A/N: Thanks to my beta Azzie(Inkfire) for doing four of these on very short notice! I am eternally grateful! -Please review, chapters dedicated to those who do!-:D

We're Human Too!

Chapter 2: Aftermath:

The bang of the gavel echoed around the full courtroom, startling Dawn out of her dazed stupor. It had been like this for months now. The only survivors from the US were few, those who knew each other fewer.

Out of the spared ones were Dawn, James, and Dawn's two friends, Iris and AJ. They had been sent to Britain since the American court system had collapsed with the nation. Apparently radiation was high in their area, it was a miracle anyone at all had survived. The courts remained suspicious, insisting that their bodies must have been altered by such a high level of radiation, but the teens and James felt no different than before. Just numbed by shock at what had become of their lives.

It also came to light that Dawn's father had another child. A son, an adult living in Tokyo, Japan. His name was Ryan, or Ryou. Shirogane Ryou. He had offered to let his half-siblings stay with him until Dawn reached legal adulthood at eighteen in a year and two months. The courts did not want to separate Dawn, Iris, and AJ for the simple reason that if their bodies had indeed been altered, besides Dawn now being diagnosed with the cancer that her mother had left her before she died, that they would need each other's support. Ryou's friend Keiichiro had offered his home as a place for Iris and AJ. The courts had apparently finally agreed. The video-conferencing was held long enough so that Ryou and his siblings could exchange a few words.

Ryou was a laid-back blonde with blue eyes. He'd grown up with his mother and stepfather in the US, in the south. He spoke fluent English, as did Keiichiro.

"Do either of you speak Japanese?" he asked calmly, without even asking their names.

"Hai." Dawn replied. Ryou started. "I watch anime, so I picked up a few phrases. Nowhere near enough, though." she explained.

"Better than nothing." the blonde replied, sighing in relief. "You like languages, then?" Dawn simply nodded. "I'm fairly good with Spanish, too."

"That won't help you here." Ryou replied.

"Well, my high school didn't exactly offer Japanese as a course, credited or no." she retorted. Ryou sighed.

"The courts have arranged a private jet for you in an hour. You'll be landing in Tokyo by tomorrow. I'll meet you there. Keiichiro will be there, too." he added, glancing at Iris and AJ. "Your names will have to be translated, some will have to be altered. We'll work on that after you land. We'll see you then." He nodded, then logged out.

Dawn sighed. "Come on, James!" she called. Her little brother came to stand by her side, taking her hand nervously. She squeezed gently, smiling reassuringly down at him.

The flight was a long one. Iris, AJ, and Dawn all talked throughout most of it. James played his DS and eventually slept. A short while after he'd dozed off, they were all pretty much unconscious, and remained that way until after they landed.

Ryou led Keiichiro onto the plane, waving aside the pilot's apologies.

"I can't wake them up..."

"It's all right." Ryou replied, stepping into the passenger area. Keiichiro stepped in behind him and couldn't suppress a smile.

"They're so cute." he whispered to his friend.

"Let's see if you think that after we carry all of them out of here." Ryou replied.

"Aren't you the bright sunshine?" Keiichiro commented. He reached out towards AJ and shook his shoulder gently. Dawn, across the compartment with an arm protectively around James' shoulders, stirred at the sound of their soft voices, stirred, and blinked open her eyes.

"Hey there." Keiichiro told her. "You've landed." Dawn simply nodded and stood, stretching before reaching out to prod Iris between the shoulder blades. Iris sat up with a yelp, her eyes flying open. AJ stirred as well, and snapped at Iris to shut up, she was disturbing his nap. They passed around introductions, and Dawn showed no signs of waking James, so Ryou sighed inwardly and turned to wake him. But Dawn beat him to it. The slender fifteen-year-old picked up her ten-year-old brother who was almost as big as she was, and probably weighed close to as much as she did. She looked up at Ryou with a sort of challenging gaze, and he dropped his arms, leading the way off the plane.

Clearly Dawn would take care of James. She already seemed mature enough to look after both of them on her own. Which would make it easier for Ryou to focus on the Mew Project, and cleaning up the Chimera Animals the aliens had left behind.

They took the Americans to Cafe Mew Mew first, introducing them to the girls, and Ryou led them down into the basement to explain the real purpose of the cafe.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Zakuro asked Keiichiro.

"Two of them are his siblings. They probably would have found out eventually anyway. The others are practically siblings to his sister. Once she found out, so would they. With family, it's best not to keep huge secrets like 'I'm the manager of the Mew Mews'. He wants them to trust him so they'll behave and be easier to deal with instead of him always making excuses. His sister's old enough to know that simply running a cafe doesn't take that much work."

"Oh." Zakuro murmured.

"We also suspect, like the British government, that the radiation may have affected their bodies. Since we believe the aliens caused the radiation, it's possible that they are like you."

"In the year since the disaster, they wouldn't have noticed? Anyway, the aliens came here first." Zakuro reasoned.

"Pai and Taruto came here first. But their plan was to take over the world. Who's to say Kisshu didn't cause every disaster in the time leading up to his appearance here?"

None of them had noticed Dawn's appearance in the doorway. "Kisshu?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"She recognized the name, anyway. Did Shirogane-san tell her about their names?"

"No." Rou replied, appearing behind Dawn.

"You know him?" he asked his sister in English.

She nodded, her eyes narrowed to slits. "Yes. He's the one who burned my friends alive and chased my boyfriend away! I think he's the one who caused the earthquakes that left all of us orphans!" she hissed vehemently. Ryou backed away quickly.

He swiftly translated her tirade for the Mews, who stared at her in sympathy.

"That's hard." Lettuce murmured.

"That bastard had the nerve to flirt with me-and...kiss...me, while trying to kill me!" Dawn yelped. Ryou's eyes widened. "He kissed you?" he exclaimed.

Dawn nodded. Keiichiro translated for the Mews, who all gasped.

Ichigo went over and hugged Dawn. "He did that to me, too. But he's gone now." she told the older girl.

Keiichiro translated, and Dawn nodded. "Arigato." she murmured. The Mews turned to stare expectantly at Ryou. "She speaks Japanese!" Pudding exclaimed happily. She crowded around Dawn, asking her questions ranging from 'What's your favorite color?' to 'Did you like his kiss?'. She received only a blank look in reply. Then Dawn glanced at Ryou.

"Only a little. She watches some anime a lot, and picked up a few common phrases. That's all." Ryou explained. "She learns quickly though, and is good with languages. She definitely enjoys it."

"That's good." Zakuro said quietly. "For now, hearing us is best. I can tell she's trying to figure out what we're saying on her own, and that's good. Enough of us can speak at least some English that we will be able to communicate without a problem for the most part."

"Will they work in the cafe too?" Pudding exclaimed, circling Keiichiro excitedly.

"Perhaps. I know the older three really should start looking for jobs as soon as possible. I wonder if we kept them in the back, or just as clean-up crew...they could learn the language quickly by listening, and still be working." He glanced over at Ryou, who shrugged.

"What about pay?" Zakuro asked. "They're your siblings, after all."

"Not fully." Ryou replied. "My father had one child with each of his three wives. None of us are fully related."

"At once?" Mint asked, wrinkling her nose.

"No. My mother divorced him, Dawn's mother died, and James' mother was his wife when they died." Ryou replied.

"Oh, that's right!" Keiichiro exclaimed.

The ten other people in the room turned to stare at him expectantly.

"We still have to decide on their Japanese names! Literal translations aren't exactly necessary, they can choose." Keiichiro explained.

"This should be fun, na-no-da!" Pudding cheered, smiling happily.

"I can help them understand what the names mean." Zakuro offered. "I will be able to practice my English that way."

Ryou nodded. He turned to Dawn and James. "You don't have to take my family name if you don't want to. It's my stepfather's." Dawn nodded, her expression unreadable. James spoke for the first time since he'd arrived. "What's Smith in Japanese?" Dawn glanced at him. "There may not be an exact translation for it. We're better off choosing our own."

Keiichiro agreed, and Ryou gave Dawn a curious look, as though studying her. She looked right back at him, that challenging look back in her gaze.

Keiichiro pulled out a laptop and passed it to Dawn, who opened it and realized it was in English! She smiled up at Keiichiro and started typing. Within moments, she had a Google search for Japanese names and meanings going.

"Do we really need the meanings?" Iris asked.

"Japanese culture places a lot of importance on name meanings, so unless you want people judging you to be someone you're not, I'd look up the meanings." Dawn explained. Ryou gave her an appreciative look.

"Exactly right." Keiichiro agreed. Iris sighed. "This is going to take forever!" she predicted gloomily.

"Your name fits you as it is. That's easy. I was looking up names for characters in a story I'm writing and I already know what I want mine to be. We only need family names-which I also have suggestions for-and the boys' names. I have suggestions for AJ, but not James. Really we're only looking for James' names, and choosing ours more easily." Dawn murmured, her eyes flashing over the screen in front of her.

Ryou raised his eyebrows, and Keiichiro whistled softly. "You put a lot into your work, don't you?" he asked.

"You're a writer?" Zakuro asked in surprise. She'd been translating for the other Mews, who were feeling left out.

"Yes." Dawn replied. "I was going to be published in the school art book, but it was destroyed before it was printed. That's the only time I've been accepted though, and it was one out of four poems I submitted for consideration. Here we are."

She turned, setting the laptop on a nearby table, and her brother and two friends crowded around her.

"Guess I'm not needed." Zakuro commented, smiling. "She's very mature and resourceful."

"Tragedy will do that to a person." Keiichiro sighed.

"Ay-a-me." Dawn was saying. "It means Iris."

"It's pretty!" Iris exclaimed. "Ay-a-me. I like it! What about my last name?"

"Wait. Let the rest of us get our individual names sorted out." AJ scolded.

"That is your last name." Dawn said with a smirk. "Japanese culture puts family before individuality, therefore your family name comes first, and your individual name comes last."

Ryou started. For an American, she knew a lot about Japanese culture.

"You like Japan, don't you?" he asked.

"Yes." Dawn replied, nodding. "I used to just like the idea of samurai and ninja, but now I realize there's so much more involved, and it's all so intriguing. So I started research." She shrugged. "It's just a hobby. I never thought I'd actually get to live here."

Ryou nodded. "I guess something good came out of all this, then, right?" he teased gently, trying to get her to smile. The Mews stared at him.

"I guess." Dawn replied. No smile. Ryou sighed.

"You said you'd decided on your name already?" Zakuro asked.

"Yes. Akahana." Dawn replied.

"Not Choko?" Ryou asked.

"No. Akahana describes me more accurately."

"You like red." Zakuro stated. Dawn nodded.

AJ pointed to the screen. "I like this one. Since I was born in winter, it fits, right?"

Dawn read off the screen. "Fuyu. Yes, it works well enough. One more." She glanced at James. "Ginjiro means 'second son'. It fits."

"No!" James yelped. "I'm my mom's first son!"

"That's true. None of the numbered ones would work. Except the one about suffering."

"No!"

"All right, all right." Dawn smirked mischievously.

"What about Hama, shore, or Isamu, rock?"

"No! No! What about 'hero'?" James asked.

"Keep dreaming." Dawn replied. "That's obnoxious! I might consider something like 'survivor'."

"Yay!" James cheered.

"If I can find it." Dawn warned.

"Okay!"

"Kumakichi is 'fortunate bear'." Dawn offered after a few minutes.

"No!"

"Sheesh." The others laughed. Zakuro had been translating, along with Keiichiro. Dawn glanced over with a wry smile. "Little kids. Same everywhere!" Which of course brough more laughs, and protests from Pudding.

"Aren't you two the same age?" Keiichiro inquired. "Pudding is ten."

"So is James." Dawn replied. "Almost eleven." She turned back to James. "Takumi is 'pioneer', and Torao is 'tiger'."

"I like Torao better, but can you find survivor?"

"I'll keep trying." Dawn sighed, turning back to the the laptop screen.

"Yukio means snow boy, meaning you get or go your own way. This fits your personality best, since that's what you do best. I can't find survivor." She said a few minutes later.

"Torao or Yukio." Iris told him.

"Torao!" James yelped. "I'm a tiger!"

"That's not the reason to choose a name. Yukio fits you better. You normally have a family member choose your name. Akahana was wise, I can't argue her choice. She had a good reason. You, do not, Yukio." Ryou stated firmly. His tone said clearly that the conversation was over. James looked ready to pitch a fit, but Dawn gave him a look that served as a clear warning.

"Who wants cake?" Keiichiro offered in both languages.

"ME!"