cat and was not very different from the Mew Café in terms of appearance.
"Since the bird isn't here anymore, we might as well buy us some refreshments," Mint said. The four girls walked into the new, fancy café, but what they failed to see was that the bird they had been following was on top of the banner outside.
"Wow! How stuffed is this place, na no da?" Pudding asked, glancing around to see nearly no room for new customers.
"It'd take us hours to get served at this time of day," Zakuro commented coolly.
"I think I already knew that."
While the girls were chatting, another girl was walking beside them with a tray of food, but accidentally slipped in her high heels and fell, drawing the attention of Lettuce.
"Oh God, are you okay? Here, let me help," Lettuce said, offering her hand to the girl when suddenly she saw that it was no stranger. The girl was most likely her age, with auburn, long hair that fell past her shoulders. She was wearing a white t-shirt underneath a pink top, a white belt to hold her red skirt and black boots. Small, red ribbons were placed on top of her hair and a red heart necklace hung around her neck.
"Lettuce..?" the girl asked and looked around to see three other girls staring at her. She recognized them as well.
"Mint, Pudding and Zakuro...Oh, my God, you're all here!" she squealed before she rushed up to hug the other girls with much delight and joy.
"Same old Ichigo".