Author's Note: Well, I'm a sophomore in High school now and my writing has DRASTICALLY changed! I'd like to highlight that little piece of info: it has been about 2 or 3 years since I wrote The Law of the Jungle and taking all these new Honors English classes has (in my opinion) improved my writing...What I'm trying to get at is this: If I update my fic, I'd need to do some serious revisions on the first chapter. For fans that means that what you may have liked about the story is going to be completely different! The basic plot will stay the same but, after re-reading the first chapter I feel that the entire story was too...rushed. So action is being translated into suspense and so on. If you are a fan of LotJ and are interested in helping me re-write (since I was horrible and never even finished Ch.2) please e-mail me or IM me using Yahoo (Spiritwings90).
That's all I'm going to say about that. If you have an objection to the rewrite, than I'll just let this story die, but I will keep it posted so that fans of the first chapter…cough, cough…Can read it whenever they like.
I'd like to say thanks to all those people who kept reviewing even though I haven't done anything to this thing in er…How long ago? Two years? Anyways I love you all!
PLEASE e-mail me your opinions! I need to know what you think about rewriting or killing this fic!
Disclaimer: Sigh, if only I owned Toyo Mew Mew, I would have exclusive rights to Kish and Ryo's, er…………… anatomy. giggle Unfortunately this poor, socially deprived author has no such claims, and as you can see, must placate herself with writing steamy science-fantasy romance fanfictions of mediocre quality. Sniffle Oh the woes of being single…….
-Gold Eyes and Bloody Thighs
The soapy sponge hit her squarely in the center of her forehead. In surprise she bit her tongue, and her grip slipped on the tray of food she was carrying. The porcelain dishes fell about three feet, before hitting the marble tiles. The force of their fall was enough to shatter the dishes and send creamy white pieces of porcelain ricocheting everywhere.
Three shards glazed her cheekbone, and another two imbedded themselves in her thighs. Searing pain shot through her legs from where the pieces struck, and Ichigo gave a little surprised gasp, before her knees buckled and the beautiful gray floor came rushing up to meet her.
She landed on her butt in the center of a pile of shards. Their sharp edges shredded the rear of her new uniform, and more blood trickled down her thighs in tiny rivulets.
"Ow!" She stated, dazed.
"Ichigo onee-chan!" exclaimed a worried little voice off to her left.
She turned glazed eyes towards the sound of that voice. Pudding?
"Ow!" She stated again, and flushed in embarrassment. Was that all she could say in this situation? She felt like a two year-old caught with her hand in the cookie jar. How everyone would laugh when they saw her in this condition. She could almost hear what they'd say, 'Poor Ichigo, another accident. She's so clumsy, it's a wonder she didn't kill herself last time. What a dork.'
Pudding's worried little face peered down at her through a halo of golden locks, big brown eyes flooded over with worry, small pink lips puckered with a frown.
"Ichigo onee-chan, are you all right?" she repeated.
Once again the only words that would leave her mouth were "Ow!"
Pudding's eyes teared up, and she grasped Ichigo's sweaty hand in a death grip. "Onee-chan! Onee-chan, Pudding is so very sorry! She did not mean for Ichigo-san to get hurt. She was just trying to get Ichigo's attention." Crystal tears fell down Pudding's round cheeks and her eyes begged for forgiveness. "Akasaka-san, Akasaka-san! Ichigo is hurt!" She shouted.
Ryo's handsome face floated into view. "What happened?" he demanded.
Pudding's grip on her right hand tightened in anxiety. "Pudding was just trying to get Ichigo onee-chan's attention, to tell her that the others were leaving to go swimming. Pudding threw a sponge at Ichigo's head, and made Ichigo loose her grip on her tray. The pieces cut Ichigo-san, and now she is hurt!" The last part of her sentence was muffled, because she'd dropped her head in shame. Tears were still falling gently from her eyes, and she gave a little sniffle. "Pudding is very sorry."
Suddenly Ichigo had the uncontrollable urge to grab hold of Pudding, and rock her 'till she stopped crying. She wanted to reassure her that she wasn't that hurt, wasn't mad. And the funny thing was, she wasn't. The sponge had surprised her that's all. The pain was brief, and now all she felt was light-headed.
She reached out to do so, and only succeeded in catching attention to her bloody arm. Both Ryo and Pudding stopped talking and focussed on the steadily pouring blood flowing from her wrists. It was odd, she thought. The blood from my arm matches my dress. How funny.
It didn't even occur to Ichigo that if she weren't seriously injured, she would have been bandaging her cuts by now and thinking clearly. But a fog of dizziness seemed to have settled over her mind and the others' faces swam in her vision as she lurched foreword. Poor Ryo, she thought before she hit the floor, which was looming ever closer. He'll have such a hard time scrubbing the floors of Café Mew Mew to get rid of my blood.
Strong, golden arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her up from the ground. Ryo? Was that who was carrying her? Coarse material brushed the wounds on her arms, and the pain sliced through her haze of fatigue just long enough for her to cry out at the contact. Anger followed closely afterwards. If they wanted to make her feel better they should handle her with more care. It wouldn't do to have her die because they were too harsh on the way to the hospital.
Hospital?
Did she really need one?
The answer swirled into her head almost lazily, the fog had settled back over her mind.
Yes, she realized disjointedly, she did need a hospital.
Fatigue flowed over her in a wave, making her want to close her eyes and go to sleep. The blurring colors she was seeing through her disjointed vision weren't helping her dizziness, and nausea was clawing at her belly. She closed her eyes. Yes, sleep sounded like a very good idea right now.
For a moment she felt weightless.
Had they dropped her? Was she dead? Curiously, she wasn't afraid. If this was what it felt like to be dead, she thought it was quite pleasant.
The weightlessness was gone, and something solid and smooth as silk was wrapped around her. Fatigue washed over her a second time and reality slipped as she felt herself letting go. Sleep, sleeeeeeeeeep.
But someone was screaming at her, telling her to stay awake. Her brow furrowed. Stay awake? She didn't want to. It was so nice and warm, and she was so very tired. Didn't she deserve to sleep? The voice didn't seem to notice her discomfort, it just kept telling her to stay awake. She hunched away from the noise, and buried her head in some sort of soft material.
It felt cool against her skin, and she wriggled around a little more so she could bury herself into it. A scent swam through her senses. Something wild, and fierce, and exotic like the wild flowers of ancient Egypt. Something beautiful and indefinitely………. Male?
She mentally shrugged. Whatever it was smelled so nice, she wanted to wrap it around herself. The soft material shifted, and began to vibrate. The something was… laughing? In her current state she really didn't care, it was interested in laughing, and she was interested in whatever smelled so good.
The scent grew stronger, and the Something kept laughing. For whatever reason she felt like joining in, and her own chest vibrated with a pleased purr. Later she would ask herself why she was purring, but for now reason eluded her; she acted solely on instinct. The Here and the Now, and The Now was telling her she wanted to purr, so she did.
Heat raced up and down her arms. Warm, gentle healing heat. It flowed like water over her entire body, reaching every plane and hollow, right down to the space between her toes. Her flesh knitted itself together, like her skin had never been cut. There were no scars whatsoever, just a great expanse of ivory flesh, exposed to the elements. A delicate breeze wafted over her naked flesh, sending goose bumps marching down her arms. And somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind her consciousness resurfaced.
Why was she naked? What happened to her clothes? She'd never felt anything like this healing technique, and while the heat itself felt good, she wasn't so sure about whoever was behind it. And yet, the fact was, that someone was healing her, no matter the technique. Still, whatever was healing her has piqued her curiosity, and just like any cat, she was going to satisfy it.
Ichigo swam the rest of the way into consciousness, settling into her body like an old friend. The first thing she noticed was that there were people standing over her, they were indistinct, but there was no objection that they were there. She blinked her eyes to clear her vision, and squinted at them again. Their features were hazy, blurred, a side effect of a near-death experience most likely. The only thing she could tell for sure was that they each had long, delicately pointed ears. They were quite beautiful ears really, and she found herself wishing she had ears like those. Ears of a wild, mystical people. Certainly not human ears.
She continued to gaze at them, trying to solve this puzzle with her tired mind. Eventually she gave up, but something nagged at the back of her mind, something to do with those ears. Was it a warning perhaps?
No. These were the people who had saved her. Why would they do that if they meant her harm? Unless, they meant to torture her for information? She brushed that thought away as well. Such things weren't done nowadays. Besides if it was information they were after, there were much more effective ways of gathering it than resorting to violence.
Still, it would be very naïve of her to thank them wholeheartedly and without doubt. People always had reasons for doing what they do. Everything has a price. The only thing she knew for sure was that the last person she saw before she lost consciousness was Ryo, and these people definitely weren't Ryo.
She coughed, and sat up, gingerly resting her palms on the wooden floor, like she was afraid that something would jump up and bite her. Her abdomen muscles spasmed briefly, and a sharp slice of agony boiled in her gut. She pressed a fist against the smooth plane of her stomach and felt the toned muscles underneath jump, willing the pain to subside. It did, eventually.
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and carefully rose to her knees. When no pain came, she slowly rose another few feet, until she stood her full height, a solid 5' 9" tall. She'd grown, she thought absently, over the years she fought the Chimera Animals. Her muscles were toned and sleek, her beauty wild like the sultry animal she was.
In that moment in time she felt all of what she was reach inside herself and touch her heart, and she accepted it. Her senses chose that very same moment to come rushing back. The world went into hyper-focus. Ichigo could feel the swirls and eddies of the invisible particles resting in the air, the fierce cold of the wind as it bit into her skin, the silky texture of her now waist-length ruby hair. She could hear the rapid traffic hundreds of feet below her, the steady swish-swish of the sea so far from there, and the roaring sound of her heartbeat and the heartbeats of the beings standing just a few feet away.
Only two things caught her attention. One, there was an ever increasing heat building between her thighs, where a sticky substance was trickling steadily down extremely sensitive skin; and two, an irresistible fragrance, wild Egyptian flowers swaying in a desert wind. It was calling to her; the males were calling to her.
She took a hesitant step forward, towards the unclear male shapes in front of her, confusion warring in her eyes. She took another step, and the heat between her thighs flared to life, in a raging fire of agony. Her back arched so sharply that it cracked and pitched her forwards. Her hands caught her fall, and cradled her weight against the floor. Her stomach spasmed and bile rose to the surface. It spasmed again and she lost her lunch, heaving uncontrollably onto the ground.
When she stopped her throat felt parched, her tongue swollen, and she licked her lips in an effort to relieve the moisture.
She needed answers, and she needed them now!
Her throat worked for several minutes before words finally slipped off her tongue.
"Help." Was all she said.
The last thing she heard was the soft rumble of male voices.
"We'll take her to Deep Blue-sama. He needs to be informed of our progress."
"Yes, he will be pleased."
The edges of her vision dimmed, and the darkness came to claim her.