Curiosity

Ichigo and Lettuce were both in Ichigo's room one day, talking. "You know, Ryou said that the Mew Project was created to protect the Earth," Ichigo commented. "But since we've become a team, all he talks about is killing all the Cyniclons. It makes me wonder what the Mew Project is really about."

"Yeah… you've got a point," Lettuce said. "Ryou's also totally evil to anyone who shows sympathy to the Cyniclons' situation. Maybe the Mew Project's true intention is to wipe out the Cyniclons?"

"I think we need to find out," Ichigo said. "I don't want to find out somewhere down the road that Ryou's some kind of serial killer bent on destroying the Cyniclons- and anyone who sympathizes with them."

"We should do this soon," Lettuce said. "I have an idea, too."

"Let's hear it," Ichigo said.

"Let's go see if Pai can hack into Ryou's computer system and get to his files," Lettuce said. "Do you have that portal machine?"

"Under my bed," Ichigo said, pulling it out. "Let's leave our pendants behind; we both know about Ryou spying on us."

"Good plan," Lettuce said. She set her pendant down on Ichigo's desk, and Ichigo did the same, then set the portal machine to get them to the main room of the Cyniclons' ship. "Ready?" she asked Lettuce.

"Ready," Lettuce replied. Ichigo opened up a portal, and the girls stepped into it, Lettuce grabbing the portal machine on the way.

A minute later, they landed in the main room of the Cyniclons' ship, and looked around. "Should we start looking around?" Ichigo asked- just as a loud alarm went off.

"I don't think we'll need to," Lettuce said dryly, as they heard teleportation.

Pai and Kisshu appeared, and looked at the girls a bit warily. "Why are you two here?" Pai asked warily.

"We need your help with a project," Lettuce said.

"Project?" Pai asked.

"We're concerned that Ryou's intention for the Mew Project is not to protect the Earth, but to wipe out your entire race," Ichigo said. "We came to ask if you could hack into Ryou's computer system and try to find out if that's true."

"Why do you care if our race is wiped out?" Kisshu asked.

"Ichigo and I both think cooperation would be better than endless fighting," Lettuce said. "And we were never going to kill you, no matter what Ryou says. Not all humans are alike, you know. Just like your race; is everyone you know exactly alike?"

"No…" Pai said. "So you want me to hack into Ryou's system and look through his files to figure out what the true intention of the Mew Project is?"

"Yes," Ichigo said. "Will you do that?"

Pai sighed. "Alright," he said. "If he's planning on wiping out my entire race, the sooner we find out more the better. I'll go start that. Are you two staying till I figure this out?"

"Is that okay?" Lettuce asked.

"Sure," Kisshu said before Pai could respond. "We can have fun!"

"Don't go overboard," Pai said, and teleported off.

"Overboard?" Lettuce asked.

"Pai thinks I'll do something besides kiss Ichigo," Kisshu said grouchily. "He doesn't have any faith in me."

"Can we do something that Lettuce can participate in?" Ichigo asked. "It doesn't seem very nice to just leave her and go make out."

"I was going to take Lettuce to Pai's room, where he keeps all his books, and then I was going to take you to my room," Kisshu said sulkily.

"You look cute sulking," Ichigo commented.

Kisshu perked up a bit, and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I kind of like your idea, Kisshu-san," Lettuce said. "But won't Pai mind me being in his room?"

"I doubt it," Kisshu said. "Want me to take you?"

"Alright," Lettuce said. Kisshu took her hand and Ichigo's, and teleported to Pai's room.

When they landed, their jaws dropped. Half the room was filled with stuffed animals, one wall was books, and one entire wall was floor-to-ceiling pictures of Lettuce. "No wonder he keeps me and Taruto out…." Kisshu said. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea; I'd rather not die today. Let's just go to my room."

"Okay," Ichigo said. Kisshu teleported the girls to a large green room with a large bed, a sofa, a desk, a few lamps, a small bookshelf, and a nightstand. There were two doors at the back of the room, and Ichigo said, "Wow, this is huge, Kisshu."

"I guess," Kisshu said. "Pai's room is about the same, but it's so full of stuffed animals that you can't really tell."

Ichigo giggled and said, "I never imagined that Pai would be the toy store thief."

"He's been seen?" Kisshu asked.

"No, but it's obvious someone's taking large amounts of stuffed animals from toy stores," Ichigo said. "And Mew Lettuce plushies, too. The police are completely confused, because no one can figure out why a thief would do that."

"Great…" Kisshu sighed. "I always knew Pai was insane."

The girls giggled.

With Pai: Pai had found it fairly easy to hack into Ryou's files, and wondered why that would be. Then he remembered that Ryou thought his race was inferior to humans, and figured that he thought Pai wouldn't be smart enough to crack the encodings in his computer system. Now he was going through files. There was a file on each of the Mews, but Pai decided to save those for later. He kept going through the mounds of files, and found information on how to create the Mews, contact information for people he'd never heard of, and about a zillion other things that didn't tell him what he needed to know.

As he was about to give it up, he noticed a file labeled 'Journal', and clicked on it, then started reading.

By the time Pai finished reading, he was horrified by what Ryou was planning. He printed the twenty-page file, and teleported to Kisshu's room.

The girls and Kisshu looked up from some card game, and Kisshu asked, "What happened? You look kind of scared."

"I found Ryou's journal on the Mew Project, and it's clear that he's seriously disturbed," Pai said. "I printed the whole thing out, do you want to hear?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said.

Pai nodded and started reading the first page.

"The Mew Project is underway, but Keiichiro doesn't like the idea of infusing young girls with animal DNA. He says he'll go along with it, but it's probably just so he can keep an eye on me. He's always thought my 'vendetta' against aliens is unhealthy for some reason. If he tries to interfere with my true intent, though, I'll have to get rid of him somehow."

Pai flipped the page, and continued reading.

"I found the first Mew, Mew Ichigo. She's luckily not perceptive enough to realize my intentions for her and the others, and she's fallen in love with the little robot I made. It shouldn't be hard to get her to obey me."

Pai flipped the page again.

"Now that all the Mews have finally been found, I'll start writing this again. My true intentions behind forming the team who now call themselves Tokyo Mew Mew aren't just to protect the Earth. That was just so they'd work for me, thinking they're doing good for the planet. That's sort of true, but I really created them to kill all the aliens. Those good-for-nothing freaks should all be in hell, where they belong. As soon as I get the girls to eliminate the three who came here, I'll start working on the next bit of the Mew Project. I'll send the girls to the aliens' planet, and have them wipe out the entire population. I might have to brainwash them first, but that's not going to be too hard. Actually, I probably should brainwash them, or they'll leave the children there alive at least."

The girls and Kisshu were looking horrified as Pai flipped another page.

"I might have to make a brainwashing machine sooner than I thought; Mew Lettuce and Mew Ichigo apparently want to form a truce. Why, I don't know; I thought they'd realize by now that the aliens are evil. They'd never form a truce, even if that was something I'd consider."

Pai flipped another page.

"I'd better get to work on brainwashing the Mews; Mew Lettuce and Mew Pudding are actually FALLING for two of the aliens. I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before Mew Ichigo falls for that green-haired freak who keeps stalking her; she did dump her boyfriend the other day, though she claims it was because he was cheating on her."

Pai looked up and said, "The rest is mostly ranting about how we should be in hell, but the last page is important." He started reading again.

"I've got the brainwashing device ready, but I think Keiichiro's getting close to the truth. He and Mew Zakuro are getting close, though, so I suppose I'll have to brainwash him instead of killing him, or Mew Zakuro will most likely kill me. I know she hates me anyways. I'll implement the plan as soon as possible, and then those rotten aliens will go down."

Pai sighed and said, "That's the last entry. I think we need to warn Keiichiro and the other Mews, or we're all screwed."

"I'll tell Taruto to bring Pudding here," Kisshu said. He concentrated, and said, "They'll be here soon. Koneko-chan, let's go find Zakuro. Pai, you take Lettuce and find Mint."

"Got it," Pai said. Kisshu nodded, took Ichigo's hand, and teleported to Zakuro. Luckily for them, she was home, and she looked at them warily, then asked, "Ichigo, what's going on?"

"Ryou's not what we thought, and we're having a meeting on the Cyniclons' ship," Ichigo said. "Come with us."

Zakuro sighed and got up, and Kisshu took her shoulder, then teleported back to his room. Pai teleported in with Mint and Lettuce soon after. Taruto and Pudding were already there.

"So what's going on?" Mint asked.

"Lettuce and I were talking about why we were created, and about Ryou's obsession with killing the Cyniclons," Ichigo said. "She came up with the idea of finding out why exactly Ryou created us, so we came here and asked Pai to hack into Ryou's computer system. What he found was pretty scary, actually. He's apparently planning on brainwashing all of us into killing Kisshu, Pai, and Taruto, and then sending us to the Cyniclons' planet to wipe out everyone else."

"What's he doing about Keiichiro?" Zakuro asked.

"His original plan was to kill him, but now apparently Ryou's going to brainwash Keiichiro," Ichigo said.

"Ryou is SO going down," Zakuro said grimly. "Are we going now?"

"Yes," Ichigo said. "Kisshu, can you get Lettuce and my pendants off my desk?"

"Sure," Kisshu said. He teleported out, and returned a minute later. Ichigo and Lettuce took their pendants and transformed, followed by the other Mews.

"Pai, bring the papers with you, we should show Keiichiro," Ichigo said.

"Alright," Pai said. "All of you grab on."

The Mews obeyed, and the Cyniclons teleported to Café Mew Mew. They found the main room empty, but they heard footsteps on the stairs, and then Ryou and Keiichiro came upstairs. "What the hell are you doing with them?" Ryou snarled at the Mews.

"We know your plans," Ichigo said. "You were going to brainwash all of us and then send us to the Cyniclons' planet to wipe out their entire race. And you were going to kill Keiichiro because you thought he was getting too close to the truth behind the Mew Project. And before you ask how I know all this, Lettuce and I asked Pai to hack into your computer system. Your stupid revenge mission ends here."

The other Mews took that as a cue, and took out their weapons. Ichigo followed suit as she said, "Keiichiro, you might want to move back."

Keiichiro looked like he was in shock as he came to join the Mews and Cyniclons. Ryou turned pale as the Mews all aimed their attacks at him, and turned to run. He was a bit late, as all the Mews' attacks hit him at once, and he collapsed into soggy ash.

"Well, that's done," Ichigo said after the smoke cleared. "Uh… Keiichiro, are you okay?"

"Ryou was going to kill me?" Keiichiro asked. Pai handed over the stack of papers, and Keiichiro started reading. When he was done, he said, "Wow… I didn't realize Ryou was that evil, that he'd want you girls to eliminate a whole race. What's going to happen now?"

"We could form a truce," Ichigo said. "We have a lot of Mew Aqua; Kisshu, Pai, and Taruto could probably use it on their planet and that would mean they wouldn't need Earth." She turned to Kisshu, Pai, and Taruto and asked, "Does that sound like a good idea?"

"That's fine, but we have to get rid of Deep Blue's human host first," Pai said. "He's that kid you used to like."

"Can you handle that?" Ichigo asked.

"Sure!" Kisshu said happily. He teleported out, and Pai sighed.

"Are you guys going to visit?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes," Pai said. "We might get exiled, but I'm not sure. If that happens, can we live here?"

"Sure, and Kisshu can live with me," Ichigo said.

"I'll go get the Mew Aqua," Keiichiro said, and left. He came back a few minutes later with a box, which he handed to Pai. Pai looked inside, and said, "Wow, this should be plenty. Thank you, Keiichiro."

"Sure," Keiichiro said. "And you and Taruto are welcome to live here if things don't work out for you back home."

"Thank you," Pai said.

Kisshu teleported in a minute later, looking extremely pleased with himself. "I take it he's dead?" Pai asked.

"Yup!" Kisshu said.

"Ichigo says you can live with her," Pai said. "Do you want to come back home first?"

"No, I'll just stay here," Kisshu said. He looked at Ichigo, who smiled and said, "Let's go home and kiss!"

"Yay!" Kisshu said, and teleported to her room. They landed on the bed, and Ichigo promptly kissed Kisshu. He kissed back, and they kept kissing for the rest of the day.

Another 'Tokyo Mew Mew isn't what you think' fic, but I hope you liked it, and please review!