Ch. 2: 6 Years Later

It's been many years since the crowning of the new ruler, Sakura and her beloved daughter, Ichigo. And so, it appears as though the promises that Sakura made to her people she kept. She kept the balance between the herbivores and the carnivores and she used her wisdom to help those in confusion or in need of help. As the kingdom became more magnificent, Ichigo grew up to be a beautiful young animal being. For now, she's only 11 years old but her beauty showed no limit. Many have complimented that she is becoming more and more beautiful as their beautiful queen.

Then one day, before dawn approaches, Ichigo stands up before the windows of her room and she moves the curtains away to see the dark night sky slowly dying away as the sun comes closer and closer to reveal the dawn. Already dressed in a layer top which is a dark pink tank top and short pink top that covers her small, yet growing beasts and its sleeves dangle on her arms and a lighter shade of dark pink shorts that is five inches above her knees, the young princess cannot wait for the start of the new day for today is going to be an exciting day. After staring out into the world before her, Ichigo runs out from her room, her bare feet slapping against the cold marble floor, to a room a few doors away from her room. She opens the door and she sees her mother still asleep on her bed.

"Mom!" she calls, running to the bed. She shakes her mother and calls again, "Come on, mom! It's time! Get up, mom! Get up!"

Sakura squishes her eyes shut before saying, "It's not sunrise yet. Just a few minutes more."

"But by then the sun would be directly above our heads! Mom, come on!" Ichigo ends up throwing the covers off and she grabs her mother's tail. She still doesn't move, no matter how hard Ichigo pulls. Then she lost her grip and stumbles towards the wall, almost crashing into it in the process. Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Ichigo runs to the bed and jumps, only to land on the bed and causing her mother to fly through the air. She awakens then and she falls on the bed to look at her daughter in surprise. Ichigo looks angry as she reminds, "You promised, mom!" Seeing the 'I won't forgive you' face, Sakura finally lets out a sigh and shakes her head.

"Oh, alright. Just let me change and meet me at the balcony doors."

Hearing that, Ichigo gains back her smile. "Hooray!" she cheers, jumping off the bed. At the door, she tells her mother, "Now hurry up, okay?" Then she leaves to give her mom some privacy. When her daughter left, Sakura smiles sweetly at the door she exited.

"It's good to see that smiling face of hers again."

Ichigo waits patiently at the balcony doors for her mother, walking back and forth as a sign of impatience for her mother's dilly dallying. Then her ears pick up the sound of footsteps and she looks up at the stairs to see her mother coming down to meet her. Her mother is wearing something a little similar to what Ichigo's wearing. But her top layered shirt with its dangling sleeves is longer and it's only a few inches shorter from where her bellybutton is. Also instead of pants, she has a short skirt that reveals her lovely, beautiful legs. She has no shoes like Ichigo, only the golden bracelets on her leg ankle. The colors of her clothes are also different from Ichigo's. Her top layered shirt is a bright red cover over a yellow colored shirt and her skirt is also yellow but it also has bright red trimmings on the end. Unlike her daughter, who has her hair up in her usual two pony tails, Sakura leaves her short hair alone.

Seeing her mother, Ichigo takes a few steps towards her and Sakura meets her half way. She gentle pets her daughter's head and Ichigo giggles at the warm touch. Then they walk to the doors and Sakura opens them to reveal the dawn drawing closer and closer. Only now, the dark blue skies is turning into a light shade of navy blue and the clouds above have purple shade. Soon the sky will be a lighter blue and the clouds will be pure white. But that is only after the sun rises up. Ichigo rushes to the rail and Sakura follows after her in a calm, easy walk. There they wait as the sun finally reveals itself, turning the navy blue sky into a bright shade of orange and the clouds to turn a deep shade of red.

"Tell me, Ichigo," Sakura speaks. "What do you see?"

Ichigo answers, "That's easy, mom! I see our kingdom."

Sakura nods. "That's right. Everything that the sun touches is our kingdom. It is our duty to take care of this land and to rule it with the wisdom of the ages and the heart of the angel."

As the sun rises up higher and higher, the land brightens the animal beings and cyniclons that were once sleeping so soundly, awaken to the light and continue with their daily duties of living. Ichigo and Sakura watch them from afar as the birds fly to the ground and gather food for their little ones and the antelope either choose to eat, socialize, or leap through the grassy fields.

"Ichigo," Sakura calls. Ichigo looks up and Sakura tells her, "One day I would no longer be able to rule this kingdom. When my time comes, the responsibility will be bestowed on to you as the new queen of the Mew Mew Land. Can I trust you to take care of this land?"

Ichigo nods. "I promise, mom. I'll rule this kingdom with the lessons you teach me and I will make you proud." Sakura giggles from her daughter's hyper nature.

"Good."

Ichigo smiles at her mom again and then looks out back to the kingdom before her. As she stares out, she notices something. Out in the kingdom, she notices one part of the kingdom that's dark with sharp pointy rocks blocking the sun light. It almost looks like a giant hole with a rocky fence.

"Mom," she calls. She gains her mother's attention and she asks, "What's that area over there? The dark, shadowy area."

Sakura looks at where she's talking about and she tenses up when she looks at it. Before Ichigo could notice her tenseness, Sakura answers, "That's beyond our borders, Ichigo."

"But it's kind a close," Ichigo points out, confused.

"Yes, but that place is a place you must never go to."

"Why?" Ichigo looks up at her mom and reminds, "I thought a queen gets to do whatever she wants."

Sakura's smile returns and she says, "There's more than getting what you want. Come with me." Sakura walks away, back inside the castle and Ichigo, now excited, follows behind. They close the door to the balcony and travel down the stairs to the front door. There, they exit out of the castle and climb down the giant boulders to land on the soft grass beneath them. Sakura continues to lead the way and Ichigo continues to follow her. "You see, Ichigo, there is something known as the circle of life. It's a cycle of how we all lived and it's the balance between the herbivores and the carnivores. A queen must protect that balance."

"But mom," Ichigo calls confused, "what do you mean by 'balance between the herbivores and the carnivores'? We're carnivores right, and so are the aliens that live with us. Don't we all eat the herbivores?"

"'We eat flesh' is more like it," Sakura corrects. "However, there is one more thing you must understand. When we die, our bodies become the grass and the herbivores eat the grass as we eat them. That is what the circle of life is. If there are too many carnivores and the food dies down for the herbivores, then they will die and soon there won't be any food for us to survive. As queen, we must make sure that there is a balance." Then she stops, causing Ichigo to stop. "However, that is usually a king's job." Sakura kneels down and pets her beloved daughter's head as she says, "But we don't have a king and we don't need one at this time. We are strong, independent women who can take care of ourselves. We don't need a man to take care of us and we don't need a man to help us run a kingdom. Don't you think I do the job just fine?"

Ichigo nods. "Yes, mom. When I'm an adult, I'll rule this kingdom without a man. I can do it all by myself forever."

"But remember one thing, Ichigo," Sakura tells her. Ichigo looks at her mom in confusion as she stands up straighter. "I want you to be happy and running a kingdom by yourself is lonely. I do want you to find a man, not to take your job, but to keep you company as you live, to support you, and be there for you when you need a shoulder to cry on."

After hearing this, Ichigo figures that she gets that. She smiles even more joyfully and says, "Don't worry, mom. I don't need to find a man to do that. I already found one and when he comes home, we'll always support the other." Even though it was suppose to make Sakura even more proud, it actually surprised her and made her a little sad. She knows who her daughter is talking about.

"My queen!"

Both Sakura and Ichigo look up and they see a blue bird flying towards them. Both of them knew who this little bird is, even before it lands on the ground and transforms into her human form.

"Well good morning, Mint," Sakura greets.

The now 11 year old Mint stands before the queen and princess and she bows in respect. "Good morning, Queen Sakura. And you too, Princess Ichigo." Ichigo could hear the snobiness in Mint's voice when she greeted her. It actually made Ichigo a tad bit annoyed and insulted. Mint stands up straight and says, "I'm here to give you the morning report, my queen."

"Go on then."

"Well…" Then she starts her absolutely long and boring report on what's happened in the first ten minutes of the day. Ichigo got bored the minute Mint muttered the first word. She looks up at her mom and she's intensively listening to the report, for reasons Ichigo does not understand. Ichigo looks back at Mint and Mint's looking up at the sky as if she's trying to remember every detail. But her not looking at Ichigo gives her an idea. A wide, devilish grin appears on Ichigo's face. Quickly but silently, Ichigo backs away from her mother's side and she goes somewhere else.

"…Also, the vultures claim to have a friendly lunch with some animals but if you trust me, I think not one of those guests will be coming back alive." Then…

Bam

Ichigo pushes Mint from behind and causes her to crash into the ground as her hands pin her down. Sakura was first surprise to see her daughter pouncing on Mint but when she realizes that her daughter was pouncing and she did it rather good, she couldn't help but laugh in amusement. Ichigo, glad to hear her mother's laughter, gets off Mint and walks over to Sakura in victory. Mint pushes herself up and she looks really upset with the dirt smudges on her face.

When Ichigo was right in front of Sakura, her mother compliments, "That was very good. You even caught me by surprise. You've been practicing, haven't you?"

"Of course," Ichigo answers as Mint stands up and brushes herself off, still upset. "Mint has been helping me a lot. I didn't want to hurt her but she was so eager to volunteer I couldn't say 'no'." Hearing this lie, Mint grows in anger with a rather big vein on her head. "I've also been practicing my other tricks too! Like my 'Strawberry Check', my 'Strawberry Surprise', and my 'Mew Power Extension'!"

By Mint's feet, a little mole comes digging out from under the ground to the surface. "Mint!" he calls. Mint looks down and the mole reports, "I have news from the underground."

"'Mew Extension' is a power, yet difficult spell to learn. I suspect then that you've mastered your blinding spell as well, right?" Sakura asks. Hearing this, Ichigo tenses up like she's been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

She looks away, embarrassed as she says, "Well, not really. That's a hard spell to master."

"Well then let me tell you something."

But before she could say anything more, she was interrupted by Mint calling, "My queen! Kirema animas in the Mew Mew Lands!" The moment Sakura heard kirema animas, she jumps up into the air, flying over Mint as her body glows red and she transforms into her animal form, a lioness.

Before she leaves, Sakura orders, "Mint, take Ichigo home."

"Mom!" Ichigo calls, stepping closer.

But Sakura tells her, "Just go home, Ichigo. I'll be back soon." Then she turns around and sprints into a run to go kirema anima hunting. Ichigo watches her go, concern written all over her face. Mint looks at her princess and she sees this.

"Don't worry, Ichigo," Mint tells her, getting her attention. "You're mother is a very strong animal being. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be our queen. She can take care of those horrid creatures and their slobbery, mangy, stupid creatures. You don't have to worry about a thing."

"I know," Ichigo tells her. "I just don't like it that people leave. Sometimes, they don't come back." Hearing this, Mint knew exactly what Ichigo is talking about. She looks down at the ground in guilt and sorrow for her princess.

It's been six years since the Mew Mew Land crowned their next ruler and it's been six years since he disappeared.

Then Mint lightly slaps Ichigo's back, getting her attention back as she says, "Come on. Let's go back to the castle like your mother said. I need to wash off anyway."

Being reminded of that, Ichigo regains her friendly, hyper self and teases, "You were such an easy target and you deserved it for that rude greeting you gave me."

"Doesn't mean that you can smash my face into the dirt! I'm going to need a bath." Then a tiny fact appears in her head and light bulb shines over her head. "And you need one too, my princess."

Ichigo tenses up in fear this time when she heard that as now Mint has the wide, devilish grin on her face and a dark aura surround her in the background. "Uh, yeah well about that," Ichigo tries to say, her face sweating. "I..I…I have somewhere to be! Bye Mint!" Then she quickly runs away.

"Ichigo, hold on!" Mint jumps up into the air and flies as Ichigo is running with her super cat speed to get away. "You're not running from me this time!"

XxX

Behind the giant boulders surrounding the Mew Mew castle, Deep Blue is sitting there under the shade on a small boulder and he examines a bone of an animal he ate not too long ago. After a few minutes, he tosses the bone in front of him and lets out a sigh of complete boredom. While he sits there, a window of the castle opens up and Ichigo comes climbing out and she closes it behind her. Then she jumps off without a hint of fear or concern for her well being. As she falls to the ground, she sees Deep Blue not far from where she's going to land.

"Uncle Deep Blue!" she calls, happy to see him.

Hearing her, Deep Blue looks up right when Ichigo lands on the ground actually right next to him. She lands on her feet, unharmed and impact of her weight hitting the ground after falling from such a far distance causes dust and dirt to go flying everywhere. When it returns back to the ground, Deep Blue coughs from the dust and first and his eyes are tearing up because some of it went into his eyes.

Hearing him cough, Ichigo looks at him in concern and asks, "Are you alright, Uncle Deep Blue?"

Deep Blue stops for a moment and answers, "Just peachy." Then he coughs again to get the last bits of dust out of his lungs.

Ichigo then excitedly says, "Hey, guess what! Guess what!"

Finally finished coughing, Deep Blue looks at her, still bored and now annoyed, and sarcastically says, "Oh do tell me." She didn't notice the sarcasm.

"Mom just showed me the whole kingdom and she says that when I'm queen, I'm gonna rule it all when she retires."

"Joy," Deep Blue says with a completely dead voice. Then he asks, "Did she also tell you about having someone with you while you rule? I'm sure she told you how difficult the job is to do alone. It's a miracle my dear, sweet sister can do it, but can you?"

Ichigo answers proudly, "Of course I can! I am a strong and independent woman! Mom told me so."

"But the job can be lonely," Deep Blue tells her. "Every queen must have a king. Who would that be? You must find one as soon as you can while you're young."

Now Ichigo is getting a bit upset with her uncle. "I don't need to find one. I have one."

"Well let me rephrase my question, then. Who are you going to pick who's alive?"

After that question, Ichigo's eyes widen in a rather hurt way. Deep Blue just struck a rather sensitive subject. She looks away from him, upset and orders, "As princess, I command you to drop the subject." Deep Blue stares at her for moment after hearing that command. But never the less, he gets off his sitting rock and bows down before her.

She looks at him as he says, "Please forgive me, princess. I will speak of it no more." Then he grasps her hand and brings it to his lips to kiss.

After a moment, Ichigo regains her smile and says, "I forgive you, uncle. We're family after all. We're all we've got."

Deep Blue smiles when he says this, but anyone could see, all but Ichigo, that the smile is a fake. "So your mother showed you the whole kingdom?"

Ichigo gains back her hypiness and answers, "Yep! It's absolutely amazing. I'm so lucky I'll be able to rule such a beautiful kingdom and it's all thanks to my mom."

"Yep," he agrees. "My sister is an amazing queen and no doubt, you would make a marvelous queen yourself." Hearing that compliment, Ichigo smiles proudly and now a wicked grin appears on Deep Blue's face. "Did she show you the rise beyond the northern border?"

Now hearing that, Ichigo's smile turns upside down into a frown. "No. She told me that I never go to that place."

"And she's absolutely right," Deep Blue agrees. "That place is no place for a lovable princess like you. It's a place for strong, brave animal beings like your mother."

Now Ichigo huffs, upset. "No fair she gets to go and tells me never to go there. I'm strong too, you know! And I'm brave! Tell me what's out there."

"Oh I really shouldn't," he tells her. "It's full of kirema animas and the outcasts who created them."

"Outcasts?" Ichigo asks, confused.

Realizing his slip up, Deep Blue covers his mouth. "Oops."

Now interested, Ichigo asks, "We have outcasts?"

Deep Blue lowers his hand and asks, "Your mother never told you about the outcasts?"

"No," she answers. "The only bad people we have, the kirema animas, are the only ones I know exist."

"Well you know that kirema animas are created by aliens, or cyniclons, such as myself, right?" Ichigo nods. "And you know that it's forbidden to make any if we are to keep the peace, right?" Nods. "Well outcasts are aliens who create those kirema animas and disrupt our peaceful and beloved Mew Mew Land. You can tell that they're outcasts from the silver earring they have on their ears. Supposed to be some fashion statement of some kind. Don't ask me why. I wouldn't know that since I'm not an outcast."

"Whoa," Ichigo couldn't help but say. Then she looks back up at her uncle and asks, "So is the shadowy area their secret hide out or something?"

"It's not only that," he answers, as if he's so into telling this child every dark secret he knows. "It's also an Elephant Graveyard." Realizing he did it again, he covers his mouth and looks back at Ichigo who now looks more excited than he did before.

"An Elephant Graveyard?!" she asks. "Cool."

"Oh how naughty I am," Deep Blue says dramatically. "Well as the future queen, you would have to find out about that place anyway sooner than later. Just promise me one thing, my dear niece." His arm wraps around her and he pulls her close to him so that his face is up against hers and he holds her close in a loveable, yet gentle way. "Promise me you won't ever go there. I don't think any of us could stand it if we lose you as well."

Ichigo melts under his hold and hugs him back as best as she could. "No worries. No one is gonna lose me."

"Good girl." Deep Blue lets her go and tells her, "Now go and find a new hiding place before Mint decides to check up on me."

Ichigo lets out a nervous laugh when she heard that. "Right. Good bye, Uncle Deep Blue." Then she turns around and runs away, to go back into the castle through the back door. As she leaves, Deep Blue watches her with an evil and wicked smirk on his face.

"Good bye, my dear naïve niece.

XxX

Ichigo creaks the door open to the baths and a big gust of steam hits her face like a hot punch. It took her a moment to regain herself before calling, "Ryou? Are you in here?!"

"Ichigo?"

Hearing his voice, Ichigo enters the bathroom and quietly closes the door behind her. The bath is rather big and it has several baths in it. There are at least five tubs with its own shower, two on each side and one at the back. The one at the back is where Ryou is. He's in the tube with a woman of incredible beauty washing him down, who just happens to be his mother, Zakuro. Ichigo sees another bath running next to Ryou and Zakuro but she doesn't pay any attention to that. As Zakuro heads for the bucket of water while Ryou is in the tub, Ichigo walks over to them.

"Ryou, I need to take you somewhere. There's this really cool place that you're going to love!" she tells him.

"Ichigo, I'm in a middle of a bath," Ryou tells her, right when the bucket of water hit his hair and washed the subs off his body. The water clears the subs off his beautiful sunrays hair and his white, black stripped ears, the bubbles clear off his brown tan skin, his white and black stripe tail straightens from the touch of the hot water on his skin, and his eyes close shut to make sure that none of the soup enters his sky blue eyes.

To avoid the water splashing on her, Ichigo backs away and cringes at the sight of it. Then she feels a wet hand grab her arm. She looks up and she sees Mint peeking out from the covered shower that's working as well and Ichigo has a sudden chill through her body when she sees Mint's wicked, victorious smile. "And it's time for yours as well." Before Ichigo knew it, Mint pulls her in and covers the scene with bath sheets so that Ryou wouldn't see.

"Ahh!" Ichigo screams as her clothes come flying out of the bath and on the ground. Both Zakuro and Ryou only watch as they continue to hear the struggle and Ichigo's cries inside. "No! Get off me! Let me go!"

"Not this time, princess! You're doomed now! You haven't had a bath in two days. That's disgusting!"

"I hate baths! In fact, I HATE water!"

Ryou looks up at his mother and comments, "She and I are basically the same species and I don't have a problem with water as much as her. What's up with that?"

About a few decades later, Ichigo and Mint were done and Mint felt pretty victorious as Ichigo was on the floor in defeat with a clean body and clean clothes on, which was basically the same thing as what she was wearing before. Mint has her hair back up in her two buns and she's wearing a lighter shade of blue dress that has on strap on her shoulder and the other shoulder is bare so that her bird wings can be visible without any discomfort. It's also short, like about three inches longer than her butt and on her feet is dark blue ballet dancing shoes. She also has blue wrist bands on both wrists with her hands on her hips.

Mint tells Ichigo, "You may be invincible, princess, but not when you're caught by surprise. You're reactions are too slow." Then she starts laughing like a snobby rich girl and Ichigo has a vein pulsing on her head.

Ryou, dried and dressed in a black buttoned sleeveless shirt with red trimmings and long white, slightly baggy pants, tells Mint, "You maybe the queen's right hand man but very soon, you're going to lose that job."

"In order for a kitty to learn," Mint starts, facing Ryou with a cocky smile on her face, "one must receive the whip before the candy." Then she laughs again and Ryou is just staring at her with a face that says, 'Okaaay'.

Ichigo pushes herself up and goes up Mint and tells her, "Alright, I'm clean and you got your revenge. Congratulations. Can Ryou and I go now?" Now Mint is looking at her like she's being rude.

Ryou asks, "And where are we going? I don't want to go anywhere that's a waste of my time."

"Trust me, it won't," Ichigo answers, turning her attention from Mint to him. "You're gonna love it. It's so cool!"

"And where is this really cool place?"

The three kids look behind Ryou to see Zakuro staring at them, waiting for an answer as she's folding the messy towels that she used to dry her son.

Now Ichigo is in trouble. "Oh a.." she starts, trying to figure out what to say. "It's a…around the waterhole."

"Okay, I am defiantly not going," Ryou tells her. "What's so great about the waterhole? And I thought you said you hate water."

Ichigo goes up to him and says through her teeth, "I'll show you when we get there!" Then he got the message.

"Oh." Mint raises a brow at this as Ryou looks back at his mom and asks, "Mother, can I go?"

"Hmm. I don't know," she says.

Then both Ryou and Ichigo plead, "Please!"

"Then I suppose so."

"Hooray!" Ichigo cheers, jumping in the air in victory.

"So long as Mint goes with you."

That stopped the celebration party.

"Huh?!"

Zakuro explains, "I think it's rude to invite Ryou to go and not invite Mint when she's standing right there. If you want to take my son anywhere, you're gonna have to take Mint as well."

"But!" Ichigo tries to say, but Zakuro turns her attention to Mint.

"Mint," she calls. "Would you be so kind as to accompany these two children? They need to be supervised at this 'really cool' place."

Since she asked so nicely, Mint curtsies and answers, "I would be honored, Ms. Zakuro."